FIFTY-NINE

Kenna threw her headgear to the floor. “”Where are Maya and Aaron?”

“They left as soon as you were in.” Stewart pointed. “Doing whatever they can to get into Virtu-Tech headquarters.”

“Get one of them on the phone,” she told Stewart as she raced from her capsule. “Trutenko’s here?”

Stewart nodded.

“Where?”

Stewart indicated the next room. “What do I tell them?”

She stopped at the doorway long enough to answer, “I’ll talk. Just get them on the line.” A second later, she turned back. “How’s Jason?”

“Alive when the paramedics took him,” Stewart said. “What happened?”

Ignoring the question, she made her way into the chamber Trutenko occupied. “Are you all right?” she asked when the older man emerged from his capsule.

“I think so,” he said.

His face ashen, his gait unsteady, he didn’t seem very well at all. But right now, Patrick was her immediate concern. “How can I get inside Virtu-Tech’s headquarters?” she asked.

“Without a valid badge?” he asked. “Impossible.”

“Unacceptable,” she said. “We need to get your brother out of there. Do you have your security pass with you?”

“Of course, but security has probably canceled my authorizations by now. If we attempt to use it, we’ll bring all of Virtu-Tech down on our heads.”

Stewart ran in, phone in hand. “Kenna.”

She grabbed it. “Patrick’s fighting absorption,” she said. “I don’t know if he’s going to make it. He’s at the Chicago headquarters, third floor, chamber two. Can you do anything?”

“On it,” Aaron answered. “Meet us there.”

“How will I get in?”

“Improvise,” he said.

When Kenna hung up, she snatched her jacket and slid it on. Trutenko grabbed her arm. “I’ll come with you.”

The man was still reeling from his VR encounter; he could only slow her down. “No, you and Stewart stay here.”

“I can’t sit back and do nothing.”

“Fine. Give me your pass.”

“But it won’t—”

“Just give it.”

When he complied, she tucked it into her jacket pocket. “Where might Celia be if she’s not with Patrick?”

“Her office is on the fifth floor,” Trutenko said.

“Got it.” Kenna made eye contact with Stewart and then Trutenko. “Now, you both need to do exactly as I say.”

◊

When Kenna stepped out the front door of AdventureSome, she was shocked to see hundreds of people milling around outside the nearby Virtu-Tech offices, despite the morning’s chill. Her heart skipped a beat. Is this about Patrick?

“What happened?” she asked two women standing along the curb. Both wore company badges on lanyards around their necks.

“Fire evacuation,” the younger one answered. “They say it isn’t a drill, but I don’t believe it. These things are always false alarms.”

Kenna took off again, pushing her way through the scattered groups that made up the chattering crowd. She kept her head down as she raced around to the rear of the building, where a number of employees were taking a smoke break and fire department access doors stood wide-open. With so many bystanders, there was no way for her to sneak in unnoticed.

Walking past the smokers as though she had every reason to be there, Kenna pulled her jacket tighter. She made her way to the far end of the building, then ducked behind garbage dumpsters next to a door labeled “Keep Out.” Banking on it automatically unlocking in response to the fire alarm, she tried the door’s handle. Luck was with her. It opened easily and quietly.

Holding her breath, she stole inside to find herself in a tall industrial room that smelled of metal and wet concrete. A black iron spiral staircase led to a catwalk where maintenance workers could more closely inspect the fat pipes that ran along the walls and ceilings and be able to access their giant valves.

The area was empty, save for the thrum of machinery and the hiss of compressed air. She bolted for the staircase and hurried up to the catwalk. Running now, she sped toward the exit door at its far end.

“Hey!”

Kenna spun.

A firefighter on the floor below gestured. “Get back down here,” he said. “You can’t be inside until we issue an all clear.”

She pulled Trutenko’s pass out of her jacket pocket, keeping her fingers over the photo of his face.

“Ah…It’s an emergency,” she said thinking fast. “My medication. I left it upstairs.” Without giving him a chance to respond, she grabbed the door’s handle. “Thanks for letting me get it,” she shouted over her shoulder, even though he clearly had no intention of doing so. “You’re a lifesaver.”

Thinking of Patrick, she hoped that proved true.

The shabby two-toned beige corridor ahead let Kenna know that she was still in the back rooms of the structure. Although she’d only been inside Virtu-Tech’s local headquarters once before, she remembered its open floor plan. This was not it.

She sighed with relief at the sight of the stairway/exit sign at the far end of the hallway. Running full speed now to outpace that firefighter, if he’d opted to come after her, she made it to the doorway in three heartbeats. Stopping, she gently eased open the door and peered in. The stairway was clear.

Breathing through her mouth, she took the steps two at a time, treading as lightly as she could. The less noise she created, the better her chances of making it to Patrick unseen.

At the third-floor landing, she cracked the door open wide enough to get a view of the corridor. This was the Virtu-Tech she remembered. Gray-blue carpet, sky-blue walls, and the kind of indirect lighting that gave everyone’s head a golden glow. Best of all, no one nearby.

Quietly, she stole into the corridor, dropping to her hands and knees. The building’s center atrium made for a bright and sunlit working space, but the risk of being seen from firemen on other floors was too great for her to remain upright.

Taking in her surroundings, she managed to get her bearings. Trutenko had told her that VR chamber number two was on the building’s north side. She was on the east.

“I’m coming, Patrick,” she whispered. “Hang on.”

How long could his body hold out against what his brain believed? Was it longer than Charlie had fought before he’d succumbed? She didn’t know. And what about Tate? Although his werewolf avatar had been killed, had the man survived?

She crept along the wall, hyperaware of sound and movement. On the floor below her, firefighters called out to one another as they made their way from room to room.

“Over here,” came a loud shout from the floor below. “Found another one of the tripped alarms.”

“That’s two down,” a colleague responded. “One to go.”

A third voice chimed in. “So, what is this anyway? Some kind of prank?”

“Probably an angry employee looking to cause trouble,” the first voice said.

“Whoever it is should get his ass fired.”

“Better than shooting up the place,” the third guy said.

All three men made noises of amenable disgust.

Still on her hands and knees, Kenna crawled along the wall until she made it to the north end of the building and spotted the door to VR chamber number two. Enormous from the looks of it. Kenna tried to guess how many capsules it held. She rose to a crouch and hurried until she was directly outside.

She’d prepared as best she could. This was real life, not VR, she reminded herself. No calling up weapons or changing parameters. Whatever lay beyond this door, she had to face with instinct, strength, and whatever she carried on her person. She drew out one of the two items she’d armed herself with—a heavy pair of shears—and gripped them high in her right hand Psycho-style, prepared to attack. She fervently hoped she wasn’t bringing scissors to a gunfight.

She wrapped her fingers around the door’s handle. Locked.

Unsurprised, she dug out Trutenko’s badge and checked her surroundings one more time. If using it did set off an alarm, what better time to do it than when sirens were ringing all over the building already?

She got to her feet and swiped the badge. Rather than a security alert, she heard the satisfying click of the door unlocking itself. She turned the handle and pushed.