Ready Player One - Ernest Cline [78]
“Pleasure to meet you,” Art3mis said, extending her right hand.
Aech shook it. “Likewise.” He flashed his Cheshire grin. “Thanks for coming.”
“Are you kidding? How could I miss it? The very first meeting of the High Five.”
“The High Five?” I said.
“Yeah,” Aech said. “That’s what they’re calling us on all of the message boards now. We hold the top five high-score slots on the Scoreboard. So we’re the High Five.”
“Right,” I said. “At least for the time being.”
Art3mis grinned at that, then turned and began to wander around the Basement, admiring the ’80s decor. “Aech, this is, by far, the coolest chat room I’ve ever seen.”
“Thank you.” He bowed his head. “Kind of you to say.”
She stopped to browse through the shelf of role-playing game supplements. “You’ve re-created Morrow’s basement perfectly. Every last detail. I want to live here.”
“You’ve got a permanent spot on the guest list. Log in and hang out anytime.”
“Really?” she said, clearly delighted. “Thank you! I will. You’re the man, Aech.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “It’s true. I am.”
They really seemed to be hitting it off, and it was making me crazy jealous. I didn’t want Art3mis to like Aech, or vice versa. I wanted her all to myself.
Daito and Shoto logged in a moment later, appearing simultaneously at the top of the basement staircase. Daito was the taller of the two, and appeared to be in his late teens. Shoto was a foot shorter and looked much younger. Maybe about thirteen. Both avatars looked Japanese, and they bore a striking resemblance to one another, like snapshots of the same young man taken five years apart. They wore matching suits of traditional samurai armor, and each had both a short wakizashi and a longer katana strapped to his belt.
“Greetings,” the taller samurai said. “I am Daito. And this is my little brother, Shoto. Thank you for the invitation. We are honored to meet all three of you.”
They bowed in unison. Aech and Art3mis returned the bow, and I quickly followed suit. As we each introduced ourselves, Daito and Shoto bowed to us once again, and once again we each returned the gesture.
“All right,” Aech said, once all the bowing had ended. “Let’s get this party started. I’m sure you’ve all seen the news. The Sixers are swarming all over Ludus. Thousands of them. They’re conducting a systematic search of the entire surface of the planet. Even if they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, it still won’t be long before they find the entrance to the tomb—”
“Actually,” Art3mis interrupted, “they already found it. Over thirty minutes ago.”
We all turned to look at her.
“That hasn’t been reported on the newsfeeds yet,” Daito said. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Afraid so. When I heard about the Sixers this morning, I decided to hide an uplink camera in some trees near the tomb entrance, to keep an eye on the area.” She opened a vidfeed window in the air in front of her and spun it around so the rest of us could see. It showed a wide shot of the flat-topped hill and the clearing around it, looking down from a spot in one of the trees high above. From this angle, it was easy to see that the large black stones on top of the hill were arranged to look like a human skull. We could also see that the entire area was crawling with Sixers, and more seemed to be arriving every second.
But the most disturbing thing we saw on the vidfeed was the large transparent dome of energy that now covered the entire hill.
“Son of a bitch,” Aech said. “Is that what I think it is?”
Art3mis nodded. “A force field. The Sixers installed it just after the first of them arrived. So …”
“So from here on out,” Daito said, “any gunter who finds the tomb won’t be able to get inside. Not unless they can somehow get through that force field.”
“Actually, they’ve put up two force fields,” Art3mis said. “A small field with a larger field over it. They lower them in sequence, whenever they want to let more Sixers enter the tomb. Like an air lock.” She pointed to the window. “Watch. They’re doing it now.”
A squadron of Sixers marched