Authors: Ernie Lindsey
“
Them?
”
“Come on,” he says, climbing off the
desk. “If you want to know, we have to hurry.”
I give in, for now, and follow him
out into the dining room. He stops in the center, beside a table that I’ve
delivered hundreds upon hundreds of meals to, then turns around and says,
“First, let me say that I brought you into this with good intentions. That’s
the truth. The rest of it is Board-Level clearance only, but I feel like you
deserve to know.”
“Brought me into what? Who
are
you? Is your real name even Walter?”
“No, it’s Sam.”
“And what did you bring me into,
Sam
?”
“Do you remember The Minotaur saying
he used to be a Super and they kicked him out?”
“Yes.”
“I replaced him.”
My heart stops beating. “You what?”
“I took his place as a Super.”
No
.
No, no, no.
This is more than a violation. I
want to dropkick him into outer space.
This guy that I have worked with,
and shared takeout with, and played video games with, and laughed with, and
chased women with, and taken punches for, is a highly intelligent, ruthless,
emotionless Super Board Agent.
And I don’t even know if that’s a
statement or a question.
Alias Walter. Alias Sam. Alias...Forklift.
If it’s a statement, everything from
the last twenty-four hours makes so much more sense. That’s why he wasn’t
worried about his phone being traced, that’s why he was making all those
inopportune calls, that’s why the Board Agents never came looking for us.
I can’t believe it though. This
can’t be true.
“You’re lying,” I say.
He checks over his shoulder, down
the hallway toward the back entrance. “By the Honor of The Board, which I know
doesn’t mean much, I’m a Super. I’ve been undercover for two years now,
slinging cuisine here with you.”
“And you were just pretending to be
my friend?”
“At first, yeah. Being undercover
is hard—”
“Such a rough life.”
“Let me finish. This isn’t easy,
Chris. You don’t have a script to follow and it’s not like you can wrap things
up in an hour-long episode. You have to blend into your surroundings, get into
character, act like who you’re supposed to be. For
years
. You don’t
have the option of avoiding tough decisions, and I’m sorry that you were one of
them. We’re supposed to stay uninvolved, but after I got to know you, I let
things get in the way that I shouldn’t have.”
“Everything about Dream Chasers?
All of our plans?”
“Part of the lie.”
My head is so flooded with
questions, I don’t know what to ask, where to start. “What about your dad?
Any of that true?”
“Some of it. Most of it. He’s not
dead. He actually went to Area 39.”
“Why did you let Bingo come along last
night?”
“Figured she’d be a good
distraction. Keep you calm.”
At least he got that one right.
Somewhat. “So why were you here? What’ve you gotten me into?”
“More than I intended, honestly.”
“Tell me. Now.”
“Okay, just...calm down. My
original mission was to spy on Dorna. The upper suits knew something weird was
going on. She was Ascending too fast, the restaurant was too popular. It
seemed fishy because really, who would eat the revolting mess we serve on a
regular basis, right?”
I’ve always wondered the same thing,
yet it didn’t occur to me to question why.
“Don’t say we. It’s not we
anymore.”
He says, “Fair enough. I found out
that she was slowly getting people addicted to her food by lacing it with
drugs, and when I reported back, I thought I had their answer and was done.
But, for once, they decided to care about where it was coming from, so they
changed my mission status to Stationary, and I was supposed to wait it out long
enough to track her movements and gather evidence about her suppliers.”
“Why didn’t you break in here on
your own and steal that stupid folder a long time ago? You’ve been here two
years, man.”
“I told you. Stationary. It had to
be enough to convict her. And you’re going to hate this part. You have to
promise not to choke me.”
“Not so sure I can make that
promise.”
He checks the back entrance hallway
again. Says, “Purely for professional purposes, I developed something of a...something
of a
relationship
with Fireball.”
“And that means?”
“Sexual, more or less. For
informational purposes only. She was the one that dropped the dirty on Dorna,
over pillow talk. And I know you have a massive crush on her, but it had to be
done.”
If this admission had come
yesterday, pre-Bingo, I would’ve thrown him through a window. “Had. Had a
crush on her. I’ve got Bingo now.”
Hopefully
.
It’s a good thing she
might
be parked down the street, because I’m going to need a ride.
He says, “Doesn’t make it right. I
apologize.”
“Accepted. Sort of. You said you
brought me into this with good intentions. What was that all about?”
“Some of it was guilt for the whole
Fireball thing. But here’s where it gets complicated...”
Like it wasn’t already.
“You were always talking about Ascending,
always, and after we became friends—”
“Not anymore.”
“
After we became friends
, I
started looking for ways I could help you out. Supers have a higher level of Authority,
and I thought maybe I could find a way to get you up to R10. Then when I was
digging up background info on the chefs to see if they were in on the drug
trades with Dorna, I found something.”
“What?”
“Lewis is Fireball’s brother.”
“
Lewis and Clark
Lewis?”
Bombshell what-the-hell.
“Yep. I went back to the upper
suits and told them I had a lead on two of our highest public enemies. They
gave me rights to pursue, and I concocted this scheme to draw them out. That’s
where you came in.”
“Why?”
“The Board has a top-secret
Ascension property that’s not available to the general public and only they can
grant it. I’ve heard of it happening maybe twice in the past thirty years.
It’s called Selfless Acts of Valor, and it’s reserved for people that sacrifice
themselves to help out a Board Agent in distress. Comes with an automatic
one-level increase. I thought if I brought you in on my plan, I could spin it
so they’d give it to you, and
pow
, you jump right out of the R11s into
R10.”
