I make one last lunge for the control panel.
And then . . . nothing.
TWENTY-EIGHT
THE BEEPING IN MY EAR IS GETTING LOUDER, BUT I PUSH IT AWAY. I need to keep sleeping, dreaming. These dreams are important somehow, but the beeping has made them scurry off like frightened cats. I try to coax them back, searching the corners of my brain carefully, gently, so as not to startle them again.
“Nixy? Nixy, can you hear me?” a voice says.
The dreams scatter, fleeing to dark shadows.
“Nixy, it’s Dad. Can you hear me?”
Dad. My brain knows that voice, that person.
The dreams pounce all at once, like they’ve caught a rat. Everything comes back to me in a sudden rush—the MEEP, Havana, Chang, Moose, Wyn.
Wyn.
I sit up straight and a sharp pain in my arm makes me gasp. I’m on the hospital bed, covered in tubes and wires. An IV is attached to my arm with a needle, which I’ve nearly ripped out in my haste.
“Whoa, Nixy, relax,” says Dad, who looks extremely haggard, but also relieved and happy. “It’s okay now, you’re back.”
I want to hug him, but there’s no time. “Where’s Wyn?” I say, trying to look over at his bed, but there’s a crowd in the way. Diego Salvador, two doctors in scrubs, Mama Beti in her chair—all have their backs to me, hovering over Wyn’s bedside in between medical carts and monitors.
“What’s wrong with him, Dad, is he okay?”
Dad tries to give me a reassuring smile. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s just starting to wake up . . . you both came out of the MEEP at the same time, but it’s taking him a little longer to recover. He was in there longer than you so the adjustment’s bound to be a little tougher for him.”
Thank God. Wyn made it home.
“Listen, Dad, I need you to call home, call Police Chief Cuparino. Tell him he needs to locate Chang as soon as possible and keep him in custody.”
Dad looks at me like I’m crazy. “Chang?”
“Dad, just do it. We don’t have much time.”
Dad still looks dazed. “Nix, the police can’t just lock someone up—a minor, no less—because we ask them to.”
“Then tell him Chang might be an accessory to murder. Maybe even a murderer himself for all I know. Tell him they also need to find Moose and make sure he’s okay.”
“Nixy—”
“Dad! Trust me, please. I’ll explain everything later.”
Dad leans down and kisses me on the forehead. “Okay, Nix, I’ll do it. But you need to lie back down and rest. Your mom should be here any minute. She was going frantic at home so she finally packed up Hodee and hopped in the car yesterday. She’s been driving nonstop.”
“It’ll be good to see them,” I say, and smile to show my thanks. I see him take out his cell phone and walk into the hallway.
I gulp down the huge glass of water on the table next to me, then grab on to my IV pole and drag it through the crowd around Wyn’s bed. Wyn is still sleeping, but I can see eye movement behind his lids. The doctors ignore me. Mama Beti gives me a small smile, then turns her attention back to Wyn. Diego Salvador frowns at me.
“What happened? You’ve been gone for days,” he says, his voice filled with accusation.
“There were complications,” I say, matching his tone. “Where’s Kora?”
Salvador narrows his eyes at me. “What do you know about Kora?”
“Where is she?” I ask, not caring that everyone else, the doctors and Mama Beti, all look up at me in surprise. I don’t suppose they’ve ever heard anyone challenge Diego Salvador before. Least of all a teenage girl.
Salvador hesitates and eyes me like I’m some kind of vermin, spoiling his property. “We don’t know,” he says in a clipped voice. “She hasn’t arrived for work for the past five days, nor has she called to explain her absence. How—”
Wyn’s eyes flutter open then, saving me from further interrogation. He looks confused. I know the feeling.
“Wyn!” his father says, rather loudly. “Wyn, are you okay?”
“Shhh,” Mama Beti says, gently stroking Wyn’s arm.
Wyn blinks several times, then takes a moment to look around at everybody. “Nixy,” he says, when his eyes land on me. His voice is raspy, scratchy, not more than a whisper.
“Water!” Diego Salvador demands, and one of the doctors holds a glass of water to Wyn’s lips.
Mama Beti squeezes Wyn’s hand and says, “Slowly, mi amor.” He squeezes her hand in return and gives her a weak yet warm smile.
“Thank God you’re home safe, son,” Diego Salvador says, laying a hand on Wyn’s head.
Wyn gives his father a nod, but the warmth has left his face.
So I’m not the only one left cold by Chang’s story.
Wyn’s eyes return to me. Then he pulls on Mama Beti’s hand and she leans forward. Wyn whispers something in her ear.
Mama Beti nods, then rises on her walker. “Everybody out!” she says.
Nobody moves.
“I say OUT! Vamanos!” she yells again. “We give the boy five minutes to himself.”
“Mother—” begins Diego Salvador, but Mama Beti shoots him a look.
