Two Can Play (Entangled Ignite) (28 page)

Her eye fell on Audrey, a thin girl embarrassed into silence by a deformed lip. Battle practice had revealed her to be incredibly nimble and wiry. At the moment she was explaining a move to Boscoe. She backed up, did a cartwheel, then jumped, arms extended, and Boscoe caught her. Gorgeous. The girl was unstoppable now. Her face just glowed.

Rena’s heart tightened at the sight. No matter how tricked and used and crippled she’d been, at least she’d helped girls stand taller, fight harder, demand more. She would hold that thought as a protective shield in the coming battle.

From the sidelines below, Lionel gave her the thumbs-up. They were ready. Rena nodded, nerves zinging. She took a deep breath, hit the lights and the trumpets, and the fighters took the field.
Battle on.

Despite her tension, Rena couldn’t help but see that this was the best performance yet. The fighters had finessed each move until it was a ballet, beautiful and intricate and graceful. Her girl fighters outdid themselves, bringing breathless gasps from the crowd. Lionel’s music and special effects added drama.

Rena watched it as if from a distance, her mind on the plot to come and always, always on Gage’s fate. If he died…if he’d given his life to save her and her people…how could she live with that?

When the performance ended, the entire Lifer Family went nuts, whistling, clapping, shouting wildly. She came down to the mats on wooden legs, doing her best to congratulate her fighters and accept their applause.

She was startled to see Nigel move out of the crowd toward her in the center of the battlefield. He bowed to her, and the audience of Lifers went silent in his honor. When he lifted his head, she saw tears in his eyes.

“Genevieve, you are the shining star that proves my hope,” he said so quietly only she could hear him. “You are my best wish, my dream for the future.” He swallowed hard. “You must know our intentions were of the very best.”

What was he telling her? He knew they’d done wrong? Maybe he could be Rena’s ally upstairs at the moment of truth. “Can I speak with you, Nigel? In private?”

“You’re needed here,” he said, backing away, but his eyes held hers. Electricity poured through her. Nigel might help her. He’d said he and Rena were alike. He’d been sincere, she was sure. If she could talk to him and Naomi, they might join her in exposing the others. It was a last, great hope.

She still had an hour before the webcast. Motioning Lionel over, she asked him to take over. By the time she reached the elevator, the indicator light showed Nigel was already at the penthouse level. Damn. Now she had to find Ji Jin to borrow his key.

Luckily, she spotted the K men clumped around a gaming station, Ji Jin with them. “I need your key to get up to talk to Nigel.”

Ji Jin frowned. “It is not for me to share, Rena.”

“You have to trust me. This is vital to all of us.”

He looked at her closely, very nervous, she could tell, not wanting to upset his adoptive parents. She knew he expected them to bring his sisters to America, but he feared that offending the Blackstones could end that chance. Abruptly, he thrust the card at her. “You do always the right.” He gave a short, sharp nod.

“Thank you, Ji Jin. This means everything to us.”

When the elevator reached the penthouse level, she opened the red dragon door soundlessly, peeking in, praying the housekeeper didn’t have ears as good as her silent appearances made it seem.

She saw no one and the penthouse felt dead. The plasmas were black, there were no tinkling chimes or bubbling fountain, and it smelled of cold metal. Even the white light from above seemed gray. Rena raced across the open space to the invisible door she’d seen Nigel use on her second visit.

She eased it open, finding herself in a carpeted hall. To the right was a kitchen and sitting room. Farther down and to the left she could glimpse equipment. That had to be the control room where Nigel and Naomi watched the Lounge and where they would lead the toast to
EverLife II
. If she couldn’t catch Nigel, she could at least plant a fancy listening device there.

“This is tumbling away from us.” Nigel’s voice, coming to her faintly from up the hall, was high and whiny. She moved closer on silent feet, listening hard. “All wrong. It’s all wrong.” Who was he talking to? Naomi?

As she neared the door, a harsh voice said, “Settle down, Nigel.” It was Maya, speaking to him as if he were a child who’d sassed her.

