CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - SULLIVAN
As soon as the new crew is out of sight, Sheila says, “Case just landed in the helicopter. He’ll be here in a few minutes. I’ll take care of Sadie.” Then she disappears.
I take my attention back to Lincoln. He squints his eyes at me, then whispers, “Sullivan?” I nod, which makes him exhale in relief. “Follow me.”
He heads towards the east wing of the mansion and goes into his office. I follow and close the door behind me.
“Are we on track or what?” Linc asks.
“Well”—I laugh—“it’s not exactly going as planned.”
“No shit. What the fuck are you doing? We had an agreement.”
“I know,” I say, sighing as I drop into a deep leather chair. Linc doesn’t sit. Just leans on his desk and folds his cannon arms across his chest. “But Thomas, man. I don’t know what’s happening to us. The dude is in denial or something. I can’t get him back now.”
“I hate it when you talk like that. You know I hate it. You’re the same guy.”
I sigh. “How many times do I have to explain this to you?”
“Apparently once more. Because no matter what you say, you’re still Thomas. He’s still you.”
The door opens and Case walks in. “Hey,” he says, closing the door behind him.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” Lincoln asks Case.
“You like ’em?” Case replies, sliding the SpyGlasses down his nose. “I just got this model in today. They’re going into distribution tomorrow. My end of this little catastrophe is done.”
“Already?” I ask. “Damn. I really missed a lot.”
“Hey, Thomas,” Case says. “And yeah, we didn’t appreciate your little disappearing act. Where the fuck have you been for the past month?”
“I was just getting to that,” Linc says. “But this here isn’t Thomas.”
“What?” Case is not so much surprised as he is annoyed. “We had a deal, asshole.”
“I know,” I say again. These fuckers are giving me a headache. “But that stupid doctor pushed some drugs into him—unbalanced everything—and then he blasted the whole floor with his goddamned mind. It wiped Sadie Scott’s memory. She came to get me, by the way. And take me back to Prodigy. Which is still very much alive.”
Case almost snorts out his laugh. “Well, that was lucky. Did he mean to do that?”
“I don’t think so. I didn’t know she was in the building, so I highly doubt he did. Yasmine gave him some drug—which, from what I can tell, split us up again. He was in and out, and then we were on the train car heading towards the west tower and either he knocked out the power or Sadie did, but either way it resulted in a fuck-up of epic proportions. And ever since then he’s been… missing.”
“He’s not missing, you dumbass.” Case walks up to me and raps his knuckles on my head. “He’s right in there where he’s always been.”
“Are you two going to complain? Or should we try to move forward? Because I’m not in the fucking mood.”
“So the plan is shot?” Linc asks.
“The plan is only shot if the two of you fucked up your end.”
“Hey,” Case says. “I got the SpyEye software on every handheld device in Cathedral City. I did my part. Distribution is done.”
“Good,” I say, looking at Lincoln. “And the program? You got that ready?”
He nods. “It’s ready. But it hasn’t been tested yet because you and Thomas decided to go off the goddamned deep end. Why now? Why, after all these years?”
“I have no clue why he does this shit. He just… overreacted, I guess.”
“You pissed him off,” Case replies. “And he wasn’t ready for it.”
“It’s not my fault you fucked up his protocol. I’m not the one who shot him with some interference cocktail while I was under the influence of a supercomputer.”
“OK,” Linc says, walking around his desk to take a seat behind it. “We don’t have time for the blame game. Case fucked up. We get it.”
“I didn’t fuck up! Molly poisoned me with that goddamned lariat thing the Blue Boar gave her.”
“It wasn’t Molly’s fault,” Linc growls. “So shut up about that.”
“Who cares whose fault it is,” I say. Thomas was always the leader of this little operation. The rest of us were on board, but he’s the one holding it all together. And right now, his absence is painfully apparent. Because he’s got a way of handling things that I haven’t quite mastered.
I need to up my game.
