NOVEL WEB Book 4: Chapter 9
Part 1
Perhaps because it could not store up the heat, the desert was cold at night. Enough so that our breaths were white.
And that was not what we needed.
We had to spend the night in the car and get to work once the morning sun rose.
"Can you really save everyone in Vegas, Truth!?"
"Yeah! We need to thank the Hoover Dam, Anastasia. From now on, start drinking tap water instead of that fancy bottled mineral water!!"
"You're kidding, right? That stuff is worse than chugging milk. It would make me sick on a daily basis. Do you have something against me?"
I tilted my head and wondered if Japan's water was just really high quality compared to the rest of the world.
"In this sun, it should be hot enough by 10 AM. Maxwell, have you finished the mapping array?"
"Sure. There is no problem there."
Las Vegas was visible in the distance and black smoke continued to rise from the rubble it had become. The fires had started with chemical incendiary bombs that could not be put out with mere water and the fire department had been wiped out with everything else, so that was to be expected. But there was no sign of the stealth bomber formation that had been flying so calmly through the sky. They must have been unable to continue their mission now that they had lost the support of the military and Congress. The actual soldiers had no reason to continue.
Erika was weak to sunlight, so she looked nervous inside the car controlled by Maxwell.
"If the bombing has ended, that means the gels are free to move around again. Satori-kun, are you sure this is safe?"
"The gels avoid high temperatures, so I doubt they'll leave the city during the day. And the desert sand has to be hotter than a car's hood in midsummer."
"The bombing continued until dawn and there is still some smoke rising," said Maxwell. "It is unlikely any of them escaped into the cold desert during the night."
Our job was only possible with the self-driving off-road car Maxwell was controlling. Without that, we could not have moved 100km this way and 50km that way as if drawing out lines on the desert map.
We left the Class Rep and Ayumi at two of the self-serve gas stations that dotted the desert.
My vampire older sister couldn't leave the car in the scorching desert. Anastasia and I took up our position in the middle of the desert along the shortest route between the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas.
We needed at least three locations.
Even if we could trigger them individually, it would all be meaningless if they did not fuse together properly.
I had borrowed an amplification antenna from the Hoover Dam and placed it on the roof of the off-road car and I spoke into the smartphone being charged via the cigarette lighter.
"Ayumi, Class Rep. Sorry about the wait. Get started on my signal."
"Fuguu. Fine, since you bought me a cream roll and orange juice at the vending machine."
"A-are you sure this will work?"
"Have you forgotten who we have on our side, Class Rep? Maxwell, a simulator that specializes in disaster environments."
Anastasia waved her hand from outside the car.
I wiped the sweat from Erika's brow as she limply reclined back in the seat. Then I pulled the smartphone from the cigarette lighter charger cable and stepped out onto that frying pan of land.
"Looks like this is it, Truth. There's a square cover in the sand. And it looks pretty dangerous, so should we really be messing with it?"
The answer was obviously no, but no one was left in Las Vegas to use the tap water. This wouldn't cause anyone any trouble.
"Maxwell. Perform the final check."
"Sure. This is the maintenance valve for the underground water pipe that supplies the Hoover Dam's water to Las Vegas. In case of a contaminant or clogs in the pipe, it is divided into sections with watertight doors that can be closed between them. If you then open the valve on the surface, the massive water pressure will push out the contaminant or clog."
"Anything we need to worry about?"
"When opening the valve, make sure no one is near the water release opening. This equipment carries 15 tons of water per second directly from the dam, so a direct hit would launch you more than 25 meters into the air. And it is unlikely your skeleton would survive intact."
"...Ugh. That gimmick sounds like it could smash up a murder machine in sunglasses from the future, Truth."
"Class Rep, Ayumi."
"No problems here, on the technical front anyway," said the Class Rep. "The firefighting pump is ready. ...But are you sure about this?"
"This self-service station is unmanned, so there's no one to get after me," said Ayumi. "I'm ready to go and the underground firefighting tank is full."
