by Beers,David
Ruby nodded, her eyes an ocean of calm, but Leon thought clouds rested behind them--dark things ready to make waves at any moment.
"I did."
"Where? What did you do?"
"I worked for a marketing company."
"What kind of marketing did you do?" Marty asked.
"We marketed security services. Lawmen for different cities, trying to get contracts for ours."
"Great. So, you had an owner of the company, I assume?"
"Yes, his title was Head Executive," Ruby said.
"But he was in charge?"
She nodded.
"Okay, well, what would he have said if you turned on your hologram and called him?"
"I doubt he'd answer, plus I don't have his number." Ruby was playing along, not caring about the string Marty brought her down.
"Let's say you did and let's say he answered. Then let's assume you told him you wanted top secret information and you were going to give it to people outside the company. How would that go over?"
"I imagine he would have me fired."
"Exactly. Now take that and multiply it times ... hmmm, about infinity." Marty met her gaze with his steady, unflinching machine eyes, the blue as ferocious as Ruby's green. He broke the look first and went back to Leon. "She needs to leave. You would have never suggested something so ridiculous if she wasn't here."
"She's not leaving, Marty," Leon said. "And she might have suggested this idea, but it's what I want. Whether she leaves or stays, you're going to contact Caesar and tell him what we want to know."
Marty laughed again. "No. I'm not."
Leon leaned back in his chair. Ruby sat on the bed and Marty remained in his usual standing stance. "You are or I'm going to myself. You know he told me how to contact him. How much will it take to have you deactivated? I'm the golden boy in Caesar's eyes. I can do no wrong; even if I brought down The Genesis myself, he'd still love me, because I've been with him since the beginning. How hard will it be to have you confiscated and a new assistant made? What if I told him I wanted to put you on some horrible duty, like shoveling sand in the Sabarian desert? He might ask why, but I'd just say, 'because', and that would be that."
Marty's head lowered, his stare menacing.
"I don't want to do that," Leon continued. "I like you and I want you to stay with us, but I will if I have to. All I'm saying is ask him. He can say no and there's nothing I can do or expect you to do."
He felt guilty saying those words--beyond it, actually. He wasn't even sure he could actually do the things he suggested, and imagined Marty was making calculations based on his skin temperature, breath rate, and pulse--trying to see if Leon was serious.
Leon didn't need a hundred percent likelihood in Marty's calculations, only a decent probability. Marty liked his life, and shoveling sand didn't sound great to anyone, not even a machine.
"You care about this ludicrous quest that much?" he asked.
Leon nodded.
"Enough to trash me?"
Leon nodded.
"I don't know if I believe you. I think there's a twenty-seven percent chance you'd do it, but you're soft at heart, Leon."
"Well, take your chances if you like them," Leon said.
Thirty seconds passed with no one in the room saying a word.
"Okay. Maybe He'll trash me for asking, and I won't have to live with your insanity any longer."
Marty stepped three feet back and then remained still. His eyes lit up, a sharp, bright blue, and his irises started turning. He was connecting.
* * *
Caesar felt the request the way a parent might feel a child lightly tugging on the sheets while he slept in bed. A nuisance, but not something that needed attention. All of Caesar's attention was focused on Michele, a tremendous amount of brainpower drilling into the problem before him.
And yet, the pull didn't stop.
Caesar glanced away, diverting only the tiniest bit of his focus, to see what wanted him--what could possibly need him right now, given all the directives already out there?
He allowed the connection in and wonder fell across Caesar.
How does he even know?
The answer came in, a combination of code flowing from the other side of the world.
And you let him see it?
Another answer, tinged with fear. This application knew how important Leon was, had been specifically told to keep him safe at all costs, even if the application needed to die to ensure Leon lived, and yet it had allowed him to watch something like that, and then go speak with the wife?
Caesar didn't know anger any longer, but he remembered what it felt like. He remembered it well at that moment.
And now he wants to know what is happening? And you thought it okay to simply ask?
Caesar could have gotten the answer by flowing into the application, but he wanted to hear the answer.
For the second time in mere minutes, wonder rose in his mind.
What a clever little bastard. Caesar didn't say anything for a few moments, letting silence rest across the connection while the application waited for his response.
Leon had threatened to have Caesar scrap the application if it didn't do what he wanted. And Leon wanted to know why the abnormalities were being rounded up.
Grim and Gay would be angry. Furious even.
And yet, Caesar thought it might be an okay idea--not good. Horrible possibilities rested in this decision, all of them with decent chances of becoming reality, but he still saw a single thread of gold inside the braid of black.
You'll do that to him?
Caesar broke the connection with the application, not wanting it to overhear his thoughts. He walled himself up as best he could, so he would at least understand if Grim and Gay showed up.
Caesar went past the calculations, and into the place that still remained human.
* * *
Marty's eyes stopped spinning.
"What happened?" Leon said.
"I think you just got me killed." Marty sounded terrified, not even the slightest bit jovial. He didn't look at either Ruby or Leon, but simply stared into the hotel room's empty space.
