by Magus Tor
Drew looked around, making sure he had a clear path and ran over to her. He had to make sure she didn’t go towards the playground. He just wanted to get her to safety. He then realized that there was no place truly safe in this game.
“Drew!” Max whispered when he reached her.
“Thank God you’re okay. We need to move. This place is too out in the open.”
“I went to the library, but the robot was there. It was almost as if he was waiting for me. I don’t know where to go.”
“Anywhere will be better than here. Follow me.” Drew grabbed her hand and tugged her along. At the far end of the park the path came to an end. “We’ll hide in there,” Drew said as he pointed to the harbor.
Just as they reached a boat towards the end of the second pier, Drew knew this is where they needed to hide. The name of the boat was “Safe Haven”. They climbed aboard and quickly went below deck. Once down there, they both took stock of their weapons and ammunition. Drew told her about the children knowing that it was better she heard it from him. After a moment of shock, she spoke.
“I wish I could say it wasn’t possible, but after what we’ve seen in this game I guess it shouldn’t surprise us.” Then, as if in denial, she stood straight up and said, “Let’s end this game,” and picked up two handguns that were large even for Drew’s hands.
Drew almost felt proud of Max’s determination; surprised but proud. He readied his weapons and they went over to the steps leading topside. When above, they both settled low on the deck. They could see all around them. It was the perfect place to pick people off, one by one.
In the distance, a small group of men were making their way towards the end of the path Drew and Max had just left. Both aimed their guns, and when the men worked their way closer, they both fired. It was almost as if they were in sync with each other’s minds. There was no hesitation. The men went down without a fight.
The gunfire obviously alerted others to their location, so they found themselves ducking bullets and returning fire. As Drew reloaded, he realized that Max was quiet. Afraid of what he would see when he turned, he did so slowly. She was gone. In her place he saw nothing but a pool of blood. No!
Drew went below hoping Max was just wounded. She was nowhere to be seen. Aahh! I hate this game! He knew he had to make his way to the library. The trick would be getting out of the harbor alive. He stood back and thought for a minute. He searched through a few cabinets and found what he was looking for. Being trained had its advantages.
Drew put all of the weapons into the waterproof dive bag he found, strapped it to his back and made his way to the back of the boat. It would be tough, but he knew that if he took it slow he would be able to swim and pull his way along the boats to the other end of the pier without being seen.
Once he made it to the other end, he looked around and pulled himself from the water, careful not to make a sound. Once comfortable that he had gone undetected, he worked his way to the tree line of the park. People were still firing on the boat. As he reached the cover of a storage shed, the boat exploded, flames shooting into the sky.
Knowing that the explosion would draw the attention of anyone around, Drew deduced that this would be the best time to make a break for it. He worked his way through the park and reached the car-lined street he had encountered all too many times. A few blocks and he would make it to the library.
Seeing children in the game was bad enough, but Drew never imagined that he would encounter what came next. As he reached the top of the steps to the library, Drew saw movement inside. He quickly threw open the door and fired a round. He knew that max wouldn’t be so obvious, so he felt good knowing he didn’t shoot her. What he didn’t expect was to find a little old lady lying on the floor behind the information desk. It broke Drew’s heart to know that she was the kill he had just made. The elderly, too? This is just too much! After that thought, Drew saw the machine gun lying next to her in a pool of blood. Thankful he had made it this far, he dabbed on the cologne he was growing to despise and moved on.
Making his way to the playhouse a few rooms away, Drew decided that if Max wasn’t there, he would hunker down and wait for her. That thought brought him a wave of pain. He had been shot. He hit the floor hard and rolled onto his side. He reached his hand out in front of him and fired, hitting the robot in the center of the glowing panel in the middle of its chest. It was the first time Drew had seen the robot stumble. It was also the last thing Drew saw.
***
When Drew sat up, he realized he was alone in the bed. The alarm was softly buzzing so he stood up and turned it off. He wondered where Max was, but only for a moment because then he smelled coffee and bacon. He walked out to the kitchen and saw Max in front of the stove, sliding the bacon out of the pan and onto a plate. In front of her sat another plate full to the edges with scrambled eggs, a bowl of fresh fruit, two glasses of orange juice and two tall cups of coffee bearing The Bean’s logo.
“Good morning!” Her voice was bright and cheery.
“Wow. You got an early start. Did you go out?”
“I sure did. I ran and picked up a few things at the market and got us some coffee.”
“You shouldn’t have gone out alone.”
“I know, but I couldn’t sleep. Oh, school was cancelled today so that they could offer grief counseling. I hope you don’t mind, but I called your office and let them know you wouldn’t be coming in today.”
“Okay. Well, you definitely are one step ahead of me!”
As they sat and ate breakfast, they watched the news. They found out that Martha was not the only death last night. Four other people also died due to unknown causes leading to brain hemorrhage. Drew decided that it was time to do what he should have done all along.
