He cleans his bedroom of any evidence he was ever there. He grabs his hoodie from the closet, brings the rest of his clothes to the washing machine, starts a hot water cycle.
In West’s bedroom, he secures the burner phone from West’s dresser and his trusty silencer from West’s suit jacket.
He starts the gas fireplace, throws the gloves in the flames.
He puts on his hoodie, takes the business card with West’s cell phone number and shoves it in his jacket. He uses the towel to push down on the front door handle and closes the door. He tosses the towel inside just as the door slams shut.
He pulls the burner phone out of his pocket and calls down to the front desk.
C h a p t e r 5 9
“YEP, THAT’S HIS car. West is here already.” Josh opens the door to the van before it’s fully stopped.
The FBI van parks in another handicapped parking space behind West’s black Mercedes, just outside of Élan International, 12th Avenue and 45th street, next to the banks of the Hudson River.
Pillsbury gets out after Josh. She hands him a headset. She talks loudly to accommodate for the wind. “These are a bit different. Just press the earpiece to talk.”
“Got it. They’re just like the ones we’re using for the event.” Josh puts the headset on, presses the earpiece. “I don’t get a pen this time?”
Agent Pillsbury looks at the agents. They all laugh.
“What?” Josh asks, picking up his speed.
Agent Pillsbury runs beside him. “The earpiece was also the microphone. That pen? Some random pen I found on the floor of the van.”
Josh jumps up the curb. “That was mean.”
“I thought it was fun. I know how you like all the spy stuff.”
They all begin to take the stairs leading up to the building. Josh runs up more quickly than the rest of them.
“Everybody good?” Josh yells down at them from the top of the first tier of steps.
“Good back here!” Agent Pillsbury pauses midstep, then almost loses her balance. “Woah!”
A wind gust almost knocks her over as she tries to maneuver the second tier of stairs.
“You okay?” Josh talks over the straight-line winds. “Not sure what this is, it was supposed to be beautiful tonight!”
“You go on. I’ll catch up to you!”
Josh is already at the top of the final tier. The two male agents follow close behind.
“Josh!” Tracy runs up to him, gives him a huge hug. “Oh, thank God. What happened to your eye? Did they do this to you?”
“I’m fine. Have you seen West?” Josh asks.
“Yes, just a few minutes ago.”
“I gotta go. I’ll talk to you soon!” Josh runs up the final set of stairs to the lobby, looking around for West.
“I’ll let Shawn know you’re okay!” Tracy yells. “He’s here, you know!”
Josh hears one of the agents through his earpiece. “We’re at the lobby entrance. How to proceed?”
“Follow his lead,” he hears Agent Pillsbury say. “I’ll be up in a minute or two.”
Josh sees Jamal alone at security. “Jamal!”
He runs to the desk, the two agents close behind.
“Josh.” Jamal grabs a badge. “Man, it’s good to see you. You look like shit. What the hell happened, man?”
“Long story.” Josh catches his breath. “Have you seen West?”
“Yeah, just a few minutes ago. He headed to the elevators.”
“Jamal, I need an event headset and four VIP badges, please, one for me and three for my friends.” Josh is bouncing up and down, looking at the elevators.
“You already have a headset.”
“Different headset. This, this is for—this is for something else. Just need an event headset please, hurry. Where did West go?”
“No clue, man.” Jamal sees FBI on the back of one of the agent’s jackets. “Josh, here’s your badge and headset. We are now completely out of badges.”
“Jamal. I know how many badges there are. You can’t be out.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Did West put you up to this?”
“Nobody without clearance is to be let anywhere past the lobby.”
“Jamal, please. You have no idea what’s going on.”
“I’m following orders.”
“Jamal, look.” Josh exhales. “I know they probably have something on you, something awful.”
Jamal’s lips turn downward, his eyes squint.
“I’ve seen the files,” Josh says. “They have shit on a lot of us. It doesn’t matter anymore. You gotta trust me. This is important.”
