He raised his eyebrows. “But I’m not,” he added. “There’s another copy of me off-site. So go ahead and kill us all. Make Q5 extinct. You’ll just make it that much easier for my duplicate when he takes over.”
Blake smiled. “Now who’s bluffing?” he said. “You’re a control freak. So it isn’t as simple as making a duplicate of yourself. You have to find a way to contain him until he’s needed. I don’t think you’ve had time to set this up.”
“Trigger your ring and you’ll learn otherwise,” hissed Knight. “Oh wait,” he added smugly, “no you won’t. Because you and your team will be blown to bits.”
“We both know that even if you have set up a duplicate of yourself, you can’t let me do this. This room contains the only living versions of Cargill, Wexler, and Tini. If they die, you’ll never get at Wexler’s work. You’ll never understand the theory behind your invention. Never extend its reach beyond fifty-eight feet.”
Blake paused to let this sink in. “The last thing I want to do is trigger this ring,” he added. “But believe me, I will if I have to.”
Knight paused for several seconds. “Okay,” he said, “just to humor you, what are you proposing?”
“That you take your remaining men and walk away in peace.”
“So I don’t get Wexler’s work, and the Q5 team goes free? I don’t think so.”
“It’s the best I can offer. This way, you still have a chance of getting at his work in the future. If I blow us up, it won’t matter if you have a thousand duplicates ready to take your place, that chance goes away forever.”
“If I do this, Q5 has the advantage. You can already go back almost half a second. And now you’ll know I’m alive and coming for you. You’ll be on guard.”
Blake shrugged. “You’ll still have your Brain Trust inventions and your creativity. I thought you were the greatest talent the world has ever known. Don’t tell me you’re doubting your ability to beat us.”
Knight stared at him for what seemed like eternity. “No deal,” he said finally. He extended his gun toward Blake. “Instead, I’m calling your bluff. Go ahead. Trigger your ring. Do your worst.”
After a brief pause, Knight smiled. “I didn’t think so,” he said, pulling the trigger three times in quick succession. Blake fell to the floor, dead before he landed.
“I guess the mess in here is going to get worse before it gets better,” said Knight, quite pleased with himself.
71
Cargill’s face fell as his last shred of hope fled his body like air from a popped balloon.
Knight eyed his rival, more self-satisfied than ever. “Even you didn’t know he was bluffing, did you?”
“Of course I knew. I just didn’t know if you would fall for it or not.”
“Bullshit!” said Knight.
“How did you know he was bluffing?”
Knight shook his head. “I didn’t. I just have bigger balls than you. I’m just better at playing high-stakes poker.”
“Yeah, psychopaths usually are,” said Cargill.
Knight was about to respond when his phone buzzed. He touched an icon on the screen and a holographic image of the mercenary named Craig materialized in front of him. Craig explained that there had been one survivor at the guesthouse, after all. Jake had failed to realize the girl wasn’t among the bodies in the rec room, and they had found her hiding in a closet. She had shot the first man who had stumbled upon her before they were finally able to subdue her.
“Here’s what I want you to do,” said Knight. “Frisk her and scan her for hidden weapons. When you’re through, bring her here.”
Almost seven minutes later, Craig arrived, pushing Jenna into the room at gunpoint.
“No!” she whispered as she nearly tripped over Blake’s corpse still on the floor. A tear slid down her face as she gazed in horror at his bullet-riddled body. She dropped to her knees and tried to check for his pulse, even though her hands were bound together.
“Don’t bother,” said Knight. “He’s gone.”
“You son of a bitch!” she screamed.
She was about to continue when she took in the room for the first time and further words froze in her mouth. Lee Cargill and Hank Vargas were on one side of the room, and against the back wall were all of her other colleagues, including Aaron Blake and another Jenna Morrison. Daniel Tini and Joe Allen were both dead, and Blake looked alive but unconscious.
“I don’t understand,” she said, rising to her feet. “You made duplicates of us?”
“I made duplicates of them,” said Knight, waving his hand to encompass the entire room. “But as you know, original versus duplicate is a somewhat arbitrary designation. Luck of the draw.” His eyes narrowed. “You mean you had no idea you were a copy? Blake didn’t tell you?”
She shook her head.
“Interesting,” he said, not sure what to make of this. “I had you brought to me,” he continued, “because I want to learn how Blake got as far as he did. And if he cooked up anything else. So I want you to tell me what happened. What he said to you. Every detail.”
“And I want you to shove a flaming poker up your ass,” she replied. “But we can’t always get what we want.”
Knight shook his head in amusement. “You’re already so much more entertaining than Lee and Hank here,” he said. “But make no mistake, in this case, I am going to get what I want. You’re going to tell me one way or another. So why not do this the easy way?”
Knight’s phone buzzed again, and seconds later a holographic image of yet another soldier appeared in front of him. Knight shot him a withering glare. “What is it?” he snapped.
“A guy on a dirt bike just drove up to a group of us,” the merc said. “I have no idea how he and the bike even got on the grounds. But he was waving a white flag, so we didn’t shoot him.”
“Who is he?” said Knight.
“Says he’s Aaron Blake, and insists we bring him to you.”
