When the KillSims were ten feet away, a large black hole suddenly appeared in the surface before them, jolting Michael and Sarah to the ground. The KillSims were moving so fast they couldn’t stop. Michael lay there watching the creatures, one after another, fall into the abyss at their feet. Their static growls faded quickly as they vanished into the black chasm, and in a matter of seconds they were gone.
Michael didn’t even have time to register what had happened. As soon as the creatures disappeared, the entire world around them started to fade, the code reappearing like a swarm of bees. Then, in a flash, there was nothing, and Michael found himself back in the Coffin.
They were out. In the Wake. Safe. Bryson had done it.
They’d won. The smallest of victories. A tiny hill compared to a towering range of snow-capped mountains, Michael knew, but a victory all the same.
Watch out, Kaine, Michael thought.
Unfortunately, Bryson wasn’t around to celebrate. Michael would’ve happily endured the inevitable gloat-fest.
Michael and Sarah sat at the small kitchen table of the apartment they’d rented. They’d cleaned up and eaten a quick meal of instant lasagna. It tasted like crap, normally, but simple hunger made it a delicious feast.
“What did he mean about having connections?” Sarah asked after wiping her mouth with a napkin. “And that you were put in the body of Jackson Porter for a reason?”
Michael shrugged, his thoughts too wild, too all-over-the-place, to come up with an answer. The one thing that came to mind immediately was Gabriela. Her dad lived in Atlanta, which was where VNS headquarters was located. Michael had been through too much to believe that could possibly be a coincidence.
“We have to find Bryson before anything else,” Sarah added. “We need to make sure he made it out. It couldn’t have been long before Kaine saw what was happening. He could have swooped in to end things himself.”
Michael tried to laugh the suggestion off. “Come on. You know Bryson. He would’ve made sure to save his own hide just as soon as ours. He’s probably eating hot dogs and patting himself on the back right now.”
“Yeah.” Her deadened voice showed she hadn’t been convinced. “We need to find him, talk to him. And as soon as we can. Kaine’s not going to let us just walk away from this.”
Michael sighed. He had to agree. “Let’s go back into the Sleep, look for him again. Then decide where to meet in the Wake.”
Sarah stood up. “No. No way. Kaine’s too smart. We have to leave. Now.”
“Wait, what’re you saying?”
She was already halfway to the door, but she turned back to face him and looked disappointed that he wasn’t on her heels. “Michael, listen. We can’t go back into the VirtNet. We just can’t. At least in the real world we have a fighting chance against Kaine. We can hide without him tracing us here. Now come on.”
This time he obeyed.
They went to a nearby park and found a bench that was off the main path, hidden in a copse of trees. Michael kept reassuring himself that things were different in the Wake—Kaine wasn’t a god in the Wake. The Tangent and his KillSims couldn’t just magically appear any time they wanted to.
“All right,” Sarah said, patting her knees. “All right. We can do this. We just need to be super careful, stay on the run, keep changing our identities, whatever. And we can’t go back into the Sleep, no matter what.”
“But Bryson,” Michael said, hearing a slight whine in his own voice. “Like you said, we have to find him. We can’t just hang him out to dry.”
Sarah patted her knees again. “I know. Look, we can use our NetScreens every once in a while. Kaine can’t physically hurt us there; he can just use it to trace our location. Right? So we use it against him, logging on sporadically and in weird places. Hopefully Bryson will be just as smart. Let’s send him a message. Come up with some kind of code.”
She smiled, a sweet attempt to make things seem a little less crappy. Michael was glad for it.
“Okay,” he agreed. “It’s a plan. Stay smart and run. Sounds like a sweet life.”
“Should we use my NetScreen or yours?”
“Yours. I think Kaine might have a little better chance of finding me no matter how many times I make a new and improved version.” He thought of Jackson Porter then, and hated himself a little for being so glib.
Sarah squeezed her EarCuff, and as soon as the screen projected out in front of her, Michael could almost hear a clock ticking. With every passing second, Kaine might be on to them, moving in, sending someone to kill them.
“What do we want to say?” Sarah asked. “I’m drawing a blank.”
Michael’s palms were sweaty. “I don’t know. I’ve never met Bryson in the Wake. He could live in China, for all we know.”
Sarah scoffed. “Did Kaine fry your brain? We’ve talked about this before, all those times we were supposed to hook up somewhere. You were always the farthest away, so he should be close, even if he’s hiding out. We just need to be smart. Come on.”