Reality Heist - Geordi Riker (ready player one ebook TXT) 📗

“I sincerely doubt it wasn't. But, if you're so sure, I guess it won't hurt to ask Chase when he gets back about the three guys I ran into and how they can-”

“Okay!” Jesse explodes, cutting me off, “I get it. You want answers.”

The look in his eye triggers something that causes all the pieces to fall into place. “You're the one they were talking about, aren't you? You're Derek.”

He purses his lips, “They told you about that, huh? I take it they sensed a Black then.” He studies his puzzle.

“Yeah, close by. What exactly do you do to them?”

“Who?” He looks up, his hand moving to fill in the rest of the squares.

“The Black. You freaked out when you realized that the cabbie was one. So does this dimension amplify your powers or something so that you can take on the Black more effectively?”

“They told you that I took care of the Black, right? Pretty sure they made it sound like I kill them. Actually, all I do is walk right up to them, and they take off. Guess we're not supposed to be able to notice them or something like that. Whatever the reason, it's like they're operating under a non-interference policy- they never go anywhere near us.”

“Then what was all the fuss about in the last dimension? Every member of the group was being shadowed, and we even ran into Magdalene.”

“Who?”

My eyebrows shoot up, “Uh, it's just a nickname for that chick the cabbie brought us to.”

“Why'd he do that?”

“You were there too, you should be able to remember that much.”

“I was already trying to force it by that point, remember?”

“I don't know. He pulled over, and started walking towards her. Then you forced it.”

“Did you get a good look at her?” He asks, puzzle forgotten.

The same urge that made me lie about Hiyori causes me to reply: “No. Not really. But she was creepy, like she wanted to swallow me whole or something.” His shoulders slump with disappointment. “Why?” I ask, “Do you know who she is?”

He shakes his head “No. I was just thinking that maybe that she might have been one of the higher ups within the Black.”

“I think she is.”

Jesse nods, “And you're sure that you didn't get a good look at her, right?”

“No, and I still don't get why it would be so great if I had.”

“She's probably the first higher up we've ever come across; we've never had an actual run-in with the Black before. They always disappear whenever me or Chase gets close. And if any of the others had ever come into contact with one, we'd have noticed the bits of black Pressure that had attached themselves to them. This was the first real time that they've ever shown their faces. It's probably not a good idea that we're all spread out again like this.”

“But you said that this was the haven dimension, the one where we all got a chance to rest up and shit.”

“No, that's what those three morons at that stupid cult-center of theirs told you. That's just  a lie I told them so that I could get a freaking private doctor to swing by for Amaar's arm.”

“So why do we end up coming back here then?” I ask, confused.

Jesse flips his puzzle over to reveal the bare backside. He proceeds to draw dots in straight rows and columns as he replies, “It's like a default location. If we ever force it, this is where we end up. The first time, we just figured it was just another dimension, and stole the object in the file. That's also when I first ran into those people.

“The second time, Amaar's arm was pretty beat up. Gunshot, clean through. I don't know if you've noticed, but the tech around here is pretty awesome, bone grafts are 100% successful, and all that lovely stuff. And when I ran into that Jacob guy again, and he recognized me, I realized something else was up. Nobody's supposed to remember us, and we never visit the same dimension twice.

“But still, he did, and I used the opportunity to get into a hospital- did those three ever mention where they got the original funds from? Their dad's some super-high CEO who had just recently died. They liquidated the assets, collected the life insurance money, and lived pretty comfortably. The guy was so excited to see me, and when I let slip that one of my crew was injured, he all but begged me to let him help us. He sent a limo with me, had Amaar picked up and transported to the hospital. The guy even covered the bill for the private room. You would not believe the cost of even getting through the doors of those places.”

He finishes the grid. “Squares?” I guess as he draws a line between two of them and slides the pen to me.

He nods, “Why not?”

“Prepare to get your butt kicked.” I grin even as I draw a line at the top of the second column.

Jesse procures another pen, and we rapidly take turns making lines.

“By the way,” Jesse starts, “Did you mention to them how many people we have in out group?”

I nod. “Yeah, they were kind of surprised by the 'low number',” I air quote the words. “But if they ran into you, wouldn't you have told them that there were only six?”

Jesse laughs, “No. you always want to appear stronger than you are. Makes you less of a target to other groups of Sliders.”

“There are other Sliders?”

He shrugs, “Maybe, maybe not. We don't know. The midgets we ran into might have been just a group of thieves local to that dimension.”

“How are the groups made?”

“Huh? How do you mean that?”

