Etherworld

by Claudia Gabel

  Thankfully, I see a small glimmer of acknowledgment in his eyes.

  “Right,” he says. “And I knew if you ever found my passcard, you’d realize things didn’t quite add up.”

  “And those messages, like numbers written on walls and strangers telling me things only you and I could have known.”

  “I was trying to contact you.”

  “But why did you run away from Josh and me in the ice cave?”

  Remembering the moment I saw him in the Mount Arvon Escape gives me the chills. I would have chased my dad to the ends of the earth to be with him again.

  He shakes his head and his eyes turn hard. “Don’t you see? I was trying to lead you away from all this. I never intended for you to come after me inside Elusion. I wanted you to search in the real world, so you wouldn’t be putting yourself at risk. Instead, I led you here. And now my mistake might cost you your life.”

  “You’re not responsible for me or anyone else who’s stuck here,” I say, my voice firm. “So you have to stop punishing yourself. You’re a scientist. You know there’s no way to prevent a negative outcome. You eventually get the results you want through trying again and again until you get it right.”

  My dad loops his arm around my shoulders. “You sound just like your mom.”

  “Really?”

  “Ever since college, she’s been able to talk me off the ledge.”

  I imagine what the two of them were like back then— students at the University of Michigan, young and full of promise.

  “If she were here, she’d want you to keep fighting,” I say. “You know that, right?”

  “Yes,” he says.

  “She’d also want to be by your side,” I say.

  “Regan,” he says, after a pause. “I can’t let you go on this mission. Especially not now.”

  “Why not?”

  “What father would allow his daughter to put herself in the line of fire? That would be crazy,” he says.

  I stand up, suddenly irritated. “Wait, are you saying . . . you’re going to leave me behind?”

  My dad uses his sleeve to wipe the moisture off his brow. “You’re safer here at the base.”

  “But I could help you,” I say.

  “She’s right,” says a strong, deep voice.

  My eyes dart toward the doorway, where Josh is standing with a subtle grin.

  “I know you’re worried about Regan,” he says, strolling inside. “But she can help you. We all can. You just have to give us an opportunity to prove it.”

  “I appreciate your opinion. But right now, the best course of action is to decrease the risk as much as possible,” my dad replies. “I have the autotimer on my side, and all of you are practically defenseless.”

  “But how will going out there alone decrease the risk?” Josh counters, his tone measured and respectful.

  “It’s the law of probability,” I say. “If you’re the only one out there looking for the triggers, the odds are it’ll take much longer to find them.”

  “Search and destroy,” Josh reminds him. “Like I said before, a small group working in tandem will allow us to save time— and ourselves.”

  “You don’t understand; there’s more to it than connecting the bombs to the triggers,” my dad says. “The nucleus of Elusion—the original four Escapes in my domain—needs to be destroyed in order for the program to be terminated. But those Escapes were created before the firewall, so it doesn’t reach them. At least, not yet. We’d have to tunnel our way toward them, attacking Escapes as we go; then hopefully the firewall would adapt accordingly, reconfiguring itself around the core.”

  “But what about Thai Beach and Mount Arvon? Those were already destroying themselves when I saw you there,” I say.

  His gaze lingers on the glass sphere on the workbench, and it takes a moment for him to reply. “None of that was real. I was in your Escape, remember? You must have had raised cortisol levels, which caused a hallucination.”

  “So everything that happened there was all a dream?”

  “Everything but me,” he replies.

  “Sir, I’ve assembled the first team,” Josh says. “We’re ready to see your plan through, wherever it leads.”

  I cross the room and wrap him in a hug. We hold on to each other for a moment, and then I pull away, suddenly shy with my father standing there. Josh and I look at him, and he gives us a small nod. “Okay,” my dad says. “We’ll give it a try.”

  “I’ll tell the others,” Josh replies, a hopeful grin forming on his lips.

  When Josh leaves, I glance toward my dad and say, “Thank you.”

  “You can thank me later,” he says. “Once we’re home.”

