Interphase (42 page)

***

"Thomas, if you can hear me…"

He did hear her. In a faded corner of his thought, the sound of a voice broke through the clouds of darkness. Who was calling him?

"It's all right now."

No. It could never be all right again. Not after everything he had done. How could he have fallen so far, lost control so many times?

"I want to help you."

But he was not worthy of help. Why…

The question died within Thomas's mind. He was too tired. The struggle to hold back his grief over Jessica had sapped him of whatever strength existed within him, and Totarakh's whispers had slowly chipped away at his will. He could feel the last vestige of his defenses crumbling.

"You can trust me."

He wanted to trust in something again. The pain was too much to bear anymore. Even if it was not meant to last, a moment of respite would give him the will to carry on a little farther.

"Just let me help you."

Yes. He needed help. Someone to help him…

Thomas dragged his eyelids open. He was still seated on the throne and had been ever since his fight with Lucas. He remembered… swinging downward, burying his sword in the marble floor and missing his friend's body by a handful of inches. He just wanted to be left alone. Lucas had fled and then the voice… the voice had whispered to him.

But Thomas was no longer alone. Someone had called to him. He looked up, trying to make out shapes in the darkness.

Analara.

The real Analara, not hidden behind Jessica's memory. She stood holding her arms out to a shadowy figure on the floor.

There was a blur of movement. Thomas saw an obsidian edge pass through Analara's body. She stiffened, started to fall, and then disappeared before she hit the ground. The shadow rose up, and flares of green energy flowed from its body. It turned to face Thomas, and with horror, he saw himself.

She had come to help him and been destroyed by his own darkness.

Thomas wrenched his greatsword from the floor and stood. "Face me, monster! Let my judgment fall upon you."

"Very well," a voice echoed through the chamber. "If you are truly set on opposing me, then face the full wrath of my power!"

The air suddenly went cold. The roof shattered as jagged bolts of greenish lightning lanced down to strike the shadowy figure. Thomas leapt back in shock, and thunder shook the foundations of the castle. Before him, the shadow began to swell into immensity.

***

Pain tore through Clyde's brain. He had never understood what a blinding headache was, but he had an idea now, because he couldn't see a thing. "VERA! What's going on?"

There was no response. He couldn't even get a sense of their connection, and a rush of fear momentarily eclipsed the pain. There was something vaguely familiar about the disruption that had just flowed through the network. "Shit, this is
not
good!"

***

The repair bandages sealed the worst of Lucas's wounds, bringing a warm relief to the aches in his muscles. From his vantage point on the cliff side he could still see the castle, and wondered just what the hell he had been thinking for the fifth time in as many minutes.

Clouds churned ominously above the castle. Several massive bolts of lightning struck the roof, following by a rolling peal of thunder. Then a nightmarish roar tore through the night air.

A dark body surged through the roof, and Lucas drew his swords, already running back toward the castle.

***

"Lieutenant Thompson, I need a status report right now," Roger shouted above the din of the station.

"Sir, we're detecting a major disruption to the system. V-Net structural damage, network deallocation in multiple populated modules… oh shit."

"What's wrong?"

"VERA's mainframe just went into lockdown. We're completely cut off from the central network!"

***

Randall came out of the loop a long way ahead of his closest competitor. None of them could match him on the hover-bikes, and he loved the feel of kicking their asses. He floored the accelerator down the straightaway with a grin on his face.

Suddenly, the track shook, and the hover pads went off-line. The bike fell to the track with a clang, grinding along the pavement and sending sparks flying all over the track. Randall climbed off the smoking bike with a muttered curse. His buddies came down the track, and they hit the brakes as they saw him.

It figured that the day he decided to branch out and show the module off to the rest of his squad would be the day that shit started to break.

"What gives, boss?" Cable asked.

Another tremor knocked them to the ground, and an explosion tore open the side of one of the buildings nearby. When the brightness subsided, they saw what looked like a glowing doorway floating off the side of the track. A figure stood looking out at them. It raised an arm, and pieces of the building broke off and floated to the door, forming a stairway. It continued growing until it stretched from the door to the track. The figure stepped through the door and as he moved away from the light, Randall could see that he had long hair and a blue robe.

Somebody had messed with his toy. Now he was pissed.

Pulling his D-gun from its holster, Randall marched toward the trespasser. "Boy, you picked the wrong module to hack. You're in deep shit now."

The figure glanced at him wordlessly, then turned and looked off into the distance, concentrating on something else.

Randall's friends came up beside him, weapons drawn as well. "Hey, I'm talking to you, asshole. It looks like you get to spend a few years in a metal box, cause that's where you're headed when the bots come for you. All right, boys, let him have it."

The squad of V-Cops opened fire, sending golden sparks of energy flying into the strange hacker. The bolts disappeared into his body, but nothing happened. Randall found that to be quite odd.

The figure turned back to them and frowned. He waved his hands in their direction, and a gust of icy air swirled around them. Slowly, they found themselves encased to the chest in ice. Another wave of his hand, and an invisible force struck their hands, knocking their guns clear. Several more people ran through the gateway.

The robed figure pointed at them, and the newcomers moved over to lift their chilled bodies and carry them toward the gate. Despite the fact that his lower body was frozen, Randall managed to wet himself.

***

Shalaron surveyed the strange landscape as his men took the captured humans into Analath. He didn't know how a weak point between the worlds had been made in such a strange place, but it had served to allow another gateway to be opened.

