I staggered to my feet. The heat had entirely left my body, and despite the blazing sun above us, a chill clung to my bones. I leaned against Dana's wheelchair for support, though I made sure to put myself between him and Asha's prone body.
Willowy and grave, Abel extended a hand to me. He wore the same sleek suit that he'd appeared with in my mind. "Hello. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person. And you, Ms. Williams."
"Don't talk to her," I snarled. "Don't you dare say a word to any of us. You have no right!" Even the exertion of spitting the words felt tiresome. I struggled to stay standing.
He dipped his head. "True enough." Clasping his hands behind his back, he stared up at the bright sky. "I've put you all through enough, haven't I? A kidnapping, a few unpleasant weeks in a hospital, a stressful afternoon today." He nodded thoughtfully. "No, it can't have been easy. And now you've seen Gaza, had your first Surge... unpleasant indeed."
Dana had dragged herself besides Asha. She now held him tenderly in her lap, and stroked the hair out of his face. I watched her and Abel's gazes meet, like two swords touching at their points. A shiver ran down my spine at the shards of ice in her usually warm, brown eyes. "Sinclair. You would have had him die."
He said nothing for a long moment. In the end, he looked away first. "Yes. And many others, if it meant fully integrating Owen's nanoware." Stepping past her, he came to stand before me. "I've waited a long, long time for an opportunity like this. Indeed, there are few things I wouldn't do at this point."
"Why?" I wet my dry lips. "What do you want from us?"
The gray-skinned man extended his hand again. "You're exhausted. A Surge devours the energy in your system, and you almost overdid it. You're likely at least a few pounds lighter for it. Come with me, you can rest while we talk."
I stared at him with pure disgust. "You just admitted you'd happily kill my friends, and now you want to chat?"
He lowered his hand. The smallest sliver of hurt flashed in his eyes before his expression smoothed out. "The choice is yours, Owen." He turned and walked to the center of the lot, and pressed his foot into a small, irregularly raised square of dirt. The ground beneath began to rotate, a tiny hole widening out until a cellar door sized gap appeared. "But I imagine the authorities won't want to see you at a crime scene, yet again."
As if on cue, the wail of ambulance sirens started up in the distance. I gritted my teeth. "I'll take my chances. I'm not going anywhere with you, especially not down there."
He sighed. "Really now, you're quite unreasonable." In a swift movement, he hoisted Asha's body up threw it over his shoulder, fireman style. Dana made a grab for his ankle, but he quickly stepped out of reach. "Come along now, both of you. Your friend shouldn't stay out in the heat for long." With that he started down the steps, until he, Asha, and our options disappeared in its depths.
"And what am I supposed to do? Crawl?" Dana sneered. She hurled a rock at the street, and it clattered far. "Tell that gutless swine that he can come back up and carry me himself if he wants me to 'come along'."
I almost offered to do it myself, but that was a joke. My arms felt ready to fall off even without an added weight on them. "Keep a lookout, please," I said, starting towards the gap in the ground. The wind swirled sand and grit around it. This, I noted, is how people die in horror movies.
At the lip of the little chasm, I took a long look down, and paused. There was nothing but gaping darkness below. "Uh, Dana? Small problem."
Twigs snapped as she wheeled towards me. When she saw what I did, she pursed her lips. "Oh. Yeah, that's an issue."
Abel sighed in my mind, impatient. It's a entry chute, and quite safe. Simply step through. Ms. Williams can do the same with her equipment.
"Get out of my head, and speak out loud so we can both hear you," I shouted down the hole. "And you're insane if you think I'm just jumping down here!"
The facility is, unfortunately, soundproof. I will tend to your friend while you make up your mind.
I balled up my fists. The howl of the sirens was getting closer, and the thought of Asha being alone with Abel made my blood boil. After all that had happened, what did one more jump matter? "Just follow my lead. Apparently it's safe," I told Dana, and leaped down the hole.
