Alternative 3, p.33
Alternative 3, page 33
Curtis waited as a group of Japanese tourists swarmed through the door in front of him, and headed over to the elevators. The guy still saw him though. As he was pressing for the 14th floor, Curtis saw him radioing into a lapel mike, looking him straight in the eyes as the elevator doors closed, but he was too far away to stop them shutting. Too bad. Curtis lifted the laptop up and activated the trigger programme again, holding his finger down on the space bar and leaving it there. The numbers flicked up to 14 and the lift slowed. He had no idea what to expect. Maybe he was expecting the worst. And as the lift doors opened, his fears were realised. Two men were hustling Sam and a couple of hip-looking dudes down the corridor. Sam looked up and saw him in the lift. So did the two guys.
‘Run, Curtis!’ she shouted. She turned to the Suit holding her. ‘Our rights are being violated!’ Curtis immediately hit the close button, as the Suits ran towards the lift. He hit the top-floor button, and waited. After a few agonising seconds the elevator doors slid shut, and began to rise. But he was caught. He knew there’d be no way out of this now.
When the elevator doors opened he made his way to the fire escape, and went up a short flight of stairs. He pushed the emergency doors open onto a neon Vegas night. As he walked across the roof the wind tugged at his hair and whipped about his clothes. So this was what it had all come down to. He squatted down against the far wall, pulled Gina’s cellphone out and dialled. It was time for Elias to come clean or face the consequences. He was no longer just bargaining for his own freedom. He was bargaining for the freedom of everyone. The right to know what the fuck was going on. He would slowly paralyse their system until they came clean. Alternative 3 was history. The call hadn’t even finished ringing once, when it was picked up.
‘Curtis,’ said Elias on answering. How the fuck had he learned his name? Not that it mattered any more.
‘Listen to me, you son of a bitch,’ he shouted into the phone. ‘Don’t make me do it. If my finger lifts off this keyboard, your whole system goes into meltdown. Permanently.’
‘Curtis, you’ve made your point,’ said Elias calmly. ‘It’s over.’ He sounded different. No longer angry. Maybe even relieved.
‘Not for me it’s not,’ said Curtis. ‘Not until you call the gorillas off, and I want a recorded account of everything to do with Alternative 3 sent to every media outlet in the country within the hour. I’m closing you down.’
As he spoke he saw three men climb out of the emergency-escape door and split up, taking positions around the roof, boxing him in. They were holding weapons, but none were pointed at him. Yet.
‘Curtis, it’s finished. If you won’t listen to me, then hang up — there’s someone you need to speak to.’
‘You’re not getting the point, Elias,’ said Curtis. ‘I’m not negotiating here, I’m telling you. Call them off. Now!’ But Elias’s voice remained calm.
‘They’re under orders not to shoot. They’re just keeping you where we can see you.’ As Elias was speaking, he heard and then saw two choppers appear from behind a tall hotel. They slowed to a hover on either side of the roof. Inside he could see men hanging out the doors, dressed in black. They were strapped in, watching him through the sights of high-powered rifles.
‘I’m hanging up, and you’ve got 30 seconds,’ he said and hung up. This was bullshit. He was close to ending it, and he was past caring how. If they couldn’t be forced to expose their audacious conspiracy, he’d be forced to shut them down. And he was prepared to die trying.
‘Curtis!’ He looked back to the doorway. It was Gina. Somehow she’d tracked him up here, and managed to slip past security.
‘Gina, get out of here!’ he yelled across the roof. ‘There’s guys over there with guns!’ But she didn’t seem to have heard him. She just kept walking towards him, oblivious to the men around her. They seemed to be ignoring her too. He couldn’t understand why, but he was past caring. Past everything.
‘It’s over, Curtis,’ she shouted as she approached him. ‘Come back inside. Please!’
But he wasn’t going anywhere. He shook his head as the phone started ringing in his hand. ‘I can’t, Gina. I can’t let them get away with this. It’s too big. People need to know what’s going on.’ He answered the phone. ‘Who is this?’
‘Hey, Curtis!’ The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. ‘Congratulations, man! You’ve done it! I don’t know how the hell you did it, but you’ve made history.’
