Unplugged (11 page)

Inara had nearly caught up.

I took my last step onto the sand and closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, the beach, the island, the ocean had disappeared. I looked around. I was in the middle of a city but the streets were deserted. A sharp wind blew leaves along the ground. On my legs were black leggings, and I wore a long-sleeved T-shirt. Thin black shoes clung to my feet. Good for running. Before me, reaching up into the clouds, was the Water Tower.

Of course. It was my favorite.

I craned my neck to see all the way to the top. The facade of the skyscraper seemed to ripple and swell, a trick of the liquid glass used to build it. The whole of it glowed a deep blue.

There was a sizzle and a zap, and then Inara appeared on the corner. “A city, Skye? Really? Couldn't we have stayed on vacation?”

I smiled. “Last one to the top has to eat
all
your mother's dinner downloads for a week.” I pulled open the door and went inside, trying not to think about how I didn't have a week left. Not even an entire day.

There was a line of round crystal pods in the lobby, elevators that I knew wouldn't work—they were just for show. This was about climbing. I entered the stairwell
and began taking the steps two at a time. They were clear so you could see through to the bottom, as though you were looking through water. Glowing underneath the third staircase were the sharp bright edges of a coral reef. I grabbed the thin glass metal rail and swung myself around to start up to the next floor, the muscles in my legs working and straining. Eventually I heard Inara enter below.

I picked up my pace. Everything about me felt light. My virtual skin hummed with electricity, every bit of my code awake. Then I came to a halt on the next landing.

At my feet lay a bright-blue bag.

I was excited to see what it held, surely a sign of whatever new adventure was in store for us next. I nudged the top open with the toe of my slipper. Inside was a parachute, a rappelling kit, and a pair of wings. So this was how Inara and I would be getting down from the top of the building. Then I noticed something tucked underneath everything else.

The breath left my body.

A gun. There was a gun in the bag.

Why would I ever need such a thing?

When I checked again it seemed to have vanished. I dug around underneath the other things, but it wasn't there. Maybe I'd imagined that cold metal revolver. I hoped I did. I grabbed the parachute. The wings I'd leave for Inara. I started up the stairs again, my mind stuck on
the gun. Odyssey was taking a far darker turn than I'd like.

I'd only gotten up three more floors when the lights went out.

Inara screamed. “Skye?” Her voice was faint, it was so far below. “What's happening?”

I tried clearing my mind to reset the game. Conjured up sunlight and peace. Birds chirping and waves lapping against the shore. Emergency lighting buzzed, then flickered on in the stairwell. The glow was weak, but it was better than nothing. “Does that help?” I called down to her.

“I guess,” she said weakly. “I want to go back to the beach.”

“I know,” I mumbled. Odyssey was resisting my wish to override my unconscious. I continued on, not sure what else to do, getting closer and closer to the top of the building. All the freedom I'd felt just moments ago fled. My feet were like lead, each step heavy and loud. I needed the air, the outside, to see the sky and the clouds. If I'd let Inara stay in the lead, we'd probably be doing something silly and fun, like racing to see who could tan the fastest beside a beautiful swimming pool or downing lemonade and apple pie at a Parisian café on a timeout.

I finally reached the top of the staircase. The door to the highest floor swung open and I felt compelled to go through it. I looked around the lobby. Before I had time
to process what was happening, there came a crackling in the atmosphere, static prickling across my skin. Then a bright blinding flash. I put my hands up to block it. When the spots faded from my eyes, I took in the sight before me.

A hologram hovered there.

The Prime Minister was standing at its center. His hands were clasped in front of him. He wore a blue suit and his eyes were ringed with purple. His skin was that same gray color I noticed at the funeral.

I blinked at him in shock. Something was wrong with Odyssey. Very wrong. “Why are you here? Did Odyssey conjure you?”

Jonathan Holt glanced behind himself once, then again, as though he expected someone else to appear at any moment. “You must have a lot of questions, Skylar.”

A chill raced through my code and I shivered. “You know who I am?”

The Prime Minister's eyes returned to me and stayed there. Something flashed in them briefly.
Guilt
, I thought, for the second time. “There's so much I wish I could explain, but there's no time,” he said.

