by Michael Conn
Thump-thump, thump-thump .
The whispers start. “You’re going to kill them . . . and you won’t make the fall. They deserve better than you.”
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Max feels them pulling . . . then g limpses of blue sky, a bridge, water , Virginia flying, then pain, cold, and b lack ness .
Scooped up in the stranger’s arms, I look back into the canoe and cry; I try to touch my mother. Through my little eyes , I see my mother reaching out to me, watching her cry as I am carried off into the woods . I look over the shoulder of the person carrying me , eye s fixed on my mother. I watch until I can only see a slice of blue water through the forest.
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Pirelli waits at the Kitselas level crossing as the train approaches at a crawl, stopping just s h ort of the road. He climbs onto the train and searches for the kids. Three hours later , he jumps down, curses, climbs in his car and makes the call. “Hello Frank , it’s Pirelli.”
“I know who it is , you moron . I guess this means you don’t have my grand daughter.”
“They weren’t on the train. That will put them in the river or in the wild. They’re doing well , but they will have to come in from the wild .”
“It’s time to put more pressure on . Go to Prince George and wait for your new partner to show up.”
“And if the kids go to Prince Rupert or hide in Terrace?” Pirelli asks.
“Either place is fine. They can’t get away from there , it’s too remote , and Max knows it.”
“You’re giving them too much time.”
“You gave them the time Pirelli, ” Frank says . “Get to Prince George. Hasting s will meet you at 8 o’clock tonight. After today you and Hastings report to Mr. Newton on this one.
Pirelli disconnects. Great ! Hasting ‘The Hammer’ and Mr. ‘Spook ’ Newton . . . that’s just what we need , a tough guy Brit and a psychopath .
This whole chase is folly .
Pirelli merges into traffic and heads for Prince George. I bet I get there and then I wait. I wait on agents. I wait on targets. I wait. Sometimes waiting works. Be patient and wait them out. On the other hand, i f I wait for an occasion to do something I’ll be waiting for my funeral.
Chapter 11 –Horace
Naomi and Virginia break the surface of the water together, b oth of them spinning around looking for the boys. “Did you see Max hit the water?!” says Virginia . Naomi shakes her head. The current is fast and the temperature cruel . The water bites at them and saps the strength from their limbs . Virginia dives under just as Walker break s the surface. He swim s to Naomi and together they gather the gear. Walker shoves gear at Naomi and then disappears underwater . She swim s to shore with all their possessions .
Blue. Cold. Bubbles. My mom reaching out to me. Up. Up. I look and see a canoe. I call out. Why can’t I hear my voice. I swim. Pain. Don’t breath e , help yourself. I kick with one l eg, striving toward the canoe, toward my mom. I’m stronger than them. The w hispe ring starts and my head spins. ‘Just breath e , just breath e , and you ’ll be done . Breath e and it will all be over. Trust me, the best thing you can do to help is let them go.’ Alone.
Max kicks as best he can with one leg and pulls himself up with his arms. The splint drags him d own in the current . His face drags across something hard . He breaks the surface for a moment and sees Naomi. Before he can yell , the current pulls him under again. He reaches down and tears at the splint.
Where’s Virginia? Who’s looking for Virginia?
The n Virginia is pulling him up. They break the surfa ce beside Walker . Virginia screams something. They all follow Naomi to the embankment. On the shoreline , they all pant and shiver. The short time in the water made their limbs numb, painful, and weak. Walker gets moving first. Max looks up at Walker ’s worried face. “You’ll be OK Max, I got you.” Walker digs into their pack.
Naomi looks Max over. The l eg doesn’t look good, bent , and now he also has a long gash on his cheek and a black eye . “Ohhhhh ,” she lets slip out before smiling at Max. “You ’ll be OK, we got you now.”
