Brainrush 05 - Everlast 02: Ephemeral (19 page)

The drones dropped from the air like hailstones. Jake
snatched one after another from the ground as he rushed forward in a crouch and
harpooned them toward the front line of soldiers before they could react. The
darts pierced flesh and the poison went to work instantly. Two men staggered and
a third dropped to his knees, and Jake barreled through them like a running
back into a goal line stand. He snatched a combat knife from a soldier’s leg
sheath…

And became death.

He twisted and whirled from one soldier to the other, too
close for them to bring their weapons to bear, too fast for them to block the
blade as it performed its grim task, slicing arteries, severing fingers, jackhammering
into torsos, necks, and limbs. He ducked and spun, kicked and slashed, his lips
peeled back, his teeth bared. Blood sprayed, men screamed, and a wide-eyed Min
backed away, whipping her bobbles toward his face.

He lunged and his free hand snatched them from the air as
his blade buried itself in her gut with such force that it lifted her from the
ground. She gasped. He waited a beat until the life left her eyes, then lowered
the knife. Her slender body slid from the shaft and folded to the ground.

Swiveling, he found himself ankle deep in carnage. He sucked
in a breath as the horror of his frenzy bombarded his consciousness. Though
justice may have been served, his soul broke at the sight of it. He wanted to
curl up and die—until the throb of the helicopter’s rotors echoed across the tarmac,
reminding him it wasn’t finished.

The helicopter was still on the ground winding up, but even
with his enhanced speed he’d never make it there before it took off.

That’s okay, he thought with a grim smile.
It’s only a
minor detour.

He knew what he needed to do, but when an image of Francesca
and the children flashed across his mind, doubt engulfed him and froze him in
his tracks. After what seemed like an eternity, his lips tightened, his eyes
went flat, and he bent over and heaved one of the dead soldiers over his
shoulder.

A blood-soaked field of twisted limbs and anguished
expressions lay in his wake as he sprinted toward the C-130.

***

We were still in the panel truck.

Little Star had turned it around and pulled it up just short
of the road. It was still hidden, but now it was in position for a fast
getaway. Little Star and Uncle Tony were still in the cab. The rest of us were
standing in the back along one side of the truck bed, staring into the
distance. Everyone else was tall enough to look over the wooden side rails, but
I had to peek between two of the slats. We were parked on the ridgeline, and
even though the trees disguised the truck’s silhouette in the darkness, we
could still see past them to the valley below. The lights had come on at the
airport, and everyone’s eyes were glued on the big airplane rolling down the
runway.

I pretended to watch but my eyes were too watery to see much.
A few moments earlier, Dolphin had said something to Uncle Marshall that made me
realize that the man who had kidnapped us all had been looking for TurboHacker,
not realizing it was
me
, not my uncle. Apparently, something about the
way I’d played the game had caused a huge problem.

Which meant everything that had happened was
my
fault.

It made my bones feel oily. I loved my family and all our
friends, and knowing I was responsible made me feel like something was eating me
from the inside out. I finally understood how my dad had felt all this time. He’d
blamed himself for everything that had happened. Not only the nightmare that
had occurred over the past few days, but before then, too—since before I was
born when he’d launched that first pyramid into the sky. It hadn’t mattered how
many times Mom and his friends told him it wasn’t his fault, his guilt had
never gone away. I’d sensed it all along and I’d felt bad for him about it. But
until this moment, I’d never truly understood the depth of his pain. I glanced
up at my mom, and my sister and brother and the others, too.

I’d do anything to keep them safe.

I wiped my eyes and looked to the horizon to see that the
big plane had taken off. It banked sharply toward a cliff in the distance and I
knew what my dad was going to do.

Something charged through the jungle behind us. I whipped
around to see Uncle Becker break into the clearing.

“Start ’er up!” he yelled as he raced toward us. Lacey and
Jonesy were alongside him, and Skylar and a big man that I figured was Pete
trailed them. 

 Becker leaped into the truck without slowing. “The bastards
are right on our heels,” he said, aiming his weapon toward the trees.

Little Star revved the engine as Jonesy jumped in. Uncle
Marshall grabbed Lacey’s hand and yanked her up. Skylar flew up next and slid
out of the way as Pete barreled forward like a rampaging rhino, jumping up at
the last instant to swivel around and land on his butt with his submachine gun
aimed behind us.

“Go!” he shouted. Little Star stepped on the gas.

