The Spy Is Cast (15 page)

“Agreed. We’ll figure
something out. I think it was the… other stuff that was the
problem, then.”

“Let’s hope so. See
you soon. Ride safe.”

“I will.” The words
came out of my mouth sounding more like a prayer than a
statement.

Spider hung up the
phone. He was the first to break the short silence. “I guess we’d
better head over to Sirius and get the network key. I’ll meet you
there so you can leave right after.” He scribbled an address and
handed it to me. “Here’s where you can pick up the bike. Tell them
you’re picking it up for Kane Consulting.”

“Okay.” I headed for
my car while Spider locked up the office. My heart pounded as I
sank into the driver’s seat. I was so far outside my comfort zone.
Despite my confident words, I was terrified of getting back on a
street bike. And I was afraid to go back into the network, too.

I drove over to Sirius
on autopilot, mindlessly following Spider’s custom-painted
lime-green Smart car. Throughout the short drive, I racked my brain
for a safer, less obvious way to get into the network. God, why
couldn’t I just be invisible?

We parked and let
ourselves into the prison-like security at Sirius, my
already-racing pulse accelerating even more in the cramped
time-delay chamber. When we arrived in Spider’s lab, he unlocked
the drawer again and retrieved the emerald necklace. I cocked an
eyebrow at him, clenching my quivering hands behind my back to hide
my nervousness.

“A little overdressed
for camping, don’t you think?” I asked.

“Definitely.” He
carried the necklace over to a workbench and prised the backing off
the gem with tiny tools, peering through a powerful magnifying
glass. “The question is what to do with it. If it gets lost, we’re
sunk. It’s so tiny, all you have to do is sneeze and it’s
gone.”

I frowned, pondering.
“I hate to take it out in the bush. That’s just asking to lose
it.”

Spider extracted the
circuitry with tweezers and held it up. “Any ideas?”

“I shudder to think I
carried that around on my keychain without a care in the world for
nearly six months. Now I’m afraid to carry it across the room.”

“I think you need to
carry it on your person this time,” he said seriously. “I don’t
think we should take a chance on putting it in your waist pouch or
on your key ring.”

“I hope you’re not
going to tell me where to stick it.”

He blushed scarlet.
“No! I didn’t mean… I just meant… you should carry it with you.
Somewhere. I mean, somehow.”

I chuckled. “I know
what you meant. I’m thinking.” We sat in silence for a few moments.
“Would it go under my watch strap?” I took off my large, battered
watch and passed it over.

Spider examined it
carefully. “Maybe. Or maybe…” He carried it over to the workbench
and got out his little tools. A few seconds later, he looked up
with a grin. “Perfect. Your watch is so big and old, the circuitry
fits right inside the body of the watch. And nobody would ever
think it’s valuable.” He stopped himself awkwardly. “I mean… it’s a
nice watch, but…”

“It’s okay, Spider, I
bought it over a decade ago for twenty bucks. I have no illusions
that it’s valuable. Or that anyone would ever think it was
valuable.”

He handed it back to
me with an embarrassed shrug. “Sorry.”

“No problem.” I
strapped it back on. “Okay, let’s give it a test run. Have you got
the monitors up?”

“Give me a minute.” He
turned to his computer, fingers flying. “Okay. Ready whenever you
are.”

“Let’s kill two birds
with one stone. I don’t want to go in and out any more than I have
to. How about if I go in and wait, and you see if you can wake me
from here.”

He nodded. “Go
ahead.”

I concentrated and
stepped into the white void of the simulation network, wearing
Robert’s image. I walked around experimentally, focusing fiercely
on holding the illusion for as long as possible.

After several minutes,
my head started to throb from the effort. With a sigh, I let my
body regain its normal appearance and wandered back and forth a
little while longer. Then I conjured up an armchair from
nothingness and sprawled into it, wondering what was taking Spider
so long.

Finally I got tired of
waiting and stepped back through the portal. I clutched my head and
swore violently when the expected pain hit me. Straightening
slowly, I squinted at Spider.

“Why didn’t you wake
me?”

