by Tracy Lawson
“It never came up.” She paced as she cooled off, hands on her hips. “Wow, that felt good. The only thing that’s missing now is the sun. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it. I understand why there aren’t any windows in this place, and I love knowing that I have room to run, but I’m still shut away.”
“Now that you mention it …. Come on, follow me.”
He led the way up the stairs until they emerged in a rooftop solarium. The sunlight dazzled her eyes even under the tinted glass dome. “Wow!”
“Yeah, it’s great up here.”
He slid open the louvers in one of the windows, and fresh, chilly winter air rushed in. She breathed in blissfully and hugged herself. Then she wandered around the perimeter of the roof and gazed out over the quadrant from every angle. “I didn’t realize we were right in the middle of everything.”
He wrapped his arms around her from behind, and she leaned against him the way she had the first day they met, the top of her head fitting perfectly under his chin. Before them lay the panorama of the capital city.
She sighed. “It’s so pretty.”
“Yeah. Looks can be deceiving, huh?” She nodded, and he changed the topic. “Christmas was a couple of days ago.”
“It was?”
“Yeah. I know most of the holidays have been downplayed until we don’t really celebrate anymore, but I loved Christmas when I was little. I’ve been saving a gift, but today seems like a better day to give it to you.”
“I don’t have anything to give you in return.”
“I have everything I want.” He brought his mom’s bracelet out of his pocket and fastened it around her right wrist.
“Last time I gave this to you, I told you I was going to make everything all right. I won’t make that kind of promise again, but I want you to know that I’ll stand by you, no matter what happens.”
2:45 PM
Quadrant DC-001
“Balloons?”
“Why not? We have to do this thing big. I’m talking hundreds of balloons.”
Kevin took notes on a legal pad while Madalyn’s assistant, Nicole, perched on the edge of his desk. He’d enlisted her as an unwitting coconspirator in the final phase of the Resistance’s plan.
He spoke in hushed tones while she pecked away at her tablet. “Umm … order ice sculptures. We’ll need one for each of the buffet tables. We should have extra security guards for the gift table too.”
“How about a champagne fountain?”
“I was going to suggest chocolate, but heck, get both!”
Nicole giggled like a teenager and then shot a guilty glance at the open door as she stifled the sound. Kevin realized this was the most relaxed he’d ever seen her. Madalyn’s constant berating of and finding fault with her sweet-tempered assistant was almost as bad as the torture she’d so gleefully inflicted on Careen.
Kevin shushed her. “She’ll hear you, and then we’ll both have some explaining to do. This is going to be one spectacular surprise party, but after all, you only turn forty once.”
Madalyn’s angry voice made them both jump. “Nicole! Why are you away from your desk?”
She gasped and sprang to her feet, hiding the tablet behind her back. “Madam Director. I didn’t hear the phone. Did it ring?”
“No, but regardless, I need you at your post unless I send you on an errand. I can’t be expected to hunt you down every time I need something. Get in touch with Atari and have him come over here right away.” Madalyn waited until Nicole had scurried out of the room with her head bowed, and then turned on Kevin. “What are you two up to in here?”
He ignored the question, knowing it would make Madalyn all the more determined to ferret out answers. “There’s no need to treat Nicole like that. She does a fine job.”
Her voice took on a demanding and petulant tone. “Why were you laughing? Were you laughing at me?”
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What is this, middle school? “Can’t you just leave it? Otherwise you’ll ruin … —well, let’s just say you’ll be sorry you did.”
She glared at him, but he stood his ground. “It’s nothing. Really! Don’t you have enough to worry about with the Link?”
Chapter 21
3:30 PM
Friday, December 29, 2034
Quadrant BG-098
“Your only hope is to take three drops of the antidote right away.” Trina held up a little amber bottle as she stood in front of the green screen draped on one wall of the bunker’s bedroom.
Mitch turned off the camera. “I think that’s it. You satisfied?”
“Do you think this is believable? Oh, what am I saying? Stratford fooled everyone with the same line a few months ago.”
“Everyone except me, maybe. I wasn’t fooled.”
“Okay, present company excepted, then. I guess the only one I have to fool is Madalyn.” She glanced down at the rumpled flannel shirt and sweatpants she’d been wearing for weeks. “You’re sure Atari can really change what I’m wearing? I’d feel more authoritative if I could deliver this speech in a suit.”
“Oh, yeah. No problem.”
“Good. Then I can start worrying about the live portion of the program.”
The satellite phone buzzed at Mitch’s hip, and he hurried out of the room. Why don’t I ever get to know what’s going on? she wondered as she hurried past David and Grace in the sitting room and followed Mitch on tiptoe. She caught part of what he was saying as he headed up the stairs.
“… take over the whole damn thing. They’ll be distracted. No matter how the vote goes, be ready to …” The bunker door slammed behind him.
Hold on a second. The only plan I’m aware of is to force Madalyn’s confession and clear my name. I haven’t heard anything about a takeover.
She hurried back down to the main room. “Grace, David, can y’all come here for a minute?” She beckoned them into the bedroom and shut the door.
“I think it’s time for you two to think about leaving.”
