by Jacob Gowans
“How much time do you need?” Jeffie asked.
“Less than thirty minutes.”
Sammy cursed silently. This mission was supposed to be a rip and run, grab Trapper and leave. Resigned to waiting, he sat down on the floor and patted on the seat of the free chair for Jeffie to sit.
“Why is Diego willing to let you turn?” Jeffie asked. “Seems he’d be enraged.”
“Oh, he wrestled with the decision for days,” Trapper explained. “But in the end he knew he had no choice.”
“Why?”
A dark look fell over Trapper’s face. For a moment he snarled, vicious and feral, then it was gone. “Something’s changed. Something big has happened.” His empty socket quivered and with trembling fingers, he pointed to a small black device across the room.
Sammy knelt down to examine it. “What is it?”
“She put it here,” Trapper spat.
Sammy didn’t need to ask who she was. “What does it do?”
“She came a few weeks ago. Planted that box to spy on me. Thought I wouldn’t notice. But the Hive has been my home for so long … I knew it moments after she placed it. I neutered the device. It only tells her what I want it to.”
“So what exactly is holding us up?” Sammy asked. “You said ‘tidying up.’”
“Making sure no one who comes here digging around has any idea what I’ve been up to,” Trapper said, tapping his wrist as though he wore a watch. “And I just need a few more minutes.”
“Does this have anything to do with the kill code?” Jeffie asked.
Trapper’s eye narrowed on her. “Everything to do with it. Diego is not happy that you know about it, Sammy.”
“Our computer techs found traces of it in the data dump we stole from you seven months ago.”
Trapper paled. “Diego’s furious right now. He doesn’t like knowing he made a mistake.”
Trapper’s expression transformed into one of rage. “I didn’t make a mistake!” he said, snarling in a harsh tone. His body tensed and jerked as though he was about to spring. Jeffie and Sammy both scooted back, but Trapper quickly regained his composure.
“You all right?” Sammy asked warily.
Trapper cleared his throat and nodded. “There is no greater secret in the fox’s organization than the kill code. Only two people know about it.”
“Psssh. Right. I’m sure plenty of Thirteens and Aegis know what happens when they get on the wrong side of the fox. I’ve seen Thirteens blow up like they had a bomb sitting in their guts. How can the other Thirteens not know about it?”
“They know what the solution does to a degree, yes. But they don’t know how it works. To most of them the fox is like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. He is a shadow.”
Sammy’s face twitched as he remembered the shadow from his nightmares, the shadow of himself that could talk and touch and taunt him.
“The fox is a recluse. Very few people ever meet him or know him. Even fewer connect him to his former identity of Diego Newblood. You have no idea how the Thirteen organization works, what goes on in those cells. It has all been carefully constructed by the fox to operate how he needs it to. The Thirteens think they are the embodiment of disorder and anarchy, but in actuality the fox keeps them reigned in using complex behavior psychology.
“Every Thirteen, Hybrid, and Aegis in the employ of N Corporation drinks the solution. To them it’s a rite of passage that they know can track them, but nothing more. By drinking it they swear allegiance to the Thirteen Brotherhood. The kill switch is a two piece code. What you found in your data theft was the second piece. The first piece identifies a specific target. The second piece terminates him or her. The target can be anyone who has had the solution.
“The kill order always comes from the fox. And always goes through me. Each person who’s had the solution also has a number, so I attached the number to the code and … boom. Goodbye. So long. Fare thee well.”
“So let’s do it right now!” Jeffie said. “Start putting in codes and end this war!”
Trapper aimed his one good eye on Jeffie. “You think there won’t be repercussions if I try to execute a kill order without the fox’s approval? Wrong. The solution may not be in me, but the fox has other ways to quickly cover his tracks. You think the Hive isn’t wired? Give it a try. Goodbye. So long. Fare thee well.”
“Then what good will the code do us?” Sammy asked.
“There is always another way. The fox is a clean man. You know that, Sammy, you met him. He likes to tidy up after himself. Once his plans for the war are realized and the NWG has fallen, he wants to clean up.”
