A virus. A virus from the scepter had wiped his hard drive. Aedric must have planted it, hoping that it would wipe Breck’s hard drive. But Breck hadn’t stuck to the plan. Breck had grabbed the scepter while wearing Reef’s goggles. And now everything stored on Reef’s hard drive was gone.
“Why did you pick up the scepter?” Reef’s voice was shrill. It didn’t sound like his voice at all. “I was supposed to pick it up. It was supposed to go to your account.”
“Cadence told me I should let it go to your account,” Breck said. “She said you deserved it since it was your sword I was going to make the kill with.”
Cadence? Since when did Cadence have any part in this? Confusion pounded in Reef’s head. “She said . . . When did she say that?”
“I told her about the dungeon we were all going to do together. I told her Aedric had set it up so I’d get the scepter on my account. But she said you should have it.”
“She said . . .” The euphoria of the drug had passed and now there was only the feeling of lead settling into Reef’s veins, into his bones.
“Reef?” Olly said.
Reef pulled off Breck’s goggles and flung them away. His own goggles lay dark and empty on the floor. “Everything on my hard drive’s gone. Wiped.”
He caught a movement in the corner of his vision—the alien pulling off his own goggles, his face a blank mask. Reef waited for him to say something, but he only turned and walked away, headed for the doors at the end of the warehouse.
“We have to get out of here,” Reef groaned. “Before Aedric comes back.”
“Aedric?” Breck rocked on his feet, confused, nervous.
“He set us all up,” Reef said. “It didn’t work the way he planned, but he set us up. Your visa’s gone.”
Reef’s feet pounded an uneven rhythm on the pavement. He found himself at Cadence’s apartment building, and then thumping up the stairs, his heart thumping to match. Her door was unlocked, but she was gone. No one in the apartment. Just as he left the building he saw Aedric coming around the corner. Reef ran even while his muscles trembled in protest.
Back to his container. She wasn’t there. Something was piled on the bed.
He flicked on the light. The something was a mound of gray bricks of resin. On top of the pile lay a note. Reef snatched it up and then backed away again, as though afraid the bricks would come to life under his fingers. Cadence had scrawled, Sell it—Croy doesn’t need it anymore.
Reef leaned against the wall, trying to understand what it meant, trying to resist the itch in his bones at the sight of the drug. The night in the light-up lounge came back to him. He had asked her if she was close to getting the visas, and she had given him a strange answer: You know why the aliens stopped wearing those red bracelets? Everyone wanted something from them. What had she meant? That she was sorry she wanted something from Reef—money, visas? Or that she was sorry Reef wanted something from her? But I didn’t want anything from her, Reef thought. Not even the money in the end. I only wanted to be with her.
And now she was gone and had left all of this resin behind for him. Why? To make up for the virus that had wiped his hard drive? But she hadn’t known that Aedric had planted a virus in the silver scepter, a virus meant for Breck. She hadn’t known it would wipe Reef’s hard drive.
Had she?
He looked at the bricks piled on his bed. Sell it.
He pulled on his goggles and coaxed them to life. His system latched on to a wireless connection and spent a minute setting itself up from scratch. He opened the chat channel and tried hailing Cadence, but she wouldn’t answer.
He pulled them off again.
She’d known about the virus. She had wanted it to wipe his hard drive. Why? Why would she want to do that to him? Because she didn’t want another husband. She’d only wanted the visas.
He didn’t think, just loaded his pockets with as many bricks as he could and left his container. Aedric would be looking for him, thinking he still had Breck’s visa. He had to leave. He didn’t know where to go.
He headed to the lounge she’d taken him to. If she was waiting for him somewhere, that would be the place. But that was stupid—why would she be waiting for him? She was probably all the way to Canada by now.
He wasn’t the only one on the street, even late as it was. A knife flicked open behind him, a familiar sound that nevertheless sent a fresh surge of adrenaline through his veins. He turned just in time to avoid a swipe from the blade of a pale-faced junkie. Reef tore a brick of resin from his pocket, flung it as far as he could, and ran in the other direction.
He was breathless and shaking with exhaustion by the time he reached the gray-painted door next to the noodle place. He pounded on the door. No answer. He leaned his back against it, tried to catch his breath. Then the dark unsettled him and he crossed over to the other side of the street. The neon sign over the Roosevelt Hotel was like a beacon.
A ping from his goggles told him someone was hailing him on the chat channel. It was Cadence.
Her voice came through, but not her face: “I’m sorry.”