by RJ Plant
After much jostling, serious shoving, and a few choice words, I found the hotel entrance. The lobby—which was encased in some type of acrylic glass fitted between the steel framing—was a single floor until about seven yards past the check-in counter.
“With Rian Connell,” I said to the heavily scarred clerk behind the counter.
The clerk ran a finger down the scribble-covered page in his notebook until he found what he was looking for. He smiled and nodded, then wordlessly handed me two heavy brass keys that were tagged with our room numbers.
Moving on from the check-in counter, we found a lift farther back from the lobby. It was a dodgy hand-crank device that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in.
“You think you’ll get on or are you just going to stand around with your thumb up your ass?” Seth asked from behind me.
“At this point, I’d say the latter seems more appealing,” I said. I reluctantly stepped into the lift, still holding Kaitlyn by the arm, but for a different reason now.
“We all on three?” Seth asked.
I glanced at our key tags, noticing a name scrawled in pencil on each, and nodded. I handed Kaitlyn her key. Seth slid the gates into place.
“Conor,” Kaitlyn whispered. I look down to find her grimacing in pain.
“Shite, sorry,” I said, easing up my grip on her arm, then letting it go completely. I tried to give her an apologetic smile and got a pat on the arm for my effort.
Seth cranked the lift handle with both hands, the jerky motion adding nausea to my nervousness. I watched as we passed the floors, all lined with fairly clean looking—if a little ratty—red (maybe?) carpet, cream-colored walls, and soft overhead lighting that kept the corners of the halls hidden in darkness.
Seth stopped at the third floor and I thought I would have a heart attack when he released the lift’s crank handle. I surged out of the lift and onto more reliable ground.
“It’s not falling,” I said, heart still beating a little too fast.
“Nope,” Seth said. “It won’t move until someone calls it.”
“Calls it?” I repeated.
“Should be one of these on every floor,” he said, pointing at the crank on the wall outside of the lift. “Elevator can’t move itself; you either operate it from inside or from the cranks on each floor.”
I took a minute to look back through Felix’s memory cache, but it didn’t seem like he’d encountered one of these death traps before.
“But what if someone tries to call for it when someone else is in it?”
Seth pointed at the red-hued bulb above the crank. “Light turns on when it’s in use.”
“I’ll stick with the stairs,” I said and headed for my room. The carpet was thick, plushy, and smelled faintly of burnt wood. The air was cold in contrast with the warm colors and lighting.
“Conor,” Kaitlyn called after me. I looked at her, hand still on the doorknob.
“Thank you,” she said. “For not killing me.”
“You act like it was something I wanted to do. I never wanted to kill you, Kaitlyn. It was just Bernard and his fecking chip.”
“Yeah, I just …” She looked at everything except me and mumbled, “I guess I just thought it didn’t matter to you.”
“Thought what didn’t matter?”
“I don’t know. Me. Anyone. Anything.”
“Fuck,” I said. “Is this about something Rian told you?”
She shrugged.
“Look Kait, I told you from the very beginning, it’s always straightforward between us.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “Thanks, all the same,” she muttered and disappeared into her room.
There were clothes on the bed in my room, clean and new, properly sized, and exactly what Felix would wear. His sense of style seemed to consist only of dark t-shirts and dark-wash denim jeans. Apparently, my brother had never heard of a suit. That’s one thing I couldn’t fault Rian for—the man could dress himself properly.
I set my new collection of warrant cards on the table beside the bed and put the pistols under one of the pillows. I stripped down and took a shower, throwing the previous clothes in the rubbish bin. Maybe not the safest place from a contamination standpoint, but what else could I do?
I tried to sleep. My brain refused to shut off long enough to let me. I’d messed up by killing Esposito, accident or not. He could have given us everything—I’d have made sure of it. How long would it take Kaitlyn to identify the virus now, to figure out a way to fix it? And could she, even?
I’d never seen anything do the kind of damage this virus had inflicted on Esposito. And Kaitlyn said my body had started to suffer the same. So how did it repair itself? And what else could it do?
Kill a man with one blow. That’s what.
A neat party trick, that, but I felt about done with this particular party. I wanted to run. I was in control now. I could stay off the grid, hide somewhere that GDI could never find me.
But running wasn’t an option. Not a viable, sustainable option. Kaitlyn wanted me to stay so she could try to fix this, try to minimize casualties—try to keep me from being this weapon.
I would stay because I didn’t want GDI to fuck up my go at a life. Selfish? Maybe. A solid motivator? You bet.
What I couldn’t figure out was why. Kaitlyn said the virus seemed to be transmitted through direct contact, which to implied that the virus was a target-specific weapon. That fit with Bernard trying to control my actions. But what was the point of using a biological weapon when there were countless other ways to kill a single target? And why make the virus airborne?
It was obvious I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I headed out instead, taking the stairs this time. I was sorely missing my jacket by the time I got to the lobby.
The same scarred, towheaded clerk was stationed at the check-in desk.
“Is there anywhere around here I can get a drink?” I asked.
