by Justin Coke
For Hayes it was move in with his parents (he’d probably been evicted from his apartment by now) and go beg for his job back, which he probably wouldn’t get since he’d been fired twice in the last year. Probably bankruptcy too—he was too proud to ask Kid Twist to bail him out.
Mad Hatter would just show up at home, with a story no one would ever believe, and go back to Mundis twelve hours a day.
The future felt bleak and empty, without even the comfort of knowing that the people responsible had been arrested. It felt boring.
“So, what now?” Mad Hatter said.
“What do you mean?” Kid Twist said.
“Like, what now? What do I do now?”
“What do you want to do?” Kid Twist said.
Mad Hatter had no answer and shrunk back into his seat.
Back in the hotel, everyone ended up in their bedrooms. After a fitful nap, they gathered for dinner.
“Braylen wants his authenticator back,” Tick Tock said.
“How do you know?”
“I gave him my phone,” she said. “He’s bored out of his mind. Wants his account back.”
“Bad idea,” Kid Twist said.
“Why?” Tick Tock said.
“Puts him back in contact with the bad guys,” Kid Twist said. “Office Davis would be pissed off. Rightly so.”
“Hmm. Yeah. Also I stole all his stuff. What do I tell him?”
“Tell him you can’t,” Kid Twist said. “We’ll give it to Officer Davis, he can decide.”
Tick Tock pulled out her new phone and typed in a message.
“So,” Hayes said, “when are we getting the boot?”
“I’m leaving in five days,” Kid Twist said. “No choice.”
“I see,” Hayes said.
“I was thinking,” Kid Twist said.[250] “I could use an entourage of people I can trust.”
“Like that dumb show?” Mad Hatter said.
“I never watched it,” Kid Twist said. “But basically you run around putting out fires for me. There’s a lot of fires on tour. Handle my social media. Stuff like that.”
“Are you offering us jobs?” Hayes said.
“Yeah, guess so.”
“Me too?” Tick Tock said.
“At least until college starts,” Kid Twist said. “I think you two might want to join her in getting your degrees. Being in my entourage is a short term gig at best.”
“Why?” Tick Tock said.
“The life cycle of a boy band is short. I’m probably half-done already. Two years tops, and honestly most of the other guys are already fantasizing about their solo careers, so who knows,” Kid Twist said. “Decent chance this is the last tour.”
Tick Tock gasped; the thought of BLU breaking up was too much to take.
“What about a solo career?” Tick Tock said.
“The truth is,” Kid Twist said, “that I don’t have much musical talent. I’m there to look pretty and lip-sync to a vocal track that has been engineered to the point where philosophers could debate whether it’s really my vocals, like how if you replace the head and handle of Grandpa’s axe, is it still Grandpa’s axe? I-V-vi-IV,[251] that’s all I know. And honestly, I don’t like it. It’s just what I do.”
“I don’t want a pity job,” Mad Hatter said.
“Me either,” Hayes said.
“It would be a huge relief,” Kid Twist said, “to have people I can really talk to. It’s not a pity job, but if it makes you feel any better, I won’t pay you very much.”
“Deal,” Mad Hatter said.[252]“Deal,” Hayes said.
“I’m in,” Tick Tock said.
“Good, so that settles that,” Kid Twist said.[253]“Anyone want to log on, see what the fall out is?” Tick Tock said.
They all shook their heads no.
“Uh,” Tick Tock said, staring at her phone. “Uh.”
“What?”
“Braylen says he busted out of protective custody and that he’s going to kill himself.”
“What?” Kid Twist said, reaching for his phone to call Officer Davis.
“Don’t,” Tick Tock said. “He says if he sees the cops he’ll jump. We have half an hour to deliver the authenticator.”
“He won’t kill himself over the authenticator,” Mad Hatter said. “That’s crazy.”
“He’s crazy,” Kid Twist said, looking pale. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“Lake Baldwin, near Changing Hands.”
