It was all an exact re-creation of what had actually happened. Michael watched himself and his friends being dragged toward the police vehicles. His own face looked even more stunned and confused than he remembered feeling.
Michael’s breath caught when he saw Gabby, Jackson Porter’s ex-girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend? Current girlfriend? Neither sounded right. But he focused on her now, knowing what was about to happen, dreading having to see it again. The cop approached her, lifted a nightstick, swung. It hit her in the head, knocking her unconscious, and she went limp. Michael cried out in shock despite expecting the violence.
“What just happened?” Sarah shouted. She hadn’t seen the attack originally, and they’d never had a chance to discuss it.
“Why would they have done that to her?” Michael asked in a tight voice. He still didn’t understand, and he felt terrible that he’d almost forgotten about her in the last couple of days.
“Whoa,” Bryson murmured. “It’s like that cop singled her out.”
“Why?” Michael whispered, not sure to whom exactly he directed the question.
The scene below suddenly shrank away and in front of them appeared a holographic image of a woman, dressed smartly, with perfectly styled hair—an anchorperson for the NewsBops.
“Breaking news this morning,” the woman said in a lyrical British accent. “Representatives from VirtNet Security have finally gone public with their official findings from the terrorist incident one week ago. It happened at their secret mainframe facility hidden within a historical building in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. Three teenagers, wanted for prior crimes, have been charged with the incident, having used a highly sophisticated device that set off chain reactions through the entire security system of the VNS. Charles Rooney, outside VNS headquarters, has more of the story.”
Her image dissolved into a million digital blocks and was swept away as if caught by a sudden gust of wind. A man replaced her, gray hair, mustached, his tie loosened and his face red and sweaty.
“The report came down just minutes ago directly from a VNS spokesperson,” the man said. “And all are in agreement that the news is quite shocking. VNS have hinted at significant damage from day one, but the devastation is evidently much more widespread than even the most dire predictions. Details on just how the device managed to inflict such damage are still being withheld, but it appears to have been comprehensive and quite viral in nature. As you’ll see in the following clip from the VNS press conference, the VirtNet has become a dangerous place indeed.”
It was the man’s turn to dissolve and blow away, and this time Michael took two steps backward when he saw who was on the screen.
Agent Weber.
4
She stood behind a bank of microphones, only her shoulders and face in view. She wore a tailored suit jacket, and her hair was done up in an elegant twist, and everything about the way she held herself said that there was nothing to worry about. But those dark eyes of hers gave it away to Michael. She was scared. Terrified, even. Michael still didn’t understand why she’d betrayed him, or why she’d come to visit him in the aftermath of it all, trying to smooth things over. Most importantly, he didn’t understand why she’d want to secretly ruin the VNS and the VirtNet.
But there was one thing he was sure of: he despised her.
After what seemed like an unnaturally long pause, she began reading from a prepared statement.
“Thank you for coming today, and thank you for your patience while we’ve exhausted our every resource investigating this horrific incident. There is at least some comfort in knowing that the perpetrators of this act are confined in prison as we speak. As for the far-reaching effects of what they’ve done, I’m afraid the news is not good. Now we must move forward to rectify the situation.”
She lifted a hand to indicate something behind her, but whatever it was, Michael couldn’t see it. She continued.
“A full report has been made public, but the basic conclusion is this: the VNS infrastructure has been temporarily rendered nonfunctioning. At this moment, there can be no oversight of VirtNet activities. Monitoring, security, reporting capability, and code-safety protocols have all been damaged, and effective immediately, we are no longer in service. We want to stress that it’s our intention to return to fully operational status, but it will take some time. I’m relieved to say that it will be a matter of weeks, not months. We will work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, until this enormous task is complete.”
She paused then, looking uncomfortably at her unseen audience for several long moments. Michael assumed she was being assaulted with questions they couldn’t hear.
At some point they must have quieted, because she finally resumed speaking. Michael watched with rapt attention, wondering where all of this was leading them. Something told him his near future wasn’t going to be a happy place.
“Now, I’m afraid I have another piece of very troubling news to report. Again, we have provided a more detailed written statement, but here is the basic situation: the entity known as Kaine, a Tangent of unknown origin, has gained an unprecedented level of sentience.”
Another dramatic pause. “More importantly, and urgently, and as a direct result of the terrorist actions against our facility, Kaine has eluded us and executed a process by which the codes of certain Tangents have somehow been, for lack of a better word, downloaded into the minds of flesh-and-blood humans. By doing so, these people now serve as hosts for rogue-coded programs.
“Until we can bring our services back to their full capacity, we warn the entire world that anyone who Sinks into the VirtNet is highly susceptible to this hostile takeover. As we don’t have the ability to stop you at this time, we ask for your support in this matter. Under no circumstances are you to Sink. Thank you.”
Before she could say more, her body dissolved and blew away like those of the reporters before her. No one replaced her.
“I can’t believe it,” Sarah whispered as the last fragments of Weber’s digital dust disappeared. “I can’t believe it.”
She could’ve been commenting on a hundred different things, but Michael could tell she meant something very specific.
