by Isaac Hooke
"You act as if you're my master," Hoodwink said.
"Aren't I?"
"Why did you have Ari killed?" Hoodwink tried to mask the emotion in his voice. He wasn't sure how successful he was, given the tremble on the word killed.
"Ari?"
"She was on my team," Hoodwink said. "A key part of that team, I might add. You knew this."
"Ah yes. Your illusory daughter. Beside the fact she knew the location of certain vital targets, including the Dwarf, and the New Users headquarters, I ordered her killed with the Mind Extractor because of her relationship to you. She was too close. You cared too much for her. Her proximity to you put the entire plan at risk."
"That was a mistake." Hoodwink yanked on the chain, bringing the cringing Dwarf nearer to him. "Give me the disk you had Brute use on her. Give me the Mind Extractor."
A deep vibration passed through the chamber, an eerie rumble that grew in volume until Hoodwink felt his chest vibrating. He realized it was laughter.
"Touching," One said. "The illusory father-daughter relationship is no more, and yet you still seek the dead one's memories? Redress for some perceived fault on your part?"
Hoodwink was growing impatient. "I have brought you the Dwarf. And you will give me the disk in exchange."
"No."
Hoodwink lifted the edge of the fire sword to the Dwarf's neck, just above the bronze bitch. "Give me the disk."
"Do you see now, Hoodwink? No one on your team can be trusted. Least of all you." The robed figure still hadn't turned around to face him. "You know that I can bring this room down upon you in the time it takes to blink an eye?"
"And risk killing the Dwarf? I don't think so. Besides, you haven't joined with the Dwarf yet. Your power in this world is still limited."
"Is it?" One remained motionless, in tense stand-off on the other side of the room. Electricity continued to spark from its fingers. At Hoodwink's side the Dwarf had grown rigid, none too happy about the blade burning into its neck.
Hoodwink knew time was short. Limited power or not, now that they were in the same proximity, One might be able to locate the Dwarf's entries in the Core, and change whatever flag governed the durability of the Dwarf's skin. Or maybe change Hoodwink's own flags.
"Give me the disk now!" Hoodwink let the temperature of the blade soar, and the stench of charred Dwarf flesh filled his nostrils.
A small metallic object dropped from One's hand onto the floor. The disk. It bounced three times, coming to a rest halfway between Hoodwink and One.
Hoodwink removed the blade from the Dwarf's neck, and the relieved gol collapsed.
He tentatively stepped forward. When he reached the disk, Hoodwink bent down and, not taking his eyes from One, he scooped up the object and tucked it into his belt.
"I don't understand why you would want such a thing," One said. "To relive the memories of another entity, when that entity is dead."
Hoodwink snorted. "That's because you're not human."
"Neither are you."
Hoodwink pointed the sword at One's back. "I'm more human than you'll ever be. Besides, there's more than just memories in this disk, and you know it."
"Is there?" One's head tilted to the side to look at him askance. The light seemed to dim just a little more in the room. "Should I kill you now, Hoodwink?"
Hoodwink flexed his fingers around the sword hilt. "You wouldn't dare lift a hand against me."
"Why?"
"Because," Hoodwink said. "You need me."
"Do I? Are you so certain that you have not outlived your usefulness? I am fully autonomous. My reach extends to the Core, and most parts of the system, Inside and Outside. And now that you have given me the Dwarf, I can complete my program without any further aid."
Hoodwink stared at the A.I. uncertainly for a moment.
Then he spun toward the curtains and hurled himself through the window. He landed in a spray of broken glass and clambered to the edge of the snow-covered balcony. He flung himself over the railing and fell one full story into the snow drift below. His gol body absorbed the impact well enough. He rolled to his feet and sprinted away across the estate.
He expected the snow to come alive beneath him, or the pine trees that lined the path to bend and scoop him up, or hordes of Direwalkers to come racing after him from the mansion, something, anything.
But the estate remained calm.
One had let him go.
Perhaps One had felt some sense of obligation for his gift of the Dwarf. Perhaps it even believed that Hoodwink might still be of use to it. Or maybe it was just in a good mood. A.I.s were unpredictable things.