“A mass kill order?” Sammy asked. “All of them at once?”
A shudder passed through Trapper, but he nodded. “Rid the world of Thirteens, Aegis, and Hybrids in one fell swoop. The perfect clean up.”
“Minus all the blown up bits,” Jeffie added. “The fox will need to hire a few janitors for that.”
“You’re more talkative this time around, aren’t you?”
“My boyfriend’s not bleeding to death this time around.”
Sammy rubbed his temples, thinking, calculating. “How do we use the kill code without the fox’s knowledge?”
“We don’t. Eventually he will know. The key is to do it in such a way that by the time he realizes it, it’s too late.”
“How?”
Trapper checked the time. “The kill rooms. The white rooms. There are two of them. One in Rio, one in Orlando. In the very bowels of the earth.”
Sammy remembered the N Tower in Rio he’d been taken to. The white button on the elevator panel.
“In case something happens to me, and Diego gets control, I’m giving you this.” From Trapper’s pocket he produced a cube. His hands shook and for an instant his grip tightened, his face grimaced, and Sammy thought he might not hand it over. But then it was in Sammy’s hand, safe.
“A data cube with everything you need to know.”
“What’s the catch?” Sammy asked. “I could leave right now and break our agreement.”
Trapper tapped his skull. “Without the keyword, you can’t use the data cube. You need me alive and well through the day of the mission. By then I’ll have proven to you that I’m valuable and … somewhat rehabilitated. Hopefully, one day, you’ll even be able to excise the demon out of me.”
“I don’t get it,” Sammy said. “Why is Diego allowing you to do this? I still remember what you—he—whoever did at the ETC. I still have Byron’s memories.”
At the mention of Byron’s name, Trapper’s expression changed to one of fury. He lunged at Sammy, moving so quickly that Sammy didn’t have time to get his shields up to blast him away. Trapper’s hands went to Sammy’s throat and squeezed as he knocked Sammy backward to the floor. Sammy tried to choke out a few choice words, but he couldn’t breathe.
Jeffie didn’t waste time blasting Trapper off Sammy. Trapper hit the floor hard and skidded until his back slammed into the wall. Then she ran over to the panel where they knew Trapper kept the sleeping gas, the gas he’d used on himself during their last visit. Sammy rolled and scrambled over to Trapper who put his hands up shakily. “It’s me. It’s me! I’m in control.”
“How do we know?” Jeffie held the canister ready to spray Trapper.
“Say something,” Sammy told him.
“Something,” Trapper said with his pronounced lisp.
Sammy relaxed and let Trapper up. “It’s him.” He leaned against the wall, near the very spot where he’d once sat next to Jeffie while his leg leaked blood onto the floor from fish bites. Jeffie dropped the canister to the floor.
“This is insane,” she muttered.
“I’m sorry!” Trapper cried. “Sometimes he just … pounces. You asked me a question about the fox. The answer is I don’t know what—” Trapper’s face turned into a grinning grimace and his eye and lips twitched violently. “Let me tell them!”
“No!” he roared at himself in Diego’s voice.
“Let me tell them!” Trapper screamed back. Finally his struggle ended and his face relaxed. “Something’s happened to the fox. We think he’s been killed or replaced.”
“By whom?” Sammy asked.
“How many people do you think are close enough to him to do such a thing?”
An alarm beeped from Trapper’s console. He stared at his screens for a long moment, then began to curse and hit himself with brutal swings.
“What?” Sammy asked.
“She’s on her way!”
“How does she know we’re here?”
“I don’t—somehow! It doesn’t matter! You have to go!”
“We have to go!” Jeffie corrected. “You’re coming too.”
“The plan has changed. If I don’t finish clearing my tracks, she’ll figure out what the white room is and what you plan to do with it. Everything you need to know is on the cube. Get out, wait until she lands, then take off as soon as I give the signal.”
“Won’t she see our cruiser?”
“If she flies straight to the landing pad on the roof, she won’t. The building obstructs the view. But if she decides to fly around …”
Jeffie marched to the door.
