The future next door box.., p.50
The Future Next Door Boxed Set, page 50
Cheek laughed. “You know the answer to that. No, I can’t risk anyone knowing you were here. I’ll dispose of you, get these three safely transported, and destroy this building behind me.”
“They’ll find my body!” Alan shouted. “People know I was in this building. They’ll know I’m missing. They’ll figure out the body is mine and come after you!”
“There’ll be no body to find,” Cheek said. “The teleport device, it breaks down solid matter, converts it to information. If I don’t send the information to the receiving cabinet, it will simply be lost.”
“I’m not getting in that thing,” Alan said. “You’ll have to shoot me right here. I’m not making it easy for you.”
“That was the whole idea,” Cheek said. “I don’t need you alive to disintegrate you.”
He gripped the gun with both hands again, and took careful aim at Alan’s head.
Chapter Sixteen
Mark suspecting
“Knock.”
“I’m not going to knock, Mark,” Dakota said. “He said he’d come out to meet us.”
“Do you have a key? We could just go in.”
“Oh, no, we couldn’t do that,” Tayisha said. “Nobody’s allowed in a lab unless you’re a part of the team working there.”
“I’m knocking.”
“Mark, chill out!” Dakota said. “You’ve been a pain in the behind all day!”
Mark was standing outside an elegant wooden door in a long hallway in the Keaka Capital building. He had ridden the subway in awkward silence that morning with Dakota and Tayisha. When they had arrived, Mister Keaka had already been and gone. The woman in the office next to his, whose name was Janice and who was one of about a million assistants Keaka surrounded himself with, told them that he would be downstairs all day and they probably wouldn’t see him. She told them that he had asked not be disturbed, then she had scurried off to join him.
Mark had camped out next to Dakota’s desk insisting that they try to reach him. Dakota and Tayisha had resisted, unwilling to go against their boss’s orders, but as the end of the work day approached and Mark grew more and more insistent, Tayisha had finally agreed to send Keaka a text message asking if they could have a few minutes. He had told them to meet him at the door to one of the labs.
Mark stepped past Dakota and, before she could grab his arm, knocked three times on the door. It opened almost immediately and Jack Keaka slipped out, closing the door behind him. The handsome businessman looked exhausted.
“Sorry,” he said. “Things are kind of crazy down here. You are...?”
“We’re so sorry, Jack,” Dakota said. “This is my friend Mark.”
Jack’s eyes lit up and his harried expression broke into a smile. “Mark Park! Of course!”
He grabbed Mark’s hand and shook it vigorously. “I am so glad to meet you,” he continued. “I was there when...when you...”
Jack looked at Tayisha, uncertainly, still holding Mark’s hand clasped in his own.
Tayisha looked confused. “Are you talking about...?” She looked at Dakota. “Does he know?”
“I told Tayisha about what happened with Amalgamated Synergy, Jack,” Dakota said. “But not...” She trailed off.
Jack sighed. “Thank you for your discretion, Dakota, but if I can’t trust Tayisha...” he said. “Mark, I was there. I was in Ackerman’s office when everything happened. I was under AmSyn’s complete control.”
Tayisha gasped. She put her hands to her mouth.
“Oh,” Mark said, his righteous anger deflating. “Right. I knew that. I think I remember you, now that I see you.”
Mark started to pull his hand away, but Jack held it firm.
“I want to...” Jack started. “Oh, fuck it.”
Jack pulled Mark into a hug, holding on to the handshake with one hand and throwing the other arm around Mark’s shoulders.
“Thank you,” he said softly in Mark’s ear. “It was a nightmare. Thank you for your part in ending it.”
Mark thought it might be the most sincere hug he had ever received. He was having a hard time remembering why he was mad at this guy. He patted Keaka on the back.
“Yeah,” Mark said. “Uh, sure. No sweat.”
Jack broke away. “All right, now that I’ve thoroughly embarrassed myself, what can I do for you? Is it something to do with Amalgamated Synergy?”
“Yes,” Mark said.
“No,” Dakota said. “It’s about a woman named Lidia Piotrowski.”
