Playing along, Jacob faked going to one then the other before stopping.
“It doesn’t matter,” the one on Jacob’s right said, “we do this all of the time.”
“It happens when you work with someone for years,” the one on the left said.
“Understandable,” Jacob said, going to his right. “I have a 1:35 appointment with Sara Nguyen.”
“Your name?”
“Nicolas Grady.”
The man checked the schedule. “I’m sorry, the appointment is at 2:35. It looks like you’re a bit early.”
“I could have sworn it was 1:35. There must have been a change. I had some messages this morning, but I haven’t had the time to check them.”
“It happens more than you think,” the man helping him said.
Jacob could see that the second man was looking at him, his face showing he was searching for a memory.
“I remember there was a place in the building to get a cup of coffee. I don’t want to have to stand in that line outside again.”
“I don’t blame you. There’s a cafeteria downstairs, and the coffee isn’t bad.”
The second man’s face took on a look of recognition. “Do I know you? You look familiar,” he said.
“Shit,” Kat said in his ear.
Jacob remained calm. “I get that a lot. Some people say I look like a young Nicolas Cage, but I don’t see it,” he said.
“Nice touch,” Sandy said.
“I don’t know,” the first man said. “Maybe the eyes.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Well,” Jacob said, “I used to have an account here before I was transferred to Austin. That was a few years ago. How long did you say you’ve worked here?”
“About three years.”
“That must be it. I was an outside rep setting up future sales for the New Day project. That was about three years ago. I was in and out of here quite a bit back then. I even got invited to a new employee function by one of the researchers. Maybe you saw me there.”
“Well, mystery solved,” the second man said.
“You do not forget a face,” the first man said.
“It’s my superpower.”
The first man turned back to Jacob. “You can take the first elevator down to the cafeteria.”
“Thank you,” Jacob said.
Alone in the elevator, he said, “That was close.”
“Some quick thinking,” Kat said. “What’s the New Day project?”
“It was the project Xia and I worked on when I was here.”
When the elevator opened, Jacob went down the hall, past the cafeteria, and into the stairwell. The central core of the building’s local network was three levels down. He had been there only once while working on the New Day project and had no reason to pay attention to security at the time, so he didn’t know what sort of potential resistance he was walking into. He stopped at a landing took the gun out of his backpack, holding it in the palm of his hand, examining it. Folded, it wasn’t much bigger than the flipper he carried in his pocket. He turned it over and pressed the release button, the gun expanding and unfolding to its full size. He stuck it into the waist of his pants.
“Sandy, do you have Kat linked to the security system yet? I would like to know what I’m getting into down here,” he said quietly as he started back down the stairs.
“Almost.”
“Can you see?”
“I could, but I’ve got my eyes on you, making sure the fake is working. The system keeps trying to reject the Nic Cage code I’m running. Plus, I’ve got to see what I’m doing while I’m trying to connect Kat. If I don’t get her connected, getting out of here isn’t going to be easy. With more hands or screen space, I could do it.”
Jacob sighed. “Sorry, you’re right. Just hurry, I’m almost there.”
He stopped on the second landing he came to, deciding that if one gun was good, two would be better. He took the other gun out of his boot and unfolded it. It was smaller and fit in his jacket pocket.
Midway down the next flight of stairs, Kat’s voice filled his ear. “I’m in. Let me cycle through to find the right camera.”
Sandy said, “All right, I’m going to work on installing the rootkit on the security system.”
“I’m a few stairs from the door,” Jacob said.
“Hold on, there’s a shit-ton of cameras on this system,” Kat said.
Jacob stopped on the landing, waiting next to the door. Each second felt like a long drawn out minute. He considered taking the smaller gun out of his pocket. If he opened the door with a gun in his hand, anyone who might be on the other side would immediately know he didn’t belong there. Without the gun in his hand, he could always say he got lost. Maybe not the best story, but without the gun, he wouldn’t appear to be a threat.
“I think I’m on your level,” Kat said. “Yes, I am. I just don’t know which door you are on the other side of.”
“Is there any security?”
“Just one. He’s walking the floor. I’ve got no way of knowing where he is in relation to you. You’re just going to have to go in and hope for the best.”
“Damn.” He took the gun out of his pocket and slowly opened the door with his other hand, peering into the part of the hall he could see without stepping through the threshold. It was clear, but he could hear footsteps coming from the other direction. Slowly, he stepped into the hallway, holding the gun to his side so whoever was coming wouldn’t see it.
“Jacob, the guard...,”
“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said, “do you have the authorization to be here?”
Jacob turned to face Slade.
“Sonofabitch,” Slade said, pulling his weapon.
Chapter 52
The testing room was long and narrow, lit by a bright, sterile, white light, and contained two rows of twenty-five beds separated by an aisle ten feet wide. The wall running behind each row of beds was a floor to ceiling two-way mirror. The effect of a seemingly infinite number of beds receding to an unseen horizon had been disorienting the first time Xia helped conduct a trial. It took the better part of a morning for her to get used to the image. She wasn’t the only one. Some people couldn’t get used to it at all and had to be removed from the testing team. Test subjects were also known to ask to be removed from trials because of the mirrors. Xia once asked a supervisor why the room was designed in such a way. “It makes you concentrate. And if you can’t concentrate in that room, you shouldn’t be on a trial team,” was the answer. It made sense.
