Her headlong rush carried her right into a group of workers. As they turned to subdue her, Gabby began spinning through them with kicks and punches. With her senses fully intact, they were no match for her and she was quickly through them.
After two more streets and around the next corner, Gabby found Damon. Six workers had him by the arms and legs and were carrying him. Like the ones before, Gabby disabled them with vicious kicks to the knees. Damon crashed to the concrete head first when the zombie workers dropped him.
Thankful for his slight frame, Gabby threw him on the hovercraft, momentarily fighting vertigo as she remembered she was watching herself. Pausing to catch her breath, Gabby felt a presence tickle her sense-web. It took a moment to place the memory, but when she recalled it, she shivered. The attack on Double Eagle had carried the same signature. Gabby got moving before it figured out how to bypass her secondary system.
As she ran back, avoiding groups of workers lurching through the fog whenever she found them, she realized how abnormally quiet it had become. Knowing she wasn't far from the edge of the fog, based on the returning halo of the sun above, Gabby picked up her pace.
So intent on the way before her, Gabby didn’t see the figure loom out of an alley. Only reflexes saved her from being impaled on the end of Unthar's knife. The blade sung past her ear. Unthar moved like a raging beast. No sooner was he past did he spin around and come again. Weaponless and fighting in third person, Gabby had no choice but to run.
Chapter Four
There were certain advantages to being chased by a mad man in the third person. As terrifying as the experience should have been, the rotated view allowed a certain distance from her terror.
Gabby slowly adjusted the trailing hovercraft until she could see her pursuer. Thankfully, the mists had trailed away to faint vapors on the north side of the complex.
After mastering the art of running around parked FunCars and other street obstacles while maneuvering the hovercraft, which in turn wobbled the view of herself, the rest was easy.
Gabby spotted an appropriate location ahead and brought the craft around to Unthar's side. His rage-filled pursuit made him oblivious. Veins pulsed on the side of his neck. The knife was a blur of silver at his side.
A mistimed curb made her stumble but she recovered as she veered to the left toward the alleyway. Unthar, sensing his victory, surged forward, surprising even Gabby. As she passed the corner of the building, with Unthar in close pursuit, she brought the hovercraft low and to the side.
It only took a nudge. The slick black rotor casing bumped Unthar and he ran face first into the brick wall. Had it been a game, Gabby would have expected dust to fall from the building.
She circled around to check on him, kicking away the knife still clutched in his hands. Blood ran from his nose. The whites of his eyes fluttered. He wasn't dead, but he'd have a major headache when he woke up.
Checking to make sure Damon hadn't fallen off the hovercraft, Gabby jogged back to the truck. Avony sat on the curb, holding her ribs. She nodded toward the complex. The fog was receding.
Avony helped her pull Damon from the hovercraft and set him on the concrete. The attack had removed his projected skin and his real hair was showing. The chopped look with which he'd disguised himself in the Freelands was starting to grow in. Gabby wondered why she hadn't seen the resemblance to Mouse earlier. They both had the same mouth.
When their systems returned, Damon sat up. Gabby sighed at the sounds of hoverships approaching. Too little, too late. Gabby explained her theory on the attack. Damon and Avony nodded along.
"How many did they get?" asked Avony. "My interface is still debuffed."
Damon shook his head. "Most of the squad. I see a few stragglers deeper in the complex and Unthar, he's not but a few streets down."
Gabby kept her mouth shut about Unthar. She could reveal the recordings of his attack on her, but it'd be too easy for him to say he'd been hijacked like the workers. Better to keep his attack secret. Make him wonder why she didn’t say anything.
"It was all so coordinated. They turned our own people against us. Reprogrammed them." Damon's skin had returned, minus the red eyes.
"They did the same thing in Double Eagle, except for the fog. I guess that was needed here to simplify the illusions. Fewer calculations for their nets to perform." Gabby glanced at the landing hoverships. "When I found you, Damon, I felt the same thing I felt when I was in Double Eagle. Whatever is generating that reality distortion field, the way they're breaking through our protections, it was the same."