Jamal looks at the agents, then back to Josh. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”
Josh pats his hands gently on the desk. “Can you at least tell me where the control suite is, so I can find West on the security cameras?”
Jamal thrusts his head forward. “Across the lobby. Down that hall. Three doors down. I’ll let my guys know you’re coming.”
“Thank you.” Josh turns to the agents. “Come on, fellas.”
“No, no.” Jamal stands between them and Josh. “Just Josh.”
The agents stand aside.
“You’re the FBI,” Josh says. “Can’t you just do what you want?”
One of the agents steps forward, leans in to Josh. “Don’t make a scene. We’ll be fine.”
Josh pulls the two agents aside. “Once I get in the control room, I may need to change out my headset, so I need you to tell Pillsbury to meet me there. If she’s not going to demand a VIP badge, I’m just down the hall over here. I’ll let her in. Got it?”
“Got it.”
C h a p t e r 6 0
JOSH USES HIS employee pass to unlock the control room. He shows his VIP badge as he enters, then immediately his mouth drops.
The suite is two stories high, filled with large high-definition television monitors showing vantage points from at least sixty cameras across the three-building structure. Any people in the spaces have a semitransparent overlay of their body temperatures, along with a facial recognition notation of who they are, where they live, their criminal histories, and location coordinates. The whole system has a three-dimensional look to it, with rotating angles following people’s movement. The feeds are on twenty-second rotations, showing other views from additional cameras.
“Dear God.” Josh recognizes the system immediately. “ArchEngine.”
One of the two muscled security guards—tall, moustache, dark spikey hair—looks up from his seat. “Remarkable, isn’t it? I’m Manny Vasquez, controller. That’s DonDon over there. And you are?”
“Josh Harrison, executive creative director. This entire building is run by ArchEngine, isn’t it?”
“How did you know?”
“I’ve seen this interface before.” Josh pulls the marked flash drive from his pocket. “In fact, I need to use it to access this file. This whole building is in danger, and this file is crucial to understanding why.”
“Danger? I doubt that.” Manny stands. “This building is controlled by a living, breathing, integrated management system with over three million sensors dispersed throughout the three buildings. The sensors can pinpoint any anomalies in a matter of nanoseconds. Everything’s been clear so far.”
“Sensors? What do you mean?”
“I mean, not five minutes ago, I saw you walking into the lobby after ArchEngine alerted me to your gun-toting friends. I immediately knew you were Élan’s executive creative director, and they were FBI agents. Got their federal identification numbers and everything so I knew you were fine. In fact, here’s another agent walking down the hall right now.”
Josh looks up at the center screen. Agent Pillsbury is taking respite against a wall, her hair a complete disaster. The ArchEngine thermal scan is showing a gun at her waist, while a small notation shows the following:
PATSY PILLSBURY
FEDERAL AGENT
ID #05051969<
br />
RESIDENCE: CLASSIFIED
“That seems like a lot of information for an FBI agent to have floating out there,” Josh says.
“We got a software update this afternoon,” Manny says. “West ordered it this morning from ArchEngine.”
“Can you bring up James West?” Josh asks.
The system automatically brings up James West in the center console. West is getting off the elevator, 68th floor, North Tower.
“Did you do that?” Josh asks.
“No. You did that. It listens. If the system hears a question it knows the answer to, it will automatically help you out, within reason. Most of the time you have to say ArchEngine first, but sometimes you don’t. Gets annoying as shit sometimes.”
“Can you pull up my ArchEngine file for me?” Josh holds out the flash drive.
“Sure, hand it to DonDon. He’ll download it and show it on the center monitor.”
Knock, knock.
Josh turns around. “That’s—”
“FBI Agent Patsy Pillsbury, we know.” DonDon walks to the door and opens it.
Josh can’t take his eyes of the screens. He hands the flash drive to DonDon, who inserts it into a nearby drive.
“What is all this?” Agent Pillsbury asks, still a bit winded.
