A Step to Nowhere (32 page)

CHAPTER 38

“I’ll send you through the hallway right now.” Ray was pulling me by my hand. He had a phone in his other hand and he talked to Ronald over it, telling him to take over the information sticks.

“Are you sure you have time to deliver them?” I could barely catch up with him. I had only one thought in my head. I wanted to tell him what I had felt. Was he interested in my feelings at this moment? It wasn’t important. It wasn’t.

“We have our people in the police. I hope they can help. Don’t worry about that. I want to get you home this instant.”

“I want to know how all of this is going to end! I want to know that you won!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll send somebody to you with the information.”

“I don’t want somebody.”

Okay. You said it.

He didn’t stop and didn’t answer. He just kept pulling me along a white hallway without doors, turn after turn, from one elevator to another. We met two workers on our way and Ray ordered them to go home. The work day for today was over.

“Almost there.”

Ray fished the remote out of his pocket.

“A few more meters,” he said. We both were out of breath. We turned another corner and stopped dead, almost fell, like we had hit the wall.

Jason blocked our path, along with a second man whose name was Vlad as far as I remembered. Both were armed.

“By the word of law, you are under arrest!” Vlad yelled. “The hunters outside are expecting you and you have no way to get out.”

“She was faster.” Ray pushed me behind his back; his hand went to the pocket with the gun. Only I wasn’t going to hide.

“Don’t move,” Vlad said, extending the gun and the handcuffs. “Raise your arms, you’re under arrest.”

“Jason,” I said, moving forward.

“Step back!” Ray barked. “You’re going to your dimension.”

I took his hand, keeping my eyes on Jason. It wasn’t my Jason, but something in his expression, in his actions, told me he wasn’t a monster. Not a maniac who was enjoying what he was doing. He didn’t enjoy hurting people. He didn’t enjoy his power. Maybe he also wanted to change something? It was a crazy idea, but why should I think it was impossible?

“Jason.” I was looking at him. “You don’t know me and I don’t know you. I only know your double, but I believe that you are also a good man.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Vlad yelled. “Arms up! You are under arrest!”

Jason stopped him with the wave of a hand and Vlad’s eyes widened in surprise or terror.

“I know you’re a good man,” I continued. “You don’t want to do the things they make you do. Am I right? I understood that when you delivered me to … Samantha Bristow. You don’t like the things happening on your planet.”

“Jason!” Vlad yelled, but his partner, it seemed, didn’t see or hear anyone but me. “You are a spy! Shut up! Shut up now!”

“I am not a spy,” I told Vlad before turning my attention back to Jason. “I was kidnapped and transferred to this universe to be killed. My copy, Samantha Bristow, was going to take my place on my planet.”

Jason frowned.

“You are lying !” Vlad hollered. He shook his gun, his handcuffs, and his head like a bobble toy attached to a hammer. “Don’t listen to her. You’ll go to onis!”

“I’m not lying,” I said. “I also can tell you that people who could afford it took the places of their doubles in my world a long time ago, while their doubles were liquidated here. In this corporation. That’s not all.”

“Stop it! Stop!” Vlad fired up and paint rained down from the ceiling, covering the man’s hair with white dust. Ray hid me behind his back again. It was comfortable and nice, but I came out to face Jason. He was watching Vlad now and pointed his gun, not in our direction, but at Vlad, whose mouth dropped open in surprise.

“Talk,” Jason ordered.

“People who won trips to my world have never gotten there. They finished their trips here. Bristow killed them and took over their money.”

“Is this true?” Jason looked at Ray. He nodded.

“You are a traitor,” Vlad whispered. He and Jason held their guns aimed at each other.

“I believe them,” Jason said.

“You don’t have the right! You have an order and you must execute it! You are a traitor! I knew it! I knew! All this talking lately. I knew!”

“I created Hlifian,” Ray said in a quiet voice, and both men turned to him slowly. Vlad’s eyes almost fell out of their sockets from shock.

“Jason, you can help us. You can help us all.”

“Shoot him!” Vlad screamed. “He’s an enemy of the government! He wants us all dead. Traitors! You are all traitors!”

“You are all dead already,” Ray said.

“What should I do?” Jason asked, and I smiled. Jason One or Two, they both were great men. I wasn’t mistaken.

Ray took the sticks out of his pocket.

