Toro’s brows went up. “Are you willing to bet both of our lives on that?”
“This may be the only way up to the next level,” she said. “Which means we’ve got to deal with it sooner or later. I vote for sooner.” She raised her hand to the buttons and paused to give him the same opportunity she had before. “I understand if you want to go down the hall and wait to see what happens. At least one of us should survive. There’s nothing keeping you here.”
The offer was genuine, but she also meant it as a test to find out if his loyalties had changed after their last deadly encounter.
“I’ll stay,” he said quietly.
She reached out and pressed the button in the middle first, then the third button, and finally the first.
She let out a long, slow breath as a loud electronic click sounded, and the bolt slid back from its place in the hatch.
“Let’s go,” she said to Toro. “It may lock again soon.”
He followed her up the ladder. This time, the hatch opened easily. Instead of swinging open, the round metal covering slid sideways, recessing into a slot in the ceiling. Facing another tactical problem, she pulled the pistol from her boot. Poking her head up through the open hole would make her vulnerable to anyone waiting above to ambush her.
She reached down to Toro with her free hand. “Hand me the knife.”
“What do you need with—”
“Just do it.” She wiggled her fingers impatiently.
The closed butterfly knife slapped into her palm, and she brought it up. A quick flick of her wrist opened the grip, exposing the polished metal of the blade. She raised her hand up through the opening. Using the reflective metal surface like a mirror, she rotated the knife around. The room above them looked like the rest, with the exception of a rectangular work bench situated in the center.
Taking no chances, she climbed out quickly and did a better threat assessment. Toro was already making his way onto the floor beside her when she finished and put the pistol away.
“Looks like a dead end,” she said, handing him back the knife. “There’s no exit. We’ll have to go back down and find another way up to the next level.”
Before she took two steps, a loud clank stopped her in her tracks. The hatch they had just climbed through had sealed itself shut.
“It’s probably resetting,” Toro said. “So no one gets inside without solving the clue.”
“I still have the piece of paper in my pocket,” she said. “It’ll be pretty damned hard unless the clue is replaced, or if there’s another copy hidden somewhere else in the passageway.” A sense of foreboding stole through her. “Or what if no one else is supposed to make it in here because this room is a trap?”
Toro started to respond, then froze.
She heard it too. The steady hiss of gas. She looked around and saw plumes of grayish-white mist rolling toward them in waves across the floor.
“Get up on that bench,” she said to Toro, flinging her body onto a metal stand in the middle of the room. Staying away from the fumes may only buy them a few seconds, but it was all they had.
Toro landed beside her, and they both got to their feet to keep their heads as far away from the surging vapor as possible. He bent to pat the side of his boot with urgent fingers. When he straightened, he held the gas mask they had found in the mirror room earlier. Their eyes met.
There was only one mask.
CHAPTER 45
SAC Wu leaned back in his swivel chair and stroked his jaw, giving his full attention to the woman sitting in one of the two chairs in front of his desk. He had widened the circle of people involved in the investigation to include Dr. Portia Cattrall, who headed a contingent of the Behavioral Analysis Unit assigned to the New York field office.
Dr. Cattrall had spent the past several hours reviewing video captured by Patel’s team, as well as background on Toro and Vega. She had also gone over information the task force had unearthed about Colonel Treadway and Senator Sledge.
“In my opinion, whoever created the game is not psychotic,” she said. “There are other mental health issues at play, but he’s in full control of his faculties.”
Cattrall had sifted through all available reports, deriving conclusions in preparation for the briefing Wu had requested. She’d made it clear her findings could not be definitive at this point but that she would provide whatever assistance she could.
“You believe one person is behind this?” Wu asked, interested to hear confirmation of his own assumption.
“I do,” she said. “The person behind this was traumatized at a critical phase in his youth. I get a sense of arrested development.”
He fished for actionable information. “What kind of trauma?”
“Hard to say,” she hedged. “But computer games are more than mere entertainment for him. He’s both merged and submerged in a world of his own creation. A world where he is in charge.”
“Then why not just kill his enemies outright?” Wu asked.
“That’s the whole point of the Greek-mythology angle. The gods toyed with humans. They usually didn’t kill them outright, often manipulating them toward their own demise using their character weaknesses.”
“Those inside the game lived by the sword, so they are forced to die by the sword,” Wu said, considering her words. “But this feels very targeted. Very personal. What if one or all of them killed the wrong person? Someone the game developer loved?”
“I came to the same conclusion,” she said. “Going to these lengths has all the earmarks of revenge. The Colonel and his group were lured there for a reason. Whoever is behind this did not simply abduct random people off the street.”
“That means he would have to know the Colonel somehow,” Wu said. “Treadway is the link that connects this whole chain. He has worked with Senator Sledge; it’s his crew that was captured. We’re still going through everything that was confiscated during the searches of both his residences, but the early report from the ERT doesn’t reveal anything of value so far. They’re compiling a list of everyone he’s had dealings with.”
“I’ll help analyze whatever you come up with.”
“What’s your assessment of the Colonel?”
“The dossier from military intelligence was interesting,” she said. “He was trying for brigadier general but never got that promotion. Instead, the Army quietly forced him to retire.”
Wu had read the report too. The Army had used its policy requiring personnel to promote to stay in. Combined with limits on the percentage of officers who can serve above the rank of captain, the cards were stacked against Treadway when he was poorly rated by those serving both above and below him.
“I think he used the contacts he had gained during his last assignment at the Pentagon to gain money and power denied to him in his military career,” Cattrall added.
He had certainly succeeded. He’d spent several years becoming an influencer in DC and a conduit for government contractors. Now those who had blocked his promotion had to come to him for access.
“His military history and reports helped to build a psych profile for the Colonel,” she continued. “One of the reasons he was not promoted to general was his willingness to do anything to win.” She paused for emphasis. “Human rights and the health of his troops took a back seat to his need to come out ahead.”
“He was an overbearing asshole,” Wu summarized. He had his own experience with such leaders, referred to in the Bureau as “blue flamers.”
She gave him a sardonic smile. “Precisely. He was feared but not respected.”
“It’s safe to assume the Colonel would be her biggest threat inside the game,” Wu said, thinking out loud.
“Or Toro, if he double-crossed her.”
Wu grimaced. “We’ve all been concerned about that, but I’m hoping he won’t because . . .” He trailed off, unsure whether to voice his suspicions.
“Because he’s attracted to Agent Vega,” Cattrall finished for him.
He should have known a psychologist would read the signs, but he was surprised she’d been able to do it without the benefit of close observation that he’d had when they first arrested Toro.
“I saw clear signs in the video from inside the game,” she went on. “He talks a lot of smack, but he stands by her when it counts. When their lives are on the line.”
“So she only has all the other homicidal maniacs out to get her,” Wu said. “I almost feel sorry for them.”
Thoughts of Vega’s physical prowess and intelligence reminded him of the other reason he had sought out Cattrall’s input.
“When an opening came up in the JTTF, I requested Vega to fill the vacancy,” he said. “At the time I was focused on her background in special forces and code breaking and didn’t go too deep into her personal life. Now I’m concerned about the toll all this will take, considering what happened to her.”