All or Nothing (15 page)

Delta smiled. His plan was rolling along nicely. It was about to ramp up for him because he knew what was coming. Slowly, slowly wins the race, and he was confident he could win this.

He sipped his drink and let the viewing continue.

After all, he was currently ranked first. He knew it was down to the final three. And he knew one of them had gone ‘all in’. A coward’s move. Or an idiot’s move, whichever you prefer to call it. It was only a matter of time before he took the prize. He smiled again.

On the screen, his Choices entered the first door.

Delta tapped his keyboard.

Let the entertainment commence!

TWENTY-FOUR

Kathryn opened the door and looked out into the hall.

Silence.

All was still.

She closed it again and sat on the bottom step. She had to be sure. Surviving up to this point had been a matter of blind luck coupled with the incompetence of two jacked-up psychos. If this happened again, she could forget about everything.

Including the prospect of her dream of living in France.

And you don’t want that,
she thought
.

After fleeing the mayhem in the ‘doppelganger’ office, Kathryn had retreated to the fire exit stairwell. In order to do this she'd gone up two floors and then hidden in the stairwell, slowly retreating back down to the second floor again. Basically she was one floor up from her office. She had descended in the stairwell to avoid detection, and so far it had worked.

Initially she had heard screams of anger and frustration from her pursuers, but now she could hear nothing. However, this had happened once already, so she knew she had to play the waiting game. She estimated she'd been waiting twenty minutes. Delaying any longer would be futile and risky: she knew she had to move and soon.

The entire interior of the building was an exact replica of her actual office block. Every room, wall colour, stairway and piece of furniture was in place. The scope of the place took her breath away. Unless she was in a vivid nightmare, someone had gone to extreme lengths, not to mention expense, to build this construction and then have the guile to kidnap her, stick her in a cell and then release her in this place. They had even hired a variety of criminals to knock her off. It was like some sick kind of game.
Who could be responsible?
She wondered.

Someone had managed to pull it off. Kathryn accepted this, but she didn’t like it.

Kathryn realised that knowing the schematic of the place gave her an advantage, albeit a slim one. She knew the building like the back of her hand and her pursuers did not. There was a chance she could get out of this.

One step at a time, though
, she thought. 

She finished her Coke and placed the can next to the wall, as she didn’t want to knock it over on her way out. Making sure everything was in place, she emerged from the door silently. It closed behind her. Kathryn gripped the door, slowing its closure, so as to ensure there was no noise. She heard one final click and it was closed. She was in the hallway. Fortunately, it provided her with enough shadow to remain hidden. For now.

The hallway stretched out before her. There were two lifts and a door – she knew that this led to a small locker room. The only rooms beyond that door were all dead ends. A printer storage cupboard provided a potential hiding place, but it would box her in. All she needed was Genghis to find her and he would block the exit all by himself. Another vending machine was at the end of the locker room. The room itself did loop around to the main office on this floor, and this was the section that now was in front of her.

Either way, heading forward was more direct and gave Kathryn a lot more freedom to move. Also, the stairwell was just past the lifts. If she had to go either up or down to get away, the only way to do that was here. Upstairs led to more offices, laid out in a similar style to the rooms she was familiar with on the first floor. She could use these if necessary.

Her plan was to make it to the roof. Access was only available via the fourth floor, and the main stairs did not go up that far. She’d always thought this was bizarre, but the fourth floor was a head office, a different department, and it was separated from the rest of the building for security reasons. Even the fire escape stairwell didn’t go up there. The room had its own private stairwell on the outside of the building, which was only accessible from a door on that floor. This outside stairwell also allowed access to the roof, and, from here, she could walk across the roofs of four buildings and climb down three streets away.

That would be true if the building had the same layout as the one where she worked.

She remembered entering the building by opening the entrance door with the keycard. Her place of work did not have this feature and she was hoping that it had only been added for effect.

It felt like a game.

Everything was tailored to her, to make her advance. She should be dead by now, the guys in the jeep should’ve slaughtered her already.

If this was a game and she was some kind of chesspiece, simply walking in unopposed and free would be boring to anyone who might be watching. She hoped that whoever was running this show didn’t check his ego in at the door and would be prepared to sacrifice anything in order to make his ‘game’ interesting. If this was the case it would explain his exaggerated choice of psychos. It would also explain his explicit attention to detail. She hoped that since the building’s interior appeared to be the same, the roof and its access would be similar too. 

The roof would be a good place to get her bearings. It was her goal.

To reach the fourth floor, she would need to use these lifts, and she wasn’t prepared to do that with Genghis and Boyd running around. She had to go on the offensive; to at least keep them occupied while she made her way up to the top floor. The thought of Genghis trapping her in the lift was unbearable. Even Boyd would be dangerous at that proximity.

She edged forward slowly. Passing through a doorway, she was now at the foot of the stairs.

Kathryn heard nothing.

The office door, located to the left of the stairs, showed no movement, no life. The room was isolated. Monitors still stood to attention. The windows beyond those showed the black night outside. A printer whirred nearby. To the right of the stairs was a small landing that trailed to the downwards staircase. However, both of these pathways led to the office, so Kathryn chose the left door. She stepped through the opening, the noise of her footsteps hushed by the carpet.

The desks and chairs and monitors all sat silently. She navigated her way through the room. Stepping between the chairs, she silently made her way across the floor. As before, the office was an L shape, the stairway sited in the angle of the L. She investigated the left-hand side first. In the original building, the blueprint, her desk would be directly below this part of the floor. As she peered around the corner, she saw nothing, the place was empty. She moved further in, knowing that the loop to the locker room was small, but an easy place to hide. She walked around. Nothing. The locker room was empty.

