Dead Man's Switch (24 page)

Blake remained rigid against the wall. “Murdoch with you? Is this a trick?”

“Look for yourself,” King said. “It's me.”

“I heard the door slide shut behind you,” Blake said, still facing the wall. “That doesn't sound like freedom to me. I'm sorry if what I did got you here. Murdoch, let him go. If you do, I'll tell you the rest of what you need. If you don't, you can burn me a hundred times and I won't give you anything else about the computer.”

“Was it that bad? That you're scared to turn around?”

“Any idea how much a cigarette burn can hurt? But I'm not scared. I'm mad. And if this is a trick and Murdoch is with you, he's going to light a cigarette for you as punishment if I make a wrong move.”

King felt like a collapsing balloon, he was so sad for Blake. King moved forward and put a gentle hand on Blake's shoulder.

“The door is closed because I wanted time alone with you. That was the bargain I made with the CIA.”

“Truth? I won't turn around and see Murdoch standing behind you with an EID in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other? You have no idea how much I hate the smell of cigarette smoke.”

“Truth,” King said. “It worked—the dead man's switch.”

Slowly, without turning away from the wall, Blake lifted his handcuffed wrists back over his head and dropped them in front of him, below his waist. He still didn't turn. Instead, he sagged into the wall until his forehead touched. His shoulders began to shake.

King knew that Blake was sobbing soundlessly.

King sat on the edge of the bed on the wall that was at a right angle to Blake. He waited for Blake to compose himself.

It took a few minutes. King was okay with that. Evans had promised he wasn't going to open the door until King knocked.

Blake finally lifted his head and made eye contact with King. His face was pale, and he looked shrunken. His eyes were red. Tears streamed down along his nose and joined long strings of mucus.

“Dude, I was so worried for you,” Blake said. “Murdoch told me if I didn't get him the computer passwords, he'd take you and MJ down.”

“That's a lot of snot,” King said. “Sink and faucet in here work, right?”

Blake laughed.

King took that as a good sign.

King waited while Blake washed his face. Blake looked marginally better as the water dried.

“You ready for a question?” King asked. “Before the door opens for us?”

“Just one?”

“A guy named Evans is outside. He's CIA. He'll have plenty of questions for you. But I only need to know one thing. And I want the truth. You owe it to me.”

“King, I didn't know who else to send those emails to. I mean, you're the only one I figured who had the brains and guts to do what it took.”

“One question,” King said. To King, it was the only question that mattered. “Did you put the money in my dad's bank account?”

CHAPTER 52

“It's the money that did this,” Blake said. He wiped at his nose with the sleeve of his con uniform. “First, it's how I began to track things. It was such an easy hack, getting into the prison servers. I used the iPhone to access my own PayPal account and pay a no-contract carrier for the cell phone data. Then I ordered myself a computer. Once I had the computer, I used the iPhone to get Internet access. When I started hacking around, I found that Murdoch had millions in offshore accounts.”

“I know all of that,” King said. “I want to know why my dad has a quarter million in his savings account.”

“I found the money first,” Blake said. “Murdoch's money. I began to wonder how he got it, and that led to everything else. I was safe until I moved some of the money to different accounts. I just wanted to mess with him. That's how he caught me. When he noticed the money missing, he hired a hacker to trace me. I had covered nearly all my tracks but not enough. I was only worried about government computer geeks. They're idiots. I didn't expect Murdoch to go on the forums and find the best of the best.”

Blake trembled, something that shook his entire body. “He promised he was going to let me go as soon as I returned the money. I didn't believe him. Here's the funny thing. I set up the dead man's switch to use as a safeguard, but at first, I didn't even have to use that on Murdoch to stay alive. Instead, I found out he couldn't kill me until he got his money back.”

Blake lifted his sleeve, and King saw small circular blisters on Blake's arm.

“I held out as long as I could,” Blake said. “And finally, when he said he was going to hurt my parents and then my friends, I told him about the money. As soon as he recovered it, he began to tie me up to take me outside. He told me that was all he needed before leaving the island, that he'd been getting ready to live a new life somewhere in South America. To stay alive longer, I told him about the dead man's switch. I told him if he didn't keep me alive, a two-week switch would be triggered. I didn't tell him it had already been triggered.”

“When did you tell him about the dead man's switch?” King asked.

“A couple nights ago. I think. It's hard to keep track of time in here.”

That made sense to King. After that, Murdoch had begun watching King and MJ more closely. They were Blake's friends, the ones Blake would probably use for help. And when King entered the abandoned prison at night, it was confirmed for Murdoch. King shuddered at the memory of sitting in the back of the Jeep with Mack up front. Mack knew something bad would happen if he allowed Murdoch to take King. And King had nearly chosen Murdoch over his own father.

“All I want to know about is the money in my dad's account,” King said.

“I had to lie to you,” Blake said. “I knew that all along as I was setting up the dead man's switch. That if I didn't lie to you and give you a good enough reason to keep looking for answers, I wouldn't have a chance. And I knew you and your dad were tight. I knew that about the only way I could motivate you was by threatening your dad. Dude, to me it was a game. Until it became real. If I had known that someday I'd actually need the dead man's switch, I wouldn't have involved you.”