"What do you mean?"
"He cut the connection. Simply cut it when I told Him what you wanted to know."
Leon laughed, unable to help himself. A high, surprised thing. "What?"
Marty looked at him. "What part of this don't you understand? I've used twenty-three words to describe the situation and I don't think any of them were too complex, even for you."
The shocked smile on Leon's face froze as he realized his friend's terror. "What did he say?"
"He’s upset, to say the least."
* * *
You'll do that to him?
The question was a cancer in Caesar's mind, threatening to develop more rapidly than he could handle.
The question was important, though--one of the most important things Caesar had ever asked himself, even though the scale was so minute.
You'll be a traitor, he thought.
The non-human part, the piece that lived in The Genesis and not in his heart, came then. What did the three of them understand about these abnormalities? Nothing. Not a single thing despite all the energy being put into it.
What if Leon could begin to understand it?
Then you will have let him free only to use him.
No. That wasn't true. He let Leon free because Leon had wanted it. He had done everything in his power to give Leon peace, and even now Caesar was giving him what he wanted--complete freedom to destroy himself.
What would Jerry say?
Jerry would tell me to die and that nothing I did mattered anymore.
That's not true. Not the Jerry you once knew. He would have killed anything and everything to ensure success. The question is, what's your goal?
Caesar had made his deal, his choice, five hundred years ago. He had seen the results of everything he once wanted, and discovered how wrong his ideology was.
&
nbsp; Leon made his choice when he left his home, stepping outside of the mansion. His fate was sealed.
It wasn't until much later that Caesar thought about Leon's first home; the one Leon left to follow him.
* * *
Leon watched Marty's irises begin spinning again, rapidly going from still to wild circles in only a few seconds. He had been in the middle of a sentence, nearly screaming at Leon, and then simply stopped speaking.
Marty nodded to a voice only he could hear and Leon watched. Something was happening, perhaps Caesar coming back online or maybe The Genesis connecting simply to end Marty's life.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then a full minute.
And finally, Marty's eyes began slowing, spinning themselves to a complete stop.
"I barely believe it," he said.
"What?" Ruby asked before Leon could get a single word out.
"He gave me access to some of what He knows, gave me permission to tell you."
"What is it? What did he say?" Ruby said, standing up from the bed.
Leon felt cautious. Caesar had gone offline and then come back, giving Marty what he asked for. Leon forced Marty's hand but he never thought Caesar would tell them anything. And now, looking at Marty standing there stunned, he wondered why Caesar did it.
As if Leon asked the question instead of Ruby, Marty turned to him. "He gave me the name of the next person they're going after."
Chapter 33
Daniel paid little attention to the people around him, focusing mainly on the meal in front of him. The first meal since breakfast, he concentrated on shoveling fried rice into his mouth. The only reason he listened at all to the people around him was because he wanted to make sure they believed him.
"None of that's true," Tim said. "You're either fully making it up or you're finally losing your mind."
"I'm betting on you losing your mind," Jack followed.
Daniel didn't put the spoon down completely, but did rest it against the plate as he looked up. "I'm telling you. They went into my apartment. You guys can go look as soon as we're done here. Then, this voice starts talking to me, telling me to get out of there. So I did."
He went back to his rice and started eating again.
"I want to see the apartment."
"Me too."
"That's fine, but I'm not going back over there," Daniel said. "You guys can meet me at your apartment when you're done."
"Why would anyone want you, Daniel? I mean, you can't even get a girl to want you, what interest would The Genesis have?"
"I don't know," Daniel said with a mouthful of rice. "But It wants something."
"Then why are you still here?" Tim asked.
Daniel finished chewing, not that he cared whether or not these two saw him eating like a slob--he didn't--but he needed to think about his answer. Why had he stayed? It clearly was the most dangerous option, but yet instead of finding a way out of the city, he called Tim and asked if he could sleep at his and Jack’s apartment.
"Hello? Are you listening at all or is that other voice talking to you again?" Tim said.
"I guess I stayed because the voice didn't tell me to leave. It just told me to get away from my apartment, so that's what I did."
"Seriously, you sound insane. I'm going to go check out your apartment and if nothing is wrong with it, you're going back."
Daniel smiled. "That's fine. I doubt there's even a door left. Bet they smashed right through it."
* * *
Tim liked Daniel, but at the same time, could barely stand him. The guy was always coming up with some doomsday scenario--and now when the real one was upon them all, he seemed to not even care. No, now he thought The Genesis had singled him out after the Scans and somehow a voice told him the way to escape.
"He really is going crazy," Tim said to Jack as they took a left onto Daniel's street. They were walking the short distance from the restaurant to the apartment. "If everything is the way it should be, he's not staying with us, agreed?"
"I don't really want to kick him out but I don't really want him staying either," Jack said. "This is just too much."
Tim shook his head as he thought about all the nonsense they'd put up with over the years because of Daniel. Always something, a water crisis or superbug that would wipe out ninety percent of the population. Yet, The Reckoning didn't matter at all.
