S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (27 page)

Still, it makes me wonder how much of the buy-in and the proceeds from
The Game
actually make it to the Player's family. Even a small percentage would seem like a fortune to mine. But, then again, he'd already be rich if he was an Operator. Why would he volunteer?

“
I bet he really did,” Tanya whispers. “I bet he probably cost his Operator at least three million.” She leans away again and says in a normal voice, “But don't take my word for it. You should check him out yourself. I think he's scheduled to play this afternoon.”

I nod, slowly. It's disturbing to know that there are people out in the world like her, even if she otherwise seems completely normal.

After a few minutes of blissful silence, she turns to me again. “I really hate this ride sometimes. It gets so depressing after a while. Do you commute, too?”

I shake my head, grateful for the change in subject. I'd prefer to be left alone, but that doesn't appear to be happening. “I just had to go into the capital for…to do something.” I quickly ask if she commutes, hoping to switch the focus back onto her.

“
Every day. I work in Hartford but live in New York. Two hours one way, every day, six days a week.” She brightens up. “But I love my job.”

“
What do you do?”

She blushes. “Well, not my actual
job
job, which is a recording clerk at ArcWare. I'm talking about my other job. I'm an actress. Well, okay, I'm trying to be an actress. ArcWare's just my foot into the door of Arc Entertainment. And it seems to be working. I have an audition next week!”

She throws her hands up and squeaks. I hate people who do that.

“
And what do you do?” she asks.

Me? Oh, nothing, actually. Break into Forbidden Zones. Kill zombies.

“
I'm still in school,” I say.

“
You are? Girl, you look like you're too old for school. I thought you were, like, twenty or something. Like, you and I could be best friends or something. Hell, we could still be friends anyway.”

I'm not so sure.

“
My name's Tanya,” she says, offering her hand.

“
Jessica,” I reply. I'm starting to believe this ride will never end.

The conversation continues like this for another twenty minutes. Despite her obnoxiousness, I find I actually kind of like her. She seems so carefree. I finally feel comfortable enough to ask her if I can borrow her Link.

She gives me a strange look, so I explain that mine's on the blink. “I think it needs an upgrade.” It's the same excuse Micah told the guard at the checkpoint when it didn't sync properly with his implant. A lifetime ago now. “I can't seem to connect to any of the Streams except Media and Government.”

The woman smiles and nods sympathetically. “Ugh, Government. So boring. Nobody ever watches that Stream. It's just a waste of bandwidth if you ask me.” She hands over her Link.

“
I had a defective device a few years ago,” she says, “back when I was still living with my parents. It kept sending me messages meant for someone else. I complained to Citizen Registration for weeks, but they kept telling me that the person whose messages I was getting didn't actually exist.” She laughs. “Turns out he did, but he was CU. He'd died about a month earlier and was assigned to clean sewers. They found him stuck in a section directly under my parents' house, apparently no worse for the wear.”

All I can do is stare at her.

She shudders and nods. “Yeah, I know. I laugh about it now, but when I first found out about this dead person living under us the whole time, I practically freaked out. I even threatened my parents that I'd move out right then, but of course I couldn't. I still had a few more months of school left.”

“
That's quite a story,” I say.

She watches me while I key in Kelly's Link identification. I wait for it to connect. The screen goes blank, then returns with:

 

<>

 

My face grows numb with shock. Kelly really did go to LI. And he's still there.

“
That's the exact same message I kept getting,” Tanya exclaims, “when I tried pinging that mysterious person's ID! I remember it now!” She snatches her Link back and bangs it against her palm. “I hope it isn't happening again. Those new rules they put into place for getting a replacement are such a pain in the ass. I hate them. A whole day wasted answering stupid questions.”

I force an encouraging smile onto my face, but it feels weak and strained. “Actually, I think I just put in the wrong code.”

She looks instantly relieved. “Oh, well that makes sense.” She gives a nervous laugh. “For a moment I thought maybe there might be a CU stuck to the bottom of the bus.” She laughs.

I try to smile.

“
You want to try again?”

I shake my head and push the Link away. “It's just my boyfriend. He can wait till I get home.”

She nudges me like we're old friends. “That's right, Jessica. Make the poor bastard suffer! Make him appreciate you more.”

I cough uncomfortably and am glad to see my stop coming up.

“
Make sure you get your Link updated,” she tells me as I get up. “And check out that Player on
Survivalist
. You'll see what I mean!”

 

After getting off
the bus, I decide to go by Micah's place to see if Kelly has come back yet. I'm kind of hoping to find Jake's van there and Kelly inside playing
Zpocalypto
. But instead of the van, there's another car sitting in Micah's driveway that I don't recognize. I figure it probably belongs to Mr. or Mrs. Sandervol.

I've never met either of them—they're always out of town—so I'm curious to see what they're like. But after today, the last thing I need is to get all wrapped up in the whole ‘meet my folks' circus and them asking me about school and future plans and all that crap. I'm not up for acting all normal. Plus, I want to get over to Kel's, so I just hurry on past without stopping.

I see the police car when I'm still a block and a half away. Two officers are just coming out the front door of the house and Mrs. Corben is standing there with her hands clasped together up by her chin. She's clearly upset, and the officers are trying to console her.

I quickly turn up a side street and come home the back way. I don't know what else to do. I can't even ping Ash or any of the others to find out what's going on. All I can do is guess that he's still not home.

“
There you are!” Eric barks at me when I walk through the front door. He gets up from the couch and tries to block my way to the stairs. “Where have you been all day?”

