Double Digit (14 page)

I looked over at Danny and immediately looked away. Another life I’d ruined. “Hey, Digit, do you mind kind of getting it together? I have the weirdest feeling we are going to live through this, and that you’re going to be sort of embarrassed about having acted like such a baby.”

I wondered if it was a good thing that Danny was so clued out.

He went on: “The other night on the quad with those girls and this awesome skirt, I had a total epiphany about my life as a performer. It was so clear, like the future was revealed to me. Now, why in the world would I have had that totally life-changing moment if I was going to die in a few days? Why would I still be sitting here? In this skirt? Listen, guys, as long as you are with me, you’re going to be fine. I have a purpose.”

Adam spoke up. “He’s impossible not to love. It’s uncanny.”

“No kidding.”

W
HEN I GOT BACK INTO COMMAND CENTRAL
the next morning, the mood had become more urgent. I knew the second I saw Jonas that he’d heard Danny’s comments about definitely surviving and that they had irritated him. He turned my chair around and placed his chair directly facing me. Seated, we were knee to knee. I couldn’t help thinking that this called for a table, a chess set, and a timer. For whatever reason, it was on.

Jonas said, “I’m running out of time.”
Well, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

“Why’s that?”
And, hello, why would you tell me that?

“They’re on their way.” My shoulders relaxed and my forehead released; I thought I was going to cry again.

“Oh?”

“It’s not time to celebrate, Digit. I’ve planned for this. And even before the game starts, I want you to understand that you can’t beat me. I’ve thought of everything.”

I wanted to start up an argument that Danny and I used to have when we were little, over just that expression. It’s impossible to have thought of everything.
Have you thought of a frog dancing in his underwear through a desert? Have you thought of that lamp being the reincarnation of your grandmother?
We used to do this all the time.

He went on: “I want you to gain access to the DOD and arm all available weapons to attack these coordinates.” He handed me a sheet of loose-leaf paper with names of power plants across the country and their exact latitudes and longitudes.

“How does that help you again?”

“Energy production will halt, and this will bring the economy to its knees. We’ll live in chaos for a bit, let the bodies go back to Mother Earth, and muddle through until we all just give in and embrace the prairie. I know you can do it, and I know you’ve been screwing around this whole time. I will give you two hours. Then I will kill you.”

How far away were they? If they were twenty minutes away, I could just get to work. If they were three hours away, I’d be dead. I knew that I could hack the DOD in that amount of time. I could rebuild Oscar in half an hour. I also knew I couldn’t cause that kind of damage.

“You’re going to have to kill me.”

“Oh, right. That. Like I said, I’ve thought of everything.” His tone was overly casual, like he’d remembered to bring vanilla ice cream to serve with the apple pie. “Listen, I had a great computer programmer here. Wallace, when was it? July? Well, he set up all of my systems. And what I realized is that sometimes you can’t force people to do things. A nuisance, that is. So he built me a little insurance before I killed him in case you were being difficult. Come.”

He led me over to the three screens, the first of which had a small box on top of it containing ten digits and a timer set at six hours. I started to relax a little. If this was some sort of a code, I was back in my comfort zone.

Jonas started to laugh. “Sorry, but I have had the best time with this. It’s perfect. This system, when armed, is set to activate my own stash of missiles that are pointed, right now, directly at Manhattan. It’s amazing what a big box of cash can buy you on the black market. And the good news for you is that you get a little extra time. Once my system is armed, you have six hours to do as I ask or they will automatically fire. The detonator for those missiles is located in one of the power centers that I want you to blow up. If you blow them all up like I’m asking, the detonator will be gone and you’ll have saved all the energy-sucking creatures in Manhattan. My guess is that you’ll hack into the DOD to save the people.” He watched as the impossible situation registered on my face. “Checkmate.”

He was so smug, I wanted to punch him. “My recommendation is that you don’t waste your time, or all those lives, trying to crack my password. You would have to live inside my mind to do that. Plus the password changes every five minutes.”

What?!

And so began Major Meltdown #3. “What is wrong with you?! So many things that you say make so much sense and then . . .” I had to stop to wipe my eyes, again on that poor sweater. I turned to Wallace. “You know what? Get me a damn tissue!”

Reasonably mopped up and beyond angry, I went on. “Here you are, big Mr. I Heart Mother Earth, and you’re going to bomb the entire city of New York? So you’re the freakin’ Guardian? I’m no expert, but I hear bombing’s not that great for the environment. And even if I blow up all the power plants instead of Manhattan, people are going to die!”

“Aren’t we killing ourselves anyway, my Squire? Isn’t it just a matter of time? Mother Earth is going to attack sooner or later. Killing all those people is a timing difference. Tater Tots, young Digit—, it’s just like Tater Tots.”

He gave me a second to really feel that comment. Then he went on, laughing: “Yes, I don’t think there’s a conversation that you’ve had in the past six months that I haven’t been listening to. You might want to check your iPhone. And I have to say that your romance with the FBI kid was adorable. We’ve all been on the edge of our seats. Wallace and the others think you’ve been a little stubborn.” He checked his watch and nodded to Wallace. “It’s time for us to go. Sorry to miss the romantic reunion.”

“He’s coming?”

“From what I hear, he’s bringing a crowd. We’re out of here. I suggest you get to work. Manhattan blows whether I’m here or not.” He reached behind me and typed something I wish I’d seen into the keypad on the black box. “And we’re armed. Six hours, Digit.” He turned to leave.

“Hang on a second. If you’ve got missiles now, why do you even need me? Why don’t you just blow up the power plants yourself?”

“Ah, excellent question. Do you see how you were born for this work? The missiles I can purchase can target a multi-mile area like Manhattan, but they are not sophisticated enough to target a specific building. And from a sporting perspective, isn’t it just a tad more fun to turn the government’s super-smart weapons against them? Plus, spiritually speaking, it is your destiny to participate, my Squire. I couldn’t have left you out.”

