The Game (12 page)

Chapter 25

H
e opened his eyes to darkness and couldn’t breathe, as usual. The shakes started, the violent fits and convulsions rocked his body until he spasmodically punched through the dirt and clawed out of the shallow grave.

Struggling to his knees, he started retching, spitting, and finally breathed life back into his body. Then he twisted onto his back. Everything slowly swam into focus. He was back again.

Vince Markoe was dead. Exactly who he was going to be this time, he didn’t know. He never knew. Seeking out his new identity was always all consuming and rife with anticipation. It was a game he didn’t want to play, but was never given the choice.

He still didn’t really understand how it worked. He didn’t know why he still looked the same yet everyone just accepted that he was a new person. He was Vince Markoe for almost a year. He ruined the reputation of a very good New York City Police officer. The real Vince Markoe died while busting up a drug cartel, but the world wouldn’t know he was dead until Rena shot him in the head.

Right now, in these times when he didn’t have an identity, he didn’t exist except when he wanted to. The ability to make certain people see him was hard to harness, but it could be done sometimes. He was alive but trapped in some inexplicably intricate dimension. He always crawled out of a shallow grave, but it was apparently meaningless as far as he could tell. Maybe it was merely symbolic.

He hoped that this time it wouldn’t take long to find his new identity. It wasn’t as if he could choose it, he had no measure of control. It just had to present itself and that often took time.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time right now. He was closer to the truth than he’d ever been before and he would not wait. The lesson was there and he knew now that Angus was the key to his past, just as he’d suspected all along.

There was also another piece of unfinished business, Candice Laguna. It was his fault she was in that hellhole. He had presented her on a silver platter. He didn’t want to do it, but he had seen the opportunity to draw closer to the truth. They would have never let him in that door to learn what he did without Candice at his side. Right now, he felt horrible about it. Getting to Iron Stone to explain things, as best as possible, was paramount.

One benefit of being in this transition state was instant travel. He could step into any doorway a thousand miles away with just a thought. From the middle of the woods near the shallow grave, a shimmer in space, and he stepped into the front door of the abandoned asylum at the edge of Morristown’s last remaining undeveloped acreage.

Right before Rena shot him, he had figured out where Angus was going to broadcast his game from. He’d seen the monitor and recognized the view. He wasn’t sure how he recognized it or from where, but he knew.

He looked around the tall foyer that led into the lobby. Vaulted ceilings exposed two rows of railings to the second and third floors. The minimal nightlights were more than adequate.

There was no one around, not that they could see him if they wanted to. When in this state he was like a ghost, though he wasn’t a ghost. It wasn’t that simple.

He strolled down the halls, looking into the holding cells. Most of them were empty. A few rooms were occupied. If he had keys, he could free them all right now, but Angus would never be that stupid and the locks were far too secure to pick or break. At one time, this was a high-end facility. That much was clear. Security was the one place they apparently spared no expense on this wing. The place seemed to be mostly minimum security, but not this floor.

He knew about the place, everyone did. It was world famous. Iron Stone Mountain was built in the 1930s. It gained fame and notoriety when a movie was filmed here during the 1960s. Two actors had been murdered on the set by one of the psychologists consulting on the film.

When the economy tanked years ago, the state had sold it off to a private firm and they closed it, with plans of turning the old gray stone building into luxury condominiums.

After searching, he found Candice’s holding cell and stepped through the solid door by holding his breath. He willed himself to be visible.

She looked beautiful, asleep on the bed. Terrible guilt overcame him for getting her into this mess. He had to make it up to her. But the concept of explaining this situation seemed monumental. He’d only explained his situation to one other person in his life, and she didn’t live long enough to understand it.

He moved next to her and leaned in close. “Candice,” he whispered.

She opened her eyes. They widened in terror, but quickly narrowed in confusion. She sat up, looked at him, then around the room.

“Hi.”

“Vince?” She shuddered. “What’s…how…?”

He raised his hand to calm her. “Don’t freak out.”

“I saw you die.”

“I know, and I’m sorry you had to see that. I didn’t expect they would do it so suddenly right in front of you.”

“Am I dreaming?”

“No.”

She swallowed. “Am I…am I dead, too?”

“No.”