I brush past my brother without saying anything. I just want to go up to my room and scream into my pillow.

“
What's the matter with your Link?” he demands. “I tried pinging you all afternoon, but all I got was this strange mess— Hey! Jessie, I'm talking to you!”

He grabs my arm and twists me around. I shake his hand off of me. I could flip him onto his back in a second, but what good would that do? It would just make me feel like shit and humiliate him. It won't bring Kelly back.

“
Jessie, please. What happened to you today?”

“
Someone stole my Link,” I say. “Okay, Eric?”

“
What? Again?” He exhales and shakes his head disapprovingly.

“
I'm tired, Eric. I just spent the day in Hartford registering for a new one and the past hour on the transit with some crazy woman with a morbid crush on a Player on
Survivalist
. I'd rather just go lie down.”

I turn and head for the stairs.

“
Oh, and we're going to be getting a taxation bill for three hundred and forty six dollars in the next cycle.”

Eric chokes. I use his momentary surprise to escape into my room so I can think about what to do next, but he chases me up the stairs. He doesn't even grant me a minute to myself. Two seconds after I've shut the door, he's pounding on it. “Jessie?”

“
Don't worry,” I shout out at him. “I'll pay the stupid bill. I'll figure out a way to get the money.”

“
I—I don't care about that, Jess. Just… Why didn't you tell anyone about your Link? Why did you just go off to the capitol without telling anyone where you were going? There's nothing to be ashamed of.”

“
I'm not ashamed, Eric. Go away.” I flop onto my bed, wondering if it's possible to sneak one of the others' Links so I can talk to someone who knows what I've been through. Ash, for example.

“
I would've taken the day off and driven you, you know. You didn't have to take the transit.”

“
It was fine.”

“
Damn it, Jess, I was worried about you. We all were. Mom said you got some official ping this morning on the house Link, but then you just disappeared. And when we couldn't get a hold of you, I back-traced the ping to the capital.” He stops and waits. “Mom was worried you'd gotten into some kind of trouble or something. She had no way of reaching you. She was frantic.”

“
I doubt that.”

“
She was,” Eric counters. He sounds hurt, like I'm really blaming him for her being so fucked up all the time. I don't know why he continues to defend her after all these years, after how crappy of a mother she's been to us both. It just blows me away. Especially because he keeps his feelings about our father so private. “She just has trouble showing it, Jessie. You know that.”

“
Yeah, sounds familiar, like you and Dad.”

He doesn't bite. “There's something else, Jess. Were you with Kelly today?”

I turn over on my side, turn my back to the door and wish he'd just go away. But my wish doesn't come true.

“
Jessie? Did you two break up or something?”

“
No.”

“
Do you want me to ping—”

“
No. I said leave me alone.”

“
Come on, Jessie. Let's not do this.”

“
You're the one ‘doing this,' Eric! What part of leave me alone do you not understand?”

“
Mrs. Corben has been pinging my Link all day. She's been asking about you and Kelly. She said the Stream couldn't find his Link. The same as yours. How does that even happen?”

And there it is. He wasn't really worried about me. It's all because of Mrs. Corben freaking out about Kel and Eric's inability to understand why we weren't on the Stream. Damn cops, always trying to solve mysteries, regardless of whether or not they need to be solved.

“
She pinged Mom, too,” he continues. “I don't know if she tried Grandpa. I haven't spoken with him yet. He's been out all day.”

I highly doubt she would've pinged Grandpa. She's afraid of him. Most people I know are afraid of him.

“
She said Kelly left early this morning in a strange van,” he goes on. “Said she hasn't seen him since. Was he with you, Jess? Did he go with you to Hartford?”

“
I told you I was on the transit, sitting with some whacko.”

“
Okay, then. So you don't know where Kelly is?”

“
No.”

“
Because she pinged again about twenty minutes ago and was going to call the police. I tried to talk her out of it. I said he probably just lost track of time, but she wasn't rational. I thought he might be with you.”

Christ. “I said I wasn't with him.”

“
Maybe if you spoke with her.”

I get up and walk over to the door and open it.

“
Fine. But the Link they gave me won't connect to anything but Media and Government.”

Eric exhales, like he'd been holding his breath. He's three inches taller than me, and yet he seems smaller, shrunken. I hold out my hand. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his Link. I wait for him to leave, but he just stands there.

“
I need to call Ash and Micah first,” I tell him, “see if they know. No reason to make her even more scared.”

I close the door. He shuffles around outside it for another minute or so before telling me that dinner will be in less than an hour.

I try Ash first. While I'm waiting for her to connect, I squeeze my eyes closed and try to keep myself from screaming Kelly's name out the window.

“
Jess?” Ash asks. Her face is tiny on the screen, but the distress in it is clear.

My mind screams at me to disconnect.

“
Jessie? You okay?”

“
Are you… Any word from the boys?”

She shakes her head. “Micah said Kel's mom has been pinging him and Reggie all day. She didn't try me. I don't think she likes me. In fact,” she says, getting that haughty look in her eyes, “I'm pretty sure she doesn't.”

“
Maybe it's because of your reputation for corrupting Greenwich's boys,” I tease.

“
So you're saying she's paranoid? Or, like, overprotective?”

I smile in spite of myself. I don't know why, but just seeing Ashley like this, all indignant, even though I know it's just an act, calms me down. Even if she's really on the verge of crumbling and just hiding it.