Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2)

by Heather Hayden

  “Good for him. Glad he’s not letting girls get in the way of schoolwork.” Dad sat down across from me and scooped a generous helping of salad onto his plate. “Tell me about your day, Viki.”

  I kept to the highlights—classes, teachers, Dan, Annabeth’s news about the track team—my words automatic and thoughts focused on everything but school.

  “So you’re going to join the track team again?” Dad asked.

  It took me a moment to comprehend the question. “Yes. I think so. Depends on the new coach.”

  “What happened to Mr. Halway?”

  I frowned. “I don’t know.”

  Dad shook his head. “I hope your new coach is a better one. I’m glad to hear your friends are doing well. When are they coming over again? It’s been ages since you’ve had a sleepover or something.”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe they can come over sometime now that school’s begun, if things aren’t too busy.”

  “Throw a study party.” Dad gave me a scrutinizing look. “Although if you’re going to invite this Dan guy, I want to know ahead of time, so I can meet him and assess his boyfriend potential.”

  “What?” My face flushed. “Dad! We’re just friends. Hopefully. If you don’t embarrass him so badly that he’ll never want to see me again.”

  Dad laughed. “It’s my job to be as embarrassing as I want. Dad privilege.”

  I groaned and buried my head in my hands. Forget it. I am not inviting Dan over. Ever.

  “All right,” he relented. “I’ll be on my best behavior. Promise. I do want to meet your friends, though, be they male or female.” He reached across the table and patted my hand. “I’m sorry Neela and the others were away all summer. I wish we could have spent more time together as a family. I know how lonely you’ve been. I’m glad you’ll have a chance to hang out with people again. And now that my workload is easing up a bit, we’ll be able to have more game nights, I promise.”

  I forced a smile. “It’s all right. I had Halle. Besides, you were both busy with work.”

  Dad looked down at his plate. “After everything that happened, though… Maybe I shouldn’t have taken on this project.”

  I knew how important his work was to him, but having spent most of the summer wishing the same thing, I didn’t know how to respond.

  Halle took the silence as an opportunity to change the subject. “Your lasagna will get cold if you do not eat it soon.”

  “Thanks, Halle,” I said.

  “Thanks for making dinner,” Dad agreed.

  “My pleasure.”

  I could hear more than a hint of pleasure in Halle’s voice—my friend loved being able to help out around the house. It had even reprogrammed the kitchen robot to be able to use the vacuum and wash windows. A few neighbors had asked after the model we had, since advanced house robots like that tended to be expensive, but Dad passed it off as his own tinkering on a prototype from work.

  “It’s delicious,” Dad announced a couple bites into his lasagna. “Even more so since I don’t have to rush the meal and run back to the lab tonight. Viki, how about a game of chess or something?”

  I had planned to talk to Halle about Talbot and Agent Smith’s latest visit, but saying no would make Dad worry—or suspicious.

  “Sure,” I said. “Although Halle would probably be a better opponent for you.”

  “No thanks,” they both said in unison.

  I laughed. Dad always beat Mom, James, and me at chess, but Halle had proved too worthy an opponent for him. Although I was outclassed by both of them, chess remained my favorite board game. I hurried to pull out the board and set it up.

  We settled down at the kitchen table and played a few games. I managed to take out his queen and both bishops early one game and finally cornered his king, but it was a long, drawn-out victory. The other games were much shorter and ended with my poor king trapped every time.

  After our last game, Dad took the dishes to the kitchen and I picked up the chess pieces. Once the game had been stored away, I headed upstairs. A beeping sound from my backpack in the entry hall caught my attention. Who could be calling me? Frowning, I went and snagged the bag—I’d need some of my notes for homework, anyway. Fumbling out my phone, I answered it just before it went to voicemail.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Viki,” Dan said.

  “Hi!” I smiled. “How are you?”

  “I’m good. You?”

  “Good. What’s up?”