“Here is everything about Bristow’s business. It should get to the President, parliament, and the television stations. Everywhere possible.”

“I won’t let it happen! I won’t! You are all under arrest by the word of law!” Vlad yelled, followed by two shots. I didn’t have time to gasp.

First, Ray fell to his knees and then Vlad on his side.

“Back to your office!” Ray yelled to somebody behind my back. I didn’t look there. All my attention was on Ray and on his pale face. He pressed his hand to his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Take the sticks.”

I couldn’t say a word. Blood was spreading over Rays shoulder. I checked Vlad, but he didn’t move. Jason killed him before he shot a second time. Jason’s face was confused. An expression of sadness appeared on his face only for a moment. While he was talking. He was talking quietly, but I heard him in the empty, acoustically perfect hallway.

“I killed my friend.”

Then he walked to Ray and snatched the memory sticks.

“I’ll take them where you want me to, no matter what,” he said, looking at me.

“It will work. No one will touch the hunter, but you have to hurry,” Ray said.

“I’ll do what I can … Thank you for your trust.”

“Do you know helicopters?”

“It was in my student program.”

“Bristow’s is on the roof, take it. The key’s in there.”

“Thank you,” he muttered, “I trust you.”

“Thank you,” Ray said.

Jason hid the sticks in his pocket and dashed away.

“Ray.” I kneeled before him. “You need a doctor.”

“I’m fine,” he answered with anger. “Sam, you’ve done more than any of us. More than anyone. You risked your life and now you’re going home. Right now.”

“Come with me to my planet.” I helped him to get on his feet. Blood got on my hands. His blood.

“They need me here now.”

“I can’t.” I felt near tears and I didn’t want that. “I can’t leave. I need to see you again.”

“I wanted to hear that.” Ray smiled, and then he picked up the remote and pressed one of the buttons. The door just a few feet away from us hissed and parted. I saw a white room and something like a glass elevator inside. “Let’s go.”

Ray took a step forward, closed his eyes, and grabbed his shoulder. I held him under his arm and heard steps behind our backs. Probably workers. I didn’t turn toward them. All my attention was on Ray.

“I’m fine,” he said through his teeth. Just like his double, he didn’t want to show any sign of weakness. “Let’s go. We need to hurry.”

“Not
so
fast!”

CHAPTER 39

“Not so fast!”

We froze, and then turned to the voice. I supported Ray under his elbow. He pressed one of his hands with the remote to his shoulder, the other one with the gun extended.

Samantha was standing before us.

She was dressed in a black, shiny, skin-tight overall. She stood with her legs apart, one hand on her waist, and holding a gun in the other. A character from a comic book. Cat woman. A gun had become an accessory of a beautiful woman. Behind my copy’s back, there were more than a dozen people in black uniforms with rifles in their hands, wearing helmets and bulletproof vests. Bristow’s dogs. His dark army, with his daughter in the lead. Leading bitch. They approached quietly to not scare the prey.

“Why don’t you invite me to come with you?” Samantha cooed as she took a couple of steps in our direction. She wasn’t intimidated by Ray. I felt the muscles straining in his arms. It wasn’t just an enemy. It was his wife. It was the woman he loved; he was ready to do anything for her. Had his feelings died or had he lied to himself? “You don’t want to be rude. By the way, you looked okay pretending to be me in the lottery headquarters.
 
Not so much here.”

Didn’t I know that? My morning hairdo was just a memory, my dress was wrinkled and torn at the seam; my feet were bare and dirty. Not a favorable match at all.

“Samantha.” Ray’s voice was cold and confident. “Let her go.”

My copy raised her eyebrows, changed the gun from one hand to the other.

“My dear husband.” She smiled and goose bumps ran down my back from this smile. I couldn’t smile like that, unfortunately. It could be useful sometimes. “My dear and handsome husband. You probably want to know how my father is doing. The one you shot?”

“We can talk later about his condition,” Ray said. I felt something warm on my hand and shuddered. A thin trickle of blood ran down my skin.”

“My father is doing well. He will be fine,” Samantha continued. “I hope …” her voice trembled. “He went to the hospital unconscious, but the doctors are hoping for the best.”

“Why are you not with him?” Ray asked.

Samantha narrowed her eyes. I looked at the men behind her back. Motionless, like robots, keeping tensed eyes on us.

