The Survival Code, page 34
But after what we’ve been through, being smooshed in the backseat of the beige Taurus with Toby and MacKenna is better than riding in a limo.
“We made it,” I whisper to MacKenna with a smile.
She smiles back. “We made it.”
The farther we get across the border, the more I relax. The tension releases from my shoulders. Dad sticks to the dirt roads and side streets. Even still, the city emerges. We pass taco stands for tourists. A few bars. A guy selling shrimp on the street corner from the back of his truck. We’re getting close to Puerto Peñasco. Closer to Rocky Point.
Occasionally, I steal a look at Toby and MacKenna.
Our old lives are gone. What will our new ones be like?
The Taurus comes to a stop in an alley littered with trash cans. Dad points to a cream-colored, Spanish-style ranch house beyond a concrete block wall. “This is it.” This is more of a mansion. We might be in hiding, but we’re hiding in style.
Dad parks the car in the shadow of a palm tree. We all get out.
“A lot of these houses should be empty,” Dad comments. “They’re owned by Americans. As vacation properties.”
We’ve arrived at a postcard. A sandy beach darted with colorful umbrellas. A blue sea stretches out into infinity. A light breeze drifts over us, carrying an aroma of coconut sunscreen, salt water and grilled shrimp.
“Or hideouts for The Spark,” MacKenna murmurs. She frowns at the idyllic beach scene.
“That too.” Dad points to the house we’re facing. “Halverson used to keep a spare key under a potted plant by the back door.”
We all exit the car. After Charles climbs out of the back, Dad lifts up the covering over the spare tire and produces a shotgun and a box of ammo. “Louis always keeps a gun in here. Just in case.”
Approaching the luxurious house from the back, we soon arrive at the gray concrete wall. Dad gives me a boost over it. MacKenna follows me, and the two of us catch Charles as Toby lifts him up. Jay helps Mom. Dad is the last to land in the yard.
Two things immediately become clear.
One, going over the wall was stupid and pointless. The house opens to the shoreline and we could have walked right up from the beach.
Two, there is something very, very off about the scene.
My gaze travels across the yard. To a sparkling blue, walk-in pool with an inflated rubber ducky–shaped raft bobbing around in the breeze. A hot tub and a full-size basketball court. A stack of red, green and yellow kayaks leaning against the wall.
Finally, to a silver grill with smoke rising from its closed hood.
Either Halverson is not dead, or someone else is here.
A figure approaches the sliding glass door.
I hold my breath.
And wait.
With his arm in a sling, a man steps into the light.
Every kind of terror fills MacKenna’s face.
She screams.
Openmouthed. High-pitched. The kind of scream from horror movies.
Tork.
With a smile on his face.
DR. DOOMSDAY’S GUIDE TO ULTIMATE SURVIVAL
RULE FIFTEEN: THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CASUALTIES.
Tork comes onto the patio and leans on a foosball table. He’s dressed like a tourist in a pair of khaki shorts and a red Rocky Point T-shirt. He has a weapon holstered at his side.
I guess the horse trailer didn’t kill him. He has a broken arm, but we didn’t even take out the hand he needs for his gun.
Dad places the shotgun on his shoulder.
Jay does his best to tuck us kids behind his back and takes one step toward Tork with his hands up. “I’ll surrender peacefully but I must insist you don’t harm my family.”
Tork laughs. “Bringing you in is not my job, pal.” He turns his attention to Dad and his smile fades. “You know, Max, I should kick your ass just for making me chase you all the way to Mexico.”
“You could certainly try, Marcus.” Dad’s index finger hovers over the trigger. “But since when were you ever able to beat me in a fair fight?” I can’t figure out why he doesn’t just shoot Tork and get it over with.
“Let’s talk about the encryption key.”
Dad smiles too. A fake sort of smile. “I’m afraid you lack a proper theoretical foundation to understand my work.”
I push Charles behind me. I feel his hot breath on the back of my arm. “Dad. Shoot him.”
Next to me, MacKenna nods, her face wide-eyed and frozen.
“That’s gratitude for you. I’ve trailed you for more than three hundred miles making sure The Opposition didn’t kill you by accident. Or on purpose. The only reason you’re still in an upright position, princess, is that I’ve been stopping them from blowing your brains out.”
“Screw you,” Dad says.
Tork glances at my mom, holsters his weapon and walks to the grill. He opens it and steps back to avoid getting hit in the face with steam and smoke, then removes shrimp kebabs from the grill and places them on a platter. “Well, what are we going to do now, Max? I could kill the kids one by one until you give me the encryption key.”
Tork doesn’t even have his gun ready.
Why the hell doesn’t Dad just shoot him?
Jay slowly shifts to the side. He’s scanning the yard. Checking for anything that could be used as a weapon?
I glance at Mom, who has moved a bit away from us and is watching the scene unfold with a calm, contemplative expression.
And it hits me.
What was it that Terminus had said?
They have someone on the inside.
My blood is turning to crystal ice in my veins and my lungs seem to seize. Who had access to both Jay’s passwords and his computer? Who sent us on the goose chase to find Dad? Why was Tork able to track us so easily?
