The Gambit (55 page)

“It’s a shipping container…” I mumbled.

He snorted and grimaced.

“Bingo!” he shouted, and gave us an unenthused, slow clap.

“How…how did you get those images?” Rachel asked, her voice detached.

“Ten years…” He growled. “Ten years I worked there before this shit happened. So, before the New Year, I noticed something I had never seen before. I saw my bosses walking around with a few people dressed differently than our inspectors normally would. They wore suits and asked our employees questions. They talked to me, asking me questions about my position and how long I had been there.”

My pulse quickened with every word. I was getting to hear what really happened at the Port of New York before the Wall Street dirty bomb.

“I found it odd that I had never been asked these things before. I had a feeling something wasn’t right. Our inspectors usually didn’t come until the end of the first quarter, and these people were
different
. They gave me a bad vibe. So, I began copying the daily archive of everything I x-rayed onto this jump drive. Although, I came to find out they didn’t know this. It wasn’t until after I was framed when they conducted the fake investigation, that they realized what I had done. That was why they wanted to find me so badly. They knew I had proof that I had nothing to do with the bombs.”

“Why didn’t you put the proof on the internet or something?” I interjected.

He glared at me. “Don’t you think I’ve already thought of that? Owen, you know just as well as I do, if I were to leak those images, they would be wiped clean off of the internet in an instant. It would be immediately labeled as a conspiracy. We are two people, and they have an entire army against us.”

I nodded, looking down at the floor. He was right.

“Were you two in the Confinement?”

“Yes,” Rachel answered. I said the same.

“I wasn’t,” he said. “I was outside of the boundaries. There was rumor around town that the National Guard said it wouldn’t be long until everyone was rounded up and put into Camps. Natasha intercepted emails from two higher-ups in Washington while we were passing through, trying to get information. Within those emails, it stated that the Supreme Court had sabotaged their plan, and in order to revive it they had to do something
new
.”

“We were never meant to get out…” I mumbled. The statement I made to Cole that fateful day in the bunkers during the Confinement was right.

“Correct,” Viktor said. “The Confinement was the first step towards a totalitarian regime. Then, you and Mr. Pavich came along and screwed things up for them even further. The Convergence Party. I have to admit, I admired what you two did. I still do to this day, and when your party took the polls by a landslide, it immediately put a massive target on both of your backs. It was just a matter of time.
You
were the target they chose in order to revive their plan. They framed you so that they wouldn’t lose their power.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

“The images in my jump drive prove two things. One—that I had nothing to do with the Wall Street dirty bomb, and two—that the radioactive material used to create the bomb came from right here.
They
just involved Russia because I am Russian. When in actuality, they created the bomb. It was made on American soil.”

Viktor aimed the remote toward the projector. An image appeared. Anger flooded my body.

“Do you know who—”

“Alexei Malchikov,” I interjected. Saying the name made me cringe.

“Alexei Malchikov…” Viktor repeated. “He was innocent, like you. His family owned massive textile plants all over the US, and they owed the IRS tens of millions of dollars. They were funneling most of their money into a Swiss bank account. Alexei made a deal with them in order to give his family amnesty. He knew it could possibly cost him his life, but he did it anyway. The media didn’t mention anything about his family background, though. It was all orchestrated by the same people.”

I rubbed my sore wrists. They itched from where the ropes had scraped them. I felt numb to all of this information. Deep down, I had always known that it was a sham, so that the people in power wouldn’t have to give up their reign. But hearing it, though, hearing it was
different
. It was nauseating to hear that our elected officials were trying to take away the very thing our nation was founded on…
freedom
.

“Why are you telling us all of this?” Rachel asked. She sounded exasperated.

“Better yet, how do you know all of this?” I added.

“Natasha was the one who got the information we needed,” he said. I glanced over at her, and she was still acting like she wasn’t listening to any of this, chewing her gum and twirling a long strand that fell out of her bun. She must have been a hacker—a female Grey.

“Also,” Viktor’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. “We need your help.”

“With what?” I jeered.

“To help expose the person behind all of this.”

The person behind all of this
. The words resounded in my mind over and over again. It was something I had thought about since the morning I discovered my predicament at the coffee shop.
Who
was behind framing me?

“What?” Rachel snapped. “Look, Owen is in enough trouble as it is. He has already heard enough wild ideas for one day—”

“Show them,” Natasha said from her dark corner, without any inflection in her tone.

Viktor stood in front of the laptop again, and I heard the fast clicking of the keyboard. An image appeared. My jaw dropped, and I lost my breath.

“Veronica…” I mumbled. The words weren’t even audible. I could hear Rachel’s confused questioning in the background, but it was distorted and hazy. I felt lightheaded and nauseous. I stood up and inhaled deeply, trying to ground myself. Her ice blue, cat-like eyes gave me a chill down my spine, just as they had the day I met her. My chest felt tight. I walked over to the projected image on the wall and studied it again. Her hair was shorter in this picture—it must have been from the internet. I remembered how cold her hand was when I shook it and that uneasy feeling her presence gave me.

She
was behind all of this. I thought I was going to be sick.

“Owen!” Viktor shouted. “Are you all right? Sit down.” He grabbed my shoulders, and I shook him off. “I’m all right, I’m fine!” I insisted, and he let me go.

“Who the hell is she?” Rachel asked frantically. “You look like you just saw a ghost!”

