"The room is empty," said a calm female voice.
He pushed the door open. The large maintenance room was filled with metal boxes with panels and gauges, and lit by fluorescent fixtures on the high ceiling which was cluttered with pipes. There was a smell of dust and a mixture of humming and muted clunking, but no sign of life.
"See the panel on the right, go and open it."
The yellow one?
"Yes. It has a latch on the top."
He found the latch, released the panel, and swung it to the side. There were no wires or electronics, just a hollow metal tube that went off in both directions, part of the ventilation system. On detonation, the gas his mother had designed would seep out into every corner of the building
"Set it here."
He set the briefcase down and opened it. The packet his uncle had given him was sitting on top of the device. He opened it, disregarded the map of how to get to the ventilation system, and punched the phone number on the corner of the first page into his cellphone.
"The device will take one hour to charge. Flick the silver switch on the side."
He did as instructed.
"Now, see the cell phone glued to the side of the device?"
Yes. I see it.
"Plug it in."
He fumbled with it as the voice continued to guide him. "By the time this unit it fully charged, you will be safely in the green room. When you call the number, this phone will trigger the device and spray the gas down the tube. Within thirty minutes it will fill the conference center."
Do I have to be here?
"No. We will guide you and Jillian out the rear utility entrance. A car will be waiting for you there."
He lifted the device and set it in the chamber. His eyes came back to the case and rested on the inoculation gun.
"Take the inoculation and go to Jillian. Tell her Jakson has gone mad and that he intends to kill everyone in the center with a deadly gas, but that you managed to steal this inoculation gun from him."
He picked up the gun, but a noise from behind caused him to spin around, gun pointed—as though he might use it as a weapon.
Standing less than ten feet away was David Chance with bug eyes and a metal pipe. "Whoa, buddy. I come in peace," said David, holding his hands up.
"With a pipe?"
David glanced at it, then back at Jon. "Okay. This looks bad."
"What are you doing here?!" What is he doing here? Why didn't you warn me!
The response had a growl in it. "He is shrouded from us."
By who?
"We don't know, the technology is beyond your race."
Could it be one of your people?
David's voice interrupted his internal debate. "I came to find you, Jon."
He scowled. "How’d you get in here?"
"Laundry chute from the kitchen," he said, pointing with a thumb.
Jon felt a rage growing in his gut. Now everyone will know it was me who put this bomb here!
"David Chance will sleep, along with the rest of the zealots."
Jon struggled to comprehend the meaning of the words.
"You don’t need to kill him, just knock him out. The gas will take him when it takes the others."
Knock him out?
"Give yourself over to us, we will guide your body."
David's voice rudely interrupted a second time. "You don't have to do this, Jon. You can walk away."
"You have no idea what you're talking about, David. You shouldn't have come here." He stood eyeing the metal pipe.
"I don't know what they're telling you, but it's a lie, Jon."
He would have believed that—like he had before—if it was just his mind whispering to him. But he had seen them in the sky. He and Maddie had both seen them.
"You are being manipulated by demons. None of this is real."
A gentle voice prodded him. "Do you see how quickly he falls back on his religious bias? He would rather believe in fairy tales than trust in the evidence that is all around him. Religion is a cancer."
Jon's muscle's tightened.
David took note of it and shifted his posture. "Let me help you, Jon, please. What are they saying? I can't help you if you don't tell me what they're saying."
"They’re saying you're an idiot, just like my dad, believing in stupid fairy tales of a magical being who lives in the sky."
"Okay. If they're not demons, who do they say they are?"
"They are not from our world. And before you say I'm crazy—I saw them. They showed me their ships in the sky."
"I believe you. I believe you saw something in the sky, but how do you know they were aliens?"
"What else would they be?"
David lifted a palm toward him. "Okay. Okay. So, aliens are contacting you. What do they want you to do?"
An annoyed voice vibrated in his head. "Let go, Jon. There is no time for this."
Jon shifted his weight, but did not let their influence in. "You can't understand. You're too rooted in your religion beliefs."
David laughed. "If only my wife could hear you say that."
"This planet is on the brink of extinction, and it is closed-minded bigots like you, clinging to ancients myths, that are herding us toward it. It has to stop, David. The religious violence has to stop."
"Is this how you stop it? With more violence?"
"Yes! This is how I stop it! I'm not a killer. I'm this planet's savior!"
"Well, right now, you look like a terrorist."
The accusation caused something to snap. Jon lunged forward. David brought the pipe up, but it was too late. Jon's shoulder caught him in the chest and the two of them crashed to the floor.
"Jon! Listen to me!"
"I'm done listening to you!"
"All that matters is truth."
"Shut up!"
They scrambled and rolled, and David came up on top.
"They're lying to you. That much I know for sure."
"Shut up!"
He slid the bar up onto Jon's chest, but Jon kept him from getting it to his neck. His triceps pushed down on the bar, and the iron bit his flesh.
"The truth is in us all, testifying of itself. Listen for it, Jon. It's there nagging at you."
