Page 99 of Tapeworld Induction

Neither of them had seen Miss Kitty since she’d disappeared.

Sacha made an intrigued face. “A talking cat? How did you—”

But Talia interrupted, fighting to keep them on track. “Okay, enough about your romantic gestures. What happened with that sleep device? Why did you put it on?”

“Gunky would like to know too.”

The surprises kept coming. So the sword really was sentient, or was simulating it well. But, “I don’t think so, Gunky. What if you’re a spy?”

“Wait, wait! Gunky will be good!”

Isaak flicked it off and hooked the holstered sword to his belt.

“Whoa, the sword was cool. Come on!” Sacha protested.

Isaak laughed and waved him down. They were here to figure out what to do next, and their plans needed to stay in as small a circle as possible.

“Astrid sent that thing to me. Like a provocation.”

It was delivered to his home the day after he argued with Dylan. Did he know it was from Astrid? Of course. The decision to use it came after a few days of avoiding Dylan and stewing in all of his guilt. Driven by impulse, rage, and a need to escape.

“Did you know it would take you to the Tapeworld?” Dylan asked him, her eyes shining under her tape-space’s sun. They’d spoken briefly about it last night. But other than telling him it wasn’t his fault, she hadn’t probed. Now was her chance.

“I did. I didn’t know it was going to trap me, obviously. It was fucked up.”

Talia stared at him, arms crossed, lips tight.

“Go ahead, say what you’re thinking.”

“Just… why the fuck did you trust something from this woman, who you’d just cut ties with?” She looked ready to slap him. Had Dylan told her everything about their argument? About his past with Astrid? Either way, Talia’s anger was probably justified.

“I…” Isaak starting pacing, his breathing erratic. “I fucked up, okay, I know I did. If it wasn’t for the three of you—”

“Tal, we get it.” Dylan said. “It was stupid. He was stupid.”

“Uh… thanks?”

“No, I mean, you’re not to blame. You’re not the one sending out creepy devices to trap people, are you? It’s Astrid. The Sleeper. It’s funny, I was scrolling StreetSocial at work the other day and saw an ad to take part in research trials for a new sleep aid, and it had a picture that looked just like the thing we took off his head. There was no branding. I’ve tried looking for it again but I can’t find it. So instead I did some digging on Isaak’s boss.”

“Ex-boss.”

She smiled. Dylan swiped one of the screens on the desk into the air, magnifying it to the size of a large TV. It hovered in front of them, showing footage and photos of Astrid at various public events. Astrid Fern-Lock. Authority suited her. “Long-time CEO of Crypterra, one of the few surviving cryptocurrency exchanges since the Dark Year. Name the scam, Crypterra’s involved with it. MLMs, NFTs, gen AI, mechanical turk bots. And one hundred percent owned by the Kingdom of America. The Book.”

This wasn’t new to him, but he’d ignored the red flags when he first met with Astrid. Seduced into committing crimes in cyberspace… What a joke.

“Isaak, can you show them the photograph?”

He nodded. He and Dylan had discussed this part earlier this morning, but he still struggled with it. Opening up such a big part of himself.

He produced the photograph of his mother from the sword’s internal storage, and swiped it so it floated next to the hovering screen. “That’s Maria Powers.”

“Your mother?” Sacha nearly choked.

He nodded.

Talia went from looking mildly displeased to intrigued. “Her picture was in there?”

Isaak swallowed. “Go ahead, Dylan.”