Socket 1 - The Discovery of Socket Greeny (4 page)

I sat in the waiting room and slouched down.
No magazine rack, no television or pictures of beaches with birds.
I crossed my arms and laid my head back and closed my eyes but the
slightest motion in my stomach made me bolt upright. Not going
there. Nope.

I slid my fingers over the iHolo strap around
my wrist that looked more like a black hospital bracelet. An image
illuminated above the strap like a holographic screen no matter
which way I turned my wrist. I pushed the icons around, looked at a
play list I’d put together earlier that week and uploaded it to the
nojakk, then booted up the music. While an acoustic guitar echoed
inside my head, I went to my email and noticed the news headline.
International Virtualmode Blackout
.

The story began in a virtualmode network hub
inside a warehouse with a single isle going between lines of blue,
pulsing orbs, five feet in diameter, encased in clear boxes with
lab technicians wearing white coats and hardhats inspecting them.
I’d seen portals before, the school had one in a basement below the
Pit. It was the powercell that transported a user’s awareness into
virtualmode. I’d heard physicists explain how the intense power and
density of portals allowed them to transcend time and space and
interact simultaneously. Trippy shit. But no one cared how they
worked, just that they worked.

“Sometime around 10:43, eastern standard,
virtualmode experienced its first blackout,” a reporter’s voice
announced as the lab technicians observed the portals. I turned the
music down and sat up. “According to sources, a surge from
somewhere in the world caused an international crash of all
virtualmode worlds. Authorities say the balance of power has been
restored and that normal activity has resumed, although there seems
to be some confusion as to where the surge originated.”

That’s when the rip occurred. Did I make the
whole thing crash? Impossible. Those portals were like a thousand
nuclear reactors doing some sort of cold fusion. How in the
hell—

Zzzzzsthhhp.

The iHolo image scattered for a second then
returned to normal.

I shut down the music; felt the floor
shutter. It came from the door. I was remembering the blue light
again when the door opened and Mom was followed by a man. She stood
to the side and let him pass. I jumped up.

The man walked fluidly. He was a bit older
than Mom. His hair streaked with gray and his face clean-shaven,
what most women would call a handsome man with a smoldering
attraction. He stopped only a few feet away, but the room was so
small he couldn’t get much farther away. I wondered if I should
bolt for the stairwell just in case a mugging was about to go
down.

But then I
tasted
a taste, an essence.
It was deep and sort of minty. Potent. I’d experienced that before.
Maybe seen this guy before. Behind the door?

I looked at Mom. Christ, no one was saying
anything. This was beyond awkward. The man was looking through me,
studying me, like a doctor without the stethoscope and white coat.
If he asked me to take my shirt off it was going to be stairway
city.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Socket.” He
extended his hand. I shook it. “Now that you’re grown up.”

I nodded, wondering why it felt like I was
meeting the President.

“My name is Walter Diggs.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“It’s been awhile since I saw you last, but
I’m sure you don’t remember. You were only that big.” He put his
hand down, the universal sign of a short person.

I was struggling with the memory of going
through the door when I was that big and linking it to the minty
essence, but the memory ended up in the caves and jungles. Then I
remembered colored bats coming out of the trees. A real fucked up
dream.

“I knew your father,” Walter said. “He was a
fine man, he was. I was damn proud to have known him. No one could
replace someone like Trey Greeny.”

Oh, shit. Is this the stepfather talk? I’m
not trying to replace your father, Socket, no one could. But I’m in
love with your mother and you’re going to have a new baby brother.
Now go clean your room, asshole.

Walter started laughing. He looked over at
Mom who returned his laughter with just barely a flicker of the
corner of her mouth. He looked back at me. It was getting
weird.

“What I’m trying to say is if you’re half the
person your father was, you’ll have a lot to offer the world. But I
suspect you’re twice that.”

“Thank you, Mr. Diggs, but I’m not sure what
any of this means.”

