Will pointed to the figures of other “students” that Brooke passed, seated in chairs or at tables, browsing through shelves.
“So those are other students’ syn-apps, doing research online,” said Will.
“Exactly,” said Brooke. “All in real time. Like a chat room.”
“Only nobody’s chatting,” said Nick. “ ’Cause it’s a library.”
Will looked at Elise’s tablet. Brooke was gone from her screen as well. And Elise was staring out at Will with the same cocky, sardonic smile the real Elise usually wore.
“So if I take that tutorial—” said Will.
“Your tablet will create your own syn-app,” said Brooke.
“And people used to think photographs stole your soul,” said Will, shaking his head.
“Nya-ah-ah,” said Nick.
Elise sighed. “It’s just a graphic stand-in for an intuitive user interface.”
“Yeah, whatever,” said Nick. “Check that at the door, ’cause let me tell you what: having your own little dude is freaking massive.”
“How do they make it look so much like you?” asked Will.
“Sophisticated character-based three-D modeling,” said Elise. “Rendered from your appearance and behavior. The software learns from observing you.”
“To be more like you,” said Nick. “How shwhacked is that?” Nick turned his tablet around. Nick’s character was walking around the table on his hands, making goofy faces. Nick got up and walked around the table on his hands.
“Yep,” said Will. “That’s you, all right.”
Back at work, Elise was examining the insignia on the letterhead above the names with a magnifying glass. “These might be weapons around the edge of the bouquet,” she said. “Or maybe tools.”
Ajay hurried out of his bedroom to join them, carrying his tablet. “Good news. I’ve collated the GPS data I grabbed from the tunnels. Now let’s lay it over a grid of the campus and see what we find.”
Ajay set his tablet on the table. Will snuck a look at it and saw the syn-app version of Ajay moving images around on-screen. Ajay’s double appeared even more elfin than he did, almost like an anime character, with enormous brown eyes.
“Okay, that’s just freaky,” said Will.
“Good gravy, man, haven’t you taken the tutorial?” asked Ajay.
“Not sure I want to,” said Will. “Not after seeing this.”
“I’ve got it. They’re weapons and tools,” said Elise, studying the insignia through the magnifying glass. “The two on top are a sword and a hatchet—”
“Hello,” said Nick. “Just like Paladin dude.”
“And the two on the bottom are a builder’s square … and a compass.…”
“A compass,” said Nick. “That could be a clue. What direction is it pointing?”
“Not a navigational compass, a drafting compass. The kind architects and draftsmen use to draw circles,” said Elise, showing them her screen.
“All four objects could also be something else,” said Brooke, scrutinizing the insignia on her screen. “I think they might be letters.”
“What kind of letters?” asked Nick, trying to drink coffee while balancing upside down on one hand.
“Calligraphy of some kind,” said Brooke. “From an archaic alphabet.”
“Let’s check it out,” said Elise. She held the Peers list in front of her screen. Elise stood up from the table on-screen to study the page, then reached to the top of the screen and brought down an exact copy of the list.
“Okay, what the heck just happened?” asked Will.
“The tablet used its camera to scan the letter, rendered a virtual copy, and delivered it into the simulation,” said Elise. “So my syn-app could go find a match.”
Elise on-screen looked up at Will and said, “Pretty spooky, huh?”
Will fell over backward on his chair. “It talked!”
“Boo-yah,” said Nick.
“They all can,” said Brooke. “Once they get to know you.”
“Oh, they can do a lot more than talk,” said Nick, helping Will up while still walking on his hands. “If you know what I’m saying, wink, wink.”
“There’s a difference,” said Elise, “between using a tool and being a tool.”
“Touché, my lady,” said Nick, flipping back to his feet and giving a small bow.
Elise rolled her eyes, then spoke to her syn-app. “Library.”
The environment on-screen around Elise shifted to the same academic library. Elise started toward the stacks, and on the way passed Brooke, coming back with a large open book. The syn-apps waved to each other.
Will peeked over Brooke’s shoulder at her screen as her character ported back to the pod. She looked at them, held up a book about flowers, and moved close to the screen. Brooke read the entry her double had found: “The white mum is the city flower of Chicago … and the flower of the month of November.…”
“Step back now,” said Nick, snapping his fingers. “Dudes, we’re not that far from Chicago … and … it’s November right now.”
“Take a deep breath,” said Ajay slowly. “And try to prevent your mind from working altogether.”
“The white mum is also the emblem of a mysterious organization called the Fraternity of the Triangle,” said Brooke, still reading. “A secret society of scientists, architects, and engineers. Its origins reach back to the Middle Ages … and they’re aligned with the Freemasons.”
“Now you’re on to something,” said Ajay, excited. “The compass and builder’s square, which you found in this insignia, are both Masonic symbols.”
“Freemasons?” asked Nick. “Is that a fraternity, too?”
“Neither is a ‘fraternity,’ Nick,” said Brooke wearily. “At least not the kind you’re thinking of.”
“And what kind might that be?” asked Nick.
“College pledges, Greek Week,” said Brooke.
“Frat house keggers,” said Elise. “Horny knuckleheads projectile vomiting.”
“My point exactly,” said Nick, banging his fist on the table.
“Don’t be a nincompoop,” said Ajay. “These are centuries-old organizations with notorious reputations for secrecy and violence.”
“For real?” said Nick, sitting back down. “I am so stoked.”
“Okay, found it,” said Elise, swinging her tablet around. Her syn-app transported from the virtual library to their great room and held a leather-bound volume to the screen, displaying a page of calligraphic letters.
“The letters are from the Carolingian alphabet,” said Elise, reading from the screen. “The standard script used for handwriting in western Europe between about 800 and 1200 AD.”
“Carolingian means ‘under the leadership of Carolus,’ ” said Ajay. “The Latin name of the emperor Charlemagne, who united Europe for the first time since the Romans and was eventually crowned emperor by the pope.”
“Which suggests that whoever the Peers are, they were inspired by some group that originated during the reign of Charlemagne?” asked Brooke.
“Perhaps so,” said Ajay.
“So which letters are these?” asked Will.
Elise put the insignia next to the ancient alphabet and said, “T, k, o, c.”
Nick grabbed a pen and paper and wrote them down. On his screen, his syn-app did the same.
“Okay, I’m officially confusiated,” said Nick, scratching his head at what he’d written. “T-k-o-c doesn’t spell anything.”
“Maybe it’s an anagram,” said Brooke. “Mix up the letters.”
“Interestingly, although Charlemagne was exceptionally tall and imposing for that era,” continued Ajay, “roughly six foot two, his father was apparently a dwarf.”