I’m so dumbfounded the only thing I
can squeak out is a minimal, “Whoa.”
“Doesn’t end there though. I
started feeding bits of the plan to Fireball. Stealing the recipes, using LX
for access, hoping she’d pass it along to Lewis and Clark. She took the bait
but things got a bit hairy when Dorna hired them.”
“Hired
who
?”
“Stream and Honker.”
“Stream and Honker?”
“Stream and Honker. Lewis and
Clark.”
“Stream and Honker are Lewis and
Clark?”
“Stream is Lewis, Honker is Clark. Public
enemies Number Seven and Number Eight.”
“Unbelievable. Why would they risk
being so...exposed?”
“They’re virtually invisible out in
the open. We’ve got one blurry picture of them that The Minotaur took. The
only thing I can think of is that they were doing it to keep an eye on me,
checking out who was trying to abuse their system. And I never counted on them
being smart enough to take LX out of the equation and steer us toward the
maze-dweller. I was worried they’d made me as a Super, but as you’ve learned,
they were trying to pull a classic turn-the-tables by using me, us, to get to
him.”
“But isn’t The Minotaur a public
enemy too? You could’ve busted him last night.”
“Not part of the game plan.”
I have to sit down. It’s too much
to take in. I find the nearest chair, fall into it, and ask, “And now we’re
waiting on Lewis and Clark to show up?”
He checks the time. “They should’ve
been here by now. I leaked it to Fireball that we’d be in here at a quarter
‘til one, figuring she’d pass it along and hoping they’d be bold enough to show
up. When they do, if they do, be cool, act like they caught us in the act. We
stall for fifteen minutes and then this place is crawling with BAs. I hand
over this folder, Dorna goes bye-bye, Lewis and Clark are captured at last, and
you get your R10.”
Time to reveal one of my own
secrets. “Thanks, but I don’t want it. I’m Rescinding for Bingo.”
He seems surprised. “What? Are you
sure?”
“One hundred percent.”
“Okay. Up to you, buddy. Regardless,
if everything goes as it should, I can get you cleared of all involvement
tonight, no matter what.”
“But what if they don’t come?”
“Ever heard of Robert Burns? ‘
The
best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.’
”
“You got a Plan B?”
“Plan B is to—”
A new voice, loud and obnoxious,
plows into the conversation. “Gentlemen, gentlemen!”
Stream and Honker stroll out of the
hallway, followed by Fireball, smiling beams of sunshine like they know the
life of the party has shown up late.
It appears the best laid plans have
strayed back.
Chapter
18
Sam whips around and says, “Stream
the Dream and Honker the Wonker. I say whassup, friendlies?” back in
character, back in the voice I’ve always known. Back to being All That is
Forklift.
Stream, I mean Lewis, says, “Looks
like somebody’s been to the dentist.”
Forklift’s hand goes to his mouth,
having forgotten that minor detail.
Clark says, “You’re a half-decent
looking guy without those giant chompers,” then adds, almost as an
afterthought, “...Sam.”
Sam? Were they able to figure it
out?
Forklift says, “I don’t know what—”
Lewis interrupts. “Oh, give it up,
Super Sam. We got you, man. Your rights to pursue don’t mean a damn thing.”
Hold up. How’d they know that?
Forklift tries one last time to
Preserve Control of his cover, and rattles off something in his unnatural
gibberish.
Lewis laughs at him. Clark laughs
at him. Fireball giggles into the back of her hand.
As pissed as I was, it gets under my
skin that they’re mocking him.
Lewis says, “Trying hard to hold
out, huh? Jesus. Pathetic. Brick, you can probably take that transmitter out
of your collar now.”
“My collar?”
What’s he talking about? The transmitter
in my collar?
My God. Stream, no Lewis, he fixed
my collar earlier tonight. I reach up, run my fingers underneath the edges,
and dislodge a small, black disc about the size of a dime. Hold it in my palm,
looking at our betrayer.
They’ve been listening the entire
time.
Forklift gives me this distrustful
glare, like I was in on their scheme. “I didn’t know,” I say. “I didn’t
know.”
Clark says to Forklift, “Man, how
does it feel to be so close?”
“Closer than you think. You hear
those sirens?”
All three of them cock their ears,
listening, and then start laughing again. Lewis says, “Ain’t happening, bro.”
“Maybe,” Forklift says. “Maybe
not.”
“Do you really think we’re that
stupid? We hacked their systems before we came in. Sent them a nice little
hang back message from you. Fifteen minute delay.”
Clark adds, “We tipped off Dorna.
She’s probably packing her bags, and when they get here, that little folder of
yours won’t mean shit. The only thing they’ll find are your dead bodies and
we’ll be halfway to Urine Town.”
“You’ll never find The Minotaur.”
“Mr. Androgyny has a loose tongue.
Especially when you offer him free lifetime access to RollerNinja. He won’t
ever have to beg for boy-sex again. Carla, your turn.”
Fireball pulls a handgun from her
back waistband, points it at Forklift.
I’m so shocked that a Resident has
one that I can’t stop myself from blurting out, “Holy shit, where did you get
that?” as my hands fly up to cover my head.
Clark says, “Hello? RollerNinja?”
Fireball aims lower, the barrel
pointing directly at Forklift’s crotch. She raises it back to his head, then
back to his crotch. “The dick or the head, the dick or the head?”