There was nothing odd about him at all, except for the fact that he was frozen in place. Seriously, the guy didn’t move at all. It looked like he was in the middle of taking a step while looking backward and beckoning with his hand when somebody hit the “pause” button on his life.
I looked to where he was gesturing, and saw two more people a few feet behind him. It was a woman holding the hand of a little girl. They seemed to be hurrying to catch up with the man, except that they were frozen too. It was like looking at a display in a wax museum. How seriously creepy can you get?
“What is wrong with them?” Loor asked.
An idea started to tickle at the back of my brain. I looked around at the billions of dots of suspended water all around us. Was it possible?
“I think it’s rain,” I declared. “All these drops of water. It’s a rainstorm.”
“How can that be?” Loor responded.
“I don’t know,” I said while passing my hand through the dots again. “But I think this Lifelight fantasy is somehow frozen in time.”
I took a closer look at the stiff family. There was absolutely nothing wrong with them. Their eyes were clear, their skin was normal. Close-up they didn’t look like waxworks; they seemed totally real. I even took a chance and touched the guy’s hand.
“He’s warm,” I said. “This guy is stuck in time. So is the rain and the white mist. It’s a storm. Everything just… stopped.”
Loor walked a few steps past the woman and kid. She wanted to see more. So did 1.1 followed her and the two of us passed through more drops of water, beyond which the mist began to thin.
“Look!” Loor exclaimed.
Once we were out of the patch of fog, or mist, or whatever it was, we got a better view of our surroundings. We still couldn’t see very far because the clearing only stretched for about a city block, but it was enough to get an idea of what this place was all about, and I have to say, it was like a surreal nightmare.
We were on a city street, but it wasn’t like any city I had ever seen because the buildings were all jet black. They looked to be made from the same shiny material that covered the giant Lifelight pyramid in Rubic City.
The block was busy with people, though I guess “busy” isn’t exactly the right word-they were all just as frozen as the family we had passed. There were people of different ages and races, all wearing green jumpsuits. The sidewalks were crowded too. Some people were in the middle of crossing the street; others rode in pedal vehicles like in Rubic City. But unlike Rubic City, this place was alive with people.
Did I say alive? It felt like we were standing inside a 3-D painting. “Alive” didn’t really cover it.
We then heard a voice come from behind us. “This is incredible!”
Loor and I both jumped in surprise, then turned quickly to see Aja standing there. She was looking around with as much awe as we felt.
“So this is the fantasy of a genius,” she said. “Not exactly paradise, is it?”
“Is this it?” I asked. “Is this Dr. Zetlin’s fantasy jump?”
Aja checked her elaborate wrist controller. “Yes, I linked you in. Now the trick is to find him.”
“What happened before?” Loor asked. “Where was that other place?”
“It was the Reality Bug,” Aja explained. “I’m constantly fighting it. Every time I enter a string of commands, it tries to alter them. Instead of going into Dr. Zetlin’s jump, Lifelight took its cues from you, Pendragon. Everything that happened was pulled out of your mind.”
Loor gave me a confused look. This made no sense to her. Oddly enough, it did to me. All the things we ran into: the Old West, the stampede. Saint Dane, Gunny, everything. It all came out of my mind. It wasn’t a fantasy out of the past of Veelox at all; it was a good old-fashioned Western from home.
“So, Saint Dane was not really chasing us?” Loor asked.
“Correct,” Aja answered. “He was part of the fantasy.”
“But now we’re in Zetlin World, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Aja answered with confidence. “Sorry for the detour.”
“Are you here with us, Aja?” Loor asked.
“No,” Aja answered. “I’m still in the core.”
Aja passed her hand through the drops of water, but her movement didn’t clear a path the way ours did. This was only an image of Aja. Loor walked up to her curiously, and tried to touch her. Her hand passed right through. Loor backed away quickly. I guess touching a ghost spooked her, so to speak.
“It’s okay,” I assured Loor. “Everything’s cool.”
“Pendragon, I want to find Zetlin and leave here quickly,” Loor said nervously.
“Yeah, me too. But I don’t know where to start,” I admitted.
“When Dr. Zetlin started his jump,” Aja said, “he didn’t want to be bothered. Ever. The last thing he wanted was to have people from Veelox entering his jump and disturbing him.”
“Which is exactly what we’re doing,” I offered.
“Yes, but the guy is a genius,” Aja continued. “He knew there might be an emergency where he needed to be contacted.”
“I think this qualifies,” I said.
Aja showed us a small, blue plastic box. It was about the size and shape of a floppy disk.
“Zetlin left one of these for every senior phader, in case of emergency,” Aja explained. “Entering Zetlin’s jump is difficult enough. Controlling it is a whole different challenge. These are the codes to do that.”
“So, what happens when you use them?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” was Aja’s quick reply. “Let’s find out.”
She held out the plastic case and snapped it open, revealing a thin silver square inside. Aja took out the square and examined it.
“Two sets of codes,” she announced.
“I don’t suppose either is the origin code?” I asked hopefully.
“I wish,” she replied. “I’ll try the first.”
She lifted her wrist controller and input a series of commands as she referred to the silver square. It must have been a complex code, because it took her several seconds to enter it. Then, with one final keystroke…
It began to rain.
The once suspended drops fell from the sky, soaking us. Thunder rumbled in the distance. “Look out!” somebody yelled.
Loor grabbed me and pulled me aside as a man driving a pedal vehicle sped by.
“Careful there, folks,” the guy called with a friendly wave. “The street gets busy.”
Yeah, no kidding. I looked down the block to see that the painting had reanimated. People splashed through puddles, rushing to get out of the rain. The lady and little girl caught up with the man. He took the girl by the hand and they hurried on their way. The white foggy mist was now moving too. It blew down the street, rolling quickly along with the storm.
“Fascinating!” was all Aja could say.
“Let’s get off the street,” I suggested, and the three of us ran to the sidewalk and under the protection of an overhang that covered the entrance to a building.
We stood there, watching Zetlin’s fantasy city come alive.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Here’s a genius guy who could live in any kind of paradise he could think of, and he chooses a gray, rainy city with black buildings? He may be smart, but he doesn’t have such a hot imagination.”
I then stepped in front of a guy who was about to enter the building we were using for shelter.
“Excuse me/’ I said. “Do you know Dr. Zetlin?”
The guy looked at me strangely, like I had three noses or something.
“What’s the joke?” he asked.
I looked to Aja. She shrugged.
“No joke,” I said. “Do you know where we can find Dr. Zetlin?”
The guy shook his head in confusion. “In the Barbican,” he answered. “Where else would he be?”
“Barbican,” I repeated. “Okay. Where’s the Barbican?”
The guy shook his head again, like I was being an idiot. He sniffed and continued on into the building without answering.
