by Rod Carstens
Vin was stunned. Could they be this lucky? It smelled too good to be true.
“Sometimes it pays to be lucky and not just good. You scratch my back and Christine will scratch yours…or something like that,” Ben said.
Vin glanced at Matos and Blondie, and all they could do was shrug.
“Okay, you got a deal. I think everybody should put their weapons down before we end up accidentally killing each other,” Vin said.
“Good." Ben said. "You stay right here. You don’t need to know any more about our settlement than you already do. Somebody bring them something to eat and drink while we decide how we’re going to pull this off,”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Steiger stormed into the room unannounced. “Well, whatever you told them it’s got them in an uproar. Okay, let’s hear it.”
Rule glanced at his watch. It had been more than twelve hours since he had contacted Vin. Madelyn had given him forty-eight hours, but he could not depend on that, not with Steiger in the mix. He wished he knew where Vin was. This intrusion by Steiger did not bode well.
Morgan was at the computer, with Rule standing next to her working on a floating display and going over the last run, checking for anything that might give them some hope that the program was wrong. But the more they tweaked it, the more precise the prediction got.
Rule looked over at Steiger and said, “Thanks for knocking.”
When Cat had heard Steiger, she had come out of the bedroom and stood behind the couch.
“I’m not here to be nice," Steiger said. "I’m here to find out what you told them that has got them so scared.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Remember I told you I was working with Internal Security? Well, they said that after you briefed Rand and Geoff you were taken almost immediately for a private meeting with Madelyn. And that not long after your meeting with her she had her private tilt-rotor called, but she refused any security for the flight or destination. She never goes anywhere without security, and her tilt-rotor did not file a flight plan with the City. It flew north through all the traffic and turned off its transponders. She caused quite a problem for the City’s flight control. Now, what could you have told the chairwoman of the Council to make her jump into her tilt-rotor and disappear?”
Rule glanced at Cat. She had moved to the end of the couch, so there was nothing between her and Steiger. Rule cleared his throat, and Morgan turned from the computer to face Steiger.
“What about the…” Rule nodded toward the monitor cameras.
“You don’t think I would let those guys in on this, do you? I closed down the monitoring unit. Now tell me what you found.”
“Well, Colonel, we have been recalibrating the program since we did our briefing, hoping to find an error. They pushed us for an answer sooner than we would have liked, but the program only—”
“I don’t give a shit about all of that. What did the program predict?”
Rule glanced at Cat before he said, “The program is predicting a pandemic that will eventually kill eighty percent of the population. There is no cure or precautionary measure that can be taken. The pandemic will happen, and the consequences will be just as dire as they sound.”
Steiger opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“It will happen within six months. Typically these pandemics occur in three separate waves over a period of approximately a year. We don’t have a timetable, just that. The more information we feed the program, the surer the outcome. Somewhere between the first and second waves, the program is predicting the collapse of society as so many are killed and there is no one left to man the infrastructure we all depend on or treat the ill and dying. As far as when this will happen, it could already be in the population now but just not have shown up in our reported data yet.”
Steiger’s face turned white as Rule explained the program’s prediction. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying to me.”
“Why would I lie to you? What good would that do me?”
Steiger reached for a chair and sat down. He rubbed his hands across his face over and over again, as if he were trying to wipe away what he had just heard. Finally, he said, “Not now. Not after all…”
He stopped and stared at Rule for a long moment, then said, “Okay, let’s go through a scenario. You give yourself up and come up here to provide them with a prediction that's going to throw them into a panic. The prediction is a completely false one, but one that gets us off your back and allows you and your little settlement to move to a safer place. Anything sound familiar?”
Rule looked at Steiger. He’d started with denial because he simply could not believe the truth. “Look, Steiger.” Rule deliberately stopped calling him by his rank. “That’s about as stupid a plan as I could think of. To risk the lives of these two women I care about on the off chance of lying to Rand and the Council to take pressure off our settlement defies logic. No wonder you never found us, you dumb shit. Listen to me. I wanted to know what was going to happen as much as they did. Because they would not stop looking for me, I knew they saw results that they didn’t like and it scared them. What scares them will probably affect me, so taking the chance to come up here was a calculated gamble that I would discover something that would threaten us in the zones. I found that answer. It was worth the risk. Now accept it and move on.”
Again Steiger didn’t move or say anything for several long moments. Rule was watching Cat out of the corner of his eye. While she was standing with her arms to her side, he noticed that she had slipped out of her shoes. One leg was behind the other and her body was slightly turned, with one side toward Steiger. There was a stillness about her that Rule had noticed last time Steiger had shown up, but it appeared this time she was preparing to make a move.
Steiger stood and faced Rule. “Are you still leaving?”
Rule didn’t answer.
“Okay, that means you are still leaving. So that means you must think that you can survive this pandemic if you are back in your settlement. So, Doctor Rule, I believe that I’m going to join your little party and go back to your settlement with you.”
