Authors: Michael W. Sherer
He nodded. “That’s only part of it. Next day, he wants me to work on a project that’s stymied the company’s best coders for a year. The software for one of the big defense contracts they’re working on somehow got infected by a worm. He asked me to take a look at it and see if I could figure out how it works because no one’s been able to eradicate it. It adapts, changes.”
He closed his eyes, erased an imaginary blackboard again, and started over. “Doesn’t matter. Next thing Barrett did was ask me to hack Tess’s e-mail account and find out what she’s been sending and receiving. Like, okay, so she’s still a kid, but that’s a little over the top. That’s a real invasion of privacy. So, I’m not sure I should trust Barrett, but he’s the president of the company so I can’t really say no. On the other hand, I don’t know who I can trust. You with me so far?”
I nodded. I still had a million questions, and some of it didn’t make sense because he was skipping over a lot of details, but I got the gist.
“What about the e-mail you got?” I said.
Derek nodded. “I was getting to that. So this morning, I get this e-mail from someone I don’t know that says he knows who I am and what I’ve been asked to do. He says I need to help Tess. Well, it’s pretty obvious it came from the same guy who was sending her e-mails, too. But I don’t know this person, so I try to back-trace the e-mail. But he’s bounced it from server to server around the world so there’s no way I can track it.
“So I think about it. I wondered why someone would involve Tess—and you—in something this big, something obviously this dangerous, unless it was legitimate. Unless he really needs the help and it truly is a matter of life and death like it said in the e-mails to Tess.”
I chewed on what he said along with a bite of my sandwich. I swallowed and said, “So, who’s sending them?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But I can tell you this much. Whoever it is knows as much about game theory as James Barrett did, and knows his video games inside out.”
I frowned. “Game theory?”
He tipped his head. “It’s kind of like a form of psychology. You form games in such a way that players must make intelligent, rational decisions based on strategies of either conflict or cooperation. It’s a way of seeing how people behave to get what they want from others. All kinds of people use it, including the military. That’s why the DoD came to MondoHard in the first place. They wanted James Barrett.”
“You can tell this from some e-mails?”
He nodded. “Look at what he’s gotten you to do. Look at what he’s gotten
me
to do.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
He looked away for a moment, formulating his thoughts. “I read more than graphic novels, okay? The accident that killed James Barrett and his wife was big news. Everybody knows Tess Barrett was blinded in the crash, even dweebs like me. It wasn’t hard to check you out. You’re listed as a TA on your UW advisor’s web page, along with your thesis topic. Pretty easy to backtrack from there and get your history. Whatever I can’t find in the public domain I can get anyway, since I can hack just about any network out there.
“I had to ask myself, if push came to shove, who would I believe? My money’s on the blind girl and the squeaky-clean grad student. Someone wants me to help you. Since you’re at a distinct disadvantage, well . . . ” He shrugged.
“What if we’re
all
being played? I mean, if this guy’s as good at game theory as you say . . . ”
He grinned. “I say we play both sides against the middle. Let everybody else figure it out.”
I didn’t see the humor in it. “I count at least three people dead, two of them killed right in front of me. This is no game.”
His smile disappeared. “No, right. I mean, of course this is serious. That’s why I want to help. I could lose my job just for talking to you.”
“Yeah, and Tess and I could lose our lives.”
He dropped his gaze, cowed under my stare. I backed off and mused, taking some of my irritation out on my sandwich.
“Look, man,” he said finally, “I didn’t know anybody had been killed over this. I’m sorry. But that’s all the more reason you need my help.”
I swallowed and took a deep breath. “Okay, what next?”
He reached into his pocket, took out a cell phone, and glanced around the restaurant before handing it to me.
“This is a burner, a throwaway. Two people have the number, me and our mystery man.”
I took it. Derek’s gaze remained on the phone until I slipped it into my pocket.
He let out the breath he’d been holding. “Okay, he wants me to tell you it’s 10:50, whatever that means. And he sent me this.”
He handed me a slip of paper with a series of odd marks that looked like squares and right angles set in different positions.
