Brainrush 05 - Everlast 02: Ephemeral (9 page)

J
AKE
PACED AS THE OTHERS
settled around two bar tables in the Wreck Room. His
nerves were ragged and his mind was reeling. He still couldn’t fathom the depth
of evil of a man who’d tried to murder over a hundred innocent kids, the same
man who supposedly held Jake’s family.

Marshall’s swift actions had saved all but six of them,
first from the fire, and later from the deadly chips buried under their skin.
Jake and his friends had slipped away unnoticed, but not before waiting for
additional emergency personnel to arrive to take care of the rest of the teens.

Marshall held up the baggie with the two bloody chips they’d
removed from Dolphin and Shamer. A black, gooey substance stained the inside of
the bag. “They burst open when we drove past the other...children.” His voice
faltered and he glanced at Dolphin and Shamer, who sat beside him with bandages
around their wrists. Their eyes were red and puffy. Marshall sighed. “The chips
must’ve been programmed to go off when they traveled beyond a certain distance
from the facility. Sort of like an ankle bracelet. Step beyond the line and an
alarm goes off. Except these suckers were designed to empty poison into the
body.”

Lacey placed a hand on Shamer’s uninjured arm. “Thank God we
happened to stop in the park.”

Dolphin looked at Marshall. “And thank TurboHacker for
knowing what to do.”

Shamer nodded. “You saved our lives.”

“And you saved mine,” Marshall said.

Pete shook his head. “Embedded poison chips? The ultimate
failsafe for a paranoid megalomaniac.”

Jake turned toward them. “Yeah, but this operation is way
too big to be a one-man show. They had teams in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and
Rome, with connections to Interpol, the Italian GIS, and even inside Doc’s top-secret
organization. And now they’re willing to kill scores of their own employees to
cover their tracks as they make off to some remote jungle headquarters in
China?”

Marshall said, “And it would’ve worked, if everyone had been
trapped inside when the incendiaries went off.” He turned to the teens. “Are
you certain you can locate their base?”

Shamer sniffled. “We were only there once. They allowed us
to go with BlackFlag when he returned home for his father’s funeral. It was a
rare exception to be allowed contact with family members but DarkMatter had
strong family ties there. So he allowed it. It was sad.”

“I remember the way,” Dolphin said. “The windy road, the mountains,
the jungle, the ten-hour drive...BlackFlag’s mom weeping. We met some of
DarkMatter’s cousins at the funeral. Everyone in the village attended.”

“Not everyone,” Shamer said. “None of the people working in
the headquarters building attended. And none of the soldiers.”

Pete leaned in. “Soldiers?”

Jake shook his head.

Marshall said, “I’ll bet they weren’t Chinese regulars,
right?”

“No,” Dolphin said. “They wore the same type uniforms the
mercenaries do in the video game.”

Marshall nodded. “It figures. The players targeted on the
leader board were gatekeepers from all over the globe, including China, which
means we’re dealing with a rogue operation of some sort.”

“But why go to the trouble of grabbing
us
from all
over the world?’ Jake said. “They had us in their sights so why not just pull
the trigger?” His mind raced. “And how is Everlast connected? And why the
hell
did they need a top-of-the-line editing bay?”

Shamer and Dolphin exchanged a glance. Dolphin said, “We
heard about that. It was a separate project of some sort. Very secret.”

“But very important,” Shamer added. “Three of the yellows
came from the film industry. They arrived a week ago. They kept to themselves,
especially since they couldn’t talk code like the rest of us. But they were
very busy the last couple days.”

“See?” Jake said. “What’s
that
all about?” The words
tumbled out even as his mind flashed through the past seventy-two hours. The
crew who’d tried to run him off the road back home, wearing camera-glasses, the
same type the GIS operators had worn in Italy. And then there was the camera in
the interrogation room in Amsterdam. “They’re capturing video of everything.
But why? And why am I at the center of it?”

He started pacing again, breathing hard, trying to force his
mind to make the connections for him to understand what was going on. But his
brain wasn’t cooperating and his frustration mounted. He stopped short when he
felt Marshall’s hand on his shoulder.

“This isn’t just about you, Jake,” Marshall said. “They
grabbed me because of my online handle.”

He spun around. “Your what?”

“TurboHacker.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

Marshall exchanged a glance with Dolphin and Shamer.