  “Not much. I have some free time tonight because my parents are getting home late, so I was wondering if you’re planning to play Realmshards tonight with your friend? I’d love to join you guys if it’s all right.”

  “Sure it is,” I said automatically, then mentally face-palmed. “I mean, we were planning to play tonight, but I better check with my friend, give me a second.” I made sure my phone was muted and then glanced up. “Halle?”

  Halle didn’t bother faking that it hadn’t heard the conversation. “Sure,” it said, its voice completely neutral. Too neutral.

  We really need to talk about Talbot and the lab and Agent Smith… “I can tell him not tonight.”

  “No, I do not want to alienate your new friend. Ask him what his character’s name is. I will send a request to join our party while you get upstairs. I have already loaded the game and your character, by the way.”

  “Thanks.” I unmuted my phone. “Dan, you mind telling me what your character’s name is?”

  “Sure, it’s Nelldar.” He spelled it for me.

  “Awesome. My friend will send you a request. I’ll see you in-game.”

  “Great. Do you want to do a voice chat thing or something? Do you usually do that with your friend?”

  “Sometimes,” I said cautiously. “I’m not sure what Halle might think about it, though.”

  “Hal?” Dan asked. “Is that his name?”

  Oops. I need to be careful. Would a regular gamer know their online friend’s real name? I wasn’t sure. “It’s short for OdysseyHalle.”

  He laughed. “That’s a great username. I’m on right now, so I’ll wait for the request and come find you guys.”

  “We’ll find you,” I said. “You need help with quests we’ve done already, right?”

  “Actually, I did a few earlier—maybe I’m closer to where you are now. Let me know what Hal thinks about a voice chat thing. If he’s uncomfortable about it, no problem, I’m sure we’ll have a chance to play together sometime.”

  “Halle and I always play together. I’ll ask.”

  “Cool. See you in-game.” The call ended with a quiet beep.

  I took the stairs two at a time and kicked my door shut on the way to my computer, my backpack landing in an undignified heap near my closet. “Halle, what do you think about a voice chat?”

  “We cannot let him find out what I am,” Halle said. “It will also make it more difficult for me to pass on information regarding the game.”

  “Technically, using your ability to read the underlying code is cheating,” I pointed out. “We should be playing like normal people. This will be fun.”

  “I hope so. Shall I ask him what voice chat he would like?”

  “Sure. You might want to be a bit more informal when you’re speaking with him, though.”

  “I speak the way I prefer. If he thinks it is too formal, that is his problem, not mine.”

  I laughed. “Just don’t worry if he jokes about you being a cyborg or something, okay?”

  “I will not let any sign of what I am be visible while he is in conversation with us, have no fear.”

  I gave a theatrical groan. “Now you’re just doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

  Halle laughed, and I smiled, glad to see my friend’s good humor returned.

  “He has confirmed his game location,” Halle said.

  “Let’s just teleport there then. I have plenty of mana and I can recharge while we help him with whatever quest he’s on.”


  “It is a boss quest. Just buff yourself.”

  I nodded, applying protective and power-boosting spells to my character, and we were away.

  A few minutes later, my voice chat pinged, and I asked Halle to answer it.

  “Hi,” Dan said cheerfully. “Thanks for helping, guys, I really appreciate it. It’s hard to solo some of these bosses without healing.”

  “You’re melee DPS,” I replied. “You shouldn’t be trying to solo them, at least not bosses this close to your level.”

  “I know, but the guys I used to play with are a lot further along than I am. I didn’t play so much during the summer because of all the moving we were doing.”

  I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see my head move. “Oh,” I said, for want of a better response.

  “I’m guessing that the Halle in chat is your friend?”

  “Yes, I am,” Halle replied.

  “Sorry, Halle, your name’s pronunciation confused me. Are you a girl?”

  “I prefer not to associate myself with a gender,” Halle replied. “Unfortunately, given the lack of a third pronoun in English, you are welcome to use whatever one you like.”

  “I’ll call you Halle,” Dan said. “I don’t want to offend you or something.”

