Chris Mooney - World Without End

"But I didn't encrypt it. It must have been Randy. He booted us off the servers and when you brought him into the lab he must have encrypted the software. Find Randy and ask him. He'll know the code."

A long pause follows. Then Misha leans forward and grabs Dixon's left hand and pins it against the steel tray. Dixon tries to move his hand away and can't. It's pinned against the tray, wiggling, like a fish impaled on a spear.

"I swear to God I didn't encrypt the software, I don't know anything about it!" Dixon screams.

"If I had it I would give it to you, please oh dear Jesus, please, you've got to believe me!"

Misha's other hand, his right, grabs the meat cleaver. Dixon is staring at the ceiling, eyes wide in terror. His mouth is working but no sound comes out.

The Russian's fingers tighten around the cleaver's handle, the muscles in his forearms flexing, he is raising the cleaver slowly, up past Dixon's eyes, Dixon is shaking his head, no, please no.

"Last time, Dix: What is the decryption key?"

"Please. Please. I'm begging you. Please listen to NO!"

The cleaver comes down, who mp and chops off Dixon's pinkie finger.

Blood sprays against Misha's white tank top. Dixon's eyes bulge and then roll back up to the ceiling, his body convulsing against the straps, spittle flying out of his mouth as he roars with pain.

"What is the decryption key?" Misha screams, rising the cleaver again.

The cleaver came down again and Conway jerked his head away from the screen. Behind him came the sound of the cleaver striking against the metal, who mp followed by a fresh roar of pain.

"Don't worry, Dix, I won't let you bleed to death. Now just hold still why I seal those stumps for you with my blowtorch," Misha says.

Pasha shut the monitor off. The screen went dark and with the shades drawn the conference room plunged back into darkness. She stared at the screen, her face as remote and cold as a stone soldier overlooking a field of graves. In the silence Conway could still hear Dixon's screaming, could still see the terror in his eyes.

Conway couldn't stand still; it was like his whole body was vibrating.

He started pacing.

Pasha said, "How did you manage to encrypt the software?"

"I didn't. It had to have been Randy."

"So you don't know the decryption code."

"I know the one Dixon does."

"Which appears to be incorrect."

"My guess is that when they had Randy bring the server back online, they made him finish the software download. That must have been when he changed the decryption key."

"You said Randy told you something inside the lab."

"I remember Randy saying the word mittens."

"Maybe that's the decryption code."

"Or maybe Randy was delirious." Conway thought back to that moment. It was still hazy. The more he tried to concentrate, the hazier it got.

The events of that day were hiding, being stubborn, refusing to come out and show themselves.

"They won't kill him," Pasha said.

"They need him to show them how to operate the suit. That buys us some time."

"Wait. The suit has a transponder locked inside the wrist computer. In case a man is down, the army could locate him using a satellite."

Conway picked up the phone, hit the button for an outside line and started dialing.

"Who are you calling?"

"Bouchard."

Pasha reached down and planted her thumb on the button to kill the call.

Conway stared at her.

"What are you doing?"

"We can't call Raymond," she said.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because he's the reason why this operation failed," Pasha said.

"Raymond Bouchard sold us out."

Conway was about to ask the obvious question and then stopped. Pasha was not given to flights of fancy. If what she was saying was true (it can't be) then she would have some evidence to back it up. Conway placed the phone back down on its cradle and waited.

"I want to show you something," Pasha said.

Conway followed Pasha out of the conference room and back into the main area of the company. She walked in the semidarkness, moved behind the desk, and made her way to the second conference room. The door was already open. She moved her hand inside and turned on the lights.

Blood screamed from the carpet and white walls where it was splattered in odd angles. Conway looked at the spray patterns and knew exactly what had happened even before Pasha said the words.

"The six remaining members of our team were led in here and shot,"

Pasha said.

"You find the bodies?"

"Someone removed them."

"Someone being Angel Eyes and his Russian friends."

"This bloodshed Angel Eyes wouldn't do this. It's not his style."

"Killing everyone would be the only way to overtake this place.

Besides, we don't know what his style is. Christ, we don't even know his real name."

"So you think he did this."

"I think he would have done anything to get that suit. And he did.

Mission accomplished."

Pasha clicked off the lights. Back to darkness. She moved away from the door, staying away from the window, then folded her hands behind her back and leaned against the wall, her broken face covered by the shadows.

"At the airport, I saw a small, furry man seated at the terminal where Dixon was to make the exchange with Angel Eyes," she said.

"I didn't know who this man was, but he looked familiar. I went outside for a walk. Then our two trucks started blowing up, and the next thing I knew my head was split open on the back bumper of a car."

Pasha gimped over to the desk and then leaned against the window.

"I finally remembered the man's name. Mark Alves. Short guy with lots of hair, Raymond called him the Elf. He's a black-op specialist."

"So?"

"So why was this person sitting at the airport?"

"Maybe this guy Alves was part of the Hazard Team Bouchard brought in,"

Conway said.

"He told me you knew about it."

"Yes, he told me."

"And you know about McFadden."

"Yes."

"So what happened to Bouchard's Hazard Team?"

Pasha paused, then said, "I don't know."

"What did Bouchard say?"

She didn't answer.

"Pasha?"

"I haven't talked with him."

"So he doesn't know you're alive."

"Correct."

That surprised him. No, more like shocked him. Pasha held the man in high regard.

Pasha said, "When you drove to the gas station, you called Del-burn and they patched you through to Raymond."

"That's right."

"I checked the call logs. Bouchard wasn't at Delburn when he talked to you."

"He was talking from a phone inside his car," Conway said and filled her in on his conversation with Bouchard at the gas station.

"You don't find that awfully convenient?"

"I find it lucky."

"This man from Raymond's Hazard Team who called you, Keith Harring. He instructed you to go inside Praxis. Guided you through the company, told you to make your way inside the lab."

"That's right."

"Don't you see it, Stephen? They were waiting for you inside the lab.

They knew you were coming. They staged the scene and used Harring to lure you inside. You were supposed to have died in there, and I was supposed to have died at the airport. It was only by a stroke of luck that we both survived."

"Angel Eyes used his men to impersonate the people at the skydiving school. He " "The idea to go skydiving was Dixon's idea. Nobody put him up to it. Angel Eyes didn't know we did. We had advance notice.

In that time, Raymond could have easily handpicked a team to impersonate the skydiving instructors and doctored the files so they looked legit which they did."

"Jesus Christ."

"And Raymond knew all the specifics of the lab's security knew how to turn it off. Raymond had the inside line all this time, Stephen."