The Conspiracy Chronicles Boxset 2 Page 5

  He pauses, the laid-back expression I have grown accustomed to being replaced by an angry, yet solemn stare.

  “Don’t let him poison you. Don’t let him trick you into thinking that this is worth it.” Spit flies from his mouth as he speaks, his harsh words creating a new tension in the warm air of the penthouse. “Nearly everyone in the Party supports Li. Everyone thinks he is some sort of god, when in reality he is creating his own version of hell on Earth. Just because I am a wealthy entrepreneur, he has allowed me into his inner circle, free from his prying eyes, and protected from the rén with the imperial guard. But my family wasn’t as lucky. He sent them to work camps in the far west of the nation after they were caught trying to emigrate. And no matter how much I try to convince him, he won’t listen to me.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say, the silence following his words taking on a character of their own that is equally as horrible as the words that he said. Now I know what the precise, yet forceful manner in which he cut the vegetables is all about. It’s his way of releasing his anger.

  “You both have nothing to be sorry about.” He walks away from the counter, past us, his gaze transfixed upon one skyscraper that emits a bright blue light as the darkness of twilight sweeps over the landscape. “You both are here to try and fix this all for good.

  “My name is Noah Chu, but I’m the unknown descendant of the last emperor of China, Puyi.” He smiles as he looks out at the skyscrapers, the large windows of the penthouse making it seem as if we are flying. “That’s why my immediate family knew they wouldn’t be safe at the rise of this new regime. They knew that Wang would find a way to imprison them all if they didn’t leave, and he did exactly that. And I know my days are numbered too. For as long as he is atop his palace on Forbidden Hill, as he calls it, my days are numbered. He is just being nice to me now as a show, a way to show the other wealthy Chinese that they have nothing to worry about, because if he can accept me, he will give everyone who deserves it their freedom. The only problem is that in his mind I don’t deserve my freedom, no one does. And soon enough he will take it away from me.”

  “How are we supposed to fix that?” Jake asks. From his tone I know exactly what he is thinking: this sounds like his problem to deal with, not ours.

  “Well, I want you both to kill him.” Noah turns around, his long, black hair pushed to the side above his eyes along with the shadow cast from the light behind him hiding his expression.

  “You want us to assassinate the President of China?” I glance at him, studying the plain black T-shirt and pair of jeans he is wearing to see if there is some sort of microphone attached to him. This may all be a game. This may all be Li’s way to test if we are loyal to him.

  “Yes, and whenever either of you are ready to do so, come to me and I will present to you the plan. I know you both need rest now, and probably have a lot to think about, so we won’t be getting into any specifics tonight.” He paces to the side of the living area where an open door leads to a large master bedroom. “Down the hall to your right are several bedrooms you can both choose from. Just remember to keep things clean. I don’t hire a maid or robot cleaning service like most people, so I make these beds myself.” He smiles, a glassy expression in his eyes juxtaposing his happiness. “Until then, as Li would say, enjoy the best of China.”

  He walks into his bedroom and softly shuts the door. A resounding echo booms off the walls of the apartment, and rings in my ears as I look at Jake.

  We both stare at each other for a moment, both of us having no clue what we should do next.

  Everyone in this world wants to use us. I can’t wait till the day that I can finally use them.

  Chapter 6

  “Why does everything have to be so fucked up?” Jake lays back on the soft mattress. We entered the last bedroom we could find, both of us deciding that we need to talk everything over before we can get to bed.

  Despite my exhaustion, the adrenaline has me wired. My eyes can’t shut, and all I can think about is Noah’s calm expression when he asked us to kill Li. The way in which the light reflected off his back, leaving us viewing a man shrouded in darkness.

  “I don’t know, man.” I sigh and stare up at the ceiling. The moment I sit down on the leather chair in the corner of the bedroom, my lower back finally feels relief from carrying the Chimera Cube and stack of patents with me since the moment—well, we all know what moment it was.

  “I guarantee you that this is the wildest twenty-four hours that any man has had after being broken out of prison.” Jake laughs, one of the laughs that is a measly placeholder for what would normally be tears.

  “Ah, you never know, dude. Some people I’m sure have had some freaky things happen to them after they break out.”

  “Nothing as freaky as having a pair of inhumanly large tits in your face one moment, to the next moment having a Chinese, middle-aged version of the Hulk screaming at an assistant of his to slice the flesh out of my neck.”

  “All right, I’ll give you that, you win there.” I shake my head, ideas that I would think of as preposterous weeks ago now our new reality. “I’m just so happy we got you outta there. I could not leave the country without taking you with me. You are all I have left.”