Air whooshed around me. The light above me vanished. I plummeted down, and down, and down, my stomach wrenching up. I started think about how abysmally stupid what I'd just done was a few seconds in, and a few seconds later that it was even stupider that I'd had this much time to think.
Fluorescent light illuminated around me, and suddenly I was slowing down. My shoes lightly touched down on a circular metal platform. Tiny orange lights lined it, reminding me of an airplane runway.
Once I regained my footing, I stepped down from the platform. It seemed to me that I'd jumped down into a giant metal donut, with the chute in the center. Steel lab tables and computer monitors lined the walls, with broad control panels that blinked out rainbow lights. A large red button sat in the center of one. I squashed down the urge to push it.
All in all, nothing I wouldn't have expected from a mad scientist.
"No lightning machine? No potions?" I walked around the chute to where Abel stood, his back turned. He'd laid Asha down on one of the cold lab tables, although to his credit, he'd thrown a sheet down on it first. "Disappointing, Sinclair."
He propped Asha's head up on a white pillow, and placed another sheet on top of him. "I suppose you'll have to excuse me for that. I've been too preoccupied for decor."
I came to the opposite side of the table. "Yeah, it must be hard work, poisoning kids and murdering everyone from bank CEOs to criminals. With Race's crew, that makes it, what, at least 15 in a week?" I whistled with mock appreciation. "No wonder you've been so tied up."
He smiled, but there was nothing warm about it. "I see you've drawn your own conclusions."
"I'm not that bad of a journalist. The numbers add up," I held up my hand, and began to tick down on my fingers. "They call this criminal the Ghost. The common thought is that you're dead. You 'rescued' me from Race, after Mayic warned him of the said Ghost, and you have a weird habit of popping up out of nowhere to talk to me. You've brought us to your underground lab in the middle of nowhere, you hacked my mind to choke Dana-- I mean, come on. The only thing I don't know is why you saved me from the nanobugs to begin with, if all you were going to do was try your hardest to get us killed!"
He stayed very, very quiet throughout my rant, surveying me like I was a malfunctioning piece of equipment. In the end, he softly asked, "Is that all?"
"I'll go on if you want me to."
"Hmm." He walked around to my side of the table, and stood no more than a foot away from me. It occurred to me that he was even taller than me than I'd first thought. "All that you know, all that you've discovered, and you still followed me down here. You'd jump into a chasm, with no clue of what lay below, just to sate your curiosity?"
"To help a friend." I bit back.
He laughed out loud at that. "Oh? And who were you helping when you went to Race's facility?" Bringing his face near mine, his expression hardened further. "Tell me you don't want to feel it again, Owen. Tell me you aren't curious about the Surge, about the power that lays dormant in your mind. Tell me you haven't always been that way, too curious for your own good, too flippant with the safety of those around you." He drew back. "I, too, thought I was invincible once."
"And then you became so paranoid, you made yourself a bunker nearly a mile underground." Dana's voice metallically echoed through the donut. She rolled around to our side of the chute, stopping to my left. I tried not to look relieved at the interruption. "Or should I say 1460 feet? Based on my own weight, and how long it took to get here. You used a wind chamber, I assume." Other than the strands of hair plastered to her forehead, you wouldn't have known she'd just fallen so far.
I couldn't help but smile. She certainly knew how to make an entrance.
The mask of civility returned to Abel. He cleared his throat. "Yes, you're quite right. I'm glad you can appreciate the technology," He gestured to the chute with a hint of pride. "It did cost me a rather large sum to build."
"It's bulky." She flatly answered.
He tapped his fingers on his arm, seeming unsure of what to tell her. In the end he simply returned his attention to me. "Well. Now that you're both here, I suppose you'd like to know why." Without waiting for an answer, he crossed the room towards the control panel, and tapped a series of buttons.
The screens lining the walls came to life, so that we were surrounded on all sides by a bright, blue light. A few clicks later, the screens became a gallery of headshots. Most were mid-aged, men and women alike with lined foreheads and lips tending downwards. One or two looked old enough to be my grandparents. I breathed in sharply when the screen in front of me flickered with a new profile.