Damon furrowed his brow. "Why didn't you explain that before?"
"It didn’t seem important and..." Cassius was climbing from the hovership. "...I didn’t want to ruin my chance to get sent to the Southlands as a spy."
Avony squinted in the afternoon sun. "Why would it jeopardize that?"
Cassius approached.
"Because if they think the Southland system has detected me before, they won't want to send me in. Doubly so because of today. I'm totally fragged if they understand the implications." Gabby glanced quickly at Cassius who was only meters away. "So..."
Damon soberly nodded, his reflexive sneer strangely absent. "I understand."
They rose and saluted Cassius, who was shorter than Gabby imagined. She didn't peg him for a man who had to make his projection taller, but it explained a whole bunch.
"Every resource is mobilized and on the way," said Cassius.
"It's too late. The fog, most of my squad, the Southlanders, all gone. If there even were Southlanders in the attack," explained Damon.
"What do you mean? Who else could it be?"
"Oh, it was Southlanders, all right, but they hijacked the workers, debuffed our systems, and took us like children waiting for the bus."
The hard clenching of Cassius' jaw said he didn't want to believe it, but the watery light in his eyes said otherwise. The completeness of the raid had not been lost on their commander from his lofty perch away from the action. He'd lose major points for his failure.
Cassius made a series of motions, interacting with his interface before turning his attention back to them. "The training operation is over. We're evacuating the area. We'll cede them the valley and make preparations for an invasion further north near the main spire. Even with that fog trick they'll never be able to modify our reality."
"What are we going to do?" asked Gabby, ignoring the warning glance from Damon.
"You're going to do what I tell you," growled Cassius.
"Not more training," said Gabby. "Teaching kids to kill each other isn't going to save us."
"Don't worry, Coder DeCorte. You'll get the points you earned for the training and this operation, including a hazard bonus," he said mockingly.
"I don't care about the points."
The others gasped. Gabby swallowed and stood her ground. Not caring about points was akin to treason. Even though the Coders did most of the coding for LifeGame, they still collected points like everyone else.
"Would you like to formally retract that statement, Miss DeCorte?" Cassius put heavy emphasis on the Miss, indicating her position within the Coders was in jeopardy.
"My point—" She paused. "—is that points and LifeGame won't matter if the Southlands win."
"No faith in our system?" he asked dryly. "Then again, you did run."
Gabby pushed a strand of hair from her face. "My time in the Freelands only reaffirmed my faith in LifeGame and the GSA. Seeing the mess of the free only confirmed it for me."
Gabby actually had other thoughts about the Freelands and the GSA. The former she thought had positives like the Blood Farm, while the latter had lied to her, her whole life, and sold her best friend into slavery. But those points weren't going to win an argument with Cassius, so she played along.
"Why did you come back? I never did quite understand." Cassius eyed her carefully.
Gabby paused. She had to tread as close to the truth as possible.
&
nbsp; "When the Southlands attacked Double Eagle, I realized how easily they would win against the GSA..." Gabby stuttered when Cassius furrowed his brow. "...against us. And I didn't want my friends and family hurt, so I came back to help."
Cassius crossed his arms and gave her a thorough once over, so she lowered her voice and sheepishly added. "And I realized how foolish I'd been, running like that. The Frags were a disorganized mess, pimple-faced losers railing against a system they didn't understand. The world is bigger than just individuals."
Gabby's stomach roiled with her verbal betrayal. She hated saying what she said, but there was no other way. Cassius seemed to accept her reasoning as he uncrossed his arms.
"So then what was your point?" he asked.
"The point is..." Gabby paused, trying to remember what she was saying. "...that we need to figure out what that new technology is that they have, that allowed them to blow past our defenses with ease and make us see and hear and feel what they wanted us to. If they can control our reality like that, then we're lost."