  “That’s a deal.”

  “We just have to make some adjustments to the plan before we go back into Elusion,” he adds.

  “Like what?” I ask.

  “If anyone from Miami or LA is kicked out of the program after we enter the Escapes, they have to tell someone as soon as they wake up,” he explains. “They have to go to the press and explain what they experienced here. Maybe that will trigger a bigger investigation of Elusion.”

  “Okay, but what about us? The people from Detroit?”

  My dad hesitates and then gives me a quick smile. “You have the tougher job.”

  “Which is?”

  “Proving I’m alive,” he says. “If one of you can get into Orexis and then inside that lab, you’ll find hard evidence that I was never killed in that crash—that someone abducted me and faked the whole thing. The police will have to get involved; they might force the company to halt production temporarily until they sort it all out.”

  I’ve broken into Orexis before, so I know it can be done. But my excitement fades when I think of the other kids. How the hell will they get past security at company headquarters? It’s looking like I’m the only one who can reveal the truth, and from the concern clouding my father’s gray eyes, it seems he realizes the same thing.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes,” I say.

  “I know you will,” he says. “But you shouldn’t disconnect me or anyone else from their Equip if we can’t be revived with the emergency button on our wristbands. We’ll need to stay hooked up until Elusion is destroyed.”

  “Because of the trypnosis exposure?”

  “Yes,” my dad replies. “The levels of cortisol in the brain will be too high, especially in the people who’ve been under trypnosis the longest. The cortisol levels will decrease once the program is disabled, but pulling off the Equip while the mind is still engaged could send the user into shock.”

  I squeeze his hand lightly, wondering if I should say what I’m about to, given how hard everyone took the news about Anthony. But I find myself going ahead anyway. “Everyone has been asking us about what’s happening in the real world. They wanted to know if they were still missing and how long they’d been gone. But not you.” I swallow and ask, “Why?”

  “Because . . .” Another one of his long, thoughtful pauses takes the air out of the room. And then he shrugs and says, “It’s out of my control.”

  FOUR

  MY DAD LEADS OUR SMALL POSSE THROUGH an acrylic tunnel laced with little blue and green lights, all of us bathed in a turquoise glow. I know we’re getting close to the opening, because the curved walls that surround us are getting bigger and we no longer need to crawl. Still, it seems like we’ve been winding our way through this narrow tube much longer than it took Josh and me to arrive in Etherworld.

  “How do we know we’re not walking in circles?” Nora asks.

  “My dad designed this,” I say, a little more sharply than I intended. “If anyone knows where we’re going, he does.”

  “Relax. I think your dad is capable of answering questions himself,” Claire says.

  Nora casts her eyes down toward her feet. Oh God, I think I’ve hurt her feelings. The last thing I need right now is a rift with my boyfriend’s sister, but after seeing how upset my dad is about everything,
I’m feeling protective of him.

  I don’t want him to think we don’t trust him.

  My dad halts suddenly, looking at the side panels of the tunnel. He presses some of the electric-blue squares and a door appears, revealing a steep set of steps leading to the floor below. We follow him down into what feels like a large closet with the same acrylic walls and lights as the tunnel. I recognize it as the entrance to the portal, the room that welcomed Josh and me when we broke through the firewall. We shuffle inside, crouching shoulder to shoulder.

  “If any of you are having second thoughts,” my dad says, “it’s not too late to turn back.”

  We gaze at one another through the eerie turquoise light, but we all keep silent, waiting for my dad’s next instruction.

  “Remember, this is the White-Water Rapids Escape. The trigger was a rock near the firewall, three miles directly north of where we are entering.”

  “Was?” I ask.

  “In order to keep them hidden from the programmers, I created triggers that would adapt to their environment. So even though I designed this one as a rock, it’s mutated into the Escape by now. It will remain distinctive in some form, but it might be difficult to detect.”

  “Let’s do this!” Claire says, pumping her fist.

