Revolution World (28 page)

"So, where are we going?" Seth asked.

Total silence.

"What did I do?"

Nothing.

"Are you really with DARPA or is that patch on your uniform a clever ruse?"

They didn't even look at him.

Seth was getting cranky. He considered starting to scream for help, but figured that would lead down the path of pain. He really wasn't keen on pain.

"Off to one of your lovely prisons? Not enough puppies in the world for you guys to kick so you thought maybe you needed me?" One of the soldiers cracked a smile.

"Shut up," the man in the corner said. Seth turned to look at him. He was surprised that he hadn't recognized the weasely face of Stuart Lineman, DARPA's cryptographic pocket monkey. Seth considered and rejected several fabulously nasty things to say to Stuart.

"Why can't you just do your own homework, you little jerk?" was what he ended up with.

Stuart's features took on a haughty expression. "You are the idiot that started moving American satellites around. Did you think no one would notice? Not even your precious Omerta can save you now. You'll spill your guts or we'll spill them for you," the little man sniffed and utterly failed to look menacing.

Seth snorted. He was tempted to start spewing curses at the little toad, but decided it would be immature. Inside he felt the cold knot in his stomach unclench just a bit. Of all the things the Americans could grab him for, the satellite shuffling was small potatoes. Kind of silly, really.

Seth had spent years rifling through the American government networks, installing software and editing files to keep Omerta safe. He's spent the last few weeks doing some hardcore hacking for Clio's Revolution World guerrillas. But he moves around a few satellites so he can keep an eye on his girlfriend and they pop him in a black van with a bag over his head. That right there is the definition of irony, he thought.

Seth closed his eyes and slumped over. If they wanted to know how he moved the satellites, then they probably didn't know about Revolution World so Clio was safe. And they probably didn't know about the Omerta hacks so his family was safe. At least he hoped. In that case, he was exhausted and a nap was in order. He acted accordingly.

After a while, he felt a booted foot nudging him awake. He woke without opening his eyes or altering his breathing. He was oddly thankful to the many times Max tried to sneak up on him to play pranks. Now he was well trained in the art of appearing asleep.

He heard one of the soldiers mumble. "Well he won't sleep that good where we're taking him."

"We ought to wake him up, the snotty little nerd," said another.
"For all the trouble we've had down in Ambrosia Springs. I'm glad we'll be out of Texas."

"We'll probably have to go back if this guy gives it up," said the first soldier gloomily.

"At least that Floracopia raid wasn't a total loss," the second one said. "It put us on to the nerd here." He dug his boot into Seth's ribs viciously.

Seth rolled over to look at the soldier. The man smiled at him nastily and kicked Seth hard. As Seth coughed and twisted away, the soldier said, "I hope you like pain, nerd. We're tossing you in the darkest hole we can find and I doubt we'll ever let you out."

Seth couldn't help it. He laughed. He laughed because he remembered that his last blood transfusion had been five days ago. If he didn't get another transfusion within two weeks, he would die a slow and agonizing death. Reportedly the pain drove ZFD sufferers insane before the end. Seth wondered if he would find out for himself.

Unfortunately, the soldier interpreted Seth's smile as bravado and smashed Seth across the face with the butt of his gun. Seth decided this was an excellent time to black out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

T
he Texas Omerta Facility was a madhouse on speed. Pandemonium on crack cocaine. Insanity in an Elvis suit mainlining caffeine. Max was holding court in the main banquet hall. People streamed in an out as he and Gloria fired off commands and pleas. A parade of outraged politicians and Omerta leaders flickered through the holograms. Max could tell Gloria was close to completely snapping. He briefly imagined her commandeering the world's satellites and armaments and blowing up landmarks until someone gave Seth back. He probably wouldn't stop her.

"What good are you people if you can't find him? We already know who took him!" Gloria cried. A moment later she threw her handheld down. "We should have installed a tracking device in his skull like I wanted to do in the first place."

Max remembered the brief, but highly emotionally charged debate over the tracking device idea Gloria had last year. He was still glad they voted her down.

