Echoes (US Edition)

by Laura Tisdall

  ‘Some ground rules, though. I don’t want you to cheat. I hate cheaters. Rule one; you try and copy the code – send it, back it up – whatever, and it will delete itself. Two; you try and tamper with the laptop in any way – try to reset the date, the timer, etcetera – and the code will, you guessed it, delete itself. Finally, three; you can’t ask me for help. I’ll be dead by the time you’re watching this.’ He mimes shooting himself in the head. ‘Oh, and four’s not really a rule, but you’re going to have to watch this little video every time you try and crack it. I don’t want you to forget me.’ He frowns.

  ‘This is it, Nathan,’ he says, ‘after everything, this is really goodbye.’ He looks away from the camera for a moment, like he’s finding it hard to speak. Then, ‘Here’s another truth for you,’ he says quietly, ‘one final secret between friends.’ His face goes deadly serious. He leans right into the camera again and whispers, ‘I don’t think you can do it.’

  The video cuts out, and the code appears on the screen.

  ‘He was right,’ Mallory hears The Asker say, ‘I couldn’t.’ She looks up at him, thoroughly disturbed. ‘But you can, Echo,’ he says. ‘Now it’s your turn.’

  A Recurring Pattern

  It doesn’t take Mallory as long, this time, to reach the same stage of the encryption. She makes it past level fourteen by one in the morning. Her eyes are tired and her head is beginning to swim a little, but when she’s inside the code, for a time, she can forget where she actually is, forget what it is she’s really doing, what she’s a part of, forget her fear for Warden…

  Forget what The Asker has done.

  When she doesn’t, when she slips back into herself, this hideous dread comes crashing down on her. Every time she looks at him now, it’s as if something breaks in her, and then this searing rage bubbles up and she just wants to hurt him so badly, and she has to bite her already jagged lip just to stop from screaming at him…

  They sit beside her as she works – The Asker and Scarlet – kitchen chairs pulled round so one of them is on either side. Their closeness makes her skin creep and she’s asked them to move, but they won’t. She doesn’t know how much of what she’s doing they can follow, but they still want to watch. Maybe they’re checking up on her – though it’s not like she could contact anyone from this laptop. Maybe they just want to see it happen.

  With every level, she sees more what The Reckoning will do. It’s clever – it’s so damn clever – and it will be unstoppable. She tries not to think about that, tries not to think about the chaos it will cause, tries not to wonder how many people will lose their jobs or their savings because of it, tries not to wonder if people will die because of it… And then, even though she’s trying not to, she keeps thinking of Roger and when he was in Iraq and, when she does, it sort of feels like it cuts her up, which is no fricking help at all because what can she do? Warden is down in the basement with a bullet hole in him and she can’t let anything happen to him. It doesn’t matter what arguments she gives herself about right and wrong, or good and bad, because when she even thinks about him getting hurt, hurt worse, it’s like for a second she can’t breathe. She keeps replaying it in her head, the moment when The Asker had fired the gun and for a few terrible seconds, she had thought that maybe, maybe, that was it for Warden, and he was going to be gone, really gone… She’d never felt so afraid. She would have done anything asked of her to save him, then, to protect him.

  And, each time she thinks of it, it starts her typing again.

  ***

  Mallory glances at the clock on the wall. It’s nearly two. She rubs her eyes and blinks, forcing herself to look back at the code. Level seventeen now. It’s getting harder, though, slower, and she’s seriously losing track of time. The Asker’s made her three coffees already, but she’s still beginning to flag. Just because she can do it, doesn’t mean it’s easy, and there’s only so long she can maintain that level of concentration. She lets her eyes blur for a second, the numbers fuzzing up before her… She blinks again. Twice more. Then…

  Wait.

  She leans a little closer to the screen. Her brain starts whirring again, filing, sorting. There’s a new series of numbers in this level, a new recurring pattern scattered in amongst the others so it’s possible you wouldn’t notice them at all. It’s a date, she realizes. It’s written in epoch time, but she recognizes the format. It takes her a moment to calculate, but when she does… A fresh spark of energy flutters through her. It’s not just any date, it’s Tuesday’s date, five thirty in the morning; the two year anniversary of Daedalus’s suicide. Mallory sits up a little straighter.

