Brainrush 04 - Everlast 01: Everlast by Richard Bard Page A

others,
like he did with patients at the VA, and his enhanced memory and cognitive
abilities were as strong as ever. The retention of those talents had been more
than he could’ve hoped for, and more than he’d required in the relative peace
of the past eighteen months. But now everything had changed and he needed every
edge available to him.
    Regardless of the cost.
    He slid into the car. Eloise was still unconscious, her head
resting on Doc’s lap.
    “They’ve got my kids,” Jake said, pulling away from the
curb.
    “Dear God,” Doc gasped. “What are we going to do?”
    Good question, Jake thought, but first things first.
    He needed to stop at the house.
    Five minutes later, Jake parked the car one street over from
his house and then approached on foot from the rear alley. A scan from the
neighbor’s side yard confirmed there was no apparent activity in his home, so
he climbed over the wall and slipped through the back door into the family room.
The house was quiet. The modest furnishings hadn’t been disturbed and he felt a
pang of loss as he flashed on the relaxed evening the family had shared the
night before: catching up with one another over a simple meal, watching TV, a
tickle fight on the couch.
    Ducking to avoid being seen through the front picture window,
he made his way up the staircase and headed straight for the safe hidden
beneath the cedar floorboards in his closet, thankful that Francesca had never
discovered its presence. It was his secret place, kept from everyone. The cash,
false ID docs, and disguise kit hidden within would provide him with the means
to get off grid, and the ampoules, hypodermics, and other specialty items would
give him an edge. But it was the miniature pyramid that would make him
unstoppable—at least for a while.
    Before fleeing the Order’s island complex a year and a half
ago, he’d plucked the “mini” from the elaborate chair-with-skullcap that had
linked his son to the grid of pyramids threatening the planet. He’d kept its
presence a secret from everyone, letting them believe it had been destroyed in
the conflagration, knowing that knowledge of its existence would spawn disaster.
He also remembered all too well how he’d become addicted to it years ago,
relishing the way it had supercharged his abilities while being unaware of the
dire consequences to his body. It had killed him. The government had revived
him long enough to replace his failed heart, but for six years they’d been
unable to bring him out of the resultant coma.
    Yes, taking the mini had been a risk and he’d second-guessed
his action a dozen times—until he’d discovered that his last encounter with the
Grid and the alien pyramids had changed his brain in ways he still didn’t
understand, linking him to the device forever. Excessive exposure would kill
him, but zero exposure could be worse.
    Without its trickle charge...
    Suppressing a shudder, he pushed the thought away. In any
case, it wasn’t likely that he’d ever have to face that fear. In order to save
his family, he planned to fully embrace the mini’s power.
    He’d tap its strength until his final breath.
    He pried up the floorboards, entered the combination, and
opened the safe.
    The mini was gone.

Chapter 10
Manhattan Beach, California
    T HE TWO-BEDROOM SUITE of the Manhattan Beach
motel was small but clean. It was the last unit on the bottom floor of the
L-shaped structure, offset from Pacific Coast Highway by a drive-through
portico, the kind of place locals drive by hundreds of times a year without
really noticing it. The parking lot surrounded a fenced swimming pool. It was
only five minutes from the airport and featured free high-speed Internet. Jake
had paid with cash for a week’s stay.
    It was as good a place as any to hole up while he figured
out what the hell he was going to do. The text he’d received from his buddy in air
traffic control hadn’t been much help. Seven private flights had departed from
the two