Kaine was just as taken aback. The Tangent actually stammered. “I … You … I’m not going to stand here and be lectured by a child.” He pointed at Michael. “By one who is my creation, perhaps, but not by you.” His finger moved to Sarah.
The Tangent took a step closer to her, leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. “I’ve tried to be reasonable,” he whispered, “and I can’t comprehend how you could possibly turn your back on immortality. Not just for me, for all—humans and Tangents alike. There are things in motion that are too late to stop. But I have new plans, great plans. I won’t tell you more until I have a commitment. And it would be wise to decide before the KillSims arrive.”
And then Kaine disappeared.
Michael didn’t know if he wanted to hug Sarah or shake her. Either way, he went to her and grabbed her shoulders. “What … what was that?”
She wilted a little. “Sorry. I’m just so … I just … I want to kill him. He’s nothing but a string of code—there has to be a way!”
He understood how angry Sarah was—Kaine had her parents—but what she said still hurt. Up until only a few days earlier, that was all he’d been, too. A string of code. She saw it in his eyes before he could hide it.
“Oh! Sorry, sorry, sorry,” she said in a rush. “It’s not my greatest day ever. Or week.”
Michael hugged her, not knowing what else to do. “I know what it’s like.” He was thinking of his parents, who’d been taken away from him also, but he didn’t know if she could understand that.
The buzz of static reverberated along the glowing purple plane under their feet, an almost electronic noise that ran through Michael’s body. Pulse after pulse, the sound picked up speed, getting louder and louder. Footsteps. Over Sarah’s shoulder, Michael saw a group of shadows appear, dark against the purple glow of the horizon, bounding toward them on four legs. Fear rose in his throat. KillSims. Several of them, charging in.
Sarah must have felt him tense up. She pulled away from his embrace and turned to look.
“I guess he meant it,” she said, her voice neutral. Her words made Michael think of ice. Big chunks of ice, cold and hard. “Bryson? Get up.”
For a second Michael had totally forgotten about their friend. He’d been so quiet, sitting on the ground, not moving.
“Hey,” Michael said. “You okay? We’ve got a problem here.”
He moved closer to Bryson, then pulled up short. The shadows had been hiding what he could now see clearly.
Bryson’s eyes were closed.
Michael allowed himself to feel a tiny dusting of hope again. Bryson had done the smart thing and gotten straight to work on the code as soon as Kaine had disappeared. And Bryson was brilliant when he really got down to it. He’d been the one who shut down the crazy old lady trying to kill them with the flying ropes in the Devils of Destruction lobby.
And Michael really, really didn’t want to fight the KillSims again. Not after what had happened at the Black and Blue Club. Come on, Bryson, he thought, pushing it out there like he was appealing to God. Take us away.
The creatures were much closer, their muscular, wolflike bodies bounding along the ethereal purple ground, growling electronic snarls. Their footsteps blended now, a constant, thunderous thump of static. Bryson was their only chance. Sarah took Michael’s hand, and silently, they faced the monsters coming at them. What had to happen was obvious.
That lump of fear lodged in Michael’s throat had doubled in size, making it hard to breathe. There were at least ten KillSims. He thought about trying to pull a weapon in, something stolen from a game, but he didn’t have enough time, especially with the code being so hard to touch. Plus, his identity had made everything complicated—the weapons and skills he’d amassed in his old life were behind layers of firewalls. And siding with Kaine was not an option. They’d just have to do their best to hold the monsters off long enough for Bryson to work some magic. Break them out.
Hunchbacked, muscled beasts of shadow. Pounding the purple ground with their enormous paws, jaws snapping, the world full of noise. Kaine had given Michael one chance to show he could trust them. They’d failed his test, and the Tangent wanted them ended. Life sucked out, brains dead, bodies to follow soon after. Game over.
Sarah let go of Michael’s hand and braced herself for a fight. Legs bent, body crouched, hands up, balled into fists. Michael thought her expression alone might murder a couple of the beasts. He tried his best to follow her example, but in his heart he knew there was no way they could win like this. He held up his fists anyway, sweat beading his fabricated skin.