“Can you track your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Is he near Lake Baldwin?”
Tick Tock pulled up her laptop.
“Near there, yes.”
“Let’s go,” Kid Twist said.
Chapter Sixty-Two
They arrived at Baldwin Lake twenty minutes later.
“I’m seeing a total absence of places you could jump from and kill yourself,” Hayes observed.
“Shut up and stay here,” Kid Twist said and got out of the car. Braylen appeared out of some bushes.
“You can’t log on,” Kid Twist said.
“If I start a new character I can,” Braylen said.
“You really going to kill yourself for the authenticator?”
“No,” Braylen said. “But it’s mine and I want it.”
“They let you have a computer?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“With that staff and my gear I can get enough money to live off of for a while,” Braylen said.
Kid Twist couldn’t hide a grimace.
“You stole it again?” Braylen said, laughing. “I thought so. I still have enough gold on my alts to get a decent jump on them.”
“Why not just tell the cops who they are? You wouldn’t have to run.”
Braylen shook his head. “You have no idea. They can’t arrest them all.”
“All?”
Braylen shook his head. “My dad ... and the others ... the ones you’ve seen ... it’s like busting the manager of a McDonald’s and thinking you took down the whole corporation. I’ll never not have to run. But if I keep my mouth shut then maybe they’ll forget about me.”
“The police can help.”
“Uh huh. All those bishops and priests are in jail, right? You don’t understand who I’d be ratting on. I don’t even know who I’d be ratting on. Just give me the authenticator.”
“I do, actually,” Kid Twist said. “If you take them out of the shadows they aren’t as powerful.”
Braylen just laughed, a sad, despairing laugh that was like a harpoon through Kid Twist’s chest.
“If it’s money, I can help.”
Braylen shook his head.
“Give me back my gear, that’s all the help I want from you.”
“We’ll do that, I promise,” Kid Twist said and handed over the authenticator. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
Braylen took a long, careful look at a house in the distance.
“The apartment they searched, I didn’t live there. They just used that to get me into school.”
“Okay,” Kid Twist said.
“I lived over there. If you want to help, I’m going to get in there and get some of my stuff before I go.”
“What stuff?”
Braylen paused for a long second.
“Personal items.”
“Could you be more specific?”
“No,” Braylen said. “But if you want to help, watch my back while I get in there. I’ve been watching for hours, I don’t think anyone is there, but those fuckers have always been a step ahead of me.”
“Let the stuff go, then.”
“Can’t.”
“Can’t?”
“You helping or not?”
“Yes, fine, yes. Let me get the others.”
“Make sure that prick doesn’t punch me again,” Braylen said.
“I’ll do what I can.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
“So,” Terry said, “the plan is to invade a crime sce
ne and remove evidence.”
“It’s just some personal items.”
“It’s his residence?”
“Yes.”
Terry grimaced. “Okay, though I guarantee you Davis will be pissed about all of this.”
“Should only take a couple of minutes.”
Terry subconsciously checked his guns.[254]They got out of the car.
“You stay, Emily,” Kid Twist.
“Blow me,” she said.
“I mean it.”
“I’m coming.”
“Phrasing,” Hayes said, trying to defuse the situation.
Tick Tock’s death glare proved he had failed to defuse the situation.
“Get back in the car,” Kid Twist said.
“Look, Jason, either this is safe enough for me to go, or it’s not safe enough for anyone to go. I’m not a princess.”
Kid Twist bit his lip and then waved them on. Braylen circled away from Hayes.
“Oh, please,” Hayes said. “You know you deserve at least one punch in the face after all the shit you pulled.”
“All the shit I pulled? You guys pretended to be my friends, spied on me, ruined like forty people’s characters by hacking, all cause I fucked with you once. If I deserve a punch, so do you.”
“Can’t beat a cheater without cheating,” Hayes said. “You tried to kill Tick Tock.”
