Page 105 of GlitchBorn Heart

By the end of the night the whiskey flows, the air is cleared, and we begin working side by side, hashing out contingencies for Eli and running data models for Lyra like nothing ever happened. It’s what old friends do.

To anyone else, it might look like three childhood friends coming together in a time of need. But I can still feel Jett’s eyes on me. He steals quick glances at the wall of monitors, and I know...he’s thinking about her, looking for her.

I hate that. I hate it more than anything.

Because the truth is simple. Jett isn’t wrong.

Obsession is dangerous. Lucky for me I live on the edge of a precipice, and I’m not afraid to fall into the abyss below.

41

Resilience

Playlist: Destroy Everything You Touch (Space Motion Remix) - Ladytron, Space Motion

Kael

The whiskey hangover is harsh. I lie in bed, running through the events of the evening, logging them in my brain, looking for traps, coming up with contingencies.

So, here it is: I have to find a way to contain Eli without killing him. Rein him in. Pull the void out of him. Then cage it and reforge it into something I can control.

To save her, I’ll have to save him from himself.

I lean back, my arm cradling my head on the pillow. The city’s never-ending neon skyline reflects off the glass windows, streaking across my face in ice blue bands. Dawn is the only time this city gives me solitude. My systems should have rebooted with last night’s running of TheKast, one by one, networks flaring back to life across the city grid.

Eli made his move. Now I know the shape of the war.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

—Sun Tzu—The Art of War

Lyra will soon see I don’t break promises. Now that the system is functioning reliably, I should be able to talk to her through the holo today and inform her of the plan.

I ache to see her, a hidden touch, a stolen kiss. My wants and needs have been drastically altered by her mere presence.

I roll out of bed and bring up the bedroom monitor—no errors. The grid has come back to life, one sector at a time. LINK, obedient as ever, executes my programs expediently. Code crawls down the screen like neon rivers, except I’m missing one thing.

Lyra.

If I could hear the city exhale, it would be a ragged, broken sound. Eli gutted so much of the infrastructure it’s a miracle we got it all back in such a short time.

Vikktor will know. He always finds out. He’ll see it in the daily reports, the patched-over logs, the places where the data corrupted, instead of flowing clean. I can only cover the tracks so much, using Rootkits, modifying logs, and hiding the evidence.

He’ll see it as my failure. The city may be breathing again, but he’ll argue it’s limping.

Can’t wait for that de-briefing.

I lay out my black joggers and a hooded sweatshirt. No need to be a stiff corporate suit today. The plan is to immerse ourselves in GameNet and have Lyra lure Eli into the game. Jett will extract the void magic from Eli. I’ve already written all the code for the plan inside the game. Once inside, a rescue in the game should coincide with a real-life rescue, with no void reaction from him since we are “gaming.”

We’re hypocrites. My plan breaks all the rules of GameNet, especially the one about no magic being used while inside.

Mediocre people follow rules. I transcend them.

If successful, it will look like Eli was lost in GameNet. His physical self will be taken by Jett and handed over to the rebellion. His people will work with him on relocation. Lyra probably won’t like it at first, but she doesn’t need to. It’s the only way.

She’ll fight me, the way she always does, eyes filled with fire. But that’s what makes her dangerous and what helps her stay alive. I’ll take that fury over silence. She won’t see the big picture yet. At first, she won’t understand that this is how we keep Eli from tearing everything down and keep her from being erased along with him.

I hop in the shower, my mind racing faster than the water hitting the floor. Jett thinks he can be the hero. Ash thinks this is just another normal day of chaotic sequence. But it’s my creation, my code, my hands on the strings. If Eli is to be saved, if Lyra is to survive long enough to walk out of this system, it will be because I built the bridge myself.