by Anthea Sharp
Nika scrambled to her feet and started zigzagging across the arena. The earth around her was scored with holes as Reaper kept firing, tracking her path. He got an indirect hit, and Jennet winced as her screen flashed yellow. That was the warning that her health meter was plummeting. Three seconds. Time for a new plan.
“Shiiineh!” Nika’s battle-cry rang through the arena.
She changed her trajectory and ran straight at Reaper, flinging throwing-stars like glittering confetti in front of her. When she ran out of stars, she started on knives.
“What the - ?” Fernald watched her crazy moves for the last crucial seconds. Then, with a chuckle, he raised his laser-gun. “Wow, you really are a noob.”
Deadly red beams shot out … into empty air. Nika’s dash had carried her past Reaper. She whirled, knives flashing, and sunk a lethal blow right between his ribs.
This time, Reaper crumpled into a heap of metal. Satisfaction swept through her like a warm tide.
“No way!” Fernald shoved his chair back and stood. “You used some kind of cheat. I should’ve known someone like you would use exploits. That was so—”
“Shut up, Fernald.” Marny’s voice was even. “She didn’t cheat. You lost. Deal.”
“I should’ve known. You freak girls stick together.”
With a last glare, the defeated gamer turned his back on them. He punched Clarc in the arm, then stomped out the door.
“Uh. That was really prime,” the skinny boy said, rubbing his arm. The admiration in his eyes was uncomfortably close to a full-on crush.
Jennet stood. “Well, thanks for letting me play. I sort of crashed your meeting.”
The purple-haired girl gave her a tentative smile. “It was about time someone took Fernald down. Come back again, k?”
“Sure. Do you think you’ll ever get some sim equip in here? That’s what I do, really.”
The girl shook her head. “Not in the next ten years, I don’t think. Unless VirtuMax wants to donate some.” She got a thoughtful look. “Hey. Maybe I should do a project on that.”
Clarc nodded eagerly, giving the purple-haired girl the same look he’d turned on Jennet. “Good idea, Shella. You’re so smart.”
“Well, thanks again,” Jennet said. “It’s been… interesting.”
She turned, to find Marny standing there.
“More than interesting,” the other girl said. “Best afternoon I’ve had in a while. My name is—”
“Marny. I know.”
There was a flash of surprise in Marny’s eyes, quickly masked. Then her mouth quirked up. “Yeah. And you’re Jennet.”
“Glad we got that sorted out.” Jennet smiled - one of the first real smiles she’d felt since coming to Crestview. “So… is Fernald really the best player here? Or was he just boasting?”
She had wanted to defeat him - to wipe that arrogant smirk off his face. But at the same time, she’d hoped, she’d needed, to find a prime gamer here.
Marny shrugged. “Fernald’s as good as any of them are.”
Jennet gave her a close look. She hadn’t seen Marny play, but obviously the girl knew something about gaming.
“What about you? Do you sim?”
“Me? Nah.” Marny shook her head, her bobbed black hair swinging around her face.
Too bad. Of everyone she had met so far, she liked Marny. They might have made a good team - if only the girl were a simmer. Jennet would much rather have Marny’s solid presence beside her in Feyland than that jerk Fernald.
“Is there someplace else people go to play?” Jennet glanced around the Media Room. “I mean, someplace with sim-systems?”
“My uncle has a sim-café. Though you don’t seem the type to go there, frankly. Don’t you have a system at home?”
“Yes. I was just wondering,” Jennet said. “Anyway. Good meeting you.”
She felt her brief happiness fade, like an ember dying out. So much for the Gaming Club. Now what? The sim-café? That kind of place was for people who couldn’t afford systems or pay the monthly access fees on the top games. She could try looking there - but she already knew it would be a dead end. Despair boxed her in, dark heavy walls with no windows, no doors.
“Hold on.” Marny’s brown eyes held a spark. “You know, if you’re looking for a simmer you should talk to my friend Tam.”
“Tam? Tam Linn?”
The sullen boy in her history class who never brushed the hair out of his eyes? The ragged kid from the Exe? No way.
“Yep. He won his system in a sim tournament. You should see him play. He’s flawless.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Tam headed across the scabby grass outside school. He needed to do something about his system, and soon. Yesterday it had made a horrible grinding vibration when he powered up. The noise finally faded, but it had been bad.
“Tam!” a voice called behind him. His steps slowed.
Not just any voice, but hers. Jennet Carter. She had a faint accent. He’d noticed it in class, the way her answers were inflected with a lilt that Crestview didn’t have.
“Tam Linn!” she called again. “Hey, could I talk to you?”
He turned around. She was standing on the steps outside the school doors, her pale hair shining in the afternoon sunlight.
“What?” he said. Why would Jennet Carter want to talk to him?
She moved toward him, her expression cautious.
“Hi.” She tried a smile. It faded when he didn’t smile back. “Right. Well. I hear you’re a simmer.”
“Yeah.”
His tournament win was common knowledge. The fact that his prize system was tapped into the ‘net - that was secret. He wasn’t about to get all chatty with anyone about his gaming, let alone a Viewer.
