by John Marrs
“Alex and the others were going to install a rogue piece of coding into the verification software. That meant we could access any model of any Level Five car’s source code and infect it with a virus so that it obeyed our commands. By making one car grind to a halt with a fictitious problem, it would spread, and thousands upon thousands would do the same. And by the time the hack was discovered and rectified, the damage would be done. It wouldn’t last long, but long enough to bring Britain to a standstill and make the industry a laughing stock.”
“Then what changed?” Libby asked. “How did it become mass murder?”
“Once inside the software, Alex discovered that cars read our National Identity Cards and any technology we carried. And that’s when we learned what really happened to my girls. They’d been sacrificed because the Passenger whose car hit them was a pilot in the Royal Air Force and protected by AI. His service to his country meant his life was worth more than my family’s.”
Noah awaited Libby’s reaction, but she continued to take him in with the same caution. “My hatred for everything and everyone to do with those cars consumed me. Their impact was just so far-reaching. Even afterwards, my little girl died because she couldn’t get the liver she needed because fewer accidents in safer cars means fewer organ donors.”
“You can’t punish people for not dying!” Libby interrupted. “That’s crazy.”
“I know, but that demonstrates where my head was at back then. As was believing that crippling the cars wasn’t going to make a big enough impact. I decided our hack had to extend beyond a three-day news cycle. It needed to be an event everyone would remember watching for the rest of their lives. A hijack. I told Alex we should take complete control of a handful of cars and hold them to ransom, threatening to kill the Passengers if the government didn’t admit to what it was doing. And we’d make the inquest jury do what AI did—choose a survivor based only upon the biased information we fed it. But at no time was anyone supposed to get hurt.” Libby cocked her head in disbelief. “I promise you that I thought we were only going to whip up a frenzy against these ‘unhackable’ cars. Then everything changed the night I met you.”
“Me?”
“I must have watched the footage of the day my girls died a hundred times until I knew it off by heart. I counted how many footsteps it took for you to get from one to the other, how long you spent with my mum and Steph and how you tried to comfort them. Seeing your kindness and how much the deaths of people you didn’t know affected you was the moment I knew I wanted you on the jury. But then when we met in Manchester, you were the first person I’d spoken to in I can’t remember how long who wasn’t living inside the same toxic bubble as me. And I felt a connection to you every bit as much as you did to me in our kiss. You woke me up; you reminded me who I really was and made me understand I could accomplish everything I wanted to without threatening to hurt anyone. But trying to convince Alex and the others I’d had a change of heart was impossible. Like that other juror Matthew explained to you, mob mentality makes people braver when they’re together.”
“You should have fought harder,” Libby dismissed.
“I did.”
“You should have made them understand it was wrong.”
“I tried.”
“Then why didn’t they listen?”
“Because by then we had spent eighteen months planning the hijack and nobody was willing to back down! And I was scared at how out of control it might become if I didn’t go along with it. I thought if I remained a part of it, I could at least rein them in if I needed to.”
“And how did that work out for you?” Libby deadpanned.
Noah looked to the ground. “I never imagined the extremes they’d take it to.”
“Where were you on that day? Because you weren’t in the car we were watching.”
“For the actual-time images, I was in a stationary car in a barn in the west of Ireland, surrounded by green screens. They used live footage from the other car as a backdrop to make it look as if I was on those roads. My reaction to Victor’s death was a hundred per cent genuine horror, along with me fighting to try and get out of the car they had me locked in. They cut my sound and looped older footage so you couldn’t hear me begging them to stop and threatening to tell the viewers everything. They warned me if I didn’t act along, they’d kill all the Passengers—and you. I couldn’t let them do that. And of course I had no idea they were going to make cars across the country collide.”
“Where have you been hiding?”
“Various countries. I’ve only ever met half a dozen of those involved. They arranged safe houses in places with no extradition treaties with the UK. As long as I keep my head down, don’t bring attention to myself, or cause their governments any trouble, they’ll continue to shelter me. But I have no security. They can throw me to the wolves anytime they like.”
“And your brother?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t been able to contact him since the day of the hijack.”
Libby shut her eyes tightly as she tried to digest Noah’s version of events. She couldn’t deny he made a compelling case, and his body language indicated a man tormented by remorse. “Why now?” she asked. “Why did you come and find me?”
“I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks of me; I only care about you. I need you to know the way I was with you that night in Manchester and as a Passenger was the real me, not the me you’ve spent the last six months doubting.”
“Doubting?” she repeated, raising her brow. “That’s one hell of an understatement. You manipulated me, and you used my brother’s death to do it. You took the single worst moment of my life and used Nicky to make me buy into your lies. Isn’t that who you really are?”
“It’s not, I promise. Let me prove it to you. Come away with me.”
Libby thought she had misheard. “What?”
“I have contacts who can get us anywhere in the world we want to be. Then we can get to know one another properly away from all of this. We can start again.”