"Oh, you do recognize him then? Drew Livingston. Eighteen, dropped out of high school to work, make money for his family. Ended up under Race's thumb, trying to pay for his father's debt." Abel paced towards the screen in front of me. "A true tragedy, that one."
"Tragedy. He was one of the ones you killed?" I asked, a new weight bearing down on my chest.
Abel smiled again. I wished he'd stop -- it was more bitter than any scowl could be. "The Ghost did murder him, yes. Him, and all of these others. Some with connections to the serum, as with Race, and others... others who knew nothing about it all." He enlarged one of the images, a hollow-cheeked man with damp bruises under his eyes. "Here you see Jim Alvarez. He believed he was working financial for a pharmaceutical company, Antex. He was murdered when he became too curious about the product that they sold."
"The serum," I said.
He nodded. "Antex was, of course, a shell company. The Ghost set it up as a means of concealing his actual business transactions, that of the serum to various crime groups. They thought they were receiving a neurological hallucinogenic, one that would make their victims more pliable." His lips tightened. "Race was somewhat unique in that he knew their true nature, due to the way Mayic obtained the serum."
Dana frowned. "But why? From what Owen told us, the original Vacancy program totally shuts a person down. What good is all that to you, Sinclair, if you're not the one in charge of the victims?"
A muscle twitched in Abel's jaw, and he gripped the edge of the control panel, his head down. "I understand how this looks, Ms. Williams, but I ask that you simply humor me, and not associate me with that creature."
"I'll need more than your word for that." She shot back.
He stared at us both, teeth gritted, then jerked his head up sharply. "Very well. If it will help you understand," His fingers slid back over the control panel. "The first of the Ghost's victims."
A new image flashed onto the screen. Everything about the girl's face suggested laughter. The mischievous pout, the tilt of her head, the playful way that her hair, streaked with pink, tumbled down her shoulders. She couldn't have been any older than twelve.
Mia Sinclair. No profile caption necessary.
Abel didn't look at the screen as he spoke, his voice careful, controlled. "That was six years ago."
I winced. An awful thought, those sweet eyes going dull with terror, all the laughter lines morphing to horror. "I thought she was kidnapped recently, according to what Dana found."
"Correct. I put in that notice myself," He gravitated towards her image, and spiderweb cracks of pain splintered across his face. "She was the Ghost's first victim, yes. But it wasn't a murder." The same wall slid down between us as when the old driver had locked up. Neither Dana or I pressed it.
"I'm sorry," I lamely offered. "So it wasn't you. Okay. What I want to know is where we play into this."
He clicked the screens off. "I pursued the Ghost, after what happened to Mia. I'd always been good with machines. I suppose it's why I was a surgeon, as the human body is... remarkably similar to one, when you break it down to its basics." A far-off look took him. He shook it off. "I found out about the serum, about his plan to spread it to the criminal underworld, and I developed a backdoor to infiltrate the system. To hack it, project myself into it with all this." He waved his hand around the lab.
I raised my eyebrows. "So, wait. You don't have nanotechnology in you, like me?"
He hummed with amusement. "No. In fact, almost no one does." The lab chair creaked as he took a seat. "As I was saying, I learned to manipulate his system without the Ghost's knowledge. I could appear to anyone who had taken the serum, if they survived the original shock." The man shook his head. "And few did. Those who were given it were often much older than you, with minds too old to adapt. I would have taken it myself ages ago, if not for that."
"I don't recommend it. Not a good time." I said, grimacing.
He shrugged. "In any case, for the survivors, the virus I programmed to help them was a prototype. It rarely worked on those I contacted, and when it did, it was only for short intervals. Your circumstances with the MRI were remarkable." He spread his hands. "And so here you stand, one of two free citizens with the technology established and integrated into your mind."
"The other being?"
But understanding dawned on me almost as soon as the words left my mouth.
