really be on the other side, that wasn’t possible. She would never have killed one of her own. No, she had to be legit. Any other thought would be crazy.
“The dead ones would be Gaffer, Albu, fps. Man, fps; he’s been offline a decent while.” Had they really been doing this for so long? “And squelch. You know all about squelch.” He looked at Andrea.
“Yes,” she gulped. “They just cut his throat, simple as that. Horrible.” She shuddered, then regained her composure. “I can’t believe that was nil8. At least not alone. And anyway, if that was nil8, then who were the people following me in Los Angeles? They looked pretty rough. Not to mention the guys in the hotel. Do you think they were pretending to be movie geeks for all these years? It’s pretty obvious this thing is bigger than him, don’t you think?”
She glanced over to pat his arm, almost as if to get reassurance herself.
“If it really still is nil8. Truth is, someone could have taken over nil8’s account. Although, we probably would have noticed a change in tone of voice, so that doesn’t seem likely.” Dorian paused. So who was left? He circled his hand around his wrist. “Then there’s Striptz, Early Bird and Ruutor. That’s who’s left. It’s so strange. It was almost like all the work they had done to keep themselves secure was now backfiring, making it so that it was almost impossible for him to save his friends. They’d been rooted like a hacked server. The enemy could do anything. He and Andrea could only break back in. “Striptz is good, but he does things a bit sloppily. He’s the reason we had to put out a PROPER. He didn’t check the release completely before it went out. Broke around the fortieth minute. Embarrassing.”
“Ok. Striptz.”
“And Ruutor,” Dorian laughed despite himself. “He’s a nice kid. He’s in the inner circle ‘cause he’s done some good work with his secondary server. But oh boy, it’s almost like he does this for work. He’s so serious. Always getting into big battles on the technical side.”
“How do you mean?”
“He’s so convinced of his approach sometimes, that he can’t get over it. He’ll argue for a long time even when other people have agreed to a different approach. It can get really annoying. But at least he cares a lot about it. And it’s not like his ideas are wrong. He’s good. Young, but good.”
“Got it.”
“Which leaves Early Bird. Like Ruutor, he’s close. But he’s still just a kid.”
“You’re still just a kid. He must be a baby.” Andrea grinned over at Dorian.
“Ok, he’s still just a baby,” Dorian smiled back. “But then…but then, they’re all about to be killed.” The realization hit him hard. “Doesn’t make them much like babies anymore.” He frowned. “And the truth is we’re pretty likely to die too.”
“I know.” For the first time that Dorian had know her, Andrea actually looked scared. “I’ve never shot a gun before,” she said.
“Except for when you shot Tara,” Dorian hesitated, “that woman.”
“Except for that.”
“And you got her in one go.”
“So I’m good now? Is that what that means?” She chuckled, not convinced.
“That’s what it better mean.”
“Yeah.”
Cross Country
They spent the night in a sleazy low-slung motel they found in Pasadena. Their room contained a utilitarian queen sized bed and warping yellowish wallpaper. But the bathroom was clean enough. Before going to sleep, they managed to check 70mm’s web site by begging the night manager to let them access his reservations computer. It was easy enough once Dorian realized what was needed. He left to let Andrea do a bit of flirtation.
The website revealed no new coordinates. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? At least it meant they had all the information they were ever going to have. He fought the urge to start another entropy search. No, it wouldn’t reveal anything. He hoped what they had was the right information, and he prayed his friends were still alive.
After a bit of fast food they went to the room. “We’ll need all the energy we can get tomorrow,” Andrea said.
Dorian climbed into his side of the bed, while Andrea climbed into hers. Thoughts chased through his brain like clouds in a tornado. What would happen? How tough were these people? Who was still alive? Were they even going to the right place? He wanted to scream to drown it all out. No chance of sleep. Under the sheets, he felt a soft hand wrap around his, squeezing. He squeezed back, tears and sobs nearly bursting into the open. He slid closer, draping his arm around Andrea’s waist. She put her arm around him, pulling him close. “We’ll be ok,” she whispered in the dark. He could feel his thoughts finally draining away in her warmth. He drifted off to sleep.
