The Glitch (The Glitches Series Book 1) Read online

  The Drone seems intent on something else. It hovers over something. An animal, I think. The Drone seems to be waiting for something. Orders? Or something else. Raj shifts and jars a rock loose. The Drone heads for us at once.

  I try to crouch lower. Raj is sweating now and breathing hard. Remembering the story about Bear and the rocks, I close a fist around a stone. I don’t want the Drone to see me, so I throw the rock from our hiding spot. It misses the Drone and lands on the ground.

  Instantly, a bright, orange beam shoots out from the Drone and hits the rock, which vanishes in a puff. The air smells liked burnt circuits. I drag in a breath and hold still. But the Drone is distracted now—it heads back to the animal it was hovering over before.

  This time, the drone dips down. An animal cry splits the air. I glance at Raj, but he is staring at where the drone was.

  A moment later, the drone lifts up and leaves. Red spatters darken the gray sphere.

  We wait for several long breaths, and then I have to see. I stand, and Raj grabs for my arm, but I pull away. “It’s gone.”

  “It may not be safe.”

  “I have to see.” I head over to what the drone was scavenging. Behind me, I hear Raj scrabble out of the rocks.

  I crest a ridge and start down. My boots sink into the sand, causing little piles to roll down the slope below. With each step, I send a little more tumbling down and think that if I start sliding, it will be very difficult to climb my way back up. Next to me, Raj sinks into the sand and then he’s sliding. He’s managed to stay upright.

  When he reaches the bottom, he turns. I walk down the slope and wave for him to follow me. He shakes his head, but I turn and head for the thing I now see lying on the ground.

  It looks like an animal of some kind, but not like the boar or the wolves. I don’t want to end up like Bear, so I step as quietly as I can.

  I glance at Raj and see he looks braced to run, but he steps closer to me. We both stop near the animal. It is not moving. It seems to be nonfunctional.

  “Dead,” Raj said. “The Drone killed it.”

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “A deer—I think. Maybe antelope. I never could keep them straight.”

  The deer—or antelope—wears a black hole in its tan side. Its eyes seem glassy. I look at Raj and find him staring at me. His mouth pulls down and he shakes his head. He puts a hand on my shoulder. “You shouldn’t have to see this. Come on.”

  I let Raj pull me away, but I glance back and ask, “Why? Why kill it?”

  Raj shrugs. “Could be something was wrong with it. Some of the animals in the Outside are sick. I don’t know why. Some Rogues get sick like that. If they do, they leave the clan and go away to die—to go back to the ground, they call it.”

  “But why are they sick? Why didn’t the Drone try to fix it?”

  Dropping my hand, Raj keeps walking. We’re heading for the wall now—the dome that covers the Norm. It’s so big it fills the sky and casts shadows over us. Raj lets out a breath. “You ask a lot of questions.”

  “How am I supposed to get answers if I don’t?” I don’t say the rest of it—that the Drone could fix the dear. Drones can fix most things. I remember this. But…well, a drone couldn’t fix me, or Raj or any of the other Glitches. So maybe Drones don’t do well with organics.

  Waving a hand, Raj says, “There isn’t enough food or water—not anymore. The AI’s taken most of it. The Rogues, and the animals, have a harder and harder time. I know. I’ve been out of the Norm for over twelve moons. Sometimes, too, the water is bad, or the air goes bad. That’s why we have to get back inside the Norm.”

  Watching Raj as he talks, I wonder how long has he planned this. Eyes narrowed against the sun, which is getting hot, I ask, “Have you tried this before? Getting into the Norm?”

  Raj won’t look at me.

  I glance back at the nonfunctional deer or antelope. “So if it’s sick and the Rogues eat the sick meat, they get sick? This doesn’t make sense. Why doesn’t the AI help?”

  Raj frowns. “The AI went wrong. I told you that. That’s why it has to be fixed. It should preserve life. It’s supposed to protect the Norm.”

  I glance up at the wall—it blots out the sky now. A platform is not far away. I don’t hear the hum of the drone. The land this close to the Norm seems to be only dirt and rock.

