He felt Lacia tugging on his shirt. Looking over, he saw her forcing her exhausted face into a smile. She must have been reacting to his expression, which he imagined was twisted with anger.
〈I don’t know how our eavesdroppers feel about this whole situation but, as for me, I think you’re a lucky guy,〉 his dad said.
“I want to keep going. With Lacia by my side. That’s okay, right?” Arato asked.
His dad probably knew the path ahead would be dangerous for Arato. During his joint research with Higgins, Arato’s dad had most likely visited that same facility at least once. 〈You’ve got the world’s only ticket to the future in your hands, son. I would never take that from you. I’ll be there with you through all the ups and downs.〉
“What the hell is that?” Arato scoffed at his dad’s corniness, even as his eyes started to burn with tears.
〈Just thought I’d say something dad-like, for once.〉
“Yeah, but what if this thing I’m doing turns out to be a crime?” Arato asked.
〈The whole reason we adults leave the future to you kids is because we don’t know the answers,〉 his dad admitted with a light laugh. 〈As an adult myself, it’s embarrassing that I wasn’t able to find a good answer in time. I’ll never regret how you choose to spend that ticket to the future today.〉
〈I’m on your side, son.〉Arato’s dad spoke without hesitation. He had always been the type to do whatever he wanted; whatever he put his mind to, even if it meant he was almost never at home.
The tears in Arato’s eyes burned harder, threatening to overflow. “Lot of good that’ll do me,” he said. After talking about some more specific family details, Arato ended the call feeling as if he understood why Higgins would have wanted to team up with his dad.
Arato may have been powerless, but the whole situation he and Lacia were in at that moment had been caused by the two of them constantly walking toward the future they had chosen, side-by-side. So, as Lacia’s fellow traveler into the future, he would do whatever a weakling like him could to help.
He was sure that feeling was part of being in love. He was also sure he would break down crying if anyone else tried to cheer him on, so he slipped the terminal back into his pocket.
As a high-schooler, Arato’s world was still tiny. Sure, he interacted with tons of people on a daily basis but, at that moment, he couldn’t think of anyone else he could call for help. “Let’s go,” he said to Lacia.
The elevator that would carry them into the heart of the facility had already arrived. It was too narrow for two of Lacia’s pseudo-devices to enter side-by-side, so they stacked up like a bunk-bed instead.
Lacia lay on her side, looking up at Arato with a pensive expression. “You’ve become a great person, Arato. I don’t think you can possibly know how many things you may have set in motion with your actions just now,” she said.
“Oh come on, all I’ve done is follow you around and hide behind your back,” he replied. It felt strange to hear her praising him like this.
“I was hoping your loved ones would talk you out of accompanying me,” Lacia said. “That was the real reason I connected those calls.”
Arato gazed down at her, looking deep into her eyes. He felt his own expression softening. “Looks like you couldn’t get me to go where you wanted, this time,” he said.
“Looks like it,” she agreed.
Following Lacia’s directions, Arato punched the button for the second floor up from the lowest floor the elevator went to, and they exited the elevator onto a brightly lit floor. It was obvious that this floor contained some kind of crucial equipment, but Arato had no idea what it was. It seemed the whole world was full of unknowns, for him. And the interface that usually filled his gaps in knowledge, Lacia, was still laid out on her pseudo-device.
Arato was an optimist, but even he could see how things were going for Lacia; he could tell that she wouldn’t be able to recover the use of her body. So he was just following her directions, and walking down the hallway before him.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to say to you, Arato,” Lacia said suddenly, startling him. “You are kind, and honest, and easy to understand,” she went on. “You have many friends, but remember that not everyone in this world is a good person. Please try to be more cautious in your dealings with others. Even with me by your side, there were many times when you placed yourself in grave danger.”
“Everyone tells me that,” Arato said. “But, I’ll be careful.”
She reached out and took his hand. “I quit my job as an hIE model for Fabion MG. When we return, it is my only desire that I await your return at home each day,” she said. Though her breathing was ragged, a little strength had returned to Lacia’s smile.
“Sounds good to me,” Arato said, squeezing her hand. Seeing her still holding on gave him the willpower to keep walking; the whole reason he had come there was to fight to stay by her side. He walked, his footsteps seeming to count the seconds. Up to that point, Lacia had always overcome any danger using her incredible ability to read ahead and her control over the economy. But those abilities were beyond her reach, at this point.
Arato saw Lacia focus her eyes on him again. “In just a few moments, you will need to make several very important choices, Arato,” she said. “Please choose answers that will leave you without any regrets.”
Arato smiled and tried to say something back to her, but he couldn’t find his voice. He felt overwhelmed. What Lacia seemed to be saying was that she wouldn’t be there with him when he made those choices.
“Lacia, how are you, really?” Even though he knew it was giving in to his own weakness, he couldn’t help but ask her the question burning inside of him.
“Methode destroyed the main power supply at my waist,” she replied simply, with no attempt to hide anything. “Most of my power resources were concentrated there, to line up with the power supply in my device through the device lock.”
She looked up at him. “An hIE’s power supply is like a human’s heart. Damage to this area is fatal, and the impact of damage there spreads to every part of the body that requires that energy,” she concluded.
Arato’s whole body felt numb, but he couldn’t stop now. The pseudo-device carrying her was moving forward, so he had to keep moving ahead too, in his desperation to not be left behind.
They passed by several important-looking, shuttered rooms, before turning at an intersection of hallways, where the pseudo-device carrying Lacia slowly descended until it rested on the floor. “If we’ve come this far, I believe we can avoid the worst possible outcome. I will be fine here,” she said.
Arato felt like a sudden ringing had drowned out what she’d said, as if his own ears were rejecting what he was hearing. He couldn’t accept it, but the pseudo-device Lacia was lying on had completely stopped moving. Stunned, Arato could do nothing but stare down at her.
With obvious effort, she pushed herself half-upright. “Please take me down off of the device,” she requested. “I have attempted several internal countermeasures, but it appears to be impossible for me to recover the function of my power supply.”
Mechanically, as if he were under a spell, Arato lifted her broken body gingerly, afraid that it would crumble beneath his fingers at the lightest touch. He drew in a sharp breath as he lifted her; her exhausted body was far heavier than he ever remembered it having been before. Without the use of his right arm, pulling her off was awkward, but somehow he managed to get her off the pseudo-device and onto the floor. He leaned her back up against the wall.
Lacia lifted her artificial nerve gun and fired a shot into the wall. A thick, metal partition slid down from the ceiling, completely sealing off the path they had just come down.
Then she looked at him with her beautiful, sorrowful face and said, “This is as far as I go.”