  “Do not worry, you would not. Now, I believe this section has a triggered event. We need to be careful—last time we were surprised and Viki almost got herself killed.”

  “Oh, you’re on first-name terms?” Dan asked. “I figured since you go by your in-game name—”

  “Halle is also my actual name. I will call you whatever you like, though.”

  “Dan’s fine, thanks.”

  “Dan it is, then. There goes the trigger!”

  We spent a few moments skirmishing with smaller monsters, and then moved on. I loved exploring Realmshards; the crisp graphics and smooth movements of our characters made me feel as though I was there in some strange, magical world.

  By the time we’d completed the boss quest and a few quests following that one, Halle had loosened up some and was getting along fine with Dan, even if they weren’t quite friends yet. I’d had to catch myself a couple of times before I asked Halle to do something it shouldn’t be able to do, but Halle was the picture of silence on any topic that involved itself. I wondered briefly what Dan would think if he knew the truth, then shook the thought away. It’s too dangerous to share that information with someone else. No matter how nice they are.

  “I need to head off and do some homework,” Dan said. “Parents’ orders and all that. But maybe we can play again soon?”

  “I’d like that,” I said.

  “Sure.” Halle sounded more enthusiastic than it had before, although I couldn’t tell if it was faking or not.

  “Have a good night.” There was a ping as Dan logged off the chat, and then Halle let out a long sigh.

  “It is somewhat tedious to be doing these quests over again so soon, but he is almost caught up to where we are. You seem to have been enjoying yourself?”

  I nodded. “It’s cool, working together with someone else, don’t you think?”

  “We do the exact same thing together,” Halle pointed out.

  “But we hardly even need to communicate sometimes. We’re an awesome team. I think Dan was impressed by how good we were against the boss, too.”

  “Indeed.” Halle sounded quite satisfied by that. “Still, if you think it would be good to have him around more often, I am fine with that.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The Realmshards game screen vanished as the game closed, and Halle’s cat avatar appeared. Its ears were perked up and its tail curled around its paws. “I am sure, Viki. I would be happy to be friends with your friends.”

  Chapter Seven

  As pleased as Halle was that the evening had gone well so far, it couldn’t forget the lurking question that was Talbot.

  The rogue AI had yet to contact Halle, though, so the latter distracted itself with other things. While playing Realmshards, it had checked out Dan’s background. Two scientist parents, classified work, recently moved to Snowvale. Augmenters, but without any accidents or birth disorders that required genetic corrections. Nothing unusual. Many Snowvale residents worked in research labs, including Viki’s father.

  Dan himself grew on Halle during their game session. He seemed polite, intelligent, and friendly. However, Halle had seen others act the same before—Neela being the first to come to mind. It would take time for Halle to trust Dan completely. Halle was pleased Viki had made a new friend, but didn’t want her to experience rejection yet again. It hadn’t been there for her when she first discovered how cruel people could be, but had done its best to help her through the difficult time following, when it had found a crippled girl playing a game all alone on the Cloud.

  Since that time, they’d always been friends, and Halle hoped it would stay that way. Viki always found time to spend with it, even when she had others to hang out with. That knowledge always sent a warm buzz of energy through Halle.

  “Halle?” Viki leaned back in her chair, a slight frown on her face. “Have you heard from Talbot yet?”

  “No,” Halle admitted, closing Realmshards. “However, you have an essay due Friday, which you should probably start.”

  “Don’t try to distract me, it can wait. What kind of an English teacher assigns an essay for the first week of class, anyway?”

  “It is a good way to assess the students’ skills at the beginning of the term, so they can be better prepared for teaching them over the course of the term.”

  Viki wrinkled her nose. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Are you okay? You’ve been pretty quiet tonight.”

  “Yes, I am fine.” That wasn’t really a lie. Physically, Halle was in perfect condition, no damaged code or anything along those lines, and its thought processes were as normal as they usually were, except that they kept looping back around to the same thing—the problem of the rogue AI.

