“Because I could. Because you weren’t there. Because you’re never there.” Accusation followed by recrimination flowed from him. The man was crazy. “Does it really matter why?”
Engaging in their less than witty repartee, she continued to run the possibilities. He wasn’t alone? He was alone? He came to talk? He came to kill her? So many variables to assess. “Of course it matters. You’re supposed to have been our friend.”
Fizz snorted. He’d always been a relatively physically fit individual, but never bulky. Even now he was more lean muscle than thick physique. “Your friend? If I’m evidence of how you treat your friends, I almost envy your enemies…at least you sleep with them.”
“I sleep with my enemy? I don’t recall ever inviting you into my bed.” The urge to fold her arms take a stand vied with the need to stay loose, arms at her side with her hands open and free. She had to be ready for anything that came at her.
Four exits from the top floor of the Infinity tower. Two stairwells. Two elevators. One was the executive elevator, with speed access. The second was a freight elevator, it stopped on other floors, but it could be overridden. She was nearest the north stairwell and the freight elevator. The executive elevator was a hundred feet behind her.
“I wasn’t referring sleeping with me, darling. “The endearment just came across creepy and a little gross. “I meant you and your dear, sweet Michael.”
There it was, jab number one. If he thought to draw blood by bringing up Michael’s name, she was almost sorry to disappoint him. She knew Fizz had something to do with Michael’s disappearance, the same way he’d orchestrated Amanda’s. “Bored now.”
He laughed. “That’s what he said.” All of the equipment along the wall next to her exploded in a shower of sparks.
Jerking away from the cascade of flaming ash spewing around her, Rory shook her head. “Aww, did I hurt your delicate feelings?”
Fizz laughed. “You really think you are something, don’t you?”
“If I do think I am something…” She emphasized the last word with equal parts humor and exasperation. “It’s because I am someone. What’s your excuse?”
“We could spend our entire evening together, just trading these little barbs.” His every step toward her seemed to echo in the cavernous lab. “But that’s not why I’m here.”
“Enlighten me.” Depending on his next move, she could make it to the North stairwell in less than thirty seconds. A large quantity of technology and computers sat between her and the destination. Fizz’s strength lay in his ability to make any kind of technology work, but had it grown in the year since she’d last seen him?
“I’ve been inside Michael’s head. I’ve seen him. Seen where he comes from. I’ve seen what he fears, what he needs, and what he is—a brutal, vicious, thug.” Every sentence punctuated another step. “I even saw him try to kill you, yet you seem to enjoy his attention. Why is that?”
“Last time I checked, we’re not besties and this isn’t a sleepover. The words none of your fucking business, they apply.” Yeah, the last person she planned to discuss Michael with was this freak show. “And how the hell were you in Michael’s head?”
The sharp almost vicious smile he wore should have been her first clue. In fact, it was her first clue. She should never have asked that question.
“Your man of the future,” Fizz said slowly as he came to us to a stop just five feet away from her. The narrow distance gave her a perfect view of the harsh angular planes of his face and the vicious, almost evil fury gleaming with in his eyes. Were his eyes actually gleaming? The effect gave her pause. Even though tiny yellow and gold sparks continued to shoot from the machines landing burning effortlessly on their way to the floor littering the area with ash, his eyes seemed to be kindled from within. A display of his growing abilities? Every piece of information added to her ability to assess and process the situation. She could play out every possibility, every beat, until she narrowed the probabilities down.
Yet despite all of that skill, she still had no idea what his endgame was here. Too many possibilities existed.
“You do realize they have beautiful little chips in their brains, don’t you?”
Her stomach bottomed out, and Rory had to resist the temptation to curl her fingers into fists. The desire to punch him square in his smug job amplified. Calming her heart rate and respiration, she kept her face toward him. “So?”
“You really don’t know,” he said, not in question, but fascination. “You really don’t know our connection.”
By our connection, did he mean his connection to the Boomers? Or his connection to her? Her connection to both? Again, too many variables and too many possibilities. It was all giving her something of a headache.
“You don’t. You really don’t.” Fizz clapped his hands together in worship. Sparks exploded from equipment on the left side of the hall. The machines closest to him began to tremble and vibrate, as though being affected by more than his nearness. Was Curtis there? “And here I thought you would be the most dangerous adversary of them all. Very disappointed in you, Rory.”
Since only the machines closest to him seemed to be reacting, and nothing else trembled, she could only hope he hadn’t brought back up. “Allow me to play the world’s smallest violin about how my heart bleeds for you. What’s the point here, Fizz? I know you’re here for something. Were you waiting on me?” If so, how long had he been waiting? As much as she wanted to call Josh and Curtis onto the carpet for their betrayals, if she had to go against all three of them, it would be a weighted match against her.
“Heh, you would like to think of me just hanging out here.” He raised his hands to gesture to the surroundings as though showman on a stage. “Just waiting for you to make your grand entrance, so that we could share this deep moment of connection where I could reveal to you everything I know and all of my great plans. You do realize that I’m not one of those who likes to just monologue right?”
