Raine VS The End of the World (45 page)

Raine and Lily both knew that if this one hit, they would be done for.

The holographic screen popped on. It was Queen Lorelei.

Raine’s scarf grew into Chance’s face and hissed at her screen.

“End of line for your pathetic plan, Lily. You tampered with Guggell at your own peril. My only regret is that our little dance had to end so anticlimactically.”

“I’m far from licked,” the injured and rather woozy Lily replied. “I’ve yet to make you pay for your crimes against humanity, and for what you did to Lucy!”

Lorelei laughed.

“This is just the beginning. I haven’t even begun to avenge my sisters’ sacrifices. Toodles,” she said, and squeezed the trigger.

At that instant, many things happened at once. Those who might be telling this story many years later in remembrance, or perhaps gratitude, would say it was a miracle. Of course, neither Raine, nor Lily, nor Lorelei, had any part in what happened. Neither did Tony, who might have wished he could take credit for such an ingenious and timely act of intervention.

SLAM!

Raine and Lily jerked forwards, then whiplashed. The claw had come undone by virtue of four gigantic rocky hands grabbing onto their pursuer. Two Colossi, standing like sentries at the edge of the valley, had taken hold of the claw’s fulcrum and Lorelei’s ship at the precise moment the craft cleared the opening between the two cliffs.

As a result, the
Omega Bishop
snapped from Lorelei’s clutches just as the Queen’s electrical surge shorted out the control circuits. Lily cranked the engine and pumped the gas. Within seconds, their ship sputtered back to some form of life, and then promptly failed, like a device just past its warranty date. The dying engine left both girls stuck facing a terrible silence, and then a whooshing sensation as the
Bishop
fell into a glide, swiftly approaching the glacier below at a steep sixty degrees.

Raine turned to Lily for instructions. The girl was hastily programming something into her wrist communicator.

“Done!” she yelled, and hit the big button.

Suddenly below them, the glacial expanse turned into pure strawberry gelatin.

Raine braced for impact. The ship made contact, smashing straight into the cool, squishy dessert. She gulped for air, inhaled a mouthful of the gelatin, and hastily processed and swallowed it. Before long Lily came by, squirming from the cockpit carrying an oxygen tank. Raine unfastened her restraints and fell forward. She took a deep breath from the valve, and then held Lily’s hand as the latter used her new flippers to swim them slowly, but surely, up to the light, taking breaks to catch some oxygen, or a bite or two, in the process.

When they breached the surface, Raine gasped for a refreshing breath of virtual air.

“Should have added a little more sugar,” Lily joked.

A deafening clunk reached the girls’ ears. Raine found her gaze directed backwards at the Colossi. There were at least twenty now, and their make was of all kinds of stone and mineral. One was made entirely of igneous rock; another shone emerald and jade. The largest one’s veins pulsated with magma. All had gathered around Lorelei’s vessel, now trodden on the tundra, and were stomping it to dust.

Raine took hold of the binoculars in her bag and zoomed in on the situation. Lorelei was weakened, struggling to escape. But the titans were methodically blocking off her exits, trapping her within the constraining metal. It was a gruesome scene, and Raine thought of the gentle giant perched atop the old house and now knew the true power and awesome terror its people were capable of.

“Those are the Colossi, right?” she asked Lily, who had borrowed the high-powered theater binoculars and was watching on in admiration.

“Yeah. Let’s save the talk for the road.”

They swam towards the edge of the gelatinous glacier.

“They’re the old gods of the game,” Lily said in between strokes. “Elder functions whose creeds are diametrically opposed to Lorelei’s. They wanted this world’s inhabitants to live in harmony with its form of nature. And, for a while, they did. But they were too happy, too content. Many naturally transcended the
Metaverse.
Once tests made it clear that the
Verse’s
distractions would be more effective in an overly complex social environment, Lorelei froze the Colossi. I propose that your coming helped corrupt the system enough that they were able to break through their restraints.”

“Lorelei didn’t even program them in,” Raine queried.

Lily shook her head as they made it to the edge of the gelatinous lake. “They were a glitch in the original system that she couldn’t remove. The people paid tribute to the Colossi and heeded their words. Believe it or not, there were some years of peace in the
Metaverse
. Their existence was beyond Lorrie’s control until she developed the freezing system, which doesn’t really fix exploits so much as detain them. Her lazy programming proved to be her undoing, it seems. They're buying us time by keeping her avatar alive. If we can shut down the
‘Verse
while she’s still trapped in it, the virus will trigger, her mind will be arrested, and she’ll need some time to recover. I give us half an hour, and that’s being generous.”

The women dried off as best they could on the icy shore. Lily’s wrist computer, soaked in goo, was malfunctioning. With the Network down, visors would be just as useless.

“
No bueno
,” Lily said, popping open the maintenance hatch. The circuits inside were fried. Even with her expert tinkering, it would take hours to repair. She took the band off and stuffed it into a small pouch on her belt.

Looks like there’s no easy way out of anything today.

“Hey Raine, I was gonna code us a nifty snowmobile, but it looks like we’re gonna have to go the rest of the way on foot.”

Raine looked in the direction Lily was pointing. The far-off portal shimmered like a razor blade atop a military base. A blinding snowstorm separated the duo from their target. But Lily trudged on, taking point even as Raine shivered against the blistering cold.

“It’s so far away!” she cried. “Nimbus! O Nimbus, we could really use your hovercraft right now…”

No response. They weren’t in
Avidya
anymore. Still, it was worth a shot.

Raine walked until she didn’t think she could walk any further. Though she halted still, Lily trudged onwards.