The only thing that was nagging him was David Chance, and all he wanted to do was shut him up. Every word that came out of David's stupid face made him want to shut him up even more. He dug his fingers into David's neck and pulled down as his forehead came up. It connected with David's chin, and David crumbled to the side.
Jon rolled over and brought his fist up, but there was no response from his adversary. His body lay limp and silent next to him. The blow had knocked him unconscious.
"There is wire in the utility drawer next to you," said a voice. "Tie him up."
He found the wire and began tying David to a wall pipe. When he had twisted the last wire tight, David's eyes flickered open. He fought against his bindings reflexively. "Jon. You don't want to do this."
He got to his feet and went to the utility drawer.
"In the end, there are two types of people, Jon. Those who listen to truth, and those who resist it."
He found a rag and returned to David.
"You have to ask yourself: who do you want to be?"
"I want to be the guy who saved the world from ignorant people like you."
"Jon—fffmmmnnnn."
He secured the gag in place and got to his feet.
What if someone comes down here and finds him?
A calm voice said, "Don't worry. Jakson will deal with it."
Chapter 37
"How did you get in here?" said the girl with the black hair, glancing down at the cellphone in her hand nervously. Was she sending a message to security? If she did, it was all over.
Think, Jillian! She straightened herself and feigned annoyance. "I could ask you the same question."
The girl’s face scrunched. "I work here."
What are you going to do with that, Jill?
She couldn't exactly pretend to work there. It wasn't that large of a facility. She might fake being with a federal agency, but that would only take her so far.
The girl brought her cellphone up, "I'm texting security." As the back of the phone came into view, a smile bent Jillian's lips. In the upper corner of the phone was a prominent red paw print. Only a handful of people on the planet would have recognized it for what it was, because only a handful of people walked in the internet circles she frequented. To her great relief, this girl was one of them.
She laughed. "Since when do members of LeetCrew hold down day jobs?"
The black-haired girl’s eyes narrowed. "Okay. What are you? FBI? ATF?"
There were several directions she could have taken the conversation, but the fastest was to do something she would have never done before this day, and before this moment in history. But this was the last day she would play the part of Canary. It seemed fitting to end it with a bang. "My name is Canary."
Air shot out of the girls mouth. "Yeah right."
That was the response she’d expected. Most hackers believed her to be a man—and a middle-aged man at that, because she had done what only seasoned professionals could do at the tender age of six.
"I could rattle off a list of protocols that only I know, or I could tell you the five steps necessary to ground all of Delta's airliners for a twenty-four hour window, but let's stick to something simple. ApplePi," she said, happily awaiting the reaction the word would produce. It was, after all, the password to their storage archive and quite possibly the most guarded bit of information in their entire organization.
The girl looked like she'd seen a spectral horror. "How could you possibly know that?"
"To be the best in the world, I had to hack the hackers first. Your group is led by a scientist who lives in Upstate New York. It took me some time to figure out his identity, and I won't bore you with the details, but he lives on an apple orchard, and is best known in academic circles as the teacher who can recite Pi to a thousand places."
The girl drank in every word.
"Of course it took me a few iterations before I found the caps, and that he had cleverly replaced the L with a one, but the program I wrote did most of the work."
Her jaw dropped farther.
"It was harder to hack your rivals, Corpscamper. Theirs is a string of letters and symbols. I had to task the NSA mainframe to brute force it on a Memorial Day weekend when the general in charge of operations was distracted by a bitter divorce hearing."
"It is you."
"Yep. Now the only question we have left to tackle is, are you going to turn me in, or let me finish what I came to do?"
Her eyes looked like they might explode from their sockets. "Sure! I can't even believe this. I am helping Canary! This is, like seriously, the epoch of my life."
"I need to see those speeches."
She swiveled toward the computer behind her, then swiveled back. "Are you going to change a line in one of the speeches? That is so awesome! You are so awesome!" A panic look crossed her face. "I think I'm going to hyperventilate."
Canary approached her. "Take a breath. It's going to be okay."
"I just can't believe it. That you’re you. I mean of course you’re you, but it is so amazing that you’re you and you’re here with me."
She rubbed the girl’s back. "Just take a breath."
The girl sucked in. "I'm Jane. Jane Brewer. I go by Shadowhunter. Will you mention me in your tag?"
"Yes. I'll put a mention in for you and your crew."
"Epic!"
Canary glanced at the computer screen. "Now, I really need to look at those speeches, you all right?"
"Yes," she said, trying to gather herself. "Oh yes. Right as rain. You can count on me. I have your back. Canary's back," she blurted. Then, she pumped a fist halfway in the air. "Girl power."
Canary lifted her brows. "Okay. Let's take a look at those speeches."
"Whose speech do you want to change?" said Jane, spinning around.
"I don't want to change any of them. I'm looking for two sentences."
"What for?" said Jane's lips in the reflection of the monitor.
"It's complicated."
