Bad Girl Blogfest – Elena

Bad Girl Blogfest – Elena

BIO – Elena

• Name: Elena Galistina
• Novel: 30 Days: The Infinity Event, The Singularity Matrix
• Role: Ally, Love Interest
• Created: 2007
• Setting: Modern Day San Francisco
• Aliases or Nicknames: Agent Ellie
• Nationality: Dual Russian/Chinese Citizenship
• Position: General in People’s Secret Army of China
• Age: ~26
• Synopsis: Elena (“Agent Ellie”) started her assassination career in a young age as a Russian immigrant to China. She turned upon her masters, and rose high in the ranks of the People’s Army secret service. Tiring of that life, she moved to San Francisco to take up simple corporate espionage where nothing is as simple as it appears.

Excerpt

Thanksgiving Day, 2007, at a cabin outside of Lake Tahoe. Alex Ross and Ellie have just fought off mercenaries with the help of Chinese agents. Ellie is now interrogating them. This was posted to by Alex to his blog a couple days afterwards.

Ellie surveys her prisoners in front of the cabin. An army of trucks and Chinese men winds its way up the smoking path. The first tackle the small fires in the forest and then they round up the corpses. Twenty-three dead and six captured. Ellie’s men dump her gory kills in front of the prisoners. The cabin looks like something out of “The Guantlet,” riddled with hundreds of bullet holes.

“I want you to tell me everything.” She paces before them, her visage caked with drying blood. The men stand with bowed heads, their hands bound with plastic cable ties behind their backs. “Take a good, hard look as these fools. A similar fate awaits you. We are not American citizens, and we are not subject to the rules of this country. You dared attack a foreign agent, and now you will pay the price. We can make you disappear, so that your friends and families will never hear from you again. I want to know who’s behind this and I want to know now.”

The men shuffle and glance amongst themselves. “We didn’t want any of this,” says one dressed in desert fatigues. “This was supposed to be clean, get in, get out, you know?”

Ellie stops and smiles. “You’re one of the leaders, I take it? Good. What are you, a Guardsman or something? Do you have any real experience?”

“Recon over in Iraq.”

“You people are pathetic.” Ellie stomps at them. “If you are the product of the American military, then I don’t think my country has much to fear.” She strips wires and a headset off the man. “Is this how you contact your commander? What’s your call sign?”

The man hesitates. Ellie’s men push guns against his neck but she waves them off. “Please,” she says.

“Foxtrot Delta. My contact is Charlie Papa.”

Ellie dons the headset. “Come in, Charlie. I know you’re listening. Elena Galistina here. I really appreciate you sending your friends to the Ross’s Thanksgiving dinner. I’m so sorry that so many of them chose to be unruly and act inappropriately. I’m afraid that I’ve had to excuse them from the table. Are you still listening, Charlie?”

She winks at me. What is Ellie up to?

“Well, Charlie,” she continues, “I’m sorry you won’t respond. No matter. Your friends have decided to stay. They’re telling me all about you. Foxtrot Delta has been extremely helpful. You’ve just made yourself a terrible enemy. I’m not the kind of person to acknowledge niceties, or the rules of war, or even laws of common decency. Hmm. I think a demonstration is in order.”

She places the wires back on Foxtrot’s head and leans in. “Tell them everything that’s about to happen. I want Charlie to hear every detail. Now choose one. Choose one of your men.”

“No.”

She lays a hand on his shoulder. “Foxtrot. It’s either you or one of them. You remember what I did in the house, don’t you? The teeth? Do you really want to die that way, choking on your own blood?”

He points to one of his men. The dude screams. I’m worried that Ellie has snapped.

“Good. Bring him over there.” Her men drag the struggling merc back behind a Hummer over on the edge of the yard. She walks past me, holding her knife up to the sun.

I shiver. “Don’t.”

She winks at me and grins, then hands me the knife. “I won’t need this.” She disappears behind the vehicle. Her victim screams.

Foxtrot talks into the headset. “She’s behind the truck. He’s screaming, can you hear that? Blood is flying everywhere. Oh my god, she’s a monster. Please, send us some help! Wait—she’s coming back, covered with blood. I’m going to be sick. God help us all.”

I wander over and glance behind the truck. The man is unconscious, but unharmed. Blood lies everywhere, but also a can and a baster. The same baster we were using for the turkey. Where did the blood come from?

I walk back over, holding my stomach, acting the part. “God, Ellie, not again. Please, no more. I can’t stand it.”

Ellie snatches the headset. “Now Charlie, I’d hate to do that to the rest of your men, but once I start, it’s hard to stop. I’ll give you a piece of advice. Get the hell out of town. I will track you down, and I will kill you in the most brutal fashion that our culture has ever produced. I will create a river of blood so thick that you’ll drown in it. If I even feel a breath of yours, I will stifle it so quickly that you’ll be watching you body fall away while I hold your severed head. Now I need to go and finish off these men. Have a nice day.”

She pulled off the rest of the unit and stomped on it, smashing it to bits.

“Let’s go for a walk,” she says nicely to Foxtrot. “Nice and slow. We’ll eventually wind up behind the truck. You don’t want to go behind the truck. You see, I kill with my bare hands. I can make it fast or slow, it’s really up to you.”

They walk towards the truck. Ellie says not a word. Halfway there, Foxtrot hesitates. “What? What do you want to know? Say something. Say something!” She keeps walking, her blood-stained face expectant. “Stop staring at me! What the hell is wrong with you?!” They reach the truck, she cocks her head, eyebrows raised. She motions for him to move.

“Okay! Stop! We received our instructions online. The entire transaction, plans, names, maps, everything. Except for today, no one even ever talked to them. And their voice was scrambled, sounding like a frog or something.”

Ellie just stands there, staring at him.

“What? I’ve told you everything. Say something!”

Ellie points around to the back of the truck. The man’s face is all shades of red.

“No! What do you want? Will you fucking say something!? Shit! Listen, we just get paid. We’re nobodies. I can show you anything. Our website, our IP logs, our servers, the logs for the headsets, everything you need to track them down. Just don’t make me go back there, please.”

Ellie nods at me. I hope for his sake the man is telling the truth.

So I wrote 2 blogvels about Elena. You can find the links on my blog main page (look for 30 Days). Her journey is really only begun, because her parents are still held hostage. Some day I hope to resurrect her character, because she’s a lot of fun.

Bad Girl Blogfest – Carrie

Bad Girl Blogfest – Carrie

BIO – Carrie

• Name: Carrie Park
• Novels: 30 Days: The Infinity Event, The Singularity Matrix
• Role: Villain
• Created: 2007
• Setting: Modern Day San Francisco
• Aliases or Nicknames: Shelly White
• Nationality: American
• Position: Director of Software Development, Infinitae Corporation
• Age: ~25
• Synopsis: After spending years in hospitals reconstructing her body after a devastating car crash, Carrie has changed her face, changed her name, and now plots revenge against the perpetrators of the wreck. Her stranglehold on the world’s financial system nearly brought down the economy and contributed heavily to the recent financial crisis.

Excerpt

November 29, 2007. Alex Ross has been framed by Carrie Park for blowing up Infinitae’s Building Four. He now seeks revenge and to clear his name.

Now to find Carrie. She’s going to pay for destroying Building Four.

I drive around San Francisco. Carrie’s smart. She’s probably somewhere monitoring everything. She’ll want to know the second that suspicions are cast in her direction. She’ll want to have direct access to Infinitae’s data gathering prowess.

She had mentioned “south.” Where? There’s Stanford. She might have access to some servers there.

What about the datacenter warehouse in Santa Clara? Infinitae has blocked it, but that wouldn’t pose much of a challenge to the woman who wrote the blocking code. I head there.

I stop near the warehouse. The streets lay quiet and dark. I have no idea how to get in. I’m not a spy. How would Ellie do it? She’d probably bust a door down. The back door. I drive around and check it out. There’s no handle, only a lock. I get out, put my ear against the door, and I’m rewarded with the roar of still-active servers. Something’s up.

I get back in, line the car up with the door, and slam the gas. It impacts with a crunch. I pull the car away. The door’s frame is loose, and with some wiggling I’m able to pull it completely off, frame and all, probably triggering an alarm.