  Raj lets out a sigh, like he is tired of my questions. “Do you want to go back? Quit? I’ll take you back if you really want to go back.” He licks his lips, but he meets my stare.

  How many times has he tried this and failed? Now he thinks he can get into the Norm with me. All we have to do is hack the security. I shake my head, but I look back at the world behind us.

  Why is the AI broken? Can we really fix it? The urge to leave pushes at me. I’m supposed to find Glitches. I’m not supposed to be here. I was thrown out of the Norm. I should not go back. The urge to take Raj up on his offer nibbles at me, eating away at my confidence.

  But I think of the Drone and the deer-antelope, and I think of Bear. I am not ready to go into the ground.

  I turn to Raj and ask, “What should I do?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Standing on the platform, I stare at the railing.

  “It’s like a connect—except you need to look for the locks. There should be a code sequence, but once we open the Norm, security will be all over us.”

  “Sentinels.” I give a nod.

  “Yeah, sentinels. And drones, too.”

  Glancing up at the sky, I see only hard blue. I look at Raj again. “What do we do?”

  “We get the door open and get inside as fast as we can.”

  I shrug. “Why not make the drones and sentinels think we’re Techs?”

  Raj blinks once. “You can do that?”

  For an answer, I put my hands on the railing. The connect happens at once—tiny pricks against my palm, a spark.

  Connection: Secure.

  With a blink, everything is gone and I am inside a cool room, dark and blue and soothing in a way that the other is not. Raj appears next to me—we are here but not here. I start looking for the locks.

  It’s different than searching for water. This time I have to go past the files and the construct. It’s hard to step past them. My mind wants to think of walls as solid here when in fact they are only illusions created to give meaning to a world that isn’t real. The locks, however, are deeply hidden. I can feel that we must move fast. We’ll be noticed soon.

  Turning, I head back to the room with files where we found water. Raj stays close with me.

  With the files, I put out a hand to call up my file. It doesn’t come, so I call up Raj’s. But it, too, has been deleted.

  “Something’s coming,” Raj says.

  I hear the low hum. It’s either sentinels or drones. Working faster now, I give up searching and simply create new codes for us. We are still Raj and Lib, but I’ve assigned us as Raj_2 and Lib_2, and that will hold for a short time. It won’t hold for long, though. I don’t have time to create a full profile for either of us, but we should look like Techs to the sentinels and drones.

  Closing up the files, I turn to Raj. “Now we try access.”

  With a nod, Raj pulls us out of the connect. We’re back on the platform. Raj twists the railing and it opens, exposing wires. He yanks out several of them and reworks the wiring. I hear a grinding noise—metal on metal. Glancing over at the Norm, I see a section of the wall pull back and slide open. Inside I can glimpse green.

  Raj grins. “We’re in. Watch yourself. You don’t remember enough, and not everything is what it seems in the Norm.”

  We walk into the Norm. Behind us, the section of wall that opened slides back into place. The intense light from overhead blinds me for a moment. Squinting and blinking starts to adjust my eyes. I am left breathless.

  The sky is like the Outside, but nothing else is the same. The ground offers up green—grass and trees—and plants with colorful leaves
…no, those are flowers. I remember that now. I know that overhead is a dome, but it seems a sky to me. It is blue with white blurs on it. Buildings of white and warm shades of pink in various heights line straight paths. The buildings seem quite small and have windows and doors—no dark tunnels here. Everything offers up perfect lines and shapes and colors that are nearly indescribable.

  “C’mon, let’s get moving,” Raj says, glancing left and right.

  Techs stroll past us, not even noticing us. We step onto a path that is hard like rock, but clear like glass. Beneath the glass, lines of fiber optics stretch out. They must allow for a lighted system or some connection to the AI. I avoid the fiber. So does Raj.

  He strides ahead of me, and I hurry to catch up with him.

  We pass more trees. Everything seems so very green. Some of the trees have flowers, some have round spheres, and I remember now that this is fruit. It can be eaten. The fruit comes in shades of red, purple and yellow and I know these colors mean perfect ripeness. My mouth waters, so I grab one, then another, filling my pouch as fast as I can. I can’t carry too many, however. The pouch bounces against my hip and a sweet smell blooms in the air.