Rena ducked into the closest room, fighting to breathe quietly, her heartbeat galloping in her ears. With icy fingers, she found her tape recorder and activated it, holding it close to the wall, though she doubted it was strong enough to pick up the muffled voices. What about her body mic? She had no idea.

“You will be calm and assured,” Maya continued. “You will thank and praise. You will make your toast and all will unfold as it should.” She sneered the last words. “That Naomi…she’s just full of yummy gems.” Maya was making fun of Naomi? Outrage heated Rena’s cheeks.

“What of Mr. Wingate?” Nigel asked. “He offers us time, does he not?”

“Mr. Wingate is in Germany.” She spat out the words. “Darling Genevieve lied to us. When Mason couldn’t get the lawyer on the phone, he called the PR office. Turns out Bingham Wingate knows nothing of NiGo and hasn’t talked to his daughter in years.”

Damn. How could Rena talk her way out of this when the time came? Say she’d meant to call, but lost her courage? That might work. Maya had admitted the same when she’d lied about Cassie.

“What are we to do?” Nigel sounded heartbroken.

“Start over in China,” she said on a weary sigh. “Research is unrestricted and gaming wide open. Millions of one-child princes with no jobs and time on their hands. Depression is rampant. Our intervention will be welcome. We should have started in Asia, as I said. You with your nostalgia for America.”

“Perhaps if we sold our holdings…?”

“We’ve been through this. Real estate has tanked. The game profits will be too late and our financial needs are immediate.” Her voice went softer now, kinder. “Have you forgotten, my love? We are close to a cure, but more must be done and your disease is relentless.” She paused. “As far as that goes, we wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been so foolish in New Mexico.”

“But what of our children?”

“They gave all they could for the greater good.”

“And the medicine for tonight? It won’t dissipate too quickly?”

“There will be time enough.”

What medicine? Lifers were getting more drugs?

Rena noticed the strong odor of Maya’s perfume around her. She glanced around and saw that the bed held a half-packed suitcase and a red tunic laid out as if ready to be worn. She recognized it as the one Naomi wore in the photo of the Blackstones most Lifers had in their Quarters. Was this their room?

Then she spotted a Styrofoam head with a wig of long red hair on the bureau.
Naomi’s beautiful hair was a wig?
Stunned, she stepped closer and noticed a crystal jewelry dish. She was shocked to see Maya’s swirling mood ring resting there. Also the obsidian earrings Rena had given her.
What was Maya’s jewelry doing on Naomi’s bureau?

Beside the dish was a framed photo of Nigel with his arms wrapped around a laughing woman.
Maya
. Much younger, but definitely her. Nigel with Maya? Huh?

Then the truth hit.
Maya was Naomi
. Both women were tiny. Both had almond-shaped green eyes with dark brows. Naomi was Maya in a red wig. Rena had only seen Naomi from a distance, really—the mezzanine. Supposedly, she was a private person.

She was more than private. She didn’t exist. Maya and Naomi were one.

Rena sagged against the bureau. The wise and gentle mother she’d craved all her life didn’t exist. Another betrayal on top of so many. It was almost too much. She wanted to break in on them and yell and hit and hurt.

“Pull yourself together, Nigel,” Maya said, and Rena took the message for herself. “In a few minutes, we wave, we offer our toast, we send off our children, and move to a new future.”

“How can we leave them? Couldn’t we do more?”

“Our experiment has run its course. Each of them will eventually fail, as Penelope said. There would be anguish. There would be questions and evidence. Our fingerprints are all over their brains and blood. And if that weren’t enough, your dear Genevieve has set the dogs on us.”

“Genevieve would never act against us. She believes. She is faithful and loyal. Her heart is huge.”

“You don’t understand people, my love. That’s my job. And I’ve done it very well. Our plan will cover our tracks with the authorities. No one will be the wiser, I promise.”

Nigel’s sigh was long and resigned. “And Roland will wait a sufficient period?”

“Of course. He won’t start the…show…until they’re all dreaming of castle raids and dragon flights.”

The show? What did that mean?

“And it will be quick?”

“The fans are perfectly positioned.”

“And there’s no other way?”

“Nigel, please. Don’t make this harder than it is. We need an accident that speaks for itself—
res ipsa loquitur
, as the lawyers say. This is it.”

