Chapter 38: Deadline

In a harsher part of town, several very nice cars were parked in front of a rundown cinema. Michael, Sally, Mr. Gilman and I could hear shouting coming from inside as we approached. With so much going on I felt it prudent to make sure those with me were inoculated from Master PC and that those who had already suffered from the machinations of the last two days were spared further distress. So, Michael's family was escorted to the airport by Steven and Meg.

In route to the cinema, I had passed on the names of the Dragons holding the hostages to Charlotte. It took her no time to open their profiles and free them of the commands that forced them to do what they had done. As soon as confirmation of success was received, Michael called the other House Leaders and informed them of the location of the hostages.

As we opened the door to the cinema, we heard someone inside yelling, "Where is Leland?"

"He just left sir. I don't know where he went," said an older man.

As I walked in, everyone turned to look. I stopped and scanned the faces. Many were relieved, both House Leaders and hostages. However, some were startled by the shouting.

Lord Greenwood was livid, his face contorted and red. "You!" He pointed at me.

I stood there, staring back at him for only a second. Then I noticed something at his feet. Jennifer was laying there, still unconscious.

Understanding hit me quickly. For whatever reason, Leland had left the scene before the House Leaders arrived and no one could wake up Lord Greenwood's daughter.

I looked at the man he had been arguing with. He was older, with graying hair and stubble. His clothes weren't very businesslike: a red flannel shirt and old jeans. Finishing the red-neck look, compared to everyone else gathered around, he wore worn hiking boots.

"George Fishburn," Michael said softly next to me.

I nodded in response and stepped closer to everyone. Looking them over, I saw many relieved faces. Lady Reynolds was hugging her daughter. Lord Lasarge and Victoria were watching me. However, Lord Greenwood stepped up to put his face in mine.

"Leland has done something to my daughter and I cannot wake her up. You said everyone would be fine!" he yelled inches from my face.

As calm as I could I said, "I'll find Leland and put her right. He hasn't done anything that I cannot undo."

He continued to stare at me as if trying to bore through me with his eyes.

"You should prepare yourself in the meantime. Jennifer won't be herself when she wakes up," I said and then I turned and walked out.

"What do you mean by that?" he called at my back.

I heard Sally and Mr. Gilman asking the others if everyone else was okay. They were distracted for the moment and I didn't think anything would come of them staying while I found Leland.

Ignoring Lord Greenwood as I left, I thought about Leland. He was walking, but not very far away. I started in his direction.

A few minutes later, I found him pacing along an alley.

Leland looked up when he heard me approach. He looked a bit scared but relief quickly swept that away. "I knew you'd come."

"Why did you leave?" I asked.

He shook his head. "When my head cleared of all that screaming ... and I saw the House Leaders arriving I knew I better leave."

"Why?"

"You know whose daughter that is, right?"

I nodded. "Yes, I do. She's bound to me. So, if anyone's in real trouble it'll be me."

"Still, I'm not going back there," Leland said, "I don't want to face him."

I shook my head. "Lord Greenwood can't hold this against you. You were under the influence of Master PC."

"But I didn't do that to any of the other hostages," he said. I could tell he was very upset with the situation and his involvement.

"I think part of the influence was to get you to up the ante when it came to dealing with me," I offered. "Sever did the same but I was able to stop her before anything truly dreadful happened."

He shook his head again. "That's all fine and well, but I'm not going back there."

I held out my hand. "Then let me have the vial and I'll take care of her."

He just stared at me. "You said you could do what I do, but can you..."

I nodded. "When I got your memories it was like gaining your experience. Everything you know how to do, so do I."

More tension flowed out of Leland. He must have really expected me to force him to go back. Now though, he was more than happy to hand over the vial.

As I took the vial, I grasped his wrist. "You don't need further problems from that program," I said as I made him immune.

Feeling the warm liquid change, Leland asked, "What was that?"

I gave him a lopsided grin. "Consider it a booster shot of sorts. You won't have any more problems with users trying to manipulate you with Master PC."

Leland nodded and said, "Thank you." And with that he walked off down the street.

I watched him go and realized for the first time something else was wrong.

Looking along the street there weren't as many people about as what I had seen the night before. I thought it might have been some major sporting event or such, but nothing to do with the Mind Magi issue.

As I headed back to the abandoned theatre, I saw a guy sitting in his car. The only reason I could make out any detail in the dark was that it looked like he was looking down at a laptop, which lit up his face.

Something about that made me stop and look at him closer. He had a faintly vacant expression but seemed was working furiously on the computer.

I moved around his car to see what he was working on. I shook my head when I noticed it was Master PC. Then I realized he wasn't just looking at or changing one person, but opening up one after another and making changes to each of them.