His eyes searched my face. “You know what it means?”
I shook my head.
“Well, I did my part.” He stood. “Guess it’s up to you now.”
“Wait. Who’s following me?”
“Does it matter? Look, it’s better if they don’t know you know. So don’t go looking over your shoulder all the time.”
“So that’s it?”
He shrugged. “Until I find out differently.”
He paused, but there was nothing more to say. I watched him walk out and then turned my attention back to what was left of my sandwich. I scanned the marks on the slip of paper while I ate, and called up my memory of the page in Tess’s book,
The Eleventh Hour
, with a clock face whose hands read 10:50. When I took the last bite of sandwich, I wadded up the wrapping paper and napkin and dumped it in a nearby trash can. Then I walked up to the counter and asked to borrow a pencil. I went back to my seat and sketched out what I recalled from the page in the book. In five minutes I had deciphered the message.
It read, “Dig deep inside yourself.”
I frowned. Riddles within enigmas. This guy was driving me nuts.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when the throwaway phone Derek had given me vibrated against my thigh. I fished in my pocket, yanked it out, and dropped it on the counter as if it had burned my fingers. The screen said, “1 MSG.” I opened it and read.
Tess needs you. Help her do this.
For a moment, Tess froze in terror, awakened from a sound sleep by the scent of something familiar, something that signaled danger. She struggled into wakefulness, knowing despite her fear that she was safe at home. She pushed herself upright in bed. Out of habit she screwed her knuckles into her eye sockets and rubbed the sleep out of them. She still couldn’t see, but she felt more awake. And now she sensed someone’s presence in her room. She cocked her head, listening intently, hearing the rustle of fabric as the person moved, the soft thud of someone’s tread on the carpeted floor.
“Ah-so, good morning, missy.”
“Yoshi,” she said, relief flooding through her. “You nearly scared me to death.”
“You must have had bad dream. Nothing scary here. I bring you nice coconut orchid today. Brighten up your morning.”
“Thank you. Is it pretty? I wish I could see it.”
“Very beautiful. Bright red. One petal white with red spots, like tongue of child with measles.” He chuckled.
Tess tried to imagine the flower in her mind. But the image failed to appear. The scent kept nagging at her, forcing the picture out of her head. Finally, she recognized what bothered her. The smell reminded her of the whiff of scent she’d picked up at Helen’s just before the shots that killed her and the confusion that followed.
Strange
.
She yawned and stretched, wondering why her muscles felt so sore. Then she remembered: from her practice with Yoshi the day before. The rest of the day’s events came rushing back, too.
“Yoshi?” she said. “Can I ask you something?”
“
Hai
, missy.”
“I don’t know what to do. Someone keeps pushing me to do things. But it seems every time I do, someone gets hurt. I think I might be going crazy. I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
“You can trust Uncle Travis.”
“I
hate
Uncle Travis. He grounded me. Look at me, Yoshi! I’m a prisoner.”
“He care about you, is all. He try to protect you. He is a good man, an honorable man.”
“Why?” she grumbled. “Just because he was in the army?”
“No, because of what he try to do with his life. Always about serving others, not himself.”
“He’s got himself a pretty nice life here. He just walked into it. Didn’t do a thing for it. My parents built all this, not Uncle Travis. They worked hard and earned it. What did he do?”
“Maybe, if not for you, he would choose to be somewhere else. Maybe this not the life he want, just the one he accept because he is needed here.”
She felt a pang reverberate through her like the peals of a gong. Swinging her legs out from under the covers, she flounced onto the floor.
“Oh, that’s just great. So he doesn’t even
want
to be here. That makes me feel special.”
“He want to be here. He just sad that he
must
be here because of what happened. You do not see it, but the pain you feel because of the hole your parents left when they died he feels, too. You lost your parents. He lost his brother and sister-in-law. You not the only one in this house who has suffered.”
She wanted to dismiss what he said, but it slowly dawned on her that he was right.
Even Yoshi and Alice must miss my parents. Not as much as I do, surely, but they must feel the loss, too
.
