Panic Button

Twelve

“What is the matter with you?” Jo demanded, “You just left your own brother to die.”

“You trying to screw things up for the rest of us, is that it?” Dave asked.

The winners were gathered in the lounge area of the aircraft, all eyes on Max, their accusing eyes demanding an answer from him.

“Max?” Jo said.

“I’m-not-Max!”

Dave groaned in frustration.

Gwen echoed his sound with a dismissive shake of her head.

Jo searched Max’s face with her eyes, trying to fathom him out.

“Listen. Why couldn’t I answer the questions in the game, eh? Do I look like a violinist to you? I’m not him, I’m not Max. God, I’m not even supposed to be on this flight,” he reasoned.

“But your name was on the list… I looked at your profile,” Gwen said.

“It’s not mine! Max is just some… student. I hacked his All2gethr account, changed his contact details…”

Jo glanced at the others. They looked as unsure as she felt about whether or not to believe him.

“I thought they’d rumble me at the airport,” Max said, “but they didn’t even check.”

“What a crock. You expect us to believe you?” Dave said.

“Believe what you want mate, but I’m telling the truth.”

Jo considered Max’s words for a moment. “So, who are you?”

“Like I’m going to tell you that,” Max replied, exasperated.

This quickened Dave’s anger. “Are you part of all this? You little prick…”

Dave lunged at Max. Jo put herself between the two men, holding her arms out to keep them apart.

“Wait! Wait!” She turned to Max and fixed him with a stare. “Who the hell are you?”

Max glanced at each of them. He could feel their tension, anger and fear. He recalled his own tangle of feelings from just moments ago, watching a stranger die with a confusing mixture of remorse and detachment. It was different for the others; Alligator was dangling their family and friends in front of them like bait. But he had no such limitations, he was operating outside of the rules — and he intended to keep it that way.

“Think about it,” Max said, “If I tell you, they’ll go after my friends, my family.”

“What about ours?” Gwen interjected, “They’ve got my sister. I saw her with my own eyes. She doesn’t matter I suppose?”

Dave’s eyes smouldered at Max. How some jumped up kid could deign to start playing mind games with them when there was so much to lose, he just couldn’t fathom. Just when Alligator was piling on the hurt, now this guy was having a go too. He wasn’t going to stand for this.

“You piece of shit!” Dave lunged at Max again, this time managing to punch Max hard in the nose.

Jo struggled with Dave, pushing with all her might to separate him from Max. Dave took a step back, Jo clutching his shirt at chest height.

“Screw you! I’m still going to die, same as you. Idiot…” Max spat, wiping blood from his nose, “You think I’m involved with this? Killing innocent people?”

“Show us some I.D. then,” Dave said.

Jo was in agreement, loosening her grip on Dave’s shirt.

“If you’re so afraid of telling us who you are, then show us.”

“I would,” Max said, “but I don’t have anything on me.”

This time Jo did not try to stop Dave as he muscled in on Max.

“Turn out your pockets,” Dave ordered.

Max looked at Jo and Gwen. They looked to be behind Dave all the way. Max begrudgingly took a cigarette lighter from his pocket, held it up then placed it behind him on the bar.

“And the rest,” Dave said, grabbing Max and frisking him against the bar, airport security style.

Max turned on him, quick as a flash, shoving Dave away, hard.

Dave raised his fist.

“Calm down,” Jo said to Dave, intent on avoiding further violence. “Let me,” she said, stepping close to Max.

She searched Max’s remaining pockets under Dave’s angry glare, finding nothing.

“His jacket.”

Dave grabbed Max’s jacket from its owner’s seat and rifled through it like a thief. He tossed aside a packet of cigarettes and dug into the inside pockets. Triumphantly, Dave pulled out a British passport. He held it up for Jo and Gwen to see, eyes goading Max the whole time.

“I’m fucking warning you!” Max said, worried, “If you say my name out loud I’m finished!”

Dave opened the passport and peered inside, flicking to the photo I.D. page at the back, stern as a border official.

“Mate, please!” Max pleaded.

“Well?” Gwen asked.

Dave looked Max over with suspicious eyes.

“He’s telling the truth,” he said finally, with a sigh.

Dave put the passport back into the inside pocket of Max’s jacket, returning it to his seat.

Max almost imploded with relief, his identity still a secret from Alligator. Jo and Gwen were still staring at him, dumbfounded.

“Are we done here?” Max said.

Before anyone could answer, Max deftly grabbed the crash axe and marched up the aisle toward the cockpit door.

