An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (23 page)

“Hey
!
I didn’t agree to
go through all this just
to be locked up
,” he shouted at the door
.
When no one offered him even a word h
e plopped onto the only piece of furniture in the room, a
fabric-covered
metal bunk bolted to the floor
.
“How long are you going to keep me in here?” he questioned the silent walls for the eightieth time
.
He
would’ve
done more than yell
,
but he found b
anging on the plastisteel brought only a bruised palm
.
“I want my cat back!”

He’d awakened
in this room some
unknown amount of time
after his trucking ordeal
.
Since then
,
eight
institutional
-
style meals
had
appeared through a slot in the door
.
At least
they’d
given him some clothes, even if he did look like a deliveryman in a utilitarian green jumpsuit
.
“I guess we didn’t have a meeting of the minds after all,” Tony muttered
.
For about the four hundredth time he went over it again
.
“
OK
.
Reasons they might keep me: security, my intentions, a show of faith.”

“Not a bad deduction,” said a muffled voice from the other side of the door
.
Old fashioned keys rattled in the lock
.
“Actually
,
we waited only to include you in the mission we have planned
.”
Linc’s bald head popped through the door
.
From the look of the stains on his orange smock
,
he looked like he
’d
just left work
, but obviously not at the same health club
if the embroidery “Sunrise Athletics” were any indication
.

“
OK
.
What are we going to do
?
”

“Not we, Mr. Sammis, you.”

“Me
?
Why me?”

“Look, if I had my way, corpie,
you’d
already be ground up
and sluicing your way down a
recycle chute
.”
Tony decided not to react, visibly anyway
.
“But Sonya has her own mind about these things
.
She wants to see how dedicated you are
.
If you succeed
,
then she
may
trust you further
.
If not, well let’s just say the police don’t take kindly to Greenies.”

“I’ll ignore the implied threat
.
With that in mind
,
what
’s my mission?”

“You’ll find that out shortly
.
Follow me close
,
but don’t say nothing
.”
Linc’s massive paw, fingers stubby but thick, handed him a small penlight
.

Linc lead Tony from his dry cell
down two flights of stairs and
into a twisting maze of mold-covered, masonry passages that oozed moisture
.
Linc’s broad shoulders marked his way through
ha
lls covered
a
nkle deep
in
putrid liquid the consistency of custard
.
The Greenies
clothing proved
competent
,
as the work boots held the fluid at bay
.
The smells
,
on the other hand
,
ranged from bad to worse including at the base
of them all
the bitter tang of excrement, urine, and
eau de
rotting
garbage
.

Conduits, steam pipes
,
and random corroded and broken wiring wove in and about their path
.
Even had he stooged for the police
,
he couldn’t have found his way back through the spider webs and rusted equipment without an inertial locator
.
Only his light on Linc’s broad back kept him from losing the rest of his way
.

Thinking about it
,
he knew
little
of the GAM that he could possibly use against them
,
even if
he wanted to
.
He didn’t know whether to feel heartened by this or depressed
.
Instead
,
he decided he should just do the job they asked
.

He dearly wanted to ask questions
,
but the first time he heard voices above his head through the
ceramcrete
ceiling
,
it muted his desire
.
He
shut off th
at
train of thought and
quietly
picked his way
through the muck
,
avoiding the worst of the sewage and smells
.

For over an hour
Linc never slowed
.
Tony began to wonder if they were lost together when Linc pointed to a nearly rusted
-
out metal door
.
“Go in there and you find your instructions,” Linc whispered
.

“How do I get back?” he softly murmured into Linc’s ear
.

“All your information is in there
.
Don’t mess up
.
We’ll be watching
.”
Linc turned and sloshed off
back
through the drains
.

Tony watched until he disappeared from sight and then even longer until the light of Linc’s torch faded around a distant corner
.
With a shrug Tony went up to the door and pushed it
.
Instead of opening
,
the door fell inward to land with a
combined
cacophony
of metal on stone and a loud splash
.
Tony froze
.

A brief flurry of sound above him startled him, but settled down as quickly as it began
.

