by Tracy Korn
"Let Arwyn and Liam make the bioprint chips so we can find the other Glyphs. I'll find out why Liddick is on the Grid instead of on his way here with everyone else," I say. Tark stares into me with his gold panther eyes the same way he did when Vox, Liddick, and I came out of the practice virtuo-cine in his class.
"All right," he says, turning back to Arwyn after a long minute. "Make the chips. But make back up replacements; the only tech on hand right now is C-grade."
Arwyn nods, then gestures to Liam.
C-grade? I think.
It's old tech, but that's OK, Lyden thinks. It will work.
"C-grade tech is glitchy," Arco says, as if on queue. "Do you have a plan for when it shorts, and we're on the Grid with a giant red bow on our backs for Gaia?"
"My instincts are to agree with you, Mr. Hart," Tark says, and I'm afraid the next thing out of his mouth will be to reconsider his decision to let us go back onto the virtuo-cine Platform.
"That's the risk we have to take," I blurt before Tark can say anything, then turn to Arco. "We can't worry about how far down it is when we know we have to take the leap regardless, right?" I nod to him, but he just tilts his head like he's about to tell me something he knows I don't want to hear. "Arco, if we don't go back in there now, that code could evolve to the point that not even my dad can fix it or stop it. Everyone will think Gaia, Carboderm, and Biotech Global are actually trying to save people instead of just using them to save themselves. And if Liddick is somehow a part of that at all…" I trail off, unable to even consider the possibility. "We just can't let him."
Arco looks at me like he doesn't believe what I'm saying. I almost don't believe what I'm saying, but I know Liddick wouldn't betray us. I also know if I'm wrong, I'm the only one who can stop him.
CHAPTER 37
Playing with Fire
Liddick
Before the bright light of the port-carnate hub totally clears, I'm already sitting in a…virtuo-cine chair? I squint, trying to make out where I am.
"What is this?" I finally say out loud. My throat is raw, and I hear my voice cracking in and out of a whisper like when I transferred to Azeris's hub.
"Try not to move or talk yet, Mr. Wright. Dr. Cole stripped your DNA, remember?" a passing shadow says.
"He's connected," another man's voice says. "The cine queue is tapped as well; he can drop any time."
"Let's give him a minute to get his bearings."
"Cine queue? Where am I?" I say, trying to blink to clear my vision.
"You are in a storyboarding facility in Admin City, Mr. Wright; that's all you need to know," the first shadow says. I blink again and see that he's a tall, thin man with unnaturally blue eyes…a Cloudy.
"Where are my friends? We ported at the same time," I say, trying to sit up, but my muscles won't engage.
"I imagine they are wherever they were intending to go," he says with a shrug. "Mr. Grisham said you would be the only one entering the Grid with us today. Are you ready for your instructions regarding Mr. Tarriff's firewall?"
"Yes, but—"
"Good. We've secured your connection through the virtuo-cine network. I understand you were once quite an aficionado," the thin man says.
"Listen, I need confirmation that Dez is all right—tell Grisham this isn't what we agreed!" I try to shout, but my voice hollows on the last words. The thin man tries to hide his smirk, which makes me want to kill him.
"Mr. Wright, your DNA callous layer is gone now. You'll need to be patient with your reconfiguration."
"There's no way you work for Grisham. Spaulding arranged for this clearance level, didn't he?" I cough. "Grisham didn't even have a port-carnate hub with tech from this decade—he couldn't have brokered Grid access like this," I say, trying to lift my arms to reference the small, white room that looks like it came straight from a spaceship.
The thin man narrows his small, iridescent blue eyes at me, then smiles a bar wedge smile.
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to discuss my employer, Mr. Wright," he says, then turns his back to me to walk behind a pedestal style console. After a second, the back wall lights up with projected 3-D virtuo-cine images. One is of horse-drawn wagons and dirt roads, another shows an old pirate ship on a choppy sea. These and the rest of the cines immediately flatten, then peel off the wall like giant posters and stack on top of each other horizontally. After a few seconds, thick bands of light-to-dark colors start forming between the layers, spreading them apart until the whole thing looks like a giant spinning rainbow cylinder from floor to ceiling.