Just let them go. Max passes out . The three of them do their best to re-set his leg and fix his splint. Together they carry Max and trudge up the steep rocky embankment to the highway. After twenty minutes of hitch hiking with wet clothes clinging heavily to them , a Volkswagen camper van pulls up. They all hesitate; the van has Lego and Smurf characters glued all over it. On the front , the Smurfs spell ‘Ursa ’. The van door slides open. “Whoa!” says a bearded behemoth of a man from inside. “Little Smurfs hitchhiking , hop in.” His trench coat looks like it was taken from the material of a tent; i t looked like it could still be used to shelter all four kids. “You can’t stay out there man. Come on in . . . don’t be shy.” Max feels himself lifted into the van. I t feels warm and he blacks out .
“Where are you headed?” Walker asks.
“Prince Rupert, and you?”
“Prince Rupert is perfect, ” s ays Walker.
A large hand reaches back at Walker , “Trust me, it’s far from perfect . . . I’m Horace , nice to meet you.”
“I’m Walker . . . uhm , I’m sorry to ask this but do you have any food?” Walker asks.
“Got a Costco size ca se of Twinkies right behind you. Dig in. Also there’s a first aid kit back there; looks like your friend there could use some steri -strips or something . Did he lose a fight with a bear?”
“Our canoe tipped over.” Walker opens the Twinkies and hands them out .
Virginia gently tends to Max’s cut and asks, “How long to Prince Rupert?”
“Bout 2 hours, ” Horace answers.
By the time Virginia has done what she can with the gash on Max’s face an hour has passed. Naomi and Walker have fallen asleep. “I hope you don’t mind if we sleep ,” Virginia motions to the other three , who are already slee ping , and then curls up to Max and sleeps without waiting for an answer .
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The van pulls into Prince Rupert at about half past four Saturday afternoon . Max wakes and with considerable effort moves into the front passenger seat beside Horace , t aking care to move slowly and carefully. The pain radiates from his leg in waves. He feels dizzy and forces away the urge to vomit.
Horace looks over at him. “Hospital?”
“No, we just need an Internet connection for a few hours.”
Horace looks Max over. “Broken leg, cut on your face that needs sti t ches, nasty black eye. I think you had hypothermia when you got in the van, you look like you’re about ten years old, and you don’t need anything more than Internet ? You got a bad hankering for Facebook or something?”
Max sighs. “I need Internet access , if you don’t want to help fine. My friends and I will just start running again.”
“Easy. Easy. I’ll help. I’ll park outside the library, its wireless Internet will reach, while you rip some tweets or whatever you need to do . I’ll get you guys some Pizza, how’s that?”
“Thank you , and I’m sorry if I sounded rude. I’m just a bit tired.”
“No worries ,” Horace says as he gets out of the van. “You said you and your friends would start running again. Do you really think you can run anywhere on that leg?” He walks away without waiting for an answer.
After Horace leaves, Max wakes the others by throwing empty Twinkie wrappers at them.
“Max, what are you doing ? Lie back down, y our leg won’t heal—” Virginia starts.
“Virginia, please just get me a proper splint , some aspirin, and a cane or something . I’ll be fine, but I’ll need to walk soon. Walker and I have some coding to do.”
“Fine,” Virginia says, taking Naomi with her, she leaves the van , closing the door a little too hard behind them .
“OK—Walker , get connected and release the latest code, then I need you to seed some electrons for me.”
“Where?” Walker asks .
“Canadian Airways , flight bookings . . . While you do that I�
�ll work on bank machine s . We need cash.”
“OK . . . I can do the flight thing, but do you know how hard it’s going to be to get into the bank machines ? How are we going to do this?”
“Like usual, ” Max says. “We’ll walk right in the front door and seed an electron and proton pair directly in to a bank machine. I’ll just ignore the whole supporting network for now and make the bill transport engage when we need it . It will only be hard to get our platform injected into the bank machines the first time. Once we infect a machine, getting into the rest of the network will be easy . And once I’m in a machine, m aking the bill transport activate is just like flipping a light switch.”
