Tauber stepped up between the three of us and rolled up his sleeve.
“Bruise,” he announced, pointing. He rolled up the other sleeve. “ Big bruise.” Shirt collar pulled to the side. “Big dark nasty bruise. Souvenirs from my stay at the L Corp Holiday Hotel. If I’m real, they’re real. And if I’m not real, why’ve I got the DT’s and arthritis in my knee?”
“What about Dave?” Max asked me. “What about your father?” he said to Kate. And suddenly I was back in the house in the swamp. The musky smell was up my nostrils, I could see his tongue out and his eyes open and dull. I felt my finger as it touched his eye, the damp squishy feel of it. I remembered the way I felt; the way I thought, the way my brain worked back those few days ago.
And then I had the answer.
“It’s the concert,” I said.
“You don’t know that,” Max said.
“We don’t know anything. At this point, we’re going to have to go with what we can guess.” I took them in with a glance. “It explains why they’re not out there now. Their plans are set, close-to-deadline. They’re sleeping, recouping, getting ready for their big night. Tonight.”
“It still doesn’t explain the music on the video,” Kate said. “The sound is all mangled except the orchestra-that’s clear like it’s off a disc.”
“It’s a music cue,” Tauber said, like it had just come to him.
“What’?”
“The earliest form of mind control,” Max said, as though he too was just seeing it for the first time. “Pavlov’s dogs-they hear the bell, they think of food. The message says: Act when you hear this sound, this measure, this part of the music.”
“They got most o’ the sound from the original video, so it’s split up,” Tauber added. “The orchestra track’s on all four streams so it don’t get lost.”
“ ‘Mars’, two-thirds of the way through. It’s the concert,” I said and this time no dissent.
I called Billy again, to inform him we were his crew for the concert tonight.
“I don’t have a crew,” he said. “Nobody does. The concert is being broadcast on RAI. We’re all taking their feed.”
“Tell the security office you’re doing an end-of-day wrapup on the lawn with the orchestra in the background. We’re your crew. We’ll get there about fifteen minutes early-there are too many pictures of Max’s face out there; we can’t hang around.”
“Okay,” Max stood as soon as I hung up, energized, “we all need sleep. Four hours will get us one sleep cycle-that’ll have to do. After that, Kate, you work on making shields and fast-you’ve got to protect yourself tonight, I won’t be able to. Greg, work with her-no, actually, I’ll do it.”
“I can work with her.” I didn’t like him taking this away from me. If it was my last day on Earth, I could think of worse company.
“No, I have to work on lightning bolts, she has to work on shields.” He shrugged to Kate.
“Don’t be so damn apologetic about it!” Tauber said. “Either we’re fighting or not.”
“We’re here to prevent-” Kate started.
“You don’t win on defense,” Tauber drilled.
“ Stop!!” Max said, loud enough that the room went silent. “This isn’t a game. I’m going to prepare every possible weapon.” He turned to Tauber, who was smirking. “I’ve killed before, but never on purpose. I know what it does to me. It’s the last choice.”
“Those are expensive scruples,” Tauber grumbled.
“Everything is part of everything,” Max replied. “What I kill, kills a bit of me. Greg, work on your blocking and detecting-we’ll send out messages, you call out who’s sending and when.”
“Anything you want me to do?” Tauber asked; his expression said he didn’t expect much.
“You’re a crafty son-of-a-bitch-and a spy,” Max said and Tauber lit up. “They’ve got a plan-and we’re going to have to figure it out on the fly. You’re my fresh pair of eyes.” He turned to the group. “Okay? Any comments? Concerns?”
“I toss and turn; it takes me a while to fall asleep,” Kate said.
“Toss quickly,” Max replied.
I awoke with a start-there was someone in the room, whispering to me. Not a familiar voice but a lover’s tone, one that asked for intimacy. I fumbled for the light and then, somehow, moved myself, in that half-awake state, back to Tess, to the back seat of her car again. And woke the others immediately.
“I just got probed bigtime.” Kate nodded like she knew-Tauber, who’d been standing watch, didn’t even turn around. What was up? Then I saw Max on the floor, eyes closed and limp.
“What happened?”
“They’re probin’ for him all over the place. They didn’t buy the crushed-by-a-rock-wall act; they’ve got us narrowed to a couple houses ‘round here. You have yer stuff?”
“All I’ve got is what I’m wearing.”
“As soon as he stops breathin’, we’ll take him down to the car. If he’s out like this, hopefully they won’t catch on till it’s too late.”
“They know about this trick,” I warned.
“Knowin’ it ain’t solvin’ it,” he answered. “Hopefully.”
And, once the coma took effect, we carried the body out to the Alfa Romeo parked alongside the house.
Billy was waiting with a satellite truck five blocks from the first checkpoint. “The roof saucer by itself should get you halfway through,” he said, staring as we carried Max’s body into the back.
The guards at the second checkpoint took their time-they made an effort at a thorough search-but Billy kept ranting against Berlusconi and how unfair the TV business was to anyone over 40 until they just slammed the door in his face.
It wasn’t like they didn’t have anything else to keep themselves busy. We were surrounded the whole way by crowds heading for the concert. The floodlights glinted off the Plexiglas viewing box set up for the leaders at the end of the island and the bleachers on both banks, filling rapidly with jostling guests contending for choice locations with their wine bottles and cellphone cameras.
Finally, we were at the final checkpoint and over the bridge, assigned a spot amidst the other satellite trucks. As soon as we settled, I gave Max a good kick-I wasn’t taking chances. This time, he came to with a start.
“They’re sending out suggestions, really concentrated-do you feel it?” he asked, shaking himself awake. “You and Kate know where their conference rooms are-shut them down. Disrupt them, knock over the furniture, get in their faces, break their concentration. Interrupt the message. Two minutes is enough. Then get off the island as fast as you can. It’s going to get hairy.”
He turned to Tauber. “We’re heading for the orchestra-you’re my eyes and ears…” As he pushed the doors open, we all heard the thrums of the strings starting to beat in the night air. “That’ s it! Mars! We‘ve got five minutes! Go!”
The guards at the conference center grew half a foot taller just from us running at them.
“Halt or show ident-”
Kate swiped her hand at them and they flew backwards into the stone wall. She had that look on her face now, the one I’d seen in the cemetery. I pitied anyone who got in her way.
We ran headlong toward the two rooms we’d visited that morning. “Get in, mess them up and get out!” she yelled. “We’ve got to get back to the concert as soon as we’re done.”
“But Max said-” I started and cut myself short-I had no more intention of skipping out than she did. “Never mind,” I said and saw the light glinting in her eyes.
Two more guards waited outside the L Corps doors-Kate concentrated real hard this time; one hit the ceiling, the other flew straight backward through the door. By the time we burst in behind him, rows of meditating drones were already jumping up out of their yoga poses and scattering.
I grabbed a monitor from the front of the room and smashed it to the floor. A studly guy in a Dallas Cowboys jersey jumped me-I grabbed the whiteboard and smacked him in the face with it. The whole group was yelling and scattering, the way anyone would, attacked by crazy people for no reason-I realized they really didn’t know what they were doing there.
Lowery’s familiar figure rushed for cover under an ornate arch, finger to his ear, talking hard into his headpiece. There’d be guards coming on the run, I realized. After the first rush of fear, I recognized this as a good thing-it would clear the other end of the island for Max. But it was still trouble for us.