End of Watch

Dr. Babineau’s wife Cora answers the doorbell and finds her husband’s weird friend Library Al on her doorstep. Babineau is in his home office; she assumes he is staring at the Zappit console he is so obsessed with. Al (actually Brady in Al’s body) shoots her in the chest. Babineau comes running. Al/Brady compels Babineau to look at the screen still in his hand. Now ensconced in Babineau’s body, Brady gets money from the safe and takes Babineau’s car, leaving Library Al’s body behind to take the heat for Cora’s death.

Hodges is at the home of Barbara’s friend Dinah, who has a Zappit she got from a website. Hodges tells Dinah and her parents that Barbara’s Zappit gave her a shock, which caused her accident. He tells them he is trying to track down whoever is distributing the defective games. Dinah says the website, badconcert.com, is gone. She heard from classmates about a tweet saying that anyone who was at the concert disrupted by Brady was eligible for a free Zappit game console. A week after visiting the website, Dinah received a Zappit from Sunrise Solutions.

Hodges asks if Dinah has ever had a shock or lost time while playing “Fishin’ Hole” as if she were hypnotized. Dinah says no. The game is dull; she only checks it to look for pink fish. If you tap them at certain times, they turn into numbers that can add up to a big prize. You can claim your prize and stay connected to other Zappit users by logging on to zeetheend.com.

Hodges decides not to tell Pete and Isabelle what he has learned; Isabelle would dismiss it as crazy and pointless. Hodges opens the “Fishin’ Hole” demo, finding it mildly restful. He watches it a while before losing interest. He thinks only a few minutes have passed, but realizes it was actually 10.

Freddi Linklatter is waiting for Dr. Z, as Doctor Babineau calls himself when he is being ridden by Brady Hartsfield. Freddy doesn’t know about Brady’s mind-tricks, but Babineau reminds her strongly of Brady anyway. Freddi is increasingly uneasy about the things Dr. Z has been paying her to do. She has been hacking the Zappit consoles and setting up a Wi-Fi repeater to reach all of them at once.

Hodges returns home and receives a call from Holly. He tells Holly about the website and reports that Dinah’s Zappit didn’t do anything unusual. Hodges is starting to think that everything is pointing more and more strongly toward Brady. Brady obviously has stooges doing his dirty work, but Hodges can’t see how he does it, or why they would cooperate.

Back at Freddi Linklatter’s apartment, Dr. Z arrives and watches while Freddi activates a signal repeater. The repeater locates one of the modified Zappits. Dr. Z lets out a shout of triumph, and Freddi recognizes it as unmistakably Brady. The repeater begins uploading Brady’s latest hack. Freddi tells Brady to give her the last of the money he promised her and get out. As soon as he is gone, she plans to kill the repeater and skip town. Brady shoots her. Afterward, he destroys what is left of Babineau’s core consciousness and returns to the hospital where he kills his Brady body.

Hodges receives a call from Pete. Pete can’t talk to anyone in the department about his concerns because they won’t be taken seriously, but Hodges isn’t hampered by the same constraints. Pete found a Zappit console in the apartment of Ruth Scapelli who died by suicide the previous night. Pete tried to get his captain to take the coincidence seriously. Isabelle objected strenuously, and the captain and commissioner told Pete to drop it lest he stir up hysteria in the press.

Freddi Linklatter wakes up. She finds that the bullet went through a packet of cigarettes, a flask she was carrying in her pocket before just barely entering her flesh.

Hodges receives a call from Pete telling him that Brady is dead, apparently by suicide. Hodges feels instinctively that something is wrong about this. After he hangs up, he sits and ponders. He doodles on a pad of paper—pictures of cyclones and flying saucers and Zappit consoles. Brady’s death confuses everything he was starting to believe. He finds himself writing “Concert” and “Residue.”

Hodges has a suspicion that Dr. Babineau is the one who has been handing out Zappits. While Holly goes to show Barbara a picture of Dr. Babineau, Hodges phones the bankruptcy trustee who handles Sunrise Solutions’s residual business. According to him, someone bought 800 of the discontinued tablets, 30% of which are probably defective. The CEO of the company that bought them—Gamez Unlimited with a Z—was Myron Zakim, the same person who gave the Zappit to Barbara.

