by Magus Tor
“This is odd. I entered the game on the roof across the street and the robot was there. He told me he was the only one that could end the game, but he didn’t try to kill me. He just let me go.” Drew reached up to rub his shoulder and realized it didn’t hurt anymore.
Happy to see the kids actually playing and enjoying themselves, Drew wrapped his arm around Max’s waist and they sat in silence, watching the kids be kids. It startled Max when Drew jumped to his feet. He was feeling around on the waistband of his jeans, a frantic look on his face.
“Max, grab the children and run! Give me your gun.” Drew wasn’t kidding and he was pointing at a man walking toward them on the path. Max felt for her gun and it wasn’t there. Drew looked toward the swing set and noticed that the kids were still playing and laughing. Then he looked at the spot where the man was.
Behind the man was a woman. Off the path and on a bench sat a mother and child. When he looked back to the playground, Drew saw more children playing on the slide and the merry-go-round. What the heck is happening? Nobody was shooting.
“I really don’t get it,” Drew started, “When did you notice the flowers and birds?”
“About fifteen minutes ago or so. I was sitting here watching the kids and the smoke filling the sky. I turned around to look at the lake for a minute and when I turned back, there were flowers and birds everywhere. Then, one by one, the kids started to really swing, the sun broke through the smoke and then I saw you coming our way.”
Drew grabbed Max’s hand and urged her to come down from the wall. He then led her past the kids and onto the path. As they passed the bench with the mother and child, the woman smiled and nodded her head. They continued down the path toward the city and when they reached the end, the city was bustling.
No more were the cars abandoned in the street. Each car had a smiling group of passengers, windows down and music playing. The streetlights worked, and when they changed, a group of people quickly made their way across the street. There was a hot dog vendor on the corner cheerfully greeting each passerby. It was as if the city transformed in an instant, leaving all of the death and destruction behind. It was like the game was over.
***
Drew opened his eyes, almost sad to see he was on the boat, but happy to be at Max’s side. He brushed his hand across her cheek and her eyes fluttered open. Before Drew could say a word, Max spoke.
“Did you see it, Drew? Did you see life at the end of the dream?”
“I did. I don’t understand what happened.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“No, not at all. I just don’t get it.”
The two of them jumped out of bed and rushed out to the deck to tell everybody what happened while in the game. When they got topside they found Sr., Agent Troy and Agent Lewis sitting on deck enjoying fresh fruit and laughing.
“What’s going on? You will not believe what happened!” Drew was confused and still excited to let them know about the game.
“I did it, Drew.” Sr. spoke with a proud voice. “I figured it out. I was able to reprogram the chips. My vision has been seen through to the end.”
“What?” Drew stood, almost speechless.
“I found the programming I was looking for. I was able to cancel the self destruction command prompt, reprogram the chips to enjoy only happy dreams and terminate Adam and Thompson’s control over the game!”
“When did this happen?”
“Last night. About an hour after you turned in for the night I was looking over a file and it was like a light bulb went on in my brain. I logged into the game changed the settings and poof, the pictures on the screen slowly changed as I typed.”
“But what stops Adam or Thompson from reprogramming?” Max butt in, the worried expression still on her face.
“Unlike my son or Mr. Thompson, I am well versed in the art of programming with security. There is no way they will be able to log on, interpret the programming or change a thing I have done. They are finished, the game is over.”
Drew then asked, “Why didn’t you wake us the moment you figured it out?”
“I went in to wake you, but changed my mind. I wanted you to see the change as it happened. I wanted you to see what all of your dedication and hard work produced. You did it, guys. You saved the world.”
“I hardly think we saved the world. Thank you, Sr. You are one hell of a guy. I can hardly believe it’s over!”
Max stood on her toes and kissed Sr. on the cheek and thanked him. Then she turned to Drew and threw her arms around him. They celebrated for a while and then Drew suddenly went silent.
“Drew, what’s wrong?” Max was concerned.
“We still have to deal with Adam and Thompson. You know full well that they are panicking. Who knows what they will do. Adam knows we were trying to stop him.” Drew knew they had to deal with this right away.
They all went about packing up and getting ready to head ashore. Agent Lewis grabbed the binoculars and scanned the horizon for the yacht. Surprisingly, it was right where it sat the night before. There were no traces of any boats or skiffs last night except for the one that dropped Adam off at the yacht. The agents watched as it passed by on its way back to shore. Then all was quiet.
Sr. turned the boat back to the harbor while Drew and Max called the office. They gave a brief account of what had happened and that it was time to bring Adam and Thompson down. Things were happening so quickly and Max wasn’t sure if she could keep up.
When the boat was in its slip, Max, Drew and Sr. were quickly ushered to the van. They were told to meet Drew’s contact at the entrance of Navy Pier. They still felt as if they needed to look over their shoulders as they walked to the bench where the contact sat.
After a lengthy discussion, a plan was hatched on how to take the two men into custody as swiftly as possible. It would involve Drew and Max, but they would keep Adam from knowing that his father was involved until the very last moment. There were people in place to notify all involved should Adam or Thompson leave the yacht. The capture would go down right away.
