by Aman Gupta
“Thanks for telling me,” said Vik.
Olivia looked at Vik for a second and then got up.
As she went for the door, Vik said, “I never stopped caring, you know.”
“Thanks for caring. It frightens me to think what would’ve happened if you hadn’t cared at all,” said Olivia.
“I got betrayed,” said Vik.
“By whom?” said Olivia.
“Josh. Victor. You,” said Vik.
“You didn’t see it then. You don’t see it now. It’s always been about you,” said Olivia.
“Good. It frightens me to think what would’ve happened if it wasn’t,” said Vik.
Olivia felt remorse for a guy who was once more than her best friend.
“Bye, Jay. It was nice to have known you,” said Olivia.
Vik smiled.
“What?” asked Olivia.
“And they say I’m heartless,” said Vik.
Olivia sensed the pain in his smile and his eyes. She left, closing the door behind her.
Another two days passed. Around 7 PM, Vik requested to see Joey, but was told that Joey wasn’t interested in seeing him. Vik gave the guard a message on a piece of paper and asked him to deliver it to Joey.
The guard noticed that Vik was wearing shoes, and getting ready for something. The guard laughed and closed the hole on the door. The guard took the envelope to Olivia.
She opened it and read the message.
“Oh my god,” she uttered.
Suddenly, the red alarm lights came on. The building had lost all of its power. She looked outside her window and saw Atlantis was going dark, several buildings at a time. Within a few moments, the only lights she could see were the cars driving dangerously on a dark road.
“How long till the backup generator kicks in?” she asked Tiffany.
Tiffany made a call.
“Four minutes. The entire town is dark. All emergency operations are being put on the backup generator first. Locus is running on its own emergency generator. Elevators are working for evacuation. Security system is down,” said Tiffany.
“Hurry! Send a team to the 50th floor. Don’t let Jay escape,” said Olivia as she threw away the message.
Additional guards were sent to the 50th floor. They sent a radio message to Tiffany saying that the guards are down, and there was no sign of the prisoner.
A minute later, as Vik reached the elevator, fire alarms went off. He threw the guard out just as the elevator door closed. He made it to the lobby within thirty seconds. The entire building was being evacuated.
An intercom came on Olivia’s landline. Tiffany put it on speaker.
“The cooling system on 38th to 44th is going down. We’re evacuating the building immediately,” said the voice.
Vik had made it out of the building amidst the chaos. The guards at the entrance tried to control the crowd from exiting the perimeter, but they were struck down by the mob. Vik, somehow, made it out of the perimeter.
He turned around and said, “Boom!”
Few seconds later, a huge explosion could be heard and seen on the 38th floor. The glass panels of the building shattered. Simultaneously, the floors 40, 41, and 43rd also erupted in flames. Emergency response teams outside Locus tried to contain the fire via the fire trucks outside.
There were massive traffic snarls throughout the town. Hundreds of accidents were being reported on the wireless. It didn’t help the response time of the emergency services.
Olivia told Tiffany to redirect all the power to the water sprinklers to contain the fire, but was told that the utility servers weren’t responding. The manual override switch was thrown by the workers who managed to access the maintenance rooms after facing a mountain of arduousness, to combat the fire, but the fire had become too rampant and had spread throughout the building. Tiffany told Olivia that her private elevator would soon stop working. Olivia and Tiffany ran towards the elevator, to leave the building.
Few minutes later, Vik saw the top half of Locus burning from afar. All the guards were told to report to the city to control the riot that had ensued. Within the hour, Locus was engulfed in flames like an effigy on fire. Vik managed to escape through the east exit, by shooting down the security guards using the weapon he had acquired from the guard outside his cell.
Olivia got out of the building and told Tiffany to lock down the east exit, nearest to Locus.
“Find Jay!” yelled Olivia.
To control the mob, the guards fired live rounds, killing hundreds before the people surrendered.
