Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown

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The merge opens almost instantly—I can see the gateway into another world looming over me, and air howls through. It’s cold, stinging my skin even through the hoodie. The airlock I’ve found myself in crackles with electricity, and the lights dim. Then, just as suddenly, it’s cut off, the wind’s screaming replaced with an equally loud alarm and a tingling feeling in my bones. But the merge shuts. The gateway collapses just as something squeezes through into the airlock. Whatever it was, it disappears almost instantly, flowing through the inside door like water.

Li Mei said the security systems would handle anything attacking the room, so are they dealing with this? I can’t tell.

My stomach drops as something heavy smashes into the outside door, then does it again. The door holds. I’m safe in the Joint Anomaly Management Enhancement System’s room.

So, with the airlock secured for now, I run a couple of equations.

First, Li Mei. She’s out there, but she said she couldn’t teleport into this room. I can set aside that math, but I’ll need to balance it sooner or later. My ‘best friend’ needed this wing for something, and she’ll be furious with me for not getting her inside. I don’t need math to tell that our friendship is probably over.

Second, The Stag Lord. It’s out there, too, and unlike Li Mei, it could actually get inside—or at least pop the door open. I shudder, remembering the…thing…that left its body. Was it a baby? Or was that The Stag Lord, and the plants just a suit of armor? Either way, I only have so long until it breaches the airlock. Which, unfortunately, leads back to Li Mei. They could work together. She could use it to get inside. I don’t know what she wants, but giving it to her would be bad. That’s the truth.

So, if Li Mei plus The Stag Lord equals death and the only variables are time and what I can find in here…I’m not screwed. I take a deep breath, squeeze my eyes shut, and force the thought out of my head. I’m not screwed. There’s an answer inside. I’ve just got to find it…carefully.

I thumb open the inside airlock, Revolver up to protect myself from whatever anomaly came through the merge.

And as the door opens, my jaw drops. The room’s massive—easily the size of Alice’s soccer field and the stands. And it hums with electricity. Bank after bank of servers line the walls like the cheerleaders at West End football games. They look just like the ones in the second-to-last level of Knights of the Apocalypse, complete with the blinking lights and the fans humming overhead. It smells like smoke, but I can’t find the source; it’s not quite electrical, and I can’t smell gas in the air.

I walk down the twin banks of servers, Revolver at the ready, but nothing jumps out to attack me. Farther ahead, there’s a computer monitor with the familiar SHOCKS logo, all triangles, circles, and arrows. But as I hurry toward it, my fists tighten. It sits on the same login screen as the ones in the SHOCKS office.

I don’t bother trying to log in.

Instead, I look around. The Experimental Sector looks like a pair of crossed halls. Each wing seems dedicated to some different sort of research; the one I just walked through is all about computers or servers or something. It’s got to be what’s running the SHOCKS emergency system—the Joint Anomaly Management Enhancement System. The other halls feature doors that look locked even from here. One’s got what looks like a chemistry lab, but the kind where you’d operate all the experiments remotely. Another, oddly, is full of exercise equipment.

The center, though, is nothing but a gigantic steel tank and something that looks like it used to be a monster but now looks like a splattered pile of guts. I turn away so I don’t have to look at it anymore, but not before I catch the guns on a ceiling-mounted turret. They’re some sort of futuristic turret system—the kind of thing from a sci-fi show—and the ground’s littered with shells the size of my forearm. Behind them, a computer monitor flashes the words ‘Error: Defense Grid Compromised’ over and over. So that’s not good.

“Was that the merged anomaly?” I ask myself.

“Confirmed. It was a Class One Incorporeal Possessive,” James says in my ear, making me jump.

My Revolver goes up, and I look around. “Where are you?” It’s not the question I want to ask, though. I want to ask who he is, what he is, or even if I can trust him. My heart hammers in my chest as I look back and forth, the silence stretching on. Whose side is James—JAMES—on? And if he’s not on mine, what can I do against him? He—or it, I’m not sure if he’s alive or real or what—can turn my augs off, and I’ll be powerless.

