The door at the end of the hall wasn’t locked, as I had expected it to be. I pushed it open slowly, expecting a trap, to find only an empty room awaiting me. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The small space was dark, lit only by the faint blue glow from a series of monitors that displayed environmental conditions, temperatures, and other numbers I couldn’t interpret. The fans and machinery whirred along steadily. I didn’t see any sign of Tom, but the trigger device lay on the desk. I picked it up an removed the batteries, taking care of one of my tasks. Of course, based on the messages I had received from the anti-terror team, that likely didn’t matter anymore. I was more concerned that there was no one here. I cleared the room carefully, making sure that Tom wasn’t concealed anywhere, but there weren’t really any places to hide. The room was truly vacant. That didn’t make sense. The only way back to the arena was through the hallway I had just come through. And the guards watching out front indicated that he was here. Why else would they have been there? Had that been a bluff? No, there was no reason for that. So where… my eye drifted to the small access door on the far side of the room. I hadn’t considered it before because it wasn’t a way out, but the only other place you could get from this room was the catwalk that led to the scoreboard. Directly above the rink. He couldn’t escape from there, but he might try to hide, hoping I wouldn’t think to check. It wasn’t the cleverest gambit, but if he had been backed into a corner, maybe. Either way, I had to check, unfortunately. So, I ducked through the door and out onto the exposed, metal walkway.
Looking down, the grating below my feet revealed a long drop to the seats below. I could hear the vague roar of the crowd and the sound of sticks clashing on the ice, but it was faint and far away. I swallowed hard and forced my eyes up. I wasn’t precisely afraid of heights, usually, but that didn’t mean I wanted to have a fight up here. And as I locked eyes with the man on the far side of the walkway, that possibility seemed increasingly likely. I raised my gun, and in response Tom extended his left hand over the metal railing, letting it dangle in the air. The device glinted in the light.
Apparently, hiding wasn’t his only plan.
“I’d be careful, if I were you,” Tom raised his voice so I could hear him. “My grip on this thing is a little tenuous.”
Glancing down over the railing I could see that, based on where he was standing, if he let that fall it would land right in the stands, on top of a crowd of people. The small amount of explosive charge in it was unlikely to hurt too many on it’s own, but the shock would likely cause it to detonate and disperse the chemical through the entire area. The effect wouldn’t be nearly what it would have been in the ventilation system, but it would still put dozens of lives at risk. And, of course, anyone it landed directly on wasn’t in for a good time, either. Even one life lost to this foolishness was too many. I stopped moving closer.
“What are you doing up here?” I asked, trying to get him talking.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly intentional,” he admitted. “After we got word of what you’d done, I knew you would show up here eventually. Obviously, we needed to accelerate the plan. So, I sent most of the others to ground, and I came up here to get to the trigger and set it off early, but you were quicker than I expected, so I had to make… adjustments. Fortunately, I grabbed a little insurance on my way in, and now I think you are going to let me walk out of here.”
“I can’t, Tom. You know that,” I shook my head.
“I don’t think you really have much of a choice, Ray. Either you let me walk out that door, or I drop this, and we get to see how effective it is, despite your interference.”
“Why? Why do this, Tom? The people down there, they haven’t done anything to you.”
“That’s exactly the problem though, isn’t it? There is no way to tell. Anyone could be one of them.”
There was so much venom in his tone that I was briefly take aback.
“What happened to you?” I shook my head, even after everything, I was still struggling to believe this was the same man I had known for years.
“What do you think happened?” he scoffed. “You were there, you saw what they did to my coworkers, my friends. What they almost did to me. There are a lot of us who are either dead, or worse, nothing but hollowed out shells of people. You saw some of them, back in the facility. They will likely never recover. And up until the moment everything fell apart, they all thought we were safe, that we had things under control. That the ubarae were our allies. We were all wrong. I will never let that happen again. Not to me, not to anyone I care about. The ubarae are too dangerous to be allowed to live. And I think you would admit that, too, if you weren’t such a coward. Too afraid to make the hard decisions.”