Angry shouts came from the darkness, accompanied by what
sounded like a herd of animals blasting through the brush. But what twisted the
knot in my stomach was the buzz of a lone drone whipping back and forth
overhead. If one had found us, the others would be here in seconds. A cold
sweat sprang over my skin, and I remembered the old man’s parting words:

It’s the promise of death that inspires a man to
greatness.

I unzipped my backpack and fit the Spider onto my head.

The truck lurched forward, plowed through the last stretch of
foliage, and spun onto the road. Then it screeched to a stop so fast that I
nearly fell over. Twin pairs of headlights flashed on in front of us, blocking
our path. As my eyes adjusted to the glare, I saw a line of soldiers on either
side of the trucks, their weapons raised. I looked in the opposite direction and
saw two more vehicles speeding up the road from the village. And then, as the
moon broke free of the clouds, I saw my dad’s plane dive toward the twinkling
lights of a helicopter. I gaped. So did everyone else. I heard a strangled
noise from my mom when the two aircraft collided in a massive explosion of
flames and shrapnel.

I stopped breathing. My sister yelped. But when a second bunch
of soldiers burst from the jungle behind us shouting orders, we were forced to
turn our backs on the scene. Uncle Becker, Pete, and the others tossed their
weapons to the ground and we all raised our hands. The vehicles from the
village pulled up and more soldiers poured out around us, and the air above us was
filled with the buzz of dozens of drones.

A car door slammed and a woman stepped into the light,
looking over her shoulder at the distant rain of wreckage. Then she turned
toward us with a twisted face and I recognized her immediately as the one who
had taken pleasure in sliding a knife into de Vries’s grandson. I’d felt the
old man’s rage when it happened, and when I imagined her doing the same thing
to my mom, or sister, or brother—or
any
of my friends—I let that same
rage loose inside of me.

My father was dead.

And she was one of those to blame.

Standing on either side of her were two soldiers wearing Spiders.
I knew what needed to be done and I had the means to do it. De Vries had made
it possible when he sent that final patch of code through the network and created
a gateway that allowed me to access the drones.

I searched for my courage and found it in my mother’s tears,
and in the blanket of despair that had fallen over all of us. I flipped the
switch on my headset, turned toward the two soldiers, and closed my eyes.

My mind leaped forward, hijacking the signals from the other
two Spiders. I saw the scene from forty-eight hovering cameras—

And I was back in the game.

Killing.

This time I didn’t hesitate like I had on the bridge, but I
still felt the horror as my army of drones rocketed into the people surrounding
us. My mind recorded every detail—the cries of pain, the twitching limbs, the
double darts plunging into the eye sockets of the woman who’d hurt my family—

And the fear on my mother’s face as she watched me do it.

Death rattled around me, one person after another, and I wondered
how this would change my life forever.

M
Y
MOM HELD MY HAND
while we waited for Doc to work things out with the
customs officials. After all the things that had gone wrong since we’d received
Mom’s warning text three days ago, a part of me was surprised that the
conversation was relaxed and friendly. Maybe things were finally going our way.

The Chinese paratroopers had been falling from the sky when
we escaped from the village, and we’d been told that they had gathered up the
remainder of Wong’s soldiers. The truck ride out of the jungle had been long
and bumpy, and by the time it was over my tears had dried up—until I’d had to
say good-bye to Little Star. After dropping us at the border, he’d turned
around and headed back toward the village to help his mother and nephew pick up
the pieces. Pete’s friends had snuck us into Hong Kong and helped us with the
flight arrangements home. We’d said good-bye to Dolphin and Shamer, who were going
to join the other teenagers who had survived the building fire, but after
everything they’d been through with us, I knew we’d see them again. They were
part of the family now.

Pete, Skylar, Becker, and Jonesy had agreed to the US
government’s request to come home with us to Los Angeles so we could all be
debriefed together. I was glad to have them along. They made me feel safe.

My dad was gone.

He’d made the ultimate sacrifice. He’d given his life in
order to shield us all from further harm, and I imagined that each of us had
been in his final thoughts. I was proud of him, and I prayed I could live up to
the example he set.

Like father, like son.

I’d killed thirty-one people in those final moments above
the village. My family and friends were alive because of it. Each of them had
asked me in their own way if I was okay but I’d chosen not to talk about it. In
fact, I hadn’t said a word since. I’d stuffed the memories into one of my
drawers.

