One Verse Multi, page 31
“That’s genius,” Luca said, turning back to his list.
“Thanks,” Tidus and I said together.
“Good to know you two share a brain cell.”
“I can help with the code. I saw Mason write it for his simulation,” Tidus said.
“Let’s do it,” Luca said with a nod.
We went into the lab and started troubleshooting and investigating everything Luca thought might be important. Anyone else probably would’ve thought he was stalling or was being overcautious, but I knew him better than that. He was crafting something to last. He was going to give it everything he could.
It felt good to be in the lab with him across the table from me working. And it felt better to have Tidus there too. My heart didn’t understand what my brain knew. It was likely the last few hours we would spend together till God knew when. I tried to focus as I checked drones on the Tiduses. The Tiduses would go on with their lives and never know what we needed their help with.
I was done first. The clock on the computer said it was five a.m. The sun would rise soon. It was hard to believe that this trial started with the setting sun. Everything might be over by daybreak, but there was still one thing I needed to know.
“How long until you’re ready to launch?” I asked, stretching out my legs by pacing the room.
“Soon,” Luca said, concentrating.
“Where are you going?” Tidus asked.
“Going?” Luca said, turning to look at him then me. “Going?”
“I’m thinking about going to find the Hugos.”
They both stood. “Why?”
“I want to see how they are, see if they’re okay. I can’t just leave them.”
They looked at each other, likely nonverbally scheming a way to talk me out of it.
“What if you’re caught?” Luca asked.
I shrugged.
“Will you be back before…” Tidus asked.
I didn’t have an answer for that either. “Don’t wait for me.”
They sighed.
“Here, take a com,” Luca said.
“Why?”
“It’ll make me feel better, and you can tell me if he’s okay.”
“Oh! Take the gun too. I left it in the office,” Tidus said.
“What would Martin do with a gun? Do you even know how to shoot one?” Luca asked.
“Right trigger,” I said, winking at Tidus.
“It’ll look scary, and I’m sure Martin could hit something with it if he needed to.”
“You don’t know where they are,” Luca said quietly, ignoring Tidus. While we were talking, he was sifting through the wreckage of the lab looking for a functioning communicator.
“It won’t be hard to guess if I know Hugo like I do,” I said.
“I need to get a different com. This one was burned. Mason has a stash in his room,” Luca said. He went through the door at the back of the lab.
Tidus came over to me and wrapped his long arms around my head. I pressed my forehead into his chest.
“I’ll miss you,” he whispered.
“I’ll miss you too.”
“Jeez, I haven’t felt this broken up over a guy I’ve only known for a few weeks since summer camp in high school. He was Scout leader for the Rooster cabin, and I was leader for the Peacocks.”
I grinned. “I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you.”
“You better stop,” he said. Then he leaned down and kissed me. Hard. But it wasn’t final. There was no good-bye in it. It was desperate and hopeful.
“Here is…sorry, I can…” Luca said, starting to back out of the room.
“No, you’re fine. Is there like a bathroom or like a closet, someplace quiet and soundproof where someone could, I don’t know, cry?” Tidus said. He tipped his head back and fanned his face to protect makeup he wasn’t wearing from his tears.
Luca came over to me and attached the com.
“I’ll walk you out,” he said, pointing to the door.
He followed me out into the dark anteroom. He was illuminated by a bright green exit sign, a stark change from the red emergency lights in the lab. He looked suddenly more vulnerable.
“Here is this,” he said, pressing a new flashlight into my hands.
“Luca—”
“Don’t say good-bye,” he insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked at the wall, then at the floor. “I won’t say it back.”
“Okay, how about this? I love you.”
His eyes snapped to mine like I had said the craziest thing he had ever heard. “Don’t, if you don’t mean it. It’s not a substitute for good-bye.”
“I mean it. I think it’s been true since the day you let me kiss you. There’s been so much, I don’t think I realized it until the dressing room tonight. You’re so amazing and I—”
He sighed, took my face in his hands, and pulled me into a kiss. Despite not being altogether gentle, the kiss was mindful, savory. And I recognized a desperation in it he wasn’t used to feeling.
“I love you too,” he said when he stepped back. Then he narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Oh come on,” I said, trying to play off the fact that my heart was beating through my chest. “When have I ever done anything stupid?”
He sighed and gave me a dismissive gesture. I laughed. He kissed me again quickly and softly, then went back into the lab. I went into the hall.
Section 29
I think humanity will be okay for a while
Me getting into the water alone was laughably impossible. Besides, I was too weak to even think about being able to climb a ladder, so I took the dark gangways from the lab to the Hub. People were in the cafeteria. I looked down at them from an upper-level balcony. They were all dressed in the sand-colored jumpsuits, lounging on tables or on the floor.