  Ahead of me, Raj turns a corner. I push myself, running to catch up. I round the corner and smack into Raj’s back. He stumbles but twists around to catch my arms. For a moment, he holds me tight. I can smell his sweat, but it’s not unpleasant. He smells of dust and something elemental.

  I jerk my stare up to meet his. He looks startled, his dark eyes wide. I can see the pulse beat in his throat.

  “Sorry.”

  He puts one long finger to my lips and holds very still, as if he is trying to look like just another building. I am too aware that we don’t look like we belong—not with our boots and tattered cloth. I glance behind Raj, trying to see what has him worried.

  Off to the side, the door stands open to one of the buildings, which are all starting to look too much alike to me. A woman wearing white cloth with silver stripes stands in front of the open door. Her cloth does not cover her legs, which are bare and pale. She doesn’t wear shoes. The cloth looks a lot like my tunic. The woman’s hair is a light shade of brown and long enough to fall down to her waist. She smiles, but the expression seems fixed and her eyes seem flat, the gray a dull color. She doesn’t really seem interested, but she is scanning the area as if looking for something. Or someone.

  She doesn’t look like a threat, but the back of my neck tingles. Cold sweeps over my skin, and I look away because I don’t want this woman to look at me.

  Raj’s words echo in my head. Things are not what they seem. I know with utter certainty that this woman is not what she seems. Sentinels can take form in this world. In the virtual construct, they’re black and odd, but here they can look like humans.

  The woman turns back and goes inside, closing the door behind her.

  I let out a slow breath and look at Raj. “Did she see us?”

  He takes his finger from my lips, which tingle at the absence of his touch. “It looked like just a regular status scan.” He jerks his head to the side, and I take it to mean it is safe to move again.

  We start walking, and Raj says, “AI control is at the Norm’s hub. All paths lead to the hub. Paths extent out, like the spokes of a wheel. It’s all organized and logical. We just need to make sure we don’t get noticed.”

  I think of the woman and her bland smile. “We’ll only be thrown out again.”

  He gives me a wry smile, but his eyes don’t brighten. “Maybe. A Glitch isn’t supposed to get back into the Norm. Maybe the AI will decide we’re not just Glitches.”

  “We’re threats.” My throat tightens.

  We stride down the paths. I’m thirsty and hungry, but I don’t want to stop to eat and I don’t want to do anything that would get us noticed. Pulling out a skin with water seems a good way for that to happen.

  We start to see more people—more Techs—which means we must be closer to the center, or that’s what I hope. The path seems to help us move—it moves with us—so we travel faster than we did outside. A few Techs glance at us but look away again. Most ignore us.

  As I glance at Raj, I see his jaw twitch. His stare keeps searching the faces around us. I wonder if he is looking for his family. But these Techs seem nothing like Raj or Skye. Everyone wears similar cloth—tunics in white and silver, no shoes or boots. No jackets. The Techs do remind me a little of Chandra and Marq because no one says much to me. Am I like this? Do the Rogues look at me and see an almost empty face? Maybe becoming a Glitch means you wake up from this. The faces do look different, however. I see different colors of skin and hair and eyes. And different sizes.

  Every now and then I see small people—children. There aren’t many of them and now that I think about it, I have only seen a few young ones with the Rogues, too.

  The children give us the longest stares but say nothing. As we keep walking, the world shifts. I no longer see children, and the expressions on the Techs’ faces shift. They start to watch Raj and me. It would be easy for a sentinel to hide with these Techs. I start to see why Raj hasn’t been able to get close to the AI. Everyone is watching out for the AI.

  The buildings become closer and now there are no trees, no grass—just the glass path and Techs. Now they stop to watch Raj and me. I think it must be clear that we don’t belong. I wonder if we look dangerous. Do we look too much like Rogues? Sweat slicks my palms and my breath shortens.

  We press forward, and the Techs watch us.