“Now, wait—” Rule started.
The apartment door slid open, and Geoff and Rand walked into the room.
“What are you doing here?” Geoff began.
Steiger pulled a pistol from under his uniform and shot Geoff through the forehead. Morgan screamed and rushed into Rule’s arms. Rand was like a deer in the headlights. He stood there staring at Steiger.
“You little shit. You won’t give me any more orders, and I don’t have to suck up to you ever again.”
He shot Rand through the head just like Geoff. Cat bounded toward Steiger from the couch. She began turning in midair to strike Steiger with a flying roundhouse kick. Rule had watched her work out sometimes back at the settlement, so he recognized the move. She had practiced it hundreds of times. But Steiger was a split second quicker, and he got a shot off, catching Cat in midair in the shoulder. The impact slammed her to the floor, where she hit her head and was knocked unconscious.
Steiger turned back to Rule and said, “Do you see how it is?”
“Yes. Yes I do,” Rule was able to say.
“Good, because you two are going to come with me. I can have a tilt-rotor take us near your settlement, and I can start a new life with all of you.”
Steiger walked over to Cat’s body and raised the pistol for a final shot, but seeing the pool of blood growing beneath her head, he shrugged and squatted down next to her. “Thought you were faster than me, you stupid little bitch.”
Steiger stood, walked over to Rule and Morgan, grabbed each by the back of the neck, and said, “Now let’s get out of here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Stop looking like a tourist. Stare straight ahead and get that look you had on your face when Freddy pointed the rifle at you,” Christine whispered to Tanner.
They were striding down a long corridor in the Aurora Mega b
uilding. The tunnel had ended in its basement, and Vin's clothes had been where Cat had said she would leave them. He had changed while Christine watched with amusement. The suit was a very expensive brand with smart cloth, so it immediately molded to his frame even around his pistol with the silencer on it. Christine had come up and made some adjustments to the fit, saying, “You don’t want to look like somebody not used to wearing this suit. So relax. Your shoulders are bigger than most, and so are your arms. Even the security types are not as well built as you are.”
Christine stepped back and pulled his lapels out, and the lapels expanded to the adjustment. Vin had never owned a smart suit and was amazed at how it adjusted to his frame and could be expanded by simple pulls on the cloth.
“There.”
She stared at him in a way he was not used to having a woman look at him. “You know, you clean up pretty good there, Vin. Not too bad for a zoner.”
When Vin blushed she just laughed at his discomfort. “Now, we need to get moving. We have a nice little entrance over here that will put us in an out-of-the-way section of the building and give you a chance to get used to things.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will,” she said, and she led him down an old hall then through a concealed door to an elevator.
“How do you keep this secret?”
“They never come down here anymore. Not since Resource stopped using the tunnels. And none of the workers can get into the building. Only the one percenters live here.”
The elevator flew upward at a stomach-turning speed. It was Tanner’s first time in one. Naturally, he had seen them growing up, but being Grounders his family had never had the money to get into the Megas. All the wealth above him had been out of his reach. Above the ground floor was where all the wealth and privilege lay. He could look up and see the sea of light above him, but he could never let himself dream of living up there. Not where the real luxury was—food, hot water, lights, everything they could barely afford or couldn’t even dream about having. Even when he made Resource Control and got to the first floor, they’d used an ancient escalator and not an elevator.
So walking into an elevator and feeling himself be swept upward at a dizzying rate was almost too much for Tanner to take in. At first, he could only see the walls of the building as the elevator rose. Then, like magic, the glass doors revealed the City in a way he had never seen it before. A sea of lights stretched as far as the eye could see, dotted by massive buildings hundreds of stories high. Tilt-rotors moved between, taking off and landing. He had seen videos, but none of them had done this justice. He had gone to sleep almost every night growing up wondering what it would look like from up here, and now he knew. All of this wealth was stunning in comparison to everything he had known before.
“I’ve…never…”
“Shhhh. I know, but remember, you belong. Get your game face on.”
The elevator finally came to a halt and the doors opened. Christine led him out into a throng of people who were moving down a long, wide concourse. The men and women were dressed and looked like Christine. Tanner could not have felt more out of place. Christine linked her arm through his and leaned close. “That’s better, but look more like you’re about to shoot someone than that stunned look you got now. Here's something else to think about until you get your shit together.”
Christine leaned into his arm and pressed her full breast into his shoulder. She looked up at him with an amused smile and said, “I knew that would work. Now, remember who you are and why you’re here. All of this can be overwhelming. I should know—it took me a while. So be aware and practice. We’ve got to get Rule and the others out. I need you to get your feet on the ground, so I can focus on getting us there.”