I draw my gun and remove the safety. I have no intention of killing Carrie, unless she fires first. I head towards the front, searching for the office. I spot it, but it’s empty. A dozen large monitors in the office display newscasts, surveillance footage, and various readouts. One monitor displays my damaged car. The cold business end of a gun presses against my neck.

“Drop it or I’ll drop you.”

Carrie. I toss my gun away. My mouth goes dry.

“Put your hands on your head.” She pats me down and swipes my emergency cell phone, pocketing it. She laughs. I cringe.

“Wow, Alex, you never give up. Where’s you friend Elena? Too hurt to make the trip? What a shame. Move it.”

She shoves me into the small office at gunpoint and sits opposite me. “What are you doing here, Alex? Come to kill me?”

“If I have to. You’ve done some bad things.”

Carrie shakes her head. “Hey, I didn’t make anyone suffer for years. Every person I killed died with very little pain.”

You tell yourself that. ”So now what, Carrie? Are you going to kill me?”

She picks up my phone and studies it. “Maybe I should call the news stations. I could be a hero. I’ve already tied you and Ellie to this datacenter. It wouldn’t be a stretch to get them to believe this is your hideout. Hero today, goat tomorrow. And I come out smelling great.”

That would be the day. ”Then what? What’s your big plan? You can’t go back to Infinitae. You can’t escape suspicion forever.”

Carrie points around with her gun. “See all this? Do you know how many emails and IM’s and chats and voice communications I’ve collected? I’ve captured trillions of conversations waiting to be mined. Even as we speak, I’m transcribing all kinds of voice conversations. The NSA would kill for a system like this.”

She’s insane. “Why? What’s it all for?”

She leans forward and rubs the butt of the gun on her forehead. “God, Alex, you idiot, do I really need to spell it all out for you? Think of all the corporate insider information I’d have. I’d know about every earnings miss. I’d know how senators are about to vote. I’d know what the Fed is planning. Within a few years, I’d be the richest person on the planet. I could run for office, buy a few campaigns, and who knows? I could be President. Imagine that, President Park.”

“You mean President White, don’t you?” Bitch.

She glares and aims her gun in my general direction. “Shelly White is dead. That loser no longer exists. You made sure of that. Maybe I should thank you. You know, we’re really not that different, you and me. Maybe that’s why I liked you so much back then. I was a loser, and you were a loser, too. But guess what? I’ve grown up, and you’re still a fucking loser.”

I snort. “We’re nothing alike. You’re a murderous, psychopathic bitch with delusions of grandeur. You’ll never get away with any of it. They’ll trace everything back to you.”

Carrie shakes her head. “Forget it Alex, I’ve covered my tracks too well. They’ve got nothing on me. Look at this screen. I’m monitoring the entire world for any mention of my name. The moment it pops up, I can be prepared to defend myself.” She waves at the consoles.

I shrug and look around. My leg shakes. Carrie studies my face. “Alex. Are you expecting someone? Oh my gosh.” She looks at my phone, then rips it open. “Alex, I’m surprised at you! This phone has been transmitting this entire conversation, hasn’t it? But it looks like it’s off. Let me see. Ahh, here it is, the battery is it’s own transmitter. I can take it out and it’s still going. Genius!” She smashes the whole thing with the butt of her gun, then points the gun at me.

I can’t help but smile at her. I won. “They’ll be here in a minute. It’s over, Shelly. You’ve confessed to everything. It’s all been transmitted and—oh yeah you’ll like this—posted on the internet!”

Her face grows dark. “Get up. Get up or I’ll drill you.”

Alarms chime all though the building. On the monitors black cars pull up from every street. The entire building is surrounded.

“Come on, move it.” She pushes me ahead of her. I look back as she grabs a device off her desk and pulls out an antenna. Shit.

“What is that, a detonator?”

“Move your ass, Ross, or I’ll set it off right now.”

She pushes me through the datacenter to a metal railing that leads up to a ceiling panel. “Remove the panel, and don’t try anything funny.” The railing leads up past the panel to the roof about thirty feet up. “Climb!”

At the top I push through a hatch. Up on the roof, hidden from the street, stands a small gyrocopter. “Stand back,” cries Carrie. Lights flash in every direction. She jumps into the single passenger aircraft. She pushes some buttons, and the blades spin. I notice that the roof of the building has been cleared out like a runway.

“Hey Alex,” she shouts at me through the growing din of the gyro’s motor, “the moment you stepped inside, I detected your transmission. You think I can’t dampen a cell signal? You’ve lost, Alex, and I’ll make sure you get blamed for this explosion too. Goodbye.”

She revs up the motor and taxies down the roof of the building. I run after her and grab one piece of the rear wing. I hold on for dear life as I’m dragged along the roof.  I can’t hold on and I roll right to the edge of the roof. I have about two seconds to jump off before the whole building explodes in a huge burst of flame. I hit the ground and roll under a car as a deluge of servers and wires and cinder blocks rain down all around me. Once the debris stops, I run, blood oozing from a dozen painful wounds. I spot a car where some people had stopped to look at the fire, leaving it running. I hop into it and speed away.

Well, I’m back at Ellie’s hideout now. There are videos on the web connecting me to the scene. None of my secret transmissions got through. I can’t beat Carrie. She’s just too smart. Her gyrocopter disappeared to who knows where, and I have no way to clear my name. Wherever you are Carrie, know that you can’t escape, and I’ll be chasing you.

Carrie is the most certifiable anti-social megalomaniac I’ve ever created. She’s brilliant, resourceful, and highly manipulative. She’s a classic mad scientist, surrounded by incompetent boobs. And she always gets away in the end.

Fear

Fear

Fear.

It’s what drives characters. Fear and desire.

Last night I participated in a discussion on Gather about Fear. I started thinking about the worst fears my characters have. Of course there’s always the mortal danger that surrounds their activities. Heck, Dawn’s Rise is a book all about disasters. Facing one’s mortality head on is always a good plot device. But of course that can get old after a while, so I got to thinking about their other fears.

In Dawn’s Rise, Dawn fears many things. She refuse to accept her role in the book because she doesn’t believe in herself. She fears being exposed as a fraud. She fears losing what little she has. After losing her mother at a young age, she wants to be cautious with her life. Her crazy Aunt has been a terrible role model and Dawn fears that kind of chaos. She also seems to be losing her sanity, so she fears losing her mind.

In 30 Days, Alex discovers a heinous plot and fears for his life because of the discovery that others have been killed. His life is turned upside down and everything he believes in turns out to be a lie. He doesn’t want to lose Elena because he fears being lonely and alone, especially since he thought she was “the one.” He also wants to maintain the respect of his family and realizes they could disown him if they knew the truth. Then once Carrie ruins his life, he fears the humiliation of defeat. Of course he knows his career is ruined, so he fears that his life is over.

One of the things mentioned in the discussion is that in many of the novels, the hero’s worst fears come true. Whether it’s a fear of spiders or fear of something like death of a loved one, the hero must face this fear and work through it. In Dawn’s Rise, Dawn does lose everything and goes a bit crazy. I’m wondering though if I should ramp it up a bit, IOW illustrate the fear a bit more, and then really drive her down into the depths of it until she’s practically paralyzed. In 30 Days, Alex never truly faces his fears and is buffeted around like a cork in rapids. That’s partly because of his role as narrator and partly because I wrote it all on the fly and it needs massive edits. There needs to be a point where he stands up to Carrie and Ellie, tells them to kiss off, and fights for his own life and well being. I don’t know if he even gets to this point in the sequel. Well, there’s always the final blogvel coming up in November.

And then there’s my fear, that I’m doing all this writing for nothing, that I’ll never get published, and never accomplish the one thing I’ve always wanted to do with my life. (Aside from becoming an Astronaut…I gave up on that dream a long time ago). I guess I need to face this fear. The biggest obstacle is really my fear of rejection…that my writing is crap and no one will ever read it. I don’t know how much of that I can take. But like my heroes, I’ve got to face it and overcome this fear, and not live my life afraid of failure.