“Things are a little sketchy, I know. But
it’ll make sense real soon. Your mother is going to take you to
meet some people in our facilities.”

“I don’t even know what you do.” I shuffled
back until my leg hit the chair.

“You will, soon.”
Wink
.

No one winks when something really shitty is
about to happen. Right? “Should I be worried right about now?” I
looked at Mom. She was still cold. Walter offered a smile that,
compared to Mom’s, was like the sun.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you
grown up. I look forward to working with you.” He squeezed my
shoulder, made eye-contact with Mom, and then was through the door
from where he came, closing it behind him.

Mom opened the door to the stairs.

“Wait, what just happened?”

“There’s a lot to explain,” Mom said. She was
itching for that moody. “I’ll tell you everything on the way.”

“We’re not going with him?” I asked.

“The facility is a long way from here,” she
said. “But it won’t take long to get there.”

“We’re flying?”

“No.”

Now what in the hell does that mean?

The parking attendant was waiting out front
with the door open. Mom took the first left turn and then another
left down a narrow alley wedged between tall buildings. No one
would notice it from the street, and if they saw it, wouldn’t think
to drive a car down it. It ended at a brick wall and backing out
would seem impossible without swiping a door handle. There was a
garage door on the left, which would’ve been directly below the
office.

I had a feeling we were going wherever
minty-man Walter Diggs went, although getting back in the car for a
trip around the block made no sense. Mom had a whole life of
secrecy. When she wasn’t home, I’d go through her files, look under
her mattress and through her closet to find out what she was doing.
Now the gig was up and I was minutes away from everything. I always
thought it would be more fun to find out.

The garage door opened and she eased into the
lightless space as the door closed behind us. “This is going to
feel funny,” she said.

“You mean funny, ha-ha?” I answered. I was
starting to squirm. The falling feeling was coming back.

“We’re going through a wormhole, like a
puncture in the fabric of time and space.”

“Where we going?” I said, almost casually.
Why not? Today wasn’t making any sense, why not finish it with a
trip through a rip in time. And space.

Mom laughed, sort of. It was mostly a hiccup,
but not a smile, and certainly no joy.

A door in front of us began to open, blue
light spilling out. “Close your eyes,” she said. “And make sure
your tongue is pushed against the roof of your mouth.”

The blue light engulfed me. I clenched my
eyes shut, grabbing onto the door. I felt like one of those
cartoons getting steamrolled flat as paper. Thought I was going to
scream, then puke. I didn’t see blue. I didn’t see anything. My
lungs were burning and I gulped for air, drooling on my shirt when
I realized we were through.

“Oh, Jesus,” I blurted.

It was night. We were still in the car,
although it wasn’t moving. Instead, we were idling on a flat piece
of ground with miles of boulder-strewn wasteland ahead of us
without a road in sight. At the far end was a sheer-faced cliff.
The full moon revealed streaks of ochre like ancient blood stains.
It stood like a monolith, like God had plopped down a massive block
of granite and said, “End of the world, fuckers.”

“This society has existed for as long as
history’s been recorded.” Mom took a breath and touched the center
panel. Lights appeared on the speedometer, holographic images
illuminated the dash with maps and data and green dots and red dots
and bullshit that looked more like a fighter jet than car. “We
protect humankind from extinction.”

“From what?”

“Once upon a time, it was natural disaster
and plague and wars. In this era, the threat of extinction comes
from humans.” Her eyes appeared deeper-set in the moonlight and the
glow of the instruments. “Humankind lacks understanding. As a
species, we are still in our infancy. Out potential is limitless,
but first we must survive to realize it.”

“Are you one of them?”

“In a way.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means the answer is complicated. There’s
a lot to understand, you’ll have to be patient. For now, just know
that we can do things that normal people can’t.”

She touched the control panel. Something
thumped beneath the car. And then we were moving forward, only we
weren’t rolling. We were hovering. The car was flying. Not fast
like spaceship fast, it was more like a slow hover that crossed
over the impossible terrain. The wheels had folded beneath the car.
No one was getting across this ground without one of these.

