The Eye of Minds

She was controlling the ropes.

10

He’d only have one chance at this.

Stonewall was thirty feet away, behind the ticket counter. In front of it, Bryson’s gun lay there for the taking. Between it and Michael, cords of black rope flew through the air like living vines, forming a spiderweb of traps. He sprinted forward.

They all attacked him at once, swarming in from every direction. He flung his arms wildly, jumped, and twisted, exploding with adrenaline. A cord tripped him up, sent him crashing to his stomach. Two ropes immediately snaked around his torso and he spun, grabbing them and pulling them off. He kicked and flailed, swatted and punched. Somehow he got back onto his feet and moved forward again, now several feet closer to his target. The ropes came again.

He pushed ahead, acting on instinct. He must’ve looked ridiculous, like a cracked-up dancer. He clambered toward the gun, getting closer and closer. A rope found his arm and cinched tight before he could do anything. It flung him into the air as he gripped it with his other hand and ripped his arm loose from its hold. Luckily, it had been pulling him in the right direction, and he slammed into the floor and slid forward until his head smacked the bottom of the ticket counter. The gun was right in front of his face.

He grabbed it, held it tight with both hands. Before he could get up, the ropes flew in, going for his legs and waist and chest, wrapping tightly around him. As he was fighting off those attempting to wind around his arms, the other ropes lifted him into the air.

He shot up and Stonewall came into view, her features still frozen. Michael only had an instant—the black cords were converging on his arms, trying to take the gun away. He aimed for her chest. But everything stopped before he could pull the trigger.

The ropes let go of him. As Michael crashed to the ground, the sounds of their retreat filled the room, a ringing metallic hiss as they slid back into their cubbyholes. The breath knocked out of him, Michael rolled over to look at his friends. They were free, too. He glanced back at Stonewall, saw her body slumped forward on the counter.

“What …,” Michael started to say, but he came up empty.

“I hacked her,” Bryson said from behind, his voice trembling with exhaustion. “She’s a Tangent—I shut her down. I’ve never been able to do that before—I got lucky, found a weak spot. Barely.”

So that’s why his eyes were closed, Michael thought, so relieved he wanted to laugh.

“Let’s get going,” Sarah said.

And Michael knew exactly what she meant. Into the game.

CHAPTER 10

THREE DEVILS

1

It took a few moments, but Michael was finally able to get the air flowing normally into his lungs. Sucking in one deep breath at a time, he walked over to Bryson and Sarah. Without speaking, they knew what to do. All three of them turned and made for the hallway in the back of the lobby.

A familiar voice rang out from behind them, and Michael turned to see Ryker standing on the concession stand again.

“Y’all are as clueless as can be,” she called out. “You think you know what you’re lookin’ for, but you don’t.”

Her words felt ominous to Michael. He knew how the Sleep worked, and he wondered if they had some deeper meaning that spelled trouble. Was she talking about the Portal or something bigger? Like Kaine himself.

“Oh, go lick your mama’s wounds,” Bryson replied.

Before Ryker could answer, the three broke into a run. Michael hoped he never had to lay eyes on that girl again.

2

The hallway grew dark, then cold, and Michael began to shiver. Though there was no light source, they could see just enough to be able to keep moving forward, and the hall went on and on and on. Gradually, when they realized no one had followed them, they slowed to a walk, and as they pressed forward, the temperature dropped. Soon Michael could see his breath in front of him.

He guessed they’d gone well over a mile before anyone spoke.

“This is the weirdest entrance to a game I’ve ever seen,” Bryson said, breaking the silence.

“You don’t think it’s a trap, do you?” Michael asked. “Maybe they dropped us into another game since we didn’t have access.”

“That’s against the law,” Bryson responded.

“So is breaking into a game,” Michael said.

Bryson shrugged. “Yeah, well.”

“Look up there.” Sarah was pointing ahead. “The walls change. And it gets lighter.”

They started running again and soon came upon a place where the walls were covered in ice that seemed to glow from within. Suddenly Michael could see better, and everything was different.

“Holy crap,” Bryson said, looking down at himself.

Their clothes had changed from their daily wear into puffy white snowsuits littered with pockets, all kinds of gear strapped to the belts. Michael noticed straps over his shoulders and realized he and his friends wore stuffed backpacks as well. Its weight didn’t hit Michael until he’d fully examined his new uniform.

He tightened the pack’s straps a little and started examining his belt. He had five grenades, a canteen, a knife, and some rope. “Well, guess that answers that question,” he announced. “We’re in.”

“And it looks like we’re on the glacier front,” Sarah said. The gold vein—the thing everyone was fighting over—ran mostly below Jakobshavn Glacier, one of the bigger ones in Greenland. But the battlefronts ran all the way down to the tundra as well, a messy goop of swamp and mud.

“They better have real weapons waiting for us up there,” Bryson said, nodding down the tunnel. “I don’t know if I can stomach fighting with a knife today, game or no game.”

Michael pulled his blade out and looked at it—solid and gray and sharp. “Yeah, me neither.”

“That makes three of us,” Sarah said as they started walking again. “Maybe we can code something in from another game. I just hope we don’t end up in jail for any of this.”

Michael waved his hand, dismissing the suggestion. “We’re doing all this because of the VNS. They’re not going to throw us in jail for following orders.” Though even as he said it, he wasn’t sure he was right.

“Oh yeah?” she replied. “You positive about that? All that stuff about how top secret this is? They’ll look the other way when you come crawling to them for help someday, say they’ve never even heard of you.”