by JA Huss
Nothing.
“Yeah. Randy says whoever robbed the bank was calling himself the Red Robber and he used a computer hack that he thinks implicates Lincoln.”
“It’s not Lincoln,” I say, trying not to be annoyed. “If he was doing shit like this, I’d know. Believe me, Lulu, that guy is all kinds of twisted, but if there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that he won’t keep secrets from me. He tells me pretty much everything. Even when he knows I’m gonna get pissed. He could not pull off something as big as what’s been happening without help from me and Thomas. I covered for his ass last time so—”
“Last time?” Lulu interrupts. “What last time?”
I look over at her, narrowing my eyes. “If I tell you, you cannot say anything to Randy Shits.”
“I won’t,” she says. “Cross my heart.”
“All that shit that went down last winter was triggered by Lincoln. And it’s more than Blue Corp. Lincoln made all those scientists over there commit suicide by using some light trick on them.”
“What?” Lulu says, turning in her seat to face me. “What do you mean?”
“It’s complicated. But you were in the cave, right? You saw those jellyfish?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, he uses all kinds of weird jellyfish genes to make drugs. And he was doing some research for the military—”
“The military?”
“Well, kinda sorta.” I laugh. “It was a pretense so he could get funding and permits and shit. But anyway, Linc found a way to make people violent by stimulating their brains with flashing lights.”
“Holy shit. Do you think that’s why the riots—”
“No,” I say, cutting her off. “No. It’s not Lincoln.”
“OK,” she says, after a few seconds of silence. “I believe you. At least I believe that you believe it’s not him. But you have to admit, it’s kinda suspicious, right? The bank heist using some crazy awesome hack. The power goes out, the water treatment plant is down, and then the whole city goes into riot mode. If it’s not Lincoln—”
“It’s not,” I snap, losing patience.
“If it’s not Lincoln,” Lulu repeats, ignoring my mood change, “then at least consider the possibility that someone has hacked him and is using his research and tech to set him up.”
“Who would have the power to do that?” I laugh. “Like for real? Who could get past Sheila?”
“I don’t know, Case. But someone did. That’s the only credible explanation for all this. Maybe Sheila is corruptible?”
I laugh even louder at that. “She doesn’t work like that. She’s not under anyone’s control, not even Linc’s. She’s autonomous. Sentient. She does whatever she wants.”
“Well…”
“No,” I say. “Sheila would never do that to him. Ever. He made her. She’s like his mother, Lulu. For real. She is like his mother.”
But even as the words come out I know that’s not a good enough reason to excuse her.
Molly, Atticus, and Thomas all had a mother who sold them out.
Hell, you could even say my mother sold me out.
Lulu is silent for a while after that. Just stares out the window, enjoying the postcard-worthy view of the snow-covered mountains as we make our way back to the city.
There’s not too much traffic as I pick my way through the streets that lead into downtown. And aside from sheets of plywood covering broken windows of shops and trash littering the streets, things almost seem normal.
“OK,” she finally says, giving me a slanted look from the corner of her eye. “I get it. You know him. Like… really know him. And you don’t see any possible way he could be responsible. It’s just… sometimes we think we know people—”
“Lulu,” I say, my voice harsher than I intend. “He’s. Not. Involved. OK? We are not just friends. The bond that I have with these people goes behind anything you could ever imagine.”
She blows some hair out of her eyes in frustration. “I get that, but—”
“If you have to follow that declaration up with a but, then you don’t get it.”
“Fine,” she snaps, giving up and crossing her arms. “I’m done then. I’ll just pretend that all these clues don’t lead to him and—”
“Well,” I say, interrupting her. “I know you’re busy being self-righteous and sarcastic, but maybe you can make time to look at it from another angle. Instead of saying, ‘This has to be Lincoln,’ or, ‘This has to be Sheila,’ just because you have some preconceived idea that it’s a nice little trail of bread crumbs, why don’t you instead find another way to fit those pieces together that also makes just as much sense?”
I pull onto D Street so I can drop Lulu off at City Hall and get stuck at a light.
“I actually have done that, Case. Because you know, I am an educated person capable of thinking critically. But the problem is… when I try to make these pieces fit together in a new way, what I’m left with is…” She blows out a long breath of air that makes hair go flying away for her face.
“You’re left with what?” I ask. The car behind me honks and I realize the light has turned green. So I drive forward, astonished that there’s an open spot in front of City Hall.
“I’m afraid, OK?”
“Afraid of what?” I ask, my eye still on that open spot. The car in front of me moves forward and I slip into it, satisfied.
“That it’s gonna lead me to you, Case. OK? I’m afraid it’s gonna lead me straight to you.”
“Why the hell would you say that?” I ask, putting the truck in park and turning in my seat to face her. “Where do you even get these ideas?”
“What’s happening with you and your friends, it’s…” Lulu’s eyes go wide and she starts shaking her head no.
There’s a knock on the door behind me, so I turn and come face to face with Randy Shits and four CCPD officers pointing four weapons at me. “What the fuck?”
“Mr. Reider?” one of the officers says through the window. “Exit the vehicle and put your hands on your head.”