  ‘What is it?’ says Scarlet.

  ‘Quiet,’ Mallory tells her, in a way that really means shut up, BB gun or not. She looks at how the numbers are positioned, hidden and connected within the code. It’s part of the kill switch that Daedalus built in to delete the virus if The Asker didn’t make the deadline. She flexes her fingers in front of her, feeling skin rub against skin instead fabric. An idea starts trickling into her mind, the tiniest beginnings of what could maybe, just maybe, be a way out… It would be dangerous though; to her, and, not least, to Warden. She has to be sure.

  Four, three, four, two…

  She starts tapping on the desk, looking and looking and checking, and the more she does, the more she checks, the more she thinks it could be possible, that it could work… It would work. She glances at the clock again. She’d have to time it just right. She thinks of The Asker’s threat, and sees the gun firing, sees Warden fall… Get the timing wrong and he could end up dead.

  Four, three, four, two…

  Get it wrong, and they both could. Scarlet is already shifting impatiently beside her; Mallory can just imagine how she would react, let alone The Asker. But if she completes the virus as it is…

  All the thoughts she has been trying not to think start piling back up, thoughts about what she is setting in motion, right here in this little kitchen…

  And she doesn’t know what to do…

  She doesn’t…

  She can’t decide…

  She can’t…

  She needs to see Warden. It affects him too and she needs to see him.

  ‘I need a break,’ she says. The Asker looks up from the chair beside her. The gun is still rested in his hand.

  ‘No,’ he replies carefully, ‘you need to keep working.’

  ‘I can’t,’ she says, shaking her head, rubbing her eyes again. ‘Crap, I’m tired.’

  ‘Then I’ll get you more coffee,’ says Scarlet.

  ‘This isn’t a joke,’ Mallory snaps. ‘I need to rest, I need to use the bathroom again… and I want to see Warden.’

  ‘Like hell,’ Scarlet answers, heading to the kettle.

  ‘I keep working with no break and I’m going to do it wrong, going to miss things. I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday and I’ve been staring at that damn screen so long I’ve already got a fricking migraine.’

  ‘Then we’ll get you aspirin.’

  ‘You think I want to make a mistake? You think I’m stalling?’

  Scarlet walks back over, staring Mallory down.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, sugar,’ she says, ‘but it isn’t clever.’

  ‘I’m not screwing around!’ Mallory stands, the chair’s feet scraping against the floor and making her shudder. ‘You already near as told me you’re going to kill Warden if I don’t get this right. I want this to work as much as you do, and I’m telling you I need a time out. And I want to see my friend.’

  Scarlet yanks the BB gun out of her pocket and points it right at Mallory’s face.

  ‘Just give me a reason, hon.’

  ‘Enough,’ interrupts The Asker. ‘Come on, Scarlet, that’s enough.’ She shrugs. She nudges the gun against Mallory’s cheek.

  ‘Wouldn’t kill her,’ she says lightly, ‘even close range if I was careful, but I could leave some lovely scars on that pretty little face.’ Mallory stays where she
is, forcing herself not to flinch.

  ‘I want to see Warden,’ she repeats.

  ‘Okay,’ replies The Asker, getting up too. ‘Okay. Scarlet, just put the gun down.’ He sighs. She rolls her eyes at him, but she steps away, tucking it into her back pocket. ‘Okay then, Echo. You said you’re hungry.’ He grabs the pack of cookies off the table. ‘Let’s go see how Warden’s doing, give you some motivation.’

  Mallory follows him out of the kitchen, strongly resisting the urge to tell Scarlet just what she can go and do to herself. The Asker leads her through the living room, past where Tower is sat by the front door. Then he takes her upstairs to the bathroom and waits outside while she uses it. She tries to take the moment’s solitude to calm herself, but her pulse is all jittery. In the mirror, her jaw is swollen an angry black and blue. Another bruise is showing on her cheek from where Weevil hit her in the kitchen. She looks herself in the eyes and tells herself she can do this. She can hold it together, can still find them a way out. She can fix this.