  I laugh under my breath, thinking how this girl I know at school—Zoe Morgan—probably would have said the same thing if she were here. From what I know of her, she and Claire are a lot alike. Fearless and bold.

  “You’re so weird, Claire,” Wyatt says, shaking his head.

  She nudges him and smiles. “If by ‘weird’ you mean ‘awesome,’ then I agree.”

  “Once the trigger is detonated, head for the firewall, and an emergency portal will open,” my dad says, his urgent tone cutting through Claire and Wyatt’s banter. “And don’t forget, the minute you step into the Escape, your brain activity will be monitored through your wristbands.”

  “I hope so,” he says.

  “What if we miss? Or what if we throw the bomb at the wrong target?” Claire asks.

  “The second the bomb makes contact with something inside the Escape, even if it’s not the trigger, Orexis will be able to determine your exact location,” he replies. “So be very careful.”

  I force a grin and nod, trying not to show my nervousness. My dad turns back toward the wall and begins pressing the squares of light, alternating blue and white, as if tapping a sequential code.

  Josh grabs my hand, reminding me that he’s right next to me.

  There’s a sudden brightness, and the sweet smell of pine trees fills the air. I hear something that sounds like white noise, so loud that I want to cover my ears. I squint into the light and realize that my dad’s shadow is blocking the portal of the tunnel. But I know one thing. It’s not white noise that I’m hearing.

  It’s the sound of rushing water.

  My dad exits the portal, dropping down into the other world. I leap after him, following him into the bright light and landing on my back in a pile of soft, moist grass. But instead of pulling myself up, I begin to tumble, my stomach filled with a giggly energy as I roll down a gentle hillside that’s covered in Elusion’s signature fairy dust. I stop at the bottom and lie still, my eyes closed. All the problems and desperation that just minutes earlier were so overwhelming now seem inconsequential.

  Why am I here?

  I open my fist and admire the small translucent ball. I hold it up to the indigo sun, the colors spinning like a kaleidoscope. I know the beauty is deceptive and that this object has some kind of purpose, but I can’t remember what it is.

  I stretch out and run my legs and arms over the soft purple grass as if I’m making an angel in the snow. It feels so good to be back in Elusion.

  It’s only when I hear voices—the sound of my own tribe— that I’m motivated to pick up my head and look around. I’m feet away from a river, which is pulsating with a raucous stream of tangerine water. A row of single-seat kayaks is lined up alongside the bank.

  “Awesome!” Claire says, running over to one of them. Her blond hair is flowing around her shoulders; the blueberry-colored sun is radiating above her head. Her skin is illuminated with a light tan, and her ratty Etherworld clothes have been replaced with a yellow life vest and bikini bottoms.

  And her eyes? I finally get to see that they’re a beautiful shade of green.

  She waves me over. “Grab a kayak!”

  I think I’ve been to this Escape, with Patrick, before my dad’s so-called accident. My memory is still fuzzy, but I remember him wanting to do a heart-pounding, death-defying kayak ride down the rapids, while I was more into hiking.

  But now all I can think about is getting into the rough water and seeing where the current takes me. A surge of adrenaline pumps through me, and I feel capable of anything. I check my wristband to see if it has to do with my ExSet level, but the keypad doesn’t respond to my touch.

  I’m not bothered by the broken keypad though. Maybe this burst of energy is exactly what I need.

  “Regan!” my father shouts. He appears around the side of a hill, slowly walking toward me with Josh, Nora, and Wyatt by his side. He looks healthy again, his skin practically glowing. In fact, the entire team is like a human rainbow, all of us bronzed and wearing different-colored T-shirts and bathing suits. The sight triggers a recollection—that we’re supposed to be a band of soldiers here, that there’s a mission that needs to be accomplished and our lives might depend on it.

  That the ball in my hand is our saving grace.

  “Wait for us!”

  It’s Josh, bounding toward me, his handsome face lit up with a grin.

  I’m possessed by an urge to kiss him, even though his sister and my dad are following close behind him. But for some reason, the lure of the river is much too great.

