S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (114 page)

Casey nods. “No problem,” he says, and he starts heading back toward the door.

“
Oh, and Case? One more thing. Show a little restraint. There'll be time enough later for fun.”

“
Yes, sir.” He grins.

We turn and, when he heads for the stairs, I suggest we take the elevator. He shakes his head.

“
Never use them. Don't like confined spaces. Bad things happen in small places, if you know what I mean.”

The stairwell has also been cleared of bodies. When we reach the landing where Micah tried to extract the implant, Ben gives the stains on the wall a curious look. “You kids had quite the party in here.”

“
Yeah, it was a blast.”

He chuckles and doesn't ask for clarification.

When we get down to the bottom floor and push through the doorway, we're met by a blast of frigid air. Kelly hears us and hurries over, a heavy wool woman's jacket draped over his shoulders. He gives Ben a wary look, taking in the black outfit and the machete in his belt. Something flickers in his eyes, but he doesn't say anything. When he sees my eye he gasps and steps toward me. Ben moves to intercept.

“
I'm okay,” I tell him. “Where are the others?”

Kelly leads me over to Jake, moving stiffly, warily, careful not to make any sudden movements. Ben positions himself slightly to the side, where he can quickly intervene if need be. We enter the main room and the lights are turned down low. “We're taking shifts watching over him,” he says, talking quickly. It's what he does when he's stress. “Ashley was going on and on about the cold, so Reggie took her upstairs a couple hours ago. I think they must've fallen asleep. And Br—”

He glances at Ben again.

“
Everyone else is upstairs,” he finishes.

If Ben notices Kelly's hesitation, he doesn't show it. I'm not sure it's any advantage, keeping Brother Nicholas a secret from him. I have no idea how to leverage it. I just hope it doesn't turn into a mistake we'll later regret.

Ben circles around to the head of the table and looks down on Jake. The straps around his body have been reinforced, in case he should turn when no one is watching. They've also set up an automatic spraying system to keep him even cooler. Despite the chill of the air and the water, heat still rises up off of his body in thick, sickening waves. His skin has gone an ugly bruised yellow and his cheeks are sunken in.

For another moment, Kelly frowns at the figure, hurt in his eyes, before he turns to me. “Did you bring the medicine?”

Ben fingers the snap on his pocket and reaches in. “You mean this?” he asks.

Kelly exhales and waits.

Ben smiles, checking Kelly out. He leans against the table, scratching his chin with the end of the syringe. “So, you are the famously elusive Kelly Corben,” he says. “Not really much to look at, are you?” he chuckles. “Casey told me all about you after what happened during his previous encounter with you. Think you're some kind of smart fucker, don't you?”

Kelly's eyes narrow.

“
What encounter?” I ask, shocked.

Ben inhales, clears his throat dramatically. “The one with Casey and Shane. Never shoulda sent a couple of boys to do a man's job. But that was Paddy's mistake, not mine.”

“
Kelly?”

“
Yeah, he's a slippery one, ain't you? Can't trust you, not for a second. I'll be keepin my eyes on you, that's for sure.”

“
Kelly, what's he talking about?”

“
Not now, Jess.”

“
Yes, not now. But soon,” Ben says. “I'm expectin a couple more guests to our little party, and I so hate repeatin myself.” He steps away, positioning himself so we can't escape. “You kids have been givin us all quite the run for our money. Lucky I ran into your little darlin here at the wall. We was just headin out to look for the good father when we got waylaid by the storm.”

Kelly frowns. “Heall? What do you want with him?”

“
Heall? Ironic, ain't it, carrying around that name. But what I want turns out to be the same thing you want.” He holds up the syringe. “His secret recipe. Anyway, now that's cleared up and we're all together again, like one big happy family, just got to tie up a few loose ends. And once that's done, I'll be taking a little trip to—where the hell was it? Brookfeather?” He smiles waiting for me to correct him. “Brookhaven,” he says, finally. And the grin spreads.

He slips the syringe back into his pocket. “Everyone else is topside, you say?” he asks, and when Kelly nods, he seems satisfied. “Good. Why don't we join them then? We'll finish this at last.”

He winks at Kelly, then gestures toward the stairs.

 

“Where's Ashley?”
Kelly asks Reggie, when he finds him lying down on a desk in one of the darkened rooms.

Reggie lifts his arm from his head. His face is slack with fatigue and his movements are groggy, but when he sees me standing behind Kel he quickly pushes himself up. “You're back!” he exclaims, and he hurries over and gives me a hug. “Jesus, Jessie. What the hell happened to your eye?”

“
Where's Ashley,” I ask, quietly repeating Kelly's question.

Reggie stares at me for a moment, confused, before his eyes raise from my face and focuses on the doorway. Ben's shadow fills the room and I feel Reggie immediately tense.

“
Who's he?”

“
He's got the medicine for Jake.”

“
Another brother?”

I give my head a quick shake, frowning. The less said, the better.

“
Why don't we find someplace to talk,” Ben says, smiling. “Someplace more…open, with a little more light and where we can stretch out a little.” He looks around the tiny darkened room with distaste.

“
Where's Ashley?”

“
She went…” Reggie starts, but then he stops, confused. He looks back at the desk. “She got up a little while ago. I thought she was going to use the bathroom.” He rubs his face. “What time is it?”

Kelly checks his Link. “Almost two.”

“
And Jake?”

“
Okay. For now. Still hanging in there.”

Reggie turns back to Ben and says, “Look, if you've got the medicine, then can't we talk afterward? Our friend is in pretty rough shape.”

“
We've already been down—” I begin, but Ben reaches in and pulls me out by my arm.

“
Hey!” I hear Reggie say in alarm, but that's all. Kelly must've signaled him to be quiet.