*****
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“What the hell, Charlie, do something.”
“I’m trying. None of my commands are working.”
“Restart the system. Something isn’t right, figure out what’s going on.”
Adam was panicking. From the screens all he saw was people enjoying themselves. He couldn’t understand it. One minute he was in the position to kill Drew and the next thing he knew, he was back on the yacht. Thompson had been trying to get a grip on the situation, but the programming looked foreign to him. Nothing he tried would do anything to end the happiness they were witnessing.
The computer restarted and Thompson tried logging into the game. No matter how many times he tried, “Login Not Recognized” kept popping up on the screen. Rebooting the system didn’t work. On the tenth try with the password, instead of being let into the game, a new screen appeared. All that read on the screen was, “Your attempts have failed. Game Over.”
Adam stood motionless.
“What do I do now?” Thompson asked, sounding just as panicked as Adam did a moment ago.
“We gotta get out of here. Get this freakin’ yacht under way.” Adam’s demand sent Thompson scurrying out of the room like a rat. He headed up to get the yacht underway.
***
“Hello, Thompson.” Drew took great pleasure in being the first face that Mr. Charles Thompson saw as he stepped into the bridge.
Thompson instantly turned to leave, but Max was there, her new gun drawn for the first time ever; behind her stood Agent Lewis and Agent Troy. Beyond the agents were a group of Federal Marshalls, State Police, and City Police.
Adam didn’t understand why he couldn’t hear the yacht motors and went to see what was taking so long. As he left the cabin, he was greeted by a heavily armed officer who immediately took him into custody. Cuffed and guarded, Adam was moved to the galley and told to sit on one
of the chairs.
In the bridge, Thompson was also cuffed and led out. As the group made their way to the back of the yacht, he was read his rights. The officer in the galley was notified that Thompson was in custody and he, too, led Adam to the deck, reading his rights as they walked.
It took the entire group quite a while to finally emerge topside, and when they did, Adam was faced by his father.
“I should’ve known you’d be involved,” Adam spit the words at his father. “You make me sick, Dad.”
“I make you sick? I have done nothing but give you a good life. You took lives, Adam. YOU make ME sick.” Sr. turned to walk away, but stopped and turned back, “One more thing, don’t ever call me Dad. I don’t have a son.”
Adam and Thompson were loaded onto another boat that left for the harbor. There they were greeted by another group of agents that would be taking them into official custody.
There was a large group of people still left on the yacht. As if in a procession, each officer moved slowly past Drew, Max and Sr. shaking their hands and congratulating them on a job well done. After the short celebration, everyone looked around at each other.
“Who’s gonna get us back to shore?” The question came from one of the Marshalls.
“Sr. can get us back,” Drew said with a smile. “Think you can handle that, Captain?”
“My pleasure!”
***
Drew pulled Max’s car into the spot in front of her house. She dreaded going in, but knew she had to. Just the thought that Adam might have been in her house made her skin crawl like nothing else ever had. Drew promised her that he would go in ahead of her and that only eased her mind a fraction. Before he unlocked the door, Drew checked for the piece of paper and found it where he had left it. Feeling a little better already, Max was ready to go inside.
As the pair walked through the house, checking each window for the piece of paper, they found that each one appeared to have been untouched. Everything in the main areas of the house looked just as they had left it. Still, Max felt odd as she walked behind Drew. The back door was located off the kitchen, and just as they found throughout the house so far, it seemed to be fine as well.
The bedroom and bathroom gave Max the most difficult time. Whoever had been in the house before had made their presence in those two rooms the most obvious. As she stood in the doorway of the bedroom, she watched Drew check the window. She stepped inside, decided that she obviously had just forgotten removing the washcloth and moving the pillows.
“I guess I am just being silly.”
“No, Max, it’s not silly. You were so sure that someone was there.”
“That’s what I thought, but obviously they haven’t been back if they were ever here at all. Let me just grab some pants and a nice shirt. I don’t want to look like a hot mess when we go in to be debriefed.”
Max went to her closet and opened the door. She reached for the string to turn on the light and it was missing. Figuring it just broke off the last time she pulled it to turn off the light, she reached down and picked up her flashlight off the floor where she always kept it and turned it on. Right there on the floor was a piece of paper she had never seen before. She looked at it curiously.
“What is it?” Drew stepped closer.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before. It must be something one of my students drew and stuck in my bag without me knowing. Weird, it’s a bit advanced for a kindergartner.”
Drew reached out and took the paper from Max. On it was a sketch. He knew instantly what it was. “Ok, don’t touch another thing. We need to get out of the house.”
“Drew, what’s going on?”
“He was here. This is a sketch of the robot in the game. We need to go and not touch another thing. I will have a team come in and gather any evidence they can find.”
“Let me just grab…” She started, but Drew cut her off.
“You can’t touch anything else. Whatever you need we can get for you when they’re done. Let’s go.”
