CHAPTER 31

Naomi and Tyler pulled an all-nighter on the couch together, coding furiously until dawn. Aisha came home with Jada just after five o’clock, but she saw that they were busy and left them alone. At seven o’clock, she dropped a carton of Chinese food in front of each of them without saying a word. At eleven, she wished them a good night and went to bed.

Finally, by the morning, they had everything in place. Millions of bots from around the world logged into the Real-planet simulations as guests, walked to the same place at the base of the wall, and then one by one, self-destructed. Little by little, they shaved their way through the lava-hardened steel until finally, they broke through.

Just in time, too, because shortly after they reached the other side, someone at Black Knight discovered the attack and terminated their access. Their view went dark. The question was, had Brandon or whoever was working for him seen what the millions of guest avatars were doing? Or had they seen only the flood of connections to the server? If they noticed the hole in the wall, they could close it in an instant, just as easily as they had made the wall in the first place. Since Tyler and Naomi could no longer access the simulation, they had no way to know whether the hole was still in place. They could only hope it was. And hope that their idea worked.

Tyler yawned. He hadn’t pulled an all-nighter like that since he and Yusuf had hacked the lawyers’ Mercedes.

Naomi stood. “I should go. It’s been a long night.”

“Okay. We did good, I think.”

“I hope it’s enough.” She touched her glasses, probably using the Zoom app to summon herself a ride home. She headed toward the front door.

“I’ll call you later,” Tyler said.

Jada ran into the room and threw her arms around him. “Bye, Uncle Tyler!”

He tried to fight back a second yawn, but failed. “Time for school already?”

She giggled. “I’m not in school. It’s daycare.”

“Daycare, right, sorry.”

She wore a pink dress with a million sequins and laces and frills. “That’s quite a dress,” he said. “Are you a princess?”

“I’m a queen. And I command you to come to daycare with me.”

“I don’t know about that,” Aisha said, coming into the room. “I think Uncle Tyler needs a nap.”

Jada took him by the hand, and he let her drag him to his feet. “At least come kiss me goodbye.”

She led him outside and down the steps. Aisha followed, carrying a booster seat and a backpack in the shape of a frog. Naomi was just climbing into a red Zoom car that sat by the curb.

“You can take this one,” Naomi said.

“I’m sure another one will be along soon,” Aisha said. “It never takes them long.”

“I can wait.” Naomi stood aside to give Jada room to get in.

“Why don’t you share? It’s only a few minutes to her school, and then you can take the car home.” Aisha smiled. “Save the other car for the paying customers.”

“Okay,” Naomi said. She climbed in the back seat and slid over to make room. Aisha set the booster on the seat, and Jada, after giving Tyler a quick peck on the cheek, climbed in and buckled herself.

“Now don’t forget your backpack this time,” Aisha said, handing it to Jada. “I’ll see you after school.”

“It’s not school—it’s daycare!” she shouted gleefully, delighted to catch her mother in a mistake.

“Love you,” Aisha said. She shut the back door, realigning the half of the Zoom logo painted on it with the half painted on the front door.

Tyler took a step back, feeling unaccountably uneasy. He was intruding on a private moment, a mother seeing her child off to school. But no, that wasn’t it. It was something else. Something that struck him as wrong.

He looked up and down the street. Everything seemed as it should be. The sky was dark, threatening rain, but he didn’t think that would have caused this feeling. He looked back up at the apartment building, but nothing seemed amiss. Maybe he was just exhausted?

It wasn’t until the car was driving away that he figured it out. The wheels. The hubcaps, specifically. Zoom cars all had spiral pattern hubcaps, part of the detailing that made their cars look distinctive. The car that had just driven away was the right make and model, the right shade of red, and had a Zoom logo painted on the side, but it had the original manufacturer’s hubcaps. It wasn’t a Zoom car.

“Hey! Stop!” Tyler took off down the street as fast as he could. Of course, there was no point shouting at an autocar, and no chance of him catching it. He used the magnifying function on his glasses and snapped a picture, just as the car turned the corner. Too late to get the license plate.

He ran back toward Aisha, pressing the side of his glasses. “Dial 9-1-1,” he shouted. The glasses, complied, chiming as they made the connection.

Aisha stared at him, astonished. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s not a Zoom car,” he told her. “Naomi and Jada were just kidnapped.”