by Elle Casey
“No! That’s okay,” I said, breathless with fear as I moved backwards. Running would be a mistake; he’d tackle me for sure. “Could you please tell me about the Influencers?”
“What are you going to do for me, if I tell you what you want to know?” he asked, a sly smile replacing the pretty one from before.
Oh, crap. His libido is taking control and he knows I’m fishing for information. I warred with myself. I could take advantage of the situation or keep running away. Stay or go? Stay or go? I had the advantage; I knew no matter how Rainbowed out he got, a shot to his nuts would stop him cold, and Rainbows never covered themselves around me, never worried I’d do anything but cooperate. They always fantasized that I was as in love with them as they felt themselves in love with me.
In the seconds before he was against me, I made the decision. I only had one shot at figuring this out and getting into a position of power. I had to take it.
He cornered me in the turn of the hallway, getting so close there were only inches between us. I could feel his hot breath on my forehead. It smelled minty, and the cologne on his chest tickled my nose with its sweetness.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Zane. It’s Zane.”
I almost said, Inzane, maybe, but I didn’t. “I want to know the answer to my question, Zane,” I said, my words coming out very airy. I was trying to breathe normally but having a hard time with it. Panic was setting in, and I was battling it with everything I had. Please don’t let this turn into rape. Please don’t let me be raped.
“You want to know about the other Influencers? Kiss me and I’ll tell you what you want to know.” He smiled and leaned towards me, closing his eyes in anticipation of our lips meeting.
I pushed on his chest to get him away from me. “Wait! I call the shots here, not you. Tell me the info first and then you get the kiss.” Sometimes me taking charge bought me a few minutes. Something about a perfect-looking and bossy girl got them really hot and bothered.
His eyes flew open and the smile was back. “I want more than just a kiss. This information is top secret. If I tell you and they find out, they’ll kill me.”
He said it casually, as if his potential murder was just a regular fact of life in his world. That chilled me more than anything he’d said or done so far. What is he? A robot? It was a crazy thought, but the more I considered it, the more real it seemed. He was so perfect-looking he was almost too handsome. And now with this jacked-up Rainbow love coming out of every pore, he was becoming decidedly ugly in my eyes. Robo-jerk.
“Fine, Zane. I’ll trade you all the secrets for the hootchie. Is that what you want?”
His eyebrows went up. “If by the hootchie, you mean we can make love, then yes. That’s the deal.” He looked back down the hallway and then at me. “Follow me.” He took off down the corridor, leaving me behind.
“Where are we going?” I asked, hurrying to catch up.
“To my room. There are no cameras there.”
I looked up in the corners of the hallway. “Are we on camera now?”
“No. There are no cameras leading to Helen’s office or inside it, but I can’t make love to you there. She’ll catch us. She’ll get very jealous.”
I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad that we weren’t going there. Being in his room made the odds of my future rape occurring much greater, but it also gave me a possible opportunity to incapacitate him and then get away. When he stopped and put his hand on the knob of a nondescript door, I decided that it was worth the risk.
“This is my room,” he said, taking me by the hand and pulling me inside.
Chapter Forty-Four: Malcolm
BY THE TIME I LET the guy go he was unconscious. His face was frozen in a mask of despair so awful it was painful to look at. My heart actually ached for him; I felt really terrible about doing that to him. Turning someone into a Miserable in that short of a period of time couldn’t be good for their brain. Maybe he’d never come back from it.
“Come on. No time for regrets now,” said Jasmine, feeling around the guy’s body and taking a gun from his hip. She also pulled out a ring of keys that she shoved in her pocket. “Follow me, stay close, and if anyone tries to take us, fry their asses.”
“Fry their asses?” I asked, following her to the door.
“Yeah. Turn them into boo-hooing bitches on the floor like you did to that guy.” She glanced at him once before putting her hand on the doorknob. “You ready to find Rae and kick ass if necessary?”
“As ready as I’m ever going to be.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. We had no idea of there was someone out there waiting for us or even whether people would shoot first and ask questions later.
“Good. Use hand signals, avoid cameras, and don’t wait for people to attack. Be on the offense, got it?”
I nodded, praying I wouldn’t see anyone and could just sneak out with zero conflict. I knew the chances were slim, but that wasn’t going to stop me from hoping otherwise.
“All we have to do is find Rae and get out. I can drive the truck through that gate no problem.”
“Assuming they left the keys in the car.”
“Yeah. Whatever. Failing to do anything is failing by default. I’d rather try first before I fail, know what I mean? Now, come on.” She opened the door and stuck her head out. Signaling over her shoulder that the coast was clear and we had to move.
Chapter Forty-Five: Rae
HIS ROOM WAS SPARE. THERE was a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand with a lamp on it. There were no personal effects, no decorations, no blankets with color or anything.
“This place looks like a prison cell,” I said, before I could think to stop myself.
He stood in front of me and took his jacket off, throwing it down on the bed. “Looks don’t mean everything.”
I snorted. Hearing him of all people say that was just a little ridiculous.
