Etherworld (5 page)

“Waiting to die,” he mutters, his shoulders slouching forward. “Even if I could get to all the triggers myself, I can't be sure everything will operate the way it should.” He motions toward the workbench. “The signals inside that adaptive bomb are firing erratically, and I have no idea why.”

“It's one bomb, dad. From the looks of those pyramids, there's a lot more—”

“My point is that there are an infinite amount of variables here,” he says, interrupting me. “Many of which I can't even begin to predict.”

“So what are you trying to say? That we should just quit?”

“I don't know what I'm saying.” He finally turns and makes eye contact with me, his forehead glistening with perspiration again. “Now that I know just how harmful Elusion can be, I'm second-guessing every decision I make. I regret reaching out to you. I wish I'd never seen you on that beach and asked you to find me.”

“You didn't know how dangerous it was. Besides, someone needed to help.”

I can tell he's starting to fall to pieces, and I can't let that happen.

I need him to be strong. All of us do.

I wander over to his cot and sit down, patting the thin, worn mattress. He takes a seat next to me, staring off into the distance.

“Do you know why I kept those copies of
Walden
under lock and key?” he asks.

I shake my head. In the past week, I found two copies of Walden: one my dad kept in a lockbox at the repository, the other in his office keepsakes.

“Before the meeting with Cathryn and Bryce, I stashed a few things away, hoping that if something went wrong, you'd find them and eventually figure everything out, including the anagram.” He gives me a little smile. “We were so good at those puzzles, weren't we?”

“We
are
so good at those puzzles,” I correct him.

It's like a part of him believes we're already dead and gone. How can he be losing faith, when we've come so far? I'm here with him, against all odds—shouldn't that convince him that anything's possible when you stand up and fight?

Thankfully, I see a small glimmer of acknowledgment in his eyes.

“Right,” he says. “And I knew if you ever found my passcard, you'd realize things didn't quite add up.”

“And those messages, like numbers written on walls and strangers telling me things only you and I could have known.”

“I was trying to contact you.”

“But why did you run away from Josh and me in the ice cave?”

Remembering the moment I saw him in Mount Arvon Escape gives me the chills. I would have chased my dad to the ends of the earth to be with him again.

He shakes his head and his eyes turn hard. “Don't you see? I was trying to lead you
away
from all this. I never intended for you to come after me
inside
Elusion. I wanted you to search in the real world, so you wouldn't be putting yourself at risk. Instead, I led you here. And now my mistake might cost you your life.”

“You're not responsible for me or anyone else who's stuck here,” I say, my voice firm. “So you have to stop punishing yourself. You're a scientist. You know there's no way to prevent a negative outcome. You eventually get the results you want through trying again and again until you get it right.”

My dad loops his arm around my shoulders. “You sound just like your mom.”

“Really?”

“Ever since college, she's been able to talk me off the ledge.”

I imagine what the two of them were like back then—students at the University of Michigan, young and full of promise.

“If she were here, she'd want you to keep fighting,” I say. “You know that, right?”

“Yes,” he says.

“She'd also want to help you. She'd want to be by your side,” I say.

“Regan,” he says, after a pause. “I can't let you go on this mission. Especially not now.”

“Why not?”

“What father would allow his daughter to put herself in the line of fire? That would be crazy,” he says.

I stand up, suddenly irritated. “Wait, are you saying . . . you're going to leave me behind?”

My dad uses his sleeve to wipe the moisture off his brow. “You're safer here at the base.”

“But I could help you,” I say.

“She's right,” says a strong, deep voice.

My eyes dart toward the doorway, where Josh is standing with a subtle grin. A part of me is happy that he's here to back me up, but another part of me feels like he's intruding on a private moment, and I don't know whether to invite him in or shoo him away.

“I know you're worried about Regan,” Josh says, strolling inside. “But she can help you. We all can. You just have to give us an opportunity to prove it.”

“I appreciate your opinion. But right now, the best course of action is to decrease the risk as much as possible,” my dad replies.

“But how will going out there alone decrease the risk?” Josh counters, his tone measured and respectful.

My eyes connect with Josh's, and I know exactly what kind of logic he's about to use.

“It's the law of probability,” I say. “If you're the only one out there looking for the triggers, the odds are it'll take much longer to find them.”

“Search and destroy,” Josh reminds him. “As we discussed, a small group working in tandem will allow us to save time—and ourselves.”

“You don't understand; there's more to it than connecting the bombs to the triggers,” my dad says. “The nucleus of Elusion—the original four Escapes in my domain—needs to be destroyed in order for the program to be terminated. But those Escapes were created before the firewall, so it doesn't reach them. At least, not yet. We'd have to tunnel our way toward them, attacking Escapes as we go; then hopefully the firewall would adapt accordingly, reconfiguring itself around the Escapes.”

“But what about Thai Beach and Mount Arvon? Those were already destroying themselves when I saw you there,” I say.

His gaze lingers on the glass sphere on the workbench, and it takes a moment for him to reply. “None of that was real. I was in your Escape, remember? You must have had raised cortisol levels, which caused a hallucination.”

“So everything that happened there was all a dream?”

“Everything but me,” he says.

“Sir, I've assembled the first team,” Josh says. “We're ready to see your plan through, wherever it leads.”

I cross the room and wrap him in a hug. We hold on to each other for a moment, and then I pull away, suddenly shy with my father standing there. Josh and I look at him, and he gives us a small nod. “Okay,” my dad says.

“I'll tell the others,” Josh replies, a hopeful smile forming on his lips.

When Josh leaves, I glance toward my dad and say, “Thank you.”

“You can thank me later,” he says. “Once we're home.”

“That's a deal.”

“We just have to make some adjustments to the plan before we go back into Elusion,” he adds.

