Etherworld (10 page)

“A little after eleven. If I hadn't come over here, you would've been . . . ugh, I don't even want to think about it.”

Patrick just confirmed what I already know: staying in Elusion longer than the recommended time is extremely dangerous. After an hour, I was so deep in trance that even he had trouble waking me. No wonder my dad warned survivors not to leave Etherworld before the destruction protocol was complete, and why he warned me not to remove him or anyone else from their Equip if the emergency button didn't work. They've been under trypnosis too long. The only way for them to wake up is to destroy the entire system.

I think back to my dad's plan, the mission he explained. I need to find him and I don't have a minute to lose. So I ask Patrick, point-blank.

“Has Elusion been recalled yet?”

He stops pacing. “No. In fact, they've bumped up the release date. In two days it's going national.”

“You need to listen to me, okay?” I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and rise to my feet, slow and steady. “I didn't mess with my Equip. Someone locked me inside Elusion. Josh, too.”

An image of Josh at his uncle's trailer, still hooked up to Elusion, flashes in my mind, and my idea of going straight to Orexis begins to fall apart. I have to get Josh out of Elusion before it's too late. But my dad should come first, shouldn't he? He's been inside that lab for months now.

Either way, I can't go anywhere without Patrick, which is why I have to tell him everything.

“That's impossible,” he says. “I was able to get you back by just pressing your emergency button.”

“I know. But Josh and I tried to leave the Prairie Escape right after you, and we couldn't. The emergency button didn't work on either of our wristbands. The sky lit up with the words ‘administrator lockout.' We were trapped.”

“Wait, an admin lockout? That doesn't make any sense.” He begins to pace again, kneading his hands together nervously.

I walk toward him, each step a little less wobbly than the last. “It was Bryce.”

Patrick comes to a dead stop. “What?”

“He's the one who tampered with the Escape. Remember how it began to destroy itself while we were there?”

He stares at me blankly. Why isn't he admitting to seeing the chaos?

“After Josh and I were both locked in, he pretty much tortured us so we wouldn't get past the firewall.”

“Nobody but me has access to that Phase Two Escape. How could Bryce get in?”

“He must have figured out a way. All I know is that he didn't want me to find my father. He's alive, Pat. Bryce and your mom have known all along.”

I feel kind of bad telling him the truth, because I know how terrible it feels to discover that your life has been built on a stack of lies. He closes his eyes and leans back on his heels, like he's been blown over by a mighty wind. He must be going into some kind of shock or something. Then he looks at me, his lower lip trembling a little.

“Maybe we should get you in the shower. The hot water will help clear your head, and make you less . . . confused,” he says.

Oh God. He thinks I'm still reeling from Aftershock.

“I'm fine, okay? You have to listen to everything I say, and you have to believe me. Because if you don't, more people are going to die. Including my dad.”

“But Ree . . . your dad is—”

“Alive,”
I say. “I saw him in Etherworld.”

Patrick squints at me, like I'm speaking another language and he's trying to understand me. “Etherworld? What the hell is that?”

“It's an alternate dimension inside my dad's Elusion domain. He built it when he found out about nanopsychosis. It has very low stimuli, so the brain is protected against the damage that can be done when it's exposed to trypnosis for too long, and—”

“Hey, you're talking way too fast.” Patrick walks back over to me and takes one of my shaking hands in his.

I guess I'm not as stable as I thought.

“We need to hurry,” I say.

“No, you need to explain to me what's going on. Slowly. Because I didn't follow anything you said.”

“I'm trying, but it's so complicated.”

Patrick squeezes my hand. “Why don't I ask you some questions and you can just answer them as best as you can?”

I nod my head in agreement.

“So how did you find this Etherworld place?”

“We went through a portal after we breached the firewall.”

“And how'd you get past that?” Patrick asks.

“We cracked the pass code,” I say. “Nora had written it on a piece of paper that Josh found at the warehouse.”

“Wait, there's a
pass code
? How would Nora know that, and not me?”

“My father gave it to her.” When Patrick doesn't come back with a follow-up question, I keep going. “He was sending messages to us through these ping tunnels that connect Elusion and Etherworld. That's why the number fifty-twenty kept popping up all over the place. He wanted us to find him.”

For a moment, I can't read Patrick's expression. “And what does fifty-twenty mean?”

“It's the room number of a lab at Orexis,” I say. “Your mom and Bryce have been holding him hostage there for months. He found out that they had sent Elusion to CIT for approval when they knew it had serious problems, and then they trapped him in his Elusion domain when they realized that he was going to destroy the program. Your mom wanted to force him to reveal how to stop its destruction, which is why he had to retreat to Etherworld. He's not the only one there, either. There are lots of kids who broke through the firewall, including Nora.”

Patrick's fingers peel away from mine, but he doesn't say anything. His eyes are glazing over, as if it's all too much for him to comprehend. Even so, I push forward, telling him every piece of information that my father gave me, including more details about why Etherworld was constructed and the plan to attack Elusion. The truth spills out of me at such speed, I don't even think I'm breathing while I talk.

And when it's all over, Patrick silently recoils from me, burying his head in his hands, like I've torn his world apart. Which I have. After a few beats of disturbing quiet, he lifts his chin and says in a composed voice, “So what do we do now?”

It's not the response I was expecting, so I just stare at him for a second, waiting for him to flip out or something, but that second turns into a minute and nothing happens. He's staring at me, too, and yet it's like he's not seeing me at all. It's almost as though he's looking right through me, because he can't bear to accept what I've told him, that his mother is at the root of all this chaos and deception.

But I know what we should do now. Even though I really want to go be with Josh, I made a promise to my father—a promise I have to keep, since millions of lives are depending on it.

I just need to come up with another way to save the person I've come to depend on more than anyone else in the world.