I love this woman.
“Go go go,” Mama Beti insists, gripping her walker like she might hit someone with it.
The doctors look at Salvador, who blows out a frustrated breath, then nods. “Five minutes,” he says to Wyn, then follows the others out the door.
I still haven’t moved.
“Nixy, come here,” Mama Beti orders, and I do what she says. Together we walk slowly toward the door. When we get there, she reaches out a hand and runs it gently down my cheek. “Gracias, linda. You saved my amorcito. Thank you.”
I reach over her walker and hug her with my one free arm. I can’t help it. She smiles and hugs me back.
“Now go to him,” she says. “Five minutes.”
Wyn is trying to free himself from the tubes and wires, but he is weak, and even more entangled with tubes than I am.
“Help me with these,” he says, struggling to remove them.
“Better stay hooked up for now,” I say, perching on the side of his bed, careful not to jostle anything. “You need to get your strength back. You know they’re going to ask us a thousand and one questions soon.”
As if on cue, Dad sticks his head in the door. “Nix?”
I can’t believe he got past Mama Beti.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d want to know that Moose is safe and sound. His mom says he’s shaken up about something but refuses to talk about it. Chief Cuparino hasn’t located Chang yet, but he’s got several men looking for him.”
I sigh in relief and the knots in my stomach loosen. Moose is okay. That’s all I care about right now. I hear Mama Beti scolding Dad in the background and he gives me a quick wink, then closes the door.
“Good news about Moose,” Wyn says, his voice still raspy. “Any word on Kora?”
I shake my head and pass him the glass of water. “Your father says she’s gone missing.” I pause and look out the window at the blue ocean. “I’m glad we made it out, Wyn, but there are still so many unanswered questions, so much we don’t know. . . .”
Wyn closes his eyes for a moment, as if the thought has pained him. “I know. I’m not sure I can bear to think about it right now.”
“Then don’t,” I say. “I’ll get Mama Beti to keep the wolves at bay for as long as you need.”
Wyn smiles at me then, and those chocolate eyes make my stomach cartwheel. “You’re even prettier in real life, you know,” he says, reaching up a hand to tug gently on my hair.
“You’re just delirious after all that MEEP sleep,” I tease, though I lean forward to run my fingers down his cheek. His skin feels warm an
d soft under my fingers . . . alive. I place my hand on his chest and feel the steady beat of his heart. We are home.
“One more thing before they come back,” I say.
“What’s that?” he whispers, almost breathless. He pulls me down farther.
The human Wyn, the true flesh-and-blood Wyn, is making my palms sweat, my skin tingle, and my heart do jumping jacks. I’ve never felt happier to be in my own body, even if it gives me away.
“I remember,” I tell him.
He stares into my eyes, his expression full of relief. “I didn’t think you’d ever—”
“I do,” I say.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
I pause. “For real?” I ask.
“For real,” he says.
And so I kiss him.
I really do.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could not have finished the game without my family and friends, who fed me, encouraged me, and kicked me in the pants whenever I needed to level up. Extra thanks to the following people who went above and beyond every time I asked for help, and even when I didn’t.
Kristen “Plot Babe” Pettit
Tracey & Josh “Ninja Agents” Adams
Samantha “Girl Got Game” Bagood
Kyle “Híjole” Durango
Tracie “Peaches” Vaughn Zimmer
Abbie “Bada$$” Zimmer
Linda Sue “Scarecrow” Park
Bill “The River Keep” Cairns
Susie “Eagle Eye” Stephenson
Larry & Susan “Los Padres” Greider
&
of course, the entire
Westside “Best Side” Crew
May your health bars be forever full of hearts and your coffers full of booty.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Lori Nicoli
JULIA DURANGO lives in Ottawa, Illinois, with her two teenage sons. She first fell in love with video games when she bought a Nintendo 64 for her oldest son, Kyle, on the birth of his baby brother, Ryan. Many hours of game play and several game systems later, both boys have long surpassed Julia in video-gaming prowess, though she still clings to a time when Kyle would beg her to beat the bosses for him in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Ryan envied her super-posh village in Animal Crossing. You can visit her online at www.juliadurango.com.
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CREDITS
Cover art © 2015 by Sebastien Hue
Cover design by Michelle Taormina
COPYRIGHT
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE LEVELLER. Copyright © 2015 by Julia Durango. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Durango, Julia.
The leveller / Julia Durango. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: “Nixy Bauer, a sixteen-year-old self-made video-game bounty hunter, gets in over her head when she attempts to rescue a game developer’s son from a virtual trap”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-231400-0 (hardcover)
EPub Edition © June 2015 ISBN 9780062314024
[1. Virtual reality—Fiction. 2. Video games—Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 4. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D9315Lev 2015 2014034156
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
* * *
15 16 17 18 19 PC/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Julia Durango, The Leveller
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