Good.
The Hoover Dam had a seemingly endless supply of water, but we had no way of transporting several tons of it at once. And in this red-hot griddle of a desert, that water would start boiling in no time.
Given what we needed to do, ice cold water was best. The temperature difference was what mattered. And that was why the term "underground" mattered so much.
...We wanted a colossal centrifuge that would spin the gels spread out across Las Vegas. But modifying an amusement park Ferris wheel or merry-go-round would not give us a device large enough.
So we had upped the scale even further.
We had already seen a hint of this: that downburst that hit Las Vegas with a largescale sandstorm. The changes in pressure that occurred in the desert created a localized downpour that rapidly lowered the temperature and destabilized the atmosphere.
That had been nothing more than a chaotic mass of wind.
But what if three phenomena like that wrapped together?
Wouldn't that create the world's largest centrifuge which could supply massive rotational movement? In other words, an artificial hurricane that covered the entirety of Las Vegas?
"Maxwell! We're counting on your calculations here. You've made full predictive calculations of the desired disaster, right? Use the current temperature, humidity, wind direction, pressure layout, amount of sunlight, and so on to give us the proper timing, amount of water, and distribution area!!"
"Sure. Please release the water at each location upon my request."
It was the same as a wildfire or avalanche. Being able to quantify it meant a lot.
"Class Rep, Ayumi! Do it!!"
"Understood, Satori-kun. ...An artificial disaster, hm? This is more of an act of god than anything the Archenemies do."
"Fuguu!! I'm all fired up!!"
This was likely the best possible way of supplying a powerful centrifugal force. If the gels were hiding all across Las Vegas, we just had to stir up the entire area of desert where Las Vegas was.
9.5 Gs? The limits of a fighter jet? Who cares? I'll make sure you spit back up everything you ate.
"Anastasia, us too. Turn the valve and launch one hell of a firework!!"
"Ha ha! See, Truth!? You're not cut out to be some gloomy indoor hacker!!"
We spoke as we covered our hands with towels to remove the square cover and turn the round metal valve together.
A pillar of water erupted like a geyser a short distance away. It was the size of a small building.
"Satori-kun, things are going well here," reported the Class Rep.
"No problems here either," added Ayumi. "The ultimate waste of water is continuing."
Anastasia and I, the Class Rep, and Ayumi stood at the corners of an equilateral triangle with 100km sides. Our goal was to produce downbursts from the rapid pressure change and then have their vectors combine as they swirled around. We would hit the gels with a fierce artificial hurricane that covered all of Las Vegas and surpassed Category 5 with wind speeds of more than 90m/s.
Normally, this would not be something to do while in the process of figuring it out. You would never even trigger the hurricane in the first place. Downbursts alone were hard enough to produce, so fusing several of them into a historically large spiral would be an unprecedented meteorological phenomenon.
But we had Maxwell, the ultimate specialist, with us.
We could have no greater persuasive power for this absurd idea.
"It's said hackers gained physical weapons with the advent of IoT appliances and self-driving cars, but that isn't accurate," said Anastasia as she looked up at the pillar of water. "Truth. You're showing the world you can create a power greater than even the military. Once people learn how far you can go if you make a deal with the devil known as a simulator, it will change the way people think. Absolute Noah did some awful things out of their fear of some Calamity. But, Truth, you're reaching for the reins of the sort of calamity that made Absolute Noah run away scared."
"...But is that really a good thing?"
"I don't know. It might not just be calamities that Maxwell has control of. There might be some greater possibility there. But if things take a wrong turn, then a hacker of justice will put a stop to it."
I patted my friend's head without thinking. I really was blessed.
Then the change arrived.
At some point, the sky had changed from a clear blue to a gloomy gray.
And just as a somewhat warm wind struck my cheek...
"Wah!?"
"Wow...it's really happening. Truth! Get back in the car before the sandstorm arrives!!"
The wind felt like a solid blow.
