Taking the elevator was out of the question. James felt sorry for all the people in the city who must be trapped in them. James knew that emergency stairwells existed at the end of each hotel wing, and an exterior maintenance ladder ran the entire height of the building. But the emergency lighting in the hotel had also failed. He’d have to navigate his way through a pitch black room and down a hallway to the closest stairs.
James felt more sympathetic for Dawn after he barked his shins on chairs and low tables. Once he made it to the hallway, his pace quickened. He jogged while keeping one hand in contact with the wall. At the end, he pushed the panic bar on the stairwell door and entered a spiraling trap. He sensed a constant vibration on the handrail and heard a thrum of noise rising from below. There must be thousands of people trying to get out of this dead building. If a fire started now… No—when the fire started. The only reliable source of light was open flame: lighters and matches. And the building’s fire protection system would need electricity to operate. This hotel was destined to burn.
James skidded down a dark flight of stairs to Jessica’s floor.
Another problem: a key card was required to exit the stairwell on this floor, and even if he had one, the locks operated electronically. He searched near both sides of the door until he located the fire extinguisher case. Using his elbow, he broke the center glass panel and removed the extinguisher. It wasn’t an axe, but perhaps it would serve for knocking the locking mechanism off. It took several blows, but at last the lock plate swung free. James fished out the broken pieces and worked the bolt open with his finger.
Running along the hall, he stopped at the first door he came to and tried to kick it in. The frame splintered with the first kick and the door crashed open with the second. James ran inside and stopped immediately. It would not be good to get trapped in a maze. He yelled, “Jessica!”
A faint reply filtered back to him.
Damn, this suite is huge.
“Keep coming to my voice!”
He didn’t dare move any farther inside. He knew how to get out from where he stood. He heard Jessica’s voice getting closer.
“Keep coming!” he called back.
“What happened?” she asked when she finally reached him.
James grabbed her by the arm. “EMP. Come with me.”
He led her back up the stairs and out onto the roof. A helicopter would be really nice about now, he thought.
From the roof of the E Pluribus Unum, he could see the huge fires already burning all around the city. And not a siren was to be heard. Another fireball erupted in the low mountains to the south, and James watched as a plane, now electronically dead, fell from the sky.
“This way,” James said, pulling Jessica along. “We need to get to your car.”
“Look around us. There isn’t a car in the city still working!”
James stopped to face her. “If there’s one car in the entire city that might work, which one do you think it would be?”
She nodded. “You’ve got a point. But the roads are going to have dead cars everywhere. They’ll be impassable.”
“Hey, I was instructed to get you to your car,” James said, “so that’s where we’re going. If you think of a better idea before we get there, I’m all ears.”
It felt treacherous running along a dark rooftop well over one thousand feet above the ground. When they reached the edge, James started climbing over the side.
“What are you doing?” Jessica half-asked, half-yelled.
“There’s a caged ladder right here. It leads all the way down to the roof of the parking garage. We can take the stairs once we reach the garage.”
Jessica peered over the edge. James could tell by her shaking hands that she was not comfortable with the extreme height. But she took a deep breath, and he knew she’d manage.
“I’ll go first,” James said. “If you slip, I will catch you. I promise.” He extended a hand to assist her.
“Where’s your slinky?” Jessica asked.
“It, um, fell off Fan’s balcony,” James said. Probably not what she wanted to hear right now.
“Where is Fan now? Is he coming after us?” she asked.
“I’m pretty sure he’s still holding on to the slinky,” James answered with a trace of irony.
With one foot on the top rung of the ladder, Jessica stopped and spun sharply to James. “You killed him?”
James leaned back from the rung to see her better. “He was ordered to kill you. And he tried to kill me. I’ve been instructed to protect you… and to use my best judgment. Fan Kong has been judged. Let’s leave this place before they find him.”
Jessica nodded and advanced over the edge.
They descended for ten full minutes before she spoke again. “Thank you,” she said.
It wasn’t the kind of “thank you” one received for giving a gift, James thought. It was the kind offered in forgiveness for making a life-altering decision. He had killed a man for her. That had to be as hard on her as it was on him. Her words made him feel less like a monster and more like he had done the right thing. They were healing words. To say “You’re welcome” would diminish them, so he didn’t.
“You okay?” he asked. “Do you need to rest?”
“I’m good. Let’s keep going.”
By the time they reached the top of the parking garage, the buildup of lactic acid burned in their thighs. When they reached the garage stairs, they both had to use the handrails to take weight off their noodle-like legs.
At every level of the garage, hundreds of people holding cigarette lighters for illumination milled about their cars. Someone had succeeded in hotwiring a headlight directly to a car battery. Lost souls in the dark migrated to the light like moths to a flame.
When they reached valet level, James said, “We need to get your key.”
“It doesn’t have a key. It’s all biometric,” she said.
“Then how did the valet drive it?”
“It has a valet setting and a GPS leash to keep them honest.”
James pondered this. “Then how were they supposed to retrieve it for you?”
