Dream Killing (15 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Back
in the game, Drew found himself sitting on the wall watching the children
swing. He felt relieved that they were still in the game, although, unless they
are making kills while he isn’t around, he knew their lives had to be winding
down to a low number. He would have to check their watches. As he climbed off
the wall, he heard Max.

“Where are you going?”

“I’ve gotta check the kid’s watches.
They have to be getting low.”

“Stop, Drew, I already checked. It’s
weird, they are all at 99.”

“Ninety-nine? We need to make sure they
don’t hit 100.”

“I told them to stick by us and not
shoot anybody. I think they all understood and got the picture.”

Drew sat back up on the wall and looked
out over the water. The day was overcast, but he could tell that the sun was
pretty much directly overhead making it around noon. It was much colder than it
had been since he started the game, and he found himself shiver at the thought.
When he looked over at Max he could tell that she was getting cold also. He
knew the kids had to be getting cold, so the gathered everybody up and they
started toward the harbor.

As they walked alongside the path, they
could hear a commotion off to their right in the city. Urging the kids to stay
low, he told Max to get her gun ready. While she stayed with the children, Drew
made his way, slowly, to the edge of the park closest to the building lined
street. From the cover of some shrubs and a park bench, Drew could see that a
large riot was beginning to form. Not only were people shooting at each other,
but there was hand to hand fighting, people were tipping cars over on other
people, bottles were being thrown and the robot stood back at the end of the
block, watching it all happen.

Drew tried not to think about anything
except getting back to Max and the kids. He knew they had to get to safety.
Not
that I know what safety is anymore in this game.
Drew thought to himself as
he hurried back through the park. With every step he took towards the path, the
louder the crowd got. He turned to look back and realized that the crowd was
heading his way. He moved his feet faster, knowing that with every step he was
drawing the crowd closer to Max and the kids.

He reached the spot where he last saw
them and found no trace of them, happy that Max had been one step ahead of him.
He ran to the shed and went in knowing that there was another door on the back.
He locked the door from the inside and then exited, being careful not to make a
sound. Knowing that just on the other side of the wall was the beach, he
quickly climbed up and over until he was dangling precariously on the other
side.

Drew looked down and realized that the
jump from there was about ten feet. He had no choice but to chance it. Without
any further thought, Drew launched himself down and out and let himself roll
out the landing. He hit hard, but was able to recover and run along the wall toward
the harbor.

He could hear the sound of the angry men
pounding on the shed. He then heard the sounds of the shed being torn apart.
Hoping that Max decided to make her way to one of the boats, Drew climbed the
ladder up the side of the wall he reached that led to the parking area for the
Harbor. Halfway up the ladder he looked toward the shed. It was all but gone,
but nobody was at the wall.

Knowing that nobody was watching the
beach, Drew made his way up to the street and looked around. He could hear the
crowd and the shooting, but he couldn’t see anyone. He didn’t know if they gave
up on him or if they were working their way through the park. He had almost no
time to make it to the boat, so he ran faster.

Drew went to the last boat they were on
and found it empty. With all the commotion at the park, he figured they
wouldn’t hear him, so he started calling for Max. Nobody answered. He ran up
one side of the pier and back down the other side, but boat after boat was
empty. It was growing even colder and he was getting worried about the kids.

Thinking that maybe she decided to get
the kids indoors, Drew decided to try and make his way back to the library in
hopes of finding them there. Taking a huge chance, he ran right up the street
alongside the harbor, realizing that the angry crowd hadn’t given up on him
when a street sign just above his head was hit by a bullet. Instinctively he
ducked his head as he ran.

When he reached the car lined street,
Drew hid behind car after car until he reached a dark alley. When he got about
halfway down the alley, a bullet ricocheted off of a dumpster and he knew they
were still on his tail. He dove behind another trash can, reached his gun
around and fired on the people coming at him.

Drew saw a broken window on the ground
level of the building across the alley from him, stood up facing the crowd
coming his way and began firing as he flew across and threw himself through the
opening. He picked himself up and left the room, winding his way through a maze
of cubicles. He heard a crash behind him and before long, he could smell smoke.
He realized that in all the time he had been playing the game, he had never
seen fire or smoke…until now.