The moisture in the damp air must have gathered together because large raindrops hit me from the side.
"What? It isn't turning into a sandstorm this time?"
"Because of the rain. The sand gets caught in it and can't spread out like a curtain. Maxwell! Is this rain a problem? It's getting the moisture outside of the designated region!!"
"No. This is the expected outcome. This storm will cool the scorching desert and create a new pressure disturbance. Then it repeats and grows in scale via the snowball effect."
So the storm would invite a bigger storm.
It was exciting, but it was also completely beyond our control at this point. Anastasia and I hurried back into the off-road car.
Since thick clouds were now blocking the sun, Erika's energy had returned. She was pressing her palms against the window and shouting excitedly with each lightning strike. Just like a small child happy about a typhoon.
"Maxwell, we can't just sit around. This is powerful enough to blow away a gas station!"
"Onii-chan, go collect the Class Rep first! She's just a human!!"
"But Ayumi-chan," cut in the Class Rep. "You're only in middle school!"
"Fuguu!?"
Even now, the Class Rep was indomitable. That was why she was always saving me.
"Maxwell, the Class Rep comes first. Ayumi! Check around the gas station for anywhere underground you can hide!! A zombie like you will be all right, won't you!?"
"Wait, Satori-kun!?"
"Will do! Heh heh. I'll take that as a sign of your trust!!"
We had to get moving, so we left the driving to Maxwell and raced down the runway-like road a well past the speed limit.
"What, we're only going 130kph? Surely you can go faster than that. There's lots more room on the meter."
"No. This is miles per hour, so multiply that number by approximately 1.6. The standard Japanese car could never reach these speeds."
"Wow!" said Anastasia. "The car is sliding to the side. This wind is incredible!!"
"Maxwell, is this still not a hurricane?"
"No. It is simply a downburst. This is only getting started."
Nevertheless, the cascade of rain hitting the windshield made it nigh impossible to see even with the wipers on at full speed. Without a self-driving car that used radar, who knows how many times we would have driven off the road and flipped over.
A felled tree blew across the road ahead of us, a rusty metal drum rolled by like a balled-up tissue, and a large motorcycle with its wheels stolen was dragged along. There was no guarantee even our car would remain on the ground forever.
The scenery had entirely changed by the time we arrived at the gas station where the Class Rep waited. The dry desert was nowhere to be seen and the land just off of the road had become a brown river.
"..."
And the Class Rep had her hands on her hips and a sulking look on her face. Why? Because she was a Class Rep.
I opened the back door.
"I'll apologize all you want later, so get in! We need to get to Ayumi right away!!"
"Fine, but if Ayumi-chan gets hurt because of this, I'm not listening to a word you say."
The wind kept growing stronger. I pulled the Class Rep inside and the off-road car took off. At that very moment, the roof-covered work space was torn apart by the powerful winds. Metal pillars thicker around than my torso fell nearby.
"The storm has finally started to rotate."
My cozy, gentle, and deep-down sadistic older sister sounded cheerful. But she was right. We were now being pursued by the leaden storm. Not even Ayumi would be able to remain standing in this. Zombies apparently had ten times the strength of a human, but that meant she was helpless against a storm capable of blowing away more than ten people at once.
"Maxwell, we're counting on you!"
"Sure. That command gives me nothing to work with, but I can surmise the intention behind it."
A boulder the size of the car was pulled from the ground and rolled along. Lightning kept striking nearby, so the Class Rep screamed and held Anastasia like a stuffed animal.
"Keh keh. Jealous, Truth?"
"Yes, so swap places with me!"
"...I don't like how readily you admitted that, so I'm keeping this spot for myself."
The off-road car was slipping to the side even worse than before. It really was a mystery how much longer it could keep driving.
"User. The three downbursts have combined as planned. The storm is Category 5+ with a top instantaneous wind speed of 120m/s. The vectors have combined, creating a clockwise hurricane that should not exist in the Northern Hemisphere. This should spin around all of the gels in the city."