It was difficult to breathe. I covered my eyes with my hands. “I am imagining this,” I said out loud. Maybe there was a logical reason why Jonathan Holt showed his face in my game. Maybe it was because his son had been on my mind, because I was about to unplug and find Rain.
Yes. That must be it. Once again, I tried to reset Odyssey. I banished the Prime Minister from my thoughts and I banished thoughts of his son. I waited a beat, then took my hands away from my eyes.

Jonathan Holt was still there, studying me.

The Prime Minister looked behind himself again. “I felt obliged to meet you before you go. It's my duty.”

“I don't understand.” I stared into his eyes, still unable to believe they were looking straight back at me. My brain kept trying to come up with reasons for his presence. Maybe it was my fear of being found out for unplugging illegally that had brought him here. Maybe I was scared that somehow the government would prevent my return to the Real World, and my subconscious couldn't help but play out this scenario. “This is really happening?”

Jonathan Holt was about to answer when the faint sound of other voices began to come through the hologram. His face grew clouded. “I must go.” His gaze lingered on mine. “I'm sorry, Skylar. Truly. Forgive me,” he added, and then the hologram vanished.

Sorry? Sorry for what?

My breaths came quickly and I thought I might faint. I headed out onto the roof deck for air. Rather than feeling triumphant about reaching the top, I was exhausted. I waited for the atmosphere to refresh me and for the sunlight to blind me, but instead all I saw were dark clouds, heavy with rain. Thunder rumbled across the
sky. Parachute in hand, I stumbled toward the railing and looked down. Lightning flashed, briefly lighting up the City, then leaving everything in darkness again. I'd never been afraid of heights, but the world around me was spinning. Where was Inara? If I let her get ahead, our day would surely turn fun again, like before. I leaned against the low wall. Bent forward to rest my head on the rail. A fat drop of rain landed on my back. Another splashed against my wrist. Thunder rumbled. When it faded, the quiet was eerie. I lifted my head and listened carefully.

There were footsteps behind me.

My instincts told me it wasn't Inara.

My fingers tightened around the rail. The raindrops fell heavier now. I thought about that gun. Wished I'd grabbed it to see if it was real.

Water slid across my skin.

Before I could lose my nerve, I spun around.

Rain Holt was standing there studying me, a confused look on his face. He wore a black jacket and jeans. His hair had its usual shaggy cut and his expression was cold and piercing, like he could see through anything.

“First your father and now you,” I said.

Rain's mouth fell open. “You can see me. But how?”

I tried to keep my breathing steady. “You're not really here. My brain is conjuring all of this.”

He didn't answer. Just shook his head.

My long hair dripped water onto my shoulders and
arms and I shivered. “Either that or someone is messing with Odyssey.”

“Yeah.
You
.” Rain's tone was full of awe.

I wrapped my arms around my middle, my clothes soaked through. “This is only happening because I'm about to unplug,” I said. “Because I need to find you.”

Rain blinked, his eyes all over me, like he still couldn't believe what he was seeing. He lifted a hand to his face. Stared at it. Then he started circling the roof, looking out over the edge. When he stopped circling he turned to me again. “What do you mean you're going to unplug? And did you say something about seeing my father? My father is not—” Rain started, then stopped.

The atmosphere seemed to grow darker. I glanced up at the clouds. They were so close. The water pounding the ground. I shook my head at Rain. “I swear this isn't real.”

Lightning struck and lit Rain up. “I swear on my body that it is.”

Thunder rumbled, making me jump. “How could you be looking at me, when I'm here and you're in the Real World?” I thought about Emory Specter's words yesterday and something occurred to me. “Do I still have a body? Do you know?”

Rain didn't move. Didn't nod. Didn't answer.

He stepped forward.

I wanted to move away, but he gripped my arm, stopping me. He drew me close. At the last moment, just before his
lips were about to touch mine, he shifted away, his breath trailing warmth across my cheek. “You can't unplug,” he whispered in my ear. “You'll be sorry if you do.”

“Skye?” Another voice wavered across the roof.

I jumped back from Rain.

Inara was standing there, staring like she'd never seen me before. “What is
he
doing here?”

Torrents of rain came down upon us. “I don't know,” I choked, each word a sob.

