IENDE Page 23

  “Whatever.”

  “How about shithead?” Kyle smiled, tentatively.

  “Well, shithead double-crossed me, us. But so did Samuel. And Eli. I think. I’m starting to wonder if I imagined it all, but it makes sense.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I think Eli wants to activate them. He lied to Victor.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “It makes sense. Think about it. It was all too easy. You, Victor, Samuel . . . you just happened to be approaching the house on the very same night shithead decided we were going to skip town. Shithead was playing Mr. Sands just like . . .”

  “Like what?”

  “Like he played me.”

  “I’m sorry, Remmie. I’m sorry about all of this.”

  “What? None of it’s your fault. None of it matters anyway.”

  “I may need your help driving at some point, but you look so tired. Try to get some sleep.”

  “We’ll need to drive straight through.”

  “Maybe there’s a way we can ditch this van and find another vehicle.”

  “I don’t think there’s time for us to figure that out. We need to get to Vegas, like Victor said.”

  “But that’s Samuel’s trailer. They’ll be waiting for us.”

  “No. Samuel doesn’t know that’s where we’re headed. I don’t get the sense Victor told him—maybe paranoia pays off sometimes. And they’ll be behind us. Either way, that’s where we’re going and we’ll need to accept whatever happens.”

  “Did you learn anything during your time with Mr. Sands that could help us?”

  “All I know is he wants them activated so he can influence the population. I know there’s some number sequence that only Victor understands, and it’s the key to changing the state of the Dames. Once people are activated there’s a discrete number of states the Dames can be in, each with a different function. On the brain, that is.”

  “Discrete states?”

  “It’s just what I heard.”

  “Well, I learned some self-defense moves. Samuel also taught me how to manage my emotions better, and to be patient. Apparently, that helps me be a more effective soldier.”

  “Yet he was lying all along.”

  “Victor accepted his own role in the death of his sister. He didn’t deal with it very well.”

  “Guilt is a powerful thing.” Remmie felt her own weight for being so gullible. Then she wondered how she and Kyle could possibly fix things. “What are we going to do? If we have the secret. I’m scared. Is this what our lives have become? Will we be on the run forever? We’ll never get our old lives back.”

  “Like Victor says, the only way is to deactivate them all, but . . .”

  “But what?”

  “To destroy them would kill everyone with Malclenersy. The Dames are what keep us alive, so if we destroy them, we die too.”

  What do you do when life provides you with no good options? “So either we spend our lives running until someone activates them, or we die stopping it.” The only solution would be to take each moment as it came, enjoy the good moments and survive the bad ones. Keep the mind focused on those good moments yet to be enjoyed, even if they were just a single drop of cool water in a blistering desert. She realized that’s what she’d been doing for the past few weeks, but her cool water—Bosco—turned out to be poisoned.

  Kyle brought her back. “Unless we join them.”

  “What do you mean? You’re joking, right? I’d rather die. What about our parents? Humanity?”

  “I was being sarcastic.”

  FORTY-EIGHT

  VICTOR OPENED HIS eyes. He was on the floor, blurry streaks in his vision, a spear of pain shooting from his cheekbone up through his cranium.

  He sat up, pushing through dizziness and rubbing his face. “What’s happening?”

  “Where’s the device? The others?” Eli’s voice.

  “What device?”

  “The device that got you here. The one that you built?”

  “It seems we’ve been double-crossed, Victor,” Mr. Sands said. His demeanor had finally changed to something less optimistic.

  “Want do you mean?” But Victor already knew the answer.

  Mr. Sands put down his glass. “It seems that your brother has outwitted both of us.”

  Samuel turned his gun on Victor as he got to his feet. Bosco turned his gun on Mr. Sands.

  Eli said to Victor, “This world needs control.”

  “I don’t understand,” Victor said.

  “Where are Kyle and Remmie?” Bosco said.

  “They were backup. In case I couldn’t trust you. I told them to wait out back. I’m surprised they aren’t in yet. Guess you weren’t on the up-and-up after all.”