"You seem to have recuperated your strength, Mr. Wright. Are you ready to log into Transcendence?" the tall man asks, looking up from his console at me.
The bottom layer becomes 3-D again, forming into a star field with two planets in the distance. The one closest has land masses and water, but also three broad rings around it.
"What is that?" I ask.
"The planets Evion Eight and Halcyon, Mr. Wright. They're part of the virtuo-cines, Infinitum and Transcendence, which take place on these planets respectively. You're bioprint has been embedded with the clearance you will need to temporarily reboot the virtuo-cine network portion of the Grid from within Transcendence. The refresh will seem like it happens immediately, but Mr. Grisham will be able to get behind Mr. Tarriff's firewall before it has time to completely regenerate."
"That's all I have to do? I don't have to take down the firewall myself?"
"Not with the storyboarder clearance you've been given. Just find the login and upload the reboot command to the network; you'll be able to see the actual code behind the cine graphics with your storyboarder credential."
"How do I upload the command? How do I find the login?" I ask.
"The same way you initiate all biocode, Mr. Wright. You touch the source," he says, looking up from his console and raising a pencil thin dark eyebrow like I'm the stupidest person in the world. I stare at him, and he sighs. "If you aren't sure, simply manifest a reset register graphics display," the thin man says, now looking down his obviously engineered needle nose at me. He closes his eyes in a long blink before looking back down at whatever he's typing into his console. "Just think of the words, Mr. Wright. They'll appear over the graphic you need to touch to enter your credential and launch the reboot," he says on a long exhale.
"Fine, so I reset the virtuo-cine network server, and I'm out? You'll pull me out then and put me back on the original port trajectory I had before you rerouted me here?"
"Yes, your job is to get in, reboot the virtuo-cine network, and get out. Please note that Mr. Grisham will continue monitoring your progress topside. If you compromise the mission by revealing your purpose in any way, your locator flag and those of your friends will be changed to warrant flags. I hear Lima is incredibly hot this time of year…" he smiles without looking at me. I try to sit up, but the chair has already started strapping me in.
"You didn't answer if Grisham would be putting me back on my trajectory after this."
"Please sit back and relax, Mr. Wright. You'll be dropping in five…four…"
"Wait, I need to know how I get back to my friends after all this is done!"
"…three…two…"
"Hey!!"
"…one."
***
Sheets of blue code scroll in front of my eyes for a second before dark military boots materialize in front of me. They're running fast, and it's only after I notice this that I realize I am running too. The ground is burnt orange with no vegetation as far as I can see, and the only person in any direction is the one filling those boots just up ahead. It's a girl.
"Hey!" I yell up to her, but she doesn't slow down. "What are we running from!?"
"Folger, you're not funny! Hurry up!"
Guess I'm Folger, I think, picking up my pace. I catch up to her, but I can't see her face through the glare on her helmet. I squint up at the purple sky and see two bright objects, a big red disc, which must be the sun, and a smaller dark gray one, plus three horizo
ntal streaks that jut halfway into the sky.
"Hey! So really, why are we—" I start, but the deafening cracks of sound and light stop everything when something knocks the wind out of me. Dirt suddenly pushes through my teeth; I cough and spit, but can only see a white and gray haze and hear a high-pitched buzzing. It feels like it's trying to push its way out of my eardrums, harder until it gets sharp. I cover them with my hands, and then feel the wet, sticky blood running down my neck. Crite…I think, spitting again. The ringing starts to subside, and the pain shifts from sharp to deep before settling into my teeth.
"Folger!" The word sounds yelled through a wall. I look around, and see her outline getting closer, trying to crawl to me.
"Are you OK?" I shout, but my voice sounds far away.
"My leg!" I look down at her, but don't see anything that looks like it could be an injury. "We need to get back to the boundary before they catch up!"