  “Yeah.” Jake sighs as he takes off his shoes. The lightbulb above him shines on his face to illuminate the layer of oil on his skin. We both desperately need a shower, but the act of getting into the hot water and then having to deal with the cold upon stepping out is too much for me now. I have nothing left. “It was hell there.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “You can imagine, but you don’t know until you have experienced it. Being around people who for years have been trapped in that place, their only happiness coming when someone can sneak in synthetic drugs through the mail or start a fight by shanking someone, is debilitating. Of course, that wasn’t everyone, but it was enough to make it a living hell. I legitimately thought I would never get out of there, and I was beginning to lose my mind. I was starting to hate you, to hate everyone in this world more than I ever have before. But the second I heard you were coming back for me, that all went away. The second Drew told me that I would be going to China, I felt happy again. And it’s not because here is so spectacular, I don’t think anyone dreams of enjoying one’s freedom in a totalitarian communist dictatorship, but even if it was Antarctica or the middle of the Sahara, I would have gone in a heartbeat.”

  “Well, sounds like you had almost as much fun as me.” I smile, having to push back a round of tears. Amidst all the madness, it was easy for me to forget that Jake has suffered just as much pain. Jake had to suffer the punishment for the crimes I committed, all because my dad wanted to pass the Chimera Cube down to me and because the Syndicate wanted me to be the one name synonymous with genocide in America.

  “I know you like winning, Sam.” Jake props himself on a pillow, his body appearing deflated of energy but his eyes still lively staring at me. “But this isn’t the kind of game you want to finish first place in.”

  “Trust me, I know.” I close my eyes. I don’t need to tell him for him to know what I’ve been through. He knows my dad is dead. He knows the Syndicate killed Riva because we exposed The Last Migration to the world; that everyone, including Jake, heard about within minutes. The media reported it to the nation as a suicide, the grief finally becoming too much to handle for Riva. Her little brothers and sisters will never know the truth—she was murdered. “I now finally understand why you couldn’t go back to the past, though. I get it. And I just wanna say that I’m sorry. I wish that none of this ever had to happen, but we can only make the best of it now.”

  “It’s okay,” Jake responds, a more distant expression appearing on his face. “I was just so angry for so long that he tossed my family to the side. That he killed my dad, always treated you like you were better than me, and then had the audacity to hide the truth from me for all those years. But I fucked up. I fucked up more than I ever thought was possible.”
He stands up at the sound of a creaking on the roof that is loud enough to disturb the both of us.

  “I thought by getting back at you, I would be getting back at him. I thought that by working with the Syndicate, throwing that party at your house, and being more distant to you that I could eventually get back at him in some fucked-up way. Instead, I ended up hurting you and killing others. We both ended up supporting a conspiracy that killed millions. And I’ll never forgive myself for that.” He wipes a stream of tears that pours down his face. “I’ll never forgive myself.”

  I stand up, leaving my backpack on the chair, and walk over to him. His back is turned to me as he stares out the window, his brown, curly hair puffier than usual. His skin is paler than normal (in fact, he is beginning to look as pale as me), and there is a forlorn energy that emanates off him that I innately connect to.

  “I think you need a hug, bro.” I do my best to smile as I outstretch my arms. “And I only say that because I need a hug too.”

  Jake relents and he wraps his arms around me. It’s the first time we have hugged in weeks. My body instantly relaxes upon his touch, and it is then that I finally realize how I desperately needed the touch of another human.

  “I’m never going to forgive myself either.” I speak into his shoulder, the words easier to say when I don’t have to look at his face. “I wish that for all the years we grew up together that I actually showed how much I loved you and how much you meant to me, instead of constantly trying to show that I was better than you and that my own dreams and desires meant more than yours. I wish I didn’t let my own insecurities, and the words of Dad, get in between how I viewed myself, and in turn everyone else that I loved.”

  “I forgive you,” Jake says, finally releasing my body from his embrace. He sits back down on the bed as I awkwardly stand there, unsure of what to do with myself. Opening up about my emotions, my struggles, and mistakes with another human being, even if I consider them to be a brother, is the hardest thing. It’s always been easier to isolate, always been easier to pretend to forget, that when dealing with the pain I have with someone else, there is something so freeing about it that makes me question whether my method of repressing and isolating was wrong this entire time. “I understand. We were both going through a lot, we both are going through a lot. And now we just have to figure out our next step forward.”

  “Right,” I say. The machine that is my brain kicking back into gear pumps out thoughts again. The emotions dissipate, and the love and pain get locked away to be felt in another moment. I’m now back in survival mode, the switch between surviving and emotion one that I can effortlessly turn off after years of turning on and off the switch between reality and video games. “What do you think about all of this?”

  “Honestly, I don’t like that President Li guy at all. And it sounds like he is really awful to the people of China, so I say if these guys have a way we can do it, why not kill him?”

  “You want to assassinate one of the most powerful people on Earth?” As the words roll off my tongue, I feel a surge of adrenaline course through me. As much as I hate to admit this, the thought excites me in a demented way.

  “Yeah, why the hell not?” He sits up with anticipation. “Siding with him to kill millions of people will be way worse. I’m not doing that again, especially when we already know about it.”

  “I agree, that’s not an option, but what if this is all a trap? Li could just be testing us.”

