The line clicked dead before Lukas could object or argue for more time. Fifteen minutes. The room continued to wobble. He needed Jules. He would need someone to pretend to be Bernard – maybe Nelson. And what had this man meant when he said he had dreamed up the World Order? That wasn’t possible.
Lukas hurried to the ladder and raced down. He grabbed the portable radio from the charging rack and scrambled back up the ladder. He would call Juliette on his way to tracking down Nelson. A different voice would win him some time until he could sort this out. In a way, this was a call he’d always expected, someone wanting to know what in the hell was going on in their silo, but it had never come. He had expected it, and now it took him by surprise.
“Jules?” He reached the top of the ladder and tried the radio. What if she didn’t answer? Fifteen minutes. And then what? How bad could they really make it for them in the silo? The other voice – Donald – had tossed around dire and vacuous warnings from time to time. But this felt different. He tried Juliette again. His heart shouldn’t be pounding so. He opened the server room door and raced down the hall.
“Can I call you back?” Jules asked, the radio in his palm crackling with her voice. “I’ve got a nightmare down here. Five minutes?”
Lukas was breathing hard. He dodged around Sims in the hallway, who spun to watch him go. Nelson would be in the Suit Lab. Donald squeezed the transmit button. “Actually, I could use some help right now. Are you still on your way down?”
“No, I’m here. Just left the kids with my dad. I’m heading to Walker’s to get a battery. Are you running? You’re not coming down here, are you?”
Deep breaths. “No, I’m looking for Nelson. Someone called, said they need to speak to Bernard, that there would be trouble for us otherwise. Jules – I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
He rounded the bend and saw that the door to the Suit Lab was open. Strips of seal tape fluttered around the jamb.
“Calm down,” Juliette told him. “Take it easy. Who did you say called? And why are you looking for Nelson?”
“I was going to have him talk to this guy, pretend he’s Bernard, at least to buy us some time. I don’t know who’s calling. It sounds like the same guy, but it’s not.”
“What did he say?”
“He said to get Bernard, said he was the one who dreamed up Operation Fifty. Dammit, Nelson’s not here.” Lukas glanced around the workbenches and tool cabinets. He remembered passing Sims. The old Security chief had clearance to the server room. Lukas left the Suit Lab and rushed back down the hall.
“Lukas, you aren’t making any sense.”
“I know, I know. Hey, I’ll call you back. I need to catch Sims—”
He jogged down the hallway. Offices flew past, most of them empty, workers who had transferred out of IT or those at dinner. He spotted Sims turning a corner toward the security station.
“Sims!”
The Security chief peered back around the corner, stepped into the hall, and studied Lukas as he ran at him. Lukas wondered how many minutes had passed, how strict this man was going to be.
“I need your help,” he said. He pointed to the server room door, which stood at the junction of the two halls. Sims turned and studied the door with him.
“Yeah?”
Lukas entered his code and pushed the door open. Inside, the lights were back to throbbing red. No way it’d been fifteen minutes already. “I need a huge favor,” he told Sims. “Look, it’s … complicated, but I need you to talk to someone for me. I need you to pretend to be Bernard. You knew him well enough, right?”
Sims pulled up. “Pretend to be who?”
Lukas turned and grabbed the larger man’s arm, urged him along. “No time to explain. I just need you to answer this guy’s questions. It’s like a drill. Just be Bernard. Tell yourself that you’re Bernard. Act angry or something. And get off the line as quickly as you can. In fact, say as little as possible.”
“Who am I talking to?”
“I’ll explain afterward. I just need you to get through this. Fool this guy.” He guided Sims to the open server and handed him the headphones. Sims studied them as though he’d never seen a pair. “Just put those over your ears,” Lukas said. “I’m going to plug you in. It’s like a radio. Remember, you are Bernard. Try to sound like him, okay? Just be him.”
Sims nodded. His cheeks were red, a bead of sweat running down his brow. He looked ten years younger and nervous as hell.
“Here you go.” Lukas slotted the cord into the jack, thinking that Sims was probably even better for this than Nelson. This would buy them some time until he could figure out what was going on. He watched as Sims flinched, must’ve heard a greeting in the headphones.
“Hello?” he asked.