Zig Zag (68 page)

No
one said a word. All eyes turned to look at Carter, though Elisa
wasn't entirely sure why.

"If
it's a disturbed mind, it must be a physicist," Carter said.

"Or
an ex-soldier," Blanes replied, staring back at him. "Someone
with so much trauma in their life that they're living a constant
nightmare..."

Carter's
shoulders shook as though he was laughing, but his lips didn't move.
Then he turned, walked into the kitchen, and poured himself another
cup of reheated coffee.

"So
why does he show no sign of life for years and then suddenly
reappear?" Jacqueline inquired.

"That
expression 'for years,' makes no sense from Zig Zag's perspective,"
Blanes stated. "For Zig Zag, everything happens in the blink of
an eye, and those periods are what he uses to travel through time,
like any other split. For him, we're still in the station, on our way
to the control room with the alarm going off. In his time string, in
his world, we're all still trapped in that
exact
moment.
That's why we can't see him, even though he affects us so profoundly.
In fact, I'm sure he's picking us off in a specific order. Do you
remember who the first person to arrive in the control room was,
besides Ric? It was Rosalyn. And she was the first one to die. And
after her? Who got there next?"

"Cheryl
Ross," Elisa whispered. "She told me so herself."

"And
she was the second one killed."

"Mendez
was the first of my men to arrive," Carter said. "He was on
guard duty and ... Oh, Christ. He was the third victim! What in
the..."

They
all glanced at each other uneasily. Jacqueline seemed extremely
anxious.

"I
was after Reinhard," she whimpered, and then turned to Elisa.
"What about you?"

"Wait,
there's a mistake somewhere," Elisa said. "Nadja and I
arrived together, and Reinhard was already there, but Nadja was
killed
before
him..."
She stopped suddenly.
No.
Nadja told me that she'd gotten up earlier. She was the one who
discovered that Ric wasn't in bed.
She
corrected herself. "No, that's right. He's picking us off in the
same order that we woke up and went out into the hall."

For
a second, they avoided each other's eyes, lost in private thoughts.
Elisa was ashamed at the relief she felt on realizing that both
Jacqueline and Blanes had arrived before her.

"Hold
on, everybody." Carter held up a stumpy hand. The color had
drained from his face, but his voice had regained its authoritative
tone. "If this theory of yours is correct, Professor, then what
would happen when he ... or should I say
'it'
...
kills itself?"

"If
he kills his alter ego, they'll both die," Blanes responded.

"And
if something
else
kills
his alter ego..."

"Zig
Zag will die."

Carter
nodded, as if that were all he needed to know.

"So
all we have to do is figure out
which
one of us
it
is, and kill him or her—regardless of who it is—before
Zig Zag takes his next victim. It's obvious that he's not going to
kill himself: if he hasn't done it yet, then it seems that whether by
coincidence or by design he's leaving himself for last. So we have to
do it ourselves." Carter paused and then looked at them
defiantly and repeated, "Regardless of who it is. Am I right?"

Was
that the solution? Elisa thought it sounded horrific, and yet it was
perfectly straightforward, even fitting.

A
new uneasiness settled in among them now. Even Victor, who'd been
quiet up until then, was drawn into the conversation.

"It's
a man..." Jacqueline's voice echoed like a stone cast onto the
floor. "I know it. It's a man." She looked up at Carter and
Blanes, her dark eyes flashing.

"Are
you trying to say that women are not perverted, Professor?"
Carter asked.

"I'm
saying that
I
know it's a man!"
she
shrieked. "And so does Elisa!" She turned to her. "You
feel it, too. Go on, tell them!"

Before
she had a chance to answer, Carter said, "Let's say you're
right. It's a man. What are we supposed to do? There are still two
possibilities. You want us to play chicken, me and the professor?
Should we slit each other's throats just to be safe, so you can live
in peace?"

"Three,"
Victor said very quietly, creating another silence. "Three
possibilities. Don't forget about Ric."

Elisa
knew he was right. They couldn't discard Valente until they had some
proof that he was dead. And, in fact, judging by the kind of
"contamination" that she and Jacqueline were feeling, he
seemed to be the most likely candidate.

"If
we could only figure out which image he used that night," Blanes
lamented.