  “That’s a matter of perspective,” Bosco said.

  Eli said to Bosco, “Go round them up before something else goes wrong. You’ll have traction with her.”

  Victor hoped Kyle and Remmie were miles up the road by now, but did it matter? Was there any escaping this? Victor realized how pointless his quest had been from the beginning. He’d been responsible for Anita’s death, but Eli had hated him long before that. Eli would have blamed him whatever the cause. Eli was a lost and bitter soul. But Samuel? That one didn’t make any sense.

  “Sam?”

  “Eli and I have been together since you introduced us, way back when.”

  What could he mean? They’d been in contact all along?

  “Are you going to kill me, Eli?” Mr. Sands said.

  “Nobody else needs to die. And you’re a wealth of information . . . you have Malclenersy. You won’t be a threat after they’re activated. Hell, you’ll get what you want in the end. You’re more a brother to me than my own brother.”

  “But why didn’t you just join me when I asked? And how, with Bosco? Is Rachael in on this too?”

  “I needed to do this on my terms. And I was pretty screwed up for a while . . . before I even figured out what I was doing. Rachael isn’t a part of this, no. When you sent Bosco to talk to me after Anita passed, he was already concerned, not having Malclenersy and all. He had lost trust in you. I offered him a more lucrative path.”

  “I don’t understand,” Victor said. “You’ve planned this all along? I was staying with Samuel before I left for Colorado to round up Kyle and Remmie. You always knew where I was and what I was doing—”

  “And what I was doing,” Mr. Sands said.

  “Lots of coincidences,” Eli said. “What you all may have attributed to fate was all by design. But it wasn’t easy by any means, to keep you from discovering.” He said to Mr. Sands, “Bosco and I had quite a time figuring out how to convince you that he’d been fortunate to stumble upon so many things. And the cabin? We’d hoped to end this there. And again at the beach house.” Eli gave a suppressed laugh. “Bosco and Sam almost busted a nut when they discovered you’d be headed to Mexico early.”

  “And the house in the Sierra Madre?” Victor said. “Sam, that was your idea.” He was rethinking every step of his path since the night of Anita’s death. How he’d gotten to the present moment.

  “Wasn’t easy getting you both with your pants down.” Samuel looked over Victor and Mr. Sands. “We made subtle suggestions, created situations, to nudge your direction, but it all resulted in chaos until now.”

  Eli took a step toward Victor. “Now, where’s the device?”

  FORTY-NINE

  VICTOR’S HANDS AND feet were shackled like he was a prison inmate. Feeling no appetite, he looked down at his breakfast crepes under the domineering gaze of Eli. It was 9 a.m. Victor’s eye fell on Mr. Sands, who was quiet but calm, as if he were still the guy with all the cards.

  “What are you going to do with Anthony?” Victor said.

  “What do you mean?” Eli said. “He’s eaten better, slept better here than any time in his life. Once the Dames are activated he can resume his normal life. Hell, we’ll give him useful work.”


  “Maybe he doesn’t want to lose his freedom,” Victor said. “Nobody has the right to take that from him, or anyone.”

  “And those words spill from someone whose made it a career out of imposing his perspective on those around him. A man whose self-absorbed obsession . . .” Eli folded his arms. “Anita, Ma, Dad. They were what kept me giving a shit about—”

  “You dedicated your life to people.” Victor finally looked his brother in the eye. “You’re a neurosurgeon. I remember you staying up with patients . . . you dedicated yourself to their success, their continued life.”

  “I’m good at what I do and I’m a perfectionist, much like you. They were plagued by an infirmity that stole a part of them, often their lives. I empathized with them in my own way. But I also liked the power. I held their lives in my hands. I like the way that feels. Maybe that’s all I have left.”

  “This isn’t you. There was a time when you gave a shit, even about me.”

  “And you did everything you could to destroy that, long before you ever met Mr. Sands. You’ve turned everyone who’s cared about you against you. You’re smarter, more capable than I ever was, but you lost site of the big picture. You’re weak, a slave to your emotions, your mistrust of everything around you.”

