The Mind Virus

  Andleeb squeezed my hand back. She grew taller, shoulders back. Regal and strong. “You can count on me. And I think I can say the same for my sister.”

  “Good,” I said. “I’ll be in touch again soon. We’re going to need to call a meeting.” I took in a deep breath. “And I’m going to need your help.”

  “Of course,” Andleeb said. “We’ll be ready.”

  I leaned in and gave her a grateful hug.

  Then we said our good-byes and I headed off to find Trader.

  Trader was walking away from Inara’s room when I saw him. I picked up my pace, nearly breaking into a run so I could catch him before he rounded the corner.

  “Trader,” I called out.

  He stopped and turned. “Hi, Sis,” he said, with a dark grin.

  “I went to your house,” I said.

  His face grew alarmed. “Why would you do that when I’m right here?” He was trying to joke, but there was something else underneath his tone.

  I studied him. “I meant your house in the App World.”

  “Oh. You shifted? Hmmm. You haven’t done that in ages. You shouldn’t. It takes a lot out of you and, well, it’s dangerous.” His words were dark, but his face had cleared of worry. “Maybe that’s why you’re such a weird shade of gray.”

  “Things are far worse than I ever could have imagined,” I said, ignoring this last comment.

  Trader’s expression was impassive. “So?”

  “You were right about the virus—but it’s not just a little bug. I think it’s big, Trader. And regardless of what started it, the App World seems to be, well, disappearing.”

  This got Trader’s attention. “What do you mean?”

  “When Adam and I went to your house—”

  “—Adam?”

  “He and I ran into each other. But that’s not the point. We found Wicked Leaks in your Black Market App Store. Aside from several plots to kill me, there are a lot of rumors about a virus—a terrible virus. And one of the rumors is that it’s killing the App World. The chatter is that the App World is dying. Those were the very words we heard. Dying.”

  “It could be just a rumor.”

  “I don’t think so.” The memory I had of the sinkhole was vivid. “Enormous swaths of the City have literally just vanished. It’s crazy. And there’s this thing called a Death App. If you download it, you’re virtually dead. Adam and I watched a man die before our very eyes.”

  Trader’s face paled even more than usual. “That’s not good.”

  “Definitely not.”

  “Inara’s parents . . .”

  “I know. So many people, and none of them safe, but all of them believing they live in the perfect safety of the City, an eternity on the Apps.”

  “All of it one big lie,” Trader said.

  “There’s more,” I went on. “People are dying on the plugs. My mother—it’s a long story—but she’s trying to figure out why. The dead are being delivered to Briarwood so she can study them. She thinks the problem is coming from the App World and not from their real bodies.” This information I’d been keeping hidden rushed out in one big release. “I’m worried that whatever is happening, it can’t be undone.”

  Trader glanced back at the door to Inara’s room. “You don’t know that yet. Maybe it can be fixed. I’ll need to speak to Zeera.”

  I bit my lip. “I think Rain already has her looking for information. But I’m not sure she’d be in favor of anyone plugging in to go and help.”

  “But you just did,” he said.

  “Yes, but she doesn’t know that. Rain doesn’t know either. He was really against me going.”

  Trader rolled his eyes. “Just talk to him. He does anything you want.”

  I shook my head. “Not anymore. At least, I don’t think so.”

  “I’ll believe that when I see it,” Trader said. “But let me talk to Zeera. She’ll listen to me. We speak the same language.”

  “Okay. That would be great.”

  Trader studied me. “I can tell there’s something else on your mind, Skylar.”

  The comment he’d made earlier nagged at me. “What didn’t you want me to see at your house in the Real World?”

  “Nothing,” he tried.

  “When I was at your house in Loner Town, I saw something unusual,” I pressed. “A lot of unusual things, actually. A half-eaten sandwich. A jar of sea glass.”

  Trader slumped against the wall. “You wanted to ask me about a bunch of trash?”

  “I wanted to ask you about your virtual guest. Who is it?”

  Trader flicked away the lock of hair that had fallen across his brow. “Oh, Sis.”

  The white paint of the wall seemed to shimmer behind him. “Whoever it is has also been fixing up the place. Trader.”

  His eyes sought the floor. “It’s the same person you’re probably thinking.”

  “But he said he would never,” I said, still disbelieving.

  “You wanted to know, so now you do. I can’t control whether or not you believe it.” Trader closed his eyes and shook his head. Then he dug a hand around in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He slipped one from the ring and held it out to me. “He’s been staying at my house in the Real World. I’m not supposed to tell you this, obviously. But . . . oh well. And you know there are certain facilities just sitting around, and he may have decided to take advantage of them.” He trailed off.

  I took the key and stared at it. The metal was old and worn, splotches marring the face of it.

  “I’m going to see Zeera right now, and then I’ll be the one to have a little chat with Rain about the situation in the App World. You’re not alone in this.” He leaned down and planted a kiss on the top of my head. “I know you feel that way sometimes. But you have allies, and you don’t have to figure anything out by yourself. Or always be the one in charge.” I opened my mouth but Trader shook his head. “Let me handle at least one part of this. I am quite capable myself. Leadership runs in our family.”