"But we can't exactly celebrate that right now, dammit!!"
The road was covered in water now too. The car forcibly split the thick puddle as it drove. We might have been stuck if it was not positioned so high for off-road use.
...Was Ayumi all right? Hopefully, the gas station had had a tornado shelter or partially underground storeroom, but she had likely checked on that before saying we should pick up the Class Rep first.
"Ah, there it is, Truth!"
"The building is still in one piece."
I breathed a sigh of relief. That meant Ayumi was probably fine. I wanted to pick her up and get out of here.
"No. Some information has arrived from a civilian meteorologist's website."
"What does it say, Maxwell?"
"All of the gas stations in the area have flooded. If Miss Ayumi evacuated underground, it may have had the opposite effect."
"Goddammit!!!!!!"
We took the car as far as it would go. That meant 30m from the gas station. We couldn't even tell where the road was anymore. The gas station was just as badly flooded. I thanked Maxwell after he gave up on getting closer and then I opened the back door.
A gust of wind struck my face and I thought the car was going to flip over. Erika and the Class Rep supported my back.
"Anastasia, stay in the car. This wind and rain will reopen your wound!"
"Ah, hey, wait, Truth!?"
I tried it once more. I somehow managed to get out of the car, but I could barely stand. It felt like being crammed into a packed train and being shaken by the train's movements without anything to grab onto. Without anything to support me, I somehow managed to trudge toward the flooded gas station.
...I wasn't going to let something like this take a precious family member from me. I wasn't going to let my little sister lose her life in an artificial disaster I had created.
"Wait for me, dammit..."
The gas station's large roof was torn away as I watched. The windows of the unmanned store full of vending machines were shattered and shards of glass flew toward me.
"Warning: Get down!!"
I didn't have time for that. I held up my arms to protect my face and I felt searing pain race through them and my cheeks, but I couldn't worry about that. I clenched my teeth and continued on toward the gas station.
Ayumi was not as sturdy as she might sound.
Unlike vampires, zombies could not regenerate from their wounds. They didn't die, but the wounds remained. If she was submerged, she would suffocate and she was weak to rotting. If she soaked in this dirty and muddy water for long, it would not end well.
"Ayumi..."
It didn't matter if she was human or undead.
This was my bratty little sister.
So I wasn't going to lose her here. It was times like this when I had to be her big brother!!
"Ayumi!!"
I kept tripping, I rolled through knee-deep water, and I nearly drowned, but I finally arrived at the station.
I could barely tell it apart from its surroundings.
Brown water was everywhere, so I couldn't tell where anything was. Was there really an entrance leading underground!?
...I had to find it.
I initially tried feeling around with my feet, but that wasn't very useful. I ended up crawling through the muddy water and feeling around with my hands.
Where was she?
Where was Ayumi!?
"...?"
Just when I thought it was hopeless, I spotted something.
The water was flowing weirdly.
There was one spot where a small whirlpool had formed. Almost like bathwater flowing down the drain...
Did that lead underground?
"Are you there, Ayumi!!!???"
I quickly ran over and stuck my hands in the water. My fingertips caught on something. It was a trapdoor like for under-the-floor storage in the kitchen. But it wouldn't open no matter how hard I pulled up on it. I initially thought it might be locked, but then a more likely reason came to mind.
"The water pressure!?"
In a flood situation, just a few centimeters of water could keep a door solidly shut. And this was a trapdoor with knee-deep rapids sealing it. Human strength just wasn't enough!
"Maxwell, this means there's air inside, right? Would it be better to leave it closed!?"
"No. Even a small leak will leave the environment unsanitary and accelerate Miss Ayumi's rotting. Also, the psychological effect cannot be underestimated. If she is trapped in a slowly flooding space for a long period, it will leave significant damage on her psyche."
It looked like I really did have to find a way to open it.
I looked around and grabbed a power cable that had been bundled up in a metal drum.
