The Forever Gate Compendium Edition

by Isaac Hooke

  Ari was quiet for a time. "Being revised isn't much different from being on the Inside. Except when you're revised, it's only your memories that are false, rather than the current moment. At least this is real." She waved a hand to indicate the room.

  "Is it?" Tanner said.

  She cocked her head. "What do you know, Tanner?"

  "Nothing."

  "Tell me."

  Tanner let out a small, nervous laugh. "Ari, I only meant, what we have here, right now. Is this truly real?"

  Ari still didn't understand. "You're talking about this room with its cold walls of metal? With its broken window that opens out to a broken moon? Answer me."

  Tanner screwed up his lips. "No, I meant between me and you."

  "Oh."

  The silence stretched.

  Tanner was the first to break it. "Ari, I—"

  "Tanner," she interrupted. "You're my friend." She'd decided to harden herself after that night with Jeremy. She'd been hard before, in the past, but she'd grown weak lately, and had almost become attached to Tanner. But that was something she couldn't allow. Jeremy, or someone else, might use Tanner to get to her. Jeremy had basically done that very thing already. It wasn't a pleasant experience. She had to stop this now, cut the sapling off at the root before it grew into a full-blown thorn-bush. "We're just friends and that's it. There's nothing more between us. And there can't be, not until this is done."

  "That could be years, Ari." He sounded hurt.

  Pity welled in her but she forced iron into her voice. "Are you so sure? Feels like we're at a tipping point to me. What we do here, now, in the next few days, will decide the fate of humanity."

  "That's a bit melodramatic, and a little self-centered, isn't it?"

  "But it's the truth."

  "Okay, Teach." He was still flirting.

  "Tanner. Look, when this is done, I'll ask you out on a date."

  "Oh you will, will you?" Tanner said. She wished he'd wipe that smirk off his face.

  "Yes. And until then all I can give you is friendship."

  Tanner still didn't seem to get it. "But if the world's ending like you claim, maybe we should hook-up before—"

  "Tanner. Shh. Just shh. No more."

  He uncrossed his arms. "A date."

  "Yes." She smiled at the thought. It'd been so long since she'd gone on a simple date. "A dinner date. Lobster from the agri-tanks of the south. I'll pay."

  "Well, it will have to be on the Inside then, but that'll do. I'll hold you to it."

  She slapped the floor beside her, signaling the end to this turn of the conversation.

  "Come on," she said. "Let's get back. We're wasting precious air. We should be having talks like this on the Inside." Where the moments passed more slowly.

  "Sure," Tanner said. "But it's time you learned how to inject Inside on your own. Just in case I'm not around someday. Sidle on up to that Terminal."

  "You will be around someday," Ari said. But she forced herself to her feet anyway, and the leg braces inside her suit whirred to life. She hunched over the desk. The "terminal," as he called it, was a glass pad set at an angle in the desk. Words, numbers and pictures were written into the glass.

  Tanner began the lesson. "There are more complex user interfaces than these pads of course, especially now that you've linked the terminal with your umbilical. Controlling the thing with your mind is freaking awesome I tell you. It gives direct feedback, right onto the Brodmann area 17 of the occipital lobe. But we'll start with the basics. Fingers on the pad please."

  "Brodmann what?" she shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder about you Tanner. You're a little too smart for your own good." And you like to show off those smarts. Well, he had good reason to impress her, she supposed. When you liked someone, and cared about them... no. She wouldn't go there. She wouldn't allow herself any weaknesses.

  She rested her fingers on the pad, and Tanner walked her through a test run. She memorized every step.

  When it was done, Tanner asked her to repeat the process on her own. She followed the steps Tanner had shown her. She chose the tracker in the mayor's house as her position, and specified where the swords and handmirrors should appear in relation to that position. You could inject to a random place in the city, or in the desert outside the city walls, but if you wanted to go somewhere specific you needed a tracker.

