And was I really sitting around a campfire, all chummy with the Games Boss? You know, the guy who wanted to snap Darren into little bits of kindling for cheating the game. And unplug Dragon for good. The guy who had kidnapped my mom and me. So that was all done and gone now, in the past? I snorted softly. Unlikely. I was in a den of pirates, but ironically, it was the safest place to be, at least for now. Until Griffin made her move or Lavack launched the virus or Grogan’s hired help tracked me down.
I stretched out my legs towards the fake fire. A small amount of warmth tickled at my feet. The flames lulled me with their heat and gentle cheer. My eyelids quivered. Had it really been this morning when I’d escaped from Lavack’s compound? What a day.
I could see an image of the flames on my eyelids when they slipped down. Fake fire but still soothing, inviting me to let go into the false security it provided.
I jerked awake and pushed myself upright. The Boss glanced up from the eReader in his hand.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked politely.
My eyes twitched around. Darren was curled up in the same place as before, his head resting on his arms, a blanket thrown over him. His mouth hung open slightly as he slept. Blade sat near the fire, leaning against the cave wall, a mug in his hand.
I rubbed my face. I’d actually fallen asleep. In a den of snakes, I’d let myself fall asleep. I checked the time: 4 a.m. Wow, I’d slept in.
“I don’t want Griffin to win.”
My head jerked up. Had I said that? Or… I stared at the Boss, processing his words.
He put his eReader down, placed his elbows on the thin armrests and studied me over his loosely grasped hands. “I know you think I’m the enemy, that I’m a bad man. I killed Dragon and then tried to get rid of him again when his memory came back. I’m a gambler, a smuggler, a pirate, a dictator, a fugitive. I’m all that and more, right?”
“Is that a trick question?” I mumbled.
His lips twitched, his hypnotic gaze fixed on me. All I could think of was how thirsty I was. What was Blade drinking? I sniffed. Chocolate. I could smell a tinge of chocolate mingled with the damp salty air. A cup of hot chocolate. I licked at my dry lips.
“Where are my manners?” the Boss exclaimed. “Here, try this.”
He leaned to the side, pulled up a thermos, poured me a mug. I was tempted to refuse, to toss it back at him, but the chocolate won out over my pride, hands down. I breathed it in.
“But while I’m a ‘bad man’”— he formed quotation marks with his fingers as he said bad man—“I don’t want Griffin to win,” he continued earnestly. “That wouldn’t be good for anyone. Business would suffer greatly and believe it or not, pirates don’t like anarchy. We need some law and order. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to find clients. Very difficult indeed.” He nodded his head.
I watched him over my mug, my senses filling with steaming cocoa delight. I licked away the dark moustache from my upper lip. What the heck was he talking about? Didn’t pirates break up law and order? “Anarchy?”
“Yes, anarchy. If there’s no order at all, businesses can’t thrive, the economy deteriorates and demand for our products declines.” He sighed dramatically, as if he’d just announced that World War Thee was imminent.
I was still stuck on the word “anarchy.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“That’s Griffin’s plan,” he said simply. “She’s unhinged and bent on revenge.”
“And you know this how?” I swallowed the remaining drink in a hasty gulp that scalded my throat and left me coughing.
“I know her.”
“You created her,” I said.
The Boss shook his head. “Not exactly. I had nothing to do with what happened to her brain, with what they did to her mind. I may be bad, but I’m not evil. Believe what you want, Myth, but by the time I took over managing her, the damage was done.”