  “We are trapped either way.” Jake bites his lip and glances down the hallway, both of us hearing the loud bang outside. Neither of us move. Likely someone dropped something on the way home from work late at night. There is no way the Syndicate knows we are here, and even if the U.S. government does, getting into the heart of Beijing without the Chinese military stopping them would be almost impossible. “No matter what, we are in a shitty place.”

  “I agree, but we need to take the next step in getting out of this and fast.” I think back to the way that Li said this won’t be the last of our celebrations welcoming me to China. He has something else up his sleeve. He won’t let me win this game.

  “Well, killing Li is definitely an option.” As he says those words, the air takes on a heavier character.

  “But doing it on Noah’s terms may very well end up with us either dead in the end or in prison. I don’t trust him. I don’t trust anyone.”

  “We can’t let a man who is prepared to send this world into World War Three live. We can take him down.” Jake smiles. “I know it.”

  “What makes you so confident?”

  “You already took down Chimera,” he responds flatly.

  “No. I didn’t. They still killed fourteen million people, and everything we did plays into their plan. They want to mind-control the U.S. population, and I set up a perfect chaotic scene for them to take over politically in America.” I feel my stomach sink as I think back to the moment I found my dad in that warehouse. They wanted to use all the data they collected from The Last Migration and weaponize it against the people.

  I stop, my body freezing in place as another thought hits me.

  My dad was right. They must have some idea about what the Chimera Cube is capable of. They must know that once they have that, their mission to control everyone in the United States will be complete. And maybe Li knows that too.

  “Are you okay?” Jake asks, noticing that I have zoned out, my eyes transfixed on the closet door that is cracked open.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking is all.” I gulp, the prospect of being able to keep this cube secret becoming more daunting by the second. Hiding it from Jake will be hard enough; he has already eyed the bag suspiciously multiple times. If we both didn’t have so much on our minds, he would ask what’s inside.

  But maybe the fact that the world’s most powerful people know about the Chimera Cube isn’t a bad thing. Maybe it not being a secret will give me even more power. That’s probably why the government never tried to take it from my dad even though he possessed the patents for years. Once they had an idea of the power of the technology, they realized that it would be nearly impossible to get out of his hands without causing untold destruction.

  They are scared.

  “My brain is too tired for that.” Jake sighs. “I just know we have to kill that motherfucker. I know we can get the job done. And that’s what we have to do.”

  “I’d rather run away.” I look up at the ceiling, dreaming of sipping piña coladas on an island, letting the Chimera Cube service my every want and desire until the end of my days. “I’d rather go out on our own. We don’t need any of these people. We can try and flee this country, go to Europe, or maybe Malaysia, I don’t know. We just need to get away from people who are always wanting to use us.”

  “Sam, c’mon. You know better than anyone that it’s hopeless to think like that. All we have to do is use these people back and use them more than they use us until we suck them dry of everything.” He smiles. “Now I know the games that James played for all those years. His manipulative tactics. I had days to think about it where I would study my memories, trying to dissect his ways from them. Your day played the Syndicate for years. He manipulated the most powerful group in the world. If he can do it, we can do it too. And we can do it to anyone. You know that. I know you do.”

  I open my mouth to respond. I want to tell him how I’m afraid to hurt any more people. I want to tell him that as excited as I am to destroy these evil people and to climb the power rankings of the world, that I know once we’re at the top, we will have to act the same way as all these other people if we want to stay there. I want to tell him the things I can’t say. That winning this game will inevitably mean to kill. And in my case, having the most powerful weapon in the world could mean killing millions without even meaning to.

  And I want to tell him that more than the idea of winning, the idea of losing scares me. Because if we choose to play this game and lose, everything in this world could go with it.


  But even if I could tell him everything, I don’t have the chance.

  It’s already too late.

  The loud bang we heard outside before this time smacks against the front door. It’s not the familiar sound of someone knocking intensely against the door. It’s the ear-splitting sound of someone knocking the door right off its hinges.

  Jake springs upward from his position on the bed as I dash around to the other side of the room, to grab my only worldly possession in that backpack. Inside the finger identification-locked zipper is a flashlight, a weapon with a turquoise barrel that is likely a laser gun, a pair of hologlasses, and of course the patents from Isaac Savery’s Protocol 00 research and the Chimera Cube.

  I look around, my heart racing with the rush of adrenaline that overcomes me. With the Chimera Cube on my back, it feels like I entered a new realm where anything and everything is possible.

  I have no clue who is coming for us, or how many of them there are.

  But I do know one thing.

  They will all be dead.

  Chapter 7

  “Close the door!” I shout at Jake, although I don’t mean to. In high-pressure moments, the anxiety normally comes out of me in belligerent cursing and frantically delivered commands.

  “Why have you broken into my house?” I hear the echo of Noah screaming as at least a dozen different people pour into the penthouse. As they sprint inside, the entire apartment rumbles with the force. I can even feel the roof shaking with more people running about it.

  This entire penthouse is surrounded.

  Jake slams the old bamboo door shut, muffling out the angry response Noah gets from the invaders in the penthouse. The weathered texture makes it appear more fragile than it is, because upon slamming it, the structure of the door does not budge.