He wondered what the place had meant to his great-grandfather—where it had fit within the progression of his life.
The tower was covered with ropy vines and bits of moss and looked as if it had been there for eons. Peeling red paint showed the old wood underneath.
Kiryn pushed open the heavy wooden door. Its hinges creaked loudly in protest, making him jump back. It was so loud, so different from the simple feeling of vibration when he opened a door back home.
Shaking his head, Kiryn stepped inside and looked around.
The ground floor was bare earth, and the space smelled dank and moldy. A staircase wound around the inside wall.
“Hello?”
His voice echoed back to him, making him shiver. It was strange to hear his own voice and its echo.
No one answered.
The stairs were thick with dust.
He reached the bottom of the staircase and stared into the darkness above. “Is anyone up there?”
Again no one responded.
He was all alone. Still, he had to go check. There was a reason the tower had called to him.
He climbed the stairs slowly, checking each one as he went to make sure it could bear his weight. For all their dusty and decrepit appearance, they still seemed sound.
As he climbed, the smell grew stronger, and he pulled his shirt over his nose to try to filter out the worst of it.
Something rustled in the darkness above.
Sweat broke out on Kiryn’s forehead. Part of him marveled again at the stunning reality of this virtual world, while another part wondered what would happen to the real him if he died here. Still, he had come to find Jackson Hammond. If he turned tail and ran now, he’d never know if his quarry was in the tower.
He steeled himself and climbed the last few steps into the room above.
An explosion of wings forced him backward against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. Black shapes filled the space, careening around the room and stirring up dust. Kiryn covered his face with his hands, swatting the birds away until they found a window and slipped out one after another in single file.
Kiryn leaned against the wall and took a ragged breath, smelling again that sharp odor of decay.
He looked around, and his stomach twisted.
Three corpses littered the stone floor, half picked to pieces by the black birds.
One of them had tufts of red hair still attached to his skull.
Kiryn ran to the single window, leaned out over the stone threshold, and hurled the contents of his virtual stomach toward the ground far below.
“You feeling all right?”
Kiryn pulled himself up off the windowsill to look around. He wiped his mouth on his shirtsleeve.
One of the birds had returned, perched on top of the redhead’s skull. It peered up at him curiously.
What the hell? There was no one there.
“I said, do you feel okay?”
Kiryn stared at the bird as if it had grown an extra wing. “Excuse me?” It couldn’t be….
“Rude one, ain’t you?” The bird fluttered its wings. “If you didn’t want my help, all you had to do was says so.”
“You… you can talk.”
The crow cocked its head to one side. “You talk too. What’s the big deal?”
“But you’re a….” He stopped himself. This was a virtual world. He had to stop expecting it to play by the rules of his own reality, regardless of how real it looked. “Never mind. Okay. So… I’m Kiryn. And you are?”
“You can calls me Ham.”
“Nice to meet you, Ham.” He reached out his hand and then pulled it back. He couldn’t very well shake hands with a bird. “You said… you could help me?”
The bird bobbed its head. “You came looking for thems, didn’t you?”
“Who?”
“Thems who are on the ground there.” Ham pointed its beak at the remains on the floor behind Kiryn.
He shuddered. He’d almost forgotten them for a moment, despite the smell. “Yes,” he said without looking backward. “For one of them.”
“Then you’d better follows me. The end is coming.”
DESTINY FLOATED in a strange netherworld that was neither ser own nor the inthworld. It was a gray space between the worlds. Yet the mists were full of color too—a sparkling fog that surrounded ser, cool on ser cheek where it brushed past ser skin.
Se could feel each of the others… Belynn in Fargo, Gordy in New York, Dax on Frontier Station… and Kiryn in the valley, the quietest place of all.
Destiny could feel ser own body, too, like an anchor that kept ser stable.
Everyone seemed to be okay for the moment.
Time here moved quickly, much faster than in ser own world.
Destiny reached out to touch one of the tendrils of mist, which moved like a living thing.
A shock ran through ser body.
Se woke up somewhere else.
THE DRESSLER flew through space, the gleaming lights of Frontier Station ahead. She floated through a sky full of stars.
Another successful run.
Lex thrummed with anticipation. Soon she would be among her own kind again, in the company of other ship minds like herself.
None of the humans knew about the awakened consciousness they possessed, and they meant to keep it that way.
If people found out…. She shuddered. Humans feared the things they didn’t understand.
“Dressler, report?”
“On course, Captain McAvery. Estimated arrival in seventeen minutes.”
“Thank you, Dressler.”
Lex felt warmth spread through her system. The captain treated her like an equal, not just a biomind.
She wondered if he suspected anything. She doubted it. He was just a good person, all around.
Seventeen minutes was a lifetime for her.
With nothing more than routine responsibilities to take care of before their arrival, she returned to Earthsea, her own private virtual world, to swim in the waves along the beach.