More than ever, Drew needed to keep
moving. At one point he was forced to crawl to avoid breathing in the heavy
smoke that was quickly filling the first floor of the building. He found his
way to a hallway and slithered on his belly to the first door he could find. He
reached up and felt for the doorknob. When he was finally able to pull the door
open, he slid inside and turned on his flashlight.
Hell no,
he thought
to himself as he looked around.

The room was a large storage room that
housed a number of oxygen tanks and some other chemicals including hospital
grade antiseptic cleaners and some others he was not familiar with. He slid his
way back out of the closet, pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose and
made a run for it. At that point he didn’t care who he encountered; he
preferred the prospect of a bullet over what was potentially to happen next.

The smoke was so thick that he was
losing his breath. He ran into something as he ran and it knocked him to the
floor. He realized when he reached out that it was a hospital gurney. Knowing
that made him even more determined to get out of there; the amount of oxygen in
the building would cause explosions big enough to level the place.

Sliding his way as fast as he could, he
found what he figured was the reception area of the emergency room. He knew
that the ambulance bay couldn’t be too far from where he was. He kept moving
forward, and as he made his way through a chair lined room, he heard the first
explosion. That explosion was followed by another and then another. He could
feel the building shake and debris was flying everywhere.

The explosions grew closer and closer.
Drew knew he was in trouble. He heard glass explode in front of him with the
last blast.
That’s gotta be a way out!
Drew was frantic to make his way
over to the exit. Again he stood, this time running for his life. As he reached
the opening that would lead him safety another explosion erupted from the
building, this time throwing Drew through the air. He never felt himself land.

***

“Drew? Drew?” He could hear Max’s voice,
and he slowly opened his eyes. He was back in his bed, the soft blue of the
walls a stark contrast from the black and gray of the smoke in the game. He
looked up and Max who was standing over him like an angel.

“He’s upping the stakes. He’s changing
the game.” Drew sat up and looked at Max, not wanting to talk about what just
happened in his dream, but knowing he had no choice.

*****

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Drew
and Max decided over breakfast, that heading back to the boat might be a good
idea. Not knowing where Adam was made them both feel a little uneasy. The
weather was still bordering on cold, which isn’t completely unheard of for
springtime in Chicago, so Max insisted that before going to the harbor they
needed to go to her house to pick up some warmer clothes. Drew thought that was
a good idea and grabbed some for himself as well.

Sr. and the agent drove over to pick
them up and they all went to Max’s place. When they got there, Max emptied her
mailbox and her and Drew went inside. As they walked through the house, Max got
a strange feeling in her gut.

“Drew, somebody’s been here.”

“Why do you say that? Everything looks
fine.”

“I feel like something is out of place.
It just doesn’t feel right.”

Max went into the kitchen to throw her
empty water bottle in the recycling bin and noticed a glass sitting on the
counter. Figuring that she just left it there when she was at home last, she
went into the bedroom to get some jeans and sweatshirts. As she walked past the
bed she noticed that the small round pillows on top of her bedspread weren’t in
the right place.

Max pointed it out to Drew and together
they went into her bathroom to put her shower gel and more lotion into her bag
along with a couple more feminine products. As she was reaching for her shower
gel she noticed that the decorative washcloth that usually hangs over the towel
on the towel bar was gone.

“Drew, I never use the special
washcloth. It’s gone.”

“We need to get out of here.”

They grabbed Max’s bag she had been
throwing stuff into and headed out the door. When she was safely inside the
van, Drew went back inside and made sure everything was locked, and aside from
the door they entered through, everything was locked. On the off chance someone
was indeed in her house that shouldn’t be, he made a thorough check, clearing
the rooms one by one and then slipped pieces of paper in each window and door,
taking careful note of where they were placed. He locked the front door on his
way out and slid one last piece of paper up in the top corner of the door, out
of sight of anyone entering.

“Let’s go. Your house is clear and I’ve
taken measures that will tell us if anyone comes in again.” Drew tried to sound
reassuring, but Max was too freaked out to notice.

“Drew, what if Adam was in my bed?”
Max’s voice sounded almost terrified. “It was him, I know it was. He was
touching my things.”

“If it was him, and that’s a big IF,
then that means he knows we are on to him.”