“What’s…okay, I’ve lost my mind. Right? This is it, I’ve cracked.”

“No, you’re not crazy.”

She looked at him, mouth open. “Okay, if I’m not crazy, then, help me understand this.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m not sure how.”

“Try.”

He sat next to her on the bed. “When I was young, something tragic happened to me. I think I was murdered. But I woke up somehow. I had no memory of who I was. I staggered around, lost and lonely. Only a few people could see me, but most just seemed to ignore me. I didn’t know what was happening. Then, something even more bizarre happened. I woke up in a strange place, a strange house, surrounded by strangers. They were calling me Paul and asking me if I was okay from the fall. I didn’t remember anything. Even though I looked the same, I still looked like me, like I do now, everyone thought I was this Paul Geowick, and I went with it. I tried to be Paul, as best as I could. It worked for a while, but I became obsessed with finding out who I really was. It didn’t take long before I was in trouble as Paul, doing things, chasing ghosts. Then something happened. I got killed and I woke up as someone else. While Paul’s family was burying him, I woke up as Jacob Jorgen. This went on and on. A while ago, I woke up as Vince Markoe, one of New York’s finest. And just like the others, I ruined his name because I could only be me.”

Candice looked at him with wide eyes and palpable confusion. “This is unbelievable. Is this some sort of joke? Are you in on this? This game?”

“I wish.”

“So how many people have you been?”

He shook his head slowly. “Too many.”

“But who are you, really?”

“I don’t know exactly. That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. Just a few months ago, I learned my name was Lukas, but I can’t even be sure of that. There have been clues along the way. Each time I die, I learn more. Piece by piece. So I die on purpose. I have to be murdered or killed.”

Candice shook her head. “How is this all related?”

“I came here to see if Angus was the clue. I came here to die.”

“I don’t understand. What are you? How does this work?”

He shrugged. “While I’m living a life, I get a clue, somehow in my head. And I know what I have to do next. I don’t know why, but Angus is the key to all this. I think he may know who I am. But to get another clue, I had to let them kill me. I had to come here to see if I was right.” He recognized the look on her face. “I’m sorry.”

She raised her hand up to his face. “Wait a second. You knew this was going to happen?”

“Candice…”

“No, don’t screw with me.”

“I’m sorry.”

She stood. “You bastard, you led me right into the lion’s den.”

“I know…but I promise—”

She cut him off. “You don’t promise anything. You freak of nature, get the hell away from me.”

He stood, reached out to her. “Candice…”

“Get away from me, don’t even—” She moved to the opposite side of the cell, then circled wide around him and flopped on the bed. “Get your freaky angel-ghost-alien- ass out of here.”

“I’m going to make this right.”

“You’re going to wake up as someone else and forget about me.”

“No, not this time…Candice, I’ve never met anyone like you before. There’s something special about you.”

“Don’t even start. If I was so special, you wouldn’t have put me here.”

“I’m going to make it right…I’m sorry, but I had no choice.”

“You had a choice, I didn’t. Vince, or whatever the hell your name is, you could have told me. You used me.”

He sat softly on the bed next to her and sighed. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I never meant for this.”

“No, you did mean to. You meant exactly this.”

“I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t have this obsession. I wish I could’ve just stayed being Paul, or Mark, of Jacob, or any one of the great opportunities I inherited. I could have been a doctor. I had endless possibilities presented to me and I squandered them all for nothing. But whatever compels me, Candice, whatever divine powers drive me on, I can’t control them. I’ve reached for that key and fallen off the cliff so many times, but I can’t stop. Do you have any idea what it’s like to not know who you are? Where you came from? Could you imagine not knowing who your mother and father are? Can you imagine having a life stolen from you that you don’t even know? You, you can get your life back, and you will. Even if I win and get the next clue, it might not lead me to anything but another clue, another body. I wish I didn’t live this curse.”

She looked over at him. “Maybe it’s not a curse.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know what it is.”

“Whatever it is, it is. As much as I want to hate you right now, I’m trying to remember that you didn’t do this to me. And it would be easy for me to blame you, but I’d be ignoring the fact that I wanted to come in and try and save Zee. They’re the ones that took my life, not you.”

