“But Trans D alerted me about you. If you had that pathetic dummy program, how is that possible?”
“Ah… the rest of the story… the resistance needed a copy of the official Trans D to destroy it. Sadly, there was no way of getting it. One day, however, a boy—barely a teenager—became curious… he wanted to know his father. And, it so happens, the more he learned about him, the more opportunity came knocking. You see, that boy’s father was a bored man. He hated the status quo. And the boy realized… his father was the opportunity, the back door the resistance needed.”
“No… you hated your life. Your mother despised you. And you despised her.”
“An illusion. A well-crafted story, years in the making.”
“That’s not—”
“It is! Here’s how it goes… I knew the only way to get close to you was if you were the one to reach out. If you believed you were the bright spark and in control, you would reach out. And since you were looking for an opportunity, I created one for you. It’s around this time that I decided to introduce myself to my baby sister through an encrypted system which Aadi and my grandfather used to communicate. She liked the plan and joined the resistance.”
“You…” William points a finger at Amanda. But it’s too much effort, so it falls to his side. She smirks.
“The plan had been worked out. It was nearly perfect. Except for the part we couldn’t control. I knew you were a guarded, diligent man. While we could fool Trans D, we couldn’t fool you. The only choice was to go full in…”
“You had the Trans D chip planted into your brain.”
Gary nods.
“My family and I spent six months training my brain to believe I was a failed artist whose mother forced him into the family business. We didn’t know whether it would work for sure, but it was worth the risk.”
“Of course… Trans D would enforce it further, suppress your artistic nature.”
“The hardest part, the most unpredictable, was training my brain to trigger memories when stimulated with specific things. Jazz music, for instance.”
William gazes at Amanda. “That’s why you took him to the jazz bar that night.”
She nods. “We didn’t know if you would be watching me, so… the plan was to help him remember who he was using those memory triggers. Didn’t work, though… nothing worked.” She looks at Gary, shaking her head, as if she still can’t believe the moment had arrived.
“The wager…?”
“Bait. To get you to reach out to me. There was no wager.”
“Bullshit! I spoke to people about it. They knew. My own brother, he—”
“Daniel Tait… he’s with us. Played a large part in making you believe it was real.”
William starts pacing. “And now what, huh?! Congratulations, you fooled me. But Trans D still exists. You can never shut it down. The chip is still in your head, and I can still control your world.”
“No, you can’t. We damaged my chip before I received it. A fail-safe—in case the memory triggers didn’t work. Under normal circumstances, it could have taken well over ten years before it malfunctioned. Lucky for me, though, you’re trigger happy. And now it’s dead. As for the program, it can self-destruct with the right sequence. Aadi made sure of that. Of course, for it to work, one needs to an intricate understanding of the code and know how to locate the source.”
“No one knows the intricacies of the code. That’s why it’s indestructible.” William laughs. “Didn’t think everything through, did you?”
“Aadi did. He taught it to my grandfather, who taught it to my mother, who just so happens to have taught it to me. But whether Trans D continues or not is now in your hands.”
“What?”
“You’re its keeper.” Gary points to William, “Amanda was supposed to gain access, but you never trusted her enough to take her to the servers. Maybe you had a gut feeling that something was up, I don’t know… But here we are. Stalemate.”
“Your plan failed.”
“Only if you do nothing with this.”
Gary takes out his cell and disassembles it. From the pieces, he takes out a flat, rectangular chip, no larger than a fingernail. Holding it in his flat palm, he approaches William, who stares at it for a few seconds before their dark eyes meet.
“The sequence that will end it all. All you have to do is insert it into the servers.”
William scoffs. “Are you really that bold, that stupid, to think I’ll help you?”
Gary smiles, “I’m just a spatula, old man, remember? But you, you’re the stirrer… the commander.” He steps closer and lets it slide into William’s shirt pocket. “Disturb the status quo, or forever hold your peace.”
Gary looks at Amanda, gesturing with his head that it’s time to go.
“Was it worth it?”
“Doing the right thing is always worth it, old man.”
“But you lost everything.”
“He lost nothing.”
William and Gary both look at Amanda with confused gazes.
“When you started suspecting your mother, I called her to tell her we had a problem. She had a fantastic laugh about it, by the way… At first, we thought of waiting to see how things played out. But then you made the choice no one expected.” Her focus shifts to William, “We couldn’t let you find out the wager wasn’t real, so…”
“So we played along.”
Gary’s ears deceive him. He tries to shake it off as a delusion.
“Sweetheart…”
He closes his eyes. He jumps at the touch of a hand on his shoulder. When he lets the light back in, he stares into Amanda’s sympathetic, loving eyes.
“Everything I did, I did you help and protect you. Sometimes, it meant hurting you. I’m sorry.” A tear trickles down her cheek, “I lied.”
“About what?”
“Val never left you. The fights, the separation, the other man, Jenna… it was all a lie.”
“Sweetheart.”
He flinches, but he doesn’t look in that direction. Keeping his eyes fixed on Amanda feels safer. He can’t bear following that sweet, sweet voice, only to discover that—maybe—it isn’t real.
“Daddy!”
Before he can follow the voice, his son’s arms are clamped around his legs. He falls to his knees.
“Look at you…” Tears compete as they race down his cheeks.
“Don’t be sad, daddy…” Ruben leans in for an embrace.
“I’m not… I’m happy.”
“Well, stop being a crybaby, then!”
He laughs, wiping the tears away. Another pair of arms embraces him from behind.
“Elizabeth…”
Then, from the corner of his eye, he becomes aware of a pair of legs next to him. He looks up. Her mere gaze pulls him to his feet. As he reaches for her face, he holds his breath.
“Breathe, sweetheart.”
“Val. Oh, Val. I—”
She holds her fingers against his lips. “I know. Me too.”
THANK YOU FOR READING BROKEN REALITY
CHECK OUT GARY’S LATEST THRILLER: AIRPORT RUNNER
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THE AWAKENING CONSCIOUSNESS
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About the Author
Rhiley McCabe is the author behind the nail-biting thriller series, The Awakening Consciousness, In the Line of Fire, and Sword and Lead.
Broken Reality is his latest series.
Rhiley specializes in the thriller, crime and suspense, and mystery genres. His work promises to have you at the edge of your seat from start to finish.
He lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland with his wife and five children. They often take trips to other countries during summer months. These trips provide the inspiration for his stories.
Connect with Rhiley on Facebook for updates.
Inevitable Truth (Broken Reality A Mystery Thriller Series of Alternate Worlds Book 5) Page 4