They woke early. Dorian felt himself fighting an exhausted haze, and Andrea didn’t look much better, even though they had the benefit of a three hour time change on their side. A typically brilliant blue LA sky blazed around the edges of the drawn curtains, forcing itself into the corners of his eyes.
Dorian struggled. The thought that this could be his last day on Earth ran through his head over and over to the point where he wanted to pound his skull against the wall to make it go away. But twinned with that thought was a much more surprising thought. Somehow, he didn’t quite understand it, he was really happy that he would be spending his very last day on Earth with Andrea. If this had to be it, he wanted it to be with Andrea.
After quick showers, they gathered their two moderately filled backpacks, and set out.
The gun and ammo were easily picked up at the shipping office. Back in the car, they headed east. About an hour and a half later, after exiting the freeway, they followed a slight right fork in the road and continued up the hill onto Culbertson Way. Neither spoke. Dorian contemplated what they were about to do, still not entirely convinced.
“We’re vigilantes,” Andrea managed. “Should have called the cops.”
“They wouldn’t do anything. You’re a fugitive, remember?”
“Hanging out with you I actually managed to forget. Thanks for reminding me.”
They passed a few houses, none of which were number fourteen. Finally, at the very end of the street, a dirt road continued. Through scrub brush and dried out trees, they could see a house in the distance. On the beat up mailbox, the number “14” peeled in the heat.
“This is it,” Andrea whispered.
“Let’s park the car by one of the other houses,” Dorian whispered back.
“Good idea. Maybe we can go behind, get out of sight, behind that house over there on the right. Then we sneak up from the back of fourteen, behind that hill over there.” Her fingers traced an arc in the air.
“Yes. Let’s do it. You have your gun, right?”
“Yep.”
“Full of bullets?”
“Yes.”
“We might need extra. I’ll carry the box.”
“Can we really trust 70mm? Couldn’t he be luring us into a trap?”
“Why are you saying that now?” Dorian felt his throat tighten.
“I’ve been wondering it, but here we are.” Andrea shrugged. “There’s no time to think about it after this.”
“We have to trust him,” Dorian said, not completely sure. “He’s one of the best Deep Noders. Without him, the whole team wouldn’t exist. No, he’s got to be trustworthy.”
“Then you don’t think they know we’re here?”
“Let’s be careful.”
“Of course.”
Andrea locked the car. As she turned around, Dorian put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up into his eyes. “What?” she said.
Dorian, feeling more that a little bit out of body, leaned over and kissed her on the lips. His heart beat crazily. Andrea startled, then pushed herself against him. She wrapped her arms around his chest. He pulled her into his arms. The kiss felt like it lasted forever. Warm. All encompassing. The world froze around Dorian. He felt every bit of himself slipping through his lips, through Andrea’s lips and merging into every
corner of her body.
He never wanted to let go. A small corner of his mind realized this moment was the happiest of his whole life. How had that happened? Never mind. Happiness! He focused back on the softness of Andrea’s lips.
Andrea pulled away slightly. Her small movement tingled all over Dorian. “I love you,” she said in a small voice, wiping tears from her eyes. He wanted to say “yes,” but she put a finger on his mouth. “There’s no more time.”
Dorian nodded, the world around him flooding back, forcing itself on him. In an instant everything came back. He’d never been so scared.
They linked hands for another few moments, looking in each other’s eyes. Their hands dropped to their sides slowly.
Nothing quite made sense to Dorian anymore. Had she just told him she loved him? How had that happened? Was that what had driven him to grab her a few moments earlier? It had felt just right. Everything was right. But wrong. He didn’t know anymore. No. Andrea was right. What they were about to do was right. But everything was wrong. Everything that had happened to him and his friends and to Andrea. That was wrong. Now they had to save his friends.
And if they didn’t, he reminded himself, he and Andrea were probably next.
He shuddered.
Andrea, looked back quickly, clenching her jaw. She set out, with Dorian behind. They followed a small path into the trees and behind the hill. Around the corner lay the house where the Deep Noders were surely being held hostage, if not already dead. And that was unless they were actually somewhere in Reno. No, forget
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