"Well, that's easy enough, I'll just bring up a search box for you and get out of the way." With a couple of taps the box appeared on the screen. Jane slid to the side. "There you go. And I have to say, this is quite an honor. I mean, to actually watch you work on something—even though I don't know what it is. What is it, by the way? Sorry. Of course you wouldn't tell me what it is. You're like a phantom shrouded in mystery and secrecy. I mean, the fact that I know who you are now, that's like big. And I won't tell anyone by the way..."
Canary turned toward the screen and, for the first time in her life, was actually happy to be deaf. She let Jane prattle on while she entered the sentences and set the program to search. No results. She turned back toward Jane, whose mouth was still going a mile a minute. "It's not here."
Jane froze.
"Are these all the speeches?"
"It should be. Unless they put one on the teleprompter computer directly."
"Where is that?"
"In the back of the auditorium."
"Is it connected to the network?"
"No, it's an old junker."
"Can you help me get in there and check it?"
"I doubt anyone would put it on there, I mean, unless it was super secret, and they had it on a USB or something."
Her eyes lit. "Jane, you're a genius."
Jane looked as if a current of electricity had just hit her. "I am?"
"Can you bring me to it?"
"Yeah. Sure. I can get you in there."
Canary fished her phone out and sent a text to Jakson. "Speech not in mainframe. Checking teleprompter computer." She clicked send and slid it back in her pocket. "Okay, Jane. Let's go check that teleprompter."
"This is so exciting!" she said, brightly. "And dangerous!"
They left the mainframe room and headed down the long hall to a service door that looked like it might lead into a room at the back of the auditorium. She watched as Jane swiped her card and glanced out at the larger hall, now only littered with a few groups of people. Her eyes caught Jon moving through the crowd. He looked her way and came to a stop.
Jane tugged her arm.
Canary gave her a stunned look.
"Are you coming?"
"Yeah," she said, snapping out of it. "Can you give me just one minute."
"Sure- Yeah- I'll just. What? Be up in the media booth?" Her eyes had a deer in the headlights quality.
Canary gave her a firm nod. "Perfect. I'll be up in a sec."
"You're not going to disappear are you? 'Cause that would... Seriously. I would not be okay with that. OH! Can I get a picture?"
"What?"
"With my phone. Of, like, you and me. You know. In case you don't come back."
"I'll be back, Jane. I need to see what's on that computer."
Jane pulled her phone out. "I totally believe, like, that you'll come back, but can I just get one picture. You know. Us! Looking like buds. I won't show anyone, ever. I promise."
It didn't matter. Her days of being Canary were done and she really needed Jane's help, however spastic it was. She sighed. "One quick one. Okay?"
"Quick! Like lightning. Quick is my middle name. Actually it's Katherine, but you probably... never mind. That's not really... You don't need to know that. Or you probably already know..."
"Jane," she said evenly, "take the picture."
Jane slipped her arm behind Canary and held her phone high in the air with the camera facing them. The flash flicked and she pulled it down to examine the shot. "Sweet!"
"Okay," said Canary, with a gentle push. "I'll be up in a sec."
"All right. So," she said trying to get one last peek out the door, "I'll be there waiting."
She slowly shut the door and waited to make sure Jane didn't come back out. A hand slipped
under her arm and pulled her gently from the door. Her eyes swung up.
"We have to talk. Right now. Somewhere private."
"This way," she said, tugging from his grip, but letting her hand slide down to clasp his.
She led him to the mainframe room and shut the door behind them. "What's going on?"
"Things are out of control." His eyes looked hysterical; his face appeared ghostlike.
"What's wrong, Jonny?"
He clenched his jaw. "Jakson is out of his mind—that's what."
She blinked.
"He plans to kill everyone in the conference center."
"What?" she gasped.
"He has some kind of gas device and he is going to use it on the people in the auditorium."
Her breaths became shallow. "Why would he..."
"He doesn't think you'll identify the unifier in time."
"Wait. So, if I find the unifier, everything's okay, right?"
His face scowled. "Did you hear me? He has a machine that can kill everyone here."
"But he won't if I find the unifier."
"Yeah, but just that he would, doesn't that bother you?"
"Of course it bothers me, but I don’t have time to think about that right now. I need to get over to the media booth and get that name." She started to back away, but he caught her arm.
"Wait. Here." He slapped his briefcase on a desk and pulled a silver gun out.
"What is that?"
"An inoculation gun. I stole it from Jakson's bag."
Why hadn't Jakson said anything? Why didn't he give them the inoculation before they came to the conference center? Did he intend to kill them too? "I don't understand."
Jon had a pained look on his face. "I'm sorry, Jillian. He's not the person you thought he was."
"But he'll stop, won't he? If I get the name?" She felt the walls closing in around her.
"I don't know. But I'm going to go find this device of his, before he can set it off. If I can't find it in time, I want you to be safe."
She looked at the gun in his hand. How could Jakson do this? How could he let them die, when he had a way to save them? What kind of monster would do that? Jon pressed it to her shoulder and there was a short pinch.
Lies (The David Chance Series Book 3) Page 20
