Dream Killing (16 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Drew
hated waiting another night to end the game, but Sr. was right, if they ended
it tonight and people died that would be bad enough, but if they died with a
solution sitting right in front of him, that would be negligent. He needed to
be sure.

Drew decided to go get some rest while
Sr. kept searching for an answer. He set his alarm clock, allowing himself a
few hours to sleep before checking on the progress being made at the other end
of the boat. It was better for Sr. anyway; at least he would be left in silence
to really concentrate.

Drew lay back in the bed and realized
that having Max at his side was something he wanted to continue after this
whole mess was over. He loved her, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit it to
himself, much less tell her. He rolled to his side facing Max and fell asleep
stroking her long red hair.

When he opened his eyes again, he wasn’t
surprised to see smoke billowing out of building after building. His vantage
point from the rooftop was amazing. He could see over the trees of the park and
right out onto the lake. He stepped to the edge and looked down. There was
destruction everywhere. He heard a noise and turned. There in front of him was
the robot.

“You can’t end this, Drew. Only I can
say when it’s over.” The robots voice was low but large.

Rather than say a word, Drew ran as fast
as he could, right past the robot. Drew was much faster than the massive robot
and was able to reach the other end of the building. Without stopping, he
jumped, flying over an alley and landing on the next building. He hit the roof
hard and rolled into a steel pipe. Pain shot through his shoulder, but he knew
he had to keep going.

Finding a fire escape, he climbed down
the steps two at a time, jumping onto the next level of steps quickly. It
seemed like forever until he reached the bottom. He slid the last ladder down,
inching his way using only his good arm and made it to the point of dangling
over the ground below. He had no choice but to let go.

Once on solid ground, Drew looked
around. He could still see the park at the far end of the alley, but wondered
if he’d make it. He knew that Max would either be there or at the harbor, so
chancing it was what he would have to do. Staying as close to the buildings as
possible and using anything he could find in the alley as cover, Drew worked
his way to the street separating the park from the city.

He looked back and there was no sign of
the robot. When he was sure nobody was around, he bolted straight across the
street and into the park. Looking back once again, he wondered why the robot
had not followed him. He had thought for sure that the night’s game play would
be ending quickly for him, but for some reason the robot only spoke once and
was done with Drew.

Turning back towards the park, Drew
could see the children swinging in the distance. There on the wall sat Max.
Running as fast as his feet would take him, he made it to the wall without
incident. Max had a look on her face Drew had only seen a few times, and only
in the real world.

“Drew, look,” Max said as she pointed
into the park.

“What? I don’t see anything.”

“Look harder, they’re everywhere.” Max
was smiling.

Drew looked around, still unsure of what
Max was talking about. The sun was shining brightly, fluffy white clouds
drifting by. The trees were a shade of green he hadn’t seen in a long time and
he noticed that there were flowers all throughout the park.

“Are you talking about the flowers?”

“The flowers, the birds, they’re all
here. When did that happen? There are so many!”

Something else caught Drew’s eyes. The
children, they weren’t just rocking the swings back and forth, they were
actually swinging. Drew even heard one of the little girls giggle.

“This is odd. I entered the game on the
roof across the street and the robot was there. He told me he was the only one
that could end the game, but he didn’t try to kill me. He just let me go.” Drew
reached up to rub his shoulder and realized it didn’t hurt anymore.

Happy to see the kids actually playing
and enjoying themselves, Drew wrapped his arm around Max’s waist and they sat
in silence, watching the kids be kids. It startled Max when Drew jumped to his
feet. He was feeling around on the waistband of his jeans, a frantic look on
his face.

“Max, grab the children and run! Give me
your gun.” Drew wasn’t kidding and he was pointing at a man walking toward them
on the path. Max felt for her gun and it wasn’t there. Drew looked toward the
swing set and noticed that the kids were still playing and laughing. Then he
looked at the spot where the man was.

Behind the man was a woman. Off the path
and on a bench sat a mother and child. When he looked back to the playground,
Drew saw more children playing on the slide and the merry-go-round.
What the
heck is happening?
Nobody was shooting.

“I really don’t get it,” Drew started,
“When did you notice the flowers and birds?”

“About fifteen minutes ago or so. I was
sitting here watching the kids and the smoke filling the sky. I turned around
to look at the lake for a minute and when I turned back, there were flowers and
birds everywhere. Then, one by one, the kids started to really swing, the sun
broke through the smoke and then I saw you coming our way.”

Drew grabbed Max’s hand and urged her to
come down from the wall. He then led her past the kids and onto the path. As
they passed the bench with the mother and child, the woman smiled and nodded
her head. They continued down the path toward the city and when they reached
the end, the city was bustling.

