Chapter 22 - Hangar Nine
Security vehicles surrounded the abandoned military strip, but Hangar Nine remained sealed.
The incoming cargo aircraft descended through the clouds while Samuel, Ethan, Martin, and Victor approached through an underground service corridor.
Samuel carried a flashlight and an old maintenance pistol recovered from the laboratory.
Ethan carried only his toolbox.
“You stay behind me,” Samuel whispered.
The corridor ended beneath a grated floor.
Through it, they could see the interior of Hangar Nine.
Director Crane sat near the center, bound to a steel chair.
The prototype engine roared twenty feet behind him, mounted on a reinforced testing frame. Its exhaust was aimed directly toward a wall of fuel containers.
Evelyn Mercer stood at a control station.
She appeared calm, almost bored.
Vincent Lang was nowhere in sight.
Samuel pushed the grate aside and climbed into the hangar.
Evelyn looked up.
“You took longer than expected.”
“Release Crane.”
“He approved the first cover-up,” she replied. “You should not feel responsible for him.”
Crane shouted through the cloth covering his mouth.
Ethan followed Samuel into the hangar.
Evelyn smiled when she saw him.
“So this is the boy who repaired Engine 782.”
Samuel positioned himself between them.
“You are not taking him.”
“I don’t need to.”
Evelyn touched the console.
The incoming aircraft appeared on a large screen. It was less than five minutes from landing.
“I only need him to solve one problem.”
Ethan looked toward the prototype engine.
Its rotation pattern was unstable, but not because of mechanical damage. The system was deliberately changing fuel pressure every few seconds.
“It can’t decide which configuration to use,” he said.
Evelyn’s eyes sharpened.
“Exactly.”
Samuel turned toward him.
“Don’t help her.”
Evelyn explained that the autonomous engine could analyze thousands of possible responses during an emergency. But when several solutions appeared equally successful, the system became trapped in a continuous loop.
It needed a new decision model.
One based on human intuition.
“You want Ethan to teach the engine how to choose,” Martin said.
“I want him to complete what Samuel refused to finish.”
Samuel stepped toward the control station.
Evelyn immediately increased the engine power.
The fuel containers began shaking.
“One more step,” she warned, “and this entire hangar burns.”
Ethan listened to the turbine.
Beneath the roar, he heard another sound.
A repeating metallic click.
Not inside the prototype engine.
Under the floor.
He glanced toward Victor.
Victor heard it too.
May you like
Someone was moving below them.
Vincent had entered the hangar through the same tunnel.
