Squaring the Circle

by B K Brain

He’d managed to get his arm in a sling made from what appeared to be a torn shirt, although he didn’t remember doing it. He leaned back, blacked out for God knew how long. Might’ve been minutes. Might’ve been hours.

  He woke sitting next to a backpack. It belonged to one of his agents. John Peterson? How did he know that, and where had it come from? He must’ve found it somewhere along the way.

  The pain wasn’t letting up, if anything it was getting worse. But worst of all, it was his shooting arm. He still had a pistol but he couldn’t hit shit with his left hand. He turned, adjusted himself, winced. Damn he could’ve used a cigarette.

  Wait a minute.

  Peterson. He was a smoker. The asshole didn’t go anywhere without his smokes.

  Garret had been quit for two months, but not today. Fuck today. He set the gun aside and reached for the zipper, dug inside.

  He felt it immediately, a crushed pack of cigarettes.

  He smiled, pulled it out, peered into the dented box. A mess of busted cancer sticks and loose tobacco. Then he spotted a lone survivor, bent but not broken. He shoved his hand to the bottom of the backpack, groping for a lighter.

  A ring of keys. A pair of binoculars. A package of Juicy Fruit. No lighter.

  Shit. I always hated you, Peterson.

  Then like a miracle, a pack of matches.

  16

  The ladder. The roof. A row of satellite dishes and tall antennas.

  And a door, welcoming David and Eddie to a concrete stairwell that led to the floor below. Hallways, offices, rest rooms, closets. He tried a light switch. Nothing. Large picture windows lined the outer walls, allowing daylight into musty, abandoned spaces. David would’ve given anything to find even the smallest rectangle of glass this morning, anything at all. So now here it was, his wish come true.

  Then it hit him. If they took out the power, Sam’s computer would be off. If so-

  Couldn’t be that easy, could it?

  At the end of the hall, another set of stairs leading to much darker places. They rounded a corner to find a pitch-black corridor that felt miles long. Totally blind, David ran a hand along the wall to keep hold of his bearings, and a death grip on the pistol with the other. Eddie pulled at his shirttail from behind, reminding him of Cathleen.

  Worst place to be, a long hall with no visible side doors, accessible panels or vents. If anything happened there’d be nowhere to go. Sheep in the slaughterhouse. He kept moving, silent as possible.

  After a few minutes, he found an open doorway.

  There was light here, dim, distant. A yellow sign at the far wall above the exit. A battery-operated emergency light? David headed for it. Eddie let go of his shirt, stopped.

  “Wait,” she said. “I have to go back.”

  He turned. “What are you talking about?”

  “I can’t leave her, David. I can’t.”

  “Listen to me.”

  “No. I…”

  “Listen. You heard them say primary target over the radio, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They weren’t talking about Rachel, they were talking about Sam. He was out there.”

  “He was?”

  “Yes. That means all those guns we heard were for him. I’m sure Rachel ran off in the woods.” Do you really believe that, David? He had to. There was nothing else. “I bet she’s hiding somewhere, worried sick about you right now.”

  “Maybe...”

  “And if Sam’s busy outside, we can save the others, get them out. But we have to hurry.”

  Eddie’s vision sank to the floor.

  David peeked around the door frame, into the darkness of the next corridor. “Come on, let’s keep moving.”

  17

  Sam entered the lab, squinted upward to the control booth, to his miracle. Then down into shadow.

  She was here, a woman named Susan. Waiting. He could hear her breathing. She was still holding onto her secrets, unwilling to give them up. That was fine. The best secrets are always buried the deepest. He had all the time in the world.

  The world. A place he would soon remake to his own personal specifications.

  A smile twitched at pale lips.

  “Now,” he said. “Where were we?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE: GRAVE EXPECTATIÖNS

  1

  David had finally found evidence of agents in the building, a door that had been forced open, with a crowbar by the look of it. Beyond that, an air duct missing its grate. This is it, he thought. The path back to Cathleen.

