Page 35 of Factory Thief

“Would I what, now?”

“Come with me. If I left the country…ran away from all of this.”

“I—I don’t know, Jack,” she says with a sigh. “I’ve been all over the world, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather live than the good old US of A, for all its problems. There are a lot of things we take for granted here.”

I feel like I’ve been slapped, but she keeps going.

“Besides that, Jack, do you really want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wondering when unfinished business will catch up with you? That’s no way to live. More importantly, though, that’s not who you are. You’re the underdog who never quits fighting. Do you really want to give up and run away?”

I look down at her and realize I can’t disappoint Victoria. Not in this moment. Her eyes brim with a long-forgotten hope newly rediscovered.

“No. I can’t just give up and run away. But I can’t stay put either. I’m good as dead if the CEO’s men catch up with us.” I hesitate. “Still, I don’t want to run forever. I want to be able to enjoy my life, not spend it looking over my shoulder waiting for the hammer to fall.”

Victoria nods. “I agree with you one hundred percent. Listen, I’ve not done a whole lot for the greater good in my day. I’ve been pretty selfish. I’ll do whatever it takes to help you expose what Xtera has done and get your life back.”

I gape at her in shock. “Why are you helping me?”

“I don’t like it when big corporations screw people over any more than you. I don’t know why the Factory wants you, and I don’t care. All I know is, I’m definitely not going to turn you over to them.”

Surprise, surprise. I look into her fiercely-determined, green-eyed gaze and feel a stirring of hope.

“Are you sure you’re not just helping me because of the incredible sex we had the other night?”

“Ha, easy for you to say. You’re not the one with scratches from the rocks and sand still stuck in her crack.” Her smile fades. “Don’t worry. I’m with you until this ends. I’ll help you see it through.”

I realize right now I want her to be with me even after we take down Xtera. I don’t want her to leave me, not ever.

I can’t think about any of that, however. Not until I can get my hands on proof that their clinical trials failed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve lost the proof of Xtera’s wrongdoings.”

“Don’t worry,” she says, eyes glittering with promise. “I have a plan.”

VICTORIA

We pull off the highway and drift into the Valley. I’ve never been much of one for this collection of cities dominated by stark contrasts. On one hand, you have the glittering, glass towers and castle-like structures of Big Tech firms. Their opulence bleeds into the gated communities where the elite of the Valley hide from the ruin surrounding them.

The fading afternoon sun stretches long, purple shadows over the crumbled cityscape of one of the worst areas of the Valley. The success never trickled down to these mean streets, leaving the people there to struggle and fight—sometimes to the death—over what scraps they may find.

I shake my head at the sight of adolescent children selling drugs on the corners, or the old men standing in worn three-piece suits awaiting the city bus.

If you want to spot societal ruin, look for a place where the old men look for work, and the young men for trouble.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asks, stirring me from my reverie.

“Nothing, it’s just been a long time since I’ve been in the Valley.”

“Has it changed so much you can’t recognize it any longer?”

I shake my head sadly. “No, Jack. That’s the thing. It hasn’t changed. It hasn’t changed at all.”

We pull into the lot of a seedy hotel with the audacity to call itself the Shady Pines Inn. Sure, it’s shady enough all right. Beady-eyed menace glares at us from the second-story balcony as I pull the car in under the carport and we enter the lobby.

“I’m afraid to touch the door handles for fear of catching the black plague.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” I say, holding the door open for him. “These places aren’t going to be hooked up to the nationwide hotel rewards networks. Xtera has diversified. They own malls, office buildings and even a few hotel franchises, but not a place this lowbrow.”

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