“Who?”
“Emily!”
“I didn’t do that,” Braylen said.
“You planted the malware.”
“All those links look the same. They didn’t tell me about any of this. Never heard it before.”
“Still used your Paladin to lure me to the hole and push me in.”
“That was you? Oh god, that was you. Yeah, and it cost you what? Two gold to hire someone to summon you out? I have a word you should learn. Proportionality. P-R-O-P-O-R-T-I-O-N-L-I-T-Y. It means that you don’t break out the nukes because someone didn’t send you a Christmas card.”
“He has a point,” Mad Hatter said.
“You were totally into it!” Hayes said.
“I love the lulz,” Mad Hatter said, sheepish.
“Okay guys,” Kid Twist said. “The past is the past. We’re all on the same side now.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like the kid,” Hayes said.
“Hayes! Shush! You’re making an ass out of yourself,” Kid Twist shouted. Tick Tock gave him a pinch. Even Mad Hatter looked a little appalled, and that was the thing that made Hayes flush with shame. If Mad Hatter thought you were being rude, you were being very rude.
Braylen yanked off two slats of a privacy fence and slid through them. Terry had to had take out another two slats to fit his beefy frame through the fence. The rest followed.
The house was nothing spectacular, though Haye’s perception on that front had been badly skewed by Kid Twist’s mansion and the hotel. Braylen dug a key out from under a brick, and they were in.
A number pad next to the door started beeping, and Braylen punched in a number that seemed to satisfy it.
“Step careful,” Bralyen said as he turned on the flashlight function of Tick Tock’s phone.
“You think there are booby traps?” Terry said.
“Like I said,” Braylen replied. “They’re always a step or two ahead of me. And I was usually two steps ahead of you guys, so that puts them way ahead of you.[255] Can’t hurt to be careful.”Terry brushed past Braylen and removed a tiny flashlight from his key ring. He turned it on, and it was shockingly powerful.
“Stay three steps behind me,” Terry said. “Where are going?”
“Top floor. Basement stair is down the hall to your left,” Braylen said.
They made their way slowly down the hall, Terry crouched down, sweeping with the flashlight as he went.
He started at a thin piece of fishing line tied waist high at the stairs.
“Okay, we’re leaving,” Terry said.
Braylen dodged past him and dove under the fishing line.
“You go outside, or go home then,” Braylen said. “Though I wouldn’t mind borrowing that flashlight.”
Kid Twist grabbed a gun out of Terry’s holster and slid under the wire.
“What in the fuck,” Terry yelled.
Kid Twist gave him a strange look.
“I have to help him,” he said. “It’s stupid but I have to. You guys wait here.”
Terry growled and went under the wire, then stole his pistol back.
“Don’t ever touch my guns,” Terry said. “You do that again you’d best shoot me.”
Kid Twist paled and nodded.
Tick Tock was under the wire after they had climbed enough stairs to make space. Mad Hatter and Hayes looked at each other, testing the other to see if they would provide the precedent to leave. Hayes wanted to go because the idea of risking his life for Braylen was too much to bear; Mad Hatter wanted to leave for obvious not dying reasons. But in the end they both went under the wire.
They encountered no other traps on the way to the top floor, which made them far more nervous than they would have been if they’d found them. The fear of what they were missing was worse than the fear of what was there.
They reached Braylen’s bedroom, and Hayes had to stifle a guffaw. A race-car bed dominated a room full of toy dinosaurs and stuffed animals.
Braylen glared at Hayes.
“Dad insisted I keep it this way,” Braylen snarled, and turned and kicked a hole in the drywall above an air vent.
“Don’t flip out!” Kid Twist said.
“I’m not,” Braylen said as he reached around behind the wall. He pulled his arm out and held a book.
Covered in drywall dust, Hayes could make out the title. Baby’s First Year.
“That’s it?” Kid Twist said.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Braylen said.
