He Who Calls
Chapter 23
"Has Milo gone nuts?" asked Yumi. "Seven people in the group?"
"Think about it," said Aelita. "Sam is energetic and brave, we're all dying form exhaustion, and letting her know about Xana has the bonus of saving Odd from a painful and humiliating break up."
"I'll discuss this with the others later. Has Jeremy made any advances on finding Xana's internet hidey-holes yet?"
"No," said Aelita. "He's stuck. He has to devote all his energy to school and friends, which is why he doesn't appear to be going insane like the rest of us." Someone knocked on the door. "Come in!" Aelita said.
"Hey," Milo said as he walked in. "I just got released! I don't have to go to the infirmary every day anymore!"
"That's great!" said Aelita. "You still going to be running every day?"
"Yeah, it does help me stay awake," said Milo. "Hi, Yumi. What's new?"
"Nothing," said Yumi. "Except your idea to make Sam part of the group."
"It seems to be a good idea. We don't have to virtualize her until we're sure."
"That didn't exactly work on you," said Aelita. "If you think about it for a while it's easy to solve the paradox about why our memories remain unchanged and no one else's do."
"We're paralyzed, technologically speaking," said Milo. "No one knows how the hell I did that Code Split thing with William."
"I have a theory," said Aelita. "I'm guessing it works for people who only have either a good side or a bad side. You don't have a bad side as far as anyone can tell. So by flooding people with tons of extra energy either way, you have the power to split them."
"I have a bad side!" protested Milo.
"Name three bad things you've ever done," said Aelita and Yumi in unison, laughing. Milo constantly challenged people to name three things, and it was funny to see it turned against him.
"Pissing Jeremy off the first day I got here, stealing you out from under Odd's nose, praying for people I don't like to die," said Milo.
"Pissing Jeremy off was a great achievement, I wanted to be stolen, and praying for William the Killer to die is not a sin," said Aelita.
"I don't believe in sin. I'm not religious. You're not religious."
"When I said 'sin' I was referring to any bad deed, not one in the eyes of God," said Aelita. "And incidentally, you're absolutely right, I don't believe in God."
"There's your sin. I'm a heretic. I think God was cruel to make mankind choose between life and knowledge. A million religious people would hate me for that," said Milo triumphantly.
"That's only a sin in the eyes of God," said Yumi. "Since you don't believe in him it's not a sin."
"Oh, just forget it," said Milo, disgusted with the argument. "Aelita, still want to run with me? Yumi, you and Ulrich can come too."
"Yeah, okay," said Yumi. She got up and went to get Ulrich.
"Of course I'm coming," said Aelita. "I know the only reason you go is so I'll come with you." She was joking, and it was funny.
"Yeah, it is," said Milo. Aelita couldn't tell whether he was joking or not.