by Tracy Korn
"Vox squared off with one of them," Cal says, looking at the fire with a laugh. "She was rabid about her dive suit sleeve getting chewed off—her sleeve…can you believe that?" he asks, looking up at everyone and shaking his head. Dell and Zoe exchange glances and smile. So, he has a thing for Vox? Is that it now? I wonder, then roll my eyes, which sends a bolt of pain straight through the center of my head.
"How long until the Cycle stone is green again? When is the light coming back so we can get to the tunnels and get the hell out of here?" I ask. Dell pulls out his stone, which is completely red except for a few threads of yellow. Nowhere close to green. I catch myself before I roll my eyes again and then scrub my hands over my face. "We can't just sit here," I say too loudly, which wakes up Tieg and Dez.
"What are you constipated about already?" Zoe says, needling me with her dark eyes. I fire back at her.
"What part of my motivation is confusing for you, red? Were you not in the port-carnate transport room when we got locked out of the hubs? Are you somehow oblivious to the fact that we're surrounded by subterranean bio-nightmares that want to eat us, or that are just programmed to stab us with tentacle tusks and drag us right back to Phase Two where Styx and Rheen will, without a doubt, kill us this time?" I answer, trying to stare a hole through the center of her head. She doesn't even blink.
"I was there, Cred-Fed—you may remember me saving your ass right after the others transferred and Styx tried lighting you up with one of those baton things," Zoe says, then turns to Dell and shoves him. "Zapped that dragon lady and saved you, too!"
"There can be only one dragon lady, eh?" Dell laughs, then holds up his arms to brace for the punch he knows is coming.
"Stow it," Zoe says, trying not to laugh, which is easy enough when she looks back to me. "Anyway, something crawled in your ear and died back there, wise? But ain't nothing we can do that we ain't doing already to get caught up with the rest of your group, so why don't you just unclench a little from here on out."
I start to answer her, but Dez cuts me off.
"It's Jazz. He's wound up like this because he's not with her—he can't talk with her in his head anymore, and he can't get in between her and Arco now," she says with a cold edge in her voice I never would have expected from her. She narrows her eyes and presses her lips into a satisfied, half grin line when I look at her, but I'm so shocked I can't think of anything to say in response before Jack steps in.
"That's enough," he says. "I'll take the first watch—everyone get some sleep. We still have a hike in front of us before we get to the tunnels that lead to the Badlands."
"And we only have about six hours until light. The sharks will be running again by then, so rest up…just in case," Azeris adds, nodding to me. I nod back, remembering again the tunnel shark fight coming through the Rush the first time…when I severed its head and didn't even realize it after I thought it killed Jazz. I can't lose my grip again like that. I can't lose control again, or we're never going to make it to Admin City.
CHAPTER 14
The Grid
Jazz
Arco has dark circles under his eyes, and the cut on his cheekbone is starting to bruise. He pushes a hand through the light brown curls falling into his face and raises both eyebrows.
"Why me?" I ask him. "Why do you think Skull is waiting for me?"
Arco shrugs, uninterested. I know he's still bothered about thinking I want Liddick, and I'm half tempted to shake him. Doesn't he realize we have bigger issues right now?
"Only one way to find out," he finally says. I turn to face Calyx, who tries to smile at me, but then just starts chewing at the metal cuff in her lip.
Why is she anxious? Who is this Skull person, and how does anyone ever get the name Skull anyway? I wonder.
"This way," she says, waving at us to follow her. She walks us past the roped off white square patch that looks like a little landing pad on the floor to our left. Some people in differently colored jumpsuits are typing into floating holographic keyboards while others swipe and throw holographic screens like they're looking for something they can't find on the ones in front of them.
"What are they doing?" Fraya asks from behind Arco and me. Calyx turns to answer over her shoulder.
"Trying to slow the code evolution."
"The code our dad helped Liam and Lyden make? It's really happening that fast?" Jax asks.
"Exponentially."