After four hours of mayhem, Olivia was sitting in her apartment, when Tiffany knocked. Olivia was told that no one escaped from the West and the South exit. The East Exit was unsecured for a brief moment.
“We managed to control the fire. Not many people were working on the top floors during that time. We estimate that the others managed to get out before the fire reached their levels. They are bringing out the burned dead bodies. Currently, the tally is 42,” said Tiffany.
“What about our data?” asked Olivia.
“We’re checking the offshore backup sites. Everything else got destroyed. The loss of communication units earlier this week made the entire state of affairs unmanageable,” said Tiffany.
“What about the monitoring systems?” asked Olivia.
“Unresponsive,” said Tiffany.
“And?” asked Olivia.
“Apollos. Alphas. Betas. All units are untraceable. Soon, they’ll get active,” said Tiffany.
“Get the systems back online. One of the Apollos was already critically active, we need a trace immediately. What about the research facilities?” asked Olivia.
“Safe. The quarantine wings weren’t affected much,” said Tiffany.
Her satellite phone rang. She picked it up.
“What happened?” asked Anton.
“Everything’s gone,” said Olivia.
“We’re on our way,” said Anton.
“We?” asked Olivia.
“Yes,” said Anton.
She disconnected the phone call.
“Get the girl,” said Olivia.
“Anything wrong?” asked Tiffany.
“In case there’s no other way to prove what we have accomplished, she’s the one that went the farthest,” said Olivia.
“What are we going to do about Jay?” asked Tiffany.
“He’s the least of our problems. Fortunately, I made a copy of the drive he gave me. I suppose whoever was after him, was due to this drive. Maybe we can strike a bargain for our lives,” said Olivia.
She asked Tiffany to leave her alone. When Tiffany left, she took out a blue microchip from the heel of her wedges. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Few hours later, Tiffany showed up again.
“The girl didn’t make it,” said Tiffany.
“Damn. What about Drew?” asked Olivia.
“Not a scratch,” said Tiffany.
“Get her someplace safe,” said Olivia.
Vik heard vehicles exit the east road towards Stanton. He also heard footsteps of armed men searching the forest where he was hiding. He kept moving south through the forests, hoping to reach Old River before the guards caught up to him.
It took him another day and a half but he managed to get to Old River. He knocked on the door of a family’s house and asked for a phone call. It was already raining, so his muddy clothes helped him sell his idea of being lost. He wanted to call Eric to pick him up but disconnected, on hearing his voice. He left after faking a phone call. The family called him back and gave him something to eat. They wanted him to stay inside till the rain stopped, but he told them that he didn’t want to be a burden. He took their leave, and left towards Morrow.
After walking a few miles outside Old River, he decided to call it a day, and spent the night sleeping on the side of the road. When he woke up after a few hours, he saw Eric was sitting beside him.
“How did you know it was me?” asked Vik, as he sat up next to
Eric.
“I don’t receive a lot of phone calls on that number,” said Eric. “So, I called back.”
“Eric, I..” said Vik, before being interrupted.
“Save it,” said Eric.
He told Vik to get in the car and they left for Morrow. Vik told Eric about everything, including his plan. Eric was shocked. He chided Vik for not trusting anyone. Vik told him that in the end, it was his fight.
He dropped Vik at his home. Vik asked him to not to tell anyone for at least a few hours. Eric agreed but told Vik that he played a dangerous game. Vik told him that the game wasn’t over. Eric pointed to him towards Vik’s car, and told him that the keys are under the welcome mat. Vik smiled.
“Good night,” said Vik.
“It’s the middle of the day,” said Eric.
“I can see,” said Vik, and closed the door.
“Hope you are coming to Emma’s birthday party tonight at the precinct. Ever since we got back, I haven’t seen a lot of her. That’s on you,” said Eric.
“I’ll send a gift,” said Vik, in a distant voice.