She was an incredible person. He’d never met anyone like her at all, in all the lives he’d led, all the places he’d been. Candice didn’t fit into the usual box that most people did. He liked everything about her. Even the slight imperfection of her fang-ish teeth seemed endearing as revealed by her crooked smile.

“You’re right,” he said. “But don’t let me off the hook. I was being selfish and I knew it. I just can’t control it.”

“Well, maybe this is your opportunity to make it right. This is your time to stop chasing. I think for the most part, chasing is the same as running. And no one can spend their life running.” She slid up next to him. “How do you suggest we get out of this?”

“We play the game.”

“You mean I play the game.”

“No, we play the game. As long as I’m in this state, he can’t see me, no one can.”

Candice pursed her lips. “How come I can see you?”

“Because I want you to.”

“But how long are you like this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then we better hurry up and make a plan.”

Chapter 26

A
ngus stood next to his black BMW and sniffed the air. The pungent wild mint that grew in the long rectangle planters near the roundabout driveway filled his nose. The snow from the prior days had almost melted completely, so the mint was visible. Someone who ran the hospital years ago thought planting spearmint would calm the patients. There might be some validity to that. It certainly calmed him.

He shut the car door and walked
towards the tall canopy that sheltered the entrance. Stopping near the sidewalk, he took a measured look at the city of Morristown below. Only a small swath was visible in the distance through the trees. He glanced over to the even more distant New York City skyline, remembering how the very tops of the Twin Towers used to be prominent in the view. The Empire State Building endured, along with the newly completed Freedom Tower, but the Twins being gone was just another symbol of his childhood taken away that he could never get back. The world took his entire childhood, but he had to admit he played a role, too.

That day when the towers fell was when America’s sickness became clear to him. All that false patriotic rhetoric sang hollow in his ears, and over time, it proved him right. America had gone down a large hill with no brakes since then.

Today was the day of the wakeup call. He was going to take America by the jugular and peel the layers of the artery away until the fad bled itself out. If society wanted to degenerate into a sick and twisted reality television show, he was going to take it there.

He closed his eyes and raised his chin to the sky. All this time, all the practice, all the planning, it had finally come to this. When this was over, he would start again. He would lay low for a while and let the police sort out the mess. While they spent time chasing his trail, he would start planning for next year’s show.

He would be the talk of the country. They would wonder what mastermind was able to pull this off and evade police the entire time while streaming a live show. They would never figure out his network masking tricks. He would have them running in circles. There wasn’t a single person anywhere that could get a fix on his location because of his proxy server maze. It was an ingenious web. The many hours they allowed him in the computer lab while serving his time was well spent. He might as well be doing this on Mars.

Angus walked into the control room and sat at his terminal. With a touch of the fingerprint scanner, the system sprang to life. Years in the making, an endless supply of money, he had created something any hacker would pay a billion dollars to have. He could almost hear the chaos in the police stations and FBI offices around the country when this show aired. They would try as they might to shut down the feed, but it would be in vain. Every Internet device on the planet would be streaming the show. Even if they shut down the local hubs, which they would, he had an endless maze of work-around switching stations.

He wondered how many people would believe it was real. There was no way around it, some people would tune out because it looked fake. But that was why he would rely heavily on sex appeal. He hoped people would keep watching just to watch Candice and the other girls in their skimpy clothes.

He pulled up Candice’s camera feed. She was indeed sexy and tough. He’d searched for his star going on two years. It was probably the longest casting call in the history of television. Of course, his requirements were non-negotiable.

Everyone would fall in love with her. She had the right look and the right personality. Those stunning eyes could melt a block of ice. But most important was the inner strength, probably beyond what even she knew she had. He could see it. That was one of his gifts. He could see the strength and weakness in people that even they didn’t know they had. He would bring it out of her. He would definitely bring it out during the trials.

Hopefully, Caleb would be able to drag things out for at least a few days. They would have to keep him in check, though. He could get a little drunk on the taste of the kill. Rena would be around, keeping an eye on the game close up. Angus just hoped the game went as planned. He didn’t want to do too much manipulation and ruin the integrity of the whole thing. After all, this was real reality television. There was no script and no lines. Every emotion would be genuine.

The clock revealed it was time to get to work.