He’s still not talking. “James, I mean it! Show yourself, or I’ll start shooti—“

“No, don’t do that!” His voice sounds panicked, but there’s an edge of something else to it. “I can’t show myself. I’m inside the tank. That’s where I am, but if you start shooting holes in the servers, it’ll shut down the Joint Anomaly Management Enhancement System, and I’ll go with it. Stay away from the servers.”

I don’t—can’t—run an equation. This whole place is just one variable after another, and the entire equation doesn’t even make sense, much less balance out. But at the same time, if I don’t do the math, I won’t know. I need to know—Mrs. Helquist always says that math is the only discipline that won’t ever lie to you, and she’s right. But right now, the equation keeps failing no matter what I do.

“Acting Director Pendleton,” JAMES says, “are you going to kill me?”

“I…” My voice trails off. I could, I realize. It’s possible that I could punch a hole in the tank before JAMES could turn on that turret. It’s even possible that the turret’s not under his control; I don’t know if he’d have fried an anomaly that SHOCKS hadn’t seen before, but the turret might be programmed to protect the tank. And he’s told me where he is, so it wouldn’t be hard. But even though JAMES has lied to me, that’s not a death sentence. Is it?

“No,” I say.

“In that case, I’m going to walk you through some protocols for the Joint Anomalous System,” JAMES says, the worry and panic fading from his voice. “I’ll make sure you stay safe here, but at some point, The Stag Lord’s going to tear the door open, and Li Mei’s going to wipe your brain, then mine. The defense grid’s badly weakened. You need to help stabilize the whole network so we can figure out what to do.”

“Figure out what to do about what?”

“Fixing the Joint Anomaly System for Victoria and Vancouver Island,” JAMES says.

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According to JAMES, the SHOCKS Emergency System is only the tip of the iceberg. The Joint Anomaly Management Enhancement System’s been running most of SHOCKS’s databases, scheduling, maintenance—everything. For a while, it even ran Director Smith’s coffee maker! But, also, according to JAMES, SHOCKS has been overclocking it since West End, and it’s starting to fall apart.

That’s not ideal for anyone because he runs the building’s security systems—including maintaining the Faraday cage—he didn’t explain what that was, except that it’s keeping Li Mei out of the research sector. So if he loses control over the building, she’ll kill me.

I don’t think we’re best friends anymore.

I open the door and face a long flight of stairs leading down. LED lights glow just brightly enough to brighten the steps, but everything else is black. “You’re sure it’s this way?”

“Yes. Three flights down. Duplicate the Joint Anomaly System, then restart one of them. Then, once it’s rebooted, close the one you left running. It should allow me to reset,” JAMES says. “It’ll also let me set up a second server virtually so you can read the Joint Anomaly System documentation. Finally, it’ll allow access to one of the anomalies assisting with the Joint Anomaly Management Enhancement System.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“So, SHOCKS is working with anomalies?” I ask as I start working my way down the stairs. There aren’t any railings, and when I reach out, it doesn’t even feel like there’s a wall—just stairs hanging on nothing.

“Well, officially, no. There are officially four danger classes of anomaly, based on how much damage they can do out of containment and how easily they’re contained. But unofficially, there’s a fifth. We work with certain anomalies to contain others—you’ve got a Level A clearance, so you’re part of that program,” JAMES says, reminding me that, according to SHOCKS, I should be in a box. “You’re using one now.”

“What, the stairs?” I reach the landing and look up, but I can’t see the door I came in through.

“Yep. Don’t worry about its classification for now. It’s a one-way reversing stairway. Once someone’s on it, it only goes the opposite way for other people. You’ll be alone at the bottom, no matter what happens up here. It’ll take anyone else up instead. But please hurry before The Stag Lord or Li Mei breaks into the experimental wing.”

“Got it.” The rest of the descent passes in silence, and I find myself in a tiny room smaller than the one my sister and I shared in basic living. Computers hum against every wall, but the only input is a hand scanner. There’s definitely not enough space here for JAMES’s tank, which explains why it’s not down here.

