Planetfall 04 - Atlas Alone by Emma Newman

Author:Emma Newman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

13

ADA PUTS THE door to the loading room into a new wall a few meters away, to give me a chance to get my bearings before I go in. When I look down, I find I’m wearing the same clothes as I am in the real world, which jars me, ironically. “Am I going to play in my jogging gear?”

“Your clothes will be reskinned at time-in,” Ada says.

I take a moment to prepare myself, to fix a friendly smile in place and be the upbeat, capable woman I know Carolina will be hoping for. I open the door and walk into a room that looks like an executive office that could have been in any one of the London skyscrapers I worked in over my career. There’s no desk though, just a couple of stylish chairs that are positioned by the window to make the most of the view over the Thames. It’s in a different place than the weird apartment scene in that game, but I can’t help but recall it. An echo of the shock of discovering Myerson had actually died in that game ripples through me. I try to push it from my mind as the door opens and Carolina walks in, dressed in jog pants and T-shirt like I am.

“Hi!” She walks toward me, her hand outstretched, and I shake it as I return her smile. “It’s so good to meet you!”

“You too,” I say.

“Take a seat,” she says, gesturing to the chairs, and I do so, feeling oddly like I’m about to be interviewed. “So, thank you for coming.”

She smiles as she talks, eyes sparkling. She doesn’t look like she’s in her fifties, but then lots of people look some indefinable age these days, somewhere between thirty and sixty. She appears to be at the lower end of that, her brown hair cropped in an asymmetric bob with purple streaks that weren’t in her profile picture. She has brown eyes, full lips, and her smile is warm and friendly. But there’s something false about her too, or perhaps it’s more a tension in the way she sits. Then I realize she is building up to asking me something. And that she’s worried about what I’ll say.

“I’ve always been curious about leet servers,” I say. “Thanks for the invite!”

“You never played in one back home?” When I shake my head, she looks worried. “Oh . . . Okay.”

“So, what’s this about?” I keep my tone cheery and light.

“There’s this tournament thing going on . . .”

“Someone’s dropped out and you need me to take their place?”

She nods. “It’s the semifinal and . . . well, I really don’t wanna lose my chance of winning, just because Kara Channing doesn’t know how to warm up properly.” At my puzzled expression, she adds, “My teammate. She pulled her hamstring yesterday and only just told me about it.”

“I don’t really do team games. How many of you are there?”

“Oh, only two per team. It’s problem solving, mostly. The solutions

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