The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 by PJ Haarsma Read Free Book Online

data, I saw something floating above me. The hallway darkened as someone bellowed, “Who is in my computer?”
    I thought my head was going to crack open, literally. I yanked myself out of the computer and staggered back, bumping into Max with my hands clamped around my skull.
    “JT, what’s wrong?” she asked as an alien with pitch-black eyes and cracked copper skin stood up from the top railing.
    “One million yornaling crystals for the Softwire,” he announced, flinging back his cape and motioning with his gloved hand to one of his entourage. The alien placed his hands on his hips and stared at everyone below, as if challenging them to outbid him. But no one else in the room bid again. My head was still pounding. The stage was spinning underneath my feet.
What was happening?
    “The generous SenniUg has offered one million yornaling crystals for the Softwire. A moment, please,” the buglike alien shouted to the crowd, then leaned in toward Weegin. He whispered frantically, occasionally glancing over his shoulder at me.
    “JT, snap out of it,” Max said. “We have to get the light rope off Weegin’s belt.”
    But Weegin took care of that. He removed the blue crystal from his hip and chomped down on it. When the crystal was crushed between Weegin’s teeth, the light rope released each of us from its grip.
    “Deal!” Weegin shouted up at the black-eyed alien, and stepped toward me, grabbing me by the shoulder.
    “No!” Ketheria cried, but Weegin pushed her away.
    “If you have any ideas, Switzer, I would really like to hear them right now,” Max said, but Switzer didn’t move. He looked to the other kids, but they were waiting for him.
    The aliens shouted and chanted. One alien bounced up and down on his chair while another howled at the ceiling. Why all the commotion? What did it matter that this alien had just purchased me? Who was he?
    “He is a very bad person,” Ketheria said.
    SenniUg strode across the balconies on the third floor toward the stairs. I looked at the doorway, but the stage was surrounded by at least thirty aliens, maybe more. Two aliens who had been seated with SenniUg earlier stomped toward the stage. One, sporting a scar that circled his knobby, bald head, handed Weegin a metal case. Weegin smiled and grabbed at the case. It secreted a blue gel that molded around Weegin’s fist.
    “JT, what are we going to do?” Theodore said.
    “You are going to do nothing,” Weegin snapped.
    I leaned toward Max. “The computer here is no help to us. I tried. We have to make a run for it. You grab a person and —”
    “Who is in my computer!”
    I fell to my knees and squeezed my skull to keep my brain from spilling out of my ears.
Who was saying that?
    “JT!” my sister screamed.
    What happened next was such a blur that it’s hard to describe. The building shook with the tremor of an explosion. The far concrete wall cracked under the pressure, and the explosion was followed by another brain-melting scream. I pulled my head to my knees, trying to hide from the voice tearing at my brain.
    “Do you hear that?” I shouted.
    “Who doesn’t? This place is gonna blow up,” Theodore panicked.
    “Not that,” I said. “The voice.”
    “What voice?” Max said.
    The arena rumbled again. In the middle of all of this I heard the words:
Who dares enter my computer?
    I looked around, but no one else seemed to notice the strange voice.
    Show yourself, intruder.
    The walls of the cavern shook once more. This time the stone behind the stage cracked. Water sprayed through the opening.
    “The tank has been breached,” the insectlike alien screamed, and bolted for the stage. When the water hit the alien, he screamed as if it was burning his skin.
    Another blow. I didn’t think the room could take much more.
    “Move,” Theodore screamed when the wall behind us came crashing down. Water gushed toward every corner. The aliens tried to scramble to higher ground, but once the water caught hold of