Writing Tasks

Writing Tasks

Here are my writing tasks and accomplishments:

• Received feedback on Dawn's Rise from the critters.org website. The feedback centered on these main complaints/observations:
1. Too much description, not enough action in the beginning.
2. The prologs are unnecessary and somewhat offputting.
3. People didn't quite understand what/why things were happening, and didn't get involved with the characters.
4. Too many adverbs.
• Finished my NaNoWriMo story. I really like the character Ellie. I want to go back and create a short story around her, but I'm not sure how to make it science fictiony.
  

Here are some things I want to get done in the next few weeks:

• Submit a couple more chapters from Dawn's Rise to Critters.
• Write up some "interviews" of my characters. This may help me to know them better.
• Write up some commentary on 30 Days so I can decide what to do with it. I think I can just put comments on all the posts.

I think I'm going to take it easy the rest of the year though...with all the holidays. I want to also focus on getting stuff done around the house.

"30 Days" Chapter Index This is the "blogvel" I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2007. Here it is presented in the "correct" order that it should be read in. Comments/critiques are always welcome but keep in mind that this is a very rough first draft with only the most basic edits so far. I hope to repost an edited version at some point but don't hold your breath. 1 I am Really Freaked Out 2 I'm Almost Calm 3 Now I'm Beyond Freaked Out 4 Bad Night 5 Help Me... 6 Ellie is Driving Me Nuts 7 Things are Getting Insane 8 I've Got Family Issues 9 What the... 10 Carrie's Gambit 11 More Stuff Happens That I Can't Believe 12 In the Hospital 13 This Day has been "Swell" 14 I Don't Understand Ellie 15 I'm Lost 16 I'll Never Sleep Again 17 Maybe a Clue to All This 18 At the Warehouse 19 Ellie's Gone 20 I'm Blown Away 21 Finally a Relaxing Day 22 Carrie Finds some Crazy Stuff 23 Game On 24 Agent Ellie, Part One 25 Agent Ellie, Part Two 26 I'm Getting Sick of the Lies 27 Carrie Meets Ellie 28 Modern Interrogation 29 I'm Losing It 30 It's Gone from Worse to Worst 31 Wa the hels hapinin 32 From Ellie 33 Heart 2 Heart with Ellie 34 Carrie...Again... 35 Having it Out with Ellie 36 Shotgun Thanksgiving Part One 37 Shotgun Thanksgiving Part Two 38 Shotgun Thanksgiving Part Three 39 Shotgun Thanksgiving Part Four 40 Good News/Bad News 41 "Over"? Did you say, "Over"? 42 WTF Part One 43 WTF Part Two 44 WTF Part Three 45 Getting Back 46 So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye This is really my last post. As of right now I'm outside of the territorial United States, on my way to a new life. I can't tell you where I am, whether it's on a plane, a boat, or some other mode of transportation. They're letting my make one more blog post so I can finish the story. By now you've seen the news reports where investigators have linked all the explosions together...the first on at Stanford, the one at Infinitae, and now the one in Santa Clara. Suspicion has been cast right on me, linking me with Chinese Intelligence. It's all been one shocking revelation after another. My family has been outed as well, as their loyalty to the US Government has been called into question. It's one giant clusterfuck of unbelievable proportions. They also can't find Carrie, and they believe that I'm responsible for her disappearance. The Chinese didn't exactly welcome me with open arms when I returned to the safe house, especially driving a stolen car. Even Ellie kind of sighed wearily when she saw me, but I didn't know where else to turn. Carrie escaped, and I thought we had lost all out evidence incriminating her. The whole operation to get Ellie and I out of the country was a bit of a nightmare, sitting in the back of a van for hours, sneaking through customs in boxes, and a bunch of crazy stuff. Now we're settled in our cabins, trying to relax. I haven't really seen Ellie since I returned yesterday, and it's not like they gave me a choice in all this. I finally get a chance to see her after everyone is settled in. We're in a private room, and she's lying prostrate with her broken leg up on pillows. She waves me in and has me close the door. She beckons me and indicates a chair near her. I sit down and sigh. "Hey Alex," she says, "we need to talk. Can you help me sit up a little?" I arrange some pillows for her and return to my seat. I fiddle around with some duct tape that's patching my seat together. "I need to tell you some things, Alex. You're not going to like most of it. I'm going to be as honest as I can, and please let me know if you have questions. OK? Good. "My real name is Kai Ying Slavinsky. Elena Galistina is a name I made up, and I probably won't use it again. I'm a deep-cover field marshall for a secret wing of Chinese Intelligence. You've heard of handlers? That's my role. I was controlling a number of agents in the Bay area, primarily focused on corporate technological espionage. We've infiltrated many of the local companies, including Infinitae. "When I first met you, Alex, at that bar, I was meeting a potential client. By client, of course, I mean a corporate executive I could potentially use as an information source in exchange for...well whatever I needed to use. He never showed up. My assignment hadn't been going too well, and I guess I was in a mood, and when I saw you drowning yourself at the bar, I became a little curious. You didn't look like the normal bar rat. So I struck up a conversation, and soon realized you were a pretty good guy who'd ran into a little bad luck. You talked so passionately about your defunct company, that I could see you had some kind of spark. And then you talked about your dad's cabin, skiing, and all the kinds of things I've been dying to do. I couldn't help myself, I just had to see more of you, even though you didn't have any intelligence value to me. "But of course, everyone that I contact socially needs to go through a thorough vetting process. We never know who's a setup. Your story checked out, but then we ran across a red flag from your past. You had indirectly injured a girl and then been sent to a camp for a year. We then of course looked into Shelly White and your other friends. When we discovered that the primary driver had died in a suspicious accident, we kept investigating. It turned out that Shelly White had disappeared. Imagine our surprise when she turned up as Carrie Park, a programmer analyst at a brokerage house. "We dug into her finances, and were amazed by her abilities. We could tell that some of her gains were ill-gotten, perhaps by hacking financial systems. One of our agents got in close to her. We revealed some of her lesser infractions which led to her termination. Someone of her ability and low moral threshold doesn't come along every day. She became our number one person of interest. If we could turn her, we could use her abilities to gather far more information that we could with out own resources. So we formed a plan to get you two to work together. Our agents inside Infinitae gave both of you offers you couldn't refuse: you got a job, and she got a position with almost unlimited computing and staff resources and complete freedom to work on whatever project she wanted to." I glare at Ellie. "You're telling me that you knew she was Shelly the whole time? You got us to work together? What was the plan?" Ellie sighs and struggles for words. "We knew she still had a thing for you. An agent got her to talk about her past, and she expressed how crushed she was when you rejected her. We wondering if she still held a flame, or if she wanted you dead. Unfortunately, she immediately went to work setting up her plan to discredit you. We didn't take it too seriously until people started dying. At some point, she became aware of our intervention, and we needed to back off. We were able to reveal some of her documents to you. That's how you got access to all those files. But we had underestimated her again. We didn't realize she had these datacenters scattered around, and also she had created a team of mercenaries and assassins to do her dirty work. "I hate to say it, but that's mostly my fault. Instead of working the case, I spent a lot of time with you. She knew more about us than we knew about her by that point." "So your big plan went to shit." "Well, we kind of forced her hand when we revealed her plans to you. She then took you under her wing. We figured that if I cut you loose, you might go to her. It kind of worked. Too well. You don't know how much that killed me, Alex. It's about the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I cried for hours after that. I didn't think you'd ever forgive me. But Carrie...she was out of control, and we thought you might be able to get in there and somehow tame her." I don't know whether to hit Ellie or hug her. "So you wanted me to get with Carrie?" "No! God, Alex. The thought of you with her..." She shivers. "It was terrible," I confess. "Even Carrie thought so. I didn't even want to...it just happened. Ellie...this whole thing is just killing me. You lead the most fucked of life of anyone I've ever met if this is how you treat people." Ellie nods. "Yeah. The more I do it, the more obvious it gets. A few years ago, I would just make my mark fall in love with me, take him for everything, and then leave him without a thought. I'd be running three, four plans at once, sometimes a night. And remember, these were just the guys I didn't wind up killing. The ones I had to eliminate I'd treat even worse." "You're not the person that I knew. The Ellie I knew didn't do anyone of that stuff. Someday you need to figure out who you are." Ellie fingers the bandage on her head. "I'm trying. With you I became more of the person I want to be. I think with this project blowing up so bad, they may put me on the back burner for a while. You don't know how badly I've failed. This is a huge setback for me. They'll analyze everything, and I'll be facing possible court martial." "So why are you going back? You've got money, you've got abilities." Ellie laughs. "Someone like me doesn't walk away. I'll be on a new hit list, this time with killers who know how to do the job. I'm good, but I can't be vigilant forever. I need to go face them." "What about Carrie? I'm sure she's long gone." "Well there's still that. Thank god you have those recordings." "Ellie, she had a jammer, and smashed the cell phone. We don't have anything on her." She smiles coyly at me. "Alex, you underestimate us. The phone didn't transmit on a cellular frequency, it transmitted at a much higher, technically illegal frequency that no known jammer can block. We have it all. If she ever shows up again, we'll be able to blackmail her into helping us. I swear to god if I ever get past the inquisition, I'm going after her. I refuse to let that bitch be a blemish on my record." "You'll never find her. She'll change her identity again, probably her appearance too, and lay low." "Well, we'll see. We could really use your help, Alex. I know we've treated you pretty poorly. I've been terrible to you, and I know that I don't really deserve any of your loyalty right now. We can always use someone like you in our intelligence division." "Um, Ellie, I can't work against the United States. Please don't ask me to. I won't stop you from doing your work, and I won't testify against you, but I can't doing anything against my country, any more than you can." Ellie frowns a little. "Good. You're going to be under a lot of pressure. I can only protect you so much. The only way you'll might be able to be safe is to work for me. I won't ask you to do anything against your country, but I'm sure there will be plenty of questionable activities that you won't like or oppose. But Alex, if you want any kind of life, it's your only option right now. Hopefully the authorities will clear your name, and you can return. But we can't take the risk of letting them have you." I think back to the torture. "Yeah, you found out that I'm a blabber. Now I'm your fucking burden." "Are you talking about the interrogation? I'm so sorry about that. We thought you had been compromised. We had to know for sure. You passed with flying colors." "But I talked! How could you do that to someone!" "Alex, it's what we do. We find out the truth at all costs." I jump up. "You don't know shit about the truth. You pretend that you're trying to protect your country but it's all a fucking game to you. You mess with people's lives like players on a chess board. You don't care who you hurt, or even what you even accomplish. It's all about the game, and who can play it the best." "Yes. You're absolutely right. We play a game where the losers are dead and the winners have no souls. And you know what the price is. Do you think China wants to be relegated to third-world status like India? Don't you think we're getting tired of the rest of the world enjoying the benefits of modern technology? Don't you think we're sick of your ridiculous trade restrictions and product recalls and militarism? Yeah, it's a game, but I have the potential to improve the lives of billions of people. I have the potential to prevent terrorists from destroying an entire population. I play this game every day, and with every ounce of my ability. I know this isn't your world Alex, and maybe I needed a break from it to give me some perspective. But when that idiot Park starting playing us against your government, I got my shit together and started working again." I sit down again. "You've turned into the 'other' Ellie again. I've always seen two sides of you. One nice, sweet, interesting, and the other intense, scary, and murderous." "Well, I'm not Ellie anymore. I don't think you'll see much of the 'nice' me anymore. I've let myself slip and get soft. I don't blame you. I just knew this might happen one day." "Ellie," I say, sitting down next to her. "I know you feel like you have to save the world. I know you feel like you have to be tough. But I've seen your other side Ellie, and I have to say I like it a lot. You're a special person, if you would ever allow yourself to be yourself. You not a killer. Someone made you kill, but I don't believe you're a killer. I've seen you fight, and at the cabin you spared some lives when you didn't have to. I'm willing to accept both sides of you, are you?" Ellie looks down for a moment. "I don't know." I take her hand. "Well if there's anyone in the world who can take control of her life, it's you." She squeezes my hand. I don't know where I'm heading or what the future has in store. It may be a long time before I can post again. It may be longer before I finally get my life back, if ever. Wish me luck. -Alex Ross