  Groups of Techs start to clump together now. Raj and I have to cross to the other side of the path to avoid them. Some point at us. Some only stare. Soon it seems like we have to weave through groups of Techs that are so closely packed it is impossible not to bump arms and shoulders. The back of my neck tingles. I want to turn around and go back the other way, but Raj keeps walking.

  The Techs stop suddenly. Raj and I have to stop too. We can’t push through them. The Techs all face us now. My heart is pounding. I move closer to Raj. “This is bad, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” Raj gets the word out before the nearest Tech, a man, reaches for him.

  The Tech grabs Raj by his arm and jerks Raj forward. Raj tries to pull back and stumbles. I reach for Raj, trying to help him up, but the Techs close in, cutting me off from Raj.

  “Raj? What’s happening?”

  “We have to get out of here,” Raj yells, but I don’t know where to turn.

  Techs crowd in closer. I can see them pulling at Raj, trying to drag him in every direction. I’m forced back and away. Using my elbows, I push back, fighting to get to Raj. I expect the Techs to start grabbing me, too, but they don’t. They turn from me to focus on Raj. I find myself facing their backs, watching as they swarm him.

  “Raj!” I call out again.

  I can hear his grunts and see his hands flying as he’s trying to shove the Techs back and away. Around the edge of the circle of Techs, two of the women stumble and fall, but they simply stand again and press in closer. Raj shouts as they grab at him, pulling at his clothing until I hear it rip.

  I try to shove my way back to Raj. I shout his name again and again. It’s not doing any good. The Techs ignore me and I can’t make it to him.

  He shouts my name from deep within the heart of them, but I can’t even see him anymore. My heart is thudding hard and I’m breathing even harder—and so fast. I can’t leave Raj here, but what can I do.

  And then Raj shouts, “Lib, they’re hooked up!”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Raj, what’s that supposed to mean?”

  Raj’s voice is strong at least, but I hear a touch of panic in his words. Hooked up? Grabbing at a woman with short black hair, I drag her back. She stumbles away, but two men who look barely older than Raj and one woman who could be Raj’s mother push in toward Raj.

  “Hooked up,” Raj yells at me again.

  Just as I’m about to yell back that I don’t know what that means, memory clicks. Hooked up�
�they’re linked, like in a connect. The AI has wireless connects to Techs to assign tasks. The AI realized we are here and altered the Techs to block access.

  Raj was right—nothing in the Norm is what you think it is. I thought the AI only controlled the drones and sentinels. But the AI seems to control everything. For a moment, I’m overwhelmed by all that I don’t know. My fragmented memory may get Raj trampled. I feel useless.

  Not completely useless. I can connect.

  “Raj, hold on as long as you can. Don’t let them get you on the ground. Hold on!” Turning away, I scan the buildings. Techs are stepping from the nearest doorway, which is open. Their expressions are blank. They don’t know what they are doing. For an instant, pity for them wells in me, but I push it aside.

  They are not in danger. Raj is.

  Buildings stand in groupings of five, and black cabling runs between the buildings. All are linked. But I need a rail like on the platforms. Or do I?

  What if the buildings are more than a platform? What if they’re the connect access?

  I head over to the nearest building and put a hand on the wall. Nothing happens. Glancing around, I see the buildings all have railing, but it looks like connective fencing.

  Taking a deep breath, I hope my bet is right and jog to the nearest fence. As I get closer, I see it is not fencing, but more like railing—more like fiber optics in a core.

  Sucking in a deep breath to steady myself, I grab the fence post. Instantly, the pinpricks of the connect jab my palm. A jolt of energy races through me. I blink, and once again I’m inside a cool blue room.

  Connection: Secure.

  The voice, the one from my dreams that is so soothing, says, “Welcome home, Lib.”

  I freeze, my stomach churning and a breath caught in my chest. Recognition burns through me like fire. I whirl around to face the speaker, but there is nothing to face. Just a cool, blue room.

  “Aren’t you back too soon?” Her voice echoes throughout my head and seems to vibrate inside my bones. The sensation is so familiar…and yet, it’s not.