Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  Watching them disappear into the dark, Goda aims the gun at his left bicep. Knowing just where to shoot to produce a non-lethal and non-crippling shot wound, Goda pulls the trigger.

  BANG!!

  The gunshot echoes up inside the soundproof walls around them, startling both Ada and Zero. With blood trickling down his arm, Goda takes a seat onto the dusty ground and will let himself bleed for sometime before he shall get help, so as to give the two ample time to leave the tunnel.

  Finally reaching the top of the staircase, Zero and Ada makes their way groping through the dark into the crawlspace again. As they move along the crawlspace they carefully feel for the door along the wall and halfway through, they have found it. Zero tries to feel for the sensor and his fingers manage to locate it on the right side of the doorway. Removing the access card from his pocket, Zero scans it onto the scanner and the scanner beeps with a flash of green from the sensor's little bulb. The door shifts open with a low rumble. Seeing the gap of light widening, they back up a step and ready themselves to brace what is waiting for them on the other side.

  Anticipating armed officers, they are more than delighted when they see that the door opens up to the side of a narrow walkway located just beside the sub's track, before the exit security checkpoint. Zero exits into the walkway holding the rusty metal railing for support as Ada hops out after him. A windowless train has stopped by the platform and people are just starting to board the train.

  Zero takes the chips out and passes one to Ada.

  "Slip these under the bandage and scan it at the exit point's scanner. Stay calm and look cool," Zero instructs as he opens the plastic casing and carefully takes the chip between his left thumb and forefinger. He then slips it securely onto his wound, under the awful bandage. He then watches Ada do the same.

  Zero and Ada hurry up the five steps of stairs and slips into the crowd, lowering their heads from the security officers and cameras mounted to the ceiling. Blending into the passengers, they proceed to the security checkpoint to get their palms scanned. They try to muster z most indifferent face but in fact they are scared as hell. Zero takes the first turn. He strides to the waist high scanner and places his palm over it.

  -BEEP-

  The scanner beeps a green light and Zero can breathe again. Delighted, he immediately moves forward and turns around to wait for Ada.

  Ada smiles and promptly moves forward to do the same. She places her palm over the scanner and waits for her green light.

  -BUZZ-

  Instead of a green light, the scanner buzzes with a red light. Access denied. It does not detect her chip! The security officer moves in with a gun in his hand. Staring at her bandaged hand, he asks, "What's wrong?"

  "I think it's the bandage," Ada quickly answers.

  "Take it off and scan again," the security officer instructs.

  "No, no. The cut is too deep. The doctor says I shouldn't remove it until three days later," Ada answers.

  "Try scanning again. If it doesn't work you will have to take it off," the security officer instructs as he sternly stands watch.

  Ada nervously places her palm to the scanner again, pressing her palm hard onto its surface with Zero watching anxiously, ready to lunge at the security officer if it turns red again.

  -BEEP-

  Access granted! Ada immediately dots off to Zero and they board one of the coaches of the train.

  As the windowless air-conditioned train pulls away from the platform into the thirty miles long track, they can finally start to leave this hellhole behind them. Sitting side by side in the roomy and plush double seats, Ada holds onto Zero's hand tightly praying hard that they can reach the city safely.

  Chapter 44

  Malaysia: Thursday, 20th November 8:00 a.m.

  With her computer set to auto-run, the system will send preset instructions to Zach according to the time schedule Ada has predetermined.

  The night before has been a really difficult one. Zach can hardly sleep and he feels absolutely worthless and awful for being a puppet killer.

  Staring down at the streets below, through the beautiful triangle cuts of his floor length window, he watches the busy and traffic filled streets. There isn't a time when he doesn't feel the temptation of jumping off the roof of the building to end it all. The psychological torment is more than any normal person can bear and Zach is considered to be a miraculously strong willed person to be able to endure such immense pressure and to be pushed through so many tasks.

  Looking at the cruel way his puppeteers work, he knows that Nikki will die the moment he finishes all three tasks. Lost of hope and the desire to live, Zach is contemplating his option for suicide when his next instruction is read to him.

  Get ready by 8:30am.

  As though a switch has been flipped, Zach immediately becomes submissive, forgetting everything else. He marches to the bathroom and starts getting himself ready, first by taking a shower and then shaving himself properly. Zach quickly dries himself and then comes out of the bathroom naked. Screening through his luggage bag he pulls out a brown underwear, blue T-shirt and black jeans. He looks at his own watch. Fifteen more minutes. Rapidly slipping into his clothes, he goes back into the bathroom and gets his hair combed back neatly. Coming back out, he puts on his socks and his sneakers. Looking down at his watch, he still has seven more minutes. Zach goes out to the living room and waits by the door for his next set of instructions but instead of that, there is a ring on the doorbell.