“Seriously. You’ve got to stop calling me that . . .”

And he was gone. I heard lots of commotion upstairs—packing, I assumed. Doors slamming, and then silence.

Huh. If this was my destiny, wouldn’t it feel good? I sat in that metal chair and started smoothing the invisible wrinkles on my jeans. The feel of the denim on my palms always soothed me. I tried to organize my mind. I had just received so much information, and I knew that if I didn’t calm down, I couldn’t process it all. John. On his way. I had to go tell Mr. Bennett.

I ran down the hall and burst into the room. “They’re gone! John’s coming! With a crowd!”

A
FTER THE INITIAL WAVE OF RELIEF
and euphoria made its way around the room, I explained to them my choice of either blowing up all the power plants or destroying Manhattan.

“The guy’s off his rocker.”
Thanks, Danny, no kidding.

“There’s a password that disarms the system, but it changes every five minutes. Last time I was there, the code read AGHDFEDD42. Even if I could crack it, by the time I was done it would change.”

Again, Danny: “Sounds like it’s Digit-proof.”

“That was his plan all along.” Adam seemed newly energized. He started pacing. “While I was building the printer, I heard him gloating about someone who could crack anything, but not if she was in a rush. The programmer, who’s gone now, suggested they change the password every thirty seconds. But Jonas said five minutes made for a more sporting game.”

“Digit, this is up to you.” Mr. Bennett was firmly in charge, standing up to reveal his massive frame. “You have less than six hours. You can either spend it trying to blow up our nation’s power sources, or you can spend it trying to find the password.”

My choice was perfectly clear to me. If I went along with Jonas Furnis’s plan, he won. If I tried to stop him, he’d probably win. And in my mind, his winning minus his probably winning equaled the possibility of his losing. That might have been an equation that only made sense to me, but I was going with it.

“First of all, let’s get out of this room.” I led them all into the computer room, and Danny and Mr. Bennett gawked over the ceiling-high piles of money. Adam slowly shook his head. The code read MNFDAYYA93. I grabbed a pad of paper and built a grid of the alphabet, with the corresponding numbers below it:

“Don’t you want to use a spreadsheet?” Adam was over my shoulder, unimpressed with how slowly I was writing.

“She is the spreadsheet,” Mr. Bennett told him. “Watch.”

Jonas Furnis had used this kind of code before, so I thought I’d start there. It was strange that the eight letters would be followed by two numbers, almost like there were two parts to the code. I wondered if the letters were giving us a clue about the numbers or if it was the other way around. The ever-changing code was on the left-hand screen. Below it was the timer. I had five hours and fifteen minutes to figure out the logic, and then five minutes to apply it to shut this thing down.

With about four hours left, I was pretty much nowhere. I had a page full of numbers. That page and ten dollars could get me into the movies, without popcorn. In the distance, I heard a door open and footsteps overhead. I was so far into this impossible code that it barely registered with me. I actually was in a kind of trance.

“Digit!” I felt hands on my shoulders and a cheek on my cheek. I couldn’t get up out of my chair. John got on his knees to look at me. “Are you okay?” He grabbed my face and kissed me.

“Sort of.” I searched his face for a scar or a scratch, anything that was going to tell me what had happened to him. I realized something as I was saying it: “I never really thought you were dead.”

John smiled and held my hands. “Good.”

If my life story were made in Hollywood (close, next town over), this would have been a close camera moment. John and I would have filled the frame, with no room for extraneous information or people. If I were in charge, I would have kept the camera right where it was, but, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly in charge. I felt the scene in the room expand to show other people, big well-dressed people who seemed to know Mr. Bennett. Some were taking notes on what he was saying; others were just looking around the room at the money and the equipment. And me.

Funny, I couldn’t see through John’s eyes how absolutely horrible I looked. But I sure saw it through theirs. I touched my matted hair and tried to push it away from my face. I rolled up my snotty sleeves. But just then, the invisible camera moved even farther back, and I saw in this scene something bigger than the people in it. The island of Manhattan.

I looked back at John. “Your dad can explain it all to you. I have less than four hours, and I need to get back to work.”

Danny replaced John by my side. “Uh, Digit, one of the suits wants to know why we can’t just unplug this thing. Kinda makes sense to me too.”

I almost laughed. I mean, sometimes the simplest solution is the best. What if . . . ? What if I didn’t have to figure this thing out, and I could leave and take a shower and a nap and get back to school and call Professor Halsey to explain. No such luck.

Adam knew the systems. “You can try, but I think it’ll take more time than we have. There are no plugs around here, and everything is running on some sort of alternative energy source. If you can figure out how he hooks into geothermal energy and disconnect that, I have no doubt that the hydraulic system will kick in. If you can stop the river, he’s still got the sun. He would never have left us with a simple plug.”

I turned back to my work and was happy to hear the retreating footsteps of a few suits who were going to look for a sign that said
PLUGS, THIS WAY
! There were too many people in the room for me to concentrate.

Danny was not satisfied. “Why can’t we take a bunch of guns and shoot at this thing till it doesn’t work anymore?”

I perked up. “Can we do that?”

Adam shook his head. “We don’t know if the missiles are idle and are waiting to be launched or have been programmed to launch already and are waiting for a signal to shut down. If we kill the system, we may have no way to stop them.”

Great.

An hour later, I was beyond frazzled. I kept getting close to seeing something in the code, a second before it would change into a new one. Jonas was exactly right about the five minutes. I felt like if I had six minutes before the code changed, I could crack it. The numbers at the end of the letter stream varied between one and three digits, never higher than the number four hundred. Upon having that revelation, I thought,
So what?