Josh turns to look at her. “Whoa!”
“Don’t.” She pats down her hair, looks at his computer screen. “You uploading the ArchEngine plan?”
“Yes, another minute or so, but look at all of this.” Josh walks a few steps closer to the enormous wall of monitors. He points. “This entire security system is run by ArchEngine. It’s tracking everybody.”
“No way.” Agent Pillsbury scans the plethora of screens.
“No wonder West said they stopped all their surveillance. The building is doing it for them now. Look there, at the center monitor. ArchEngine, zoom in.”
“Is that West?” Agent Pillsbury watches as the picture zooms in on a man sitting at his desk, head in hands. “It looks like he’s crying.”
“He is.”
“Was he like this when you came in?”
“The guards and I first spotted him walking the penthouse floor of the North Tower. He walked straight to his office, looked out the window, poured himself a drink, then sat down. He’s been like that for the past few minutes.”
“I need to talk with him.”
DonDon’s computer pings.
“Don’t you wanna see the ArchEngine file first?” Josh asks Pillsbury.
“Sure.”
“You ready?” DonDon asks.
“Yes,” Josh answers.
“Holy moly.” Agent Pillsbury watches as the image of the entire building zoom in and out, switching from realism to 3D. “We wondered about this a few weeks ago when we got your drives. We didn’t have the program to open this file.”
“Too expensive for government work?”
“Something like that.”
“ArchEngine, show full screen.” Josh watches to see if his command works. The 3D image of the building’s exterior now takes over the entire wall. “Wow.”
Pillsbury points to the middle of the screen. “Right here, this atrium. This is where the party is, right?”
“Yep. Center Tower atrium.” Josh folds his arms. “ArchEngine, show me overlay FB.”
“This overlay is password protected. What is the password?”
“Plutus. P-L-U-T-U-S.”
“How’d you know the password?” Pillsbury asks.
“From Kimbo’s letter. He was drunk when he wrote it, so it was quite detailed. He knows everything about this company, everything about this plan.”
“What’s happening down there?” Agent Pillsbury points to the bottom center of the screen, to a room underneath the Center Atrium marked SUBLEVEL ONE.
Josh watches as part of the room on Sublevel One turning a pulsating red. He points. “I see it: Sublevel One. Something’s happening.”
Thin red lines begin to spew out from the Sublevel One area in a hundred different directions, some extending underground, some going straight up, then crawling up each of the three buildings into every room of the megacomplex.
“What’s happening?” Agent Pillsbury asks.
“It’s an interactive 3D rendering,” Josh replies.
“What are those red lines?”
“I’m guessing they’re gas lines. ArchEngine, zoom in on Sublevel One.” The full screen zooms in on the red pulsating area of Sublevel One. “There’s a box in this room down here, see? Big metal-looking box, glowing red. See it? In between all these foundational poles?”
“Foundational poles? Holding up an eighty-story building? That doesn’t seem right.”
“No, the poles are just to hold up the atrium. The atrium is simply attached to the front of the center building. The atrium isn’t really part of the entire Center Tower, just connected to it through doorways.”
“I see,” Agent Pillsbury says. “You know a lot about this building.”
“I’ve done a lot of research since I found the stolen blueprints in Walter Gordon’s safe.”
“Excuse me, did you say Walter Gordon?” Manny the security guard asks. “The Élan guy who was shot and killed in Union Square about six months ago?”
“Yes,” Josh replies. “Why?”
“Just odd, I guess. When the ArchEngine subcontractors were showing me and DonDon how to use the new security system, we were in awe. They could tell, so they told us all about it. They said the brainchild was Walter Gordon; he’d been consulting on ArchEngine since conception. This whole security system was his idea.”
Josh and Agent Pillsbury turn to each other.
“He must’ve found something,” Josh says.
“That’s why they killed him,” she adds. “But what could he have found that was so important it would warrant a hit? The gas lines? Some sort of insurance fallback? I wonder what the plan is.”
