Split second, p.31
Split Second, page 31
“So you can access endless Nathan Wexlers,” said Blake, “but not the one you need. Ironic isn’t even the word for it.”
Knight ignored this jab. “There was a chance they weren’t really trying,” he said, “or had found what I was looking for but didn’t want me to have it. So I tortured a few of them to death, just to be sure. Turns out they were telling the truth.”
Nathan Wexler couldn’t move his mouth, but his eyes conveyed absolute revulsion.
Knight smiled. “That’s the beauty of having different versions of a person,” he said. “It really lets you be creative. Some you can treat like kings. Others you can bully and torture. And you get to see what inducement is more effective. This man here has been treated like a king and had no idea there were other versions of himself working on the problem, or getting tortured to death.”
“You are a sick, demented sadist!” spat Jenna, acid dripping from her every word. “You don’t know what sparked Nathan’s breakthrough, but you know for certain it wasn’t torture. Yet you did it anyway. But I’m sure you had a rational reason for what you did, right? Because you aren’t a pathetic psycho, you’re the paragon of rationality.”
“I wasn’t trying to spark a discovery. I was making sure they weren’t holding out on me.”
Blake shook his head in disgust. “But in that case—”
“No more discussion!” interrupted Knight, rising from his chair. “It’s time to cut to the chase.” He faced the Jenna he had captured that morning. “So what do you say, Jenna? I need that file. But I’m willing to make this easy on all of us. I’ll offer you the deal of a lifetime. Get me that file, and I’ll reunite you with the man you love.”
“This is all so . . . wrong,” said Jenna. “What you’re doing, what you’re planning to do . . .” She paused, searching for the right words. “It’s atrocious. It’s grotesque. I’m more certain than ever that I won’t help you.”
Knight turned toward the gagged version of Jenna Morrison, drew a gun, and shot her twice in the chest. She fell forward, held to the chair by her legs, as blood poured from her body and collected in a widening pool around her chair.
Jenna and Nathan Wexler both screamed at the same time, although Wexler’s screams were muffled by the duct tape covering his mouth.
“That’s better,” said Knight calmly. “No one wants to share their man, after all. Even if the person they’re sharing with is themselves. So now that he’s all yours, Jenna, how about it?”
“You are the sickest bastard who ever lived!” screamed Jenna, on the edge of hysteria.
“I’m just a man willing to do what’s necessary to save the species,” said Knight, as though he expected to be congratulated. “And as for you,” he added ominously, “you did say you were willing to die a thousand deaths before you would help me.”
He nodded at Jenna Morrison’s dead body. “Well, good news—you just might get that chance.”
54
Knight seemed completely untroubled by the presence of a cadaver slumped over in a chair nearby, and the sickening amount of blood she had left on the wood floor below her feet.
“You see how this works,” he said to Jenna. “You can’t win. I can make a copy of you and then torture you to death. If you won’t help me, I’ll try something else with the copy. Eventually, I’ll find the key.”
Knight gestured to Nathan Wexler. The physicist’s face was now as tear streaked as Jenna’s and he looked like he had been hit by a train. “In fact, why don’t I start the festivities by torturing this man, this new widower, while you watch. The man you love more than life itself. The man you thought you lost forever. Then I can fetch another copy of him and try again.” He smiled. “Isn’t time travel fun?”
Jenna’s tears had stopped, almost as though she had run out, and she looked as emotionally spent as Wexler. “I’ll help you,” she said. “I will. But under one condition: you let Aaron Blake and this version of Nathan go. Once they call me and tell me they’ve made it to safety, I’ll give you what you want.”
Knight shook his head in disappointment. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Sorry. I’m willing to bet you’ll break sooner rather than later using the other methods I just mentioned. But isn’t it interesting how irrational you’ve become. You’re convinced I’m a monster and will destroy the world. And yet you’re suddenly willing to sell out all of humanity in exchange for just two men. You’d never catch me doing that.”
“Yeah, you’re a real hero,” growled Jenna through clenched teeth.
She paused for several long seconds, taking deep breaths to calm herself. “I’m not willing to sell out humanity,” she added finally. “But part of me thinks your actions may be as necessary as you say. That without a psychopath like you running the show, the world will self-destruct. Saddam Hussein was a psychopath, too, but at least he maintained order in the most volatile region on Earth. So I am doing the math. I have to admit, my love for Nathan Wexler does factor in heavily, but maybe you really are the answer, God forbid.”
Her face hardened. “So I’ll make one last offer,” she said. “Remove their restraints and let them exit this building. Then give them a thirty-minute head start. You can have dozens of men guarding this room so they can’t circle back. But give them thirty minutes. After that they’re fair game, in the truest sense of the word game.”
“Your proposal is for me to hunt them like animals, and you think I’m the one who’s sick?”
“I have confidence in Aaron Blake’s skills. Do you have confidence in your security? And you get to win twice. You get your holy grail without having to spill more blood on your office floor. And you get to test your security arrangements. You seem to be a big fan of survival of the fittest. This would pit one unarmed man against hundreds. Thousands. Surely your people can stop a single ex-Army Ranger and an egghead physicist from leaving your little lake, right?”