Hoodwink touched the shiny disk he'd stowed inside his belt. The metal felt cold beneath his fingers, colder than ice.
Halfway there, Ari.
96
The guttering torches set at intervals in the walls cast disturbing shadows over the macabre scene in the tunnel. The dead lay everywhere, old men and women and their younger apprentices, struck down in attempted flight. Broken planks scattered the frozen floor, the remnants of cubicles that had once partitioned the area. Soot crisscrossed the mudbrick walls where the lightning of the fallen had forked. The sickly sweet smell of char suffused the air.
Tanner recognized very few of the dead men, so mangled were those bodies. Jackson was one of them. A courier of the New Users, cousin to the mayor, recruited over a year ago.
His torso was slit open from groin to chin, his ribs poking up like grisly claws.
"So this is the New User headquarters," Cap said.
Al lifted a plank, revealing a dead Direwalker curled up beside Jackson. "A dirty business, this. A piss-poor dirty business."
"Jacob would've come here," Tanner said. "With the Dwarf. And Hoodwink." His hearing had returned, though sound still seemed muffled, his own voice especially.
"If so," Cap said. "They probably died here."
Tanner didn't believe it. Still, he couldn't say one way or another, not with most of the bodies hacked to pieces.
He glanced inside one of the few offices left standing—the Archives. The place was a burnt-out husk. The cabinets, smeared with soot, had been flung down. The drawers had been opened, the papers they contained reduced to ashes.
"So the other traitor has arrived." Jacob emerged from an alcove beside the office. The New User had seen happier days—he had cuts and bruises all over his face and arms, his thin gray hair was matted, and his rags, already suitable for a pauper, were smeared with mud and sweat. Not so different from Tanner and his own companions.
Three other New Users were with the old man, along with two swordsmen not of the Den. Briar was there too, peering from the alcove.
"Well?" Jacob said. "Nothing to say, traitor?"
Tanner felt his brows draw together. Just who was Jacob talking to?
Cap, Al, and the other Denizens joined Tanner. The swordsmen on both sides of the stand-off fingered their hilts. A small spark of electricity played across Jacob's fingertips.
"Jacob, my old friend," Cap said, apparently trying to diffuse the situation. "Why the uncalled-for talk?"
Jacob ignored him, eyes fixed on Tanner.
That's when Tanner realized Jacob had been addressing him.
"What do you mean, traitor?" Tanner said.
"You know exactly what I mean." Jacob advanced a step. "Are you going to take the Revision Box back too now? And the Control Room?"
Tanner touched the hilt of his own scabbarded blade, and let the comfort of vitra flow into him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
One of the other New Users, the old woman named Helen, glanced at Jacob. "Maybe Hoodwink was acting alone."
Tanner sighed. "What has our good friend Hoodwink done now?"
"He pulled a fast one on us, is what," the old man, Jacob, barked.
And then Tanner realized that the Dwarf was absent.
"That's right," Jacob said. "You see it now. Hoodwink took the Dwarf. Maker knows where, or why."
Tanner was somewhat relieved. "Just the Dwarf?"
"What do you mean, just the Dwarf," Jacob said. "You promised that the Dwarf would help us create objects in this place without you having to go to that Outside of yours."
Tanner raised his hands placatingly. "I'll go back and ask Hoodwink himself. He's in the same room as me at this very moment. I'm sure he had a good reason for what he did."
There were more than a few confused looks among those present. Only Jacob understood. Jacob, whom Ari and Tanner had confided in.
But Jacob slumped, bearing all the weight of his years, and the spark vanished from his fingers. Just like that, the tension faded from the room. "You know what? I don't care anymore. It's over for us anyway. We can't fight back, not after this. Not against such insane odds. We'll have to go into hiding. All humanity may have to. Permanently."
Tanner chewed his lip. It was a nervous habit he'd picked up from Ari. Damn he missed her. "This isn't over yet, Jacob. Trust me." Tanner reached into his uniform and crossed toward Jacob.
The swordsmen beside the old man drew their blades and forced Tanner to halt.