He rose up in one smooth motion and paced around. “She was very young when her body died. Eleven. Her brain wasn’t fully mature. That was one of the lessons learned. Future brains had to be at least fifteen years old. They were supposed to destroy hers once they’d finished experimenting, but…”
He glanced at me, a slight frown saddening his face. “Grogan Ltd hired…” He hesitated and gazed at the flames. “Someone connected to the project had a daughter, an albino, who had a rare form of brain cancer. When her brain finally died, he couldn’t handle it. He hadn’t spent much time with her when she’d been alive, but now that she was dead…”
He gestured vaguely with his hands, like he was conducting an invisible orchestra. “Well, whatever the reasons, he was obsessed with seeing her again. The body was on life support and the doctors wanted to pull the plug. But one thing led to another and he…”
“No…” I breathed out, my shaking hands gripping tightly to the mug. “My mom would never have allowed that. Never. She…” I stopped, thinking about the timing of events. Dragon had told me when all this had happened. The timing was relevant somehow.
The Boss smiled slightly, but it was the kind of smile you give to someone at a funeral service: apologetic, sympathetic, sad. “Your mother had other distractions at the time, Myth.”
Other distractions? “My dad,” I murmured before I could stop myself, before my throat contracted. I gripped my mug tighter and stared into the flames where the memory of that “distraction” slunk up into the foreground.
A knocking at the door. That was the night I learned something: bad news always starts with a knock. I’m sitting on the stairs nearby, angry I can’t go out with my parents.
“But I wanna go. I really, really wanna go,” I protest. “I can go, I can. I can!”
My mom smiles as she descends the stairs, all dressed up to go to the theatre with Dad. She looks beautiful, I mean, more than usual. “Myranda, repeating words won’t change the facts. You’re not coming.”
I scowl, clench my hands and mutter like an incantation, “I. Want. To. Go.”
She shakes her head, reaches the door, unlocks it and pulls it open. “Forgot your key again?” she jokes. I watch her smile slide off her face as she sees who stands there. “Lavack? What…”
“I’m sorry, Kathy,” Lavack interrupts as he steps inside. “I didn’t want you to hear about this over the phone. And I thought, since he was my friend, I should come. It’s…” He spots me staring intently at him. “Why don’t you be a good little girl and run upstairs?”
I turn to Mom to protest, but she gives me that look that tells me to go. I stomp upstairs. Only later will I equate Lavack with every dark, tearful moment Mom and I experience. Every time he looks at me, he sees the little girl sitting on the stairs, pouting because she can’t go to the theatre. He never sees the little girl growing up fast as I struggle to keep my mom from falling apart.
“Distractions,” I whispered. Snap out of it. I angrily wipe away the tears and glared at the Boss, like this was all his fault. His comment had summoned dark memories but he hadn’t created them, I reminded myself. “But we moved to Sana Island after that. She would’ve stopped it. She…”
“She didn’t,” the Boss said gently. “She never knew. Griffin was hidden away by then. Even before the operation was finished, the father of the albino realised this Frankenstein creature could never be his daughter—could never replace everything he’d lost.”
He cleared his throat and poured us both more hot chocolate. I drank it without tasting, just a habit, something to occupy my hands and my mouth.
“Griffin woke up angry. Not like Dragon. He woke up with a clean slate, no memories, or so we thought. But Griffin, she remembered things and not just the memories of the brain donor. I always figured she remembered things from the albino’s life as well. Not specific memories but emotions and instincts. I can’t really explain it and I don’t know if it’s possible.” The Boss stopped talking, his elegantly handsome face glowing in the flames’ light.
“How do you know so much abou
t her?” I asked. “And what has any of it got to do with anarchy?”
He shrugged. “Griffin timed all this very well. She was waiting for all the brains to be installed before she took over Sana Island. She once told me how easy it was for a brain to crack security codes, break into banks and top security institutions. Imagine what she can do with a network of brains at her command. I’m pretty sure she’s already coordinated them, got them under her influence. She’s much stronger, more experienced, more powerful than they are.”
“But how do you know that about her?” I repeated my question.
“I spent a lot of time with her.”
“But why?” I pressed. I may not be a great poker player, but even I could tell he was holding back a card.
“Just tell her,” a voice grumbled. I glanced up, my heart pounding sugar-loaded blood through my head. I’d totally forgotten that Blade was with us. Darren had rolled onto his back and was snoring slightly.
