Chapter 21
Shane
The sky was getting light and Ethan was still staring into that screen, scrolling and sifting data while we watched.
I personally had only used SmokeScreen that one disastrous time a year ago, the one that ended with me being abducted and six of my colleagues murdered.
Not being a gearhead like Ethan and Freya, I didn’t really know the intricacies of how it worked. I just hoped that it would.
My ignorance had served me well in Halliwell’s dungeon.
All I had was vague sense about vastly accelerated dynamic machine learning.
The algo wrote new mini-algorithms for itself instantly whenever it encountered an obstacle, and if the computer had enough juice to make the vast number of computations, SmokeScreen would find a way to gently, unobtrusively, secretly ooze around any obstacle, like… well… smoke.
Or so it had been described to me, back in the day.
Rose, Jed, Remy and I all sat there guzzling coffee, nerves thrumming, while Frey and Ethan conversed in a code only a fellow super-nerd could understand.
We jolted up six feet into the air when the door opened, but it was just Kat, poking her head in.
“Trey is taking me and Holly down to the hospital,” she said.
“Angela said to tell you there are breakfast sandwiches ready. And three-berry muffins. We’re taking a box of them down to the hospital. Get ‘em while they’re hot.”
“Okay,” Jed said. “Thanks.”
Ethan smiled at her. The energy that buzzed between them gave me a stab of jealousy.
Lucky bastard. He’d passed all the trials on his quest to save the fair lady.
He’d come through with flying colors. So far, I hadn’t won any battles for mine.
The only thing she cared about was helping Reggie. If I failed at that…
I turned my mind away by force. That train of thought led to nowhere good.
Kat left, and the rest of us paced around, waiting for something to happen. Finally, Angela came in with a platter of food, muttering in disapproval about the importance of a good breakfast. Her usually beaming face looked pale and drawn.
An hour or so later, Frey and Ethan crowed loudly in triumph. “Yes!” Ethan and Freya high-fived with a resounding smack, and then hugged each other hard.
“What?” I demanded. “What did you do? Did you find something?”
“We got around another important wall,” Freya said. “With no apparent detection so far.”
“Well, that’s excellent, but now what? Have you gotten into their files?”
“Working on it,” Ethan said. “These things take time.”
That was a brief bright point that preceded another long, deep valley of boredom.
I began to regret my decision to be up here to witness the search, rather than staying down at the hospital to support Red.
That had been stupid. I was about to announce my decision to drive down to town when Frey and Ethan erupted again.
“Whoo-hoo!” Freya yelled. “Yes!”
“There’s a file here named R. Clarke, with an extensive document list,” Ethan told me, grinning.
“At least a hundred items. All of them are dated within the past three months. There’s also a record of drugs being sent to the Cascade Clinic, on a weekly basis.
” He looked over at us with a frown, his smile fading.
“That seems strange, considering what Rose found in the medicine.”
“Maybe the stuff in the fridge was a decoy,” Freya said.
“But what about the compound itself?” I insisted.
“Working on it… hang on.” Ethan’s eyes were fixed on the screen. “Here’s a document with a long list of chemicals. Rose, you’re up. Come take a look.”
Ethan rolled his chair away. Freya leaped up to fling herself at Jed for a celebratory kiss passionate enough to freak me out.
I had not processed my baby sister being married to my old Ranger buddy and long-time colleague Jed yet, but I was too distracted right now to be too uptight about it.
Rose leaned toward the screen, studying the recipe for Reggie’s medicine.
Damn. It was actually happening. It had worked.
Ethan looked over at me and grinned, holding up a warning hand. “Don’t you dare,” he said. “I’ve been up all night and my defenses are way down. If you get sloppy and emotional on me, I’ll fall apart all over you.”
“Fuck you, man. Don’t you dare try to shut me down.” I grabbed him and hung on. Ethan hugged me back, then pulled away, grinning.
“Let me call Kat,” he said. “I promised I’d keep her up to date.”
“Yeah, I said the same to Red.”
We turned away from each other, each pulling out our phones. Red picked right up. “Did you find something?”
“We found a file, with Reggie’s name, and lots of documents. Records of shipments of medicine to the Cascade Clinic—”
“And the medicine? Is there a file with the compound itself?”
“Rose is studying it now,” I said.
“My God, Shane.” Her voice wobbled.
