Z

by Michael Thomas Ford

  Josh looked at the cards.

  “Go on,” the girl said. “Pick one. If I guess right, you give me a dollar. And if I guess wrong, I give you something.”

  Normally Josh would have walked away. But something about the girl made him want to stay. He liked her, even though he was sure she was scamming him.

  “Okay,” he said.

  He reached out and took a card from the pack the girl had fanned out in her hand. He was surprised to see it wasn’t an ordinary playing card but a tarot card with a picture of a stone tower. Lighting was striking the top of the tower, and several people were falling from it. It was a disturbing picture, and Josh found himself wanting to hand the card back.

  “Hold on,” said the girl. “I haven’t guessed yet.” She closed her eyes and scrunched up her eyebrows. She made a series of faces, moving her mouth around and seeming to get more and more frustrated. Finally she opened her eyes. “That was hard,” she said. “But I think I’ve got it. You have the eight of pentacles.”

  Josh shook his head. “Nope,” he said. He held the card up so that she could see it.

  “The tower,” the girl said. She shook her head and sighed. “That one always tricks me.” Then her face brightened and she smiled. “But that means you win,” she told Josh.

  Josh smiled. “All right,” he said. “So what do I get?”

  “How about I tell you where your friend is?” the girl said.

  Josh laughed. “You don’t even know who I’m waiting for,” he said.

  The girl looked at him, her eyes sparkling. “Charlie,” she said.

  Josh stopped smiling. “How did you know that?”

  “I know a lot of things, Josh,” said the girl.

  “How—” Josh started. He stared at her for a moment as his brain put the pieces together. “Wait. You’re Charlie?”

  “Not quite what you expected?” the girl asked.

  Josh nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I mean—”

  “I know what you mean,” said Charlie. “You were expecting someone taller. Now come on. Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”

  Charlie led the way back through the park. When they came to the statue of Drax Jittrund, she stopped and fished some coins from the pocket of her jeans. She tossed them into the water. “For good luck,” she told Josh.

  Outside the park, Charlie walked about a block before pushing open the door of a small noodle shop. Josh followed her inside. The air was crazy with the sound of a language he didn’t understand. But Charlie spoke to a woman in the same language, and the woman pointed to a table at the back of the crowded room.

  “I hope you like dumplings,” Charlie said when they were seated. “I ordered some for us.”

  “Sure,” Josh said, shrugging. He couldn’t help staring at Charlie.

  “What?” Charlie said. “You don’t like dumplings?”

  “No,” Josh said quickly. “It’s just that I still can’t believe you’re a girl.”

  Charlie rolled her eyes. “Get over it,” she said. “That whole ‘girls don’t game’ thing is so 2010.”

  Josh blushed. “I know,” he said. “It’s just a surprise, is all.”

  A waiter set a small cast-iron teapot and two small cups on their table and scurried away. Charlie poured tea into the cups and handed one to Josh. The steam that rose from it smelled like oranges. He held the cup in his hands and breathed it in.

  “It’s easier if people think I’m a guy,” Charlie said. “It might be 2032, but boys still don’t like to be beaten by girls. And anyway, I like being invisible.”

  “Why?” Josh asked.

  “It has its uses,” said Charlie. “Anyway, I didn’t ask you here to talk about me. I want to talk about you. I’ve been watching you. I like your playing style.”

  Josh snorted. “Apparently you haven’t seen my last few missions,” he said.

  Charlie nodded. “You had some problems,” she said. “It happens. It’s not like you have the best partner.”

  “Firecracker?” Josh said.

  “The guy has no style,” Charlie said. “He just bulldozes his way through the missions. If you weren’t around, he’d be demoted to noob status in no time.”

  “I don’t think he’s that bad,” Josh said as the waiter returned and set a steaming bowl of dumplings on the table.

  “He is,” said Charlie, picking up some chopsticks and using them to pluck a dumpling. “But you, you’re good.”

