Unplugged (27 page)

How fitting.

I went down the line, adding each different meat to my plate, and swiping one knife after the other until I could claim a full set hidden in my dress. When I reached the end of the table I was practically floating with hope. I even took the crystal glass of champagne I was offered by a waiter holding out a silver tray. When I turned to observe the merriment of the ball, I saw the party happening around me with new eyes.

Now I was armed.

This changed everything.

I could feel it in the way my heart skipped and my spirits lifted, my mind racing with the possibility of escape. My eyes darted around the ballroom, across the guests, searching for every possible exit. I was sure my sister had them guarded, but I'd gotten out of far more difficult circumstances while gaming. All I had to do was trust my instincts and use the circumstances to my advantage just as I would on the Apps. The only difference was that the stakes here were real, and unlike that day on the cliff, this time I was aware of it.

Not a minor detail, but one on which I wouldn't dwell.

Maybe it was the smile on my face that broke the ice with the other guests, because someone approached me from the left. A man in a lion mask. He held out his hand to me for a dance and, as gracefully as I could manage given my revulsion, I took it. He led me to the center of the dance floor, my bare hand held high in his gloved one.

The orchestra quieted.

“You look lovely tonight,” he said in a voice that told me he was older.

The conductor tapped his wand and they started up a waltz.

As we swirled around the room, I made it a point never to look in his eyes. I was stiff in his arms, a wooden doll whose joints could bend. My skirts were heavy with the knives tucked into my dress, and I prayed they would stay. When the song ended, before I could lower my hands, someone else took the first man's place and the orchestra started up again. In the blur as we moved I saw my sister watching, nodding her head, pleased. I glimpsed our mother, too, eyes on me, her mouth a straight, worried line. Then a third man, this one in a pink tuxedo and matching pink mask, fringed with feathers, replaced the second. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of those knives. At one point I fantasized about their blades slicing through the skirt of the gown and nailing the foot of my current suitor to the floor. As the third song came to an end, I was about to claim the need for rest. But then I caught a glimpse of my next suitor. He wore all black and seemed younger than the others—I could tell by the slim, muscular shape of his shoulders and the part of his face not covered by a striped mask.

He'd come as a tiger.

He tapped the shoulder of my current partner, who
sighed and moved away. The new stranger took me into his arms and twirled me across the floor just like all the others. Yet unlike any of them, he leaned close, so close his lips brushed my earlobe, and he spoke.

“Skylar,” he whispered, and chills raced up my spine. “Try not to react.”

But the moment I'd seen the mask, I'd known. It was Rain's arms around me, one hand in my own, the other resting gently on my back, dancing with me. I felt a million things at once—the pain and hurt of his betrayal, rage about how he'd lied, suspicion, fear, even, that Rain had known all along that my sister was the leader of the New Capitalists. Despite all of this, I felt the rush of seeing someone familiar, someone for whom I had feelings, even as I wished I didn't. And hope, I felt hope, too. That maybe I wasn't alone in this after all. “You lied to me,” was all I said.

“I'm sorry, Skylar. But what you saw with Lacy, it wasn't what you think.”

I laughed bitterly. “It isn't just about Lacy, Rain. You knew about my sister, didn't you? You knew all along and yet you let me believe that if I helped you, you'd help me find my family. Why didn't you tell me?” I hissed. “You told me everything else, but you left out this one essential part.”

Rain was quiet as we turned to the music. The orchestra played a slower, more mournful waltz. “I didn't want
to break your heart. Not any more than I already had,” he said, his voice low. “But we can talk about all of this after we get you out of here.”

I kept my head turned from his. I couldn't bear to look at him. “Did you come with a plan for escape? Because I've been devising one myself.”

He laughed softly. “I wouldn't expect anything less.” He paused, then said, “I'm sorry this happened to you.”

“Not as sorry as I am. How long has it been since the last day I saw you? I still don't know.”

“A couple of months.”

I tried to ignore the way my stomach flipped at this news.

“Enough time to make a plan,” he said.

“Did you come alone?” I asked, my eyes searching the crowd for signs of familiarity. It was no use, though. The masks made it impossible to recognize anyone.

“No,” Rain said. “Look left along the back wall—the tall guest with the dragon's eyes. He's holding champagne.”

On the next turn I located him. “I see him.”

“That's Adam. And two guests away from him—the girl with the bright-purple feathers? That's Parvda.”

With every twirl in the dance I studied them. Soon I began to see signs of familiarity in the color of their skin and the way they kept glancing in our direction—and then in each other's. “Is there anyone else?”