Inara's expression was as gray as the storm clouds above. “Tell me what's going on,” she shouted through the din. Came closer. “Tell me . . . or I'm leaving. I'm getting out of Odyssey.” Her eyes were cold. “This doesn't feel like a game anymore.”

Rain began to fade. I looked at him, needing him to explain what he meant. Then I looked back at my friend. “Inara, don't go. Please.”

She crossed her arms. “Then tell me your secret. I know you're keeping one.”

“I . . . I can't.” Tears rolled down my face. “It's not mine to tell.” Inara was shaking her head, her expression full of disappointment. “Please, don't leave!”

But she was already gone.

When I turned around, so was Rain.

I came to from the game and found myself alone in my room in Singles Hall. I looked around, touched the bed,
the floor, the walls, to make sure I was really here.

Then I did something I never thought I would do.

I blocked Inara from my mind. Closed her out entirely. She knew me too well. If I didn't, she would figure out my secret and everything would be lost. My ticket to the Real World taken away and everyone else's with it. Lacy Mills's threat of virtual death hung heavy in my mind.

The moment it was done, I felt the cut.

Sensed Inara's sudden, virtual absence.

But the loneliness I felt was all too real.

THE HOUR WE
were to meet at the house came up fast.

Too fast.

I had barely any time left in this world and so much on my mind. For the rest of the day I half expected Inara to show up, angry and demanding to know why I'd shut her out, that I explain why Rain had appeared during Odyssey, or even having guessed my secret. I almost wished she would. Maybe she'd convince me not to go.

As I readied to leave Singles Hall for the last time, I was too distracted to do more than whisper good-bye as I walked out the door of my room. The lounge was busy, and things had mostly gone back to normal. Gossip and news holograms flickered around the room. Singles
laughed and chatted. But then I noticed Emory Specter's face glowing from one of the walls, his cold eyes staring out at everyone, eyes that I couldn't seem to get out of my head since the funeral. Adam was sitting there, watching the Defense Minister's speech. He glanced at me quickly, and nodded.

Then I walked out of Singles Hall without turning back.

If I let myself see the tall, familiar building, with its warmly lit round windows, I might lose my nerve. I needed forward momentum so I could get through this night without another strange visit from one of the Holts.

So I could finally get to the Real World.

I headed east toward Loner Town.

I'd walked through it once before on a dare and it wasn't something I wanted to do again. Its buildings hadn't had an architecture update since the birth of the App World, and not because the residents couldn't afford one. Most preferred not to leave their rooms and spent every hour gaming or tuned in to the lives of famous people or Under Eighteens trying to claw their way to celebrity status. And these were Loner Town's most normal residents. The worst were the ones who thrived on Black Market Apps that allowed a person to commit virtual crimes. Murders, beatings, terrorist activity, rape, and everything in between. Real World criminals weren't allowed to plug
in, but the government soon discovered a person doesn't have to be a true criminal to harbor powerful criminal fantasies. A lot of Loner Town's residents preferred to live these fantasies twenty-four hours a day, sacrificing any social connections, work, and status, secluding themselves in their own corner of the City.

I reached the edge of the park and kept on going, past Appless Bar, still heading east. The farther I walked, the more unfamiliar the City became. Inara and I usually stuck to the crowded avenues in the shopping district, streets lined with App Stores featuring design downloads and restaurants that promised to evoke the intensity of Real World cuisine. I began to see men and women alone, crouched on benches or sitting on the ground. Many of them were catatonic, their clothing in tatters. While sanctioned gaming Apps allowed a person to vanish into another landscape, the Black Market ones often had faulty or substandard codes that left a person sitting in full view of everyone while the brain traveled elsewhere. No one seemed to see me as I passed. I wondered what could be so captivating that these people had checked out of the App World altogether.

The avenues got wider, the buildings shorter and more spread apart. Their color was dimmer, too, more faded. On the next corner I saw a sign and stopped. At one point it must have been bright green, like those on the west side of the City, but now it had darkened to gray with flecks
of black where the download had worn out completely. There were thin letters written across it.

You are entering Loner Town
.

Underneath the words someone had scrawled,
BEWARE
.

I hesitated.

Then I walked straight past that ominous sign. There would be no chickening out.

The GPS App Lacy had given us automatically turned on in my mind and urged me down a street to my left. It wasn't long before I was deep inside the neighborhood. Loner Town was much bigger than I'd imagined. It spanned dozens of blocks, and it was dark, too. Really dark.