Still keeping her bored exterior, Rory gave him an empty smile. Wealthy parents and too many damn functions had long since honed her ability. “Says the man monologuing.”
Fresh sparks warned her before the alarm overhead exploded. She danced to the side, easily avoiding the flying shrapnel. Oh, she had touched a nerve.
“Arrogant, spoiled, rich boy. Your only talent was with gadgets, a technical wizard… You never got people.” She dodged the next explosion of sparks and, when she rolled, she hurtled toward him then struck his legs to take them out from beneath him. Only, she tumbled right through…a hologram?
Laughter filled the room as more sparks showered from the equipment, each device shorting out one at a time. Pivoting, Rory searched the room then came back to where the hologram flickered.
“Surprise! Yes, I do have a gift.” He slowly stalked toward, but as each device continue to short out around her, she could see the flickering of the image. “Did you really think I was stupid enough to face you physically? Mano y mano?”
“Mano a mano, idiot,” she corrected with a snarl.
“Whatever. You never understood, Rory. You always thought I was the outsider. I didn’t belong. But what if I wasn’t?” He spread his hands wide and wore a gleeful grin. “I wasn’t the adopted one, remember? Your father…the great and vaunted Dr. Graystone. The man who helped build the infrastructure that eventually became the Internet? You thought he was your daddy, because he adopted you.”
Where the hell was he going with this? And why was he keeping her… Rory jerked a glance around. He was keeping her here. Suddenly, every variable came into play. She began to process them faster and faster and, without waiting to let him finish his little story, she began running for the stairwell. Only one reason remained why he would keep her still—distracted—to keep her gift preoccupied with what he was doing rather than focused on what everyone else in the building was doing. She made it to the door and kicked it open.
His voice chased after her. “You can run, Rory.” He app
eared on the landing below her as she descended the steps. “But you can’t hide. I know things, things you need to know. You and I, we are tied together. You wouldn’t believe how intricately tied. But you do need to get over yourself.”
Blowing right through the hologram, she continued down the steps faster and faster. Forty floors to descend, and she didn’t dare slow down, not once. As she reached the thirtieth floor, the sound of alarm penetrated the walls of the stairwell. An alarm she hadn’t heard upstairs—one it seemed Fizz had been blocking. The bomb evacuation alert—how long had it been going off? Since she arrived? Light bulbs begin to explode and pop the farther down she went.
Fizz appeared in front of her once more. “Your friends from the future? They came here for a reason. They came here to kill you Rory.”
“Been there. Done that. Already bought T-shirts.” She slid around the railing and continued down.
Once more he materialized in front of her. “Did they? Or did he just simply fall for you? Don’t you understand, they had a singular mission. Every day that they don’t complete that mission brings us a day closer to this future, this terrible place, that sent them back to us in the first place.”
Yep, she knew all this. She still didn’t quite believe it. But it didn’t matter what she believed. Michael mattered. The Boomers mattered. They might be a little twisted, but they wanted to save the world.
How could she do any less?
“You know,” she said, though she was trying to conserve her oxygen to continue her rapid descent. “You sound jealous. Sorry that they’re the ones who were fated to kill me?”
“No, not jealous.” Fizz’s haunting voice continued to follow her down the steps. “Practical.”
How the hell was he keeping pace with her? She’d descended twenty floors, with twenty more to go. Yet no matter how far she traveled, there was Fizz, just waiting for her. “Practical. That’s a new one.”
“Is it? You’ve always only ever thought of yourself, Rory. What was the next big adventure? Oh, let’s all go be superheroes! Hey, let’s form a team! No, you’re not welcome here anymore. You make too many decisions on your own.”
“Blah blah blah. Whine, whine, whine. You killed people, Fizz.” She wasn’t going to apologize for wanting him out, not after he did that. “Hero rulebook, rule number one—we don’t kill people.”
“No?” Fizz demanded as he appeared directly in front of her. This time, when she passed through the hologram, an electric shock raced over her skin and she shuddered. “No, you just want to put them up. Put them in jail. So they can break out, and kill people, too. I think the ends justifies the means.”
“And that’s why we’re never going to agree. The ends never justifies the means. If you can’t get there the right way, it does matter how you get there.”
“Does it? If you knew your death saved the lives of millions, what would you do?”
If Rory thought for one instant that sacrificing herself would save multiple lives, she knew herself well enough to know the answer to that would be yes. In the absence of that certainty, her survival instinct told her to get the hell out of the building.
“Not such a smartass now, are you?” She made it as far as the fifteenth floor. “Starting to sound a little labored there in your breathing, Rory. Your heart rate is accelerating. Are you going to make it? Do you even know what you’re running from?”
How did he keep following her? At her next swing around the rail she glanced up and spotted one of the security cameras. A red light blinked right back at her. On the next floor, another camera. Next floor another camera. She swung around to hit the wall running and slammed her fist through the camera lens. It popped out.
“Just because you blind me, doesn’t mean I can’t tell what you’re doing.” Fizz sounded almost proud of her. “You know, Rory, you and I? We have a lot more in common than you think. Except for our lives… You always had what was mine, and you thought I didn’t belong in what you’d stolen.”
