The Norm (The Glitches Series Book 3)

by Ramona Finn

  Bird wakes me early with water and food. It sounds to me like the arguing is still going on, but then I hear Wolf’s low, rumbling voice. He is finally talking and now the other clan leaders listen. Glancing at Bird, I ask, “Does he have them in line?”

  She shrugs. “He will. Eventually. It may come down to a challenge.”

  I give a small shiver. Wolf was challenged by Komodo for leadership of the Tracker Clan—it meant a fight. Wolf didn’t kill Komodo, but after that Komodo left the clan. I don’t know where he went—maybe to start a new clan on his own. Maybe into the Outside to die. Komodo didn’t look the type to take any defeat well.

  Glancing over at Bird, I decide these are useless thoughts. I need to see if I can take Bird into a hack with me. And I also need to see if Alis and Skye can hack a connect to the Glass Hall—or maybe I can hack a connect for them.

  Wolf is the one who will have to come up with a plan for the Rogues to attack the Norm—and then I’ll have to make sure they’re not swarmed by the AI’s drones and scabs.

  And everyone needs to face the fact that we will lose people. That is just a hard truth.

  Once Alis and Skye wake, I lead them and Bird to Dr. Sig’s lab, leaving Wolf to keep dealing with the Rogue leaders. I still cannot risk a hack from here to the AI—we can do nothing to alert the AI that we are in the Glass Hall. But I do wonder how much does the AI know about this place?

  From Dr. Sig’s recordings, I know the AI was born here—which means the AI knows this place exists. Maybe the AI thinks there’s no more power here. Or maybe the AI thinks the Glass Hall is buried and hidden and of no use to anyone. Or maybe the Glass Hall really isn’t a threat. We’ll just have to find out the hard way—by doing.

  After leading Bird, Alis and Skye into Dr. Sig’s lab, I glance around at the walls. I still wish for some biogear. I wish even more that Dat had come out of the tunnels, grinning, holding up the biogear he’d gone to save. His loss is a sore place in my chest and I don’t know if I will ever heal from that. I know Alis has not.

  Pulling in a breath, I tell the others, “We need to keep the connects short. This is just to find out if Alis and Skye can do a hack, and if I can pull Bird in with me. I have no idea where the Glass Hall gets its power. In one of the recordings Dr. Sig mentioned something about geothermal, and I know there’s heat in the ground that warmed the baths we used to have.”

  Skye gives a long sigh and mutters, “Baths. Miss them.”

  I nod—I do, too. All the Rogues are starting to stink. It amazes me the Glass Hall does not. Turning to Alis, I gesture to a wall. “See if you can pull up a screen. Touch the walls.”

  Alis lifts a hands, flexes her fingers and approaches a wall. She slides her hand along it. Nothing happens. She turns and frowns at me.

  I was afraid of this. I think this lab is coded to respond to Dr. Sig’s DNA—to her touch. That is why it works for me. And that may be why the AI discounts anyone being able to use this place.

  Walking over to another wall, I touch it and find a screen. It forms in the glass. I gesture for Skye to come over. “See if you can hack a connect.”

  Skye glances at Alis and then at Bird. She wets her lips and rubs her palm on the leg of her leather trousers. “What if it doesn’t work?”

  Shaking my head, I wave for Skye to come over to the screen. She wraps her arms around herself, but she comes closer.

  “It is just a test, Skye. You hack a connect and then break out of it. If you want, I’ll hack in with you. If you take too long, I’ll hack in and pull you out. We have done that before.”

  She nods. Dropping her hands to her sides, she steps up to the screen. She takes a breath and touches the screen.

  It’s just like with Alis—nothing happens. Skye closes her eyes and presses her lips tight. I can tell she is trying to hack the Glass Hall and not getting anywhere. She pulls her hand away and turns to me. “I can feel something happening, but it keeps pushing me out.”

  “We have to try something different.” I pull up two more screens and tell Skye and Alis to each stand in front of a screen, and I hold out a hand to Bird. “You come with me.”

