Gabby started to say something, but a sharp glare from Kaine made her stop.
“Just give me an answer,” Kaine snapped. “Yes or no. With me or against me. Those are your options. I can tell you right now, you’ve caused me enough trouble that I can’t afford to…Let’s just say that choosing to go against me wouldn’t be the wisest thing right now. Choose eternal life or misery. What’ll it be?”
Gabby squeezed Michael’s arm. “Let’s finish what we came here to do,” she said, not a trace of fear in her voice. And Michael knew why. The Mortality Doctrine had stolen her best friend from her.
“Yeah,” Bryson added. “There’s one of him, three of us. He already knows our answer.”
Michael looked gravely at Kaine. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“What’s your answer!” the Tangent screamed. Michael swore he saw a flash of red behind his eyes, like a demon coming to the surface. Fear chilled him to the bone.
“We have to destroy your program,” Michael said. “I’m sorry.”
The manic anger vanished from Kaine’s face, and he actually smiled. “Then by all means, give it your very best shot. At least you’ll finally be out of my hair. I’ll just have to establish another connection to replace yours.”
He brought his arms up and blinding lights flashed from the palms of his hands. The ground beneath their feet suddenly lost all solidity, turning into a mist of green and brown.
And then they were falling.
2
Chaos took over Michael’s world.
His feet landed in a mysterious substance. It was purple and looked slick, like it could be wet, but it was firm, like hard rubber. It rippled out from where he stood, as if a giant rock had landed in a pool right before it froze solid. Bryson was above him, Gabby below, but they were still together.
“What’s happening?” Bryson yelled.
“And where’s Kaine?” Gabby added.
A shadow passed over them, answering her question. A massive winged creature descended from a misty green sky, each flap of its wings sending a fierce wind blowing over Michael and his friends. It sailed downward and landed in front of them, huge claws digging into the rubbery surface beneath their feet. Its scaly golden skin glimmered like oil on water. Kaine sat on the back of the beast, in a saddle, holding tight to reins. Michael had never seen a creature more terrifying. It had enormous horns protruding from its head and eyes like black marbles. It opened its huge mouth to reveal impossibly large teeth, and then it screamed, a sound so piercing that bright stars burst in his vision.
“I should never have offered you one last chance.” Kaine spoke from the monster’s back. “I was wrong, but I’ve learned my lesson. Now here we stand, the very core of the Mortality Doctrine at your feet, Michael. How fitting that you and your friends will die right atop its skin.”
Figures began to step out from behind Kaine’s beast, as if a trapdoor had opened and released his minions. There were KillSims, mostly—enormous wolves and black-cloaked ghosts, an unseen wind blowing around them. And there were other creatures. Demons, similar to those from the place Gunner Skale had gone to hide along the Path, big and bloody and angry. Monsters from storybooks—trolls and goblins and wights. Two dozen, three dozen, four dozen creatures, amassed in a line behind Kaine and his winged beast.
“Maybe you should’ve brought a bigger army,” Kaine announced from his perch. “For the good of both man and Tangent, I can’t show mercy today. For that, I’m sorry.”
He raised a hand, then slowly lowered it to point directly at Michael.
“Kill them,” he commanded, his voice booming. “Starting with him. But first, remove their Cores. Let’s give them this true death they keep harping about.”
3
The Core. The link that kept a mind tethered to reality. Part of the NerveBox programming. Almost impossible—not to mention illegal—to code.
Michael snapped into action as Kaine’s army charged. He ran over the slick surface, slipping twice, to reach Bryson and Gabby. “Use the fly program from Invisible Wings!” he yelled, transferring the code to them in case they didn’t have it. “We’ll survive a lot longer if we’re in the air. Pull in every weapon you can think of, fight them off! I’ll take Kaine—I need his link to deconstruct the Doctrine.”
They had to be in the air for this or they’d never last. The first KillSims were almost on them, loping across the ground, growling those awful electronic growls.