  Josh tried to pick up a dumpling, but it fell. He tried again and failed. But the third time he managed to catch the slippery dumpling between the sticks and raise it to his mouth. He popped it in before it could fall.

  “See?” Charlie said. “You’re a fast learner.”

  “Thanks,” Josh mumbled as he chewed the dumpling. He didn’t know what else to say. Had Charlie really asked him to come down here just to compliment his playing style?

  “I have a little proposition for you,” Charlie said.

  Josh raised an eyebrow. “What kind of proposition?”

  “You’ve heard about the IRL games, right?” she asked in a low voice.

  IRL. In real life. Of course I’ve heard of them, Josh thought. Everybody had. Everybody who played the game, anyway. Supposedly there were gamers who got together and played the game for real. The story was that there were still some places in the country where zombies turned up from time to time. When they did, gamers who were in on the secret would go and hunt them down. Only it was an urban legend, like the rats the size of dogs that supposedly lived in the sewers.

  “Sure,” Josh said. “I’ve also heard of the sandman and the tooth fairy.” He started to pick up another dumpling, but it fell onto the table.

  “What would you say if I told you the games are real and that I’m inviting you to play?” Charlie asked.

  Josh poked at the dumpling, and it slid away from him. “Right,” he said, laughing.

  Charlie reached out with her chopsticks and expertly scooped up the dumpling. “I only ask once,” she said, and put the dumpling in her mouth. “Yes or no?”

  Josh stared at her. “You’re serious,” he said. “You play in the IRL games?”

  “Keep it down,” Charlie ordered. “You might think no one in here understands you, but you’d be surprised who’s listening.” She cast an eye at the waiter who was shuttling bowls of noodles from the kitchen to the tables. Then she looked back at Josh. “The games aren’t quite what people say they are, but they’re pretty close to it. And like I said, I only ask once, so what’s it going to be?”

  Josh hesitated. He was already pushing things with his parents by playing the online game. What would they say if they knew he was playing it in real life? But how can you pass this up? he asked himself. Before he could talk himself out of it, he spoke. “Yes,” he said. “Absolutely.”

  Charlie smiled, although for a moment Josh thought maybe he saw something in her eyes that said she wasn’t completely happy that he’d accepted. But then it was gone. “Great,” she said. “I knew you would.” She stood up. “I’ve got to go. Meet me in the park tomorrow. Same time.”

  “Wait,” Josh said. He wanted to ask Charlie just how real the game was. Like where did the zombies come from? But that was a dumb question. Of course they didn’t hunt real zombies. “What should I bring?” he asked instead. “I mean, I don’t have any gear or anything.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Charlie told him. “I’ll take care of you. Just show up.” She turned to go, then turned back. “And don’t tell anyone,” she said. “About me or about the game.”

  Something about the look she gave him chilled Josh. Her eyes were hard, and she wasn’t smiling. He nodded quickly. “No worries,” he said. “I won’t say anything.”

  Charlie’s friendly grin returned. “Great,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Josh watched her go. As soon as the door closed behind her, the waiter came over and slapped down a bill. “Pay up front,” he said, frowning.
r />   5

  “What’s with you today?”

  Josh looked up from his lunch. “Sorry,” he said to Firecracker, who was looking at him as he chewed a bite of his sandwich. “What did you say?”

  “I said we need to get busy on our planetary geography project,” Firecracker said. “Our presentation is tomorrow.”

  Josh groaned. He’d forgotten about the project. He and Firecracker were supposed to do a report on how Antarctica was becoming a rain forest because of global warming, then do a presentation to the class. But they’d done almost no work on it. Every time they started to, they ended up playing the game instead.

  “Tell you what,” Firecracker said. “If you do the written paper, I’ll do all the presentation stuff. Maps. An animated timeline. Maybe a holographic model. How’s that sound?”

  “Sure,” Josh said. “You’re better at the talking part anyway.”

  “And you’re the word guy,” Firecracker agreed. “Between us, we’re looking at an A.”

