Page 6 of Anarchy Missing

I look at her holographic body being projected from sixteen small black boxes mounted near the ceiling throughout the SkyEye office. She’s so real here. Almost as real as when she’s down in Lincoln’s cave. “I’m sure.”

She and Lincoln exchange a look, which makes Thomas squint his eyes at me. “Why didn’t they take your money?” he asks.

I shrug. “How the fuck would I know? So what should we do about it?”

“Find the fucking hacker,” Lincoln says, completely out of patience with me. “What else?”

“And how do you propose we do that?” I ask back, trying to ignore the whispers of the city.

“That’s your job, Lincoln,” Thomas says. “You’re the goddamned distributor, Case. Figure out if we’re still on track.”

Lincoln doesn’t care for Thomas’s answer and he’s had enough. Because he takes long, quick steps over to the door, throws it open, and then walks out, letting it bang against the wall.

Thomas stares at the little round hole in the sheetrock from the doorknob, then tracks Lincoln as he disappears down a hallway.

“I’ll handle him,” Sheila says, flickering out.

Thomas takes a deep breath, straightens his suit coat, and then turns back to me. “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re acting… weird. And it is kinda curious that you didn’t lose anything in this little hack.”

I laugh. “Are you accusing me of breaking into the banks and stealing that money?”

Thomas stares at me for a few seconds, like he’s trying to figure it out. But he gives up with a sigh, because he knows I’m just not capable. Even if I am acting weird, I don’t know how to hack anything, let alone a program written by Lincoln.

“I can put feelers out.”

Thomas gives me a slow nod. “Yeah, you better. We’re almost there, Case. We’re so close. We cannot afford to fuck things up now.”

“I don’t know how long it will take,” I say, standing up. The city has gone quiet and I’m beginning to feel better. “But I’ll do my best.”

I walk out the open door and make my way to the reception area of Thomas’s top-floor office at SkyEye. The receptionist, Jill, is on the phone, but she smiles, pausing her conversation, as I give her a nod and walk past, heading for the elevator.

When I get down to my car I feel… almost normal again. The sun has no hope of breaking through the thick clouds today, but it’s light out. It makes a difference. The city only talks at night and now that the day is getting started, it needs to rest.

ToyBox, my educational gaming company, is situated on the west side of Cathedral City. Right up against the mountains. You can see it from SkyEye, which is in the city center, across the town square from the main cathedral.

And even though I try my best to concentrate on my ultramodern silver chrome boxes, stacked into the foothills like… well, boxes… my eyes are drawn to the ruined spire of Blue Corp, up north.

We blew it up when we took out the Blue Boar last winter. It was a fantastic explosion of glass and steel. I saw it all from the helicopter as we made our escape, even though I was only semiconscious from the wounds I suffered.

That explosion is burned into my memory.

Thomas promised the city he’d rebuild it, restart it under new ownership—us—and things would go back to normal. But it was a lie. Thomas is a well-known liar. At least to me and Lincoln. The city… they see something else when they look at Thomas. A billionaire with all the answers.

Oh, he has all the answers, all right. But they are not the answers people are looking for. They are the answers we’re looking for. The three remaining Alphas from Prodigy School still have big plans for this world.

Anyway, no one is rebuilding Blue Corp. It’s been shut down and empty since we took it out. Thomas explained it away by pointing to the four compass-point towers he’s building.

And people are so stupid, right? What do they think he’s going to do with four compass-point towers on the edge of the city?

I mean, come on. The guy is a satellite phone mogul. They can’t figure it out? Because to me, it’s kinda simple.

He’s gonna take over. He’s gonna take over everything.

I shake my head as I navigate my car towards my giant silver boxes on the side of the mountain. Maybe people deserve to be ruled like subjects? Maybe they deserve the government they get? Maybe we are the good guys after all? Come to save them from their ignorance and complacency?