“Yes. Zeera volunteered to come. And Jessica, too.”

I nodded slightly, my head still tilted away. There was something comforting about knowing Jessica was here. The girl who'd been with me for my ordeal on the cliff. “Where are they?”

“They're not in the ballroom, but they're close. And your Keeper. She insisted on being a part of this.”

A rush of relief and affection flowed through me, followed by guilt and worry. “She must hate me now. I put her in a terrible position.”

Rain shook his head. “She signed up for rebellion just like the rest of us. And getting you out of here tonight will be the real beginning of it. She wanted to be a part of this.”

The current song was winding to an end. My heart was pounding—with nerves, with hope, with the nearness of Rain. “We don't have much time. Tell me the plan.”

“It's simple. Parvda is going to come up to you and ask for a private interview. Your sister promised this to guests so they could . . . satisfy their curiosity if they needed to, or had any lingering concerns about your, ah, worth.”

My stomach twisted. It was difficult not to cringe. But I nodded.

“There's a room set aside for these conversations,” Rain went on. “It's not far from the exit. You'll go with her—it will be guarded—but at least it will get you away from the crowd in here. You'll both evade the guards and
get out as quickly as you can. We'll be right behind you. It shouldn't be that difficult. We have the benefit of surprise, but if anything goes wrong, Zeera has control of the lights and the video feeds in this place. She can create chaos if we need her to. But hopefully it won't come to that.”

“Jude had cameras all over the room where she kept me,” I said, remembering those tiny lenses in the corners of the ceiling.

“She has them in here too.”

“I'm tired of being watched,” I said.

“I know.”

The song ended and my newest partner tried to take Rain's place, but I politely declined. “Find me later?” I told him sweetly. “I need to go to the ladies' room.”

“I'll walk you in that direction,” Rain offered, an apologetic smile to the man I'd rejected. Then he gestured for me to follow.

We walked off the dance floor and into the crowd of guests who were drinking and eating merrily. I hesitated. “Thank you for coming to get me,” I said.

“I know that I broke your trust, but try to believe me when I say that there was no way that we wouldn't. We need you on our side.”

Maybe it was the fact that Rain had said
we
instead of
I
,
we
as in the rebellion, the group of people against the New Capitalists, but still, I felt like a grenade being lobbed
back and forth between two warring factions. I felt like a pawn in the game they were playing—a game for which I hadn't gotten to devise any of the rules, and one I certainly hadn't chosen to play of my own volition.

But I was in it now, like it or not.

“I'll see you when it's time,” I said by way of good-bye to Rain, consoled that it wouldn't be for long. At least not if things went smoothly. I was nearly to the ladies' room, but before I entered, I glanced black, locating Adam and Parvda to Rain's left. I didn't want to lose sight of them. It was right then that I nearly bumped into one of the guests.

“Excuse me,” she said in a huff. “Oh!” she added in surprise, just as I'd turned to apologize.

“Inara?” Her long blond hair fell in waves all around a sleek emerald-green gown that looked as though it had diamonds sewn into it. She wore a thin, matching green mask that glittered in the lights. It barely disguised her face, and made her seem like a bandit—a beautiful thief. She looked away from me, as though she couldn't bear my presence.

“I thought you'd be long gone by now, back to the App World,” I began, but then I noticed the boy standing a short ways off to the side, behind her. Trader. His mask was thin, but plain and black, as though they both wanted to be recognized, if not by the other guests, then, at the very least, by me. He was talking to a tall, distinguished
man in a black tuxedo who wore the mask of a warrior. It was painted with camouflage.

Inara raised a glass of champagne to her bright lips and guzzled half of it down. “I'm not allowed to go home until this deal is done, Skylar.”

I blinked. “By deal, you mean my sister selling me to one of these guests?”

She took another gulp of champagne. Then put the glass to her lips again and drained the rest. “It is what it is, Skye. Accept it.”

“You don't feel at all badly about your part in this?”

Inara set the flute on the tray of a passing waiter. His eyes flickered along the length of her dress before walking away. “Whatever part I have in this is your doing. If you hadn't lied to me, we wouldn't be in this situation. But we are, and now it's almost over and your sister will return us to our old lives.”

“Sure,” I said, and laughed again, but this time it was bitter. “And everything will go on as though none of this ever happened.”

“Your sister promised me that you won't remember a thing,” she said passionately. “And that I won't either. This part of our lives will be a big blank.”

My eyebrows went up. “Did she also promise that she won't sell your body?”

Inara shrugged. “I don't really care if she does or not.”

