The Spy Is Cast (39 page)

I glanced over at
Kane. “Are we clear to go up to the main house?”

“Yes. Everything’s
secure,” he assured me. “I’ll come with you, though, just in
case.”

“Thanks. I’ll feel
better knowing you’ve got our backs. I’m not sure how long we’ll
need to be in the network.”

I briefed Spider while
we walked up to the main house, observing the activity on the
grounds with half my attention.

One helicopter sat in
the middle of the cul-de-sac, another down by the lake. Armed men
moved here and there over the entire property. As we entered the
house, I caught a glimpse of rows of prisoners seated in the
enormous dining room. I wondered absently how many of them were
actually on Fuzzy Bunny’s payroll, and how long it would take to
sort them all out.

We wove our way
through the labyrinth to the server room. Its door stood open, and
two armed men straightened to attention at the sight of Kane.

He nodded to them.
“I’ll take over in here. Guard the door. Nobody comes through
without my say-so.”

The men took up
positions on either side of the door in the hallway, and Kane swung
the door shut. He regarded Spider and me. “So?”

I turned to Spider
uncertainly. “I have no idea what I’ve really done. I locked
everything down solid from inside, and it was still all dark and
quiet when these guys pulled the plug and kicked me out. But I
don’t know what’ll happen when we power it up again. And I can’t go
in until it’s powered up.”

“It’s okay,” he
reassured me. “First things first. We’ll physically disconnect it
from the outside world so it can’t transmit or receive any data.
Then I’ll power it up and shrink the broadcast range down to the
size of this room. After that, you can work from the inside, and
I’ll work from the outside. We’ll get it sorted out.”

I sighed. “Thank God
you’re here. Let me know when you need me.”

He approached the
consoles cautiously and methodically traced the cables between
servers and external connections. After several minutes of careful
study, he disconnected some of the cables and sat down. The
whirring of fans and beeping of electronic equipment ensued.

He typed rapidly for
several minutes, utterly focused. Then the tempo of his typing
picked up. The keystrokes got heavier as he leaned forward, his
shoulders tensing. I shot an alarmed glance over to Kane’s frowning
face.

Spider punched in
several key combinations with unnecessary force before throwing
himself back in the chair, churning his hands in his hair. “I can’t
crack it. I’m locked out!”

“Shit! My fault! I
locked it down!” I dropped to the floor where I stood, and lunged
into the network’s void. I rocketed along the virtual corridors,
hyper-alert for any activity. What if someone was able to access
the network interface and overcome my security?

To my relief,
everything was still dark, and I hurried to the user access area. I
was afraid to attempt anything else, so I quickly created and
enabled an administrator ID for Spider and backed out of the
network again.

I wrapped my arms over
my head in an attempt to ward off the crushing pain, and croaked
out the ID and password as soon as I could speak. Then I panted and
rocked miserably until I was reasonably certain my brain wouldn’t
explode.

Kane sat down on the
floor beside me and began to massage my head and neck. I flinched
when his fingertips dug into the knotted muscles, and he stopped.
“I’m sorry,” he said contritely. “I thought this helped.”

“It does,” I groaned.
“Don’t stop.”

He began again with
gentle hands and I slumped forward, letting him gradually work out
the pain and tension.

By the time I was able
to look up, Spider was engrossed again, his posture telegraphing
confidence. I sighed and rolled my shoulders. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Spider looked up from
his work. “I’m ready for you in the network now.”

I bit back the
self-pitying whine that tried to escape. Something must have shown
in my face, because he grimaced. “I’m so sorry. If there was
another way…”

“I know. It’s okay.” I
cracked my neck. “What do you need me to do, exactly?”

“Just go in and
gradually undo whatever you did. I’ll watch from here, and we can
message back and forth so you don’t have to come out again until
we’re done.”

“Thank God for that.”
I ran my hands over my face, procrastinating, and then sighed.
“Screw it.”

I lay down on the
floor. After all the kicking and screaming I’d done recently,
dignity was nothing but a distant memory anyway. I stepped into the
network and got started.

