“Can you reprogram it?”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no? So now what are you going to do?”
“Buddy, are you retarded? You shot me and demanded that I show you how it’s done, and now you’re asking me why I did it?”
Dylan was confused. Something was wrong. This guy had been too willing to show them how he could remove the bracelets. He hadn’t pleaded; he hadn’t begged. Why didn’t he point out that the color would remain white before removing them? He had a bad feeling about this.
“Dude…there has to be more to this…otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken the bracelets off this quickly.”
Jeremy Phillips grabbed the guys by the collar, lifted him, up and shoved him to the wall, showing his strength.
“What are you hiding from us, you bastard?”
“All right…all right…there’s something else. In the last drawer I have a few neutral bracelets.”
“What are those?”
“Let me go and I’ll show you!”
Jeremy let him go. The guy shook out his arms and smoothed down his clothes. He definitely wasn’t a fragile man, but Jeremy Phillips was much stronger. He went to the desk and opened the bottom drawer. Inside there were a few green bracelets.
“Neutral bracelets are bracelets without a chip. Anyone can use them. Of course, no ward could ever read them. They are something like toy bracelets.” He took one and placed it around his wrist. First on the left hand, then the right.
“See, I am fine now.”
“No, you’re not fine. How will you get inside the ward?”
“First, I need to get rid of you all. Then I will enter the ward with my hands above my head and surrender. I’ll tell them I was beaten up and my bracelets were ripped off by hooligans.”
“You took off my bracelets and replaced them with green ones,” said Dylan. “I knew nothing about any neutral bracelets. So I am telling you for the last time, confess everything or die!”
“Your case was different…somebody bought a bracelet with a functional chip…and gave it to me.”
Dylan turned to Nathan Green and said loudly enough for everyone to hear, “He’s lying. So what further purpose does he serve? Anybody can get pliers. Something’s amiss here. What’s up with all this electronic equipment?”
Jeremy Phillips agreed. Was this guy playing them? Well, he chose the wrong people to play with.
Jeremy punched the second guy, the one who had been sitting in the chair. That guy fell and hit the floor although the blow hadn’t been that heavy. He dramatically got up, saying, “You’ll regret this.”
“Are you threatening me, you, piece of shit?” bellowed Jeremy. This time, he punched him twice. Once again, the guy landed on the floor. It took almost a minute for him to get up again. He coughed as if something were choking him. They all knew he was exaggerating.
Dylan raised the gun again, readying to shoot. But just before he pulled the trigger, one of the men guarding the hallway barged in, panicking.
“It’s bad. The sheriffs are here!”
They were baffled. The sheriffs rarely came to New Hope, and usually only when involving conflicts with groups of people or when a truly dangerous person needed to be found. Nathan Green only saw the sheriffs in action twice during this entire stay so far. Their cars patrolled the streets from time to time, but they never stopped.
The sound of automatic fire reached the room. It was definitely the sheriffs; they were the only ones who carried automatic guns.
“Run!” said Nathan Green. Dylan grabbed the pliers and a few of the neutral bracelets. They then shot the two guys with the stun guns; there was no time to tie them up.
“Crap. The sheriffs? Are they involved in this, too?”
The sound of the automatic firearms got louder—and closer. At the end of the hallway, the one who had warned them was down, his body full of bullet holes. They ran in the opposite direction, but the sheriffs were shooting from that side as well. They then ran up the stairs to the fourth floor—the top floor.
Jeremy Phillips was coming up the rear, trying to cover them. But he only had a Taser, which was useless against automatic weapons. The sheriffs wore special protective suits, including headgear that covered their faces. They forced themselves right in front of Jeremy and pointed their laser-sight rifle in his direction. Jeremy Phillips never stood a chance. The bullets tore right through him, splashing his blood on the walls.
Dylan and Nathan Green ran down fourth-floor hallway. The end was in sight. Dylan was thankful to have had the foresight to grab the pliers and a few bracelets. He quickly removed his, remembering how easy it looked. Nathan Green nodded quietly; he was still in shock. Dylan removed Nathan’s as well and crushed them all under his foot. They had to be destroyed; otherwise, the radio signal emitted by the bracelets would give them away everywhere they went.
Just when he was starting to consider himself dead and gone, Dylan had a brilliant idea. There wasn’t anyone in the hallway, but surely those inside could hear the gunshots and all the commotion. He knocked randomly on a few doors and shouted, “Open up! Police!”
A door opened behind them. A woman who looked quite scared peeked through. They barged in and locked the door behind them. She was pushed inside and Nathan Green covered her mouth so she couldn’t talk or scream. Dylan leaned against the wall. All the other members of their group were probably dead.
Why did they get such an aggressive a response from the authorities? How did they even figure out where they were? Did that motherfucker press a panic button while he searched the drawer? Or were the police automatically alerted as soon as he removed his bracelets? Maybe that was why he put up so little resistance. Either way, their situation now was serious.