"You know why?" Tim said.
"Why what?"
"Sorry, just started talking midway through my thought. You know why he's not concerned with The Reckoning? Because everyone else knows about it. Actual tragedies aren't good for Daniel because other people know about them. Other people invented them or figured them out. He only focuses on tragedies that no one else can see."
"Maybe," Jack said. "I just want to get this over with. I'm spending my Tuesday night walking around looking for a boogeyman because a fully grown man is delusional."
Tim wasn't as concerned about The Reckoning as some people. He thought he had a good chance to continue living. A lot of places were full of bad people, but him? Jack? Hell, even Daniel? No, not comparatively, though this newest little detail might give The Genesis pause. For the most part, the rapists, murderers, and all the others who simply didn't have any moral decency would bite the dust.
Good people would stay. That's how things worked.
Tim and Jack walked through the apartment's lobby, heading to the elevators. They used Daniel's pass to get on and ride it up, then exited onto his hallway.
Tim suddenly felt apprehensive. "What if he's not lying?"
"Come on. If he wasn't lying, there would be a lot more people around this place. People in the lobby. People outside. People trying to leave as fast as possible, packing all their stuff. There's none of that going on here. Daniel has finally lost it; that's all this is." Jack started walking and Tim followed.
It only took a few seconds to find the apartment.
"See, the door isn't destroyed." Jack pressed the pass against the reader and the door slid into the wall. Tim looked inside, though Jack stepped in first. Everything appeared normal. No overturned couches or wrecked walls. Everything looked the same as it had when Tim came here last.
"Don't tell me you're getting scared," Jack said, turning around and looking at Tim still standing outside the door.
"No, just wanted to check first." Tim followed Jack in and they both went to the middle of the room.
"See, the place is fine. The guy is insane, finally gone completely over the edge. I'm not talking to him anymore; I don't care how long I've known him, I can't associate with someone this crazy anymore. Not with The Reckoning so close."
Tim heard the door close behind them before he saw the machine stepping from the back hallway. It made a swoosh sound, closing much faster than it had opened, as if controlled by something other than its internal mechanisms.
He saw the machine. A huge thing, appearing too big to even fit down the hallway it stood in. Its body looked five feet wide, a thick chunk of metal, though grooves lined it, giving it a sinister appearance.
"Please keep your eyes open." Its voice sounded like tiny pieces of metal created it, tapping on different tones to create the words.
The machine raised its hand and Tim didn't move. He wanted to--felt a frantic need to get out of this thing's presence, but his feet wouldn't budge. A red beam shot out from its hand and the machine moved it precisely over Tim's eyes; he didn't even think to check if Jack was experiencing the same.
The red light stopped moving and then died.
"Do you know where Daniel Bennett is?" the machine asked.
"What?" Jack said, terror wrenching through the word.
"Daniel Bennett. Do you know where he is?" it asked again.
"Huh?" Jack said and Tim suddenly noticed the strong smell of urine, though he didn't know if it was him or Jack.
It didn't matter, though. Jack bolted, turning his body quicker than Tim could turn his head.
The machine didn
't move but Jack stopped running in mid-stride, his muscles freezing in place. Tim looked on as Jack's face grew red, a small wheezing noise escaping his throat. A vein pushed out on the side of his neck. Nothing moved except his eyes, a frantic jump from left to right, trying to understand what had just happened--how he went from standing to suffocating.
Tim didn't move; all he could do was witness his roommate die.
And die he did.
His face continued turning red, almost to the point of deep purple, and then it began to pale. His eyes made one last dash to the left and right, then centered right ahead of him as if the door was about to open.
Whatever bound him in that running position released and Jack fell to the ground. A heap of human.
Tim turned back to the machine, which at some point had brought its arm down.
"Do you know where Daniel Bennett is?"
Tim nodded.
* * *
Tom Mack had hoped the two roommates wouldn't go to Daniel Bennett's apartment. He knew The Genesis was watching the apartment after they showed up and found nothing, but as long as Bennett didn't return, he'd be okay for the time being. Lexi would need to keep him safe if The Genesis showed up.
Until now.
Bennett's safety fell into Tom's hands because those idiot friends decided to see if Bennett was telling the truth. And now one of them was bringing the damn machine to Bennett.
Tom didn't want to save Bennett because he didn't like him. True, Tom didn't know him well, but what he knew was off-putting. The man was weird, simple as that. His friends clearly thought so too from the bit of conversation Tom observed. He didn't have a choice in the matter, though. Lexi determined who She brought in and who She didn't.
"They're all our brothers and sisters," Charlie had said.
Unfortunately, once Bennett was identified, he fell under Tom's purview.
"Something isn't right about him."
"Lexi will determine that. Your job is to keep him safe until we know Her plan."
Tom had nodded and started watching. He knew other Scouts had missed people already, The Genesis swooping in and grabbing them.
Tom sighed as the elevator opened. He didn't know how this guy would react, but if he didn't listen quickly, the machine currently marching down the sidewalk would be up here and ready to take him on a long vacation.