Eric was oblivious of the fact that Emma had put Vik’s house under her personal surveillance. She thought of entering the house and confronting Vik, but decided to wait and follow him if he went anywhere. After waiting for five hours, she saw Vik leaving the house at night.
She followed him to a house in the remote part of the town. A guy came out of the house and was having a conversation with Vik. Vik gave him a note. In return, the guy handed over a box to him.
Seeing Vik’s proclivity of manipulating people around him, she went over there to confront them. She pointed her gun at Vik and asked him to turn around, just as he put the box in his car and was returning to the guy.
“Emma,” he said.
“Don’t say my name. I saw what you did,” said Emma.
“Did what? Meet this guy. Antonio. He makes fantastic cakes,” said Vik.
“Shut up. You, with all your lies. You are a parasite. You use people for your own survival and motives, then you discard them and move on,” said Emma, with tears and rage in her eyes.
“He’s telling the truth. I’m a baker,” said the guy.
“Raise your hands. Show me your hands,” said Emma.
“Emma, you’re making a mistake. Please. Lower your weapon,” said Vik.
“Oh, I’m making a mistake? What about Locus? Was setting the building on fire a mistake too?” said Emma.
“How do you know about that?” asked Vik.
“I was there, on the top of the hill. I saw it burning,” said Emma.
“That was necessary,” said Vik.
“Where’s Joey? Where’s Joey?” yelled Emma.
Vik didn’t say a word. She fired a warning shot near his feet, making a small divot.
“Next hole’s in your face. And your friend’s,” said Emma.
“I’m not his friend. Vik, tell her,” said the guy, extremely scared.
“Don’t hurt him. He’s innocent,” said Vik.
“I won’t ask again,” said Emma.
“Last thing I heard about him or from him was inside Locus,” said Vik.
Emma cried, lowering her weapon a little.
Vik took a step forward.
“Stay back! Stay back,” yelled Emma.
“Emma, listen to me. There’s a lot going on that you don’t know. Allow me to explain,” said Vik.
“I’m done with you. I can’t get the picture of you smiling, when you shot Joey, out of my head. I tried so hard, but couldn’t do it. I tried, Vik. I tried. The world will be a lot safer without you in it,” cried Emma.
The guy began running back towards his house. Emma shot him in the back. Vik turned around to save him. When the guy went down, Vik looked furiously at Emma.
Emma fired a shot at Vik, hitting him just above the chest. He went down, pressing his hand on the bullet wound. Emma walked forward to check for a pulse, but couldn’t find one. She took Vik’s hand, rubbing it on her cheeks as she cried.
Few moments later, she heard a noise coming from the house. Suddenly, a 5 year old boy came out of the house, running towards the guy lying on the front of the porch, crying, “Papa. Papa.”
Emma got up and ran away. She got to her car and saw her red cheeks in the rear view mirror. She drove away from the spot and stopped a mile away in an abandoned spot.
She took off her shirt and wiped away the blood from her face and hands. She got a phone call from Eric, but she didn’t pick up. She put on new clothes and burned her blood-stained clothes using a lighter.
She got in the car and raced away. She called Eric from the car, who told her to show up at the precinct. She was petrified. As the grief and the panic kicked in, she drove slowly to the precinct. She climbed up the stairs and opened the door.
Everybody jumped out and yelled, “Surprise!”
They were wearing party hats and singing the birthday song. She faked a smile and shook everyone’s hands. Finally, she saw Eric and Kate standing together in the middle of the room.
“Sir, I need to tell you something,” said Emma.
“Whatever it is, it can wait. See who’s back,” said Eric.
They split and Joey jumped out and hugged Emma.
Confused, she hugged Joey tightly, before pulling away. She started walking backwards and ran out of the precinct.
Joey hobbled after her.
Eric joked, “Probably overwhelmed. You guys carry on. We’ll be back.”
He and Kate went outside.
Emma was having a panic attack outside and Joey was trying to calm her down. Eric and Kate caught up with them.
