“Could be. Sounds vaguely familiar.”
“As much as I’d like to tell you to take your time, we can’t, Michael. The zombies are on a different timetable than us.”
“Mr. T?” Tommy asked. Was he asking for my decision, or why I was even contemplating it? Who the fuck knew?
“How many times can one make a deal with the devil before something gets firmly entrenched up an anal cavity or two?” I was looking straight at Deneaux, but if I was looking for some sort of a “tell” from her I was barking up the wrong tree. The woman could look a crying baby holding a kitten, in the face on Christmas day, and not show a lick of emotion. Unless, of course, maybe if a snake was trying to eat the baby, then she might crack the corner of her parched and withered lips.
Eliza was evil incarnate, you knew where you stood with her at all times. She wanted you dead, always and at any cost, pretty easy to figure her out. Deneaux, on the other hand, well it all came down to what purpose you could serve to better her life. She was a constant shifting sea of ambitions and conditions. You were safe if that suited her and dead if not. Trust was not something you could ever hope to achieve with Deneaux, the best you could hope for was a platform of mutually assured destruction.
“Kill the system. I’ll take your ass out of here, but once we’re safer…we part ways. I am not bringing you with me.”
“Those are acceptable terms.”
I grabbed Captain Najarian’s arm, as he seemed like he wanted to jump over the desk and stop her as she performed a set of keystrokes. The lights in the room flickered, and the monitors behind Deneaux got grainy, went to complete white static and then blackness. While I was watching all of this transpire, I took note that the captain’s struggle against my hold was now lackluster at best.
“How do you know I won’t just kill you now?” I asked her.
“How long do you think I’ve been dancing this dance, Michael? No matter the state of your soul or lack thereof, you still have a moral compass.”
She let that comment sink in. I’ve got to admit, hearing her say it out loud hurt a little more than I figured it would, and I’m not talking about the part about the compass. Although if she truly knew how far out of whack it was now that I was no longer moored to a soul, she might not be so smug. Sometimes that needle spun like I was going through the Bermuda Triangle.
“We need to leave. I suggest you finish Dixon off so that we can.”
“Bitch,” Dixon heaved out.
“And perhaps the captain if he doesn’t want to join us.”
“Wow, you are something special,” I said sarcastically.
“Coming from you, my dear, I will take that as a compliment. Well, I do believe it is time to go.”
“Naw, not quite yet. Something stinks here, and I know all about bad smells; I have an English Bulldog after all. See, you might be a world-class deceiver, Deneaux. Shit, you probably taught the devil a thing or two to hone his craft. But the captain here, well, he’s a different story. He should be a lot more distraught about you having just destroyed their safe haven. I mean, I would imagine this is one of the last bastions on US soil. And like he said, there are thousands here who rely on this place. Not only for food and shelter, but also for research and obviously for the grand designs of taking over a crippled planet and ruling it as any normal sociopath would. For all I know you just changed the channel.”
“I can assure you I have wiped the computer system clean,” she said calmly as she smoothly produced a cigarette from who knows where. I hadn’t even seen her put the cigar down.
“That’s it? No redundancies? Even at home I had an external hard drive in case my system crashed. Got to be a room full of servers that will have this thing back online and up and running before we can get halfway out of here.”
“How would I know? Do I look like a member of the Geek Patrol?”
“Squad,” I corrected.
“Squad, Patrol, what’s the difference?”
“Well, the fact that you even know about them lends credence to my argument. Look at you, my little liar,” I cooed. “Playing both ends against the middle. You get me to take you out of here, but always leaving the option that Dix here will be able to track you down and save you or, if he was smart, put a cruise missile up your ass. I’m going to need more proof that this place is shut down, or I’m not leaving, and I’ll gladly kill everyone in this room, save Tommy, to get the answers I want.”
“Appreciate that, Mr. T.”
“No problem, Tommy.”
“I need medical attention.” Dixon grimaced.
“I bet,” I said to him as I pushed the captain down into the chair next to him.
We all looked to the door as gunfire erupted down the hallways.
“We really should be going,” Deneaux said to me. I don’t think she was overly nervous, but she did have an air of concern about her.
“Where are the servers?” I asked Captain Najarian.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I squeezed his shoulder so hard I thought it was going to pop. He was a tough one, though; I didn’t get much more than a slight groan from him, and he never tried to pull away.
“How about you, Dix?” I asked as I extended my still bloody finger.
“I can’t tell you.”
At first I thought it was because perhaps somehow he didn’t know, but he surprised me with his honesty instead.
“If you destroy them, I will lose my chance to rule the world.”
“I can’t say I was expecting you to say that. Most people who are attempting to rule the world really don’t just come out and say it. Must be the pain clouding your judgment; because I don’t know how you think I would possibly let this place stand after you admitted that.”
“You stupid, little man, Dixon,” Deneaux seethed.
“Are you on my side now, Deneaux, or are you just admonishing him for taking one of your options away?” I asked her.
She smiled and, as she took an impossibly long drag from her cigarette, I think half of it disappeared with that one intake. Almost like she was using an iron lung to get her nicotine input.
