Liam's leg shook nervously as he stood there listening to jazz play. Although he didn't particularly enjoy jazz he did like the saxophone, the keys reminded him of a keyboard, and the noise it made were pleasant. "Liam!" Liam closed his eyes and let out a silent sigh; he didn't need this after such a stressful night. "I'm so glad you could make it." It was the birthday girl herself, Melissa standing their smiling brightly.
She certainly looked beautiful wearing her deep red dress covered with sequins. A dark blue band at the waist gave the illusion of curves where there weren't any. Although she did look beautiful Liam could tell that her beauty was artificial: makeup, padded bras, and concealer didn't make her beautiful. "Hi Melissa." Liam said with a weak smile.
"What happened? I thought that you had that thing with your family."
"They cancelled." Liam said and immediately began to twitch. If the police questioned Melissa they would find out that Liam lied to her, that they had no plans to go to the party, and that they arrived late. It could ruin everything and put them in a place easy for guys like Lockheart to find.
"Oh Liam, you're twitching, come on, let's get you away from all these people." Melissa said incorrectly assuming that it was the crowd of people that was causing Liam to twitch. Not knowing how to say no Liam allowed her to lead him up the stairs and into a dark room with an ornate desk and tall bookshelves taking up most of the room. "This is my dad's study; no one will bother us up here."
"Who does your dad work for anyway?" Liam asked wondering who could afford such luxurious furnishing.
"He runs the local Robco factories; the ones that make all the securitrons and pip-boys that you're always hearing about. He got one as an honor or something, but he just put it in a frame on the wall there." Melissa walked over to the desk and pulled out a heavy looking, crystal bottle filled with an amber colored liquid. "It's my dad's special whiskey; do you want a sip?"
"Uh, I'm not much of a d-drinker." Liam said, but she just shoved the drink into his hand anyway. "Your dad works for Robert House?"
"Well not directly, but he runs one of his factories." Melissa said. "He met him once at a special dinner honoring the factory workers, but they didn't talk."
'Robert House, the only other person on earth who knew that the world was going to end.' Liam thought with a gulp. His only chance at surviving the apocalypse with his family lied within the super computer he just hacked, and now that he had a moment he realized that he still had Lockheart's halo-disk.
"Oh is that my birthday present?" Katie asked yanking the halo-disk out of his hands. "Is it a song or a program that you wrote for me?" She went over to the terminal and popped in the disk. "Oh it's loading."
Liam sucked in breath sharply. He had no idea what was on that halo-disk or what it would to Melissa's computer. "Ugh this stupid terminal is so unreliable. I told my dad to buy the newer one."
"Both of you put your hands in the air." Liam froze and slowly turned around to see Lockheart standing there holding his gun hand steady. His shoulder was wrapped in what looked like the old sleeve of his suit. "That's right nice and easy."
"Who are you?!" Melissa demanded angrily.
"My, my boy, you are a go getter aren't you? Two birds in one night, but I must say that the other one was prettier."
"How did you find us?" Liam asked complying with Lockheart's demands.
"You forgot to take the tracker out from the bottom of the car; I've got to say it was a pretty stupid move." Liam nearly bit off his own tongue from the stupidity. How could he of possibly made such a stupid mistake.
"Now if you had left that computer at the building unlocked then maybe I would have let it go, but you had to go and reset the damn thing. Now here's what's going to happen. You and the bird are going to get in the car with me and we'll drive back up to the factory where you'll unlock the computer and copy it onto the halo-tape you stole from me."
As he said this he edged closer until he was close enough to grab Melissa's arm and pull her against his chest. "Then what?" Liam managed to squawk past a dry throat and parched lips.
"Then I shoot you both in your god damn skulls." Lockheart said leveling his pistol to the center of Liam's forehead. "Now get in the god damn car."
"Oh shut the hell up!" Katie yelled. Her voice surprised both of them, but not as much as the sharp crack of marble on skull as she brought down a bust on Lockheart's head.
"Um." Liam said with wide eyes.
"I was worried when I didn't see you outside." Katie said with a shrug. She dropped the bust and searched Lockheart's pockets quickly coming up with a wallet and what must have been the device he was tracking them with. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Liam said feeling an immense weight lift off of his chest.