Getting Back I've been watching the news reports all day, just like the rest of you. I've seen the hazy videos of me running out of the building, and seen Ellie in the car. Fortunately it's pretty grainy. They're still calling it an "accident" but they are launching a full investigation. The Fire Chief has called it "suspicious." The entire campus has been closed off, and parts of San Francisco have been evacuated. Listen, anyone reading this, you need to believe me when I say that I wasn't involved. I mean, I tried to stop it. I'm sorry about all of it. I'm sure Marcia's people are out looking for me. The Chinese got rid of Ellie's car, and hopefully some evidence. They took all my clothes and forced me to wash up. I really want to get out of here, but I have no where to go. Ellie's been sleeping most of the day due to the sedatives they gave her. Around dinner time she's a little more conscious. "Hey," she says as I come in. The attendants leave us alone. "Hey. How are you feeling?" She looks terrible. Her face is swollen, but she should make a complete recovery. A surgeon came in earlier to fix her head laceration a little cleaner, so there should be very little scarring. "OK, I guess. I've been through worse. I could really use a cigarette." I smile. "Me too." "I'm leaving tomorrow," she announces. "I can't stay in this country any longer. Our entire operation will be jeopardized. I need to find a new role in my organization. I really screwed this one up. Alex, I'm really sorry about everything. You're a great guy, and I would have loved to try to make things work out, but you can't be mixed up with someone like me, and I can't be the kind of person you need." I felt like protesting, arguing, doing anything to keep her around. "I hope you find what you're looking for, Ellie. I think deep inside you're a pretty good person. You've stood by me through everything, and saved my butt a ton of times, and in a lot of different ways. I hope we meet again some day. I'm going miss our times, just hanging out." "Yeah. You're pretty special too." I feel like crying but I hold it together. I heave a big breath. "I guess this is it, then. I'm going out there to get Carrie, and you've got a plane to catch." "We'll always have Casablanca." "Huh? Oh yeah." Duh. "What does he say? 'Here's looking a you, kid.'" I squeeze her hand and kiss her cheek. She waves at me as I leave. As I leave the house, General Tam gives me keys to a car that I'm going to use, a gun, and a phone to contact him. I try to avoid him as much as possible. Now to find Carrie. I drive around SF for a while, just breathing and thinking. Carrie's smart. She's probably somewhere monitoring everything. She'll want to know the second that suspicious is cast in her direction. She won't be in any of her usual spots. She'll want to have access to Infinitae's data gathering prowess, which should still function even without Building Four. Somewhere with a hot internet connection. She wanted us to drive South yesterday, but we never made it. Where was she headed? There's Stanford. She might have access to some servers there. I doubt that she'd be there. What about the data center in Santa Clara? What ever happened to it? I know that Infinitae blocked it, but I figured that wouldn't pose much of a challenge to Carrie who wrote the blocking code. I start heading down there, no clear plan in mind. I drive for a while thinking about Ellie. I don't know how much of our time together was real, and how much she just faked. It's not like we didn't spend quality time together, and didn't make time for each other. But letting me go through that torture, it's not something I can forgive. I stop near the warehouse. The streets seems quiet and dark. I have no idea how to get in. I'm not a spy or an infiltrator. I begin to think about how Ellie would do it. She'd probably just bust the door down. I recall that back door we exited. I scurry around back and look at it. There's no handle on this side, only a lock. I put my ear against the door. I can faintly here the roar of the servers which are apparently still running. I wonder why. I bring the car around and line it up with the door. Slamming the gas, I back the car right into the door, and it impacts with a crunch. Hopefully the din inside will block the noise of the impact. I pull the car away which thankfully still runs. The door's frame is loose, and with some wiggling I'm able to pull it completely off, frame and all. I see some wires poking through the frame. Hopefully they're still intact and I didn't trigger an alarm. No matter. I draw my gun and remove the safety. I have no intention of killing Carrie, unless she fires first. I head back towards the front, trying to find that office I noticed the first time. I finally spot it, but it's empty. About a dozen large monitors in the office are displaying newscasts, surveillance footage, and various readouts. I notice one that is displaying my damaged car, but it's too late I feel the cold business end of a gun against my neck. "Drop it or I'll drop you." I toss my gun away. "Put your hands on your head." She starts patting me down, and swipes my emergency cell phone, pocketing it. She begins laughing, slowly. "Wow, Alex, you never give up. Where's you friend Elena? Too hurt to make the trip? What a shame. Move it." She pushes me into the small office at gunpoint, and sits opposite me. "What are you doing here, Alex? Come to kill me?" "If I have to. You've done some bad things." Carrie shakes her head. "I didn't make anyone suffer for years. Every person I killed died with very little pain." "So what now, Carrie? Are you going to kill me?" She picks up my phone and studies it. "Maybe I should call the news stations. I could be a hero. I've already tied you and Ellie to this datacenter. It wouldn't be a stretch to get them to believe this is your hideout. Hero today, goat tomorrow. And I come out smelling great." "Then what? What's your big plan? You can't go back to Infinitae. You can't expect to escape suspicion forever." Carrie points around with her gun. "See all this? Do you know how many emails and IM's and chats and voice communications I've collected here? I've got trillions of conversations waiting to be mined. Even as we speak I'm transcribing all kinds of voice conversations. The CIA would kill for a system like this." "Why? What's it all for?" "God, Alex, do I really need to spell it all out for you? Think of all the corporate insider information I'd have. I'd know about every earnings miss. I'd know how senators are about to vote. I'd know what the Fed is planning. Within a few years, I'd be the richest person on the planet. I could run for office, buy a few campaigns, and who knows? I could be President. Imagine that, President Park." "You mean White, don't you?" She glared at me, and aim her gun in my general direction. "Shelly White is dead. That loser no longer exists. You made sure of that. Maybe I should thank you. You know, we're really not that different, you and me. Maybe that's why I liked you so much back then. I was a loser, and you were a loser, too. But guess what? I've grown up, and you're still a loser." "We're nothing alike. You're a murderous, psychopathic bitch with delusions of grandeur. You'll never get away with any of it. They'll trace everything back to you." "Forget it Alex, I've covered my tracks too well. They've got nothing on me. Look at this screen. I'm monitoring the entire world for any mention of my name. The moment it pops up, I can be prepared to defend myself." "Do you even care about the people you've killed? Wasn't Benson you're professor?" Carrie smirks at me. "Yeah, well, he wanted to go back to his wife. Poor bastard, she was terrible." "You killed him because he wouldn't sleep with you? I don't blame him." "Hey!" she waves the gun at me. "He had it coming. He made his choice, just like you did. Can I help it if I take these things personally?" I shrug and look around the place. My leg starts shaking. Carrie starts studying my face. "Alex. Are you expecting someone? Oh my gosh." She looks at my phone, then begins to disassemble it. "Alex, I'm surprised at you! This phone has been transmitting this entire conversation, hasn't it. It looks like it's off, but my guess it that you've had the screen disabled. No, that's not it. Let me see. Ahh, here it is, the battery is it's own transmitter. I can take it out and it's still recording. Genius!" She smashes the whole thing with the butt of her gun, then points it at me. I can't help but smile at her. "They'll be here in a minute. It's over, Shelly. You've confessed to everything. It's all been transmitted and...oh yeah you'll like this...posted on the internet!" Her face grows dark. "Get up. Get up or I'll drill you." Alarms begin sounding all around the building. On the monitors I see black cars pulling up from all directions. Then entire building is surrounded. "Come on, move it." She pushes me ahead of her. I look back to notice that she's grabbed a device off her desk and pulls out an antenna. "What is that, a detonator?" "Move your ass Ross or I'll set it off now." She pushes me through the center to the very middle. There's a metal railing leading up to the ceiling panel. "Remove the panel, and don't try anything funny. After I remove it, I see that the railing leads up to the ceiling about thirty feet up. "Climb!" I climb up the thing, and find a hatch which I push open. In moments I'm up on the roof. I look around. Hidden from the street, I see a small gyrocopter. "Stand back," cries Carrie. I see flashing lights in every direction. She jumps into the single passenger vehicle. She pushes some buttons, and the blades begin spinning. A gyrocopter needs to be moving forward to work, unlike a helicopter, but a small motor can assist the startup. I notice that the roof of the building has been cleared out like a runway. "Hey Alex," she shouts at me through the growing din of the gyro's motor, "too bad I scrambled your signal. The moment you stepped in, I detected your transmission. You think I can't dampen a cell signal? You've lost, Alex, and I'll make sure you get blamed for this explosion too. Goodbye." She revs up the motor and starts taxiing right down the roof of the building. I run after her and just catch one piece of the rear wing. I hold on for dear life as I'm dragged down the roof. I can't hold on, and I roll right to the edge of the roof. I have about two seconds to jump off before the whole building explodes in a huge burst of flame behind me. I hit the ground and roll under a car as a deluge of servers and wires and cinder blocks rain down all around me. Once the debris stops falling, I start running. I spot a car where some people had stopped to look at the fire, leaving their car running. I hop into it and speed away. Well, I'm back at Ellie's hideout now. There are videos on the web connecting me to the scene. None of my secret transmissions got through. I can't beat Carrie. She's just too smart. Her gyrocopter disappeared to who knows where, and I have no way to clear my name. Wherever you are Carrie, know that you can't escape, and I'll be chasing you. I don't know if I'll post again.