  It was also the path to armed assassins and mad scientists, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He was on a mission, damn it. And he had the girl with him this time, whatever that meant.

  He ducked down, peered into the shaft, huffed, then did his best to shimmy inside. The entire length of his spine let him know how it felt about that, while the sciatic cried a song of bloody murder. David grumbled in defiance, kept going, down a thirty-foot slick metal tunnel no wider than his shoulder blades.

  Eddie followed, but not without coaxing.

  The vent let out into another hall that led to another set of stairs. More empty offices, storage spaces, bathrooms. Then something familiar. Twenty feet ahead, on the left. Soft yellow light coming from…a lab.

  We made it. He turned to Eddie, whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”

  A heap of darkness lay outside the door. An old blanket. Or perhaps a man, dressed all in black. A large, glossy pool of red. He was…dead? There couldn’t be any blood left on the inside to pump, so yes. The brick wall beside him showed a crumbly, body-sized dent and a big wet stain. What happened here?

  Eddie tightened the reins on David’s shirt.

  He looked over a flattened helmet and a pair of busted goggles. “He’s one of those men outside.”

  He stepped over the body, peered into the lab. A singular light originated from behind the observation glass upstairs. As suspected, the control room still had power.

  A squint into darkness. No blue glow. No Susan. And no Sam.

  He stepped inside. “Susan? Are you here?”

  A voice from out of the shadows. “Hello, Dave. Couldn’t stay away, I see. Tell me, who’s that with you?”

  David should’ve turned and ran, gotten the hell out of there. Should’ve, but didn’t. He had to find Susan, had to know. “What have you done, Sam?”

  A hushed laugh. “Curiosity killed the cat. Isn’t that what they say?”

  “That’s what they say, yes.”

  Susan was here somewhere. He looked left, right. The room, so dark.

  Eddie stepped up, out of David’s shadow. “My name is Eddie Sallenger. I’m here to stop you.”

  Sam walked into the spotlight below the control room. Grinned. “I’d say you’re confused, young lady. I cannot be stopped. And Eddie, I believe, is a boy’s name.”

  David paused, cleared his throat, looked to a murderer. “What happens now?”

  “Same thing that always happens, I suppose. The strong survive. Would you like to hear what I’ve discovered?”

  “No. I wouldn’t.”

  “Why are we here? That is the question, Dave. The only question that has ever meant anything. And I alone have found the answer.

  “It all comes down to the simple act of looking. Believing. Reality is what we expect it to be, isn’t it? It’s what we say it is. All of us, in one silent, mighty voice.”

  David said, “What are you saying?”

  “Reality, it turns out, is a consensus. With every conscious being in the universe contributing. Even you, Dave. Isn’t it something, that we’ve always been in control, yet completely oblivious to our own power? Isn’t it remarkable?”

  Sam took a moment to laugh. To bask in his sickening genius.

  Then the bastard continued.

  “I see it all so clearly now. Consciousness serves one solitary, formidable purpose: To look in the box. For nothing is real until a measurement is taken. Life itself is the very process of opening do
ors to expose mysteries. To force reality into existence. All of us. Every second of every day.”

  “You’re saying the universe wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t anyone here to see it?”

  “It’s all about expectations, David. What we believe governs everything. You see, it’s not so much that I hacked into the system with the Gravitons, no. I was always connected, just like everyone. It’s more like I’ve turned up my own personal volume. What I believe, my cosmic voice, now drowns out all others.”

  Could it be true? Could the entire cosmos be controlled by the beliefs of its inhabitants?

  Sam’s voice went ice cold. “Forcing reality into existence is the reason we’re here. The only difference between you and me, Dave, is that I’ve transcended the collective. I now control reality all by myself.”

  Was the very fabric of the universe determined by popular vote? Is that what Sam was saying? He discovered all of this how? Through Susan?

  “Tell me where she is,” David said.

  Sam grinned, pointed toward a shadowy heap on the floor. “I’m afraid you just missed her.”

