by Keith Hughes
“Since we knew what Bertrand had been working on and learned later about your relationship with him, deducing that you had possession of his device was elementary. How to get it from you remained the only question. Karl, always one for the brute-force approach, wanted to take you both into custody and torture its location from you. But I realized your attachment to your wife could be used against you — force you to implement my plans. Many of the skills you already possess as a forensic photographer would translate well into the roles of assassin and saboteur. And if you were ever caught, you had no direct ties to me or Intellisys.”
The ringing of John’s cell phone interrupted him. Ness gave the CEO a short nod, and he answered it.
“Fletcher,” he barked. “All right, stay on your toes.” John shut his cell phone but kept it in his hand. “Your doubles have disappeared.”
“Yes, I know.” John’s confusion amused Ness.
Dix surprised everyone with a sudden short laugh.
“Otherwise, you wouldn't be here!” The scientist couldn’t contain his delight, as if he had solved a difficult logic puzzle. “You're the originals!”
Ness gave the small man a quick grin, but John took advantage of the distraction to toss the cell phone toward Ness's face. In an instinctive reaction, Ness brought his arms up. John leaped at Ness with a roar.
Harrison went for the gun in his shoulder holster, but Angie saw the movement. She turned her gun on him and fired. The driver tried to spin out of the way, but the bullet struck him on the left shoulder, and he pivoted to the floor, his gun skittering away.
Reed took two long strides, slapped the gun out of Angie's hand, and backhanded her across the face. She fell to the floor at his feet, looking dazed.
“The bitch shot me!” Harrison moaned incredulously, staring at his blood-covered hand.
John and Ness struggled; their arms locked together in a pure test of strength. Ness was not sure he could win based on his strength alone, so he dropped slightly and released his grip on John's arms. He pulled them out and down to break the CEO's grip then held his arms in a circle again and pressed them into John's chest, driving him back. The executive stumbled but managed to regain his balance. His face twisted, but instead of attacking Ness again, he pulled a plastic tube from a suit pocket and slid an EpiPen from the clear cylinder into his hand.
Ness froze, unsure of the executive’s intentions. The appearance of the poison reminded him of the similar tube in his pocket.
“Williams,” John barked.
The brute looked up from where he was kneeling next to Harrison, and John tossed him the pen. In the span of a second that felt like an hour, Ness watched it arc through the air. At the last second, Harrison snatched the hypodermic with a bloody hand.
“I've got this one.” Harrison’s face contorted with savage glee as he turned his gaze to the fallen Angie.
Williams helped his comrade stand, and Harrison carefully advanced on her. She was only a couple of steps from the injured thug, and Ness was too far away to block the driver’s savage revenge.
As Harrison approached, Angie moved to rise, but he surprised her with a quick kick in the stomach. She fell again, gasping on the floor as he twisted off the end of the tube. Knowing what would come next and cursing his inability to stop it, Ness closed his eyes.
I would rather see her dead than subjected to that poison. Ness surprised himself at how keenly he embraced the desire to accept the grim fate he had worked so hard to prevent. Apparently, he held more in common with his insane future self than he had suspected.
A ragged shout caused him to open his eyes again. The tableau had not changed: Angie lay on her back with Harrison looming over her with the EpiPen in his hand, the black rubber tip concealing the needle descending. But before her attacker could react, another body inserted itself. Ness’s insane doppelganger from the future ran into Harrison like a seasoned football player. His shoulder impacted the larger man's solar plexus, driving him backward into Williams. The trio toppled, and as they fell, the black tip of the pen slammed into the back of the older Ness. He shouted in pain when the needle bit into him.
John cursed and came at Ness again with a roundhouse punch, pulling his attention away from Angie's plight. Even with his distraction, Ness managed to deflect the awkward blow, if only barely. Fortunately, the executive likely had no fight training, as his clumsy and unpracticed style exhibited. Apparently, John typically used his position and power to control others. Fully focused on the CEO, Ness easily countered blow after blow and landed several of his own on his opponent's stomach and chest. Eventually, John abandoned throwing punches and grappled with Ness as though he intended to throw him to the floor. John's strong right hand sought Ness’s throat, and it took a surprising amount of effort for Ness to push him away.
