by Melody Clark
Forty-five minutes. How the hell was he supposed to do this in forty-five minutes? And he had to. He had to. And there was only one way he could see.
Edward rose unsteadily, considering the dresser before him. He slowly pulled open the second drawer from the top. Reaching in, his fingers lightly ran over a rough soft pouch that felt like the old medicine bag he had been sent in his boxes from Wendell. He pulled it from the depths.
He drew from the medicine bag the container of reds that Wendell had hidden within.
“You have said I’m as good as you are,” came a voice from behind him, before he could open the pills. “You said we could do the same together that you did by yourself on speed. I ask you again, was that the truth or was it a lie?”
Andrew’s voice impacted Eddie’s ruminations, fracturing with a certainty his thinning wall of resolve
Eddie looked with a fraying single-mindedness toward the container in his hand. “No, of course it wasn’t a lie.”
“Then why are you choosing drugs instead?” Andrew asked, his eyes glowing back at him with hurt.
“Because he just suffered an excitation of his nervous system with your ludicrous contraption,” Tad said, following Andrew in, “this was just what I was afraid of.”
“You said it wouldn’t work at all!” Andrew replied.
Tad grimaced back at him. “Which is why I didn’t say anything to stop it, but now he’s had a hit off digital speed, I can see it worked.”
“You’re saying he’s an addict again?” Andrew asked.
“He’s been sober for three months,” Tad said. “He’ll never stop being an addict.”
“And if you’re going to talk about me like I’m not here, I’ll get this process started,” Edward said, sharply departing the room.
Tad and Andrew followed him into the library where he sat down in his chair at his laptop. Tad reached across Andrew to hold his hand open toward Edward. “And we’ll have the little red pills while we’re at it,” Tad said.
Eddie looked away, more than a little discomfited. “I can do what I have to do twice as fast with those.”
Andrew shook his head. “You told me, with Wendell, everything came with a kickback. We don’t demand results, Edward.”
“We have to succeed,” Eddie said.
“No, we don’t,” Thomas added as he joined them. “Not that badly.”
“And if we fail?” Edward asked sharply.
“Then we fail,” Andrew said. “We fail together. And together we’ll find another way to fight him.”
“We love you, Edward,” Thomas said.
Edward sighed long and low. He nodded. “I know that. Now. Okay, let’s do this. Let’s take him down.”
“How Clint Eastwood of you,” Tad replied.
“Shut up, Toad,” Andrew said. “Okay, his cloud servers should be back online by now. He’ll have a notion we’re attacking. You said we have an hour?”
“Forty-five minutes for you and me if we kill ourselves,” Eddie replied. “Although, I do have an old Israeli hacker friend who used to work for Bakunin. And he loathes Wendell.”
“Would he be available now?”
“He’ll be around,” Eddie said. “He’s still an old-style sysop. He sleeps with his phone.”
“With three of us, it would only be about a half hour?”
“Twenty minutes, if we work fast,” Eddie said, beginning to type …
Sev, we have a problem
Edward’s fingers thundered over the keys, explaining to his friend Vsevolod in the short, trim microbursts of language that hackers communicated in, what had to be done. Within a minute, Sev messaged back his joy at the upcoming takedown. He was with them.
Eddie looked toward Andrew beside him. “I’m sending you his info.”
“Great. What’s the password?”
Edward grinned over at him. “It’s an initiating phrase, of course. Don’t you know me by now? Leave not a rack behind.”
Andrew grinned. “Of course it is, what was I thinking?”
It took all of thirteen minutes. The progress charted onscreen over their monitors, Edward and Andrew watched as the chain of cyberlife darkened each field of exchange – across the Dead Sea Hub to Crete, across the Atlantic and then triggering south to veer hard north and ramrod the backbone up to Boston while switching southwest toward Texas. Edward thought sadly, but also with considerable satisfaction, of the angry little man at the other end of that continuum, as he was realizing that the bony labyrinth of his entire business empire was disintegrating – and no one there knew how to stop it.
Link by link. Location by location. Finally targeting the patterns that would take down each cloud.
Edward sank slowly back into his chair. His hand drew away a little from the keys. He felt a shadow passing over his once-bright thoughts at the potential ruination beneath his fingertips.
“Why did this feel so right and now seems so wrong?” Andrew asked.
“Because when you leave not a rack behind, you wreck something,” Thomas said. “I had no idea what you had planned, boys. But what I see before me on that monitor looks far beyond compensatory damages.”
“He burned two of our buildings, Dad,” Andrew replied.
“He almost killed Arvo Nurmi. He staged a temporary DOS attack on Croftdon,” Edward added.
“Insured buildings will be rebuilt. Arvo will most likely recover. And our servers are fine now.” Thomas moved over behind them. “How many people are about to lose their livelihoods?”
“How many lost their livelihoods when our buildings burned?” Andrew asked.