Libby’s laugh took her as much by surprise as it did Noah. “Are you being serious? Why would I do that?”
“Because you know as well as I do, despite everything, there is still something between us. It’s something I’ve only ever felt once before, with my wife. And I have to see where it goes. You can’t deny that you still have an attraction to me. Despite your bravado and all you think you know about me, you’ve still come here because there’s a part of you that wants to believe the man you have feelings for is not a bad person.”
“This is ridiculous,” said Libby, shaking her head vigorously. “I have a life, I have a new purpose, I’m doing well, I’m making changes in the world. Why would I give all of that up for a man whose friends murdered more than a thousand people? You’re mad.”
“Libby, I swear to God I didn’t want it to happen. And I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to put things right if you let me. You can help me to make up for the terrible things that evolved from my idea.”
Libby rose to her feet and began pacing the room. “How can I?” she asked. “Even if you’re telling the truth, you were still the catalyst. If you really do regret what happened, why don’t you hand yourself in to the police? Explain to them everything you’ve told me tonight. Prove to me in more than words that you are the man I first thought you were.”
Noah ran his hands through his hair and then clasped them together as if in prayer. “I can’t, Libby,” he pleaded. “They will throw everything they can at me, and some. I have only a few names I can give them, no details of where to find anyone, no proof that I didn’t orchestrate the whole thing. I can do more good on the outside than I can behind bars. Yes, I know there will be people who’ll feel they’ve got justice if they see me locked up, but with your help, I can offer so much more as a free man.”
Noah moved towards her for a secon
d time, and again, she backed away.
“What about if I recorded my confession and made it public once we reach wherever we’re going to?” he offered. “Would that help change your mind?”
“Jude . . .” she began, then corrected herself. “Noah, are you listening to yourself? We’d be constantly looking over our shoulders, we’d never be able to rest. I can’t, I won’t, live my life like that. I want the things normal people want and none of this . . . none of it . . . is normal.”
“We can have everything we want, just under abnormal circumstances. And you can continue your campaign work with proper funding behind you and an extended global reach. You can even start a charity under your brother’s name to help people with mental health issues if you like—I can access money to allow all of that to happen. I’m offering you the world, Libby, and I’m throwing myself in with the bargain. The real me. Please, I’m begging you to consider it.”
Libby’s eyes brimmed with tears before she wiped them away with her cuff. “You know what really hurts? That you made a fool of me . . . that I let down my guard and you made me believe that you were something you were not. How can I ever get over the lies and the manipulation? If you were me, could you?”
“I have risked so much to be here, doesn’t that tell you something?”
Libby couldn’t deny that it did. She remained motionless and studied Noah with unwavering attention. His eyes appeared filled with hope and desperation. If the man in front of her had been the man she had met in Manchester, she would have believed him. But this was Noah, and she didn’t know him any more than she did a stranger. Yet, try as she might, she couldn’t deny something was pulling him towards her, an invisible magnet that made her want to go against her rationale and believe him.
“How can I ever forgive you for what happened?” she asked. “We have everything—and I mean everything—going against us.”
“We can work through it, I know we can. Just say you’ll give me a chance. Me appearing out of nowhere, making you this offer . . . I know what I’m asking you is utterly insane; I’m one hundred per cent aware of that. But I was willing to give up my freedom to come here because of what I’m sure is between us.”
A trickle of sweat made its way from the nape of Libby’s neck and down her spine. She refused to let her gaze leave Noah’s until she was ready to answer him.
Then, almost imperceptibly, she began to nod her head. In response, Noah’s eyes opened wide and his face lit up.
“Really?” he asked. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she said quietly. “But we have to leave now before I come to my senses.”
This time when Noah approached her, Libby didn’t recoil. She allowed him to throw his arms around her and draw her in close to his chest. As he leaned in to kiss her, Libby closed her eyes and forgot everything that had gone before it. For a moment, she was back in the pub garden a year ago, surrounded by the creamy glow of lanterns hanging from the trees. A stranger’s lips were locked upon hers, and she breathed in the scent of his cologne and his warm skin. Back then, it was the start of a new chapter, she had thought; something inside her was awakening. The memory was fleeting, and when it left, she pulled away from him.
“Where will we go first?” she asked.
“I know people who can get us out of the country tonight.”
“But I need my passport, what about my job, my house, my family, my friends—how will I explain to them?”
“We will work it all out as we go along, I promise.” Noah grinned, and he entwined his fingers around hers as he made for the door.
“Don’t forget your phone,” she said, pointing towards the table where he’d been sitting.
“Do you see the effect you have on me?” he said as he moved towards his device.
“Can I ask you one more question?” Libby said suddenly.
“Anything.”
“What really happened to Noah Harris after his family died?”
Libby watched as the man in front of her ground to a halt. He remained with his back to her. “I don’t understand?” he asked. His tone suggested otherwise.