“Listen to me for a second!” Trapper shouted. “Without me, you’ll need to turn someone who has the solution in their system and level six clearance.”
“An Aegis or Thirteen?” Sammy asked doubtfully.
“Not an Aegis. And Thirteens won’t likely turn. Your best bet is a—a—” Trapper clamped his hands over his mouth and his eye began to water. He muffled protests into the offending hand and finally bit it so hard it bled. When he let go, he grunted in pain. A flash of fury appeared in his eye. Sammy tensed up and prepared to blast, but the moment passed and Trapper’s calm returned. “A Dark agent.”
“What is a Dark agent?”
“It’s what you would have become had your anomaly been discovered in CAG territory instead of South Africa. It’s where they send all the anomalies … except the Thirteens. They call it Extraction/Implantation.”
Sammy thought of Stripe, and a blowtorch ignited, expanding the darkness inside him like a balloon reacting to heated air. The painful memory of a crocodile bite in his leg caused him to wince until it passed. Jeffie noticed but made no comment, and he was grateful.
“You’ll need to infiltrate the Extraction/Implantation site,” Trapper continued. “Figure out a way to smuggle a Dark agent out. Without someone who’s had the solution … your mission is hopeless.”
“Can you give us intel on how to get into the Dark facility?” Jeffie asked, hand on the door.
“It’s on the cube.” Trapper’s fingers raced across a console as his eye watched his myriad screens. A beep came from one of the computer towers. “I still wouldn’t pin your hopes on surviving the war.”
“Even with Sammy on our side?” Jeffie asked.
For a moment, Trapper smiled. And when he did, he almost looked normal. He almost reminded Sammy of the handsome young man he’d come to know through Commander Byron’s memories. Pity surged through Sammy so powerfully that he felt it down his spine and across his shoulders like a ripple of discomfort.
“Go,” Trapper said. “Get in your cruiser and take off the moment I give you the signal. Now!”
Jeffie ran out, but before Sammy cleared the room, Trapper yanked him back and slammed the door, locking it.
“What are you—” Sammy started to say.
“We have a few more minutes than I let on before the Queen arrives.”
Jeffie pounded on the door and yelled.
Trapper leaned in close and whispered in Sammy’s ear. “I saw what you did to my brothers in Detroit.”
“I didn’t—I just—”
“You can’t use it again. If you do, it will weaken your will. The dreams will start soon if they haven’t already. The cave.”
Sammy’s pulse quickened and sweat moistened his brow. Dreams. “What cave, Trapper? What are you talking—”
“The anomaly is not something you can compartmentalize. It is not a switch you can flip nor a pill you can take and wait for its effects to wear off. Each time you embrace it, you weaken your—”
“How can you say that? Look at you—”
“Shut up! Just shut up. Are you blind? Yes, look at me. Look at my face.”
Sammy stared at the floor, ashamed of himself. “I’m strong enough to resist it.”
“LOOK AT ME!” Trapper waited until Sammy obeyed the order. “It can’t be done. Let the idea go.”
“I can’t just let it go. It saves lives.”
“And takes them.”
“I can control it!”
Trapper’s eye stopped quivering and fixed on Sammy. “Play clip 91a020b1.”
On the screen nearest to them, Sammy saw himself hitting Brickert in the face while Brickert lay slumped on the floor. Sammy turned away, afraid he might vomit. A burst of laughter escaped Trapper.
“That’s what you call control? That feeling of sheer power, so raw and mighty, in your blood, your bones, your sinews. I couldn’t deny it. Once I had a taste, it called to me. Beckoned me back for another sample of the rage … the energy. I fought it. Resisted. By the time I found the cave, I didn’t stand a chance.” Trapper’s eye grew wide. “All of us find it. All of us.”
“What does that mean? What cave?”
“You’ll see. I know what you felt. What you feel. Only because of my disorder am I able to separate the two. Me and the Thirteen. Me and Diego. You …” He looked Sammy up and down with his eye. “You will have no such luck.”