Cassius raised an eyebrow. "And what do you think you can do to help? You're just a newbie Coder that didn't even go through University training."
"Exactly," she retorted. "That's why I can help."
"I don't see your point." But she could tell he was intrigued.
"I...I know what we do with the losers of LifeGame."
"You do?" he asked, turning to Damon who put his hands up defensively.
"He didn't tell me. But I ran into an ex-Coder in the Double Eagle." She didn't think it'd matter if she busted him, since he was most likely dead now. "A man name Jaxon."
Cassius nodded. He knew the name.
"He told me that we sell the losers to the Southlands. Or at least used to, until a former loser gained power there."
When Avony squeaked, everyone turned to look at her. Gabby bit her lip. She hadn't told Avony and it was clear by Damon's and Cassius' faces that she wasn't supposed to know yet.
Sorry, Gabby mouthed to Avony.
"So I propose that you send me over the border, sneak me into a conversion camp and then let me spy from there. I'm the proper age. They'd never suspect me. I can find out what the technology is that does that and bring it back, if I can, or disrupt it if I can't."
Cassius indicated Gabby with an outstretched hand. "So this is why you were bringing up that silly plan?"
Damon nodded.
"And why would I send you? Didn't your whole team just get compromised by the Southlands? Won't they know who you are just by the information they're going to take from their systems?"
Cassius had a smug look. He was holding something back which contradicted what Gabby thought he should be feeling. If they'd been taken, then the Coders had lost valuable information, unless...
"You wiped them, didn't you?"
Cassius gave her an appraising look. The others appeared confused.
"Remotely. Destroyed their systems."
Cassius nodded. "Yes. Your former teammates are all gone. Alive possibly, but a vegetable if they are. We triggered a fail safe in their systems, frying every sense-web fiber and destroying their minds."
Judging by the gaping open mouth of Damon, he hadn't known about it. Gabby recalled thoughts about giving herself willingly to the Southlanders and shuddered. She'd be dead if she had.
"Are you still willing to be a spy, knowing that we can kill you at any time?"
She only thought about it for a few seconds before responding, "Yes."
The Commander stretched his neck in thought and cracked his knuckles by clenching his fists. "If we could get intel on their new technologies, it would be infinitely useful. We have lock tight word that the Southlands will attack in two months."
Gabby did some quick calculating. "That's right in the middle of Final Raid."
"Yes. An opportune moment when we're distracted with our yearly rituals."
That nearly a year had passed since her own Final Raid seemed incomprehensible. She'd been so focused on the goal of getting Zaela back she hadn't noticed time passing. In her previous life, a year was a long time.
"Still, confirmation of the date and knowledge of this reality-bending technology might give us a better chance, though I think whatever it was you encountered in the fog was nothing more than a toy." Cassius reviewed Gabby dismissively. "I'll have you know that we've sent spies before. Even girls and boys your age and eventually they've either disappeared, been found out, or we've had to trigger them. Not one has made it far. Are you still willing?"
The faces of all her friends went through her head. Everyone of them was screaming at her not to agree, not to go into the Southlands as a spy. She could hear Milton telling her how crazy her plan was and Michael begging her not to go because of the danger. Even Mouse wouldn't approve. She could hear all of their arguments against bouncing around in her head and she agreed with almost every one.
She'd be a fool to go. Cassius didn't like her and wouldn't hesitate to kill her once she'd gone over. And if none of the others had survived why did she think she would?
Gabby let loose a huge, heavy sigh. Damon was studying her with a mixture of concern and pity. He'd never see Mouse again if she failed.
Only Avony seemed to know what Gabby was thinking. She wore a resigned grin, and Gabby felt buoyed by that confidence from her former archenemy.
The answer was clear. There was no other way.
"I'll go."
Chapter Five
The void consumed her. Blackness. Night. The cold death of a dying universe. Trapped inside her head, blinded from her eye-screens with her touch muted through the sense-web, Gabby wanted to scream.