  Victor caught site of Mr. Sands. He was watching all of this, patient, intrigued.

  “I never had a chance to turn you against me,” Victor said. “You hated me from the beginning.”

  “Believe it or not, that’s not true. When we were younger I admired you, wanted to be you.”

  Victor rubbed his eyes, thinking back to their youth. It was true Eli had wanted to be him, to replace him.

  Wait. What had happened to Rachael?

  “Look at the world,” Eli said. “Humanity is headed on a self-destructive path to oblivion. Everybody lies, plays the system, yet they’re played by the system—at the mercy of it. Humanity has been under control from the beginning, controlled by fear. Only a few are free, but the price of their freedom is paid by everyone else.”

  “No. Most people are free—free to choose, even if that choice is a bad one.”

  “They choose what they’re led to choose, by the media, sitcoms, organized religion, the need to fit in, the herd mentality. Kyle and Remmie are perfect examples. They’re nothing more than minions of the dysfunctional subculture that surrounds them.”

  “So you think they’re better off having artificial thoughts, desires, goals . . . whatever the Dames do?”

  “Maybe to switch on the Dames will actually free them. Surely it can’t make humanity more of a mindless machine than it already is.”

  “No, I’ve seen Kyle grow, discover himself, awaken to life. You have no right to take that away—”

  “Kyle has Malclenersy, so it doesn’t matter.” Eli sat back, like an uncoiling rattlesnake. “I suspect he and Remmie can be convinced to join us. I’m not going to hurt you, or anybody for that matter. I just want to free the world. We can guide humanity into a greater era. Maybe that was the intent of the Dames to begin with. You know the embedded patterns and the higher levels in the connected sequences—”

  “I don’t know what the higher levels will do,” Victor said. “And neither do you.”

  “Well, I know that simple activation is not a bad thing. Ron was fine after it all, right, Mr. Sands?”

  “What do you mean?” Victor turned to Mr. Sands, bracing for another unpleasant revelation.

  “Some of my people took Ron. Bosco knew, so Eli knows.” Mr. Sands spoke with sympathy. “You always wondered. I’m sorry you had to carry that burden. If only you had listened to reason in the beginning.”

  “You aren’t sorry for shit,” Victor said.

  “You’re wrong. I never wanted loss of life, or pain, in anybody. I, like Eli, simply want to liberate humanity.” Mr. Sands said to Eli, “I never meant for anything to happen—”

  “Don’t mention her,” Eli said. “Her name does not belong in this discussion.”

  “You’re such an angry soul,” Victor said. “I’m sorry I did this to you.”

  “You give yourself too much credit, Vick. The world did this to me. You’re just a piece of it. But I’m going to fix it now, and you’re going to help me.”

  Victor said to Mr. Sands, “Ron?”

  “Alive and well in Philadelphia, running a branch of PNE, under an alias. He’s quite happy. Victor, after all that’s happened, why does the world matter to you? Not long ago you believed the world was out to get you. And you have Malclenersy. You’re one of the chosen ones as it is. What exactly are you fighting for? Surely not your brother, anymore. Your companions will survive. Are you doing it for some abstract ideal of freedom, or are you just being stubborn? The world’s an unhappy place. I know you agree, as does Eli.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth from the start, any of you?” Victor’s eyes scanned the room. Traditional Mexican artwork lined the walls. The air was clean and smelled of herbs. He’d only just noticed.

  Eli snickered. “Would you have listened? Besides, I for one don’t give a fuck. I just need to know what you know.”

  “For you this is all about hurting me, nothing else,” Victor’s heart hammered at his chest. “You’re willing to enslave humanity just to outdo me and somehow come out on top in the end. I’m the only threat you have in this world.”

  “My only threat is not knowing what you know.”

  It was pointless. All hope was gone. Victor leaned back in his chair, relaxing his tensed muscles.

  Mr. Sands said to Eli, “Your biggest threat are those two escapees.”