That eliminated the first place on my list of where to find Josephine and the Hugos. I didn’t actually expect to find her there, though. I paused long enough to determine no one in the Hub was talking about anything useful, then I went to the office and found the gun. I bypassed the main section through a service hallway and then down another gangway to a different pod. I saw people, but again, it was just goons in jumpsuits. These ones had Taser-sticks, though. They weren’t very vigilant; their conversation gave them away.
“I’ve never seen her like this.”
“She’s intense.”
“But this seems out of hand. Even Margo—”
“Look, you know why we’re here, so either deal with it or leave.”
“You’re just pissy because you think doing all of this for her will make her promote you.”
“Don’t start.”
I went the opposite way around the pod to avoid them.
“Martin.” It was Luca in my ear. I tapped the device to let him know I was listening.
“There’s a collection of people in Main Control. I tapped into HQ security. It’s not like anyone’s here to notice.”
I tapped again and started for that pod. Main Control was on the farthest edge of the web. From there, they navigated the HQ complex and monitored things going on inside. Allegedly, you could access every program in any department from that pod. HQ IT and HQ maintenance also operated from there. It made sense Hugo would take her there. It was literally the Holy Grail of MVP information.
I could see the gangway to Main Control from a side gangway as I ran into the pod that connected them. The pod was pitch black and empty, and I stared down the long tunnel as I hugged the wall. The people in the tunnel looked like guards. Their vigil was slack, though, and they leaned sleepily against the Plexiglas walls. Some were sitting on the walkway.
I stepped back into a shadow and thought. I wasn’t going anywhere near the ocean. I could have used the gun, but that was beyond my planning skills. I didn’t need them dead, just out of the way long enough to get down the gangway into the control pod. Then I could sneak into the room. I needed some ideas.
“What pod is control attached to down the center gangway?” I asked Luca, looking around the dark room. I didn’t dare turn the flashlight on.
“Nothing. It’s just a pass-through pod. Main Control is attached to three gangways and all three are attached to pass-throughs.”
“Well, that doesn’t help me,” I said. “I guess I could walk in. What’s the worst they could do? Tase me? I’d survive.”
“Where? What? What are you doing?”
“I’m sneaking around in the dark like a fucking idiot wearing bright orange board shorts. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Martin?”
“Naw, it’s okay. I’m just tired.”
“We’re almost done. Ten minutes, maybe less.”
“Good. Just make sure Tidus gets home okay. He should have my sequencer, I left it on the table. I also left behind a bank card for his verse. The login is taped to the back.”
“Do you want me to tell him anything?”
“Uh…naw, he knows. Wait, tell him to go to Ohio and pick up Bowser. He’ll probably be sent back too. Also, see if you can find Kazz and Doug.”
Luca sighed. I decided I was just going to stroll down the gangway with the same unjustified cockiness I had when I tuned into the apartment where Tidus had been kidnapped. I put my hands in my pockets and tried to find a casual smile.
“Morning,” I said, strolling past the first group of technicians.
They looked at me, then at each other, then back at me like I might be something they had dreamed up. They were probably as exhausted as I was. I kept walking, but it was the second set of technicians that stopped me.
“Who the fuck are you?” they demanded. They didn’t raise their Taser-sticks. They didn’t even block my path. They were scientists, not bouncers.
“I’m going to talk to Josephine,” I said and kept walking.
They didn’t do anything, just followed me. Maybe they couldn’t believe my audacity. Maybe they didn’t even know what they were supposed to be on the lookout for. How many of them would recognize me? The door to Main Control was broken and kicked open, so I didn’t bother knocking.
The room looked like the control center at NASA, with banks of computers facing large monitor screens. There were thin windows along the ceiling of the pod, and a metal balcony encircled the room with a navigation station in the center. I squinted into the bright lighting. It was the only fully operational room in HQ.
Josephine stood with her back to me, hunched over a computer near the center of a row. She was pressing buttons loudly. Del was on one side of the room, closest to me. He looked asleep or worse, his head drooping forward, his chin propped against his chest. Hugo was on the other side of the room. I could just barely see him sitting on the floor. He looked alert and angry. Both Hugos were zip-tied and had several trickles of blood running from different parts of their faces. If I could get to my Hugo, maybe he could help me.
Josephine looked almost rabid as she turned to see who had come through the door. I didn’t stop, even though the glare she gave me was horrible. Her hair was frazzled, raked through too many times. There were places where her makeup had been wiped away.
“How the fuck did you get back here?” she screamed.
I shrugged. “It’s a long story. But I wanted to come back and check on how you were managing.”
“We can’t get in,” Hugo said. He smiled at me defiantly. “She kept me because she thought I would know how to get in, but I don’t. I—”
Josephine walked right over to Hugo and kicked him in the side. He flinched, but that didn’t erase his smile.
“Well, that’s one way,” I said. I tried to step farther into the room.
“Grab him,” Josephine said. The technicians who were still standing in the doorway tried to grab me, but I dodged them and ducked into a row of computers.