“I couldn’t. I shook
you and yelled your name. You didn’t come out.” He gazed at me in
consternation. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Shit. I didn’t feel a
thing in the network. I thought you said you could get people out
of the network just as easily as waking them out of a sleep.”

“Normally we can, but
I guess it must be something weird about the way you access it with
the key.”

“We’ve got to find a
way to make it work. Slap me or something. Or hey, how about this?”
I dug into my waist pouch. “Here. Stick me with this pin.”

He recoiled. “No!
That’s gross!”

“Spider, we have to
make this work. Have you got a better idea?”

“I’m not sticking you
with a pin.”

“Do it, dammit! Would
you rather I get captured or killed because I’m messing around in
the network and I don’t know I have to get out and run away in my
real body?”

He took the pin from
me, revulsion in every line of his body. “I think I might puke if I
have to stick a pin in you. Or pass out.”

“Then find somebody
who can. Go get John Smith. I’m sure he’d love to stick a pin in
me.”

He squared his
shoulders, pale but determined. “No. He’s not sticking a pin in
you. I’ll do it.”

“Okay. Here goes.” I
stepped back into the network void and waited. Nothing happened.
I’d always liked Spider for his soft heart, but this time it was a
serious handicap. He was probably still standing there trying to
get up the nerve to poke me. I sighed and waved my armchair into
existence again.

I flopped into it and
kept falling into agony. White-hot whips lashed my brain and
blindness swallowed me whole. Screams tore from my throat and my
body flailed helplessly, beyond my control as it tried to escape
the torture. Time folded into an eternity of torment.

The blindness resolved
into a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours. Nausea overtook me as
they swirled, and I curled into a tight, whimpering ball. Finally,
the pain and sickness began to subside as the colours faded. My
clenched muscles slowly eased and awareness returned.

I lay on the floor of
the lab. Spider was kneeling beside me, his face chalk-white. “I’m
sorry, I’m sorry,” he babbled.

I roused myself from
my misery and dragged myself onto my knees. “Hey, Spider, I’m
okay.”

He wrapped his arms
around me and buried his face in my shoulder, trembling . “I’m
sorry…”

“It’s okay. It’s not
your fault. Hey.” I gave him a little shake. “It’s okay. My fault.
I should have guessed this might happen.”

He pulled away,
swiping his hand across his face and taking a deep, shuddering
breath. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated. “Are… are you really
okay?”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t
anything you did. Remember when something like this happened
before? When I went through the portal too fast?”

He nodded wordlessly,
visibly working to compose himself. His face was still ashen, and I
let him take his time. Finally, he took another deep breath,
steadier this time.

“I… I couldn’t do it
at first. I just poked you, a little bit, and nothing happened.” He
ran a shaking hand over his eyes. “And then I thought about what
you said… if your life was at stake. And I poked you harder… And
then you fell off the chair and started screaming and thrashing and
I couldn’t…” he stopped and covered his face.

“It wasn’t your fault.
I didn’t even feel the pinprick. But I guess this is just what
happens to me when I get dragged out of the network.” I hauled
myself shakily to my feet and reached down to give Spider a hand up
from where he still knelt. “Well, we can consider that a failure.
Lucky these labs are soundproof.”

Spider dropped into
his chair and we stared at each other. “Now what?” he quavered.
“You can’t go out there unless we figure something out. And I don’t
ever want to see you suffer like that, ever again.” He shuddered,
his eyes still dark with distress.

I grimaced. “Wouldn’t
be high on my list of things to do, either. Is there some way you
can send a signal into the network?” Then I answered my own
question. “No. Dammit, that won’t work. Not if somebody else is
using the network at the time.”

We thought some more.
I made fists in my hair and tugged irritably. There had to be a
way. Pulling me out of the network obviously wouldn’t work. That
meant I somehow needed to receive a signal when I was inside the
network so I could step out under my own power. But any signal
would be audible or visible to anyone else who might happen to be
inside the network. Think, think, dammit!

I looked up slowly.
“Hey, Spider, how does this circuitry work to access the
network?”

He launched into a
complicated technical description. I caught about every third
word.

I waved my hand to
stem the tide. “Hold on. Is it transmitting a data signal? Is that
what keeps me logged into the network as long as I choose to stay
there?”

