One Verse Multi, page 26
“I mean it, they talk to me or—”
“Martin,” Hugo interrupted, stepping between me and the guard. “This isn’t a time to be funny.”
“I’m not. I gave the order to delete the work. Then I told the person who did it to wait for word from me. I’m going to get mine in all of this.”
Hugo squinted at me, then his eyes went wide, and he gasped.
“You’re going to sell us out?” he asked.
The emotion in his voice was real enough to make me want to take it all back. Instead, I took a page out of his book and modified my face to neutral. He either understood it or he didn’t. Maybe he could tell I was bluffing, and he was playing along. Then again, he could really think I was betraying him. I decided it didn’t matter. The outcome was the same, and his performance would be convincing.
“Jesus, Martin. Don’t you see what damage that would do?” he said, placing his hands on my shoulders.
“That’s half the point.”
“And the other half?”
I took his arms by the wrists and pulled them off me. “Someone will pay for it. It’s information, Hugo. The other half is and always will be what someone is willing to pay.”
Emma Elizabeth gasped, adding to the drama of it all. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“If I wanted you to know, I would’ve left it on the computers,” I said harshly, hoping to paint myself as a bigger threat.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Guard One said.
“It means,” I said, trying to stay cool, “tell Don I’m waiting.”
The meeting pretty much descended into chaos after that. Hugo insisted on trying to talk me out of it. A set of guards had to practically pull him off me. He struggled against them, but they won out. They escorted him out of the room and led me down a hallway opposite the one I had come from. I was not going back to the storage room then. Emma Elizabeth just stood there looking like a teenager who just found out her boy-band crush was just some middle-aged sellout. I could live with that.
The room they led me to was mostly an office. They put me inside and locked the door on their way out. I went to the desk. It was empty. The boxes in the corner, empty. The lamp on the desk at least turned on. It looked like the room had been staged. I immediately collapsed in the chair, the most comfortable thing I had sat on since being at Wei’s, and tried to come to terms with the idea of being shot on sight when Don arrived.
* * *
I lived in the office for two days. About an hour after they stuffed me there, some guards carried in my cot. I didn’t miss it. But on top were my pillow and blanket from my room in the research lab. The black throw was usually tossed over my desk chair.
“Next time bring the Cheetos,” I said to no one.
At first, I thought the guards were going through my belongings in search of whatever evidence they needed to find. But the next morning a delivery of my stuff wasn’t random. In the box were my top two favorite outfits and my toiletries. I seriously doubted the Caucasian guards would think to grab the sack of silk I usually slept in to protect my hair. But there it was, blue and shiny, on top of the rest of my crap. Someone was looking out for me. I couldn’t guess who, but I was glad I wasn’t alone.
Don arrived the morning of the third day. I was sent to one of the gyms nearby to shower and change. I had to walk into the Hub and down another hallway to get to the gym, so I saw enough to know we were still on shore and that a lot of people were still gone.
I had an escort of seven guards this time. My heart raced as we walked to Don’s office. Step three of the plan was still up in the air. Should I keep bluffing? Should I tell the truth? Should I sit down before he shot me, so I didn’t fall like some sad sack in an action movie? I looked at the guard next to me as if she would know the answer. She just blinked at me.
We walked to the top of the Hub and went through a door that I had seen plenty of times as I went to the observation area. I had never been inside. The office was big, almost one-fourth of the whole circle of the Hub. Windows arced the crust side of the pizza slice of a room. I’d never noticed the windows since they were tinted. I could just see land as I stepped into the room.
I was surprised to find Don alone. I mean, he had enough security that I don’t think he saw me as a threat. Still, I expected to find MVP Josephine or Justin or Carl. But it was just Don. He sat behind a huge oak desk I’m sure was bolted to the floor. It was in the center of the room, and a series of random things shared the space with it: a treadmill, a wall of filing cabinets, mismatched couches, and a glass coffee table. Considering the dated appearance of the furnishings, I knew this wasn’t a regularly used space.
“Good morning,” I said.
He had been looking down at his computer when I came in and didn’t look up when I spoke. I wasn’t the type to be annoyed by that. I usually let people take as long as they needed to talk to me. And it’s not like he was wasting my time. But I wasn’t completely myself right then. Step three of the plan suddenly and irrationally called for provocation.
I walked up to the desk and put my hand at the back of the laptop. Then I slowly started to push it closed. Don’s eyes shot to mine. His smile was horrible and tight, and the darkness under his eyes was noticeable through his makeup. Even his bald head was stubbly. He didn’t like me touching his computer. My pulse jumped, but I didn’t stop until the screen was flush against his knuckles. Then I backed into a seat and looked at him.
“If we’re going to do this, let’s do it,” I said.
“In a hurry?”
I shook my head. “Quite the opposite. But you might want to be. At least I want to give you the chance to hurry.”
“Enlighten me,” he said through his teeth.
“Don, I know about your counterparts.”