Once again I jabbed a finger in Dixon’s wound, he howled in excruciation. I got to give it to the old bird—he didn’t crack. I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him.
“Mr. T, time is running short.” Tommy was peeking out the door.
“Not for Dix here. I’m sure it’s stretching into an unbelievable eternity every time I wriggle my finger.”
“Michael, you should heed the boy,” Deneaux said.
“Viv, Viv, Viv. In the short time we have gotten to know each other, have I never done what I said I was going to or at least attempted it?”
“You will promise me that you will do everything in your power to assure my safety while we escape this place.”
“Is that more of a statement or a question?” I asked her.
“Answer me, Michael, and I will give you the information you want.”
“You can’t!” Dixon shouted, attempting to stand.
“Oh, I assure you I can, Dixon. Michael has an uncanny ability to follow through.”
“I don’t fucking believe this, I’m going to get stuck with Deneaux again.”
“That is your word, you will honor it,” she said.
I tipped my head.
“It’s two corridors down, third door on the right. Door says, ‘RAID Servers One through Thirty-Six.’ ”
“Tommy?” I asked. He was keeping an eye on the corridor.
“It’s clear for now, but whatever’s coming is close.”
“What are you going to do with these two?” Deneaux asked, attempting to separate herself from her former allies.
“You bitch,” Dixon hissed again, seemingly stuck on this one word. Couldn’t blame him, maybe vary it up a bit though, I’m sure she’d heard that word so many times before that it had lost its impact.
“This?” I asked. “You’re mad about this? She
does this shit all the time. Gotta tell you, it’s nice not being on your end for once.”
“I’m sorry, Dixon. A girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.”
‘Girl?’ I thought-sent to Tommy. ‘I’m thinking that ship sailed a long time ago and probably ran on steam as well.’
Tommy laughed, that in itself was funny because it was so out of context.
“You’ll need to kill him, Michael,” Deneaux said, pointing to Dixon. “He will not stop until he has exacted his revenge. I may be cunning, but he is ruthless. You must remember, he has killed over ninety percent of the world’s population in an attempt to rule over the remainder. His hands are not simply wet with blood, they are stained with it.”
I knew he needed to be killed. This was the kind of shit that always got me in trouble. Good guys (okay, perceived good guys) always let the bad guys go when they have them dead to rights. It’s one thing to kill a man in combat; it’s expected. But the first thing a bad guy does when he is losing is plead for forgiveness, because he knows there’s a good chance he’s going to get it. Obviously, if the roles are reversed, the good guy is going to get drilled in the forehead; that’s why the bad guy is the bad guy. Being the good guy, always encumbered with morals and mercy, can be a pain in the ass. It’s tough to shoot a man with his hands in the air, no matter how much you want to. And yeah, Dixon’s hands were technically not in the air but rather protecting his wound, still…it’s the same thing.
“I’m not going to kill him in cold blood,” I told her.
“For Christ’s sake, aren’t you supposed to be the one without the soul?” she asked as she picked up her revolver. Dixon didn’t even have time to beg for his life or even attempt to stop the bullet with his hands as she placed one pretty much center mass in his sternum.
“What the fuck?!” I had backed up.
“He would have become a problem, Michael. I fancy myself a problem-solver.”
“I thought maybe at one time you had loved him.”
“Love? Him? Don’t be so naïve. You do know that love is merely a chemical reaction within the brain, right? The mingling of pheromones? It is no more the connecting of souls than basket weaving is to fine art.”
“Huh? I thought I was the one that made the bad analogies.”
“I am saying that I love a good butter cookie. That has use to me as I let the taste and texture melt on my tongue. Love for people is a myth. It is a weakness that allows us to be exploited. Even in a happy relationship, Michael, did you not feel that your love was used against you?”
“I’m pleading the fifth.” But when I thought about it, how many home projects had I undertaken, how many errands, how many crappy obligations had I lost a weekend to, all in the name of love? “Fuck if I’ll ever admit you’re right.”
“You don’t need to,” she replied as she opened up her revolver and exchanged the spent round for a fresh one.
“I have got to stop talking out loud. You’ve got it wrong though, Deneaux. I do believe some people are destined to be with others. Do I have to occasionally do some shitty stuff? Sure, but those nights when Tracy and I could just share them between the two of us with no outside distractions—that’s when the magic happened. And I’m not just talking about sex, some of the best nights I’ve ever had are when we just laid there in each other’s arms. Love…it is a tangible thing that you can feel. It’s a powerful feeling to know that someone always has your back.”
“That’s a lie!” she shot back. “When things are at their worst, individuals will always choose themselves over another. We are programmed to survive! Altruism is a fable. People save others so they can feel good about themselves.”
“I don’t know what happened to you that set you down this path, Deneaux, but your bitterness has caused you to miss out on some of the best things this life has to offer.”
“Pssh.” She waved me off as she closed her cylinder. She pointed the revolver at Captain Najarian. “What of him?”
“Captain?” I asked, truly hoping he would come along for the ride. Deneaux would plant him in that seat if he so much as flinched in the negative.
“A vampire, a half-vampire, and a crazy bat. Of course I’m in.”
“Splendid,” Mrs. Deneaux said as she lowered her weapon.
