“I know. We won’t. I promise,” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back.
“We’ll sleep all day,” Lilli added. She offered up a huge yawn, covering her mouth with her hand.
Mom smirked. “You two look totally trustworthy,” she deadpanned. “Now, go get yourselves some breakfast. Even gamers have to eat.”
We reluctantly followed her into the kitchen. Mom grabbed a box of cereal and some bowls and set them on the table. Then she said good-bye and headed out to work. After, of course, making us promise one more time not to go back into the game for the rest of the day.
“Get some sunshine,” she scolded as she headed out the door. “Some real-life exercise.”
“Yes, Mom,” we said in unison.
But once the door shut, we looked at each other and pushed away our cereal. Neither one of us was hungry. Not really. And though I was feeling totally exhausted, I knew there was no time to rest.
We needed to go back into the game.
“I can’t go back into the game,” Lilli moaned a few minutes later, rubbing her head as she looked down at the VR equipment still scattered on her bed. She picked up her headset, then set it down with a sigh. “Sorry, Ian. I just can’t.”
“But we have to!” I cried, dismayed. “Ikumi needs us!”
“We’re not going to be any use to her like this,” my sister reminded me. “I mean, how do you feel right now? ’Cause I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck.”
I slumped down on the bed. “Yeah. Same,” I admitted. “Which is crazy, right? We’ve just been sitting here. But my whole body aches.”
“No sleep. No food. That’ll do it. Plus my brain’s been working overtime. We need some serious real life before we go in again.”
“I guess you’re right.” I lay back on the bed. Then a thought occurred to me. “But what about Starr? We left her in that zombie room!”
“Maybe she glitched out, too. Or Josh got her out.”
“Yeah, right.” I snorted. “As if Josh would do something for anyone but himself.”
My sister groaned. “And here we go again.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come on, Ian, he’s not that bad.”
I sat up in bed. “Are you kidding? He’s totally that bad. Maybe worse. He’s a jerk, Lilli. I don’t know why you like him so much.”
Lilli’s face turned bright red. “I don’t like him,” she protested. “I just don’t feel the need to be openly rude to him like you are.”
“Sorry, but maybe I just don’t like the idea of us joining forces with the grandkid of the evil mastermind who kidnapped our friend.”
“Come on. We don’t even know for sure Admiral Appleby is behind this. I mean, he seemed like a cool guy when we met him. A little weird, but not an evil mastermind.”
“No one acts like an evil mastermind, Lilli. That doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.”
“But why? I still don’t get any of this. Why would he kidnap Ikumi to begin with? It’s not like Dragon Ops, where the competition wanted to shut the park down so they could launch first. So why does Admiral Appleby want her?”
I tapped my finger on my chin. Why indeed? That was still the missing piece to all this. Why would Admiral Appleby, in the midst of launching his greatest game to date, bother kidnapping his rival’s daughter’s digital file?
My eyes widened. “Maybe he wants eternal life!”
“What?”
“You saw how old he is, right? Maybe he’s even dying. Like, he has terminal cancer or something, and he’ll die before his beloved game is released to the world. And maybe he discovered Ikumi’s tech. Maybe he asked Hiro to share the tech with him—so he could upload himself online, too. Then he could live forever in his own game.”
“Wow.” Lilli shook her head. “That’s quite a theory.”
“But it makes sense, right? It gives him a motive. Hiro said no—he wasn’t going to help him. Because he saw what the whole experience did to his daughter. But Admiral Appleby wouldn’t take no for an answer and kidnapped Ikumi. And maybe Hiro, too. Maybe he’s got Hiro locked up, forcing him to work on copying his brain.”
“I mean, I guess it’s possible,” Lilli faltered. “But it just… seems insane.”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The why is not important. All we need to do is focus on Ikumi.”
“After we get some sleep,” Lilli finished, pulling the covers over her head, effectively signaling our conversation was over. I sighed and grabbed my VR gear, dragging it to my own room next door. When I reached my bed, I set my alarm for three hours, just in case. Otherwise, the way I felt? I might pass out all day.
I closed my eyes. Just a quick nap. Then we could go back in. Rested and ready to face whatever was waiting for us. Killer rats, zombies…
And hopefully not a dragon.
You’d think with all that was on my mind, I wouldn’t be able to sleep. But the second my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light. And when my door suddenly burst open two hours later, I was definitely not ready to wake up.
“Five more minutes, Mom,” I begged, pulling the pillow over my head. “Then I’ll get up for camp.”
Sunlight hit me full force as Lilli yanked the pillow away and pulled open the blinds. I blinked at her blearily, suddenly worried as I realized how serious she looked. Also, even odder, she had her VR rig all packed up and strapped to her back.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I struggled to sit up in bed.
Her gaze darted to the window. “I don’t know,” she said. “But someone’s here.”
“What?” I scrambled out of bed and over to the window. Sure enough, there was some kind of large van parked in front of