It was probably the most provocative thing I could say, but I wasn’t looking for a reaction from him. I was looking for a reaction from the guards. Someone drew in their breath in a stifled gasp, someone else shifted their feet, and another’s gear rustled as they turned their head to look at me, then immediately snapped it back forward. They were surprised, and that was good. Don’s smile switched from annoyed to sinister, and he emptied the room with a gesture of his hand.
“That was a bold statement,” a woman said. A panel gave way behind a wall and Josephine herself stepped out. Unlike her counterpart, who looked like she never knew what to wear, this Josephine was dressed in a black jumpsuit and heels. Her hair was short and slicked back.
“Oh, good. I was hoping to get the attention of the brains of this operation.”
Don growled and stood. I remembered the horrible feeling of having VIP Don’s hands on me, his fat fists grabbing my shirt. I blinked and took a breath. Josephine broke into a smile.
“That’s why I came here,” I said. “I have something to say.”
“So do I,” Don said. Then he stooped slightly, opened the drawer of the desk, and set a gun on the tabletop.
I wasn’t really afraid of it. I had seen so few guns in my life that seeing one was like a deer encountering a hunter for the first time. The idea of being shot, however, was something I’d already thought about. I betrayed no panic, and I think that annoyed him.
“I told my accomplices if I was killed, they could sell the information to the other guys anyway.”
“What other guys?” Josephine asked.
I understood something in that moment, and I felt so giddy I could have laughed.
“Oh shit,” I said. “You really haven’t found them, have you?”
“Martin, I thought you weren’t here to play games,” Josephine said.
“Naw, I’m not. Based on everything we found out, I just assumed you’d at least know about the others. Know what they knew about you.”
“Listen,” Josephine said with a sigh. “If you’re going to be cryptic, I’m going to leave. Don and I don’t have time for this.”
I stood up too, feeling weird about sitting. Don straightened and twitched toward the gun, but I waved him down. “I knew you knew you had counterparts and I know you’re picking them off one by one. Genius. Whose idea was that? Probably Don’s, since he is the business, right? Anyway, I’m just surprised at how much you underestimate yourselves. Wouldn’t you think that one of them, like you, would be able to do something like this?” I gestured with one arm, trying to capture the whole of MVP.
“There’s nothing like this,” Josephine said. Her pride in her work was clear on her face.
“The research team thought you wanted us to find them so you could stop them. I can see now you really were just looking for a way to keep replacing your counterparts until you were the last ones.”
“Who are you talking about?” Don roared suddenly.
VIP knew about MVP, so why not even the score? “There’s an organization that has multi-verse technology just like us. The only difference is they know all about you. They’re looking for you. I had planned to make a deal with you, sell you the information the research team collected. But that’s because I thought you had the advantage. I thought with all of MVP’s wealth and employees and resources, they could easily slide me a few mil. And after learning that you were making billions across multiple verses, well…But now I’m not sure you do have the upper hand.”
“This conversation is over,” Don said. In a flash, the gun was in his hand and pointed at me.
“Don, please,” Josephine said. “What do you mean by upper hand?”
“Their tech is untraceable, but you have numbers. They’re more agile through each verse, but you know more verses. I don’t know. Seems like a stalemate, now that I think about it.”
“All right,” Josephine said. “I have to admit, I’m not surprised.”
“What do you mean?”
She paced around the room as she spoke. She pressed a button on the treadmill and pressed the conference call button on the industrial phone on the desk. A dial tone filled the air, and then she lifted the receiver and dropped it, ending the call.
“Someone else threatened to betray us,” she said, “but we disposed of her.”
She was talking about Margo.
“She thought our work was damaging the multi-verse. How could it when everything we do is to protect it? It wasn’t until we stumbled upon the Event that we thought she might be right. And now that information is being withheld by her protégé,” Josephine said. “That’s unsurprising.”
“I guess. But what are you going to do? Get rid of me like you did her? Fine, but I told you I have accomplices, and they’ll release your info to the others.”
“We’ll stop them too,” Don said.
“How? Until this moment you didn’t know they existed. You know, it’s hilarious that you believe you’re untouchable and in the next turn you underestimate your counterparts.”
“Well, this has been fun,” Josephine said as Don leveled the gun on me.
“My accomplices will tell the others. They’ll know everything, and you’ll have to start from scratch just to pick up the pieces.”
“Not before we work our way through your friends downstairs,” Josephine said.
I know my face revealed my surprise. And I found myself cornered. I couldn’t say they didn’t know anything, because they obviously did. I couldn’t even say I knew something they didn’t. I was still searching for a response when the door banged open. A tall guard in head-to-toe riot gear stormed into the room.
“What?” Don roared.
The guard flinched. “Sir, something is happening on the beach.”
All three of us turned to look out the window. Slowly, people wearing all black were walking out of thin air onto the sand. VIP Josephine was at the front of the pack. There was no tell, so I knew they were using their own tech.
“Oh shit, I guess I’m too late. They found you,” I said, just as surprised as Josephine and Don.
