Once again, Alex had beaten Riley, and he was scouring the offices in search of Debbie. While he was occupied with the search for his lost love, Justin and Lincoln were planning their escape. They were one floor below Lincoln's office, with a laptop that lit up the dark storage closet they had holed up in. Justin was nervously pacing back and forth in the limited space as Lincoln tapped away at the laptop. He had opened up HALLE, the artificial intelligence created by Riley's team.
"Good evening, Mr. Ambrose!" HALLE said in her cheerful artificial voice. "How can I help you?" She appeared on the screen. Riley's team had upgraded her recently and given her the appearance of a young woman in her mid-twenties with dark, curly hair and bright blue eyes. She always wore a smile. Lincoln found it a little bit disturbing.
"Good evening HALLE," Lincoln said. "There's not much you can actively do for me. Just keep an eye on Riley and whatever he's getting up to with Alex. Let me know if Alex starts heading our way. I'm just going through the blueprints to the building right now."
"Noted, Mr. Ambrose!" HALLE said. Her avatar flickered off the screen and Lincoln continued typing away, pulling up blueprints and overlaying them, making sure that he had the escape routes planned out perfectly. One wrong step, one wrong turn, and they would be lost in the air ducts or worse.
Justin paced around the room with the energy of a caged tiger. Lincoln did not allow himself to be distracted by the boy. He kept his focus on the laptop, and the blueprints, and kept an ear out for any warnings from HALLE.
"How much longer?" he asked in a strained whisper.
"Patience, Justin," Lincoln said in his refined voice. He sounded entirely too calm. "Riley's defeat bought us some time."
Exactly how much time would remain to be seen. RIley had a habit of being defeated by Alex. So much of a habit that Lincoln could form his escape plans around them. Lincoln had several escape plans, each determined by how long he suspected that Riley would be held up by Alex. Although Lincoln had harsh feelings toward his grandson, he had to admit that there was something about Alex that he admired.
"And why are we just sitting here?" Justin asked, standing next to Lincoln. "We could be using that extra time to escape."
Lincoln stopped typing and looked over his shoulder at Justin.
"My boy," he said, "I have been planning our escape this entire time. I always have an escape plan, it's just a matter of which one will work. Patience is a virtue."
"Patience is a death sentence," Justin grumbled, crossing his arms, and turning away. He found himself looking at a shelf filled with cleaning supplies. A mop was leaning precariously against the wall, sticking out of a bright yellow bucket. Several broken hazard signs were piled up around them.
Lincoln had returned to typing away on the laptop, the clicking sounds filling the tight space.
"Can you access the security cameras there?" Justin asked, turning around to look at the screen.
"I have them open in a separate window," Lincoln explained, pulling them up. Justin yelped when he saw Alex.
"He's on this floor!" He said, starting to feel scared.
"Yes, I can see that," said Lincoln. "A couple of hallways away from us, I should say." He turned to look up at Justin. "I think it's time for a little brotherly reunion, don't you?"
Justin blinked slowly, not quite understanding.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Lincoln sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I mean," he said, exasperated, "that you need to go out there and distract him long enough for me to open our escape route."
"Why can't we just go out the front door?" Justin demanded, crouching down and looking at the laptop. Alex had turned a corner and was drinking at a watercooler. "It would be much easier."
"And we'd expose ourselves," Lincoln explained, switching the screen. "Too much risk for too little reward."
"The reward is our lives!" Justin said, aghast.
Lincoln had changed the image on the screen to a detailed map of the building with pathways drawn through it. Lincoln pointed to a blue line and traced with his finger. Justin's eyes followed Lincoln's finger. It led to an elevator in a hidden hallway behind the main boss offices. There were several digital and physical barriers which needed to be unlocked.
"So," Justin said, finally understanding, "you need me to distract him. Just rough him up a bit, then run away?"
Lincoln nodded. "Precisely. Get in, get out, meet me here." He pointed at a spot toward the end of the escape route.
"Two floors beneath us," Justin whispered as he memorized the location. "By the motivational cat poster. Got it!"
"Good!" said Lincoln, returning to the laptop. "Now get out there and rough up your brother!"
***
A few moments later, Alex turned a corner, and came face to face with Justin. Alex stopped mid-stride, surprised to find his younger brother there. He looked nervous, as though he didn't want to be there. Alex didn't want his little brother to get in harm's way. Too much bad blood had been spilt between them already, and Alex wasn't about to spill more.