Dolphin spoke up first. “It has
everything
to do with
it. He’s been at the top of the leader board since the beginning.” He seemed to
brighten up, and Jake marveled at the kid’s resilience.

“The leader board?”

Marshall opened his mouth but Shamer cut him off. “The game?
Spider? Hello!”

Jake frowned, more confused than ever. He looked from the
teens to Marshall. “So this is all about a video game?”

Dolphin and Shamer nodded, but Marshall shook his head.

“It’s way more than that,” Marshall said. “The Spider game
is only a means to an end. I suspect DarkMatter—Jiaolong—is using it to somehow
probe the brains of the players.”

“Sure,” Shamer said. “But only to make the game better.”

“That’s right,” Dolphin said. “It all started with Find the Card.”

“What’s that now?” Pete asked.

Dolphin said, “It’s a game we used to play when we first started
beta testing. Prior to game play, random playing cards were dealt to each of
the sixteen greens scheduled to play. The card values were kept secret from one
another, and the players split up and hid them in random places throughout the
facility. The more remote the hiding place, the better.”

“Then after each session,” Shamer said, “the players gathered
together and DarkMatter would guess the value of each player’s card, as well as
its hiding spot. At first it was hit or miss. He’d guess a few cards correctly,
and maybe one or two hiding places. And the next day a new group would play and
he’d do it all over again. It wasn’t a big secret or anything. He and the
yellows were working on a biofeedback subroutine that would ultimately allow us
to create a more personalized gaming experience for each player. It’s the wave
of the future.”

“You said you
used
to play this Find the Card game?”
Lacey asked.

“We stopped about six months ago,” Dolphin said. “By then, DarkMatter
could identify every card and its location with one hundred percent accuracy.
Is that important?”

Marshall locked eyes with Jake. “It is when we consider that
the current list of players consists of the gatekeepers for top-secret networks
across the globe.”

There was a moment of stunned silence as the ramifications
set in.

 “Bloody hell,” Pete finally said.

Skylar shook her head, Lacey bit her lip, and Jake’s gut did
a somersault.

“So that’s why they were looking for TurboHacker?” he asked.

Marshall waited a long moment before answering. “Well,
that’s just it, Jake. It wasn’t really me they were after.” He blew out a
breath. “It was Alex.”

 The news knocked the wind from Jake’s lungs. Marshall
reached out, but Jake pushed him away.

“So what’s next?” Skylar asked.

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve got a plan.”

“Lay it on us,” Marshall said.

“First, I’m going to need you and Lacey to get back home
and—”

Marshall waved a hand. “Don’t even think about it.”

“But it’s important—”

“Dude, I know you, remember? Don’t give me that crap. I know
what you’re trying to do.”

Jake grunted in frustration. “You’re finally safe, damn it.
I want to keep you that way!”

“Screw that. You’re not going anywhere without me.”

Lacey was quick to join him. “Or me,” she said, crossing her
arms. Dolphin and Shamer rose to stand beside them.

Jake turned to Pete. “You’ve done so much already. But this
isn’t your fight—” He stopped when Feng marched into the room with another man.
They were dressed in Chinese army uniforms.

 “The bribes have been paid and accepted and the trucks are
outside,” Feng said, tossing Jake a compact satellite phone. “The rest of the
gear is already loaded. Let’s go.”

Pete winked. “Does that answer yer question?”

Marshall patted Jake on the shoulder. “Come on. We’ve got
work to do.”

Jake clenched his fists. Once again he was drawing people he
cared about into harm’s way, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. He
swore silently to himself that he would do whatever it took to protect each and
every one of them. But the promise felt empty even as it crossed his
consciousness. He was a deteriorating mess and could barely keep
himself
safe. So he made himself another promise, one that even his failing physical
and mental condition could not prevent him from keeping.

When this is over, I will never place my friends and
family in harm’s way again.

It’s the promise of death that
inspires a man to greatness.

F
RANCESCA
STRUGGLED
to break through the fog of a heavy sleep. Her eyelids were
crusted together, and she had to arch her brow to snap them free. She squinted
as she adjusted to the brightness of the room. She rolled her head to one side and
saw a blurred figure approaching. She blinked to bring him into focus.

“T-Tony?”