I tied the cable around the trapdoor's handle.
"Maxwell, simulate the wind direction for me."
"Sure. But what exactly are you trying to do?"
"If a puny human can't do it, I'll just have this act of god do it for me."
The gas station's roof had been blown off, but a few pillars remained. I tied the power cable to one of those and made sure it was taut.
"Warning: A 98m/s wind is blowing in from the southeast."
"Perfect!"
I got as far away from the pillar as I could and dove into the floodwater.
Just then, an extra-large gust of wind blew through and tore the metal pillar from its base. That pulled on the attached power cable.
The water pressure didn't matter.
With a muffled sound, the trapdoor itself flew through the air. It seemed the hinges had been torn off. If that had hit me, it probably would have taken off my head.
"Ayumi."
Water flowed in from all directions.
Had I done the right thing? Or had I just made it even worse!?
"Answer me, Ayumi!!"
I pulled up a metal rod that was sticking up from the ground. It was likely the pole used for the sign of prices. It was a little thicker than a clothesline pole and I stuck it into the flowing water. I continued shouting her name while moving that pipe all around.
I felt...no response.
There was no sign of anyone there!?
"You're kidding...right? Ayumi! Hey, Ayumi!!"
I yelled, but I couldn't move.
Yes, I knew my little sister was in there, but I couldn't bring myself to jump in. If I did, I would never be able to climb out again. I knew I would drown in just a few minutes.
That was the truth of the matter.
I understood somewhere in my heart that Ayumi was in there and she had already...
"...................................................................................."
...Did I regret it?
I felt like that question rose up from the depths of my shaken mind.
Archenemies and the undead were not absolute. That was why I had felt the need to go rescue her. So why had I assumed Ayumi would be okay? That was blatantly contradictory.
What had my foolhardy decision cost me? Did I regret everything I had done here?
I...
Part 2
"I regret it."
"I don't regret it."
Part 3
I made my decision while soaking in the floodwater and being pelted by rain.
"Like I would..."
I released more words from my mouth.
It was like a ritual meant to challenge the entire world.
"Like I would regret that...!!"
Had I done anything wrong up to this point? I had wanted to save Anastasia from the gels. I had wanted to get her out of there along with the Class Rep. I had wanted to find Erika and Ayumi who had gone incommunicado. I had wanted to protect the world's Archenemies from the conspiracy of the Nevada airbase using the gels and bombing. I had wanted to get back at the VIPs who had fled to Absolute Noah 04. I had wanted to drag Las Vegas's people out of the gels before they were truly lost.
What was wrong about any of that?
Why did I have to hold back on any of it!?
"So I won't let this ruin it all in the very end. I won't give up. No matter what! I'll find you and we'll all escape this nightmare together!!!!!!"
No matter how hopeless it was, I kept sticking the metal pipe into the rushing water and feeling around for anything. The floodwater and rain sapped my body heat and my movements grew stiff, but that didn't matter anymore.
I would save her.
I would save Ayumi.
I would save my little sister no matter what!!
She couldn't climb the stairs through that current.
But then the end of the pipe caught on something.
It was a very light sensation.
It was like finding a speck of gold at the bottom of a river.
"Ayumi?"
There was no response, but I had to trust in this.
"Listen, don't let go, Ayumi!!"
I was fully focused.
I grabbed the metal pipe and pulled back like this was a game of tug-of-war. I kept pulling and pulling. I could feel a weight. I was worn out and exhausted, but that weight was all I had to rely on.
I pretty much collapsed backwards in the end.
And then a familiar face rose up from the whirlpool in the brown floodwater.
"Pwah!?"
That face started to sink down again, so I shot to my feet and pulled that figure up before the current could drag her back down.
It was Ayumi.
My little sister was held tightly in my arms.
My smartphone vibrated as it gave a warning.
"No. This is not over yet, user. The entire gas station has been damaged and a rainbow-colored film of oil is spreading across the floodwater. This is a very dangerous situation."