  The basement is dim and cold, with that musty smell of somewhere that’s not been used in a while. It looks like it was once a spare room, but has since doubled as a storage space for the old cardboard boxes of stuff that all houses seem to collect. Warden is laid out on a bed against the back wall, Sneak sitting at the bottom of the stairs with a laptop perched on her knees – the only visible chair is missing a leg. Apart from the laptop, the basement is lit solely by a dim floor lamp by the stairs, the beaded shade throwing out odd shadows across the room.

  ‘Main bulb’s blown,’ says Sneak, by way of explanation.

  ‘How is he?’ says The Asker. Warden is watching them. He looks at Mallory, and she takes the cookies from The Asker, walking down the stairs past Sneak without waiting for permission.

  ‘Threw up a couple of times at first,’ she hears Sneak reply. ‘Seems okay now, though.’

  Seems okay? Just seems okay? Mallory stops by the bed. He doesn’t look okay, he looks really damn pale. Her free hand clenches at her side.

  ‘Hi,’ says Warden, and he tries to smile and it pulls at her.

  ‘You’ve got ten minutes,’ calls The Asker. Mallory doesn’t respond.

  ‘How are you doing?’ says Warden.

  ‘How am I doing?’ she says. ‘Shit, Warden, you were shot. How are you doing?’

  ‘Never better,’ he replies, though she can hear the strain in his voice. ‘Although,’ he continues, ‘this bed’s a little uncomfortable, far too lumpy. I’ve got this memory foam mattress at home that – ’ He stops. He smiles a little again, still trying to act normal, and it sort of makes her want to cry. ‘But you don’t want to hear about that.’ Mallory bites her lip. His smile fades. ‘You’re doing it then,’ he says quietly, ‘breaking the encryption for them.’

  She nods. She waits for him to respond, to tell her what he thinks she should do, to tell her she shouldn’t – but he doesn’t. The silence stretches out, and Warden never lets silence stretch out. He definitely looks too pale. He moves, trying to sit himself up a little and she sees the pain flicker across his face as his leg shifts, and she feels so fricking useless…

  ‘Are you hungry?’ she asks. She opens the packet of cookies. They’re chocolate chip.

  ‘I don’t – ’

  ‘I think you should eat something,’ she says firmly, because that’s something she can do, can help with. She hands him a cookie and watches unblinkingly as he eats it on demand. Then she hands him another. Her stomach rumbles noisily and he raises an eyebrow.

  ‘Your turn, I think,’ he says, that trace of a smile again, and she finds she has to look away. She does take one for herself, though. They’re a little stale, but she really is hungry and they finish the packet between them in a few minutes; a few minutes of eating and not talking. Mallory doesn’t know what to say – other than the thing she came to ask – and she doesn’t know how to ask that, how to get the message across, or even if she should… but The Asker said ten minutes and time is ticking. If she’s going to do it, she needs to do it now, otherwise she’ll be stuck back up in that room in the same position, not knowing.

  Every time Warden moves, she sees how it hurts him, and it’s almost as if she can feel it, and if she does what she’s thinking and it goes wrong…

  If it goes wrong…

  She glances back at The Asker. He’s watching her now. So is Sneak.

  Damn it.

  She’ll have to be careful. They can’t know, can’t suspect. She looks away from them. Warden is watching her too, but it seems an impossible thing to say even one sentence to him without anyone else catching it. They’ll know. They’ll hear, unless…

  Unless…

  She sits down on the bed beside him, and inside she’s all squirming, but it’s the only thing she can think of. She has to do it. She looks down at him, trying to tell him, to show him, to get him to trust her.