His torch lit up a small room with a white plastic table high and dry atop a rust
-stained ceramic landing
.
Perched on the table sat the incongruous sight of dozen brightly-colored, floating balloons bearing the proclamation “Get Well Soon” tied to a gaily wrapped package and a vase full of flowers
.
Next to this absurd group sat a solido tablet and an archaic ring
comm
, still used as a disposable method for making nearly untraceable calls
.

The solido tablet read, “Take the package, flowers and balloons to
Mercy
Hospital
.
They are a delivery for Janice Gordon
.
There is a map through the underground to Mercy in the memory [press here].

“The chemical components of the bomb are inert and thus undetectable until activated by water
.
You have until the flowers are watered to get away
.
From a safe place call 555-1215 after it is reported on the net
.”

“A hospital?” Tony said aloud
.
Without hesitating he picked up the
ring comm
.
“Five, five, five, one, two, one, five.”

In the background of the standard bone conduction he heard a very faint countdown. “One minute to detection
.
Fifty-seven
.
Fifty-six…”

“You can’t have even gotten there yet.”

“It’s a hospital with sick people
—
”

“Don’t be a
pizda
!
It’s an executive hospital for those with full medical,” came a harsh male voice
.
The line went dead to the sound of “Forty-two
.
Forty-three
.”

“Can I really do this
?”
His own words mocked him as they echoed in the underground
.
“It’s a big stretch from thinking things are wrong to killing people
.”
Three times he reached out to collect the deadly delivery and three times he pulled back
.
He walked deliberately around the table
.
“At least now the clothes make sense
.”
Tony wiped
the sweat from
his hands on his pants before picking up the flowers in one hand and the
balloon
-
adorned package in the other.

* * *
 

“Listen
,
candy-striper, I’ve been delivering here for two years and nobody
’
s ever scanned my packages before,” Tony
barked
with as much vinegar as he could muster
.
The young redhead’s pale skin blanched even whiter
.
Tony wondered if she could possibly be more nervous than the
TriMet
air-show racing through his stomach.

“I’m sorry, but that’s what they told me I was supposed to do
.”

Tony
could only wonder if the GAM used this to get rid of him
.
He imagined Linc over his shoulder with a remote detonator going for a twofer, getting rid of an interloper and another strike against the
megacorps
.
“Whatever
,” he replied after a moment, rolling his eyes
.
“
Don’t worry about it
,
sweetie
.
I just don’t wanna be late for my next delivery
.”

“Thanks
.
I’m really sorry,” she said putting the packages into a huge door in the wall and pushing a large red button
.

“So does that hair come with a fire extinguisher?” Tony flirted to cover the shakes in his hands
.

“
Blarney
.”

“No, really, you don’t see many true redheads these days
.
Want to get some dinner
?”

“No
.
Sorry, my husband wouldn’t approve
.
I’ve already got one boyfriend
.
He wouldn’t stand for two
.”

Tony sighed in relief when the indicator behind her showed green. “Well, can’t blame a guy for trying,” he covered up
.
“Maybe next time
.”

Leaving his package for delivery within the hospital,
Tony turned and tried hard not to sprint for the front door
.
He breathed rapidly, sweat trickling down and soaking into
his
shirt, but not yet showing through
.
He got in line for the TriMet
.
He kept himself
from fidgeting only by making false notations on his
solido pad
.
H
e pushed his way on
the first TriMet that showed up to the platform
,
n
ot caring where it went
.
The
TriMet bus
clock above his head counted off the seconds between success and failure
.
He knew if the bomb went off before he got off the bus, he would be caught
.
The bus would instantly home to a police holding space
.

“Those Spiders sure are coming back,” said a man in the seat next to him
,
gazing off into space where his paper was displayed
on his retinas
for him alone
.

“Huh?”

“The Aussie Spiders?”

“Sorry, I don’t follow sports.”

“If you say so.”

Tony visibly cringed when the TriMet pulled up in front of Portland Metro Police department, only three blocks from the hospital
.
“Can my luck get any worse,” he muttered
.
Swearing under his breath, he climbed out of the car, one of two people brave enough to do so.