When he opened his mouth to answer, I caught a glimpse of teeth filed to sharp points. It also looked like his tongue had been cut out. I thought I could make out the words “out” and “left.”
“Ta,” I said, giving the clerk a final look before leaving.
*****
29 October 2042, Stockholm, Greater Scandinavian Territory
The pub was all graffitied walls mostly hidden behind dancing bodies and dimmed lights covered in an assortment of colored scarves. Mostly-busted neon fizzled along the walls announcing things that may or may not have had relevance to the pub itself: broke and famous, let’s get weird, pawn your dreams, 4:20: be kind to your bud, yolo.
The fuck was a yolo?
I spotted Seth at the bar. Given that he’d actually been pretty decent since I’d surfaced, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have a little company. Maybe.
“You mind if I …” I asked, indicating the stool next to him.
“Go right ahead,” he said. “What are you having?”
“What are you?”
“Just water,” he said.
I looked over the shelves behind the bar. “Something strong, medium hued,” I said when the bartender came over. “Two of them.”
Through Felix’s eyes, I’d learned that it was pointless asking for drinks by brand or type unless you knew the place, knew what they had, like at O’Cairn’s. I didn’t know this place.
The bartender handed me a cup that looked like something a ten-year-old made in a ceramics class. The liquid inside was dark and sludgy and more than a little dodgy. I took a sip. It wasn’t that bad, if a bit sweet.
“It’s not that bad,” I said to Seth, who was suspiciously eying his own newly acquired beverage.
After a while of slowly nursing our drinks in silence, Seth finally asked, “What happened in the lab?”
A good question. I said the closest thing to the truth that wouldn’t betray me.
“I grabbed Esposito and let Felix out.”
“Shit,” Seth said.
“Yeah.”
“What
now?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Kaitlyn has samples from Esposito and she has my blood, so between the two she should be able to figure something out.”
“What will you do?”
“Will I run off, do you mean?”
“If that’s what you think I’m asking.”
“I should,” I said not bothering to hide the truth.
Still, saying it aloud sounded as wrong as thinking it. Yes, I should run right the fuck away and start a life, my own life. Because I’d never had that. And this wasn’t the first time I’d wondered what it could be like.
“You wouldn’t get far. GDI ain’t going to give up that easy.” His mouth was set in a frown, eyebrows knitted.
“Well, I’m not either, am I? I want to run, and I should. But circumstances as they are …” I shrugged.
“What’s the point in having a life if you don’t have the freedom to enjoy it a little?”
I laughed at that. “Not enjoy it? I enjoy every bloody minute that I’m not tucked away in my mind, waiting for Felix to fuck up so I can be my own person. That’s all I want, just to be.”
“Sorry,” Seth said. He looked like he meant it. Maybe because I wanted him to mean it. Still…
“Forgive me for not believing you. You, Shaina, Rian, you’re all as bad as Felix, or maybe worse. We were close once, Felix and me, when we were kids. Then Rian turned him against me, and you and Shaina have just been perpetuating the lies. And why?” I asked, genuinely curious. “You don’t even know me.”
“Part of being a friend, of being family, is doing what you think is right for that person’s safety and well-being.”
I looked at him, stunned to silence for countless seconds. What they think is right? When I could finally speak, the only thing that came out was “Fuck you.”
I threw some bullets on the bar and left.
15
30 October 2042, Stockholm, Greater Scandinavian Territory
There was a knock on the door. I’d been lying on the bed for maybe an hour, staring at the hotel ceiling, lacking the motivation to move and wishing I had the ever more attractive ability not to think. Because no conclusion I formulated made Bernard’s actions reasonable. And if Bernard’s actions weren’t supposed to be reasonable? What then?
I got up and put on the pair of jeans I’d worn to the pub last night, then grabbed one of the pistols and walked over to the door.
“Well?” I asked, leaning against the door.
“I’d like to speak with you, boyo.”
I scanned my room like I could make a break for it before finally cracking the door enough to see Rian’s face.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“Packing,” he said.
“What is it you want?”
Instead of answering he waited, like he could wait all day until I opened the door and let him in. So I walked away from the door and he came in after me, shutting it behind him.
“I know we haven’t had the best relationship,” he said before I’d even turned around to face him.
“We haven’t had any relationship,” I said. “You were too much of a coward to deal with me, so. It’s been you and Felix.”
I found a black shirt in the pile of clothes and pulled it on. I finally looked back at Rian. His hands were spread, shoulders slightly shrugged, face pleasant. No remorse, no regret. His body language telling me “It couldn’t be helped.”
Rian, the charming snake.
I shook my head and turned my back to him once more as I slid Felix’s shoulder holster on and tucked his pistols away.
“No. You know what? We did have a relationship once. You were my father, Rian. My caretaker, my guardian. You were supposed to protect me.” I turned to face him. “Doesn’t matter now. I know what you’re after. You can cut the let’s-be-friends bullshite right out. I’ll stick around long enough for Kaitlyn to find a cure.”
“And if she can’t?” he asked.
