Tasha finds out about Maxwell's plan
Tasha stared at the scrawl of Maxwell’s handwriting. She blinked a few times, her carefully crafted cold facade threatening to crack.
Maxwell was rustling through the drawers of his desk. There was mess everywhere. It was unnervingly unlike him.
“Ah, here it is.” He brandished the final piece of paper and presented it to her.
She took it and added it to the stack. Her throat was dry.
He’d been manic since they’d found out he had lung cancer. It was aggressive and practically a death sentence. Tasha had been trying to figure out how to tell Lance, but apparently, Maxwell’s focus was somewhere else entirely.
“You can’t be serious.”
He stepped around the desk. “Of course I am. This is the perfect solution.”
She winced. “You’re talking about killing other people. A brain transplant has never been done. Even if it’s successful, you’re dooming someone else to death.”
Maxwell waved a hand. “Irrelevant. Besides, we have the most sophisticated technology in the world. I’ve made sure of it. So if it can be done, we’ll do it.”
Tasha gulped. Her hands were starting to shake. Maxwell had always been cruel and calculating; it was what had drawn her to him in the first place. It was what made them such a good team. Tasha herself couldn’t boast to caring much for other people. People were generally one of two things: obstacles to where you wanted to go or stepping stones to them. But this was too far.
The days when they’d been a good team were long gone. Things had shifted the further into their marriage they got. Despite them creating their fortune together, things changed after Lance, after the robots.
She glanced suspiciously at the robot standing in the corner.
Tasha straightened. She knew Maxwell, and logic was the best way to get through to him. “You do realise the risks with this, legally I mean.”
He nodded. “I have it covered. I already have some of the robots out rounding up some of the homeless to trial transplants on.”
She almost flinched. He’d never been this blasé about human life, not to this extent. “And once it’s successful. Whose body do you plan on taking?”
He shuffled through the papers in her hands and set another one on top. It was almost illegible, as Maxwell’s handwriting always was. But Tasha had two decades under her belt of deciphering his scrawl.
Her mouth dropped open. “Sixty kids. Maxwell!” She couldn’t hide the disgust this time. She was quick to collect herself; logical arguments had to be her focus. “Someone will realise if sixty kids go missing.”
“I’ve thought of that.”
Her eyes dropped back to the page as she searched the rest of the rambling. They were insane. But also brilliant, in a horrible way. If you want to kidnap people, the best approach was people who were already a flight risk, ones trapped in a system that would hardly notice that they disappeared. She swallowed. She shook her head. “This is too far, Maxwell. We can’t do this.”
His eyes got that dangerous glint in them. “We have to. This is the answer we’ve been searching for. Eternal life.”
That had been his obsession, not hers. It was why he’d become obsessed with the robots to begin with. The idea that he might be able to download his consciousness into a computer and live forever.
She looked back at the paper. “This says trials, what kind of trials?”
“Trials?” A voice came from the doorway.
Tasha stiffened, and Maxwell grinned. This was his trump card always. It had been from the moment Lance had been born, hell, the moment he’d been conceived. Before that, they’d been two ambitious souls who could use each other to stay on top. Then Lance was born, and suddenly Maxwell had something to use against her; suddenly, they weren’t on an even playing field, and he’d used it to his advantage ever since.
“Come in here, son.”
Lance glanced between them from his position at the doorway. Then slowly he walked into the room.
Maxwell clapped him on the shoulder, and Lance leaned away from him in confusion. “I think it’s time you live up to the Ledger name.”
Tasha said quickly, “Maxwell, this is unnecessary.” She didn’t want Lance to be anywhere near this, to be implicated in murder.
He shushed her. “You know I’ve been thinking that to secure your inheritance, you should prove that you’re the best, show me you’ll fight for it.”
Numbness spread through Tasha’s hands and up her arms. No. He couldn’t possibly be implying that… no, he couldn’t.
Lance’s chest puffed up. “I’ll fight for it.”
“It won’t be easy. You may have to do some unpleasant things.”
“I can do it. I can make you proud.”