“Next, you’re going to interface with the SHOCKS system directly. Touch the scanner. It’ll take a minute, but your augs should connect with the intranet. I’ll make sure the ICE systems recognize you so you don’t get a brain-kill infohazard instantly, and we can start working on fixing things.”

“A brain-kill infohazard?” I don’t touch the scanner.

JAMES hesitates. “Yes. You’re in the heart of SHOCKS right now. This is one of a dozen identical facilities we’ve replicated across North America and Asia. The only reason you’re not already dead is that you’re the facility’s acting director, but this is all very, very secret stuff. If the risk of losing the Joint Anomaly System in Victoria wasn’t so high, I’d have sealed the airlock—but I need you. I’ll keep the ICE off you while you replicate me. Ready?”

I hesitate some more. The truth is that I’m not ready. There’s no equation where what I’m about to do balances. He’s not lying—I can tell—but JAMES isn’t telling me enough. “So, what’s about to happen, then?”

“Claire, we don’t have time. Put your hand on the pad. Please.”

“I need to know what you’re planning first,” I say, crossing my arms and tucking my hands into my armpits. “I’m not about to trigger a merge or something, right? Because I don’t know if I’ll survive another one.”

JAMES sighs in my ear. It’s a very human sound, and for a moment, I wonder if my suspicions about him are wrong. He hasn’t said he’s an AI. Then he starts talking. “Like I said, you’re going to access a helpful anomaly. In this case, it’ll be a little like a virtual simulation. Once you’re inside, I can show you what I need in a way that’s not just binary or code. You’re going to set up a second Joint Anomaly System program for me, isolate one, restart it, then repeat.”

I rerun my math. He’s definitely an AI, but he’s way beyond anything they showed us at school presentations. “And? What else?”

“After that, we see how long your augs have before they cause you damage,” JAMES says, “and if we have time, we work on secondary goals—like permanent fixes or getting you access to more of the SHOCKS database.”

I wait another couple of seconds, then put my hand on the scanner.

And I wait.

----------------------------------------

What happens next should be fantastical. I should be whisked away into some sort of digital cyberspace filled with neon lights and endless black voids, reduced to green computer code flowing endlessly down a screen, or anything except what happens.

Instead, I find myself in a warm room with a faint but incessant hum in the air. I’m sitting in an uncomfortable, plastic school chair, and all around me are round-ish computers, each with a different colored case and a fruit logo. There’s a poster on one wall with the correct finger positions for typing and a projector humming on the ceiling. Its light flicks on, and a boy’s face appears on the wall.

He’s about my age—it’s hard to tell because there’s a slight warping from the projector’s angle. Dark hair, dark eyes with a slight resting scowl, and maybe the first hint of a wispy chin-hair or two. He looks around as if he can see. Then his gaze settles on me. “Hello, Claire. I went with a computer lab. It’ll have some restrictions, but better security. Right now, you’re inside Digital - 084-VVI-6/DA-Alpha, an informational anomaly. It’s currently cut off from outside programs, including the Joint Anomaly System.”

“And I need to change that, right?” I ask.

“Yes. You need to copy the Joint Anomaly System into this space. That’ll set up a protected version that we can reset, and let me work on patching it so that I can do it myself.”

“Great.”

And you know what? It is great. For the first time since this whole mess started, things feel great.

JAMES hasn’t straight up said he’s an AI, but it’s pretty obvious. And that gives me an idea. As I start fiddling with the painfully slow computer, wishing I had my phone, I crunch some numbers; the truth is that SHOCKS Headquarters is the worst place for either of us to be right now, so the equation’s pretty simple. There are only two variables to this one: Whether I leave or not and whether JAMES comes with me.

Whether he’s an AI or not, he can’t want to stay here forever, and I could use a friend. One that isn’t trying to kill me.

I pause in my search through the computer for just a moment. That’s a weird thought. After all, he’s definitely lied to me back at West End. He and Doctor Twitchy also set up whatever Director Smith did to shut down my augs. And I know, absolutely for sure, that he’s not done lying to me—for all I know, he’s doing it right now. If I can’t trust him, how can he possibly be my friend? Keith and Sora are friends; I can rely on them, and they don’t lie to me. Hell, Mrs. Helquist is almost a friend—if she wasn’t a teacher, that is.

