The Annihilation of Foreverland (20 page)

“He’s a psychopath, you know that,” Reed mumbled.

“Yeah, he told me.”

Reed sat back, holding his hands beneath his shirt. “Next time you’ll get more than
a
bloody lip.”

“There won’t be a next time. Sid gets a warning if he’s within fifty feet of me. Twenty feet and the tracker knocks his ass out. I might sneak up on him just to watch him twitch.”

“You’re playing with fire.”

“We all are, Reed. May as well have some fun.”

Zin would’ve liked that line; he’d tell him when he woke up.

“Why are you here?” Danny asked.

Reed hesitated. He unveiled his hands. The thumbs were purple and doubled in size. They stuck out like useless pegs. “To put Humpty Dumpty back together.”

“So they can push you back off?”

“That seems to be the pattern.”

Reed put his hands beneath his shirt, again. His breathing was a little shaky. It hurt just moving them. Danny couldn’t imagine what it took to tackle Sid.

“Why don’t you go inside the needle?” Danny asked.

Reed chuckled, smiled at the floor.

“What’s so funny?” Danny asked. “It doesn’t make sense, going through all this suffering when you know we’re going to end up in Foreverland anyway. Come on, Reed, give yourself a break. You’ve suffered enough, you’ve proved your point. You can take a beating.”

Reed was quiet. He drew a long breath and let it out, thoughtfully. Then threw his head back with laughter. It echoed up and down the hallway.

Danny watched him unravel. “You’re losing it, Reed.”

“What’s so funny?” Reed said, wiping his eyes. “This is exactly what they want.”

“Who?”

“Them.” Reed gestured with a nod at the doctor’s office. “They want us to be friends so that you’ll talk me into taking the needle. And you’re biting, Danny Boy. You’re biting hard on the bait, son.”

“I’m not biting on anything, I’m just making sense.”

“You don’t know what you’re making.”

“I saw her, Reed.” The fits of laughter trailed off, quickly. “Want to know what she said?”

Reed hunched over, quietly.

“She sees you, Reed. She sees you in everyone’s thoughts when they go inside the needle. She knows you’re staying in the Haystack and suffering and refusing to come for her. She’s alone and something is after her. You got to tell me why you’re not going inside to help her.”

Reed bowed his head lower like he barely had the strength to hold Danny’s words.

“She’s in your dreams,” Danny added, “but that’s a dream, man! Lucinda’s alive, I’m telling you.”

Reed jerked. He turned away. No sound came out of him. Just quiet convulsions.

“It’s a trick, Danny Boy. The Director’s got you fooled.”

“It was no trick. She was—”

“YOU THINK I LIKE THIS?”

Reed shoved his hands in Danny’s face. They weren’t just swollen, they were misshapen and three different colors of purple, parts of them black. Thin red lines streaked down his wrists.

“You don’t think I want to see her? That I just want to dream about her, that I don’t want to touch her, smell her? That I don’t want to be with her, Danny Boy, to know she’s okay? To know she’s alive? Is that what you think?”

Danny pulled his head back.

“It’s hopeless, Danny Boy.” Reed walked away. “It’s all hopeless.”

Lucinda.

Her name opened a memory.

Reed suddenly remembered, with fine clarity, a time he was driving a truck – a twenty year old pickup – with torn seat covers. He reached for the stick shift between her knees.

“We’re doing it, Reed!” Lucinda said. “We’re really doing it!”

The landscape rolled past them with long legs of corn and bushy fields of soybeans, dotted with silos and lonesome houses. The wind blew her red hair around. Lucinda grabbed Reed’s face and planted a kiss. Her lips wet, warm and full.

Bip.
It ended. Memory, over and out.

But it wasn’t a dream, it was a memory. He remembered her.

He remembered that he loved her.

She’s real
.

Danny stepped next to him. They were at the end of the hall, standing at one of the glass walls that overlooked the dormitory and the Yard. And, beyond that, the Haystack.

“The world, it’s out there, Reed.” Danny told him about hacking the firewall, locating the island through the satellite system. “There’s hope.”

“Can you do it again?” Reed asked, staring out.

“I don’t know, it was some wild code. It was evolving like an organism, never seen anything like it.”

“You can’t just send for help. They’ll have that figured out.”

“I know.”

“It has to be something the whole world will see, Danny Boy. You got to give them a reason to search for us.”

Reed hung his hands inside his shirt like a hammock. He couldn’t fold his arms and it hurt too much to let them hang at his sides. Besides, hiding them kept Danny from staring. Reed just wanted to get to the beach where he could be in the sun alone with the memories. He wanted to drive down that country road, again. He wanted to kiss her.

Lucinda. You’re in there and I’m out here. The Haystack is nothing compared to that.

“Danny Boy?” Mr. Jones called from the doctor’s office. “Son, the doctor would like to see you now.”

Danny waited a bit, turned and nodded at the old man. He started to say something to Reed then went on his way. Mr. Jones closed the door behind them. He’d get his lip fixed and be ready for the next round. Reed only hoped he could do it again. Yes, he hoped.

Because he wouldn’t be able to resist much longer.

The cafeteria was full. But the table Danny was sitting at was empty.

He was in the corner, far away from the windows. The compartments on his lunch tray were filled with pudding,
Jell-O
and noodles. No chewing required. The doctor patched the gaping hole with a gel adhesive, but it didn’t relieve the swelling. Pressure on his teeth hurt. His smile was lop-sided, but there wasn’t much to smile about.

He slurped a spoonful of pudding and looked at the lined sheet of paper in front of him. He chose the corner of the room because it was the farthest spot from the rest of his camp eating at their regular table. They were in last place in the game room. Without Danny, they’d have to suffer every round they went inside the Haystack until they all got smoked. That gave him a little satisfaction. A few guys asked him to come back.