“It just seems so…unsavory.”

“Sometimes you are too weak for this world. I come from sterner stock, I suppose. My grandmother burned the farmhouse after they were released from the internment camp at the end of the war.”

Had to be World War II, Rena realized. She’d read that Japanese-Americans had been put in camps and treated like spies.

“They’d stolen her strawberry farm, all that her family had slaved to achieve,” Maya continued, her tone bitter and biting, “but she wouldn’t allow them the spoils. The American Dream is all well and good unless your eyes slant or your skin has tint. America is a hateful place. Why you cling to it I’ll never understand.”

“You’re too hard, Naomi.”

“And you’re too soft. For God’s sake, Nigel, take another pill. You can fall apart later.” She sighed. “Get dressed for the toast. I must finish packing.”

Rena’s eyes flicked to the suitcase on the bed near the red tunic.
God. Maya would enter any second
. Rena spun and whipped out the door and down the hall, braced for a shout or a grab, even a bullet, desperate to get downstairs, to complete the plan, to reveal the danger, which now was a matter of life and death.

She made it safely out and into the elevator, which moved so slowly she wanted to scream. What medicine had Nigel meant? Lifers would be
dreaming
, Maya said, so that meant
drugged
. And then they’d be killed? How? Maya had mentioned fans. There were fans for the mist…

Had they laced the mist with something? Poisonous gas? She’d said the accident would speak for itself, that authorities would be satisfied. How could that possibly be?

At the ground floor, Rena wanted to tear the elevator doors apart and lunge out. She checked her watch. The freestyle battles should be going on, so the Dome would still be packed with Lifers. Maya had mentioned waving to the crowd before enacting her murderous plot, but Rena didn’t dare wait for Zeke’s Watchers to battle Mason’s.

She had no time for careful explanations. She had to order everyone out, declare an emergency.

As she passed the break room, she noticed two Watchers guarding the door. “What’s going on?” She made as if to enter, but they blocked her way.

“No one goes in.”

Beyond their big bodies, she could see Lifers pouring E from cans into plastic glasses on two dozen trays. For the launch toast, no doubt. These cans had red lettering on a black design, the reverse of the usual can colors. Why? Before she’d known the truth, she’d have assumed it was to commemorate
EverLife II
, but now she suspected something more sinister. The cans must hold a special version of E, one that could knock out Lifers long enough to be killed.

Rena had to get everyone out of the Lounge before anyone took a sip. She ran for the Dome. As she flew by, she noticed a Watcher touching his earpiece, then looking in her direction. Were they onto her?

Lionel was on the Dome ground watching the fighters, so she bounded up the stairs. The control room didn’t lock, so she dragged a table of electronics to block the door. Looking out, she noticed the Watchers from the break room trotting toward the stairs.
They knew she knew.

She grabbed the microphone. “Attention, Lifers. This is an emergency. You must leave the Lounge. Run. If you don’t leave you will die.”

The fighters stopped their battle. Heads swiveled her way, but the roar of so many people talking was too much for the sound system. The Watchers were lunging up the steps. She had only seconds, so she put her fingers to her lips and blew out her fiercest whistle. The room quieted.

“Leave the Lounge or you’ll die,” she said. “Don’t drink the toast. Don’t—”

The sound cut off, the booth lights went out. She looked out and saw a third Watcher drop the lid on a circuit box against one wall. He’d cut her power.

The Watchers outside the booth forced open the door, then grabbed for her. She landed a solid kick and broke a nose, but they soon had her arms yanked back so hard she feared they’d pop their sockets. The lights flared bright again, so she could see Lifers watching in confused silence, but no one moved to help her. Now what?

Chapter Nineteen

The Watchers dragged Rena down the stairs while she fought to land a kick. She heard an electronic crackle and buzz and the overhead monitor lit up showing Nigel and Naomi. “We welcome you, beloved Lifers,” Nigel said, his voice shaky, tears in his eyes.

They were starting early? “Don’t listen! It’s a lie. Save yourselves!” she yelled.