"Who?" I shout again, putting her arm over my shoulder. I still can't see her face through her helmet, especially not with the layer of dust lacing the rounded glass.
"Folger, crite! The Transcendents!" the girl says just as the haze clears enough to see a circle of lights in the ground just ahead. "There it is!" she says, pointing to the circle.
We stumble into it, and the haze, smoke, and noise clear all around us.
"We've got her, Captain!" a man in a silver shirt says, and another man lifts the girl with me onto a gurney. I stand up and press the heels of my hands into my eyes until someone grabs my wrists and pulls them away.
"Let's have a look then," a woman says. "Bixby, I want the log from the Captain's suit—triangulate the helmet malfunction and send it to Kryder in C-deck for debugging."
A light hits my eyes before I can even try to open them. I squeeze them shut harder, and more blue code scrolls upward, faster and faster until I open my eyes again.
"Aye, ma'am," a man says.
"Hey…hey!" I hold my hands out to create some space.
"Sir, I need to examine for debris," the woman's voice says, sternly this time.
"I'm good," I say, holding my arms out to keep everyone at bay as I blink away the code enough to see the floor come into focus. It's dark and smooth, and I can see my reflection in the nearby silver console…wait, that's not me…
I jump, watching my hands, which aren't my hands, fly up and touch the face in the reflection. I feel them touch my face, but I'm not this old. I don't have dark hair or a pointed beak of a nose like this. It has to be the bioprint mask, I think, then stumble backward. Instantly, two more men are on either side of me gripping my arms.
"Sir, we need to get you to the med bay," one of the men says just as we turn into a large, white room with hologram grids, columns of text, and the blue, internal outline of a 3-D body from head to foot…all the organs, veins, and bones displayed. The men lift me onto the flat table in the middle of the room, and the 3-D body hologram lowers over me.
"Be still, please, sir," the woman who insisted on seeing my eyes a minute ago says. I finally get a look at her. The red hair…the dragon lady nails, the pointed bird-like face. Rheen! I think, then nearly jump off the table when half her face is replaced for a second by scrolling blue code.
"Folger! What's wrong with him?" another woman's voice asks. I turn toward it, but she's just a sheet of code too. I take a deep breath…Focus, Wright, I think…trying to calm down. After a second, her long, brown hair is sticking to her face, but not so much that I can't see her features. Jazz? I think…she has the same golden brown eyes, the same long, thin nose and thick, dark eyebrows, but she's older, maybe 25?
"Ri—" I start, then catch myself. This is a cine. I'm in a cine…the firewall. All right…just find the login and upload the reboot command. Stop tweaking…"Rid—iculous," I stumble, hoping something else will come to me when the two men who hauled me in here, along with the Rheen double and older Jazz stop and stare at me.
"What's ridiculous, sir?" the Rheen double asks.
"That…you're all fussing like this," I say, as surprised as everyone else seems to be at the words coming out of my mouth. "I'm fine; just get me out of this heap," I add for good measure, gesturing to the tattered launch suit I'm still wearing. One of the men pushes a button on the side of my collar, and the suit starts deconstructing…folding down over itself in panels until it falls into a perfect square on the ground.
"Recycle it," Rheen's twin says to one of the men.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Will you at least let us scan you for internal injuries?" she asks, raising a thin red eyebrow at me.
"Greene," I say, not realizing I'm reading the small nameplate on her silver shirt out loud until I hear it come out of my mouth. She raises her other eyebrow at me.
"Well, your eyes are fine. Now let's talk about your internal—"
"I'm fine," I interrupt. Didn't someone call me Captain a minute ago? And everyone is calling me sir…I'm in charge here, I think.
"It's my job to make sure you're healthy, sir," Rheen's twin insists. "I just have your best interest in mind."
I turn back to her because something isn't right…why is she working so hard to make sure I know she's trying to help me?