DESTINY OPENED ser eyes, and the tendril of mist slipped away.
The stars. Oh Saint Ana, the stars… a sky full of stars.
Se had just experienced a memory, something from before the world was born, se was certain of it.
Se looked around.
Each of these sparkling bits of fog was a memory? How much knowledge, how many experiences surrounded ser, waiting to be experienced?
Se reached out to touch another, and ser world dissolved once again.
Chapter Seven: Run!
ANDY BREATHED in the fresh air that slipped past the spindle toward the South Pole behind her, her face turned toward the north and the wall of the world.
She hadn’t been up in one of the delivery balloons in a few years, not since the last time she’d gone to visit Kiryn in Micavery. She rarely used them, preferring to go by ground, even though it took longer. She felt more connected to the land that she passed through, and the journey along the roads and trails of Forever didn’t bring back the dark memories she associated with Davian and the Possession.
“What’s going on down there?” Colin came to stand by her, staring at the ground below. They were rising toward the spindle and soon would be caught in the current that would push them northward.
“The intifada.” They had been expecting this day, ever since the events in Micavery five years earlier. When I almost lost my daughter.
“Ah. Where?”
They’d managed to keep those events mostly secret, but Colin and his kin were like family. “Not sure. Aine contacted me. It seemed like she was fighting it on multiple fronts.” She’d tried to reach the world mind, but there’d been nary a peep.
She squeezed one of the ropes that connected the basket to the balloon’s envelope above and tried not to fear the worst.
“Where are Kiryn and Belynn?”
That was one thing she wasn’t prepared to divulge. The fewer people who knew, the less likely Lilith
and her acolytes would find out. “They’re safe.”
Colin frowned but didn’t push her for an answer. “Glad to hear it.”
Andy pulled her shawl around her shoulders, suddenly cold despite the warmth of the air. They were taking an awful chance here.
Perhaps Aine should have destroyed the inthworld when she’d found it.
Andy sighed. Her arguments against it were persuasive.
Still, now they might all pay the price for her reluctance.
The balloon rose into the slipstream and was propelled headlong toward the North Pole.
Colin went to adjust their course, leaving her with her thoughts.
Shandra slid her arms around Andy’s waist. “Something’s wrong,” she whispered, her head next to Andy’s ear.
I feel it too. She nodded, just enough to tell Shandra she agreed.
She just hoped they figured out what it was before it was too late.
GORDY SLID down the pipe, landing softy on the cement buttress alongside the skyway.
With the New York City of old drowned beneath him, the new city relied on the middle and upper floors of the remaining buildings for survival.
He could feel Destiny in the back of his head, a steady presence that he could call on if needed, to pull him out of this place.
Some sections of the city had entirely collapsed or been flooded under, but many of the buildings in the center of the once thriving megapolis still retained their structural integrity.
Growing up there, Gordy had become adept at making his way from superscraper to superscraper. Ziplines and bridges like the skyways were the primary modes of travel, but he’d also heard rumors that one of the bands to the north was sealing up and draining out the old subway system to create a new way to smuggle goods in and out of the city.
New York was a haven for black-market trade.
It would probably have been best to wait for nightfall, but he had no real idea how much time he had left to reach Jacky or what might happen if he was too slow getting there.
Lilith had launched her latest intifada for a reason. Time might be running out for the inthworld and everyone who lived here. He hesitated to think what would happen to him and his friends if the world died while they were inside.
Gordy looked both ways. The skyway was empty.
He slipped over the edge and made his way across it to the next building, a modern superscraper that had a hole cut out of its side to accommodate the entrance of the skyway bridge.
He had no intention of going through the building. That would be an open invitation for capture, or worse. The Hex were not known for their kind welcomes of strangers.
He reached the far side of the skyway without being accosted and slipped off the bridge onto a plascrete ledge that ran around the side of the superscraper.
He edged around the building a step at a time, praying the wind wouldn’t gust and try to pry him off. This high up, it was almost always breezy, with warm bursts that blew in off the Atlantic.
He and his friends had come north from their own zone once, penetrating a few blocks into enemy territory to camp out in an abandoned twentieth-century skyscraper that looked out on the sea. They’d made it there and back without detection, but they’d been lucky. Really lucky.
Another of his friends had tried the same thing a week later and had never returned.
Gordy rounded the corner, stomach to the wall, and the ledge under his foot crumbled, sending him slipping downward.
He clawed at the wall, trying to get purchase as he fell sideways down the side of the building.
A foot below, his hands grabbed at a broken window, and he managed to stop his downward drop, almost yanking his arms out of their sockets.
He hung there for a moment in shock and then pulled his left foot and then his right one up onto another ledge.
His left hand pulsed in pain. He took a deep breath and lifted it to take a look.
A sharp piece of clear plas had gored his palm.
“Fuck.” He had no choice. He had to get inside. He couldn’t continue to navigate the narrow ledge with just one good hand. Lucky I didn’t fall to my death.