“How many times did you use it?” Sammy asked. “Before you couldn’t stop?”
“Stop?” Trapper growled a chuckle. “You make it sound like a drug. It’s not. It’s an essence that infuses itself into you. A state of being. You transform into it. It’s been over thirty years, so I don’t remember all the specifics. Trapper, me—this person you are talking to—I am the exception. But still those choices have ruined my life. Do not think you can toy with it or use it and walk away unscathed.”
Sammy sighed and rubbed his head.
“You love that girl, don’t you?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“You do. You look at her the way I looked at Emerald. If that’s the case, never use the anomaly again. You will become a threat to the world. And in the end, they’ll have to put you down. But how much damage would you wreak before you die?”
“What if it means the difference between her living and dying?”
“Then let her die.”
Familiar words played in Sammy’s mind. He didn’t know where he’d heard them, but it wasn’t the first time this had happened. The voice was one he knew he should recognize, but didn’t. It was a feather in the wind, drifting barely out of reach every time he tried to snag it. The voice said, “You will see more death. Some of them will be people whom you love.”
Another alarm beeped from the console. Trapper’s eye studied it for only a second, then he pushed Sammy away. “Go. She will be here in minutes.”
“I can take the Queen.”
Trapper shook his head. “She can blast now. Who knows what else she’s done to herself.”
Sammy’s heart beat faster and his neck grew hot. “When? How?”
“I don’t have time to explain, but it’s true. She is obsessed with you. Now go. I will do what I can, but Diego will try to undo it.”
“Trapper … you’re going to die, aren’t you?”
“LEAVE!” Trapper tapped the data cube in Sammy’s hand. “Repentance. Remember that keyword. Now I need all the time I can get to fix this.”
* * * * *
The Queen woke to the sound of an alarm. Her clock told her it was an obscene hour of the morning. Her blurry eyes searched the room for the source of the noise. It took several seconds to realize it came from her com. She fumbled for it and put it on. The holo-screen projected the following text:
Intrusion at the Hive.
0351
“Details,” she ordered her com.
Two missiles fired. Deactivated before impact. Deactivation order code matches code assigned to
Incoming update … Stand by.
Status update: Unreported test of Hive defense systems.
“Computer, patch through the audio feed from the Hive black box.”
“No audio detected,” the computer answered.
“Is the box functional?”
“Power supply intact. Other functions offline.”
The Queen swore as she scrambled out of bed to dress. The penthouse elevator took her to the rooftop of the Orlando N Tower where a cruiser waited. Minutes later she was in the air and cruising at top speeds for Lake Coari.
What are you up to, Diego?
The flight to Brazil felt like an itch that could not be scratched. A maddening two-hour itch. She sent no advance warning of her arrival, hoping to catch Diego off guard. Something was fishy. Has Diego turned? Has he figured out what I’ve done to the fox?
No. How could he?
Yet Diego had fired rockets at someone … Who? Who has figured out the location of the Hive? That secret is—
How many other secrets have the resistance exploited? San Francisco? Detroit? They know the location of our cloning facilities.
What if the resistance is there now? Or Sammy?
As the dense forests of the Amazon appeared beneath the cruiser, her knees started to shake in anticipation. Her imagination blossomed like a summer rose, and she saw herself matching Sammy in combat, and besting him. She raised his body above her head and threw it down to the unforgiving floor, shattering his bones like glass. A small firework of pain went off inside her own body at the thought of it, and she closed her eyes until it passed. I’m ready.
Three minutes from the Hive, Diego hailed her via radio. “To what do I owe another unexpected visit?” he asked with a strange lisp she had never before heard. “Shall I roll out the red carpet? Is this a sign we’re becoming fast friends?”
“Missiles were launched from the Hive and deactivated. I want to know why.”
There was a long pause before Diego’s answer came. “A private aircraft flew near the area. At first I suspected it to be the enemy, but they immediately turned around after the missiles were launched. Rather than making a mess in my otherwise pristine jungle, I deactivated the projectiles.”