"Show us what you have in your hand," the leftmost swordsman said.
Tanner extended his palm, showing the tracker he'd just retrieved from his uniform.
"A tracker." Jacob regarded the metal object suspiciously. "Why should I trust you?"
"Because I'm the only link to the Outside you have left."
"The only link." Jacob narrowed his eyes. "What about Ari? Where is she?"
Tanner hesitated. Finally he said, "She's dead."
Jacob stared at him for a long moment. "You're not lying. I can see the pain written all over your face." He waved his men down.
Tanner pressed the tracker into Jacob's hands. "Have patience, and don't lose hope. Set up the Control Room in a different part of the sewers. Wait for me to contact you."
Jacob squeezed his fingers around the tracker, and then he frowned, exaggerating the wrinkles on his face. "Okay, Tanner. Okay."
Tanner glanced at the others. The Users. The Denizens. Cap. Al. Briar. They all looked weary. Broken. After what they'd been through, he didn't blame them. He felt the same way.
He retrieved the handmirror from his cloak and marched down the tunnel. The group fell into hushed conversation, which soon receded behind him.
When he found somewhere quiet he sat against the mudbrick and began the process of disbelieving reality. His mind wandered, and he found it hard to concentrate. The Dwarf. Why would Hoodwink want the Dwarf? It made no sense.
Unless Hoodwink meant to trade the Dwarf for the disk?
When Tanner got back to the Outside, he had a few questions to ask Hoodwink.
More than a few.
97
Tanner awoke in Zeta Station on the Outside, feeling like he'd returned from a long journey, when in reality only a few minutes had passed since he'd gone Inside.
Hoodwink stood at a nearby desk, still wearing his spacesuit, the helmet and portable energy weapon lying on the counter beside him. He was tethered to the terminal, and apparently communicating with the interface via his mind if his eye movements were of any indication.
Tanner scrambled to his feet.
Hoodwink immediately trained the energy weapon on him.
"Why?" Tanner said.
Hoodwink's face betrayed no emotion. "For Ari. Someday you'll understand."
"You gave the Dwarf to Jeremy?" Though he already knew.
"I did."
"And what does that mean for us, exactly?"
"Where to begin?" Hoodwink's eyes were moving back and forth rapidly—the signs of a data search. Or retrieval. "What that means for us. Well, you know about the germ, right? Jeremy's the person who created it. He put it into the main A.I. of this ship. Put it into One. That should have given him control of everything, but—"
"Wait. Jeremy created the germ? How?" Tanner couldn't understand how someone like Jeremy could create a germ capable of infecting the A.I. of a starship. Jeremy had no knowledge of the Outside and the simulation he was in. Jeremy was just some portal-trader turned mayor.
Wasn't he?
"It doesn't matter how he did it." Hoodwink said. "You only need to know that he did it. But here's the thing. Ordinarily, the main A.I., One, can't touch the simulation directly. Even when infected with the germ. Its orders are buffered by the sub-A.I.s, like the Dwarf, which can decide to obey or disobey on their own. It's sort of a failsafe.
"But Jeremy found a way to let One shape the Inside directly—with the germ, he linked his avatar to One. So that One could appear right on top of his avatar. With the link, One could only enter the world now and again, but it was enough to create the Direwalker army. Now that Jeremy has the Dwarf, he also has its source. He'll infect the Dwarf, and link his avatar to it, too. The Dwarf and One will merge with Jeremy's avatar, completely replacing him. One will have full access to the illusion, and will be able to create unlimited Direwalkers. And worse things. He means to destroy the simulated world, and wake everybody up."
Tanner couldn't believe it. "And you gave the Dwarf to Jeremy, knowing all that?"
"I needed to get the disk," Hoodwink said. "It seemed a fair trade, in my mind. The ten thousand Direwalkers were already enough to destroy the world anyway."
"Hoodwink, what have you done? If everyone wakes up, you know that we're ruined. We'll die from overcrowding. Starvation. The iron golems here will hunt us down in droves. We have to stop it somehow."
