Echoes (US Edition)

by Laura Tisdall

  ‘Daedalus was an egotistical bastard who found it increasingly hard to think beyond his own growing mythology – but he was a genius, and cracking the common internet encryptions had always been the holy grail. If he actually did it, then I say let the CoD have it, let them put it out there, and let’s see who’s on top once all the lies are out. Let there be a reckoning. You can do this, Echo,’ he says. ‘You can still do this. You should still do this.’

  Should.

  The Asker believes it, and Mallory has always believed in The Asker, in his choices. He is standing there, telling her that completing this virus, that letting it be released, is the correct thing to do. He believes it’s good, but…

  But…

  He lied to us. The words keep going round inside her head. Almost out of everything he’s said, that’s what matters the most to her. He tried to use me. He didn’t trust me to make the right call. Though what she would have chosen then…

  ‘Don’t do it,’ Warden says, cutting into her consciousness. ‘Don’t, Echo.’ She turns to him. ‘It’s not worth it.’ He looks up at The Asker. ‘That was a good speech. I believed in you too, you know, believed in what we’ve been doing. I’ve been with you longer than Echo, even, but this – this is crazy.’

  ‘Listen to me, Warden – ’ The Asker begins.

  ‘No, you listen.’ Warden stands, the legs of his chair scraping against the tiles, making Mallory flinch. ‘Some things are secret for a reason. If this virus can open anything, then we’re talking military, too. Ours, theirs, it doesn’t matter because anyone will have access. You really want launch codes available to some whack job who thinks we’ve all been overrun by aliens or, better yet, a hacker working for the North Koreans?’

  ‘Warden – ’

  ‘It could give away troop positions in Afghanistan.’ Mallory stiffens. ‘You want to give the truth to ordinary people?’ he goes on. ‘Well, here’s another truth for you, how much do ordinary people’s lives rely on the internet? How many livelihoods? How many will lose their savings? Imagine the cybercrime there would be in the wake of it.’

  ‘Sometimes a cost is required to achieve something worthwhile,’ replies The Asker. ‘I know that more than most. Listen to me, everything I said earlier was true – giving the CoD the virus is the only way to keep us all safe – but this is bigger than that. I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to overwhelm you, but now you know, Echo’ – he looks at her – ‘will you do it? Help me make the world better.’ And Warden is shaking his head, but then, ‘If you’ve ever trusted me,’ The Asker continues, insistent, ‘trust me now.’

  And Mallory’s insides seem to twist apart.

  It’s The Asker. The words repeat yet again in her mind. The Asker, and he’s asking for help. And the last time she turned him down…

  But another voice is shouting for attention too, Warden’s voice, his words. One line in particular; troop positions in Afghanistan. And, of all things she could think of in that moment, she thinks of Roger. She thinks of her dad and what it was like during every tour he was out in Iraq, the fear she felt every time the phone rang or the door went. He would never lie to her back then, even when she was little, and so every time he went away, he wouldn’t promise her that he’d come home. Instead, he’d tell her that he would try to, and then he would hold her hands – the only time she’d ever let anyone hold her hands – and he would promise that while he was away, he would make it worthwhile by doing the good he believed in, doing good as best as he could see it. He’d said that that was what was important in a person, wherever they were, and even after he was sent home early from that last tour, even after he lost that himself – Mallory had tried to hold onto it, grasped it like it was her lifeline, her one way of making sense of a whole lot of things she couldn’t make sense of…

  And she had found The Asker.

  The Asker, who believed in things so much.

  But now two people she has trusted, who both believe they are right, disagree on what is good and it is finally up to her. She has to choose. It’s not about what they think, but what she does. It’s not about what she can or can’t do, but what she should. What does she believe is right?

  Mallory?

  ‘No,’ she says quietly. ‘No, I won’t do it. Asker, we should tell the police about the CoD, get them looking for Scarlet and the others, and protecting us. Whoever those people are, we can’t give them this.’ The Asker’s face falls. ‘It wouldn’t be some kind of victory for freedom,’ she tells him. ‘It would be anarchy, and that is not better. You need controls, at least some, but we can keep doing what we always did,’ she says quickly, still trying to hold on to him, trying to get him to understand that this isn’t a choice against him. ‘We’ll keep finding truth that way. Set up a new Forum. I’ll work harder,’ she pleads, ‘try harder, do more hacks.’

