[Brackets] (44 page)

“No,” said Bell. “I’m going to leave right now, alone and unimpeded. I won’t let him know that it’s over until I’m safely away. As long as you don’t call security on me in the next ten minutes, all you have to do is convince that man that you have a secret brackets system and everything will be fine. You’ll be heroes, really. Perry is lucky to have friends like you.” Bell reached over and pushed a button on the tablet
to activate the
video
chat option, then
handed it to Tucker. “Better make it good.”

The two looked at the tablet in shock. The man known as
Bell stepped away and casually walked out the do
or, wolfing down a handful of M&
M’s.

A ping from the tablet drew Tucker and Cole’s attention
. The hooded figure
had begun
to type, and a message popped up in a chat box.

Tell me your secret. Now.

Cole looked frantically at Tucker. “You have to think of something.”

“Why me? I don’t know what to say!”

“You’re the one in college. Maybe you learned something in a
math
class you can use. I don’t know this stuff.”

“I’m pre-law! How much math do you think I know?”

“Do you know any stats?”

“Maybe a little, stuff
from
research, but not much.
Go get Noh.
”

“
But he needs something now!
Just think of anything.”

A message popped up.

Well?

The figure reached out to grab the trigger by his hand. Tucker typed.

No
, we’re here. We’re going to explain our secret system now. Please don’t use bomb.

The figure took his hand back and typed.

Tell me.

Tucker hesitated above the screen, his mind completely blank. He looked out at the window and heard the crowd roar at something. He thought of all the technical terms he
knew
that might sound realistic. The
n the
words popped into his head, and he smiled.

Bracket predictions made using a non-linear Skyline Plotter.

*
             
*
             
*
             
*

Just outside the Potomac Booth, Mr. Graham deposited his Marshall Bell blazer in the trash can, satisfied that he had covered all his bases. What Jason Spade had told him was true. OPUS hadn’t leaked, and there was no other system out there to compete. He could now safely report that to his superiors. All that remained was to tie up the last loose ends of the day. He needed to meet the girl Lena at her hotel near Dulles. She had proven h
erself in planning the flash protest
, and she would be very useful in her next assignment in Thailand. He hadn’t been entirely happy with the order to let her wreak havoc during the game, but
in the end
things had worked out better than he had planned. There was, of course, the matter of Neeson. He would take care of that tonight. The only lingering concern was the presence of his rival recruiter, but it wasn’t a significant problem. He
had
got
ten
what he wanted, as
he
always
did
.

Graham exited the hallway
, his eyes on his phone,
when he stepped on something. A hand. The guard that had been posted at the
hall entrance
was on the floor, face coated with blood and radio still in his belt. Graham didn’t even have time to pocket his phone before someone jumped at him from the side. A huge hulk of a man overwhelmed his field of vision.

No, no, no!
thought Graham.
It’s the real one!

He felt something smash into the side of his jaw, and everything went dark.

*
             
*
             
*
             
*

Tucker had only typed a few lines before he
knew he
was in way over his head. The fake Ichabod would write things meant to make him sound insane, but he’d immediately follow up with technical questions about algorithms and data sets.

“We’ve got to get Noh to help us out,” Tucker said after making something up about two-way ANOVAS. “I can’t keep this up.
Tell
Nera to
unlock
the door and get Noh to come down here. Wait,
but you have to
tell me the score first.”

“Seriously?” Cole exclaimed.

“Just do it!” Tucker commanded.

Cole squinted at the Jumbotron through the stained window.
“2:50 to go, 64-62, UCLA.” He turned
to signal
the camera
,
but
then
stopped short when
the door of the skybox opened abruptly. The doorway was filled with
a
menacing
hulk.

Cole had forgotten just how big Ichabod was, wide in the shoulders and erect as a redwood. The goatee and shaggy appearance were gone, but the glare off the glasses was still there. He was wearing a souvenir t-shirt and a ridiculous blue-and-yellow wig which he threw down
as he stepped into the room
.

Tucker, still engrossed in the tablet, didn’t register Cole’s voiceless attempts to get his attention. In an instantaneous burst of fury,
Ichabod
leapt over to Tucker and ripped the tablet away, flinging it across the room. With a backward sweep of his hand,
he
slammed
Tucker across the chin
and sent him sprawling.

Cole made a desperate break for the open door. He had gone only a few feet
when
Ichabod caught him by the back collar and jerked him over the row of seats. A
paralyzing
pain
burned
through his back; he suddenly found his voice and yelled in
agony
.