“Beloved ones,” Nigel said. “Our time together has meant everything to me.” He looked away and seemed to be trying to gather himself.

Naomi shot him a look. “Nigel is overcome by emotion.” Rena recognized that fake serene voice she’d heard through the wall when Maya had mimicked Naomi. Her head cleared of the fog of Electrique, Rena saw how false her hair looked—like it belonged on a doll. How had Rena ever been fooled? “This is a moving moment in our history.”

“Don’t listen!” Rena shouted as they dragged her across the Dome. Puzzled Lifers looked at her, then away. A few laughed.

“I must apologize for the disruption of our glorious night,” Naomi said. “It seems a Lifer we held close has had a breakdown. She will receive the help she needs. Do not worry. Do not allow this incident to mar our glory.”

Rena kept trying. “She’s a fake. That’s Maya. There is no Naomi. They drugged you. Don’t drink the E. You’ll never wake up. It’s all a lie.”

She passed Baker standing with a few managers. “Get out or you’ll die. I’m telling you the truth. I’m not crazy,” she yelled, sounding crazy as hell.

At the edge of the crowd, she caught the frightened faces of her girl Recruits and some Astra fans. “You know me. Get out. Save yourselves.”

They blinked, pale with shock. How could she expect them to believe her? They had the faith in Nigel and Naomi she’d helped inspire.

The guards dragged her to the employee exit. She glanced back to see the trays of Electrique moving in a line toward the crowd of Lifers, light glinting from the red liquid that swayed in gentle circles in the clear plastic glasses.

It was too late. She was too late. The Watchers lifted her into the elevator. “They’ll kill you, too,” she said to them. “They’re starting over in Asia. You know too much. They’ll get rid of you.”

The Watchers looked straight ahead.

“Take me back down at least,” she said. “Let me die with my Family.”

But they gave no response, walking her between them to the Blackstones’ quarters, chilly and dim, through the invisible door and down the hall to the control room, where Nigel and Naomi had their backs to her, glasses aloft, nodding at each other.
Were they were still on screen? Was the sound still live?

“Wait, don’t do it!” Rena yelled. “Don’t drink! It’s drugged.”

Naomi turned to her. “Too late,” she said coldly. “The camera’s off.” She pointed at a switch beside an LED light. The Watchers released her arms and backed to the door to prevent her escape.

On the monitor behind Naomi Rena saw Lifers toasting their own doom, smiling, eager to play the new generation of
EverLife
, completely oblivious to the danger they were in.

“The E will knock them out, but how will you kill them? Poison in the mist?”

“You heard that much?” Maya’s brows lifted. “Our housekeeper saw you leave, but did not know where you’d been or for how long. Quite long, I see.”

“Long enough to find out you were Naomi. Why, Maya?” Rena felt cold to the bone, paralyzed by the horror of all she’d learned.

Maya’s mouth twisted into a strange smile. “Maya is the fiction, Rena. Maya was my avatar, allowing me to freely move among Lifers. I am Naomi, the mother you needed to love, honor, and worship from afar.” She bowed, her long, fake hair falling forward. “At your service.”

“I never wanted this,” Nigel whined to Rena.

“You can stop it, Nigel,” Rena said, moving closer. “Tell the Lifers to leave. You can save your children. I know you want that.”

Nigel looked at her, his face full of sorrow, then at the monitor. He moaned and put his palms to his temples and pressed, as if to crush his own skull. “This is terrible.”

“If you’d rather not watch, darling, go lie down,” Maya said. “It will soon be over.” Maya looked at him tenderly. “Are you in pain, my love?”

She smiled sadly at Rena. “He’s as fragile as dandelion fluff. He suffers from a rare nervous disorder. If we don’t find a cure, he will die. We’ve spent millions and we need millions more. When you follow the rules, research is criminally pricey.”

Maya’s cell phone rang from her bag on a table near the door. She went to get it. The guards followed her movement, too. Nigel’s head was bowed. Rena had a blip of time to flip the switch Maya had indicated. She flicked it on. Most Lifers were moving to stations to play
EverLife II
, but there were some in the Dome who might hear the confession she hoped to get from Maya before the toast drugged them all unconscious.