“I know,” I said. “I feel the same way. Maybe we lucked out. Maybe we got this licked. If we can get Reggie off the firing range, we can take this fucker down. And after that…” My voice trailed off.
“Yes? And after that?” she prompted.
I felt a pang of nervous doubt. “We shouldn’t tempt the gods,” I said. “I guess afterward will take care of itself. As long as my afterward has you in it. And I mean, forever. Until the sun supernovas. If you’re willing, of course.”
She let out a joyful sniffle. “Count me in,” she said. “Willing doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
I walked over to the window, trying to get out of earshot of the rest of the room’s occupants. “Red,” I said, my voice low. “I’ve never said this to anyone, in my life, except for my family, but I—”
“Don’t feel like you have to say it just because I broke you out of that place,” she said. “That was pure self-interest on my part. I needed help for Reggie.”
“I’ll be grateful if I damn well please. And I’ll fall in love with you for whatever damn reason I want. You can’t dictate that, Red.”
“Um. Okay.” There was a whisper of laughter in her soft voice. “If you say so. Look, we’ll have to argue about why we’re in love some other time, because—”
“So you’re in love with me, too?” I blurted. “Damn, that’s a relief.”
She laughed under her breath. “I can’t think of any other explanation for this incredible feeling,” she said. “But we can analyze our tender emotions later, because one of Reggie’s doctors is signaling that he needs to talk to me, okay?”
“Call me back after?” I asked. “I want to continue this conversation. It was going to really interesting places.”
“Sure thing,” she said. “I love hearing your voice. I want to go those places, too. And I want to hear all about everything that Rose finds. Talk to you in a few.”
We closed the call, and I turned to see the hidden smiles, the twinkling gazes that flicked away.
“What?” I demanded. “What’s all the smirking about?”
“I could have told you she was in love with you,” Frey said. “If you’d asked me. Might have saved you a little suspense. But it’s good to keep a man on his toes.”
“Is that a fact?” Jed complained. “Always the toes. My poor, aching toes.”
At that moment that I registered the tone of Rose’s voice. No longer happy and excited. It sounded confused. Apprehensive.
“… strangest ingredients,” she was saying to Ethan. “This can’t be right.”
“What can’t be right?” he asked.
Everyone had tuned in at this point. We clustered around the computer to hear better.
“The ingredients. They make no sense,” she said, frowning.
“It’s pharmaceutical gobbledygook. Formulas of common over-the-counter drugs, painkillers, constipation relievers, blood thinners, beta-blockers, antacids and anti-inflammatories, all tossed together.
Plus random stuff like baking soda and rubbing alcohol.
It’s a big, poisonous nothing-burger. As if someone were pranking you. ”
“Oh shit,” Freya whispered.
“Only one reason anyone would do that,” Ethan said. “Move over, Rose.”
She slid swiftly away. As Ethan rolled into place in front of the screen, it turned a luminous green color, and files began to scroll all their own, faster and faster.
My gut flash-froze. Oh fuck. Oh no, no, no.
“Fuck me.” Ethan muttered, as his fingers pounded at the keyboard. “I can’t get in. But SmokeScreen never sensed any malware! It didn’t show up on any of the scans!”
The scrolling turned so fast, it became a dizzying blur followed by a brief, blinding flash of light… and the screen went black.
In the horrified silence that followed, we watched as a pinpoint of light appeared in the center of the screen, growing like the light of an oncoming train. It got bigger, until I recognized it. It was an image, one that I’d seen just the day before.
It was the logo for Red Queen Consulting, the one that Reggie had drawn, and that Red had been so proud of.
That cat-like cartoon face, with the big, tilted light green eyes, halo of curly red Medusa-like locks, waving wildly out from her golden crown, but this image had been animated.
The Medusa hairs wiggled like real snakes, the laughing mouth was continually blowing a kiss, one of the green eyes kept winking.
And a rainbow-tinted, glowing worm wiggled in an endless circle around her.
Beneath her, a short piece of script began to cycle. Red Queen Consulting – Off With Their Heads! – Red Queen Consulting – Off With Their Heads!
“Cass’s outfit,” Remy’s voice was heavy.
“It’s one of her worms,” Ethan said, his voice expressionless. “It swallowed SmokeScreen, and everything else with it. And we are fucked.”
I pulled out my phone and dialed Red’s number again.
It rang, and rang, and rang.