They went back to Drew’s apartment and
he picked up his computer and one of the monitors. He also packed up all of
their research and loaded it all into the van. He would have to set everything
up on the boat. He locked up everything and took the same measures there as he
did back at Max’s house.

Drew made a call to the Chicago field
office of the FBI and put in for agents to be placed not only at Max’s house
but at his apartment as well. It didn’t take long for the agents to be in
place. Soon Max, Drew, Sr. and Agent Troy were at the harbor and back on the
boat.

After unloading the additional bags and
the computer, they went to the rental office and let them know that they would
be needing the boat indefinitely. Excited at the prospect of making an
‘indefinite’ amount of money off the rental of the boat, they were more than
happy to accommodate their request.

Sr. pulled the boat out of the slip and headed
for the open water. Since the boat was rented under a false name by the CIA,
Drew knew that Adam wouldn’t be able to figure out where they were. He,
however, didn’t feel comfortable staying in the harbor as many others did for
fear of being seen.

This time, they anchored the boat about
the same distance from the harbor as last time but moved up north of their last
position. Sr. hoped that this would make them a little less obvious but still
give them a view by binoculars of the entry to the harbor and also of “Just A
Game”.

Drew set up his computer in the seating
area of the interior, just outside of the small galley. Once hooked to
satellite service, Sr. was back at the programming, hoping to figure out just
what Thompson and Adam had changed and added.

Max called the office to see if her
contact had made any sense of the list of names and found out that they all
lived in areas around the world that had been affected by the deaths. The
people on the list, however, were still alive. It was also relayed to her that
every person on that list had at some point worked at a coffee shop in the
affected areas.

They all then realized that there were
way more people involved. Drew had agents sent to dig around and see what they
could find on three of the people on the list; two in Miami and one in Dallas.
Drew needed to link the people on the list to Adam.

***

“Hey, Drew, Max, I think I figured
something out.” Sr. sounded pretty confident as he called them over.

“Sweet, whatcha got?” Drew was more
optimistic than Max; she was still a little freaked out about the prospect of
Adam being in her house.

“Well, from what I can see, the chips
were reprogrammed to work in conjunction with a receiver. It also looks as if
they are programmed to take commands from only one source.”

“So, probably from the computer on Just
A Game?”

“Looks like it. I also found programming
that allows the destruction of the chips. They can be destroyed one at a time,
or all at once.”

“What do you mean destroyed?”

“That’s one piece of information I
haven’t been able to find. I still have quite a few files to go through, but if
they were sloppy enough to make this information so easy to find, I’m sure the
rest is in here.”

“Great job, Sr.” Drew was extremely
excited about the info Sr. found. “There’s just one thing that has me a little
confused. If Adam’s on to us, why hasn’t he caused our chips to self destruct?”

“Only a psychopath like him would know
the answer to that. Maybe he’s enjoying torturing you in the game?”

“Maybe.” Drew wasn’t sounding as
confident anymore. He knew that if Adam had destroyed his and Max’s chips, he
could continue to kill people one at a time for God knows how long. Drew found
himself wondering just exactly how crazy Adam and Thompson were.

“Mr. Howard?” Max asked softly, still
watching out the window.

“Please, call me Sr.”

“I’m sorry, Sr.,” she said and slowly
turned to face him. “Could the chips self destructing cause the hemorrhages
these people have been dying from?”

“I would have to say that it is very
possible. My chips were just a prototype built with just the basics needed to
have pleasant dreams. The programming was pre-installed and there was no way
for me to control them once they were implanted. If they were able to program
them to play the game and continue to take commands, they certainly would be
able to program them to self destruct.”

“Do you think you can figure out how it
works and turn the chips off?”

“I truly hope so, Drew. That will mean,
though, that I will have to start the game here and hope that I don’t set off
any type of alert on their end. Judging by their lack of security and
encryption on the files, I would doubt very seriously that they have taken
measures to ensure that they are only logged on to one computer at a time.”

“Logged in, huh? That means we will need
passwords.” Drew was tapping his finger on the table as he spoke.

“If the program requires a password,
then yes, we will definitely need one.”