“What?” he asked.
“She lied,” Sarah replied. “I know she’s a liar, but she stood right in front of the entire world and lied to their faces.”
Helga was nodding. At some point, the city of Atlanta had faded from beneath their feet and been replaced by what they’d seen upon first arriving—the glass floor, the dark blue sky, the dancing geometric shapes of light.
“Something’s definitely not right,” Michael said. “She obviously knows the Mortality Doctrine kicked in before this whole thing with the Lance device happened. This is getting ridiculous. I mean, who’s worse—Agent Weber or Kaine?”
“I vote we just get rid of both of them,” Bryson suggested.
“I know that was a lot to take in,” Helga said. “But we’re not done. I’m afraid you’ll need to brace yourselves for what you’re about to see.”
5
A few yards away from them, a huge circle of white light pivoted up from the glass floor, slanting upward until it stood on its side, like the entrance to a tunnel. Within the depths of the circle, a very old, majestic stone building appeared. It had huge fluted pillars and giant bronze doors, with a tall, wide expanse of steps leading up to them. Helga walked up to the circle, spread her arms, then spun back to face Michael and his friends, flinging her arms as if throwing something at them.
As she did this, the circle of light expanded, turning into a tunnel. They flew into the scene. It was a cold, gusty day outside what Michael realized was a government building, and he shivered as he rubbed his arms. Like before, they hovered in the air, maybe thirty feet off the ground, slowly moving in to see whatever was about to happen. Or had happened, more likely.
A podium had been set up on the plaza at the top of the steps. An army of police stood at the bottom of the sta
irs, keeping back hundreds of people who’d obviously come to hear someone give a speech. Michael was just about to ask Helga what they’d come here for when one of the massive bronze doors swung open with a mighty groan of metal on metal.
An older man in an expensive-looking suit walked out of the building. The crowd quieted for a moment, then came to life with a roar, hurling question upon question in a frenzied chaos, all of them holding their hands up like schoolchildren.
Helga motioned to Michael and the others and they descended until they were only a few feet above the man in the suit. He’d reached the podium now, and held his arms up to quiet the crowd. At first they ignored him, barraging him with questions, but when he didn’t speak, they finally went silent. His voice was powerful, and boomed over loudspeakers.
“Thank you for coming today,” he began, speaking in a strange accent. “Especially on such short notice. What I want to show you is, uh, very, uh, important.”
He cleared his throat and fidgeted for a moment with the microphones. Michael stared, perplexed. The guy might look like a prominent businessman or politician, but he was sweating and acting odd. And what did he mean by show? Didn’t he mean tell?
“Yes, very important,” the man continued. “Don’t worry, I won’t take but a moment of your time.” Another rumbling of his throat that was like an explosion in the speakers. “To preface what I’m about to do, let me say something. I…well…the man who stands before you today has been the leader of this fine country for more than five years. He, I mean, I, have done great things for the economy, social welfare, and international diplomacy. But his reign is at an end.”
The crowd was silent, probably as intrigued as Michael. He’d already figured out that this man was a Tangent, but what was he going to do?
“I was programmed to be here,” the man said. “To be here, at this time, for this moment. Programmed by Kaine himself. It’s very important that you all know that. So please be aware of it. I was programmed by Kaine, I was a Tangent, and I was sent into this man’s body to make a demonstration. And so I think I’ve said all that I was programmed to. Thank you for your time.”
The nervous, fidgety man reached into his pocket and pulled out something small and shiny. Sarah sucked in air. Michael, too, knew what was about to happen. He wanted to fly down and stop it, even though he knew this was just a reproduction.
The crowd screamed in horror as the man at the podium reached up and slit his own throat.
6
There was blood and screaming. Pandemonium broke out. Michael stared in stunned silence until the scene faded and they found themselves standing on the flat plane of glass once again.
“Well,” Bryson said, “I guess they’ve stopped being subtle about it.”
Michael’s head still swam from the disorienting movement of Helga’s displays. “What could possibly be the point of that?” he asked. “What that guy did makes absolutely no sense. Why would he do that?”
The others were staring down at the floor and those mesmerizing shapes below it. No one had the answer.
Finally, Helga spoke up. “Bryson’s right. At first, the Tangents were being extremely subtle. But now they’re flat-out announcing their presence. It’s almost like they decided the humans were too stupid to see what was going on, so they came out and started presenting it in sensationalist ways.”
“It doesn’t add up,” Michael whispered, turning everything over in his mind. “Not at all.”
“Why would Kaine send Tangents into human bodies and then have them commit suicide?” Sarah asked.
“To make a show of it,” Bryson replied.
Sarah shook her head. “I get that. But Michael’s right—it doesn’t add up. If anything, the Tangents should want to be a secret. Why would they bring attention to the Mortality Doctrine? That’ll just make the world join hands and try to stop them. It’s like announcing on the NewsBops that you’re going to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre tomorrow afternoon.”
“Exactly,” Michael agreed. Between what he’d just seen and the reminder of what had happened to Gabby, he was having trouble staying focused.
“Michael?”
He looked up at Sarah. “Huh?”
