“And First Earth? Saint Dane was trying to change the destiny of three territories by saving that zeppelin and altering history.”
I guess she knew about Saint Dane after all.
“You’re making it sound more dramatic than it was,” I cautioned.
“Am I?” she said quickly. “You’ve got quite a reputation, Bobby. I think you’ve learned a lot about being a Traveler.”
“How do you know so much about what I’ve been doing?” I asked.
Evangeline glanced to Aja, who turned away. She looked annoyed again. What was her problem?
“The acolytes share information,” she answered, holding up the ring on her chain. “Many of us keep the journals that the Travelers write. Aja asked me to keep hers. It was a great honor, but I wanted to do more. That’s why I became an acolyte.”
“Now that you mention it,” I said, “I have some friends who want to become acolytes too. They’re the ones I send my journals to.”
“Can you trust them?” Aja asked.
I was getting sick of Aja always challenging me. I decided to zing her back. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sending them my journals, would I?”
“I’m not talking about holding on to a bunch of papers for safekeeping, Pendragon,” Aja countered. “I’m talking about being there, anytime of the day or night, no matter what the situation, whenever they get the call.”
“They’re my friends. I trust them,” I said firmly. I didn’t like the way she was questioning you guys, or me.
“I’ll take care of it, Bobby,” Evangeline stepped in, trying to be the peacemaker. “Your friend will get the chance.”
“Two friends,” I corrected her. “Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde.”
“Can we deal with the real issue here?” Aja asked impatiently.
“And what is that, dear?” Evangeline asked.
“I’m trying to convince Pendragon that Veelox isn’t in danger from Saint Dane and he’s wasting my time by being here.”
That was it. Aja had pushed me over the edge. I looked to Evangeline and said, “Sorry for this.”
Evangeline nodded as if she knew exactly where my head was and said, “I understand.”
I then turned to Aja and said angrily, “Let’s cut through it, all right? You’ve been treating me like an idiot since I met you. I took it because I didn’t know how your territory worked, but now I do, and I gotta tell you, I think Saint Dane was right. He’s already won. Veelox is falling apart. You say you’ve got it under control? I don’t see it. You better start giving me some real answers or I’m going to flume out of here and come back with a whole bunch of my friends who have the same higher calling as me and-“
“And what?” Aja shouted back. “Blow up the pyramids? Destroy Lifelight? Convince everybody how they’re better off living in reality than in their fantasies? Is that what you’d come back and do?”
I was really ticked off, but the truth was, I had no idea what I would do. Still, I couldn’t let her think I was winging this. No way. I forced myself to calm down, but not lose my edge.
“You have no idea of what Saint Dane is capable of,” I said through clenched teeth. “Have you even gone to another territory?”
Aja faltered. “Well, no, I’m too busy here and-“
“Well, I have, and even after all the horrible things I’ve seen, I’m not sure I know the true depths of Saint Dane’s evil. That’s the difference between you and me. I worry about the things I don’t know. If I were you, I’d start worrying a little more.”
This seemed to tweak Aja. She turned away from me, reached into a pocket, and pulled something out.
“I don’t care what happened on the other territories, Pendragon. You can’t beat Saint Dane here with a fight. There are no bad guys to battle or zeppelins to destroy. But it’s every bit as dangerous as anything you’ve faced before. That’s because the real enemy here is perfection.”
“I get that,” I said. “The people have to be shown what’s happening to the real world.”
“They already know!” Aja shot back. “They don’t care! They think they’ve created the perfect system that runs itself. But the truth is the phaders and vedders would rather jump than do their jobs. You saw that vedder today. Someone died and all he cared about was starting his own jump. You only got a taste of Lifelight, Pendragon. And you know what? You didn’t want to come out, did you? What was it you wanted? Twenty more minutes? They all want twenty more minutes, twenty more hours, twenty more days, weeks, months! Most of them don’t even realize it’s a fantasy anymore. If I hadn’t timed your jump, you’d still be in there.”
I had to admit it. She was right.
“Okay, you convinced me,” I said. “Lifelight is, like. addicting. But my question stands. What makes you think you’ve got it under control?”
Aja threw the thing she had taken out of her pocket onto the table. It was a small, silver disk about the size of a quarter in a clear, plastic case. It looked like a tiny CD.
“I’ve been working on that for nearly a year,” she said with pride.
Evangeline picked it up and handed it to me reverently. “It’s all she thinks about,” she said.
“Saint Dane was right in some ways,” Aja said. “He’s done here. If things continue the way they are, it would only be a matter of time before Veelox falls apart for good. Lifelight itself wouldn’t be far behind. But I know how to save the territory.”
“With this?” I asked, holding up the disk.
“With that,” she answered with confidence.
“What is it?”
“I call it the Reality Bug,” she said. “And tomorrow you’re going to jump back into Lifelight and get a firsthand look at exactly how it works.”
(CONTINUED)
VEELOX
I wasn’t so sure I wanted to jump back into Lifelight, not after seeing that jumper die. On top of that, I was starting to get nervous about Gunny. He had followed Saint Dane to the territory of Eelong and was supposed to take a quick look around and come right back to Veelox. Since Aja had the gate monitored, I asked her to let me know the instant Gunny arrived. I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d found on Eelong. My guess was it wasn’t good, but then again I always assume the worst. Trouble is, I’m usually right.
I decided the best thing I could do was stay focused on Veelox and trust that Gunny could take care of himself. I spent the night in a guest room of the mansion. It was real comfortable and I would have had a great sleep if it weren’t for the fact that I couldn’t turn my brain off. It was all jammed up with worries about Gunny and jumping back into Lifelight. I ended up tossing around most of the night, nervous about what the next day would bring.
In the morning, Evangeline made us a yummy breakfast of, what else, gloid. We weren’t treated to the tricolor stuff this time. This batch was all orange. That was okay by me, as long as it wasn’t blue. I was surprised again by how filling the little cup of goo was. I would have preferred a stack of pancakes with maple syrup, but the gloid did me just fine.
Aja had on her blue jumpsuit, ready for business. She gave me a jumpsuit of my own, only mine was dark green. She said jumpers wore green when they spent long periods of time inside Lifelight. I didn’t want to hang out inside Lifelight any longer than necessary, but figured I should be wearing Veelox clothes anyway. So I traded in my jeans and flannel shirt for this new suit. Aja also gave me some lightweight, black boots. I kept my boxer shorts, though. Rules or no rules, I always keep the boxers.
When we were ready to leave, Evangeline gave me a big hug. This time I hugged back. I liked her. Besides, she had to be pretty special to put up with Aja.
“Be safe, Bobby,” she said to me.