“Go slow,” he said, the deep timbre of his voice like a
salve, his broad shoulders and warm smile calming her nerves. He laid a hand on
her brow. “It’s going to take a while for the drug to wear off.”

“Drug?” she said. Her eyes darted past him to take in the
modest furnishings in the room—two additional beds, both made; a dresser;
mirror; wardrobe; and a door leading to a hallway. The air tasted humid. “What
drug? Where am I?” She rolled to one side, pushed herself to a seated position,
and her vision swam. “Ohhh...” she groaned. Tony grabbed her arms to steady
her.

“It’ll pass. Take a few deep breaths.” He turned and spoke
toward the doorway. “She’s awake.”

The two men who strode into the room added to her confusion.

“There’s a sight for sore eyes,” Becker said in an
Australian accent. His dark skin, blond hair, and sparkling blue eyes spoke to
his mixed aboriginal heritage.

“No worries, ma’am,” the twentysomething Aussie next to him
said. “You’ll be apples before you know it.”

“Beck? Jonesy?” she said, her bewilderment mounting. All
three of the men appeared haggard, sporting two-day beards—at least. The
Aussies were both dressed in the camouflage uniforms of the Australian Special
Air Service Regiment, while Tony looked like he was ready to go to a baseball
game in a polo shirt, cargo shorts, and sneakers.

 “Are the children here?”

“Steady, love,” Becker said. “It’s just the four of us for
now.”

Jonesy motioned toward the empty beds. “Though it looks like
our hosts had been expecting more company.”

“There are thirteen beds in all,” Tony said. “We figure this
here’s the girls’ room. Us guys woke up across the hall in bunks.”

She shook her head and pushed to her feet. Her muscles were
stiff and her head throbbed, but she was able to steady herself. She slipped into
her sandals, smoothed her wrinkled peasant dress, and licked her lips. “Water?”

Ten minutes later her head had cleared, but her mind still rattled.
They were in a rustic gathering room that included a kitchen, dining nook, and
lounge area. Sunlight from two large skylights brightened the space. The three
men sat around the dining table, watching as she peeked through the cracks in
the shuttered windows, which had iron bars on the outside. She looked both ways
to see rows of densely packed hovels and shops, the upswept corners of the
structures clearly identifying them as Chinese. A weathered man pushed a fish
cart along the sodden earthen road, and a trio of barefoot women in peasant
clothes and coolie hats nodded as he rolled by. A pack of children ran past,
chasing a soccer ball. They glanced casually at the two armed men standing
guard outside the door to where Francesca and the others were. The scene was
backdropped by a towering jungle landscape.

She shook her head and returned to her chair at the table. The
water bottle in front of her was empty, but the steaming bowl of soup Jonesy
had poured for her was untouched. The men’s empty bowls were stacked to one
side, along with the plastic spoons used to consume it.

“It’s mighty tasty, love,” Becker said. “And it’ll do you
some good. We found it simmering on the stove when we woke up.”

She pushed the bowl aside and rubbed the bruised puncture
marks inside her elbow. Eating was the last thing on her mind. “Let me get this
straight. We were drugged, brought halfway across the world to a godforsaken
village somewhere in China, and woke to a steaming pot of soup in a house with
enough beds to accommodate everyone on the emergency list?”

“That’s our best guess,” Tony said. “Three beds in the girls’
room, for you, Lacey, and Sarafina.”

Becker added, “And five bunks for the three of us, plus
Jake, Marshall, Cal, Kenny, Tim, and your two boys.”

“And we were all grabbed at the same time?” she asked.

“Within seconds of receiving your warning text,” Jonesy
said. “It didn’t do me much good since it was four in the morning and it roused
me from a dead sleep. Next thing I know I was nailed by a hypo gun.”

Becker rubbed his neck. “With enough juice to lay down a rhino.
Caught me napping as well. We were in the field on maneuvers.”

Tony said, “It was one in the afternoon in California. I was
leaving the hardware store, heading around to the rear parking lot when they
jumped me. There were four of ’em, two of which are likely sporting full-body
casts by now. I’d laid out the third one when a hypo took me down.” He took her
hand. “I figure it’s thanks to your quick thinking that the others aren’t here.
They must’ve received your text and followed procedures.”

“Do you really think they’re safe?”