Dave’s voice could barely contain his vitriol.

“Stubborn prick!” he said under his breath.

Fixing Jo and Gwen with a momentary look of abject frustration, he turned on his heel and marched to the rear of the jet.

“I need a piss,” he grumbled as he went.

Jo felt relieved the two men were apart — for now. She glanced at Gwen, who was rocking back and forth in her seat, her sanity on a knife’s edge. Jo was about to offer some placatory words when she heard a deafening clatter from the front of the aircraft — an axe hitting the cockpit door.

Max.

Jo listened to him raining blows on the cockpit door, then strode up to the bar area with grim intent. She glanced over her shoulder at Gwen — she wasn’t looking.

Jo took a deep breath, steadying herself on the edge of the bar. She then popped open a fresh bottle of champagne — and poured four glasses.

Dave sat down on the closed toilet lid, clamping the headset to his ears.

He felt breathless, elated even, to have completed his task so easily. And he’d had the added pleasure of planting one on that annoying little prick’s nose — pretty boys like him never had it in them to step up to the plate. He’d shown Jo and Gwen who the real man was onboard the plane, Dave felt sure of that. Maybe now Jo wouldn’t be so picky with him all the time, giving him the high-and-mighty just because he’d watched some porno when he was bored.

Then, the TV screen on the wall opposite him flickered to life and the Alligator appeared.

“I said no conferring Dave,” the voice boomed in his ears, “and yet you’ve all been chatting away…”

“I’ve done what you asked,” Dave countered.

“Our mystery guest.”

“Yeah, he’s not who he said he was. He’s a blagger. ‘Max’ is just some student whose account he hijacked…”

“Yes, well I’ll deal with him in good time.”

“I got his passport, his real details…”

Dave pulled the passport from the back pocket of his jeans. It had been so easy to snatch it when the girls weren’t looking.

“It doesn’t matter,” Alligator said, sounding unimpressed. “He’s in the game until the bitter end now.”

“Okay…” Dave faltered.

He put the passport back into his pocket. That was one bargaining chip, now it was time for him to try another.

“He’s going to try and break into the cockpit. With the crash axe.”

“Well, we’ll most certainly have to do something about that…” Alligator mused.

“So, I’ve done your spying — right? Now you’ll let her live, let her go?”

Dave waited, heart in mouth, as Alligator fell agonizingly silent.

The screen flickered, and the green face disappeared, replaced with a view of the dingy garage. Sarah was still stood teetering on the stool, straining to keep her balance on exhausted limbs, noose still wrapped around her neck.

“For God’s sake man, let her go. I’ll do anything. Please…”

Max swung the axe head with all his might into the cockpit door. It bounced off again with a clang, leaving barely a dent, and jolting his wrists painfully for his trouble. The door was apparently indestructible; seemingly fashioned from titanium. Wiping perspiration from his brow, Max tried a new approach and attempted to slide the tip of the axe blade into the slight gap between the door and its frame. The axe skittered down the polished surface of the door — the gap was just too narrow.

Swapping the axe over to his other hand, Max peered down at the keypad. Only ten digits, 1-9 plus a zero; how difficult could it be? His mind buzzed with equations, he’d never have enough time to methodically try them all before the plane made a final destination of the All2gethr.com headquarters. He tapped at the keypad, random sequences of numbers. Each attempt was met with a sombre ‘beep’.

Beep, fail. Game over, the keypad seemed to say.

As he stood in the hot glow of the red LED light, Max thought of the Alligator’s greeting when they’d first climbed aboard. The flight number had been D-665 — that was it. Could it really be that simple? Most people still used ‘password’ as their password despite all the warnings to come up with something less obvious, that was in part what made hacking so easy. He tapped in the numbers:

0-6-6-5.

Beep, fail. Game over.

Hacker’s instinct told him he was onto something, so Max tried again:

6-6-5-0.

Another mocking beep from the keypad.

Maybe he needed to include the ‘D’ in the equation somehow. He pictured the little keypad of his mobile phone, the numbers scratched away from the ‘9’ key through several months of use.

“Of course…” Max murmured to himself.

The ‘D’ would equate to the ‘3’ key. He took a nervous breath, and tapped in the sequence:

3-6-6-5.

Beep, fail. Game over.

“Fuck it!” Max grunted in frustration and slammed the keypad with his fist. Their only chance of salvation lay on the other side of the door, just feet away, and it was being denied them because of something as simple as a lock mechanism. He stared into the red light, picturing a pilot purring into a headset microphone in the cockpit beyond — the very voice of the Alligator.