“You seem like you have something more to say.”
He pushed thoughts of Gabby aside. “Yeah. Well…Kaine keeps talking about this immortality stuff. How does programming a Tangent to take over a body and kill itself in front of the world…how does that help him? It doesn’t. Which is why those things Janey and Trae said ring true. Maybe Kaine isn’t in charge anymore. Someone just wants us to think he is.”
“It’s possible, I guess,” Helga said. “We’re certainly not dealing with something so simple as one rogue Tangent getting his kicks. It’s too widespread. Let me show you a few more things so we’re all on the same page. Then we’ll Lift to the Wake and get moving.”
And show them she did.
7
Helga’s space-age entertainment system took over for the next half hour, sending them on trip after trip through those shapes of light to see Tangents wreaking havoc.
All across Brazil, a terrifying series of prison breaks was traced back to officials in high positions who inexplicably allowed them to happen. In New York City, at the world’s largest stock exchange, there were multiple cases of well-respected traders suddenly acting on wild speculations and spreading insider information. Michael didn’t know enough about trading to understand it all that well, but several anchorpersons from the NewsBops explained how international economic panic had set in because of the extreme unpredictability. Three major economic systems had crashed over the past two weeks.
In Hong Kong, the chief of police transferred all of the enforcement personnel out of the metro area. Looters destroyed a major part of the largest shopping district.
In Mexico, progress against the drug trade, the result of a century of effort, was essentially erased by a series of changes to the law, passed in quick succession by several politicians whose views transformed overnight. Policy altered so rapidly that the drug cartels had taken over five cities before the public noticed what was going on.
Michael and his friends witnessed businesses collapsing, celebrities publicly killing spouses, and transit systems falling into disarray, and just like the man who’d slit his own throat in front of a waiting crowd of reporters, more and more of the cases involved Tangents announcing what they were before disaster struck.
Finally, not a moment too soon, Helga ended the show and brought them back to the now-comforting field of glass and geometric shapes. Michael wanted nothing more than to Lift to the Wake, find a corner, curl up into a ball, and push the world away. He was tired, and scared.
After a somber silence, Bryson spoke.
“Man, that’s all happened in the last couple of weeks?”
Helga nodded. “Now you see why we have to do something. Honestly, I’m worried that we’re too late. As you can see, it’s gotten out of control. To stop this, we’re going to need someone with a lot of power on our side. And like I said before, the Hive is the key. The Hive, and the Mortality Doctrine program itself.”
“So we need the VNS,” Bryson said, “even though we can’t trust Weber.”
“No, not the VNS,” Michael said. “No way. Before we try finding our way back to the Hallowed Ravine, we need to talk to actual world leaders—at least the ones who haven’t been taken over. Based on the news, there are still a lot of those left. Presidents, prime ministers…anyone but Agent Weber and the VNS.”
“But what is some president going to give us?” Sarah asked. “An army? A speech? What we need is a bunch of nerds, not presidents.”
Michael was nodding. “Right. And the nerdiest nerds of Nerdville usually end up working for the government. The ones that the VNS doesn’t steal, anyway.”
“Isn’t the VNS part of the government?” Bryson asked.
“No,” Helga responded. She was pacing around the others, hands clasped behind he
r back. “They’re a worldwide organization, funded by governments, but autonomous, separate. They’re beholden to nobody. And Michael’s right. We need three things from the government: manpower, the best technology money can buy, and protection. That’s what we need.”
“We also need to save Gabby,” Michael said. The comment seemed to come out of nowhere, but he’d been thinking about it for a long time. He addressed the doubtful looks from his friends. “I’m serious. We pulled her into this, and then she was hurt by that cop. If it even was a cop. We need to find her and make sure she’s okay. Maybe she can even help us. If she wants to.”
Bryson and Sarah nodded in agreement just as something strange happened beneath their feet. The countless geometric shapes began to coalesce, spinning and flipping and twirling until they merged, their outlines getting brighter and brighter. Michael could barely look at the shape as it formed a massive square below the glass, at least fifty feet wide, surrounded by darkness.
“Helga?” Michael prompted. “I thought the history lesson was over.”
“It is,” she said. “I’m not making this happen.”
Michael glanced at her and saw her staring down at the glass, as confused as he felt.
“What’s going on, then?” he asked.
She could only shrug.
“Maybe we should go ahead and Lift our butts out of here,” Bryson suggested.
The square flew up from below, flashing as brilliant as the sun as it met the glass surface and moved past it, like something rising from the depths of the ocean. It rotated until it was upright, standing a few hundred feet away and towering over them. The borders of the square shone like straight bolts of lightning.
And then a face appeared.
It was Kaine.
Of course it is, Michael thought.
CHAPTER 7
FRIED CHICKEN
1
Kaine appeared as if projected on a giant WallScreen, showing himself to them in the same form he’d used when they’d met in that place with the endless purple floors—right before KillSims vanished into an abyss. At the time, they’d thought Bryson had coded that deathtrap, but they’d found out later it had been Tangents. Tangents on their side, not Kaine’s. Michael realized that Helga might have been leading that effort herself.