Page 87 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - SULLIVAN

As soon as the new crew is out of sight, Sheila says, “Case just landed in the helicopter. He’ll be here in a few minutes. I’ll take care of Sadie.” Then she disappears.

I take my attention back to Lincoln. He squints his eyes at me, then whispers, “Sullivan?” I nod, which makes him exhale in relief. “Follow me.”

He heads towards the east wing of the mansion and goes into his office. I follow and close the door behind me.

“Are we on track or what?” Linc asks.

“Well”—I laugh—“it’s not exactly going as planned.”

“No shit. What the fuck are you doing? We had an agreement.”

“I know,” I say, sighing as I drop into a deep leather chair. Linc doesn’t sit. Just leans on his desk and folds his cannon arms across his chest. “But Thomas, man. I don’t know what’s happening to us. The dude is in denial or something. I can’t get him back now.”

“I hate it when you talk like that. You know I hate it. You’re the same guy.”

I sigh. “How many times do I have to explain this to you?”

“Apparently once more. Because no matter what you say, you’re still Thomas. He’s still you.”

The door opens and Case walks in. “Hey,” he says, closing the door behind him.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Lincoln asks Case.

“You like ’em?” Case replies, sliding the SpyGlasses down his nose. “I just got this model in today. They’re going into distribution tomorrow. My end of this little catastrophe is done.”

“Already?” I ask. “Damn. I really missed a lot.”

“Hey, Thomas,” Case says. “And yeah, we didn’t appreciate your little disappearing act. Where the fuck have you been for the past month?”

“I was just getting to that,” Linc says. “But this here isn’t Thomas.”

“What?” Case is not so much surprised as he is annoyed. “We had a deal, asshole.”

“I know,” I say again. These fuckers are giving me a headache. “But that stupid doctor pushed some drugs into him—unbalanced everything—and then he blasted the whole floor with his goddamned mind. It wiped Sadie Scott’s memory. She came to get me, by the way. And take me back to Prodigy. Which is still very much alive.”

Case almost snorts out his laugh. “Well, that was lucky. Did he mean to do that?”

“I don’t think so. I didn’t know she was in the building, so I highly doubt he did. Yasmine gave him some drug—which, from what I can tell, split us up again. He was in and out, and then we were on the train car heading towards the west tower and either he knocked out the power or Sadie did, but either way it resulted in a fuck-up of epic proportions. And ever since then he’s been… missing.”

“He’s not missing, you dumbass.” Case walks up to me and raps his knuckles on my head. “He’s right in there where he’s always been.”

“Are you two going to complain? Or should we try to move forward? Because I’m not in the fucking mood.”

“So the plan is shot?” Linc asks.

“The plan is only shot if the two of you fucked up your end.”

“Hey,” Case says. “I got the SpyEye software on every handheld device in Cathedral City. I did my part. Distribution is done.”

“Good,” I say, looking at Lincoln. “And the program? You got that ready?”

He nods. “It’s ready. But it hasn’t been tested yet because you and Thomas decided to go off the goddamned deep end. Why now? Why, after all these years?”

“I have no clue why he does this shit. He just… overreacted, I guess.”

“You pissed him off,” Case replies. “And he wasn’t ready for it.”