The noise was incredible, with videos playing loudly everywhere. Lights of an impossible amount of colors popped in front of Owen’s eyes, almost blinding him. But the craziest thing was easily the people. They were everywhere, and all of them were chatting with someone else, or commenting on something, or shouting a question. And other than glowing like they were made of light (which they probably were), no two people looked anything alike.
An entire world full of people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and genders had come to the Internet—or, well, Nalwork, apparently—and it was easily the craziest, loudest, most glowing thing Owen had ever seen.
Something touched Owen’s hand, and he looked down to find Charm tapping a tiny glowing piece of paper into his palm. He took it and opened it up.
He laughed. “Why? I love it!” he tried to say, but his voice got lost in the din.
She shook her head, then showed him a glowing notepad in her hand. She concentrated on it for a moment, then ripped off a sheet and handed it to him.
you have to use the nalwork tools to talk privately. don’t say anything out loud.
He nodded and looked around for his own notepad, then realized he probably just needed to think about one. He concentrated, and a notepad like hers appeared. He thought about what he wanted to say, then ripped off a sheet and handed it to her. so what now?
now we be careful. we’re both wanted criminals. don’t get caught.
He nodded as they moved around, trying to stay out of other people’s way. Unfortunately, that wasn’t easy as there were other digital avatars everywhere.
this is all anyone does anymore, Charm said in a note as they pushed their way through the crowds. it’s so pathetic. people just sit on the nalwork all day, and robots do everything for them in the real world.
Owen nodded, his mind drifting off to the real real world. What was taking Bethany so long to bring Kiel and the Magister back? All she had to do was touch them and jump back into the book, right? Could she really be in trouble? Owen rolled his eyes. Her, get into trouble? She’d never do anything that fun.
He glanced back over at Charm, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, her red robot eye watching everything at once. Sure, she was a fictional character, but there was something just so . . . blunt about her. Honest. It was kind of nice, having someone just say whatever they were thinking.
Also, she was adorable, especially with her ray guns.
stop looking at me, her note said. you’re making me nervous.
His eyes turned frontward, and he blushed. Fair enough.
She pointed at an advertisement for a new communications device that was no bigger than the chip she’d put into his head. they invented that centuries ago. now it just gets smaller and smaller. nothing new. at least magicians use their imaginations and come up with new stuff.
but magic doesn’t last very long, he wrote back. at least this stuff exists for longer than a spell.
She shrugged. Quanterium has given up. in a lot of ways, not just by letting Dr. Verity take over.
Owen followed her through the throngs of people, stopping every so often for a crowd giving their opinion on something or other, or just a thumbs-up or -down here or there. All around them transparent tubes filled the only empty space, some of which had people shouting random phrases in them, then being whisked away. What were they doing?
Charm pointed at some nearby tubes. there. those will take us to the original computer.
what are they?
you’ll see.
The crowds around the tubes were just as heavy if not worse than everywhere else, so it took a bit of time to get through. Charm gave him a few more notes along the way, explaining not to talk to anyone, not to say anything to anyone, and not to speak to anyone. Owen pointed out that those things all meant the same thing, but she just glared at him.
“Learn sixteen languages in just three seconds!” a robot shouted at Owen, loud enough to be heard over the crowd. “You, there, in the black cloak! Build your own holodeck! Buy one time machine, get a second half-off, today only! Buy your girlfriend a matter transporter!”
Owen immediately blushed, and he stopped in place. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said out loud.
Charm gasped, and somehow Owen heard it. In fact, as soon as he’d spoken, the entire Internet—Nalwork—had gone silent. All talking, all chatting, everything just completely stopped. Videos paused, the lights stopped blinking, and people in every direction turned to look directly at Owen.
Charm slapped her forehead with her palm, hard.
The robot’s eyes flipped from a friendly blue to a bright red. “VOICE RECOGNIZED,” it said in a much more monotone, less salesman-type voice, as if it’d been taken over by an outside force. “MAGISTERIAN CRIMINAL KIEL GNOMENFOOT IDENTIFIED.”
“ruN!” someone shouted in a chat bubble. “he’S goNna kill us!”
“Magisterian criminals are so played out,” someone else said. “It’s all about the alternate-reality vampire Magisterians now. That’s where the buzz is.”
A third person just stood with some kind of camera, filming the entire thing. “Thumbs-up if you hate magic!” he said into the lens.
“WHAT DID I SAY?” Charm shouted. “This is what happens when you respond to a Nalwork ad!”
“VOICE RECOGNIZED,” said the same robot. “QUANTERIAN WAR CRIMINAL CHARM MENTUM IDENTIFIED.”
“No talking,” Owen whispered back to Charm, unable to stop himself from grinning at her.
She smacked him, her digital hand apparently still solid enough to hit him. “We need to get out of here!” she hissed. “NOW.”
“What’s so bad?” he asked as the crowd thinned around them, all but the one guy who kept his camera running. “What can they do?”
Tubes all around them began to slam shut, like prison cells locking. One by one, the Nalwork closed off their escape routes. “That,” Charm said. “Now jump, or we’re going to be stuck here until security shows up!”
“Security?” Owen said. “Like virus protection?”
“You better hope we don’t need protection from viruses,” Charm said, grabbing his hand and yanking him toward the only still-open tube. It began to close on them, but Charm jammed her robotic arm in and held the tube open. “GO!”
The man with the camera groaned. “Wait! Security isn’t even here yet! I wanted to get that on film!”
Charm pulled out a digital ray gun and shot the camera. It exploded right in his hand, not harming his digital form at all. He glared at her, then gave her a thumbs-down. Weirdly, a tiny thumbs-down appeared on her shirt with a number one, right over her heart.
“That’s . . . odd,” Owen said, then got pushed into the tube. Charm jumped in a second later, letting the tube slam shut behind her.
For a moment they both just hung there in the middle of the tube, nothing above or below them. Owen gave Charm a look. “How do you make it go?”
“You have to tell it what you’re looking for,” she said, then looked up. “ORIGINAL COMPUTER!”
“SEARCH INPUT,” said a computerized voice. “SEARCH COMMENCING.”
And then Owen’s stomach hit his feet as they shot up into the tube, faster than the speed of screaming.