“Where were you?” shouted Emma.
“Sorry, it was tough getting out. I stayed in New Bay once I got out of Atlantis,” said Joey.
“New Bay?” asked Emma.
“Yeah. Vik’s plan. It was so awesome. Tough for sure but I loved it. Oh, the adrenaline,” sighed Joey.
Eric smiled.
Emma looked at Eric, “You knew?”
“Just today. Vik told me about his plan,” said Eric.
“Kate, you knew too?” asked Emma.
“No, I didn’t. Joey came a few hours ago. Then we got busy decorating the office,” said Kate.
“What plan?” asked Emma. “You got caught. Then Vik shot you while we were escaping.”
“That was part of the plan,” said Joey.
“I don’t understand,” said Emma.
Joey explained, “He gave me this drive while we were heading to Atlantis from Stanton. He told me that in order to destroy Atlantis and whatever they are doing, we needed them to install this drive on their server. But for that to happen, they either have to be idiots or have to completely trust me. The smart money was on the latter.”
“What was in the drive?” asked Kate.
“I don’t know. He gave me the drive and two passwords. One of them activated a program that he said he would install on the server prior to the entire thing, so I had to make sure that I didn’t get caught before he could install his program. However, if I wanted out, I could give them the other password, and he would negotiate for my release. Leaving me behind the first time was always part of the plan. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how secure their system was. We all were going to get caught, so he left early which was a setback but you all came back the next day,” said Joey.
“Why didn’t he tell us?” asked Emma.
“Because he saw Kate talking to that Morgan guy via a camera footage that day. He just didn’t trust anyone anymore, he told me while he freed me,” said Joey.
He looked at Kate.
Kate said, “Morgan was responsible for killing Anthony Arnold. They gave me a package that I delivered to Morgan. He worked for some powerful people, who blackmailed me with the lives of people that matter to me. Earlier it was my husband and child. This time, it was all of you. It was always Plan B as I never wanted to leave Jay behind.”
Joey continued, “Anywa
ys, when he freed me, he told me about that meeting. So we made a plan that we would act like we had a fallout and he would shoot me before the east exit. But that Morgan guy ambushed us in the parking lot. That woman, Olivia, we knew she was smart, and would never believe that Vik would give me the entire password. So I pretended to betray him and gave her the password which would activate his program. She didn’t even flinch or doubt me for a second. She was more focused on the second password that Vik had, which didn’t really exist,” said Joey.
“But I saw the building burn. How did you get out?” asked Emma.
“He had told me that he would send me a message when it was time. So, one time, the guard came to me and told me that Vik wanted to talk to me. I figured it was the message he was referring to. Because Vik was setting up Olivia by pretending to not care about me, I could go anywhere in the building. So I roamed around in the food court, sometimes the lobby. When the blackout happened, which I guessed was his program, I managed to get out of there in time,” said Joey.
“How did you escape Atlantis?” asked Kate.
“This is the best part. The 12 digit code at the north exit was the same…” said Joey, before they were interrupted by a man.
“Hey, where’s the cake?” asked the man. “Hope it’s delicious.”
“Vik’s getting it. He knows a guy named Antonio. According to him, Antonio makes the best cakes,” smiled Eric.
“Cool,” said the man and walked back inside.
Emma was shocked about the entire turn of events. Her anguish had multiplied.
Eric received a phone call.
“What!” he shouted on hearing the caller’s message.
“I’m on my way,” said Eric, and disconnected the call.
“What happened?” asked Kate.
“That was Antonio’s wife. Someone shot him outside his home. He’s in the hospital,” said Eric.
“And?” asked Emma.
“And what? That’s it,” said Eric.
“Wasn’t Vik supposed to meet Antonio? Do you think he shot him?” said Kate.
“Oh, shut up, Kate! You are the last person in the world right now, who should be doubting his intentions. Go create your devious plans with Morgan. I don’t want to see your face,” yelled Emma.