WTF Part Three Fuck! Fuck!! FUUUUUUUCKKK!!!! I start slamming the steering wheel. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! AAAAAAGH!" I am so angry I can't see straight. All this time. "How?! How the fuck did she do it?! How did she get everyone to believe as this crap?! How did she kill all those people? Fuck me ten times sideways!" Ellie puts a weak hand on my arm as she tries not to scream in pain as I drive like a madman towards the address Ellie gave me. "She's loaded. She took that insurance settlement and made a fortune day trading. She's worth more than I am. She must have used that wealth to hire a bunch of hitmen and mercenaries. They never knew who they worked for." "But she lives in a dump! She doesn't even fucking bathe! She drives a goddamn death trap!" "She paid for that whole datacenter. Did you know her previous job was at a brokerage? She knew financial systems inside and out. She knew how to change my account somehow, because when I checked with the bank, they don't have any records of any transactions, and restored my balance. It was all faked." "Aagh! What the fuck! We have to get her, Ellie. We have to make her pay for all this. I want her dead. I want to go back and kill her." "No. We're screwed, like she said. She's a genius. I believe her when she says she's planted evidence. We've got to get out of here, once I'm patched up. She may be the only person in the world who can clear us. The only way out of this is to get her to confess, and even that may not be enough." "Fuck!" I'm silent for a moment. Could there be a way to turn this around? "Do you have a phone?" Ellie points at her purse on the floor. I fumble around and retrieve it. I dial up a number. "Elena?" says the voice on the other end. "No it's me. Do not believe any of it. I had nothing to do with it. I tried to stop her." "Alex," says Marcia on the other line. "You have to come in. You can't fight this one. We'll protect you." "Ellie's been badly hurt," I tell her. Besides, I know that even Marcia can't hold off the people who would want my head. "I'm going to get her treatment. Listen. It's Carrie Park. She's the mastermind behind all of this. She hired the men at the cabin, and she blew up Infinitae. You have to believe me." "Sure, Alex. I believe you. Just let me know where you are and we'll make sure Ellie is taken care of." "Carrie Park," I say one more time, and then hang up. I flip the phone out the window. I know Marcia won't believe me, but I have a plan, and she's a key piece of it. It's a long shot, because Carrie's not stupid. But I am. And maybe I can use that to my advantage. I don't have much time to think about that. We arrive at a gated residence. I push the button on the intercom. "Who's there," demands a heavily accented voice. "It's Alex Ross and Elena Galistina. She's been badly hurt. Please, she needs help." The let me in and I pull up to the door. I'm instantly surrounded by men with guns, all shouting at me. I put my hands out the window. They literally drag me out the window and press me down on the ground, their knees in my back. I see under the car that they've brought a stretcher out for Ellie. I think she's passed out because she's not moving or making a sound, but they check her pulse and eyes and don't seem too concerned. After they carry her inside, they drag me to a small room and throw me in there with only a bottle of water and some cold rice. I collapse in the corner. After a while the door opens, and General Tam walks in. "I'll tell you everything," I shout. "Just don't bring that thing in again." "Ssh, shh, it's okay, Mr. Ross. I apologize profusely over my indiscreet use of that terrible device. I promise you I will never use it's kind again. I'm not here to question you. I simply need to find out what happened." I fill him in on the details. He makes notes in Chinese in a small black book. "How's Ellie," I ask him. "She lost a lot of blood, but the fracture in her leg is clean and won't require surgery. She's resting comfortably. She wants you to get some rest." "What's going on? What are people saying about the explosion?" "They're saying it's a natural gas leak. An employee ran in to warn people and barely made it out alive. Fortunately no one died." I breathe a sigh of relief. They're sure to find the detonator and explosives at some point. Maybe Carrie lined a gas line with explosives to make it look like an accident. Or maybe Tam is lying through his teeth. He leaves me after a cot is brought in. I try to sleep, but I toss and turn, replaying the last month's events over and over in my head. Carrie just knows me so well. She knows exactly what buttons to push, and how to string me along. I had thought god was playing a trick on me, but the answer was much more mundane. She must have prepared this for months. She must have discovered Ellie's secret. Early in the morning, Ellie calls for me. She lies in bed with an IV, a large bandage wrapped around her head, and her leg in a cast. This cast I know is real. I hold her hand and she squeezes it. "I must be a mess," she says. "You're not so bad. I'd still choose you over half the women in this house." I wink. She smiles wanly. "Things will work out. We'll find a way to clear your name." "Tam says the TV is calling me a hero, but I don't believe that. It's only a matter of time before they find the stuff Carrie planted." "We think we may know where she's hiding out. She's good, but everyone leaves a trail of some sort." "I want to deal with her. I may need your team's help, but I want to get her to clear my name." "You want to trap her?" "Not exactly." I explain my plan to her. Ellie nods. "We'll set it up for Thursday night." I'm still going to have to leave the country. Things will get ugly. But not as ugly at they're going to get for Carrie.