  “More like dictatorship,” I muttered.

  “Perhaps,” he said. He pointed to the key. “Now go. We’ll need his help anyway. I have a feeling things are going to get serious fast.” He waved me away. “Good luck.” Trader lumbered off without looking back.

  My fingers closed around the key, the jagged edges biting into the skin of my palm.

  23

  Skylar

  honesty

  TRADER’S HOUSE IN the Real World had been painted recently. A light gray that blended in with the color of the rocks behind it, pale in the moonlight. Gone were the broken shingles and roof tiles, the siding patched up. Just like with his house in Loner Town, someone was taking care of this one. Light flickered in the windows.

  I took the key out of my pocket and climbed the front steps.

  My hand shook as I held it to the lock. It made a loud click as I turned it. My eyes went to the windows. I half expected to see a face there, wondering who was outside, or for the light to go out, or even for the door to swing open. None of these things occurred, so I dropped the key back into my pocket, turned the knob, and pushed.

  The door creaked open.

  Everything was silent. Not a shuffle or even the sound of breathing. The room was swept clean. It was nearly bare except for the soft light of a lamp and a small table and chairs in the corner.

  But then I heard a groan from the next room. The one with the view of the rocks and the sea. The one where Trader kept his lab and workplace.

  I went to investigate.

  There, on the floor in the very center of it, was Trader’s makeshift plug, the tablet he’d used to create the Shifting App lying next to it.

  Right alongside Kit.

  His eyes were closed, his limbs unmoving, the color in his cheeks a deathly hue. His chest was still. Had he stopped breathing? I ran to him and crouched down, put a hand to his forehead, worried I’d find it cool and only growing colder. His skin was warm, but his lungs didn’t seem to be tak
ing in air. I grabbed the tablet from the floor and studied the screen to see at what stage Kit was in his shift, only to see he’d completed it and should be awake again.

  But he wasn’t.

  The tablet fell to the ground with a loud crack.

  I hovered over him unsure what to do.

  “Kit, please don’t die on me,” I whispered. “Please, please, please, I couldn’t bear it. I don’t want to be in either of these worlds without you in them.”

  There was no movement, not a breath, not even a twitch.

  Tears burned my eyes. “Please don’t be gone. I still love you.”

  Coughs erupted from Kit’s lungs, his breath in heaved as though he’d been drowning under water. I sat back, my breaths coming just as quickly.

  Eventually he stopped coughing.

  His eyes flickered open.

  A weak smile appeared on his lips. “Skylar, you came for me,” he said, barely audible. His hand found mine. “Finally.”

  I pulled away and stood.

  Stormed into the next room and slammed the door behind me.

  I sat at the table, debating whether I should leave. What felt like an eternity passed before Kit dragged his body into the room to join me. He nearly fell into the chair next to mine. It rocked precariously and he grabbed the table to hold himself steady, then leaned onto his elbows. There were dark circles underneath his eyes. He looked far worse than last time I’d seen him.

  “I worried you’d left,” he said.

  I turned away, staring out the darkened window. “I thought about leaving.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t.”

  “Maybe I should go now.”

  “Don’t.”

  “I can’t believe you,” I said.

  “You can’t believe what about me?”

  I looked at him. “You’ve been shifting. You’ve been plugging in.”

  One of his hands thumped onto the wood, as though his arm couldn’t hold the weight of it. “Obviously.”

  “Shifting is dangerous!”

  “I’ve been doing this for a while,” he said. “I know what my body can handle.”

  “You look horrible, so maybe you don’t.”

  He managed a grin. “Thank you for the compliment. You are looking lovely yourself tonight, Skylar.”

  My cheeks grew tight. “I’m not here to play around, Kit.”

  He yanked himself up until he was standing and slowly made his way toward the kitchen. He filled two glasses with water and ambled slowly back. He placed the second glass in front of me. “Then why did you come?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, even though I did. Or at least I thought so. Because I can’t live without you. “You used to be the only person I knew other than my Keeper who’d shunned the App World.”

  “People change, I guess.”

  I placed my hands into my lap and stared at them, my fingers curled tight into fists, nails biting into my skin. A chill had fallen over the room. “Yes. But not you.”

  “Don’t be disappointed in me, Skylar.” He sounded sad. Pleading. “I’m only human.”

  “I was there, Kit. I was at Trader’s house in the App World and I saw the jar of glass—I saw it and I knew, even though I didn’t want to believe it. We just missed each other there. Did you know that?”

  He didn’t respond.

  I looked up. “What’s so appealing about the App World that you’d break your vow to never go?”

  Kit didn’t answer. He sipped from his water glass, staring into the bottom.

  I thought about the tattoo Maggie told me about. I searched for it on his skin but saw nothing. His long-sleeved shirt covered his arms to his wrists.

  “Trader said I could stay here,” Kit said finally. “I couldn’t stand to be at the cottage anymore. I think he felt bad for me. He’s a better person than I originally thought, your brother.” Kit took another sip and swallowed. His eyes shone. “I’ve never been good at resisting temptation, and here I was, surrounded by technology, and that contraption of his.”