“What the fuck is this, Lulu?”
“Case, let me explain. OK?”
“Mr. Reider?” the officer says again. “If you do not immediately exit the vehicle, we will assume you are resisting arrest and proceed accordingly. Exit now, please.”
I unbuckle my seat belt and open the door. Two officers immediately grab me by the arms, push me against the truck, and start reading me my rights.
“What the hell are you doing, Randy?” Lulu yells. “Let him go! Why are you—”
“Good job bringing him in, Lulu,” Randy says, looking me straight in the eyes. “We’ll take it from here.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - LULU
“I am livid,” I yell at Randy when we finally make it back to his office. “How dare you do this?”
“What the hell is your problem, Lulu? This was the plan, remember?”
“I figured I’d be consulted on the plan,” I seethe. “You know, because you’re wrong about him and his friends and I figured you’d get my opinion on that before going off half-cocked and arresting him for something he’s not a part of.”
“Oh”—Randy laughs—“he’s a part of it. We have all the evidence we need. And believe me, we’re gonna catch up with his buddies soon enough. They’re all gonna be in custody by tonight.”
“You’re wrong,” I say. But all the things I was telling Case in the ride down the mountain are rushing back at me. Flooding me with doubt. What the hell are they doing up there? That cave? The jellyfish? Sheila? The operation with nanites and… Fuck! I have no way to process this.
“Just because you’re falling for him doesn’t make him innocent, Lulu.”
I huff out a long breath of air at that. Because Randy doesn’t say it unkindly. It almost comes off as sympathetic.
“Look,” he says. “I know you want to believe he’s not a bad guy. I want him to be good, if only to make you happy. But the evidence, Lulu. It’s overwhelming
. We tracked the transmission that took down the power and water treatment plant. It came from his fucking office.”
“What?”
“It’s him,” Randy says, enunciating the words carefully. “He’s the one. Case Reider, Lulu. He caused all this chaos. He stole that money. He blew up the cell towers, and cut the power, and fucked with the water. He’s a terrorist. And beyond that, he’s an anarchist.”
“No,” I say, turning away from Randy. I just stare at his desk, unable to believe this is how things will end today.
“Let me tell you,” Randy continues, “the shit he wrote down… well, it’s so beyond disturbing. He’s insane, Lulu. Like certifiable, belongs-in-an-institution, we-might-not-be-able-to-convict-him-because-he’s-crazy insane.”
That’s when I notice a SpyGlass underneath some papers on Randy’s desk. It’s flashing a red pattern that makes me want to look away. “Where did you get that? That product hasn’t even been released to the public yet. Did you take that from his office?”
“We found a manifesto on there that spelled it all out. We went into the ToyBox corporate office last night with a warrant and searched the place. And we came back with more than enough evidence to arrest him for domestic terrorism and a slew of other felonies. He’s our man. You need to accept it and get on with your job. Because if you can’t, you need to resign.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Resign?” I scoff and turn to face him. “I haven’t even seen the evidence. Since when do assistant DAs resign because they have an initial difference of opinion with their boss?”
“I’m not gonna let you fuck this up. I get it, you like him—”
“It’s not about liking him. I just think we need to look at all the evidence critically before we jump to conclusions. I was with him last night.”
“I figured,” Randy says, unable to control the venom in his voice. Is that… is that jealousy?
“Up at Lincoln Wade’s estate,” I continue. “And I learned a lot of things I need to process before I can come to a conclusion.”
“Well, I’ve already made up my mind. And I’m on my way to court right now to get things started.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“You’re not,” he says decisively. “You’re staying right here and shutting the fuck up until I come back. At that time, we’ll discuss what you know and why you think I’m wrong. But I’m warning you now, Miss Lightly.” He points his finger at my face and it takes every ounce of willpower I have not to smack it away. “If you get in the way today, I will fire your ass so fast. And I’ll ruin you. I’ll ruin all your chances of getting another job. Of working as a lawyer ever again.”
Before I can call him a bastard, he walks out, slamming the door behind him so hard the blinds on a nearby window rattle and shake.
I pace the office, wanting to leave, but unwilling to exit and have everyone look at me. I’m sure they heard us arguing.
So I force myself to take a seat at Randy’s desk, trying my best not to look at that flashing fucking SpyGlass.
How can this be? How can the man I slept with last night—with all that beautiful light inside him—be responsible for… all this?
But it does explain why he was so adamant about Lincoln’s innocence. Doesn’t it?
Does it?
Yes. He’s so loyal to his friends, he can’t let them take responsibility for what he’s done.
No. It cannot be. It cannot end this way.
The SpyGlass begins to beep and flash frantically, so I push aside this morning’s paper and quickly tab the power button on the screen the way Case showed me yesterday. The device powers off and I let out a sigh of relief.
You have two options, Lulu Lightly. You either accept the theory Randy is proposing or you don’t.
That’s it. Those are my only two choices right now.
Does the personality profile of Case Reider put together by Randy fit him? Or not?