  It was her, all that remained anyway. On the concrete, like discarded laundry. The sound that bellowed from David wasn’t human. He rushed to her side, dropped to his knees. She was so young, her entire life ahead of her. But not anymore.

  “Oh, no,” he howled. “This can’t be…”

  Steve, now Susan. His responsibility, his fault.

  “How could you?” David said. Then he said it again. And again.

  “Would you like to see how it’s done?”

  “You’re insane.”

  “We could start with your confused companion there. Eddie, was it?”

  Sam reached out, narrowing his gaze.

  Not again.

  David got to his feet, grabbed hold of Eddie, spun back toward the door. Too late.

  The floor crumbled around their feet, crunching, expanding in every direction. He stopped, turned back. Eddie’s hand slipped from his. She was a step ahead. Two.

  In that instant he felt a sudden pull of gravity, a lead weight hung from every molecule in his being. He dropped to his knees. Hands pressed flat to the concrete. Elbows locked. He pushed against it with all that he had. It wouldn’t be enough.

  A man on a sidewalk had been the omen, the premonition. And David, the consequence. Of warnings unheeded.

  Please, God. I don’t want to die.

  His life, all that he’d done. It wasn’t enough.

  2

  Eddie was yanked toward the door as concrete cracked under her feet. Multiplied gravity, a trick the doctor had performed before. David fell, caught by the sudden weight of his own body. Eddie turned back to him, heart thundering, every nerve quaking.

  She reached out to David. To save him. Or, more likely, die with him.

  She’d come to this terrible place, coaxed by the words of a man made of nothing. Where was he now? Why wasn’t he helping them? What about her purpose?

  Who are you kidding, Ed? You don’t believe in purpose. Never did.

  The moment she touched David the gravity released. In shock, he scrambled to his feet. Sam lowered his hand, his eyes widening.

  He scowled, tried again, both hands this time. A distortion of light, a shotgun blast of heat, stopped shy of the place where they stood, as if blocked by an invisible shield. For whatever reason, Sam’s power couldn’t touch Eddie. Astounded, she locked eyes on David. He wasted no time getting behind her.

  “Not possible,” Sam growled. He cupped palms together, as if crushing the air. A black hole blasted to life in the empty space between them and Sam.

  Spiraling strings of light, beautiful. Amazing beyond anything she’d seen. And useless. It thrust forward, stopped, held back by that same surrounding barrier.

  “How are you doing that?” David asked.

  Eddie shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  Sam lowered his arms. The black hole faded. The laboratory fell silent.

  The doctor stared, surely wondering all the things she was. After a few seconds, he spoke. His words, furious. “Who are you?”

  “Like I said, Eddie.”

  “Where did you acquire your power, Eddie?”

  Good question. She’d have to get back to him on that one. “This ends now, Doctor. It’s over.”

  “Over? No, I don’t think so.” He narrowed crosshairs on David. “You can’t protect him forever. And you can do nothing to me, otherwise you would have already done it.” A hushed laugh overcame him. “You’re a mystery to be sure, but nothing more.”

  David whispered over her shoulder, into her ear. “Let’s go.”

  Keeping a careful eye on Sam, they made their way back to the door. Even in the subdued lighting Eddie could see the doctor watching her with curiosity. He said one last thing. “And now on to the main event.”

  The north corridor, blacker than ever.

  3

  Rachel ran. She took a right, then a left. Down a long corridor. Where was she going? Away from the asshole at the front of the building, that’s where.

  What the hell was that?

  The bad man, the one her sister had been talking about, had the power of…what? God? No fucking way.

  The parking lot was a crater. The cars, crushed aluminum cans. And the men. Those poor men. Christ.

  She found an open room, dashed inside. Ducked behind a table stacked with equipment. Went to her knees, heaved for air.

  Calm down, Rachel. Just breathe.

  The air here smelled strange. Almost like cigarette smoke.

  4

  A teenaged girl. Here to stop me. Absurd.