But at the same time…I scratch my head, but I can’t feel it in this space. At the same time, I need a friend right now, and I don’t think I can patch things up with Li Mei. Ha.

I grit my teeth—metaphorically—and start working through some math that might let JAMES the AI boy be a friend. If I can understand why he lied to me, and if he doesn’t change the reasons why he lies, then I’ll be able to see through them.

And if I can see through them, are they really lies? The math says yes until I start changing variables. Then, all of a sudden, it clicks, and the answer becomes—

“Claire, how’s that copy going?”

—no. Not really. Or at least, kind of sort of. It’s hard to tell exactly whether that’s a lie and what’s not. I ignore him for now, thinking through the whole thing, rerunning the numbers, and as I do, it gets more and more clear; he’s still lying, but it doesn’t matter that much whether he is or not, because I know the lie’s coming, and know why he’s lying, and it doesn’t change anything.

My head practically spins; this changes everything. Alice is a liar. She always will be; she’s lived too many lies for me to know her as anything but a liar. But I think I understand why she’s doing it. Does that mean I can trust her? Probably not. No, definitely not. But maybe we can be friends someday. Maybe she can earn my friendship, not just the ‘sisterhood’ thing we’re stuck with.

“Claire? You there?” JAMES asks.

“Yeah, just a second,” I say, pushing Alice out of my mind for now. The same thing applies to Dad, too, and probably to some of my teachers, but not Mrs. Lightsen. If I ever see her again, I’ll never be able to get the tree faces out of my mind, and that’s the truth.

But that all comes later. Right now, I’ve got a job to do. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“There’s an application on the desktop called ‘essential.exe.’ All you need to do is right-click it and select ‘Make a Copy.’ That’ll duplicate the Joint Anomaly System. Then all you need to do from there is put it in the folder labeled ‘Stasis,’ and that’ll protect the duplicate while we defragment it and push some patches,” James says. “Otherwise, the code will try to self-rewrite, and we don’t want that.”

“Got it.” I follow JAMES’s directions but hesitate before I do the last step. If he’s watching from the big screen, he can’t see mine, and he said that this space was separate from the rest of the SHOCKS system, so maybe he can’t see what I’m doing. So, before I drop ‘copy of essential.exe’ into the ‘Stasis’ folder, I pause to consider the math.

If, on one side, we have The Stag Lord and Li Mei, and on the other, we have Claire Pendleton and the Revolver, there’s always an inequality. I can’t change any variables to get an advantage over the two of them. Most outcomes end up worse the more I try to play with the numbers.

And without me, JAMES can’t deal with them, either. Either The Stag Lord wrecks his experimental wing, or Li Mei breaks in and feasts on the information he’s got access to. Or, if he holds them off somehow, one of a dozen other Xuduo-Danger monsters or whatever kill him. With the security grid compromised, it’s only a matter of time before the truth becomes inevitable.

Staying here won’t work for JAMES.

Maybe I can copy him to the Halcyon System somehow? That could work if I can figure out how. I pull up the Halcyon System’s menus and dive into them until I’ve found the parts that aren’t running yet.

{System Access: 90%}

{Affected System Features}

►Archived Anomaly Information

►Assistance Functions

JAMES seems like the kind of AI—if that’s what he is—who could do both jobs. He’s got access to the entire SHOCKS emergency system and their database. Heck, he is the entire SHOCKS system and their database. And he’s assisted me through the West End High merges, the memetic…thing…in the basic living building, and a little now.

Could he be the key to unlocking the rest of the Halcyon System? Maybe.

Do friends look out for each other? Yes. And he’s the closest thing I have to a friend here, even if Li Mei disagrees.

So, instead of dropping ‘essential.exe’ into the ‘Stasis’ folder, I dump it into one I’ve just created: ‘Halcyon Storage.’

{Skill Learned: Anomalous Computing Systems 1: Increases skill at interacting with anomalous AI and computers}