AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He made Reggie sick,” I said slowly, still trying to make room in my mind for the unthinkable. “Mom, too. And he had the cure all along.”
“Shhh. He’s done that to most of us,” Jana said. “I know you’re this hot-shit hacker, but don’t even think you’ll be able to find it. He will never give you the cure. Never. The only thing that could possibly penetrate deep enough into his files to find the cure would be that algorithm. The one they’re trying to torture out of that poor guy.”
That startled me. “Really? I could dig out Reggie’s cure with SmokeScreen? That’s what you’re saying?”
“Shhh! The mic will pick you up if you yell! I don’t envy you. Everyone I ever cared about is dead now, so all I have left to do is work up the nerve to go out there and jump.” She gestured toward the terrace outside.
“Don’t say that,” I said. “Please. You’re not done yet. Don’t give up hope.”
She rubbed her jaw and gave me an eloquent look. “It’s a little late for hope, Cass.”
“Halliwell’s executing the prisoner tomorrow,” I told her. “He just told me.”
Jana’s eyes slid away. “Oh,” she said softly. “Well, then. That’s it for your sister. My condolences.”
Data crunched in my mind at high speed. SmokeScreen was the key. Halliwell, with the cure. Shane Masters, dying tomorrow. That could not happen. No, no, and no.
I pulled out my phone, and tapped the code that activated Invisibility Cloak, and jerked my chin to Jana. “Come with me.” I let my whisper vibrate with urgency.
She looked puzzled, but she shuffled along after me into the corridor. I stopped. “They can’t hear us or see us now,” I told her.
She frowned, glancing up at the cameras all around us. “But?—”
“I wrote a program. Invisibility Cloak. It works. If you stay with me, or right near my phone, rather, you’re invisible. And inaudible.”
Her eyes were big with wonder. “Wow. If I had something like that, I’d…”
“What?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Something loud and destructive. Vindictive. And explosive. Bombs, probably. I’d blow this fucking place sky high. What a rush.”
“Best thing that could happen to it,” I told her. “Hey, tell me something. Do you really think I could get Halliwell’s cure for Reggie if I had SmokeScreen to work with?”
“You have the skills,” Jana said. “So yeah. Maybe. If anyone could do it, it would be you. But their encryption is watertight. You could only open SmokeScreen if one of the Masters family personally, voluntarily helped you.”
“So let’s leave,” I said. “And we’ll take the Masters guy with us.”
Jana frowned. “Halliwell would never let him out of here alive.”
“So we take him out dead,” I said. “Apparently dead, I mean.”
Jana’s eyes flashed with wary interest. “You mean, fake his death? Change the gas canister? Huh. Problematic. Interesting idea, though.”
“Could we switch out the gas?” I asked.
“If you’re invisible, you could. I could load a canister with the downer we used for his haircut and shave. But it would have to be a monster dose to depress his respiration enough to make him look convincingly dead. Which means that the attempt could actually kill him. There’s always that risk.”
I thought about it. “He’s going to die tomorrow anyway,” I said. “This way, he has a fighting chance. He’d go for it if I asked him. I’d bet my life on that.”
“You will be,” she said wryly.
“No, Jana.Wewill be,” I pointed out. “You’re coming with me, remember?”
“Oh, no. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been taken apart way too much to be put back together again. Once I pronounce him dead and take him to the morgue, you have to attack me with a needle. You have to take me down. To make it look good.”
“You should run away with me. Halliwell will still suspect you.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “Maybe he’ll finally kill me. It’ll save me the trouble of doing it myself. Which requires more energy than you might think.”