“It doesn’t matter how we got here,” I say. “We’re here and we need to deal. So if we’re ready, let’s just press play, right? Get this show on the road.”
“And just how the fuck do you propose we do that without Thomas?” Lincoln says. “He’s got all the initiation codes.”
“I have access to that too,” I say. “We’re good, I swear.”
I look at Linc. His eyes are trained on mine. Narrowed down into little evil slits. I glance over at Case. He hasn’t quite perfected that look, but it’s close enough. They don’t believe me.
“We only have one chance,” Case says. “One chance to flip this fucking town upside down and set things right. We cannot risk doing it without Thomas.”
I smile and look at Lincoln. “Well, according to Linc here, I am Thomas. So what’s the difference?”
“The difference is,” Case continues, “that Thomas has his shit together and you don’t. That’s why he’s been in charge and you haven’t. You’re a loose fucking cannon, Sullivan. And what’s this I hear about bringing that new crew here? They are not on our side.”
“I didn’t send Sadie to fuck things up,” I say, staying calm. That cocktail of drugs Thomas was on really did keep him on track. And me. And as reluctant as I am to admit it, it was working pretty well. But now? Nothing seems to be working right. “And Thomas needed her to escape the asylum after the blast.”
“So why bring them here?” Lincoln asks. “You really want to unlink yourself from Sadie? Because I have to tell you, it was pretty clear that she wants nothing to do with that Uzi guy.”
“Wait,” Case says. “I missed this part. Bring me up to speed.”
I do, letting him in on all the parts that seem relevant, leaving out those that are not. Like… how much I want to fuck that girl right now. And that’s pretty much the only reason we’re here tonight. I end it with, “So they’re staying the night and we’re going to do the procedure tomorrow.”
“It is a real thing?” Case asks. “This unlinking bullshit?”
“How the fuck should I know?”
“It’s not,” Lincoln says. “I’d know about it. And for sure Sheila is not setting up anything of the sort down in the lab right now. She’s just stringing them along to buy us some time.”
“What we need to figure out,” I say, “is how to get Thomas out of whatever mental cell he’s locked in right now. Because even though being in charge is kinda fun, we can’t be sure we’re on track until things are back to normal. You can doubt me all you want, you guys. But I’m just as interested in revenge as the rest of you. I’m not about to throw away fifteen years of planning over this little hiccup in the chain of command.”
“You’re definitely not in charge anymore,” Linc says.
I laugh. “Like hell. I’m the one with all the initiation codes.”
“We need to get rid of these extra people and I have a feeling that Uzi guy isn’t going to go quietly. We can’t have this kind of distraction if we enact the plan. So how do you propose we get rid of them without a fight since your whole idea is based on bullshit?”
“I propose…” I cannot stop the smile. “That we just drug the fuck out of Uzi, Iziah, and Cyan, drop them off somewhere to sleep it all off, and bring Sadie in on the deal. She and I are a great team, man. I’m telling you, her illusionist skills are phenomenal. She’s highly trained.”
“She was sent to kill you, dumbass. So you know, you should probably sort that out before you bring her in on the most fucked-up plan this world has ever seen!” Lincoln yells that last part. There might be veins sticking out from his neck.
“OK,” I say. “I can see I haven’t explained things well.” So I start over, letting them in on my theory. “Prodigy still exists. Sadie and those other three came from another school. They escaped a couple years ago, but Iziah and Sadie got left behind or some shit. So whoever sent Sadie to kill me—can we just assume that was the Red Robber? I mean, it only makes sense that Prodigy was behind that computer takeover of Cathedral City last spring.”
“Why not?” Case says. “Does it matter what we call them? Red Robber, Prodigy, they’re just the enemy and that’s all that matters.”