No more were the cars abandoned in the
street. Each car had a smiling group of passengers, windows down and music
playing. The streetlights worked, and when they changed, a group of people
quickly made their way across the street. There was a hot dog vendor on the
corner cheerfully greeting each passerby. It was as if the city transformed in
an instant, leaving all of the death and destruction behind. It was like the
game was over.

***

Drew opened his eyes, almost sad to see
he was on the boat, but happy to be at Max’s side. He brushed his hand across
her cheek and her eyes fluttered open. Before Drew could say a word, Max spoke.

“Did you see it, Drew? Did you see life
at the end of the dream?”

“I did. I don’t understand what
happened.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“No, not at all. I just don’t get it.”

The two of them jumped out of bed and
rushed out to the deck to tell everybody what happened while in the game. When
they got topside they found Sr., Agent Troy and Agent Lewis sitting on deck
enjoying fresh fruit and laughing.

“What’s going on? You will not believe
what happened!” Drew was confused and still excited to let them know about the
game.

“I did it, Drew.” Sr. spoke with a proud
voice. “I figured it out. I was able to reprogram the chips. My vision has been
seen through to the end.”

“What?” Drew stood, almost speechless.

“I found the programming I was looking
for. I was able to cancel the self destruction command prompt, reprogram the
chips to enjoy only happy dreams and terminate Adam and Thompson’s control over
the game!”

“When did this happen?”

“Last night. About an hour after you
turned in for the night I was looking over a file and it was like a light bulb
went on in my brain. I logged into the game changed the settings and poof, the
pictures on the screen slowly changed as I typed.”

“But what stops Adam or Thompson from
reprogramming?” Max butt in, the worried expression still on her face.

“Unlike my son or Mr. Thompson, I am
well versed in the art of programming with security. There is no way they will
be able to log on, interpret the programming or change a thing I have done.
They are finished, the game is over.”

Drew then asked, “Why didn’t you wake us
the moment you figured it out?”

“I went in to wake you, but changed my
mind. I wanted you to see the change as it happened. I wanted you to see what
all of your dedication and hard work produced. You did it, guys. You saved the
world.”

“I hardly think we saved the world.
Thank you, Sr. You are one hell of a guy. I can hardly believe it’s over!”

Max stood on her toes and kissed Sr. on
the cheek and thanked him. Then she turned to Drew and threw her arms around
him. They celebrated for a while and then Drew suddenly went silent.

“Drew, what’s wrong?” Max was concerned.

“We still have to deal with Adam and
Thompson. You know full well that they are panicking. Who knows what they will
do. Adam knows we were trying to stop him.” Drew knew they had to deal with
this right away.

They all went about packing up and
getting ready to head ashore. Agent Lewis grabbed the binoculars and scanned
the horizon for the yacht. Surprisingly, it was right where it sat the night
before. There were no traces of any boats or skiffs last night except for the
one that dropped Adam off at the yacht. The agents watched as it passed by on
its way back to shore. Then all was quiet.

Sr. turned the boat back to the harbor
while Drew and Max called the office. They gave a brief account of what had
happened and that it was time to bring Adam and Thompson down. Things were
happening so quickly and Max wasn’t sure if she could keep up.

When the boat was in its slip, Max, Drew
and Sr. were quickly ushered to the van. They were told to meet Drew’s contact
at the entrance of Navy Pier. They still felt as if they needed to look over
their shoulders as they walked to the bench where the contact sat.

After a lengthy discussion, a plan was
hatched on how to take the two men into custody as swiftly as possible. It
would involve Drew and Max, but they would keep Adam from knowing that his
father was involved until the very last moment. There were people in place to
notify all involved should Adam or Thompson leave the yacht. The capture would
go down right away.

*****

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“What
the hell, Charlie, do something.”

“I’m trying. None of my commands are
working.”

“Restart the system. Something isn’t
right, figure out what’s going on.”

Adam was panicking. From the screens all
he saw was people enjoying themselves. He couldn’t understand it. One minute he
was in the position to kill Drew and the next thing he knew, he was back on the
yacht. Thompson had been trying to get a grip on the situation, but the
programming looked foreign to him. Nothing he tried would do anything to end
the happiness they were witnessing.

The computer restarted and Thompson
tried logging into the game. No matter how many times he tried, “Login Not
Recognized” kept popping up on the screen. Rebooting the system didn’t work. On
the tenth try with the password, instead of being let into the game, a new
screen appeared. All that read on the screen was, “Your attempts have failed.
Game Over.”