"What the hell!" Melissa demanded angrily causing them both to look up and see that she now held Lockheart's pistol. She pointed it at Katie with a furious look on her face. "What kind of messed up shit have you gotten him into! Tonight was supposed to be perfect! I was supposed to finally be the beauty queen, I was going to be pretty for once, I was going to dance with Liam, and we were going to start dating!" Katie quickly glanced at Liam whose face revealed he had no idea about Melissa's plans. "Then you, you freak had to come along and bring this psychopath into my house! Liam's sweet, he always has been, but you had to go and ruin him!"
"Listen beauty queen just quit waving that gun around; it might go off!" Katie said taking a step back to try and get out of range, but Melisa just swung the gun to where she moved to.
"And what if I want it to go off huh!" Melissa yelled pulling the hammer of the gun back. "What are you going to do about it?" Melissa let out a horrific gasping noise as something collided with the back of her own skull. She fell like a sack of potatoes to the floor the gun clattering across the room where Katie grabbed it.
"Has she always been this nuts?" Katie asked checking to see that the revolver was fully loaded.
"I don't know." Liam said sitting back in the deeply padded chair his fists curling around the armrests so tightly his knuckles went white. "I need, I need, I need my mentats!" he gasped.
"Where are they?" Katie asked feeling his pockets and coming up with nothing. "Oh no." Katie said remembering flashing back to when Liam had slipped his halo-disk out of his pocket. His mentats had clattered out without anyone's knowledge except her own. "Liam, please you need to hold on, you need to keep it together until we can get out of here."
"I can't!" Liam said his facial tics going out of control.
"Just, just focus on me, Liam. Focus on me, forget everything else." Katie held his head still and pressed their foreheads together. "Just forget everything else and focus on me, okay?"
Liam gulped her skin oddly cool against his own which felt so hot he wanted to rip it off. "Okay." he whispered managaing to nodd his head.
"Just look into my eyes and focus on your breathing. Deep breath in and out." Liam followed her instructions and on impulse he pressed him lips to hers.
Liam caught himself what felt like a moment too late and he pulled away. His ticks and twitches had ceased seemingly all at once; now the only thing going out of control was his heart pounding so hard he could hear his blood flowing in his ears. "Come on lover boy let's get out of here." Katie said pulling him to his feet.
Together hand in hand they ran outside into the driveway where they quickly found their car. "Hold on." Liam said looking under the car and easily finding the tracking device Lockheart must have been using. A quick scan revealed Lockheart's car a few yards away; Liam snapped the thing into place before returning to the car which Katie had already started.
"Good thinking." Katie said realizing what Liam had done. "Where to next?"
"We probably shouldn't go home yet incase Lockheart has another murderous rampage in him." Liam said looking at Katie. "Do you know somewhere we could go?"
"Yeah, I think I know just the place." Katie said pulling out of the driveway.
The place Katie had in mind was a cliff hidden by trees that overlooked the whole town. It was right above the fenced off vault area which was filled with troopers decked out in power armor. "It's beautiful." Liam commented.
"I used to come up here with my dad all the time." Katie said leaning against the car hood next to Liam. "Before they came and drained the lake we would fish there; it used to piss my mom off because we would both come back reeking of fish."
"Katie, about what happened back at the party." Liam said reaching out for her hand again.
"Don't worry about it Liam I know it was just nerves." Katie said giving him a half grin. Liam frowned at this; he had come to a realization at the party. It wasn't the mentats that he needed, it was Katie. "Oh by the way I got you an early birthday present." Katie reached into her hoodie and pulled out a pip boy.
"Where did you?" Liam asked, forgetting his disappointment for the temporary excitement, taking the device and snapping it into place around his wrist.
"It was in that whack job's house in a frame." Katie said glancing over his shoulder as it powered on and he flinched as it dug into his arm to do the DNA lock. "So Melissa huh?"
"I had no idea she was so ... ." Liam struggled to find a word other than crazy, but none came to mind. "I don't think that she's going to be telling anyone about what happened though. Otherwise she'll be explaining why she tried to shoot you."