  ‘It’s not enough,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘Echo – ’

  ‘I won’t do this,’ she says.

  ‘I need you to.’ His phrasing jars.

  Need?

  ‘No,’ she says, and she turns off the laptop. The code disappears. The Asker stares at the screen, like he can’t believe what she just did.

  ‘Echo – ’

  ‘She said no,’ Warden tells him, and he steps backwards towards the kitchen counter.

  ‘What are you doing?’ says The Asker.

  ‘Calling the cops.’ The Asker is still holding his cell, but there’s a phone on the wall by the fridge. ‘That’s what she wants to do. They can look for Scarlet and the others, raid the club. You can tell them what you know. Help ID the kidnappers – ’

  ‘Warden,’ says The Asker firmly, ‘I need you to stop.’

  ‘No.’ He takes another step. ‘You know, we risked a lot for you, coming for you.’ Another step.

  ‘I know you did.’

  ‘And I’m glad you’re okay,’ he continues, ‘but I don’t trust you any more and I’m not going to listen to your reasons. We should have just dialed 911 back in that alley. I’m sorry, Asker, but I’m going to do this.’

  ‘We have to,’ Mallory says. Warden reaches the phone.

  ‘I’m sorry, too,’ says The Asker, barely more than a whisper. ‘I really am.’ He picks up the cushion Mallory took off her chair, then he pulls the gun out of her backpack.

  ‘Wha – ?’ Warden begins.

  The Asker flicks off the safety, holds the cushion in front of the gun, and shoots him.

  The Children of Daedalus

  Warden screams.

  The sound cuts right through Mallory. She didn’t seem to register the bang, but every part of her felt that scream. He drops to the floor, the phone tumbling from his hand. Mallory dives towards him, her chair clattering to the ground behind her. Her knees thump into the kitchen tiles.

  The bullet hit him in the left leg.

  Only the leg, she thinks wildly, but blood is blossoming out from his thigh around a horrible little hole in his pants.

  ‘Oh shit,’ she stammers, unable to really process what just happened… Warden is moaning, his eyes wide brown circles. She presses her hands down on the wound, trying to stop the blood, but it seeps out around her fingers, soaking her gloves. She doesn’t know what to do. ‘Oh shit!’

  ‘Quiet, or I’ll shoot him again.’

  Mallory looks back to The Asker, a million questions and hurts and accusations flooding her mind.

  ‘What the fuck did you do?!’ she shouts. ‘Asker!’ Her voice cracks. It feels like she’s falling.

  ‘Quiet!’ He raises the gun again, but he won’t meet her eyes. He drops the ruined cushion. There’s foam all over the floor. ‘You both be quiet.’ She obeys – though inside she is seething and raging and yelling, and afraid – and Warden’s moans cut out to ragged breaths as The Asker walks over. Mallory tries to put herself between them, but all The Asker is interested in is the phone Warden dropped. He stamps on it, crunching it against the tiles. Then he does the same with Warden’s cell
. ‘Yours too, Echo,’ he says. She takes it out of her pocket and slides it over, careful to keep her other hand on Warden’s leg. The Asker smashes it like the others. Then he opens a drawer in the kitchen counter and takes out another cell, one that Mallory wonders how he knew was there because he’d said he hadn’t been to this house in a while. He puts this new phone – the one that he shouldn’t have – against his ear.

  Warden moves and a gasp escapes him. Mallory turns back to him, away from The Asker and the gun, and thoughts of what the hell is going on. He looks so scared, his face contorted in pain… And her hands are still pushing down against him, warm and wet…

  And she feels it against her skin – she feels it – but she doesn’t care because all she wants is for him to be all right…

  But she can’t get it to stop…

  The bleeding won’t stop and…

  Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!

  ‘Change of plans,’ she hears The Asker say down the phone. ‘Come now. And have her check local police chatter about a gunshot.’