WTF Part Two I'm in a building wired to blow up. I've got a minute to get out before it all blows up. I run down the stairs like a madman and out the emergency door. I'm about twenty yards from the building when I'm thrown off my feet in a terrific blast. I feel sharp pains as debris slams into my back. I'm tossed probably another thirty yards away. After rolling on the ground, I look back. Smoke is pouring from the bottom of Building Four. I see one edge of the building sag, and then the whole thing collapses in a huge cloud of dust and noise. I put my shirt over my mouth so I can breathe, and start running away as fast as I can. I don't look back. All around me I see ambulances and police and firetrucks lumbering to the scene. A large black SUV stops in front of me. The passenger door opens. "Get in!" cries Ellie behind the wheel. I flop in and she takes off before I can get the door closed. I try to catch my breath. "You okay," she asks, glancing at me. "Try to hold it together." I'm still coughing and choking from the dust and exertion. We get about two or three blocks when another car slams into the driver's side of the SUV. We're tossed around the cabin like rag dolls. "Ellie!" I tweak out. Ellie is very still, her head lying on my lap. I can't even tell if she's alive. A figure emerges from the other car and comes to my side. My door is wrenched open and I'm looking down the barrel of a gun. It's Carrie. She doesn't have a crutch or a leg boot. She's not limping. What?? "Give me her fucking gun. Now! Really easy. I just blew up a building, and you'll be next if you don't cooperate." Ellie moans a little. Thank god she's alive! She has a nasty cut on her head, and her leg doesn't look right. I find her holster and pick out her gun. I toss it out to Carrie. "Good. Now tie her hands behind her back." She throws me some quick ties. "Carrie, come on, she's unconscious." She comes closer. "Do it, Ross. Or I will take you both out right now. Move!" I try to move Ellie off me and she howls in pain. I reach behind her and push her hands together and bind them with the ties. I hope Ellie knows how to get out of this. "Tighter! Good. Now get her into your seat, you get in hers." There are no words to really describe getting Ellie over. Her lower left leg hangs limply, her head is gushing, and she is barely conscious of anything but her extreme pain. She screams as I try to move her, but there's not much I can do. I jump back into the driver's seat. Carrie jumps in the back. These SUV's are great, you can beat them up and they just drive away. "Drive." "Where?" "Just move it! Head South." Ellie begins moaning as the car starts jerking around. "Alex," she says weakly. "Shut her up," screams Carrie. Ellie struggles against her bonds. "It's Carrie," I tell her. "She has a gun." Ellie just moans in pain. We drive South for a bit. I'm starting to piece everything together. There's no plot. There's no fingerprinting. There's no Building Four, and there never was. But why? "I don't get it Carrie," I say finally. "What the hell was all that about? Do you just like blowing up buildings?" "Shut up, fuck head. You should know. You are so stupid. You and everyone around you. You think you own the fucking world. Well I've had it. I've been waiting a long time for this." Ellie cries out loudly as we hit a bump. "Will you shut her up?" Carrie reaches out to knock her gun against Ellie's head and I just snap. I jump out of my seat and go for the gun. I don't give a flying fuck what happens anymore. You can only push a man so far, and this is it. We struggle for the gun and it goes off. The sound is deafening, right next to my head in a closed space. But the recoil startles Carrie and I wrestle the gun away. "Shoot her," says Ellie quietly, somewhat cognizant of the circumstances. Instead I toss the gun out of my broken window. I turn around quickly, as the car is headed right off the road. I correct it quickly and slam on the brakes. Meanwhile Carrie still has Ellie's gun which I had forgotten about. Fortunately it's a imported model and she can't figure out the lock quick enough and I snatch it away from her. I don't throw it away. Carrie bolts for the door. I jump out my broken window and chase her. She may be light and speedy but she's been in a fake cast for almost a month. Her leg has atrophied and I catch her and push her to the ground. She struggles but I slam that bitch right in the face. "Fuck you Carrie! I'm going to fucking mess you the fuck up!" "Alex! Stop," cries Ellie. Those words stop me from doing something unthinkable. She's leaning out of the car. I drag Carrie pretty much by the hair as she bleeds from the mouth. She struggles but I hold on firmly. "I've got a knife in my back. Cut me loose," she asks. "Then we can deal with her." I throw Carrie on the ground. I gentle reach around Ellie, under her shirt. Taped to her back I can feel the hard edge of the knife. I quickly release her, and she immediately feels her head and her leg. "I'm going to need help soon, Alex, but first we need to deal with her. Alex, there's something you need to know. Something about Carrie. Do you want to tell him?" Carrie looks up at me with pure hate in her eyes. "No." "Ok then. Ow. God this hurts. You see, I did some digging on her. Turns out Carrie Park died almost ten years ago." "I heard that. It's a weird coincidence." Shit. Of course it's not. "There is no other Carrie Park. At least not one anywhere near her age." "So she's not Carrie Park. Then..." "She's Shelly White." Wham! "Oh my god...no!" I look at Carrie. She can't be! She doesn't look like Shelly...but... "Fuck you, Alex," says Carrie. "You didn't remember me, did you, you don't even remember what you did to me! Do you remember now! You stupid fuck! Look at me! Look what you've done to me!" Shelly White. We used to call her "Smelly Shelly." I know it was cruel and juvenile. But she never bathed, and always had an odor about her. We teased her mercilessly. But she was big, like 250 pounds big. Could this be Shelly? It seems impossible. The memories all come rushing back to me. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Shelly and I had been thrust together on an assignment. It wasn't so bad, she was definitely smart and I knew I'd get a good grade. But then she started giving me little gifts, sending me poems. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but she seemed pretty fragile. That day someone discovered she had been sending me these poems, and it was on. They posted it around school, they put it on the net, it was humiliating. I protested but not that strongly, I mean I wanted her to back off. I caught sight of her later that day crying. I didn't feel so good. You'd think that was bad enough. After school, a buddy and I are waiting at a light, we're looking at racing for a block or so. The light turns green, and out of nowhere this car cuts us off. We almost collide. My buddy talks to me through the window. "Isn't that Shelly White? Do you want to teach her a lesson? Let's get her!" We start after her. He starts blaring his horn at her. It must have frightened her, because she takes off. We're going down the street, 70, 80, 90, then I back off. But my buddy keeps chasing her. She tries to take a corner, the car flips, and she's thrown from the car. There are witnesses, and soon we're all arrested. Shelly's on life support basically. My dad gets them to give me a year at a work camp instead of basic juvenile detention. Shelly collects millions in the settlement. The other guy goes to jail, since they consider him the instigator. My life is ruined, though. With that work camp on my record, I can't go to college. Instead I go to a technical school. I never heard from Shelly again...until now. "Carrie, Shelly, I--" I began thinking about everything that's happened. The Hit List. The attacks on Ellie and the cabin. The secret datacenter. Building Four. The explosion. Ellie speaks up weakly. "Tell him, Carrie. Tell him what you've done." Carrie crawls to her feet with a smirk on her face. I just can see her as Shelly. The thought makes my skin crawl. But when I look at her, I see Shelly's eyes. "God, Alex, you must be the stupidest person in whole fucking world. Look at you two. Chasing leads around like dogs. You believed every fucking thing I told you." "Why? Why did you do it? Did you want me? Did you want me dead?" "No, Alex. Well, I mean after that horrible excuse for fucking, I certainly didn't want you. Jesus, Ellie, how did you ever put up with that? I figure a slut like you could get any man in town. What the hell are you doing with this loser?" "So you want me dead? Is that what this is about?" "Hell no, Alex. I want you alive. The bastard that chased me, well...he's dead." Shit! I remember now that Larry died in some kind of accident. Well I guess it wasn't an accident now. I hear some sirens in the distance. "We gotta go," says Ellie. "Someone must have called us in." "Wait. Carrie, so what do you want from me? What the fuck are you doing this for?" Carrie scowls at me. "You don't understand what I went through. My entire face had to be reconstructed. I lost my spleen, half my intestines, and now I can never have children. Why do you think I'm so thin now? I laid in that hospital for years, with nothing to do but study and figure out how I'd ruin your life as much as you've ruined mine." "Well congratulations. But when they find out you were behind everything, you'll be put to death." Carrie laughs at that. I see a worrisome triumph in her eyes. "No, Alex. What made you think to go into Building Four? Was it the sketches I had deliberately leaked out? Where some monster experiment was about to start? Well it worked out great, because right now on every major video site there's a video of you running out right before the explosion. And then it shows you getting in the car with Ellie. Don't worry, Alex, there's plenty of evidence on you at your apartment, on your old work computer, and of course, on your precious blog where you mention blowing up Building Four. And Ellie, I hope you like what I did with your old laptop and your account. You sure saved me a lot of money. You two are so screwed." The sirens grow louder. "Alex, we have to go!" "What about her," I ask Ellie. "Should I just fucking shoot her?" "No, we'll get to her eventually. She can't hide from us. Trust me, you don't want her blood on your hands." I can now see the flashing lights half a mile away. Carrie's waving at me. "This isn't over," I shout at her as I scramble back into the driver's seat. I floor it an we take off, leaving Carrie in the dust.