Thomas looked to Edward. “How would you respond to that?”
Edward shut his eyes. He rubbed at his forehead and looked away for a moment. When he spoke, he sounded like he was almost talking to himself, “He’d destroy everything you worked for in a second.”
“Yes, he would,” Thomas said, “which is why we think he’s a monster. And the reason we think he’s a monster –”
“Is why we won’t,” Eddie said, finally drawing both hands from the keys. He exhaled every breath of resolve he had mustered. “Damn it.”
“His callousness is what makes him so powerful,” Thomas said. “But there’s a Persian proverb – far better to be in chains with friends than in a garden with strangers.”
“I was always in chains when I was in his garden.”
“Exactly.”
Eddie nodded. “But if he throws back at us everything he has?”
“Then we do as you’ve said earlier. We work together and we go from there.”
“Okay,” Eddie said, hitting Cancel Process with a slowly comforting resolve.
One month later
“I wish the rest of us could be going with you, Tad,” Andrew said, watching as Tad propped up on the hallway desk their plane tickets for the following day. “But Eddie and I have to work on the network. And Wilse has school. While you and James and Stewart get to play.”
“We’ll go another time, Andrew,” Edward said. “Right now, we need to make the system bulletproof.”
“Ah, yes,” Tad said, “and I will weep for your hard work as I barely survive the happiest place on earth with my son.” Tad turned toward Stewart. “And while on the topic, I refuse to wear those ridiculous plastic ears you tried to sneak into my suitcase.”
“Dad, everyone wears mouse ears inside the park!” Stewart replied. “It’s practically mandatory.”
“It is not, Stewart,” Edward said, with a cautionary glance at the boy. “Maybe one in ten wear them, Stewart. And most of those people are under 10.”
“I’ll wear the ears with you, Stewart,” James announced, after he had pushed open the front door while balancing the bakery box in his arms. It took three tries to kick the door closed after he entered. “Don’t let the Toad dampen your spirits. Mickey ears it is!”
“See, wearing them is f
un, Dad!” Stewart said.
“Good, then I shall watch the two of you enjoy wearing them – from a respectable distance, of course,” Tad said, plunking down on the sofa beside Edward. “All right, I have this list of theme park torture devices my son is insisting I ride with him. I despise rollery coastery contraptions. You have been to this infernal mouse trap. Which of these do I avoid?”
Eddie leaned across to help James and Wilse deliver the birthday cake from the box to the central table. “Anything with a mountain in it,” Edward replied. “Mountains hide roller coasters.”
Tad stared at the list in his hands. “But most everything on here has the word mountain in it.”
Edward smiled at James and Wilse and then grinned back at Tad. “Just close your eyes and hang on tight.”
“You’re joking!”
“Afraid not.”
“Grow a pair, Thaddeus, and leave your angst for tomorrow,” James replied. “Today is Dad’s birthday and he’ll be here in minutes. Andrew, do you have Dad’s gift?”
“Eddie and I hid it in the lower cabinet nobody looks in,” Andrew said. “I’ll go get it now.”
Tad slowly folded up his list and tucked it away in his pocket. He then retrieved his smart phone from the side table. “While you’re all about that, I’ll setup Dad’s annual gag gift.”
“Not this year, Toad!” James shot back. “This year is special with Eddie here.”
“Oh, please. Grow a pair and leave your angst for tomorrow, James,” Tad said. “Dad’ll have a laugh, you’ll see. I bought one of those snakes in a can things, right? But I know he’ll open it, expecting the snakes to pop up. Well, I’m going to only have them triggered when I pop the app on my phone, see? So Dad looks into the can, wondering, you know, where’s all the silly snakes and then – bam! Up they pop him in the nose.”
James looked at him dolefully. “That’s so juvenile. And mind, you, this is your kid brother saying this to you. It’s one thing for you to be boorish and cruel to us, Toad, we’re accustomed to it. This is Dad.”
“Oh, Dad will laugh at it, he always does,” Tad said. “And Eddie, we shall then use my phone to play a good game of chess before tomorrow’s departure to LaLaLand with my son.”
“In your dreams,” Edward replied.
“You have nothing else to do.”
“I’ll find something.”
“And I’ll help him,” Andrew said, reaching over to add the huge white box with the big red ribbon wrapped around it to the table they now surrounded. “I hope he likes it. Heaven knows he needed a new one. The other looks to have been trampled by tapdancing moose.”
“The lady at the luggage shop said it was the best one made in the world,” Tad pronounced. “Mainly because we had plenty of money in the gift fund once Eddie Warbucks here had to flash his wad, so to speak.”
“And you had to match me pound for pound,” Eddie shot back.
Tad smirked in reply. “I couldn’t have you buying up all the love, could I? Anyway, wait until Dad hears what you spent.”