“Yes.”

“What if we could
weaken the signal? Not break it completely, just weaken it? Kind of
like dimming the lights. That would signal me, but nobody else in
the network.”

His brows drew
together in concentration. “It’s digital, not analog. You can’t
really ‘dim’ it. But… some EMI interference maybe.” He swivelled in
his chair and began to dig through the plastic bins mounted above
the workbench.

“Transformer?” he
muttered as he scrounged. “No, too bulky, too much power draw…” He
continued to mumble to himself and excavate bins. “Hold on, how
about this?” He extracted a small device from the heap. “Hand me
your watch.”

I handed it over and
he bent over the bench, engrossed. He worked steadily for some time
with his tiny tools and soldering pen, fiddling and testing with
his multimeter probes.

Finally, he
straightened. “Okay, I’ve rigged this up so it generates a
variable-strength EMI pulse. The only problem is, I don’t know how
much of a pulse we’ll need for it to be noticeable to you without
kicking you out entirely.”

I shrugged
resignation. “I guess we’ll just have to try it and see.”

“No. There has to be
another way.” Horror reflected in his eyes.

“I’m open to
suggestions.”

After a short silence,
he drew in a shaky breath. “You’re right. Okay. This device will
have to be held right against your watch to affect the key inside.
I’ll set it to the lowest possible strength. You go into the
network, and I’ll send a pulse. If you don’t notice it in, let’s
say, fifteen seconds, I’ll increase the strength and try it again.
And so on.”

I rolled my shoulders,
trying to ease the ache. “Okay. Here goes.” I stepped into the
network and hovered tensely, counting the seconds. My nerves
stretched tighter when nothing happened. I took a deep breath and
let it out slowly. Then another.

Please let this
work.

Minutes dragged past.
How much of an incremental increase was Spider using, for shit’s
sake? I paced, tension mounting.

There was a sudden
blip in the sim, a barely noticeable fading. A small, sharp pain
darted behind my eyes and vanished as quickly as it had come.
Knowing Spider was watching the monitor, I grinned and gave a
thumbs-up before stepping out of the portal and back into my aching
head.

I groaned and ground
my teeth, holding my skull together with both hands. When I
straightened at last, Spider was beaming.

“It worked!”

I cracked my neck,
grimacing. “Fabulous. Let’s do some more tests at that intensity.
I’ll go in again. Watch me on the monitors. Send a pulse at random
intervals. I’ll give you a thumbs-up whenever I notice anything. If
it works predictably, we’re all set.” He nodded eagerly, and I
stepped into the void again with a sigh.

Some time later, I
squinted painfully up at Spider. “I counted a total of twelve
signals. How did I do?”

He grinned, elation
sparkling in his eyes. “Perfect. You were right on with each one. A
hundred percent accuracy. I think we’re there.”

“Thank God.” I slumped
over, propping my head in my hands. “I don’t want to do this
anymore,” I whined softly.

“You don’t have to,”
he said, sounding bewildered. “That worked fine. We’re done.”

“No. I’m not done
yet.” I tenderly massaged my temples. “I need to go in and try
something else.”

“Why?”

I met his eyes.
“Because I’m scared shitless of going back in and getting
recognized.” I dropped my face into my hands again. “I’m such a
chickenshit.”

“Aydan, you’re not a
chickenshit. You’re the bravest person I know.” I looked up as he
turned pink. “I can’t believe you keep doing this. After what you
went through before. And when it hurts you so much.”

“Thanks, Spider. I
wish I felt brave.” I cracked my neck again and sat up straight.
“Okay. This might look weird on the monitors. Don’t worry.” I
considered for a moment. “Or it might just look like me stepping
into the network. I don’t know. I’m going to mess around for a
while. I’ll come out in ten minutes. Or less. Watch the monitors
for every detail.”

His forehead creased
in confusion. “Okay. What are you going to do?”

I gave him a
half-smile. “Wait and see.”

I stepped into the
void again, concentrating on being invisible. What the hell, it was
a simulation. Why couldn’t it work? I stood still for a few
moments, looking down at where my body should be. Nothing but white
void.