Accidental Hero by Matt Myklusch

Author:Matt Myklusch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER

10

Virtua’s Reality

The following day once again brought news of Rüstov activity. Reports of Left-Behind sightings were now coming in from all six boroughs of Empire City. Jazen broke the news to Jack over breakfast, stressing that he didn’t necessarily believe all these reports were grounded in fact. Even so, Jack could tell the city’s reaction to them was real enough. As Jack ate breakfast in the Ivory Tower loft, a SmartNews anchorman was droning on in the background about preparations for a second Rüstov invasion getting under way:

“This morning in Hightown, Circleman Jonas Smart launched a petition to return his Peacemaker security teams to post-invasion force levels. The Circleman promised to do whatever is necessary to protect this city, and urged all loyal citizens of the Imagine Nation to give the measure their full support.” The newscaster turned to his cohost. “Seems like a no-brainer to me,” he said.

“Absolutely,” his perky female cohost agreed. “Maybe next we can do something about that infected boy who’s causing all this trouble,” she added brightly.

Jazen scowled at the holo-screen from his seat at the kitchen table. “Unbelievable,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s a couple of no-brainers for you right there behind the news desk,” he added.

“I don’t know,” Jack replied. “Everyone I’ve met here seems to share their opinion. I’m actually starting to wonder about all this myself,” he admitted.

Jazen looked at Jack. “You are? What are you talking about?”

Jack looked up from his cereal. “Let’s be real for a minute, Jazen. You don’t think it’s possible that I have some connection to the Rüstov?” he asked. “They already came after me once. I am infected with their technovirus . . . what if these things are here because of me?”

Jazen shook his head. “You’ve been watching too much SmartNews,” he said. “You know they only report Jonas Smart’s side of any story. No one that matters is going to take this seriously. Trust me.” Jazen was about to change the channel when a videophone call came in, overtaking the holo-screen. It was Virtua. She wanted to talk to Jack about the recent spike in Rüstov activity. Immediately.

Jack gave Jazen an I told you so look. “You were saying?”

Jazen just frowned uncomfortably.

Not looking to keep the Circlewoman waiting, Jack and Jazen quickly struck off for Machina, home to robots, androids, and other artificial intelligence. Jack found the borough to be like one big machine. It was filled with gleaming, clean buildings, each one glowing with data flow. The buildings’ pointed peaks were capped with flashing lights, and the tower shafts all had a smooth metallic sheen with minimal design and decoration. Jack thought the streets were so clean, he could eat off them—not that there was any food in the borough. There weren’t any signs or advertising messages cluttering up the landscape either. Instead, coded messages flashed nonstop at lightning speed in ones and zeroes on the sides of Machina’s buildings. Everything, everywhere—all the machines—were alive and talking, communicating with one another.

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