“You don't mean that,” I said. “That's not how you felt
at the funeral. You were just as horrified at the thought of being separated from your body as I was!”

Inara's eyes flashed. “We're not doing this now, Skye. I'm going to enjoy this party, I'm going to fill up on real food while I still have the chance, and then you and I can blissfully go back to our friendship when we're in the App World since neither of us will remember this nightmare. Though, in a way, that's too bad, since I'm not even sure we have a friendship worth salvaging.”

The loud
thump, thump, thump
of my heart beating filled my head. I was done begging for Inara's forgiveness. It was true, I'd lied to her, and for that I was sorry, but she didn't even try to understand my side of things, and why I did what I did. “Maybe you're right, Inara. Maybe there's nothing left to save. At least I have the chance to say that now, before my memory is erased.” My eyes slid to Trader where he stood off to the side, still talking to the same man as before. “Have fun with your boyfriend,” I added, tossing him a glare. Then I grabbed my skirts, careful not to touch the knives, and walked away without looking back. It was just as I was passing Trader that I saw my sister walking toward me—or I thought she was. She stopped short to talk to the warrior guest.

“Emory,” I heard Trader say, with a slight trace of disgust, excusing himself.

Emory?

As in Emory
Specter
?

What was he doing here?

Trader brushed by me. “Things aren't as they seem, Skye,” he said out of the corner of his mouth.

I barely heard him. I was too absorbed watching my sister. Jude took up the man's hand casually and leaned in to kiss him delicately on the cheek. He smiled in reply, and for a split second I wondered if my sister and this man—this man who might be Emory Specter—were lovers, even though her kiss had been chaste. But then my sister laughed, her face aglow with delight, and she spoke the following words, one single sentence that turned my blood to ice.

“I'm so glad you could be here tonight, Daddy,” she said.

THERE WASN'T TIME
to react.

Parvda was headed my way.

“I was hoping we could go somewhere for a chat,” she said when she reached me. Her voice was cold. “I'd like to test your skills.”

I nodded.

Looks were exchanged between Parvda and my sister. Then Parvda gestured with her finger that I should follow. When I didn't, she turned back. Cleared her throat. “I need you to come with me,” she said, slightly urgently.

This time I snapped out of it and let Parvda lead me through the crowd of guests, many of them glancing our way, some of them outright staring. Parvda swerved left
before we reached the grand staircase where my sister and I had made our entrance, and led me up to a tall door by the bar. At one point my eyes met Adam's. His small smile was reassuring, at least, that this part of their plan was going well.

Parvda opened the door.

Two guards immediately stepped in front of us. They were dressed the same way as the ones who'd taken me from the roof of the Water Tower and who were there on the cliff that day, with their pale-blue uniforms and with black, thick-soled boots on their feet. My eyes flickered to their waists and came to rest on the guns holstered there.

“I have a private appointment,” she said to the two large men with an authority in her voice that was surprising, especially for a girl so tiny.

They nodded and escorted us down the hall to another room lit by a chandelier at its center. There was a sofa and two chairs, with a coffee table between them.

“Sit,” Parvda ordered, and I did as I was told. She turned to the guards, who were still standing inside the room. “Which part of
private
do you not understand?”

They looked at each other, whispered something, then left, shutting the door behind them.

Parvda and I were alone.

Could escape be this easy?

Parvda turned toward a tiny round lens in the top right corner of the room and began speaking. “I have her.
It's time for us to move.”

I assumed—hoped—that Zeera was on the other end of the feed. “Tell them to bring my mother.”

But Parvda shook her head at me. “She's staying. We need your sister to think that your mother has no part in this. It's safer for her that way.”

“Leaving my mother with my sister is safe?” I clutched the skirt of my dress. “My sister is crazy. Besides, I need to talk to my mother. It's important.”
Essential
, I thought. Potentially life changing, and not in a good way. I couldn't leave without asking her if Emory Specter was my father. The possibility that we shared the same genes was horrifying. It was bad enough that I shared any with Jude at this point.

Then another thought made me blanch.

Did this somehow make Trader and me brother and sister?

A voice came through a hidden speaker into the room. “Jessica and everyone else are almost there,” it said. I was nearly certain the voice belonged to Zeera.

“Good. Make sure they take care of the guards outside. There's two.” Parvda snapped her fingers in front of my face and I jumped. “Skye? Are you with me? You have to stay focused. We're not out of here yet.”

There was a knock on the door.

Parvda's eyes clouded. “That was fast.” She went to it and put her ear to the wood. Then, slowly, she opened it.