Jessica shrugged. “I assumed the car would know. It’s City technology after all.”
“Well, some of that tech would be useful right now to help us locate the car in the dark.”
“I asked them to keep it close. Let’s check the first level by the entrance and hope they found my tip persuasive enough.”
They found the car parked sideways across two parking spaces, facing the exit. “I think your tip worked,” James said. “How do we get in?”
Jessica placed her left palm on the driver-side door. It automatically unlocked and began scissoring upward. Diffuse light filled the interior. She ducked in and slid into her seat while touching the passenger-side open icon flashing on the dash. “Quick, get in!”
James hopped in the other side and closed the door.
“Okay. Now what?” Jessica asked.
“Now,” said a male voice that came from the dashboard, “it’s time for you two to come home. You’re going to—”
James interrupted. “We need to go to the asylum first.”
“That’s not in the plan, son. And certainly not advisable, given the state the city is in right now.”
“I’ll go by myself if I have to. There’s a little girl that I am not leaving behind.”
James waited through a long pause. He had just moved to open his door and get out when the voice spoke again. “Sit tight. We’re taking you to your friend. Better buckle up. It’s going to be bumpy.”
They both harnessed themselves in. Jessica asked, “Where am I driving?” She placed her hands on the wheel.
“I’m driving. You two just hang on.”
The car’s engine fired up with a low growling purr.
“I know you, don’t I?” Jessica said.
“We’ll meet soon.”
The car rolled forward into the darkness. They were being driven without h
eadlights, but an enhanced night vision view appeared in their windshield. James figured the driver had his own screen for navigation, and this view was just for James and Jessica’s comfort.
Instead of driving out the main valet exit, the car turned deeper into the garage and veered straight for the security fence enclosing the first level—and accelerated.
“Hang on.”
The car punched through the fence—and the ground dropped out from under them. James’s stomach leapt to his throat. Reflexively, he pushed himself deeper into his seat. From the look on Jessica’s face, she felt the same sensation.
They hit the ground with a jarring impact and began to slide sideways down a steep slope.
“We’re in the flood channel!” James said.
“Less traffic.”
The car picked up speed on the flat bottom of the channel.
“What about the trolls?” James asked.
“I prefer to call them ‘extreme urban outdoorsmen.’ And they will be fine. Our routes are clear.”
James appreciated the man’s thinking. This was a genius method of traversing a city whose surface streets were choked with dead vehicles. And one of these channels went right past the asylum’s quad.
They negotiated the channels without encountering any obstacles. As they approached the asylum, the car suddenly veered up onto the left slope then quickly swung back to the right and raced up the slope on the other side. It ripped through the fence beside the asylum and landed squarely in the quad.
“We’ll have that fixed,” the voice said. “James, tell Linda that as long as she stays to help the remaining children, she will receive all the support she needs.” The car’s headlights came on and lit up the quad.
“Right.” James pulled himself out of the car. He ran to the quad door and pushed. Locked. Of course—without power, the residents inside were all trapped by the electronic locks. James checked the window to ensure there was no one standing behind the door, then he kicked it open. Add that to the City's list of things to fix.
Candles flickered throughout the dayroom. A small body removed itself from those clustered around a weak circle of candlelight. It walked cautiously toward him.
“James? Is that you?” Tina asked.
He knelt before her. “That’s right, Tina. Come on. We have to leave now.”
Tina’s body stiffened. James instantly realized she had never known him as anyone other than the old James. She must be terrified right now. Way to go, stupid.
“What happened to you?” Tina asked with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
“Before now, I was always pretending to be… the way I was. It was just so they wouldn’t kick me out. This is the real me. There’s no need to be afraid.”
“Oh… Well, that makes sense. And I’m not afraid. I’m happy for you.”
“Why is that, little Tina?” James asked.
“Because you’re not super stupid anymore. Only a little stupid.” She pointed at the knots in his shoelaces.
Linda appeared from the darkness. “James?”
James returned to his feet. “Linda, I don’t have a lot of time,” he said. “There’s been a catastrophic failure of the electrical grid. Jack asked me to inform you that if you stay with these children and keep them safe, you will receive all the support you need.” He knew the voice from the car wasn’t Jack’s, but all that mattered was that Linda be persuaded to do the right thing for these children, and he knew the name “Jack” would have the desired effect on her. “I’ll be taking Tina with me. She has a new family waiting for her.”
Tina latched on to his leg and hugged it tightly.
By the look on Linda’s face, she seemed to be struggling more with James’s transformation than with the power failure. “What happened to you?” she asked.
“Let’s just say, Jack found a cure for stupid.”
He knelt again in front of Tina. “Wait here for a second, Tina. I need to get something from my room.”
He sprinted to the boys’ dorms in three giant leaps. He didn’t need light for assistance. After so many years of living here, he knew the layout well enough to find his way in the dark as well as Dawn did. In his room, he lifted an edge of the top bunk off its support. Inside the gap where the support fit, he dug out Dawn’s letter. With that in hand, he returned to Tina.