The camera!
Tucker spun around to signal a frantic call for help
to Noh and Nera
, scrambling over chairs to put a safe distance between himself and Ichabod. But Ichabod wasn’t going for him. Seeing the camera mounted on the wall, the juggernaut snapped it from its base and threw it at Tucker’s head. Then with both men
cornered, Ichabod reached into his pocket.

At
the
sudden silence in the room, Cole gingerly pulled himself up from between the seats. Ichabod had pulled something out of his pocket and was swinging it back and forth like a hypnotist. 

“Two of the four. Half the horsemen,”
he
said quietly. His deep voice
was
strained
with
agitation. “I knew who you were years ago. It goes down from two to one to oblivion. It says so. Pestilence and Death. It doesn’t matter which is which, but I know.
The fire made me see it,
it
cleared my eyes. Four to two to one to nothing, complete obliteration.
This
will happen now.”

Ichabod began to twirl the
object
with his wrist, slowly at first
but quickly picking up speed
, slicing through the air
in
rhythm
with
his
relentless
footsteps.
What was that thing?
Cole could see two strings pulled taut by something weighted down between them. Something heavy that was now spinning faster and faster. A sling. Goliath had a sling.

“You four
,
” the madman continued, twirling a little faster
now. “You were going to do it by making
predictions
, witchcraft in the form of prophecy in the form of sheep’s clothes
. You wanted glory.”
The insane arsonist
fixated on Cole and walked an unhurried pace toward him.
His movements sparked a random memory in Cole’s panic-sick mind. He saw an image of a natur
e show about great white sharks
and remembered how they swam steadily, methodically, because they knew nothing in the ocean could ever stop them. Ichabod seemed to Cole to move like a shark.
What a stupid thing to think about right before you die,
he scolded himself, his hand instinctively shoving back through his floppy hair.
Still trapped between the rows of seats, he fought spasms of pain as he stumbled
away from the oncoming giant
.

“Pride was the downfall of the son of the morning. His bracket lost, you know who I’m talking about. There is always a downfall. The tower fell. The columns fell, the ceiling fell. The stones do it. The fire does it.” Ichabod
’s
voice
swelled like a preacher’s
, his sling whir
ling in tight, fast rotations by his side. “
Which will fall first now?”

Ichabod
reared back, his hand raising above his shoulder to launch the stone.
Tucker sprang up in a crash of chairs and launched himself onto Ichabod’s back. For a moment, Tucker was on top, but with a
primal
roar, Ichabod threw him
headfirst
to the floor
and
grabbed for something
to bring down on
the
unmoving body
. Without a single thought, Cole
vaulted the seats
awkwardly
and
lunged
at Ichabod
. But the giant
madman caught
him
in the chest with
a
massive forearm,
hammering him
to the ground and knocking the wind out of him.
Snapping his sling back into a lethal spin
,
Ichabod pinned
Cole
to the floor with a heavy foot on his
chest
.

“Where is your glory now!”
he bellowed, his face horribly contorted
in triumph
.

Suddenly,
the room
was
filled with an ear-splitting
siren
.
Disoriented,
Ichabod released the sling haphazardly
, missing Cole entirely,
and covered his ears
with a furious scream
. The screens came to life and strobed unbearable, piercing light intermixed with
the
deep red image of a bloody human heart. Ichabod
whipped out
another rock and launched
it
at the screens,
fracturing the images
but not stopping the sensory onslaught.
Finding himself free,
Cole
gulped air and
struggled to crawl away in the confusion. But the distraction didn’t last; Ichabod threw down the sling,
slammed his
foot onto Cole’s throat,
and
raised his arm
to bring Cole’s life to a
final
, crushing end.

The blow never came. Ichabod was tackled from behind by
a gang of
security guards
, the shock of tazers crackling as he lurched and convulsed in blind fury
.
Among the mass of men trying desperately to subdue the giant was Henry, landing blows as often as he could
.

Cole fe
lt someone grab him from behind
and flinched in pain. “Relax, relax, it’s me,” Nera said, enfolding Cole in her arms. “You’re safe, it’s over.”

Suddenly noticing Tucker inert on the floor,
Henry jumped off
Ichabod
and sprinted to his son.
“
Tucker
? Son!” he called. To his relief, Tucker rolled over
with a groan
and rubbed a lump that was forming on his head.

“Hey
,
Dad,” Tucker said
, dazed
.

“Hey
,
s
on.”
Henry
checked
his son over, then stood up. “You
don’t look so bad
.
”

Tucker chuckled and groaned. “Wow,” he said, “I can’t remember anything
after
…” His eyes fell on the tablet computer, face down on the floor.