Page 84 of Master of Chaos

My gut flash-froze. Oh fuck. Oh no, no, no.

“Fuck me.” Ethan muttered, as his fingers pounded at the keyboard. “I can’t get in. But SmokeScreen never sensed any malware! It didn’t show up on any of the scans!”

The scrolling turned so fast, it became a dizzying blur followed by a brief, blinding flash of light… and the screen went black.

In the horrified silence that followed, we watched as a pinpoint of light appeared in the center of the screen, growing like the light of an oncoming train. It got bigger, until I recognized it. It was an image, one that I’d seen just the day before.

It was the logo for Red Queen Consulting, the one that Reggie had drawn, and that Red had been so proud of. That cat-like cartoon face, with the big, tilted light green eyes, halo of curly red Medusa-like locks, waving wildly out from her golden crown, but this image had been animated. The Medusa hairs wiggled like real snakes, the laughing mouth was continually blowing a kiss, one of the green eyes kept winking.

And a rainbow-tinted, glowing worm wiggled in an endless circle around her.

Beneath her, a short piece of script began to cycle.Red Queen Consulting – Off With Their Heads! – Red Queen Consulting – Off With Their Heads!

“Cass’s outfit,” Remy’s voice was heavy.

“It’s one of her worms,” Ethan said, his voice expressionless. “It swallowed SmokeScreen, and everything else with it. And we are fucked.”

I pulled out my phone and dialed Red’s number again.

It rang, and rang, and rang.

CHAPTER22

Cass

Iwas floating on air as I closed the call with Shane. Darius and Amos high-fived each other, grinning ear to ear. Holly and Kat were hugging, too. Kat slid her phone into her pocket and came over to give me a tight hug. “Ethan came through,” she said proudly. “That guy is magic. It gets me every time.”

“Runs in the family,” I said.

She laughed. “That it does,” she said. “All those Masters. Genius, guts, and an incredible talent for getting themselves sunk knee-deep in shit. It’s spectacular to watch, if a little nerve-wracking. But we both have nerve. So it’s okay, I think.”

“I think so, too,” I told her.

“Excuse me, Ms. Clarke?”

I turned, and remembered the doctor who had been gesturing for my attention the whole time that I was talking to Shane. “Oh. Sorry. I got distracted. Yes?”

“Congratulations, by the way!” he said, grinning. “I’m so pleased for you!”

I focused on the young guy, mousy-blond and balding. His name tag said Dr. J. Avery. I didn’t recognize him, but God knows, I hadn’t been paying much attention lately. “You already heard?” I asked.

“Dr. Demiguel told us! Our pharmacy people are already working on it. We just want to expedite things, so I have a couple of quick questions for you about Regina’s medical history, if you wouldn’t mind coming with me for a moment. Just down the hall a bit. It won’t take long. To speed things up for Regina. We want to work fast.”

“Sure, of course,” I said, waving at Kat. “I’ll be right back!”

I followed Dr. Avery down the hall, around the nurses’ station. The man was tall and walked quickly. I had to scurry to keep up, but I was thrilled to hurry, if a cure for Reggie was in the offing. “Are they already compounding the drug?” I asked. “What kind of medicine is it, anyway? How does it work?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s not my specialty, so I can’t really say,” he said, his voice apologetic “Dr. Demiguel and the others will be able to tell you more. Come right on in… here.” He opened a door, standing aside and beckoning me in, all gallantry.

I hurried in, my mouth already forming questions, and stopped short, sucking in a horrified gasp.

Halliwell stood in front of me, hands in his suit pockets. Smiling.

The door swung shut behind me. I inhaled to scream, but he held up his hand. “Not a sound, if you don’t want Reggie to die right now,” he warned.

“But what… how…”

He held up a white remote control. “This controls how sick she gets.” His voice had the tone of someone explaining a simple lesson to a slow-witted child. “Remember last night, when she took a sharp turn for the worse around dinnertime? That was me, moving this dial from ten to twenty-five. It goes up to a hundred, though I suspect that little Regina would be long gone before I got up to sixty or seventy. But we can’t know unless we experiment. Shall we see how she does at, say, thirty-five?”