“Yeah, I do. Jake would’ve settled the others in a safe
house. And by now I suspect he’s moving heaven and earth to find the rest of
us.”

“Right, that,” Becker said.

Jonesy nodded.

She studied the men, and was once again reminded of the
loyalty Jake generated in others, herself included. He wouldn’t rest until he
found her. Of that she had no doubt. “But what’s this all about?”

The men exchanged a glance. “We don’t know,” Tony said. He
reached under his chair and pulled out a stack of papers. “But it must have
something to do with these. Found them on the coffee table.” He spread them out
in front of her.

They were copies of news articles. She blinked as she
absorbed one headline after another, the past eight years rushing back to
confront her—Jake’s viral YouTube video, the massacre at the Carnevale Ball in
Venice, the launch of the obelisk from Battista’s mountain, and the urban
warfare that followed in South Central Los Angeles. She absently rubbed her
abdomen when she saw the report of the sterilization toxin discovered in the
L.A. water system. Then there was the terrorist attack on Disneyland, and the
coincidental timing of the nuclear explosion in Venezuela, and finally there
was article after article about the Grid and the hundreds of thousands who died
in the ensuing worldwide panic.

She didn’t need to read the details. She’d been there. The
others in the room all had, at one point or another. Thankfully, other than the
first report about Jake’s superfast reflexes at Sammy’s Bar, none of their
names were included in the articles. Grateful governments had done their part
to keep their involvement out of the press. Even so, she cringed at seeing the
events splayed out in front of her. An empathic pain flashed across her
consciousness as she imagined how Jake would react to seeing this display.

Jake’s legacy is so much more than all this. But he
wouldn’t see it that way.

“What’s it all mean?”

 “Good question,” Tony said. “We’ve been up all morning
racking our brains, discussing each event, going over the details, trying to
tie them to what’s happening. But no luck.”

Becker added, “In any case, I’m guessing we’re going to find
out pretty soon.” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal the puncture marks inside
his own elbow. “Because they’ve obviously been juicing us at regular intervals.
Until now.”

She motioned toward the guards outside. “What about them?”

“Worthless,” Tony said. “They won’t answer our questions. They
refuse to even turn around to face us.”

“Which is going to be a fatal mistake,” Becker said, gazing
toward the foreboding landscape outside. “Because the fortress hasn’t been
built that we can’t break out of. And once we’re in that jungle, I’ll own the
bloody bastards.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“We’re still working on it,” Tony said, gathering the papers
into a stack. “But in the—”

A woman screamed outside their door.

Tony rushed to the window. Francesca and the others followed.
Through the slats, she saw a well-dressed but disheveled Asian couple being
dragged toward their doorway by four tough-looking men in black uniforms.
Bystanders disappeared into their homes. The petite woman kicked the shin of
one of the guards. He yelped and released his grip, and the woman clawed the
second man’s face. He was taller and much wider than the other guards, with
deep-set eyes squeezed between a jutting forehead and bulbous cheekbones. He
barely moved as the woman jerked and twisted in his one-handed grip. He grinned
and backhanded her so hard that she spun before hitting the ground. She lay
still.

Francesca could sense Tony’s fury beside her.

The male captive shouted in Chinese, struggling furiously to
free himself. The huge guard turned to face him. The prisoner shrieked an
expletive and spit in the brute’s face. The guard unholstered a pistol and shot
the man in the forehead. He flew backward onto the road, his eyes frozen open,
his mouth agape.

“Bloody hell,” Becker said, pounding his fist on the shutter.
The guards at the door snapped around and raised their assault rifles.

“Back away,” Jonesy said, grabbing Becker’s arm. “There’s
nothing we can do.”

Francesca and Tony stepped back as well, and the four of
them waited in a semicircle, staring at the door. The latch clicked, the door
crashed open, and the guard filled the frame, his smoking pistol leveled at
them. He and Tony locked eyes like two bulls about to do battle. The nerves in Francesca’s
body stood on edge. Tony finally relaxed his stance and averted his gaze.

Satisfied he was in control, the guard stepped aside and gestured
toward the men behind him. Two of them grabbed the woman’s arms and dragged her
limp form onto the wooden porch. One of her sandals caught on the step and
ripped from her foot. The guards ignored it as they hauled her over the
threshold and dumped her onto the floor. They turned and left without a word,
slamming the door behind them.