  Meanwhile, down at the entrance to the basement parking, tight security is screening all cars entering into the hotel building. Since the death of Mohamed Yusof and the explosion that killed four, The Axis's international reputation has been plundering overnight. Labeled as a target for terrorists, The Axis has immediately tightened security measures with main entrances suddenly turning into airport security checkpoints of walk through metal detectors.

  Armed with an under vehicle search mirror, the security guard standing by the ticketing machine screens through the bottom of every vehicle and even looks into the trunks for would be explosives.

  The forty plus hard-featured Chinese woman driver of the second vehicle in line is sweating profusely. Her hands are cold and her fingers stiff with nervousness. She doesn't know the contents in her trunk but she can guess that it is definitely something dangerous. They however, promised it will be okay.

  Despite their assurance, the tight security is still worrying her down. They will definitely see what she is bringing in, but if she doesn't obey, she might as well be dead. They loan sharks won't let her off this time. With a hundred thousand ringgit of gambling debts on her back, she has no choice but to oblige. Their promise of settling her debts for her is all she can hold on to.

  It is her turn and she crosses her fingers as she nervously waits for the inspection. The security guard first circles her vehicle with the under vehicle search mirror, then having finished that, he knocks on her bonnet signaling her to open it. The woman shakily pulls the lever and the bonnet springs open. The security guard opens it, takes a look and closes the trunk, not batting an eye at what's inside. He then sternly signals her to enter.

  The woman drives into level B2 of the underground parking and parks the silver local made sedan at the first available parking spot. Looking left and right, she makes sure no one is around and quickly exits the vehicle, locking it and leaving it for good. It is not her car in the first place, so abandoning it as soon as possible is her best option.

  Back up by the ticketing machine, the security guard has left his post early. Leaving the under vehicle search mirror by the wall and his white shirt, red hat and baton all stuffed into a plastic bag by the corner of a wall, the man now walks away and disappears into the streets in nothing but a pair of white singlet over his black pants and black leather shoes. He has to leave fast as the actual security guard whom he has drugged, stripped and left hidden behind a large unfolded cardboard box will soon come to consciousness.

  B
ack up in his suite, upon hearing the doorbell Zach immediately goes to the door to look out the peephole. It is a room service attendant. Wearing a gray mandarin collar suit and a matching pillbox hat with a silver hotel logo on the front, the young Malay lad is waiting by the door with his gloved hands on a silver food trolley. On the trolley is a with porcelain dish covered with a silver food cover and beside it, a glass of orange juice. Zach opens the door for him promptly.

  "Good morning sir, shall I set it on the dining table?" the attendant asks Zach with a grin over his face as he wheels the trolley into the suite.

  Zach nods and watches by the door as the attendant stops at the dining table and sets the table for him, arranging the covered dish, drink, cutlery and napkin neatly over the table in perfect order. Without waiting for tips, he quickly bows and pushes his trolley back out of the suite. Zach closes the door after the attendant and walks over to the table. He lifts the lid off and is surpised to see a perfectly cooked, golden brown omelet wrap with a little cheese oozing out from the side. On the side of the omelet wrap are butter fried portobello mushrooms. Cheese omelet and orange juice - the exact breakfast Nikki loves to make for him on a lazy Sunday morning. Seeing the food makes him feel nostalgic and emotional all at once.

  Feeling Nikki's presence overwhelming his heart, Zach sits down and quickly starts to cut the omelet up with his spoon. Weirdly though, the spoon wouldn't cut through and he tries with the knife but still it is the same. There is something tough down the soft and creamy center. Zach then uses his fork and knife to part the egg apart and as he doubted, there is something. It is a blue drinking straw.

  "I knew it," Zach utters to himself and removes the straw from the omelet. Both ends of the straw have been folded and there seems to be something inside the middle of it. Zach unfolds one end and taking a look into the hole, he sees something resembling a rolled up sheet of paper. Zach presses the straw onto the table and using the pointed tip of knife, he starts to slice it open.

  Successfully retrieving the paper, he unrolls it and realizes it is a small note - a handwritten note from Nikki!

  I escaped. Go out into the street. I will find you.

  Love, Nikki

  Zach can hardly believe his eyes. Almost loosing his mind to overwhelm and excitement, he stands up and paces back and forth aimlessly, almost shaky even, not knowing what to do next. Unable to contain his emotions, all his thoughts and rise in dopamine level has again sparked another alarm on Ada's supercomputer.

  Suddenly, the chip behind his ear starts to read out another instruction.

  Get down to the reception. There is a package waiting for you.

  Panic stricken, Zach dashes to the bathroom and throws the crinkled ball of a note into the toilet. He flushes it down the toilet and after making sure the note has disappeared down the toilet, he goes back out to the living room. Since Nikki is safe, he can quit but what about the chips? He can't remove them. Wait, doctors should have no problem removing them.

  Thinking that he has found the solution, Zach is ecstatic. He goes back into the room and grabs his wallet and passport. Pocketing everything, he is ready to go embrace his wife. Zach happily takes the elevator down to the lobby and starts to hurry out the main entrance.

