The Paladin Prophecy

RONNIE

The syn-apps backed away from Ronnie in alarm. Elise moved closer to the screen, while the rest of the roommates grouped behind her. Ronnie blinked and looked around, confused and disoriented. To Will he looked exactly like Ronnie’s yearbook photo, except that the syn-app’s straw-blond hair was filthy and his face was covered with grime. His clothes were disheveled and dirty, his pants ripped at the knees.

“Ronnie?” said Elise, almost in a whisper.

The syn-app looked up, saw Elise, and recoiled, looking frightened.

“Ronnie, do you know where you are?” asked Elise.

He shook his head.

“Do you know who you are?” she asked softly.

The syn-app hesitated, then shook his head again.

“What’s wrong with him?” Will quietly asked the others.

“Don’t know,” said Ajay. “I’ve never seen a syn-app behave like this before.”

“Little dude looks homeless,” whispered Nick.

“He acts like he’s got amnesia,” said Brooke.

“Ronnie … do you know who I am?” asked Elise.

After hesitating, Ronnie shook his head, sweet and utterly vacant. Elise buried her face in her hands. Brooke stepped forward and put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

“What does this mean, Elise?” asked Will, mystified.

“It means he’s alive,” said Elise.

“Perhaps,” said Ajay thoughtfully.

“Ajay, his syn-app is right there,” she said, pointing at the screen. “Ronnie’s alive. He said he’d find a way to reach me if something happened to him. Something has, just look at him. He’s not right. He’s injured or lost, but he’s alive—”

“Hold on a second,” said Will. “You’re saying he’s alive just because his syn-app is here?” No one responded. The roommates looked at each other uncomfortably. “You’re not seriously suggesting they have some kind of physical connection to what’s happening to us in real life?”

“That’s just a … theory, Will,” said Ajay.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” said Elise.

“That’s impossible,” said Will. “These things are just billions of ones and zeros strung together. No matter how many tricks they can do, it’s only a simulation.”

“One would suppose,” said Ajay warily. “But then, we didn’t write the original program.”

Will didn’t push the argument. He remembered the uncanny feeling he’d had when his own syn-app had come to life: There’s something to this. I did feel a connection.

“ ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’ ” said Brooke.

Ronnie absentmindedly took something from his pocket. He seemed surprised to find it there. Ronnie cradled it in his hands and examined it closely.

“Nick,” said Elise. “Get my tablet.”

Nick darted out of the room. Ronnie held the object to the light.

“What have you got there, Ronnie?” asked Elise gently.

Ronnie shrank back from her, hiding the object behind his back.

“It’s okay,” said Elise. “I won’t hurt you. I just want to see what you found.”

Ronnie shrugged; he didn’t know either.

“Can you show me?” asked Elise. “Maybe I can help you figure out what it is.”

Will’s and Ajay’s syn-apps moved toward Ronnie.

“Not too close,” said Elise to Ajay. “We don’t want to spook him.”

Ajay and Will stopped a short distance away. Nick rushed back in with Elise’s tablet. She powered it up on the desk next to the others and moments later, Elise’s syn-app materialized with the others on the big screen.

“Elise” walked toward Ronnie and held out a hand. Ronnie took a step backward.

“You’re perfectly safe,” said Elise. “We won’t hurt you. Can you show me what you have there, Ronnie?”

Ronnie slowly opened his hand. A virtual flash drive rested on his palm. “Elise” took the object from him.

“Ajay,” said Elise. “See what that is.”

Her syn-app held out the flash drive behind her. “Ajay” darted over and took it like a relay baton. He took a virtual tablet from his backpack and inserted the drive into it, just as the real Ajay had with the real one.

“So let me see if I’ve got this straight,” said Will. “A virtual flash drive … inserted by a virtual character … into its virtual computer.”

“Think of it this way,” said Ajay quietly. “They’re all levels of the same file on a real flash drive, being read by a real computer. Now that we’ve cracked his puzzle, maybe this flash drive represents the final level and contains what Ronnie wanted us to see.”

But “Ajay” was frowning. He looked out at the real Ajay and shook his head.

“It’s not opening,” Ajay said. “We missed something.”

“Damn it,” said Elise under her breath.

The image of Beethoven’s salon disappeared and was replaced by the Himalayan meadow in front of the pagoda. Ronnie seemed more alert. “Elise” took his hand; this time Ronnie didn’t shrink away.

Will had an idea and leaned in past Elise toward the screen. “Ronnie, this is Elise,” said Will firmly. “She was your best friend.”

As he listened, Ronnie’s brow furrowed, in a struggle to comprehend.

“ ‘How do you measure the distance traveled by a smile?’ ” said Will.

The line sent a jolt through Ronnie. He turned, looked out at the real Elise, and seemed to recognize her. Ronnie reached out and Elise touched the screen. As their fingers met, Ronnie suddenly looked alert, revived, glowing with spirit.

“Show us what you hid on this drive, Ronnie,” said Elise. “Show us what you wanted us to see.”

Ronnie nodded, then pointed to the top of the screen. A moment later, an iron-banded transparent barrel dropped into the screen from above, landing with a heavy thud on the wooden bridge over the pond. The barrel began to fill with a viscous red liquid rising from the bottom.