She'd had to enter the Southlands the same way the losers had gone over. There was no trade agreement anymore, it'd been suspended when threats of war erupted, but Damon had explained the isolation was important for integration into the Southlands system. It was the same as if she'd lost Final Raid, except instead of reality redrawing around her in the tent, she was kept in that featureless void for what could have been days or weeks or only a few hours.
A contact would get her into a Realm, whatever that was. Damon seemed to know what she would be getting into, but declined to tell her so she could be more genuine in her surprise. Gabby didn't like it. She preferred to be prepared.
Within the confines of her mind, Gabby went over the last moments with Damon a thousand times.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he'd asked, with a tenderness Gabby found hard to swallow, though it seemed real.
"I have to." Gabby had nodded, not understanding why he would try to talk her out of it, except in fear for his daughter.
"I understand why Song followed you into the Freelands. She really believed in you. I'd told her to betray you at the Lever Game, but she didn't go through with it. I can see why now."
His admission had made her choke on her words.
"Even when you were with the Frags," he'd continued, "she wouldn't do it."
He'd glanced over his shoulder, an act that made him more sympathetic than she wanted. She preferred him at a distance, in case she had to make a difficult decision about Mouse. Then he did something that froze her interface, a way to keep out listeners she assumed.
"Watch yourself when you get there. Cassius doesn't trust you. He was talking about using you somehow and then throwing you away when he was done."
Gabby had only been able to squeak out a 'thank you' before he pulled out a thin shard of glass tubing. It was half as long as her pinky and no wider than a few hairs. He bent it back and forth a couple of times to show her it was flexible, but she couldn't figure out why.
"Give me your arm."
She did as she was directed. Damon pinched a section of her upper arm eliciting a brief ouch. Then he stuck the flexible glass tube into the bunched muscle. Tears sprung to her eyes and she bit her lip to keep from yelling.
When it was over, she'd asked, "What was that for?" while she probed the tender spot with a
tentative finger.
"A reset. If you need to ditch the Southlands system. It'll blow every operating system you've got."
"The fail safe?"
Damon shook his head regretfully. "I think so. Though I don't know enough about it to be sure. I'd heard rumors about such a thing, but I thought they were just that...rumors. At the very least it'll eliminate any tracking methods they have on you. Maybe the trigger will still be there but they won't be able to communicate with it if you don't have an operating system. It's the best I can do under short notice, though I wouldn't use it unless you absolutely have to."
Damon put his hands on her shoulders and stared at her directly in the eyes. "You have to understand that I'm not sure how reliable it is. Dropping connection with your sense-web might cause problems for your nervous system and also, once you do, you'll be more obvious than Unthar at a tea party."
Gabby had let him know she understood with a resigned nod. It was strange that she so unequivocally believed him when he'd been her most hated enemy a few short months ago. But it was doubtful he would have supported her going into the Southlands if he'd known the level of danger, from both the Coders and the Southlands. And now he'd given her a potential way out, insurance for Gabby and for Song. Once she got Zaela, she could make her way back to the Freelands and release Mouse to return to her father.
This was the scene that revolved around her head like a carousel of moments, always coming back around to the beginning. How Zaela could have stood it, Gabby didn't know. Because for Zaela and the other losers, they wouldn't have known what their eventual fate would be. Would they wake to a quick death? Or just not wake at all?
Trapped in the void, Gabby could understand why the losers of LifeGame wanted revenge, to end the game and the GSA. Gabby wondered how many had gone mad in this void. Zaela was so visual and artistic. How would she have handled a blank canvas in which nothing could be altered? The first thing she would do when she found Zaela would be to give her a big hug.
After a time, a time that felt both infinite and brief, Gabby began to detect a faint lightness in the distance. She stared at it, willing it to come closer. To embrace her with its luminosity. And then Gabby began to wonder if she was losing her hold on sanity that she was bargaining with light. But it'd been so long.
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