The Boss’s whole body seemed to sigh. “I know Griffin very well. I spent a lot of time with her because…” His shoulders slumped and he looked older, drained of energy. “The albino was my daughter.”
Chapter 22: Myth
Hot chocolate bubbled up around my lips as I spluttered and choked on the stuff. Coughing fiercely, I tried to see the Boss through my squinted, teary eyes.
“You?” I gasped out. “You donated your daughter’s body? For this?”
He stared at me. No, through me. Like he was staring at another girl. “I know what it must sound like.”
“It sounds bloody horrific,” I said as my coughing subsided. “What were you thinking? Does she know? Does Griffin know where her body comes from?”
He hesitated. “I don’t think so. But it’s hard to tell with her. Sometimes she looks at me, like she knows I’ve done her wrong, but can’t quite put her finger on it.”
“Maybe she picks up on the stench of guilt,” I said harshly.
“Maybe,” he acknowledged.
I bit back my next set of accusations. The Boss was staring down at his hands, his fingers clenching and unclenching. He chewed on his lower lip, his eyes vacant. I figured whatever I could say to him, it wouldn’t be nearly as nasty as what he’d said to himself a million times. Like he’d told me, he was bad but not evil.
“Anyways, she won’t succeed,” I continued confidently.
“Why not?”
I hesitated. What if the Boss was really working with Griffin? I snorted. If he was, would he be hiding out in a cave? He liked his comforts too much. If he was here, it was because he had to be here. Griffin didn’t want him back on that island anymore than the mainland authorities did.
I made my decision. “Lavack’s got a virus he’s releasing tonight. It’s designed to wipe out all the brains online.” Please let Dragon be okay.
“That virus will never work,” the Boss muttered.
“Why not?” I demanded. I was kind of relieved. I hoped he was right, in a way. Despite the threat of anarchy or whatever Griffin had planned.
“Because I’m pretty sure she’s altered it.”
Okay, I was a lot less relieved.
“I’m a betting man,” the Boss said, stretching out his legs, “and I’ll bet she’s changed it to accomplish her dream.”
I stared at him. “The dream where she gets reunited with her father and they go out for ice cream together?”
“No,” he said with a twitch of his lips. “The one where she coordinates the brains into a super-brain and takes over key banking and security systems. Or something like that.”
“Oh. That one.” Pause. I peered into my mug. Bits of cocoa powder and congealing milk bits lined the bottom. “And you think she’s changed the virus to meld the brains together? Really? Is that even possible?”
The Boss shrugged. “I’m a pirate, not a scientist. But if there’s any chance it’s possible, Griffin would’ve found it.”
I mulled over that one while scooping out the cocoa lumps with a finger. Hadn’t Lavack recently mentioned a security breach? Actually, hadn’t he ranted and raved and shouted about a security breach, and given his staff hell about it, just a few days before the virus was set to launch? Yet another reason to keep us locked up and offline. For your own good, little girl.
My eyes narrowed. “I need to contact Lavack.”
The Boss grimaced and Blade made a rude noise.
“If you’re right,” I insisted, “they need to know.”
Blade and the Boss exchanged a look. The kind that only people who go way back together can have. People who can work years together, guard each other’s backs, betray each other and get over it in order to finish the job. Those kind of people. That kind of look. In that silent exchange, they made a decision.
Given that it was a tad early to be calling anyone, we sat around in silence for a few hours. Darren woke up, realised that the whole thing hadn’t actually been a really bad dream, promptly pulled the blanket over his head and pretended to fall asleep. I tried to eat the camping rations, but the only thing that could slide past my constricted throat was hot chocolate. Finally, it was time.
“We’ll have to leave the cave,” Blade rumbled.
Instead of leading me back to the main cavern, Blade entered another tunnel branching off the one we entered in. We had to crouch most of the way as we moved upward through the cliff.
“Why didn’t we use this entrance?” I asked as we reached a small opening. Fresh air whistled through it and a glimmer of sunlight seeped in.