Drew led her out of the house and back to the car. He was careful not to touch anything and left the door open. When he got in the car he called it in and they waited. Within fifteen minutes the house was swarming with agents and police. Knowing things were in good hands, Max and Drew went to the special crime command center that had been set up for their office to be debriefed.
***
When Drew and Max walked into the command center everyone turned to look. Max instantly felt funny, as if she was on display. After what felt like hours of people just staring at them, the room erupted into applause. Max had never been congratulated in such a vigorous manner…possibly because she had never been a part of something so huge.
For the first time, Max was introduced to her contact. It was nice to put a face with the voice. Before long, they were ushered into what looked like an interrogation room. On the table sat all of the legal pads Max had filled with information they had found. The binders she had created with the files from the computer sat next to the pads of paper, and at the end of the table was Drew’s computer.
“Before we begin, I just want to express how impressed I am with how you did this. This had to be the most organized last minute operation I have ever seen.” Drew’s boss said as he shook their hands.
“Well, you can thank Max for that. You know I’m not that organized.” Drew said and the two men laughed. Seeing Drew laugh began to melt away all of the awkwardness and tension she had been feeling.
“I want you to know that we are in the process of locating and bringing in the people on the list Max gave her contact. It shouldn’t be long before we have all involved. At least we hope it won’t be. Let’s begin, shall we?”
He explained to Max exactly how a debriefing works and then they got started. Drew began explaining about the clocks and how he met Max. As Max sat and listened, she realized just how surreal all of this was. Never in a million years did she ever have the thought that one day she would be sitting in an interrogation room while wearing CIA credentials and describing how they brought down two of the most twisted individuals she’d ever heard of. Listening to herself describe the game was almost absurd. Had she not lived it, she’d never have believed the story they were telling.
Minutes turned into hours and before they knew it, 7 hours had gone by. Drew and Max were absolutely exhausted and ready to go home; although, for Max, the thought of going home made her stomach turn.
“I don’t want to go back there, Drew.”
“No, no, no. You aren’t going back there. In fact, we aren’t going back to my place either.”
“Where are we going?”
“Well, for the next 24 hours, we are being put up in a hotel courtesy of my boss.” Max want to speak but Drew put his fingers on her lips. “Then, after we are rested, we will head back to my apartment. They need us to be close to the command center in case they have questions.”
“Oh, Drew, I can’t believe this is over. Is it really over?”
“For now it’s over. Obviously when Adam and Thompson go to trial they will need our cooperation, but that’s the easy part. Until then, we are free to carry on with life.”
The two of them walked out of the command center and drove directly to the hotel. While it was no Four Seasons, it was still beautiful. Max had her eye on the gigantic tub and Drew insisted that she soak for a while. The hot water eased her muscles and soothed her mind.
When Max was done with her bath, she enjoyed wrapping the soft terry cloth robe that hung on the back of the door. She noticed the slippers that had been laid out under the sink and slipped into them. Even the towel wrapped around her long hair was plush and comforting.
She stepped out of the bathroom, Drew was nowhere in sight. On the bed was a single pink rose, a note and the cutest pajama pants and tank top. Max found it funny and yet endearing that he figured her as a pajama pants kind of girl rather than a silky-nighty type of person. She was also amazed at how right he was. She read
the note, so sweetly written, that explained that he went to pick up some dinner and that he would be right back.
When he returned, he not only had the most fabulously greasy Chicago Style pizza, but he also had her favorite soda and her favorite ice cream for dessert. He put the ice cream in the mini-freezer and set the pizza in the middle of the bed. Setting the soda on the table, he finally spoke.
“You look perfect.”
“Silly, I’m in jammies with a towel on my head!”
“Like I said, perfect.”
Max took the towel off her head and let her hair fall where it wanted. She walked over to Drew and held him tighter than she ever had. Drew could feel his heart melting. Right then he knew that he could never be without her. He took her face in his hands and tilted her head so he could look in her eyes.
“Max, from the minute I laid my eyes on you at the coffee shop I knew you were something special. After getting to know you, you proved me right. I have never met anyone like you. You are tiny and yet strong, sweet and yet can hold your own, and you have won my heart. For the first time in my life I can honestly say I am happy and I don’t want that to end. I love you. Marry me?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny box and opened it. Inside was the most beautiful ring Max had ever seen.
Trembling, she raised her left hand and said through her tears, “Yes, Drew, I will marry you. I love you so much.”
Normally, neither Drew nor Max were sappy romantics, so in true fashion, they hugged and then both dove onto the bed and began to all but inhale the pizza while watching a CSI Miami rerun. Max couldn’t stop looking at the ring in amazement and Drew couldn’t stop looking at Max in awe.
*****
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Has the jury reached a decision?”
“We have, Your Honor.”
Each count that the judge read aloud was followed by a guilty verdict. Two hundred thousand counts of attempted murder, 200,000 counts of conspiracy to commit murder, 200,000 counts of aggravated assault, 23 counts of capital murder, and 1,200 counts of murder in the first degree as well as a slew of additional charges. One verdict of guilty for each of the 50 charges brought against both Adam, Jr. and Thompson.