“Are we set?” Maya said into the phone. The intimacy of her tone told Rena it was Mason on the line. “The accounts are a go?... The other funds?... Good…wonderful. You’re a dream. We’ll be down with our bags… A limo? You shouldn’t have.” She glanced back at Nigel. “A bit overwrought, but I’ll handle him.” She clicked the phone shut, then returned to the table.

“You don’t want to kill Lifers, Naomi,” Rena said loudly, moving to block Maya’s view of the glowing light—Lifers’ only hope now. “You’ve drugged their E. When they pass out, Mason’s Watchers will release poisonous gas to kill them, right?”

Maya stiffened at Rena’s tone, abruptly suspicious. She walked close, reached behind her to flip the switch off. “Haven’t you created enough trouble?” Maya glared at her.

Despair crashed over Rena’s head so she feared she’d drown. Then she remembered the tape recorder. She’d set it on voice activation. It could hold two hours. She had plenty of time left to get the truth from Maya. “You used us as lab rats,” she spat out. “Now you’ll kill us to hide your crime.”

“Those are bitter words, Rena.” Maya blinked. “I’m surprised at you.”

“Surprised because I can finally think? I’m clean, Maya. I went through detox. The Electrique is out of my system and the mood drugs won’t work without it.”

“You’ve been a busy girl, haven’t you?” She studied Rena like a specimen. “So, you passed through withdrawal. Interesting. We’ve wondered about residual effects and permanent changes in brain chemistry. You’re quite agitated at the moment, but how are you feeling in general?”

“Clear. Clean. Great. Why not keep studying us?” Rena said suddenly. “You could detox everyone and start over, using what you’ve learned.”

Maya smiled sadly. “Better to start fresh.” She looked out at the Lounge, where Lifers were playing and moving around, but Rena could see they’d visibly slowed. “We’ve done all we can here.”

“Don’t do this. Go if you want, but let Lifers live.”

“Too much evidence in all those brains. Our chemicals can be traced to certain labs. We’d be in danger.”

“You’ll be in danger anyway. When the police find all these people dead, they’ll have to investigate.”

“What the police will find, dear heart, is a terrible tragedy, a totally understandable one, and they’ll look no further, you can be sure.”

How could that be? What
understandable tragedy
could explain mass murder?

Maya smiled smugly, totally sure of herself.

“Tell me why,” Rena said, making fists of her hands, digging in her nails. She had to convince Maya to talk. “I deserve to know why we’re all to die.”

Maya regarded her with what she recognized as Maya’s imitation of affection. She used to love it. Now it sickened her. “You
were
like a sister to me. That was real. You deserve to understand, I suppose.” She checked her watch. “We have a few minutes. Mason must finish up and we want to be certain everyone’s out. We don’t want any unnecessary suffering.”

“You only wanted me for my father’s money,” Rena said.

“Human motivation is more complex than that. Yes, we needed your money, but you were killing yourself and we saved you. You can’t deny that. We made their lives better.” She motioned out at the sluggish crowd. “These were throwaway kids, lost souls. We gave them answers, a purpose, and family. That’s all anyone needs, isn’t it?”

“But you did more than that. You dosed them with dangerous drugs.”

“We took all precautions, but we had to act. Scientists have the power to control human mood, to give everyone happiness, if they would only do the research that counts.”

“Making Lifers so sick they die?”

“That was unforeseen,” Maya said, her voice softening. “This failure has caused us great agony. You have no idea how this hurts us.”

“You’re a murderer,” she spat out. “A sociopath, according to your definition.”

“Rena, dear, your mood was much more stable while we were treating you. We learned a great deal here and we’ll do better next time.”

“You’ll risk more lives after this? In China?”

“Vital discoveries exact great cost. Think of the scientists throughout history who tested vaccines and new cures on themselves, sometimes dying because of it. They sacrificed themselves so that others might live better lives.”

“You sacrificed
us
, not yourselves.”

“Not true, darling. Nigel nearly killed himself in the service of our cause.” Maya looked down at him. He’d dropped into a chair, hanging his head. “We both worked for the military at a research lab in New Mexico. There was a poor outcome in Nigel’s project. In a misguided attempt to resolve his guilt, he took a massive dose of the drug.” She patted his bald spot.