“Look, I’m here as a courtesy. I didn’t want y’all to get stuck here,” I said.
Josephine took a deep breath and pinched her nose. “Fine. You, give me your stick. I’ll get him myself.”
She marched up to one of her technicians and snatched away the Taser-stick.
“Calm down. I’m here to talk.”
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. Ever again. I won’t fall for your tricks.” She turned to the technicians. “Get the others. Search the complex again. He never works alone.”
They scurried from the room. Only one remained, and that was because Josephine had his Taser-stick.
“What happened to Margo?” I asked.
“I said leave,” Josephine said, engaging the weapon. It crackled and buzzed. She started toward me with the very real intention of using it. I drew the gun from my shorts and aimed it at her. She stopped so suddenly, she almost tripped.
“I told you I’m here as a courtesy. I’m warning you. I’m shutting this down—you, them, VIP, MVP—all of it.” The gun was surprisingly heavy and hard for me to figure out how to hold since I could only get one arm up so high without hurting.
“You can’t do that,” Josephine said. “You wouldn’t shoot me.”
She started walking toward me. I pointed the gun at the ceiling and fired. The recoil was astronomically painful, and the sound was louder than they made it look in the movies. I leveled it back at her before I winced. On the edge of the smell of the gun firing was the smell that let me know someone left the universe.
“Ow, fuck,” I said, rubbing my wrist.
“You’re so pathetic. Put that down.”
She didn’t move forward, though.
“No, I’m trying to help you.”
Just then a voice piped into the facility, calm and feminine sounding. “Hello, this is not a drill. A red-level emergency has been detected. Alarms will sound. Please evacuate to the nearest lifeboat and proceed to the nearest shore.”
Luca clarified it, his voice breathy in my head, like he was running. “It’s a countdown. There’s a subtle pulse to the alarm, every second. You have three minutes.”
“The others?” I asked.
“I got them. Just don’t be dumb. Tidus is gone. Get out of here.”
“What the fuck is this?” Josephine said.
“I told you,” I shouted over blaring alarms. Luca was right, it was like listening to a rotating speaker, starting off loud then diminishing then rising again. Each diminish was at one-second intervals. “Everyone needs to get off HQ now.”
“I’ll kill you,” she said, trying to run at me again. I held the gun up level with her chest. I had backed up until I was near Hugo.
“You get him, get to land,” I shouted at the technician. He tried to cross to Del, who still hadn’t moved, but someone stepped out of an alcove and shoved the useless technician aside. VIP Justin. The technician scrambled to his feet and raced out of the room before Justin could grab him.
“Martin,” Hugo said, lunging in my direction.
Hugo almost tripped Carl, but he still managed to get to me. He grabbed me hard enough to make my body tense with pain. The gun fell to the ground, and Carl got to it before I did. He pointed it at me. Carl backed toward Josephine. Justin came forward, and I saw Margo behind him. She surveyed the scene, a look of horror freezing on her features.
“Now, I respect you coming after your friend,” Josephine said, her voice back down to a sinister calm. “But how about you explain what’s going on?”
I sighed and put my hand down to help Hugo to his feet.
“Leave him.”
“Naw, it’s okay. None of us have much time anyway,” I said. I looked straight at Margo while I talked. “And you guys aren’t killers, I mean not all of you. The MVP technicians were one thing, a part of your masochistic rampage for power. But you wouldn’t kill the Hugos, right? You didn’t kill me.”
“We didn’t kill the technicians,” Justin said.
And though her jaw tightened, Josephine didn’t react to Justin’s comments. Instead, she kept speaking to me. “You don’t know what we have riding on this. You couldn’t possibly understand.”
“Oh, I get it now,” I said even though it was something I had already suspected. “This is about Josephine’s ego. Everything you do is for her.”
It was hard to hear over the sound of the alarm, and I had lost count. I didn’t know how much time was left, but I knew it wasn’t much. Josephine, Justin, and Carl were all standing in the center row of computers, looking at me. They didn’t see the decision Margo made. She put so much together in the time they had been in the dead-verse, and I could see it all congeal in her mind from across the room. No one was looking at her, and no one heard over the alarm as she helped Del to his feet and left with him, nearly dragging him out of the room. They wouldn’t get far before Operation Other Sock commenced, but when everyone here dropped into the ocean, they would have a head start.
“We’re all scientists, Martin. Can’t you see how important this work is for the good of humanity?” Josephine pleaded. She was almost convincing.
I sighed. “I can and can’t. I think humanity will be okay for a while without MVP or VIP fucking with the verses.”
“What do you mean?” Carl said.
“I’m shutting it down. We rigged the system.”
“How?”
“I don’t really know. I’m not a physicist. I’m just a guy with super-smart friends.”
Hugo looked at me. “Other Sock?”
“Fine, leave. We’ll figure it out. It’s not like you were any help,” Josephine said, probably intending some sort of reverse psychology.