Jack’s eyes widened. “Lidia? You’ve got my attention. What about her?”
“She used to work for you?” Mark said.
“No,” Jack replied. “I was a partial funder of some of her research, and my support included the donation of some work space here in the building. She wasn’t an employee. Why are you asking about her?”
“She runs a theater now, Jack,” Tayisha said. “Their roommate is in a play there, and when she mentioned Lidia’s name, I recognized it. It’s probably just a coincidence.”
“It’s more than that,” Dakota admitted. “Some people have disappeared. Our roommate thinks Lidia might be involved.”
“Lidia Piotrowski? A kidnapper?” Jack said. “That’s hard to believe. She’s a sweet little old lady. She’s running a theater now?”
“In the East Village,” Dakota said.
“I suppose that makes a strange sort of sense,” Jack said. “Her daughter was an actress.”
“Why did she stop working here?” Mark asked.
Jack leaned back against the door. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and stifled a yawn.
“Sorry, long couple of days,” he said. “I pulled my support. I hated to do it, I was very fond of her. But she had become obsessed with her daughter’s death. Couldn’t talk or think about anything else. Her daughter died many years ago, but Lidia never got over it. She just wasn’t able to focus on her work. Wasn’t getting results. I’m glad to hear she’s running a theater. Best thing for her. Why do you think she’s involved in these disappearances?”
“It’s Caitlin who thinks it,” Dakota said. “Someone who works at the theater disappeared, and she thinks this woman has been behaving suspiciously.”
“Has she spoken with the police?”
“No. She doesn’t have anything but suspicions right now. Not really enough to go to the police.”
“We thought you might know more,” Mark said.
“Well, I’m sorry I don’t have anything to offer,” Jack said. “I doubt Lidia is involved, but your friend should tell someone if she thinks she’s seen something. Let the police decide if it’s worth investigating.”
“What was Lidia working on?” Mark asked.
“He can’t tell us that, Mark,” Tayisha said.
“Tayisha’s right,” Jack said. “Sorry. I signed a confidentiality agreement with Lidia. I’m not sure she’d care, but it’s the principle of the thing. I do need to get back into the lab – was there anything else you wanted to ask me?”
“Mark?” Dakota said, folding her arms. “There wasn’t anything else, was there?”
Mark looked at Jack Keaka, with his perfect salt-and-pepper hair and blindingly white teeth. The guy oozed charisma, there was no doubt about it. He was handsome and charming and sincere and just an all-around nice guy.
Mark believed that Jack wasn’t evil, or mind-controlled. But something was still nagging at him.
He started to answer, then stopped. Something about the way Jack was leaning against the door.
The wooden door, set in the wood-paneled walls.
Mark looked down at the deep crimson carpeting.
“No,” he answered at last. “Nothing else. Thanks. Sorry to bug you with this.”
“No problem at all,” Jack said. “But I really should...”
Jack stepped away from the door as it opened behind him. A man of about Mark’s age, maybe a bit younger, stepped out. He was black, with short, trim hair, wearing thick black glasses. Like Jack, he looked exhausted.
“Jack,” he said. “Oh, sorry to interrupt. Hey, Tayisha.”
“Hi, Eddie!” Tayisha said.
“Eddie, this is Dakota,” Jack said. “I told you about her, she’s my new PA. This is Doctor Eddie Bouchet. He works down here in the trenches.”
“Nice to meet you,” Eddie said.
Dakota shook his hand. “Likewise.”
“And this is Mark,” Jack continued. “A friend of Dakota’s.”
“Hey,” Eddie said.
Mark stared at Eddie dumbly for a moment, until Dakota elbowed him.
“Hey,” he said back.
Eddie turned to Jack. “We’re ready to try again, Jack.”
“I’m coming,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Mark.”
“Yeah, you too,” Mark said.
Jack held the door for Eddie, who slipped in under his arm. Jack followed, letting the door close behind them.
“I’m not sure we learned anything,” Dakota said. “But I’ll call Caitlin and tell her what Jack said.”