  Who was she? Where did she come from? And most importantly, how was she able to defy the Gravitons’ influence?

  She must’ve had her own connection to the cosmos, same as Sam. But how? Could such a thing happen on its own, by way of some kind of freak accident? Or was something else at play here?

  A look inside her consciousness would be quite educational indeed.

  Sam walked to the far wall, between I-beams, where Susan had been tied. Another sat in her place now. A large man, bound at the wrists and ankles, unconscious.

  Doug, was it?

  A snap of the fingers and he woke.

  Sam reached out, patted him on the cheek. “I will need to dig deeper this time, my friend. I’m sorry to say it won’t be pleasant.”

  5

  Eddie walked down the black corridor, away from Sam, wondering how they were still alive. She’d come to this place with so many questions, a million things she had to know. At least the universe had seen fit to answer one of them.

  An immunity to Sam’s power was the reason the nothingman had chosen her, Eddie being the only one that could get close to him.

  It seemed she was special after all.

  Special? Yeah right, Ed.

  She followed the sound of David’s feet toward the front entrance, clacks to the flooring that slowed the further they went. One more pronounced than the other, and an occasional scrape. The old guy’s endurance dwindled at every step.

  She grabbed hold of David’s arm to steady him, keep him from falling. Fear would’ve kept her from doing that for a stranger. But she’d lived in his skin for a few minutes, literally walked in his shoes, so it was okay. It was strange though, and a little scary, touching him like that. His arm. Thick, rigid. And hairy.

  The morning sun blazed through glass double-doors, illuminating the far end of the hall. Light, Eddie thought. At the end of the tunnel.

  David’s words struggled below the pain. “How did you save me? Why doesn’t his power affect you?”

  She stopped, peered around the corner into the front area. Silence. “I don’t know, David. Come on.”

  She led him across the bright room, along the back wall.

  “But, how?” he said again. “H-”

  Gunshots, like cannons, three of them in quick succession. A concussion of sound, like hammers to the brain. Eddie hit
the deck, yanking David down behind the reception desk. Elbows, knees, and a yowl of pain.

  Adrenaline surged. Her heart, blowing up the Richter scale, threatening to snap ribs.

  A voice, not just over the radio, but here, in this room. “I’ve got two at the north entrance - over.” Footsteps.

  Oh my God. He’s going to kill us.

  Then another voice, deep and dark. “Behind the desk,” it said.

  Two more ear-punishing blasts. Wood splintered. Ceramic tile cracked next to her arm. Eddie recoiled, screaming.

  This was it. Game over. None of it meant anything.

  How special do you feel now, Eddie?

  “Wait,” David said. “We’re not part of this. I can tell you where Jacobson is.”

  “We know where he is.”

  Eddie looked up and saw a gun aimed at her chest.

  “Gotcha,” the man said.

  His face, covered like some kind of comic book alien. Eyes, squinting through a plastic shield. The hollow end of a long barrel. Close. Too fucking close.

  I’m so sorry, Rachel.

  Then another dark figure standing over her, a form of pure black, a thing made of nothing at all.

  Dark arms shoved and the man went flying. His body hit the floor ten feet away, skidding back, machine gun fire spraying the ceiling.

  Eddie winced at the sound, wailed in terror. Scrambled back and hit the wall with an elbow. The surprise shadow stepped up, turned to face the other man. A thrust of dark hands sent him stumbling back into the doors behind. Pressed tight against glass he struggled to break free, cursing. A thin transparent surface separated him from the deadly barricade of heat just outside, but only for a moment. A second effort sent an explosion of glass and a flailing body into hell. A white-hot flash and the man was gone. What scattered the sidewalk crumbled like charcoal.

  The void spun back to the first man, punched at the air between them. A cracking of bones as he slammed the far wall. He fell lifeless to the floor.

  Eddie grabbed hold of David, felt his trembling heartbeat. In that instant she realized he could see it too. He stared in awe at the thing before them, his mouth gaping.