The girl tried to lift one leg and fell to her knees, winded. A ringing sound had grown in her ears since they crash-landed. Now it was becoming unbearable, spiking in and out without any pattern or rhythm. Sometimes she’d be fine, and sometimes it’d creep up on her and make her sick, give her the feeling that nothing would ever make sense again.

Lily came back, grabbed her hand, and pulled her up.

“Please, Raine. I need you to hold on just a little longer.”

“What’s happening to me?”

“I think they must have laced this snow with some sort of adverse substance to keep out any tourists. Just try to power through it.”

Lily didn’t look so sure about her assessment, but Raine nodded slowly. This was a race she couldn’t afford to lose. Her trembling legs suddenly kicked into gear and she pulled herself up.

Chance unfurled from Raine’s neck, flew before the travelers, and used what little energy that wasn’t being counteracted by the storm to melt down the snowdrift.

They walked together towards the beacon, over glacial ice and into a thick field of knee-high snow. Both girls forged through the blizzard, shaking, barely conscious, badly injured, and hardly able to walk. Raine had to stop to throw up, and Lily gave her a brain booster packet, reminding her that nothing here was real. They fell over constantly and had to lean on each other to keep their balance. Chance wrapped his tail around Raine’s shoulder and helped carry her forward. The trip seemed to take a lifetime.

They snuck up the icy metal steps and around the large spaceport. It was completely empty.

“W-w-where did everyone go?” Raine asked at last. “What about those guys following us?”

“I think I have an idea, and I also think that Holdfast is on his way to war hero status.”

∩

“Sir! It’s an absolute disaster! The terrorists we transferred to
Avidya’s
backup have infected it with a paralyzing virus and are emerging from the
Metaverse
in droves!”

“Mr. Holdfast, we’ve lost all security in the
Avidya
server! Agents have been simultaneously ejected and are currently unconscious. We’re running on nothing but buggy security bots!”

Henry tried his best to look worried and concerned. This was all going to be done according to plan. He just needed to keep his game face on. He paced the
Avidya
Developers’ glowing top floor, closely observing the central feed and screens of those under his command.

“The rebel leaders are gone now; they’re nothing but sitting ducks.
Avidya
is not our primary concern. Do what you can to keep the peace, but we can sort out bugs later. Prioritize containment of remaining hostiles. Lock down all the exit nodes! We must methodically freeze the entire server until this boils over.”

“Sir, we’ve been bled dry. Maintaining
Avidya
is using up eighty percent of our auxiliary power, and we have no Templars to spare. Miss Guggell is malfunctioning and back under surveillance. We have to cut the cords on the malignant group!”

“I will not lose this crop of a hundred thousand to a petty virus,” Holdfast stated adamantly.

Cheeky Conor piped up. “But sir, if we don’t completely neutralize them now, more could break free of the
Metaverse!
They’re running rampant through the streets!”

“They’re unarmed. Alert Zarifian; have the HDP apprehend and arrest them,” he replied. “Genocide is not on the menu. I don’t want a repeat of the Forgotten Wars.”

“With all due respect, she’ll put us all in deep.”

“Relax, mate. I’ll bear the burden of the consequences.”

A sudden hologram popped up. It was Mister Senior himself, Jon Wrathman.

“What consequences, Mr. Holdfast, were you imagining?”

“None, sir, hopefully,” Henry bumbled in surprise. “I am confident that we can contain this situation with one division and save potential tens of thousands of assets.”

Jon scratched his head.

“Well, I’m calling to relay a decree Her Majesty left to General Beech before plugging in. I quote, ‘If any assets should violate the End User License Agreement and terminate their service, martial law shall be declared. In descending order, General Lacie Eden, Miss Guggell, and Lieutenant General Errol Beech will be in charge until such time that I resume my throne.’”

A lump caught in Henry’s throat. He was in the clear for now, but this was terrible news. It meant that Queen Lorelei knew exactly what was coming.

“Since Miss Guggell is incapacitated and General Lacie is nowhere to be found, the whole department is to hand over the reins of the Network to the Joint Chiefs. Beech wants to round up the insurgents and mow them down in
Victory Square
with the HDP infantry to serve as an example. We’re to cooperate immediately.”

“Negative, sir,” Henry said. “Those chowder-heads just want blood. We are currently salvaging the crop by sealing off the exit nodes--”

“Bring it up to your CO, Holdfast. I don’t agree with this either, but it’s out of our hands.”

“Will that be all, sir?”

“For now, yes. Over and out.”

The feed cut off. That damn Queen was always one step ahead. He was no hero, but he couldn’t just stand there and let the revolutionaries get gunned down without a fight; he had to do something.

↕

“Who’s Holdfast?” Raine asked as she caught her breath.

“He’s one of our very best,” Lily replied. “Rebel hacker kid from what you know as Queensland, Australia. We set up a base to protect the community there, and he remote-controlled my bots to break out into show tunes. I offered him a job, working for me on the inside. Snuck him into
Neo Eden
. He made his way up to assistant head of
EM
’s Network Management in five years.”

“Sounds like a genius.”

“You bet. And I gave him the most important job of all: shutting down the dedicated defense software. Hopefully it’s already been done. Once those people lose the capability to become cold-blooded killers, the war is over. When our shutdown function destroys the
Metaverse’s
source code, they’ll be completely free.”

Free? No more
Metaverse
? That was good news, right?
Raine’s head throbbed so painfully, she couldn’t even manage a response.

Lily led Raine into a service elevator.

“Hang on to something,” Lily called out as she placed one hand on the control mechanism and activated it.

Nothing.

“What the--?”

The controls were a flat texture mapped to the wall. While Lily inspected the wallpaper, Chance tapped her on the back, and then hardened his face into a powerful expression.