WTF... Part One Oh god, where to begin. I'm sure you've heard all about it by now. Maybe some of you readers are looking for me. Well, good luck. I've got to leave the country, that's how bad things have gotten. Don't bother looking for me at airports or piers. I'm going to disappear and there's nothing you can do to find me. Well like most things in this blog, it starts with a phone call. From Carrie. I don't know why I answer it. I want to change numbers, change locks, whatever it takes to get away from her. I listen to my cell phone chiming and look at her image on the screen. I want to beat on it. Every contact I have with her turns to shit. I pick it up, thinking that I'm finally going to tell her off. "What," I say brusquely. "It's on, Alex, the machine, it's on. They're beginning to test it out. Tomorrow it goes live. I, I, I'm going to stop it. I just thought someone should know. I know things have been a little strange between us, but I want you to know what I'm doing." I so want to hang up right now. I should have. I could have salvaged my pathetic life if I had just thrown away the phone right at that moment. I dangle my thumb over the disconnect button. But once again, I put the phone back to my ear. "What the hell are you talking about, Carrie? You're going to stop it?" "Yeah, it's all set. I can't talk on the phone right now. Meet me at the corner of Balboa and La Playa, and I'll tell you everything. Hurry, we don't have much time." I hear the phone disconnect. I slam my fist on my thigh. Dammit. What the hell is Carrie up to? She's really unstable. Then I remember something she said. She wants to blow up Building Four. I didn't take her seriously. Could she be capable of something like that? God I hope not. I reluctantly get in my car and drive the couple miles over to Infinitae, and park near where Carrie mentioned. I consider calling Ellie and letting her know that something's up, but I can't bring myself to do that. I just need to deal with Carrie once and for all. If I can't do it on the phone, then I'll do it in person. I spot her standing on the corner with her laptop backpack and a single crutch. It looks like her cast has been replaced with a boot. She somehow looks better than I've seen her in a while, cleaned up, and a bit of a glow about her. She smiles at me when I approach. I'm not quite buying it, but she looks a little saner right now. "Hey, Alex," she greets me almost jovially. A couple blocks behind her looms Building Four. She reaches out and takes my hand. I try to pull it back but she's insistent. She leads me into a nearby apartment building and into a vacant room, save for a chair and a desk. The window looks out on B4. She unpacks her laptop and plugs it into a large monitor sitting on the desk. "I'm glad you're here, Alex. I wouldn't want you to miss the festivities." She smirks at me. I get a chill down my spine. "Carrie, what's going on? I want to know what the hell you're doing." "Tsk. Geez Alex, you'll spoil the surprise." I watch as she brings up some screens on the monitor. "Here we go," she says. "All I have to do is press this key and it's done." "Carrie, what the fuck are you doing?" "Say goodbye to Building Four." She presses the button. I look outside but the building is still standing. Carrie laughs deliriously. "Oh my god. You really thought I was blowing up the building! What do you think I am?" "Then what was that?" Carrie grins at me triumphantly. "It's a timer, silly. Building Four goes down in...14 minutes 48 seconds. Don't even think about messing with this laptop, the timer can only be stopped from inside the building." She shows me a live image of the timer, ticking away somewhere under the building. "Carrie! What the hell have you done! You fucking crazy idiot!" "Hey, fuck you, Ross! You didn't the fucking balls to do shit about this, did you? You could even get your Chinese whore to investigate. Your such a fucking loser, and you're gonna finally get what's coming to you." I try to leave but she blocks the door. "Get out of my way." "Or what? Pussy! What the fuck are you going to do?" I pick her up and throw her into the desk, sending the computer equipment flying and crashing on the floor. Does she even know the hell I've been through lately? She lands heavily and screams. Not in pain, but in anger. It looks like she's going to rush me, but then she begins laughing. "Oh Alex, you poor little piece of shit. Now you want to go save the world? Go on, run over there. You'll never disarm it. You don't have the fucking brainpower. Asshole." I run out the door, grabbing my phone. Thank God I have Ellie's new number on me. I dial it as I run towards Building Four. I have no idea what I'm going to do. It rings and rings, not even going to voice mail. I'm already halfway to the building when she picks up. "Alex?" "Ellie! Carrie's gone nuts! She wired Building Four with explosives, and it's going to blow in about 13 minutes. We've got to stop it. I'm heading there now." "Alex! Don't! I'll be there in a minute! I have something to tell you about Carrie, something I just discovered. She's not who--" I trip on a curb, and my phone goes flying right out into the street where a semi crushes it, all 18 wheels it seems. "Shiiit!!!" I scream. It's now in tiny little pieces, way beyond repair. I race down the street oblivious to the pain in my skinned knee and elbows. As usual, Building Four is locked up as tight as a drum. I jump over to Building Three next door where there's a reception area. I run up to her. "There's a bomb in Building Four. You need to evacuate immediately." I must be a great sight, panting and sweating, blood dripping from my torn shirt and pants. She sort of just stares at me blankly. I start screaming. "There's a fucking bombing about to go off! Now!" I spot a fire alarm on the wall and I go and pull it. She jumps on the phone and calls someone. I run back outside. In a few moments, I see some red lights start flashing on Building Four, and a siren begins to wail. In moments, I spot a door opening. I sprint over to it and push my way past people emerging from the building. God, why didn't I think of this before? I'm finally in Building Four. I know I have only ten minutes or so, but I have to see it. I have to see the machine behind all this drama. I run up the stairs to the fourth floor and get in when someone opens the door to evacuate. I see plenty of servers humming away. I walk all around, up and down halls, ignoring the calls to evacuate. There's nothing but servers. I try the third floor. Exactly the same. There's nothing in Building Four. All this time, and it's exactly what everyone says it was. No secret labs, no secret projects, no secret teams of developers. No fingerprinting machine. Just regular servers, providing people with useful online communities. Nothing more. What...the...fuck...is...going...on? I remember the bomb. I think it's in the garage. This place is about to blow. I've got to get out of here. Shit shit shit shit shit

