Chương 85: Chapter 84: The Little Boy In The Hero Suit (10/19/1987 | 01:45 PM)

DATE: Monday, October 19, 1987 LOCATION: Burbank, California | Warner Bros. Studios, Stage 12 LOCAL TIME: 01: 45 PM PST The director yelled "Wrap," and the cathedral of artificial rain finally hissed into silence. I climbed down from the fire escape, my legs feeling like lead. The adrenaline from the market orders was still humming in my blood—a toxic, electric high. We had won. Archstone was the new owner of the board. I needed to tell him. I needed Bucky to run the math on the Disney acquisition.

I needed to hear that reedy, thoughtful voice tell me I was moving too fast, just so I could tell him I'd already arrived. I pulled the black handset from my belt and hit the direct link to the Petit Trianon. The line connected instantly. The CDMA signal was flawless—there wasn't even the comforting hiss of a long-distance connection, just an unnerving, absolute digital void. There was no "Fuller here." No sound of a pencil scratching against vellum. Just the empty silence of a room without a breath in it.

I waited. Ten seconds. Thirty. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Bucky?" I whispered. My voice didn't have the baritone of the executive. It sounded small. It sounded eleven. No answer. I hung up, a cold, oily dread settling in my stomach. I dialed the main house at the Sand Castle. Nana answered on the second ring. Her voice was thick—the kind of heavy, wet sound that only comes from hours of quiet weeping.

"Nana?"

"Oh, Chaddy," she choked out. The sound of my name in her mouth broke my heart before she even spoke the words.

"It's Bucky, honey. And Anne. They're... they're gone." I sat down on a crate of camera lenses, the Kevlar of my suit creaking in the silence of the soundstage. The armor that had protected me from a fifteen-foot drop suddenly felt heavy, hot, and completely useless.

"What do you mean 'gone'?"

"The nurse went in to wake them for breakfast. They were holding hands, Chad. Both of them. The doctor said their hearts just... they just stopped. At the same time. As if they had decided it was time to go together." I stared at my gloved hands. The market had just closed. I had bought the airwaves, the last mile, and the mythologies of the next century. I was the most powerful person on the planet. And I was completely, utterly alone.

"Chad? Are you there, baby?" I looked up at the Klieg lights. They were being powered down, one by one, plunging the "Narrows" into a very real, very permanent darkness. The "fake" Gotham moon above the set flickered and died, leaving only the red glow of the exit signs.

"I'm here, Nana," I said, my voice returning to that flat, dead monotone.

"I'll be home soon." I folded the phone. I didn't cry. I just sat there in the dark, a little boy in a hero's suit, realizing that the only man who could keep me under control had just left the building.