The Leveller - Julia Durango Page 0,15
but pretty sure I just look like an idiot. Not a great way to start the job.
A young man clad in the same white servant uniform as the chauffeur rolls in a cart of coffee, orange juice, and individual quiches, and Salvador leads us to a small seating arrangement set in an alcove of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sea.
My dad and I dig into the quiches while Salvador and Kora look on.
“Please excuse me if I seem rushed,” Salvador says, signaling the servant to pour us some coffee, “but I’m sure you understand my urgency.”
“Of course,” Dad says, putting down his fork. “Three days your son has been in MEEP sleep now?”
Salvador nods. “Four, counting today. We have a doctor monitoring his vital signs and feeding him intravenously.” He looks at me now. “You’ve studied the diagram, I presume?”
I swallow the last bite of a very tasty bacon and cheese quiche so I can speak. “I have. Your son seems quite determined to be left alone, given the amount of traps and torments he left behind.”
Salvador’s face darkens. “Yes. I take full responsibility for that. I should have been here for him. Thanksgiving was Abigail’s favorite holiday. I never missed it when she was alive, but since her death, I’ve always arranged to be away. I should have realized it would be a hard time for Wyn, too.”
I don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Dad clears his throat and comes to the rescue. “Parenting is a tricky job, especially where teenagers are involved,” he says, his eyes flicking my way ever so slightly. “They sometimes act rashly, say or do provocative things, because they want our attention.”
I beg to differ but I keep my mouth shut.
“Let’s just do our best to get Wyn out of there,” Dad continues, “and then I’m sure the two of you, father and son, will get things sorted out.”
Salvador nods. “Of course. Let’s get started, then. Are you up for the challenge, Phoenix?”
I pause for a second and Dad jumps in again. “Look, Mr. Salvador—”
“Please, call me Diego.”
“Diego, before we send Nixy or anyone else into a very frightening situation, I’ve been wondering . . . why not try the Reset button on the Landing console? A reset would restore the game to its default settings and Wyn would automatically be released from the MEEP.”
Salvador shakes his head impatiently. “We’ve thought of that, of course. But Wyn himself would need to be in the Landing for that to work. The game won’t reset if a player is still at large.”
“Right,” says Dad, rubbing his jaw. “Then how about shutting down the entire MEEP for a bit, activating a mass Awaken frequency?” he continues. “I realize you’d get complaints by the thousands, but the world can survive without a game for a few minutes.”
Salvador frowns. “Too risky, I’m afraid.”
“Risky how?” I ask. I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. Kora had already explained that the MEEP-O Men had been unable to shut off Wyn’s game externally, that none of their usual Awaken codes had worked. But surely Diego Salvador had the power to reset the whole game. “You activate the frequency, everyone wakes up . . . what’s at risk besides a few million grumpy players who’ve had their game interrupted?”
“It’s not that simple, Nixy,” Kora says, glancing at Salvador for permission to go on. He nods at her, and I sense some impatience in his eyes. He clearly wishes to be done with this conversation.
“Everyone playing on a regulation frequency would wake up, yes,” explains Kora, “but we’re not sure what would happen to players who’ve used nonregulation codes to enter.”
“Hackers, you mean?” asks Dad.
“Yes, there is some . . .” Kora begins, then pauses to search for a word, “speculation that a mass Awaken frequency would leave any nonreg players in a kind of limbo.”
Dad and I both raise our eyebrows at that.
“Limbo?” Dad says, turning to Salvador.
Salvador drums his fingers on the arm of his chair. “Possibly comatose,” he finally says.
“Comatose?” I repeat, slamming my orange juice down harder than I mean to. I run a finger down the edge of my left ear and feel the small metal stud there. “What about all the safeguards you guys are supposed to have in place? All that medical research done to make sure the MEEP doesn’t fry our brains?”
“The MEEP is perfectly safe for those who abide by the contract,” Salvador assures us. “However, we cannot guarantee the safety of intruders or those who