“What’s he doing up there?”
“What did he tell you he was doing?”
“Making adjustments for the good of mankind, or something like that.”
Emily shook her head. “When I first started working with him, he genuinely seemed to be trying to continue Worricker’s legacy, working to change the world for the good. But after a while, I started noticing strange patterns and anomalies in Crow’s work.”
“What was happening?”
“It turns out he’d been working on something else in tandem with our work in The Tower.”
“What?”
“A long time ago, something terrible happened while Crow was manipulating the Radiants.”
“What?”
“His daughter disappeared, and ever since, he’s been trying to find a way to use the Radiants to bring her back.”
“Is that possible? Bringing her back?”
“I have no idea, but whatever he’s been doing to try to find his daughter has had an increasingly destabilizing effect on the Radiants. Looking back now, I can see how everything was slowly twisting up his mind. But he’d changed so slowly I almost didn’t notice it happen, the way a frog sitting in cold water doesn’t notice that the water has gradually turned to a boil until it’s too late.”
“Does he know that what he’s doing is messing with the mechanism that stabilizes the multiverse?”
“He knows. I’m just not sure he’s capable of understanding…or caring. Not anymore.”
“And there’s nothing we can do?”
“Rabbits is the only system that can counter what he’s been doing and stabilize the Radiants.”
“So, what, winning Rabbits would help?”
“Win the game, save the world.”
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?”
“I don’t think we can.”
“Why not?”
“Aside from the fact that he’s been killing and terrorizing players, Crow’s manipulations have messed up the mechanics of Rabbits so badly that it’s pretty much impossible for anybody to even find the game right now, never mind win it.”
Emily pressed the call button on the elevator.
“Please, I have so many more questions…”
“Believe me, K, I’d love nothing more than to talk for hours. I’ve missed you—I really have—but I have to leave right now, or I won’t make it back.”
“Can’t we have a few more minutes?”
Emily checked the time on her phone. “In about thirty seconds, my manipulation is going to end, and things will go back to the way they were when you woke up this morning.”
“So what am I supposed to do now?”
“You could wish me luck,” she said.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“To kill Crow,” she said, “and try to find a way to win the game.”
And with that, Emily stepped into the elevator and the doors closed behind her.
After a moment, I jumped up, opened the sliding door that led outside, and ran down the stairs to the first floor. I turned the corner and sprinted toward the elevator structure at the end of the conveyer belt. There was no way I was going to let Emily Connors out of my sight again.
I easily beat the elevator down and was standing in front of the doors when they opened. But the elevator was empty.
Emily Connors had disappeared.
29
SO IT’S FUTILE AND POTENTIALLY DEADLY. WHAT THE HELL ELSE YOU GOT GOING ON RIGHT NOW?
The first thing I did after leaving Emily’s friend’s midcentury mansion on the lake was stop by the Fremont Troll.
He （or she） was holding a Volkswagen bug, not an Austin Mini.
A quick online search in the Uber on my way home revealed that there was still no third movie in Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, the weird skyscraper was back where it didn’t belong, and those bears were still called Berenstain and not Berenstein.
It looked like I was back in the world I’d left behind after a day spent following Emily’s series of clues and coincidences. I checked the time on my phone. I was supposed to meet Chloe at my place for dinner in half an hour.
* * *
—
“What are we cooking?” Chloe said as she entered my apartment and kicked off a pair of beat-up black-and-white checkered Vans.
“Cacio e pepe,” I said.
“Ooooh. You know I love your fancy spaghetti,” Chloe said as she reached around and kissed me on her way over to the fridge.
“Are you getting wine?” I asked.