The two men stood apart briefly, panting from their exertions. John was holding another red EpiPen — another vial full of poison.
How many of those things does he have? Ness’s heart sank when he discovered his empty pocket. John had taken the one they had smuggled via the duffel bag. The executive slid the pen from its tube and held it like a knife then gave Ness an evil grin.
“Kill her,” Williams shouted across the room to Reed. Still entangled with Harrison and the older Ness, he was struggling to get free.
Like an automaton, Reed stepped forward, covering the meager distance Angie created by scooting backward from the tangle of limbs caused by the collision. He aimed his gun at her chest, and to Ness’s horror, his finger squeezed. Angie's fear of her certain doom showed on her face, but a second passed, followed by another, and still Reed did not pull the trigger. He was clearly caught in a sand pit of indecision, the struggle playing out on the older man's face.
Frantic to finish with the executive so he could help his wife, Ness beckoned John to take his best shot. As John closed on him, the injection of death held high like a knife poised to strike, Ness spun toward his right. His left forearm impacted John's arm below the wrist, deflecting the injection.
The movement of the CEO's arm did not stop — it changed direction. John's eyes widened as the tube hit his left shoulder and the needle slid into his flesh. He sank to his knees, a gasp escaping his lips before he fell to the side and lay curled up in pain. Once again, Ness had a clear view of Angie and her peril.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” Williams shouted. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at Angie with a steady hand.
“Kill her, or I will!”
“No!” Ness shouted. “Don't!”
Reed met his eyes, and to his surprise, Ness saw sympathy there.
“Please don't.” Ness's voice cracked.
Reed considered Ness for a second longer and eventually inclined his head ever so slightly. He followed that by twisting his torso to bring his gun to bear on Williams.
“Aw, hell, no!” Williams adjusted his aim to the older man, but he was too late.
The gray-haired man fired, and in an eerie replay from the last time Ness had been in that lab, most of Williams's brains exited the back of his head. Before the body fell to the floor, Reed's gun spat again, and Harrison joined his friend in death.
“Nooo!” John wailed, his eyes frantic and his hand clutching his shoulder. He leaped to his feet and ran screaming out of the lab. The spent EpiPen lay on the floor.
Reed helped Angie to her feet. She looked weary from the trial they had endured. Ness crossed the room and took her in his arms. He watched over Angie's shoulder, but their unexpected savior simply returned his gun to his holster. Angie shook in Ness’s embrace, and when the hug ended, she had obviously been crying.
“Thank you,” Ness said to Reed. “Can I ask why you saved her?”
Angie gripped Ness’s hand, their fingers intertwining. The former member of Karl’s team looked unsure what to say as he contemplated them.
“I loved a woman once,” Reed finally said. “Someone killed her in a similar situation. Someone like me. I c
ouldn't become that man, that soldier.”
Reed did not seem to be seeing Ness but looking into his past, reliving some sort of trauma. His recollection lasted for only a second, then he blinked and returned his attention to the present.
“Thanks again, Reed,” Ness offered as Angie bent to retrieve her gun.
“Call me Thoma — Tommy.” Reed smiled awkwardly.
“All right, Tommy.” Ness returned the expression, his smile full of warmth. “I do not know how to tell you how grateful I am for sparing my wife. I’m sure your lady would be proud you commemorated her this way.”
He offered no response, as if momentarily silenced by powerful emotion, and turned toward the lab door. When his hand touched the knob, Reed looked back at Ness. “I can buy you five to ten minutes. Give you time to get out of here.”
Before Ness or Angie could say anything more, Reed stepped out of the door. For a short time, they could only stare at each other, until Angie's face broke into a beautiful grin. Ness wholeheartedly returned the expression. They had made it through.