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Pirelli w aits in a diner for Hastings. Of course Hastings has to make him wait just long enough to be irritating . Hastings finally ent ers the diner wearing that stupid Fedora of his. He walks over and drops down heavily into the booth across from Pirelli, spilling Pirelli’s beer. “Nice, Hastings .” Pirelli signals the waitress . She comes over with a cloth.
“Hello Pirelli . . . so you lost four kids, nine-year-old s I hear.” Hastings order s beer . “You eating? Or eaten?” Without waiting for an answer , Hastings orders a club sandwich.
“They’re not lost; they’re still trapped in the wilderness. It’ll only be hours before they wander into a hospital in one of three towns. Prince Rupert, Terrace, or Prince George.”
“Nine-year-olds . . . how did they avoid capture . . . advanced scootering ?” Hasting raises his glass for a toast. “Here’s to working in a rain forest again . . . eight degrees, grey , and wet.”
“To being grown men who babysit, ” Pirelli answers.
Hastings ’ phone chimes . He reads a text. “Bad timing, we’ll have to have the beer another time.” He hands the phone to Pirelli. Pirelli reads that the kids are booked as unaccompanied children on a flight leaving Prince Rupert in three hours.
Moments later two black CTS’s are hurtling toward Prince Rupert.
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After about an hour Virginia and Naomi return with a cane for Ma x. “I hope this will work. I t’s all we could find to steal form the hospital.” With help from the girls , Max gets out of the v an. Leaning heavily on the cane and using all his effort , Max move s forward slowly.
“I’ll be fine with this, thanks,” says Max. I’ll pass out if we walk too far.
Horace arrives back with the p izza. “Dinner time.”
Over pizza Horace agrees to take them across to the island airport via ferry.
“Horace , uhm, I have a question for you?” Max says.
Horace raises an eyebrow. “Yes.”
“Why are you being so nice to us?”
“Odd question,” says Horace . “Why am I being nice? I think . . . it’s because I am nice . . . and you look like you need a leg up right now.”
“One more thing.” Max shifts nervously, not sure what to believe. “Can we borrow your ban k card?” Max puts on his best trust-me look.
“Uhm . . . I’m thinking no—why do you need it, beyond the obvious reason of stealing my money.”
“We don’t need you r money; we just nee d a card to put in the machine. After that we can get some cash, but not from your account.”
“From whose account then ?”
“No one ’s, ” Max answers.
Horace takes out his card. “I’m not liking the sound of this. I don’t mind living in a van down by the river, but I don’t want to go to jail.”
“No jail. Your card is perfect. Chip and contactless. We program it. Then all you have to do is use it like normal.”
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Back from the bank machine, Walker hands a wad of cash over to Max .
“Shall we get going to the airport then ?” Horace asks .
“Let’s go.” Max says .
In the back of the van Naomi closely inspects the bills. “For some reason I thought money was smaller and thinner. This is crisp and colourful. You ever held a bill before . . .” The four of the m pass around twenty dollar bills like they are alien technology.
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Trap Max and you pass, lose Max and be Processed. I have to admit this is motivating. Keith examines the executables that MGA passed to him. Nothing stellar here. Just hacking code to break into the school ’s security system s . I thought Walker was better than this.
OK, good for them for getting out. They’ve lasted longer than I ever did , but their code is nothing special. There is nothing I can do with this. Out for this long they should be down off the mountain by now . If I were them I’d split up and e ach take a different route to . . . Vancou ver and then regroup. But they’re not me. Where will they go?
Find them ? This is my exam. These are the facts I have. Max is weak. Virginia p rotects him. Naomi is an empath. Ooooh whipty -do. She can sense if I’m annoyed or not. Walker – Walker isn’t good at anything as far as I can tell.
Keith leans back from his interactive desktop closing the apps he was running . The backlight from the desktop provides enough light for him to see in the empty classroom. He discovered that the scanners started opening for him in the evenings. Meaning he has access to the classrooms and labs after hours.
