“Who, like I said, didn’t pose a danger to me. Now, because of you, it has access to all my work and equipment. The exact thing you were trying to prevent.”
His pleased expression drooped. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Idiot.” An insult muttered under her breath. “We should still be able to fix your gaffe. I need access to a computer with internet asap.”
“Why?”
“So I can send the command for my lab to autodestruct.”
His mouth rounded. “You can blow up your lair remotely? Okay, that’s beyond cool.”
“Not really. It took me forever to get my working lab just right, and now, because of you, I’ll have to start over.”
“I’m sorry.” He managed to sound and look contrite. Ha. As if an arrogant warrior could feel such a thing. “I promise I’ll help you build a new lair, an even better one. First, though, let’s get you to my office. Be warned. Reaching it involves lots of stairs.”
Before he’d finished speaking, she exited the chamber and spared no time to glance at the vast antechamber with a pair of massive doors leading outside. She headed for the stairs, which ascended and wound round and round the walls of the tower, a place with many levels, too many for her to search one by one seeking what she needed.
“What floor?” Ishtar asked as she began to climb.
“Seventh. Let me carry you so your legs don’t get tired.”
“No need.” She paused on a rise and angled her chin. “Greetings, Nimrod. I am pleased to see thee faring well. Seventh floor, and quickly please.”
Warm air surrounded her in a hug that carried her upward. She didn’t go alone. Her order also swept Reece in a blur of movement that lasted only a few breaths.
“Holy fuck. That was fast even by Tower’s usual standards,” Reece exclaimed. “How did you know you could tell it to do that?”
“Because. Which is your office?” She eyed the doors for that level, none of them labelled.
“This one.” Reece led the way to a space that, while not quite as developed as hers, provided exactly what she required.
Ishtar plopped into a seat and began typing, creating a connection via satellite to her main server. It took only a few lines of code to trigger the self-destruct sequence, less than a minute for her to destroy almost two decades of work.
As the countdown began, she accessed the video feed for her workspace just as the Kukakk entered. It smiled, thinking it had won the jackpot. It soon discovered otherwise. The many screens in the room began flashing red with the message,Full Deletion in…the timer counted down from thirty, the shortest amount of time needed to wipe everything on her drives.
As the Kukakk realized it had been foiled, it snarled and slammed it fists against the nearest monitor, smashing it. Then, as if sensing her regard, whirled and glared right at the camera currently recording.
“Who are you?” it asked. “How is it you have our technology?”
The Kukakk must have recognized some of the projects she’d been working on, but it had one fact wrong. “Your technology? The Kukakk have never had an original idea. Everything you have, everything you’ve built, has been stolen from others.”
“The correct term is conquered,” the Kukakk spat.
“Hardly conquered. Your last attempt to infiltrate this solar system ended in ignoble defeat,” her riposte. She ignored the twinge of sorrow at what it had cost.
Its lips split into a grotesque smile. “From what I’ve been able to gather, it would appear the visit of my predecessors ended in mutual destruction.”
“We’ve gotten smarter since then.”
“Have you?” It glanced around before smirking. “And here I thought only vermin lived in caves. Although this one does come with perks. You’ve saved me much work.” It referred to the many devices littering the space.
“Think again,” she growled. “Say goodbye, and by the way, I hope your next body is hideous.”
With that, she triggered the explosives. Drastic? More like necessary. The Kukakk couldn’t be allowed to get its hands on any of her devices or the materials she’d gathered that couldn’t be found on Earth. The last thing they needed was for it to build any nanobots. They could cause way too much damage if implanted in the wrong, or technically right, highly placed people. Not to mention, the nanobots had the ability to send messages that could pass through the Milky Way, drawing even more of the Kukakk. One was catastrophic enough.
“Holy shit.” Reece breathed the words in astonishment. “I can’t believe you blew up your place.”
“Didn’t have much of a choice once the Kukakk followed you,” she couldn’t help but grumble in annoyance.