“Just so you know,” said Knight, “they won’t be able to get a message out to your allies, if that’s your plan. I have some of the most brilliant minds in history here, many of whom no doubt want to escape. So I hired consultants to block all communication off the island, from landlines, cells, or computers. Cells can’t get voice, text, e-mail, or Internet.”
From Knight’s bearing, it was obvious he was quite proud of this accomplishment. “Ninety-nine percent of the people here have no knowledge of our activities,” he continued, “so I’ve maintained the fiction that the island never did get coverage. It’s a hardship for employees here, and they know the cover story is bullshit, but they’re paid too much to complain. So if anyone who is here against their will ever does manage to steal a phone, they can’t call for help.
“And Internet is incoming only,” continued Knight. “Brain Trust scientists, and others on this island, can enter terms into a Google search bar, but that’s the only way they can interact with the outside world. The results of their searches can be opened and downloaded, but it’s one-way traffic only.” He smiled. “None of this was easy to do, but it is quite foolproof.”
Knight paused. “But don’t you worry, Jenna. I know you’ll have to enter codes to retrieve the file I need. But on this floor and the one below—both the most heavily guarded real estate on the island—Internet and phone communications are unrestricted, so you won’t have any trouble.”
“Thanks for clearing that up,” said Jenna, rolling her eyes. “But I couldn’t care any less. So let me repeat my offer. Give them a thirty-minute head start,” she continued, gesturing toward Blake and Wexler. “In exchange, I’ll give you the breakthrough you want. The work of the second coming of James Clerk Maxwell.”
“Fifteen minutes.”
Jenna was silent for several seconds. “It has to be a fair head start.”
“Of course. Other than this floor and the one below, I’ll have security in this building stand down for the full fifteen minutes, unless they’re attacked. Not only won’t my men here go after them, they won’t alert the security apparatus on the rest of the island.” He shrugged. “Not that they’ll need to.”
Jenna paused in thought once again. Finally, she nodded. “Agreed.”
“Why would you do this?” said Knight.
“Were you not listening? I told you, there is a chance what you’re planning to do is a necessary evil. Giving you this information might actually save the world. And I have confidence in Aaron Blake. He’ll find a way to get Nathan out of here to safety.”
“You are suffering from some pretty severe delusions,” said Knight. “But why not? I’m truly looking forward to identifying any weaknesses in my security. The farther Blake gets, the more he’ll be helping me.”
He smiled. “You have yourself a deal.”
55
Knight issued commands to his PDA and soon various members of his organization snapped into action. Within minutes the lifeless body of Jenna’s doppelganger was removed from the office and what seemed like gallons of blood cleaned up with very little trace.
Two heavily armed men led Nathan Wexler and Aaron Blake from the room. Once they had left, two additional guards were stationed by the twenty-second-floor elevators, and four more just outside the entrance to Knight’s suite.
Knight instructed these men not to interrupt him under any circumstances, and he explained to Jenna that the inner walls of the penthouse floor were reinforced and virtually impregnable, so she shouldn’t expect any heroic rescues from Blake.
The office area of the suite was ringed with eight plasma screens, each larger than the last, and one of them was on the wall over Jenna, who was still strapped to the steel chair. Knight had his PDA display video feeds on it, two views of the twenty-second floor, just in case: the bank of four elevators and the entrance to his lair.
On a different screen, one that he and Jenna could both see clearly, he had his PDA display the progress of Aaron Blake and Nathan Wexler as they were led to the ground floor and escorted outside.
“Okay, Jenna,” said Knight. “You’re getting your wish. None of my men in this building will molest them for fifteen minutes, unless they initiate. Security elsewhere on the island has not been alerted in any way. I’ll leave it to them to figure out that these men are on the loose and do something about it.”
“Aaron Blake is going to beat your security and survive,” said Jenna confidently.
Knight laughed. “Aaron Blake and a small army couldn’t get off this island alive,” he countered. “But I believe we had an agreement. I’ve held up my part.” He gestured toward her expectantly. “Now it’s your turn.”
She studied the monitor as Blake and Wexler disappeared around the edge of the building.
“Okay, get to a computer and I’ll tell you what to do,” said Jenna. “But not until the full fifteen minutes have gone by. It’s not that I don’t trust you to give them their full head start,” she added, “it’s just that I don’t trust you to do anything you say.”
Knight smiled, unoffended. “Fair enough,” he said, moving to a computer ten feet away. “You have just over thirteen minutes.”
* * *
“Purse your lips,” Blake instructed Wexler the moment they were left alone at the foot of Knight’s building.
The physicist looked confused.
“Are they pursed?” said Blake impatiently, and got a nod in the affirmative.
Blake reached up and ripped the tape from Wexler’s mouth with considerable force and speed.
The physicist let out a squeal of terror and discomfort but then blew out a long breath in relief as he realized his lips were still intact, thanks, no doubt, to his companion’s advice.
His eyes reflected a deep anguish, and not just due to their current circumstances. He had seen the woman he loved killed in front of him. Knowing there was still a Jenna Morrison alive was some consolation, but the woman who was shot was the one he had spent the past three months with on Knight’s island.