Xia found Two-Step sitting in his assigned bed.
“How’s the new chip feeling?” she asked.
He rubbed his neck at the base of his skull. “Feels pretty normal so far. It’s sore though.”
She scanned the tattoo on his forearm, getting a diagnostic reading of his chip. “Everything seems okay.”
“The nurse who replaced the chip said my old one wasn’t the easiest to get out. Something to do with how long I had it in and tissue growth or something. I guess most people upgrade every few years.”
“They do. Some more than that,” she said. She got closer to him and said more quietly, “I’ll be honest with you, I’m surprised you could mod your old one to allow you to link to the net.”
“Well, I’m pretty good at modding old tech,” he said.
“Everything else okay?”
“Not this bed. The one I got to sleep in was like a spiritual experience.”
Xia laughed. “Those are nice. I had to get one after I saw what it could do.”
“That would be great. Maybe be you could let me…” He stopped himself, his cheeks turning a hot shade of red. “Never mind.”
Xia laughed. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Easy for you to say.”
She looked around the room, infinite beds and subjects and monitors surrounding her, then sat next to him and held her pad in her lap, pretending to take notes. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.
“I am. Nervous, but ready. These mirrors don’t help much,” he said, gesturing to either side of the room.
“You get used to it. We’re going to start sending the code to the chips soon. I’ll get to you last. Remember, the overload won’t last for too long, just long enough to get you to the infirmary. When you come out of it, it’s up to you to get out of the building.”
“I guess the others should be getting here soon.” He turned his head side to side as if he were looking for them. “Or they are here already.”
“They should be.”
He rubbed his hands on his knees. “So, is it going to hurt?”
“No. Well, maybe a little at first, but you’ll be fine.”
He continued to rub his knees. “My second time doing code is going to be an overload. Nice.”
She patted him on the hand. “You’ll be fine. Just get out of the building with that chip.”
“And if I get caught?”
“Use the overload as an excuse. Act disoriented and say you don’t know where you are. My data will support that story.”
◆◆◆
The important thing about the overload was the timing. It couldn’t be too soon. If Two-Step really did have a reaction to the new chip, she wanted to know. It was unlikely but possible. Most chips implanted by professionals worked fine the first time, it was chips implanted in the streets that tended to fry on the first use. Xia also had her other test subjects to think about. She didn’t want one of them to have an adverse reaction while everyone’s attention was on Two-Step. Most problems with code happened in the first ten to fifteen minutes, so she programmed Two-Steps overload to start twenty-three minutes after she sent the code to his chip. That should be the perfect amount of time.
She stood behind the two-way mirror checking the readings on her subjects when Granger stepped next to her.
“How’s number 47 doing?”
“He’s doing well.”
“He took to the new installation?”
“You know you’re supposed to…”
“Call it implanting. I know, I know. Old habits.”
“Well, it looks like he’s fine with the new chip. I guess I...”
“Looks like you didn’t need to take him after all,” he said and walked off.
Xia checked the time. Seventeen minutes since she sent the code to Two-Step. She wanted to be next to him when the overload started, so she left the observation room. As she walked, she got the feeling she was moving along slightly out of synch with the rest of the room. The feeling of detachment was coming back. She fought it off and concentrated on the sensation of her feet touching the floor as she walked.
She stopped at the foot of Two-Step’s bed and gave him a nod. She could see that he was preparing himself mentally when the seizure started. A distant look came over his eyes and his face went slack for a moment. He jerked once, violently, and fell to the side, bouncing off the bed, jerking uncontrollably on his way to the floor. Xia was ready when it happened, and she moved quickly, making sure his head didn’t hit the tile as the rest of his body slammed on the floor. Once on the floor, his body convulsed so violently he bent into a misshapen L, and he let out a constant, low guttural moan.
“I’ve got an overload,” Xia yelled. “I need assistance.”
Several other testing monitors came running as Two-Step continued jerking in and out of his L shape.
Xia worked frantically and pointlessly on her code deck.
“I can’t bring him out of it,” she said.
Two-Step continued to moan and convulse. He began to drool and his eyes fluttered in their sockets.
Granger took out a code deck and scanned Two-Step’s tattoo. “Let me try,” he said.
Xia didn’t resist. She knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything.
While Granger worked to pull him out of the overload, a small trickle of blood came from Two-Step’s nose and ran down his upper lip.
“We need to get him to the infirmary,” Xia said.
Granger, his face turning a shade paler, nodded in agreement.
Two med techs wheeled a gurney down the center aisle as test subjects looked on, their terrified and concerned faces multiplying in the mirrors like a crowd watching a career-ending injury at a sporting event. The med techs carefully put Two-Step’s convulsing body on the gurney and wheeled him out of the room.