A sudden clattering behind Ness caused Angie to raise her weapon, and he spun to face the noise. They both found their guns trained on the slightly pudgy scientist, who got to his feet with his arms raised.
“D-don't shoot! I'm not armed.”
Ness traded a look with Angie, and she kept her weapon on him as Ness slid his gun into his waistband. He crossed the room and searched him quickly but found no weapons.
“Who are you?”
“Dr. Samuel Dix.” The scientist spoke nervously, his hands still in the air. “Most people call me Dix.”
“All right, Dix, I need to destroy these devices,” Ness said evenly, waving at the components of the time machine. “Are you going to try to stop me?”
Angie lifted her gun and peered directly along the sights at the scientist's forehead.
“N-no,” Dix stammered.
Ness approached the racks and started disconnecting cables.
“Wait!” Dix shouted. “Let me help. The power needs to be shut off, or you'll electrocute yourself.”
Ness gestured to Angie, and she motioned the scientist over to Ness’s side. He opened a panel set into the wall and flipped a large switch. Lights at various points on the machine winked out.
“Why help me destroy your work?”
“I do this for the excitement of discovery, the rush of learning something new, bringing something unique into the world,” Dix answered. “Yet I found myself questioning what uses my superiors would put this technology to, and given what I've seen here, I don't like the answer.”
Ness clapped Dix on the shoulder. He turned to Angie, who still had her weapon ready in case Dix tried something. It seemed to him that the pudgy scientist did not warrant such caution.
“Didn't you have something you were supposed to be doing?” Ness asked her.
Angie looked at him blankly for a second then grinned sheepishly. “Oh yeah.” She pulled the flash drive out of her blouse.
Ness and Dix came around to watch as she inserted it into the computer. A window opened, showing the contents of the drive, which consisted of a single file named FrakOff.exe. She moved the mouse pointer over it and double-clicked. A black window opened, and a stream of text ran by in a blur. Another small window opened with the words “Dr. Francis Bertrand, PDA, PU Lab, Dix, time travel.” The cursor blinked at the end of the string, inviting further input.
“Should I add anything else?” Angie turned to Dix. “Any double-top-secret code names?”
Her eyes sparkled, and Ness could tell the idea amused her.
“Actually, yes.” Dix grinned at her. “Add 'Project Butterfly' to your list.”
Angie chuckled as she typed the code name followed by the enter key. After a slight delay, the screen cleared, and three lines displayed in red.
Virus activated: Data Deletion in Progress
Backdoor Installed
Thanks, beautiful!
Ness retrieved the duffel and poured bottles of thermite on top of the stack of equipment. When everything had an even coat on it, he took out the igniter powder and sprinkled some in a small pile, broke off six inches' worth of the fuse, and stuck one end in the incendiary. Dix peered curiously at the small pile of flammable material.
“What happened with this?” Angie examined the EpiPen. It was lying where Fletcher had dropped it.
“John tried to use it on me but accidentally injected himself instead.” Ness remembered his double had also received the injection. He looked at where the madman had been, but his doppelganger had vanished. Hopefully, he would never experience such a future firsthand. But he had to finish his task first to make sure. Ness rummaged in the duffel for the lighter.
“So where did Fletcher go?” Angie immediately answered her own question. “To get the antidote.” Her face turned grim.
Ness straightened with the lighter in his hand.
“Would it be in pens like that one?” Dix asked.
“I would assume so.”
“I know where they are kept. I saw a bunch of pens exactly like it, only blue instead of red.”
“Show us.” Angie motioned for him to join her near the door.
Dix opened a drawer on the lab table and pulled out a small metal box then lifted a finger to Ness, indicating he should wait. He approached a locked box on the wall and used a key on a chain around his neck to unlock it. Inside was a single red button, which he pressed. A small screen above it started a fifteen-minute countdown. He turned to see Ness regarding him curiously.