  "Done," she said. Her fingers floated above the confirmation message. She almost felt like initiating the entry and confronting Jeremy now. She feared him, more than anything, but she knew also that the longer she delayed, the more that fear would grow. And if she went in alone, she'd be the only one at risk. No other lives would be at stake except her own.

  Her finger neared the pad.

  "Whoa whoa whoa," Tanner said. "What are you doing Ari?"

  "I'll go in alone. Pull me out after thirty seconds. I just want to scout."

  "What coordinates did you use?" Tanner said.

  Her finger was only a fraction of an inch away. "The tracker in the mayor's house."

  On his side of the room, Tanner stood. "Don't you touch that screen, don't you dare. We said we wouldn't make the same rash mistakes we made last time, remember? When Marks died."

  Ari's finger retreated from the pad as if she were stung. "You're right. You're absolutely right. What am I doing?"

  "Good," Tanner said. "You scared me there."

  "I scared myself," she said.

  "What if a shield went up after you'd gone in, and I couldn't get you out?"

  "You're right, I'm sorry."

  The pad beside her was still flashing.

  "Mind canceling that?" Tanner nodded toward the pad.

  She glanced at it. The words Entry Confirmation were flashing. "Oh." Her finger approached Cancel, but never got there because the text blanked. "What?"

  The female voice inside her suit spoke. "Simulator Access Requested. Allow?"

  Two options appeared on the inside of the helmet, yes and no.

  "What? No. No." She focused on no.

  "Ari, what are you doing?" Tanner said. But then she heard him tapping frantically at his own terminal. "What the fu—"

  The word yes flashed.

  "Access Granted," the female voice intoned.

  Ari was sucked Inside.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Ari stood once more in the Black Room, that brooding chamber with its too-tight walls, ceiling and floor. The chamber that haunted her nightmares.

  The chamber where Jeremy had tortured Marks to death.

  She waited for someone to rush her. For Jeremy's mocking voice. For shackles to close around her arms and legs. For something.

  But the room remained still.

  The place was dark, lit only by the dim glow of the fire swords she'd placed as part of the inject. The table was clear of torture implements today. She reached under it, and felt the small, spherical shape of the tracker she'd placed when she was last here. The metal was cold to the touch.

  Motion drew her attention to the right.

  It was just Tanner.

  "Why did you send us in?" she said. "I thought you were all for making a plan first?"

  Tanner shook his head. "I didn't do this. We were pulled in. By what, I'm not sure. The germ has affected the entry subsystem, maybe." He was dressed in the livery of a household servant, just as she was.

  "Great. Just great." She picked up one of the fire swords and felt the surge of vitra from the hilt. It was a comfort. Vitra always was.

  The blade brightened, sending the shadows fleeing. On the steel was etched a fire-spitting raven, its wings trailing cinders.

  Tanner grabbed the other sword. Ari stashed the handmirror from the table into a pocket of her livery.

  "Wait," Tanner said. "Let's just go back."

  "Sure, you can start heading back," Ari said. Tanner was faster than her at disbelieving reality, but even his record with the mirror was still seven minutes. So although she hated this place, she found herself adding, "And m
eanwhile I'll have a look around. Might as well." She wanted to confront her fears now before they worsened. Maybe she'd come across Jeremy while he slept. That would be perfect. She'd wake him up just long enough to stare into his eyes and let him know who killed him.

  But she doubted it would be that easy. It never was. His bedsheets would probably come alive and choke her.

  "What did we just talk about?" Tanner said. "About having plans and all?"

  "Something's not right," Ari said.

  "Of course something's not right." Tanner folded his arms. "We were sucked in here against our will."

  She ignored him, and peered into the hallway, using the sword's glow as her torch. She heard Tanner curse in frustration behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and offered him the mirror. "As I said, you can start disbelieving reality whenever you want."

  He batted the mirror aside. "We take a quick look around, then we go. Got it?"