“We really should be on our way.” Tommy pulled back into the office.
“Can I have my weapon back?” the captain asked.
I was about to tell him sure when Deneaux spoke. “We’ll just wait a bit on that.”
“She’s about as trusting as a mole,” Tommy said.
“What?” I asked him.
“Moles are known as one of the least trusting animals in the animal kingdom.”
“You’re kidding, right? Forget it; let’s get to that server room so we can get out of here.”
As we moved out, constant gunfire reverberated throughout the hallways. Whenever there was a lull, it was punctuated with the screaming of men being devoured alive. More than once, the ground would shake as if someone was pulling pins on grenades or launching handheld missiles.
When the echoes from those large explosives would die down, you could sometimes hear the moaning of the undead as they seemed to mourn the passing of their humanity. That might be a little bit of an embellishment, as I’m sure it had more to do with the pit in their stomach caused by the endless need to eat the flesh of living beings. I liked the “mourning” theory better, though. It meant there was still some shadow of a person left. Well, shit, maybe that was worse. What would that shadow think as they were tearing out the throat of a child? Yeah, maybe the gnawing hunger thing was a better angle.
We saw a total of five soldiers as we headed to the server room. They were hauling ass. It was impossible to tell if they were heading into or away from the fray. Two of the men had expressions on their faces like they’d just caught their mother with their uncle in a compromised position and couldn’t get away fast enough. Two of the others looked like they’d just caught their wife with their best friend and were going to kill both. I think the other was probably a professional card player back in his day. He could have been going out for a turkey sandwich with the expression he wore.
“We’re here,” Tommy said as he gripped my shoulder. I’d been so intent on looking for imminent danger, I wasn’t even paying attention to the doors we were passing.
I twisted the handle, it didn’t move. Captain Najarian sidled up next to me and swiped a card he had hanging from a lanyard around his neck.
“Pretty good idea you didn’t shoot him now,” I said to Deneaux.
“Why? I could have just taken that card from his dead body.”
“Shit, she’s cold,” the captain mumbled.
“Yup,” I said as I opened the door.
I don’t know what I was expecting to see. I guess I was hoping for one large computer in the middle of the room that had a sign above it reading, “Back-up machine 1001” and I could put a couple of rounds in it and be gone. The room was massive—maybe forty by forty—and just flat out crammed with black boxes with varying lights blinking in greens, reds and the sporadic yellow. I could empty all my rounds in here and not feel confident I’d taken out the beast.
“Maybe we can snag a rocket launcher.”
“No time, Mr. T.”
“Shit.” I was rubbing a hand through my hair. “Everyone in. We’re going to tear each one of these down and smash the hell out of it.”
“That’ll take hours, Mr. T. I think we have minutes.”
“I don’t give a shit; I’m not leaving here as long as I know this place can come back on line. Dixon might be dead, but there’s never a limit on power-hungry assholes, and someone will want revenge. I get that, but they’re not going to have this advantage to do it. I will not allow my family to be in this degree of danger. Look at that, Deneaux. I am doing a selfless, sacrifice for my family because I love them.”
She sneered. “It’s not doing you any good, you’ll be dead.” S
he turned her attention to the captain. “Initiate the Data Dump.”
“What?” he asked.
“Do you believe I will shoot you in your balls?”
The captain moved over to a small workstation set in the corner without saying so much as a word. “I believe you would,” I told her.
“So does he.” She motioned with her gun.
“What the hell is a Data Dump?”
“I’ve yet to come across a clandestine group that didn’t have one. It is the ability to effectively and permanently destroy all data housed on the hard drives. And more importantly it’s much quieter than smashing.”
“And you can tell if he’s actually doing it?” We were both watching the captain and the monitor he was staring at, a stream of code flashing by the screen.
“Would you attempt deception if your manhood was on the line?”
“Good point. I hate to admit it, but sometimes having you on my side has its bonuses. I can’t believe I just said that. I really need to think before I talk.” I walked away. I took note that the lights on many of the servers began to blink rapidly and then one by one began to turn off.
“It’s done,” the captain stood, “I killed them all. Looks like you and I can be bunkmates in hell,” he said to Deneaux.
“I like my privacy,” she said.
I knew what was coming next.
“NO!” I tried to make it back to her. Fucking Deneaux—I’m pretty sure she was a faster draw than Doc Holliday, and she’d already had her gun out. The shot sent the captain spinning into the workstation. One of the legs collapsed on the table as he landed on it. The monitor shattered as it crashed onto his head. He died in a shower of sparks.
“What are you doing?” I skidded to halt at the captain’s feet.
“He programmed most of this, I’m sure he had some sort of retrieval code built in,” she said as evenly as if she’d just ordered a salad for lunch.
“Are you sure?”
“No, I’m not sure,” she spat, saying that last word with a nasal pitch; I think just to get my goat. Who am I shitting? Of course she did it to ruffle my feathers. “Did you really want to take the chance, Michael? What do you think the captain would have done once he came across some of his men? Do you believe he would just let us go? He might not have been as power hungry as Dixon, but he was most certainly not going to let this prized jewel slip into the night.”