“What’s that?” said Nick.

“It’s working,” said Ajay. “The file’s uploading to my tablet.”

Elise was still holding her hand to the screen, completely still, locked onto Ronnie. Will got the odd impression they were communicating without words.

“I think he’s a prisoner,” said Elise.

“What?” asked Nick. “How could you know that?”

“I just do,” she said. “I think what’s on there will tell us who did this to him.”

Ajay looked at Will with a raised eyebrow. “We’ll know soon enough,” he said, as the upload reached 50 percent.

Brooke had a funny look on her face. “Does anybody else hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Nick.

“Yes,” said Ajay. “It’s a—”

“Buzzing sound,” said Elise. “It’s coming from the image on-screen. Near the top of the mountain.”

Now Will could hear it, too.

It was a droning sound, and as they listened, it grew louder and more menacing. A trickle of scalloped black shadows dripped into the upper right corner of the screen and gyred lazily around, like cottonseeds blown by the wind. As they drifted toward the meadow, the shapes melded together into a pulsating mass that began to spin in place, counterclockwise, picking up force. The sky darkened as it gained strength and size, forming into a funnel cloud.

“What is that?” asked Nick.

“I think someone’s hacked into the program,” said Ajay.

“But how?” asked Brooke.

“I don’t know,” said Ajay. “We’re not online. It must be coming from one of our tablets.”

The syn-apps retreated toward the bottom of the screen. Will’s syn-app pulled a virtual Swiss Army knife from his pocket, expanded one of the blades, then stretched the handle out until it was as long as a harpoon.

“What’s your dude doing?” asked Nick.

“No idea,” said Will.

“I don’t like this,” said Elise. “We need to get out.”

Their eyes moved to the barrel, which had filled to nearly 90 percent.

“We almost have it,” said Ajay.

The surging vortex hit the ground, destroying everything it touched, tearing up the meadow, smashing through the pagoda. The syn-apps dodged a rain of debris.

“Ajay, it’s not safe—” said Brooke.

“If I terminate this download, we’ll lose what Ronnie wanted us to see,” said Ajay, “probably forever.”

Ronnie suddenly ran toward the cyclone. The syn-app shouted and waved his arms, then dashed away from the barrel. The twister changed direction and chased him.

“What the hell is he doing?” asked Nick.

“Buying us time,” said Will.

“Will” followed Ronnie toward the ledge they’d come in on. As the funnel cloud cornered Ronnie on the rocks, it morphed into a swarm of what looked like locusts. They descended on Ronnie and tore into him; he turned to Elise, his face a mask of pain. The pixels of his disintegrating image flew up into the cyclone.

“No!” shouted Elise.

As the funnel cloud consumed Ronnie’s syn-app, it took on the rough outline of his screaming face. “Will” reared back and cast his harpoon into the heart of the vortex; it swayed and weakened, but it was too late. Ronnie’s cries faded as the ravenous swarm swallowed the last of him.

The barrel on the screen filled, crimson slopping into the pond.

“We’ve got it,” said Ajay. “Shut down!”

“Shut down!” said Elise and Will.

Their tablets powered off. The syn-apps vanished and all their screens went blank. At that same moment, the lights in the room flickered and dimmed, then went out, plunging them into darkness.

Nick rushed to the window. “The whole campus is dark!”

“A power failure,” said Ajay, stepping beside him. “But campus-wide? Never seen that before.”

Will turned his tablet back on, and the room filled with ghostly light. Will’s syn-app appeared on-screen, holding his Swiss Army harpoon.

“You should have let me run that security check, Will,” the syn-app said.

“Will” raised the harpoon and showed them a creature impaled on the blade, a black beetle the size of a small dog, covered with coarse black hairs. It had distorted semihuman features on its hideous, squashed face.

“What the hell is that?” asked Nick.

“A virus infected your tablet,” said Will’s syn-app. “Origin unknown.”

“Will” shoved the bug toward the edge of the screen. A port opened on that side of Will’s tablet and the body of an identical bug—this one an inch long—plopped out onto the desk.

Brooke turned pale. “That’s what went after Ronnie?”

“So it appears,” said Ajay. He used a pencil to sweep the dead bug into an empty Altoids tin.

“Run the rest of that check now,” said Will to his syn-app.

“Can do,” said the syn-app.

“Where did this come from?” asked Elise, staring at the bug.

“Lyle,” said Will.

“Dude, Lyle’s trunk, these things were in those boxes,” said Nick, staring wide-eyed at the dead bug.

“This is how he was watching me,” said Will. “How he knew about my phone and our visit to their locker room.”

“But where did Lyle get it?” asked Brooke.

“The same place all the rest of them came from,” said Will.

“The Never-Was.”

Ajay activated his tablet. His syn-app held up a large file icon. “It’s intact; we’ve got Ronnie’s file,” said Ajay, excited. Then to his syn-app, “Open it.”

The screen opened to the grainy image of a video file, with a PLAY arrow in its center. They appeared to be looking through a hole into a dimly lit room, where a briefcase sat on a bench, with documents visible inside. There was a time stamp in the corner.