  And Warden’s looking at her, his scared, wide eyes are looking at her…

  ‘You’re going to be okay,’ she says, and she doesn’t know why she says it, because she doesn’t know if it’s true. There obviously aren’t any organs in your legs, but there are arteries and he’s bleeding a lot… Enough to have hit an artery?

  No. No, she doesn’t think so. That would spurt. Arteries spurt.

  ‘You’re going to be okay,’ she repeats, pressing down harder on the wound, and he winces, and, ‘sorry,’ she tells him. ‘Sorry.’ And he’s still watching her, and he’s being so brave, not making a sound…

  Somewhere behind her she hears a door slam, then another, but she ignores them.

  ‘Echo,’ The Asker says, but she ignores him too.

  ‘You’re going to be fine,’ she tells Warden. ‘You’re going to be – ’

  Hands grab her from behind, pulling her away from him. She cries out, thrashing and kicking as she’s yanked to her feet.

  ‘Hold still,’ someone snaps – a man, not The Asker. Mallory fights all the harder. Her fist connects. ‘Little bitch!’

  Something hits her in the face. She gasps in pain.

  ‘Don’t hurt her!’ That was The Asker. Then, ‘Echo, listen to me.’ He comes round in front of her, the other arms still gripping her from behind, so tight it feels like they’re crawling across her skin, and she wants to scream, she wants to… ‘That shot was a warning,’ he says. ‘I didn’t want to do it, but if you don’t stop fighting, if you don’t be quiet, I will shoot him again. Somewhere that matters this time.’ He finally looks her in the eye and, though he’s blinking too much, she knows he means it.

  And something inside of her crumples.

  It’s as if in that moment all she thought she had had in him and the Forum is physically ripped apart and shown to be pathetic and worthless – and she still doesn’t understand why, or what she did wrong, but it feels like the part of her is torn apart with it. And she bites down on her lip, and she stops struggling – she forces herself to stop. She wants to cry, or to strain or to just start yelling… but she doesn’t. She looks down at Warden, who’s still looking up at her, and she makes herself stay still. He’s got his own hands holding down the wound now, and they’re already smeared with red.

  ‘Let her go,’ The Asker says, talking to whoever’s holding her.

  ‘But – ’

  ‘Let her go.’ The hands release her and she stumbles away, shivers passing through her body, even when they’re gone… As she stumbles, she turns… And she sees her assailant… And it’s like something hits her all over again – because he’s short and scrawny, his grimaced, rat-like face pierced so many times it looks like a pincushion. There’s a bandage taped across his nose.

  Mallory tries to speak, but no words quite make it out.

  Behind that man stand three others; a bald guy stacked like a brick wall, a woman with dark skin and spiky hair, and a blonde woman with glasses. The last is leaning against the door frame, smiling this nasty little smile like she’s in on some joke Mallory doesn’t quite get yet.

  ‘That’s her?’ she asks, and The Asker nods. ‘Well, isn’t this a treat.’

  ‘Clean him up,’ The Asker tells the woman with spiky hair, and she walks towards Warden. Mallory moves to block her, some instinct kicking in – but The Asker tells her no, and she stops because he’s still got the gun. ‘She’s a doctor,’ he tells her. ‘She’ll take care of him. There’s something else we need you to do.’ The spiky-haired woman crouches beside Warden, starts talking to him in a voice that sounds too gentle in this room, starts taking things like bandages and bottles out of a bag she’s got with her…

  ‘Wash your hands, Echo,’ says The Asker, pulling her attention back. No explanation of what’s going on, just ‘wash your hands’. And she does, she steps over to the sink, because The Asker’s still got the damn fricking gun and Warden’s still been shot and nothing is quite making any sense because the woman with him and those people over there – standing beside The Asker like there’s not a thing wrong in the world – those people are the very same ones they rescued him from just five and half hours earlier. ‘Turn off her laptop,’ he tells someone else. Feet move.

  And they’re taking orders from him.

  ‘There’s another in that navy backpack, make sure it’s off too.’