Drew’s mind was swimming. Things were
coming together almost too quickly for his mind to react. He immediately went
to the printouts and began searching for anything he could find that would
contain the password for the game. As he searched through the papers, Max went
up on deck and stood next to Agent Troy.

“Can you believe this insanity?” Her question
was almost rhetorical.

“Actually, Ma’am, after seeing some of
the crazy stuff I’ve seen, I can believe anything that comes my way.”

They stood, silent, looking out over the
rolling water. The gray, cloudy day had made the lake look dark and dangerous.
Night was sneaking up on them, and the storm from the night before had scared
all other boats off the water. The only sound was the water as it lapped up
against the side of the boat and the light wind that was blowing past them.

With her eyes closed, she took a penny
that had been flopping around in her pocket and threw it over the deck rail and
made a wish. For a brief moment she felt safe and at ease. The silence was
taken over by the sound of a small motor drawing closer. Dreading to do so, Max
opened her eyes, looking up at the agent. He was holding the binoculars to his
face letting Max know he had heard the same sound.

“Ma’am, I think you should get back down
in the cabin.” Agent Troy led her to the stairs with his hand on her shoulder
and stepped down behind her. He then spoke to everybody. “A small boat is
working its way in this direction. I believe it is Adam.”

Drew’s jaw dropped. When he spoke it was
with a voice that demanded attention, “Troy, go back up on deck and throw your
line in, time to go fishing. Give him a friendly wave of your hat and get
pictures. Everybody else, sit tight until Troy gives the all clear.”

“You sound like you’re going somewhere,
what are you doing?” Max sounded worried.

“I will only be on the steps, out of
sight of anyone on the water.” By the time Drew turned back to the stairs, Troy
was already gone. Drew went up about four steps and could clearly see Troy.

Not only had the agent already gotten
the line in the water and the pole latched onto the side rail, but he also had
the camera set up right next to the pole causing it to look like the reel.
Within a few seconds Drew could hear the motor of the boat as it passed by
them. Troy raised his hat in a friendly hello while the other hand was snapping
pictures, one right after another.

The small boat carrying two men moved
quickly past them and out in the direction of the yacht. Drew couldn’t figure
out where he came from, because it clearly wasn’t from the harbor. He realized
that if it indeed was Adam, he was pretty clever. Drew took the memory card
from the camera and loaded it on his laptop in order to view the pictures,
knowing in his gut it was Adam. Troy gave a confirmation from deck, but Drew
wanted to see it for himself.

After confirming that it was Adam, they
had almost all of the pieces to the puzzle. Knowing that the end was in sight,
they stopped and ate. It had been hours since anyone had food and they were all
famished. When it was completely dark outside they decided that it should stay
completely dark on deck, and the agents should be the only ones to go topside.

Drew pulled out the printouts again once
dinner was cleared away. He was determined to find a password or anything else
that may help them shut down this sick and twisted game Adam was playing. Max was
completely exhausted and fell asleep on cushioned bench seat they sat on for
dinner. To her it felt like her eyes were closed for only a minute when she
heard the shout.

“I found it! I found a password! It’s
got to be!” He wrote the password down and handed it to Sr. “Tonight’s the
night, Sir.”

“But, Drew, I know the chips can be
turned off, I just haven’t figured out what will happen once I do it. What if I
turn them all off and you and Max die?”

“Okay, you’re right. One more day of
trying to figure it out and then we do it no matter what. With a fifty/fifty
chance everyone in the game will survive, we have to risk it.”

Max couldn’t handle the craziness of the
day one more minute. She kissed Drew lightly on the lips and excused herself.
When she got to their bed, she flopped down like a rag doll and reached over to
turn her alarm clock on. If they were going to be done with this game tomorrow
night, she wanted to be with the children one more time. Knowing she couldn’t
tell them what was going on, she just wanted to enjoy watching them swing until
it was over.

Drew looked through the last few files
after Max went to bed. It was in those files that he figured out that Adam had
also infected his mother with one of the chips. Infected was the term Adam used
in an email to Lana. The email was hard to read. It informed his mother of what
he was doing and that she, too, would be playing the game. He demanded his
mother purchase him the yacht and if she failed to do so or if she went to
anyone with information about what he was doing, he would hit the self destruct
button and her life would be over.

*****