We turn around a bend in the white corridor and walk straight into a dead end. Calyx flattens her palm against the wall, and a doorway appears. I'm never going to get used to that, I think.
Yes, you will, Lyden answers in my mind. I grin without turning around to look at him, forgetting that he can read my thoughts just like Liddick. Liddick… I think, and my stomach drops. Where are you?
The room we enter is also white, but the entire back wall isn't a wall at all—it's a beach that stretches out to crashing surf and a wide, blue sky. I stop dead in my tracks, like everyone else in our group.
"That's the barbarian beach!" Myra says. "The one from Tark's class at Gaia!"
"Whoa…" Avis echoes her surprise.
"It's just a virtuo-cine program—we're in Admin City, people. Where do you think the programs come from?" Ellis snorts.
"But why th—"
"Why that one?" A deep voice interrupts me. I spin around to find the source.
"Mr. Tark!?" Avis's voice shoots up nearly an octave.
"In the flesh," Mr. Tark says, holding out his arms at his sides, but he doesn't smile. His dark skin isn't flickering in and out like it was when we were six miles underwater watching him deliver our dive instructions, either. He's here. He's really here.
"Or maybe you're just a clone…" Arco says abruptly as he takes a step forward.
"Never. I don't trust those things to speak my mind," Tark replies, letting his mouth peel back into the same brilliant white smile he gave me just after our virtuo-cine test, his gold eyes blazing again like he's trying to figure out which one of us to eat, just like before.
"We call him Skull here," Eco says, weaving his way through our group and surprising everyone. He's barely said a word since we left his hab.
"You work for The Seam?" I say, still not quite sure I believe he's really here. Tark's eyes dart to me, and he lets his huge smile peel back again.
"Good to see you again, Ms. Ripley," he says with a nod, then scans the rest of our group as his face falls. "You seem to be missing a few?" he asks, then raises an eyebrow at Calyx.
"Styx got to the Phase Two facility before everyone could transfer—Jack, Liddick, Tieg and Dez Spaulding, as well as Azeris and his daughter are still there," she answers.
"What about the other Skyboarder? And Joss Tether? They both escaped Gaia with you," Tark scans us again, but no one answers.
"They're both…gone," Arco says after several eternal seconds. "Pitt was infected by the spores before the Leviathan imploded—he died in the tunnels not long after we docked. Joss was attacked by some…tornado animal in this…other place under the seafloor," he continues, seemingly not believing his own voice. He sighs, then grips the back of his neck.
"A zephyr?" Tark asks, his eyes drilling into Arco.
"You know about those?" Arco's hazel eyes flash, then narrow, and I can see the muscles in his jaw tighten as he clenches his teeth.
"Of course we know about those. And the sand sharks, and the antlions, and the oversized everything else down there—this isn't a club we've just started up here in Admin City, Mr. Hart," Tark answers.
"OK…so, how are you here again? Are you the only teacher from Gaia who works for The Seam? What's happening?" I ask in a louder voice.
"I'm not the only one, no," Tark says, turning abruptly back to me. "There are a few others."
"And you just go on everyday down there, teaching class like people aren't being dragged six miles through the ground by sharks with tentacles and legs?" Avis barks.
"We have counterparts in place�
��someone has to be on the inside to inform those counterparts. It's more complicated than you think," Tark looks straight through Avis, who can only scowl in reply. "Lucky for you, too, or you never would have made it to those tunnels in the first place. There are records imprinted every time you make a clone with that replicator; if I hadn't gone in an erased the files you created when you made copies of yourselves, you never would have had the three week's head start you did before your clones expired," Tark says, sliding his glare back to Arco. He raises an eyebrow. "Should have stayed another few days, Mr. Hart. We would have covered that in class." He steps toward us, and the beach virtuo-cine behind him disappears.
Arco doesn't smile. "We had a job to do. We did it," he answers cooly. "What's yours? Since it's obviously not being the Adaptabilities professor."
"Oh, it's that too. And it's why I started working on this side of the fence," he says without looking back as he crosses to Lyden, Liam, and Arwyn. "It's good to see you three again. I'm sorry it took this long."