“It seems to be a video,” said Ajay, reading the time stamp. “Shot last April.”

“That’s the auxiliary locker room,” said Will, leaning in. “I think we’re looking out through one of the lockers.”

Ajay clicked the PLAY button. The image jumbled around a bit; then a face slid into view: Ronnie Murso.

“Auxiliary locker room,” whispered Ronnie. “Watch this.”

The image moved as Ronnie, camera in hand, stepped out of the locker into the room. He moved to the briefcase and rummaged around. Ronnie pulled out a thick gray metallic rod, held it up to the lens, then spoke into the lens again: “I think this is what they use to—”

He looked toward the door in alarm, as if he’d heard something outside. He dropped the rod into the briefcase, hurried back into the locker, and closed the door. He put the camera lens up to the hole in the locker looking into the room again.

A tall, heavyset man wearing a dark suit and hat entered the room. They couldn’t see his face. “Put it here,” he said.

Lyle Ogilvy followed him in, laboring as he carried a black metal footlocker like the one Will and Nick had seen in Lyle’s closet. He set it on the bench beside the briefcase. The man took three things out of the briefcase and set them on the bench: the metal rod, a rectangular silver box with some writing on it, and a rolled-up sheet of thin metal. He unrolled the metal first. It was poster-sized and covered with strange glyphs.

“We saw that on the wall,” said Nick. “In Lyle’s closet.”

“Did they show you how to use this?” the man asked Lyle.

“Yes, sir,” said Lyle.

The man picked up the rod. “What about the Carver?”

“No, not yet,” said Lyle.

“We only have two of them. You’d better take care of it,” said the man as he checked some kind of gauge on the rod’s side. “It takes time to build up a charge. Give me a canister.”

Lyle opened the footlocker. Inside they saw rows of the same black carbon-fiber containers they’d seen in Lyle’s closet. Lyle removed one of the thermos-sized ones. The man activated something on the metal rod he’d called the Carver; a line of glyphs on the rod lit up and the tip of it glowed white-hot.

“They’re called by the glyphs,” said the man. “The holes are unstable and only stay up long enough for one to cross over. Make sure you use the right-sized canister. Open it.”

Lyle slid open the end of the canister. His hands were shaking. The man raised the Carver and pressed some of its glowing glyphs, in order, as if entering some kind of code.

“Hold it flush to the hole or you’ll lose a hand,” said the man.

The white tip of the rod grew blindingly bright, illuminating the man’s face for the first time. Will gasped.

It was the Bald Man, the one he’d seen at his house with the other Black Caps.

Using both hands, the man moved the tip of the rod in a tight circle, which traced and then carved open a small hole in the air. “Now,” said the Bald Man. “Quickly.”

Grimacing, Lyle held the open canister up to the hole, covering it. The canister jerked as something appeared to slip through the hole and into the container.

“Close it!” shouted the man.

Lyle snapped the lid shut. The camera suddenly jolted, as if Ronnie had lost his balance.

“What was that?” said the Bald Man.

The screen went dark as the video ended abruptly.

“Oh my God,” said Brooke, sitting down. “Oh my God.”

“That’s the leader of the men who were chasing me in California,” said Will. “Do any of you recognize him?”

They all shook their heads.

“Damn, Ronnie,” said Nick.

“That’s why they took him,” said Elise grimly. “They knew what he’d seen.”

“But not before he had time to bury that video in all of this and leave it behind,” said Ajay.

“Lyle has that same footlocker in his room,” said Nick. “And, dude, the canisters are full.”

“I want to check something else,” said Ajay. He reversed the video to the moment when the Bald Man set the metallic box on the table. “There was some writing on that box. Isolate and enhance.”

The image tightened and clarified around the silver box on the table. It was about the size of a legal pad. The writing on its surface was engraved in the metal:

THE PALADIN PROPHECY

IV

“What’s the Paladin Prophecy?” Ajay wondered aloud.

“Those other letters don’t spell anything,” said Nick.

“Those are Roman numerals,” said Elise.

“Were the Romans all stupid or what? Why didn’t they just use numbers?”

Elise and Ajay looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Nineteen ninety,” said Brooke, looking at the screen. “And four.”

“Does this mean anything to anyone?” asked Ajay.

Everyone shook their head.

“Bring your tablet, Ajay, and everybody grab a flashlight,” said Will, determined. “We’re going to track down Lyle, right now, show him this, and nail him to a wall until he tells us what he knows.”

Lights had gone out all over the campus. Will noticed a cascade of white falling outside the windows, glowing in the pale light of the moon. Using flashlights, the five roommates made their way down to the first floor. A lot of students were poking around, buzzing about the blackout and the coming storm. There was just enough confusion for them to slip unnoticed into the outer room of Lyle’s suite.

Will listened at the door but heard nothing. Nick picked the lock again and moved inside. Lyle’s rooms were empty, and the vile smell was gone. Will quickly moved to the open closet door and searched inside.

“Everything’s cleared out,” said Will.

“So’s Lyle,” said Nick.

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