  Bird stares at my hand and frowns, but she takes hold of me. Her fingers are cold. So are mine. Facing the screen in front of me, I touch it.

  Just as with Alis and Skye, for a moment, nothing happens. A fear shivers through me that maybe the Glass Hall is out of power. But the walls still give light and warmth. There has to be a connect.

  Energy shimmers into my palm—just a small stroke of it, as if the Glass Hall is testing to make sure I really carry Dr. Sig’s DNA.

  Connection: Secure.

  I’m in. The artificial world is dark, with just points of light—no swirling colors now. It is as if the Glass Hall is being careful because I have Bird with me. She stands at my side, still clasping my hand, gripping it so hard it almost hurts.

  “Don’t let go of me,” I tell her.

  “What happens if I do?”

  I shrug. “You’ll probably drop out of here, but I don’t really know. This is not something I have ever really done.”

  “That sounds comforting,” Bird mutters.

  Turning back to the blackness, I focus on calling up plans for the Glass Hall. I need to see how Skye and Alis can connect. Do I need them to connect outside of Dr. Sig’s lab—maybe from the main hall?

  Suddenly, dazzling lines jump up at me—it is as if I am seeing the Empties, all of them. They appear on a globe and tangle and break apart. Bird pulls in a breath and steps back, her hand pulling on mine. I tug her back to my side and try to call up only this one set of Empties—the one with the Glass Hall. Or are there many Glass Halls?

  There aren’t. The lines steady and my view moves into just this one structure—I know it is this place because the stairs match the ones we came down and the Glass Hall—the large hall—looks right. And then I see the lines expand. A gasp is forced from my chest.

  The Glass Hall is huge—far bigger than I knew. Halls and rooms stretch out in all directions—reaching out almost to the dome for the Norm. This place is vast. Some of the lines are dark—as if they have been shut down. But this core glows and goes downward as well. I see rooms behind rooms—and a few of them glow. Some rooms I seem able to open, others seem locked, even to me. But I need to hack a connect for Skye and Alis.

  I call up the power and then the screens and start mapping possible connect points. As I do, I find one slim, gold line and start to follow it. It seems to lead toward the Norm. Is this a power connect? I follow it along and start to sense the artificial world changing—the colors shift from black to the cool blue of the AI.

  Jerking back, I break the connect—but not before a tingle spreads up my arm.

  In the next instant, I’m back in Dr. Sig’s lab, and on the floor. Bird is sprawled next to me, and Alis and Skye lean over us. “What happened?” Alis asks. Skye reaches down to help Bird to her feet.

  I put a hand to my head, which is pounding. My stomach turns and threatens to spill out what little I have inside me. After wiping my face, I climb to my feet again. “I think…I almost touched the AI. There is a connect to the AI here—I think the AI’s been pulling power from the Glass Hall. And from the Empties. The Norm’s a lot bigger than I thought it was. So is the Glass Hall.”

  Alis and Skye swap glances. I don’t know what that means, but Alis asks, “Did you hack a connect for us?”

  Trying to focus on this world—not the cool blues and blacks I left so suddenly—I blink and nod. “I think so. But not here. Like I said, the Glass Hall is huge. It also was once part of a huge underground system.” They all stare at me as if I’m not making any sense. I realize we need to talk about this and I have to show them something of what I saw. “Follow me,” I tell them, and lead the way back to the main hall.

  The hall is oddly empty—I don’t know where the others have gone. On a scavenge maybe. Heading over to one of the burnt-out fires, I grab a blackened stick and sit.
I wave the others to sit and start to draw the lines I saw on the floor. The lines remain for only a short time before they disappear—as if the glass somehow absorbs the charred lines.

  Frowning, I know I’m going to have to do this quickly. I start drawing again, making the lines as fast as I can and talking even faster. “The Glass Hall was built under this set of Empties when the world started to change. I don’t know why it changed. The recording said something about climate being damaged. Anyway, it was built and it’s huge. It was like a refuge, but then they started to build domes to cover the places to live and make them better—but the domes needed something inside them to control how they functioned.”