  Mallory stares down into the basin and turns on the tap, leaving her gloves on. She watches as Warden’s blood rinses out of the fabric and runs away from her skin. She washes twice – soap, then water, soap, then water. The air smells like iron and vanilla. ‘Towel in the drawer in front of you,’ The Asker says. She opens it up takes out a dishcloth covered in pictures of herbs. ‘Now over to the laptop.’ She starts going, still trying to sponge out the gloves. ‘You’ll have to take those off,’ he adds, and her chest tightens. ‘They’ll be damp. We can’t have them near it.’ Her muscles begin seizing in on themselves…

  This, even now, she thinks at herself. Even now, you can’t fucking hold it together? But she feels like she’s going to throw up, and…

  ‘No,’ she says, ‘I can’t, please,’ and to her shame, her voice breaks.

  ‘Take them off,’ repeats The Asker.

  She looks towards Warden, now mainly obscured by the woman and the counter, though she can hear him gasping. She slips them off. The bare skin of her hands is cold and prickling, and she clenches them into tight balls against her stomach.

  ‘What’s the matter with her?’ says the pincushion.

  ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Mallory shouts, the tension inside of her finally ripping out.

  ‘Well, isn’t that a sight,’ says the blonde woman, still smiling that smile, ‘we’ve found something our little Echo can’t figure out.’ Mallory’s gaze darts to her. ‘What’s the matter, sugar,’ she says, and the word stops her dead because… ‘don’t you recognize me like this?’

  Because…

  ‘Scarlet?’ she stammers.

  ‘There we go,’ the woman drawls. ‘Reigning bitch herself and all that.’

  ‘I don’t understand. I don’t…’ Mallory looks back at The Asker. ‘You said – ’

  ‘Oh, honey,’ Scarlet interrupts, ‘he said and did a lot of things to get you in the same room as this here laptop.’ Mallory’s blood turns to ice. She finally sits down in the chair.

  No…

  ‘And here you are supposed to be the smart one,’ Scarlet continues. ‘We played you, sugar. I was never missing, he was never missing, no one was ever missing – we got Weevil, Tower and Cyber Sneak right here, safe and sound.’ She points respectively to the pincushion, the bald guy and the woman tending to Warden. ‘Along with yours truly, meet the Finders Reapers who never got caught. They’ve been going solo the past few years, but they came back for this.’ Her face hardens a little. ‘Some things are important like that.’

  No, Mallory thinks again, biting her lip so ha
rd it splits. They’re all looking at her. The pincushion smiles. No, no, no!

  ‘Why?’ she asks, though she thinks she knows.

  ‘Because The Reckoning could achieve all we were ever working for before,’ says The Asker. ‘I was the one Daedalus sent the laptop to before he died. I spent nearly two years trying to crack it, until thirty-seven days ago I got that automatic video message saying I was taking too long. I needed help, so I got in touch with others I knew I could trust with it. They all tried it, numerous times, but…’ He shakes his head. ‘The Reckoning was too important to lose, but we couldn’t save it. What we needed,’ he looks at Mallory, ‘was you, Echo – you, who thought like no one else did, who thought like Daedalus had. You reminded me so much of him in the way you saw things, the way you could hold all the pieces of a puzzle in your mind at once and see it working in a way other people couldn’t – see the loopholes, as you say. You were our only hope.

  ‘But you guarded your anonymity so fiercely, never gave away anything about who you really were. Most people do – little slips here and there – but you didn’t, not with me anyway. I knew you’d never agree to meet in person and I didn’t think telling you the truth about why I wanted to would help. I wasn’t sure you would choose to assist if you knew what the virus did – turns out I was right about that. So I had to try and find you, bring the laptop to you, persuade you somehow. Remember that newbie hacker who tried to trace you in the Forum; Igor? That wasn’t a kid in Pennsylvania, it was me. You were too good, though.’ He pauses, and he can’t quite meet her eyes again, like he knows what he’ll see and doesn’t have the guts to face it; like he knows what he’s doing to her, each word feeling like it’s tearing her into these tiny little shreds… ‘How do you find a hacker no one can hack?’ he asks softly.