by Aman Gupta
“Did it hurt?” asked Olivia.
“When?” asked Vik, looking at Olivia.
“When you realized how you had destroyed everyone, everywhere,” said Olivia.
“It wasn’t me,” said Vik.
“Oh, I know. Josh gets the credit or the blame, depending how you look at it,” said Olivia.
“It was Victor. He used the wrong card,” said Vik.
“Oh, bullshit. I looked inside the envelopes, you know. Shame you didn’t make them tamper-proof. I realized what those cards were. I ran a check on them, through the verifier. They were identical, the checksums matched,” said Olivia.
“I don’t believe you. You’re lying,” said Vik, in shock.
Olivia laughed. “I can’t lie.”
“Then you made a mistake,” said Vik. “And you shouldn’t have opened them.”
“Two identical cards in two identical envelopes,” said Olivia. “What were you thinking?!”
“The envelopes weren’t identical,” said Vik. He looked at Olivia in a daze. “Oh my god.”
“What?” said Olivia, as she stopped smiling.
“You switched them,” said Vik.
“No, that’s not possible,” said Olivia. “I couldn’t have.”
Olivia’s face went pale. She poured and drank another glass. He could see the remorse on her face.
“It’s okay. Nothing we could do now,” said Vik. “What’s done is done.”
“I’m sorry. All this time I blamed..” said Olivia, after a pause.
“Or maybe you didn’t, and he did it intentionally. It wasn’t exactly beneath his virtue,” said Vik, reaching out for Olivia’s hand.
She didn’t pull her hand away. He wanted to say something more to restore her spirits, but couldn’t find the words.
“Why did Anton steal the blue chip? How did he know about it?” asked Vik, after a minute of silence.
“He didn’t steal it. I have the original one. Anthony gave it to me on his birthday for safekeeping, and took a fake one with him,” said Olivia.
She took out the blue microchip and put it on the table.
“What if that’s a fake too?” said Vik. “Damn! Shouldn’t have said that.”
“What do you mean?” said Olivia.
“What if I got the real one, which Anthony supposedly had lost back then, amidst the chaos? Maybe I lied many years ago, telling Victor that the chip could be reset or downloaded again, just once in the holder’s lifetime, on their 75th birthday. Maybe I hadn’t programmed them that way. Maybe the best way to do that is to destroy the original chip,” said Vik. “Wow, the truth does set you free.”
Olivia laughed.
“Those were good days, huh. Fooling the world, doing whatever we wanted,” said Olivia.
“Yeah, wish we had invented a time machine to reminisce the halcyon days. No, it was too crowded then, on second thought,” said Vik.
“Still love your solitude, huh,” said Olivia.
“Yeah, you know what the sticker says. Once you experience it, there’s no going back,” said Vik.
“I don’t understand one thing, though. Why 11 year old girls?” asked Vik, few seconds later.
“I don’t really know. Anthony once told me that a girl was key to finding Josh. But before we could do some tests on her, we had to master the technique. Apollos and Alphas need a grown, stable mind. The father would recognize his daughter’s Beta, he told me,” said Olivia.
“Josh? Why do they think Josh is still out there? That doesn’t make any sense. And how would this girl know about Josh? Why are they looking for Josh, anyways?” asked Vik.
“I don’t know. You tell me. You hung out with Josh every day. How would a girl know about Josh?” said Olivia.
“I have no idea,” said Vik. “What did the girl look like?”
“Like a normal white ten year old girl. Brown hair, blue eyes. I only met her this once. She asked me to knock her out when we started doing the procedures,” said Olivia.
Vik looked at Olivia, who was starting to act normally. Vik realized that the body was fighting off the serum.
“I suppose you want to meet Ally,” said Olivia.
“Yes, please,” said Vik.
Olivia picked up her phone and asked Tiffany to come to her office with Ally. Vik unjammed the door.
After a couple of minutes, Tiffany came inside with Ally.
“There she is. All dressed up,” said Olivia.
“How do I deactivate the beta?” asked Vik.