“I understand,” King said. “Really.”

King had lied to MJ to get him to help. It was no different from what Blake had done. And King wasn't sure he would have endured cigarette burns as long as Blake had endured them, keeping King's involvement secret as long as possible.

Blake's face didn't show belief that King was cool with it.

“Blake,” King said, “you have blister circles up and down your arms because you were trying to protect me and MJ and your family. I don't know if I would have had that courage.”

Blake gave a small smile.

“What I really care about,” King said, “is the money in my dad's bank account. Was it you?”

“I faked the surveillance footage. Made your dad look guilty.”

King took a deep, satisfied breath. It felt like the first time, really, he'd been able to breathe since the night in the old prison, seeing that surveillance footage. And the bank account.

“The money.”

“You know the answer,” Blake said. “I just put it there so you'd think you had to protect your dad by searching for me until you got here.”

CHAPTER 53

Ella's iPhone buzzed in King's pocket.

He was in the hospital room with Mack, waiting for a report from Ella's physician. King glanced at the screen and saw that it was a FaceTime request from Johnson.

“Be right back,” King said to Mack.

Mack nodded. He was at the bed, holding Ella's hand.

King connected the call and stepped into the hallway.

“Kinger,” MJ said, his grin filling the screen.

“MJ. You okay?”

“Let me think. CIA lets us do a three-way split on the funds Watt had moved from Murdoch into your dad's account as long as we promise to use the money for university. Hmmm. Yeah, I'm okay.”

Since busting Blake from the cell, Evans had arranged for a military jet to bring Blake's parents back to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Joyful reunion was an understatement.

The base was also where Evans had taken King, Mack, MJ, and MJ's parents for an intense debriefing that had lasted long into the evening. Evans had done the carrot and stick routine. He'd outlined the dangers of going public about the CIA military exercises on the island, and he made the deal about the funds that Mack had no idea were in the bank account hidden in his Vacations folders in his emails.

“How about you?” MJ asked. “Your mom. Any news?”

“Waiting right now,” King said.

The background of the FaceTime call showed that MJ was likely in one of the drab rooms where enlisted men bunked.

“So why'd you text me to call?” MJ asked. “I thought this chat would be about your mom.”

Confession time.

“Last night,” King said, “Evans was so intense, I never found the time to tell you something I needed to tell you.”

MJ grinned. “Like you lied to me about how if I didn't help you, my dad would be exposed for some horrible crime? Come on, think I couldn't figure that out last night as we put the pieces together for Evans?”

“You don't look mad,” King said. “I feel horrible about this. We're best friends. I lied to you.”

“We're cool,” MJ said. He did stop smiling though. “I mean, to protect my dad, I would have done the same if I were you. And if you want the truth, I was kind of hoping I'd be able to prove my dad was doing something wrong, and I feel guilty about it.”

King's turn. “Huh?”

“We've been fighting like crazy. He's always yelling at me, trying to tell me what to do. Everything. Manners at the dinner table. When to do my homework. How to do my homework. Then a few minutes ago, I realized something about him that made me feel worse than you might feel for lying to me.”

“Yeah?”

“Dad really majors in the minors,” MJ said. “Nitpicks all the time. But I didn't realize that when it came to something big, he minors in the majors.”

MJ grinned again. “When the CIA showed up and started to explain that somehow I was involved in this, I thought my dad would go crazy on me. I mean, if chewing with your mouth open at the table gets criticism, how about doing something that brings in the CIA?”

MJ's grin widened. “Just the opposite. Dad put his arm around my shoulder and said that no matter what, he had my back. That the CIA was going to get some serious hurt if they tried messing with me. Cool, huh? I love that guy.”

“I know the feeling,” King said.

MJ pulled the phone farther back so that King could see that MJ was holding out his knuckle again for a fist bump.

“Air bump, dude,” MJ said.

“MJ, no. That's so grade school.” MJ loved to bump knuckles, complete with the starburst.

“Kinger, last one, I promise.”

MJ always said that.

King pushed the iPhone away so that he and MJ could bump knuckles by video, and sure enough, out came the wriggly finger star dust as MJ pulled his hand away after contact.

So the two of them were good, and King had his confession out of the way.

All that remained now was figuring out if Ella would ever come out of the coma.

Mack and King stood when Dr. Jennifer Brennan entered the room. She was frowning. King didn't like that.

Dr. Brennan had short hair, brown with frosted blonde streaks. She wore the hospital standards and had a stethoscope hanging around her neck. She had a clipboard and frowned again as she looked at it and then looked up at Mack and King.

She didn't waste time on any pleasantries.

“What we've found,” she said, “is that yes, there are traces of illegal pharmaceuticals in your mother's blood, matching the traces found in the IV bag.”

She glanced up from the clipboard. “I promise you we will investigate this thoroughly, and I suspect that means the end of the career of one of my colleagues. I've been instructed to inform you that the hospital had nothing to do with this, and any legal action should be directed against your mother's attending physician.”