Read Paradox for Free Online

forest.”
    She decides to ignore the slight tremor in his voice. “Just a forest,” she repeats, surprising herself by reaching out and giving Todd’s hand a quick squeeze. The touch of his skin makes her suddenly remember Bailey’s hands, her sparkling ring, and she finds herself glancing around, looking for a shimmer. But there are no floating distractions here, just the ever-present suns and the Dead Forest looming ahead.
    “Let’s do this,” she says.
    They stride on toward the forest.
    “So,” he says after a moment, looking at her slyly, “you got any memory of Sixteen Questions rattling around in that mind of yours?”
    The shift in tone jars Ana, but then she realizes she
does
remember it. A complicated back-and-forth game of nested questions. Has she always hated this game, or is that just her imagination? She narrows her eyes. “Are you trying to distract me from the bastion of evil that’s up ahead?”
    Todd grins as he brushes his hair out of his face. “I’ll take that as your first Q. Since yes-and-no answers are not accepted in this round, I’m going to reply with: In addition to providing a positive distraction from the forthcoming uncertainty, doesthe game of Sixteen Questions activate any dormant memories of your past?”
    Ana’s mind races. Maybe she hated this game once, but Todd’s right. The distraction and the challenge have her pulse racing like she’s back in the presence of that monster worm. Except this adrenaline rush is all good, and all hers.
    “My mind is unfortunately empty of any and all specific memories,” she says, shaping each word carefully, seeing how she can turn this game to her advantage, “and this mind wants to know what
your
mind knows about the existence of that monster that was chasing us back there.”
    Todd’s face darkens. “It’s not supposed to be here,” he mutters.
    Ana swallows. Back on the cliff, she heard him say something similar. He’s slipping out of his Sixteen Questions persona, but she feels no need to push back. “Go on,” she says.
    “None of the planet scans of Paradox showed any signs of animal life. None at all. There
was
evidence that millions of years ago, a giant wormlike creature used to roam the planet. But it’s long extinct. So why is it here now?”
    “Planet scans?” Ana says incredulously. “How do you know about that?”
    Todd grimaces. “I told you. I know stuff about this place. Physical things. I just think about it and the knowledge is there.”
    Ana nods. “Well, maybe the creature is a different life form entirely? Maybe it escaped the scans that way?”
    Todd’s already shaking his head. “It wasn’t here,” he insists.“And then the first thing I thought of when I saw it was
Vermiletum
. But no, that would be ridiculous.”
    Vermi letum
. Deadly worm. Apparently her former life included some Latin. “What do you mean,
Vermiletum
?” she asks. “You’ve seen that thing somewhere before, or heard of it?”
    “Not really. I …” Todd flushes. “I just thought it triggered something, but … no.”
    There he goes again. He knows something, something he’s too afraid to talk about. What could be more fearsome than a giant worm?
Vermiletum
. Something about that name fits. And what’s more, the word stirs her up inside and sets her pulse pounding in her ears.
    She has no idea why, but it makes her want to fight.
    Her left hand crosses over to her hip and strokes the handle of the dagger resting in its sheath. An image flashes through her mind and she sees a gleaming blade hurtling through the air, turning end over end to sink with a satisfying
thunk
into a plywood target.
    She’s jerked back to the moment as Todd stops walking and turns, looking straight at her. His eyes are wide and staring, startlingly blue in his chalky face. “Forget the worm,” he says, a little hoarsely. “It’s all wrong. We just have to get to the end of the countdown, and to do that we’ve got to stay away from