He pushed thoughts of Gabby aside. “Yeah. Well…Kaine keeps talking about this immortality stuff. How does programming a Tangent to take over a body and kill itself in front of the world…how does that help him? It doesn’t. Which is why those things Janey and Trae said ring true. Maybe Kaine isn’t in charge anymore. Someone just wants us to think he is.”

“It’s possible, I guess,” Helga said. “We’re certainly not dealing with something so simple as one rogue Tangent getting his kicks. It’s too widespread. Let me show you a few more things so we’re all on the same page. Then we’ll Lift to the Wake and get moving.”

And show them she did.

7

Helga’s space-age entertainment system took over for the next half hour, sending them on trip after trip through those shapes of light to see Tangents wreaking havoc.

All across Brazil, a terrifying series of prison breaks was traced back to officials in high positions who inexplicably allowed them to happen. In New York City, at the world’s largest stock exchange, there were multiple cases of well-respected traders suddenly acting on wild speculations and spreading insider information. Michael didn’t know enough about trading to understand it all that well, but several anchorpersons from the NewsBops explained how international economic panic had set in because of the extreme unpredictability. Three major economic systems had crashed over the past two weeks.

In Hong Kong, the chief of police transferred all of the enforcement personnel out of the metro area. Looters destroyed a major part of the largest shopping district.

In Mexico, progress against the drug trade, the result of a century of effort, was essentially erased by a series of changes to the law, passed in quick succession by several politicians whose views transformed overnight. Policy altered so rapidly that the drug cartels had taken over five cities before the public noticed what was going on.

Michael and his friends witnessed businesses collapsing, celebrities publicly killing spouses, and transit systems falling into disarray, and just like the man who’d slit his own throat in front of a waiting crowd of reporters, more and more of the cases involved Tangents announcing what they were before disaster struck.

Finally, not a moment too soon, Helga ended the show and brought them back to the now-comforting field of glass and geometric shapes. Michael wanted nothing more than to Lift to the Wake, find a corner, curl up into a ball, and push the world away. He was tired, and scared.

After a somber silence, Bryson spoke.

“Man, that’s all happened in the last couple of weeks?”