“Like what?” I ask.

“If anyone from Miami or LA is kicked out of the program after we enter the Escapes, they have to tell someone as soon as they wake up,” he explains. “They have to go to the press and explain what they experienced here. Maybe that will trigger a bigger investigation of Elusion.”

“Okay,” I reply. “But what about us? The people from Detroit?”

My dad hesitates and then gives me a quick smile. “You have the tougher job.”

“Which is?”

“Proving I'm alive,” he says. “If one of you can get into Orexis and then inside that lab, you'll find hard evidence that I was never killed in that crash—that someone abducted me and faked the whole thing. The police will have to get involved; they might force the company to halt production temporarily until they sort it all out.”

I've broken into Orexis before, so I know it can be done. But my excitement fades when I think of the other kids. How the hell will they get past security at company headquarters? It's looking like I'm the only one who can reveal the truth, and from the concern clouding my father's gray eyes, it seems he realizes the same thing.

“I'll do whatever it takes,” I say.

“I know you will,” he says. “But you shouldn't disconnect me or anyone else from their Equip if we can't be revived with the emergency button on our wristbands. We'll need to stay hooked up until Elusion is destroyed.”

“Because of the trypnosis exposure?”

“Yes,” my dad replies. “The levels of cortisol in the brain will be too high, especially in the people who've been under trypnosis the longest. The cortisol levels will decrease once the program is disabled, but pulling off the Equip while the mind is still engaged could send the user into shock.”

I squeeze his hand lightly, wondering if I should say what I'm about to, given how hard everyone took the news about Anthony. But I find myself going ahead anyway. “Everyone has been asking us about what's happening in the real world. They wanted to know if they were still missing and how long they'd been gone. But not you.” I swallow and ask, “Why?”

“Because . . .” Another one of his long, thoughtful pauses takes the air out of the room. And then he shrugs and says, “It's out of my control.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

MY DAD LEADS OUR SMALL POSSE THROUGH an acrylic tunnel laced with little blue and green lights, all of us bathed in a turquoise glow. I know we're getting close to the opening, because the curved walls that surround us are getting bigger and we no longer need to crawl. Still, it seems like we've been winding our way through this narrow tube much longer than it took Josh and me to arrive in Etherworld.

“How do we know we're not walking in circles?” Nora asks.

“My dad designed this,” I say, a little more sharply than I intended. “If anyone knows where we're going, he does.”

“Relax. I think your dad is capable of answering questions himself,” Claire says.

Nora casts her eyes down toward her feet. Oh God, I think I've hurt her feelings. The last thing I need right now is a rift with my boyfriend's sister, but after seeing how upset my dad is about everything, I'm feeling protective of him.

I don't want him to think we don't trust him.

My dad halts suddenly, looking at the side panels of the tunnel. He presses some of the electric blue squares and a door appears, revealing a steep set of steps leading to the floor below. We follow him down into what feels like a large closet with the same acrylic walls and lights as the tunnel. I recognize it as the entrance to the portal, the room that welcomed Josh and me when we broke through the firewall. We shuffle inside, crouching shoulder to shoulder.

“If any of you are having second thoughts,” my dad says, “it's not too late to turn back.”

We gaze at one another through the eerie turquoise light, but we all keep silent, waiting for my dad's next instruction.

“Remember, this is the White-Water Rapids Escape. The trigger was a rock near the firewall, three miles directly north of where we are entering.”

“Was?”
I ask.

“In order to keep them hidden from the programmers, I created triggers that would adapt to their environment. So even though I designed this one as a rock, it's mutated into the Escape by now. It will remain distinctive in some form, but it might be difficult to detect.”

“Let's do this!” Claire says, pumping her fist.

I laugh under my breath, thinking how this girl I know at school—Zoe Morgan—probably would have said the same thing if she were here. From what I know of her, she and Claire are a lot alike. Fearless and bold.

“You're so weird, Claire,” Wyatt says, shaking his head.

She nudges him and smiles. “If by ‘weird' you mean ‘awesome,' then I agree.”

“Once the trigger is detonated, head for the firewall, and an emergency portal will open,” my dad says, his urgent tone cutting through Claire and Wyatt's banter. “And don't forget, the minute you step into the Escape, your brain activity will be monitored through your wristbands.”

“What about the autotimer?” I ask. “Will that pull us back if we're at risk of being overly stimulated?”

“I hope so,” he says.

“And what if we miss? Or what if we throw the bomb at the wrong target?” Claire asks.

“The second the bomb makes contact, even if it doesn't hit the trigger, Orexis will be able to determine your exact location,” he replies. “So be very careful.”

I force a grin and nod, trying not to show my nervousness. My dad turns back toward the wall and begins pressing the squares of light, alternating blue and white, as if tapping a sequential code.

Josh grabs my hand, reminding me that he's right next to me.

There's a sudden brightness, and the sweet smell of pine trees fills the air. I hear something that sounds like white noise, so loud that I want to cover my ears. I squint into the light and realize that my dad's shadow is blocking the portal of the tunnel. But I know one thing. It's not white noise that I'm hearing.

It's the sound of rushing water.

My dad exits the portal, dropping down into the other world. I leap after him, following him into the bright light and landing on my back in a pile of soft, moist grass. But instead of pulling myself up, I begin to tumble, my stomach filled with a giggly energy as I roll down a gentle hillside that's covered in Elusion's signature fairy dust. I stop at the bottom and lie still, my eyes closed. All the problems and desperation that just minutes earlier were so overwhelming now seem inconsequential.

Why am I here?

I open my fist and admire the small translucent ball. I hold it up to the indigo sun, the colors spinning like a kaleidoscope. I know the beauty is deceptive and that this object has some kind of purpose, but I can't remember what it is.