The reason they could find us no matter where we went...is because Mom told them where we would be.
It’s like trying to steady myself from inside a tornado. I stab my finger stupidly in the air in Mom’s direction. “Oh my God. It was you. From the very beginning. You initiated the explosions at the bank. You...you didn’t leave Dad because you hated the drills. You joined The Opposition.” I’m in free fall.
“What?” MacKenna asks. “What are you talking about?”
“I told you before,” Mom says in a hard voice. “Come next week, the world will be a very different place.”
“In...in Halliwell’s...we almost died...we could have...” I sputter.
I clutch at my chest, like there’s a way to physically protect my heart.
She gives me one of her Mom looks. Like I’m out of line. “That was your mistake. I told you to go straight home. You disobeyed me. Afterward, I sent Tork to watch out for you. Make sure you didn’t truly get hurt. I would never let anyone kill you.”
The way she says this. Like she’s settled the score. Like we’re all evened up.
Okay. Okay. Breathe.
“You didn’t let them kill us because you knew we were pressure points you could use to manipulate Dad,” I say through clenched teeth.
Mom continues with her lips pressed into a thin line. “All you had to do was follow a simple set of instructions. Find your father and stay in one place long enough for Tork to come pick you up. But no. You had to go on the run with that boy. You had to storm the airfield.”
“What did you do to Navarro?” I say, feeling even colder inside.
“Nothing,” Mom says with an indignant snort. “He doesn’t matter enough for me to bother with.”
“Mom?” Charles asks.
“We’ll discuss this later, sweetie,” Mom tells him. In her sugary sweet voice.
Everything about my world is falling apart. “You... You... You murdered thousands of people. And framed your own husband,” I say. My heart continues to sink in my chest. The woman who supposedly loved me, who was always there for me, is one of the biggest mass murderers in history. Not only is everything MacKenna said true, but my mom has handed Jay Novak a death sentence and ruined our family forever.
Jay puts his hand on his gut as if he’s been punched. “Stephanie... Stephanie...”
“I regret it,” Mom says coldly. “But as you know, there will always be casualties.” She watches my father carefully. “I can offer you a way out of this, Max.”
“There was never any way out of this. Not for me,” Dad says.
I turn to Dad. “Did you know?” I demand.
His face falls, ashen and sad. His beard has gotten grayer in the last two minutes. “No. I mean...it seemed like the only explanation...and yet... I hoped... I wanted...”
You hoped it wasn’t true.
Oh God.
And I realize. “This is why you left us. Why you left town. You thought we’d be safer if they couldn’t find you. If Mom couldn’t find you.”
Dad bites his lower lip. “You can never tell what people are capable of.”
Tork takes a bite of shrimp. “Well, time to cash in that insurance policy, Max,” he says pleasantly.
“Don’t tell them anything, Dad,” I say.
I glance at MacKenna whose mouth is frozen in an O. She blinks repeatedly.
Mom shakes her head. “Don’t you understand what will happen if we can’t get those computers back online? It could take years to fix things. The paper records are gone—”
My anger surges again. “You destroyed them!”
Mom’s arms fall flat against her sides. “Listen to me. If the economy collapses...the whole system could... We’ve run models but...”
In the distance, two children sit at the end of a private, narrow wood dock with a couple boats tied to it. They’ve set up fishing poles and are playing with a beach ball while they wait for something to bite.
“Max. It’s not too late,” my mom pleads. She wrings her elegant hands. “There’s still time. Ammon would welcome you back as a brother. It would be you and me. Saving the world from itself. As it should be. Max, please. For our family. For me.”
“Ammon? Carver’s lost it. He’s a complete and utter madman,” Dad says. “Stephanie, you have to listen to me. I made a terrible mistake in involving myself with him.”
“You’re wrong. You—” Mom says in a sharper tone.
“Stephanie! Listen! I’ve loved you as much as a man could love a woman. I still do. But you’re talking about... I can’t be a part of it. Let me leave here with the kids. When I get somewhere safe, I will give you the encryption key. You have my word.”
I realize that the reason Dad can’t shoot Tork is that it would be pointless. He’s got one gun. And two potential hostiles. Obviously Tork is armed, but Mom probably is too. She ran drills with Dad. And.
Always be prepared.
Rule number one.
Dad probably couldn’t kill Mom no matter what. He’s put his life in jeopardy to be here. Cold adrenaline shoots into my legs. I don’t allow myself to stop and think. I act.
I rip the shotgun from Dad’s hands. If he won’t shoot Tork, I will.
“I’m going to kill you,” I say, lifting the gun onto my own shoulder.
Mom pulls a Glock from behind her back. “Put the gun down, Jinx.”
Tork tosses down his kebab and withdraws his weapon.
Dad puts his hands in the air defensively. Jay remains frozen in shock.
“Fuck you,” I tell her. “If you’re going to shoot me, get on with it.”
“Mom!” Charles shrieks.
“No one is shooting anyone,” Mom says. “Tork, stand down.”
