“I know,” Patrick says, typing away. “It’s like Josh is using your dad’s tab—like he’s inside his domain. But that’s . . . impossible.”
“No, it’s not,” I argue. “I told you, everyone in Etherworld got there through my dad’s domain. Zared made the chip and cracked the algorithm—”
“I know what you told me, but it doesn’t make any sense,” Patrick says, frustrated. “How could a homemade chip get into a state-of-the-art, government-approved security system? There’s no way he could get through the fractal encryption!”
“I don’t know what fractal encryption is, but all I can tell you is that everyone broke into Etherworld. And to do that, they had to be in my dad’s domain.” I motion toward Josh’s wristband. “The code on here proves it,” I say to Patrick.
“You and Josh didn’t break in,” he points out. “You were both in my domain, not David’s. So how did you get into your dad’s?”
“I don’t know.” I clutch Josh’s hand, remembering our small argument outside the Great Space when my father hadn’t come back from the ping tunnel. “Josh thought that maybe the Escapes that were still under construction were somehow connected to it.”
Patrick shakes his head at me. “Well, he’s wrong. They’re not.”
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“We don’t have time to debate this. Just read me the Elusion access code in the corner of the screen,” he says.
I read off the string of letters and numbers from Josh’s tab, stumbling more than a few times, as Patrick types. I’m so rattled by his refutation of Josh’s theory about how we got to Etherworld. It seemed like such a reasonable explanation, but Patrick’s denial and utter confusion over it all has me thinking that we’re stumbling onto an even bigger mystery— one that my father might have been trying to keep us from figuring out.
“Try the ejection button again,” Patrick says as he finishes typing.
I push my forefinger against the red button, and we all stare at Josh, watching his reaction.
Nothing.
Patrick bites his lip as he looks back down at his quantum. He hesitates a minute and then begins to type again. He stops as rows of complicated code scroll across the screen. Every now and then Patrick trails his finger along the list, pausing to enlarge something before whisking it away.
“What are you doing?” Avery asks, leaning in for a better view.
“I’m looking for a weakness inside the programming of David’s domain. I might be able to open up a hole in the firewall and disrupt the signal long enough for the emergency ejection button to work.”
A silence falls over the room. I keep my eyes focused on Josh, trying to reassure myself that he’s going to be okay.
Patrick yelps with excitement. “Yes! I found something!”
He types a few more digits and then says, “Hit his emergency button! Now!”
Holding Josh’s wrist in my hands, I push my finger against the red button once more. The numbers on Josh’s wristband flash in unison and then suddenly disappear, replaced by one word:
Good-bye.
“He’s out. Help me get his Equip off,” Patrick says, reaching for Josh’s visor as I take out his earbuds and pull off his wristband. For a second I think I see Josh’s lips parting, as though he’s about to call out my name, but my eyes are playing tricks on me.
“Josh!” Patrick says, giving him a shake. “Can you hear me?”
“Josh, please, wake up,” I whisper, pressing my lips against his ear.
Nothing happens until Avery begins to take the IV out of his arm and we see his thumb and index finger twitch.
“It’s working,” I murmur.
“Thank God,” Patrick says. “It could take a while for him to fully come around. He’s been under trypnosis for over twelve hours. We just have to be patient.”
And so we wait, the clock on Patrick’s tab monitoring the time closely. Every few seconds, my anticipation surges as Josh gives us another small sign of life—his eyelids fluttering, his leg shifting, his head slumping to the side, his body temperature rising. When we reach the fifteen-minute mark, he still hasn’t regained consciousness.
“What the hell? Why is this taking so long?” Avery says, bolting off the floor.
“I’m starting to get worried, Pat,” I say.
I can tell by Patrick’s solemn face that he doesn’t have any reassurances left to offer. But luckily we won’t need them. Josh’s hand grazes my arm, and when I look down at him, his eyes are open.
“He’s awake!” I breathe excitedly.
