CHAPTER 14
~T-minus 65:48~
At its outset, there was nothing glaringly unusual about Friday 14th. The sun rose as it always did, shedding its light over what was, to all outward appearances, another typical, boring day. The one minor oddity, unnoticed by most, was the gathering of the entire Scarborough family at the breakfast table. Given their divergent schedules, this was most unusual, but was owed to nothing more than coincidence. There was nothing unusual about the discourse, either, just the expected mundane chatter over sweetened cereal, buttered toast and microwave sausage.
Will cracked his neck and gazed out the window. "Looks like it's gonna be a great day." He turned to Sam. "Oh, I forgot. Mom's got a busy morning, so I'll drop you off at school."
Sam set down his juice glass. "You don't have to do that. I can walk, It's not that far."
"Like I got anything better to do this morning. My schedule's wide open." Will patted Sam on the shoulder. "I'll drop you off, and then over your lunch period you can meet me at Little Naples. Slice is on me."
"Forget it," said Mrs. Scarborough, pouring herself a second cup of coffee. "My boys don't cut class."
"Who's talking about cutting?" said Will. "They still let kids leave campus over lunch, don't they?"
"Not at his age, they don't," said Mrs. Scarborough.
"Yeah, I'm sure they really enforce those lunch rules. When I went there-" Will was interrupted by the sound of frenzied knocking, furious enough to shake the door. "Oh, what now? Who the hell's gonna come by this early? Don't get up anyone, I'll run 'em off." He rose from his chair and lurched to the door. "Who is it?"
"It's Sara Mills!"
"Huh?"
"Sara...Come on, Will, just open the damn door!"
"Who is it, Will?" said Mrs. Scarborough. "More of your friends coming to the house without warning?"
"Yeah, something like that. Don't worry, this'll only take a second, I'll get rid of them." Will slipped through the door, shutting it behind him. "Well, good morning to you. How'd you even find the place? I don't remember telling you where I live."
"Prophet of Patmos, huh?" Sara was nearly manic, bopping on her toes like a child. "You really are a goddamn prophet, you know that?"
Will gaped back at Sara, her words not quite finding their mark. "Did I miss something?"
"You haven't heard the news? The big story in the Patmos Gazette?" Sara pointed at Will's feet. "You've got a copy right there!"
"Oh yeah. Mom never bring this thing in until lunch." Will leaned down and scooped up the paper. "Can you believe they still send this thing out? I mean, who actually-"
"Will, just read the damn thing already!"
"All right, I'll do that." Will opened up the paper, expecting to find the usual tame fare about the community. The typical collection of banality was absent, though, replaced with a single giant headline:
JAMESON LABS CONCEALS RUDRA SECRETS
Will folded up the paper. "Yeah? What about it?"
Sara balled up her hands. "You have to read the whole article."
"Not really in the mood," said Will. "Could you give the...what do you call it, the synopsis?"
"Oh, you want a synopsis? Here's a synopsis for you." Sara grabbed the front of Will's shirt with both hands. "You. Were. Right."
Will studied the headline, then back at Sara. "Right about...what, exactly?"
"Short answer? All of it."
"No shit?"
"No shit." Sara stepped back, her lips stuck in a mad grin. "You know what that email you got was? The one you didn't understand? It was a white paper, a technical document about Project Rudra meant to explain the basics to a non-expert audience so they could make a decision about its implementation."
"I'm still a little lost."
"It was the document that Joshua Jameson saw that made him decide to back the project, the same one he sent to the Feds to get their approval and backing. But this one's different than the one in the public record. Somewhere between the one they sent you and the one the public saw, a few pages went missing. Very, very interesting pages." Sara clapped her hands together. "Gotta tell you, I didn't imagine we'd ever get a scoop like this in Patmos. You don't even know. This is like the Pentagon Papers times ten."
"Okay, so this thing...this white paper." Will scratched idly at his temple. "How did the people at the paper get it?"
"They were the ones who were supposed to get it," said Sara. "Someone at the lab was trying to get this to the media, but some wires got crossed, I don't know exactly. Sounds like a bunch of people got those white papers, you're just the only person who bothered to look at them. The lab security guys looked into it, and that's when our hometown Deep Throat realized he sent it to the wrong people and got it to the people who were meant to have it."
"Okay, I get that," said Will, trying not to give away any trace of ignorance.
"You see, those missing pages tell another story entirely." Sara was almost giggling as she spoke. "They were signed by a man named Dr. Jedediah DuFresne. Ring a bell?"
"Dr. Jed-"
Sara didn't wait for Will to respond. "They used to call him Dr. Doomsday, the guy who argued with all those anti-nuke activists when they heckled him? Rudra was his project, it was his idea in the first place. Dr. Richter just plagiarized it years after the fact, after Dr. DuFresne gave up on it. You know why? Because there were too many X-factors. Because he was afraid that the machine could cause a global cataclysm!"
"Really?" Will's mouth grew into a smile and a fire sparked behind his eyes. He sprinted about the porch, waving the paper, shouting for the neighbors to hear. "Well, what did you know?" Did you hear that? I was right! Who's the crazy one now? Who's stupid now?"
"Glad to have your passion. Now come on." Sara tugged at Will's wrist.
"Uh, we were going somewhere?" said Will.
"We're going downtown," said Sara. "They're planning a big protest for this afternoon. You've got to get to the planning meeting, and quick."
Will shook loose Sara's hand. "No thanks."