“She’s the Chairwoman of the Democratic Party. I’ve met her before.”

“What? When?” Rachel pressed further.

“The night of the final debate. I remember her snarky comments towards me, and it pissed me off. She told me with as much as I had accomplished at such a young age, I would surely have a bright future ahead of me in Washington.”

“She knew what was going to happen to you before you ever stepped foot in the debate.” Rachel mumbled.

“Owen was never supposed to make it out of the debate alive. The only thing that saved his life was the fact he stood up and left his seat just before the bombs went off. The rows Owen and Cole were sitting in received the most causalities. That was no coincidence.”

My suspicions were correct. I was supposed to die that night. Veronica wanted both of us dead…but, I was still here. For some unknown reason, I noticed Alexei’s peculiar behavior and stood up. That was the only reason I was still alive. Maybe I would have been better off dead.
No, that doesn’t sound right
.

“He thought the same thing, too,” Rachel said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Earlier, I heard you say that you needed our help. With what?”

Viktor’s lips pressed together in a hard line.

“Natasha looked into Rachel’s background and saw she was a journalist. I have hard evidence right here in this flash drive that could help take her down. All we need is a way to get it out there.”

Rachel glanced at me and Viktor. “I know someone…” She began. “Someone who could get it out to everyone. I told him to find the other pieces of the puzzle, to figure out what other evidence was out there, and this is a huge step closer to solving it.”

Natasha walked towards us from her corner, and Viktor’s eyes grew wide.

“Do you really?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered. “My godfather is the Editor in Chief of the New York Times.”

His jaw dropped. “No fucking way.”

She nodded in confirmation.

“How do we get in contact with him?”

Viktor’s eyes were bulging in excitement.

“He has a secured line I can call him on…but first, we need to go back to the hotel and get Briana and Grey. They are probably back by now and more than likely worried about us. Grey has similar skills as Natasha, he can help her out with whatever we decide to do.”

“I don’t need any help,” she spat. Her tone irritated me.

“Now why is that?” I shot back. She pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side.

“Because I know what I am doing. I’m just as capable as he is, or more so.”

“Have you ever hacked into the mainframe of an international airport?”

She huffed and turned to Viktor, mumbling something. There was excitement in Rachel’s eyes. Her story was beginning to come together right in front of her, but there was an unsettling feeling growing in my gut. She was forgetting about the task at hand. Grey was going to help me get into the CNN building and interrupt the newscast. I was going to tell the world the truth.

“Have you forgotten about our
other
plan?” I asked Rachel. She turned from Viktor to me, and in her stare, I could almost hear her pleading,
‘Please, don’t bring it up.’
Her face was deadpan.

“
No
,” she replied coldly.

“What is he talking about?” Viktor asked.

When I turned to Viktor I could feel Rachel’s eyes practically burning into the side of my face.

“Tomorrow, with the help of Grey, I am going to barge in on a newscast at the CNN building.”

“What!?” Viktor snapped, with a quirked brow. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“No, I’m not. The election is just too close to forfeit everything I have worked for. The world
needs
to know.”

In my peripheral, Rachel crossed her arms, and Viktor stared back at me, shaking his head.

“Owen, take it from someone who has been on the run for almost two years. You
will not
walk out of that building a free man.”

“I am aware of the risk,” I said, raising my voice, “but I know what I need to do.”

“Actually, I don’t think you do. You see, an article is just as powerful as the television. The New York Times is everywhere. It’s not like every single person will be watching CNN the moment you come on,” he countered.

I bit the inside of my lower lip. His persistence was adamant, but so was mine.

“It doesn’t matter!” I yelled. “Rachel already knows my story, she has everything she needs from me. The longer I stay with her, the longer she is at risk. You and I
both
know, Viktor, that the longer she is with me, the more likely it is she won’t be able to get her story out. She is the link to her godfather, Ian. Without her, we have nothing.”

Natasha shook her head and turned back around to head to the corner of the room. Viktor was clearly still heated, but I could tell in his expression he was processing what I had just said.

“Why don’t I have a say in any of this?” Rachel interjected and stood up. “Grey just comes up with this grand
idea, and yet you don’t even take my opinion into consideration? It is pathetic that I am thinking more about your well-being than you are. Grey’s plan is a dead end. Sure, it has shock-and-awe, but that’s it. It doesn’t keep you safe like Russia would have.”

Frustration bubbled up within me.

“Well guess what? That plan didn’t work. It’s over, and I didn’t take your opinion into consideration because I know your decision-making process is currently clouded with emotion. You don’t want anything to happen to me because you love me, and it hurts too badly to admit that you
are
safer without me. You know it’s true! So stop trying to protect me and start thinking of one thing and one thing only—the compilation of your story.”

I was breathing heavy, and Rachel’s reaction made me realize very quickly that I had fucked up. Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes began to glisten. She shook her head and exhaled sharply out of her nose. She stood up, walked to the other side of the room, and sat on the couch.

“I can’t run forever, Rachel!”

“You’d be surprised…” Viktor mumbled.

I turned to him, and at this point, I felt like everyone was making me out to be the bad guy. If only Grey were here to defend me. My cheeks flushed.

“You aren’t much help, are you?” I sneered.

He snorted. “Clearly, you are blinded by your idea. You are ignoring all the information I have just told you and focusing on one tiny detail, that Rachel
might
be a little safer without you around. Did you process anything I said?”