  “A-plus,” said Josh.

  “So what’s going on?” Firecracker asked a moment later. “You’ve been weird all day.”

  “No, I haven’t!” Josh objected. “I’m just … thinking.”

  “Don’t think too hard,” said Firecracker. “You’ll wear your brain out.”

  Josh laughed. “You should talk,” he fired back.

  “It’s your mom, right?” said Firecracker. “You feel guilty about her catching you the other night when we were playing the game.” He popped a potato chip into his mouth and chewed loudly.

  Josh hesitated a moment before answering. Firecracker often had a weird way of knowing what Josh was thinking, but this time he was wrong. Although it was a good guess, what was really bothering Josh was that he couldn’t tell Firecracker about his meeting with Charlie. If Firecracker knew the live games were real, he would be even more excited than Josh. But Josh couldn’t do anything that would risk Charlie telling him to forget it.

  “I guess I feel a little guilty,” he lied. “She was really upset.”

  “Maybe we should lay off for a while,” said Firecracker.

  “What?” Josh said, shocked to hear Firecracker suggest such a thing.

  “Just for a while,” said Firecracker. “A week. Maybe two. Long enough for her to forget about it. It’s not like we’ll die if we don’t play.” He upended the bag of chips and tapped the remaining crumbs into his mouth.

  Josh was about to protest when he realized that Firecracker had just given him the perfect way to hide what he was doing—not from his mother, but from his best friend. Still, he felt like the worst friend in the world as he said, “You’re sure you’re okay with that?”

  Firecracker nodded. “It’s no big deal,” he said. “Besides, you’d do it for me.”

  Josh’s heart sank. “Thanks,” he said as he got up. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

  “You got it,” Firecracker said. “You want to check out the new mechaspiders at the Menagerie after school? I’m thinking of getting a tarantula.”

  “Sorry,” Josh said. “That would be cool, but I’ve got a dentist’s appointment.”

  “Gotcha. I’ll call you later tonight, then.”

  The rest of the day seemed to crawl by, but finally the last class was over and Josh hurried out of school. He avoided his usual route to the subway, taking the long way so he wouldn’t run into Firecracker. Only when he was on the train heading downtown did he relax a little bit.

  Charlie was waiting for him at the statue of Drax Jittrund. She was wearing pink pants and a bright orange leather jacket over an aqua-blue turtleneck. Her hair was done up in pigtails.

  “I thought we were trying to be inconspicuous,” Josh said.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, this is inconspicuous in the Docklands,” said Charlie. “You ready to go?”

  “I don’t know,” Josh replied sarcastically. “I think I’d rather be doing homework.”

  Charlie laughed. “Well, I’d hate to lose you to the thrill of working out math equations. Come on.”

  They left the park and headed into the heart of the Docklands. As they walked through the narrow streets, the shops became more and more unusual. Windows filled with shoes and clothes turned into windows filled with real books and antique toys. Josh stopped to look at an old video-game system. “My grandfather had one of those,” he told Charlie. “Can you believe the games used to come on cartridges?”

  “You can find pretty much anything in the Docklands,” Charlie told him, taking him by the arm and pulling him away from the window. “But that’s not why we’re here.”

  After about ten minutes of walking, they came to the docks that gave the area its name. This was where the huge ships came to unload their cargo. Josh was a little bit nervous about being in what he’d always been told was a dangerous part of the city.

  “Don’t worry,” Charlie told him. “No one’s going to bother us.”

  Josh started to ask her how she could be so sure about that, but something stopped him. Charlie had a confidence about her that seemed to grow the deeper they moved into the Docklands. It was like she’d lived there her whole life, and it occurred to Josh that maybe she had. After all, he didn’t know anything about her.

  “Down here,” Charlie said, pulling Josh into a narrow alleyway that ran between two buildings. Josh, growing more and more nervous, followed her.