“Too afraid, huh?” I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like someone is projecting a little.”
“Yeah, I am afraid. I’ll admit it. At least I am doing something with my fear. At least I am trying to fix things. You saw what they did and you just… gave up,” he snorted in disgust. “You had everything I ever wanted, and when it really mattered you let it all go to waste. You left us to deal with it by ourselves. And now you want to complain about the solution we came up with? I don’t see how you have the right.”
I flinched. He kind of had a point. Interestingly, it turned out that both Vicki and Liz had been correct in their assessments of him. Even though they barely knew him at all. I should have seen this sooner. Maybe if I had it wouldn’t have turned out this way.
“Unless, of course,” he continued. “All of that was just an act?”
“I am sorry, are you suggesting that I faked a breakdown? For months? Why?” I was genuinely confused by that turn.
“It worked out pretty well for you, didn’t it? You really got in under my guard that way. I actually felt sorry for you.”
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“Well, if it makes you feel any better, none of that was made up for your benefit. I had no reason to. I mean, I had no idea you had lost your fucking mind until you told me yourself.”
“I’ve lost my mind, huh? I suppose you would have preferred if I had ended up like you? Drinking myself to death? Wasting my life?” he sneered.
“Yes! Obviously,” I couldn’t keep the exasperation out of my voice. “Everyone has the right to destroy themselves, if they want to. But you don’t get to take anyone else with you. If it takes thousands of people’s deaths for you to have peace of mind, then you don’t deserve it.”
“They aren’t people! And I should have left you to rot.”
“Yeah, probably. Bad call, on your part. But I should thank you. All of this has put a lot of things into perspective for me. I really thought I was done. That I wasn’t capable of doing this anymore. And if you hadn’t forced my hand, maybe that is how things would have stayed. But I can see now that I was wrong. There is still more I can do.”
“Yeah, you can fuck things up, clearly,” Tom scoffed.
“Exactly!” I grinned. “It’s really just a matter of fucking things up for the right people, isn’t it?”
“That figures. It’s clear at this point that you have always had it out for me,” Tom shook his head.
“What, you think I did all this to spite you? I was trying to help you, Tom! You were my friend. I trusted you. I was sure that you were just misguided, that this was a mistake, that I could convince you to see reason. It isn’t too late. Give it up, Tom. The place is surrounded, you won’t get away,” I hoped that was true, anyway. “Surrender now, and I can walk you out. I will make sure you aren’t harmed.”
“You think I believe that? I know what you did to Pete,” anger flashed in his eyes. Betrayal. “He was the only one who really understood. The only one who appreciated the danger from the beginning. And you killed him for it.”
“Wallace didn’t leave me any choice, Tom,” I didn’t need to correct him as to who had actually pulled the trigger. The kid didn’t need that heat. “Please don’t make the same mistake.”
“I am giving you a choice. Step aside and let me go.”
“That isn’t a choice I can make.”
For a long moment, neither of us moved. It was something of a stalemate; I couldn’t approach him, and he didn’t want to approach me. He could demand I leave, but that wouldn’t help much. Once he was off the catwalks and into the maintenance hallway, he had no real leverage since the device wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone in there. Which meant he had to pass me here, and then hope he could disappear before I went after him. But waiting was to my advantage, and he knew it. I had backup arriving, so he needed to execute quickly, if he wanted even a chance of escape. So, Tom made the first move. He took a step towards me, hand still hanging over the railing, then paused to see what I would do. I considered my options, then sighed and tucked my gun into my waistband. Tom smiled, and approached more confidently,
“I knew you were bluffing. You won’t do anything to risk this falling,” he took another step.
