Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free

Kostovich, who implacably strode toward him.  Just before the midway
point Stocksy’s mech juddered as two missiles launched from the forearms, leaving a cloud behind
them as they streaked down Main Street.  Stocksy had planned to run back into cover on the other side of the street, but on
seeing his missiles get away, locked-on and with no reply, he decided to
stop and savour his moment of victory.  The huge mech skidded very
slightly as it came to a stop on the far side of the street.
    The missiles
streaked passed Kostovich and out of the end of the ville . 
At first Stocksy couldn’t figure out why there had
been no satisfying double boom, and the smoky missile trail blocked his
view.  For a split second he knew something was not right.  In the
time it took him to figure out what was wrong the missiles had already turned
about and had rushed back to the place from whence they came.
     
    Ba-Boom!
     
    The top of Stocksy’s mech was totally
destroyed.  The lower half fell to its knees like it was bowing before its
superior.
    “Good game,”
said Kostovich.
    “Goddamn,
Dan, that’s cheating!” said Stocksy .
    “It
technically isn’t,” said Kostovich.  “If you don’t like it we can turn off
cyberwarfare next time.”
    “We should,
too,” Bacon chimed in.  “It gives you an unfair advantage.”
    “It’s advantageous
to me, but it’s perfectly fair.  Only a fool wouldn’t play to their
advantages.”
    “I’m done
here,” said Dennis.
    “Me too,”
said Kostovich.  “ Laters .
    “ Laters .”
    “ Laters .”
    “See you
later, guys.”
    Kostovich
pulled off his headset and slumped back into the sofa.  He blinked twice
and shook his head, quickly looking about the room to re-orient himself.
    He glanced
over at his terminal screen and could see something blinking red in the
notification area.  “Put that up on the wall,” he said.  The terminal
appeared on the wall in front of him and he began to read.  “Show me that
report, bottom right,” he said.
    “USAN
Monitoring?” the AI asked.
    “Yes.” 
The report enlarged to fill the wall and Kostovich began to read it, glancing
through the lines with a slight frown.  He had sent one of his AIs to
covertly worm its way into the USAN’s secure information systems months
earlier.  The operation was so delicate that, initially at least, it was
not to report back.  Its preliminary task was to remain undetected while
it monitored the system.  Kostovich had programmed it to monitor as long
as it felt necessary.  Any sort of premature call home risked
exposure.  The AI was absolutely not to do that until it was convinced it
could do so safely.
    Like a
forlorn lover Kostovich had waited for his AI to return.  He had assumed
it would take a few days before he heard anything, but very quickly the days
had developed into months.  He didn’t know what might have happened.
    There were
three options.  The first was that the AI had been intercepted. 
Kostovich found that difficult to accept.  From various reconnaissance
attacks he had mounted previously he understood the landscape he was going
into.  He knew there were certain vulnerabilities in the system, and he
had programmed his AI to exploit them.  He felt sure it had not been
compromised.
    The second
option was that the AI had failed.  He could not countenance this
possibility.  He was a maestro at programming AIs and this piece had been
one of his finest works.
    Option three
was the only one which seemed viable; that his AI was still burrowing around
the system undetected.  This meant that the crack was much more complex
than he had expected.  He was willing to concede that much.  If the
problem was harder than had been anticipated, so be it.  He had unwavering
faith that his creation was equal to the task.  All it needed was time.
    The report
had been tasked with monitoring all output from the USAN government and
military.  The AI had the ability to encode messages into