Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  "Right now," Yuna replies and shoves the locket towards the back. Nikki gladly puts the chain back around her neck and the car races through the streets towards The Axis, which is just minutes away.

  Screeching to a halt, Nikki gets out of the vehicle and anxiously makes her way into the hotel and marches straight for the reception.

  "I am looking for a guest named Zach Burrow," she says, not waiting for the man behind the counter to greet her.

  "Hold on please madam," the man politely replies and checks in his computer for the guest list. Indeed he is here and is staying at one of their most prestigious suites, "Madam, let me call him for you."

  Nikki nods and impatiently waits at the reception. The man listens as the call goes through, but no one is answering. Little do they know that the suite's line has been blocked.

  "I'm sorry. There is no answer," the man apologizes.

  "He hasn't checked out right?" Nikki asks to double confirm.

  "No, no," the man answers with a very sure note in his voice.

  "Can I know the room number so that I can call in tomorrow morning?" Nikki asks, remembering the information Yuna and Kaew has instructed her to obtain in case she fails to see Zach.

  "Of course. The suite number is 22-01," the man replies most promptly with a wide smile.

  "Okay, thanks a lot," Nikki nods to the man and turns to leave.

  Heading back out to the black subcompact car, Nikki skips with joy. The moment she enters the back passenger seat of the car, they can tell that she has located Zach. Though pale, haggard and dehydrated, her face is gleaming with the glow of pure happiness.

  "He's here! He's here!" Nikki chirps, unable to contain her excitement.

  "Did you talk to him?" Yuna asks, anxious to know what happened after Nikki's abduction.

  "No. He's not in. But I have the room number," Nikki replies, grinning.

  "Good job! Wat we do next?" Kaew asks Yuna.

  "Since we're already here we might just as well wait until morning," Yuna suggests, turning to look at the two other women for approval.

  Kaew shrugs that she is mutual to any suggestion while Nikki nods aggressively. If possible, she will even want to sleep in the hotel lobby but Kaew and Yuna have warned her over and again that staying in the open for too long can only risk exposing herself to the killer.

  7:48AM

  Nikki sways in through the doorway of a walk through metal detector by the main entrance with nothing but a tiny coin purse in her hand. She has changed her clothes in the car to put on a long sleeveless floral dress of blue with tiny white and pink flowers. Her wavy brunette hair is let down beside both cheeks and on top of her head a wide straw hat. With large butterfly shades over her eyes, even the cut on her cheek is hidden. She indeed looks like a tourist who is relaxed and enjoying her honeymoon.

  Walking calmly into the hotel she makes her way to the cafe where she is ushered to a small square table. The usher then leaves a menu onto the table for Nikki to study. Nikki flips the menu open and starts screening for a suitable food item and at the breakfast section she sees what she is looking for - cheesy egg wrap with pan fried portobello mushrooms.

  No one slept a wink in the few hours of waiting in the car. Kaew insisted that Nikki does not speak to Zach over the phone as the lines might be tapped and she does not rule out voice recognition on the killer's side to trace her down. So Yuna suggested that they will have to pass Zach a message in the oldest of all ways - written and hidden. Of course, Nikki knows her husband well enough to make sure he will discover her message.

  Nikki looks up at the waitress and signals for her. The petite young Indian woman in her early twenties scoots over to Nikki in her white shirt, black knee length skirt and a black bistro apron asking more than courteously, "Good morning Ma'am. What would you like to order?"

  "I want a cheesy egg wrap and one orange juice. That's all and I need it fast," Nikki orders and passes the menu back to the waitress.

  "Okay, one cheesy egg wrap and one orange juice. Coming right up," the waitress smiles warmly to Nikki and rushes off to key in her order through the POS system.

  Nikki leans onto the rattan backrest of the wooden chair and folds her hands before her breasts, rapping her fingers impatiently on her arms. A few minutes later, the same Indian girl comes back with a tall glass of orange juice. The first thing Nikki does is to take the blue colored straw out from the glass and dry its outside with the napkin folded on the table. Next, she puts the straw to her lips and blows hard, making sure that even the inside is clean and dry. Looking around to make sure that no one is watching, Nikki's quick fingers remove a piece of tightly rolled paper from her coin purse and carefully, she pushes the paper into the straw, wedging it right into the center with the tine of the fork. When that is done, Nikki folds one tip of the straw and bites down onto it until the straw is crinkled flat. Sealing one end, she repeats with the other. Now she can be sure that the eggs and cheese won't ruin the note.

  Nikki puts the straw back onto the table and waits impatiently for another minute or so before the Indian waitress comes back with her breakfast. Having the plate of beautiful egg wrap placed before her, Nikki waits for the waitress to walk off before using the fork to make an incision through the side of the egg wrap. Nikki glances quickly to her left and her right before gingerly pushing the straw into the egg wrap through the incision.

  Almost done. Nikki signals for the bill and when the waitress comes over, she demands for the meal to be sent up to her husband in suite 22-01.

