across the room, and you stay here on this couch, you’ll die.”
“In about ten seconds. Give or take a second.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“I’d say try it, but I’d rather you not. It really hurts.”
“Why is it ten feet? I mean, why not nine, or eleven? Is it ten feet exactly?”
“You know, it’s a bit hard to make careful scientific measurements when it feels like your brain is going to explode inside of your skull. But based on available evidence, I’d say yeah, this microscopic noose around my neck stretches to damn near exactly ten feet.”
Jack considered this.
“Hang on. You obviously don’t work in a lab all by yourself. Can’t your colleagues help you out? Fix this fatal error in the program? I don’t know … give you a blood transfusion?”
“They’re all dead. It’s why I left Ireland.”
Kelly looked at him, her eyes pleading with him to shut the fuck up and listen. Saying, This is going to be a difficult speech, so I’d prefer it if you stopped asking questions and let me tell it my own way.
At least that’s what Jack read her in eyes. He was familiar with that look. Theresa had mastered it long ago.
“I’ve always known that my line of work is dangerously competitive,” she said. “We’re not officially part of the government, but we’re not independent, either. We sign confidentiality agreements like you wouldn’t believe. And we’re required to attend exhaustive seminars on lab security. But all of that doesn’t mean fuck on a bike when five thugs with Kevlar suits and Rambo knivesstorm into your lab one morning and start slitting your coworkers’ throats.
“These guys, whoever the fuck they were, wanted the Mary Kates, and all of our project research. They left two of us alive to gather it up—yours truly and my boss. He managed to trigger a self-destruct sequence on our servers, but they got wise to it, stopped it, and they cut off a hand for being uncooperative. I’m not sure if he’s alive or dead.”
“And you?”
“I jumped through a window and ran.”
“Then how—”
“How did I get the Mary Kates in my blood? Lab accident. The time we were ambushed, each of us already had a fair amount of the little buggers in our systems. It’s one of the things we were, um, trying to perfect.”
“So the fatal error was introduced, and the satellite was still fixed on you.”
“Exactly.”
“And you haven’t been alone since then?”
“Grand, isn’t it?”
She rested her hand on his forearm. Her skin was soft and warm.
“Let me get this out before we go any further: You don’t have to believe me. In fact, I think you’d be crazy if you did. There’s a box full of printouts and a USB memory stick full of research that will corroborate my story. It’s in San Diego, in case anything happens to me.”
She paused. “Are you listening?”
Jack had been staring down, processing it all. “I am.”
“Thank God. I’d hate to think you were zoning out while I was telling you vital information that might be useful in the event of my premature death.”
“I was just—”
“Never mind. If I buy the dirt farm, go to the Westin HortonPlaza, downtown near the Gaslamp Quarter. At the front desk, ask for a package for Mary Kate.”
“Should I write this down?”
“No way, boyo. Memorize it.”
Jack scratched down the initials anyway: MK, WHP, SD.
“Okay, I got it. Mary Kate, Westin Horton Plaza, San Diego. But wait…. Can’t you try to locate your boss? Isn’t there a chance he’s alive?”
“Even if he were, that would be difficult. I don’t know his name. He referred to himself as ‘the Operator,’ and nothing more. He was obsessed with security. But now all that’s fucked, isn’t it?”
12:51 a.m.
Behind the Edison Avenue House
T
here
she was. Running along the banks of a rock-strewn creek that flowed behind the properties. You got yourself a smart woman, Ed. Instead of racing out into an empty street, where she
“In about ten seconds. Give or take a second.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“I’d say try it, but I’d rather you not. It really hurts.”
“Why is it ten feet? I mean, why not nine, or eleven? Is it ten feet exactly?”
“You know, it’s a bit hard to make careful scientific measurements when it feels like your brain is going to explode inside of your skull. But based on available evidence, I’d say yeah, this microscopic noose around my neck stretches to damn near exactly ten feet.”
Jack considered this.
“Hang on. You obviously don’t work in a lab all by yourself. Can’t your colleagues help you out? Fix this fatal error in the program? I don’t know … give you a blood transfusion?”
“They’re all dead. It’s why I left Ireland.”
Kelly looked at him, her eyes pleading with him to shut the fuck up and listen. Saying, This is going to be a difficult speech, so I’d prefer it if you stopped asking questions and let me tell it my own way.
At least that’s what Jack read her in eyes. He was familiar with that look. Theresa had mastered it long ago.
“I’ve always known that my line of work is dangerously competitive,” she said. “We’re not officially part of the government, but we’re not independent, either. We sign confidentiality agreements like you wouldn’t believe. And we’re required to attend exhaustive seminars on lab security. But all of that doesn’t mean fuck on a bike when five thugs with Kevlar suits and Rambo knivesstorm into your lab one morning and start slitting your coworkers’ throats.
“These guys, whoever the fuck they were, wanted the Mary Kates, and all of our project research. They left two of us alive to gather it up—yours truly and my boss. He managed to trigger a self-destruct sequence on our servers, but they got wise to it, stopped it, and they cut off a hand for being uncooperative. I’m not sure if he’s alive or dead.”
“And you?”
“I jumped through a window and ran.”
“Then how—”
“How did I get the Mary Kates in my blood? Lab accident. The time we were ambushed, each of us already had a fair amount of the little buggers in our systems. It’s one of the things we were, um, trying to perfect.”
“So the fatal error was introduced, and the satellite was still fixed on you.”
“Exactly.”
“And you haven’t been alone since then?”
“Grand, isn’t it?”
She rested her hand on his forearm. Her skin was soft and warm.
“Let me get this out before we go any further: You don’t have to believe me. In fact, I think you’d be crazy if you did. There’s a box full of printouts and a USB memory stick full of research that will corroborate my story. It’s in San Diego, in case anything happens to me.”
She paused. “Are you listening?”
Jack had been staring down, processing it all. “I am.”
“Thank God. I’d hate to think you were zoning out while I was telling you vital information that might be useful in the event of my premature death.”
“I was just—”
“Never mind. If I buy the dirt farm, go to the Westin HortonPlaza, downtown near the Gaslamp Quarter. At the front desk, ask for a package for Mary Kate.”
“Should I write this down?”
“No way, boyo. Memorize it.”
Jack scratched down the initials anyway: MK, WHP, SD.
“Okay, I got it. Mary Kate, Westin Horton Plaza, San Diego. But wait…. Can’t you try to locate your boss? Isn’t there a chance he’s alive?”
“Even if he were, that would be difficult. I don’t know his name. He referred to himself as ‘the Operator,’ and nothing more. He was obsessed with security. But now all that’s fucked, isn’t it?”
12:51 a.m.
Behind the Edison Avenue House
T
here
she was. Running along the banks of a rock-strewn creek that flowed behind the properties. You got yourself a smart woman, Ed. Instead of racing out into an empty street, where she
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