“Seriously, we braved booby traps for Baby’s First Year?” Hayes said.
“It,” Braylen said with a snarl, “is the only thing I have left of my mother.”
Hayes opened his mouth to apologize when the beams of a cars headlights swept across the room.
“Uh,” Mad Hatter said, looking out the window at a black Lincoln Towncar coming to a stop in the driveway. “Uh. Uh. Shit.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Braylen started to bolt, until Terry grabbed him by the arm.
“They’re trying to flush you out the back. They’ve got someone waiting. Everyone stay here. Jason, call the cops,” He said as he drew a pistol and left the room.[256]Kid Twist dialed 911 and handed the phone to Braylen.
“It’s just ringing,”[257] Braylen said.
“Keep trying,” Kid Twist replied.
After a minute Braylen hung up and tried again.
“It’s just ringing,” he whimpered. “Jesus Christ they’re everywhere.”[258]Hayes tried on his phone.
“911, where is your emergency,” came the instant reply.
“We’re in a house, there are people trying to kill us.”
“Where?”
“What’s the address,” Hayes hissed as gunfire rang out.
Shaken, Braylen took a second to reply. “345 Woodbridge Drive,” he said, pale and hyperventilating.
The shots got more intense. Multiple guns were going off.
Terry bolted into the room, blood dripping down his arm. He changed magazines.
“You got 911?” Terry said.
“Yeah.”
“Police are on the way. Please stay on the line. Do you know who is shooting at you?”
“Who is shooting at us?” Hayes said.
Terry ripped the phone out of his hand.
“At least two men armed with Beretta 92s. Probably a third person in the backyard. We’re on the top floor of the house. There are five of us. There is a fishing line boobytrap on the stairs from the basement. Hurry,” Terry said, and threw the phone in the corner.
“Wish I had a better angle on the stairs,” Terry said. “Do any o
f you know how to shoot?”
Kid Twist shook his head.
“I’ve hunted a few squirrels,” Mad Hatter said. Terry handed him the second gun. He lunged across the hall and knocked a hole in the wall. The stairwell lay on the other side.
“When I say shoot, you shoot that hole,” Terry said. “Repeat it.”
“When you say shoot, I shoot that hole.”
“Move your thumb, you’ll break it if you shoot with that grip,” Terry said, and he shuffled out of the room again. They heard the crashing of something large down the hallway.[259]Silence ruled the hall. Mad Hatter held the gun up, finger wrapped around the trigger, breathing like he’d run ten miles.
“Shoot!”
Mad Hatter emptied half the clip into that hole; if it hadn’t been three feet away it would have been a pretty impressive grouping. Screaming came from the other side of the wall; a quick shot from Terry cut off the scream.
Mad Hatter stared at the hole as the gun dropped from his fingers, and he burst into tears.
A long pause.
“The other fucker didn’t run,” Terry shouted. “There another way up to this floor?”
Braylen shook himself out of silence.
“Yes, far side of the ho...” he said as shots rang out, accompanied by the sound of wood splintering.
“I’m pinned down,” Terry shouted.
Hayes looked at Mad Hatter, willing him to pick up the gun. But he looked like he had no idea what was going on. Hayes picked up the gun and found a corner. All he had to go on was his Call of Battle experience, and he couldn’t forget, as he cleared the corner, that he sucked really bad at Call of Battle.
He saw a gun poking out from behind a wall and, taking the hint from what he’d just learned, he aimed at where the chest should probably be. He fired a shot or two; no screaming, but the gun retreated. Terry leapt up and bolted back to the bedroom.
“Move,” Terry hissed, “They can shoot through walls too.”
Hayes had taken half a step back when bullets pierced the wall where he’d been standing. He fell back, dropping the gun, and crab crawled backwards.
Terry, face bleeding from wood splinters, patted Hayes on the shoulder and took back his gun. He gestured for Hayes to return to the bedroom.