0692321314 (S) by Simone Pond Read Free Book Online Page B

monitor your search.”
    “Thank you. I knew you’d understand.” She placed her hand onto the connector panel.
    “Their software is similar to ours, just extremely powerful. If I see anything weird, I’m pulling you back up.”
    Ava shut her eyes and ascended into darkness . . .

6
    GRACE WAS IN the middle of a deep sleep when a loud banging at the front door echoed through the quiet cabin. The pitch black of night had dimmed, but it was not yet morning. She ran out of her room, almost bumping into her father.
    “What’s going on?” she asked.
    “Not sure.”
    Grace followed Joseph to the front door. “Where’s Mom?”
    “She didn’t come home yet,” he said, opening the door.
    Sam stood in the entrance, his face pale and hair disheveled. That couldn’t be good. Grace had never seen him so sloppy. “You better come with me, sir,” he said.
    “What the hell’s goin’ on?”
    “It’s the mainframe, sir. Mrs. Strader’s still inside, and I can’t pull her out.”
    “Dammit.” Joseph pulled on his jacket and followed Sam outside.
    Grace ran outside, barefoot and without a sweater. The cold, wet air seeped into her skin, but she didn’t turn back. She needed to know why her mother was in the mainframe this late. Did that private conversation with Ms. Atwood have something to do with her going back in? Was it something Grace had done during her aptitude test? She knew there was something weird about that red door. It had a significant bearing to it, though she didn’t know what. Just something she sensed. Maybe Ms. Atwood mentioned it to Ava, and that’s why she went back in? Grace trailed behind her father and Sam toward the main hall, her head throbbing. What if something terrible had happened to her mother? They had their differences, but she still loved her.
    “I tried to stop her, sir, but she wouldn’t listen,” Sam explained.
    “I’m not angry with you, Sam. We all know how hardheaded she can be.”
    “She said she was going in with or without me, so I stayed to monitor. She was fine at first, but then something strange happened to the coding. I tried to pull her back up. But I couldn’t. She mentioned something Grace had discovered.”
    “Did she mention anything about Morray?” Joseph asked.
    “Yes, she told me about the digital footprints.”
    Grace stopped walking. Digital footprints for Morray? She knew the red door signified something important, but not to that degree. How was she able to track down anything, let alone Morray? How could something so momentous be possible? It didn’t compute—she was an amateur with the technology, at best. The mainframe was her mother’s world. She looked up to the millions of stars glittering above. That’s what the mainframe was to her: infinite beyond her comprehension.
    “Come on, Grace.” Joseph stood by the entrance to the main hall. Grace admired her father’s ability to emotionally detach from the situation and focus on the solution. She was a wreck.
    Inside the main hall, Sam led Joseph and Grace to the lounger where Ava was hooked up to the mainframe. She looked so peaceful and relaxed, but Grace knew there was a lot more going on underneath the surface. The monitor flashed streams of glowing code, and Sam pointed out discrepancies to Joseph. Grace stood over her mother, touching her cheek. Her skin was radiating as if her cells were on fire. “She’s hot,” she said. “We need to hurry up and get her out.”
    “You see, right here. Every time this pattern comes up, something glitches and it repeats itself like a never-ending loop. I can’t break it.” Sam stared at the screen, holding his temples. He was strung out and exhausted. This wasn’t like him. He always had control of the situation.
    “Let me get a closer look,” said Joseph, moving Sam out of the way. He hunched down and studied the monitor.
    Grace watched her mother sleeping, lost somewhere inside the mainframe. She wondered if she had come across the same