Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Lucas)

Kari was apparently a hermit.

Or at least that was my first impression when Tim led me to one of the caves lining the cliffs on the east side of the island.

“Kari lives here?” I squinted at the rock face, hesitating. “How’s a hacker supposed to live in there?”

“You’ll see,” Tim said simply, then scampered up the side of the cliff as easily as if he were strolling down a flat, paved street. Ben and Leah followed with equal ease. They’d probably made this trip a million times before.

I had an ever so slightly more difficult time attempting to scale the cliff.

Leah burst out laughing at my efforts, then pretty much hit the ground gasping when I lost my grip and slid down. I gritted my teeth and tried again, trying to keep from turning red.

“You might want to use the stairs, mister,” Tim called down, obviously trying to keep from meeting the same fate as Leah. “To your right.”

I looked right. There was a series of carved out holes in the rock, like a ladder of sorts, obviously there to help idiots like me scale the cliff.

So that was how they did it.

I climbed up, trying to look as dignified as possible, which wasn’t really all that dignified if you think about it. “So. Where’s Kari?”

“In there. You can go by yourself. We still gotta go find food, you know,” Tim replied. “Well, see you around, Lucas. Or not.”

“Yeah. Thanks for the help,” I told them, flashing them a smile. My mouth wasn’t used to moving that way, though, so it came out as more of a grimace.

This is what happens when you’ve been in the army too long, I thought. Sheesh.

Tim didn’t seem bothered by it, though, just nodded and slid down the cliff, taking his friends with him. I watched them until they vanished into the distance, then turned around to face the cave.

Pushing the pink curtain out of the way (who puts pink curtains in caves, anyway?), I stepped inside. The sound of fingers tapping away at a keyboard instantly came to me, beating out a rhythm I didn’t know and didn’t understand.

“Hey, there, hon,” a girl’s voice called sweetly, the tapping never stopping. “Don’t move, kay? I’ve got fifty million different traps pointed at you right now. So why don’t you tell me your name and why you’re here? You have thirty seconds.”

My first thought was: You know, some people just put out Welcome mats.

My second thought was: Fifty million? Uh, yeah, right.

What I actually said: “My name’s Lucas and I’m here to see Kari Shine.”

There was a pause.

“Then leave that sword of yours at the door and come on in.”

I looked at my sword. Was she serious?

“Today, if you please.”

I left it there.

Kari was sitting in a comfortable-looking chair, in front of a million different screens and blinking lights. Wires and little chips were strewn everywhere on the floor. The remains of about a million instant noodles had been carelessly tossed in the now overflowing wastebasket, along with a couple of bent or broken eating utensils. Kari herself didn’t look at me, instead merely continuing to type away at her computer.

“How in the world did you get electricity in here?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“That’s for me to know and you to not find out.” She spun around to face me, a smile on her lips.

My first impression of Kari was that she was pretty. Very pretty. The kind of pretty that I instantly understood to be used to her advantage. Slender build, glossy blond hair in pigtails tied with blue ribbons that matched her eyes, which gleamed with mischief. I instantly disliked her.

“So, sweetie, since you came all this way, why don’t you tell me what you came for?” She twirled a lock of her hair around her finger, still smiling that smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Because I know you must want something.”

“I need a hacker,” was my response. “Will you do it?”

“Well, now, that depends on all sorts of things. First of all, who are you really?”

“I’ll pay you,” I replied, not quite answering the question.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Kari noted. “The mysterious type, then. And you’ll pay me, as well. Tell me then, Lucas, what type of work do you want done?”

I hesitated, not wanting to trust her with any kind of information, let alone the type of info I was about to give her. “Can you open electronic locks?”

“From here? No. For that, I have to be at the location. Why?” Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

“I need an electronic lock opened.”

“Where?”

“Will you do it?” I persisted.

“If you’re so desperate, then of course I will. For a price, of course.”

“How much?”

Her eyes met mine. “Well, for a job like this, where I actually have to be on location, I’d say…five hundred Lures.”

I instantly shook my head. “Too much.”

“Oh, so you did your homework. A very good job to you. How about a hundred, then?”

A hundred was reasonable, so I nodded.

“Then it’s determined. Now, where is the lock you so badly want opened?”

“Yellowton,” I grudgingly told her. “The main prison there.”

Her eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn’t catch. “Yellowton? Surely you know that the only prisoners they keep in Yellowton are…”

“Will you help me, or not?”

“Oh, of course.” She smirked. “And don’t worry, Lucas dear, I won’t tell. You can count on me.”

Somehow, I doubted that.

“Oh, but of course you don’t trust me. You’re obviously an outlaw, that I can tell. After all, you want to break into a prison that only houses…” She let the end of the sentence dangle, still smirking, and stood up, sweeping past me on her way to the door. The scent of perfume followed her, and I fought the urge to sneeze.

She turned at the curtain. “Are you coming? Or do you plan on staying in there all day?”

I didn’t budge. “I was actually wondering if you had any first-aid kits in here.”

Her gaze landed on my arm, which, sadly, was still stinging from the salt water. Which was bad. I really didn’t need an infected arm added to my problems.

“Oh, of course. Silly me.” Kari swept past me again and started digging into one of the piles of junk that littered the ground. A second later, a first-aid kit was soaring through the air toward me. I plucked it out of the air and started pulling things out of it.

“Hurry it up, all right, hon? If we’re going to do this, I want to attack at the shift change. Which would be in…” She checked her watch. “Oh, about an hour.”

I didn’t answer, but took note of this sentence. She was good. The shift changes occurred at different times every day for the Yellowton prison, to prevent people like me from breaking in and out, and you needed a seriously high security clearance to know this. The guards themselves didn’t know until the second they had to go, upon which they’d receive a message on their walkie-talkies. I should know, I’d been on guard duty a lot more times than I’d have liked.

But then again, that was what I was paying her for. To help me save the one person I’d promised to protect against all odds.

I’m coming for you, Violet. Don’t worry.

“Hmm? Did you say something?” Kari tilted her head to one side, giving me a questioning look.

“No,” I instantly responded, realizing I’d said it out loud. I finished wrapping the bandage around my arm and stood up.

“All right. We can go.”

“Splendid,” she smiled. “Now, let’s go rescue whoever it is you need to rescue.”