Leaning closer, I pressed my face to the glass and could just make out the command he was entering on each of them: "Get to a computer. Download and open Master PC. Open everyone you know and enter this same command on them."

He was simply opening different people, copying the command into the text box and hitting send. He was literally telling all those people about the program.

I knocked on the window. "Hey! Hey you!"

The guy stopped, looked at me over his shoulder as if he had heard something, and then went back to work.

He had looked right at me and didn't blink.

I glanced at my watch and noticed it was two minutes past midnight.

My heart racing, my adrenaline picking up, I ran back to the Theatre. Several of the cars had gone. Inside only Lord Greenwood, Jennifer, Sally, Mr. Gillman and Michael were there.

Lord Greenwood was kneeling over Jennifer, who was still unconscious on the floor.

Michael approached me. "I don't know what happened. Everyone just started leaving. No one said anything."

I nodded in response, not sure how to explain what I knew.

Greenwood looked up as I approached. "Did you find him?"

I nodded and went straight to Jennifer. "I'm going to have to talk to her when I wake her. She's not going to be herself," I told Lord Greenwood.

"She's not been herself for some time," he said. "I know it's that God-damned program."

"It's worse than that," I retorted. "Others who know about the program are commanding everyone they know to get it and repeat the command for everyone they know."

"What? Why would they do that?" Michael asked.

"That's what I have to find out," I said as I lifted Jennifer's head and pulled her mouth open. Following the steps in the memories that I had gained from Leland the day before, I put her soul back into her.

Almost immediately, Jennifer's eyes started blinking open and she looked up at me. "You took long enough."

"Whisper?"

She nodded and sat up. "You're too late Ral. The sub-routines built into the server have already kicked in."

"I know that," I said, "but why? Why would anyone want the entire world to know about the program?"

"It's not about what they know, but how they respond," Whisper said. "Whoever is running the server will be able to manipulate everyone who has ever been altered by the program."

I could feel a shiver run through Sally. She stood by watching me talk to Jennifer about something she still didn't fully understand. Mr. Gilman seemed impassionate about what was happening. Michael was astonished and Lord Greenwood seemed, if anything, to become more temperamental.

Then it hit me. "Why aren't you being affected?" I asked Jennifer.

"I've anticipated something like this for over a year now. I have commands on myself that will not allow any other entries to work."

Realizing how fast this could spread, I reached out and made Lord Greenwood immune to the program.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Making you immune to the program," I said. "That way whatever is going on won't affect you."

He looked at Jennifer, who nodded at me as if agreeing with what I was thinking, and then he looked back at me. "Do the same to her."

I looked at Jennifer. "You knew he'd make that request the instant he found out what I could do, didn't you?"

Jennifer nodded again. "It was expected. In fact I thought you would have done it sooner but ... I'm guessing you only recently figured out how to make others immune?"

I didn't acknowledge or deny what she said. It was true and that only pointed to my lack of deductive reasoning. Ignoring her statement, I pressed on. "Where is the server Whisper?"

Jennifer just stared at me.

Lord Greenwood looked from me to her and back to me again. "Is she..."

"Whisper's probably looking up the physical address," I suggested.

"No, I'm trying to decide why you want the address," Jennifer said.

"If you don't know why," I said, "then you're not as good as you'd like to think."

"I know you want the program to stop this mass control," Jennifer returned, "but what after that? Leave it so you and I can continue using it or ... not?"

"If I can stop the mass control, then maybe," I said. "But the mass control has to be stopped even if I have to shut down the server."

"Then I'm not sure I can give you the address," Jennifer said.

There was a general feeling of heightened anxiety at that.

"You need to consider what this makes you Whisper," I said. "With so few knowing about and using the program you are one of the elite, but if everyone knows about it and uses it, then you're just like everyone else. One of the many faceless masses. No one of importance."

"Ah, but is that what is really happening or is it something else?" Whisper asked.

"Spit it out Whisper, we don't have all night."

"Then I take it, like most users, you use Master PC because it works but have not taken a closer look into the code?"

"I said it before, get on with it."

"Yes, I fall down the proverbial ladder of 'leet should someone control the masses with the server. I wouldn't be able to do more than any other user because of the overriding commands the server could implement."

"But?"

"But if someone shuts down the routines in mid-run, then things get even worse."

I rolled my eyes. "How?"

"The routine is designed to infect everyone, but not allow them to remember what they did during that time. In other words, when it's finished, the number of users will not change."

"But someone will have access to everyone."

"Yes."

"And they could influence or simply make them think or act any way they wanted."