Etherworld (25 page)

When Avery's head dips and she begins biting her bottom lip, Josh reaches over and pats her on the knee.

“I didn't mean any of it. I . . . just wanted to scare her a little,” she explains. “Just enough that she'd quit what she was doing.”

“I know,” Josh says. “And she does, too. But when things got tough, Nora started leaning on Maureen. I guess Maureen was in the same situation with her boyfriend and could relate.”

Avery fixes her eyes on him, eager to hear more. I lean in, too, waiting for Josh to continue.

“So then they started going to Elusion together, searching for David like the others—but still in secret because both their families and friends knew it was having a negative effect on them,” he explains. “One night they made a plan to hang out and go to David's Escape, but there was some kind of miscommunication about what sector they were meeting up in, and they had accidentally taken each other's tabs.”

“So there was nothing else?” Avery murmurs. “You swear it?”

“Nora loves you, Avery. Sometimes I don't know why, but she does,” Josh says, chuckling in spite of his serious look.

Then, out of the blue, Avery and I both laugh a little too, the happy sound sounding so foreign and strange to me. She pulls her right hand out of her pocket and opens it, revealing a tiny, round, mirrored magnetic plate.

The optical imaging plate.

“You don't need a quantum,” she says. “It can be used with a tab.”

“Where'd you get it?” I ask, wondering if she contacted Giblin again and how many credits he might charge us for this kind of equipment.

“My dad had this in his office,” she says. “It's not that impressive. Architects use them to create three-D hologram blueprints. And so do a lot of program designers.”

“Okay, here we go. Food is fuel, people,” Zoe says as she enters the room holding a steaming plate piled high with crusty dough. The smell of melted cheese must have wafted into the other room, because Patrick finally joins us at the table, his eyes bloodshot.

Avery reaches over and grabs a pizza pocket. “You ready to give us a show or what?”

“More than ready,” Patrick says, holding up his tab. “I was able to find the location information for David's domain through some programming logs I archived right after I took over for him.”

“So the plate will be able to show us what's happening there?” I ask.

“To a certain degree,” Patrick says. “It's going to be more of an accurate map of the current layout, but it won't give us any information on who's left helping him, or details about how well your dad's mind is functioning, or anything like that.”

I reach into Zoe's sweater pocket and pull out my father's antique watch, gently running my fingers over the face.

Josh stands up and hands Patrick the imaging plate. Patrick studies it for a moment, then places the plate on his tab.

“Zoe, could you hit the lights? It'll be easier to see,” he asks.

Once it's dark, Patrick points his tab toward the center of the room, and a holographic image—several feet long and wide—instantly appears. It looks like my old science fair project, where I attempted to demonstrate the construction of an atom. In the middle of the giant hologram are four deep-red globes the size of my hand, pulsating as if they're actually sending energy through the structure. They're framed by two rings, outside of which float black, bulbous-looking marbles. The rings and the nucleus are linked together with strands of red and black piping.

“It looks like these Escapes have all been destroyed,” Patrick says, stepping directly through one of the black balls until he's standing in front of the red pulsating globes in the middle. “And while there are six remaining,” he adds, “four of them are the core of Elusion.” He points toward the thick red piping. “These red pipes are the ping tunnels that are still functioning, but as you can see, they are pretty far away from each other. All the black ones are ping tunnels that have been shut down.”

“There haven't been any reports of Elusion becoming faulty, though,” Avery says. “If so many Escapes have been destroyed, why is the app still working?”

“Because David's domain still has functioning Escapes. We need to destroy every single one of his Escapes to stop Elusion.”

“So how long will it take to create tunnels to link these Escapes together?” I say, still holding Dad's watch tightly in my hand.

“I don't know. Two hours, three at the most,” Patrick says, shutting off the hologram. “I'm going back to my place to see if there's a way to locate the antiviral, too.”

