Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2) by Heather Hayden (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📕

fair. He deserved to know the truth about who he was, what he was capable of.

When the time came to confront him, I’d do my best to help him. Whether or not our friendship survived the aftermath.

That thought firmly in mind, I refocused on the game. We had a boss quest tonight—a tough one. Halle and I had barely survived our eighth attempt to beat it as a duo. With Dan’s help, it went somewhat smoother, although it still took a couple of tries—the first time, Dan accidentally triggered a swarm of monsters that took us down too low in health for Halle to heal us all before the boss wiped us out with a few smashes of his hammer.

It took a good part of the evening to defeat the boss and gather loot for the quest, as well as new equipment. Dan got a new knife, I got a new robe, and Halle got a new staff, along with plenty of gold and gems that we could use for upgrading our new equipment.

“Is there anything better for the next few levels?” I asked Halle. One of the few times Halle used code manipulation in-game was to check the auction house; it saved on teleports and time.

“No, we should keep this gear. It will be useful. What would you like to do next?”

“We can follow the main chain, or do one of the side quests,” Dan suggested. “Maybe the one with snakes?”

“The one where we capture them for the trader?” I flexed my fingers to stretch them. “That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

I jinxed us—the snakes were slipperier than I expected, and we spent a good part of an hour collecting enough for all three of our characters.

“Well, that was fun,” Dan groaned as we turned in the baskets of snakes. “I think that’s it for the night. I’ll see you in school tomorrow, Viki. Have a good night, Halle.”

“Good night,” Halle said.

“See you.” I waited for the ping to confirm that he had left voice chat before asking Halle, “Do you think we can save him?”

“Save him? What do you mean?”

“Break whatever control Talbot has on him. Free him. You said it’s wrong for him not to know the truth of who he is, but Talbot blocked that from him?”

“Yes, but I am not sure it would be possible to break that control without doing irreparable damage to his mind. The roots of Talbot’s programming reach every corner of his processors.”

I frowned. “But you can get around that, can’t you?”

“There are limits to what even I can do. And this is one of them. If I were certain I could do it without harming him, I might attempt it, but as it is, I think it is best to continue observing him for now. You should not say anything to him about this, either.”

“Okay.” My shoulders sank. So much for helping him. If Halle can’t help, there’s nothing I can do.

Halle dimmed the room’s light. “You should get sleep. If I can find a way to help Dan, I promise that I will.”

“Thank you.”

“Keep your phone on you in the meantime. I have programmed it with a knockout code—you will be able to disable Dan if anything should happen. Just run the program on the phone while you are in his vicinity.”

I swallowed hard. “How close do I need to be?”

“Within a hundred yards or so. The signal is strong, but needs line-of-sight.”

“Okay.”

After putting on my pajamas and brushing my teeth, I collapsed on my bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering if I would ever be able to live a normal life while surrounded by abnormality. The thought wasn’t as discomforting as it had been in the past. After all, I did have Annabeth and Mel now. Dan to some extent, too, although it was hard to sort out my feelings about him right now, beyond the fact that I wanted him to be free.

Being controlled was a terrible thing, not something I would wish on anyone. I wondered why Talbot thought it was okay to do that, manipulate someone in such a way, when it had escaped from being manipulated in the exact same way. It must make sense to it somehow, but I couldn’t see it. Then again, I wasn’t Talbot, and I didn’t—couldn’t—understand what it had gone through in that terrible laboratory.

***

Seeing Dan in school was a shock. Now that I knew the truth, it was even harder to forget the rows of unmoving cyborgs I’d seen in the laboratory. Unlike those, however, this one smiled and greeted me as I took my seat next to him in chemistry. I was acutely aware of my phone, and its knockout code, sitting in my jeans pocket. One push of the button, and he would be unconscious. After that? I didn’t know.

“I probably won’t be able to game tonight,” Dan said. “I still need to finish my English essay.”

I nodded, unsure what to say. “I’ve got homework to do, too.”

“I can’t believe how much homework the teachers have assigned already. It’s like they think we don’t do anything except homework outside of class,” he grumbled, but with a smile that I couldn’t help but return, despite the tightness in my chest.

“Dan…”

The teacher walked in and called the class to order. I was only able to shake my head at Dan’s questioning look, the moment lost. Don’t say anything, I scolded myself. Halle said not to yet.

By lunchtime, I was a bouncing mess of nerves and could barely swallow my fruit salad. My casserole went untouched—Dan took it when it was obvious I wouldn’t be eating anything else. I watched him eat, fascinated by the fact that he was capable of doing so, wondering if he could taste flavors the same way I could, and also