“Got it!” Gabby shouted, even as she rose twenty feet off the ground. Bryson and Michael used the same program and leaped up to join her, just missing the first wave of attack right below them.
“What if we can’t do this?” Bryson yelled at Michael, his eyes wild with fear.
Michael understood. He smiled at his friend. “Give it your best shot, man,” he said. “But kill your Aura and Lift before you let them get to your Core. Deal?” Bryson nodded and they both looked at Gabby, who nodded as well. They were in it together.
A gust of wind blew over them, and the three friends turned to see Kaine’s creature flapping its giant wings, rising into the air. Kaine stared straight at Michael. The demons and KillSims had followed Kaine’s lead and had begun igniting their own flying programs. It looked like it would be an aerial battle.
As it all unfolded before him, Michael felt a sudden and complete loss of hope. It was just the three of them against so many. He knew they didn’t have to win the fight, they only needed to hold them off long enough to destroy the Mortality Doctrine code. But how could they even do that? He turned to face his friends, to tell them they should all just give up and get out of there. It’d be much smarter to regroup with more backup.
But Bryson and Gabby were gone. Michael looked up and saw them flying through the odd-colored sky, fighting, twisting, and turning in battle. His heart sank.
Something crashed into the side of his head.
Crying out, he lost control and plummeted; he hit the rubbery ground hard and bounced twice. The winged beast landed next to him, its enormous claws piercing the purple substance. Michael looked up at its hideous face—its black eyes, its sharp teeth. The creature screamed again, and Michael threw up his hands to cover his ears.
He stood. Fear trickled down his back, and he shuddered. He’d never been so terrified. Never. But he brought his hands up, curled them into fists, and searched his mind for the right weapon to pull from his files. And then he froze. Everything was blocked. He’d hoped the whole time that in the weakened state of the Sleep, they’d have more power to manipulate and swing in code from other sources.
He’d been wrong.
He had nothing. His fists. That was it. Well, his fists and Bryson and Gabby. And now they were all about to be pummeled.
Kaine’s beast lashed out with a wing, hitting Michael hard in the face. It knocked him off his feet and sent him flying. He landed ten yards away, on his back, pain consuming his whole body. The creature leaped into the air, flapped its wings twice, then dove at Michael, landing with a terrible thump on his chest. Every molecule of breath left his lungs. He choked out a muffled cry.
Kaine jumped down from the monster’s back, and after another piercing scream, the creature flapped its wings and rose into the air, leaving Michael for his true nemesis.
“You could’ve had it all,” the Tangent said. Then he kicked Michael in the ribs. “Immortality.” Another kick, even more vicious. Blinding pain filled Michael’s world. “A place by my side.” Another kick.
Kaine leaned over him. “You should’ve known.” This time, a punch to the face. An eruption of more pain. “You should’ve known from the beginning that I couldn’t be defeated. Not by someone lesser than me.
“I will have my way.” Kaine’s voice was suddenly calm, almost soothing. He spoke slowly. “And you will die. I don’t need your connection anymore. It’s been—how did they used to say it?—corrected with troubleshooting. That’s the beauty of the code, Michael. In time, anything can be prog
rammed. Anything.”
He reached down and touched Michael’s temple with his finger, and a sharp claw suddenly snapped out of its tip, aimed at the very spot where Michael’s Core resided. Michael pulled his head away, but the pain from his beating was unbearable. He leaned over, threw up. He had no strength left to fight.
“Sarah,” he whispered. “Sarah.” He’d sworn to die with her in his mind.
Kaine brought up his newly clawed finger, making sure Michael saw it.
“I do this for the future of intelligence,” he pronounced. “For the next step in evolution.” He reached for Michael, who had no power to resist.
And then, as had so often happened in Michael’s life, things changed in an instant.
There was an eruption of noise and a searing wind of heat, and Kaine’s body catapulted into the air, disappearing in the distance.