“Brilliant. It’ll be last man standing, and if you can prove that you’re better than say—” Maxwell turned his gaze on Tasha—“fifty-nine other people. You’ll show me that you’re truly a Ledger.”
“I’m ready.”
“Good,” Maxwell steered Lance to the door. “I’ll get everything ready over the next few weeks.” Lance opened his mouth, but Maxwell shut the door on him. He turned back to Tasha and raised his brows.
“You can’t be serious.”
He shrugged. “This is happening.”
“Fine,” she bit out. “Lance isn’t one of the sixty.”
Maxwell frowned. “Okay.”
Tasha pursed her lips.
“Good.” He moved around the desk. “Now we can put out the call for research volunteers. We’ll try to keep the numbers even.”
Tasha was still reeling, and she couldn’t fully concentrate on what he was saying. “Even?”
“30 for me and 30 for you.”
She felt dizzy. He wanted her to do it with him. Move into another person's body. She blinked as her vision blurred and she tried to pass out. Even now, he saw them as some twisted team.
They hadn’t been a team for a very long time.
When she finally got a hold of herself and her vision came back into focus. Maxwell was talking, more plans, all the things they had to do to prepare. Tasha glanced down at the paper and slowly looked through them. Ideas of trials, plans for massive robotic creatures. God, not more bloody robots.
The robots were programmed to listen to both of them, but they were Maxwell’s robots. If it came down to it, he was their priority.
Maxwell said, “It’s like our own natural selection to get the best of the bunch.”
There was nothing natural about it. Tasha forced a smile. “Sounds good.”
He looked at her now, actually studying her. “This is important; it will change history. Even if no one knows it happens.”
She nodded.
Finally, he dropped his head and started to write again. More of his crazy ideas. Slowly, Tasha lowered the papers she was holding to the desk and walked out of the room. She went straight to Lance's room. He was sitting on his bed, watching another stupid high school movie. She didn’t know why he was so obsessed with those. Weren’t teenagers supposed to hate school? She didn’t say a word, just grabbed his wrist and pulled him up.
“Mum?” He asked, through a mouthful of popcorn.
She dragged him out of his room. There was no time, no stopping to pack. This entire facility was filled with cameras and robots. They needed to leave, and they needed to go now.
Lance stumbled along behind her. “Mu,m what’s going on?”
She turned another corner, and her heartbeat picked up. Her steps sped up until she was running, pulling Lance along behind her.
“Mum! Mum, you’re scaring me,” Lance cried out.
She skidded to a stop as a robot stepped into the middle of the hallway. Then another and another. She spun, but the hallways behind them. It was also filling up.
Her breathing was loud, and her grip on Lance’s arm tightened.
“What’s happening?” He whispered as he stared wide-eyed at the robots surrounding them.
It didn’t take long for Maxwell to appear through the sea of robots. He stared Tasha down, his eyes blazing. “Take Lance back to his room.” One of the robots stepped forward and led Lance away.
Once he was gone, Maxwell stepped forward and hissed, “You’re a coward.”
Tasha just stood straighter. She’d always known this facility was his domain, that the robots were his. But if she’d ever doubted that, here was the proof.
He was trying to make her cower, trying to flex his power. But she wouldn’t let him and stood tall.
He shook his head. “Don’t be stupid, Tasha. You and I both know that isn’t you.”
She dipped her head in acknowledgement. He was right after all. It was stupid. To run like that. No, she needed to be smarter if she wanted Lance out of here.
Maxwell shook his head. “We have our first volunteer, it seems. I think it will be good for him. He’s never had to work for the things he has, not like we did.”
Except their work had been on the stock market, not a set of twisted, dangerous trials. But she couldn’t point that out. It seemed this was happening, Maxwell was determined. She’d have to bide her time and help Lance as much as she could along the way. She had to wait for the right moment to get him out, when Maxwell wasn’t watching her like a hawk, once he was distracted. And if the other fifty-nine had to die before then, so be it. Lance was the one person she truly cared about, and she’d give everything for him. “He can beat them all.”
He smiled, pleased with her answer and reached out for her hand. “I knew you’d come around. We’re a team after all.”
She clutched his hand. Her voice was cold and calm as she spoke. “Of course.”
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