“What is it?” Michael yelled, standing up. “Tell me what’s going on!”
The Tangent’s smile seemed carved into his face. “I told you—there’s no way you’ll understand until you experience it for yourself. Which is about to happen, very soon. There’s nothing you can do to stop it, Michael.”
“I should hack into your coding,” Michael answered. “I could do it. I could shut you down. Stop you forever.”
“You just continue to prove why I’ve deemed you worthy, boy. You are a perfect candidate indeed. Would you like to know something else?”
Michael was seething—he refused to answer.
Kaine shrugged his frail shoulders, then kept talking. “Your parents, Michael. They’re … gone. I’ve wiped them from existence. You’ll never see them again. I’ve done the same with your poor, poor Helga. Gone, Michael.”
Michael’s hands were shaking, his blood boiling, a rushing sound in his ears.
Kaine grinned so widely his teeth showed. “They’re all dead.”
3
Michael’s insides had felt as if they’d been strung with tight wire, cinched to the breaking point. At Kaine’s last words, they all snapped.
He ran forward and grabbed the Tangent’s shirt, jerked him out of his chair, and threw him to the floor. The chair flew back, hit the stone hearth, and tipped into the fire, sending sparks and ash everywhere. Kaine was on his back, staring at Michael, a huge smile still plastered on his face. Then Michael noticed the Tangent shaking. Kaine was laughing at him.
Michael’s hatred erupted.
He jumped onto Kaine’s chest and pinned the old man to the ground. But the Tangent wouldn’t stop laughing. Michael pulled back a fist, but it hung there—he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t punch someone who looked so old and frail, simulated or not.
Kaine stared back at him, smiling, revealing those ancient teeth. “I like your spirit,” he said. “I love how you keep proving me right.”
Whatever spirit he was talking about drained right out of Michael. He pushed himself off of the Tangent’s body and stood up, breathing heavily as he glared down at him. Kaine put his hands behind his head and crossed one ankle over the other, as if he was just lying on the ground, taking in the stars.
“This is pointless,” Michael said. “I’ll let the VNS take care of you. And if they don’t, I’ll figure out something else. I’m done.”
Michael turned and headed for the door.
“Just proving my point over and over,” the Tangent called from behind him. “Too smart, too grounded, to let your rage control you for longer than a moment. Go on, Michael. Go out there and fulfill your new role in the world. You’ll understand soon.”
Michael refused to look back. He walked through the door and slammed it behind him.
4
Michael’s first thought was that he needed to find a VNS agent, ask for help getting back to the Wake. Roaming the forest to look for a Portal—risking who knew what—sounded like a very bad idea. He needed to head for the castle and hope that the good guys had won.
The path away from the cottage was easy to follow even in the darkness. He could feel his way along it if nothing else. He headed down the trail, wondering if Kaine was going to follow him—try to hurt him somehow.
The VNS. They were Michael’s only choice.
He broke into a jog.
5
As Michael approached the edge of the forest, he started to hear the sounds of battle, and light from the fires ahead began to illuminate his path, but the closer he got, the darker his thoughts became. He’d hoped that the VNS would win swiftly—it had seemed to be going that way when he left. But the tide must have turned if things weren’t over by now.
Finally he could see where the trees ended, and he ducked behind an enormous oak to get a better look at the situation.
It was chaos. Pure, disastrous chaos.
The castle itself was almost in ruins. Entire sections had crumbled into piles of rubble. Fires burned everywhere—flames blazed and sent sparks dancing into the sky. Bodies littered the ground, along with broken stone—and there were just as many VNS agents as Tangents. Michael gaped as the bodies disappeared before his eyes.
Michael didn’t know what to do. How could he possibly expect to survive in such a mess?
Despite wanting to return to the woods, he ran forward, heading for the closest VNS agent, about twenty feet away. A woman, who seemed to have just finished off one of Kaine’s soldiers.
“Hey!” Michael shouted. “Hey! I need to talk to you!”
She spun to face him, raising her weapon. Michael immediately dropped to his knees and held up his hands.
“I work for you! My name is Michael, I’m the one you sent in here!”
The woman didn’t lower her laser gun, but she didn’t fire it, either. She walked over to him, everything about her stance defensive.
“What kind of trick is this?” she asked when she reached the spot in front of him. The sounds of battle still thumped the air all around them, screams and explosions.
“Trick? No trick.” Michael had to keep shouting, still didn’t know if she could hear him. His heart banged in his chest. “Agent Weber … sent me here. To break into the Hallowed Ravine. To stop the Mortality Doctrine program!”
The agent stared at him through her shield of protective glass. Michael hated not being able to see her eyes.
“You really don’t understand, do you?” she finally said. “Amazing.”
He couldn’t answer. She was right—he didn’t understand. But he had no idea what it was that he didn’t know.
A commotion pulled away his attention. Beyond the VNS agent in front of him, across the field of battle, Michael saw people running from the entrance of the castle, frantically trying to escape … something.
Then he saw what it was. They’d been hard to make out in the darkness.
KillSims. Dozens of them. Bounding out of the broken stone fortress and attacking anything that moved.
6
Michael jumped to his feet just as the agent turned around and realized what was happening. She dropped her weapon, then sprinted toward the forest.
A million thoughts flew through Michael’s mind, the biggest one being that there’d be no outrunning these creatures. Black and enormous, they pounced forward in impossible bursts of speed, covering the field and heading straight for him. So he stood there, waiting, wondering if there was some way out of this. He closed his eyes and scanned the code, but there was nothing.