Rubbing his eyes, Max wandered out of the room to find coffee. He passed Clio in a room covered in wallscreens. There was no one else in the room with her, but he could see hundreds of game avatars milling around in the wallscreens.

Clio had buds in her ears and was talking to the avatars like it was a town hall meeting and she was the mayor. "Alright, now where is the Fredericksburg militia? Someone get them out here on the double. This is a five-alarm fire, people."

All the avatars were dressed in what looked like old military uniforms, perhaps from the Civil War Era. He wasn't sure. American history wasn't something that interested him. Then Max remembered that Seth had been spending a lot of time on the Revolution World game with Clio. He wondered why she was playing a game at this point in time. It was weird. But he was too shell-shocked to ask.

"Speed is of the essence in this maneuver, folks. This is not a drill," Clio ordered as he wandered off. "This game has a high likelihood of live rounds. Repeat. This is not a drill."

Harmony was in the next conference room, surrounded by people. She was like a queen bee marshaling her workers.

"Sheriff, since these DARPA guys seem to be able to roam the countryside like banditos on a spree, I don't really know what you can do to stop them. But you need to try," she commanded, sweeping past the poor man. In the last six months, the sheriff seemed to have lost what little hair he had. He'd gained a whole new set of worry lines, though.

Max admired the seething competence Harmony exuded, but watching her made him tired. He briefly considered sneaking down to his room and hiding under his bed. But he knew that wouldn't help, so he kept walking towards the kitchen.

Max pondered whether or not to start poking around in Seth's private work. Seth had given him all the access codes, but Max had never used them out of respect for his nephew's privacy. There was probably something in there that might shed light on what was going on.

On the other hand, DARPA may have tagged one of Seth's programs and poking around might set them off again. Max couldn't be sure. He decided his time was better spent convincing politicians and bureaucrats to press for Seth's release. It didn't matter so much why Seth was taken so long as he was returned quickly and in one piece.

Max recognized the hulking frame of Jason as the man came barreling down the hall. Jason had a smaller man in a headlock and was dragging him down the hall.

"Hello, Jason," Max greeted him. "Need help with something?"

Jason stopped. The man in the headlock let out a squeak. "Nope," drawled Jason. "I got this particular situation under control. Found Floracopia's rat, you see." Jason nodded at the man in the headlock. Max bent to peer at the man.

"That guy looks familiar," said Max.

"This is Joanna's husband, Eric Guerrero," Jason replied. "You know Joanna, right? The woman who runs the business side of

Floracopia? And the Junior League and all that other stuff?"

"Oh yeah," Max remembered.

"Well, I got a buddy down in Austin who bartends at this little dive bar on Congress Avenue called
The Elephant Room.
I'm down there keeping a barstool warm last night and who comes in but Eric here? He doesn't see me, but I watch him have a nice cozy chat with two people from Malsanto." Jason gave Eric's head a squeeze. Eric made a pained sound. Jason looked pleased about that.

"How did you know they were from Malsanto?" asked Max, eyeing Eric with disfavor.

"Some guy at the bar told me. My buddy the bartender says he remembers them coming in pretty often for little chats. He says the first time was probably six months ago, before the Floracopia break-in. The first one," Jason explained as he resumed dragging Eric in the direction of Harmony. Max followed.

After a brief flurry of activity, Max found himself in a small room with Eric Guerrero seated in front of Jason, Harmony, and Clio. They kicked everyone else out, including Joanna.

Joanna looked ten years older after Jason's explanation. After a brief look at Eric's hangdog expression, she left without a word. For once, her shoulders slumped. It was as though all the life force had drained right out of her. Max had made the executive decision to kick Gloria out too.

"We need you out there calling in favors and pulling strings and finding out everything we can. I'll take care of this while you do more important things," Max told her as he pushed her out the door. Max was actually concerned that she might kill the man before they found out anything useful.

"They made me do it," Eric was babbling. "They're crazy. They threatened me." Nobody had even asked him any questions yet.

"Why would you do this, Eric?" Harmony asked softly.

Eric babbled wildly about being threatened and how it was not his fault.