“Betas can’t last long without the monitoring system as they don’t have the Linear Connection with the host anymore. Soon, they’ll spiral out of control and harm themselves and others, unless an Alpha manages to control them,” said Olivia.
“Why are you telling him?” said Tiffany.
“I trust him,” said Olivia.
“Who’s she? Your lover?” asked Vik, pointing his weapon at her.
“My assistant. Relax, she’s fine,” said Olivia. Vik lowered his weapon.
A beep sound echoed in the room, originating from Tiffany’s jeans. A moment later, Tiffany snapped.
“He told me you’re an idiot. I can’t wait to kill you,” said Tiffany, pointing a gun at Olivia.
She threatened Vik to drop the weapon and kick it away or else watch Olivia and Ally die before his eyes. Vik did so.
“What are you doing? Go ahead, shoot me. I’m not scared,” said Olivia.
She looked at Vik, as both of them realized the effect of the serum had vanished.
“Who are you working for?” asked Vik.
“None of your concern, Jay,” said Tiffany.
“I can’t believe this. I trusted you,” said Olivia.
“Oh, shut up, you thick skull blonde bitch,” said Tiffany. “I’ve made the call. They’ll be here soon.”
“Who will be here soon?” asked Olivia.
“The mysterious third partner of Anthony and Anton. Well since you’re dying and all, let me tell you that the third partner is really the second partner, who sent Anton,” said Tiffany, smiling.
“I can’t believe it,” said Olivia.
“Can you believe how stupid Anthony was, when he tried to rope in Anton to screw over my boss? That’s when we knew that Arnold had outlived his purpose once we get the chip. But he was smarter than we anticipated, I guess. Hid the fake chip in the town, gave the real one to you,” said Tiffany, as she grabbed the chip on Olivia’s table.
Olivia threw her glass of scotch at Tiffany while she was gawking at the chip.
Tiffany laughed, wiping away her face. Olivia laughed too.
“Why are you laughing?” said Tiffany.
“Bye, Tiffany,” said Olivia.
Tiffany turned around and saw Vik had picked up the weapon. She aimed to take a shot at him, but he shot her in the face, killing her instantly.
Olivia went over to Tiffany’s body, looking for the chip. Vik came over first and grabbed the chip from under Tiffany’s body.
“Looking for this?” asked Vik. He gave the chip to Olivia.
“I got your drive. Here, take it,” said Olivia.
“There’s nothing on it. Just some research compilations, and one half of a Trojan program,” said Vik.
“I never had a chance, did I?” smiled Olivia. “Was I ever right about anything, about you?”
“You were right about the letter O,” said Vik.
Olivia smiled. “I knew it.”
“Now, get out, before they get here,” said Olivia.
“Come with me,” said Vik.
“No, this won’t end unless they find me and this chip. They know I have the chip. You were right back then. I always let my ambitions cloud my judgment,” said Olivia.
“Please, we’ll find a way. We’ll keep running. Come with me,” said Vik, with a lump in his throat.
“It’s okay. We all have our share of sins to atone for, in our lifetime. Today’s my turn,” said Olivia.
“You didn’t d
o anything. It doesn’t have to be this way,” said Vik.
“Thanks for having my back when they didn’t, during the pan..epidemic. God knows I didn’t deserve it. It helped me survive. And I’m sorry for everything. And I..I..,” said Olivia, with tears in her eyes.
“I loved you, too, in a way, though I always denied it, for both our sakes,” said Vik.
“In another life, maybe,” said Olivia.
“In another life. I’ll make sure to wait for two months next time,” said Vik, smiling. She smiled too.
Vik turned around to leave, but then turned back and hugged her. They shared a kiss. Olivia pushed him away, telling him to leave.
Vik gave a small circular bead to Olivia and told her, “Peel the bead and throw it to blow them up.”
He ran out with Ally, when Olivia called out.
“Jay! You can stop punishing yourself for whatever you think happened to your wife. It’s over now. You should live in peace far away,” smiled Olivia. “Forgive yourself.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll see you soon enough. Hopefully, them too,” said Vik, and hurtled out the door towards the elevator.
