“Really bloody convenient you’ve had this change of heart now that you’re on this side of the gun.” Titama said.
“I’ve got no problem wasting you, or I didn’t when I figured I knew your story.” Church said, “But if two contestants-, at least two, don’t even remember who they are, doesn’t that seem strange to you? Your boy there, he was supposed to be part of a white supremacist gang who tortured and burned immigrants to death according to his file. But without his memory, he can’t even bring himself to pull the trigger on one young, black girl even if it means risking his own life? Does that add up to you?”
“How do we even know the little bitch isn’t lying?” Titama said.
Titama swept the barrel of the bulky shotgun in Jeannie’s direction. Titama had meant the gesture more as a way of emphasising her point than an actual threat but it gave Church the break he had been waiting for.
With surprising speed and obvious forethought, Church threw himself sideways at Titama. His hands came away from the back of his head. Titama jerked back around but Church had already closed the gap between them. Church slammed the side of his hand into Titama’s windpipe. The big woman’s feet went out from under her and she fell, still holding onto the SPAS-12. Gagging, she tried to bring the shotgun to bear on Church. He dropped on top of Titama and drove his knee into the side of the SPAS-12, pinning it to her chest. Titama struggled but she couldn’t breathe and with that distraction, she couldn’t pull the shotgun out from under Church’s body weight either.
“What the fuck?” Anaconda yelled.
Church had his broad, leather-clad back to Anaconda in the position where he’d landed on Titama. Automatically, Anaconda forgot about threatening Jeannie and aimed the weapon at Church instead. He couldn’t fire while Titama was so close, however. Church rummaged inside his coat. He produced one of the grenades that Jeannie had been given at the beginning of the game and held it up so Anaconda could see it, one finger threaded through the explosive’s ring,
“Stop! Keep it calm!” Church said, “I just crushed your partner’s trachea, I can fix it but right now she’s not getting enough air into her lungs to live! And if you shoot me, I’ll blow us both up!”
“Okay, so, what? You want me to drop my gun now?” Anaconda said.
“I just want you to listen!” Church said.
Between her flattened windpipe and Church’s weight leaning directly into her chest, Titama was already gasping and starting to lose consciousness. Climbing off her, Church grabbed the SPAS-12 and pulled it loose from Titama’s numbed grip. As Anaconda continued to cover him with his machine gun, Church knelt beside Titama. Setting the SPAS-12 down for a moment, still holding the grenade in one hand, Church dug his fingers into Titama’s neck and squeezed both sides of her trachea. It popped back into place and Titama sucked at the air. Church picked up his shotgun and straightened, retreating away from Titama and then holding her at the end of his weapon.
“Motherfucking arsehole.” Titama said.
Titama grabbed her bruised throat. Her voice was raspy but she stayed on her back and breathed deeply.
“Something is going on here.” Church said, “Now I know we didn’t start out on the best of terms, but right now I could kill you and maybe-, only maybe, your partner could find the stomach to finish me and Jeannie for it, but I don’t think so. Right now, I’ve lost my appetite for it. I’m nobody’s attack dog and I don’t kill innocents. I do what I do, kill criminals, and I don’t mind going to prison for it, and I didn’t mind when they wanted me to play this sick game a second time. Plenty of criminals on the inside and plenty of them in here, too. But Jeannie doesn’t strike me as the criminal they claimed she was and neither does your boy. I want to get to the bottom of it.”
“So, what about us two? Where does that leave us?” Titama said.
Titama’s eyes darted from Church’s shotgun to her sledgehammer, lying nearby. She knew even if she could get to the hammer the trick of throwing it wouldn’t work twice though.
“Fours heads are better than two.” Church said.
“Church Harper, the legendary Church Harper, wants to team up with a piece of gangbanging scum like me?” Titama said.