"Eric, calm down," interrupted Max. "Right now, we just need to find Seth and get him returned as soon as possible. Is Malsanto in some way involved with that? Do you know anything at all about his kidnapping?"

"It was all those Malsanto people," Eric cried. "Shiva and Medea. It's all their fault."

Max began to see the attractiveness of torture in a way he never had before. He didn't think it would make this man stop telling lies. But Max was angry and Eric was grating on his very last nerve. Even if it didn't get them any information, it might make Max feel a little better. He sighed and stepped away from Eric to avoid the temptation to slap the little worm.

"They were the ones who blabbed to the DARPA guys. Shiva and Medea," Eric said.

Max sat up. "What are you saying?"

"Shiva and Medea wanted that p-mod technique and they were crazy to get it," Eric gasped, his eyes darting around the room. "They said the military guys would throw them into a labor camp if they didn't get it, but they were just evil. Yeah. They tried to break in that first time. I got the access codes out of Joanna's handheld. I told them it was stupid but they made me." Sweat rolled down his face. The last sentence was so manifestly a lie that even Eric didn't look like he believed it.

"I knew it. I knew it wasn't Joanna or Nancy," exploded Clio. Her mother looked at her reprovingly. Clio shrugged. "But now we at least know."

Eric looked like he thought he might be able to talk himself out of this situation. "Yeah, I'm helping you. See? It all works out because I'm helping you now. And anyway, I thought they were just going to take a few papers. Hardly stealing at all. I didn't know you'd be in the building that night or I never would have given them the access codes."

Jason clenched his fists and took a step towards Eric, but Harmony restrained him.

Eric noticed the movement and started babbling again. "Then they wanted me to go in and get some more notes, but the notes weren't there any more. It was all electronic files after that. I told them I couldn't do it. Not without getting caught. So they said they'd create a distraction. How was I to know they were going to bomb the Omerta compound?"

"Why would you people do that?" choked Max.

Eric's voice started to take on a whining tone. "Well, we needed everyone away from Floracopia so we could try to break in again. The security system was recording everything and sending it to the Omerta computers, so we needed to disrupt the computers. Also, some of the security stuff they installed after the first break-in tripped alarms at the police station. So we needed for the police to be distracted as well." Eric whined, reminding Max strongly of a rat in a trap. "It wasn't my idea."

"They were in town that day meeting with us," said Harmony. She was trying to fit it together. "So that night they sent remote controlled car bombs into the Omerta compound so they could break in to Floracopia?"

Eric just shrugged. Harmony gave him the kind of look usually reserved for escaped mental patients or very ugly children.

"And did you succeed? Did you get what you wanted from Floracopia?" asked Clio.

"No," said Eric with a scowl. "We couldn't get the data off the computers. They got some, but apparently that didn't help enough. Medea was always riding Shiva about some failed experiments. They had a deadline, see? If they didn't produce what they promised the military, they'd get tossed in one of those prison labs the military has."

And it went on like that for over two hours. Eric rambled and pleaded and told them everything he knew. Nobody even threatened him but he begged for his life, all the while insisting that Shiva and Medea had forced him to participate. Presumably in the same way Max and the others were forcing him now.

"But how did Malsanto get involved with the DARPA guys?" Harmony asked again.

Eric gave an irritated shrug. "I don't know. I thought they were done after the bombing failed. The next thing I know, I get a call from Medea saying if I want to redeem my failures, I'll help them out on the DARPA raid."

It turned out that Eric had again snuck in at night and helpfully shut down some of the security features to make sure there was little resistance or help when the DARPA vans arrived at Floracopia. Fortunately for them, he was as incompetent at that as he was at everything else.

"You mean that, if you had managed to turn off all the alarms, everyone in the building would probably be locked up in a military cell right now?" asked Max.

"They made me," whimpered Eric.

Max had to leave the room for a little while after that.

Harmony studied this man that had brought so much ruin into her life. Putting aside the injuries to herself and potential harm to her family and friends, Harmony thought of the massive amount of damage done to the labs and the huge loss that the destroyed and confiscated experiments cost them. She took a few deep breaths and considered leaving the room for a break as well.