  “Bosco will have them back here in no time,” Eli said. “Probably before the day is out. They’re stupid kids and there aren’t many ways back home. I’m more concerned about Rachael.”

  “And you should be, but those two? They’re more dangerous than you might think. And they may be fully aware of what went down here. I think Bosco has his work cut out for him.”

  “I think you’re wrong about that.”

  “I won’t help you,” Victor said. “I don’t view the world as you do, so cynically. We could destroy the Dames, deactivate them, rid humanity of them forever. We can do it together, all of us.”

  “It’s not cynicism, Victor,” Mr. Sands said. “It’s reality. Human beings weren’t meant to harbor such technology, such freedoms. They didn’t evolve under these conditions. They’ve been able to sidestep natural selection with their ‘intelligence.’”

  “You talk about people like you aren’t one,” Victor said. “You’re a part of the problem you claim to be solving by activating them.”

  “I’m one of them, but I’m not like them. Malclenersy is our mechanism of natural selection.”

  “Well said,” Eli added.

  Samuel entered the room wearing a short summer dress. “Good morning all.” His demeanor was as light and carefree as Victor had ever seen it.

  Samuel was the only person Victor had truly trusted, a friend for years. Eli’s betrayal had not been a surprise. Samuel’s . . . “You were—”

  “Your best friend? I still am, in a way. I’ve been looking out for you. Saving you from yourself.” Samuel approached Eli and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips.

  Victor entered a state of surreal confusion. “What are you doing?”

  “You don’t know?” Eli said. “I thought it would have been obvious to you right away.”

  Mr. Sands smiled. “That connection makes sense. No wonder Samuel had such a vested interest.”

  Victor felt lost, as if his brother were a stranger, less familiar with each passing moment. He froze, wondering if he’d ever taken the time to truly know anyone who had mattered. Maybe he was the bad guy. “Eli, I never knew—”

  “Who I really was? You were always too self-absorbed, spouting your opinions, doing things your way. You projected who you thought I was onto me. We look alike, but we’re nothing alike.”

  Samuel took his seat next to Eli. Victo
r trembled, feeling unable to draw in enough breath. His entire worldview, every brick he had built the foundation of this life upon, was crumbling away. He’d lived in a fantasy world of his own creation, a hollow and baseless world.

  “The world around you is like a language you don’t understand,” Eli said, “yet you’ve attempted to assign meaning to it. Know thyself, Victor. I know myself, but you don’t know yourself any better than you know me.” Eli took a bite of his breakfast and held Samuel’s hand across the table. “I can finally see in your eyes the same empty torment I’m only just emerging from. You’re still a step behind me. It’s good to see we finally understand each other, at least with respect to that.” Eli suddenly adopted the righteous disposition of a prophet. “Now, you can either curl up and die, or emerge as I have, with renewed clarity and purpose. You can follow my lead.”

  Victor wondered if this was Eli’s way of winning, becoming the greater brother. But thinking of Kyle and Remmie, Victor realized he still had threads connecting him to reality. His worldview was not wholly inaccurate, nor was his purpose. Everyone projected a skewed perception onto the world, their friends and family. Nobody knew anything with complete information, but you got close and made do with what you had. He wouldn’t let Eli break him, and he did know himself, better in that moment than ever before.

  “If you just help us activate them, Kyle and Remmie will be safe,” Eli said. “Bosco, Rachael . . . they’ll go under control like everybody else. You could even have Rachael again, for yourself.”

  “You really want me to believe you’re going to let me live?” Victor said.

  “Of course, you’re my brother. I think this’ll be punishment enough. I just don’t want to see your face ever again.”

  “You see it in the mirror every day,” Victor said.

  Samuel and Eli laughed.

  “That’s good,” Samuel said.

  “You’re more like me than you realize,” Victor said.

  Eli laughed again.

  “There’re a lot of people out there with Malclenersy,” Victor said. “How will you control them?”

  “They won’t even know any of this is happening. Their lives will get easier, and that’ll be it. Besides, we’ll be able to identify them wherever they are.”