“You want to vague that up some more there, buddy? I think your madness is showing.”
Tenth floor. Thank God, ten more flights to go.
“I’m not kidding, Rory. How do you think I got into the Infinity Corporation? Or even all the way up to the fortieth floor of the Infinity building? It’s reserved for Dr. Graystone and his family.”
She damn near skidded to a halt, before recognizing this was quite possibly just another delaying tactic. Reasserting her pace, she kept running. She still had another seven floors to go. “If you’re trying to tell me we’re brother and sister, it’s not gonna work. I’m already done with the faux father story of the year. I didn’t need a faux brother to go with it.”
More laughter, only this time it came out sounding far more sinister than amused. “Hans Geiger. Yes, I heard about him, too. Only I’m not referring to the mad one they labeled as your father. I’m referring to the father you stole from me.”
What the hell was he talking about? Part of the reason the Graystones adopted her in the first place was that they couldn’t have kids.
“Tick-tock, Rory, tick-tock.”
Yes, this was just a distraction. Ignore it, keep going. Even repeating the mantra to herself didn’t help. She was winded, and she still had another five floors to go. Her leg muscles burned. Her chest burned.
Once again, Fizz stood before her on the landing. “Dr. Graystone specializes in technology. The man is a genius. He built his wealth on his insight, ideas and designs. Did you ever wonder why his wife couldn’t have kids?”
“If by his wife you mean my mother,” Rory snarled. “Then no, I didn’t actually wonder, nor did I ever ask. Guess what? It’s nobody’s damn business.”
Two more floors. She could do it, even if while repeating the mental mantra, the world seemed to be slowing down. She was slowing. Her muscles burned and her lungs ached from trying to suck in the necessary oxygen.
“Rory. Rory. Rory. You are so blind.” He truly did sound disappointed. “Here we are, in this building my father built. And I’m taking advantage of all the technology that my father designed.”
“Your father?”
“Yes., Rory. My father. You see Dr. John Graystone, the great man? He is my father. He designed me. He created me, using some of that equipment that was upstairs. Where do you think I came from? Did you think I just happened to show up one day at the school?”
At the moment, she didn’t really know, nor did she give a damn. “Well, bully for you.”
She made it to the bottom and hit the exit door only to bounce off it when it wouldn’t budge. Son of a bitch. “It’s not going to work, Fizz.”
“Oh? I think it’s working just fine. You see my father created me, but he gave my life to you.” The hologram began to pace around her. “Now, these men from the future, they came back to save our world, and failed to do the only thing they needed to save everyone…some great warriors they turned out to be. “
Rory stared at him. “You’re insane. “
Spreading his arms wide, Fizz gave her a beatific smile. “I think that the saying is kill two birds with one stone, but I kind of like killing one Rory and my past with a very, big building.”
The explosion she heard reverberated through the stairwell. From the top of the building, plaster, followed by brick and metal, began to rain. It slammed into the steps, then the walls and everything shook.
“What the hell are you trying to do, Fizz?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He folded his arms, his expression one of immense satisfaction. “I’m the hero here. By killing you, I save the world.”
He was about to bring this whole damn building down on her?
Chapter 14
The sound of water splashing soothed Joss while Drake cleaned up. She’d pulled on his t-shirt after showering. “You know,” she called out to him. “I think I finally get why they slow an action movie for a sex scene.” The shift in pacing had always irritated her. Who paused to screw when they had to sav
e the world?
“Why?” Another great thing about her big, beautiful man. He didn’t laugh at the way she spoke her thoughts aloud.
“Because we have to remember what we’re fighting for, and not just the insubstantial idea of future or world. Let’s face it, we’re all pretty selfish.” Sex with Drake had left every muscle in her body loose and warm. Easing off the bed, she glanced at the damaged frame and grinned again. “We also have to remember we’re alive.”
The water turned off in the bathroom, and Drake appeared in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his hips. The droplets sliding over his skin left his gold tattoo shimmering. Maybe they had marked him, a deliberate attempt to usurp his privacy and right to self—hateful bastards—but they’d also highlighted his absolute beauty and purity of spirit. “Did I make you feel alive?”
The innocence inhabiting his question coiled around her heart and gave it a firm squeeze. When he’d declared his love, she’d been stunned. A feeling which couldn’t compete with the wealth of emotion swamping her.
“Yes, Drake,” she promised him. “Very much alive. More alive than I’ve felt in years.” Alive. Committed. Devoted.
His smile grew, offering a glimmer of light in the shadows of the world threatening to intrude on them. “I wish I could tell you we don’t have to leave this moment.”
“We’re never leaving this moment,” she assured him. “That’s the real gift of sharing it together. It will always be with us.” Crossing the room to him, she settled her hands against his chest. Without reservation, he laid his palms over her hands and dipped his head for a kiss. It was both sweet and hot. Passionate and chaste. It was a thank you and a promise. Her heart shuddered under the onslaught.
“Together, then.” No doubt transformed the statement into a question. “I have to call Simon and the others. We have to go into the facility—that means we may hurt those you called friend.”
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