Knight’s eyes widened. “Show me?” he said.
The merc adjusted his phone so that another holographic imagine now appeared in the room. It was Blake, all right. There could be no doubt.
Knight looked rattled, even more so than he had when the other Blake was threatening to turn the mansion into a crater. “Frisk him thoroughly,” he ordered. “Remove his belt and any rings or other jewelry. Manually check him for a contact lens, and wand him with every sensor we have. Then bind his wrists behind his back and bring him here.”
“Roger that,” said the merc, ending the call.
Knight turned to Cargill. “How is there a third Blake?” he demanded. “And what is he doing here?”
“I don’t know, Edgar,” said Cargill with a smile. “Don’t tell me you lost count of how many of him you made.”
“What happened to your vow of never duplicating anyone?” demanded Knight. “You made an exception for the Lake Las Vegas Op, but I would have bet my life that was a special circumstance.”
“If only you had bet your life,” said Cargill. “I changed my mind, Edgar. Turns out that you can never have too many Aaron Blakes. There’s plenty more where this one came from.”
“No more conversation,” said Knight, glaring at his former boss. “I need to think.”
There was an extended silence in the room until the prisoner finally arrived, bound as Knight had specified. The soldier who brought him pushed him forward until he was next to Jenna and his identical twin, dead on the floor.
“You can leave now,” said Knight to the soldier, who promptly did so.
Blake took in the room with practiced efficiency. The entire team was present, including two duplicates of himself—one dead and one unconscious—a murdered Daniel Tini and Joe Allen, and both a seated and standing Jenna Morrison. His eyes returned to Knight. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”
“We’re all that’s left,” said Jenna hurriedly beside him. “He made other duplicates but—”
“Not another word!” thundered Knight
. “One more syllable and I’ll shoot you in the leg and let you bleed out.”
Jenna glared at him with the intensity of a supernova, but remained silent.
Knight took a calming breath and turned his attention back to Blake. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he said, shaking his head. “How many times do I have to kill you?”
Blake smiled. “We ask ourselves the same thing about you.”
“Why are you here?” demanded Knight. “Eager to share the fate of your double on the floor there?”
“Good guess,” said Blake, “but no. I’m here to make a deal.”
“Here from where?”
“Turns out Q5 keeps an extra of me, just for rainy days,” replied Blake. “Sorry it took me so long to get here,” he added, addressing his Q5 colleagues.
“How did you find me?” asked Knight.
“You know that truck my friends were in? The one heading to a farm in Nebraska? Well, I’m not going to lie, I was pretty upset when I learned they were butchered. So I flew to the site myself to inspect it, to try to find out who was responsible. I’ve been told I’m a very talented commando. But I think you know I quit the military to become a private detective, because I believe I’m a better detective than I am a soldier. I believe I’m especially good at coming up with an exhaustive list of scenarios that might explain a crime—no matter how unlikely.”
“And one of your scenarios was that I was behind it all, right?” said Knight.
“Yes. It was about the sixth one I considered. You did a great job of making it look like a mysterious third party was responsible. And for you to be behind it, you’d have to know we teamed up with the colonel. I couldn’t see how this was possible, but I decided to accept it as a premise and go from there. Assuming you did know we were coming, I considered possible steps you might have taken to throw us off the scent. ”
“Let me guess,” said Knight. “Once you suspected I used time travel duplication to play a shell game, you had satellites check to see if there were any trucks within fifty-eight feet of the tunnel when the colonel drove his pickup inside?”
“Very good,” said Blake. “Maybe you should have been a detective yourself. There was one truck parked outside of the tunnel at exactly this distance. Imagine that. The satellites had no trouble tracking it.”
“So if you knew I was here,” asked Knight, “why not a surprise attack? You could have entered a time machine fifty miles from here and flooded the zone with a thousand copies of yourself.”
“I wasn’t sure exactly where you were within your compound. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t make scores of other selves, knowing that all of them would have to die. Besides, if I attacked, you could use members of the team as hostages.”
“I can still use them as hostages.”
“But now there’s no need. I’m your prisoner.”
“So what deal are you proposing?”
“Take your men and leave. We’ll let you go in peace. Call this round a draw, and live to fight another day.”
“And if I decline?”
“Lose-lose,” said Blake, “we all die here.” He arched an eyebrow. “Go ahead, I know you want to ask, me and what army, right?”
Knight sighed. “I already know the answer. The United States Army. You brought them with, didn’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“Shit!” said Knight miserably. “I see it now. You asked to be taken to me so your allies watching the satellite feed would know my exact position within the compound.”
“Very good,” taunted Blake. He nodded toward one of the three large monitors in the room, which displayed a digital clock in its lower left corner. “How accurate does that keep time?” he asked.
“To the second,” replied Knight.
“Excellent. So in just under two minutes, all the fighter jets and combat helos that we planned to use on that farm in Nebraska will make their presence known. I wanted to give myself some time to explain the situation before they arrived here. They can be pretty intimidating. Once the Apache combat helos arrive and hover outside, watch the clock. The next time the minute digit changes, we’ll have exactly ten minutes left, to the second. If they don’t hear from me by then, they’ll hit us with everything they’ve got. So I suggest you unblock cell phone reception so it can reach beyond this complex and let me contact them. Tell them you’ve agreed to my terms. I’ll stay on the line while you leave here. They won’t touch you.”
