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“Works for me,” Zulu One said.
“Same.” Once again, Repult tried to raise Travers. “Mike Actual for any Victor call signs.”
To his relief, he finally heard Chris Travers’s voice. “Victor Actual for Mike One. Say status.”
“We’re on U2, southeastern side. Just leaving stairs. Have two KIA, multiple WIA. How you?”
“We’re northeast side, U2, one KIA, one injured.”
“Copy. Be advised, we were in heavy contact with both regular army and the LAWs, but the two forces are now combating one another.”
“Say again? The Cubans are in the building and fighting the bots?”
“Affirmative. We were about to get overrun by a platoon-sized element, and then the machines below us took off after them. Seven dead army, at least.”
“Understood. We’re approaching the entrance to the Cluster Room. Gonna breach the doors. Suggest you try to access from your side and set up defensive positions at the entrances while we clear the room and try to find where the upload is happening.”
Mike didn’t know what upload Travers was talking about, but he did know how to defend a couple of doorways. “Roger that, we’re en route.”
•••
Zack and Court moved into a small, dark stairwell on U3 that looked like it could have been a fire escape. Court crept close to the bottom step and looked up, then nodded to Zack, an indication they were clear.
They ascended as a two-man team, Zack’s weapon facing ahead to the right and Court’s ahead and to the left.
At U1 the men stopped at a locked door. Court picked it while Zack covered the stairwell, and when Court pushed it open slowly, it squeaked on hinges that sounded like they hadn’t been used in a long time.
But after the dark and dreary tunnel, passageways, corridors, and rooms they’d been in for the last twenty minutes, they were surprised to find that the door led into what looked like the corridor in a typical office building. Gone were the cobwebs and dust and darkness, replaced by fluorescent lights and a clean, if unadorned, environment.
As they headed up the corridor they saw intersecting hallways coming off both sides. This was office space, or it had been, but as they looked into a few rooms as they passed, they realized everything was empty.
A set of double doors down at the end of the hall caught their attention because a sign over it said, in English, “Assembly Room,” and they decided to head that way, slowly stepping forward with their weapons at the ready.
As they neared they could hear the sound of machines, the clanking of metal on metal.
They had just swept past an intersecting hallway, closing in on the Assembly Room entrance, when the door latch fifty feet in front of them swiveled.
Both men dove into an empty office on their left, went down to the floor by the wall, and here they remained utterly motionless while several machines moved by quickly, their footfalls revealing them as both the two-legged and four-legged LAWs.
No sooner had these LAWs passed by than the unmistakable buzzing of multiple hexacopters emerged, also from the direction of the factory floor. Both men flattened themselves to the ground even more and hoped like hell the drones didn’t check this room.
But the drones seemed to move in formation behind the running ground units, and several seconds later the hallway again turned quiet.
Zack whispered to Court in awe. “Dude. This…is…fucked…up.”
Court rose and began heading again for the Assembly Room doors, with Zack right behind him.
They made it to the doors, listened carefully for the sound of more approaching LAWs, and when they heard nothing, they looked inside.
Court and Zack found themselves looking at a modern automated factory floor that was bustling with activity.
A couple of armed Cuban guards milled about, but it seemed as if two long double rows of bright red robotic arms were doing the majority of the assembly while other ambulatory robots moved equipment around or loaded weapons and ammo on the machines at the far end of the factory line.
He and Zack saw an open door leading to an equipment closet just to the left of where they were. After deciding no one was looking their way, they both shot over to it. Inside, they found repair equipment for the high-tech production line, electronic power converters, racks of computer peripherals, and even a ventilation system, and they scooted behind some thick piping that emerged from the concrete at their feet and traveled up to the ceiling.
From here they could see much of the factory floor, but no one on the floor would be able to see them.
Just then, a transmission came through the men’s headsets.