“You have to take me to Orexis to find my dad,” I say, grabbing my tab off my bed and searching for Avery's number. “Please. I really need your help. I need everyone to know he isn't dead.”

Patrick doesn't protest like I expect him to. He just gestures to my bedroom door and says, “Okay. Let's go.”

I still have one thing left to do. The moment Avery's number comes up in my list of contacts, I quickly send her a text, praying that she'll see it right away.

911. Josh is stuck in Elusion. Go 2 his trailer & press ejection button. I'll be there as soon as I can.

Then I look up at Patrick and say, “I'm ready.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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

PATRICK ENTERS THE PRIVATE ACCESS tunnel, his fingers clenched so tightly around the wheel of his cobalt-blue sports car, they're turning white. When traffic slows, he begins driving on the shoulder to make better time. He hasn't said a word since we left my house, keeping his eyes focused on the road.

I can't say I blame him. When you find out that everything about your reality is just an illusion, it's hard not to completely shut down.

“Are you all right?”

Obviously, a stupid question, but despite everything that's happened between us, I'm worried about him.

Patrick presses his foot down on the gas, picking up speed. I glance out my window as the fluorescent lights from the tunnel become a blur, flashing by. “Yeah, I'm okay,” he says, downshifting the car.

“Are you sure?”

“What? Don't you believe me?”

I shrug. “Well, it's not like you've been honest with me lately.”

The car jerks to the left as Patrick swerves to avoid a slick patch of Florapetro residue that's collected on the roadway. I brace myself as the car skids, but he quickly regains control.

“Maybe you should slow down,” I say. I guess my comment really got to him.

“I wish I could take it back,” he says, his voice cracking with emotion. “I wish . . . I was a better person.”

His confession of remorse takes me by surprise, and I turn away, willing myself not to come undone. Patrick has made mistakes, and he's far from perfect, but he's here now, trying to help make things right. In spite of all the accusations against his mom and the havoc I've caused, he's coming through for me, just like he used to, when we loved each other like family.

“Thank you,” I murmur, my eyes drifting back toward him.

He downshifts again, and looks at me. “For what?”

“For not turning me in to the cops when you found out about the QuTap. For coming to find me tonight. For hearing me out, back at my house. I know none of that could have been easy. I had a hard time believing it myself. Your mom . . .” My voice trails off. I can't imagine how Patrick must feel. Even I can't accept that the woman I grew up trusting so completely was responsible for kidnapping my dad and staging his death. Under the circumstances, Patrick is handling the news pretty well. “I'm sorry,” I say, but he doesn't respond.

In spite of my advice, we seem to be going faster. I peek at the speedometer and see that we're doing about ninety miles per hour. At this rate, we'll be at Orexis in a few short minutes, and I'm shifting back and forth between excitement and intense fear. As much as I'm looking forward to finding my dad and bringing him home, I'm worried about his health. He's been under trypnosis for three months. And what about Josh and everyone else still trapped in Elusion? If we can't destroy it, what will happen to them?

I nervously glance at my phone. Avery still hasn't texted me back. Why? Is she still at the hospital with Maureen? Did she go to the police? I send her another message, begging her to go over and check on Josh.

Patrick must sense the spike in my anxiety, because he clears his throat and starts a conversation.

“So, the other people you met in Etherworld. Who are they? People you know?”

“No, I hadn't met any of them before,” I explain. “They're kids from the three cities where Elusion was released.”

“So they're total strangers?” Patrick asks, his voice tinged with what sounds like worry.

“Yes. And they—”

The car exits the tunnel and we practically ram into a delivery truck stopped in front of us, thanks to the late-night traffic. As Patrick tries to maneuver his way through the blitz, I stop talking, focused on the high-rise buildings that surround us, the Traxx zooming above on elevated steel rails, and the oily Florapetro clouds floating over a crescent moon.

We've made it to the Inner Sector—Detroit's congested, noise-infested, corporate jungle. It's always been a mesmerizing yet overwhelming place, filled with nonstop energy and crammed with people. When the grand spire on top of Orexis headquarters comes into view, everything else drops away.

The sound of a horn blares as Patrick cuts off another car and pulls into a lane designated for emergency vehicles.

“Take it easy, Pat. You're going to get us in an accident.”

He presses a button on the dash, activating the car's AutoComm. A monotone female voice seeps through the speakers.

“Please announce desired connection.”

“Inner Sector Medical,” he replies.

When the AutoComm politely says, “One moment, thank you for your patience,” I glare at him and punch the off button with my fist.

“What the hell? You're taking me to the
hospital
?”

He swallows hard, apparently bracing himself for my wrath. “Ree, you're sick. You have all the symptoms of—”

“I'm. Not. Sick! I'm telling you the truth about Etherworld. You have to believe me.”

“I know
you
believe everything you told me was real, but it's not.”

“I don't have nanopsychosis, and I can prove it. Just take me to Orexis.”

He rolls his eyes. “To room fifty-twenty. Where my mom and Bryce have your dad hooked up to Elusion.”

I throw my hands up in the air. “Yes! Everything will make sense to you if—”

“I can't do this anymore,” Patrick says. “I can't stand by and watch horrible things happen to people. It's going to stop, right here, right now. I'm taking you to the hospital. You need help.”

“No! If you do that, you're putting even more people at risk!”

“Remember what Bryce's memo to your father said?” Patrick zooms through the emergency lane, his eyes barely on the road. “Nanopsychosis makes you hallucinate things. It makes you paranoid and obsessive. If you could listen to yourself, and really hear what you're saying, maybe you'd accept the fact that you need medical attention.”

“Don't do this. I'm begging you.”

The automatic wipers swish against the windshield, and for a moment that's the only sound in the car.