None of them answer, but Lyden nods subtly. "Couldn't be helped," he says, clearing his throat after a long pause.
"Were you able to reset their DNA with the port-carnate programs?" Tark asks, turning to Liam, who lowers his eyes and shakes his head.
"I tried, but the mutations were too far gone—cellular modification was irreversible with the equipment and time I had down there."
Tark nods, then nods again to Lyden and Arwyn.
"One of the cines in the cue takes place on the sea—might go easier on your psyche if you already have gills," Tark tries to loosen the tension in the air. He winks at Lyden, whose mouth tacks in the corner. "And who needs a neural baton when you've got your own personal blowtorch in the palm of your hand?" he adds, putting a long arm around Arwyn. She tries to smile, too, but it quickly withers into a thin, pressed line.
"Calyx is almost done securing the Phase Three facility. We will reverse what they did to you both," Liam says, pushing every word through his teeth.
"It's all right," Lyden says, nodding to his brother. "That's not the priority right now…we need to stop the code from evolving."
Tark shoots a hard yellow glare at Calyx.
"I didn't have to say a thing," she says, holding up her hands in protest. "Liddick wasn't the only one who received the last message Jack and Liam programmed—Jazwyn heard it too," Calyx answers.
"And Arco…" I add. "He started to hear it repeating when we were in the Stingrays, just after we left the cave where Vox and Fraya disappeared."
Arco nods, but doesn't meet my eyes.
"That was months ago…which means it's been evolving since then…crite," Tark says. "All right, this way," he says flatly, then walks past us back through the doorway we've just come through.
"Where are we going?" I ask Eco, who is suddenly next to me.
"If he's thinking what I think he's thinking…to the Grid."
***
We walk back through the corridor until we return to the white, roped off platform area we passed on the way in.
"Queue it up," Tark says to a few people in green jumpsuits.
"What's happening? Queue what up?" Fraya asks in a thin voice. Jax puts his arm around her and pulls her closer to him.
"The Grid," Calyx answers as several reclining, curved chairs emerge from the floor to encircle the platform, which begins to glow blue.
"Those are virtuo-cine interfaces…" Ellis says.
Behind the reclining chairs, an unbroken circle of holographic keyboards and consoles surround the platform with silver stools every few feet from each other. People in differently colored jumpsuits gravitate toward the consoles from every direction, then immediately start typing. The blue glow of the platform in the center rises about 20 feet in the air. Just below it, several other layers appear: one white, one yellow, one green, blue, purple, and finally, black, each layer fading into a lighter one, a gradient of colors hovering over the darkest one closest to the floor. After a second, the colors and textures shift and change until I see dirt roads and…wagons?
"That's a flat-cine on the bottom?" Avis asks the question we all must be thinking. "Some ancient Wild West adventure?"
"Not a flat-cine—it's still a virtuo-cine. Give it a second," Eco says as another exact copy of the animation appears just above the flat layer, but this one is more transparent with shifting colors. "That is the alpha channel. The rest of the colored layers are alternate scripts," he explains as all of the colored layers begin to take on similar scenes with horses and wagons and people. They multiply so quickly that they bleed into each other, and all we can see is the 20-foot tall cylindrical color gradient spinning over the miniature 3D virtuo-cine at the bottom, the transparent, color shifting copy of it playing just above.
"These are the guts of a virtuo-cine? Is that what you're telling us?" Jax asks, his dark eyes beaming with excitement.
"More or less," Eco answers. "Kira, what cine is this?" "Dustbowl," a women at the console closest to us answers. "It released two days ago."
"And you're generating this?" Vox asks, narrowing her snake-green eyes at Eco.
"Yes, and no. We hacked the Grid, so now we have access to all the virtuo-cine raw files—all the layers, all the scripts."
"Why hack into that?" Ellis asks.