But it wouldn’t close all the way.

When we’d landed at LAX, it had taken a while to explain why
we didn’t have any checked baggage. But when Doc showed up with a couple guys
wearing suits and badges, the customs officials had eased up. I watched as the
men shook hands and the customs officers waved us through.

As we walked toward the exit, Doc was studying me but I
pretended not to notice. I’d heard Uncle Marshall speaking with him on the
phone during our layover in Tokyo, and I knew they were relieved that all the
Passcode files had been destroyed. But the curious expression on Doc’s face
made me uncomfortable, and I wondered if he knew about the drawer system I had
in my brain. After all—

I remember everything.

Doc had learned from the Chinese government that the
helicopter Dad had crashed into carried the final backup drive, and a search of
the wreckage had confirmed it’d been burned to a crisp, along with the remains
of Wong and his granddaughter Zhin...

And my dad.

There had been no mention of the mini so I figured it was
destroyed, too. That was okay with me. I’d tried to use it but it hadn’t worked
for me, and I knew now that only my dad could summon its power. With him gone, the
world was better off without it.

I squeezed my mom’s hand. It felt cold. She looked down at
me with one of those smiles that didn’t come from deep inside.

***

What now? Francesca thought as they
approached the double doors leading to the lobby of the international terminal.
Her immediate concern was with Doc’s insistence at questioning Alex about
everything he’d seen on the computer network in China. She hated even thinking
about it. Her instinct told her to take her children and disappear before the
cycle of danger started all over again, this time with her son at the center of
it. But where could they go? When they’d been on the plane, she’d considered Venice—but
then Lacey had smiled at her as she’d braided Sarafina’s hair, and Tony had
made a stupid joke that made Alex nearly smile, and Ahmed had been enthralled
in a discussion with Becker and Jonesy. And now they all surrounded her and
Alex like a protective cocoon, a family like none other, one that would never have
existed had it not been for Jake.

Yes, her husband had blamed himself for so much, and she
regretted that he’d never been able to savor the good he’d accomplished since
the accident that had enhanced his brain and healed his terminal illness. But
she’d understood how he felt. It was the depth of his love for her and those
around her that had driven him, and the thought that any harm might come to
them because of him was something he’d no longer been willing to live with. He
died for us, she thought, the final sacrifice of a man who wanted nothing more
than to do one good thing before he passed, to make a difference in the world.

Well, you did that, my darling, in a fashion so grand it
could never be repeated. A man who could be honored for saving the planet...and
loving his family.

She wiped away a tear and pushed through the doors into her
new world.

Tony’s wife and two children charged forward to greet him,
and Tony beamed with joy. Cal Springman and Kenny were there, too. They’d been
freezing on a military mission in the Arctic under strict radio silence when
this mess had started. They’d returned yesterday to discover the emergency
alert message on their phones. Doc had filled them in and they’d insisted on
being here to greet their friends.

There were lots of hugs and handshakes, and a few tears, and
Francesca allowed a part of herself to hope that everything was going to be
okay.

Then Alex suddenly let go of her hand. He ran ahead to stare
at a TV in a sitting area. The words
Breaking News
scrolled across the top of
the screen. Her throat constricted when she saw Jake’s face on display.

“Jake!” Marshall shouted. They all ran forward to huddle
beneath the screen.

Francesca’s mind raced to the scene in the barracks prison
when Jiaolong had said,
Once I hit this
Enter
button, your world will
change forever, and you and your family will feel a pain far worse than death.

The man had died in a gruesome betrayal just moments later,
but not until after he’d tapped an entry into his tablet. Nothing had happened
at the time, and they’d all assumed that whatever program Jiaolong had
unleashed had been destroyed when his dying grandfather deleted the computer
files.

We were wrong.

She glanced around and saw that every TV in the terminal was
broadcasting the same recorded video of her deceased husband. As she and the
others edged closer to the screen, they listened in shock as Jake confessed to
being responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide,
marking him as the terrorist who’d intentionally poisoned the waters of Los
Angeles, detonated a nuclear device in Venezuela, and brought the wrath of the alien
Grid onto the planet. A voice-over reported that Jake Bronson was being sought
by governments around the world, who were suddenly being bombarded with reams
of video evidence of the man’s guilt.

A worldwide manhunt for him and his associates had been
issued, and one by one, similar testimonial videos of Francesca and the others
checkerboarded the TV screens.

###