I remained silent as he drew nearer on the narrow walkway. He kept his distance as best he could, but it there was only so much space and he had to squeeze past me to get out, one way or another. I waited until he was a full step past me, so I was partially hidden from his view. I saw him tense, preparing to run, and that was when I grabbed his arm. Coming to an abrupt stop, Tom stumbled back a step as I swung his arm around, so the device was safely over the metal platform instead of tenuously dangling above the crowd. I twisted his wrist, and the capsule dropped to the walkway with a metallic clang. His surprise only lasted an instant, then he lunged, shoving me back against the rail. I grabbed the bar to steady myself and avoid toppling over. Tom dove for the device, trying to reclaim his leverage. I recovered enough to throw myself at his back, knocking him off his feet and we both tumbled to the platform. He turned, taking wild swings at my face, trying to dislodge my grip as he tried to regain his feet. We grappled on the cold metal, each trying to gain the upper hand as we rolled and twisted uncomfortably on the unforgiving surface. Realizing he wasn’t really having any luck dislodging me, Tom turned, jabbing his fingers into the burn wounds on my arms, trying to get me to let go of him that way. Fortunately, pain wasn’t currently a very good motivator, so I mostly ignored him. Noticing this, he changed tactics. Grabbing me by the hair, he yanked my head back and slammed it into the railing behind me, rattling my skull and splitting open the glued wound on my forehead. I could feel hot blood start to ooze down my face, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now. I tried rolling us both further from the rail, but he simply switched to slamming my head into the walkway, instead. I couldn’t let go without risking him escaping, but I couldn’t hold on long like this, either. Eventually, my grip faltered, and he managed to kick me loose, shoving me back across the platform and under the gap below the railing. He kicked at me, trying to send me over the edge. I frantically grabbed for a handhold to prevent falling, and by the time I looked up, Tom was on his feet and reaching for his gun. I tightened my grip on the rail I was holding and managed to swing my legs around, kicking his feet out from under him and sending him staggering back into the rail. His gun fell from his grasp and skittered across the walkway. I saw him hold his breath as it stopped, teetering on the edge. Then, Tom paused. I could see an idea occur to him, and when he moved again, it was not towards his weapon, but further down the catwalk, to where the device had fallen.
I sprung after him, but was too slow, only managing to grab his left pantleg. He stumbled, falling only feet from his target. Cursing, Tom stretched towards it, I thought to grab the device, but instead he shot his hand out vigorously, shoving it forward. As it rolled along the walkway, I briefly believed that Tom had made a mistake, accidentally knocking it away. But then, as it rolled unevenly away from us across the grating, wobbling towards the edge I realized. I glanced at his face for just a moment, a smug smirk flickering across his features, before I cursed, releasing his pantleg and scrambling after the device. I managed to reach it just as it hit the edge of the walkway, stopping it from toppling off and falling into the crowd by only a hair’s breadth. I breathed a sigh of relief, but didn’t waste any time pulling my gun from my waistband. Lying on my side on the catwalk, I turned and sighted Tom, who had nearly made good his escape while I was distracted. He had already reached the door back into the maintenance room and was just pulling it open. There was a brief instant where I probably could have gotten a shot off before he was gone. But I only had a clear view of the centre of his back. No disabling leg shots this time. Not that I was sure I could have managed it anyway, with one eye filled with blood, and of course the head trauma didn’t help. Even if that hadn’t been the case, I didn’t think I could shoot a fleeing man in the back. Not even him, not even after everything. So, I hesitated, and in that moment the opportunity was lost. The door slammed shut behind Tom, and I heard a clang as he shoved something in front of it, blocking my only exit. Hopefully Mark would run into him in the hallway, or one of Gail’s other people would find him on his way out. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that that was going to come back and bite me in the ass, eventually. Either way, I was pretty well out of things for the moment. Someone would find the jammed door eventually during their sweep of the building, I was sure. For now, I placed the device securely in the centre of the platform, then lay my head back and closed my eyes. It had been a long day.