  BACK TO CURRENT TIME

  Nikki watches with waves of sob choking up her throat as tears drench her face wet. She is enraged that Kaew and Yuna do not let her stay with her husband. For all she knows he might be dying.

  Little Tucker clumsily climbs up towards Nikki's face and with its fat and pink little tongue, it tries to lick away Nikki's tears.

  Kaew is now in the back seat making sure that Nikki doesn't go anywhere. Yuna, in the front seat, is monitoring the situation with a pair of binoculars to her eyes.

  "Just let me go," Nikki begs, "If he dies, this is my last chance to see him."

  Yuna feels a painful squeeze in her heart. She knows how it feels to loose someone and not having the chance to say goodbye.

  "You can go. It's your choice but remember, staying by his side means the stake of you getting killed is high. We can follow where the ambulance is taking him. Are you sure you want to risk now?" Yuna asks, feeling empathy for the woman. She has been there and felt that. She will give everything to go back to the past to see Mei one last time, even if it meant risking her life for it.

  "I want to be by his side..." Nikki continues to cry.

  Yuna nods gently to Kaew and Kaew releases her hold from Nikki's arm.

  "Go," Kaew softly says to her, giving her a pat on the shoulder, "Jus be k-ful."

  Nikki nods to them and immediately lets herself out of the subcompact car, parked and hidden in a small side alley somewhere across the street.

  Nikki races back across the street, nearly getting herself killed by an oncoming delivery van before making it back to Zach's side. She kneels down beside him. He is alive and breathing but unconscious. There isn't a single wound on his body that she can see. She hugs his head to her chest, crying as the siren of an ambulance echoes towards them.

  "Baby, don't leave me... please don't leave me..." Nikki cries as the paramedics come in with a stretcher and puts it down beside Zach. The paramedics are quick and swift in moving Zach onto the stretcher, raising it up and wheeling him quickly out the entrance and into the ambulance. Nikki, as his wife is allowed into the ambulance with Zach.

  In the back, she holds onto Zach's hand as she watches him breathing through the oxygen mask, feeling useless at not knowing the answers to the questions that are being thrown at her from the paramedic seated opposite her "...why did he collapse? Did he consume alot of alcohol? Has he taken any medication?..."

  A few cars behind the ambulanc
e, Yuna is racing her little subcompact after the ambulance. They will not leave Nikki alone.

  Chapter 45

  Malaysia: Thursday, 20th November 8.38 a.m.

  Chin's leech lets out a ping. He stares down at the device around his left wrist and sees an urgent alert.

  Target Nikki Portman detected at The Axis.

  Without the knowledge of the Hive, Chin has set his supercomputer to trace for Nikki and the moment she looked up at the arriving paramedics without her shades, the security camera in the lobby has recorded her face and an alert is immediately sent back to the Chin's leech.

  Seeing the notification, Chin immediately goes to his supercomputer and streams to watch the live feed of the security camera. Nikki is kneeling beside a man. It looks like she has found her husband! Chin's heart sinks. If she has contacted him already then most probably the Hive will have known about her presence and Chin is in deep trouble.

  However, why is the randomer unconscious? From the information provided to him, the randomer has not completed his tasks yet. If an extermination is scheduled, Chin will be among the first to know. If he hasn't been instructed to kill the randomer, then who killed him?

  Watching the live feed and seeing the paramedics lift Zach into the ambulance, it means he is still alive. If he is not dead, what is wrong with him? Sensing something amiss, Chin starts to worry if the Hive has shifted the MAP without informing him which can only mean that they are cutting him out. If that is the truth it can only mean one thing for him - the Hive will exterminate Chin as they have sidetracked him out of the game.

  Chin, though only a lurker, is also granted access to data from the Hive, but only limited and viable information closely related to his line of duty. With that in mind Chin reaches for his com and sweeps the phone-like device off his tabletop. He searches for the status of randomer T1113 which is Zach's code in the MAP and immediately is returned with the result: Suspended.

  Suspended?? If the randomer has been suspended, who is going to replace him? Why is he not notified yet? Has the Hive found out about him loosing the hostage? But if they are going to take him out as well, why is he still able to access the Hive's data? In a normal termination, the Hive would have immediately stripped him of his access to anything and everything related to the Hive and that includes his com, his supercomputer and all other gadgets. The chip in his palm will be nothing but a tracking device to lead them to him.

  Can it be that they are re-routing the MAP and thus suspending the randomer? If that is what's happening, then they might not have discovered the truth about Nikki yet. That can be possible too as the Hive is not tracking her. Chin has only one option and that is to protect his life; and to do that, he needs to eradicate Nikki as soon as possible - before the Hive sees her.

  Chin turns his attention back to the live feed of the video. It shows Nikki following the paramedics out and they all disappear out of the camera's range. Chin quickly accesses all security feeds for the hotel lobby and manages to see the ambulance leave.

  Chin goes back to his com and screens for Zach's chip code. Obtaining the chip code, he promptly punches it into his supercomputer and begins tracking of the GPS location for the chip in Zach's neck is now initiated.