They continued to walk down the concourse, and Vin worked at doing as Christine had suggested. It got a little easier. He pulled up his patrol mode and got serious, but it didn’t lessen the impact of the wealth around him. Christine hugged his arm again and leaned close to whisper, “We got a ways to go, then we turn right onto a connecting walkway that will take us to the Resource Control headquarters. We don’t want to take any kind of transportation except elevators. Too much security and too many Resource people roaming the concourses.”
Vin glanced up and saw the round, smoked-glass bubble of a surveillance camera. They were everywhere, now that he noticed.
“What about facial and retinal scans?”
“They’re happening right now. We’re going to see how good your IDs are in the next few minutes. I’ve been through the area enough to be in their databases. By the way, what's your name in here?”
“Jake Holman.”
Christine looked up at him and said, “Suits you, nice strong name.”
“You pick the damnedest time to flirt.”
“Yeah, I’ve found it eases the tension, and you look more like a couple if you do. So I do it with anyone who comes with me.”
“You always come in pairs?”
They passed another couple, and the man’s eyes followed Christine with frank interest. Vin realized that when Christine drew the attention, they never gave him a second look.
“Yes, there are only a couple of others who can pull it off. We’ll pair up according to what our mission is.”
They strolled past a store that sold every kind of electronic gadget possible. Each one had floating displays. Vin just glanced at them out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to stop and stare, but he remembered what Christine had said to him, squared his shoulders, and looked straight ahead.
“Do you ever come alone?”
“Yeah, but I always find someone to pair up with.”
“You mean these people?”
“Certainly. It adds a nice layer to the cover and to the danger. I like walking the line.”
“I guess it must be pretty easy, given the way all the men are staring at you.”
Christine laughed, leaned into his arm again, and said, “Sweetie, it's not always a man. Girls work too. I like girls and girls like me. Just depends on what I need.”
Vin could only shake his head. Then he realized what she had been doing. By continuing to flirt and talking about her adventures, they had looked exactly like a couple out for a stroll and not a pair of zoners sneaking into the City on a mission.
Their eyes met, and Christine smiled. “You’re a little slow, but I figured if I used a little sex it would loosen things up a bit. It will get tense enough later.”
They strolled for some time, and Vin watched as Christine made eye contact with every man and woman who looked her way. She was flirting her way down the corridor, and in a way it made her one of the crowd. He now relaxed enough to realize everyone was checking everyone else out as they walked, some to see if they measured up, others checking out clothes, and others flirting like Christine.
She squeezed his arm and leaned close, like she was whispering something dirty into his ear. “Okay, now's the time to turn on those senses you use to survive when you’re in the zones. We’ll make a right here, and the next elevator will take us up into the Resource headquarters. The security will be tighter from now on. If we're going to have problems, they'll be coming up soon.”
Vin, now into the role, threw back his head and laughed, and he put his arm around Christine’s shoulders and hugged her close.
“Nice move,” Christine whispered as they turned down a side corridor. She led him to an elevator and said, “Time to test just how good that ID is. The real security starts here.”
Vin pulled his ID out of his pocket and slid it in front of the scanner. The elevator doors opened without an alarm going off. He and Christine exchanged a glance as they stepped into the car. Elevators were notoriously security sensitive. You had to have the right ID to move up in a building. Everyone’s status was determined by how high their ID would allow them to get. It was the simplest and easiest way to make sure no one moved beyond his or her station in the City. The more money and power you had, the
higher you could go. With facial recognition and retinal scans in every elevator, it eliminated the ability of those who did not have money, family or security to move freely. It was a simple but effective way to remind someone every day where they stood in the pyramid. Vin pressed the button for the floor, but the elevator did not move.
Christine leaned against him and said, “Honey, I know we’ve been drinking, but don’t forget to use your ID or security is going to be down here soon.”
“You’re right. I almost forgot.”
Vin swiped his card, and the car began to rise. He had forgotten that inside Resource headquarters you also needed proper security to use elevators. It didn’t matter how rich or connected you were. In a secure building you still had to have the proper clearances to move about freely. Vin hoped that Morgan had gotten them right.
The elevator began to rise rapidly. No scenic view this time, just the inside of an elevator. The next stop was the floor where they were holding Rule and the others.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The doors opened onto the floor, and Vin turned right, following the apartment-number signs on the wall. He found the apartment and was surprised at the absence of any security types.
“I don’t like it. It feels wrong,” Vin said to Christine. He pulled his pistol.
“Yeah, I’ve got the same vibe.”
She slid a long stiletto knife out of a sheath that looked like the ordinary expensive jewelry that covered her arms.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Vin said.
“I never come into the City unarmed or unprepared. You might be surprised what else I have up my sleeve—or jewelry would be the better word.”
They walked up to the apartment door, and Vin knocked, thinking the door would be locked. Instead it slid open. Pistol raised, he entered the room and almost tripped over the bodies of Geoff and Rand. The apartment appeared empty. Where were Rule, Morgan, and Cat?