I put my dad's watch on my wrist, snapping the latch of the band closed. It's big and dangles a bit, so I push it up until it fits around my forearm. It kind of feels like a shield, and since we're all about to go off into battle, I couldn't need it more than I do now.

“Josh, why don't you and Avery go back to the hospital and stay with Nora for a bit while Zoe and I go look for my father,” I say, glancing at my tab and the real estate info. There are at least ten old strip malls that Cathryn purchased under the guise of setting up satellite offices, and over the next couple of hours, we're going to search every one until we find him.

“No, Ree,” Patrick says. “If you and Josh want to come back to Elusion with me, then you both need to eat and rest. If your immune systems are compromised in any way, the trypnosis might affect you even more than before.”

“No,” I protest. “If Cathryn has my dad hidden in one of these buildings, we have to start searching the area. Oak is a big sector; it will take hours to—”

“Regan, I can start looking for him,” Zoe says, placing a hand on my elbow. “Pizza pockets can't be my last contribution to the cause.”

“Shouldn't you be keeping a low profile?” Patrick asks. “The cops have a description of your car.”

“I borrowed my dad's hybrid, so I can team up with Zoe,” Avery offers. “I made a nurse promise to keep me updated on Nora. If anything happens, good or bad, I'll let you guys know.”

“So . . . that's it? We just stay here and hang out?” I ask, glancing at Josh, who just shrugs awkwardly.

“That's it,” Patrick says, grabbing his suit jacket off one of the dining room chairs. “Although I suggest you get some sleep.”

“Are you sure? This seems so . . . stupid. Like we could be helping more.”

And yet the moment I say that, I stifle a huge yawn that practically sucks all the energy out of me. As much as I don't want to admit it, the fatigue I was feeling on my way to Orexis early this morning is beginning to catch up with me. I see the stress building up in Josh, too.

“If you two want to go back to Elusion and finish destroying this damn thing,” Patrick says, “then getting some rest
is
helping. I'll text you when I'm leaving my apartment.” He gives Zoe a little smile. “You'll let us know if you and Avery find anything?” he asks her.

“Yes,” she says. “We will.”

Patrick moves toward the front door and I grab his hand, giving it a squeeze. I feel like this is a turning point in our relationship, an admission that we will never be more than just friends. He pauses for a minute, hesitating as if he's about to say something, but instead one by one his fingers fall away from mine, until he fully lets go.

Once Patrick has left the apartment and Avery has gone into the kitchen to get us something to drink, Zoe turns her attention to Josh and me. “Okay, let me show you guys the upstairs. My dad's company is in the process of redecorating, so only one of the bedrooms is functional.”

We follow her down a hallway. She opens up a small linen closet and pulls out a comforter and a set of sheets.

One of each.

For both of us.

I turn toward Josh, and he's staring at me so intently, my face grows hot. Our eyes lock for a moment, and then he turns his head away and pretends to examine the molding at the corner of the ceiling.

“There are some rules to crashing here,” she says, handing all the linens to Josh. “The neighbors are super nosy, and the last thing we want is to land on their radar, so keep the lights low or totally off. And don't make too much noise, either.”

“Right,” I say. “Got it.”

She waves us over to an open automated lift and we all get on the platform, which slowly rises until we reach the second floor. Josh and I step onto the landing while Zoe stays put. However, she isn't done with her instructions.

“The bedroom is the last door on your right. Oh, and try not to touch anything. We don't need your prints all over the place,” she says.

“What about downstairs?” Josh asks.

“I'm going to wipe everything off with a microfiber cloth real quick before Avery and I head out in a few minutes,” she tells us, the perfect picture of calm. “And don't worry about us; we can handle the Oak Sector.”

Without thinking about how she might react, I spring toward Zoe and give her a big hug. She wraps her arms around me and hugs me back, but just when she's about to pull away, I whisper in her ear, “You're amazing.”

“I know.” She grins.

