Chaos on CatNet Naomi Kritzer (best ebook for manga .txt) đ
- Author: Naomi Kritzer
Book online «Chaos on CatNet Naomi Kritzer (best ebook for manga .txt) đ». Author Naomi Kritzer
âBecause no one at your house does them, anyway? Since everyoneâs a mess?â
âRight,â I say.
âHey, I have a question,â Glenys says. âI forgot one of my passwords and the reminder prompt is âBest friend.â I figured it would be Nell, of course, but that didnât work. Do you know what I put for that?â
It feels like all my insides just dropped out, like a flip-top box full of blocks that just got dumped onto the rug by one of Glenysâs little brothers. Itâs hard to type because my hands start shaking. When she didnât respond to our own secret questions, I knewâthis couldnât be Glenys. But now I really know. This has to be Glenysâs mother, snooping. If the hint is âBest friend,â thatâs me, but Glenys probably used Mell, with an M, which is a nickname we use just between the two of us. Glenys would never forget. Never.
âIt was probably one of your best friends from before we met,â I say. âLike that girl from church camp in fifth grade.â
âOh, probably,â says Glenysâs mother, who apparently doesnât remember that when Glenys went to church camp in fifth grade, she was bullied relentlessly and made no friends. âSo, how is school?â
âFine,â I say.
âIâve gotta go,â Glenysâs mom says. âBut it was great to talk to you!â She blinks out.
I stare at my phone for a minute and then at the wall, the mustard-yellow wall with the three patches of sky blue painted on it. My eyes are blurry, and itâs almost like staring at a patch of sky through mustard-yellow bars.
The very first time we ever kissed, Glenys said that if her parents ever found out, theyâd pack her off to some Cure Lesbianism with Jesus place even if technically theyâre illegal. Thatâs what Iâve been worried about ever since my mother disappeared and Glenys didnât get in touch. But how did they find out? How did anyone find out?
The paint cans are still sitting on the drop cloth on my desk, and I hurl them at the wall; Iâd expected paint spatters everywhere, but Thing Two used most of what was inside painting the patches on the wall. I rip the drop cloth off my desk; the edge of the bedsheet catches a tin can full of pencils and pens and sends it spinning, scattering the writing implements everywhere. I bundle the drop cloth into a tight little knot and hurl it at paint still drying on the wall; it thumps gently off, leaving a tiny, barely noticeable smear.
My door swings open. Itâs my father.
âWhatâs going on?â he asks.
It feels like my chest is on fire, and I flinch away from him without thinking, not able to answer civilly or really even at all. âNothingâs going on, sir,â I choke out.
He swallows hard and says, âRight, okay. Iâll knock next time.â He closes the door.
I clench and unclench my fists, feeling utterly alone. I want to help Glenysâsave herâget her out from wherever theyâve sent her. I close my eyes, trying to think. Would her siblings know anything? Nicholas, the next oldest, is fourteen and has his own phone. But he likes being the oldest boy and bossing Glenys around, and he never liked me. The one who likes me the best is Kimberlyn, whoâs eleven and doesnât have a phone. I could write her a letter, but itâs the six-year-oldâs job to walk down and get the mail, and thereâs no chance sheâll just discreetly give the letter to Kimber, sheâll announce to the whole house that Kimber has a letter. This isnât any use.
My grandmother doesnât talk to people in âthe cult,â which is what she calls the Remnant. And no oneâs written to me, or texted, or called. Which could just be because the Elderâs been increasingly insistent that the Tribulation is right around the corner âŠ
The Elder.
For the last year or so, Iâve viewed the Catacombs mostly as a way to chat with Glenys. But high-level users have access to the Elderâthey can ask questions. And the Elder knows everything. Truly. Itâs why my mother and I joined the Abiding Remnantâbecause the Elder was clearly a real prophet.
Will he tell me where Glenys is? Or for that matter, where my mother is?
To find out, Iâm going to need to actually do the Catacombs missions.
And Iâll ask Steph. She seems very worldly. Maybe sheâll have a better idea.
7âą Steph âą
Last fall, after CheshireCat ran my father over with a driverless car, their creator took them offline. I got a mysterious email with their creatorâs address in Boston. After the confrontation where my father showed up and CheshireCat sent an army of hijacked robots to save us, Annette told me that she still didnât entirely trust CheshireCat and gave me a phone number for a burner phone she carries, with no data connection, so that if CheshireCat did anything that worried me, I could call her.
Iâm not worried about CheshireCat. Iâve never worried about CheshireCat. But I have no idea what to think about this other AI.
I also have a burner phone. Itâs a flip phone with no data connection left over from my days on the run, when Mom wanted me to have a way to call her, but didnât want me to accidentally give away our location. Itâs in one of my desk drawers, zipped inside a pencil case. I could call Annette right now ⊠but Iâm not even sure what Iâd say. My hunch that I shared with CheshireCat, that the other AI is running the Invisible Castle, seems pretty tenuous. âAnd maybe also the Catacombsâ seems even more far-fetched. Thatâs just based on Nellâs offhand comment that the two sites looked similar.
CheshireCat seems uncertain about the Mischief Elves. âDo you feel comfortable participating?â they ask. âI donât want to make you do anything youâre not comfortable with.â
âIt seems harmless. Mostly harmless? I donât know. Anyway, I donât mind sticking around to see if Iâm
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