In the dim glow of the screens Tam grabbed Jim Bob's Uzi, and we both dived for Noda's office. The door, happily, had just slammed shut. Since it was the kind that opened out, all we had to do was shove a desk against it and they were contained.
Now, how much time did we have?
"The mainframe." She was staring through the green shadows toward the glassed-in room that contained the massive NEC. "Matthew, we've got to shut it down somehow. That's the only way left to stop him."
"Is there an on-off switch?" Who knew how you went about disconnecting a twenty-million-dollar supercomputer?
"We're about to find out." She led the way.
The entry door was glass, half-inch, and locked. Beyond it stood the string of six-foot-high modules, off-white and octagonal, lined up like squat soldiers on flooring elevated about six inches above that outside. The nerve center of Noda's empire rested there on its platform, silent and secure.
"Tam, pass me that thing." I reached for the Uzi, turned it around, and rammed the steel butt against the glass. Then again. It just bounced off.
"Harder."
"Okay, but stand away."
I hauled back and swing at it with all my might. With a sickening crunch the glass shattered inward, spewing shards across the icy tiles inside. An alarm went off somewhere out on the floor, but we just ignored it. After I'd punched away a few hanging pieces, we stepped in and up.