"What about Lockheart? We didn't kill him and he knows where you live. Are you worried about him coming after your family?" Katie asked.
"No, we have the information he wants. I don't think he'd risk me deleting it by threatening my family." Liam said. "You got his wallet; what's his real name?"
"Desmond Lockheart." Katie said pulling out the ID and chucking the wallet into the forest. "Grade A psychopath."
"You said it." Liam said. They sat in complete silence staring at the town as the sun slowly rose behind it, allowing the high of the night's antics to dissipate.
Liam nervously shook his foot as he stared at his terminal screen. Three days since it started, three days since Desmond Lockheart had tried to kill them, and three days since he had cracked the encryption on the data locked away in the computer that was supposed to hold shipping manifests.
"Any luck?" Katie asked for the third time.
"It's a lot of really advanced tech," Liam said with a shake of his head. "It's not like anything I've seen before and I only understand every tenth word or so."
"Science stuff that even you don't understand; that is scary." Katie said.
"What's with all the commotion?" Liam asked seeing that the hallway was abuzz with activity. Normally this kind of activity risked setting him off, but with Katie so close he didn't have to worry about that.
"Some bigshot is coming to town to give some kid a scholarship." Katie said with a shrug.
"Which one?" Liam asked pulling several books out of his locker.
"His name was some kind of place you live in: apartment, mansion, bungalow, hotel." Katie snapped her fingers as Liam's eyes widened and his grip on the books turned his knuckles white.
"House." he whispered.
"Right, that's it." Katie said. "Liam, are you okay?"
"I need to go," Liam said slamming the locker closed. "I'll see you at the assembly okay?" Katie nodded and Liam took off to a janitor's closet that he had access to thanks to a broken lock.
He had hacked House's system mere weeks ago, but he had gone undetected or at least he thought. Then he had hacked the city plans and the criminally insane Desmond had shown up. Now here was one of the most powerful men in the world showing up only a day after he hacked the computer at the chem company. It had to be connected, but what did all these people want with information on a computer out in the middle of nowhere?
"Damn it this doesn't make any sense." Liam said holding his head in between his legs. Normally mentats would soothe this ache, but thanks to Katie he had been on plenty of fixer that kept away the shakes of withdrawal as long as he didn't use mentats. Still it was a challenge even with the fixer to not escape into the bliss of fizzy mentats. "He has to want the information just like Desmond, but why do they want it?"
Liam revealed his pip boy from underneath his hoodie and quickly gleamed through the information once again. It didn't make any more sense than it did before, but as he suspected the one recurring phrase was life preservation.
This certainly needed to be examined further, but for now he needed to go to the assembly and meet the man himself.
The auditorium was crowded and everyone was keeping their eyes peeled for the famous Mr. House. Although he was nowhere to be seen several of his famous securitrons were surrounding he stage keeping the crowd at bay.
Suddenly the crowd grew quiet and Liam turned to see Robert House walking onto the stage looking almost regal with his million dollar suit and half a million dollar haircut. He was by far the fanciest person to have ever entered the town.
"Hey Liam are you okay?" Katie asked her hand finding its way into his own.
"Yeah, just fine." Liam lied. "Just a little surprised that a guy like that would ever come here."
"Maybe he's got a spot in one of the vaults." Katie could see on Liam's eyes that he knew this not to be true. "You don't think that he's here for the same reason Desmond was do you?"
Liam breathed in sharply. He didn't like lying to Katie, but he couldn't tell her that the world was going to end and that he knew it. How could he explain that he had knowledge that people would kill for and that he had stolen it from the man below who was probably there to kill them both. "What are the odds?" Liam asked shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head. "Either he's here for a spot in the vault or he just happened to be monitoring the exact computer we hacked into at the exact time we were attacked by some crazy lunatic or he really is just here to scope out the vault he got into."
"You're right, what are the odds he might actually be here for the same reason?" Pretty darn good Katie thought, but she didn't want to worry Liam with that.
"Why hello River Crest students." Mr. House spoke with a low voice which was powerful, smooth, and screamed culture. "I must say I was incredibly surprised when I noticed a town in the middle of Kansas was the one that contained exactly what I was looking for."