Blade grinned, his teeth glittering in the torch’s light, his scars and tattoos more pronounced. “Be my guest.” He waved me forward.
I poked my head outside and immediately pulled it back in. Apart from a small ledge, there was no ground out there, just sheer cliff straight down to the crashing waves.
Blade pulled out a portable screen from an inside pocket of his jacket. “Go for it.”
What would I say to convince them? You’d think I had already developed a brilliant plan. I mean, I’d been sitting around for a few hours with nothing else to do but think and consume vast amounts of hot chocolate. But no. No brilliant plan. Not even a mediocre plan. Nothing.
The call rang through. I asked for Lavack. The guy on the other end hesitated, his eyes squinting suspiciously at me.
“Who is this?” he demanded.
“Just tell him it’s Myranda,” I said, ignoring Blade’s raised eyebrow as he mouthed, Myranda? Great, something else for him to tease me about.
A moment later, a familiar and angry face filled the screen. “I should issue a warrant for your arrest,” he growled.
I shrugged, pleasantly surprised he hadn’t already. “Yeah, yeah. Been there, done that. Good to see you too.”
Lavack leaned back into his office chair, scowling. “Don’t tempt me. The only reason I haven’t yet is out of respect for your father.”
I clenched my fingers around the side of the screen. “Well, don’t let that stop you.”
Blade nudged me with his foot and shook his head. He kept quiet but I knew what he was telling me—this isn’t helping us.
I sighed. “I appreciate the lack of arrest warrants. And I need to talk to my mom. It’s really urgent.”
Lavack twirled his red moustache. I knew how my dad’s former boss thought, If I do this, will it be positive, negative or neutral for me or the agency?
I guess the answer must’ve been acceptable, because he nodded his head. “Alright, Myth. You can talk to her.”
What he didn’t say, and what I knew he would do—the call would be monitored. That was fine by me. In fact, the more people who heard the truth, the better. Bring it on, Lavack.
My mom’s face appeared. She’d just woken up. Her hair was a wild, grey-streaked afro and her eyelids were drooping. But when she saw me, her eyes flashed open. “Myranda,” she breathed out.
“Hey, Mom,” I said, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from crying.
I don’t mind cryi
ng, but not in public. And this was a very public call. I could almost hear Lavack’s staff hovering over my shoulder. Not to mention Blade who was watching me closely. He tapped his watch. I frowned, shook my head. He mouthed, Tracking.
Tracking? My chocolate-flooded brain twirled a gear. Oh. Tracking. Lavack was probably tracking the call. Got it.
“Mom, I don’t have much time,” I blurted out. “I’m so sorry I left without telling you. I’m alright. Dragon’s okay. For now. The tank’s support system is running out though…”
I choked on the last word. Mom frowned and said nothing.
“But the virus,” I pushed on. “Mom, you’ve got to stop them from releasing it. Griffin’s tampered with it. We think she’s set it up to do something to the other brains. Like melding them into some kind of super-brain entity.”
I took a deep breath and glanced at Blade. He was watching the seconds tick by. Probably calculating how long we could risk keeping the call open before they tracked us down.
My mom’s quick. Smart and quick. She clued in faster than I’d done. “We’re in trouble then.”
I shook my head. “No, there’s still time. Tell them. Convince that idiot Lavack.” Yeah, old man, that’s for you. I hope you’re listening.
“No, Myranda. It’s too late,” she murmured. “After the security breach, it was decided to isolate the virus until the agreed release time. Imagine a virtual mine field. That’s what they’ve put up around the software. If anyone tries to enter, it blows up and releases the virus anyways.”
“Well, that’s stupid.” I grumbled. “So no one has a code or something to get in?”
My mom hesitated. “No. We don’t but…”
“Time’s up,” Blade whispered so softly I barely heard him.
“Mom, I’ve gotta go. Try to find a way.” As Blade’s finger descended on the disconnect button, I blurted out, “Love you.”
Dragon's War Page 9