Adam stood motionless.

“What do I do now?” Thompson asked,
sounding just as panicked as Adam did a moment ago.

“We gotta get out of here. Get this
freakin’ yacht under way.” Adam’s demand sent Thompson scurrying out of the
room like a rat. He headed up to get the yacht underway.

***

“Hello, Thompson.” Drew took great
pleasure in being the first face that Mr. Charles Thompson saw as he stepped
into the bridge.

Thompson instantly turned to leave, but
Max was there, her new gun drawn for the first time ever; behind her stood
Agent Lewis and Agent Troy. Beyond the agents were a group of Federal
Marshalls, State Police, and City Police.

Adam didn’t understand why he couldn’t
hear the yacht motors and went to see what was taking so long. As he left the
cabin, he was greeted by a heavily armed officer who immediately took him into
custody. Cuffed and guarded, Adam was moved to the galley and told to sit on
one of the chairs.

In the bridge, Thompson was also cuffed
and led out. As the group made their way to the back of the yacht, he was read
his rights. The officer in the galley was notified that Thompson was in custody
and he, too, led Adam to the deck, reading his rights as they walked.

It took the entire group quite a while
to finally emerge topside, and when they did, Adam was faced by his father.

“I should’ve known you’d be involved,”
Adam spit the words at his father. “You make me sick, Dad.”

“I make you sick? I have done nothing
but give you a good life. You took lives, Adam. YOU make ME sick.” Sr. turned
to walk away, but stopped and turned back, “One more thing, don’t ever call me
Dad. I don’t have a son.”

Adam and Thompson were loaded onto
another boat that left for the harbor. There they were greeted by another group
of agents that would be taking them into official custody.

There was a large group of people still
left on the yacht. As if in a procession, each officer moved slowly past Drew,
Max and Sr. shaking their hands and congratulating them on a job well done.
After the short celebration, everyone looked around at each other.

“Who’s gonna get us back to shore?” The
question came from one of the Marshalls.

“Sr. can get us back,” Drew said with a
smile. “Think you can handle that, Captain?”

“My pleasure!”

***

Drew pulled Max’s car into the spot in
front of her house. She dreaded going in, but knew she had to. Just the thought
that Adam might have been in her house made her skin crawl like nothing else
ever had. Drew promised her that he would go in ahead of her and that only
eased her mind a fraction. Before he unlocked the door, Drew checked for the
piece of paper and found it where he had left it. Feeling a little better
already, Max was ready to go inside.

As the pair walked through the house,
checking each window for the piece of paper, they found that each one appeared
to have been untouched. Everything in the main areas of the house looked just
as they had left it. Still, Max felt odd as she walked behind Drew. The back
door was located off the kitchen, and just as they found throughout the house
so far, it seemed to be fine as well.

The bedroom and bathroom gave Max the
most difficult time. Whoever had been in the house before had made their
presence in those two rooms the most obvious. As she stood in the doorway of
the bedroom, she watched Drew check the window. She stepped inside, decided
that she obviously had just forgotten removing the washcloth and moving the
pillows.

“I guess I am just being silly.”

“No, Max, it’s not silly. You were so
sure that someone was there.”

“That’s what I thought, but obviously
they haven’t been back if they were ever here at all. Let me just grab some
pants and a nice shirt. I don’t want to look like a hot mess when we go in to
be debriefed.”

Max went to her closet and opened the
door. She reached for the string to turn on the light and it was missing.
Figuring it just broke off the last time she pulled it to turn off the light, she
reached down and picked up her flashlight off the floor where she always kept
it and turned it on. Right there on the floor was a piece of paper she had
never seen before. She looked at it curiously.

“What is it?” Drew stepped closer.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it
before. It must be something one of my students drew and stuck in my bag
without me knowing. Weird, it’s a bit advanced for a kindergartner.”

Drew reached out and took the paper from
Max. On it was a sketch. He knew instantly what it was. “Ok, don’t touch
another thing. We need to get out of the house.”

“Drew, what’s going on?”

“He was here. This is a sketch of the
robot in the game. We need to go and not touch another thing. I will have a
team come in and gather any evidence they can find.”

“Let me just grab…” She started, but
Drew cut her off.

“You can’t touch anything else. Whatever
you need we can get for you when they’re done. Let’s go.”

Drew led her out of the house and back
to the car. He was careful not to touch anything and left the door open. When
he got in the car he called it in and they waited. Within fifteen minutes the
house was swarming with agents and police. Knowing things were in good hands,
Max and Drew went to the special crime command center that had been set up for
their office to be debriefed.