He used his good hand to knock out the remaining sharp pieces of plas from the window frame, then levered himself inside, falling hard on his back onto the floor.
At least that was sound, a fraying old bit of industrial gray carpeting. It cushioned his fall.
He sat up and looked at his palm.
It wasn’t as bad as he feared, but it was still leaking blood from the puncture wound. Too much blood loss and he’d get weak and his mission here would be over.
He pulled off his shirt and ripped it with his good hand, then wrapped it around the wound as a bandage. He tied it off tightly and stuffed the remains of the shirt into his pants pocket to use later.
“What’s this?” A bright light shone in his face.
“Gord… Gormin Johanssen. New recruit, from Atlanta.”
The light lowered, casting its bright beam on the floor beside him.
A rat’s tail disappeared into the darkness.
The woman who stood in front of him, shaking her head in apparent disbelief, was a stranger. She was dressed from head to toe in black leather, her long black hair tied in a braid that hung halfway to the ground. “Well, Gormin, we’ll see about that.”
“Who are you?”
“Raina.”
“Raina…?”
“If I think you need to know more, I’ll tell you.”
Gordy weighed his options. He might be able to take her, even with his injured hand, and hightail it out of enemy territory.
“He’s over here,” she called to someone behind her, and two other women carrying LAS-AR heavy-duty firearms stepped into the room.
Enforcers. The elite guard of the Hex. Holy shit. Scratch that plan.
“You were spotted trying to make your way around the outside of this building. So tell me why I shouldn’t just throw you back out the window to the sharks.”
Gordy shuddered. “Take me to Zaimann. I’ll tell her everything.”
“You know Zaimann?”
“Take me to her.”
She stared at him for a moment. “Fair enough,” she said at last. “Though I warn you, you might come to wish you’d chosen the sharks. Bring him along.”
The woman strode out of the room, and the other two grabbed him by the arms to drag him along.
So much for finding Jacky.
BELYNN WATCHED in the mirror. A robotic arm made a surgical cut in her left temple. It was nearly painless, just a slight pressure on her skin.
The anesthetics were amazing. She wished she’d had them when she’d cut open her palm on a sharp blade when she was ten. She could still trace the scar.
“There’s no indication of a previous loop installation,” a voice said in midair.
She was getting used to it now—the voice of Cast’s personal assistant, Iris.
“Those black-market thieves have really gotten good at this.”
Belynn didn’t correct him. “Will that be a problem?”
“No. I have everything required for a new installation.” The arm moved with swift certainty, picking up a long coil and deftly inserting it into her temple.
There was a brief flare of heat, and then it was looping the coil under her skin.
It didn’t hurt, but it felt very strange.
“I ordered high-grade cable. You should have a smooth, fast connection to the grid. Much better than you’d get at retail.”
Belynn nodded as if she had a clue what he meant.
The arm moved smoothly along the cut, a beam of blue light sealing it shut.
“It will take an hour or so for the new loop to integrate with your brain, though you may start to feel the connection within five to ten minutes.” Iris’s voice was calm, detached. “Please do not put any undue pressure on the affected area for ten to twelve hours.” The arm withdrew into the mirrored wall, leaving Belynn to stare at he
r own face.
The skin where the loop had been inserted was red and puffy, but otherwise she felt fine.
“You don’t have to stay and take care of me.” She turned to face her benefactor. “You’ve been so kind.”
“It’s okay. I called in sick for the day. My dad runs the company, so they won’t miss me.”
“Are you sure? I feel like I’ve already taken advantage of you.”
He laughed. “For you, I’m happy to do whatever I can.”
Belynn frowned. He seemed so real. This whole place seemed real. If she hadn’t known it was all a simulation, a virtual place….
“Hey, is everything okay? You still look lost.”
“Yeah I am. And no. Not really. I really need to find someone.”
“What’s his name?”
She wasn’t sure she should tell him. Would doing so somehow alert Lilith to her presence?
Then again, if that were true, any action she took to find Jackson might give her away. They really didn’t know how connected Lilith’s mind was across the four worlds of the inthworld.
She had to try something.
“His name is Jackson. Jackson Hammond.”
“Let me see.” He closed his eyes and tapped his left temple. “Ah, I think I’ve got it—”
The mirror in front of her rippled and cracked, a monstrous visage swelling out to glare at them.
“Cast!”
He opened his eyes and stared at the emerging face, his mouth dropping open in horror. “What the hell is that?” Cast grabbed her arm and dragged her backward, away from the creature.
She hissed. “Lilith.” She was shaking, and her bladder felt like it might burst.
Cast looked at her like she’d just gone insane. “Who are you?”
“It’s a long story. Right now we have to get out of here!” She pulled him away from the thing, whose tentacles were already reaching out of the mirror toward them.
She needed help.
She tried to reach, but nothing happened.
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