  When they reached the end of the alley, Josh realized that one wall had a door set into it. Charlie pulled a key on a chain from inside her turtleneck. She inserted the key into the door’s rusted lock and turned it. Josh heard something grind inside the door, and then it swung inward.

  “After you,” Charlie said with a sweep of her hand.

  Josh stepped inside and found himself on a small metal platform. Stairs ran down from it to another landing, and then more stairs continued down from that. Light came in from a dirty skylight revealing a series of platforms and stairs going down seemingly forever. Josh felt a shiver of anxiety pass through him, and he gripped the railing that ran along the exposed side of the platform.

  “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” Charlie asked as she stepped inside, closed the door, and locked it.

  “Maybe a little,” Josh admitted.

  “Just don’t look down,” said Charlie as she started to descend.

  Josh followed her as Charlie went down and down and down. “What is this place?” he asked Charlie.

  “A playing field,” Charlie answered. “You’ll see.”

  Finally they reached the end of the stairs. They were in a concrete passageway. The walls were damp, and here and there water trickled down from the low ceiling. The air was cold and smelled slightly sour. Josh looked up and noticed that there were video cameras every thirty feet or so.

  “Looks like someone is keeping an eye on us,” he remarked.

  Charlie followed his gaze. “Those are left over from when this place was used by the shipping company,” she said quickly. “They haven’t worked in years.”

  The cameras didn’t look that old to Josh, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to get into a disagreement with Charlie over something so stupid.

  They came to another set of steps and went up this time. Suddenly the narrow hallway opened into a cavernous space filled with rusted pieces of metal. Lights somewhere far above them illuminated the skeleton of a huge ship occupying the center of the room, and several other smaller ships in various stages of completion were strewn throughout the enormous space. Scaffolding covered them, although it was obvious that no one had worked on the ships in years. Tools of all kinds littered the floor, and thick chains hung from the rafters like gigantic vines.

  “Cool, huh?” Charlie said.

  “This is amazing,” Josh said, turning around and around as he tried to take in everything there was to see. “But we’ve got to be, what, a couple hundred feet underground? How did this all get down here?”

  “They used to b
uild ships here,” Charlie explained. “Way back when, before they invented hydrogen-cell technology.”

  “Yeah,” said Josh, eyeing the wooden planks. “These are definitely old school.”

  “These weren’t just regular ships,” Charlie explained. “They were used for smuggling. People would secretly build and fill the ships here. Then, when they were done, they flooded the room and the ships were raised up to the surface. There are big doors up there"—she pointed up into the dark—"that open into channels that run to the ocean.”

  “How do you know all this?” Josh asked.

  “Clatter told me,” Charlie said.

  “I did indeed,” said a voice. A moment later a figure emerged from the wreckage of the huge ship and walked toward them. Tall and thin, he was dressed in a strange outfit consisting of a very old-fashioned black suit and a top hat. As he moved he made a strange noise, which Josh soon realized was the rattling of hundreds of keys that were sewn onto his coat. They were the old kind—skeleton keys, Josh thought they were called—with long, thin, round bodies and elaborately curled ends. That explains his name, Josh thought.

  Clatter had long, dark hair that fell onto his shoulders in limp strands. His skin was pale, and he wore steel-rimmed glasses with gray glass lenses. His hands were encased in black leather gloves, and on one finger he wore a gold ring with a very large red stone. Josh was surprised that Clatter seemed to be only a few years older than he and Charlie were.

  “You must be Josh,” Clatter said. His voice was silky smooth, almost serpentine, as if the words flowed from his mouth like water. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “Really?” Josh said, genuinely surprised.

  “Charlie says you have great natural talent,” Clatter continued. “And she ought to know. She’s one of the best I’ve ever discovered.”

  Josh looked over at Charlie, who was beaming with pride.

  “You must be wondering what you’re doing here,” Clatter said.

  “I hear we’re going to play a game,” Josh said.

  “Perhaps we are,” said Clatter, smiling. “As Charlie told you, she is part of a group of people who play the game in its purest form. That is to say, in real life.”