“We need to get back inside,” said Blake, pointing toward the building they had just left. He shoved the piece of duct tape he had removed into his pocket. “Come on! Quickly!”
“Why?” said Wexler.
“They’ll expect us to move as far away from here as we can, as fast as we can. But we’re sitting ducks outside. I’m sure we’re on camera right now. But once inside we can raid a bathroom, storage closet, or lab and get a broom or plunger or something else we can use to knock out the cameras on as many floors as possible before our fifteen-minute head start is up. Once we do that, there are lots of rooms in which to hide and plan. They’ll have to do a floor-by-floor search.”
“Why bother?” said Wexler as they reentered the first floor of the building and Blake hit the button for the fifth. “I’m glad Jenna made this arrangement, since Knight would have gotten what he wanted anyway, and now at least she won’t be tortured. I love her even more for trying to protect us. But I’ve been here three months and have a taste of the kind of security this madman has in place. Believe me, escape is impossible.”
They arrived at their floor and Blake looked up and down the long corridor, ringed with office doors and what looked like labs. The coast was clear. “Come on,” he whispered, stepping from the elevator.
“Didn’t you just hear what I said? Knight is going to win. We should just surrender. What’s the point of this?”
“I’ll tell you the point,” said Blake. “But listen well and fast, because I don’t have time to repeat myself.”
* * *
The fifteen minutes had ended three minutes earlier, making Blake and Wexler fair game, but Knight continued to stare at his monitors. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “He’s as impressive as you say. They’ve reentered this building, and he’s managed to blind us on the first, fifth, seventh, and ninth floors already. Not to mention all four elevators. Nice.”
Knight finally turned from the monitor, which showed various members of building security cautiously making their way through the stairwells toward the floors in play. Just before he completed his turn, a red warning light appeared once again, indicating they had lost video feed on the eleventh floor as well.
“As interesting as this manhunt is,” said Knight, “It’s time to see that file. Time to learn how to extend my reach.” He frowned. “I wish the universe would allow for time travel of a minute or two—which would open up some truly staggering possibilities—but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. I’ll have to settle for the nearly half-second that Dr. Wexler will make possible.”
Jenna provided instructions for how to access the file in the cloud, and how to get it open. It was a lengthy process, and she walked Knight through it step by painstaking step.
* * *
Nathan Wexler was in awe of his companion’s resourcefulness and speed of decision making. The man hadn’t had time to give his background. Wexler only knew that he was working for someone named Lee Cargill and a group dedicated to bringing Knight down.
Blake had listened with rapt attention as Wexler told him everything he knew about the layout of the twenty-two-story structure.
Blake ushered the physicist into yet another elevator and pressed the button for the nineteenth floor.
“They’ve had plenty of time to mobilize,” said Wexler. “So why are we using the elevator and going to a floor that still has video?”
“Even though I knocked out video in the elevators,” Blake explained as they began their ascent, “they’ll expect us to be taking the stairs. And they’ll think what you just thought. That we’ll be sticking to the floors that are blind.”
“So why not go directly to the first floor? I told you that’s where we need to be.”
“You also described the security there. We have to improve our situation first. And I have something else I need to do beforehand. You’re sure nineteen is the medical wing?”
“Positive.”
The elevator door opened and no one was in sight.
“If anyone is even watching this floor now,” whispered Blake, “which is doubtful, they’ll be looking for two men together. So we need to split up. I’ll go first. Wait about a minute and follow. Don’t look up at any cameras and move slowly, like you have all the time in the world. Find the suite of doctor’s offices. I’ll be in one of them. Look for duct tape on the door and you’ll know which one.”
Without waiting for a confirmation, Blake sauntered down the hall, staring down at his hands, which he held together near his chest as if he were holding a phone and studying the screen.
Wexler waited a minute, his heart racing, and followed. He passed two random strangers in the hall as he did, nodding hello, before coming to a hall with three offices belonging to doctors in Knight’s employ.
Even though three doctors served the medical needs of the island, only one was usually on duty, and this person often had little to do. The piece of gray duct tape that Blake had removed from Wexler’s mouth was hanging near the bottom of the door to the far left, which a nameplate indicated was the office of a Dr. Martin P. Fricke.
Wexler took a deep breath and entered. The room was empty except for Blake, who had no doubt forced his way in. Blake put a finger to his lips to motion for quiet. His other hand was clutching a scalpel with a two-inch blade that tapered to a lethal, stainless steel point, which he must have stolen from a storage closet.
Blake set the scalpel on the desk and hastily began rifling through every drawer in Fricke’s office, his scowl indicating he wasn’t finding what he was looking for.
“Wait here,” he whispered, lifting the scalpel once again. “There’s another empty doctor’s office down the hall. I’ll break in and mark it again with tape. Leave here in one minute and join me.”
Wexler waited the full minute and then located Blake once again, this time in the office of a Dr. Allene Rohrer. Once again he was tearing through her drawers, on a mission. His eyes lit up when he came upon a flash drive, which probably hadn’t been used in months, if ever.