"We meet again!" said his younger brother, throwing his arms wide in greeting. "So good to see you!"
"Get out of the way, Justin," Alex said flatly. "I'm not looking for a fight. I'm done with all of that. Just point me in Debbie's direction, and I'll leave. No blows thrown."
Justin laughed and shook his head. "See," he said. "That's not how this works. We fight, you win, then you find the girl."
"Nope," Alex said, shaking his head. "I just kicked Riley's butt, I'm not about to do the same to my little brother. Step aside, and we can both go on with our lives. Deal?"
"No deal!" Justin shouted, then he ran at Alex.
Alex stepped aside, throwing his right arm out to the side so Justin crashed into it. Alex stood firm as Justin fell backwards. If Alex hadn't pulled that maneuver, Justin would have certainly gotten a hold of his neck.
Alex crouched down and extended a hand, intending to help Justin to his feet. Justin just stared at him. After a couple of moments of staring at each other, Alex stood up and put his hands on his hips.
"I told you," He said. "I just beat Riley, for the hundredth time. I'm not fighting you. Just tell me where Debbie is."
Justin jumped to his feet and lunged into Alex with his shoulder. Alex spun on the ball of his foot, grabbing Justin by the ribs to dislodge him. Justin flew back several feet, hitting the wall so hard he bounced off of it. He fell to the floor and lay still for several seconds, before slowly coming too. He looked up at Alex, surprised.
"Why aren't you attacking me?" Justin demanded.
"Because I don't want to fight," Alex said. "I'm defending myself because Debbie needs me." Alex thought for a moment. "Why Are you attacking me?"
Justin pushed himself into a seated position with his back against the wall. Above him was a picture of a dog in a waistcoat. The force of impact from when Alex had thrown him had dislodged the frame and cracked the glass. Justin was looking at the floor between his feet, his shoulders hunched over.
"Something is really off," Justin said. "No matter what I do, I don't feel like you're my brother. We have the same parents, but I don't feel like an Ambrose."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what that means."
Justin got to his feet. "You're the golden child," he said. "Everything you do is perfect. Mom and Dad are proud of you no matter what happens. I do anything, and I'm the moody one, the problem child."
"That doesn't mean they don't love you," Alex said. "And you are not the problem child. You're an Ambrose no matter what. We have the same parents, and they have no boundaries. Everything they do is an invasion of privacy, or a comment on what we do."
Justin shook his head sadly. "No," he said in a voice no louder than a whisper. "I don't think we do share the same parents. Same mother, certainly, but not the same father."
Alex's blood ran cold, and he felt a stab of guilt in his chest. He remembered his mother's words, "There's a chance Gideon isn't Justin's father." How long had Justin suspected?
There must have been something in Alex's face that gave away his thoughts, because Justin laughed and said, "Even you can see it!" He began to advance; his arms open wide. "I'm not Gideon Ambrose's son. Barely even your brother. No wonder I'm the problem child! No-"
While Justin was talking Alex took three long steps forward and booted Justin in the chest, cutting him off and sending him to the floor. Winded, Justin looked up to the ceiling with unfocused eyes. Alex looked down at him.
"I'm going to tell you one last time," he said. "I am here to find Debbie. Not to fight you. Now get the hell out of here because I damn sure am not about to do something I'll regret because your ego can't understand the word 'no.' You are my brother, no matter who your father is. Go!"
With that, Justin scrambled to his feet and dashed down the hallway away from Alex. He paused only to look back, then he disappeared again.
Justin met Lincoln at the rendezvous point. The younger man came running up the hallway, huffing and puffing from running so fast. Lincoln was surprised that Alex had let him go. He had assumed that Riley would have been a warmup.
"That didn't take long," Lincoln commented. "I heard some of the commotion."
Justin rolled his eyes. "The idiot wouldn't fight me!"
Lincoln shook his head. "I'm surprised he didn't."
"He kept saying he wanted to find Debbie," Justin said. "And that he didn't want to hurt me."
Lincoln exhaled. "Oblivious," he said. "Just like his father."
Justin looked away, embarrassed. The comment clearly stung. Lincoln said nothing more on the topic.
"Let's just get going," said Justin.
Lincoln pressed his thumb into the scanner next to the elevator. The doors slid open, and the two of them stepped inside. When the doors shut, they descended into the catacombs of Enrichment.