“I’ll fall off the map so GDI can’t find me.”
We both knew it was a lie. I grabbed the warrant cards from the bedside table.
“I’m afraid that’s not an option,” he said.
“Are you threatening me?” I said, giving him my full attention now. “You wouldn’t dare kill your golden boy. You’ll wait until Kaitlyn finds a cure.”
“I’ll do what’s necessary.”
“All right,” I said, because everything about him, from the way he said it to the look he gave me, said that he fucking meant it. I had seen what Rian could do. Having seen it through Felix’s rose-colored glasses didn’t change anything.
“What is it you’re suggesting then?” I asked.
Rian sat at the foot of the bed, hands folded in his lap. “Seth has been working on the laptop you stole. He’s attempting to wipe GDI’s information on Kazic. But the problem doesn’t simply begin and end with it. Bernard and his associates need to be eliminated.”
“We don’t know all the players. It could be the whole of GDI for all we know.”
Rian nodded. “Maybe. But I’m willing to bet it’s just Bernard and a handful of others orchestrating this. We can find out. Brinly has been burned; Kaitlyn is supposed to be dead. That makes you my only inside source.”
I laughed. “You’ve lost it, old man. We killed at least ten agents back there, plus Esposito. There’s no way Bernard won’t know that I’ve gotten around his C-chip. And on top of that, Brinly is going to blow the base. I’m probably already blacklisted.”
“None of that matters, boyo. Bernard will want you back in his custody. The minute he finds out the chip didn’t work, he’ll be looking for another, more permanent means of control. If you go to him instead of letting him find you, you’ll have more pull.”
“So you want me to—what? Walk into GDI HQ and play nice, hoping Bernard doesn’t plant some other brain-damaging device in me?” I asked. “Even if I’m cooperative, he’ll want assurances. And I can’t be sure whatever he does next can be countered by the virus or even that I’ll be left with any fecking options. But I guess I’m used to that, right?” I shook my head. “This could make me the threat we’re trying to avoid.”
“You only have to be there long enough to find out who’s working with Bernard on this,” Rian said.
“And who the feck knows how long that’ll take. What makes you so sure Bernard is acting independently of GDI?”
“Because this wouldn’t be the first time he’s done so. Once a dissenter …” He held his hands out as if offering me the only answer I needed.
“I guess being your golden boy doesn’t have many perks after all. You’re trying to get us killed.”
“From what Kaitlyn’s said, Felix is as good as dead already,” Rian said, his eyes empty.
“I guess so,” I said. “But if Kaitlyn—”
Rian held up a hand to stop me. “I want Felix back. Let there be no question in your mind about that. But our main concern right now is Bernard and his associates. We need to find out who they are and what their end goal is, then we need to eliminate them. The best way to do that is by getting you close to Bernard.”
Rian let that sink in. I was having a hard time allowing it to.
“What would Effie think of you now?” I asked, barely a whisper. Why had I said that? Part of me couldn’t believe I remembered her name, her voice, her smell. The other part couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of her before.
Effie had been everything good about Rian. She’d unfortunately had a difficult labor, dying shortly after. Felix had never known her. Was I just a painful reminder? Is that why Rian hated me so bloody much?
“It was probably best,” I said, swallowing hard, “for Michael’s sake, that he never lived long enough to know you.”
For the briefest moment, I thought I saw a hint of shame in Rian’s eyes. Then he looked away.
“Gather your things,” he said. “We’re leaving.”
With that the bastard left me to contemp
late my bad or worse options. I agreed with him that finding and eliminating Bernard and his associates was the best course of action. I did not, however, consider suicide to be the best way to go about it.
I found a new leather jacket hanging in the closet. I knew Rian had arranged the delivery of the new clothes, but I wasn’t about to turn my nose up when I had precious few options. I pulled the jacket on and grabbed the handful of clothes from the chair.
Kaitlyn was in the hall when I left my room. I walked with her to the lift. She didn’t say anything to me until she was inside.
“Sleep okay?”
“Like the dead,” I said.
“Are you making a poorly timed joke or being sincere?”
“Yes,” I said, then headed for the stairs.
*****
30 October 2042, Dublin, United Irish Republic
“You want to just sneak into the lab and grab Felix’s blood?” I asked.
It’s not that it couldn’t be done, but … After another ten hours in a helicopter spent dwelling on Rian’s plan, I felt just about brain dead.
“Well, it’s not like I can get any blood from him now, it is?”
Kaitlyn and I sat in her flat with Shaina to babysit, while Seth worked on the GDI laptop at O’Cairn’s. Rian was probably there too, discussing Sully’s problem.
After we’d returned to Dublin, once out of earshot of the others, Kaitlyn took me aside to ask how realistic it would be to retrieve Felix’s blood samples from her lab. When I’d told her we needed to move the discussion inside, I hadn’t realized that Shaina would be assigned to keep us secure. The topic became an “issue.” Shaina had asked why we weren’t discussing this with Rian. I’d ended up telling her that I didn’t want to reconvene until I had a solid idea of how I wanted to play this.