A wry smirk on Titama’s lips pulled at the traditional tattoos that covered the left half of her face. Church jerked his head toward Titama’s sledgehammer as he lowered his shotgun. Carefully, as if she were worried she could still be shot in the back, Titama eased her way over to the sledgehammer and slid it into her hands. The weight was comforting in her grip. Church made no move to shoot her as she slowly straightened back up. Anaconda was stunned by the sudden change in events. Jeannie looked confused as well, wet streaks from crying still covering her cheeks.
“What the hell is going on?” Anaconda said.
“Come on, if you’re coming.” Church said, “I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t know where to start but that doesn’t mean the other teams aren’t going to shoot first and ask questions later.”
xXx
“The puppets are starting to spot the strings.” Roland Smith said.
Roland was leaning over one of the barricades at the back of the control room as he fixated on the main screen. Most of the technicians who had time to pay attention to the main feed did little to hide their disappointment.
“Surely this was always a concern, sir, that the teams with-, the amnesiac contestants, would run into one another and realise something more was happening.” The blonde woman who was working as the Slayerz host said.
“And yet, the show must go on.” Roland said.
xXx
“If you don’t remember anything, how do you know what you’re doing over there?” Layla said.
Back in the police station, Thao worked over the DNA scanner until it seemed to be in working order. Layla watched him work suspiciously. Thao poked around inside the open casing.
“I don’t know, it’s-, muscle memory, I guess, I can’t remember all the names and I don’t know where I learned but I know what these pieces here do and where they go.” Thao said, “I’m pretty sure the connection to the law enforcement network is still live but its internal power is fried. I can get around it but it needs a jolt to-, get the wheels spinning, so to speak.”
“Whatever you’re doing, do it fast.” Layla said, “Since the update, everyone knows we’re stuck in here and they’ll be in position to ambush us once we leave.”
“I’ve got it.” Thao said.
Thao pulled the shock baton off his belt and unsnapped it, a fork of lightning sparking off the tips. Pulling open a metal cord, Thao jammed the shock baton into the machinery. The screen flashed and after a few moments of juice the DNA scanner hummed to life.
“It’s going! It’s working.” Thao said
Thao fed his tooth, still attached to its bloodied roots, into the machine. A holographic cage fired up around the scanning field, flickering for a moment like a bad TV signal, and then narrowed down and fixated on the tooth. The scanner could pick up minute traces of genetic material and tell them who it belonged to, any global citizen on file, within seconds. It could have done so with a single hair, or a drop of blood or skin flakes. A whole tooth was generous. A profile jumped up on the cracked screen with a photo, name and file. Layla looked over Thao’s shoulder as Thao subconsciously touched his own face.
“What’s happening? Who is that?” Layla said.
“I don’t know.” Thao said.
Thao turned to the shiny door of a nearby cabinet to compare his appearance to the photo on the screen, as if needing to be sure. The man appearing on the DNA scanner was also of Korean heritage but it wasn’t the same face that looked back at Thao from the shiny surface. He was neither better nor worse looking, younger or older, but still markedly different. The name on the top of the file read ‘Thomas Nguyen’ and not Thao Seong. Layla tilted the scanner’s screen back and compared it with Thao.
“Holy shit, it is you.” Layla said, “You look different alrig
ht, reconstructive surgery if I had to guess, but you both got the same eyes. And look, they changed your face but you’ve both got this little mole at the base of your throat.”
The face, and the name, didn’t mean anything more to Thao than the face in the mirror when he’d woken up. Still, the DNA scanner couldn’t lie. It was something like 99.999% accurate and he’d pulled the tooth out himself.
“What does it mean?” Thao said.
“It means this is exactly what you were looking for, isn’t it? It matches exactly what you were saying about you-, not being you.” Layla said, “Look, this guy has got no criminal record, not even unpaid parking tickets.”
Thao jumped back to the scanner, reading through the file. Thomas Nguyen had a high school diploma from Malia Obama High School and a degree in electrical engineering. In spite of that it listed his occupation as a journalist. Thao’s eyes flicked over the information on the screen hungrily but it was all basic and meant nothing to him. As Layla had said there was nothing under criminal record but he had a surprisingly long list of associates.
