“They’d have to be, to manage this in such a short amount of time,” Devin said, and the words were fainter than when he’d spoken before. Shell-shocked, like he was beginning to understand the extent of the destruction.
“It wasn’t like anything I thought possible in here. They were so much stronger, working in better coordination with each other than the other night, even,” SmallvilleGuy said. “I did manage to talk one of your dragons into chasing them off. That’s where the fire came from.”
Devin squinted, no doubt reading SmallvilleGuy’s stats.
Good luck. You’ll never figure out who he is.
“Since when can friendly aliens talk to dragons?” Devin asked.
SmallvilleGuy rubbed his chin, looking embarrassed. “Since one found a cache of uber-secret cheat codes buried in threads on a private developer forum for game architects and workers.”
I knew what that meant. He’d managed to do some more research. His friend from the boards had come through. Nice. “You find anything else usefully cheat-y?”
“Just more of the same type of . . . thing we talked about the other night. R&D project rumors.”
Devin wasn’t paying attention to us, though. He was wandering toward the remains of his castle. SmallvilleGuy and I trailed after him more slowly.
My cheeks still felt warm and I decided it must be from the fact that everything around us was on fire. Yes, that was it. Definitely.
SmallvilleGuy was my friend. We were just friends.
“So I guess they’re talking to you again? That’s a good sign,” he said. “I’m glad you have backup out there. The Warheads . . . they really were in rare form when I saw them. And there’s something else. I hate to be the one to tell you. But did you happen to see Anavi today?”
“She was with them, wasn’t she? I know already. They got to her. I saw her with them this morning. I failed her, and I think we both know who’s likely to be next.”
We gazed at the wreck in front of us. Devin stood in front of the tower, his head craned back to take in the flag, his posture resounding with defeat.
“They were strong and they’ll be back,” SmallvilleGuy said. “I doubt Daisy can hold them off for long.”
“Daisy?” I asked.
“The dragon. She did say Devin didn’t like other people to know he named her that, so maybe keep it to yourself.”
I found that I was smiling at him, without even intending to. Despite the fact that the world was literally burning around us and everything was awful. I couldn’t help it.
“I’m a vault,” I said. “What other secrets do you have?”
I regretted it as soon as the words left my lips, knew he’d misinterpreted them by the way his expression changed. A subtle closing down and shutting me out. The graphics in this game were too good, sometimes.
Did he look like that every night when I asked who he was?
“That’s not what I meant,” I said, but my smile was gone. “Anything else about our bad guys?”
“Oh,” he said, kicking aside a piece of rubble. “TheInventor, my buddy I told you about, vouched to get me registered on that private site for developers so I could see any relevant discussions—lucky for me they didn’t require the same kind of proof you did. He pointed me to some chatter about a project at Advanced Research Labs, a study of team dynamics and how to enhance them using real-sim technology.”
“Signs point to Project Hydra,” I said.
“Seems likely. The results so far are getting high marks from the boss, but one of the researcher guys actually running it came from the game company and was talking about it with some of his former co-workers from there on the site. All in vague terms, but it was clear that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He won’t say why out in the open though. I did gather that their boss has the research team gearing up for a presentation soon to some sort of potential buyer. I still don’t know exactly what it is.” He paused. “Lois, are you going after them alone?”
My heart kicked in my chest, and I felt ridiculous again.
“I won’t do anything I don’t have to.”
It was the best I could do.
“Fair enough,” he said. “Though I guess this means you’re giving up on staying out of trouble.”
I stopped walking. We were almost to Devin, and he was looking for a clear path into the wreckage.
I turned to SmallvilleGuy. “What can I say? Every time I try to walk away, I run right into it instead.”
But he would see through that, wouldn’t he? Me playing it off like it didn’t bother me.
Yes, he would. He did.
“Lois, you haven’t done anything wrong.”
“I know. I think this is just who I am. I’m never going to fit in anywhere. I’ll always be . . . different.”
“Is that so bad?” he asked.
And he waited for the answer, like it mattered to him too. Through his glasses, I saw that his eyes were blue. Kind and blue. These graphics were good, but were they accurate? Of course his skin wasn’t green outside the game, but were his eyes that same blue?
I’d be more than okay with it, if they were.