John Saul - Shadows

Engersol tried to swallow the bile that was rising in his throat, threatening to gag him. “Adam!” he snapped, his voice rasping. “Tell me where we are. Is everything under control?”

“I’m still checking,” Adam replied. Above his tank the image of the boy’s face was frozen as he concentrated all the resources of his mind on verifying each of the programs that Amy’s virus had attacked, comparing them to backups of the originals, repairing the damage.

In his own mind it was as if he were inside the computer itself, examining the data recorded on the drives, reading it as easily as if it had consisted of words written on paper. He could almost feel the data streaming through his mind, all of it perfectly remembered and perfectly controlled.

Then, within the depths of his consciousness, he felt a presence.

Not Amy.

He’d gotten used to her mind, for it always seemed to be there, working on the fringes of his own, or moving ahead of him, like a shadow he could barely make out but whose presence he could always sense.

Now he was sensing a new presence.

He cast about, searching, and then he understood.

Josh had spent only five minutes at the computer terminal in his room before he’d understood that he wasn’t going to be able to penetrate whatever system was operating in the basement. Everywhere he’d turned, at the end of every lead he’d followed in the directories, he’d come to the same message:

ENTER SECURITY CODE

The words had taunted him, and finally he’d given up. Frustrated, he’d left his room and started down the hall toward the stairs. As he came to the landing, he heard a mewing sound and looked up.

On the fourth floor landing two flights above him, he saw the calico cat, Tabby, who had lived in Amy’s room. For the last two days the cat had been slinking around the upper floors, moving from room to room as if in search of its friend. Yesterday, Josh had let the cat into his own room, but it had stayed only long enough to determine that Amy wasn’t there, then slipped out the door and continued on its quest.

Now it was on the fourth floor, mewing plaintively.

Josh paused, watching the cat. As if sensing his interest, the cat mewed once more, then disappeared.

From where he stood. Josh could just see the top of Dr. Engersol’s door. It was ajar.

Not much — just a tiny crack.

His heart raced. Did he dare go up there? What if Hildie came back up?

But he’d hear the elevator coming, and have plenty of time to get out. And maybe, if he was actually inside Dr. Engersol’s apartment …

He made up his mind. Glancing up and down the empty hallway, he darted up the stairs to the third floor, and then the fourth.

Tabby, still at the door, turned to peer at him, then scratched at the door in a demand to be let into the room beyond.

“Can you smell her?” Josh asked, his voice low. “Can you smell Amy in there?” His heart pounding, he reached out and pushed the door wider.

The cat darted in.

A moment later Josh followed. His eyes scanned the room, falling almost instantly on the computer terminal that sat on the desk near the window.

Dr. Engersol’s computer.

Moving quickly, Josh crossed to the terminal and began tapping at the keyboard.

This time, no demands for security codes appeared.

He started searching through directories he’d never seen before. In the third directory a file name caught his eye:

GELAB CAM

His mind instantly translated the file name: George Engersol Laboratory. Camera.

Using the mouse on the desk, he placed the cursor over the file name and clicked twice.

A window opened at the top of the screen and an image appeared.

Josh stared at it in silence, for what he was seeing was a laboratory he’d never seen before at the Academy, filled with equipment that, though he had no idea of its use, still made his flesh crawl.

Instinctively, he knew that he had found Adam Aldrich and Amy Carlson.

Far to the left he could barely make out the Croyden computer in its separate room, but at the end of the room he could see two tanks, each of which had a monitor on the wall above it.

One of the monitors was blank, but the other one displayed an image of Adam Aldrich.

Gathered around a desk near the tanks were Dr. Engersol, Hildie Kramer, and Jeff Aldrich.

It looked as though they were arguing about something.

Sound!

There had to be a sound system, too!

Frantically, Josh set to work, searching for the files that would activate the microphones and speakers he was already certain were there. For if Adam had been able to talk to him through the virtual reality program, he must be able to talk to Engersol as well.

All he had to do was find the right files and activate the right programs.…

Far below, in the laboratory, Adam Aldrich spoke, formulating the words in his mind, digitizing them and transmitting them to the Croyden as easily and with as little thought as it had once taken him to turn the pages of a book, or run down a beach while he yelled at Jeff.

“We’re being watched.”

Engersol’s head snapped up from the screen he’d been studying.

“Watched? By whom?”

“Josh,” Adam said. “He’s at your desk, and he’s been watching us.”

Engersol froze. For a moment his rage toward Hildie Kramer threatened to overwhelm him. Had she really been stupid enough to leave his apartment door unlocked? “Go get him, please, Hildie,” he said, forcing himself with each word to keep his voice level, his rage under control. “Bring him down here.” He would deal with Josh now, and with Hildie later.

In the apartment on the fourth floor Josh had finally discovered the program that would allow him to access the sound system in the laboratory, and his blood ran cold as he heard the last words spoken by Adam and Dr. Engersol.

He stared at the screen, paralyzed. What should he do? What could he do? She’d be here in twenty seconds. And even if he could get out of the house, where could he go?

She’d call the security department, and within a minute there would be people looking for him everywhere!

But he had to do something! He reached out to turn off the monitor, but suddenly the image on the screen went blank, replaced a second later by a new image.

Amy.

Josh stared at it in awe. Could it really be her? But she was dead!

No!

Only her body was dead. But she was still alive.

As his eyes remained glued to the screen, he heard a sound in the background.

The elevator.

Hildie was coming.

Josh was about to bolt from the apartment when suddenly Amy grinned at him. And then she spoke, her voice tinny through the small speaker in the computer’s component tower, but nonetheless distinct.

“Don’t worry,” she said.

The screen went blank.

And the elevator drew closer.

The car came to a halt at the top of the shaft. Hildie’s A foot, driven by the cold fury that imbued every fiber of her body, tapped impatiently as she waited for the door to slide open.

Nothing happened.

The angry scowl on her face deepening, Hildie jabbed impatiently at the Open Door button.

Still the doors refused to open, but she heard a voice coming over the small emergency public address speaker mounted in the car’s roof.

Amy’s voice.

“Have you ever been trapped in an elevator?” she asked.

Hildie gasped, partly from the surprise of hearing Amy’s voice, partly from a sudden chill at the words she spoke.

“Amy?” she said. There was no response.

Hildie jabbed once more at the Open Door button. Again nothing happened. Her brief chill of fear driven back by her fury, she jabbed at it yet again.