  I need to get to it before anyone else does.

  “Regan, hold on!” my dad calls out.

  I ignore him, grabbing on to a kayak with my free hand and launching myself into the river. Claire is right behind me, cheering me on and following my lead. As I careen down the rapids, with the mysterious crystal sphere between my bare feet, I’m paddling as if I’ve been white-water rafting my whole life. I go faster and faster as foam sprays in my face, my heart beating in anticipation as Claire catches up to me.

  She smiles as she points her paddle ahead of us. “Rapids!” she screams.

  These are not the rapids I’ve seen on the Net. Here it looks like the river just stops, as if we’re about to fall off the edge of the earth.

  If Claire feels any fear or doubt, though, she doesn’t show it, hooting and hollering as she dips her paddle into the water, steering directly toward the edge.

  She quickly loses control of her kayak, the boat changing direction by ninety degrees and teetering at the edge of the rapids. Claire’s hair is whipping in the wind as she shoves the paddle under the hull and then grabs onto the sides of the kayak for support.

  Then her kayak flips over, cascading down the rapids.

  As much as I long to follow her, a faint voice of reason urges caution.

  I twist around to look for the others, but no one else is there. Either the river has split or Claire and I have gone too far ahead of the rest of the group to see them. My kayak is getting closer to the edge of the abyss. The churning current crashes against the rocks, ricocheting into the kayak, making it heavy with water. I know I’m about to achieve something really spectacular or fail in a big way.

  And suddenly I’m there, hovering above the edge. The wind whips through my soaked clothes. This is not the pretty and foamy waterfall I’ve seen in books, but a giant, swirling vortex of white that heads straight down into oblivion. I can’t even see the bottom, and I can’t see Claire, either.

  Did she make it?

  I shove my paddle in between my legs and my kayak tips. It dangles over the side, and for a second I think that I have somehow willed it to safety. Just like that, I’m gone, holding on for dear life, scream
ing at the top of my lungs, my eyes wide open as the kayak plummets.

  I crash into the freezing-cold water and plunge underneath. Totally submerged and still stuck inside the boat, I battle toward the surface, my arms stretching out in a breaststroke, my toes gripping the ball tucked under my feet. The kayak jerks and then soars above the water like a dolphin coming up for air. I blink the water out as I breathe in deeply, my lungs slowly reviving.

  I made it.

  I hear a hearty laugh and see Claire in front of me, her arms in the air.

  “Finally!” she yells. I grin, relieved to see her.

  We’re in a valley surrounded by deep cliffs on either side shading the sun. No one else is here. I slowly paddle away from the falls, trailing Claire down the river toward calmer water.

  “That was wicked!” Claire says as soon as we’re far enough away from the roar of the falls to be able to hear each other speak.

  “Definitely,” I say.

  “When we get back home, I want you on my team,” she says. “Really. You should think about national league—”

  She stops in midsentence, her eyes growing wide. “Look!” she says, motioning toward the valley wall. An unusual-looking red rock is sticking up out of the cliff on our right. And it comes back to me, the reason why I’m here.

  The sphere between my feet is a bomb.

  We have to find the triggers in order to detonate it.

  We have to destroy Elusion.

  “Is that the target?” Claire asks.

  Is it? I don’t know. My dad said it would be near the firewall, three miles north of the entrance. I glance up at the sun. I’m pretty sure we’ve been traveling north, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve gone three miles. Then again, we have been moving fast.

  Maybe it is the target.

  Claire pulls out her adaptive bomb from underneath the hull of the kayak. She studies it a beat, and then throws it as hard as she can. The ball speeds through the sky, missing the rock and landing on a grassy knoll before blasting into a million pieces of brightly colored glass confetti.

  I brace myself, as if expecting an explosion. But nothing happens, and our boats continue on the current. Claire looks at me, concern in her big green eyes. The girl who was not afraid to go inside Elusion knowing it could mean death, the girl who just dropped off a cliff in a kayak without an ounce of hesitation, is afraid. And then I remember.