Most of all, though, it was empty.

My hand felt for the wall to my right. I palmed my way down the sidewalk, the crumbling brick as my guide. I thought about downloading a Radiance App but didn't want whoever was out there to see me coming. My mind flickered, nerves racing. Out of nowhere, someone, a man, growled.

“Watch where you're going!” he yelled.

He spoke too late. His legs were stretched across the sidewalk and I tripped, crashing down on his other side, my hands hitting the ground hard, one of them disappearing into a sinkhole in the atmosphere. I'd heard they existed, but I'd never encountered one before now. I winced in pain.

“Sorry,” I breathed. I tried picking myself up when I saw a pair of eyes glowing at me in the darkness. There was something in them—rage, or maybe hunger.

“Come here, little girl.” He reached out. One of his hands wound through my hair toward my scalp.

My emergency settings kicked into gear and I screamed. With the fear came a great surge of light, my virtual self a fiery glow in the darkness. Sometimes Apps were like a reflex. They were stored in our code, built into the very fabric of our virtual selves, there to protect us if danger was near.

Long claws pulsed from my fingertips.

When Inara was afraid she turned into a bird. I always became a panther.

The man tightened his hold on me the moment I stopped being a girl and became a great black cat with sharp teeth bared and mouth stretched wide.

I hissed, my jaws snapping at him.

“Hey!” His hand retracted.

Then I was speeding away on all fours, smooth and dark as the night around me. I don't know how many blocks I went before the download faded and I was myself again. I stopped at the next corner, panting, my arms and hands reaching everywhere so no one could surprise me from behind. My shirt was ripped at the neck and I did my best to straighten it. My ponytail holder had fallen out. I raked my fingers through my knotted hair, pulling
it away from my eyes so I could better look around and get my bearings. The GPS App must have automatically guided me, because it turned out I was exactly where I needed to be. Still breathing hard, I made my way down the final block to the address of the meeting, turning every few steps to check my back. A terrible, acrid smell lingered in the atmosphere, like something was burning. I wrinkled my nose. I took shelter by a tree, the bark dusty and crumbling, like everything else in Loner Town. I peered out from behind it.

Someone was standing in the alcove of the next house.

A man. Tall, wearing a black coat and pants. His hair was a curtain across his cheek, obscuring his face. I wanted a better look at him before I showed myself, but the bark underneath my palms deteriorated to nothing, and then the tree itself began to fade. I yelped and barely caught myself from falling. The man turned. With the movement, his hair fell away from his face, and I saw he wasn't a man after all, but a boy. Not much older than me. His skin glowed pale in the darkness.

“Are you Skylar?” he called out when he saw me there.

“Yes.” I straightened up, the tree gone entirely. “Who are you?”

The boy watched me with interest. Then he shrugged. “Lacy's contact.”

I took a step closer. “You seem awfully young.”

“So?” He sounded defiant.

I walked up to him now, determined not to be afraid. “What are you getting out of this deal? Money?”

The boy was quiet. Then, “Revenge,” he said. Like it was simple. He opened the door to the house behind him. “Follow me.” He went inside, leaving me alone in the empty dark of the street.

I looked around for the others, wishing Adam would appear, wishing I wasn't the first one here, thinking I probably shouldn't go inside the house alone. But for some reason, when the boy reappeared and said, “I'm not going to hurt you—I promise,” I believed it.

And I slipped through the door behind him.

The boy tugged on a string hanging from the ceiling.

A bare bulb above our heads was illuminated.

The inside of the house was almost worse than outside. There was a low couch to my right, the upholstery faded in patches to reveal stuffing and metal springs. The floor had gaping holes, big enough to swallow a person's leg. The pitter-patter of feet, maybe mice, maybe worse, was audible inside the walls. A long thick beam from the ceiling had partially fallen down and blocked the back door.

“Welcome,” the boy said. He walked over to the only pieces of furniture that looked usable—an old wooden table and two chairs. He pulled one out for me and sat down in the other. “Have a seat while we wait for everyone else.”

