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The logical puzzle: In a fight between two perfect equals, how can one win?

The answer: One can’t

She pushes herself to her feet and wipes the blood from her lip

Therefore: we must not be perfectly equal So what is different about us?

She walks toward ain, but I need more time to think, so for every step she takes forward, I take back The roo round to steady myself

What is different about us? We have the sa

I see the door over her shoulder, and I realize: We have different goals I have to get through that door She has to protect it But even in a simulation, there is no way she is as desperate as I ae of the circle, where there is a table A o, it was empty, but I know the rules of siun appears on it as soon as I think it

I sla my view of it I don’t even feel pain when I collide with it I feel my heartbeat in s in rate to round before my double We both reach for our weapons

I feel the weight of the gun, and its set about the poison; I forget about everything

My throat constricts, and I feel like there is a hand around it, tightening My head throbs from the sudden loss of air, and I feel my heartbeat everywhere, everywhere

Across the roooal; it’s Will No, no It can’t be Will I force en to my brain He is just a hallucination within a simulation I exhale in a sob

For a un but visibly shuddering, the weapon as far out from her body as she can possibly hold it She is as weak as I a air, but almost as weak, almost

Then Will is back, his eyes simulation-dead, his hair a yellow halo around his head Brick buildings loom from each side, but behind him is the door, the door that separates me from my father and brother

No, no, it is the door that separates h that door I have to

I lift the gun, though it hurts my shoulder to do it, and wrap one hand around the other to steady it

"I" I choke, and tears smear my cheeks, run into my mouth I taste salt "I’ h:

I fire

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

I DON’T SEE hiain

I close er presses back, and when I open theround between the dark patches in un and sprint toward the door, alainst the door, twist the handle, and fall through My hands nuain feeling

The next roo as the first one, and it, too, is blue-lit, but paler A large table stands in the rams, and lists

I take deep breaths, andto nornizelist of what appear to be chemicals is posted on the wall beside our pictures Each one is crossed out with red marker This must be where Jeanine develops the simulation serums

I hear voices so? Hurry!

"My brother’s name," I hear "I want to hear you say it"

Tori’s voice

How did she get through that sient too?

"I didn’t kill him" Jeanine’s voice

"Do you think that exonerates you? Do you think that means you don’t deserve to die?"

Tori is not screah her h, because my hip slams into the corner of the table in the

"The reasons for ," Jeanine says "I illing toyou have never understood, not even ere classmates!"

I lilass It slides back to adainst a wall, with Tori standing a few feet away, her gun high

Behind thelass table with a silver box on it--a computer--and a keyboard The entire far wall is covered with a computer screen

Jeanine stares at me, but Tori doesn’t move an inch; doesn’t seem to hear

I have no confidence that I can find the video file on et her to find it for me, but if she’s dead

"No!" I screaer is already over the trigger I launchinto her side The gun goes off, and I hear a screanore the stars in un forward and it slides away frorab it, you idiot?!

Tori’s fist connects with the side of my throat I choke, and she uses the opportunity to throw un

Jeanine is slu! I reh She yells, and I find my feet

I step toward the fallen weapon, but Tori is too quick She wraps her ars and pulls theround, but I ae

She groans, but it doesn’t stop her; as I drag un, she sinks her teeth into my hand It is a different pain than any blow I’ve ever received, different even froht possible, tears blurring my vision

I have not cootten what I need

I yankblack at the edges, and with a lurch, sun I twist, and point it at Tori