Michael sat in the middle of Sarah’s family’s couch, reminding himself over and over that he was not in a game, that the option of rushing the man—tackling him, perhaps, wrestling the gun away—was not actually an option. It was a truly terrible idea. The situation was so bizarre it felt like he was in the VirtNet. But in this case, a gunshot to the chest meant death, not an irritating do-over. He concentrated on just sitting still and making no sudden movements. And smiling.
Sarah’s parents—were they really her parents?—sat across from him in separate chairs, her father resting the gun on his knee so that its barrel still pointed at Michael. At Michael’s face, actually: he could see the perfectly round black hole, a dark passageway to certain death. His chest felt tight as he took a breath of air.
The sweet smile that had graced Sarah’s mother’s face had once again vanished.
“Did I … uh … do something wrong?” he asked. “Where is Sarah?” Speaking helped; it made him feel braver.
“Sarah will be home soon,” Nancy replied. “Don’t you worry yourself over that.”
“Just tell us who you are.” Gerard was awfully calm for someone with a gun. “We have to be extra careful these days, you see.”
Extra careful? Michael took a deep breath. “I’m exactly who I said I am. My name is Michael. If I could have just five minutes with Sarah, I could prove it easily. We’ve never met in the Wake before, so she won’t recognize me at first. But we’ve been best friends for years. Us and another guy named Bryson.”
The two exchanged a glance, then looked back at Michael.
“Sounds suspicious,” Gerard said. “We’ve had others like you come around.” His hand gripped the gun, then relaxed.
Michael wondered why they were so distrustful. Had Kaine’s people been by? He held up his hands. “I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Neither of them responded.
“Look, can I please just talk to Sarah? You can aim that thing at my face the whole time. Search me—I don’t have any guns strapped to my chest or knives in my shoes. Promise. I’m just a friend of your daughter’s. That’s it.”
“We’ll see about all that, now, won’t we?” Gerard responded. But at least he sat back, settling himself in. As he repositioned himself in his chair, he moved the gun so it no longer pointed at Michael.
Nancy sighed and smoothed the wrinkles out of her pants. “Very well. We’ll see what Sarah has to say when she comes home. But we’re done taking chances after …” Her voice drifted off and she lowered her eyes to the floor.
Kaine, Michael thought, sure of it now. Kaine’s done something to them. Or Sarah was traumatized after burning to death on the Path. No wonder they had doubts.
“I need some distraction,” Gerard grumbled. He clicked a button on a nearby remote and a HoloProj lit up the far wall. There was a man on the projection, pointing at a big map and talking about the weather.
It was looking to be a lovely evening outside.
“Oh, please,” Gerard mumbled.
Michael sighed. It was about the tenth time the man had complained under his breath in the last hour. Evidently his favorite thing to do in life was to watch the NewsBops and disagree with every word. The confusing part was that he seemed to do it even when opposing viewpoints were being debated. To him, both sides were wrong. Distrust filled the man top to bottom.
A beep came from down the hallway, followed by the squeal of hinges, then a door slamming shut. Michael stood up before he even realized what he was doing.
“Sit down!” Gerard yelled at him.
Nancy was a little more civil. “Please. We have to be careful. If you are who you say you are, then we’ll all know soon, won’t we?”
Michael nodded at her, slowly taking a seat as he did so. Footsteps were already heading toward them. It made something flutter in his stomach; at the same time, his chest felt tight. Sarah. He was about to see Sarah.
She walked into the room, her hand just dropping from her EarCuff as she switched off her NetScreen. Michael’s breath caught because she was everything he’d expected and yet nothing he’d expected. She mostly resembled her Aura in the Sleep but was different enough that it was like discovering her all over again.
She was really tall, for one thing—maybe she had a complex about it and she’d compensated in the VirtNet by being shorter. She had blond hair just past her ears. She was cute but not beautiful. Except for her eyes. Her eyes were beautiful, as cheesy as the thought made him feel. They were green like her Aura’s, but impossibly brighter, almost unnaturally so. She had just opened her mouth to say something to her parents, but she stopped before a word came out, those kryptonite eyes fixed on him. A stranger sitting in a chair, probably looking slack-jawed and stupid. And her dad with a gun.