"The Ghost, of course. You experienced the way that one's perceptions of time can change. How else could he jump in and out of spaces so quickly? He is all but invincible to wounds -- he can simply Surge energy in, direct it to heal himself, and at the same time burn holes through walls with nothing but his mind. He is a menace, a murderer, and impossible to beat." He slowly met my eyes. "Unless, that is, someone could match those abilities."
"Like the American army, with their weapons and training," Dana interjected, rolling forward. She stopped between Abel and I. "That's what you mean, I hope, and not an eighteen year old who woke up from a coma five hours ago."
"I can speak for myself, thanks, Asha," I said, frowning. "And I want to hear what he has to say. If this Ghost has the powers that he says he does, then I don't know what good all of their weapons would do."
A glimmer of approval sparkled in Abel's eyes. "Clearly, I wouldn't send Owen out without training. But, he's right. Not to mention it would be difficult to communicate this issue to the authorities. He has deep connections within the police force."
A tingle of excitement went down my spine at the mention of training. Experiencing the Surge again, grasping the electric lines and being able to see --
No, that couldn't be what this was about. This was a madman, worse than any criminal I'd written about and more real, too. All those people on the screen, they hadn't lasted around him. Could you? It was a gamble, maybe, but if I could? I wouldn't just be reporting on things as a bystander. I could expose this whole game of power that the Ghost played for the world to see, right as I took him out.
"I think I should at least consider it," I reasoned.
Dana took a long, hard, look at me, as though she was seeing me for the first time. "Fine," She said. Her tone made my stomach clench. "Consider it, then." She rolled herself towards Asha, and tugged the sheet back up where it had fallen off his shoulder.
I cleared my throat. "And, uh. Will you..."
"Stay? And help?" She crossed her arms. "You don't need my help, or anyone else's, for that matter."
"Dana," I hurried behind her. "I do, that's exactly what I'm saying. We all were in to continue the hunt, and this is just, taking the next step. It's our responsibility to help if we can."
"No. My responsibility," She said, calmly rotating her chair back towards me, "is to get Asha home to his parents. Who are probably freaking out right now, since he hasn't texted them in a while." Reaching out, she enlaced her fingers with mine. "You want to play hero. No, don't open your mouth to deny it, it's true. You know I'm not the kind of person who'll stop you, either. But..." She sighed. "But God, Owen. Do you know how many nights Asha spent awake, just hoping you'd open your eyes? He talked all the time about how guilty he felt, about what happened to you, about not being able to do a thing while you were in pain."
My throat felt like I'd swallowed powdered chalk. "I'm grateful. I am."
"Then why go and put us through it again?" Her grip tightened on my hand. "There are people who are better equipped for this, people who could take care of it."
"And if there isn't?" I asked. "If I could save people from going through what I did, and no one else would have to get involved?"
She let go. "Okay. Your mind's made up, then."
I didn't argue. She wheeled towards Abel. "I want a cab out there by the time I make it up the chute. Paid for. And you're going to carry Asha up for me, too. Anyone asks, he passed out after getting drunk."
"As you wish," Abel said, rising. He lifted up Asha as though he weighed no more than a small child, and clicked a switch. The wind in the chute began to roar again, upwards this time. "I will meet you at the top."
"Dana," I started, then stopped, not sure what I meant to say.
"Don't." She lowered her chin towards her chest, breathing out hard. "Don't. I'm not leaving you behind, alright? I just need to make sure that he's going to be okay first."
"Yeah. Good," I said. "Great. Good plan."
She just rolled her eyes, and plopped her phone in my hand. "God, you're so dramatic. Call Asha's number with this if you need anything, I'll take his for awhile. You know we'll be here for you. Or I will, until that dummy wakes up."
I pocketed it. Pink glitter from the case stuck to my fingertips. She reached up and patted my cheek, a thin smile playing on her lips. "Try not to die before that, m'kay?"
"I'll do my best," I said, though by the time I finished, I was speaking to empty air.