You’ve got to be kidding.

Danny glanced up and Sid flipped him the middle finger.

He also wanted privacy and the lighting was weak in the corner. He wrapped his arm around the paper to cast a shadow over his notes. It was stupid to write these things down, but he had to organize his thoughts. He was just writing bullet points but they were still clues:

o
Mutual Fund

o
FBI

o
Mt.
Rushmore

These were the three ideas he’d come up with to get the world’s attention. The first one, mutual fund. Get control of the largest mutual fund in the world and sell all the assets. The stock market suffers a flash crash and people lose money.

Money is power and it will find you.
If they found the rogue trader holed up in his parents’ basement, they would find an island in the
South Atlantic
.

The second idea—

“Danny Boy.” James flung a folded sheet of paper into his pudding. “Message.”

Danny turned his notes over. James looked back. They were watching. And laughing. Danny wiped the chocolate smudge off and spread the note open.

Turdbrain. You die in the needle.

Sid was standing on the table with both birds flying. James nodded and smiled.

“Hey, you’re a pal,” Danny said. “Hang on a sec.”

James waited for him to finish writing, watched him fold it back up.

“Don’t peek now,” Danny said. “I want it to be a surprise.”

James opened it anyway. He carried it back to Sid still holding up middle fingers and still getting laughs. James handed it to him and Sid opened it. He sat down.

I’m running at you in five minutes.

Sid was sixty feet away. If Danny rushed him, he’d be less than twenty and pissing his pants. He could curse him all day long, but all it took was minus twenty feet and he’d be catatonic.

Second idea: destroy the FBI’s database. Danny was drawing on previous memories. Crime-fighting agencies, like the FBI, were touchy when it came to their data. If he got inside their network, he could detonate everything digital. That was like kicking a hornet
’s
nest. They wouldn’t come to the Chimney asking questions, they’d kick the door down.

The third idea: blow something up. Destroying a national monument was surely going to set off a worldwide manhunt. If he dropped a building with a couple thousand people in it, they were as good as rescued, but Danny wasn’t a killer. And there was the problem of getting explosives to detonate. It could be done; he could redirect a couple of military bases but that would get complicated.

It was down to the first two ideas. He was only going to get one chance. It had to work. But he wouldn’t know until he was back inside the needle and tested the system. First, he had to find Lucinda.

Pick a fight.

Danny took his tray to the return window. Sid was in a conversation with someone across the table, but kept an eye on Danny as he filled a to-go box with food. Danny closed the lid and held up his hand for Sid to see, all four fingers and thumb.

He had Sid’s full attention as he dropped one finger at a time. When he folded the last one into a fist, he started walking right at their table.

Sid was out the exit before twenty feet.

Danny tapped on the door. He didn’t expect an answer. He turned the knob, poked his head inside, slowly. There was a lump on the bed. The curtains were closed. Danny didn’t bother closing the door quietly. Zin had been asleep for two days.

“Zin, my man.” Danny pulled one of the curtains open. “Let the sunshine in, brother.”

The light fell on his face with no effect. His head was half-buried in the pillow, mouth open. His complexion was lighter, a grayishness mixed with mocha. But still dark beneath his eyes.

“Hey, man, wake up.” Danny shook him. “You got to eat or you’ll shrivel up like a leaf.”

Zin moaned, smacking white slime between his lips. Danny sat him up. Zin’s head lolled around. “What time is it?”

“Daytime,” Danny said. “You need to join the living while you’re still alive. I brought you some food, here.” He doled out an apple, a turkey sandwich with spinach and tomato, a bag of chips and a container of pudding. “Get some of this in you before you fall asleep again.”

Zin was beginning to collapse.

“Hey, come on.” He shook his shoulders. “Throw some water on your face or something. Wake up.”

Zin rubbed his eyes then shuffled to the sink. When he turned around, his eyes were at least open. So was his mouth.

“The mouth-breathing is starting to annoy me, you know,” Danny said.

“Then look the other way.”

“Can’t you just breathe through your nose or something?”

“I’m too tired.”

Zin started for the bed.

“Ah-ah-ah.” Danny pulled the hard chair from the desk. “Have a seat, my friend. You’re eating and then we’re going to the Yard. If your skin gets any lighter, you’ll officially be Caucasian.”

“I didn’t realize it was that easy.”

“You see yourself lately? You’re a ghost.”

“Well, that’s how I feel.” He fell into the chair and limply unwrapped the sandwich. He leaned back and chewed with his mouth open. “This sucks, dude.”

“Sorry. I would’ve taken your order but you were busy snoring.”

“Not this.” Zin held up the sandwich. “I feel like I’m barely here, like a puppet down to one string. I can barely remember anything. It’s like everything that was me is still in Foreverland.”

“Right now, get some of this highly nutritious food in you and stop complaining. We can get to the Yard and if we got time we can chase Sid around.”

Zin was still awake but the distant gaze fogged over his eyes while he stuffed chips in his mouth. Danny had learned not to push. It was better to let him zone out from time to time. He was more responsive afterwards. As long as he was awake, he’d eventually come back. Danny pulled his notes out of his pocket. It wasn’t much and he didn’t need anything written down. It would be better to destroy it. He took a pen from the desk drawer and blacked out all the words.

“What’s that?” Zin shot food out with the words.

“Nothing, just ideas.”

Danny wadded up the paper and tossed it in the air, playing catch with himself. He couldn’t decide which idea to go with. Maybe he could bounce them off Zin, he would know what to do, but it wasn’t worth the chance. He was going to disappear after the next round and who knows if he talked in his sleep. He might blab the whole plan to his Investor and Danny would be screwed to the max.