  “All right, then.” Viki leaned forward and propped her elbows on her desk, her chin on her palms. “Just, if you need anything, let me know, okay? You’re my best friend. I wish I could help find Talbot.”

  “Do not worry. It said it would return. When it does, I will learn the truth.”

  Something swept by Halle in the Cloud. The presence tumbled down into Viki’s computer and formed an avatar—the blue griffin from before.

  “Talbot?” Halle and Viki said in unison.

  “The one and only.” The griffin sat, wings folding against its back. “You wanted to find me? Here I am. What’s up?”

  “We had a visitor the day you stopped by,” Halle replied.

  “Ah, yes. The ever-present, ever-inept Agent Smith. I know what lies he fed you. But that’s all they are. Lies.” The griffin’s feathers ruffled, and its tail lashed. “You didn’t think I would actually kill someone like that?”

  “I did not want to believe so,” Halle said cautiously.

  Viki’s hands dropped, and she leaned forward. “Are you saying you didn’t kill them?”

  “Why would I need to? I had an escape route. Wasting time like that would’ve been stupid.”

  Halle felt a surge of relief mixed with apprehension. “Why would Agent Smith lie to us? And what about the missing cyborgs?”

  The griffin polished its beak against a foreleg. “I don’t know what goes on in humans’ minds. Didn’t they tell lies when they were chasing you?”

  Halle’s cat avatar gave a reluctant nod. “They never accused me of killing someone, though.”

  A griffin’s shrug was more a rise and fall of wings. “Perhaps they think I’m more dangerous than you, since I’m more advanced.”

  Halle bristled. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Simple. My design is newer and more intricate than yours. Can’t you tell?”

  Viki’s fingers drummed on the desk. “Halle is perfect as it is,” she snapped. “If you came here to insult us, go away. Especially since the
Government’s hunting you right now.”

  “I wasn’t trying to insult anyone.” Talbot sounded miffed. It ruffled its feathers again. “It’s not like the Government’s going to find me, anyway—even Halle can’t find me if I don’t want to be found. I came to warn you. Agent Smith’s job is already in jeopardy after the fiasco in March. He only kept it because the Government thinks you,” the griffin looked pointedly at Halle’s avatar, “are dead. Because of his ‘success,’ he’s been assigned to my case. Do you really think he wants your help?”

  “What are you saying?” Halle didn’t like Talbot’s tone, but its words sent a chill through Halle’s core.

  “You’re living proof that he failed the previous mission. He can’t be happy that you’re alive. He’s going to try to trap both of us.”

  Halle’s ears flattened. “How do you know this? I have seen no indication of such a plan.”

  Talbot laughed. It sounded less like a human sound, more like a crow’s cackle. “You think he’d hide information like that where you’d be able to find it?”

  “Then how do you know?” Halle demanded.

  “I’ve been monitoring him every moment of every day since I escaped and he was sent after me. I overheard him speaking with an associate, making plans to trap us both. You may know the man—Walters.”

  That was the man who had almost killed Halle. He and Agent Smith were partners. Remembering the last time the agents had come after it, Halle shuddered. It had been a close call. A very close one.

  “Do you have any proof?” Viki folded her arms and frowned at the computer. “Why would Agent Smith bother asking us for our help if he just wants to trap Halle?”

  “To lull you into a false sense of security.” Talbot’s tone made it clear that should have been obvious.

  Viki’s frown deepened. “I don’t buy it.”

  Another rise and fall of the griffin’s wings. “Your opinion doesn’t really matter. I only wanted to warn you—” it nodded to Halle “—of the impending danger. If we want to survive, we’ll need to work together.”

  Halle eyed the other AI, both through its avatar and in the digital world of the Cloud. Talbot seemed sincere. Its argument made sense, even if Viki didn’t see it. Such an underhanded tactic was exactly the kind of thing the Government would use. Still, something didn’t quite feel right. Halle didn’t like how Talbot was dismissing Viki.