For
a second, the memory of Ric Valente overwhelmed Elisa, dragging her
back off into an awful world. It was as if those ten years had never
passed. She saw his face, his perpetual smile; she heard his mocking
tone and humiliating comments. In fact, wasn't he just mocking all of
them right now? In a flash, she realized what had to be done.

"I
know. There's a way. Of course! There is one way—"

"No!"

Blanes
had understood what she meant; that much was clear by how loud he'd
shouted.

"David,
it's our only chance! Carter's right! We have to figure out which one
of us is Zig Zag before he kills again!"

"Elisa,
don't ask me to do that."

"I'm
not asking
you!"
She
was proving she could shout, too. "It's a proposal. It's not up
to
you
to
make this decision, David!"

He
gave her a dreadful look. And the silence that followed was broken
only by Carter's cynical, drained voice.

"Forget
Zig Zag. If you
really
want
to see violence, just lock a couple scientists up in the same room."
He took a few steps and stood between them. He lit a cigarette
(Victor hadn't realized he even smoked) and took long drags, seeming
more intent on inhaling smoke than expelling words. "Would you
two brilliant minds, geniuses of the physics world, explain what
you're arguing about?"

"Risks:
creating another Zig Zag!" Blanes shouted in Elisa's direction,
paying no attention to Carter whatsoever. "Benefits: none!"

"Even
if that's true, what else can we do?" She turned to Carter and
spoke more calmly. "We know that Ric used both the accelerator
and the computers in the control room that night. What I'm proposing
is that we film the control room for a few seconds and then go back
and open the corresponding time strings to see what he did, and what
happened next, including Rosalyn's murder. We know
exactly
when
it all happened, because of the blackout. We can open two or three
time strings from just before that moment. That might let us see what
Ric was doing, or which image he used to create Zig Zag."

"And
then we'd know who it is." Carter scratched his beard and looked
at Blanes. "Sounds like a well-reasoned plan to me."

"You're
forgetting one tiny detail," Blanes said, facing Carter. "The
whole reason Zig Zag appeared to begin with is because Ric opened a
time string from the
recent
past!
You
want that to happen again? Two Zig Zags?"

"But
you yourself explained it," Elisa objected. "The subject
has to be unconscious for the split to be dangerous. And, personally,
I don't think Ric was
asleep
while
he was using the accelerator that night, do you?" She watched
Blanes intently and then spoke again, softening her voice. "Look
at it this way. What other option do we have? We can't defend
ourselves. Zig Zag is going to keep hunting us down until he kills
himself, if he ever does."

"We
could try to figure out how to keep him from being able to suck up
any energy—"

"For
how long, David? If we managed to stop him now, how long would he
take to come back next time?" She appealed to the rest of the
group. "I've been calculating the intervals between attacks and
the amount of energy consumed. The period between attacks has been
halved. The first one was one hundred and ninety million seconds
after Mendez's death, and the second was ninety-four million five
hundred thousand seconds after Nadja's death. That's about half. At
that rate, Zig Zag has another forty-eight hours before going into
hibernation for what will probably be less than a year. He's already
killed four people in forty-eight hours. He could get another two or
three today or tomorrow and finish the rest of us off in less than
six months." She eyed Blanes. "We're damned, David, no
matter what we do. Our days are numbered. I just want to be in
control of how I die."

"I'm
with her," Carter said.

Elisa
searched for Jacqueline's glance. She stood right beside her but
seemed far off, distant. Something in her posture or her expression
made her fade away.

"I
can't take it anymore...," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "I
just want to do away with ... that... monster. I'm with Elisa."

"I'm
not going to offer an opinion," Victor said quickly when Elisa
turned to him. "You're the ones who have to decide. I just want
to ask one question. Once you find out who it is, are you
absolutely
sure
you'll
be able to kill whoever it turns out to be in cold blood?"

"With
my bare hands," Jacqueline spat. "And if it's me, it'll be
even easier."

"Relax,
Father." Carter slapped Victor's shoulder. "I've killed
people for a lot less than this. I'll take care of it. I've blown
people away for coughing with their mouths open."

"But
the person the split came from isn't to blame," Victor
continued, unfazed. "Ric should never have carried out that
experiment without permission, but even if it's him, he doesn't
deserve to die."

Their
only blame lies in being asleep.
Elisa
was with Victor on this, but she didn't want to tackle this
particular issue right then.