The Void of Mist and Thunder (The 13th Reality #4) (29 page)

Poor Little Centipede

Sweat poured down Sato’s face, and it wasn’t just from the effort of digging through and tossing aside the countless broken stones that had lain between him and the source of the glowing light at his feet. He was nervous because the massive storm of the Void was growing louder and bigger, its shadow looming over him, Tollaseat, and the dug-out pit in which they stood. They needed to figure out this anomaly and get away from there.

He got down on one knee and inspected the source of the light. It was a slit in the floor, about three feet long and a few inches wide. Although it wasn’t really
in
the floor—it was more like the rip in Reality he’d seen before when the gray fog had first appeared beside the castle walls. Blue light shone from behind the odd crack in the air, so intense that it was hard to look at it directly. There was nothing else there, as if it were a small window into a river of radioactive material or something otherworldly. The light continued to pulse, flashing every few seconds so brightly that it was blinding.

“How’re we s’posed to figure what she might be?” Tollaseat asked. The man was too long and gangly to try to squat down next to Sato. “Took a bit of work, it did, gettin’ down this far. T’would be a mighty shame to go back empty-handed, now wouldn’t it?”

Sato thought Mothball’s dad had an uncanny gift for saying a lot of words that offered no help whatsoever. “I don’t know. Just let me think for a second.”

He did try to think, and that didn’t help either. He wasn’t a scientist. Somehow he’d become the captain of an army, for crying out loud. But he knew without any doubt that this small spit of shining blue light had something to do with . . . something.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a centipede creeping along a broken slab of stone. Testing some theory on the edge of his mind, he picked up the poor little thing and tossed it into the slice of pulsing light. The bug disappeared in a tiny burst of white electricity, tiny jagged bolts skittering across the blue surface before dying out. There was no sign of the critter.

“Well, ain’t you a cruel one,” Tollaseat chided him from above. “What did that wee bugger ever do to you?”

Sato stood up, letting out a big sigh as he did so. “I was just putting him out of his misery. Pretty soon this whole place will be eaten up by . . . whatever that is out there.” He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the tornado, then gave one last glance to the blue anomaly. “It was just an experiment. I thought maybe something would happen. Look, I have no idea what to do here. We’ll just have to describe it to Master George and see what he thinks. Come on, let’s go.”

The two of them started up the pile of rocks they’d burrowed out of before. Sato was halfway to the top when he heard a horrible roar, like something half-mechanical and half-animal. It was followed by shouts from his soldiers.

His heart sank, and his first thought was,
What now?

He picked up the pace and scrambled the rest of the way, almost falling twice as pieces of stone tore loose or broke off. When he reached the peak of the debris, he balanced himself and stood up, Tollaseat right beside him.

Something monstrous was crawling out of the churning mass of the Void’s huge tornado. It was big and long, with lightning arcing along its gray skin. With a terrifying dawn of awareness, Sato realized that the thing looked like . . .

It looked like a
centipede.

Paul was just about to slip into the laboratory of the Realitant headquarters when Sofia spotted him from down the hallway.
Great,
he thought. He’d almost made it.

She ran up to him. “What in the world are you doing? I looked all over for you. Master George is
not
happy.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault those idiots can’t figure out what we’re supposed to do next.”

“Idiots?”
she repeated. “Really? You’re calling
them
idiots?”

“Very funny. Look, I might not be the smartest tool in this workshop, but at least I don’t think it’s okay to sit around fiddling my thumbs. I think it’s high time you and I figured out something on our own.”

Sofia rolled her eyes, but he saw some compassion in there too. She was trying to keep everyone happy on both sides of the fence. “Paul, you know very well that not a single person here is fiddling their thumbs. The rest of them are analyzing data, talking to other Realitants, and researching. They’re trying to learn more about the Void and its energy so we can beat it. I was just coming to find you to help. We need every set of eyes.”

“I’ll tell you what the Void is,” Paul said. “It’s a big gray tornado that’s getting bigger the longer we stand around here. We need Tick to go in there and . . . do whatever it is he does. Our
friend
is obviously in trouble, and that should be our number-one priority. Getting him
back.
”

“And you really think Master George disagrees with that?” She folded her arms. “They can’t latch onto his nanolocator. Mothball went to Deer Park but saw no sign of him. His dad said he never showed up. We can’t go looking behind every rock and tree in the universe.”

“Oh . . . oh, man.” The news made Paul wilt inside. “There’s gotta be a way to find him.”

Sofia sighed. “Rutger will keep scanning for him, hope he pops back onto the radar.”