***

When Drew and Max walked into the
command center everyone turned to look. Max instantly felt funny, as if she was
on display. After what felt like hours of people just staring at them, the room
erupted into applause. Max had never been congratulated in such a vigorous
manner…possibly because she had never been a part of something so huge.

For the first time, Max was introduced
to her contact. It was nice to put a face with the voice. Before long, they
were ushered into what looked like an interrogation room. On the table sat all
of the legal pads Max had filled with information they had found. The binders
she had created with the files from the computer sat next to the pads of paper,
and at the end of the table was Drew’s computer.

“Before we begin, I just want to express
how impressed I am with how you did this. This had to be the most organized
last minute operation I have ever seen.” Drew’s boss said as he shook their
hands.

“Well, you can thank Max for that. You
know I’m not that organized.” Drew said and the two men laughed. Seeing Drew
laugh began to melt away all of the awkwardness and tension she had been
feeling.

“I want you to know that we are in the
process of locating and bringing in the people on the list Max gave her
contact. It shouldn’t be long before we have all involved. At least we hope it
won’t be. Let’s begin, shall we?”

He explained to Max exactly how a
debriefing works and then they got started. Drew began explaining about the
clocks and how he met Max. As Max sat and listened, she realized just how
surreal all of this was. Never in a million years did she ever have the thought
that one day she would be sitting in an interrogation room while wearing CIA
credentials and describing how they brought down two of the most twisted
individuals she’d ever heard of. Listening to herself describe the game was
almost absurd. Had she not lived it, she’d never have believed the story they
were telling.

Minutes turned into hours and before
they knew it, 7 hours had gone by. Drew and Max were absolutely exhausted and
ready to go home; although, for Max, the thought of going home made her stomach
turn.

“I don’t want to go back there, Drew.”

“No, no, no. You aren’t going back
there. In fact, we aren’t going back to my place either.”

“Where are we going?”

“Well, for the next 24 hours, we are
being put up in a hotel courtesy of my boss.” Max want to speak but Drew put
his fingers on her lips. “Then, after we are rested, we will head back to my
apartment. They need us to be close to the command center in case they have
questions.”

“Oh, Drew, I can’t believe this is over.
Is it really over?”

“For now it’s over. Obviously when Adam
and Thompson go to trial they will need our cooperation, but that’s the easy
part. Until then, we are free to carry on with life.”

The two of them walked out of the
command center and drove directly to the hotel. While it was no Four Seasons,
it was still beautiful. Max had her eye on the gigantic tub and Drew insisted
that she soak for a while. The hot water eased her muscles and soothed her
mind.

When Max was done with her bath, she
enjoyed wrapping the soft terry cloth robe that hung on the back of the door.
She noticed the slippers that had been laid out under the sink and slipped into
them. Even the towel wrapped around her long hair was plush and comforting.

She stepped out of the bathroom, Drew
was nowhere in sight. On the bed was a single pink rose, a note and the cutest
pajama pants and tank top. Max found it funny and yet endearing that he figured
her as a pajama pants kind of girl rather than a silky-nighty type of person.
She was also amazed at how right he was. She read the note, so sweetly written,
that explained that he went to pick up some dinner and that he would be right
back.

When he returned, he not only had the
most fabulously greasy Chicago Style pizza, but he also had her favorite soda
and her favorite ice cream for dessert. He put the ice cream in the
mini-freezer and set the pizza in the middle of the bed. Setting the soda on
the table, he finally spoke.

“You look perfect.”

“Silly, I’m in jammies with a towel on
my head!”

“Like I said, perfect.”

Max took the towel off her head and let
her hair fall where it wanted. She walked over to Drew and held him tighter
than she ever had. Drew could feel his heart melting. Right then he knew that
he could never be without her. He took her face in his hands and tilted her
head so he could look in her eyes.

“Max, from the minute I laid my eyes on
you at the coffee shop I knew you were something special. After getting to know
you, you proved me right. I have never met anyone like you. You are tiny and
yet strong, sweet and yet can hold your own, and you have won my heart. For the
first time in my life I can honestly say I am happy and I don’t want that to
end. I love you. Marry me?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny
box and opened it. Inside was the most beautiful ring Max had ever seen.

Trembling, she raised her left hand and
said through her tears, “Yes, Drew, I will marry you. I love you so much.”

Normally, neither Drew nor Max were
sappy romantics, so in true fashion, they hugged and then both dove onto the
bed and began to all but inhale the pizza while watching a CSI Miami rerun. Max
couldn’t stop looking at the ring in amazement and Drew couldn’t stop looking
at Max in awe.

*****