“Spouse, Stephanie Tillman.” Thao said.
The name contained a hyperlink to her file. Thao reached out to touch it when suddenly the screen blacked out. An error message reading ‘Network Connection Lost’ appeared on the screen.
“No! What-, they cut us off! They must have.” Thao said.
“They were controlling it the whole time but-, why? If they were lying about who you are then why would they let you find out now?” Layla said.
“They want me to know, we came through so much to get to this point they want to torture me with it.” Thao said.
Thao felt the gap where his tooth had been and remembered the feelings that had come with it. A meeting in a dark alley, and knowing he was on the verge of exposing something. He had no record according to the DNA scanner but Slayerz and other shows like it could only use criminals with life sentences or on death row.
“That’s it-, they’re-, they’re creating their own contestants! Even with all the shit going on out in the world, these shows have been churning through so many high-profile criminals they’re starting to run low.” Thao said, “Not just Slayerz but Real Gladiators, DeathChess, Some Like It Hot, they all need fresh meat to keep the money rolling in. So, what do they do when the prisons start running low? They create their own criminals, their own villains, wiping minds, using reconstructive surgery and lying about who they are.”
“So why you? If they need bodies, why you?” Layla said.
“Because I think I was on the verge of exposing them. I was a journalist, I got my hands on some proof and I was going to test it, the tooth in my memory, but I-, they must have caught me.” Thao said, “They’re sadists at heart-, the producers of this show, they’re the real psychopaths and maybe they put me here to teach me a lesson. Reconstructive surgery so no one would recognise me, a horrible backstory so no one would ask questions when I died in here. But there must be people like my wife or friends, co-workers, wondering what happened to me.”
“Okay, great, so you’re not a rapist and a serial killer, you’re just a really dumbass journalist in a time when no one’s reading newspapers anymore.” Layla said, “What now?”
“Now I-, we, expose them for what they’re doing.” Thao said,“They’ve got us on global television feeds!”
“And you’ve got no proof, not to mention a kill switch on your arm that if you push them far enough they can set off remotely at any time.” Layla said, “If I was you I’d hold onto this for now and maybe we can get out of here. Come on, we’ve been in here long enough, we’ve got to get back topside.”
“Okay, but if this is for real, if they really doing this to innocent people, are you with me?” Thao said.
Layla looked at Thao uncertainly, still holding her P90, “Yeah, I’ll be with you.” She said, “We’re partners, remember?”
Chapter Fourteen.
“Tired? Overworked? Stressed? Have you tried-, Methamphetamine?”
“Methamphetamine contains Pseudoephedrine to get you on your feet and moving, and more than double your daily recommended dose of Phenylacetone to keep you focused and working to be a productive member of the economy.”
“Meth, you’ll try anything once!”
Thao and Layla returned through the dank and dim corridors to the top floor of the building. Since the police station was surrounded by rubble and water there was only one way out. They headed for the broken doors of the helipad again. Grey sunlight filled the doorway, bright after the dimly lit building, but the sky was getting darker and showing that it was later in the afternoon.
“Keep your eyes open, the map updated while you were still fixing the scanner and we’ve been in there for a while.” Layla said.
Layla fanned her P90 out from the doorway. With a whirring noise, the camera drones they had left outside the police station joined them from overhead again. They circled around the building and fixed their lenses on the two contestants.
“Stephanie Tillman.” Thao said to himself, “Is that really my wife’s name? The woman from the pictures that I remembered?”
Thao’s mind was still filtering through all the new information he’d received. He was distracted as they crossed the helipad and he heard a loud but distant pop.
“Get down!” Layla yelled.
Suddenly, the soldier was hurling her considerable weight backward at Thao. She slammed Thao into the helipad, the concrete jarring him and Layla forcing the breath from his body. A rocket-propelled grenade streaked overhead and smashed into an aerial tower on the far side of the roof. Twisted metal exploded in all directions. The tower shrieked, bending at the ruined base and then tumbling sideways off the roof, shrapnel spinning through the air.