“Dude, the police opened fire on us; that means things are really bad. They might get us. Good thing we took off our bracelets or they’d seize us wherever we went. How are we going to get out of here?”
In the hallway was quite the commotion. The sheriffs knocked on doors, talked loudly, and gave orders. They were checking each studio.
“Open up! Police!”
This time it really was the police.
“Not a sound,” said Nathan. “Not a sound or I’ll break your neck. We are not here to hurt you, but be careful. We are just hiding out.”
The woman was confused. The events took place too rapidly for her to form an opinion. All she knew was that police were firing automatic weapons in her building, and two guys with no bracelets were holding her hostage.
Chapter 20
Fortunately, the sheriffs did not see the studio where they had entered. They had a hard time locating them especially without their bracelets. But they knew they were near. The police decided to break all the doors. That offered Dylan and Nathan a bit of extra time.
“Dude, they shot them all…with real bullets… Didn’t say anything to them—nothing… they just started shooting…”
“We’re dead,” replied Nathan.
“I always suspected the state was involved, but to this extent? If we surrender, they’ll shoot us on the spot. We’re in New Hope, after all.”
“What do we do, bro?”
“I don’t know.”
They had to leave as soon as possible. However, they had nowhere to go. They were desperate and had no idea what to do next. They couldn’t see a way out.
Dylan sat on the bed, his head in his hands. Nathan Green looked through the grate at the window and tried to see what was going on outside. The woman, seeing how she was now free, grabbed her own gun. She now pointed it at Dylan. They had completely forgotten about her. And now she was free.
“What is going on here!”
They realized she very well might hurt them. They couldn’t risk a possible altercation. It would have made too much noise, resulting in the sheriffs quickly breaking down the door. They had to play along.
“Who are you?” the woman asked. “And how did you manage to take off you bracelet
s? And more importantly, why?”
“How do you know we took them off?” asked Dylan.
“They’re not around your wrists, genius.”
“Hey…calm down, lady… we are not here to hurt you…we’re just hiding from the sheriffs. If we wanted to hurt you, you would have been tied up already.”
“What about the bracelets!”
“The bracelets emit a signal. We were scared they’d find us if they followed it.”
“What are you going to do without them?”
“We’re wondering the same thing. We don’t have a plan yet. We suspected something shady went on in this building. There was this rumor that bracelets could be replaced. We wanted to see with our own eyes if that was so. Suddenly, police were everywhere.”
“Stupid. I don’t believe you. What did you two do?”
“Why do you think we did anything?”
In the hallway, the noises increased in intensity. The police were talking louder and they were obviously getting closer. They were breaking doors in one by one. There was no more time for any explanations. The woman rushed next to her bed, grabbed a small handle that was almost hidden, and pulled. Under the bed was a hideout. In fact, some sort of drawer was camouflaged so well by a mirror and a poster covering the floor that it was difficult to notice it under the bed.
“I don’t know you or what you two did, but I hate the sheriffs. Get in here!” The space was very tight; they could barely fit. They were pushed up against each other. But this hideout was the best thing that could have happened to them. The woman took her shirt off and only kept a bra on. She quickly put on a movie and projected it over the table. The police were about to break down her door, but she opened it instead.
“What’s wrong? Please don’t hurt me!”
Three police officers pushed her aside and entered the room. They were armed with laser-sight machine guns. Attached to their headgear was a small screen on which they could view a map of the building. They looked around, searching for the suspects. One of them tried the bars on the windows. They were intact, you couldn’t pass through.
The room was modestly furnished; it had no other furniture except for the standard pieces. The guise under the bed simply looked like empty space. It raised no suspicions, so the police didn’t check it. They were in a hurry to check the rest of the rooms. Without a word, they pushed the woman aside and left to check the next studio. The door was left open. A sheriff who was not wearing combat gear and carried no weapons entered.
“Did you see some men trying to escape?”
“No, what men?”
“You haven’t seen anyone?”
“No.”
The sheriff looked her straight in the eye. He was trying to discern any betrayal. But the woman played her part very well. They heard more banging in the hallway. Doors were being broken down one by one. Many people were too scared to open them and others were not at home. The sheriff had no time for pleasantries. The shootings continued. Those who refused to open their door or even tried to fight back would soon discover that was the last thing they ever did.
“Do not close the door. Leave it half-open and wait for new instructions.”
“But what happened?”
He didn’t answer. He quickly left and entered another studio. They wrecked the whole building. After ransacking the entire fourth floor, they went on to the third.
Bodies of the dead were placed into special bags and carried to vehicles. Another team came to clean up the blood. The disturbance was extensive. People were already starting to inquire as to what was happening. Although the situation was dangerous, curiosity trumps fear. Some thought the sheriffs were there to protect them; they never considered they would shoot for no reason. That sort of deployment of troops was very rarely witnessed.
Finally, out of the blue, all the sheriffs finally got into their cars and left as if nothing happened. They wanted to leave as few traces of evidence and be the least conspicuous as possible. There was still the possibility that a few sheriffs were undercover in civilian clothes, left behind with finding the culprits.