I take his hand and bring it to my lips. The corners of his mouth twitch a little, almost as if he’s attempting to smile, and I bend forward and kiss him.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, are we?” Avery says.
“No, not yet,” Patrick replies. “Josh? Squeeze Regan’s hand if you understand me, okay?”
Josh’s fingers press against my skin, very lightly, but even so, that’s something.
“Good,” I say. “Can you talk?”
Josh tries to open his mouth and force something out, but he fails.
Patrick turns to Avery. “I know you gave him a lot of fluids, but maybe a glass of water might help?”
Avery runs to the kitchen, and when she comes back, I give Josh a few sips. The water trickles down his face a bit, since he doesn’t have much control over his muscles—but within a few more minutes, his jaw is moving easily and he’s able to drink almost the whole glass.
“Regan,” he murmurs. It’s faint, but there’s no mistaking my name. “I didn’t think . . . you’d made it,” he says, delivering his words through long breaths. “What . . . happened?”
I sit up and motion toward Patrick, who’s retreated to the corner of the room. “Patrick pulled me out of Elusion. And he just did the same with you.”
Josh glances over at Patrick, confused. Then he looks back at me. “But what about . . . the mission? I was in . . . the Alaskan Shore Escape . . . with your dad,” he says.
“My dad’s still alive?” I say, relieved.
If Cathryn had gotten rid of my father, there would be no way he could still be inside Elusion, fighting the program with Josh. But where is he? And what does Cathryn have planned for him?
Patrick takes a few steps forward, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “It was too risky to leave you attached to the Equip. You were under trypnosis for over twelve hours.”
“Okay.” Josh is squinting, like he’s trying to figure out what’s going on, and I hold his hand, hoping that will help comfort him a bit.
“He should probably take it easy for a while,” Patrick suggests. “Maybe we should all go into the other room and let him rest.”
“No, we can’t let him rest,” Avery says, squatting down at the foot of the bed, her brows still knitted together with worry. “Josh, do you know where Nora is?”
He nods, wincing in pain.
“Tell me,” Avery pleads. “We have to bring her back.”
“Island . . . Sector,” Josh says, swallowing hard. “Near Hennepin . . . Point.”
“That’s just a few minutes away,” I say.
“Yeah, but what the hell is she doing over there?” Avery murmurs.
Even though they’re only separated by the Thorofare Canal, the Island Sector is totally unlike the dilapidated Quartz Sector. It’s filled with beautiful, historic houses and old summer enclaves that have been handed down through the generations.
Avery bolts up and points at Patrick. “You’re giving me a ride over there. And you’re going to help me wake her up. Right now.”
“Of course,” Patrick says. “Whatever I can do to help.”
Avery rolls her eyes, but at least she doesn’t say something antagonizing.
“I’m coming . . . with you,” Josh says, trying to sit up. He moves his legs slightly so they hang off the bed, and he tries to stand, but his legs begin to shake and he flops back down on the mattress.
“Josh, you�
�re weak,” I say.
It takes all his strength to push himself up again. “No one’s . . . going anywhere . . . without me.”
He stands up and takes a wobbly step. Avery and I both reach out to him before he falls, but Patrick is there in a blink of an eye, grabbing Josh and propping him up in one quick motion. He takes Josh’s arm and flings it around his shoulder, helping to steady him, and I do the same.
“Will you take my stuff to the car?” Patrick says to Avery.
She retrieves his quantum and tab off Josh’s dresser, then dashes out of the room, her boots clunking against the floor.
Patrick and I help Josh, our legs moving in unison, one step at a time.
TWELVE
JOSH AND I ARE SCRUNCHED IN THE BACK of Patrick’s car as it idles twenty feet in front of the long glass-encased bridge, its two red barriers preventing us from going any farther. In our rush to get here, we completely forgot that getting across would require having the appropriate clearance.
“What are you stopping for?” Avery says. She’s sitting in the front with Patrick, leaning forward with both hands on the dashboard, ready to jump out and find Nora herself.