Hodges checks out the zeetheend.com website but finds it still under construction. The duty nurse from the Brain Trauma Clinic calls Hodges and reports that the only person who has ever visited Brady besides Hodges was a beaten-looking woman with a buzzed haircut.

Jerome Robinson arrives back from Phoenix. With the gang from the previous novels back together, they discuss Brady’s suicide and everything they believe to this point. Barbara has identified Dr. Babineau as the man who gave her the Zappit. Hodges lays out what he has been thinking: somehow, Brady—possibly through Dr. Babineau or the unknown old man who is also connected to the case—got his hands on those Zappit consoles and is using them to control people. His ability to do so is somehow connected to his demonstrated telekinesis. He probably developed both abilities as a result of Dr. Babineau’s experimental drugs.

The console Hodges took from Barbara’s friend Dinah doesn’t give out the blue flashes described by Barbara, but it definitely had a hallucinogenic effect on Hodges when he saw the “Fishin’ Hole” demo. He asks Holly to see if there is anything on the internet about the game, and Holly finds a website talking about the hypnotic effect.

Pete Huntley phones, and Hodges goes to answer. While he does, Jerome turns on Dinah’s Zappit. The repeater at Freddi’s apartment registers it and uploads the software hack. Pete is at Babineau’s house where it looks as if a hospital employee named Al Brooks has killed Babineau’s wife. Babineau has disappeared. Al has confessed to the murder and drawn the letter Z all over the house. Al says he was hypnotized by the fish. It was Dr. Z who told him to put the letter Z all over the house. When asked who Dr. Z is, Al answers that Dr. Z is Brady Hartsfield.

Pete’s partner Isabelle is refusing to acknowledge any connection with the other cases where they have found the letter Z. She has convinced the commissioner to turn over the case to the state police so it won’t affect her chances for promotion. Pete sees the whole case being pinned on Library Al, and he knows that’s wrong. He tells Hodges to take it and run with it, and Pete will help him however he can.

Hodges makes the decision not to tell Pete about Barbara Robinson and her Zappit. He values Barbara’s privacy and doesn’t want to drag her in, and it seems likely to get Pete in more hot water without helping anything.

When Hodges hangs up, Jerome is in a state of hypnosis, staring at the Zappit in his hands. Hodges sees a bright blue flash from the screen. Holly, who has some experience with hypnosis, asks him where he is. Jerome says he is at his funeral and it’s beautiful.

Brady, in Dr. Babineau’s body, envisions a wave of suicides all across the country triggered by the website and the vulnerability of teenagers to social contagion. He activates the zeetheend.com website, which will act as a second-wave trigger to kids who don’t have Zappits. He uses his own Zappit and his mind power to reach out to a girl who is staring at her Zappit. He gets into her head and convinces her she needs to die. She posts a message on the zeetheend site, then throws herself out her window. She lands in a snowbank and breaks a few ribs but that’s all. Brady is frustrated, but he will have more chances.

In the Finders Keepers office, Holly wakes Jerome. He and Holly conclude that someone has definitely interfered with the device since Hodges last looked at it. Holly hypothesizes that there must be a repeater activating malware on the device. They deduce that somehow, Brady is using the badconcert.com website and the Zappits to target the girls who escaped his first attempt at the concert six years ago. Holly checks the zeetheend.com site and finds it active. It is promoting suicide messages and giving out blue flashes like the Zappits. They realize Brady intends to use the website to create a suicide epidemic, capitalizing on the phenomenon of social contagion.

Hodges calls Pete to ask if there is any computer gear at Babineau’s house. Pete says no. He tells Hodges that he and Isabelle had a blow-up. Pete tried to tell her what Hodges taught him, that you follow the evidence of the case wherever it leads, no matter where. Isabelle replied that she intends to be the first Chief of the City Police, and she isn’t going to risk that by following a crazy case.