  A new tab pops up onto the monitor and Chin stares into the screen as the GPS tracking shows the ambulance heading towards the general hospital in Kuala Lumpur, a most crowded government hospital in the heart of the city center. This is going to be a difficult task, killing the woman in a crowded market like environment.

  Chin then accesses into the hospital's security cameras and watches as Nikki follows the paramedics into the emergency section. Now that he is sure of her location, it is time for Chin to take action.

  This time he is going to go full blow. There is no way Nikki could have located her husband on her own. Kaew Saowaluk and Lee Yu Na are pulling the strings and he is sure they are observing the drama from somewhere nearby. There will be no more games. Fuming, Chin swears with his life that he is going to slaughter all three women no matter what it is going to take him. It is his life against theirs now and with a race against time to finish off Nikki, Chin is beginning to loose rationality without himself realizing it.

  Ignoring protocols, he is going to take an approach not going to be approved by the Hive. Chin gets up from the chair and marches towards the end of the metal wall. He slides it open and staring back at him from the top tier of the metal shelf are five units of two feet long, silver, tadpole shaped devices with fins on its tail. He is bringing out the big boys - the killer drones.

  Chapter 46

  Malaysia: Thursday, 20th November 9:42 a.m.

  The nurses and doctor at the emergency room are pouring over Zach trying to figure out why he is unconscious. His vital signs are all normal and there is no physical injury that they can locate all over his body.

  "Insert IV line. Order a full blood profile and CT scan for the patient," the doctor, a Chinese man in his forties instructs as he checks Zach's pupils with a small light again.

  The nurse in her white cap and blue uniform promptly takes an IV cannula and starts to insert it into the bend of Zach's elbow. Her gloved fingers is halfway inserting the needle trying to hit a vein when all of a sudden Zach's finger twitches and he opens his eyes. Like someone being possessed, he starts screaming, fighting and kicking off everything and anything in close proximity to him, startling the whole medical team surrounding him. The doctor and nurses immediately gather around trying to hold him down onto the bed. However, Zach is just to strong. With no idea of what is happening and where he is, he protects himself aggressively from his foreign environment.

  He pulls his hand away from the nurse and pushes her away so hard the IV cannula comes out with the needle bent as the nurse falls to the ground, her cap falling off her head.

  The doctor orders for a sedation and before the nurse can come back, Zach has sent a slap onto the doctor's face causing his black rimmed glasses flying onto the wall.

  A few male nurses have rushed in to help by now and with all their strength, they manage to restrain Zach. The doctor, having put his glasses back on, quickly jabs Zach's arm with a syringe of colorless medication and just as he is intending to push the piston down, someone slaps his hand away from the syringe and the same hand that hit him pulls the syringe off from Zach's arm and throws it onto the floor.

  The doctor turns to stare in shock at the intruder and it comes as a bigger shock when he sees a Caucasian woman - it is the patient's wife and she pushes her way through to Zach.

  "Baby it's me. It's okay now. We're safe," Nikki cries, cupping his face tightly in her palms as the other four nurses restrain Zach.

  Seeing Nikki's gaunt, wasted and exhausted face, Zach immediately starts to calm down. His limbs soften as he stares at her in a daze unable to believe his eyes.

  "Tell me I'm not dreaming," Zach utters softly, his lips trembling with emotions.

  Nikki shakes her head as she bursts out in tears of happiness. She hugs him and the nurses let go. Zach hugs her back tightly. It is a much yearned for embrace that Zach thought he has lost forever. Zach starts sobbing, glad that Nikki has found him and that everything is over, "I thought I'll never see you again..."

  "Are you okay?" Nikki asks as she lets go of Zach and raises herself to look at him.

  "Yeah," he nods taking her hand into his tightly.

  "Okay, we have to leave now," Nikki whispers into his ear and Zach immediately slides off the bed onto his feet.

  Ignoring the forbidding of the hospital staffs, the both of them push their way out of the emergency area. Zach does not know where Nikki is taking him, but that doesn't matter as long as they are together.

  "Wait," Zach suddenly stops when he remembers about the chip in his neck.

  "We have to go!" Nikki tugs at him.

  "I have to remove the chip!" Zach tells and turns to march back towards the same doctor, who is now standing and watching, him not knowing how to respond.
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  Zach walks up to him and stops one foot away from the doctor. Staring down at the doctor's face with a hard and hostile look in his eyes, he states his request, "I have a chip behind my ear and inside my neck. It is what's making me sick. Remove it for me."

  The doctor stares at him with his mouth gaped open. Is this man talking gibberish or is it true?

  "Sit down and let me examine you," the doctor decides. Treatment must be provided without discrimination, he reminds himself of his role here.

  Zach takes a seat back onto his bed and the doctor motions for him to lie down. Zach does as instructed and turns his head to his left so that the doctor can examine the insertion points.

  "Here," Zach points to the fold between his right ear and his head before moving his index finger to the side of his neck, "...and here."