"Over"? Did you say, "Over"? Well I thought I was done with Carrie. I thought I was done with Ellie. I thought I was done with Infinitae, the plot, the lies and deceits. I came back to Frisco today, trying to reclaim my life, and perhaps start to move on. But then came the nagging questions. Where did this whole plot come from? Who's telling the truth, and is there any truth to be found? What the fuck has been happening? So I drove back this morning, dropped my shit off at the apartment, and then decided to go out to lunch because I don't have shit in my place. Hell, Ellie did most of the shopping, and cooking, and cleaning, and lying with me and to me. Fuck. Can you see I'm in a mood? I'm in the mall, eating a slice of non-turkey infested pizza, when guess who sits in the chair next to me? Well you had a 50% chance of getting it right...it's Ellie! Woo hoo! "What are you doing here," I say, not surprised, not happy, just feeling pissed. I'll admit she looked great, her hair all wavy and wearing makeup instead of a coating of human blood. "Please Alex, I just need a minute. I promise I won't bother you anymore." She seems fairly sincere, but she always did. "I thought you were leaving the country," I replied, looking around the mall for prying eyes. "It's been delayed a few days. Something's come up. Something I could use your help with." "Right. Don't you work for the bad guys? Why the hell should I listen to you? Why should I believe a single word you say?" She grips my arm with a firm grasp, and looks directly at me. "Alex. I understand that you're feeling a little betrayed right now. I would feel the same way. But this is a matter of life and death, not for just you, but for millions of people." I grimace a bit. "Come on, Ellie. I told you I don't want to be involved anymore. You said you would be doing the investigating from now on. I'm out." I snatch my arm away. She reaches into her handbag for a moment. Part of me half expects her to pull out a gun but she just retrieves some papers. "Just look at these, Alex. Not here, somewhere private. If you think there's nothing to it, then just burn the paper and you're out. However if you think there's something to it, then there's a number on the back where I can be reached. Don't call from your home or cell, those could be bugged. Go buy a prepaid cell and throw it out after the call. There's a couple twenties in there to pay for it." She pushes the papers into my hands and turns to leave. I watch her walk off, admiring her lithe figure in her tight-fitting pants. I catch myself, realizing that I really need to use my head. Whatever we had was a myth, a false relationship. Fuck, she could have faked everything. That would really suck. I drive for a little and find a quiet place in Golden Gate Park, not too far from the Infinitae offices. I extract the money and throw it into my wallet. Hell, I paid the goddamn rent and utilities, I deserve some payback. I should bill the goddamn Chinese Government for all of it. Whatever. I unfold the pages. The first one looks like a blueprint. At the top it reads, "Infinitae Building Four Redesign". Yeah right. I study the page for a moment. It looks like half the interior of the building has been removed. Now some kind of large spherical device four floors high sits in there, surrounded by all kinds power and computing equipment. Could this be the fingerprinting device that can scan the unique fingerprint of every object in the world? Can it also transmit fingerprints and cause people to see or do things? I look at another page which seems to be a deployment schedule: "GMCEX Project: Operational test 2007-12-28T18:00:00" What does that mean? Something's going to happen this Wednesday? Then I see more: Target: Beijing Influence Object: Money Objective: Create a mass rush on banks from people seeking cash Now I see why Ellie came to me. If every person in Beijing suddenly decided to cash in their life savings, the resulting economic disaster could be so severe that China could lose next summer's Olympics. I look through the other pages that contain some more detailed schematics of Building Four and a list of other possible targets. North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Russia...it looks like an American plot at this point. I have to admit that I get really curious about all this. These pages are the most evidence I've seen so far about the plot. I think about running to the store for a phone but then I hesitate. I've been set up so many times already. What if this is all crap again? It's really detailed, but so is a Hollywood movie set. I resist the urge to call Carrie as well. This stuff will really make her go off the deep end. I drive by Building Four, trying to penetrate its brick facade with my eyes. It's hard to imagine that it contains something so strange and powerful. I keep driving, and end up at my apartment. I try to put it out of my mind. I end up watching game shows and sports recaps. I hear a knock on my door and cringe. I should have just stayed at the cabin until I get an interview. It's Marcia of all people. "Hey Alex, I was able to get away for a minute, and I thought we'd 'catch up'." Great. "How's Brad?" "Oh, fine. He can get around on his own a little bit. We'll be heading back to DC in a few days once he's fit to fly." "So? What's up?" She sits on my couch and indicates that I should join her. "Well, Alex, your friend has caused me no end of trouble. All those people who attacked us have just...disappeared. As if nothing ever happened. We have no clue who they are or what they wanted. Alex, I can't help you if I have nothing to go on." "I have no idea myself. Ellie's her own person, and she doesn't tell me anything. I was just glad to be alive, and she left when it all was over. I haven't heard from her since. I told you she's leaving the country." I don't know why I still lie for her. I don't know why I have any loyalty to her at all. "Well Alex, if you have any way of contacting her, you might want to do it. We're facing a situation here, and let me tell you this is classified so it doesn't leave this room." She pulls out some papers from her purse. Why do I suddenly have a sense of deja vu? I look at the papers. They're exactly the same ones Ellie gave to me. Well almost. I look at them carefully. On the schedule I notice one important difference. Instead of Beijing, it says Boston. It also mentions other US and European cities as potential targets. "What do you think it means," I ask her carefully. Marcia shrugs. "That's why I'm here. You've had the most exposure to the work here." I look at her for a moment then I remember something. "I thought you were in Building Four once? I saw you leave Building Four." "Yeah, No. I got a tip about meeting an informant under Building Four. Corporate Security let me in. I wait half an hour but no one showed up. Then I got a call that the informant was at Stanford. Once again, nothing, then the whole lab blows up. You were there, remember?" I nod. "An informant? Did you ever figure out who it was?" She shakes her head. "We think it came from inside Infinitae but we can't be sure. At first I thought someone might be after me, or even after you, but now we have no idea what it was all about. We've questioned people about that building, and they all tell us that it's just servers. I've been meaning to go verify that, but you and your crazy antics are getting me sidetracked, and now with Brad the way he is...I just can't get away." Marcia puts a hand on my arm and I almost jump out of my skin. I've got deja vu up my wazoo today. "Alex. If China is planning some kind of attack, we need to use whatever channels we have to try to deter them. Any attack on US soil will be considered an act of war. We will be forced to raid Building Four, and any damage to our infrastructure or civilians will be answered in kind. We've already raised our secret threat level. Now I think I got to know Elena a little bit this weekend. I don't think she wants this any more that I do. I think she might be reasonable." I'm speechless for a moment. I'm thinking that the Chinese must be up in arms as well. A few sheets of paper could be the start of World War III. "Listen, Marcia, I would be really hesitant to act on any of this. I don't know how much this information can be trusted. Times, dates, capabilities, without proof you just need to be careful." "That's where you come in. We need you to find out what you can. Whatever contacts you have, whoever you can trust, just give me some information. And you'll need to contact Galistina and make her understand that we're taking this threat seriously." I lie on the couch after Marcia leaves in disbelief. It's all a setup, I can feel it. But for what? And why? Like I said, this thing's not over. And if I read these dates correctly, things are about to explode. I'm just going to sleep on it at this point.