She’d never considered what Uncle Travis had lost until Yoshi had voiced it. But the fear that had first awakened her still lingered, making it hard to shake off her grumpiness.
“Well, maybe Uncle Travis is doing what he has to,” she said. “But I can’t even talk to Oliver. Not after what he did to me yesterday.”
She shook her head and walked to her dresser, putting her hands out to keep from stubbing her toe against it. Orienting herself with the feel of its contours, she opened a drawer and took out a pair of jeans.
“So,” Yoshi said softly, “did you have a question for me?”
She whirled toward the sound of his voice. “What should I
do
, Yoshi?”
“Trust your heart. It will know what to do when the time comes.”
“I don’t know what my heart wants. I don’t know what
I
want.”
“Use the stones,” Yoshi said. “They will help you see things more clearly.”
She sighed. Hard to see things more clearly when she couldn’t see at all. “What time is it?”
“Nearly seven.”
“Oh, my god. Shoo! Get out, Yoshi. I have to get ready.”
“
Hai
, missy.”
Tess could hear the smile in his voice and wished she could throw a pillow at him. He teased her relentlessly. But his advice was worth it. His soft footsteps headed across the room, and the door closed with a click. Tess found the rest of an outfit and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower.
Twenty minutes later, she slid into a chair at the table in the kitchen for breakfast. Alice brought her a bagel, yogurt, and juice. She’d just started eating when Oliver came in, said good morning, and sat down next to her. She stiffened, the memory of being roughly shoved around Tad’s circle of friends still fresh. He leaned in close, strong scents of his shampoo and soap indicating he’d just showered, too.
“We need to talk,” he murmured. “After breakfast.”
After breakfast was just fine with her. After lunch would be even better. Best would be if he never talked to her again, but at least breakfast would be pleasant this way. She listened to him make small talk with Alice about his studies and her childhood. Tess found herself interested in spite of herself. She’d never heard Alice discuss her personal life, and was surprised by her revelation that she’d been a bit of a wild child. Tess couldn’t imagine Alice as a girl, let alone one who terrorized the neighbors by riding her tricycle through flower beds.
Breakfast ended far too quickly for Tess. She could have listened to Alice’s stories all morning. She felt jealous that Alice had opened up to Oliver, had shared things that Tess never knew in all the time Alice had been with the family. But all Oliver had done was to ask Alice some questions, show a little interest. Whatever Tess didn’t know about Alice was her own fault. She’d asked Alice a million questions when she’d been little, but had taken her presence for granted over the years and had never bothered to really get to know her. She swallowed the self-pity that welled up inside.
No sense feeling sorry for myself. It’s not too late if I truly want to get to know Alice better
.
Alice excused herself to return phone calls from some contractors who were preparing bids on repair and maintenance work around the house.
“I know you’re still upset,” Oliver said as soon as she was gone, “but I need to tell you about what happened yesterday.”
“You left me alone,” Tess said. “That’s what happened.”
“No, I mean later. When I went home.” He told her about his meeting with Derek, about how they had somebody inside MondoHard now who could help them.
“I can’t help anymore,” Tess said when he finished. “I’m not getting anyone else killed.”
“What about what the e-mail said?” Oliver pressed. “What about all the people who might die if we don’t help?”
“What about me, Oliver? What if these people keep coming after me? What about
my
life?” Tess bit back tears.
“Then get out of here. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
“Oh, please. Where would I go? What would I do? I have no money—it’s all tied up in trust accounts that Travis manages. How would we live? You said yourself you need this job to pay your rent.” She paused. “Besides, Travis would find me no matter where we go. You don’t know him, Oliver. He spent nearly ten years hunting down terrorists. What chance would we have?”
“Okay, so maybe that’s not a good idea. I told Derek as much. You’ve got protection here.”
Oliver fell silent for a moment.
“I have to get ready for school,” Tess said. “Will you help me get my books?”
“Sure.” He helped her up from the table. “Look, Tess, I know this is hard, but think of it another way. If you give this person what he wants, then they’ll all leave you alone.”