I stand up and walk over to the window shaking my head. “No,” I say to the city outside. “No. That’s not him. That’s not the guy I know.”
So what will you do about it?
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX - CASE
I am not actually booked in, but I am relieved of my phone, my wallet, and the little bottle of pills and then walked towards one of the new updated holding cells at the police station.
Molly witnesses the whole thing, not saying a word to me, but talking frantically on her SkyEye phone in whispers. I can only assume the person on the other end of that call is either Lincoln or Thomas.
I stay calm. Say nothing. And when the holding cell door clicks closed with an electronic beep and there is nothing left to do but look through the bars, I take a seat on the concrete bed and stare at the SpyGlass built into the wall. It keeps reminding me of my rights on repeat, in between general updates on food and how the jail will deal with any health issues I might have.
That’s great. I’m being lectured by my own tech. Last time I do a fucking favor for the city and give them my products early.
I don’t know how long I sit there on the concrete bed before the SpyGlass begins to call out instructions for medical checks.
I can’t see any other cells. Each of us in this new part of the jail has the pleasure of staring at stark white cinderblock walls. But I can hear them yelling and murmuring about… whatever.
When the medical check alert sounds, they get loud. Like caged animals.
I just sit on my bed to wait it out.
“Prisoner 823417—Case Reider,” my SpyGlass says in an automated female voice. “Stand in the red box and put your hands in the red circles on the wall.”
“What the fuck is this?” I ask no one. “I don’t remember Lincoln writing this as part of the jail program.”
“Prisoner 823417—Case Reider,” my SpyGlass repeats. “Stand in the red box and put your hands in the red circles on the wall. This is your second warning.”
“Better do it, man,” some guy calls out, unseen, from the cell next door. “They don’t fuck about after the third warning.”
“What is it?” I ask the guy, walking over the to front of my cell, trying my best to peek around the corner.
“Prisoner 823417—Case Reider. Stand in the red box and put your hands in the red circles on the wall. This is your final warning.”
“Quick, dude,” the guy in the next cell says. “Do it!”
I turn to comply and take an ElectroDart to the chest. The shock drops me instantly to my knees, and half a second later, I’m writhing on the ground as two armed guards come in my cell and point their ElectroGuns at me, while two health workers hold me down by kneeling on my arms and legs. One says, “Open wide,” with a sneer as he dangles a pill over my face.
“What the fuck are you doing? I don’t take medication.”
“According to the prescription bottle you had in your pocket this morning, you sure do, motherfucker.”
“You assholes! Those are—”
But the pill is dropped into my mouth and both sets of hands clamp my jaw shut, pinching my nose so I can’t breathe. I writhe, mostly with anger, but also from the complete and utter lack of respect for my status as a suspect and not a convict.
I thrash around wildly, knocking one health worker off me and into the concrete frame of the bed. The other one goes next, but then the guards are there, pressing their ElectroDart guns into my chest.
I freeze, almost put my hands up.
And they shoot me again. Both of them at the same time.
The jolt in my body is more than I can take. The lights go out and my grasp on reality quickly slides away from me like water sloshing over the sides of a boat until it sinks completely.
“Case?”
Something is wrong with me.
Heat consumes my body. Snow melts under my feet, pooling into a puddle of water until small tendrils of steam swirl their way up my bare legs, surrounding me in a mist that disappears somewhere around my torso.
The city is calling.
The blue-black clouds hanging low in the sky are crowning the mountains, proclaiming them kings and queens. And the new cathedrals, which Thomas started building last spring, and which mark the four points of the compass, stretch up like they are reaching for those clouds.
A sharp pain shoots through my head and I have to close my eyes, shut the world out, and take a moment.
“Case?”
I want that voice to be Lulu’s so bad. I just want to go back in time to this morning when everything was perfect. I want to feel her pressed up against my chest, my arms tightly circling her body. Our heartbeats matched and even. The day just a possibility.
“Lulu?” I hear myself say.
“No,” the voice says.
I knew that. I know this voice. It visits me every night out on the roof.
“You know who I am?” It’s half question, half statement.
“I need the knife,” I say, coming out of the stupor. “It’s so fucking hot.”
“Be calm, Case. I will take care of everything. Just wait until you get new instructions.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN - LULU
I go through all the files they have. It’s a relief when I still have access to them. Maybe that’s an oversight by Randy, since he had to rush out of here this morning. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid and what I think is happening isn’t.
Is it?
They absolutely did get a warrant for Case’s company last night. And after reading the initial report about the evidence they tagged and bagged, it’s not looking good for him.
The SpyGlass in Randy’s office isn’t the only one they took, it seems. They found hundreds of them packaged up in a storeroom at ToyBox. Each one was pre-programmed with “terrorist messages”. There is no other descriptor. There are no details, so I have no idea what kind of terrorist message the form might be referring to.
Was that the educational software he was going to put in the schools?
Jesus Christ.
On top of that, they found evidence that the bank hack did, in fact, originate from a ToyBox computer. And if that wasn’t enough to make me sick, they also found evidence that the command to shut down the power company and mess with the water treatment facility also originated from ToyBox computers.