“I’m going to call my old office in Virginia and get my job back.”
“Drew, I thought you said you’d never go back to that life.”
“I have to do something. We can’t just sit here and let this happen. There has to be something I can do to figure out what the hell is going on.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“After we eat, we need to go back to my place. All of my clearance info is there, not to mention my work computer.”
The two sat, eating their breakfast and discussing what they were about to undertake. Drew explained to Max that if he was able to get clearance, everything they did would have to remain top secret. Then they talked about the game. Drew told her all about what happened after she disappeared. When they were done eating, they took care of the dishes.
“I think you should pack a bag for yourself and close up the house good. I think we should stay at my place at least for a little while. We can come back and check on things here.” Drew had no idea how long it would take for him to figure things out and he really didn’t want Max to be here alone.
“Okay, whatever you think is best.” Max said and then went and packed a bag. Then she called the school and let them know she would be taking her vacation time now.
Together Max and Drew locked up the house and put her bag and a few other items in her car. They drove over to Drew’s house and were surprised to find his neighbors home.
“Hey, Drew.”
“Hi. What brings you back so soon? I thought you were going to be away for at least a few more days.”
“With everything going on, we thought it best to be here.”
“Well, nice to have you back. Oh, Mike, this is Max. She’ll be staying here for a little while. Max, this is Mike. He and his family live on the first floor.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Max said and extended her hand.
“Nice to meet you, too. Any friend of Drew’s is a friend of ours. If you need anything, you know where to find us.” Mike grabbed the last of the bags out of his car and went inside.
Once upstairs, Drew quickly went to work. First, he set up his work computer. It had been four years since he unplugged it and packed it up. He then realized that poor Max was just sittin
g in the other room not knowing what she should do.
“Hey, Max, can you come back here for a minute? First door on the right as you come down the hall.”
Max peeked her head in the room and understood why Drew hadn’t put a bed in the spare room. The spare room was filled with a larger than life desk, five huge monitors hanging on the wall, a set of file cabinets, another table with two chairs and along the back wall, stacked three high, were about 12 banker boxes.
“Wow, I guess I don’t have to ask what your hobby is!” Max was obviously impressed with the wall of monitors.
“Well, I got the room this far but just couldn’t bring myself to plug the computer in. This was my life before I came to Chicago. I haven’t used this stuff in over four years.”
“It’s still impressive. So, what now?”
“Why don’t you go ahead and make yourself comfortable. You can feel free to put your stuff in the bedroom. The long dresser is actually empty, so it’s all yours.”
“Oh, that’s okay, I can just keep it in the suitcase.”
“No, I insist. We don’t know how long this whole mess will be going on, so as long as you are here, I want you to feel at home.”
Max gave in and while she was getting settled, Drew finally powered on the computer. While it was loading, he called his contact back at headquarters.
*****
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Hey. It’s me. I need back in.”
“What?” The voice sounded shocked.
“I know, I know. I don’t want to take assignments, I just want clearance.”
“You know that’s not how it works, Drew.”
“That’s how it has to work,” Drew replied. He then explained why he wanted the clearance. After about fifteen minutes of talking there was a long pause.
“I’ll see what I can do. If I do this for you, you know you will owe me big time, right?”
“Of course, how long?”
“Give me about an hour. I’ll call you back.”
“Thanks, man,” Drew said and hung up.
While he waited, Drew went out into the hallway and stuck his head in the bedroom. Max wasn’t there, but he could tell that she had taken his advice and made herself comfortable. It was the first time in Drew’s life that there was perfume on the dresser. He headed back out to the kitchen.
“I hope you don’t mind that I put a few things on top of the dresser.” Max almost sounded timid.
“That’s cool with me. Want something to drink?”
“Sure, I’ll have whatever you have.”
Drew grabbed a couple diet sodas out of the fridge and motioned for Max to follow him. They went up to the roof and sat down.
“Just waiting on a call.” Drew said, knowing full well that Max was curious but not willing to ask.
“Then what?”
“Well, then we get to work. We will have access to any information we could possibly need. Now we just have to figure out what information that is.”
For the next forty minutes, Drew and Max threw ideas back and forth about what could be causing the deaths. One idea seemed more ridiculous than the next, but at this point anything was possible, and in Drew’s experiences, nothing they could come up with could be totally counted out.
They both sat back in their lounge chairs, closed their eyes and thought. It was strange to both of them that at this time of the day it was so silent. Just then, the silence was broken by the sound of a text message coming in on Drew’s phone. Drew picked it up and opened the text. “Done,” was all it said.
“Alright, let’s go,” Drew said and stood up, extending a hand to help Max up and out of her chair. They both headed downstairs and walked directly to the spare room. Drew pulled one of the chairs over to the wall of monitors for max and they both sat.
Handing Max a pad of paper and a pen he said, “I need you to write down anything we think is important.”
“Okay.”