  "Fine." She would have preferred to do this alone, but apparently Tanner wasn't going to let her.

  The hallway outside looked innocent enough. White walls, gold-rimmed red carpet.

  Except none of the candelabras were lit.

  "This is damn peculiar," Ari said. "Jeremy always keeps his candles lit. He's kind of afraid of the dark."

  "Jeremy?" The disbelief was obvious in Tanner's voice. "Doesn't seem the type to be scared of monsters in the night."

  "It's not monsters he's afraid of. It's assassins."

  "Ah." Tanner peered down the hall. "Maybe he's abandoned the place?"

  "Then it's a good thing we came after all." Ari moved the blade to and fro, illuminating various sections of the corridor. "Imagine we'd spent days preparing and making plans, only to come here and find the place empty? The Control Room moved?"

  The Control Room was sourced from a Box—little more than a bedside chest—that, once opened, expanded into a complete operational center that let one monitor every gol in the city. When closed, the Control Room would fold back into its Box, allowing it to be transferred from the house of the outgoing mayor to the new one.

  She edged forward, keeping to the space between the wall and the rug, while Tanner took the opposite side of the hall. Both of them were very careful not to touch the carpet. The last time she was here, a certain incident had soured her to carpets. Ari didn't like it so much when the rug you stood on grew hands and snatched you. But who was to say the walls or ceiling wouldn't grow limbs too? The thought made her quicken her step.

  She reviewed the blueprint of the house in her mind as she advanced. The corridors remained dark, lit only by the dim light from the swords. She and Tanner encountered no one—while all the furniture was still here, the house itself was completely devoid of life. She passed a window. Outside it was pitch black.

  "That's strange," she said, nodding at the window. "Wasn't it just daylight?"

  Tanner gave her a look that said, let's get the hell out of here.

  She shrugged off the pinprick sensation she felt along her arms, and pressed on.

  She led Tanner down the main stairs to the first floor, and its reception hall. The carpet in this hall was the one that had come alive the last time she was here. It stretched from one side of the hall to the other, and at the perimeter there was a gap of about two paces between wall and carpet. She had attacked that carpet with her fire sword, charring a section. But there were no burn marks today, she noted. There also used to be a sword rack on one side of the hall, but Jeremy had moved it, apparently.

  Giving the carpet the widest berth she could, Ari crossed to a corridor behind the reception hall, and followed it to the chamber that had housed the Control Room ten years ago.

  The chamber was empty.

  "So he's really abandoned the place," Ari said.

  Tanner patted the handmirror beneath her livery. "Time to go. We'll get in touch with your New Users when we come back. Maybe they'll have some leads on Jeremy's new base of operations."

  On the far side of the room Ari spotted a furled scroll resting on the floor.

  She went over and picked it up.

  Hello Ari.

  I discovered your little tracker and moved it to a copy of my house. Impressive little replica isn't it? I've duplicated everything down to the piles in my woolen carpets and the veins in my marble walls. What you don't know is that the moment you set foot in this place you triggered my trap. You see, this copy of my house is at the bottom of a sand pit outside the Forever Gate. I hear the land is quite barren out there. Bones of giant fish and whatnot. If you're reading this, maybe you weren't lying after all when you spoke to me of crossing the Gate and finding immortality. Or maybe you were. My little surprise should get to the heart of matters.

  Ta-ta.

  Your Beloved,

  Jeremy

  "We have to go," Ari said. "We have to go now!"

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Ari ran into the corridor. Beside her, the nearest window burst inward. Sand gushed inside.

  "This way!" She led Tanner down the corridor. Around them, windows burst left and right. Side chambers also belched sand, adding to the inundation. By the time she reached the reception hall she was wading knee-deep through the stuff, and the grit got inside her boots where it scratched her ankles constantly. Sand poured in from upstairs too, spilling over the second floor balconies in waves.

  "Where are you going?" Tanner said.