In the small space underneath the bed, Dylan tried not to move. Fresh air entered through a small crack, but the fear of being discovered forced them to remain still and tightly embraced. After things calmed down, the woman closed the door and let them out.
“I am too involved in this already. I don’t want to know who you are or why they are looking for you. It’s in my best interest to know as little as possible. I hope you appreciate what I did for you and this stays between us. There are many studios with broken doors. Go into one and stay there for a while. The danger has not passed, but now you’re on your own.”
Dylan and Nathan entered the studio across the hall. It was a tidy room. By looking at the items in it, it belonged to a lady whose hobby was photography. There were many lenses around and two tablets, one of which was the latest model. Dylan and Nathan rummaged through the room, looking for money or small valuable objects that could fit into a backpack without raising suspicions. They had no functional bracelets, so they had to find a way to survive. Ethics was not as important anymore.
“We need to leave,” said Nathan. “They might come back. Also, the occupant of this studio could return.”
Dylan agreed. He took the neutral bracelets out of his pocket. They might not be able to enter the ward, but at least they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves in the street. A few sweaters were in the wardrobe. The owner was either fat or had big breasts because the clothes were quite loose. They put them over their other clothes.
Nathan had an idea.
“I’ll go out. If everything goes well, I’ll lean against that tree so you can see me from up here. I’ll put my hand behind my head and pretend to scratch. That’s the signal for you to come down, too. Then I’ll start walking and you’ll follow me at about 50 to 100 meters behind, so it doesn’t look like we’re together. I think we will be safe on the subway.”
He went out. No further incidents ensued. They got off the subway at the stop for area 12H7 near the gym. Neither said a word for the entire ride.
Surprisingly, the latest events motivated Dylan. It was obvious the state was involved. He needed to find out how. The government wanted to keep the knowledge that bracelets could be replaced a secret. Dylan could think of two possible sources. It may be the doing of the secret service, and they would be difficult to unmask, causing a huge scandal if was able to accomplish it. Or a faction of the state may have within it a secret network, without the state’s leaders even being aware of it. In either situation, if Dylan somehow managed to expose everything and bring forth evidence, he would be vindicated.
Nathan Green was not calm at all. He felt as if this was the end for him—living the rest of his days by stealing was not an option. Only his instinct to survival prompted him to steal the photographer’s belongings, but it wasn’t in him to live like that. They rested on a bench in a park in that area. Nathan start to bemoan:
“What are we going to do from now on? Where will we sleep? What will we eat?”
“Dude, calm down! Can’t you see that the state is involved. One hundred percent. But we know things that aren’t common knowledge. Why would that be?”
Nathan didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t know either,” said Dylan, “but as you see by them attacking us, they are afraid that knowledge might be made public. We can use that. We need to catch them in the act.”
“What good would that do us?”
What do you mean what good would it do? You could go home. Back to the civilized world. With no worries about tomorrow.”
“We won’t make it,” said Nathan. “There’s nothing we can do. We’ll end up like Jeremy and the others. Shot by the sheriffs. This is our life now, in New Hope.”
“It’s not that bad. The sheriffs have limits. Otherwise they wouldn’t have left without catching us. It was obvious we were in the building. They saw us. They caught us on tape. Ye
t, they still left without us. What does that tell you? They are scared of something.”
“They’re not afraid of anything. I saw with my own eyes how they riddled Jeremy with bullets.”
Dylan remembered the hypnosis sessions they had together, and how Nathan had come to him willingly. So Dylan considered Nathan trustworthy and a close friend.
Dylan had to figure out a solution quickly. Soon the sheriffs would figure out what clothes they were wearing and possibly where they got off from the subway. They had to leave that area. But first . . .
“Dude, for real now…what’s the deal with Samantha Rogers?”
“What do you mean?” asked Nathan.
“Have you really been visiting her? How close are you? Could she help us?”
Nathan Green had not considered this. But Samantha probably would, indeed, help—at least for the time being. In any case, they had very few options.
They went to her building and found her in her room. They told her all that had happened. They showed her how they could remove their bracelets to prove their honesty.
“Okay, you can remove your bracelets. So what? Does that prove anything? No. Only that you have special pliers for that.”
She had a valid point. That they could remove the bracelets really didn’t prove anything, only that once removed, they became invalid and turned white.
Samantha didn’t think she should try it. The move was irreversible. It seemed so, at least, for Dylan and Nathan. It would mean she’d have to return home immediately and with a quite significant penalty. But Dylan and Nathan had green bracelets. They weren’t functional, but could still be useful. Of course, that didn’t prove much either. You could probably buy toy bracelets anywhere.
Even if she wanted to help them, there was little Samantha could do. She’d be leaving in a week. But she could offer them temporary protection. Right now, they needed a place to hide—to rest, think, and figure out a plan.
Nathan Green concentrated on softening up their host. He focused on keeping things as passionate as possible. But in the current situation, Samantha wasn’t really into passion and she quite clearly let Nathan know.
The Free City Page 14