It took a lot longer
to unravel the layers of protection than it had taken to create
them. At long last, I spoke to Spider through the network
interface. “Okay, that’s the last of it. I think.”

His voice came back
reassuringly. “That looks fine from here. Now I have to hook up the
external connections again. I need you to watch and block
absolutely everything, incoming and outgoing. Then I’ll sort
through it.”

“Okay.” I braced
myself, trembling with nerves. I had a feeling this was going to be
like playing squash against dozens of opponents simultaneously. Or
maybe like a video game.

I’d always sucked at
video games.

I sighed and tried to
let go of that unproductive thought.

True to my mental
image, a barrage of squash balls hurtled at me seconds later. There
was no way I could possibly respond quickly enough to block each of
them. I did the only thing I could think of. I stretched my virtual
body into an enormous net and took the beating.

Approximately an
eternity later, Spider spoke again. “Okay. Let go now.”

I collapsed to the
virtual floor and lay still. There was no reason for me to feel so
exhausted and battered. This was a sim. I should be able to feel
pain-free and full of energy.

I tried.

I failed.

“Good,” Spider’s voice
roused me. “Try the tunnels now.”

I crept to my virtual
hands and knees. The sim wavered around me. Hooker the cat padded
toward me, his yellow eyes alight with intelligence, tail waving
like a question mark. “Mow?” he inquired.

I shook my head
vigorously and he vanished. Blood spattered the floor. I willed it
away, forcing myself to concentrate. My brain dragged itself though
a vat of viscous fluid. I reached into the vat and scooped it out,
holding the rubbery organ in my hand.

Whoa, bad trip.

I shook myself again
and the sim firmed around me. Stay focused. Just one more thing to
do.

I couldn’t summon up
enough energy or concentration to go down the tunnels
simultaneously, so I selected one at random.

The slow attenuation
of my virtual body smothered higher thought. I quested blindly
through the tunnel like a mole on downers until my virtual nose
thudded into a solid wall.

Trapped.

Enclosed in the tunnel
as it shrank around me…

My panicked shriek
echoed in the void as I snapped back.

“Aydan!” Spider’s
frantic voice boomed through the sim.

“I’m okay,” I gasped.
“Just a dead end on one of the tunnels.”

I hyperventilated for
a few seconds, trembling with the adrenaline pulsing through me.
Well, that was one way to regain focus. The sim’s detail was
razor-sharp around me now.

I chose the next
tunnel and went down it more easily. This one was open all the way,
and I quickly made notes of the IP addresses as I passed through.
Snapping back to the sim, I pushed the IPs to Spider, and headed
for the next tunnel.

By the time I entered
the last tunnel, I could barely hold the virtual image. The walls
were ghostly while I pushed my leaden consciousness forward. The
thump on my virtual nose at the end of the blocked tunnel was
almost a relief. I was done. I slithered lethargically back into
the sim and lay in a formless puddle.

Hellish nightmares
swirled around me while I cowered in the void. I knew these things
lived in my subconscious. I knew they were constructs of my own
exhausted brain as I lost the ability to guide my conscious
thought. I curled into a ball. The monsters fed greedily on my
fearful cries.

A blip in the sim and
a small stab of pain.

Kane.

Signalling me.

The portal was so far
away.

I crept toward it, but
the cage closed around me. Heavy bars contracted, crushing me. The
last of my intellect fled as screams and blood spewed from my
throat.

I was still screaming.
My flayed throat burned, and I clenched my teeth and panted
silently instead. Agony raged through my head and body while
dizzying colours swooped and spun.

The deafening noise in
the background resolved itself into Kane’s insistent voice, calling
my name. Pain reverberated in my head, the pounding synchronized to
my racing heartbeat. My eyes wouldn’t open.

I didn’t care.

Maybe he’d just go
away.

He didn’t.

Finally, I flailed one
arm out blindly and croaked, “Stop.”

His voice continued,
urging and cajoling. Irritation flooded me. I summoned up the
energy to open one eye. “Goddammit…”

“She’s swearing. Thank
God.”

My gaze tracked
sluggishly to the source of the sound and slowly focused on
Spider’s frightened face hovering over me.

I groaned. “Somebody
please… kill me.”