  “So they built the AI.” Alis nods. “We know most of that.”

  I point with the stick to parts of the Glass Hall that I saw in my mind, and then slash a line down one side. “That’s the dome for the Norm—or the edge of it. The Glass Hall reaches out almost to the Norm. The Glass Hall also connects to old platforms—really old ones, here and here and here. Three of them.” I point out three spots near the Norm. My lines are fading again.

  Bird is frowning and touches one of the fading lines. “Why doesn’t your drawing stay put? If you were drawing in dirt or on a tunnel wall, it would stay.”

  “That doesn’t really matter—just think of the Glass Hall as being, well, tidy. It is something like the Norm, but much more simple. It has all the problems they were trying to solve with the Norm.”

  “Problems?” Skye asks. “What kind of problems? Is it going to hurt us?”

  I shake my head. “No. The problems were for lots of people here. The Glass Hall needs a lot of power.”

  Bird straightens. “Those dark lines we saw—it shut down parts.”

  “Exactly. It takes power from the ground, but there never is enough. And I think the AI also takes power from the Glass Hall, but the AI is not taking as much as it used to. I saw only one connect left, but there were lots of lines available and shut down.”

  “So the Norm fixed the problems?” Skye asks.

  “Fixed some and put in lots more. The AI was supposed to use the Norm like its body—it would breathe in and out air and reticulate it, and it would deal with recycling waste and it would be able to use a lot of sources for power. It was supposed to be able to grow and change—and it does. That’s the real problem. It went from looking after everyone in the Norm to thinking it has to take the Norm away from here to save everyone.”

  “Everyone in the Norm,” Bird mutters. She sounds bitter.

  Ignoring that, I look from Alis to Skye. There is a spark of excitement in Alis’s eyes, but Skye sits hunched over as if she doesn’t like anything I’m saying. Taking in a breath, I turn to Alis. “I can power up these platforms so you and Skye can hack a connect. That close to the Norm, you should be able to open an access. Skye, you’ll go in and get to the Rejects to warn them about what we’re doing. See if they can also hit the AI from within. Alis, you’ll have to deal with sentinels inside the AI—you’re going to have to keep the AI from disconnecting.”

  “What are you doing?” Alis asks. She stares into my face and then shakes her head. “No. Don’t tell me. I have a feeling I don’t want to know.”

  She is right. What I have in mind is something that means I may never come out of that connect.

  The lines on the floor fade away. Footsteps and voices sound. I glance around at the pale faces around me, and I tell them, “Do not tell Wolf about this. Or anyone. As far as everyone else knows, we have connects set up for the two of you and we’ve proven I can pull Bird in with me on a hack.”

  Bird’s eyes narrow. “You don’t want Wolf to know?”

  “I don’t want Wolf worried. All of us may die—I can’t make promises. But we each have to focus on our own tasks. If you want to back out, now is the time. We are all about to take on more than we have ever done before. But I think we have a chance.”

  Bird nods. “A slim one.” She stands. “Now let’s get something to eat.”

  It surprises me that Bird agrees so readily, but when I look at her, her mouth is set and her eyes seem to be hard as if she knows things she is not telling me. That is fine with me—we can all keep our own secrets.

  The clans come back in. From the talk I overhear, they have been out scouting the best spot to start an attack on the Norm. I am going to need some Rogues, however, to get Skye and Alis to the platform I can activate.

  Wolf heads over to me and sits. He rubs a hand over his face.

  “When did you last sleep?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “I can sleep when this is over. Maybe forever.” His mouth twists up.

  I feel better with him close by. “Food?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. I fill him in on the news that I can pull Bird in with me on a connect, and I can activate platforms that Skye and Alis can use near the Norm. His eyes darken at this news, but he nods and says, “We’ll send a couple of the clan with each of them. Crow and Lion with Alis. Pike, Mouse and Elk with Skye.”

  “Will that be enough?”

  “We can trust our own.” He glances around the hall. “Have to hope we can trust others, but I want Alis and Skye with those who won’t leave them.”