Kathryn turned and retraced her steps. She passed the break room. When back at the stairwell, she advanced to the other side of the floor. It stretched out beyond her. More desks, more monitors. Several filing cabinets were at the rear of the area, they were neatly lined along the wall. The office ended at a series of windows. Everywhere was empty and eerily silent. Kathryn turned around and she headed to the stairwell, ready to progress.

Then she heard the humming.

It was faint at first, but as she neared the doorway it became louder. Pacing slowly, she emerged at the foot of the stairs again. The lifts were to her right. The humming subsided. She backed through the doorway again and headed to the break room. The humming grew. Aware that the break room could deny her vision at first, she skipped past it and took cover against the wall. She realised the humming was coming from the locker area around the corner.

But
, she questioned herself,
you checked there, didn’t you?

Kathryn moved to the corner slowly and peered around. At first, all she saw were boxes and filing cabinets. But as she moved around, her eyes settled on a man. From his hair, skin colour and build she knew it wasn’t Genghis or Boyd. In fact, this guy was dressed in a black suit. His hairstyle was tidy and conventional and, from behind, he seemed relatively normal. Nothing like the gang of psychos she was running from.

The man turned around. He looked straight at her with a quizzical look on his face. Kathryn froze, unmoving. The man didn’t move either. This was the man she had glimpsed in the window all those hours ago, Kathryn realised. To break the stalemate, she held her arms up.

“It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you,” she called out.

Then he pulled a gun from his inside pocket. He pointed it straight towards Kathryn. She flinched and closed her eyes, keeping her hands held high as fear flooded into her veins. Then he lowered the gun. After a second Kathryn opened her eyes and saw the man put his weapon away. He turned back to a box of papers behind him. 

“I know you’re not,” he replied. “I saw you earlier with those guys. You did well to get away from them. You got lucky, though.”

Kathryn lowered her arms. “What do you mean, lucky? They were terrible shots. If they were any good, I would have been killed.”

“No. They
are
good. They missed on purpose. I once saw that Russian guy kill a man by throwing a knife from fifty yards away - and he had his eyes closed at the time. Trust me, if they’d wanted you dead, you would be.”

Kathryn stood silent. She watched the man go about his business. He was rifling through a box of papers. She wasn’t sure what he was searching for. “What do you mean, they are good?”

The man turned to face Kathryn. “They are trained soldiers - well, former soldiers. Ex-military. Cliché, huh?”

Kathryn was confused. “Why are ex-military people pursuing me? I haven’t done anything remotely illegal - well, not that I am aware of. Surely the police would be more suited to a normal crime.”

Her new acquaintance smirked. “You haven’t done anything wrong. Trust me, if they'd wanted you dead, you would be. I can’t make it any clearer. You’re not here for any kind of normal reason. It’s hard to explain.” He turned back to his box.

“Then why didn’t they just kill me? Don’t get me wrong, I'm grateful they missed, but why continue pursuing me? What is the point of that?”

“For sport. Don’t you get it, Kathryn? You’re the prey, and they are the hunters. It’s not as entertaining for all involved if they offed you at the first opportunity. People want to see drama and action. And at the moment, to give you your due, you are giving it to them. I must say, I’m impressed.”

Kathryn’s eyes widened in horror. “How do you know my name?”

The man turned back to Kathryn and smiled for the first time. “Not now…we will get to that. For the record, my name is Iain. Now, Kathryn, I expected someone with your street credentials to at least have some idea as to what is happening here. You must know what’s going on. Are you telling me you haven’t figured it out?”

Kathryn thought about it for a second. How did this guy know her name? What was he talking about? Then it came to her, the realisation struck her like a steam train. She had been correct all along. Her chest started to tighten. She felt sweat on her brow.

“You mean to say that this is all a game? But it’s impossible. There is no way—”

Iain smiled again. “Ah but there is, Kathryn.”

She cut him off. “How do you know my name? You’d better tell me.”

He sighed. “We will get to that. But first I need to tell you this, for all I know we don’t have much time. Now please listen. There's a way out of this, there always is. You are a pawn in one of the most lucrative, secretive pastimes in the entire world. In a way, you are lucky, as not many get chosen. You are a player in The Game. Quite simply named because it’s straight to the point and easy to remember. Four people take part every five years. These people are called The Chronicles. In order to play, you have to possess vast resources, wealth and ego. A position of power is preferred for The Company to have some control over your fate. The prize for winning it is the ultimate prize. You become a member of The Company. The advantages of that are beyond imagination. If you lose, however, The Company decide your fate and you have to accept it. This is Rule One of The Game. ‘All or Nothing’ is what they call it. You play, so you have to live with the consequences should you lose. And The Company can choose whatever fate they wish.”

Kathryn shook her head. “That’s insane. Surely this sort of thing can’t be possible? In this day and age, the internet would surely have details about it. Or the government? Or the police?”

“Oh trust me, they
do
know about it. Who do you think takes part? Last time around, an unnamed vice president took part and lost in dramatic fashion. I heard The Company made him undergo a sex change or risk losing his fortune. He now lives his life as Maria in South Africa — that’s what I heard anyway. I have read stories about high ranking government officials playing the game for shits and giggles. There was even a weak rumour that Bill Gates started the whole damn thing, but that isn’t true.”

Kathryn laughed. “Seriously? How do you know he didn’t?”

The man smiled. “Well for one, The Chronicles use Mac computers, not PCs! But I’m getting off track. No, the people who take part
ARE
the internet, the government, and the police. They are also from banks and financial institutions and might be self-made millionaires and lottery winners. Last time around, there was a fashion model who took part. If your purse is big enough you are eligible – as long as you can accept the price for losing.”