Rena remembered Nigel’s story about his work in New Mexico.

“The price of his sacrifice is his deteriorating neurology,” Maya continued. “Far too costly.” She sighed. “Nigel tends toward the foolish gesture. He set the lab on fire, too. Luckily, I stopped him in time.”

Nigel groaned. “Let’s not discuss that again.”

“There were videotapes stacked on shelf after shelf. As a chemist, he should have known that magnetic tape gives off cyanide gas when it burns. One breath and you’re out cold. Two breaths and you’re dead. But I saved Nigel that day and we left the country, escaping prosecution.”

So much for the life of solitary study that Naomi was supposed to have been involved in when she met Nigel. They’d been running from the law.

“That led to everything that followed. Already, I knew the healing power of video games, the boost they offer to the brain’s enzymes. Nigel grew obsessed with developing games and in Korea, we found brilliant programmers. Bit by bit things unfolded as they should, didn’t they, Nigel?”

Nigel only groaned, head still hanging.

“We noticed the programmers worked nonstop, fueled by energy drinks, an idea we explored, along with drug delivery systems. Remember the patches, my love?” She chuckled, then looked at Rena. “They raised blood blisters—a complete disaster. However, in Bangkok, we watched a street tattooist use a syringe to apply his crude art and the idea was born.”

“You did this all on your own, the two of you?”

“We worked with chemists and labs, careful to mask our goal, funding our work with the profits from
EverLife
. Mason joined us early on and has been a godsend.”

“By cheating banished players, stealing trust funds, hiring guards to kill anyone who asks questions? And you two are
so close
.”

Maya shook her head, warning Rena away from mentioning the affair. Nigel didn’t look up. “It was Nigel’s idea to open arcades to help young people. So many lost souls flocked to us—homeless, broken, in poverty, addicted to drugs or alcohol, abused by family or friends. We saved them, Rena. You know we did.”

Her voice went low and she moved closer. “We saved you, too. You wanted to die that night and I gave you hope and purpose. I grew very fond of you. I still am.” She reached as if to stroke Rena’s hair.

Rena jerked away. “We trusted you. You took everything from us. For the money? For the power? To control us?”

“For the greater good, Rena. Haven’t I already explained?” She actually looked sad. “I thought you wanted to understand.”

Rena noticed the monitor and saw that Lifers had begun to drop to the floor or slump over their consoles. Her heart burned and each breath hurt.

She had to finish the story for the tape recording she was making. “You murdered Cassie and Gage’s sister in Seattle. You sent Watchers to inject them with drugs.”

“We released them from their agony. Our medicine was no longer effective. We offered them a slide into pleasure and then the long night.”

“Our fault is ambition,” Nigel moaned. “Humility in all things.”

“Enough, Nigel. Self-flagellate on your own time,” Maya snapped.

“You won’t get away. The police know. Gage told them what you’re up to. He showed them evidence.” She hoped that were true. Maybe, just maybe, Gage had reached the police and laid out what they knew of the Blackstones’ crimes. Maybe the police were even now putting together a warrant to search the Lounge, the health center, all of it.

“Sorry, dear. Your friend never made it to the police,” Maya said.

Rena’s heart stopped.
Had they killed him?
Had someone reported his death to Maya?

Maybe she was bluffing…guessing. Rena fought tears, trying to think of an argument that would stop this from happening.

“And anyway, the evidence will be gone along with the Lifers,” Maya finished smugly.

Except for this recording I’m making of your confession.
The recorder would be found on her body, and the truth would be known. Rena kept her expression neutral as Maya looked into her eyes.

“You could come with us, Rena,” Maya said abruptly, her eyes swirling with hope like her mood ring. “Mason can get you a fresh identity, too. He’s been through a witch hunt of his own, so he knows the procedures.”

If she went along with them, was there a chance she could get help? “You would do that for me? Let me come with you?” She tried to sound eager, but Maya’s face fell.

“You are so transparent, Rena. That is your Achilles’ heel.” She gave Rena a bitter, twisted smile.