Ben drags me out to the main room, and Reggie and Kelly follow behind. He instructs us all to sit down. The worry on Reggie's face deepens. Kelly's face is a blank slate.

“
Listen, guys, just do as he says,” I tell them. I find a chair and gesture to the others.

“
Before we get too comfortable, why don't you let me hold onto your Link devices,” Ben says, holding out a hand. The other is on the hilt of his machete. Any pretense of civility is gone. Everything about him screams,
Don't fuck with me!
“We don't want no interruptions now, do we?”

Reggie jerks, as if shocked. I can almost see the options going through his head. Kelly reaches into his pocket and pulls out his Link without a word. But Reggie shakes his head.

“
Reggie, just do—”

“
I left it downstairs,” he says, feigning checking his pockets. “With my backpack.”

Both Kelly and I turn and look at him, but Ben just shrugs. “Fine. Whatever. We'll deal with it later.”

He slips Kelly's Link into the left breast pocket of his shirt where it clicks with mine.

“
I'll need that back,” Kelly says.

“
Of course you will.” Ben smiles amicably, but the look in his eyes is threatening.

“
You guys want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Reggie asks us, whispering.

“
Said I'll explain everything when everyone else gets here,” Ben answers. “Patience.”

He pings Casey and asks, “Shane and Lena arrive yet? They shoulda been here by now.”

I can hear Casey answer no, not yet. He sounds out of breath.

Reggie leans over and whispers, “What the fuck is going on?” I give him a quick shake of the head, my eyes never leaving Ben as he frowns at his screen. I wonder if he knows about the failsafe device in our heads. He has to, in which case, he knows Reggie's lying because there's no way he could've left his Link downstairs and not be unconscious by now.

“
Damn it!” Ben snaps. “What's taking them so long?” Casey warbles an answer we can't quite hear and Ben shakes his head in frustration. “Fine. Just make sure you let me know as soon as they've arrived.” He glances up at us and says, “No talking.”

A moment later, his Link pings. Casey's voice comes through loud and clear:
They're here
. “Good,” Ben responds. “We're in the main room, Building One. On the ground floor. Bring them here. Keep an eye out for the last two. If you see them, escort them over, would you, boss?” He thumbs it off.

Reggie leans over toward me. “
Does he know Micah's not here?
”

“
Quiet, I said!”

From the outside door I hear Ashley's voice. Then Brother Nicholas' reply. They're coming closer, and they don't seem to be aware that we're back. They enter the room, each of them carrying a bundle of plants, and they're talking about how to prepare them for use as a salve. When they see us, they stop and stare in surprise, their discussion cut off in midsentence.

“
Have a seat,” Ben tells them. The machete is out, and he's slapping the side of his leg with the flat of the blade. “Both. Now.”

Brother Nicholas' eyes skim over Ben's outfit before coming to rest on the machete. He takes it all in in less than the space of a second before he nods solemnly and gestures for Ashley to sit in one of the middle seats. He takes her bundle of plants and drops them all onto a table before taking the chair in the front row.

Ben watches him carefully. There's no look of look surprise on his face, no sense of not knowing who this person is supposed to be, even though Brother Nicholas clearly doesn't belong with the rest of us. He's so much older than the rest of us.

But of course Ben wouldn't be surprised. That's what he meant outside when he said the Coder has been keeping them updated. Micah has told them everything, at least until our arrival last night at Brookhaven, when the brothers took his Link away.

And suddenly another piece of the puzzle falls into place. Stephen wasn't with Arc either, despite what he indicated and what Father Heall and the brothers thought.

This is bigger than Arc.
That's what Stephen had told us.

So who?

A war of many agents, my dear,
Father Heall had said to me, late last night.
A war of wrongs.

And I had answered:
But not you. Because you're on the side of right.

Each of us thinks we're on the right side.

The sounds of other voices come to us, of several sets of boots clomping over the floor. Three people enter the room a moment later. The first is Casey. Color has now fully returned to his face. He appears fully recovered, healthy and strong. There's a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead and it drips down his neck, but no more than the others. It's warm and humid outside.

His infection is completely gone.

The other two people are dressed similarly in black.

I recognize the woman right away. It's Miss Novak from the tram, the woman who'd managed to escape after we'd tied her up and left her in the baggage claim area of the terminal with her partner. Nurse Mabel had killed him, but she'd escaped and hidden out in the terminal for the next three days, probably keeping tabs on us while we healed and prepared to escape. Watching us while we tried to find a way to defeat the failsafe device.

Her eyes find Kelly as soon as she walks in, and a slight smile crosses her lips. “So good to see you again,” she tells him. “Glad to see you didn't break your neck jumping off the tram.”

But Kelly ignores her. It's Casey and the second man he's giving his attention to.

The man walks right up to Kelly and, without warning, sucker punches him in the stomach. Kelly doubles over with a puff and I jump to my feet, but I'm stopped by the two rifles pointed at my face.

“
That's for being such a smart fuck,” the man growls. His second punch lands on Kelly's cheek and snaps his head backward. But Kelly rolls with it. “And that's for fucking me over.”

 

“They're the two guys
who took me and Jake to LaGuardia,” Kelly says panting. He clutches his stomach and coughs. Spit dribbles from his lips.

Ben laughs. “Poor kids, Casey and Shane. Beaucorps tore them both new ones for lettin you escape. Didn't he, boys?”

Casey's face twitches, a flicker of that old self-doubt. The first crack, I think. But it quickly disappears, plastered over by that false sense of indestructibility. “Yeah, me and Shane both,” he says. He laughs, and I think I hear a slight quaver in it. “Won't happen again.”

Shane points a finger at Casey's face, as if to tell him none of it was his fault, but Ben steps in. “That's in the past, boys.” He shoves Shane away.