He paused dramatically allowing the student body and those from the town in attendance to whisper about what such a powerful man could want in their little town. "Two of the brightest minds that our generation has to offer; two that I intend to snatch up before any of my competitors are able to, selfish as I am." This earned chuckle from the crowd; one neither Liam nor Katie shared in. "In exchange for a generous donation to the school in the form of securitrons and several other amenities not the least of which being hard earned dollars I was able to hold this rally in their honor."
"Maybe it really is a freaky deek coincidence it looks like Mr. House isn't actually here to raid that chem company he's just here to give away some scholarships. Rich people love doing this so they can brag to their rich friends about how active they are in the community." Katie whispered to Liam.
It was a perfectly rational explanation. Except for one thing; why would a man who knows the world is going to end care about giving anyone a scholarship? Liam mauled the possibilities over: Mr. House was either here for the plans, here for Desmond, or here for him and Katie. No matter what the reason it would be impossible for them to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
"As for who those two people are and how I became aware of them I can answer both those questions. Firstly through the manager of one of my many factories I became aware of our first rising star when his daughter began pointing out flaws and inefficiencies in the assembly lines. Small things? Maybe, but her small improvements have saved Rob. Co a whopping thirty six million in revenue and lost parts over the last year after having been implemented across all my companies nationwide. A portion of the proceeds of which go to buying army bonds and improving the already existing . robots being implemented in the war against the commies!"
Liam had seen Mr. House's financials and while that may be true Mr. House also happened to be selling to the Chinese under a different company name.
"This is young lady is Ms. Melissa Evans right here in the front row. Come on up sweetie." Melissa stood up to a chorus of applause and cheers. She had visible stitches along the right side of her head where Liam had craned her. "Yes well the second student that I will be awarding my money to is the only one who has matched young Melissa here in grades and overall academic performance as evaluated by his teachers."
Liam watched as one of the smarter boys in the class stood up and both he and Melissa received a large check and a contract from Rob. Co that seconded as a letter of acceptance to just about any university in the states.
This didn't make much sense, if Mr. House had come here to find the information they had stolen then why not award him and Katie the scholarship as an excuse to get them alone. He suddenly became conscious of Katie gripping his hand in an effort to gain his attention. "What is it?" he asked.
"Isn't that your mom down there swooning?" Katie asked pointing to Mrs. Williams down below looking positively star struck by Mr. House's impressively white teeth, handsome features, and neat grooming.
"Yeah it is." Liam sighed.
"Is just me or does the guy in the suit keep looking at her out of the corner of his eye? You think your dad needs to be worried?" Katie asked nudging his side with her elbow.
"I think every dad has to be worried with that much money involved." Liam said with a shrug. "You're right though."
"Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter looks like this depression rally's wrapping up." Katie stood and patted her skirt free of whatever grime it had picked up from the bleacher seat before turning to Liam. "You heading to class?"
"Yeah, you?" he asked glancing up at her and taking in her appearance: a pink floral skirt, high-top sneakers, a white blouse hidden by a leather vest, and white striped pink scarf.
"Oh Liam still so naive to ask; business to attend to people to see." Katie said in response and Liam shrugged his shoulders. "You have been changing my attendance record haven't you?"
"Of course." he said. "Why are you still dressed like that by the way?"
"Just the thing every girl needs to start her day: have her appearance questioned by her boyfriend." she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before leaving to attend to the business she had planned. First stop: her locker.
When she reached the locker door she opened it up and glanced inside. The sharp noise of flipping metal revealed her rolls of emergency cash stashed inside a vault tech lunch box. She pounded her fist against the back of her locker and a secret hatch fell open; a gift from the mysterious previous tenant.
Inside were shelves that contained her chem supply. Some might say it was idiotic to store them in school, but in her opinion the best place to hide something was where everyone thought you were too smart to hide it, typically no one ever bothered to actually check.
She snatched a few and put them into her purse before replacing the paneling. Just as she was about to close the locker she glanced at the mirror stuck on the door.
The previous night's antics had gone on later than she had originally anticipated and cut into her beauty sleep leaving her with dark circles under her eyes. No more than your average teen she supposed, but her creamy skin was a point of vanity on her part. She ran a few fingers through here her curls and tried to give them some more bounce.