  I nod. Everyone is settling back down into their clan groups, talking quietly. The clans will look after their own, and might look after other Rogues, but Wolf is right not to trust them to also look after Glitches.

  Wolf finally settles back. I motion for him to stretch out next to me. He hesitates, but gives in and settles with his head resting on my thigh. It is one way to keep me close to him. Soon his breathing eases and he sleeps.

  I brush a hand over Wolf’s hair. It is soft and my heart flutters a little in my chest. Remembering how we came together warms me. As does thinking about his touch, his scent, the small noises he made when joining with me. My body warms and I want him again, but I am not certain there is time.

  What I have with him is a real connect—deeper than anything else I have had. I hope it will be enough to bring me back to him. But it may not be.

  Leaning down, I press my lips to his forehead. I’m aware of the others in the room, but if they’re watching, I don’t care.

  Wolf stirs in his sleep. His dreams are not good ones. I can tell by how his mouth pulls down and his eyelids twitch. His lashes are dark against his tanned cheeks.

  I do not dare sleep.

  Because I’m afraid that in my last connect to the Glass Hall, I touched the AI.

  Maybe the AI won’t notice. Maybe the AI will think it is only a power surge.

  My eyes burn with wet, salty moisture. I blink away the wetness.

  Or maybe the AI knows we are here—and will be coming for it.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  After Wolf wakes, we sit close and talk about the plans. Wolf says the Rogues are ready, but they will not attack until the new moon when the sky is dark. I don’t see the point in that—drones and scabs don’t need light to see. But Wolf says the clan leaders won’t budge from that. This is more about their superstitions that the new moon brings luck. This means we have to wait two days before the Rogues head out. It will take them a night of walking to reach the Norm. Night is better—cooler. But I worry this is going to take too long. But the clans all seem relaxed—there has been no shaking and I think they are taking this as a good sign. I am not.

  The Walking Tall Clan has brought in more of their weapons—the long tubes lean against a glass wall and two of the clan always guard them. I don’t blame them. Red Kite keeps staring at the tubes as if she is trying to think of a way to get a couple of them. Someone needs to talk to her—we don’t need trouble now. But Wolf is out on a scavenge with Bird, Crow and a few others, and I don’t know the other clan leaders well enough to ask them for any favors.

  I head over to Red Kite.

  She sits with her back against the wall and her legs coiled up beneath her. She looks almost relaxed, but I can feel the tension in her body. Like one of the de
sert cats waiting in front of a mouse hole and ready to spring.

  Red Kite looks up at me. She does not have the red clay on her face today and she looks younger without it. But she is all muscle, sleek and streamlined, but no less impressive than Wolf as a leader. I know she is cunning in a way that is different than Wolf. He is direct—he uses his strength, but he also knows how to hold it back. Red Kite thinks a lot more than Wolf does—I can see that in her eyes.

  Having to talk to her is not exactly what I want to do, but I will not see her jeopardize everything by trying to steal from the other clans. She actually nods at me in a greeting—it seems she at least views me as part of the Tracker Clan and not just a Glitch.

  Strange how things change.

  “Their weapons are theirs. After is the time to talk with them about trades.”

  Red Kite snorts. “Whoever is left after this will take what they can. That’s the law of survival.”

  “Tracker Clan law is nothing is wasted. It’s a waste to fight with each other.”

  She tips her head to one side. Her eyes seem very bright and green. “Don’t know how you put your mind into a machine the way Wolf says you and the other Glitches can. Sounds to me like a fast death. You can’t fight if you’re mind isn’t in your body.”

  I shrug. “It’s a risk either way. In a connect, yes, your mind is elsewhere. Your body can die or your mind can die—a good connect means what happens to you in the virtual world feels real. If you think you’re dead, you die.”

  “I’d rather fight drones and scabs.” She glances over to the long tubes of the Walking Tall Clan. “We should all have weapons like that.”

  I shake my head. I don’t bother telling Red Kite that I may be able to influence the drones and turn them against the AI—I am not really certain I can. It is one thing to manage a connect to a single drone. I have no idea if I can do more than that.