He turned to walk back into Analath and cast one last glance to the horizon. "And so it begins…"

***

David massaged a sore spot in his forehead as he read a code line, checking for irregularities. He was maintaining a soft connection to the network, trying not to overstimulate his brain, but even that was getting taxing. The castle module had reported some strange errors a few minutes ago, but he couldn't see what—

A warning shrieked in his ear. David snapped his gaze toward a monitor and the code lines flashing across the screen. "No… no, that's impossible!"

The system shut down around him, forcibly disconnecting him from V-Net before the viral wave could sweep him away.

Chapter 35

"Come on…
come on
!"

Analara's phone continued to ring without answer. David checked his computer again; the connection to V-Net was still down. He had no way of knowing whether she had been inside the system when the wave hit. "What the hell is going on?"

Throwing the earpiece onto the table, David grabbed his jacket and walked toward the front door. A loud pounding startled him and a voice called out, "Bro, it's me!"

David opened the door, and Lucas stumbled into the apartment. "We're in deep trouble," he panted, clutching his side and collapsing into a chair.

Torn between concern for Analara and concern for his brother, David turned away from the door. "Are you all right? What happened to you?"

Lucas winced. "I went looking for Thomas. He was holed up in Annie's castle, and I… I challenged him."

"He did this to you?"

"No. He kicked my ass pretty good, but he didn't—" Lucas shook his head and growled with frustration. "You don't understand, bro! Something happened inside V-Net. Some kind of surge. A huge creature showed up and started tearing through the castle. I went back in, and found Thomas fighting it. He yelled something about Totarakh before he got chased away. I tried to follow, but the thing saw me."

Lucas doubled over, and David put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"The thing hit me," Lucas gasped. "I don't know why, but the safeties didn't protect against the attack. Right now my ribs feel like they're broken."

David rubbed his aching forehead, struggling to make sense of what was happening. "Thomas is still fighting that thing?"

"Last I saw." Lucas stared fearfully into David's eyes. "The system's going crazy. What if Totarakh
is
still alive? We saw what he could do last time. I'm still pissed at Thomas, but I don't want him to die!"

David nodded in agreement. "What about Analara?" he asked. "Did you see her anywhere?"

"No."

At least she wasn't directly in danger. David squeezed his eyes shut and forced his nerves to calm. He had to focus on one thing at a time. "All right. I'll go and help Thomas, but I need you to do me a favor. Go to Analara's apartment and make sure she's okay. She isn't picking up the phone, and there aren't many other places here that she knows yet. Contact me as soon as you get there!"

Lucas frowned at him. "What about your head? I thought you weren't supposed to use V-Net for awhile."

"I'm still able to connect, it's just not going to be comfortable. If a headache is what it takes to save Thomas, then so be it. I've had worse. Get to Analara and make sure she's safe."

Lucas nodded and stood up slowly. "Take care of yourself too, okay bro?"

David flashed him a confident grin. "Hey, we fought off an alien invasion last week. What V-Net monster can compare to that?"

Lucas chuckled without thinking, then winced and limped out of the apartment.

David checked his computer again. The network connection was still down. He launched a local scan, hoping to find a working V-Net access point in the area. All residential connections were disabled, as well as the nearby public access points. There was a single functional connection within range: Roger's office.

Oh, this is going to be
fun
.

The station was in complete chaos when he arrived. Officers shouted reports and statistics across the front room. From the sound of things, most of the network was afflicted, and the system was beginning to destabilize. V-Cops were frantically trying to get everyone out of the network before it crashed. David slipped through the crowd, looking for Roger.

It didn't take long to locate him. He was giving orders to a group of techs hunched over powerful computers. He didn't look up immediately when David put a hand on his shoulder. "Roger, I need to use one of your link chairs."

Roger's head jerked up in surprise. "David? What are you doing here? You should be at home resting." After a moment, the question registered, and Roger frowned. "What do you need a chair for?"

"A friend of mine got trapped inside when the system locked up. I have to get him out," he replied.

"No, absolutely not."

"Roger, you know as well as I do what can happen if the network buckles with him inside."

"Tell me what sector he's in, and I'll send—"

David shook his head. "We both know you don't have the manpower to spend on it."

"Our connection is functional, but we're cut off from the core network. You won't be able to reach him."

"The module isn't in the core."

Roger opened his mouth to retort, but stopped himself. A look of resignation passed over his face. "I'd ask you to be careful, but I know you're just going to do what you have to. All right. The chairs are in the back. The access code is JMW505."

David gave a faint smile. "Thanks." He turned and squeezed his way through the busy hallways until he found the room he was looking for. Dozens of access stations lined both walls, some of them already occupied by active V-Cops. He climbed into the closest chair and lay back. A familiar hum filled his thoughts, drowning out the cacophony of sounds and drawing him into the digital realm.

The blue horizon appeared before David's eyes, but he bypassed the usual loading procedures, launching himself directly into the castle module and shifting into the Wraith. The landscape seemed to shudder slightly before it faded away and was replaced with the proper vista.

Lightning danced across the dark clouds, illuminating the castle's spires. The usual calm breeze had become a chilling gale that tore at David's cloak. Surveying the area, he unsheathed the Wraithblade and sprinted through the courtyard toward the open gates of the castle. The spectral guards were nowhere to be seen.