“Stephanie—”
“I’m in command here. Stand down.”
That’s right. My mother is the fucking commander of the evil army.
Tork stows his weapon inside his holster and puts his back against the backyard wall. “You want to shoot someone, Jinx? Your father is the most dangerous man here. Whose data models got Carver elected? Who has basically sabotaged the entire economic system of the country? Who recruited me? Where do you think Carver got his ideas from?”
Dad’s face turns red. “Carver told me we were building a system to ensure a better world. Then he joined The Opposition. When I got out, I tried to take you with me, Marcus.”
“I don’t want out,” Tork says. “In the new world order, I want a place in the front.”
“Oh, Max, you were so busy preparing for the end of the world, you didn’t see that we should actually be working to create a different world,” Mom tells Dad.
Dad glances at me, and the look in his eyes seems to pierce my heart. “I was so busy preparing for the end of the world that I may have caused it.”
Jay inches away from us, moving very slowly, trying to attract no notice, inching toward the corner of the yard where a couple of abandoned croquet mallets lean against the wall.
Mom sighs. “Please don’t make me kill you, Jay. Originally, Ammon wanted a public execution. But our current polling says that The Opposition is better off with you on the run. Having you at large is helping us neutralize The Spark in the Senate. It could be years before we can capture and extradite you. Years you’d have with your children.”
This, too, makes sense. The Opposition has turned Jay Novak into a specter that can be conjured to scare people anytime Carver needs money or troops or power. That’s why they didn’t try very hard to recapture him or stop him from escaping.
What they really need is Dad’s encryption key.
Jay stares at her with a mixture of rage and grief.
I’ve had enough of this. I’ll shoot Tork. And then Mom can decide if she has the guts to shoot me. If she’s really prepared to do anything to survive.
My heart pounds in my chest.
Get ready.
Ready.
I’m about to move when, from on the opposite side of the yard’s wall, I hear approaching footsteps.
Someone is coming.
It occurs to me that this is probably a pretty odd scene for a tourist or beach-bound family to stumble upon. I move to the other side of a palm tree. Mom lowers the Glock. Tork backs into the shadow created by the grill.
We wait.
A head of dark hair pokes around the corner.
It’s Navarro.
Something warm and giddy rises through my body. Navarro came back for us.
Mom sees him too. From the expression on her face, this is something she wasn’t expecting. For the first time, she looks afraid. Not in total control. She sucks in a deep breath, gets her own gun out and backs up toward the wall.
Tork’s gun is out.
“We can work this out. All I want to do is leave here with the kids,” Dad tells her. He approaches her slowly.
Navarro rounds with corner with a shotgun tucked under his arm.
Dad creeps closer to Mom. He’s one step away.
At the beach, the children’s beach ball hits a fishing pole and pops.
Mom flinches.
And pulls the trigger.
DR. DOOMSDAY SAYS:
IT’S ALWAYS A SURPRISE WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT LOVE CAN DO MORE DAMAGE THAN HATE.
The bang echoes off the patio’s walls and travels toward the beach.
The children stare in our direction.
Dad drops to the ground and blood gushes from his gut.
No. No. No. No. No. No.
I fall to my knees and take Dad’s hand.
I barely notice when I drop the shotgun or when Tork scoops it up.
Charles bursts into tears.
This is my fault. This is my fault.
I convinced Dad to come with us. Practically dared him to go to Goldwater Airfield.
My ears ring.
Everything I see is red with rage.
“Dad. Dad,” I say. “You’ll be okay. You’ll be fine.”
Except this is a total lie. I have no idea where the nearest hospital is or how we would get him there. Blood covers Dad’s shirt and spills onto the terra-cotta tile.
Dad is going to die.
I have no air. I’m drowning right out in the open.
Mom is suddenly kneeling next to me. “Max? Max? Listen to me—”
I swat at her arms. “Get away from him! Get away. Get away!” I scream. “I hate you. Do you hear me? I hate you!”
Dad opens his mouth. A strangled gurgle comes out.
There will be no last words.
No final instructions.
No closure.
“Jinx? Susan? Dad’s going to be okay, right? Susan?” Charles cries out.
I grip Dad’s hand, which is already growing cold. There’s a single moment that separates life from death. We’re in that space. Maxwell Marshall is drawing the last of his breaths. And I can’t believe it. My dad. An infallible rock that everything else broke itself against.
I gaze around, as if help will magically appear. Behind me, Tork is pacing.
Tork’s athletic shoes squeak with each step. “All right. All right. We need to think. What we need is a plausible story. We’ll take the kids in. Come up with something. We’ll figure out the thing with the computer. We need to make this look right.”
Mom sits up, the tail of her white cotton T-shirt stained red with Dad’s blood.
She wipes a few tears off her pale face and stands tall and straight.
“I agree,” she says.
Without another word, she shoots Tork.
Once.
Right in the head.
Tork’s lifeless body falls with a smack onto the tile floor.
Before he even lands.
I can already see it. Mom’s going to run.
There are five of us and Navarro has a shotgun.