"Goddammit, if it's not one thing, it's another!!"
I pulled on Ayumi's arm as she continued to cough and then we ran away from the destroyed gas station even as the wind pummeled us and the flowing water threatened to knock our feet out from under us. It may have looked like an awkward bon dance, but it was the best we could do.
It happened just as we managed to leave the gas station's grounds.
I have no idea what the direct cause was.
But there was a massive explosion behind us and Ayumi and I were knocked face-first into the floodwater.
I think I hit my nose and my entire spine had to have been straining.
But when we lifted our heads from the brown water, we could only laugh.
"Ha...ha ha."
"Heh heh."
"Ah ha ha ha ha!! We survived! We actually survived!!"
"Onii-chan, how can you say that after just about killing yourself with your own hurricane!? Ah ha ha!!"
We sat in the muddy water and laughed our asses off while watching the gas station burn.
"Maxwell, how's the hurricane doing?"
"Sure. It is progressing well. It has arrived at Las Vegas. According to a civilian meteorologist's site, several gels have been caught in it and are being torn apart as they are spun around. This has proven effective. People are indeed being removed. The buildings have been destroyed down to the underground levels, so there should not be any inside that are unaffected."
...Good. But then what happened to the Mephistopheles supercomputer located somewhere in Las Vegas? It might not have been saved if even the underground areas were dug up.
So I thought, but Anastasia readily revealed something over my smartphone.
"Ahn? Who ever said Mephistopheles was located in Vegas? The actual machine is in my lab at that Massachusetts university. With fiber optic cables, you don't have to worry about time lag anywhere on the earth's surface. It's not like I'm emailing an alien friend who lives lightyears away in space, Truth."
"..."
I wanted to ask for my sentimentality back.
"But, Onii-chan, isn't this useless if the people you save are eaten by the gels again?"
"They react to disturbances in the air, so they'll probably chase after the hurricane and leave the city. And this storm will pass, so then they'll be stuck out in the hot desert."
"And then?"
"Maxwell. Make an anonymous report to the police of neighboring areas. Tell them the gels can be stopped by covering them in quick-dry cement powder and letting it solidify. They only eat biological matter. We saw that baggy jumpsuit girl do it and the gels can't eat rubber or plastic. If you use their own moisture to mix in something inorganic, they shouldn't be able to move anymore. Using melted metal or glass might work too."
"Sure."
"Even if the military can't act this time, this is the tasteless country that uses small airplanes to scatter pesticides. They'll have plenty of civilian ways to drop cement powder across the desert safely from the air. They could even use UAVs or drones."
That might not actually kill them, though, so it might be best to keep them enclosed in a nuclear waste final disposal site. America would have plenty of those.
...Their lives would not be taken.
Could I really find relief in that? In a way, I was dooming them to an even worse fate.
"Ha ha."
I could regret it later. At the moment, I had other priorities.
Finally.
I sighed happily at being blessed with the chance to say something so normal to my little sister.
"Now let's get home, Ayumi."
[confidential] Cleanup [storage A51]
Since I have finished retaking control of Area 51 after that chaos, I will report using this format.
All tasks have been completed as ordered.
The solidified gel has been retrieved from Absolute Noah 04 below the Hoover Dam. Your son did not designate it a target needing saving.
The Archenemies of the Las Vegas side have all survived, but they have now experienced "extinction" by the gels. They have likely been defanged and can no longer oppose us as an organization.
And the loss or disposal of the unqualified who had disguised themselves as qualified will have left a few pillars of the world with major gaps. This will hasten the hands of the clock and bring us closer to the Calamity's time limit.
The treatment of your daughters and son – Erika, Satori, and Ayumi – will likely be as you have described.
Personally, I sometimes find it hard to tell if you are trying to avoid disaster or are actively working to bring disaster. Not that I expect an answer from someone said to have been Adam's first wife.
Nese Orlando
AKA Archenemy Banshee
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