“Hallelujah! It’s about time.” David clasped his hands in delight.
Grace shushed him. “Why? What’s going on?”
“I need you to take a message to Tom and Lara in OP-439 but without letting Mitch know that’s where you’re going. Tomorrow we’re unblocking the communication channels the old-fashioned way.”
4:15 PM
Quadrant DC-005
Tommy rummaged through the cabinets in Wardrobe until he found a duffel bag. Careen put a change of warm clothing for each of them inside and laid their wigs, knit caps, and the glasses for Tommy inside and zipped it closed. He carried the bag back to their room while she followed with winter coats and gloves.
“What should we say to him?” Careen kept her voice low as they crossed the lobby, and Tommy shrugged. He’d been all over the safe house, but he’d never ventured down the hall that led to Atari’s rooms. He’d never been encouraged to visit.
“He shot you with a blow dart. I mean, how do you trust someone after they do a thing like that?”
“I can’t. I’m afraid to turn my back on him. We need to leave.”
“He’ll probably be glad to see us go. He never wanted either of us here in the first place.”
He knocked, but there was no response. He put his hand on the doorknob. “Should we take a look inside?”
“No! What if he’s in there?”
“He’s not or he would’ve answered the knock. Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
She giggled nervously. “All right. An invasion of his private space is nothing compared to what he did to me.”
Tommy opened the door. Every surface in the room was glossy black. A neon blue maze lined with fluorescent yellow dots spread across the walls, floor, and ceiling.
“Whoa.” Careen turned in a circle. “I’d get totally disoriented in here.”
Tommy laughed. “It’s … a Pac-Man grid. His room is a life-sized Pac-Man screen. Look! There’s Pac-Man on the ceiling.” He pointed.
“Do you see the ghosts? There, there … and over there!”
“Oh my gosh. Can you say arrested development? I thought people quit having theme-decorated bedrooms when they were, like, twelve.”
The only thing in the room that deviated from the video game theme was a dictionary of Greek mythology that lay open on the bed. Tommy picked it up and skimmed the entry on Hercules.
Careen wandered around the perimeter of the room. “There’s another door. I almost didn’t notice it. How would you find your way to the bathroom at night?” She paused with her hand on the doorknob, like she was about to reveal a prize on a game show. “I wonder how it’s decorated. Wanna see?”
“I can live without seeing Atari’s bathroom. Come on. If he’s out of the building, we should be in Command Central. Maybe we can pull up PeopleCam or figure out how to send a message to Mitch or my parents.”
They hurried back to the center of the building. The rows of television screens mounted on the wall in Command Central were all dark. A single white square moved across each screen, rebounding off edges and corners in an unending random pattern.
It’s Pong, the first sports arcade game, released in 1972. Tommy shook his head at how much classic video game trivia he’d picked up while living with Atari. He wished he’d learned more about the computers instead. He pressed the space bar on each of the keyboards that ranged along the semicircular desk, to see if any of them were unlocked. “I’d feel better about leaving if we could get in touch with someone else first.”
Careen started pressing random buttons, and the Pong image disappeared from the screens.
“Stop! You’re not going to remember what you’ve touched. He’ll know we’ve been in here if anything’s different.”
“I think it was this one.” She pressed a key and every screen jumped to life. One replayed the video that had frightened her so much her first night at the safe house, and Tommy turned away as someone who looked like him shot someone who looked like her. Of the remaining screens, four showed PeopleCam, another six were hacked into the security cameras at the OCSD, and the rest were security footage from places Tommy didn’t recognize. “Oops.”
“Look.” He pointed at PeopleCam, where a news story about Linking showed people lined up around the block at a Distribution Center.
“It’s really happening.”
“Damn right it is.” They both turned, startled. Danni stood in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
Tommy sighed with relief. “Boy, am I glad to see you!” She crossed the room to hug him, and over her shoulder, he watched Careen raise her eyebrows and fold her arms across her chest.
Danni ignored Careen entirely and addressed him. “Where’s Atari?”
“Out somewhere, we think. He never says when he’s leaving.”
“He hasn’t been answering Mitch’s calls for a couple of days. I thought you guys might need some supplies.”
“He’s been acting strange. I heard him yelling on the phone. I get the feeling Mitch and Madalyn are both leaning on him pretty hard, and he’s cracking under the pressure. There’s a chance Madalyn will convince him to activate the Link.” Tommy gestured toward the computers. “Do you know how to download that”—he pointed at the doctored video—“onto a chip drive? Also, we need to get in touch with Mitch.”
Danni took a fresh chip drive out of a box in one of the drawers and started the download. “Let me talk to Atari first, and then I’ll put you in touch with Mitch.”
Careen spoke up. “We don’t have a whole lot of time. We’re almost ready to leave for OP-439.”
Danni popped the chip out of the drive and gave it to Tommy before she turned to look at Careen for the first time. “What? No, you can’t.”
“Why not? You can’t tell me what to do. I thought you told me you never tried to stop anything from happening.”