Xia knew the overload was planned and ultimately harmless, but the sight of Two-Step convulsing had shaken her, and she sat on the bed, staring at a small spot of blood and drool mixing on the floor.
“Are you okay?” Granger asked. It was the most human she had ever heard him sound.
She looked up at him. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute.”
“Why don’t you take a short break? The rest of us can cover you.”
The other test monitors agreed.
It was a good idea. Maybe she could use the time to try to contact Kat and see how the others were doing. At the moment, she was more worried about them then she was about Two-Step, but she wanted to make sure she did everything she could to help him get out of the building.
“Yeah, I think I will. Thanks. I’ll go check on him in a minute.”
Chapter 53
“What in the hell are you doing down here?” Slade asked.
Jacob froze, his mouth going dry. The hum of the hallway’s lights was deafening. He had the pistol in his hand, but Slade already had his weapon trained on him, and he didn’t want to take the chance he wouldn’t be able to move quickly enough to avoid being shot.
“Try to talk to him,” Kat said.
Thank God for Kat. She knew Slade, and she had more experience in firefights than Jacob. If she thought it was a good idea to try to talk to him, Jacob would try. It was better than any idea he had. But what to say that hadn’t been said to Slade when they met before? What approach to take?
Jacob swallowed. “You knew we were planning something here. This is it.”
“Step the rest of the way in the hallway and let the door close by itself. Bring your right hand around so I can see it.”
The loud clunk of the door shutting sent an echo down the hall.
“Tell him you have a gun in your hand,” Kat said. “Tell him you are going to put it down slowly.”
Jacob told him.
“Slowly,” Slade emphasized. “Now, slide it over with your foot. Slowly.”
Jacob used the toe of his boot to send the gun across the floor, keeping his hands away from his body.
“You know I can’t let you go now,” Slade said, using his weapon to gesture toward the cameras. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”
“If you let me go and we finish the job, there won’t be any video evidence that you ever saw me.”
“I don’t care,” Slade said. “If I wanted to help you, I would have told you yes before. I didn’t even want to help Gomez. I only told him I would because of our past. I don’t have a past with you. You’re nobody to me.”
“Sandy,” Kat said, “can you access the lights from the security system?”
“I think so, let me check,” Sandy said. “Yes, but it’s going to take a minute.”
“Keep him talking Jacob.”
It was clear Slade didn’t want to talk. Jacob needed a new tactic. Something to keep the conversation going.
“But Gomez was, right?” Jacob asked.
“He was, and now he’s dead, so I don’t see how that matters too much.”
“You’re right, he is dead. Do you know why he wanted to do this job? What he was going to do with the credits from it? He was going to use it to pay his father’s medical assistance bills, so his mother didn’t have to struggle to get by.”
There was a slight change in Slade’s eyes. It was brief, but Jacob could see it.
“I’ve got the lights,” Sandy said.
“I don’t give a shit about his mother either,” Slade said. He continued to talk about Gomez and their time serving togethe
r, but Jacob tuned him out, listening to Kat.
“Sandy, when I say ‘Three’ I want you to cut the lights to that floor. Turn them back on when Jacob tells you. Jacob, when I say ‘Now’ I want you to drop to the floor and take out the other gun. Roll to the side and aim in his direction. When you are ready, say ‘Now’ and Sandy will turn on the lights. You’re going to have to shoot him. On three. One. Two. Three.”
The lights went out. Jacob dropped to the floor, pulling the gun from his waist as he went down. Slade fired, the barrel flash briefly lighting the hall. Jacob hit the floor, rolling to his right as soon as he felt the tile make contact with his shoulder, stopping on his stomach, the pistol aimed where he thought Slade would be. “Now,” he said and light filled the hallway. He made a minor adjustment to his aim and fired, hitting Slade in the arm, causing him to drop his gun. Jacob fired again, hitting him in the leg, sending him to one knee. “Get his gun,” Kat yelled as the sound of the second shot echoed down the hallway. Jacob scrambled. Slade leaned forward. Both reached for the gun. Jacob fired again, hitting the floor near the gun. Slade pulled his hand away, raising it in surrender. Jacob picked up Slade’s gun and the small gun he’d kicked across the floor.
“I don’t want to shoot you again, so just cooperate,” he said.
“You didn’t have to shoot me in the first place,” Slade said through clenched teeth.
“I did. Hand me your zip cuffs.”
Slade took the bundle of zip tie handcuffs from his belt and tossed them to Jacob. Jacob went to the door and fastened one cuff around the door handle.
“Come over here slowly and put your hand through,” he said.
Slade limped to the door. After he was cuffed, he said, “You better hurry, the security system will report those shots.”
“We own the security system,” Jacob said. “Take the knife off your belt and slide it over to me.”
He picked up the knife and put it and the remaining zip cuffs and put them in his backpack.
“Doesn’t matter, you’re still going to get burned. When I don’t check in on the hour, people will come.”
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