“Tick should be our—”

“—number-one priority. I know! Don’t you think I’m worried like crazy too? I just think we should all work together, not sneak around like this. What are you doing here anyway?”

Paul couldn’t keep a secret from her, not now. “I came for the box.”

“The box?”

“The box.”

Her mouth was slightly open, her expression saying that she had no doubt he’d gone nuts. “And why are you going for the box?”

“Because I’m going to push the green button.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

“We don’t even know what it does yet!”

“George does, or else he wouldn’t have made us go get it.” Paul reached out and opened the lab door. He’d seen their leader put the box into a cabinet drawer, even though the old man had tried to keep it a secret. The drawer wasn’t a safe, though. It didn’t have a lock or anything. Maybe George thought if the box was hidden in a place people wouldn’t suspect, it might be safer.

“Paul, don’t.”

He ignored her and stepped into the room. When she didn’t reach out and yank him back by the collar, he knew he had her. Times had grown desperate, and it was time to
do
something desperate. Before either one of them could change their minds, he ran over to the cabinet. She followed right on his heels. Paul ripped open the drawer.

The drawer was empty.

“I thought you might come looking for this,” a voice said from behind them.

They spun around to see Master George at the lab door, bouncing the box with its little green button in his right hand. At first Paul thought that Sofia might’ve betrayed him, but one glance at her showed that she was just as surprised—and disappointed—at their leader’s arrival.

“I just wanted to . . .” Paul began, but didn’t know how to finish.

“Yes, I know,” George said. “You just wanted to help, I’m sure. I guess it’s time we had a talk about this very special device. It’s time I told you about Karma. And then it may very well be time to push this button.”

Chapter 43

One with Reality

Chu had refused to say another word after announcing that it was “all about the soulikens.” Tick knew soulikens were imprints of energy created by life and memories and thoughts. Stamps of life on Reality. They accumulated throughout one’s existence until their signature hung around them like an aura. The Haunce—the most amazing creature Tick had ever met—was made up of trillions of soulikens.

Tick had an idea of what Chu meant. Most of his Alterants—if not all—had died at some point. Maybe their soulikens had somehow bled to him. Maybe that could explain the powers he had. He’d never wanted to talk to Master George so badly.

But that would have to wait. The gurney on which he lay had been rolled out of that hospital-like room by a man and a woman dressed in blue scrubs then down a long hallway and into an auditorium with rows and rows of chairs and a stage. Draped behind the stage was a huge screen of white material. The workers pushed him about halfway down the aisle then raised the back of the bed so Tick was able to sit up. His arms, legs, and torso were still fastened tightly down by the thin cords of metal. And his Chi’karda was still being blocked.

Chu had walked the entire way beside them, silent and brooding. He dismissed the blue-clad man and woman, leaving him and Tick alone inside the auditorium. The room was barely lit and cold; it was about as uninviting a room as Tick could imagine.

He looked at Chu, but the man was staring at the large screen, his hands folded in front of him. For at least two minutes he said nothing, which drove Tick batty. But he refused to say anything either, because he knew the man was waiting for him to do so.

Finally, Chu gave in and spoke. “Have you ever seen a fire, Atticus?” He still stared ahead, not turning to face Tick.

It certainly wasn’t the question he’d expected. “A fire? Of course I’ve seen a fire. I’ve
made
fire. You saw me do it in the Nonex.”

Chu seemed unfazed, in full business mode. Eerily, he reminded Tick of the other Mr. Chu, his science teacher, when he was about to begin yet another lecture that he thought would change his students’ lives forever.

“So then, you have, in fact, seen a fire before?” the man said.

Tick wasn’t going to be baited into anger. “Yes. I’ve seen a fire. Many times.”

“Then you know about matter changing from one form to another. In your own experience, you’ve seen—and caused to happen—a solid molecular structure turn into a gas. Wood to flame. There are countless other examples of the physical makeup of one substance
changing
into another substance. Water evaporating, the decay of leaves, and so on and so forth.”

Tick nodded. He had to admit he was intrigued, and he had no choice but to listen anyway.

“You’re going to help me do that, Atticus. You’re going to help me harness the power of Chi’karda and the Void that is escaping from the Fourth Dimension. And then you’re going to make me—and Mistress Jane—one with them.”

Tick felt an unpleasant flutter in his chest. He couldn’t find any words. Chu was talking about something beyond evil, even though Tick didn’t understand it fully yet.

The man finally turned and faced him, and there was something fanatical in his expression. “
One,
Atticus. You’re going to make us
one
with Reality. The universe will never be the same.”