“Right,” I say, pointing at him. “So the enemy sent Sadie to kill me, Thomas went apeshit crazy with his little mind blast and fucked up all their plans, because while it didn’t kill Sadie, it did wipe her programming. Meanwhile, Cyan and Uzi see this as the best opportunity to break Iziah out, then they go after Sadie to get her back too. They’re just a bunch of dumb kids trying to break free, just like we were fifteen years ago. But either way, their part in this is fortuitous, but coincidental. So who cares about the new crew. We should just drug them tomorrow. Take them out of the equation.”
“Even Sadie?” Lincoln asks, calmer now.
“I want her,” I say, just to be clear. “And I’m pretty sure Thomas wants her too. But yeah, even Sadie. She and I are only at the very beginning stages of our soon-to-be lifetime partnership. She stays here with them. Then we go to town, initialize the program, blow everyone’s minds, and watch them all fall down.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Case says.
We both look over at Lincoln. He’s still thinking about it.
“What?” I ask. “It’s perfect. Kills all the birds with one stone.”
“I feel like we’re missing something,” he says. “Something important.”
“We have the program,” I say, holding up a finger to tick off boxes. “We have the delivery device,” I hold up another finger. “We have the distribution.” Three fingers now. “And we have the initiation all set up. All we gotta do is tell it to start.”
“People are gonna be pissed off.” Case laughs.
“Very,” I say, laughing with him.
But Lincoln isn’t laughing. “We’re missing something.”
“We’ve thought of everything,” I say. “Thomas has been planning this for fifteen years. We’ve thought of everything.”
He hesitates, still thinking it through. “I can’t find a hole in the plan, even though I know there is one. Can’t you try to bring Thomas back?” he asks. It’s almost a plea. “I’d feel a lot better if it was Thomas in charge here and not…”
“Not me?” I say, finishing for him.
He shrugs. “It’s not personal, Sullivan. But we all know you’re the fuck-up in the family. Which was why you volunteered to be the secondary personality.”
“Hey, I’m the first to admit that Thomas is the evil genius on this team. But I’m all you’ve got. So we move forward with me taking the lead or we wait it out for Thomas to find his way back. But this is our time, you guys. We’ve set it up, it’s all ready to go, and if we let our moment pass by it might never come around again. So let’s make up our minds right now and just move forward.”
“I’m in,” Case says, looking at Lincoln. “Sullivan’s never been a traitor. He’s not going to start now. And yeah, he’s no Thomas, but he’s as close as it gets. I say we move forward tomorrow. Let’s do it.”
Lincoln stares at us. First Case, then me. And finally, he nods his head. “OK. I’m in. Let’s do it.”
A collective sigh of relief fills the room.
This is it. After more than fifteen years of planning we’re about to get our revenge. And when it’s all said and done, Cathedral City will never be the same.
“Perfect,” I say. “Someone got a phone I can borrow?”
Lincoln hands his SkyEye sat phone over and I take it and call the number Thomas set up. This will initiate the satellites and put them into the position to seamlessly interact with the towers. “Done,” I say, once the codes have been entered. “They’ll be ready in twelve hours. Now, let’s take the new crew out without drama, OK? Divide and conquer. That’s the plan right now. I need cover so I can take care of Sadie tonight.”
Sheila blips into the room. “I’ve got them in their rooms. Uzi is alone, Cyan is with Iziah, and I’m taking Sadie down to the lab for her tests.” She does air quotes when she says the word ‘tests.’ “Molly told them we’re having dinner. So she’s just gonna slip the drugs into their food, then they’ll sleep it off.”
“How long will it last?” I ask.
“We can re-dose them after they’re out,” Sheila says. “No worries on that.”
“You can’t babysit them, Sheila,” Lincoln says. “That would require you to split in two and we need you whole for tomorrow. Sullivan just initiated the satellites. We’re on a timer now and we need you one hundred percent present for when the shit goes down.”
“We’ll get the dosage right, don’t worry about a thing.”
Everyone, including Sheila, lets out a long breath of air.
This is it.
We’re really taking over the City and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop us.