Unbelievable. Even during a crisis, all these guys could think about was jumping out of there.
“What about you?” I asked. “Don’t you want to jump?”
“Not anymore, I don’t,” he said. “I’m beginning to think real life is safer than make-believe.”
That was good to hear. Maybe there was hope for the territory after all.
“It’s not a bad cut,” he said. “Your jumpsuit got it worse than you did.”
The vedder put an ointment on it and the stinging immediately went away. He then put a yellow pad over the cut and I was good to go.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Don’t worry,” the guy said sincerely. “Aja is the best. If there’s anybody I trust around here, it’s her.”
I nodded. I really hoped he was right.
There was nothing else to do, so I wandered back to the Alpha Core to see how Aja was doing. The door was unlocked, and I slipped in quietly, trying not to disturb her.
Aja was totally focused on her work. I glanced at the large monitor to see that it was filled with several lines of computer code, each in a different color and each more complex than the last. Aja was furiously entering figures, and the data kept scrolling up with each new entry. She was good. My confidence rose.
“We’ve got a problem,” Aja said flatly.
So much for my confidence.
“I thought you said it would be easy to purge the bug from Lifelight?”
“It would be, if I could get to it,” she answered. As she talked, she kept inputting data. “The problem isn’t the Reality Bug, it’s the origin code.”
“You lost me,” I said.
“The system is programmed with security codes that make it difficult to get in,” Aja explained while she worked. “It’s to keep unauthorized people from monkeying with the grid. I know most of the codes because I’m a senior phader, but… but…” She slammed her fist down in frustration.
“But what?”
“When the Reality Bug infected the grid, it went so deep that the only way to reach it is to get past the final code, the origin code. And I don’t know it!”
“Well, somebody’s gotta know it, right?” I asked, trying to be helpful.
Aja jumped out of the chair and paced. “Only one person knows that code.”
“So let’s go get them!”
“That’s not so easy. He hasn’t been seen in three years.” “Three years? Who is it?” “Dr. Zetlin,” answered Aja.
“That kid in the painting? How come he’s the only one with the code?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Aja answered sarcastically, sounding like her old self. “Maybe because he invented Lifelight!” Good answer.
“Besides,” Aja continued, “he’s not a kid anymore. He’s got to be in his seventies by now.”
“Fine. Let’s find him, make him some warm milk, tell him the problem and get the freakin’ code!”
“It’s not that easy,” Aja said.
“Why not?”
“Because Dr. Zetlin is in Lifelight, Pendragon.” Oh.
That was definitely a problem. A really big problem.
Aja looked up at the screen and said, “Without that code I can’t purge the Reality Bug. And if I can’t purge the bug then we can’t put Lifelight back online.”
“And if we can’t do that, most everybody on Veelox is as good as dead,” I concluded. I was getting the sick feeling that Saint Dane was right. The battle for Veelox was over and he had won.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got a Plan B?” I asked.
I fully expected Aja to shout something like, “No, Pendragon! There is no Plan B, idiot!” Instead she looked down. The wheels were spinning in her head. That was good. She had a good head with good wheels.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“There is one possibility,” she said reluctantly. “But it’s too much to ask.”
“Ask!” I shouted.
Aja sighed and said, “It’s possible to jump into Lifelight and find Zetlin.”
“But I thought the grid was in suspense?” “Suspended,” she corrected.
“Whatever.”
“It is, but there’s another way,” Aja said.
She walked to the far side of the Alpha Core, where there was another door. She took out her green card and inserted it in a slot. Instantly the door slid open. I peered into the room beyond and was surprised to see a room similar to the jump cubicles in the pyramid. Only this one had three large silver disks on the wall.
“This is the original unit,” she explained. “The alpha grid. It operates independently from the main grid. I could bring it back online by itself.”
I gazed into the cubicle as the reality of what she was telling me slowly sank in. “Are you saying-“
“Yes. Dr. Zetlin is in there.”
Whoa. The father of Lifelight was lying only a few feet away. It felt like I was peering into a tomb. But it was no time to pay respects.
“So fire up the alpha grid and pull the old guy out of there!” I said.
“I can’t,” Aja said. “He doesn’t want to come out.”
“So what!”
“It’s the same problem,” Aja said, trying to be patient. “He programmed the jump so nobody could end it. He doesn’t even have a phader or vedder assigned to him. Without the origin code, I can’t end his jump.” She glanced into the cubicle and added, “But I can put somebody else in.”
“You’re telling me we could enter his jump, the way you were in my jump?”
“Well… sort of.”
“Tell me everything, Aja. C’mon!” I suddenly understood the term “like pulling teeth.” Sheesh.
“Yes, it’s possible to enter his jump. The trick then is to find Zetlin and convince him to give up the code.” “Then let’s do it!”
“We can’t! I mean, I can’t. I mean… I can’t go with you.” “Why not?”
“Because somebody has to stay out here and phade the jump or you might not get back out again. You’d have to go alone, Pendragon. That’s why I said it’s too much to ask.”
Gulp. A few minutes ago I thought Aja was going to sit down at that control console and make everything okey-dokey. Now I was faced with the possibility of going back into that crazy fantasy world.
“Let me ask you something,” I said. “If Zetlin’s jump is on a different circuit-“
“Grid.”
“Yeah, grid, whatever, stop correcting me. Since it’s different, did the Reality Bug infect it?”
“I can’t be absolutely sure,” she said slowly. “But I would have to say… yes. The overall operating software is the same, and that’s what I designed the bug to attack.”
“So let me understand,” I said. “The only way we can get rid of the Reality Bug is for me to jump into Dr. Zetlin’s fantasy and get this code from him. But it might be a horror show if the bug is doing its thing?”
“Yes, that’s about it.”
Oh, man, no way I wanted to go. After what happened in my own fantasy with the quigs, the idea of jumping into somebody else’s fantasy was truly horrible. Worse, I was going to have to do it alone.
“I don’t want you to go, Pendragon,” Aja said quietly. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Yeah, me neither. But what choice do I have?”
Aja shook her head. “What you said before makes sense.
We’re stronger together. It’s way too risky for you to jump in by yourself. I don’t know what to do.”
The reality of the situation was beginning to sink in. I was going to have to jump by myself.
That’s when an idea hit me.
“There might be another way,” I said. “What if I got somebody else to jump with me?”
“Who?” Aja asked quickly. “You can’t ask one of those technicians out there. If they find out what’s really going on, there’ll be a riot.”