For just a moment she allowed her thoughts to drift to last night, Liam had kissed her, really kissed her. She didn't know who was more nervous, and they were in such a hurry to get out of there they didn't even have an opportunity to talk about it. It had to be nerves, it had to be, just because she liked Liam didn't mean that he liked her. She was his drug dealer, what kind of relationship had ever started that way?
'Cool hair, pretty eyes, high cheek bones, pink lips, I could be someone's girlfriend.' Katie thought lifting her eyebrows at herself in the mirror. 'I could be Liam's girlfriend. We could be a nice couple, perfectly normal teenage sweethearts. We could get married when we graduate, a house in some place like that Sanctuary Hills I read about somewhere up in Boston, have a couple kids, drop them off at his parents, then go vacation up in the city for a week. Why couldn't we be that couple?" Katie asked herself. 'I'd be a great mom: bake cookies, carpool, PTA, get them a dog we'd take care of together. And Liam just seems like the type of guy who'd do anything for his family.'
It was a nice fantasy: the perfect family in the suburbs. Something that she dreamed of, and what her father had always wanted for her, even as he was teaching her the business. Maybe that was the reason she was attracted to Liam she couldn't hope to live that peaceful life alone: too weird, too angry, too in love with the dangerous life she led. He was the smartest person she had ever met, and the only one as out of place in this town as she was, with both of them working at it maybe they could solve this normal problem.
"Yeah, we could do it. Why wouldn't we be able to?" Katie muttered to herself. "He could stay at home with the kids while I go out and bring home the bacon." She grinned to herself, a woman being the earner of the home; who had ever heard of something so crazy?
Of course she didn't deal with the actual clients just dished out resupplies to her soldiers who reported to her a new client willing to dish out serious cash. This was the kind of situation that Katie liked to deal with personally because it meant one of three things: a cop trying to attack her gang, they had a new gang trying to get a feel for their turf, or she had a new second favorite client. 'Or the report is false and the guy who reported is trying to get me alone in some place so they can take me out and control the only chem supply business in a hundred miles." The thought briefly flitted across her mind and while it happened less and less as she became better known, there was no sense in not preparing for it.
The address was a luxurious home that had been for sale for quite a while as no one in their small town could afford it. Now however it seemed as though someone had slapped a fresh coat of gleaming white paint on it and moved in. The person to answer wasn't a person at all, but a Mr. Handy robot, quite the amenity.
"Ah welcome, young ma'am I was told to expect a young girl named Katie, might you be her?" he asked through a chipper British accent.
"Indeed I might." Katie said with a smile at the somewhat creepy robot.
"Wonderful, my name is Marco, please follow me to the master's study so that you may conduct your business." He hovered up the stairs leaving Katie sweltering beneath the heat given off by his propulsion jet.
"You're not colored like any Mr. Handy I ever saw." Katie commented.
"That's because I was built as a Mr. Gutsy ma'am originally built to aide in the war effort against those filthy communists. My programming was stripped replaced with that of a Mr. Handy. If you ask me it makes me the best of two worlds, the ability to incinerate your enemies through the use of fire or laser and still able to brew the perfect cup of coffee." That didn't make Katie feel anymore comfortable around the hovering bot.
"They didn't quite get all the Mr. Gutsy out did they?"
"No they did not." Marco confirmed gently pushing open the door to what she could only assume was the study. "Sir your three o'clock is here."
"Wonderful." the voice grumbled.
On an unspoken order Marco exited the room closing the door behind him, and Katie wondered if she heard a click. Either way she reached into her pocket and gripped the switchblade inside.
The man in the chair slowly turned and Katie's eyes widened; it was Desmond. With his arm in a sling, and stiches interrupting his perfect head of hair he didn't look quite so handsome or threatening. Still she pulled out her knife and brandished it as threateningly as she could.
"Oh don't be so rude ducky you are in my 'ome after all."
"You also tried to kill me twice."
"You're countin' the time at that Melissa girl's mansion? I didn't even know you were there until you went and gave me this baby." He pointed his head, but Katie didn't lower the blade. "Alright fair is fair I suppose, but that's not why I called you here for?"