"That's your job now Tanner," Hoodwink said. "I can't help you. I've chosen my side. For good or for bad. And I'm leaving this blasted heap of scrap metal behind."
"Ari wouldn't have wanted this."
Hoodwink looked daggers at him. "Don't you dare drag her good name into this. Don't you dare. You have no idea what she would've wanted."
"But I do," Tanner insisted. "And it wouldn't have been this. Sacrificing the world, for her."
Hoodwink sighed. "As I said, Tanner, the Direwalkers were enough to destroy the Inside anyway. One will just be able to do it a little faster, now."
Tanner gauged his distance from Hoodwink. Was that energy weapon still jammed? Did he dare rush him? "Please, Hoodwink. You can't leave now. We can go to the children. We can find a way to stop the germ, and the Direwalkers, before it's too late. You owe me—"
"I owe you nothing!" Hoodwink said. "I trusted you to keep my daughter safe. Trusted! And you broke that trust! You let her die."
Tanner shut his eyes. I let her die.
No. It wasn't his fault. Tanner knew that. He was through blaming himself. "She made her choice, Hoodwink, up there on the Forever Gate."
Hoodwink didn't answer.
"If not for me," Tanner said. "Then do it for the world. You—"
"I owe the world even less. It had me collared. Its people sent me up the Forever Gate to die. No, I don't owe you or the world. The world owes me."
A microchip ejected from a slot in the terminal, and Hoodwink gingerly picked it up.
"I know you don't believe that," Tanner said. "I can see it on your face. I can hear it in your voice. You love us. You always have. This place. The Outside. The Inside. You're in turmoil, Hoodwink. What's going on? Tell me everything. I can help. I know I can."
Hoodwink seemed to hesitate. "It's funny, the Council actually believes it's helping humanity by doing this."
Tanner didn't know what Hoodwink was talking about. "The Council?"
"Never mind," Hoodwink said. "Topside thing."
Ah. That forbidden word again. "This Council, they think they're helping humanity by killing us all?"
"Yes. Every last one of you."
"Sound like a bunch of crazy men to me," Tanner said.
Hoodwink's face was grave. "Goodbye Tanner. And good luck."
"Let me help you Hoodwink."
"No one can help me now." He disconnected himself from the terminal and carefully tucked the microchip into his spacesuit's utility be
lt. "And for what it's worth, you're right, I do love humanity. I've tried to deny it. Really tried. And I don't honestly know what will happen when I reach Topside. I'll do my best to save Ari, no matter what happens. But I'm relying on you now, you hear? I need you to make sure there's still a world for Ari to come back to. Promise me that you'll do your best to save this place. Promise me."
"How? I don't even know where to start."
"You'll find a way, Tanner. You have to."
"I wish you'd stay and help," Tanner said.
"I can't stay. But I may just help, yet." Hoodwink grabbed his helmet and strode to the exit. He kept the weapon trained on Tanner the whole time. "Don't follow me."
The door opened and Hoodwink stepped through.
98
Tanner counted off the seconds in his mind.
One one thousand.
Two one thousand.
Three one thousand.
He scooped up his helmet, entered the unlock code for the door, and then sprinted into the corridor as fast as he could manage in that bulky suit.
He peered past the rim of the closest pod. There. He caught sight of Hoodwink, rushing down the metallic walkway.
Tanner carefully pursued, staying close to the sleepers' pods that lined the wall. A part of him noted that there were more black pods out here than was usual. Definitely not a good thing.
When Hoodwink glanced over his shoulder, Tanner immediately ducked behind the closest pod. Tanner counted off three seconds again, and when he looked, Hoodwink had already hurried off. Tanner took up the chase.
He followed Hoodwink to the airlock they'd used on the way in, and watched him enter the access code and vanish inside. The hatch closed with a resounding thud.
Tanner ran to the airlock and peered through the glass slot. He'd just missed Hoodwink—the outer hatch sealed shut.
Tanner fumbled with the keypad but the mechanism refused to allow him inside until the chamber re-pressurized. Finally the indicator light turned green and he entered the access code. The hatch opened. He hurried to the outer door and gazed through the portal.