  ‘I don’t want you to worry,’ she says. ‘You’re going to be fine. I won’t let them hurt you.’ Then she leans towards him, slowly. He stays stock still and she can see the confusion on his face, but she wills him not to say anything and he doesn’t, and her heart starts racing and…

  Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap… Just do it!

  She leans down and hugs him. Her arms wrap around his back and it feels like fire is radiating out from every spot where they’re connected, her bare hands buzzing all over pins and needles. And she can feel him shaking a little beneath her, and then his arms move tentatively around her in response…

  And inside of her is this sudden rage of noise…

  Of fear and adrenaline…

  But also…

  Also…

  This strange relief, and security, and a feeling of not being alone that she’s not used to, and it’s so strong and overwhelming and unexpected that she feels herself shudder against him…

  And, at the same time, she wants to draw away – to run away…

  And, at the same time, she wants to stay there a moment longer…

  And she makes herself stay…

  She makes herself…

  And she tries to think…

  She tries to…

  Her face is just by his neck. She lifts it…

  ‘There’s something I can do about it,’ she whispers, ‘but it’s dangerous for us.’ It’s both a statement and a question.

  ‘That’s ten minutes,’ says The Asker. Warden jumps and Mallory pulls back.

  ‘Echo,’ Warden says, and she looks down. ‘I know it will be okay,’ he tells her, and he holds her gaze, and her skin is hot and her mind is still yelling all sorts of different things at her and… ‘I trust you,’ he says.

  It’s a yes.

  Better

  Mallory re-enters the kitchen. Her body is still buzzing, but her mind is more focused. She knows what she is going to do.

  ‘Got it out of your system?’ Scarlet asks.

  ‘I could use that coffee now,’ Mallory replies, returning to the laptop without looking up. The Asker sits beside her. Mallory blanks him too. She starts tapping on the table.

  Four, three, four, two…

  Four, three, four, two…

  And she thinks through the plan that’s been formulating in her mind. The virus has to work. There is nothing she can do about that. Even if The Asker is going to hold true to his promise to let them go afterwards, he’d be stupid to do it until he was certain he had what he wanted; until he’d seen The Reckoning in action. It has to work – but maybe, just maybe, there are two other little things Mallory can add into the equation; timing, and a little extra targeting. If The Reckoning can hack into anywhere… She stills her hand, one specific target in mind.

  Scarlet slams coffee number four on the table. Mallory gulps it down in one go, though she’s probably already way too jacked on caffeine. She needs to be awake for this. It will push her to the limit of what she can do and she can’t make a single mistake. Scarlet sits beside her again. Mallory can feel them both there, fe
el them too close, hear their breathing, hear Scarlet clicking her nails impatiently…

  She starts to type.

  She begins filling in the level, just like she should, building up the missing sections of code until it’s almost complete – but then she doesn’t finish it, not right away. There are certain key requirements you have to fulfil within each level for it to trigger the next one to load. All of these relate to the algorithm that will crack the common internet encryptions and they can’t be changed without damaging the function. What can, theoretically, be altered is the computer virus that will act as the delivery system for that algorithm. It would have to be subtle – real subtle – subtle enough not to damage the overall effect of the virus at first, and subtle enough for those watching her not to notice, but if Mallory can do it…

  Sometimes the tiniest change is all you need in a hack. The smallest loophole is still a loophole.

  She has to test it first, though, test how much The Asker and Scarlet really understand before she gives away what she’s going to do. She keeps typing, never breaking her rhythm, filling in the digits as she should… and then she makes a change, alters one number – a single digit – making it what it shouldn’t be.

  No one comments.

  Neither of her observers even moves.

  They just sit, watching.

  It worked.

  Adrenaline ripples through her. She makes another alteration, then another, her heart pounding… The Asker and Scarlet say nothing. Mallory realizes, then, that The Asker had really meant what he’d said before; she is better than him. A lot better. She feels a rush, aggressive and driving. Neither of them is following what she’s doing, at least, not entirely. They don’t understand what’s on the screen. Daedalus knew exactly what he was doing when he set this game. He wanted The Asker to lose, wanted him to fail…