Interlude ζ
Caroline.
Carolineyouhavetogetup.
Groggily, Caroline opened her nonexistant Avatar’s eyes. The pavement swam into focus…then back out. Curiously there was no pain. Maybe Avatars didn’t feel pain.
The pavement came back, and with it a pair of ruby slippers. Caroline blinked and they turned into normal formal slipper-shoes.
It was Liz. She held her hand out to help Caroline up. Caroline remained frozen for another instant, then gratefully grabbed the hand.
Liz pulled her up, not just to her feet but up into the sky. Caroline looked down and saw their physical forms shimmer like ghosts.
“Sridhar’sleavingtheroom,” Liz told her, speaking calmly yet somehow talking over the ominous roar of the dirty wind. “Eitherhe’sreallygoingtogetit…”
“Or something’s wrong,” Caroline finished. She was beginning to remember the moments before her blackout—trying to judge a Lee-Land team captain and, incredibly, being struck back. Somehow Lee-Land was using their incredible influence of numbers to overrule her judgment.
She was invisible to the Cooportinoans, but not to the Lee-Landers. Funny how that worked. Fortunately one of the Cooportinoan novi brought up a surprisingly good point, preventing all from being lost. Maybe.
The fact that Liz hadn’t said anything made Caroline expect that her suspicions were shared. “I’m OK,” she said, “I can fly by myself.” What a weird thing to say. Liz let her go, and together they headed (for the last time, not that “headed” is the right word) back towards the tower with a growing sense of unease.
She sensed Melinda and Gary also pulling back from their battles, leaving the novi to fend for themselves. Although no individual situation looked great, the Cooportinoans had actually contained the Hahr Kerr agents in a ring around the tower.
Either something at the tower was seriously wrong…or Sridhar was really gonna get it.