“Thank you for not asking about Amalgamated Synergy, Mark,” Tayisha said.
“I’m glad you saw reason,” Dakota said. “There’s no way he’d be involved with AmSyn. Never in a million years.”
“Okay, first off,” Mark said. “That guy is way too perfect to be for real, and I do not understand how you can’t see that. But whatever. Yes, I believed him. That’s why I didn’t ask him about AmSyn. He seemed sincere when he hugged me, even though it was super weird.”
“Fine,” Dakota said. “You can be rude to me, as long as you’re not rude to my boss. Can we go back upstairs?”
“Hold up,” Mark said. “I said I believed him. Not that I believe him.”
“I am going to slap you,” Dakota said. “What changed in the past few seconds?”
“Two things,” Mark said. “First, this hallway. Second, Eddie.”
“Eddie?” Tayisha said. “What about him?”
“I’ve seen him before. On Saturday, when Duff and I were being thrown all over town. We landed in a hallway pretty much identical to this one, and I saw Eddie. While I was on my trip around town. Eddie was the guy I saw talking to a soldier.”
“Oh!” Dakota said. She reached out the wall and leaned against it. “Oh.”
“There are soldiers,” Tayisha said. “In there. Sometimes when we have an especially sensitive project, if the government is also backing it, the army maintains a small presence. Not all the time. I’ve seen them when I’m checking on the lab that I manage. It’s the next door down.”
“Then that means you were here,” Dakota said to Mark. “You were brought here.”
“And, sorry, but that’s too big of a coincidence for me,” Mark said. He turned to Tayisha. “So, do you have a key to this door or not?”
Chapter Seventeen
Caitlin and Alan jumping
Caitlin walked as slowly as she could towards the glass cabinet, hoping some opportunity to escape would present itself. It didn’t. She stopped at the base of the machine and turned back to look at Lidia, who still held the gun pointed unwaveringly in her direction. Lidia looked sad, but there was no indication of hesitancy on her face.
“Please don’t do this, Lidia,” Caitlin said. “I know you’re not this woman.”
“I wasn’t,” Lidia said. “But I am now. Aasim and another boy have died for my work. That homeless boy will surely die soon. Their blood is on my hands and I won’t let that be in vain.”
There was the sound of the door opening and closing at the top of the stairs, and then footsteps. Lidia turned reflexively to look, but she was too far away for Caitlin to make a move while she was distracted.
The laboratory door opened and McAuley came in, limping slightly. He took in the sight of Lidia holding a gun on Caitlin and smiled.
“Can I do it?” he asked.
“Your bloodlust sickens me, Mister McAuley,” Lidia said. “It always has. We’re not shooting her, not unless she leaves us with no other option. Here, take this foul thing.”
She handed the gun to McAuley, who aimed it at Caitlin.
“What are we doing with her, then?” he asked. “More experiments?”
“The time for experiments is over,” Lidia said. “Get her in the cabinet, please. Don’t kill her. Shoot her in the leg if you have to.”
McAuley walked towards Caitlin, but stayed well out of her reach.
“You heard the professor,” he said. “Get in the booth.”
She hesitated.
“Please,” he said. “Try something. I would love an excuse to blow one of your kneecaps off.”
“You’re a shitty technical director,” she said.
“That’s because I’m not a technical director,” he replied. “But I swing a mean hammer. Wanna see?”
Caitlin turned away from his smug smirk and opened the glass door. She stepped up onto the platform and into the booth. McAuley crossed the room towards her and slammed the door shut. It rattled, the sound echoing in the small space.
Caitlin immediately tried the door. There was no handle on the inside, so she gave it a solid push.
“It won’t open,” Lidia said, sitting at the nearest desk. “It can’t be opened from the inside.”
Caitlin turned her back to Lidia and ran her hands over the green metal wall at the rear of the cabinet. It appeared to be seamless. She looked up. She could almost, but not quite, touch the hundreds of small lenses covering the ceiling. She considered jumping and trying to rip some of them out, theorizing it might disrupt whatever the booth was supposed to do.