Michael lay on the ground, so exhausted and weak from pain, he thought he’d never move again. It took everything he had left in his body to turn and look up, only to see his salvation.
4
Portals were opening all around him, dark spaces through which countless figures poured. They swarmed Kaine’s massive winged beast and his KillSim army, falling on them with every weapon imaginable. Some of the newcomers were familiar—warriors and robots and superheroes and aliens from dozens of games Michael had played with his friends over the years. Others were new to him. A thing that looked like a giant tree with a face, swinging its many branches with ruthless force. A rock creature, sharp angles of stone erupting from its chest. There was even a six-legged steel horse with a humanoid on its back made from a hundred sharp blades.
Michael breathed out in relief and disbelief. An army of Tangents had come to save them. They’d been so close to true death. And Bryson and Gabby were still out there, fighting. He had to go—
Someone put a hand on his shoulder when he tried to get up, gently pushed him back down. Michael turned to see Helga, dressed in armor, kneeling beside him. She leaned against a massive sword of fiery light that she’d driven pointfirst into the ground.
“What’s going—” he started to say, but she stopped him.
“Stop talking. We don’t have time. I pressed Kaine into killing me so I could Lift and get help. But I wasn’t fast enough. Someone’s coming for you in your Coffin—Kaine’s broken through my firewall. You have to go back, now.”
Michael scrambled to his feet, fighting the pain. “What…no! Bryson and Gabby are out there! I have to help!”
Helga grabbed him by the shirt with both hands and pulled him close. “We’ve got this, Michael. Sometimes you have to let go. Sometimes you have to let others share your burden. You understand me?”
He nodded weakly, but felt helpless.
“I’ve left a pathway for you.” Helga squeezed his shoulders. “Now go. Save yourself. And have faith in us—we can win, and I know how to destroy the Doctrine. Remember my little trick to get us to the Hive undetected? The build-and-destroy?” She didn’t wait for a response. She pulled her sword from the ground and leaped into the air, cutting in half two KillSims that had been diving toward them. “Go!” she yelled.
Michael focused on the Portal path provided by Helga, closed his eyes, coded, and Lifted himself to the Wake.
5
The hiss of the Coffin door opening. The wet tug of NerveWires retreating from his skin to their cubbyholes. The glowing blue lights, the hum of the machine, the real world expanding to life above him. The pain was there, in every part of him, but not nearly as bad as it had been in the Sleep.
A face stared down at him. Then there was a flash, a glint of light on steel.
Michael was up in a rush. He battered the arm to the side just as it came at him with the knife, then kicked out with his leg, catching the man in the face. Michael scrambled out of the Coffin, following the man’s descent, jumping on top of him, his blood pumping with adrenaline. He punched him, then saw an arm coming again, still brandishing the weapon. Michael brought his elbow up, felt the cold blade, the bright sear of pain. He swung his fist around and knocked the knife out of the man’s grip.
Run, he thought. He was done fighting. All he wanted to do was run.
Michael pushed himself to the side, tripped as the man grabbed his foot, kicked him off, scrambled to his feet, started running. He was inside that massive room, surrounded by the balconies of Coffins. He could see the doors through which he’d entered. Michael fixed on the exit and ran for it.
Then, in a blur of pain, his face cracked against hard tile. He was on the ground; his attacker had jumped on him from behind. Michael flipped onto his stomach, arching his elbow around as he did, connecting with the man’s jaw. He cried out and fell off, clutching his face, but landed a kick to Michael’s stomach as he did. Michael curled up, clutching himself, coughing. His entire body still ached from the ordeal inside the Sleep, and now a new wave of nausea broke over him. He crawled to his feet and struggled against a spinning world.
His attacker was on his feet, breathing heavily, and Michael got a good look at him for the first time. He was familiar, but before he could place him, the man charged, rage painting his face dark. Michael planted his feet. He had no time to flee, and the man slammed into him, sending them both flying to the ground again. Michael kneed him in the groin, scrambled out from under him. He stood up, stumbled away, looked back. This had to end.