“There’s no way to get over the bridge without residency codes, remember?” A horn wails behind him, so Patrick presses a button and his window comes down a little. He waves the vehicle around us.
“Well, can’t you make a few calls or something? You’re famous, for Christ’s sake. You can pay off somebody in bridge security, or maybe someone who lives here,” Avery says, shoving him in the shoulder.
“Stop it, Avery. You’re not helping,” Josh says, his voice still faint. I can tell his strength is slowly coming back to him, though, just by holding his hand. His grip is getting tighter around my fingers; his arm muscles feel less slack. The redness is beginning to fade from his eyes a little too, but he has a way to go before he’s back to normal.
Avery turns around in her seat and glares at Josh, her cheeks flushed with fear. “How did Nora get here, anyway?”
She has a point. It’s a private island with a private bridge. There are no special access tunnels leading here, and swimming across the canal is out of the question. Even though it’s not as polluted as the river, the water still has toxins in it that could kill anyone who might accidentally ingest it.
Josh looks like he’s about to say something, but before he can, Avery twists around, facing me directly. “The semiconductor chip. Do you still have it?” she asks, looking at me through her dark-rimmed glasses.
Of course, the passcard. If it can unlock any door, maybe it can get us through the bridge’s sensors.
I take it out of my sweater pocket with my free hand and give the card to Avery, who holds on to it like it’s some kind of crystal ball that will show her where exactly Nora is and how she’s doing.
“Where did you get that?” Patrick asks, his blue eyes flicking back to me in the rearview mirror. The blotches on his neck confirm what I’ve already assumed—he’s upset with me again. This is the second time I’ve broken the law this week, and while I know I had no other options, it’s clear Patrick doesn’t understand just how far I’m willing to go.
“Does that even matter?” I ask, tipping my head at Avery, trying to be reassuring. “We can try and use it to get across the bridge.”
Josh squeezes my hand and I turn to him.
“It matters,” he says, swallowing hard. “If the chip isn’t compatible . . . it could cause—”
“A huge shortage that could shut down the power grid on the island—which would be yet another felony to add to the list,” Patrick interjects. He’s still staring at me through the mirror, and I see how he’s sweating. “There are cameras everywhere too, so chances are we’ll get caught if this doesn’t work.”
“I don’t care how many laws we break,” I say.
“Me either,” Josh says.
“That makes three of us,” Avery chimes in. She practically flings the card at Patrick, who catches it in his right hand, and stares him down.
“Fine,” he says, putting the car into gear.
We slowly advance toward the red barrier. Patrick raises the passcard right before the wheels roll to another stop, just a few inches away from the bridge’s entrance. A yellow beam of light flashes down from a sensor embedded in the barrier and fixes on the passcard.
Suddenly there’s a beeping sound, and the barriers open wide so that we can drive onto the bridge. Avery lets out a joyous yelp that fills the car with a surprising sense of hope, which we all desperately need. Patrick floors the gas, the canal passing below us in a hazy green-brown blur.
“Do you know the address?” he asks Josh, keeping his gaze on the road for now.
“Lakeshore Road,” Josh says through a cough. “The only red house on the block.”
“Plug the street name into your tab. Reporters have hacked into everything I’ve got, including my AutoComm,” Patrick tells Avery, who does exactly what he says.
I lean back in my seat, tugging on Josh’s arm and signaling that he should do the same. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” he says. “My legs aren’t as numb as before.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to get to Nora in time?” I whisper, not wanting to worry Avery more than she already is.
Josh looks at Avery and whispers back when he sees that she’s preoccupied with getting directions. “I hope so. The Alaskan Shore Escape was huge. We couldn’t find the triggers. . . .”
“We have to get her out before she leaves Elusion. We can’t pull people out of Etherworld,” I say.
“It’s possible she’s still there. There aren’t that many of us left, so it’s taking us longer to destroy the Escapes,” Josh says, lowering his eyes. “We’ve destroyed about half of them but we’ve lost so many people. They’ve all been sent back just like Claire.” He leans forward and his forehead touches mine. “Do you know what happened to her? Or the others?”