“Samantha.” Ray put his gun down. “You can’t take her place, you’re too different. People won’t believe you. You don’t need this. You’re Queen of this world; let her live her life.”

“I’m Queen everywhere,” Samantha whispered. “No one can do to me what you have done!”

“He needs a doctor,” I heard my own voice.

“No one asked you to open your mouth,” Samantha spat, looking at her husband.

“I didn’t ask for permission.”

My copy cast me a glance. What a glance it was! Full of hatred and loathing, like I was a worm under her feet. I couldn’t see my face, but it probably expressed the same emotions because Samantha pressed her lips and shook her head. It seemed as though she was ready to attack me and hang onto my neck. Ray tried to push me behind his back, unsuccessfully. I held his arm, felt blood on my skin, and thought that he was going to fall if I let him go.

“Ray.” Samantha directed her attention to her husband again. “How could you choose … this over me?”

“We are not talking about this now,” Ray said. “It’s between us.”

“I loved you,” my copy said. “I really loved you. I still do. How could you do this to me? I trusted you! I went against my father for you!”

I had a thought that if my copy wasn’t such a bitch, I could even have sympathy for her. Because if you took away the honorable motives from Ray’s actions, he had acted like a jerk, to say the least. He schemed against his wife; cheated on her, shot her father, and who knew what else he was going to do. She loved him. So, we both had been his victims. Only, realization of this and even recognition—didn’t change the scene. We were still standing in front of each other and any step could lead to irreversible consequences. Good guys in black uniforms wouldn’t dance a polka and wish me a safe trip. They would turn me into a mesh fabric before I even had time to get scared. A couple of days ago, I was in a different dimension, in my bedroom and now it seemed to me less real than this Corporation -
A Step to Another World.
At that time, I thought that a person who was following me might kill me. At that time, it seemed unreal and frightening. Now, the possibility of death scared me just as much, but it had become the norm of life, like an opportunity to talk on the phone. They could kill me, yes. They really could. Could she kill her husband? She could. I would do it in these circumstances, for sure.

“Ray. Remember how much we loved each other,” Samantha said. “We were happy. Remember what we were dreaming about. We still can change everything; bring back what we once had. Or maybe we can just start from the beginning. On Planet Two if you want. No one knows me there. There, I’ll be like everyone else. You always wanted that. I’ll forgive you for everything. I’ll forgive you for trying to kill my father. I understand you hate him. It’s your revenge for his not trusting you all these years.”

I didn’t expect this turn. I looked at Ray and wanted to see his reaction. What did he do? Did he think over her offer? Was it tempting to him? I didn’t know, but it seemed probable. He looked at his wife with anger, but his brain was working on something. It was obvious, judging from his facial expression, that he was considering her idea, juggling it. He didn’t aim the gun at his wife anymore, but still was pressing the remote to his bleeding wound. And I was thinking that it was better for him to kill me now. I couldn’t handle another lie.

Samantha took another step forward and I would have moved away if Ray hadn’t stayed in one spot like he was chained to it.

“Honey,” she whispered as she extended an open hand in the direction of her husband and hid the gun behind her back. “I know you’ve gotten lost. I know you didn’t expect me to be involved so much in my father’s business.”

Again, I felt tension run through Ray’s body.

“We’ve never talked about it, but I understood. I knew you didn’t support what my father was doing and it wasn’t a secret from you that I was one of the main figures in this. I understand everything, but you know what? I didn’t like it either. I just couldn’t go against my father again. I love him. He’s my father, you understand that, right? But you are my future.

And I understood that it was the end of me. Should I kill myself or wait for the professionals to do that? I kept supporting Ray with my one hand, but with the other one I tried to open my purse which hid the gun. Would I have time to do that before they shot me? If I would, what could I do? Should I kill her? Should I help this planet in the last minutes of my life, cringing in agony?

“You know, we’ve always talked about kids and I told you that I wasn’t ready. I’m ready now, Ray. Honestly. I’ll do anything for you, as you did for me.”

I had just noticed that she approached so closely I could touch her with my hand. I looked at her face … my face … and counted the seconds of my life.

“Samantha,” Ray said quietly.

“Yes, honey?”

Could my face look that stupid when I gave in to love?

I almost screamed when the sirens wailed over our heads. Maybe not over our heads, they were coming from everywhere. Signals stopped for a second and then screamed again with all their might.