“You don’t agree?” he asked, continuing with the strip tease. The tie was coming off now, and when he undid the top button of his shirt to loosen it, I got a glimpse of his bronzed skin underneath.
When does he find time to tan? Isn’t he too busy trying to rule the world? I nodded. “Yeah, I agree. It’s just … it sounds funny coming from you.”
He stopped the undressing momentarily, his tie pulled halfway out of his collar. “Why from me is it funny?”
“Because you’re so … beautiful, I guess.” My face burned with heat. I felt totally stupid standing here telling him he was good-looking, as if he didn’t already know it and hear it on a daily basis probably.
He pulled the tie the rest of the way out. “So are you,” he said. “You’re the most lovely girl I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” The tie dropped to the floor and his hands were at his wrists now, removing cufflinks that he deposited on his dresser top.
“You only think I’m pretty because you’re under my influence. It’s the only reason we’re in this room right now.” For some reason it was important to me that he know that. It was like full disclosure, maybe so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about using my influence over him to get what I wanted.
“Maybe you’re suffering the same problem,” he said, unbuttoning his shirt slowly, one black button at a time.
I frowned. “I don’t suffer from my own influence, thank God. Otherwise I would have been committed to an insane asylum a looong time ago, believe me.”
“I’m not talking about your influence,” he said.
I looked at the door. “Are there others here? Others who are influencing me right now?”
He shrugged, pulling the shirt off his shoulders to reveal the most perfectly-sculpted body that ever existed. Drool actually formed in my mouth over it, and I had to swallow hard to get rid of it. I tore my gaze away and stared at the floor, walls, and ceiling. Malcolm. Think of Malcolm and his beautiful brown eyes, his bristly cheeks that get just a spot of color in them when he’s upset. Think of his warm, strong hand in yours …
how he protects you when others threaten.
It worked to snap me out of my trance, at least for now.
“You are not the only Influencer here, I already told you that,” he said, throwing his black shirt on the bed.
“Yes. And you were going to tell me the rest of your secrets, before I give it up.” I cleared my throat as he unbuckled his belt. “You’d better start talking or you’re going to be completely naked before I get what I want.”
He smiled just the tiniest bit. “I promise, you’ll get everything you want and then some.”
I swallowed again and looked away. This was a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. This guy was focused. A beautiful Rainbow, so beautiful it almost hurt my eyes to look at him. Malcolm! Where are you?!
“What would you like to know?” he asked, his belt gone now and his pants unbuttoned at the top. His arms hung at his side and I breathed a sigh of relief that at least for now he’d stopped with the whole strip tease thing.
“How many Influencers are there here in the compound?”
He looked up at the ceiling in contemplation for a few seconds. “Four or five. I’m not sure. I don’t know everyone, and I’m not privy to many of the details.”
“I thought you were Helen’s right hand man.”
He smiled, a little bitterly if I was reading his expression right. “I am often at her right hand, but I wouldn’t say I’m her man or that she shared her confidence with me as the expression suggests.”
“Are you human? Like totally, one hundred percent human?” My mouth had a mind of its own. Or my good-manners brakes weren’t working today. Did I just ask this guy if he’s a cyborg? “Sorry, that was rude. Never mind.”
His nostrils flared and his lips went thin for a few seconds, before he answered. “Yes. I am human. Although being here, it’s often that I question whether I am. I don’t mind that you asked. Ask me anything. I want to feel your skin on mine.”
He said it so matter-of-factly, it took a moment for my brain to totally appreciate what he was saying. If I didn’t have the image of Malcolm’s face swimming in my brain and my intense feelings of caring towards him, everything Zane was saying combined with his looks would have had me shoving my virginity in his face and demanding he take it. What the hell?
“What are they doing here at Greater Good?” I asked. “What’s their mission?”
“They are for sale to the highest bidder. The Influencers are used to achieve the goal paid for.” He shrugged. “It’s all very simple on the surface. I don’t get involved in the logistics. I hear they are complicated.”
“Logistics?”
“Yes, the execution of the plan. All the pieces that must fit together for the goal to be achieved.”
“There was a bombing…” I wondered if he knew anything about the subway thing.
“Yes. That was a test-run. An Influencer was sent out into the field. He did not come back.”
“He was caught, wasn’t he?”
“Yes. He was caught. His influence failed to work consistently. They are trying to find out why.”
“What do you mean, it didn’t work consistently?”
Zane took a step closer to me. “His influence on others allows him to be unnoticeable. He can be present without anyone seeing him.”
“Like the invisible man?” I asked, my voice very soft as I considered the possibility.
“Not exactly. He’s there, he is not invisible. He just cannot be seen because he makes himself unnoticeable. Negligible. Like he doesn’t matter.”
“Invisible,” I said.
He took another step, now just inches from me, his naked chest so close I could feel the warmth coming from it and see the light sprinkling of hair that led down into his pants.