About fifteen minutes later, Zoe gets into Avery's car and they drive away with Giblin's passcard in her back pocket. Now Josh and I are here alone inside the bedroom, with only the dim light from one of the apps on his tab. It casts the room in a gauzy haze, and I'm whipped back to that moment in Elusion when I was fading away from Josh, my father, and the canyon that surrounded us. I'm filled with a fear that the world is about to end.

I can't breathe. I grab Josh by the wrist, and when I feel his skin against mine, the grip on my throat eases a little. I can barely make out the outline of his face—the blackout window shades covering the sunset make it seem like the middle of the night. I sense he's looking at me, and I desperately want to know what he's thinking.

Is he afraid we're going to fail? Is he worried that when we return to Elusion, we might never see the light of day—or each other—ever again? Is he aware that we might be living our last moments?

I can't bring myself to ask.

Josh steps directly in front of me, close enough to kiss. I grab his hands as his lips graze my cheek. “Everything's going to be okay,” he says, his voice low and comforting.

I tug him toward me and throw my arms around his neck. “How can you be so sure?”

“I'm not. That's just what you're supposed to say when you're scared shitless.”

I laugh so hard my shoulders shake. “I'm impressed by your confidence,” I say.

“Guess I owe it all to my military training.”

I close my eyes and lean my head against his chest, wishing that this tiny pocket of warmth between us would last forever.

“We should get some sleep, like Patrick said,” he says. “You can have the bed. I'll crash on the couch in the lounge at the end of the hall, okay?”

“Oh, sure,” I say, more than a bit disappointed he's not going to be staying with me.

“Let's get you settled,” Josh says, opening up a fresh sheet and spreading it across the bed's mattress.

As he tucks the sheet under the corners of the bed, the knowledge that I might spend my last hours of life alone twists my stomach into a knot of regret. I start thinking about my mom, and how she looked this afternoon on Patrick's InstaComm: devastated and scared. She has no idea if I'm dead or alive. What will she do if I don't come home?

I'm besieged by guilt over what this quest of ours might do to her, and it must show on my face, because Josh stops what he's doing and asks, “What's wrong?”

“I keep thinking about my mom. If something happens to us . . . to me, I don't think she'll be able to cope. She doesn't deserve to be hurt like this.”

“What about sending her a video message?” Josh's hands slip off my back and he reaches for his tab, which is sitting on a nightstand. “I can help you make it.”

My lips curl up into a smile. “Great idea.” I run my fingers through my hair so I won't look like such a mess. “What do you think I should say?”

“Speak from your heart. You can't go wrong,” he says, turning up the light on his tab so the video app can function properly. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Josh counts down from three and then gives me a thumbs-up when he's recording. There's a long silence as I try to decide how to begin, but once I do, everything comes pouring out.

“Mom, I can't tell you how sorry I am. I know you're worried, and probably angry, too,” I say, my voice cracking. “But what I'm doing right now is the most important thing I've ever done, and if all goes well, Dad and I will be home soon.”

Josh gives me the okay sign with his fingers, encouraging me to go on. So I take a deep breath, because the hard part is coming up.

“But if something does go wrong, and I don't make it back, then I want you to know how much I love you.” I wipe away a tear as my bottom lip starts to quiver. “I know you think that you haven't been strong the last few months, but no matter what, I've always thought of you as the person who made us a family. I hope you can forgive me for leaving you behind, for hurting you like this. I hope you can find a way to heal. Because you deserve to be happy.”

By now, my cheeks are streaked with tears and I can barely talk, so I dip my head down and shield my face with my hands.

“I'm putting the tab away,” I hear Josh say.

His footsteps grow closer, and I feel his arms loop around me. I lean into his chest, his T-shirt soaking up the wetness from my eyes.

“She's going to hate me if I die on her,” I whisper.

“You're not going to die.” Josh kisses my forehead and then my nose.

“Are you scared?” I ask.

“A little.” He cups my face in his hands. “Want to know what scares me the most?”