The Open Sky

  The glass doors of the elevator slid open. Instantly, the world became noise.

  The wind didn't just blow; it screamed. It tore into the small elevator cab, grabbing Elias by his soaked jacket and trying to drag him out into the void. Rain lashed in sideways, stinging like buckshot. Elias shielded his eyes, coughing as the pressure change popped his ears.

  "Welcome to the peak," The Consultant shouted over the gale. He stepped out onto the black concrete roof as if he were stepping into a ballroom. The wind whipped his ruined suit, but he walked with perfect, practiced stability.

  Elias stumbled after him. He slipped on the slick concrete, falling to one knee. The pain in his ribs flared white-hot, stealing his breath. He gasped, sucking in mouthfuls of water and ozone.

  He looked up. And he saw It.

  The Machine

  In the center of the vast, flat roof, the Broadcast Array rose into the storm clouds like a dark cathedral. It wasn't a simple radio tower. It was a monolith of matte-black metal, fifty feet high, humming with a terrifying, rhythmic pulse. THRUM. THRUM. THRUM.

  Thick cables, pulsing with violet light, ran from the base of the monolith into the concrete floor, feeding it power from the city below. And surrounding it, facing outward in a perfect circle, were four heavy-caliber automated turrets. Their red sensors scanned the darkness, cutting through the rain.

  Elias froze. "Don't worry," The Consultant called out, stopping ten feet ahead. He tapped a small device on his wrist. "They are keyed to my bio-signature. As long as I am standing here, the perimeter is classified as 'Safe'. They won't fire."

  He turned to look at Elias, offering a thin, sad smile. "You see? I am still protecting you, Elias. Even now."

  The Stalemate

  Elias forced himself to stand. He gripped the heavy iron wrench with both hands. It felt pathetic against the scale of the Monolith. He looked at the machine. It was heavily armored. The casing was thick enough to stop a tank shell. A wrench wouldn't even scratch the paint.

  "You can't break it," The Consultant said, reading his mind. He walked closer to the humming black wall of the machine, placing his hand affectionately on the metal. "It is solid titanium casing. It is cooled by a closed-loop liquid nitrogen system. It has redundant power supplies. It is the most perfect thing ever built."

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Elias limped forward, the wind trying to knock him over with every step. "Everything has a weak point," Elias yelled over the storm. "Every system has an exhaust port. A thermal vent. Something."

  "This isn't a movie, Elias," The Consultant replied, shaking his head. "There is no thermal exhaust port. The cooling system is internal. The heat is recycled into power. It is a perfect loop."

  The Consultant turned his back on the machine and faced Elias. "Look at us. Two men on a roof in a hurricane. You are bleeding to death. I am tired. Just stop. Let the machine do its work. In an hour, the storm will pass, and the city will be at peace."

  The Glitch in the Loop

  Elias stared at the machine. Perfect loop. The Stranger whispered in his head, a voice of static and wind. Nothing is perfect. Thermodynamics... cannot be cheated.

  Elias looked at the violet cables pulsing at the base. He looked at the rain sizzling as it hit the black casing. Sizzling.

  "It's hot," Elias realized. Despite the storm, despite the internal cooling, the machine was radiating immense heat. The rain wasn't just hitting it; it was evaporating on contact. "It's running at maximum capacity," Elias muttered. "To suppress the riot... to fight the Stranger... you're pushing it to the red line."

  The Consultant frowned. "It is within operational tolerances."

  Elias looked at the base of the Monolith. There, protected by a heavy steel grate, was a massive intake fan. It wasn't venting heat out. It was sucking air in. "You said the cooling was internal," Elias shouted.

  "The nitrogen is internal!" The Consultant yelled back, looking annoyed for the first time. "The air intake is for the secondary heat exchange! It's standard!"

  "Air intake," Elias repeated. He looked at the storm. He looked at the heavy rain pooling on the roof. And then he looked at the Consultant.

  Elias didn't step toward the machine. He stepped toward the Consultant. "You're the shield," Elias said, a crazy idea forming in his concussion-rattled brain. "The turrets won't fire as long as you're here. Which means I can get close."

  "Close to what?" The Consultant asked, stepping back.

  "To the intake."

  Elias lunged. He didn't swing the wrench at the man. He swung it at the concrete floor. CRACK. He smashed the wrench against the lip of a drainage channel running near the machine's base. Concrete shattered. The heavy rain, which had been flowing away from the machine, suddenly diverted.

  "What are you doing?" The Consultant shouted.

  Elias hit it again. CRACK. He was digging a trench. He was re-routing the water. He was creating a flood path directly toward the massive, sucking air intake fan at the base of the Monolith.

  "Liquid nitrogen," Elias wheezed, swinging the wrench again. "And a massive, super-heated engine."

  The Consultant’s eyes went wide. He realized the physics instantly. If cold storm water flooded a super-heated air intake that was cooling a liquid nitrogen system... Thermal shock. Catastrophic expansion.

  "Stop!" The Consultant screamed. "You'll crack the core!"

  "That's the plan!" Elias roared.

  The Consultant scrambled backward, reaching for his wrist device. "Turrets! Override! Target the—"

  He froze. Elias was standing right next to him. If the turrets fired at Elias, the spread would hit The Consultant too. The "Safe" protocol was jamming the "Kill" command.

  Elias dropped the wrench. He grabbed the Consultant by the lapels of his ruined suit. "We're doing this together," Elias snarled, dragging the struggling man toward the intake. "You wanted to be the shield? Be the shield!"

  The Thermal Shock.

  The Mechanic: The turrets can't shoot Elias because he is hugging the admin. It's the ultimate "human shield" tactic.

  Next Chapter: The Shattering. The water hits the fan. Literally