“I was there, at his family’s funeral. I couldn’t take my eyes off Noah as he stood at the altar, having to be physically propped up by his friends because he was so racked with grief. I watched him place a white rose on each of their coffins, then follow the undertakers out to their cars before they continued to the crematorium for a private service. For a second, his and my eyes locked. The image of that poor, desperate man will never leave me. And you are most definitely not Noah Harris. Are you?”
CHAPTER 67
All that could be heard in the space between Libby and the man she had once been infatuated with was her escalating heartbeat. “You’re Noah’s brother Alex, aren’t you?” His answer came with his silence.
There was no better time for her to make her escape, and the Libby of old would have run hell for leather out of the door for help. But Alex hadn’t met the post-hijack version of Libby Dixon, the resolute, steadfast woman who was determined to see this confrontation through to the bitter end. And now that she had the upper hand, she stood her ground.
“Noah is dead, isn’t he?” Libby continued. “It was your brother who changed his mind and didn’t want to go through with the plan to hijack the Passengers. You were the one who took it to another level and killed all those people.”
Alex paused for a moment before he replied. “Be careful what you say, Libby. The next words to leave your mouth could change the course of everything.”
But Libby had no intention of paying his thinly veiled threat any heed. “If I hadn’t seen Noah at the funeral, I’d have believed you were him. And especially in the way you were looking at Stephenie and Gracie in those photos and videos. That’s because you were in love with them, weren’t you? Noah might have been your brother, but your heart was with Stephenie. And you weren’t looking at her daughter like a caring uncle, but as a proud dad.”
Libby could just about detect Alex nodding his head. “When they died, it was your grief that made you take such extreme measures to get your revenge, not Noah’s.”
“Noah was weak,” Alex replied. “He didn’t have the guts to do what was necessary or to see it through to the end. He didn’t love Steph in the way she deserved; he didn’t treat her with respect, yet she wouldn’t give up on him. Not even when she discovered how often he slept around. It was me who wiped away her tears, me who told her she could do better, and it was me who she turned to to feel loved again. She even admitted to me that she chose the wrong brother. But when she became pregnant with our daughter, she chose Noah over me. I was the idiot who promised to back off and give them a chance because I was convinced that, one day, she’d pick me over him. But that day never came.”
“I don’t remember seeing you at the funeral with the rest of their family.”
“I didn’t go. I was too cut up by what happened, not like my brother. He didn’t grieve for them like I did. Three months hadn’t even passed before he was uploading his picture onto hook-up apps.”
Libby watched his face became embittered by the memory. His fingers twitched as he became more agitated.
“Did Noah ever support your plan?”
“At first. In fact, he wanted it to be even more ambitious and have more cars collide after the Passengers came to a halt. But typical of him, he was all talk and then had second thoughts. By then, there were too many people spread across the world to make it stop. There was an army of dedicated men and women, factions and cells, who were risking everything to reach our goal. After a year and a half in the making, none of us were willing to back down just because of one man. Being his brother it was down to me to make him see sense, but he wouldn’t listen. It was as if Steph, Gracie, and our mum’s lives hadn’t been worth anything to him. We argued, he threatened to blow the lid off our plan, so he gave me no choic
e but to protect the programme.”
Alex finally turned to face Libby, his expression earnest. “Everything I said about you and me was true, and I want us to make it work. I can create a future for us; all you need to do is take a leap of faith. Even now, even after what you know, you can’t turn off what you’re feeling for me. We are matched, and I think deep down you know that. Come away with me.”
A shiver ran through Libby’s body, and she shook her head at the notion that they were destined to be with each other. “I don’t believe we’re matched,” she sneered. “It’s another one of your lies. You lied to me as Jude and you lied to me as Noah. What on earth makes you think I’m going to believe you now? Besides, perhaps you should have taken your own advice.”
“About what?”
“When you told me earlier that I hadn’t thought to question what I was seeing when I assumed you were standing with those men at the bar. Well, neither did you when you thought I only had a knife in my pocket. I’ve activated an alarm button and tracking device installed by the police on my phone that’s broadcasting everything we’ve said to them.” Alex’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Of all that you’ve told me,” Libby continued, “the only part I believe is that you felt a connection between us. I did too. Only what I felt wasn’t real, because that man doesn’t exist. And that, amongst a million other reasons, is why I will never go any further than this room with you. I would rather end up like your brother than be with you.”
As quick as a flash, Alex flew towards her, but Libby was too speedy for him. She turned and ran towards the door, pulling the knife out of her pocket and clenching it in her hand as she reached for the handle. She twisted it and yanked it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Panicking, she turned quickly and waved the weapon in front of her, the blade catching the light of the lamp and glinting as Alex approached her. She watched him hold up a key fob. “There’s an automatic lock on the door that’s only opened by this,” he snarled. “You aren’t going anywhere.”