Free Nano by Sam Fisher Page A

blue.
    â€˜That’s Dubai,’ Chloe said. She was standing a few metres to Mark’s left.
    The image changed rapidly as the camera closed in. A live feed from Downtown Dubai filled the screen.
    â€˜Oh my God!’ Mai exclaimed, taking a step forwards. There was no human sound in the room.
    The wall monitor showed a tall tower, so tall it seemed to be completely out of proportion with all but a couple of other spires. The Cloud Tower was famous around the globe. It was a marvel of modern engineering. But a dozen or so floors down from the top, a huge hole had been punched through the tower. Whatever it was that had smashed into the building had taken at least 15 floors with it. Above and below these, the structure had been ravaged, pillars caved in, windows obliterated. A massive black stain some 50 metres long stretched from the bottom of the chasm, running down the side of the building. Red, orange, blue and green flames licked outwards from the hole. A great billowing black cloud of smoke streamed out of the western side of the tower blown by the winds coming in from the desert.
    â€˜I have a horrible sense of déjà vu,’ Stephanie said, her words falling like rocks in a still lake.
    â€˜Any info?’ Mark asked the nearest tech.
    â€˜Just coming in, sir.’
    The wall screen split in two. The left half showed the view of the tower, the right-hand panel carried a stream of data.
    â€˜Sybil,’ Tom said to the air. ‘Give us a rundown, please.’
    The E-Force computer network, known by everyone at Base One as Sybil, was the world’s only quantum computer. It, or she, as most of the E-Force team viewed the system, was millions of times more powerful and therefore faster than any other computer on earth. And in the year since E-Force had been operational, Tom had used all his considerable skills to help the techs at Base One enhance Sybil still further.
    â€˜The target is the Cloud Tower, Dubai,’ Sybil began. The view in the left panel of the screen changed. ‘This was filmed 2 minutes 6 seconds ago by BigEye 17.’
    The screen showed a black missile screaming towards the tower, a jet of pinkish flame emerging from its rear. One-and-a-half seconds into the film, the missile slammed into the tower.
    â€˜Missile make and model unknown.’
    â€˜Any stats at all, Syb?’ asked Pete, the explosives expert of the team.
    â€˜Missile is 3.36 metres in length. Speed at impact, 1005 kilometres per hour. Impact site on south-facing side of tower, epicentre Floor 191. Four floors above and six below have suffered Level 1 damage – complete destruction. A further six floors above 195 and four more below 185 have graduated Level 2 to Level 3 damage.’
    â€˜Any chemical data?’
    â€˜Spectroscopic analysis from BigEye 17 suggests the presence of high levels of carbon dioxide and water.’
    â€˜What about nitrogen compounds?’ Pete asked, puzzled.
    â€˜Levels consistent with base parameters. No non-linear variation within pre- and post-impact time limits.’
    â€˜What does that mean?’ Chloe Gavoine asked, turning to Pete.
    â€˜It means the explosive is not conventional. No nitrogen compound remnants means we can rule out TNT and HMX.’
    â€˜Okay,’ Mark said. ‘We’ve gotta get over there.’ He turned to Erickson. ‘Tom, you keep working on this with Sybil. I want every scrap of information you can get on the missile. We can pass that on to the authorities en route. I need you to get structural diagrams, design plans, internal layouts for all floors and a constant info stream from BigEye 17.’ He turned to the others. ‘Let’s go.’

18
    An elevator took the six operational team members down 14 floors from Cyber Control to Basement 7. Emerging from the lifts, they ran along a tunnel lit by massive halogens sunk into the ceiling. At the end of the tunnel, 3-metre-high steel doors opened