He put his hand up and touched some of my hair, holding it up and putting it to his nose. He breathed in deeply and then said, “All of the Influencers are invisible, aren’t they? No one sees who they really are. People just see what they want to see, what they’re forced to see. Being an Influencer is like being a ghost in your own skin.”
Chapter Forty-Six: Malcolm
NO ONE WAS IN THE hallway where we were being kept, but as we moved through the compound, following a maze of corridors and passing closed doors, we heard plenty of voices and footsteps. We ducked into empty closets, rooms with beds in them, and other unoccupied spaces to avoid being seen, getting almost to the entrance where we’d first come in before finally running into another person. This time, there were no closets or other places to hide. Panic made my insides turn to liquid as his gaze took us in.
“Who the heck are you?” he asked. A skinny guy wearing ugly glasses and a button-down, short sleeved shirt with a pocket on the front stared us down. There were two pens and some clear plastic sticking out of the top of it and a white plastic card hanging over the front. “Do you have authorization to be here in the IT section? I don’t think so. Let me see your ID badges.”
That’s what was hanging from his shirt. It had his picture on it, with his hair slicked sharply to the side. I looked down at my chest, wondering if I should pretend I forgot mine somewhere. My three-quarter t-shirt didn’t exactly look office-worker quality.
“We don’t have badges. We’re special guests,” said Jasmine.
“Be that as it may, you have no authorization to be in IT. I’m going to report this.” He moved to go around Jasmine, but she stepped in his way and blocked him from leaving.
“I have a better idea. Why don’t you help us get un-lost? That way you don’t get in trouble for allowing a security breach, and I don’t miss dinner.” She smiled big.
He hesitated. “I’m supposed to report every irregularity to the head office.”
“Every irregularity?” Jasmine laughed. “You’d be calling the head office all day long if that were the case.” She leaned in closer to him. “You know … with all the weirdos wandering around in here.”
He smiled back and then stopped, looking almost guilty. “I wouldn’t call them weirdos.”
“What would you call them?” she asked, cocking her head.
I waited breathlessly to see what he’d say.
His lips pressed together and his nostrils flared. Then he shook his head. “I keep my opinions to myself, just like you should. Follow me. I’ll bring you to the guest quarters because I’ve already got enough to deal with and I don’t need another meeting about the need for additional controls. If they want more controls they need to hire more personnel and I’m going to tell them that next time they bring it up, too, mark my words.” He turned around and shot us a quick frown before turning back and continuing his walk. “If anyone finds you after I leave you in the guest wing, don’t you dare tell them I found you out here. I don’t have time for this junk.”
Jasmine walked quickly to keep up with him. I let them get a little bit ahead, trying to catch a glimpse into some of the rooms we were passing. There wasn’t much to see at first, but as we got closer to our destination, the activity picked up. Doors were open and sounds were coming out of some of them. We passed several people in the hallways, but they were all too busy to pay attention to us. Apparently, having an IT escort was all it took to look like we belonged here.
“You have a lot of high end security here,” said Jasmine, looking up in a corner of the hallway where a security camera’s red light blinked. “You all on one platform or subsystems?”
“Our security platform integrates what are usually separate subsystems like video management, access control, VoIP and video analytics into one platform. It’s state of the art.” He stopped and looked at her, back to frowning. “Why are you asking these questions?” He put his hands on his hips.
“Oh, no reason. I do a lot of gaming at home and we have a security system too, but they’re separate. I was wondering if there was a way I could hook it all together so I wouldn’t have to get off Halo to answer the door.”
The IT guy snorted. “Yeah, right. Better stick to your gaming. It takes
serious skill to do what I do. And we’re the only facility in the world that harnesses psychic energy to power our systems. There’s no gaming console in the world that can do that.” He left us standing there and continued his journey.
I grabbed Jasmine’s arm and squeezed it. “Don’t,” I said quietly.
“He has no clue about IT skills. I could disable his system in two minutes, max.” She glared at the security camera that was up ahead, the tenth one I’d seen since we left our jail cell. “Especially if they’re using people like you and Rae to power shit. What a bunch of idiots. Anyone in IT knows you don’t put human elements in places where computers can do the work. That’s a hole, dude. That’s a fucking trap door as big as the front door that I could walk through and bring an army in with me.”
“You know that and now I know that. But do we want him to know that?” I stared her down, waiting for her common sense to kick in and push her pride out of the way.
“Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut. But he’d better not talk to me like I’m stupid.” She left me to follow the guy around a corner.
I hurried to catch up, reaching them when they stopped at the end of a long corridor that had several doors on either side.
“This is the guest wing. I’m not sure which rooms are yours, though. You’re on your own. I have work to do. Important work,” he said, giving Jasmine bug-eyes as he walked past her.
She flipped a bird and stuck her tongue out at his back.
I held back a smirk until he was gone around the corner. “Okay, so here we are,” I said, slinging my arm over Jasmine’s shoulder. “Now what do we do?” I looked down at her, waiting for her response.
She opened her mouth to say something, but the words never made it out. A door flew open and a shirtless fat guy fell out onto the ground in the middle of the hallway, his pants down around his knees.