I didn't move—I was still taking in the wreckage. I peered down the hall behind the staircase. A thin, dirty mattress was propped against the wall. This didn't seem like a place where a person could unplug. I'd expected sleek chambers and shiny, elaborate machines, not rotting floorboards and the smell of ruin. I joined the boy at the table. Glanced at the door, wondering when Adam would get here, when Sylvia and Lacy would arrive. “Is this your house?” I asked him.

The trace of a smile appeared on the boy's lips. “Maybe.”

In his smile I saw something familiar, an expression that reminded me of someone else. I tried to picture him in different surroundings, maybe at school or in the park hanging out with friends on a Saturday afternoon. Aside from the standard features of all boys my age, everything about this one was dark and moody. His hair was black, his eyes were black, his expressions were closed and cautious. His movements were hesitant, like he trusted no one and nothing. But there was something else, too. It was right there, nudging at my brain like an App seeking a download, yet I couldn't quite articulate who, exactly, he reminded me of. “Then why haven't you fixed up the place?”

“I have better uses for capital than redecorating.” The boy bent back a long, sharp splinter on the table until it pointed at the ceiling like a dagger. “Why do you care?”

A chill passed through the room and I shivered. “I just . . . I don't like this.”

He leaned forward, his dark eyes studying me. He placed a hand over the splinter until it poked the center of his palm. “You're scared.”

My heart was pulsating, my code electric with static. “Wouldn't you be, if you were about to unplug?”

The boy closed his hand around the splinter and plucked it from the table, tossing it to the floor. It turned to dust. Then he rose from his chair and walked to the other side of the room. “If I were you, I'd be more worried about what's going to happen when you wake up in the Real World.”

I got up and followed him. “I know the deal.” I swallowed. “I'm ready for whatever comes.”

He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “Are you really?”

I tried to soothe the goose bumps along my skin. “Yes,” I said, with more certainty than I felt.

The boy flicked dust from his sleeve. “Whatever you say.”

I decided to ignore his lack of faith. “What happens if we need to get back here?”

The boy stared at the crumbling wall next to us. It was blurry with age, as though it might turn to dust at any moment, just like the splinter. “I'll come to get you.”

“You can just unplug and plug back in when you want?”

“Something like that,” he said.

I studied him. This boy was different with each new piece of information I collected. He was unexpectedly young. And now he had ways of moving between worlds as he pleased. “What makes you so special that you—” I began when he turned my way again, and I didn't finish. There was something about the light that hit his face just right. “Wait a minute.” I stepped closer. “Look at me.”

He shifted. I reached out and brushed the hair from his face. His eyes widened and I saw it again—the resemblance. It was in the shape of his lips and the expression of his dark eyes. The pronounced curve of his cheekbones and the line of his jaw. The way his brow furrowed while he stared at me. There was a hardness about him, a coldness in the way he looked at me. It was there that I saw the stamp of his father, the man whose face I'd been seeing nonstop ever since the funeral.

“I know who you are,” I whispered. “You're Emory Specter's son.”

He glanced back at the front door, like he suddenly wished the others would arrive. “Everyone in the City knows the Defense Minister plugged in without a family. He has no wife and no children. The perfect circumstances for an all-consuming job like his.” His voice wavered, but he didn't confirm or deny the accusation.

“A man can have children and not acknowledge them,” I said.

He looked at me hard. “Are you saying I'm illegitimate?”

“No. But in a way,” I went on, thinking out what I wanted to say next, “you're a Single like me, aren't you? You're not an orphan, not technically, but you're here alone.” I softened my tone. “Sometimes it's worse, isn't it? How even though your family meant well by plugging you in, you still feel like they abandoned you.” It pained me to articulate this thought that had long been buried inside me.

He raked a hand through his hair. “Singles aren't abandoned. Your family wanted you to have a better future. My father didn't plug me in. He doesn't even know I'm here.”

I took this in. “So you are the Defense Minister's son.”

He nodded. For the first time, he seemed vulnerable, like any other boy my age capable of hurt, of sadness. Not so cold. We stood there staring at each other in that decrepit house, with its falling-down ceiling and its walls full of holes. Did this boy scramble for capital just like Singles did, even though he was the son of one of the most powerful men in our world? “You said you were in this for revenge. Revenge against who? Your father?”

He didn't respond. His virtual skin began to darken until it was red. The anger written all over him told me everything I needed to know.