“So… you’re a pretty good player, right?” she asked.
He narrowed his eyes. “How am I supposed to answer that?”
If he told the truth, he’d come across as bragging. If he didn’t, he’d sound like a loser.
“Honestly.” She gave him a measuring look and he tried not to notice how having her gaze on him made that restless feeling start up again under his skin.
Okay then. “Yeah, I’m good.”
She hitched her bag up on her shoulder. “Best simmer in town?”
“What is this?” Annoyance heated his words. “You have some assignment to interview another student or something?”
“No. I was just… wondering.”
Nosy rich girl. Still, a part of him - a stupid, doglike part - was flattered that she was interested. That part was sitting up, wagging its tail and ready to do anything for a word of praise from those soft lips.
So he turned his back on her and started walking away.
“Wait!” She came after him and caught his arm. “Please tell me.”
The vulnerability in her expression made him pause. Made him answer, despite himself.
“I’m the best simmer in the tri-states, actually. Happy? Now let go.”
She did, and he felt the absence of her touch almost as keenly as he’d felt the warmth of it.
“Could I…” She looked down at her hands, then back up at him. “Could I watch you game sometime?”
He pushed his hair out of his face, so he could see every nuance of her expression. “You’ve seen people sim before, haven’t you?” The high-tech world she was from, she must have.
“Of course!” She looked offended for a second, and it made him smile a little bit inside, to see emotion blazing like that from her eyes. “I play, too, you know.”
On equipment that he didn’t even want to try and imagine, or jealousy would eat right through him.
“I don’t doubt it. Are you trying to ask me out or something?”
She blinked, and he caught the flash of disbelief in her eyes before she spoke. “Ask you out? No. I’m not.”
“Good.” Relief and disappointment circled in his stomach. He turned to go.
“Hold on a sec.” There was an edge of desperati
on in her voice. “I do want to see you game. Just… let me explain.”
He folded his arms and waited.
She was silent a minute, and a bubble of stillness dropped down over them. There was a tickle on the back of his neck, like what she was about to say was important. Beyond important.
“All right.” She let out a breath. “Here’s the thing. My dad’s one of the senior managers for VirtuMax. He’s been working on their new sim system. Maybe you’ve heard about it.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard of it.”
He tried not to show how her words had sent a jolt of interest through him. Her dad worked on the full simulation project? How much did she know?
“Full-D, they call it. And there’s a new game to go with it. Has to be, to show what the system can do. It’s like nothing else out there.”
“You’ve, uh, seen this new game?” His heart thudded in his chest like he’d been sprinting down the street, not standing in one place for three minutes.
She nodded. “Yes. In fact, I’ve been playing it and… well, I need help.”
“It’s in beta-testing? Why don’t you get your dad or one of the other devs to help?”
He thought he knew the answer though, and anticipation sizzled through him, burning away his jealousy, his resentment of the rich kids in the View. Was she going to ask him to play?
“Pre-beta, even. Basically…” She bit her lip and glanced to one side. “I can’t ask them for help. I’m not even supposed to know that this version of Feyland exists, let alone go in-game. But I can’t stop.”
He nodded. Games could get inside your skin and become the most important thing in the world - at least for a little while. It always wore off though. And simming didn’t keep his little brother out of trouble, or scavenge food from behind the grocery store, or help his mom when she finally came home after one of her episodes.
But a new game, on a brand-new sim - his fingers tingled at the thought. And Jennet wanted to see what he could do. Check out his cred, like some kind of audition.
“When do you want to watch me play?” He glanced down at his scuffed boots and tried to sound casual. “We could go over to Zeg’s simcafe—”
“No. I want to see you play on your own gear.”
He wished, for a gut-searing moment, that he didn’t have the life he did - that he could wave his hand and call a grav-car and they could drive to his house, a real house, full of good things to eat and shiny equipment.
And they could game. With a legal account, not his ‘jacked connection. On a system that wasn’t half broken, in a place that wasn’t falling down, in a neighborhood that hadn’t turned to rot long ago.
“I have to go.” He turned and started walking again.
She followed. “But - you do have a sim-system, right? I heard you won a great rig. I want to see you in your home element. At your best.”
“I don’t think so.” He hunched his shoulders. His home was none of her business. “I’ll see you around.”
It was stupid, to think he could connect with someone like Jennet. They had nothing in common. No matter how attractive her world was, or how much he might want it, he didn’t belong there. Just like she didn’t belong in his. The thought of taking her into the Exe, showing her where he lived, revealing his secrets… just, no.
“Wait.” Something trembled in her voice - hope or tears. It didn’t matter.
Tam shoved his hands into his pockets and kept going. He had long-since perfected the art of walking away.
CHAPTER SIX
Jennet watched Tam march off the school grounds, and desperation clawed itself up out of her throat. She needed him. Needed to see him play, needed his help.
Now that she’d maybe found the one person in Crestview who could sim, she couldn’t let him get away.
So she followed him, keeping a block behind and sticking to the shadows. He didn’t look back, not once. Still, it wasn’t easy. He zigzagged through smelly alleys, and went over a fence that smeared her white shirt with grime. Sweat prickled on her skin, but she couldn’t lose sight of him. She had to see him play.