“Déjà vu all over again, huh Edgar?” taunted Cargill. “It’s the exact same deal the other Blake offered. Only this time he’s not bluffing.”
Blake raised his eyebrows. “Really?” he said, glancing at his fallen duplicate. “And here I thought I was being original.”
A furious wave of noise began to penetrate the closed sliding glass door, growing louder by the second, as low-flying helicopters and higher-flying fighter jets all streaked toward Knight’s complex.
Less than a minute later, the Apaches all arrived, ringing the complex and hovering in place. Every inch of this helicopter had been built to be predatory, lethal, and it showed. The presence of even a single one was the epitome of menacing, but bunches of them together could evoke terror in the bravest of men.
Blake raised his voice to be heard over the powerful din. “Right on time,” he said, gesturing toward the digital clock. The seconds were counting up from forty-three. “As I mentioned,” he continued after waiting until the number reached sixty, “you now have exactly ten minutes. I have no doubt that your men are already fleeing. Even assuming they’re loyal, when you come face-to-face with this much air power, it’s every man for himself. But don’t worry, we’ll be letting them go in peace.”
Knight walked closer to the slider and looked out, just as four Raptors screamed by, seemingly close enough to touch. Their massive engines were so powerful that the entire mansion shook as they passed.
He then eyed the helicopters, still in place, for an extended period of time, as if making a calculation.
“You’re now down to nine minutes,” announced Blake, as the minute digit on the clock changed from a three to a four.
Knight snapped out of his reverie and a scowl came over his face. “Go for it,” he hissed. “Kill everyone in this room. It won’t matter. I’ve already made copies of Wexler and Tini, which my newly freed duplicate will be able to interrogate.”
“Based on what Jenna was trying to tell me,” said Blake, “I doubt they’re still alive. But even if they are, it doesn’t matter. The satellites have been watching. And no one has left the premises since my colleagues arrived. So any duplicates you might have made are still on the grounds somewhere. If you let the deadline pass, the military has orders to blow this entire complex into the stone age, allowing no one to survive, duplicates or otherwise. And then they’ll do seismology to be sure they didn’t miss any hiding underground.”
Knight’s face became a mask of hatred as he finally realized he had no way out. “Even if I did what you asked,” he said bitterly, “you won’t just let me leave here.”
“I’m a man of my word,” said Blake. “If you walk away, you won’t be touched.”
Knight shook his head. “Bullshit!” he spat. “No matter how honorable you are, the stakes are too high. You’d be a fool to let me waltz out of here, and I know you aren’t that. And you’re right, when my duplicate takes over, he can’t have Wexler’s work lost forever.”
He paused in thought. “So here’s what I’m going to do,” he continued. “I’m going to kill Lee, Hank, and Jenna in front of you. Both Jennas. You’ll get to see your friends die, and know they’ll be gone forever. Then I’m going to kill you. After that I’m going to go outside so your people don’t attack the mansion, making sure Nathan Wexler survives. Then I’m going to kill myself in front of them. This will unleash my duplicate, who will inherit a world in which Q5 has been decimated. My successor can then redouble efforts to get at Wexler’s work.”
&
nbsp; Knight raised his gun and pointed it at Blake’s forehead. “How does that sound, Detective? I’ll bet you didn’t see that coming.”
Blake sighed. “Have you checked the time?”
Knight glanced at the digital clock. “Only two and a half minutes have passed,” he said. “Which still gives me more than seven minutes to kill you and everyone else who’s expendable. Plenty of time.”
Blake kept his eyes on the clock and smiled. “You forgot one thing.”
“And what is that?” asked Knight.
“Give it some thought,” said Blake. “You’ll figure it out.”
Knight paused for several seconds and finally shook his head. “You’re stalling.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re stumped.”
“Tell me or don’t tell me,” said Knight dismissively. “Either way, you have seconds to live.”
“Okay,” said Blake. “I’ll tell you. You forgot that I’m a better strategist than you. I predicted this is exactly where we’d end up. I wanted to give you at least a chance to surrender, but I doubted you would.”
He paused for several long seconds, staring at Knight but carefully minding the clock in his peripheral vision.
“So I lied,” he continued finally. “My personal air force out there doesn’t have orders to destroy this compound, after all. The attack is designed to take you alive. And I lied about the timing of the attack. I said ten minutes, but it’s really a lot shorter than that. So I guess I was trying to stall. Right up until the actual attack, which is scheduled to happen . . . now,” he finished triumphantly, as the number of minutes displayed on the clock rose by one yet again.
Before he even finished the sentence several gas canisters crashed through the slider, shattering it into thousands of pieces. The canisters bounced off the floor and hit the back wall, releasing a thick, billowing cloud of knockout gas that rapidly filled the room.
Blake, armed with knowledge of what was about to happen, managed to hold his breath, delaying the inevitable by a minute or two, but everyone else in the room lost consciousness almost immediately.
Time Frame Page 37