Drew logged into the CIA system and then proceeded to lay his hand down on a weird looking piece of equipment. He could tell Max was looking at what he was doing, confused.
“It’s a hand scanner. Nobody can get into the system without having their hand scanned.”
“Hey, I was thinking earlier, and maybe we ought to look into what your contact told you about Adam.” Max sounded apprehensive about her request.
“You think he has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know, but if your guy thought it was important enough to look into, maybe we should too.”
“You know, you just might be right.”
Drew went on to pull up all of the databases, one on each of the screens on the wall. The first thing he searched was “Center-Tech”. Apparently that was the name of the company Adam used to work for. Once he got the information he was looking for, he switched to another monitor and that’s where Max lost him.
“I have no idea what you are doing, Drew.”
“Just letting myself into the company system.”
“That doesn’t look like any website I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s because I’m not on their website. I’m in their system.”
Surprised, Max replied, “You’re a hacker? You hacked their system?”
“Ha-ha, I suppose if you want to get technical, yes.”
“Wow! What else don’t I know about you?”
They both laughed and then got back to work. It didn’t take long before Max spoke again, “Doesn’t it seem odd to you that someone as young as Adam worked in a position like the one he had with this company?”
“That was what I was thinking. Give me a minute or two and I will have your answer.”
After about thirty seconds, Drew made their first big discovery. The Adam Howard that worked for Center-Tech was actually Adam Howard, Sr. The Adam Howard that worked for The Bean was Adam Howard, Jr.
“Well, this changes everything. You writing this down?”
“I sure am. Do you think there’s anything to this?”
“We have to learn more about the technology Adam’s dad was developing. This isn’t going to happen overnight, so I hope you are ready. This could be a bumpy ride.”
“I’m ready. I love being a teacher, and I love my little students, but this is by far the most exciting thing I’ve ever done!”
Before they knew it, they had been sitting in front of those screens for about four hours. Drew decided that for now, they needed to take a break. He knew that he had to go in to work and take care of something, so he suggested that Max come with him and that when he was done at the office they could go get a late lunch.
They headed out, but rather than drive, they decided to take the train. They reached Drew’s office and when they walked in, Max knew instantly why Drew dreaded going to work each morning. It was stuffy and crowded with cubicles. She couldn’t figure out how they could work on calls when everybody’s voices traveled across the room.
“This will only take a minute,” Drew said and motioned for Max to sit in his desk chair.
Max tried to imagine herself working in Drew’s cubicle, but just couldn’t see it. She was, however, impressed with how neat he keeps his work space. She sat there for a while, listening to the other employees take their call and realized that Drew was not kidding when he told her how boring his job was.
Drew came back to the cubicle with a box and began packing up his belongings. Having only a few items at his desk that were actually his, it only took a minute and they were ready to go. As they headed for the door Max wondered why he didn’t stop to say goodbye to anyone. Heck, she didn’t even know he was going to quit his job until he started packing his box.
“You don’t want to say bye to any of your co-workers?”
“Not really. In the few months I have worked here I have never had a conversation with anyone outside of work related issues.”
“Okay, then.”
While on the elevator Drew realized that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea t
o take the train. If they had taken Max’s car they would have a place to put the box while they ate.
“We could drop your stuff off at the apartment and then go get something to eat if you want.” It was as if she was reading his mind.
“That would work. What do you want to eat?”
“Not really sure. We could order in if that would be easier.”
“Pizza and beer on the roof?” Drew asked with a smile.
“Isn’t that what you have with your dad?”
“How do you feel about Mexican food? There is a great burrito place across the street from The Bean.”
“Now that sounds yummy! Let’s go!”
They dropped the box off and walked around the corner to get their food. After waiting a few minutes, they were on their way back to Drew’s house. In the distance sirens could be heard.
“When will it stop?” Max’s question was followed by silence. Drew knew there was no need to answer.
Back up on the roof, the two ate their burritos and tried to piece together some sort of plan as to how they were going to move forward. Halfway through the meal they decided to take a break from the topic and actually enjoy their time together. They talked about their childhoods, movies and music. By the time they finished their food the sun was already starting to set. They decided to go back in and get back to work.
Drew went back to the computer and found out as much information as he could about Adam Howard, Sr. He didn’t know why yet, but for some reason Drew really felt sure that his technology had something to do with what was going on. With Max taking notes and making suggestions, they carried on late into the night.
At around 2:00 a.m. they decided to call it quits and go to bed. Drew set his alarm for 8:00 and Max realized that she had forgotten to bring her bean clock. Neither worried about it, though; they both knew that sleeping in wouldn’t happen.
*****
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Once again, Drew woke up in the game. He was in a small crowd and just in front of him was the robot. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to him as they moved down the street. He positioned himself at the back of the crowd hoping to go undetected until he could figure out exactly what was going on. He knew this meant that he was open from behind, but knowing that the robot is leading the way, Drew figured that nobody would dare come up behind them.
