“Ian, stop!” Starr cried, grabbing my hand midswing before I could smash the glass again. It came away bloody and bruised. “It’s just a video screen. She’s not really there.”
I dropped my hand, the fight going out of me. She was right. I was being stupid. “How do we get through the gate?” I demanded, stalking over to Yano. “How do we get her out?”
“I don’t know,” our guide admitted, all three of his heads looking sad. “She seems to be behind some kind of very complex firewall. I’ve been trying to hack it, but I’m not powerful enough. We’d need a lot more computing power to even have a chance.” He paused, looking pensive. “Maybe you could ask her to help? Maybe if we combined our strength?”
“Maybe,” I agreed, hope surging through me. I returned to the gate. Met Ikumi’s eyes with my own, hoping she could hear or understand somehow.
“Ikumi,” I said. “Yano is trying to get you out. Can you help him? Can you try to hack the gate together?”
But Ikumi only looked at us with more confusion in her eyes. Couldn’t she understand what we were trying to do?
I closed my eyes, frustration rushing through me. We were so close. And yet, were we any better off than we had been at the beginning of the game? I thought if we just reached her we could figure out a way to get her free. That Yano would be able to do some kind of awesome AI trick to hack the game. But evidently not so much.
Suddenly, my menu screen flashed, indicating an incoming call. When I clicked to accept it, I realized it was Lilli. I wondered how she was able to locate me off-grid. Then I remembered: Josh.
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to sound still angry. Truth be told, however, I was kind of relieved. We were stuck. Maybe Lilli could help somehow.
“Look, I know you’re still mad, okay?” Lilli’s voice broke in. “And I’m sorry. I really am. I promise to make it up to you later. But right now, we’ve got an idea.”
“We?” I repeated, a little bitterly.
I could hear her groan. “Yes. Me and Josh. We have an idea on how to get to Ikumi.”
“Actually, we’re already with her,” I replied, suddenly realizing she wouldn’t know.
“Wait, you are? That’s awesome!” Lilli exclaimed, sounding surprised. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “She’s stuck behind a firewall or something. We can see her, but we can’t get her out.”
I could hear Lilli talking to Josh, explaining the situation. Then, she came back on the line. “Okay, Josh has an idea.”
I wanted to tell her that I didn’t care what Josh’s ideas were. But a sharp look from Starr reminded me that this would be childish. We needed all the help we could get. Even Josh’s.
“What is it?” I asked reluctantly.
Josh came on the line. “Remember I told you about my grandpa’s secret Fortress of Solitude?”
“Yeah. What does that have to do with Ikumi?”
“You said she’s trapped behind a firewall, right? Which means you need a key.” He paused, then added, “Well, that’s where Grandpa keeps all the keys.”
My heart started beating faster in my chest. Keys. Oh my gosh. Of course! We wouldn’t need to hack the gate if we had the keys.
Suddenly I kind of loved Josh.
“Where is it?” I asked, trying not to sound too excited. “Can we meet you there?”
“I’ll send the coordinates to your map,” he said. “We’ll head there, too.”
And with that, the comm blinked off. I turned to Starr. “What do you think?” I asked.
“It beats banging your fist against a gate,” she pointed out wryly.
I glanced over at the gate in question. Ikumi still stood there on the other side, looking worried. I walked back over to the glass, pressing my hand against it again.
“Just hang tight,” I told her. “I’m going to go get a key. Then we’ll come back for you and let you out.”
But instead of looking hopeful, Ikumi just looked terrified. And before I could say anything else, the glass whirled with smoke.
And when it cleared again? She was no longer there.
It took an annoying amount of time to get to Josh’s grandfather’s place. In fact it seemed to be on the other end of the world from Ikumi’s prison. We had to go through several more wormholes and fly across huge stretches of game world, much of it unfinished. And then, finally, across a virtual ocean so vast I wasn’t sure at one point if Josh had just been trolling us and leading us in the entirely wrong direction.
But at last a large island came into view. In its center stood a huge fortress shaped like a medieval castle, with imposing stone walls rising high into the sky. As we swooped in closer, I spotted Josh and Lilli out front, playing soccer. Which made me way angrier than it should have. I mean, what did I want them to be doing? Twiddling their thumbs this whole time?
“Finally,” Josh declared as we came in for a landing in front of them. “What took you so long?”
“Oh, nothing. Just had to cross the entire game world to get here,” I said, sliding off Yano’s back. I sure hoped Josh was right about the keys and this hadn’t been a wasted trip. We were farther away from Ikumi than ever now.
“Hey Starr!” Lilli exclaimed. “Glad you made it out of zombieland.”
“Thanks to Ian, here,” Starr replied, slapping me on the back. She looked up at the castle. Way up. “So this is your grandpa’s secret Fortress of Solitude?” she asked Josh, letting out a low whistle. “He got something against a simple cabin by the lake?”
“Actually, yes,” Josh replied. “I mean, at least a real-world one. He doesn’t feel comfortable in the real world these days.” He shrugged. “I suppose being almost assassinated will do that to a guy.”
“He was almost assassinated?”
