Game Over Read Online Free PDF Page B

built the MindWar Realm to allow him to imagine himself into our computer systems. His brain, your brain, the computers, they’re all linked together when you’re in there. When you went through the Breach, for that one second, you and Kurodar were completely linked together . . .”
    â€œAll right,” said Rick’s dad quietly. “That’s enough.” The man code-named the Traveler was sitting in the chair next to Rick. He was watching Commander Mars with a mild expression, his calm eyes blinking occasionally behind his glasses, giving no emotion away. Rick knew his dad and Mars did not get along very well. As in not at all. “There’s no point in scaring him,” his dad went on. “We’ve spent the last week scanning his brain for any abnormalities. There aren’t any.”
    â€œThat we know of,” muttered Mars.
    â€œThat’s right. So we have no reason to think there’ll be any problem at all. Rick risked his life to save two friends. That’s the sort of person he is. If he weren’t that sort ofperson, it wouldn’t have been worth sending him into the Realm in the first place.”
    Rick watched as the corners of Mars’s lips pulled down in a spasm of barely controlled anger. He was not a man who liked to be challenged, especially not by some nerdy computer geek like the Traveler. Mars thought he knew what was best—for the project, for his staff, even for the country. In some ways, he thought he was the country, that to stand up against him was to stand against America itself. Just then, Rick thought if Mars could have shot his dad dead, he might’ve done it. It wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. Mars had already pulled a gun on the Traveler once before.
    All the same, Mars dropped the subject now and moved on to the real subject of the meeting. “Anyway, that’s not the reason I called you here. We’re expecting another attack.”
    Rick sat up straight, surprised. That explained why Mars’s always-simmering anger had suddenly flared like this. “Another attack already?” he said. “I just delivered Kurodar a major fail . . .”
    â€œThat’s the problem apparently. Our spies in the Axis are telling us that Kurodar is getting desperate. Rick blew up his fortress . . . downed his WarCraft . . . and now the Axis Assembly has decided to pull their funding for the MindWar. They’re tired of pouring money into something that doesn’t work.”
    â€œWell, that’s a good thing, right?” Rick said with what he hoped was an annoying shrug.
    â€œIt could be,” Mars replied through gritted teeth. “But Kurodar says he doesn’t need the Assembly anymore. He says he has a secret weapon that will allow him to act on his own.”
    â€œWhat sort of weapon?” said the Traveler, and while his eyes remained calm, he leaned forward slightly in his seat.
    â€œWe don’t know,” said Mars. “Kurodar apparently swore to the Assembly he would prove the effectiveness of the MindWar Realm by pulling off an attack on our country all by himself—an attack so vast, so destructive, he said, that the Assembly would see once and for all that MindWar is the way to bring us to our knees.”
    Rick wasn’t sure why, but when he heard this, Favian’s voice seemed to speak into his mind.
    The darkness spread over everything everywhere. The Scarlet Plain. The Blue Wood. The Ruins. The Golden City is all that’s left of MindWar .
    That’s what Favian had said in his dream. But so what? What did it have to do with this new attack Mars was talking about? And anyway, it was just a dream. Wasn’t it? Rick rubbed the sleeve of his sweatshirt, feeling the scratches on his wrist underneath.
    â€œSo you have to send me back in,” he said.
    Mars glared at him—it reminded Rick of the way the Octo-Guardian glared at him. “If we can trust you,”