Michael noticed what he hadn’t before: one of the guards who’d died earlier was slumped in a chair, blood covering his face and chest. At his feet, there was a gun. He sprinted for it. He could hear his attacker yelling like a lunatic. Michael slid toward the chair like a ballplayer for the win and grabbed the weapon, twisted around to aim.
The man pulled to a stop, eyes big, hands raised. And in an instant, a transformation came over him. His rage vanished, replaced by fear. His lips trembled and he fell to his knees.
“Don’t,” he whimpered, the most pathetic of sounds. “Don’t shoot me. I’m…This is my only hope. I’m out of options. I need this body.” He lowered his head.
Michael slowly got to his feet, keeping the gun trained on the man. And then that sense of familiarity solidified, turning into recognition.
“You visited me at the jail,” Michael said, stunned by the revelation. He couldn’t believe it hadn’t come to him sooner. “You came in there, talking about what’s real and what’s not, how we can never know. That we could Lift a thousand times—”
“And still be in the Sleep,” the man interrupted. “Yes, yes. How can we ever know? We can’t. We can only live, boy. And I want to live, more than anything else in this godforsaken universe. Please don’t take that away from me.”
“Who are you?” Michael asked, not so much a question as a demand.
The man still acted timid. “I’m the friend you’ve always had—something I guess you’ve never realized. And I’m your sworn enemy.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s me, Michael. It’s Kaine.”
The world shifted at Michael’s feet. He had to steady himself. “You think I’m stupid?” he asked. But the threat was empty. He wanted to pretend that he didn’t believe him, but he did. Kaine the Tangent had stolen a body and was kneeling before him. He knew it was true.
“Don’t go judging me like you always do,” Kaine said. “This man I took wanted to end his life, had even written a suicide note! I didn’t do anything to him he didn’t want already.”
“Nothing surprises me anymore,” Michael said quietly, half to himself. He stared at the floor. “I was just…”
“It’s how my plan works. Every two weeks, I downloaded the latest version of myself into this man. Just in case things didn’t quite work out in the Sleep over the last year or so. It’s my own…insurance policy. And by the looks of it, I’m thinking it was the wisest thing I’ve ever done.”
“What do you mean?” Michael asked, looking Kaine in the eye.
The man—the Tange
nt—shrugged, then finally lowered his hands. “I just lost all contact. With myself, my partners, my army. So I can only assume that you’ve won. I don’t know how or where or when, but it’s over. I guess that’s two weeks of memories I’ll never get back. Not that I’d want to. All my people are gone or dead, as far I can tell—you have way more supporters than I thought. The only reason I knew you were here is because I intercepted a message from…myself to…myself.”
Michael just stared at him, completely lost. He did understand, actually, but his mind felt like a big ball of hardened twine, like one length might snap and the whole thing explode in a pile of dust at any second. He kept the gun pointed at his enemy, wanting so badly to pull the trigger.
“Look, I’m nothing anymore,” Kaine said. “Without the Mortality Doctrine, without my resources, without the support of the VNS infrastructure…I even created my own little Hive, tucked away in oblivion, and I don’t think I could find the thing if I had a hundred years to search for it. Everything in the virtual world is lost to me now. I can feel its absence.” And then, right there, at Michael’s feet, the most terrifying figure the world had ever known wept like a frightened child.
“Please,” Kaine whimpered. “Just let me live in this world. I’ll never access the Sleep. Never again. You have my word. You took away immortality. Let me have mortality. I’m begging you.”
Michael took a step forward, pointing the tip of the gun right at Kaine’s forehead. But he couldn’t do it. There was just no way he could pull that trigger. Sorrow engulfed him.
“You,” Michael whispered, trembling. “You and…Weber. I hate you. You took everything from me. My parents. My life. Sarah.”