“Manual override for the fire alarm,” Dix supplied. “Not that I expect the sprinklers to dowse such a large batch of thermite, but this way, the system won’t raise an alarm until everything here is slag.”
The pudgy scientist crossed his lab to stand beside Angie and nodded at Ness. He lit the fuse and stepped toward them with the duffel in his hand. Soon after, the thermite transformed into blinding fire and roiling smoke as it melted Dix's work. They exited the lab to avoid the fumes.
“Where's the antidote?” Ness demanded when they emerged into the hallway.
Dix smiled, holding the small metal box with a single button. “In a place few people know of.” He pressed the elevator down button. “I happened across it during a search of the computer for rogue power consumption a year ago.”
When the car arrived, they entered, and Dix pressed the button on his metal box with a grin. Ness and Angie exchanged a look as the elevator doors closed. But though the buttons remained dark, the elevator departed on an express descent to the depths of the Intellisys building. Wherever John Fletcher had gone, he and Angie had to find a way to stop him permanently, but what they might have to do to eradicate the danger the executive posed frightened Ness.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Closure
Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 3:01 p.m.
The metal clacking of Ness’s firearm as he prepared for the confrontation to come resonated in the quiet elevator. He slid the clip out to check the rounds before sliding it back into place. The echo as he chambered a round hung in the air like a metallic threat. Though he doubted the weapon needed such attention, it gave his nervous energy a focus as they dropped toward the secret room in the basement.
Similar sounds next to him drew him out of his reverie as his wife checked her weapon in a similar fashion. Dix observed them both nervously, and Ness gave him a weary grin.
“It’s been a wild couple of days.”
The floor indicator eventually showed an L for the lobby level but went blank as they descended further. Finally, the car stopped, and the doors opened with an incongruous cheery ding. Dix strode out of the car as if he had not a care in the world.
Ness stretched his arm out to pull him back to safety, but the scientist moved too quickly and eluded his grasp. A gunshot rang out, and Dix's right arm emitted a small spray of blood when the bullet tore through flesh. Crumpling to the floor, the small scientist wailed in pain and shock. Ness blin
dly pointed his gun out the door and shot three times in the direction the shot had come from and dove out of the elevator. He executed a somersault on the carpeted floor, dropping the duffel as he did so.
Angie fired twice before she ran out of the car as well. The room was not large, and John was hiding behind a couch at one end, holding a gun in his left hand and a blue EpiPen in his right. Ness took cover behind a filing cabinet as the CEO brought his gun to bear on him. He glanced behind him to search for his wife, hoping she had found cover of her own.
To his horror, instead of hiding behind the edge of the doorway, she stood exposed in the open space before the door. As in every cop show he had ever seen, Angie took aim with her left hand, supporting the gun in her right, and fired. A spurt of blood flew from the center of John's right hand, and the blue EpiPen fell to the floor. John dropped his gun when the pain overrode his intellect. Ness and Angie approached carefully, but the CEO merely stood there cradling his injured hand against his stomach. He grimaced as he stared at his ruined, bloody hand, and sweat ran in rivulets down his forehead.
“How does it feel?” Barely suppressed rage made Angie’s voice hoarse.
“It hurts like hell,” John spat at her with a glare.
“I don't mean the bullet wound. The poison. How does it feel?”
“It's like my body is on fire.” The CEO spoke through gritted teeth.
Angie's eyes flashed, and her expression turned as hard as obsidian. “You had this fate planned for me, right?” She waited until he nodded stiffly. “I hope you burn a long, long time.”
Ness searched a cupboard mounted behind the desk. A ring of keys was dangling from its lock. He assumed the CEO had to retrieve the keys before coming there, or he would already have injected himself with the inhibitor. The cabinet held dozens of the blue pens. He turned back to John to see Angie bending to retrieve the one he had dropped.
“Is there any more of this stuff?” Ness indicated the pen.