I managed to pry open
my other eye at the sound of Kane’s relieved chuckle. “No such
luck,” he said.

I moaned when his
hands found the red-hot knots in my head and shoulders. For a long
time, I lay inertly while he rubbed away the pain.

At last I made an
effort to sit up. The room turned slowly around me. I blinked
muzzily at the two Kanes who were regarding me with concern. When I
squeezed my eyes shut and reopened them, the twins were gone, and
the single remaining Kane was frowning.

“What happened? Why
were you screaming inside the sim? Why didn’t you come out?”

I groaned. Too many
questions.

“Aydan? What
happened?”

“Too tired. Couldn’t
get out,” I mumbled.

“Can you stand?”

I started to shake my
head but desisted when the room spun vigorously. “Don’t think so,”
I whispered. Sweat sprang out all over me as my stomach lurched. I
closed my eyes to banish the vertigo.

“Webb, get the
door.”

The dizziness
intensified as Kane picked me up without apparent effort and
carried me out.

“Put me down,” I
murmured, my eyes still closed. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

He chuckled. “I don’t
think so. What do you weigh, anyway?”

“One-sixty.”

“You’re joking.”

“No.”

“Well, that’s it. I
can’t carry you, then.” His steady stride never faltered, and his
voice betrayed no hint of effort.

“Just tell me if
you’re going to drop me.”

“I’m dropping you
now.” My eyes flew open as he laid me gently on a sofa. “Kidding,”
he added.

“Funny,” I muttered. I
clutched my head with both hands as it attempted to float away. My
impossibly heavy arms shook with the effort.

“What happened?”
Hellhound’s rasp was full of alarm.

“We couldn’t wake her.
We had to trigger the worst-case scenario again.”

“Shit!” Hellhound
knelt beside the sofa, stroking his hand over my clammy forehead.
He eyed my tremors with suspicion. “Aydan, when did ya eat
last?”

“Um…”

“Seven o’clock this
morning,” Kane supplied.

“Shit! It’s damn near
four! And ya been makin’ her do that trance thing? Ya know what
that does to her!”

“Aydan, I’m sorry,”
Kane began, but he was interrupted by Germain’s voice.

“Kane, we need you
again.”

“Go,” Hellhound told
him. He stroked my hair back from my face. “I’ll find ya somethin’,
darlin’. I’ll be right back.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled to
empty air. I felt horridly vulnerable lying on the sofa, but it was
all I could do to hold my eyes open. I hoped everything was truly
as secure as Kane said.

Several minutes later
Hellhound was back, carrying some oranges. “No juice, but these
oughta do,” he said. He sat on the floor beside the couch and
peeled one of the oranges. As he fed it to me section by section,
the dizziness and nausea gradually abated.

By the time I’d eaten
the second orange, I felt strong enough to drag myself into sitting
position. Hellhound hoisted himself up and sprawled beside me on
the couch, laying his head against the back of the sofa and closing
his eyes.

Deep grooves of pain
and fatigue lined his face, and my heart squeezed with sympathy.
His experiences in the sim alone would have been enough to bring
most men to their knees. I knew he was grieving Hooker as well. I
took his hand and stroked it, offering what little comfort I
could.

His eyes opened, and
he smiled at me. “Sure glad you’re okay, darlin’.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,
too.” I leaned my head against his shoulder.

When I opened my eyes
again, Kane was standing in front of us. He gazed down at me in
concern. “Are you all right?”

I dragged myself up
from my slumped position against Hellhound’s shoulder. “Yeah. Arnie
found me some food. I’m fine.”

“Good.” He frowned.
“You know, you should get your blood sugar checked.”

“I have. There’s
nothing wrong with me, I just have an ultra-fast metabolism. I’m
fine most of the time, but when I have to really exert myself on an
empty stomach, and especially if there’s a lot of adrenaline in my
system, I just run out of steam.”

“All right,” he said
doubtfully. “Can you walk now?”

“Yeah, I should be
fine.” I stood up shakily and stretched. “All better.”

Kane turned his gaze
to Hellhound, taking in his strained, exhausted face. “What about
you?”