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CHAPTER 1

THE COFFIN

1

Michael spoke against the wind, to a girl named Tanya

“I know it’s water down there, but it ht as well be concrete You’ll be flat as a pancake the second you hit”

Not theto someone anted to end her life, but it was certainly the truth Tanya had just cli by on the road, and was leaning back toward the open air, her twitchy hands holding on to a pole ith , those slippery fingers hts-out He pictured soht the big one, only to reel in a nasty surprise

“Stop joking,” the treame—not anymore”

Michael was inside the VirtNet—the Sleep, to people ent in as often as he did He was used to seeing scared people there A lot of the deep down that noin the Sleep, it wasn’t real

Not with Tanya Tanya was different At least, her Aura, her computer-simulated counterpart, was Her Aura had this bat-crazy look of pure terror on her face, and it suddenly gave Michael chills— drop to death And Michael wasn’t a big fan of death, fake or not

“It is a game, and you know it,” he said louder than he’d wanted to—he didn’t want to startle her But a cold wind had sprung up, and it seerab his words and whisk them down to the bay “Get back over here and let’s talk We’ll both get our Experience Points, and we can go explore the city, get to know each other Find some crazies to spy on Maybe even hack soood times And e’re done, we’ll find you a Portal, and you can Lift back hoame for a while”

“This has nothing to do with Lifeblood!” Tanya screamed at him The wind pulled at her clothes, and her dark hair fanned out behind her like laundry on a line “Just go away and leave me alone I don’t want your pretty-boy face to be the last thing I see”

Michael thought of Lifeblood Deep, the next level, the goal of all goals Where everything was a thousand times more real, more advanced,his way inside Maybe two But right then he needed to talk this dopey girl out of ju to her date with the fishes or he’d be sent back to the Suburbs for a week,Lifeblood Deep that much further away

“Okay, look …” He was trying to choose his words carefully, but he’d alreadyout of character and using the ga -tiiti to scare him It was that face—pale and sunken, as if she’d already died

“Just go away!” she yelled “You don’t get it I’m trapped here Portals or no Portals I’m trapped! He won’t let me Lift!”

Michael wanted to screa nonsense A dark part of hiet it, tell her she was a loser, let her nosedive She was being so stubborn—it wasn’t like any of it was really happening It’s just a game He had to remind himself of that all the time