‘Who is this?’ repeated Curtis. The person on the other end of the line sounded like he knew Curtis well. It was unsettling him. What the fuck was he talking about?
‘It’s me, man! Roly! Gonad! Take your pick!’ Roly?! What the fuck?
‘What’s going on, Roly?’ he said, unsure of how to handle this development. He sounded so relaxed. Happy even.
‘You’ve just made yourself a very rich man,’ said Roly. ‘And us of course! They thought their system was invincible. You showed them, man! You sure showed them!’ Curtis’s mind was spinning. Rich? Us? Them?! This wasn’t making any sense.
‘Roly, I’m not in the mood for this bullshit. You’re supposed to be fucking dead!’ Gina was standing beside him now, listening intently to the conversation.
‘I knew if there was one person in the world who could crack their system, it would be you. This was the big one, Curtis. Awesome!’
Curtis was starting to lose his patience. ‘Roly, if you don’t tell me what the fuck is going on right now, I’m ending this call.’
‘Hey dude! Chill out. You just won us the security contract for Alternative 3. We had to convince them their system was penetrable, that’s all. We sure showed them, man. You showed them!’
Curtis didn’t like what he was hearing. ‘Who’s we?’ he said. He felt his world coming apart. This couldn’t be true.
‘Me and Prometheus. It’s just business, man. Sometimes these bozos think they’re too clever. So we prove them wrong, and we pick up the business.’
‘What business?’ said Curtis quietly. The awful truth was starting to dawn on him. Prometheus’s hacks into the most secret security systems were legendary. He had figured they were probably just myth. Urban legend. Maybe they weren’t.
‘Security, man!’ said Roly. ‘All we had to go on was those mpegs and rumour. I thought I could do it, but they were too good. I had to disappear. I knew you’d click about the game. That access code was all I could retrieve when they closed me down.’
Curtis was getting angry. At Roly, at Gina, at Alternative 3, at everything.
‘Roly, you fuck! People got killed helping me crack this system. You’re no better than them. You’ll go down with them too.’
‘Hey whoa, man! You mean Jim and Turk? They’re not dead! Turk’s right here beside me!’ He heard him asking Turk if he was dead. ‘See, he’s not dead, and neither am I, and neither is Jim.’ Curtis reeled as though struck by a physical blow. He shook his head, dazed and confused.
‘Let me speak to him,’ he said.
‘Sure,’ said Roly.
‘Hey dude! I always wanted to burn out and not fade away!’ It was Turk. He was as upbeat as ever. It just made Curtis angrier.
‘Turk,’ he said. He was struggling to find words that could adequately convey his emotions. His disgust at being used like this. Manipulated. By his friends.
‘I was really looking forward to seeing what that Hummer could do,’ said Turk. ‘What a waste, man!’
‘You’re dead, Turk,’ said Curtis.
‘Well, if being dead means a new identity, no more parole, and lots of money, I’m dead and loving it, man! Means I won’t ever get to star in my own Hollywood movie, but hey . . . it’s a small price to pay.’
‘Put me back to Roly, Turk,’ said Curtis quietly.
‘Enough proof of life for you?’ said Roly, coming back on.
His mind was still catching up. Still trying to piece it together.
‘But what about Jim? I saw him die.’
‘You thought you saw him die, just like you were supposed to, man,’ said Roly. ‘Amazing he’s still alive after that one — he was so set on making it look authentic he nearly did end up barbecuing himself!’
Curtis’s mind was racing. He thought back to his first meeting with Jim, looking for clues. Anything — a giveaway sign he should have noticed. But it was a convincing act. He was good all right — he even fooled Maggie.
‘So Ollie and Styles aren’t Feds, are they?’ he said.
‘Feds! No way, man! They’re actors too,’ said Roly. ‘We knew you’d never go for a job like this without some incentive. We figured we’d just make it more attractive for you. Don’t worry, man. Your cut of the contract will be way more a mil’. We can retire on this one!’ Curtis slowly dropped the phone as he turned to look at Gina.