  At the same time in India, the programming team has managed to override the control on Ada's computer. A failed and defaulted subordinate, a failing randomer, a threatened MAP and a pending extermination are all not something a normal ghost can handle all at once. An extreme situation like this needs an extreme solution - Goda is personally taking over Ada's workstation and will complete the mission his way.

  Looking at the three alerts of behavior deviation, Goda immediately launches the thoughts log to the randomer in action - Zach. He starts with the latest log, which is Zach wanting to remove the chips and Goda responds by immediately calling out the chip's control panel. Goda hesitates if he wants to hit the Comatose button to temporarily shut Zach down like a remote control robot but finally he shifts his fingers to set the current level to seventy five percent and taps his finger onto the Electrocute button on screen instead.

  Zach is marching out towards the lobby entrance all full of hope when suddenly, a terrible, burning sting initiates from the chip in his neck and shoots through every nerve in his body. He quivers for roughly two seconds before collapsing onto the granite flooring, unconscious. The electrocution will put Zach out for about half an hour. That will teach him a lesson about obeying the instructions. Goda will not kill him just yet as he is still needed to complete the final task.

  Everybody gathers around the man who has just fainted and an ambulance has been called for. A particular Caucasian woman in a blue floral dress and a beige straw hat drops her butterfly shades onto the floor as she races towards Zach, keeling herself over him, trying to wake him with her bare hands. Two other Asian women dash in from out of no where and pull the estranged Caucasian woman away from Zach and out of the hotel.

  Zach is going to the hospital but no one is going to believe him about the chips. This is because the chips are made with a special material that will absorb the rays and magnetic resonance emitted by hospital scanning equipment thus rendering any body checks futile in detecting them.

  Zach will have no choice but to come back to what they have planned out for him.

  As for the main action plan, drastic changes will have to be done to ensure that the final outcome H-7842 can still be achieved.

  FOUR HOURS AGO

  After taking forty winks, the women are up again. They need to find Nikki's husband and with Nikki blanked out since at the airport, there are not much information that she can provide to them about his whereabouts.

  Their first plan is to check at the hotel that they were supposed to check into - Stanz's Hotel. Yuna and Kaew remains in their subcompact car with little Tucker huddled next to Kaew's feet as they wait by the roadside.

  Nikki, having cleaned herself up and dressed into Yuna's clean clothes of a gray hoodie and blue jeans, she walks into the hotel with her hood over her hair and a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. It is awkward to see a woman walk in with dark sunglasses at 4:00am when the sky is still pitch dark. Nikki marches towards the reception counter and the woman on night shift flashes a warm smile at her.

  "Hello miss, what can I do for you?" the woman greets, asking.

  "I'm looking for a guest named Zach Burrow," Nikki asks.

  "Hold on a second miss," the woman smiles and checks on her computer but her face soon turns into a scorn when she realizes that Zach Burrow is the banned guest, "I'm sorry but he is no longer staying with us."

  "Do you have any idea where he went?" Nikki asks, disappointed.

  "I have no idea. I'm so sorry," the lady apologizes.

  Nikki immediately turns around and leaves with her head hanging low. Her saviors have educated her on the importance of looking away from the surveillance cameras.

  Heading back into the car, she shakes her head as she announces sadly, "He left."

  "What do we do now?" Yuna asks, starting to drive off.

  "Yu tink he go bak oledi?" Kaew suggests with a shrug.

  "The killer said he is working for them. I think he is still in Malaysia," Nikki tells, holding onto the heart shaped locket hanging on the necklace on her neck.

  Kaew turns around and sees her holding the locket.

  "He give yu dat?" Kaew asks, full of curiosity. Nikki nods, blinking away the tears in her eyes.

  "It's a locket that belonged to his grandmother. He put our pictures inside it," Nikki answers and opens the heart shape locket to look at a picture of Zach on the right side of the locket, while hers is on the left.

  "See! See!" Kaew excitedly demands as she reaches her right hand back with her palm open. Nikki removes the chain from over her head and gently passes it to Kaew.

  Kaew turns the reading light on and marvels at the rather good looking man in the picture, "He is han-sum."

  After a few seconds of looking
, Kaew suddenly sticks the locket before Yuna's face blocking her view on the road, "Han-sum right?"

  Yuna makes an annoyed face and is about to push her hand away when from the corner of her eyes, the man in the picture looks very familiar. She swerves the car to the roadside and steps on the brakes immediately before grabbing the locket from Kaew's hand.

  "Hold yu horses lady! He married. Wife at the bak o-k? Kaew snorts.

  "No, I think I've seen him before," Yuna utters and pauses as she stares into the picture hard trying to remember where she has seen him, "The Axis. I've seen him at The Axis!"

  "Yu su-a?" Kaew asks skeptically, narrowing one eye as she probes Yuna.

  "Yes. We were in the same lift," Yuna confirms.

  "Can we go there now??" Nikki immediately asks, all hopeful again.