“Privyet, Kung Fu Grip-bitch!” A thickly accented Russian voice bellowed across the flooded street, “It is I, Drago Vorobyov! Here to end your life!”
The big, scarred Russian was propped up on the shoreline of wreckage across the floodwaters from Thao and Layla, holding his bulky M32 grenade launcher. His partner, Wolf Hutchins, was crouched beside him. Raising his assault rifle, Hutchins fired on full auto and raked the edge of the police station’s rooftop. The two of them were fixated on the flat and unprotected helipad. Drago licked the tip of one of his thick fingers and held it up to test the breeze. He propped the grenade launcher against his shoulder and fired almost vertically upward.
“Incoming!” Layla yelled.
Dragging Thao to his feet, Layla raced across the rooftop as Drago’s grenade sailed through the sky. Trailing an arc of white smoke, it peaked and plummeted back down on the police station. The grenade came down on the massive H of the helipad and exploded. Layla and Thao leapt to the next building, still moving, as shrapnel ripped apart the air. Hutchins fired, tracing after them with his barrel. Bullets chewed at the corner of the building and ricocheted past Thao and Layla’s legs, forcing them back. Layla took cover and raised the P90, letting loose with a hail of suppressing fire.
“I really wish we had more from that weapon drop now! They’re pinning us down!” Layla said.
“I know the truth!” Thao yelled at the drones circling them, “You can’t keep this covered up forever!”
“Do svidaniya, bitch.” Drago said.
Stumbling awkwardly, Baxter Webley snuck out of a passage in the wreckage. His sleeve was rolled up to expose his new prosthetic hand and arm. Creeping up behind Hutchins, Baxter held his vibrating sword like a long dagger and lunged. He jammed the sword into Hutchins’ shoulder and the tip sliced through the man’s body armour like a hot knife into butter.
Hutchins let out a scream of pain and surprise. Blood bubbled out of the wound as the blade sunk deep into the flesh, and Hutchins’ left arm fell limp at his side. Baxter pulled the sword back out and was readying himself for a second strike. His eyes were blazing with madness.
“I am the angel of death!” Baxter said.
Grunting in confusion, Drago tu
rned around on the disturbance. He didn’t even recognise Baxter as one of the other contestants at first and was more distracted by the lunatic expression on the man’s face. Drago aimed but couldn’t pull the trigger with Hutchins so close. Still, Baxter saw the gaping muzzle of the M32 and darted backward. Disappearing into the wreckage, Baxter returned the way he’d arrived through the narrow passage.
“Help-, me.” Hutchins said.
Hutchins reached for Drago. The stabbing had been clumsy but had penetrated deep and blood vomited out of Hutchins’ mouth. Drago moved around Hutchins, sneering, and shouldered his M32. He fired a XHE round after Baxter instead. It hit one of the remaining walls of a hollowed building and exploded in a cloud of dust. The ruins couldn’t take any more and crumbled. At least three tonnes of masonry came tumbling down with a tremendous crash, billowing with dust, and crushed the passageway. It was impossible to tell if Baxter had gotten clipped by the explosion or flattened. Drago looked over the fresh wreckage with satisfaction.
“Come on!” Layla said.
Layla had seen their opportunity as soon as Baxter emerged. She pulled Thao to his feet and the two of them kept running for the dam of wreckage across the flooded street. Layla started to circle around on the other team as Drago blew up a portion of the ruins. Her P90 was against her shoulder.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Thao said.
“I told you, we need to take the fight to them.” Layla said.
“D-Drago!” Hutchins said.
Hutchins words were thick and wet. He reached for his partner as Layla and Thao hurried across the wreckage. Drago was still admiring his work from the explosion and hadn’t noticed. When he couldn’t get Drago’s attention, Hutchins turned and grabbed for his gun to fight in spite of his bloody shoulder. Layla fired first, aiming for Hutchins’ unprotected head and clamping the recoil with her mechanised grip.
Serial Escalation Page 17