Flustered, he turned and got the crash axe momentarily entangled in the dividing curtain. Cursing some more, he unravelled the axe from the curtain and stomped into the main cabin.

Gwen was slumped red-eyed and silent in her seat. Teetering on the edge of nervous exhaustion, she barely noticed him as he passed by.

Jo was sipping champagne from a flute glass, staring at the floor. Max could almost feel the tension in her body as he walked through the cabin carrying the axe. He looked at the nape of her neck as he passed her — the tender spot where her hairline met her back exposed. Could he do it after all; kill someone in cold blood? Swing the axe down, severing her head from her shoulders? The thought dried his mouth and made his head throb.

No.

He didn’t have it in him. Not now, not never.

Max walked to the bar and put the axe down on the counter. Three glasses of champagne were laid out there in front of him, bubbling gently along with the droning rhythm of the jet engines. He took a glass and downed it in one, then gulped down a second. Helping himself to the third and final glass, he turned and raised it to Jo in a toast.

“To getting out of this alive,” he said, and knocked back the last of the champagne.

Jo watched him in grim silence, then raised her own glass and drained it dry.

Alligator’s voiced boomed in Dave’s ears.

“You have shown aptitude for your assignment, but that’s hardly a surprise — deception is your forte, after all.”

Dave swallowed. It was a guilty sound.

“So you’re… going to let her go, right?”

“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that. I have an additional task for you.”

Dave shifted his weight on the closed toilet seat, trying to regain his composure, dreading to hear what the bastard wanted from him this time. He swallowed again in nervous anticipation, listening through the headphones intently.

“I want you to kill one of your fellow passengers…”

The image of Sarah on the TV screen flickered for a moment as the cameraman moved closer, stroking her cheek with the index finger of his gloved hand. She recoiled, terrified, almost losing her footing on the stool again. The noose hung heavy and deadly as an anaconda around her neck.

“She hasn’t got much time.” Alligator continued, “I’m going to give you three minutes.”

“No, wait, I…”

On the screen, some urgent red numerals appeared, superimposed over the image of Sarah’s terrified face:

‘03:00’, ‘02:59’, ‘02:58’…

The countdown had begun.

“Tick-tock…” Alligator preened.

Dave’s face was a mask of pure panic.

He watched the numbers counting down, and saw his fiancée, helpless and twitching, strength failing her.

With a pang of remorse, he recalled the photo Alligator had shown him and the others during the game. Dave had felt bad about sleeping with Aimée, the French girl, as even the most seasoned player would — but only briefly. She had made it so easy for him to do with her as he pleased; escorting him to his secret needs like a hollow doll desperate to be filled with his lust. She must have wanted it as much as he did. It was a transaction between two consenting adults dancing to their darkest tunes — that was all. A quick shower, then he had blocked her account on All2gethr, all done and forgotten about. She didn’t have his mobile number or anything, so no worries. Sarah need never know. His dalliance changed nothing and so, in a way was proof that he was ready to commit to her, that he really loved her. Sure, he had deceived her, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about her.

He knew why he behaved as he did, in his secret heart-of-hearts, painfully aware of the childhood traumas that informed his adult activities. Dave had been the ‘fat kid’ at school, always trying to fight back through wave after wave of adolescent tears as the others had bullied him. His body had been weak and flabby as a child, but his mind resolute. Dave had taken the beatings and swallowed the taunts, absorbing the bitter frustration of the others until it had festered and bloomed into something rotten. No sooner than he was old enough, big enough, to use his vitriol against others he had done so, over and over. Bullies always begat bullies, it was the way of the world. All the feelings of revenge surging within him focused into his weapon in a war on the fairer sex; the weaker sex. Every charm offensive and subsequent conquest rebalancing the equation little by little, until he was the victim no longer.

When he met Sarah, everything had clicked into place for Dave. She’d been bullied at school too, she knew exactly how it felt and had even drawn Dave’s story out of him like poison sucked from a bite. Until Sarah, he’d never confided in anyone about just how humiliating his school years had been; he’d never felt that he could. She was his rock. And now Sarah needed a protector. She needed him. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t to do for her — and only one chance to prove it. No way could he let this bastard win, no way could he allow him to hurt Sarah.

Dave glanced at his reflection in the mirror and steeled himself.

“Okay,” he said, “Who do you want me to kill?”