“Ready?” he asked, placing a hand on the back of her arm and surreptitiously pressing the dermapatch onto her skin. They walked through the quad toward the headlights.
“Wait!” Tina said as they reached the car. She ran back and stopped at the planter. “What about Teeka’s rose?”
James followed her to the planter box. He looked from her to the plant standing tall in the harsh light. He’d almost forgotten about that part of the plan. “We’re taking it with us,” he said. He pulled low on the stem, uprooting the entire plant.
Tina frowned in concern.
“We’ll replant it when we get home,” he reassured her.
“Home?” she asked.
“With Mykl,” he added.
“I don’t think he likes me,” she said, getting in the car to sit on James’s lap.
“Oh, I think he does.” James tucked the rose plant behind his seat, then turned to Jessica. “Jessica, this is Tina. Tina, this is Jessica. She’s really nice.”
Tina leaned into James for big brotherly protection before smiling bashfully and saying, “Hi.” She yawned widely.
“She’s adorable,” Jessica said.
“Hang on to her tight, James. It’s going to get bumpy again.”
The headlights went off and the night vision view reappeared. With a sharp turn, the car hurtled back into the flood channel and took off. It squealed around turns and exceeded a hundred miles per hour on the long straightaways. Tina was terrified at first, but the sedative acted quickly, and soon she was asleep in James’s arms.
When they neared the city boundary, the car slowed and the voice spoke again. “Okay, here comes the tricky part. You should be aware that you are being tracked by Chinese agents.”
Jessica said irritably, “How in the hell are they able to track this car?”
“Normally, we wouldn’t allow that, but in this case, we are.”
“Are you using us as some sort of bait?” Jessica asked. “We have a child in the car!”
“No, not bait. Think of it as a magic trick. They have to see you die. Otherwise they will keep searching. Your existence complicates our efforts.”
“You’re not really going to kill us though?” Jessica asked.
“Of course not. We have a fireworks show planned. The Chinese will be most satisfied. Trust me, we have to let them catch up to you.”
“Wait—their vehicles still work?”
“Of course; they were prepared for the EMP. They posted vehicles at all exit points to the city in case you tried to leave. But your vehicle is better.”
Their car emerged from a tunnel, exited off a service ramp, and blasted through a locked gate. They cruised at a moderate speed to an interstate connector and stopped.
A pair of headlights approached rapidly from the southwest. The night vision shut off, and the car’s headlights and taillights engaged. He wants to make sure the Chinese see us, James thought. Then with a screech of tires, the car took off again, entering the interstate heading northeast out of town.
James twisted to look back at the dark city vista. The former treasure box of glittering lights had ignited into a seething cauldron of smoke and fire. The twisting flames blazing atop the E Pluribus Unum made it the brightest spot in the city. Jessica didn’t turn around, but her moist eyes kept returning to the rearview mirror.
James could tell that this car’s mysterious driver was making sure they didn’t lose their tail. The Chinese agents were allowed to stay close—but not too close.
Playing the role of prey, they exited the interstate at the last possible moment. The surprised Chinese driver behind them lost ground in the dirt from turning too l
ate, but he caught back up quickly.
“Be on your toes. It’s showtime. Here’s the plan…”
CHAPTER 74
“I don’t understand why her vehicle functions when the EMP disabled all the others,” said the passenger in the pursuing vehicle.
The driver replied, “She paid a fortune for that car. It is possible that the electronics are shielded same as ours. It most certainly has projectile protection as well. But don’t worry—she can’t possibly travel much further with the hole we drilled in her fuel cell. And when she stops, we’ll have her. Just remember, we want her alive. We take her head only if she proves too resistant to cooperation.”
“Look! Ahead of her. Three cargo trucks. Why are they still functioning?”
“They must be government auto-drive trucks taking supplies to the base they deny existing.”
“Well, they’ll have to slow down for the curve, which means so will she. Should we force her off the road?”
“Didn’t I just tell you we want her alive? We’re not trying any dangerous maneuvers—What is she doing?”
The sleek, ground-hugging work of art ahead of them accelerated into the oncoming traffic lane to pass the trucks. There would be no actual oncoming traffic with all the vehicles disabled, but this was a blind curve, and there could be any number of stopped cars around that corner. A desperate move.
As the car passed the convoy, it clipped the front wheel of the rear truck. Not only did the car fishtail dramatically, but the truck’s tire failed in spectacular fashion, and the truck began to jackknife. It tipped to its side, taking the elongated trailer with it.
The Chinese pursuers narrowly avoided a collision as their car screeched to a halt behind the skidding, overturned truck.
“We can’t lose her! Go around! Go around!” said the passenger.
“I know! Which way?” asked the driver. He couldn’t see beyond the thick dust cloud.
“My side! There is room!”
The driver backed up and maneuvered around, off the road. His tires threw rooster tails of gritty desert sand until they regained the asphalt. But when they cleared the dust cloud, their prey was nowhere to be seen.
The Prometheus Effect Page 35
