Game Over by Andrew Klavan Page B

the coffin, there was a small set of steps. Next to the steps was Juliet Seven. Juliet Seven was a security guy like Victor One, the only difference being that Victor One was a human being, whereas Rick suspected Juliet Seven might be a cartoon character. He looked like one, anyway. He was so huge and so muscular, he looked as if he were a bunch of gigantic squares and rectangles somehow welded together. Rectangle arms crossed over a square chest under a square head and all of it held up by two legs that looked like cement rectangles. He looked asif he were so strong he could pound you into the ground with a single blow to the top of your head. Which was why Rick never made fun of him for getting stuck with the code name Juliet.
    â€œLet’s do this!”
    The voice came from behind them, and Rick turned to see Mars enter the room. Rick stopped in his tracks, staring. It had been only a day since he’d last seen Mars, but he’d changed. He’d changed completely.
    His solid, angry aspect was gone. He looked disheveled. He looked . . . well, he looked terrified. Instead of his usual crisp dress, he was wearing wrinkled slacks and a wrinkled white shirt, no tie. His silver hair (which Rick sometimes thought was made of steel) was all out of place. And those deep-set glaring eyes of his were staring out at them like the eyes of a hunted animal hiding in a dark cave.
    Up until that moment, Rick had not imagined Mars could even feel an emotion like fear. But Rick could see it was worse than that. Mars wasn’t just afraid. He was in a complete panic. Totally messed up.
    Why? Rick wondered. What’s he so scared about? Is it because I got into his computer?
    And his father’s questions came back to him: Why would a space weapon be in Mars’ computer. What’s that got to do with MindWar?
    Something was wrong here, Rick sensed. Something was terribly wrong. Maybe he shouldn’t get in the coffin.Maybe he shouldn’t do what Mars and Miss Ferris wanted him to do.
    â€œWe’re sending you back to your last location,” said Miss Ferris. She pressed a button and the lid of the glass coffin opened.
    Rick turned to look at the opening box. Maybe . . .
    â€œWe need to find out what’s happening,” Mars said. “We need to find out how Kurodar is getting into our systems. Sending security bots through cyberspace into reality. Hacking our computers . . .”
    Mars’s words tumbled together as he spoke. He was so panicked he couldn’t even speak right.
    Miss Ferris was gesturing at him to climb the stairs, to get into the box, the portal into the Realm. Rick hesitated another moment. He wasn’t sure what to do.
    He glanced at his father. The Traveler took a breath. “Maybe we need to think about this,” he said quietly.
    Mars took a threatening step toward him. “You don’t have a say in this, Dial. Your country’s safety is at stake. More than that: the world’s safety. We have no time to stand here and talk about it.”
    The commander and the Traveler locked eyes, Mars’s furious glare meeting Dial’s steady gaze.
    Then, after a moment, Rick’s father turned to him. “It’s your decision,” he said.
    Mars looked at him too. So did Miss Ferris.
    Rick nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll go.”
    Mars was right. The Boar Soldier in the tower. Thehack of Mars’s computer. Something was going on. And if he could enter the Realm and find out what Kurodar was up to . . .
    â€œLet’s do it,” he said.
    He climbed up the steps into the portal box and lay down without saying another word.
    Immediately, Miss Ferris pressed the button that closed the box’s lid. Even before the metal lining began to wrap around him, Rick started to sweat with claustrophobic panic. He felt the pinpricks as his nervous system was plugged into the computers. Soon, the familiar floating feeling came over him.