"And why is that by the way?" Katie asked. "Come to think about it why did you even show up at the chem company that night, why are you here?
He smiled as if somehow his genuine threat of her and Liam's lives was funny. "Tell me ducky, what do you know about the end of the world?"
"It's a really popular movie idea?" Katie said cautiously.
"Oh no Ducky: not the brain eating zombie, world flooding, meteor crashing end of the world, the real one. The one that the government is keeping from you; the one that looms over us all, the one that powers our cars, light our homes, and fire our weapons."
"What are you talking about?" Katie asked.
"Nuclear power ducky."
"It's the way of the future, everyone knows that."
"It's the future's end you dumb bird. Ever since the first nuclear bomb was dropped in Japan the top one percent of the top one percent have been making contingency plans for them to drop en masse."
"The government wouldn't let that happen."
"Oh not only are they letting it happen they're putting us on a fast track down that path. Those top percenters have seen this coming for a while, and they've tried their very hardest to find a way to live through it. I included." Desmond looked at her through narrowed eyes and Katie suddenly felt vulnerable even with the knife between the two. "The end's coming, sooner than you'd think. Right now both sides are building as many nuclear weapons as possible, and the generals are trying to convince the senators to launch before the other side has a chance to. Won't matter in the end though, as soon as one government launches any kind of weapon the other would notice almost immediately and launch their own. And since both sides know that they'll keep fighting these pointless wars until someone either fires a missile or the resources run out at which point it won't matter because they'll both blame each other than fire anyway."
"If you know so much about how the world's going to end why aren't you doing anything to stop it?" Katie asked chilled by the topic.
"Because ducky who do you think is left when the bombs drop? Not those poor bastards trying to hide in bunkers beneath their homes. People like me who have all the money in the world to spend building nuclear shelters, developing new medical technologies on the fly, and special ways to avoid the damaging effects of the bomb. Then once the bomb drop provided we find some way to live long enough for humanity to reemerge we rule the ashes." Desmond was wearing that sickening smile once again, the one that twisted his handsome features in an almost painfully ugly grin.
"I don't believe you, you're crazy."
"I'm sure I might seem that way ducky, but if you need some confirmation you need only look at that boy you were with the other night." Katie furrowed her brow at this, confused by why he was mentioning Liam. "I did some asking around and while your boyfriend may not be one of us top percenters he certainly does know about the end. Not sure exactly how, but what can you do?"
"You're lying!" Katie yelled furiously.
"No I'm not." He looked at her with steely gaze and Katie felt her arm start to tremble, whether it was because of fatigue or fear she didn't know. "Now you asked a question before, why am I here. A group of us top percenters came together and conducted quite a few miraculous experiments, but one of us ran off with all the data hoping to rule the ashes all on his lonesome. Needless to say he didn't get very far, but he managed to hide the plans to save himself in a chain in one of those factories that he owns. They're all across the globe and the only clue we had to finding them was a floor plan. I've searched hundreds of cities and thousands more records for those specific floor plans, but never did they match any buildings I found."
"So how did you know to come for us?" Katie asked.
"Because you accessed those very floor plans darling. That boy Liam hacked into the city plans and sent out a ping heard all across the world. Oh I remember the day I heard that beautiful ping, how stupid I felt to find out that the very plans I was looking for had been pulled from the city records of some middle of nowhere town in Kansas. It's brilliant, hide the factory somewhere it has no place being and no one will ever notice it."
"You're lying!" Katie screamed.
"All the proof you need is in a safe your dream boat has hidden behind a poster in his room."
"Why are you telling me this?" Katie asked trying her best to hide the tremble in her voice.
"Because if you get your boyfriend to give me the plans then maybe I share one of them and expand your pitiful life for a few more decades." Katie kept glancing at the door behind her and Desmond must have noticed. "Go ahead and go, but remember the safe."
Katie took the opportunity and yanked the door open charging down the stairs like a pack of wild dogs were nipping on her heels. She stopped when she was well over ten blocks away panting with one thought on her mind, 'Is it true?' There was only one way to find out.