Sara stared back in disbelief. "Are you demented? These people know you had this figured out days ago, they know you stood up to the cops and the Jameson thugs...You're like a hero down there! You can't sit this one out!"
"Sorry, no can do," said Will. "I promised my mother I would stay out of those risky situations. So I'm going to take my brother to school, walk around town a little bit, pick up a large supreme at Little Naples, and then head up to Kiyama to inter my preservation chamber. You're free to come if you'd like."
"You bastard!" Sara shoved Will with both hands. "What's wrong with you? Does your life suck so bad that you're willing to get everyone killed? This is the future of the world we're talking about and you...Christ, why do I even bother with you?" She stormed off, muttering a stream of profane wishes under her breath.
Sam pushed open the door and peered out. "What was that about? Who was that?"
"Just someone I met in town a while back. Having a real bad day, I guess." Will looked over his shoulder. "You ready to go?"
"It's a little early," said Sam.
"It never hurt anyone to be early." Will pulled out his keys. "It'll give us an opportunity to talk, anyway."
The covertly meaningful conversation had never been a strength of Will's. At best, he could imitate what he could remember from his own father, but it was never more than a recitation from a faulty memory. Seated in the driver's seat of his car next to his younger brother, Will was acutely aware of his deficiencies in this area. At the very least, it was a quiet morning. The streets of Patmos were never particularly crowded, but that morning they were particularly desolate. Will wondered if people weren't staying home in light of the news, too shaken to leave their homes.
Sam looked idly through the window. "Where is everybody?"
"Don't know. Everyone slept in, I suppose." Will rubbed the back of his neck. "So how have things been going with you? You never talk about what's going on with...you know, life."
"Not much to say," said Sam, still staring off into the difference. "School is pretty much the same every day."
"Now, that I don't buy, 'cause I remember things a lot different." Will drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Every day, there was something crazy going on. Usually caused by me, granted. But that's okay. Blending in is okay, too, if that's who you are. You gotta be your own man. There's your piece of advice for the day."
"Well, what if you want to blend in and you can't?" said Sam.
"Then you gotta stand up and say what you think," said Will. "Even if they make fun of you. Heh, especially if they make fun of you. Weirdos are the ones who change the world, you know. Not that I'm calling you a weirdo, but it's cool if...you know, it's cool to be that way. Um...you following this?"
"Not really."
Will took a deep breath, drawing in his scattered thoughts. "...Maybe it doesn't make sense now, but one day you're going to be in a place where everyone is judging you, and you know what's right, and they're telling you that you're wrong, calling you a weirdo. Don't listen to them. You've got to be your own man, in that moment, you have to do what you know is right."
As they neared Icaria Street, Sam snapped to attention. "What's going on over there?"
"I don't see..." Will glanced out through the side window. "Holy shit."
Will couldn't remember the last time he'd seen such a surge of activity on Icaria. There were dozens, possibly hundreds of people on the sidewalks - all ages and all walks of life represented among their numbers, farmers and businessmen standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the young punks who'd failed to escape the town's grasp. There were even more people packed into the restaurants, and the House was so full that the doors were open so that the people who couldn't fit inside might at least hear what was going on inside. This was no Sunday window shopping crowd, calmly going about their business. These people were furious, wracked with rage and eager for any opportunity to vent it. Will could spot at least one of the Jameson security cameras lying on the ground, broken clean free of its mount, while a group of men battered the already mangled machine with whatever blunt instruments they could fit in their hands. Another group gathered around a Jameson Communications office, waving bricks and baseball bats and shouting threats at the people inside. The police were already moving to detain the most violent individuals, but this was not a flood that they could possibly hope to stem.
"It almost looks like a riot." Sam looked back at Will. "Does this have something to do with what you and that woman were arguing about?"
"Possibly," said Will. "Hey, could you do me a favor? If you get out early or something like that, could you not go downtown?"
"What about lunch?"
Will turned off of Icaria, the chaos still looming in his rear view. "You'd better stay at school then, too. In fact, I'm going to pass on the pizza myself. Really should get to Kiyama as early as I can, get right to work."
"Can I come up there?" said Sam. "You know, if I get out early."
"Sure, as long as you don't go there by Icaria. Not going to be much going on up there, though. Just digging a big hole." Will parked outside of the school. "All right, you might hear some scary things today. See, there was this story in the paper about that power plant thing they're building at the edge of town."
"Is it dangerous?" said Sam.
"Well...maybe. I mean, it's not..." Will clasped a hand to his forehead. "Just remember, these media guys...they want attention. Sometimes they go with stories that maybe aren't totally true."
"You're hiding something from me, aren't you?"
"It's not...just don't believe everything you hear, okay? Lesson two. Now get going, okay? You don't want to be late."
"But we're still early," said Sam. "Is it really that bad? This thing I might hear today?"
"Sam, please. I need you to just trust me this time."
Sam unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door. "I'm not a kid anymore. You don't need to protect me."
"I know," said Will. "We'll talk about this later, okay? Just stay away from downtown and don't believe everything you hear. And have a good day."
Will sat and watched as Sam disappeared into the building, and remained for several minutes longer. At that moment, all he wanted was someone to protect him. But there was still too much to be done, too many errands to waste time on idle thoughts and fears. Pulling away from the school, he drove toward Kiyama hill, the capsule shifting to and fro in the trunk. He could only manage a futile hope that this would go smoothly.