Clearly the world is full of followers and leaders. Why do people follow Max? They chose him over me, so I am my own team. Efficient. Focussed. Driven. Go back to my training. Step one when tracking an enemy, target their resources. They will need food, rest , money, transportation, information. Information. Everyone wants information. I know what Max will come looking for. I have that information already. How can I use that against MGA and Max?
Keith opens a mindmap drawing program and brainstorms what he knows so far. Team, intelligence, strength, endurance, and . . . and unknown. What is Naomi? The wildcard. I’ve heard MGA value s empaths more than all others here; I guess I should know why.
Transpor tation. This one is easy. They’re not a strong team. They’ll book a flight; it’s the soft route to Vancouver.
Rest and food boil down to needing money. They need it and have access to none. I kno w how soon they’ll need it. I was out there before. You can’t do anything o utside these walls without it . Max will get money .
Stick to the basics. Follow the money.
Chapter 12 –Ferries
Max and Walker keep c oding together in the back seat of the v an as they approach the ferry terminal.
Walker leans against Max. “Hey Max, you know how they say the b ank network is disconnected from the Internet ? Well, when I fed that hack of ours into the ban k machine , I thought it would be an isolated strain of co de. But look , I can see its foo tprint n eutrons spread through the rest of the Internet already. So somewhere the bank machines connect to the Internet . I just finished maki ng the bank machines reset their counts to adjust for what we take out. What are you doing?”
“Breaking into as many cell phone carriers as I can. Soon we’ll be able to use our SI M card with a shifting SIM ID. The best part is I made a reflector and I’m unleashing it on the carriers .” Max answers.
“Nice . . . every call will bounce through different phone numbers .”
“Not just every call . . . e very packet.” Max explains . “I’m using The Grind against them . The tactic used by every multi-player online game ever made. Hide it well but make the players grind until they give you money just to avoid a bit of the grind. After they pay you , grind them down again. Tracking us will be so tedious it will wear the analysts down. They’ll be so bored, they’ll make mistakes , and they won’t try hard for long.”
The van jerks to a stop, sputters, and let s out a large puff of black smoke . Horace faces the kids, “We’re here.”
They all pile out of the v an and Naomi hug s Horace . “Thank you so much, really . . . thank you.”
The y walk away from Horace . Naomi in front, Max hobbling with his can e , Walker and Virginia behind. Horace smacks his chest with a fist, “Qapla ',” he says to them.
Outside
the walk-on passengers’ entry , Max’s thoughts wander; he makes a mental note to talk to Walker about the period ic table. Halfway paying attention to his thoughts, Max watches some kids in front of him. They are a bit bigger than us . Looking at the two boys he realizes he need s to get new clothes. He and his group are filthy . The two girls in the group of kids make Virginia and Naomi look even worse . Find time to buy clothes.
Four kids . . . Max signals to Virginia. “Go ask those kids in front of us for a favour? Tell them we’re making a movie , and we need to see them wave from the Port Hardy ferry as it leaves—offer them this.” Max hands Virginia $100. “Wait, here’s $400 more. A sk them if we could trade some clothes with them, something that makes them look a bit like us.”
Max watches Virginia talk to the kids . She gets a lot of condesc ending looks until the cash comes out, then it’s all smiles and thank—you ’s . The two groups exchange jackets .
The ramp splits , one way leads to the Digby Island ferr y, the other to the Port Hardy Ferry , which leaves just minutes before the Digby Island ferry. The two groups of kids take separate fork s .
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Still in wireless range , Max updates the banking hack so no card is required. Now they just need to enter a code. The code will do a few things: produce $1000 cash, erase the snippet of video log when they use d the machine, and adjust the cash levels so the money balances out. Somewhere up the line , $1000 will be missing but someone or some thing else will take the blame. He updates and releases the code via his tablet .
Max leans against Virg inia, reads three words of his current book , and falls asleep.
From the Digby Island ferry, Walker watches t wo black CTS’s race to make the ferry. He nudges Naomi. “Who do you think that is?”