  She crossed the remnants of the reception room, and entered the guest hall. There was a fireplace set against the far wall.

  She ducked beneath the mantel and peered upward. The chimney was a long, dark esophagus of bricks that for now remained open to the sky—a small circle of light beckoned at the very top. Sand only occasionally sprinkled down from above.

  She turned to Tanner.

  He'd gone quite pale. "You gotta be kidding me..."

  "I hate tight spaces," Ari said. "With a passion. But it's a way out."

  "Oh it's not tight spaces I'm worried about," Tanner said. "It's dying in a chimney because I followed a brash and reckless woman inside, that's what's got me worked up."

  "But it's only a false reality," Ari said. "There's only a chance we'll die in the real world if we die here."

  "According to who?" Tanner sounded oddly exasperated.

  "Hoodwink."

  "Well you misunderstood him," Tanner said. "Because there's only a chance you'll die when you're connected via the pods. When you connect direct, like me and you are doing as gols, and you die violently in here, there's a 100% chance you die in the real world. I've lost three good friends already. So stop acting like you're invincible."

  She felt her stomach tighten, the precariousness of their situation hitting home for the first time. But how could her father have survived what happened to him, when he'd died violently in the real world? Was he in some pod world above that one? It made no sense. But she had no time to ponder it now—she saw the sand literally pouring in through the room's entrance.

  "I can give you the mirror..." She reached inside her livery. Could either of them disbelieve reality in time, with the distraction of imminent death?

  "No." Tanner raised a hand. "There isn't time. You're right."

  The sand continued to rise. At this rate, the entire room would be buried in less than one or two minutes.

  Wishing that she'd injected a sword belt Inside too, she sliced a strand from a nearby tapestry, and used it to tie the sword around her waist. Tanner did the same. Once that was done, she lifted one foot over the base of the fireplace, ducked beneath the lintel, and pulled herself into the inner hearth, stepping onto the charred blocks of wood piled there. The chimney was made of mortared bricks, so she reached up and gripped a slab on either side and hoisted herself past the damper, forcing open the metal plate that was used to regulate the draft. Then she pulled herself up into the chimney proper.

  And so she proceeded, reaching up with her arms to find a handhold, setting the toes of her boots in the gaps between brick
s. The glow from the sword guided her, as did the portal of light far above, but even if she had no light, she could have felt her way along. The blade diminished in intensity as the moments passed, and she pressed the hilt occasionally to restore its brightness. Though she didn't need it, the light was a comfort.

  But apparently she'd touched the weapon too much, because without warning the makeshift cord at her waist unraveled and the sword dropped.

  "Oof!" Tanner said. She heard the clatter as the blade tumbled past him down the chimney.

  "Tanner!" She glanced down and saw Tanner a few paces below, outlined by the glow of his own sword, which was still tied to his waist. "Are you all right?"

  "Yeah." His voice sounded forced.

  Above, the chimney tapered, becoming rather tight. The trickle of sand from above had increased, and was now a regular, pulsing rain of grit. Somehow she didn't think the sky above would remain open for very long.

  As the chimney tightened, she was forced to bring her arms closer and closer to her chest, and to take smaller and smaller steps, until she could no longer move at all.

  "Why have you stopped?" Tanner said, though he likely knew.

  "Too tight!"

  The sand continued to fall in waves.

  The top of the chimney was only a pace away.

  But it might as well have been a mile for all that she could move.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  "Tanner!" she said, spitting the sand from her mouth. "Your sword!"

  Tanner coughed and sneezed. "What about it!"

  "Send it up to me!"

  She saw the glow of his blade as it slid upward along the inside of the chimney and passed between her boots.

  "Got it?" Tanner said from below.

  "Ha! I'll never reach that."

  The tip came further, coming to a stop roughly at knee level.

  "Just a little more," she said.

  "One sec!"

  She heard Tanner repositioning himself below, climbing higher.