Read Codex for Free Online Page B

language while he’s talking,” Zeph added. “Just ones and zeros.” He shuddered, hugging his massive shoulders. “Creepy.”
    â€œAnd so he just has the one name?”
    Caroline frowned at him. “Be nice, Edward. The Artiste does the best he can. Zephram, is Edward coming with us tonight?”
    â€œI haven’t asked him. Want to come to a party, Edward?”
    â€œI don’t know. I’m kind of tired after all that filing.”
    Zeph picked up a chunk of volcanic glass that held down a stack of papers and retrieved a small, cream-colored envelope.
    â€œDo you remember a guy in college named Joe Fabrikant?” he asked.
    â€œFabrikant?” Edward frowned. “I guess so. Blond. Prep-school type.”
    â€œWe’re doing some back-end stuff for his intranet.” Caroline shifted herself down onto Zeph’s lap. “Database stuff. He’s dreamy.”
    â€œHe makes tons of money,” said Zeph. “The big success story from our class.”
    â€œHe’s one of these genetically perfect people. He looks like a giant Norse god.”
    Zeph passed the envelope to Caroline, who leaned forward and passed it to Edward. Inside was a simple card with an invitation to a party on it.
    â€œI’m sure he has no idea who I am,” said Edward.
    â€œActually, he asked us to ask you.”
    â€œReally?” That was odd.
    Zeph shrugged.
    â€œYou came up. I guess he heard about your London gig. Gave him a hard-on. He remembers you from school.”
    Caroline hauled over the keyboard and started another game of
Adventure.
    â€œCome on,” Zeph said. “There’s free booze. You can suck up to influential people. Uninfluential people will suck up to you. You’ll love it.”
    Edward didn’t answer. Zeph was right, and on any other night in the past four years he would have jumped at the invitation. Why not tonight? He thought about all the people who would be there—people he knew or half knew, like Fabrikant, and people he’d never met but whom he nonetheless knew down to the very bottom lines of their xeroxed, stapled, and collated souls.
    It was hot, and he took off his jacket and draped it carefully over the arm of his chair. He took another sip from his beer. On the screen, Caroline’s yellow square passed the entrance to a corridor that was blocked off by a plain black line.
    â€œCan you go through there?”
    â€œNope. That’s a force field.
Verboten.
”
    Caroline was in the courtyard of the black castle, in front of the portcullis. Three duck-dragons, red, yellow, and green, were chasing her around and around in a circle. She teased them, staying just out of their reach, but after a while she miscalculated and got caught in the red dragon’s teeth. The square stopped, vibrating in panic for a moment, then there was a swallowing sound and it slid down the dragon’s throat into its stomach.
    â€œHard cheese, old girl,” said Zeph.
    They watched the screen in funereal silence. Absurdly, through a glitch in their programming, the other dragons apparently didn’t realize the square was dead, and they kept on circling and biting at it in the red dragon’s stomach. The black bat entered the screen from the upper left corner. Off in another part of the apartment music was playing; it sounded like “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”
    â€œDamn it,” Zeph said. “He’s into our CD collection.”
    â€œHang on,” Caroline said. “Wait a second—this sometimes happens.”
    The bat flew diagonally, apparently unimpeded by walls. It made several preliminary passes through the room, cutting through it at an angle, then it changed course deliberately and without slowing down picked up the red dragon and flew away with it. The square came with it, still in the dragon’s stomach, and the camera shifted to follow them. The bat flew them willy-nilly through