  “You mean the plug,” I said.

  “Yeah, that.” He chuckled. “I’d never seen one up close. I’d looked at pictures of them, drawings my sister did. But pictures are one thing and to see the real plug, to be able to study it, is really something else.”

  The room had grown dark around us, the glow of the lamp soft on Kit’s face. “I remember the first time I saw one, too,” I admitted, then gulped down half of my water.

  He nodded. “I became curious. I was bored and I was lonely and I wanted to escape.”

  “Escape what?” I pressed, when he trailed off.

  “What do you think, Skylar?” He’d turned his head so I could no longer see his eyes. “One night, Trader came by and I asked him how it worked, and he showed me.”

  My mouth went dry. Trader hadn’t mentioned that part. “My brother helped you to shift?”

  “Yes. The first few times.” He gaze returned to mine. “He told me it was dangerous to do on my own and didn’t want me getting hurt. He helped me until I could do it by myself.”

  “But you’re not supposed to do it on your own,” I said, my stomach sick. “Not ever. Someone should always be there to monitor you, or at least to check in on you.”

  “Well, yeah, he told me that, too, but I’ve had a lot of time to myself, and he can’t exactly control what I do when he isn’t here.” Kit took another long sip and set his empty glass onto the table. “Besides, I told him not to worry what happened to me, since you’d written me off for good, and if I disappeared from this world it wouldn’t make a difference.”

  “You know that’s not true,” I whispered.

  He inched closer. “No?”

  I inched away. Dropped my gaze to my lap. “Why do you keep doing it? Why do you keep going back? Is it really just to escape?”

  “Why do you even care, Skylar?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I was searching for my parents,” he said, as though this was nothing.

  I looked up. “Oh!” I was a little ashamed for this not occurring to me before now. So many families were torn apart by this division in worlds, and Kit’s wasn’t an exception by any means. In fact, I knew that his parents plugging in had nearly destroyed him.

  Kit shrugged. “Don’t get too excited. I didn’t find them. Maybe I never will.”

  “But didn’t Maggie know where they were?”

  He shook his head. “She never found them either. I don’t think they ever wanted to be found by their children. I’ve even wondered if they changed their names, just in case the two of us found a way into a virtual future.”

  I reached across the table. The second my fingers touched Kit, all I wanted was to pull him close. “I’m so sorry. That’s horrible—”

  “—Skylar,” Kit interrupted.

  “What?”

  “I know what I heard when I was waking up,” he went on. “Was it the truth or were you lying?”

  I was grateful for the dim lighting. “What did you hear?”

  Kit’s gaze didn’t waver. “You said you loved me. Do you?”

  “You were dreaming.”

  “I don’t think I was.” He watched me, unblinking. His eyes were full of hope. “Why did you really come here, Skylar?”

  I knew what I should say, what he wanted me to say. What I wanted to tell him.

  Because it’s true, I love you. And things with Rain are over. For good.

  But my earlier confidence had waned.

  “I’m here because I need your help,” I said.

  Then I began to explain all that I’d learned.

  24

  Ree

  negotiations

  “WELL, AREN’T YOU uncharacteristically clever, Ms. Ree.”

  I froze, midstep, like in one of the Cartoon Apps I used to watch when I was an innocent little five. I’d barely made it to the elevator bank on the floor where I’d been imprisoned when this voice rang through the atmosphere. I looked aroun
d for its source. Left, right, up, down, but couldn’t find it. I didn’t need to see it to know who was speaking.

  Emory Specter.

  God, that man’s bulging eyes were truly everywhere.

  “Actually, not that clever if you thought I wouldn’t be monitoring you,” he went on.

  A spark flared out of nowhere. Then a shower of them.

  A hologram appeared, enlivening the nondescript white walls of the hallway.

  I’d been right about Emory Specter making himself appear taller for broadcasts and various other projections. He’d grown at least a foot since we met in his weird throne room. Today was casual day, though. He was wearing jeans. “Hi, Minister Specter,” I said, figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to be polite, seeing that he’d just caught me trying to escape.

  “Are you going to tell me how you did it?” he asked.

  My shirt was beginning to fray at the neck from a lack of updates. I resisted pulling at the threads. “Don’t you already know the answer? I thought you were monitoring me.”

  The hologram moved closer. “It’s not like you’re a star on Reel Time, Ms. Ree. I don’t have time to monitor your every move. Nor do I have the interest. I’m a busy man with an entire City to defend.”

  I smiled. “And I bet you’ve been very busy defending our City lately.”

  Emory frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Why don’t you do the guessing this time?”

  More sparks flew and the hologram disappeared.

  This made me wonder if there was another glitch. I half expected to see a black hole where the figure of Emory Specter had just been. Instead, one of the elevators dinged, followed by the doors opening. The real Emory Specter emerged from it. His face was red with anger, his height definitely much shorter than in the hologram.

  I tried not to laugh.

  “I don’t play guessing games,” he said.

  “Yes you do. You tried to make me guess the name of your daughter.” I batted my eyelashes at him. “Feeling a little forgetful?”