“How’s that possible?” MVP Josephine gasped, recognizing herself on the beach. VIP Josephine seemed to know where we were because she looked right at the windows.
“Told you they’re just like you.” I nearly laughed.
“We have to get you out of here,” the guard said. There were more guards in the doorway.
Don looked at me for one cold, frustrated minute. Then he turned on his heels. He picked up the computer and left the room. In his haste, he left the gun. I knew a helicopter would be waiting for him on the roof. The guard gestured for Josephine, who was still staring down at the sand.
“Ma’am,” the guard insisted. She strolled out of the room after Don. The guard who had come into the room first turned as if he were going to follow but then he stopped, shut the door, and locked it behind everyone else.
“What the fuck? A coup and I’m still a fucking prisoner?”
“Chill, bae, it’s me,” Tidus said, pulling off the guard helmet.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He marched over and hugged me, laughing. “You said it yourself. It’s a coup.”
“That’s not who I would’ve picked for the cavalry,” I said, looking back out the window. Black-clad guards started to pour out of HQ, squaring off with Josephine and her technicians.
“They aren’t the cavalry,” he said. “They’re the distraction.”
I was about to ask when a voice came on the radio attached to Tidus’s uniform. Now that I was closer, I could see the small ways in which it was different from the ones worn by real HQ guards.
“Clear on township.” I didn’t quite recognize the voice.
Tidus answered back. “Clear on decoy.”
A third voice, feminine and familiar, said, “Bait and switch in three, two…”
Everyone on the beach vanished, VIP and MVP alike. And the smell of peanut butter was almost nauseating.
“What the actual fuck?”
Tidus just laughed. He told me we were to meet everyone in the Hub, so I led him down.
“That was some crazy shit,” I said. “Where’d you send everyone?”
“I don’t know. I put Mason in charge of that. My job was to get to you and announce that something weird was happening on the beach.”
“You put Mason in charge?” I asked.
Tidus gave me a gigantic grin. “This was my plan! I’ll explain it when we catch up to the others.”
Meeting up with everyone in the Hub felt like a family reunion. Luca gave me a gentle hug. Kiki, Tamar, and Wei hugged me as a group. Hugo didn’t hug me. He just shook his head.
“Your reckless behavior is starting to annoy me,” he said. And I knew in that one sentence he had been the one who managed to get the stuff from my room.
“I’m starting to annoy myself,” I said. There was a small cheer behind us. We turned in enough time to see Tamar step back from kissing Mason.
“How did you pull this off?” I asked Del when he stepped up to talk to me.
He laughed. “Your boyfriend figured it out. Mason said this place was like a castle. And Tidus told us about a bunch of strategies from a video game, and suddenly he had a plan. He said we three weren’t a threat to anyone, but he had access to a threat big enough to put this place on the defense. And while they were looking the other way…”
“What did you say to VIP Josephine?” I asked.
“Basically, that I had tricked you all into trusting me so I could get the info and turn it over to her.”
“I told our founders pretty much the same thing.”
“Well, I did all the hard work,” said the feminine voice I’d recognized, “so don’t go thinking those three chuckleheads would’ve gotten this far without me.” I turned and smiled at the beautiful woman walking toward me.
“Fern!” I shouted. The technician coordinator was accompanied by two of her techs. I knew them too, Kazz and Doug.
“What the hell, King?” she said. “Trying to fuck everything up all at once? Tired of doing it one job at a time?”
“You know it,” I said, taking her hand. In another life, she would’ve been a fitness professional of some kind. She was jacked and could easily lift me, and I wasn’t a skinny guy. She liked to flex, figuratively and literally, and spent most of her day in sports bras and leggings.
“How did they find you?” I asked.
“They messaged me on your sequencer, dummy,” she said. “They told me what’s been happening with those other guys, VIP and MVP and the damage. Is it as bad as all that?”
I thought about the Dugan dead zone. I thought about every message she herself had sent me about the state of the rifts. “Can’t you tell?”
“Fern is actually the reason they found us,” Mason said, stepping into the conversation.
“I…what?” Fern gasped.
“Martin opened a message from you on his sequencer. I had accounted for everyone else through expected channels, but I didn’t know he was talking to anyone directly.”
“Oh shit, that means the guards were really just following breach protocol,” I said.
“Yeah, well, now everyone knows a lot more than they used to,” Hugo said.
“It won’t matter,” Mason said. “I have everyone locked into their home-verse. I just reprogrammed some drones. We can at least try to talk to them. Someone is bound to listen.”
“We can try,” Hugo said.
“Well, what’s next?” Fern asked. None of us had an answer for her.
“We need to figure out who is still here,” Kazz said. “When we did the sweep, we missed a few people.”
Wanting to get some air and not feeling needed, I headed for the shore, Tidus offering to come with me. We sat far back in the tall grasses that lined the beach. Tidus was systematically picking off pieces of guard uniform, making a neat pile on the ground next to him. I buried my hands in the sand and breathed in the wind.