“Hope you don’t. Not sure I want you to,” uttered Olivia, alone in the room.
He saw on the digital access panel that the elevator was about to reach the 40th floor in 10 seconds. They ran towards the fire exit.
The elevator stopped on the 40th. Men, in black gear, stormed Olivia’s office. She shot a couple of them, before one of them disarmed her, by firing at her hand.
A guard took the chip from her and went outside. He told the other guards on the radio to find Vik and the girl.
“Boss said thank you for your dedication,” said one of the guards, before he shot Olivia in the abdomen and threw her through the glass panel behind her chair. She tossed the bead on the ground while being thrown out.
Vik had gone down only a few floors when he heard a huge explosion on the top floor. Realizing what it meant, he and Ally rushed down. Seeing the guards approaching from the ground floor, they went to the second floor corridor through the emergency door.
Feeling trapped, he looked outside the window. It was almost dark but the streets were lit up as he saw bodies of hundreds of men and children burning, while thousands had already turned to ashes. The fire truck was abandoned in the middle of the street on the opposite side of the building. He couldn’t see Eric.
“What did you do, Eric?” murmured Vik.
Feeling a rage inside him, he took out a controller and pressed the button. The trivial skyline of Atlantis started to vanish, as loud explosions were heard throughout the town.
Ally looked in shock, but didn’t utter a word. She pointed out to a nearby shed, a floor below them but only a few yards from the window. Vik smashed the window panel, and they jumped onto the shed, almost falling off.
He jumped off the shed, and told Ally to jump. He caught her and they ran.
He saw a woman lying on the ground, the same clothes that Olivia was wearing. He flipped her over and saw Olivia. She had died.
He hugged her. Hearing footsteps, he picked her up and put her on his right shoulder, and ran through the smoke, holding Ally’s hand with his left hand.
When the smoke cleared, he saw an abandoned vehicle nearby, while its driver was dead from the gunshot wounds.
He pushed out the guy, put Olivia in the back seat and asked Ally to sit in the front seat and hide under the dashboard.
He maneuvered the car through the messed up streets, the debris and the carnage, as the buildings on either side of the roads were falling. He was going weak, like the blood flowing in his veins was giving up on him, though the adrenaline rush was compensating for it. They made it out the north gate of Atlantis. He slowed the car near the check point a few miles away but saw that it was abandoned.
They drove to New Bay. He stopped the car at Drew Mansion.
He told Ally to not tell anyone about what happened. She agreed. He knocked on the door, but realized no one was home. Ally called out for her grandparents but no one answered.
He asked Ally to get in the car, and they drove to West Gate, stopping by the gas station first. The attendant was extremely happy to see Ally who smiled back.
The entire town looked deserted when they reached there in the morning. He drove around to the West Gate hospital, and told Ally to stay in the car. The nurse at the reception told him that most of them had gone to the funeral of Ally Drew who killed herself couple of days ago, after stabbing other girls and her parents.
“They never found her body. She ran into the woods after she stabbed her parents..I mean her grandparents.. with a knife. The grandfather chased her through the woods, oozing blood himself. She reached the cliff and apologized. Mr. Drew told her to come back to him, but she shook her head, stabbed herself with a knife in her hand and fell into the abyss. They went down the cliff to search for her body but never found her.”
The nurse informed him that no one else had died, when Vik asked about it.
“No one knows what happened. The pastor at the chapel said that the devil had come for Ally’s soul, as her grandmother said Ally’s face had turned red before she stabbed her and the other girls in her room,” said the nurse.
The nurse noticed that Vik wasn’t in the best physical shape, and asked him to see a doctor. Vik shrugged it off and went out.
He got to the car. He saw Ally was caressing Olivia’s hair. He didn’t stop her.
They drove to the funeral home adjoining the chapel, and saw that thousands had gathered outside. He parked his car far away, hiding Olivia’s body in the trunk. He took out a cap from his bag and asked Ally to wear it. He wiped away the blood on his hands.
