‘Get in!’
John and Tina opened the back door and climbed into the vehicle. Giles got in behind the wheel. He ducked down, yanked some wires from under the dashboard, reconnected a couple of them and the SUV rumbled into life.
‘Stay down back there,’ he instructed, as he drove the car out of the car park and down the road.
‘Where are you taking us?’ asked John.
‘Away from the police,’ answered Giles.
‘He could be taking us anywhere,’ John whispered to Tina. Her hand tightened around his. She stared straight ahead without answering.
They drove in silence for about ten minutes before Giles pulled over.
‘Okay,’ he said, twisting around in the seat to look back. ‘We should be safe for the moment.’
‘Wots are ya up to?’ demanded John, sitting up properly.
‘You're sounding more like Tark than John,’ said Giles.
‘What?’
‘Never mind.’
‘Wots … what are you up to?’ asked John again.
‘I'm trying to help you.’
‘Why would you want to help us?’
‘Because things are going wrong,’ explained Giles. ‘This is supposed to be a happy experience for me. That's why I come to Designers Paradise. But it's not any more. The headmaster has turned nasty. My mum and dad are acting weird. And I can't exit the game.’
‘So it's not just us,’ Tina thought aloud.
‘There was an announcement at school saying that you guys are wanted by the police. They said there was a reward for your capture. I figured that you must be behind all this somehow.’
‘Well, we're not,’ said John.
‘You might not be causing it, but you're somehow involved. The whole suburb is out hunting for you. Now I'm risking my neck to help you, so that we can get this place back to normal.’
‘Yeah well, I have no idea what's going on,’ said John. ‘One minute everything's fine, then things start going wrong. And they're getting worse.’
‘It's the Fat Man!’ yelped Tina suddenly.
‘What?’ said Giles.
‘Look!’ Tina pointed through the window.
‘Look at what?’ asked John.
‘That cloud there! It looks like the Fat Man.’
‘It's just an ordinary cloud,’ said Giles.
‘It's the Fat Man,’ insisted Tina.
‘Well, I guess it looks a bit like his face,’ said John, looking intently at the cloud as it began to change shape. ‘But he's dead. Remember? We blew him up.’
‘You blew him up?’ asked Giles, incredulous.
‘Yeah,’ said John. ‘He forced us into a weird game. And we won!’
‘No! I've been seeing him,’ insisted Tina. ‘On the TV. On a newspaper's front page. He's behind all this. He's not dead.’
‘But if it was a game, he might not have died,’ reasoned Giles.
‘He said that in his game, if you died, you really died,’ said John. ‘And we couldn't get out of the game until after he got blown up.’
‘You never know.’ Giles looked thoughtfully up at the sky. The cloud had separated into two smaller clouds, now looking nothing like the Fat Man. ‘Maybe he's still around.’
‘Anyway,’ said John. ‘What do we do now? We can't just sit in a stolen car.’
‘Where did you learn to steal vehicles?’ asked Tina.
‘What?’
‘Well, you come here to have an ordinary, quiet life. So how come you know how to break into a SUV and hotwire it?’
‘Oh that. I went to the library and learnt it.’
‘The library has a book on stealing cars?’ asked John.
‘Don't be ridiculous. I paid to use the information portal.’
‘The what?’
‘The information portal,’ explained Giles. ‘You can use it to have any information you want implanted directly into your brain. Or at least, I can. I doubt you have enough money for it.’
‘Could we use it to find out what's going on here?’ asked Tina.
‘I don't know,’ admitted Giles. ‘That's not what it's meant for. But maybe. If you have enough money.’
‘If we don't have enough money,’ said John, clapping Giles on the shoulder, ‘we'll use yours. Now take us to the library.’
19: The Library
The suburban public library was situated in a quiet street on the edge of the old shopping district. Parkland straddled either side of it. Trees, bushes and a little duck pond to the right and a small playground backing onto an area of overgrown grass to the left provided cover. On the opposite side of the street was a collection of small shops and cafes. The library was a large, windowless, redbrick structure, with a vaguely gothic copper-domed roof. It looked like it belonged in a larger city.
Giles drove straight into the deserted park, bringing the SUV to a stop beside the pond behind the trees, out of view of the street.
Knowledge is more than Power!
Power is Ephemeral. Knowledge is Eternal.
These words were carved into a stone block by the library's door. John, Tina and Giles glanced at it as they ran in, not really taking it in.
The librarian at the loans desk briefly looked up from his work then promptly ignored them. Each time he stamped RETURNED into a book, a loud clang reverberated throughout the library. Clouds of dust mushroomed above his desk.
Giles led them past the librarian and along the aisles of tall, dusty bookshelves. Beneath the domed ceiling, their footsteps echoed around them. John and Tina looked around as they went — books, books and more books; books that looked like they had never been read. The three of them seemed to be the only visitors.
‘How do you know about this portal thing?’ asked John.
‘I found it by accident on my last entry to Designers Paradise,’ answered Giles. ‘I like the library. It's peaceful. I usually spend an hour or so here every day after school — reading, browsing, exploring. And one day, I found the information portal. I ended up spending so much money on information, that I ran out of time in Designers Paradise.’
Giles stopped as they came to the end of the aisle.
‘Here we are.’
They stood in front of a donut-shaped desk situated at the junction of numerous aisles, as if each led browsers towards it. Looking up, John saw that the desk was directly under the apex of the dome. Tina ran a finger across the surface of the desk and wrinkled her nose.
‘Why is everything so dusty in here?’
‘Ambience?’ suggested Giles.
‘Good day,’ said the bespectacled, grey-haired lady seated in the centre of the desk. It was as if she had been crouched down, hidden from view, ready to appear the moment someone approached. ‘You may call me Grace. What can I do for you young people today?’
‘We'd like some information, please,’ said Tina.
‘Well, this is a library.’ The lady smiled as she peered over the top of her glasses. ‘So you have come to the right place.’
‘We'd like some very specific information, Grace,’ explained Giles. ‘We'd like to know why the parameters of Suburbia are changing. And how we can exit.’
‘Ah.’
Grace reached over and chose a book from the stack to her left. The word PLAYERS was embossed in gold letters on its dark leather cover. She opened the large volume, seemingly to a random page, and ran a finger down the blank paper. The page glowed softly under her touch. She nodded and Giles placed his hand on the page, which flashed with light as it scanned his palm.
Giles removed his hand and Grace touched a finger to the page again.
‘Hmmm.’ She raised an eyebrow, slowly shaking her head.
‘There should be more than enough money in my account,’ said Giles. ‘I used a credit stick when I entered.’
‘Yes, I do remember you, young man. And I remember just how much accumulated wealth you have. But I cannot access any player accounts or files.’ She paused to remove her spectacles and clean them on her beige, knitted cardigan. Repositioning them on her nose, she tilted her head to one side and stared ahead intently.