“That was a while ago.” With a few quick keystrokes, Danni brought back the silent Pong screensaver. “There. Now we can hear ourselves think. Careen, I’m serious. You have to stay here. You could be the only thing that keeps Atari from activating the Link. He won’t risk having you show up on the scanners and giving away the location of his safe house. Lock yourself in if you have to, but don’t leave here under any circumstances.”
Careen bit her lower lip the way she did when she was trying not to cry.
Tommy spoke up. “If the Link is going live, shouldn’t we get Careen as far from the capital as possible? Head for the middle of nowhere so they won’t find us?”
“They’d pick you up while you were still in the capital quadrant. Don’t you know they have sensors and cameras with face recognition capability on every corner? They’re busy installing more cameras and Link sensors in every quadrant, and soon there won’t be any place to hide. Trust me, you’re better off where you are.
“I guess Atari hasn’t told you that the OCSD won’t let PeopleCam broadcast anything about the riots and the arrests. Pete Sheridan was suspended for making a joke about Madalyn. The clashes between people who want Links and people who don’t are getting worse. They closed the university in OP-439 last week to try to shut down the market there. Careen’s our insurance policy. Things will get even worse if Atari activates the Link.”
4:30 PM
Quadrant DC-001
Atari, incognito in a janitor’s coveralls, bobbed his head in time to the music playing on his headphones as he pushed a bulky old photocopier past the rear entrance of the OCSD building on his way to the service elevator. His heart nearly stopped when the door opened and Madalyn came in, flanked by two security guards. He halted so they could pass in front of him. One of the guards cast a curious glance his way and slowed, motioning for him to take off his headset.
Atari kept his gaze off to the side as he hung the headset around his neck, still moving in time to the music. “Yeah?”
“Who roughed you up like that?”
Atari shrugged as though it didn’t matter. Madalyn gave him a cursory glance and kept walking.
The guard laughed as he hurried after her. “You must have really ticked someone off!”
He gave a less-than-energetic salute and then trundled the copier onto the service elevator and pushed the button for the basement level. He emerged and headed down the low-ceilinged, maze-like hallway and swiped his ID to enter what had once been Kevin McGraw’s office. He shoved the desk and chair against the far wall to make room in order to maneuver the outdated piece of equipment far enough inside to shut the door.
He opened the front panel to reveal a neat array of wires, blasting caps, and blocks of plastic explosives, and then glanced at his watch. Two days, plus a few hours, left until the president would deliver his final State of the Union address. He still had to finish the video Mitch needed for the plan, and he was adding his own twist to the evening’s entertainment. If he timed it right, he’d have finished his job for the Resistance and be on his way before the dust settled.
He set up his supplies on the desk and whistled as he worked. Soon the connections were complete, the timer set.
When his phone vibrated in his pocket, he took a breath to transition from his janitor persona before he answered.
It was Nicole, Madalyn’s assistant. “Madam Director needs to see you at once.”
He coughed dramatically. “I’m afraid that’s impossible at the moment. I’m indisposed.”
“She’ll still want to meet with you as soon as possible to finalize the preparations for the Link.”
“I don’t want her to catch my cold. I’ll call her later.” He hung up. There was no way he could return to the OCSD as Atari until his bruises healed. Madalyn was self-absorbed and not all that observant, but the evidence of Tommy and Careen’s physical assaults on his person could definitely blow his cover.
6:15 PM
Quadrant DC-005
Danni took the elevator down to get the food and supplies she’d brought with her. Tommy and Careen helped her put everything away, and they were makin
g dinner together when Atari appeared in the kitchen doorway, dressed in his janitor uniform.
“To what do I owe this adorable domestic scene?” He crossed the room and planted an enthusiastic kiss on Danni. “I’ve missed you, baby!”
She stepped back and took a good look at him. His bottom lip was cut and swollen and stood out in bright contrast to the yellowish-green-tinged purple bruising around his nose and eyes. His hair was greasy, and she’d gotten a whiff of him when he’d kissed her. It was clear he hadn’t showered in days.
“I told you not to call me that.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I understand you have something to say to Careen?”
He fidgeted and hung his head like a small boy. “Sorry I shot you with a blow dart. Won’t happen again.”
Danni turned her look on Careen, who matched her voice to the flat tone of Atari’s apology. “Sorry I accused you of killing my mother.”
Atari cast an expectant glance at Tommy, who shook his head.
“Don’t even go there. I’m not sorry I hit you. We’ve overstayed our welcome. We’re going to call the car service and go back to OP-439.”
“Dude, you can’t!” Atari’s demeanor went from sullen to frenetic. “You gotta stay in the capital for New Year’s Eve! It’s gonna be a big blowout. You don’t want to miss it. When the ball drops, new people will be in charge. New year, new you, right? Just hang out and chill. I honestly don’t mind. In fact, I insist. Talk to you later.” He grabbed Danni by the arm and hurried her out of the kitchen.
As soon as they were out of earshot, she pulled free. “What’s going on with you?”
He sidled up to her again. “I was just hoping you’d be up for ordering me around some more. You know, like that one time?” He touched her hair. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I missed you.”
“You look like hell.”
“You’re the second person to comment on my battered visage today.”
She sighed. “Why aren’t you returning Mitch’s calls?”