They sat in the car for a while. Ally told him that for a while, she could feel that she knew this town, even though she had never been here. For a while, she could feel a connection, a link that allowed her to be at two places at a given time. It was arduous, she recalled.
Vik told her that things might not be the same for her as her grandparents might not understand what had happened. She told him that she just wanted to see them one more time, and if they rejected her, she’ll leave. Vik looked surprised by her level of maturity.
Vik wanted to wait, but Ally insisted that they meet her grandparents.
“You’re right. No parent should feel like they’ve lost everything when they haven’t,” said Vik.
Wary of going through the front door, he took her from the back side of the chapel. But they had ran out of luck. It was barricaded from the inside, as Vik saw through the window when it won’t open.
Vik smiled, and shook his head. They went back to the front lawn.
“I’m a little scared,” she said, looking at the crowd.
“Me too,” said Vik.
He held her hand, and walked through the people who had gathered. Most of them had never seen Ally. They resisted when Vik asked them to give way, telling him to respect the dead.
He kept walking forward, with Ally just behind him. They walked through hundreds of rows of people and reached the chapel’s entrance. He saw a casket on the other end of the chapel with the pastor reciting verses. He let go of Ally’s hand and asked her to walk through the path alone to meet her family.
But she held on to his hand. Their footsteps synced when they walked next to each other. Vik told her to keep looking straight when Ally looked scared as people sitting on the rows of pew on either side glanced at her.
Some gasped, some almost fainted. The sound of their movement echoed through the chapel, when the pastor stopped speaking as he saw Ally Drew walking towards him.
Rick was sitting on the left aisle seat in the front row, and turned around. He stood up, so did the others including Ally’s grandparents.
“Not possible,” said the pastor.
Maria saw Ally when they reached the casket. Vik let go of Ally’s hand. Ally walked towards her grandmother, who got up in shock.
“My baby,” cried Maria,
as she hugged a teary eyed Ally.
Everyone in the chapel stood up. Vincent also hugged his wife and granddaughter. Soon, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Vik went up to the podium, and said, “Ally Drew faced the devil. She won.”
Everyone cheered.
He got down from the podium, and asked Rick to assist him in removing the casket before them. They took down the empty casket, as Ally and her grandparents stood in front of everyone. Everyone cheered for them.
Bob went outside the chapel and shouted the news to everyone. The loud cheer was heard inside the chapel, as Vik wiped away his tears.
Rick came to Vik, and thanked him. Vik started to leave, when Vincent stopped him and hugged him.
“Your real granddaughter is back,” whispered Vik in his ears.
“Jay! Jay!” chanted Rick, as the rest of the room echoed the chant.
Vik waved his hand, and walked backwards. Some shook his hands, some hugged him. He waved to Ally who waved back.
He went out through the lawn where everyone was rejoicing. He sauntered towards his car, and got inside.
He put his hand inside the left pocket of his jacket, and took out the blue microchip he had palmed earlier while handing over a fake one to Olivia.
“Sorry for the half-truth about the chip, Liv. I just didn’t know if you would understand,” susurrated Vik.
◆◆◆
Emma and Joey had found a lead in Old River, the day after Eric had resigned. In one of the communication logs with Anthony, Olivia had mentioned a safe house for a girl. She had told Anthony about an intelligence report she had received from one of her men who were embedded inside Anthony’s camp. The last thing they reported to Olivia were series of clues leading to the possible location of a safe house in Old River, after which the guy was never heard from. Olivia also mentioned in her voice notes that the drones were ineffective while scanning for heat signatures, as there were bizarrely too many man-made fires in the area every day like clockwork. Anthony had asked her to exercise caution, and not screw up the partnership by investigating Anton or infatuating over the ‘brain chemistry of the test subject’.
Emma analyzed the drone footages that Olivia had hidden on the server, pertaining to Old River. Most of it was useless as ground movements and establishments were hidden under the dense forest around the area. One of the clip that had been saved discretely, showed unusual movements in heat signatures at specific times near a two mile radius.