“You got to be shitting me.”

“Watch your language, Socket.”

I sat back, realized I was still holding onto
the door. We were halfway to the red cliff when I relaxed. “What’s
this place called?” I asked. “This club, or society.”

“The Paladin Nation.”

“This is it, here?” I pointed at the looming
cliff.

“No, it’s all over the world. This is just
one of the compounds.”

I watched the cliff get closer. “We’re not in
South Carolina anymore.”

She almost smiled, I could feel it.

* * * * *

There was no door in the side of the
mountain. Instead, we passed through it, like it was only an
apparition, into an enormous cavern. Mom touched a few buttons on
the console and the car gently sank to the ground.

The cavern was dome-shaped, complete with
authentic dripping stalactites.
Caves and jungles? Maybe that
wasn’t a dream.

Mom pushed the steering wheel up and locked
it out of the way. She gathered items from the backseat. I still
hadn’t let go. I had just taken my first ride in a flying car, hit
a transportation wormhole, and now I was parked inside a mountain
somewhere in the world that had mountains.

A large, gray sphere emerged from the wall.
Several more appeared, floating inches above the ground like super
sized lookits. They took position around the car, waiting.

“Servys,” Mom said. “Technology is a bit more
advanced here. You’re going to see some things that don’t exist in
the outside world yet.” She had her thumb buried in the moody,
again. A look of eerie relief was on her face.

“I wish you’d stop that.”

She closed her eyes, pushed her thumb in
deeper. “There’s so much to do, Socket. I just need to catch my
breath.”

“You don’t have to save the world.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear with her
free hand. “Sometimes the world needs you and you have to be there.
You’ll understand one day. And I hope you find more strength than
your mother.”

I gently pulled her thumb from the moody, red
and swollen. “You’re plenty strong.”

“Let’s hope so.”

She opened her door and stepped out. I turned
to mine—a silver man was at the window. He had no face.

His egg-shaped head was featureless. No eyes
or nose, mouth, ears or chin. Just a smooth, egghead with an
eyelight pointed at me.

“Welcome to the Garrison, Master Socket.” He
waved a silver hand. “Do you need help exiting the vehicle?”

If I didn’t see the colors move on his face,
I would’ve sworn a real person said it. He looked like he was from
a movie, standing six feet tall on two legs: A humanoid mech. The
arms and legs were sinewy like an Olympian. And to top things off,
he wore a loose plum-colored overcoat, sleeveless, cinched at the
waist. But sure, why not. This was already shaping up like a dream,
why not send in the flying dragons.

Mom was out of the car, explaining something
to him. The servys repositioned themselves around her. One went to
the back of the car, returned with her briefcase firmly gripped by
an arm that had grown from its spherical body. The robe-wearing
silver mech pointed at me. I was still grabbing the door. So far
I’d looked at everything through the safety of a window. Getting
out was another level. I reluctantly opened the door.

I’ve been here before.

It was the smell. Pleasantly musty and wet.
Ancient. I was here long, long ago. Maybe it was
take-your-kid-to-work day. I always thought it was a dream. Same
cave, same smell.

“Socket,” Mom said. “This is Spindle.” The
silver mech placed his hand on his belly and gestured with a small
bow. “He’s my assistant. He’ll be your guide for the day.”

“You’re leaving?”

“I have to attend an urgent meeting.” She
touched my arm, like an apology. “Afterward, we’ll meet in my
office.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re just going to
leave me here with… with…” Spindle’s eyelight stared at me. “You
can’t do this to me, Mom. This isn’t right. I’ve got crazy things
in my head and you’re flying a car and then there’s the wormhole.”
I paced around, thought about taking a hit from her moody. “This is
bullshit.”

“Don’t curse.” Her left eye ticked. “We’ll
discuss it later. In the meantime, Spindle will escort you to
security assignment. You’re going to like him. You’ll be safe.”