“I have no idea, but Kimbo says the answers are in these overlays.”
“What’s the box in the middle of Sublevel One, you think?”
“Yeah, this box. It’s weird. It looks like it’s hooked to something. No, it’s hooked to lots of things. See all those wires?”
“What the heck is going on?”
“ArchEngine, show me overlay S-I-M.”
“This simulation is password protected. What is the password?”
“Plutus. P-L-U-T-U-S.”
Josh and Agent Pillsbury watch as the simulation zooms in on the large box in the room on Sublevel One. A digital display on the front of the box turns on, counting backwards from five minutes.
“What is that, a bomb?” Josh asks.
“Shh!” Agent Pillsbury hears rattling. “Look at the wires, the ones connected to the box. See? They’re tightening. Hear that?”
“ArchEngine, turn up the volume.”
They hear a hushed cranking sound, like a fishing reel pulling in a cast line.
They watch as the tension on the wires leading to the big metal box grows tighter, pulling on the wall behind it in about twenty different places.
Suddenly the wires turn lose. Twenty or so pins clink to the ground, followed by a loud hissing sound.
“Now there’s hissing.” Agent Pillsbury says. “Gas.”
“Yep.” Josh watches each of the rooms begin to fill with a computer-simulated cloudlike substance, first in the underground structures, then in the atriums and lower offices, then in the hotel, the food court, and finally the upper offices and condos.
“My gosh,” Pillsbury says.
The computer zooms back in on the box. They watch as the digital counter counts down from three minutes and some change.
“ArchEngine, fast-forward three minutes.”
ArchEngine responds, fast-forwarding the scene. They watch the gas clouds quickly thicken and thicken. The simulation resumes normal playback at twelve seconds, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
The box i
n the sublevel room explodes, the sound effects rumbling through the control room speakers in a thunderous bass. Pillsbury grabs Josh’s hand.
Both of the security guards look toward the screen.
The simulation zooms out, then slowly tilts from the bottom of the building to the top, displaying the effects of the explosion: a violent eruption of the underground structures; glass shattering out of each of the atriums followed by enormous clouds of fire and smoke; the windows from the ground to the top of the building exploding outward and crashing in an upward wave, until the entire city block falls down to the ground as if it never existed.
The sound fades to silence quickly, leaving a ringing in their ears. A pop-up window appears with a tiny beep: REPEAT SIMULATION?
“Jesus Christ,” Josh says. “Fallback is a plan to blow the building.”
“Everyone.” Agent Pillsbury stands up, pushes her ear to talk to her agents. “We have to evacuate the entire building now. And somebody get me a bomb squad. I need them here in less than twenty minutes.”
“ArchEngine activates the evacuation plan,” Manny says. “If there’s nothing wrong, we can’t do anything without a manual override.”
“You’re kidding me,” Agent Pillsbury says.
“Wait,” Josh says. He turns to Agent Pillsbury. “ArchEngine, show me James West again.”
Agent Pillsbury pushes her headset again. “Hold up on the evac, repeat, hold up on the evac. Get the bomb squad here as fast as you can.”
Josh points to the monitors. West is still at his desk, drinking.
“Look at him,” Josh says. “He couldn’t follow through with it.”
“He could just be waiting for it to go off.”
“The timer is only set to five minutes. It’s been longer than that.”
“He’s right,” says DonDon. “Nobody ever goes down there; the system would’ve alerted us to any movement.”
“Looking at the logs,” Manny says, “West pressed the elevator button for Sublevel One, but he never exited, never entered Sublevel One at all. He closed the doors and went to his office level.”
“He must’ve changed his mind,” Josh adds.
“Despite the chaos we’d incite, we should err on the side of caution here, and proceed with a manual evac,” Pillsbury says. “We’re talking a whole city block. In Manhattan. This building was designed to blend in with the structures around it. If it explodes, no telling how many would die.”
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