Maybe he wasn’t all that good. But even if he was poor and lived in a bad part of town, at least he wasn’t a complete idiot like that guy Fernald. And she was out of options.
The buildings around her were increasingly run-down, and the air smelled like old garbage. Were there rats here? Tam dodged down an alleyway and she followed, watching where she stepped. When she looked up again, he was gone.
The air felt colder, darker, and a shiver raked across the back of her neck. A rustling noise sounded behind her and she whirled, heartbeat spiking.
Nothing there.
Okay. Relax. She pulled in a breath of rot-flavored air. He’d be around the next corner. Surely he would. The shaky feeling taking over her legs didn’t believe her, but she forced herself to move. One step, then another.
The alley intersected a deserted street. There was no sign of Tam. She swallowed. Time to call George. He’d come with the grav-car to get her right away, no matter where she was. There’d be some explaining to do, since she’d told him she was staying after school for a study club - but staying lost in the outskirts of the Exe seemed like a really bad idea.
She backed into an alcove and fished around in her satchel, trying to ignore the things squishing under her feet.
From out of nowhere, a hand grabbed her arm. She shrieked and tried to pull away, punching wildly with her free fist, while fear opened a dark hole under her feet.
“Shh.” It was Tam. He grasped her other arm, keeping her from connecting with his face. “Calm down.”
She took a gasping breath. “Tam - you scared me!”
“Why’d you follow me? That’s a stupid thing to do. Especially here.” He kept hold of her arms, but she didn’t feel threatened by how close he was. Despite the fear still echoing through her, she felt oddly safe.
“I told you,” she said. “I need to see you game - see if you’re good enough to play Feyland.”
He let go of her and took a step back. “And if I’m not?”
“I think you are.”
He had to be. He was the best chance she had. Her last chance to get back in-game and win free of the Dark Queen.
For a long minute they stood there, the smell of garbage wafting around them. Tam stared past her at the crumbling, graffiti-etched wall. Then he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Come on, I’ll take you back to school. You don’t belong here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” She glared at him. “Except your place.”
“Damn it, I’m not—” He broke off and held up one hand, his whole body going tense.
His nostrils flared and he cocked his head, listening. To what? Fear shivered through her.
He leaned forward and spoke in a barely audible voice. “We need to get out of here. Now. No questions. Follow close.”
“Okay,” she whispered. Her skin prickled, like somebody was watching them.
Tam led them down the alley. He moved silently, carefully, like some wild creature used to danger. She stayed right behind him, doing her best to be quiet. But despite her care, her shoe knocked against an old can. It teetered for one tense second, then tipped, clanging and rolling along the cracked pavement.
Calls erupted behind them, yips and crazy laughter. Tam grabbed her arm and hauled her forward. “Run!”
Panic powered her steps and her breath rasped in her throat. She didn’t dare look behind them. Tam dodged and turned, leading her through a series of broken-down buildings, cutting through weedy lots. The noise of pursuit faded, and finally he slowed.
“I… have to… rest,” she panted. She felt like a knife was stabbing into her side, sliding between her ribs, over and over.
He slanted a look around the dingy street they were on, then led her toward an abandoned building.
“Alright. In here.” He ducked beneath a door hanging crookedly by one hinge. “We should be safe - they usually
don’t go much outside their territory.”
“They?” She clasped her hands tightly to make them stop shaking, and concentrated on getting air back into her lungs.
“The Jackals - local gang. Good thing they didn’t get a closer look at you, or we’d still be running. There’s a black-market demand for wrist chips, and they wouldn’t be gentle about taking it out. They have knives.”
She pulled her wrist against her body. “That’s… horrible.” Would the gang really have taken a blade to her flesh and cut her chip out? She shuddered.
“Welcome to the Exe.” There was a flash of sympathy in his eyes.
“Nice place.”
All told, she preferred the dark places in Feyland. Though with his real-life skills, she had no doubt Tam would be great in-game, too.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
She drew in a deep breath, let it out. Disappointment curled cold in her belly, but he’d made his point. She was in danger here, and it was better for both of them if she left. She’d have to find another way to see him play.
“All right.”
Steps dragging, she followed him down the street. At the next intersection, he paused. A low, liquid groaning sound, like something dying, floated down the street. Tam leaned close, his lips almost brushing her ear.
“I’ll count on my fingers,” he whispered. “When I hit three, run straight across - right for that alley. Don’t look back.”
The cold in her stomach moved up to her throat. She nodded.
He listened a moment more, then held up his hand. One finger. Two. Three.
They bolted across the street. She got a confused impression of figures clustered around an oil-can fire, and then they were in the alley. Tam put his hand on her back, silently urging her to keep going, though there didn’t seem to be any outcry behind them.
What a fool she’d been, to follow him into the Exe. Good thing he’d figured out she was there, or she’d be in severe trouble. But now she was completely lost. Tam had doubled back so many times she had no idea which direction the school was. She just had to trust him, and keep following.