“Claire didn’t . . . she didn’t make it.”
His face falls, the grim truth seeping in. “I was so scared that you’d . . .” He closes his eyes. “But you’re okay.”
“Yes,” I say. I touch my fingers to his cheek and then pull back a little when I notice that Patrick is glancing at us in the rearview mirror, his eyes filled with resignation.
The car crosses the island and onto Lakeshore Road, which travels north toward Hennepin Point, where large Victorian homes and remodeled summer estates dot the coastline. Avery almost has her nose pressed against the window in anticipation, waiting for a red house to come into view. Josh shifted his gaze to the passing scenery as soon as I told him what happened to Claire, and my stomach is twisting into a knot.
And it only twists tighter as Avery shouts, “There it is!”
Patrick pulls the car in front of a partially refurbished red colonial-style house with a huge wraparound porch. There’s a tarp over the roof, as if the house is undergoing renovations.
“Doesn’t look like anyone lives here,” Patrick says.
Josh jumps out of the back without any assistance, his legs a lot sturdier than when he got into the car twenty minutes ago. But before anyone can run toward the steps, Josh walks around the car and moves in front of Avery, blocking her.
“You should wait outside,” he says firmly.
“Are you kidding? No way,” Avery says, turning toward the house.
Josh grabs her arm. “Just do it, okay? It’s what Nora wants. She told me she’s hurt you enough. She doesn’t want you to see her like this.”
I glance at Patrick, wondering if he has any idea what’s going on, but he only shrugs.
“I’m going to hurt you if you don’t get out of my way. And it won’t be too hard—you’re an easy target,” Avery says, her jaw clenched.
Josh backs off, and we follow Avery up the porch stairs. She turns around at the front door and waves her hand at Patrick.
“Gimme the passcard,” she says.
He hands
it over and Avery holds it in front of the lockpad, and after a few seconds the tiny green light on the front blinks.
Avery barges inside, mindlessly calling out Nora’s name even though we all know there’s no way she can respond. We follow her, glancing around the foyer and heading into the expansive kitchen filled with all the latest appliances. As soon as we see that Nora isn’t there, we file into the living room, where the furniture is covered in drop cloths. There’s no sign of Nora.
“What’s this?” Avery asks as she grabs a dusty photocube off the mantel. She shakes it, revealing a flurry of pictures of a family, including a person who is all too familiar—to everyone but Patrick, that is.
“Maureen,” I murmur as an image of a girl hugging a German shepherd puppy floats in front of me. She’s the same girl we found with Nora’s tab inside an abandoned house in the Quartz Sector. The same girl Avery took to the hospital and waited with while she was rushed into brain surgery.
And then another photo rises to the surface. One of Nora and Maureen, in the very room we’re standing in, their arms around each other, laughing.
“Is that someone you know? From Etherworld?” Patrick asks me.
Avery’s eyes begin to water as she turns to Josh. “Is this Maureen’s house? Was Nora staying here with her?” When he doesn’t answer, she shouts, “Tell me, Josh!”
“It’s not what it looks like,” he says. “They’re just friends. They met each other through this Stealth group and got hooked on Elusion together. They used to hijack their Equips here, that’s all.”
Avery looks at him, shaking her head. It’s the first and only time I’ve ever seen her at a loss for words. I know she’s wondering the same thing I am: Maybe Nora ran away for a reason. Maybe she was cheating on Avery.
Avery starts shaking, and the photocube drops to the floor. I need to defuse the situation before Avery has a meltdown. All that matters right now is that we find Nora and bring her home.
“Let’s start with the top floor,” I say. “We can worry about everything else once we make sure she’s okay.”
Avery follows me up the stairs to the second floor in silence. There are at least five open doors, so we all split up, with me running down the hall toward the very last room and Josh taking the first one, limping as he walks.
Etherworld Page 15
