The two men came to a stop a few paces away. The big one smiled and held out a meaty paw. “The chip. Let’s make this quick and easy, okay?”
“You won’t hurt us?” Tyoma asked.
“I don’t give a shit about you,” the man said. “My boss wants the chip. If you stop jawing and hand it over, you have my word we won’t hurt you.”
Tyoma glanced at Volodya, who gave a slight shrug. If there had been just the one man, Tyoma had intended to try to pass off the mind scan chip in place of the combat chip. His only concern had been whether the man would insist that one of the scientists try it out first. With two men, he couldn’t risk the trick. Even if the man tried it and killed himself, the other would be there to exact revenge. Tyoma dug out the old combat chip and placed it in the big man’s palm.
The man held the card up to his eyes to read the label, then looked at Volodya. “This isn’t the number you told me.”
“Let me see it,” Volodya said. He read the tiny writing and gave Tyoma a wry smile. “You brought the latest version. I told him two point two.”
The man plucked the card from Volodya’s hand. “You lied to me, tried to cheat me. This is the latest? Two point four?”
Volodya and Tyoma nodded together.
The man glared at them for half a minute. “How do I know you aren’t lying to me?”
“Hey,” Tyoma said. “I did think about bringing an older chip, but I couldn’t take a chance you would know the truth and hurt us. That’s the right one, I swear.”
“You try it,” the man said, holding the card out to Tyoma.
Tyoma reached for it, but the man pulled it back. “What does it do? It’s a combat chip, right? Maybe…maybe you can kill us if you use it?”
Tyoma laughed. At the man’s angry look, he held up his hands to calm him. “Sir, please. If the cards could do that, don’t you think I would have worn it to the meeting? I’d have armed myself, too, for that matter. No?”
The shorter man stepped closer. “Come on, Alexei. The boss is waiting.”
Alexei scowled at his partner. “And what do you think Viktor will do if we bring him the wrong card? Huh?” He looked back at Volodya, then stepped forward and grabbed him by the shoulder.
Volodya opened his mouth, but Alexei shook him and said, “Don’t do it if you want to live. I just need to test this thing.” He reached forward and jammed the card into Volodya’s slot.
Nothing noticeable happened.
“Well,” Alexei said. “Why doesn’t it work?”
“What did you think would happen?” Volodya asked. “It only helps out reflexes and such during combat. It also provides information. You won’t see that it works unless you try it yourself.”
“You didn’t die, at least,” Alexei said, then held out his hand. “Give it back to me.”
Volodya ejected the card and handed it over.
Alexei looked skeptical. “This is the latest version? We find out you’re lying and we’ll kill you both.”
Tyoma felt an odd compulsion to tell them about the card in his car. Could they know somehow that this card was two versions old? Would it really hurt to give them the latest version? He tried to remember what exactly had been wrong with the version two point four cards. He wavered under Alexei’s glare and was just about to speak up when Volodya spoke first.
“That’s the latest.”
“Come on,” Alexei said, pocketing the card. “Let’s go.”
“You said you’d let us go,” Tyoma said.
“I said I wouldn’t hurt you. Anyway, we’ll let you go once I know the boss is happy with what you gave us. Now shut up and come along or I’ll break your nose.”
Volodya must have felt he was a safe distance away. “You don’t need both of us, do you?”
The big gangster’s face turned red, but his partner said, “Two is dead weight. We know where they live.”
Alexei spat on the ground and wagged a finger under Volodya’s nose. “You better not have fucked with us.” He grabbed Tyoma’s arm in a steely grip and steered him up the path toward the bridge.
Tyoma was dazed by the sudden turn of events. Why leave Volodya and take him? “Please don’t hurt me,” he whispered.
“Walk faster,” Alexei said. “Call the car, Oskar.”
Moscow
Sunday, June 8, 2138
5:31 p.m. MSK
“Wait. Stop,” Zoya said. She pushed Marcus’s hand from her shoulder and slumped against the jamb of the door at the top of the stairwell. She ejected the card from her slot and held it out to Marcus. “Please…take this before I hurt someone else.”
Marcus stepped back, shaking his head. “Hurt someone? If you hadn’t done what you did, that man would have killed us without a second thought. I’m sure of it.”
Zoya slid into a crouch and rested her head against the doorframe. She let her hand drop to her side. “I can’t do this. I just want my life back the way it was.” Her eyes shone with unshed tears.
When Marcus opened his mouth to respond, she shook her head to cut him off. “No…I know how stupid that sounds. Everything is gone.”
“I…” Marcus began, then looked down at the floor for a moment before meeting Zoya’s eyes. “I lost my father and my mother. Not the way you did…but I can guess how you feel now. Give yourself time. Let’s help your uncle and your friends.” He proffered a hand.
Zoya rubbed her eyes, ignoring his hand. “I’m sorry about your parents, but everyone around me is dying. Please go away. I don’t want your help.”
Marcus’s face flushed, and he stepped into the stairwell. I’m so tired…and I’m starving. He tried to calculate the last time he had slept, but his mind wouldn’t work straight and he didn’t feel like asking his father. The idea of going to the embassy-provided apartment and sleeping for several days appealed to his exhausted mind. He looked back at the waifish girl with the ink-black hair. Despite everything, he didn’t want to leave her. He knew he had no chance with a beautiful girl like her, but if nothing else he wanted to keep seeing her. “You said every moment counted. You said they could die if you didn’t help them. If you don’t want my help, at least get up and go help them yourself.”
He began walking down the stairs, hoping that she might follow. If she did, he couldn’t hear it. «Father?»
«Yes.»
«Do you have any way of telling whether any more of these bad guys are around?»
«I can’t say for sure. There are surveillance cameras all over the place, but many of them are broken, and I can’t see everything.»
«Can you have the driver prepare the car? I don’t want to linger out in the open once I get downstairs.»
«I can…but Marcus, you should take the chip she offered. It may lead us—»
«Are you kidding me? After all that’s happened, you’re still worried about your damned body?»
«Marcus.»
«No! I haven’t slept in ages. My body is literally shaking. If I leaned up against this wall here, I could fall asleep in seconds. And this poor girl back there has lost everything. I don’t want to hear any more about it.»
Marcus cut off the link to his father. He wanted to run down the stairs, but he was afraid that in this state he might stumble and break his neck. It took several minutes to wend his way down the stairs, and on the second floor landing he nearly tripped over a body lying across his path.
“Hey!” came a rasping voice, accompanied by the stench of alcohol. “Help me, friend.”
Marcus froze, thinking he had run into another gangster. The man had dried blood in his greasy hair and on his stained white undershirt. Even in normal times Marcus would have avoided such a person. He tried to gauge the jump to see if he could get by the man.