“He said nothing about presents,” Eddie added, “anyway, this one is special. And besides, you just had to spend the same as I did, remember?”
Tad’s head slowly swung around – his eyes glaring playfully at Edward. “You diabolical bastard. That was your whole idea. Including suggesting we all chip in for one present. By God, I just may keep you around after all.”
The front door slowly pushed open. One foot stepped in. A hand reached around the corner and waved in their direction. “May I enter now?” Thomas called in.
“Just a moment,” James said, racing to the door to close it, and then stand behind their father to cover his eyes with his hands. “Now walk forward to your left.”
“My goodness, here it is my birthday. Whatever might be going on here?” he asked moving in the direction he was prodded. “I don’t suppose you boys planned some surprise event or other?”
James brought Thomas to his empty chair at the table they encircled. The boy dropped his hands from Thomas’ eyes. “All right, you can look now.”
“Surprise!” Tad barked out, hurling a loose ribbon in his father’s direction.
Thomas grinned as he surveyed the table before him. He slipped into his chair between Tad and Eddie. “My goodness, what a delightful surprise. Thank you, boys.”
“We just knew you’d be utterly boggled,” Tad said drily.
Andrew tapped the big ribboned, rectangular box. “We all chipped in. It’s from all of us.”
“Some more than others,” Tad added.
“No one more than you,” Eddie replied.
“Swine.”
“Toad.”
Thomas shook his head at his two eldest as he grinned to himself and guided the white box toward him. “It’s certainly a heavy thing,” he said, easily pulling away the bow.
“It should be for what it cost,” Tad said.
Thomas pulled up the cover and pushed aside the inner tissue paper. Within lie an Italian leather attache case, with brass facets and fittings.
“Boys,” Thomas said, his eyes opened wide, “this is stunning, truly.”
“It’s by Roma Recherché. It’s Italian leather-embedded wood,” Andrew said, excitedly.
“We are assured that is significant and important,” Tad added. “We know it was expensive.”
“They call it a mobile office,” Andrew said, scowling at Tad. “Kind of a step-up from a briefcase – a self-contained desk with everything. Perfect for the new Chairman of the Board.”
“I’m afraid Tad is right about this one. It must have cost you a fortune at least,” Thomas said, sliding his gaze across at his oldest. “Eddie.”
Edward held up both hands to protest his innocence. “Tad gave as much as I did.”
“You really are a snakey divvy when you want to be,” Tad replied.
Eddie smirked back. “Talking to yourself again?”
“Ignore them and look at the embossing, Dad,” Andrew said, pointing out the deep gold letters across the front leather band. “It’s really exquisite.”
“Oh, it is,” Thomas said, with a hushed voice, examining the lettering closely. “But, well, there is a problem –”
“Did they make a mistake?” Eddie asked innocently, looking closer.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Thomas said. “Nothing for you boys to worry about. It was their error, and I’ll have it corrected. It’s just they, well, have my name wrong, haven’t they?”
“We all checked it,” Andrew said. “It’s right.”
“No, it’s not – it’s, well, it’s a nitpicky thing, really, but it says Thomas Edward Croftdon, Senior.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Eddie asked.
“Simply that I’m not Thomas Edward Croftdon, Senior. I can’t be for the simple fact there is no Thomas Edward Croftdon, Junior.”
Edward’s mouth curled up in a little smile. “What if there was?”
Thomas stared at him in a kind of stunned disbelief.
Eddie drew an ID out of his pocket and passed it across the table to Thomas. “I hope you don’t mind. I mean, I’m still Eddie. It seemed like a simple thing. And I thought you might like it. Thought it might be nice, you know.”
Thomas looked at it for a long time, standing up to consider it a length, as if he couldn’t see it clearly enough. He turned away from the table and walked slowly to the hearth with the huge portrait of Faith. Thomas’ hand clasped to the mantle for a moment, then pressed the ID against his shoulder.
“Are you okay, Dad?” Eddie asked, following him over while staying a couple of feet away. “I mean, I hope I didn’t upset you.”
Thomas pulled the ID away from his shoulder to consider it again. His voice trembled harder at the edges. “You think this upset me? You’ve only just bloody given me back my baby boy.”
Eddie could never remember the exact order of even
ts as they occurred – suddenly Thomas hugged him. Hugged him like he wasn’t about to let go.
“Dad, I can’t breathe here,” Eddie whispered.
Thomas relinquished a little of his grip, allowing Edward to catch a breath, but Eddie realized at that moment the man who embraced him was crying.
“Dad doesn’t hug people,” Tad said, looking in their direction.
“Dad doesn’t cry either,” Andrew added, “but he’s obviously doing so.”
“So he is,” Tad replied, nodding. “Odd, that.”
Thomas turned toward all of them, “Thank you. Thank you all. Thomas Edward Croftdon, Jr. This is simply the finest present in all my days.”