Tron Legacy the Junior Novel - Alice Alfonsi [10]
Not my father? How could that be?
Suddenly Sam put it all together. The Leader looked like his father because Sam’s dad had created him to look the same!
The Leader was really that very special program called—
“Codified Likeness Utility,” Sam breathed. “You’re…Clu.”
Clu smiled slyly and nodded as if to say, “at your service.”
Sam’s shoulders sank. Just when he thought he had found his father…
“So,” Clu said, grinning. There was a wicked gleam to his eye that Sam couldn’t help but notice. “You like bikes, Sam?”
Just like that, the rectifier lurched and plunged downward. Before Sam could react, Sentries grabbed him again. They dragged him back to the ship’s hangar. Clu and Jarvis followed.
The ship landed in the center of the sprawling game grid. The hangar’s bay doors opened, and a long, red-carpeted ramp slid out.
Jarvis descended the ramp first. A moment later Sam and the guards followed.
“Greetings, programs,” Jarvis began, his voice filling the arena. “What an occasion we have before us. Today we have a user in our midst. For the first time since our liberation!”
The crowd cheered.
Sam’s heart beat faster. User?
“Better still,” Jarvis continued, “this particular user happens to go by the name of Flynn!”
The crowd stopped cheering. For a moment, they went silent. Then they began to boo and catcall.
Why? Sam thought. What did my father do? Why do these programs hate the name Flynn so much? But if they hate him, they had to also know him, right?
“Who better to battle this user?” Jarvis asked the crowd. “Perhaps someone who’s had experience in these matters…”
At that moment, Clu strode down the ramp, a glossy black cape flowing behind him. The cheers began again. And over that wall of noise, Sam could hear Jarvis still chattering on.
“Yes, programs. Your luminary. Your leader. The one who vanquished the tyranny of the users so many cycles ago. I give you…Clu!”
As Clu passed Sam, he smirked. “Sorry about your dad, kiddo.”
Sam couldn’t contain his rage. This thing was nothing like his dad. He reached for Clu, but the Sentries restrained him.
Clu raised his arms, basking in the crowd’s adoration. “I wonder,” he said, “would this user allow me the honor of a challenge?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “You want to play, Clu? I’ll play.”
Jarvis stepped forward and opened an ornate box. Two glowing batons rested inside. Clu chose the yellow stick, and Jarvis handed the white one to Sam.
“What do I do with this?” Sam asked, waving the white baton like a sword.
“Not that,” Jarvis replied with no compassion.
A section of the floor opened, and four gaming programs rose up. Sam didn’t know the purple, green, or yellow combatants. But he recognized the teenager holding the aqua baton. It was the young program he’d first seen on the recognizer, the one who had warned him to keep quiet. This, it would seem, was his team.
A loud whine drew Sam’s attention. Two Sentries in silver gray Light Cycles raced toward him.
“You’ve got no chance, user,” the purple program told Sam with a sneer.
“Their cycles are faster than ours,” the green program warned.
The Sentries blew by the gamers a second later. Their Light Cycles left a pair of neon light walls in their wake.
Then, as Sam tried to get his bearings, Clu shed his cape and jumped. In midleap, the baton in his hands transformed. It became a black Light Cycle—like a motorcycle that encased Clu’s entire body. It was as if Clu had become one with the bike.
With a powerful whine, Clu raced off.
“Now this I can do!” Sam cried, leaping. He squeezed the baton.
When he hit the grid surface, Sam found himself encased inside a two-wheeled Light Cycle. Beside Sam, the other colors jumped into their vehicles. Together, they roared off after their opponents.
Purple easily caught up with the Sentries—too easily, as it turned out. One Sentry zigzagged across the grid lines, leaving a barrier of solid light in Purple’s path.
Too close to veer away, the purple program struck the barrier and derezzed instantly into bouncing glasslike