But it wasn't Rain or Adam or Jessica standing there.

It was Jude. Behind her were the guards.

“Skylar, you're being so cooperative,” she said as she swept into the room, pleased. She turned to Parvda. “Have you gotten all the information you need? She can't be away from the party for much longer. Our guests have expectations.”

Parvda smiled back. “Of course,” she said cheerily. “I understand completely.”

“Good,” Jude said. “I'll walk you back to the party personally.”

Parvda put up a finger. “If I could just have one more minute in private.”

Jude's eyes frosted over. “You've had plenty of time. I'll walk you back now.”

“But—”

“No.” My sister's tone was so cold that if we were in the App World there would be icicles hanging in the air.

“Come now.” My sister nodded at the guards.

One of them entered the room. The other gestured for us to follow. We had no choice. Soon we were a parade on our way back to the ballroom, one guard in the lead, my sister behind him, then Parvda and me, after which came the second guard. There was no going anywhere else or waiting for the others.

But the others were already on their way.

They rounded the corner just as we did.

Our two groups nearly collided.

Everyone halted, surprised, facing one another. Adam, Jessica, and Rain blinked, their masks gone from their faces.

“Are you lost?” the guard up front asked them.

“You shouldn't be out here without an escort,” my sister said, her tone suspicious.

So this wasn't going to be so easy after all.

I looked at Parvda, eyebrows raised. She shook her head.

Jude tapped her chin with her fingers. “Wait a minute,” she said, studying Adam's face. “I've seen you before.” Adam began backing away. “You're one of the illegal sixteens! Guards! Take him into custody! Take them all!”

Quickly, before the guards could apprehend anyone, Parvda called up to the video feeds. “Zeera, we need you,” she cried. “Now!”

“Seize her,” Jude barked to one of the guards.

He was nearly on Parvda when the lights went dark. Shouts of surprise erupted from inside the ballroom. They must have gone out inside there too. There came a giant crash, then another, and the shouts turned into screams. All the doors around us flew open and guests streamed through them, many of them running.

“Everyone, let's go! Now!” Rain shouted above the din.

We all started to run, but it was difficult to move in my dress.

“Get them,” my sister shrieked. “Don't let her out of here!”

“Hurry,” Adam yelled to us as we rounded a corner, headfirst into a river of guests going the other way.

I grabbed as many of the knives as I could out of the folds of my dress as I ran, and one by one I opened them up and belted them in the fabric at my waist. Then I took the last one and cut away as much of the skirt as I could. The material dropped to the ground behind me in a stream of blue silk.

“Where's the exit?” I asked Rain.

“Almost there,” he said, his breaths coming quickly. “Just a couple more turns and we'll be at the back entrance. A van will be waiting for us.”

I didn't reply, just ran faster.

A fog seemed to descend around us.

I sniffed the air.

Smoke. Something was burning.

I thought of all those magical candles hanging from the ballroom ceiling. I imagined them crashing to the ground and lighting up the gowns of the guests, the tablecloths catching fire, turning my sister's fairy-tale event into a nightmare for everyone.

“There they are!” someone shouted behind us.

We were running down a long hallway. The end seemed impossibly far away.

A shot rang out.

Then another.

“Don't hit the sister,” one of the guards warned. “But get all the others!”

Suddenly bullets were everywhere.

Jessica dropped to the ground ahead of me.

And I screamed.

There was a pause in the shooting as the guards reloaded.

I ran to help her, but she was already dead, shot in the head. Her lifeless brown eyes looked up at me.

“Skye, come on!” Rain urged.

“Jessica,” I said, unable to turn away from her, unable to let go of her limp body, but then the shooting started again. I got up to run, and I stopped. I blocked Jessica and Rain with my own body, since my sister had ordered that I not be damaged. “We can't just leave her!”

“We have no choice.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me away.

I took one last look at Jessica, this girl who I thought would become my first real friend in this world, before leaving her behind. “Stay ahead of me so you don't get hurt,” I yelled up at Rain. I saw Adam and Parvda reach the exit.

Adam turned back, hesitant.

“Go on,” Rain urged him. “Make sure the van is ready! We're coming!”

They slipped through the doors.

We were nearly there when a group of guards appeared on our right. We would never reach the exit in time. Without thinking I grabbed one of the knives at my waist and threw it. It hit one of the guards, a woman, straight in the heart. The others seemed stunned, watching as she slid to the ground, her eyes going vacant.

I'd killed her.

I'd killed a real live human being for the second time.