‘You too,’ he said. It was a statement, not a question. She nodded slowly. Curtis sat back on the lip of the wall and shook his head and laughed. A long slow wry laugh. This was too much. He’d been used. Completely. Like a pawn in a chess game. He couldn’t believe it. Fucked over big time. He deactivated the trigger programme and lifted his finger from the keyboard. Then he picked up the phone again. Roly was still on the line.
‘Keep your money, Roly. I don’t want any of it. Give it to the poor bastard spending the rest of his life with one eye. You’re no better than they are. I can’t believe you know about Alternative 3 and you’re just going to let them get away with it. I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I won’t do it.’
‘Hey man . . .’ said Roly, but Curtis cut him short.
‘I thought you were my friend,’ he said quietly. ‘See ya round, Roly.’ And without even killing the call, threw the cellphone out into the night sky as hard and far as he could, watching the lights reflecting off it as it spiralled out into the darkness. Before it had hit the ground, he was walking back towards the stairwell. He hadn’t even looked at Gina. One of the men had rushed up and was closing down the laptop, and putting it into a bag. They didn’t try to stop him.
‘Curtis! Wait!’ she shouted after him. He kept going.
‘Don’t leave me, Curtis. Not like this!’ He didn’t look back. Fuck her, fuck Roly, fuck Alternative 3, fuck everything. He was finished. And so were they. All of them. He went straight to the elevators, and took one down to the lobby. He noticed a few Cammos, and they noticed him. He kept walking, heading directly for the doors. They didn’t try to stop him either. He walked out into the early-morning air. It would soon be dawn, he realised, as he headed out into the city. Anywhere, but here.
Curtis walked the streets in a daze. His world was unrecognisable. So much had changed. The truth wasn’t about who or what. It was simply about why. Everything he knew — about the world, history, and even his friends — had been twisted into a bizarre reality that made his head spin. It hurt too. He just walked, not knowing or caring where he’d end up. When the sky began to glow with the pale light of dawn, he realised how tired he was. Hungry. He found himself heading back to the diner. He didn’t have anywhere else to go. The FUB’er was serving hot breakfasts to lonely gamblers who looked like they’d been up all night too. He looked up when he saw Curtis enter. He probably didn’t look too good, the way the FUB’er did a double take.
‘Your lady friend’s been asking for you,’ he said. ‘She’s out back.’ He motioned with his head towards the computers. Curtis followed the nod. Gina was the last person he wanted to see right now.
But it wasn’t her, it was Sam. She looked relieved to see him. ‘Curtis,’ she said, checking the door, ‘you made it!’ He sat down beside her. He was beyond tired. He was close to collapsing from exhaustion.
‘You OK?’ he said.
‘Bastards took all my equipment,’ she said, ‘but I’ll live. What happened?’
‘Long story.’ He shook his head. He was having trouble accepting it. ‘You still up to trying it?’ he said. Sam looked surprised. ‘Of course. But are you? You look like shit.’
‘I’m OK,’ he said wearily. ‘How do we do this? I don’t have access to the network anymore. We’ll have to use what we’ve got.’
‘Shit!’ said Sam. ‘I was counting on you. They took all my film, everything.’
‘We’ve still got the stuff from Jim’s disk. It’s not conclusive proof, but it’d get people asking questions,’ said Curtis.
‘I’m keen if you are,’ said Sam. Curtis opened up the internet connection on one of the Macs and logged on to his email account. But when he entered his username and password, it simply said User not recognised. He tried it again, making sure he was typing correctly. He was so tired he could hardly concentrate. But again, the same message appeared.
‘It’s gone too,’ he said finally.
‘What do you mean, gone?’ asked Sam.
‘They’ve locked me out,’ he said. ‘It’s finished.’ But Sam wasn’t giving in that easily.
‘Look. It’s your word against theirs. We can interview you, and at least get your story out to the public.’ But Curtis shook his head.
‘Without some sort of evidence, I’m going to look like a headcase. They’ll deny it the whole way.’ Sam sat in silence. She looked as dejected as he felt.
‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up trying,’ he said finally. ‘Somehow I’ll get it out there. I don’t know how, but . . .’ He was too tired to worry about it now. There’d be plenty of time. He could wait.
‘I should really get going,’ he said.
‘Where are you going? How will I contact you?’
‘I’m not sure,’ he replied, getting up. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be in touch.’ Sam gave him a hug. It was a close hug, full of emotion. Curtis was surprised to see tears forming in her blue eyes.
‘Take care,’ she said as they pulled apart. He looked into her eyes and smiled back, reassuring her he’d be OK. And then he turned and walked out the door.
19
As the Greyhound bus lurched into motion, Curtis couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever see Vegas again. Or Gina. That was what had hurt him most. But even she would soon be just a memory. He’d slept for nearly 14 hours straight at a shelter for vagrants he’d found next to a church. The lady running the place had woken him, worried he’d overdosed or something. The meal she’d served him wasn’t spectacular, but it was hot and nutritious. He’d had two servings, before collapsing on the cot. He looked down at the 10-dollar note in his hand. That and the bus ticket were all he had left in the world. He’d tried using his ATM card at a machine, but it had been swallowed, telling him he was accessing an unauthorised account. The same thing happened with his credit card. He’d gone back to the diner to check once more that he’d been locked out of his email account. Just to be sure. But it still didn’t recognise him, and as he had sat at the computer he wondered what else they had erased. He checked everything he could think of — his online bank accounts, his social security number, the works. But they’d been busy. And extremely efficient. It was like he’d never existed.
They’d thought of everything. Every trace of him had been erased. Even his high-school photo had been replaced with someone else’s picture. So this was how they worked. The final straw was the FBI database. When he’d searched for his name, his request had come up blank. He was a non-person. All he had was in his bag. A few clothes, a useless wallet, his old cellphone and his MP3 player. He put his headphones on as the bus threaded its way through the city towards the freeway. Bono was reading his mind. ‘So Cruel’. He was right about one thing though. He sang about how in love there were no rules. No rules at all. As the song ended, he hunkered down in the seat and drifted off into a fitful sleep.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sleeping, but the shrill tone of a ringing cellphone dragged him back to consciousness. He heard another cellphone ring. He just wanted to sleep. But two more phones began ringing, and with a start, Curtis realised that they were all ringing from the back of the bus. He opened his eyes and looked around. At least six phones were ringing now, including the woman sitting right behind him. Then his own phone rang. It couldn’t be. He answered, looking about the bus. It had to be Gina. She had to be here somewhere.
‘Hello?’ he said.
‘Look out the window.’ It was Gina. Curtis sat up straight and did as he was told. He got the surprise of his life. Gina was driving alongside the bus in a convertible Hummer, just like the one they’d hired to go to Rachel. She was holding her cellphone and driving with one hand, keeping the Hummer level with his window. She looked fantastic.
‘How?’ He was lost for words.
‘Look down in the passenger’s seat!’ she said. Curtis leaned up to the window and looked down. In the seat next to her was a large aluminium suitcase. On top it had a sheet of paper taped to it. It simply said $.
‘It’s your cut. Mine’s in there too.’ Curtis was dumbfounded. Too many raw emotions were fighting to get out.
‘Well?’ she said. She was smiling at him. ‘Fancy a ride with a rich chick?’
‘Where you heading?’ asked Curtis.
‘Somewhere with lots of sun and no taxes!’ she said, beaming from ear to ear. ‘Oh and the Hummer’s a present from me. It’s yours.’
‘What about the driver?’ asked Curtis. ‘Does she come with the car?’
‘Comes standard with this model. If you want her, that is.’ She glanced up at him. Curtis felt some of the bitterness fade as he smiled. It felt good.
‘You’ve got a deal, Ginger,’ he said. ‘Just give me a second.’
‘Take as long as you like, Fred, I’m not going anywhere.’ Curtis ended the call and got up, threading his way forward to the driver.
‘Can you let me off, please,’ he said. The driver did a double take.
‘Here?’ Curtis nodded.
‘Here’s great,’ he said as the driver signalled and pulled over to the edge of the freeway. ‘Here’s just perfect.’