"Folger, we can't risk going back in. We almost lost another deployment crew down there!" older Jazz says, wincing as another woman in a silver jumpsuit scans her upper leg with a wand, then moves her fingers over the floating blue hologram projection of a broken femur bone. It starts to knit back together. Greene takes a step over to older Jazz and taps something into the side of the leg hologram. She immediately settles.
"Just a sedative, Lieutenant Ridley. You need to rest."
CHAPTER 38
Infinitum
Jazz
Arco sighs, but I see a smile fighting at the corner of his mouth.
"Are you and I actually on the same side for once about Liddick?" he asks. I shrug and return his almost smile.
"I just want to do the right thing," I say. "We need to make sure we're all still in this together, and if he's been talked into doing something against The Seam, I want to help him."
Arco nods, but the spark of his smile fades until it goes out completely.
"So what's next, then?" he asks, turning to Tark.
"Next, you swallow these," Arwyn answers, making her way back through the corridor to the circle of virtuo-cine chairs with Liam at her side. She holds up a fistful of test tubes.
"Are those the chips?" Ellis asks, scrambling out from behind a console along with Avis.
"Does it matter which one they take?" Avis asks, reaching for the tubes, but then pulls his hand back when Liam glares at him.
"They're color coded; we customized each one," Arwyn answers. "Jazz…" she adds, handing me a tube with a flat blue square about the size of my thumbnail. She passes each of the tubes to the other Empaths.
"We just swallow these?" Arco asks, eyeing the red chip at the bottom of his tube.
"One bite, and then they'll dissolve. The tech isn't new, so they might take a few bites to initiate," Arwyn answers.
"Who's in this?" Vox asks, holding her yellow chip up to the light.
"You're all listed as demographics testers with Empath neural structures, so the virtuo-cine Glyphs have two reasons to interact with you. We're hoping career coding you all as testers will reverse the firewall evolution. With any luck, instead of trying to scare you away, the Glyphs will try to positively engage you now," Arwyn explains. Vox gives her a deadpan look.
"But who's in this square?" she asks. "What faces are we wearing in there?"
Arwyn winces a little, but tries to cover it with a laugh.
"We didn't name them…" she says with an awkward smile. "With the tech we have, I could only build a level one mask onto your DNA baselines, but that will be enough to filter your neural signatures and general appearance on the Grid. That way, you won't look like yourself to the Glyphs…facial recognition won't be transmitted. These chips won't last long, thoug
h, so you may need to dose again after this cine."
"All right, let's get this over with. What's this cine?" Arco asks.
"It's called, Infinitum—Action/Adventure genre that takes place in the same universe as the final virtuo-cine in our queue, Transcendence. We can't tell which of the cines Liddick is in now because his signature keeps jumping between them, but he's in one of them," Tark says.
"Will we be able to see him even though he's masked as that Ludwig person?" Vox asks.
"You won't be able to see him because he'll appear as whatever character he's embodying, but you may be able to sense him," Arwyn answers.
Some of us more than others, Lyden says in my head. I look over at him in time to see the last of his smile fall away.
"You'll be entering at the climax of Infinitum, which is where the algorithms are reporting the Glyph will likely be," Tark says. "Bottoms up, then," he adds, nodding to the test tubes.
We all tip them up and bite down on the chips. Mine fizzes against my cheek, making prickles run down my spine. I flinch.
"It will feel like your hands and feet are falling asleep for a second, but that's just the DNA mask overlaying your cells," Liam says. "You can get back into your chairs once the chip has dissolved."
"Feel any different?" I look up at Arco as we make our way to our chairs.
"Not really," he answers, but the tension in the air around him suggests otherwise.
"Are you sure? What's wrong?"
"Nothing…" he starts, and I clear my throat. "All right, I don't like the idea of hitting the ground in the middle of a tense situation. Tark said we were landing at the climax, which means there will be no time to prepare or to think…just to act," he says.
"You're good at that, though, Arco. You knew exactly what to do when the Leviathan was about to self-destruct, and you didn't exactly have a bunch of warning about that," I say.
"That was different. I was in my element."
"Which you didn't know until you got there."