“Hello, Doctor Cheek? Are you there?”
Caitlin turned. Lidia was speaking into a webcam on her laptop, but Caitlin couldn’t make out who was on the other end of the call.
“Of course I’m here. I answered, didn’t I?” came the reply.
“I can’t see you.”
“I have a situation here that requires my attention. What do you want, Professor? This isn’t a good time.”
“I have someone I need to send your way,” Lidia said.
“What? No, out of the question. I need to abandon this facility. You need to abandon yours as well. We’ve been compromised.”
“No!” Lidia shouted. “No, we can’t start over now! I’m ready! Amanda is ready!”
“You’re a senile old fool! We haven’t eliminated the chimera effect. Do you want to get your daughter back only to have her die choking on her own blood?”
“We HAVE eliminated the chimera effect,” Lidia insisted. “The adjustments we made after our last experiment have solved the problem. I’m sure of it.”
“You’d risk your daughter’s life on it?”
“There is no risk. I won’t wait any longer, and neither will Amanda.”
There was a long pause from the man. Then, “Fine. I think you’re being foolish, but it’s your decision. I’ll put Fat Don in the cabinet.”
“No,” Lidia said. “I’m not building my daughter’s body out of a homeless alcoholic.”
“I have someone else here we need to dispose of. He’s bigger than your daughter, we can use him. He’s very clean.”
“I have someone in mind,” Lidia said. “Someone more suitable. I’ll send her over as soon as you’re ready. Use whomever you like as the receiving matter.”
“And when whoever this is appears in my lab with her intestines hanging out of her mouth, will you reconsider reconstituting your daughter?”
“She won’t,” Lidia insisted.
“All right, then, give me a moment,” he said. “But pack up anything you need while you’re waiting for me. I’m activating our escape plan as soon as we’re finished.”
“That’s not necessary,” Lidia said.
“I say it is. I will bring whatever is left of your daughter to our backup location and meet you and Mister McAuley there. That’s my condition for going along with your foolhardy plan. Agreed?”
Lidia sighed. She looked around the room. “Agreed.”
“I’ll call you back when I’m ready.”
Caitlin heard the call disconnect. She banged on the glass.
“Lidia!” she called out.
Lidia ignored her, turning to McAuley instead. “I need to pack a bag. Is there anything you need from here? You won’t be able to get it later.”
“No, nothing,” McAuley replied. “I’ll be glad to see the last of this place.”
Caitlin braced herself against the back of the cabinet, ran forward and threw her shoulder into the glass door. It rattled, but gave no indication of weakening.
“Try again,” McAuley said. “I’m enjoying this show a lot better than that crapfest you’re doing upstairs.”
“Oh, the show!” Lidia said. She had stood and begun walking to the door, but paused. “You have a show tonight, don’t you? An audience?”
“Yes!” Caitlin said. “An invited dress rehearsal! People will be showing up by now. They’ll come looking for me. Tamsin knows I’m down here, she’ll tell them.”
“We’d better hurry then.” She shook her head. “All those people. Perhaps I should...”
“It’s for your daughter, Professor,” McAuley said.
Lidia threw her shoulders back. “Yes. Thank you, Mister McAuley. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Caitlin leaned back and kicked the door. It didn’t budge.
“Save yourself the effort,” McAuley said. He pulled Lidia’s chair out and sat down, tossing his legs up onto the desk. “I’ll just shoot you if you get out.”
“I’ll die if I stay in here,” Caitlin pointed out.
Lidia paused halfway to the stairs. “There’s no point, Caitlin,” she said. “The lock is reinforced. The glass is bulletproof. You won’t be able to force your way out.”
“Bulletproof, huh?” Caitlin said. “Good to know.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
“She has her phone!” Lidia yelled. “Why didn’t you take it from her?”
McAuley jumped to his feet. “Don’t girls keep those in their purses? Anyway, you took her hostage first!”
“Get it away from her!” Lidia shouted, hurrying back towards the cabinet.
While they were arguing, Caitlin had dialed 911. The signal was weak down in the basement, but it was strong enough.