“How did I end up Sliding with you guys instead of a different group?”

He shrugs as he studies the grid. There's still plenty of options left without giving the other  a square. “Well, we were in your dimension when you got sucked in.”

He says it so matter-of-factly, that I can almost imagine it to be perfectly natural that things would turn out that way. I actually have to shake my head to remind myself what's all going on. “How can you be sure of that?”

“Well, the Slide that brought us all together in that Pure-Curse Six happened at night, so I'm guessing that you contracted the virus sometime in the afternoon. It normally takes a couple hours after it gets into your system for it to actually catalyze.”

“Where could I have picked up a virus that causes me to Slide?”

Before he even answers, I figure it out for myself. “You must have gone somewhere new, a place under their control. They've got traps all over the universe, designed to attract people with high Pressure as if we're nothing more than annoying mosquitoes to be caught and shipped off as part of some sort of tour.”

I blink. Not the way I would put it, but yeah, I guess that's what happened.

“Did you notice anything weird that day?”

“Well, I had to do a rush-job of hacking the school because my Mom wanted me and Will to come with her shopping in some part of the Old Town.”

“Hack the school? You fail all your exams or something?”

I shrug, “Guess it doesn't really matter now why I did it.”

“So you hacked the school. Did you use the Internet, get any weird pop-ups?”

I can't help but laugh. “Please, give me a bit more credit as a hacker than that. Hack the school's website to get at my grades using the Internet? Do I look like I'm a noob? I'm old school, man.”

“Just trying to figure out what happened is all,” he says defensively, “No need to get all high and mighty because you know some things that I don't. They got to you somehow, using something that only would be noticed by a potential Slider.”

I try to think of what might have happened, but all that comes to mind is the image of men in black suits and wearing wires following me around, syringes filled with a sort of silver liquid held at the ready as they waited for an optimal time slot to inject me. They look so funny that I start laughing again, unable to stop myself. Tears start to stream out form my eyes as I try to get myself back under control.

Jesse stares at me for a moment before getting up and walking away, slamming the door behind him. I snatch my bag up and race after him, laughter gone as soon as it came, “Hey! Wait up!”

He whirls around to face me, his face livid. “What? You think this all some sort of joke, that it's all fun and games. I'm trying to help you figure out how you triggered the slide, and you go and treat this like it's all one big fat joke. You don't get it! Some of us have been sliding for years. Anything we can figure out, no matter how small, can be useful. We can learn something from it. We can try to understand what's happening to us and why.

“But you. All you do is muck things up. I've dealt with more Black since you came than I have in the entire time I've been sliding.”

“Which is what? Eight months? Sorry mister big-shot, didn't know that I could just tell the Black to leave us alone and they would listen to me, like they listen to you!”

“What?”

“Oh come on. Do you really think I buy the whole 'I just walk up to them and they disappear' crap? Give credit where it's due. If they take off when you show up, why did one of them pick us up in the last dimension, and take us straight to one of their bosses, huh? I'll tell you why, it's because they're not scared of us. We're not just mosquitoes to them, and you guys did something to tick them off enough that they thought it was time to give y'all a talking to. I don't know what it is, and I don't care. But don't try to pin their sudden increase of activity on me.”

I brush right past him, “Don't wait up for me, 'cause I ain't coming back.” I shoulder the back pack higher up onto my shoulder and focus on the Motes around me. Teleport. I picture myself standing by the elevator downstairs, part the Motes around me, and take a step forward-

-walking straight into the elevator doors in the lobby. I blink, rubbing my nose as I turn around. The guy on duty is just staring at me, phone half-raised to his ear, his jaw flapping. Someone on the other end of the wire is yelling at him, but all he can do is stare at me, who had just appeared out of nowhere right in front of him.

I tick my head to one side in a quick jerk, causing something to pop and my neck to stop aching. I storm right past the guy. “Gonna catch a fly like that.”

I don't even look behind me to see his reaction. I walk right through the door, not bothering to open it. The Motes swirl around me, excited, giving off a quiet little hum. “Shut up!” I snap at them, but the whole way to the closest bus stop they continue humming, rising and falling in volume, but maintaining the same annoying pitch, almost as if it's how they express their happiness of being active.

Digging through my bag before I'm even sitting, I liberate the tablet and a bus card that looks like it'll work here. Waiting for the next bus, I turn on the tablet, careful to not use the holographic interface. A quick tapping of keys displayed on the screen grants me access to wonderful Google. I almost smile through the tears- when did I start crying?- at the sight of something so familiar. But it's soon swallowed up as I glare at the screen. In a moment,