When All Else Fails (A Push of a Button Novella)

Chapter Eight

SEB HOVERED BESIDE Mr. H. The old man pressed the tiny metal probe against the center of the button and tapped here and there. He had no idea what that achieved, but it had to do something. Otherwise, Mr. H wouldn't be wasting precious time on it. Not when their lives might depend on deactivating the tracker and removing the button before it was reactivated.

Mr. H glanced over at him and smiled. "It's going well so far." His attention returned to the tiny instrument and the screen connected to it.

Seb peered at the set up. None of it made much sense to him, but, fortunately, he didn't have to figure this out. Would talking distract Mr. H? If it would, the old man probably wouldn't have spoken at all. He shifted from foot to foot.

"You have questions."

He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. His gaze roamed over the white-washed walls, frilly white curtains, and the open window behind them. "How do you know it's working?"

"Because..." Mr. H paused, and a tiny beep emitted from Viv's button.

He sucked in a breath and looked down at her. "What just happened?"

Mr. H grinned. "The tracker is disabled, which makes the next part a little simpler. But..." His smile fell, and he went back to concentrating on his task. "I have to avoid triggering the defense mechanisms. The government would shut them off using the code, but I have to use the back-door method they leave for emergencies."

"Oh. And if you don't find it?"

"Then the button will eject a poison into her brain, killing her in an instant. It's intentional to keep us from removing them."

"What? But..." Seb shook his head. "Why would anyone want to? The buttons are good for us. They give us the ability to do more in life than we could otherwise."

Mr. H chuckled under his breath. "Son, if that were true, there wouldn't be so many of us without them. If that were true, yours would be fully functional and wouldn't have been meant to kill you, and Vivian wouldn't be laying here unconscious under my care."

He winced. True. "So lots of people remove them?"

"I wouldn't say lots. But many Diexebels do. Only the ones undercover using their position of influence for the Father keep them. Fortunately for all of us, the GPS signal deep in the underground bunkers and passages is lost thanks to the way they built the software." Mr. H tapped a few buttons on the screen and went back to fiddling with Viv's button. "But those who wish to disappear into the ranks of the Buttonless come to me."

"That has to be dangerous."

"Of course. But the ones who come to me are those who want to make a change. To help people and to bring God back into His rightful place. They are willing to sacrifice the power they've had all their lives in order to work in secret and in highly-dangerous circumstances for His sake. But that risk is also why it's so hard for most to come to the Father. Giving up their control and power is both repulsive and frightening to most."

He crossed his arms. Well, that seemed fair. He and Viv wouldn't have if it weren't for the necessity. With Dane and the entire Supremacy after them, they had no choice but to use extreme measures. The trackers needed to go. If hers had a tracker though, did his? Could they activate it if hers went offline? "I want mine removed too. Just to be safe."

Mr. H slid the probe further into the side of the button and pushed up. A click and a high-pitched beep sounded in the silence, followed by a whir and then nothing. The button shivered as if being shaken from beneath, and he caught the hint of a metal tip sliding back into the button's casing before Mr. H popped it up off Viv's skin. He swallowed back bile but refused to look away. A trickle of blood dripped from four puncture wounds behind her ear. Seb snatched the clean cloth off the table and handed it to Mr. H, who wiped her skin clean and put pressure on the wound.