"As an instrument," Tark speaks up. "Newsfeeds are on a delay—anything we tried to tell the public would be wiped before it ever got to them using that avenue. In the cines, we can bring the message straight to their neural feeds, buried within the stories."
"So how long will it take to stop the code from evolving?" Arco asks.
"We can't stop the spread, and we can't rewrite anything without Jack," Tark says. "Without him, at this point we can only patch the holes so people get the right message."
"Why haven't you done that already? Launch the patches with automators, no?" Arco raises an eyebrow.
"It doesn't work like that. Patches need to be manually applied to the Glyphs."
"To the huh?" Avis asks, raising both feathered eyebrows until they disappear under his blue-edged bangs.
"Glyphs. You know, the programed characters in the cines," Eco says, rolling his eyes. "You'll need to swallow the bio-code chips and then touch the Glyphs to launch the patches. That's the only way to be sure the code will incorporate since we can't directly modify it like Jack could." Eco narrows his eyes for just a second as his lights flicker red, then return to white.
"Writing himself as the only one who could launch the sleeper was a security precaution, for us and for The Seam." Liam glares at Eco. "A precaution that should have prevented this whole situation."
"None of that really matters now," Calyx says. "We just need to do damage control."
"And who will swallow the biochips? What has to happen?" I ask, but none of them answer, so I ask another question. "Are the biochips like the automators? Like when Liddick launched them back at Gaia so we could connect the port-call hubs?"
"Yes, it's like that," Tark finally responds, then looks around at all of us. "I know that none of you signed up for this, but we need the Empaths to go into the Grid."
CHAPTER 15
Funnels
Liddick
It's almost light when I wake up this time. The fire is out, except for some smoldering embers. Tieg kicks sand over them, which also hits me in the face.
"Watch it, mollusk!" I growl at him. He just laughs. Heat fills my chest, but there's nothing I can do to retaliate when I'm blinded. I spit and try to blink the sand out of my eyes.
"Cycle stone is yellow—should be green within the hour, so it's safe enough to set out," Cal says from somewhere behind me, then suddenly, next to me. "What happened to him?"
"The skod just got a little too close to the fire," Tieg laughs again. I can hear the smirk in his voice and have to press my teeth together to keep from lunging in his general direction.
"You'd think with a bar of soap wedged in your face, you'd have a cleaner mouth," I s
ay, rubbing my eyes. I'm pretty proud of that one until the rage in my gut settles back in.
"So that's what you think of our teeth after all. I knew it," Dez says, which puts a ball of ice in my chest, smothering the anger.
"You all are making me old," Azeris adds just before I feel a slap on my back. "Come on, we need to get moving before the sand heats up."
I spit more sand and blink several more times until finally, I can see again.
"We need to head toward the dark part of the sky," Dell says, pointing directly ahead of us. "Tanglebush and whatnot are that way, but we won't need to go that far."
"How are we supposed to find the tunnels in all this sand?" I ask, scanning the ground for some kind of opening.
"Funnels are tunnels. Usually, anyway," Cal says, then laughs.
"This is funny?" I narrow my eyes at him.
"You really are constipated, aren't you? Have you been eating the Bale-meal in your pack, or—"
"Don't you have the tuning fork? The NET? Can't you do something useful with that, or are you just comic relief while we hike up sand dunes and wait for the whole world to turn into fish and fire starters?" I ask, stopping in my tracks. Cal turns to face me, and his smile slips off the corners of his mouth. He reaches into his shirt and pulls out the silver, connected parallel bars that fork out from the metal handle. He strikes it against his walking stick, then holds it close to his chest and closes his eyes for several seconds before he speaks up again.
"There's still nothing—I've been trying to reach Vox with this since she vanished in the hubs with the others. They're either too far away now, or…" he trails off, then shoves the NET back into his shirt. "We need to keep moving."
"Could I see that for a second?" Jack asks, holding out his hand to Cal, who looks at him suspiciously. "I think I've seen it before." Cal pulls the NET back out of his shirt and hands it to Jack. "You call this the NET?" Jack asks again.