But it was the first time I was aware while doing it.

This wasn't a game anymore.

I grabbed another knife and threw it, then another and another until they were all gone, watching as the guards went down one by one. Rain had been right. Our skills from gaming transferred. Even the killing one.

Rain's jaw fell open as he looked at the bodies lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, the others were getting closer behind us.

“Skye, we can make it,” Rain said. “Hurry!”

We stepped over the guards. Rain was through the door to safety and I was about to join him when I heard a familiar voice screaming and I came to an abrupt halt.

One of the guards approached.

He had Inara in a headlock. He dragged her along as she whimpered and cried. There was a gun pointed at her head. He stopped before he got to the first dead guard, maybe ten yards away. My sister was right behind him. Her hair had come loose and her dress was ripped. Gone
was the allure of calm that had surrounded her and gone was any of the sympathy she'd shown me earlier. Her eyes were filled with hatred. “How dare you ruin this for me! You've already ruined enough, and I won't let you take this too.”

The guard shifted Inara into my sister's grasp, and Jude pressed the gun hard into Inara's temple as she screamed in fear.

“Jude, let Inara go,” I said. “None of this is her fault.”

“I know, isn't it tragic? She and I have so much in common. You've nearly ruined both of us.”

“Please,” I begged. “She's my best friend.”

My sister laughed. “Not from what I hear.”

“Skye, help me,” Inara pleaded. Her voice was small and frightened.

“Your choice is simple.” Jude's eyes were wide, as though proclaiming innocence. “Turn yourself in, or watch your friend die.”

My eyes darted between Inara, the gun, and my sister, looking so smug, sure that she'd won. As my hands clutched at what was left of my dress, I discovered something.

A third option.

There was one knife left, one that I'd missed. It was still hidden in the folds of the tattered skirt.

I sighed heavily, dramatically, as though I was acquiescing to my sister's wishes, and in the process my hand
closed around the handle. I'd always been good with knives, but there was no room for mistakes here. Inara's life was at risk. Mine, too. And I'd have to be fast.

“Skye, don't do it, don't surrender,” I heard Rain say behind me. He must have come back through the door when I didn't emerge.

“I have to,” I said, spinning around to face him, taking this opportunity to ready the knife. “Inara needs me.”

Rain's eyes flickered to it. Then very slightly, he nodded.

I would aim for Jude's left shoulder.

I didn't have it in me to aim for her heart.

“Hurry up, Skylar,” Jude said. “I want this over. Now.”

“I'm coming,” I said.

Then, as I was turning back, I raised the knife.

And I threw it with all my might.

I watched it leave my hand and fly across the room. It seemed to travel in slow motion. My sister's face went slack with shock as her eyes saw the blade. Her arm loosened and Inara slipped to the ground. Just as the knife was about to reach its target, at the very last second, Jude moved. She crouched in an attempt to protect herself.

But she calculated badly.

Moved left instead of right.

The knife hit its mark.

It plunged straight into the side of Jude's face.

She let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The guards went to her.

Trader appeared behind them. “I've got Inara! I'll take her to safety! Get out while you can,” he shouted to me, but his words seemed so far away.

Blood was everywhere.

My sister's face was covered in it.

“We have to go, we have to go, we have to go now,” someone was saying urgently behind me. The words were distant and I couldn't make myself react. Jude's scream echoed in my head.

I thought it might echo there forever.

Then Rain stepped between me and the guards who were helping my sister, between me and Trader, who was helping Inara up. They began to run, Trader yanking Inara along behind him. Neither of them looked back. “Skylar. Wake up.” Rain grabbed my arm and dragged me from the room, out the door into the cool night air.

Time blurred.

The smell of burning was everywhere.

A van pulled up and I let myself be lifted inside. I felt the vehicle lurch forward. Around me were Adam and Parvda, Zeera and Rain. Not Jessica. Never again Jessica. In my daze, I noticed someone else in the passenger seat, a girl with long copper hair. She turned around and blinked at me in the darkness.

“What's Lacy doing here?” I managed to ask.

“A lot has happened while you were gone,” said a
familiar voice, and I saw that the Keeper was at the wheel. She kept glancing at me in the mirror. “I'm glad you're okay.”

I nodded. “Yes,” I told her, my tone flat. “I'm fine.”

But was I? Were any of us?

As if to confirm this, Lacy reached back—I thought for me, at first—but then I realized she was reaching for Rain's hand. A look passed between them as he took it. “You've got her,” she said to him. “Just like you said you would. It's going to be okay. Everything will be okay.”