“You know who that is?” asked Ajay.
Will had seen this face on dozens of record covers in his parents’ collection. “Ludwig van Beethoven,” said Will.
“Oh my God,” said Nick. “The dude who wrote the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ ”
“Beethoven did not write the—” said Brooke.
“Don’t bother,” said Ajay.
“The last puzzle,” said Brooke, reading from the yearbook. “ ‘Beethoven holds the key but doesn’t know it yet.’ ”
“Then tell him,” said Ajay to his syn-app.
“Guten Tag, Herr Beethoven,” said Ajay’s syn-app on-screen with a polite bow. “May we have a word with you, sir? Dürfen wir mit Ihnen sprechen, bitte?”
“Your dude speaks Russian?” whispered Nick.
“I speak German,” said Ajay.
But Beethoven didn’t respond. Didn’t even look at them.
“He can’t hear you,” said Brooke. “He’s deaf, remember?”
“Ajay, does your little dude know sign language?” said Nick, then slapped his forehead. “What am I saying? Sign language hadn’t been invented yet.”
Brooke stood up suddenly and asked, “Do either of you play the piano?”
“I can a little,” said Ajay.
Brooke leaned in and hummed a melody in his ear. They looked at each other.
“How?” asked Ajay.
“Tell him to play it by ear,” said Brooke.
Ajay leaned in to his syn-app and said, “Play this on the piano.” He hummed quietly. Ajay’s syn-app moved to the right side of the keyboard and played the notes.
Dah-dah-dah-du-dee-da-da …
Elise gasped and touched her hands to her face, her eyes filling with tears.
Beethoven came to life, his face lit up as if inspired by “hearing” the notes in his mind. He brought his right hand to the keys and picked up the melody, adding his left hand in the third measure. Every note he played appeared in ink, as if he were writing them, on the notation paper.
“I’ve heard this before,” said Will. “A hundred times.”
“It’s one of his most famous compositions,” said Ajay.
“Maybe so,” said Nick, disappointed. “But that is definitely not the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ ”
“No,” said Elise, quietly wiping away a tear. “In German it’s called ‘Für Elise.’ ”
“For Elise,” said Brooke, with a look at Will.
As Beethoven continued, a full invisible orchestra joined in. The wall in front of the piano transformed into the door of an enormous bank vault, covered with intricate locks, bolts, and steam-powered gears.
The notes of the tune lifted off the page as if animated and floated through the air toward the vault. They poured into a slot near the center. Gears and immense levers went into motion all over the vault’s surface. Bolts gave way, bursts of steam spurted, wheels turned, a bar drew back with a heavy thud, and the door swung slowly open.
“Beethoven holds the key,” said Brooke softly.
And out walked the syn-app of Ronnie Murso.
OceanofPDF.com
RONNIE
The syn-apps backed away from Ronnie in alarm. Elise moved closer to the screen, while the rest of the roommates grouped behind her. Ronnie blinked and looked around, confused and disoriented. To Will he looked exactly like Ronnie’s yearbook photo, except that the syn-app’s straw-blond hair was filthy and his face was covered with grime. His clothes were disheveled and dirty, his pants ripped at the knees.
“Ronnie?” said Elise, almost in a whisper.
The syn-app looked up, saw Elise, and recoiled, looking frightened.
“Ronnie, do you know where you are?” asked Elise.
He shook his head.
“Do you know who you are?” she asked softly.
The syn-app hesitated, then shook his head again.
“What’s wrong with him?” Will quietly asked the others.
“Don’t know,” said Ajay. “I’ve never seen a syn-app behave like this before.”
“Little dude looks homeless,” whispered Nick.
“He acts like he’s got amnesia,” said Brooke.
“Ronnie … do you know who I am?” asked Elise.
After hesitating, Ronnie shook his head, sweet and utterly vacant. Elise buried her face in her hands. Brooke stepped forward and put a steadying hand on her shoulder.
“What does this mean, Elise?” asked Will, mystified.
“It means he’s alive,” said Elise.
“Perhaps,” said Ajay thoughtfully.
“Ajay, his syn-app is right there,” she said, pointing at the screen. “Ronnie’s alive. He said he’d find a way to reach me if something happened to him. Something has, just look at him. He’s not right. He’s injured or lost, but he’s alive—”
“Hold on a second,” said Will. “You’re saying he’s alive just because his syn-app is here?” No one responded. The roommates looked at each other uncomfortably. “You’re not seriously suggesting they have some kind of physical connection to what’s happening to us in real life?”
“That’s just a … theory, Will,” said Ajay.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” said Elise.
“That’s impossible,” said Will. “These things are just billions of ones and zeros strung together. No matter how many tricks they can do, it’s only a simulation.”
“One would suppose,” said Ajay warily. “But then, we didn’t write the original program.”
Will didn’t push the argument. He remembered the uncanny feeling he’d had when his own syn-app had come to life: There’s something to this. I did feel a connection.
“ ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’ ” said Brooke.
Ronnie absentmindedly took something from his pocket. He seemed surprised to find it there. Ronnie cradled it in his hands and examined it closely.
“Nick,” said Elise. “Get my tablet.”
Nick darted out of the room. Ronnie held the object to the light.
“What have you got there, Ronnie?” asked Elise gently.
Ronnie shrank back from her, hiding the object behind his back.
“It’s okay,” said Elise. “I won’t hurt you. I just want to see what you found.”
Ronnie shrugged; he didn’t know either.
“Can you show me?” asked Elise. “Maybe I can help you figure out what it is.”
Will’s and Ajay’s syn-apps moved toward Ronnie.
“Not too close,” said Elise to Ajay. “We don’t want to spook him.”
Ajay and Will stopped a short distance away. Nick rushed back in with Elise’s tablet. She powered it up on the desk next to the others and moments later, Elise’s syn-app materialized with the others on the big screen.
“Elise” walked toward Ronnie and held out a hand. Ronnie took a step backward.
“You’re perfectly safe,” said Elise. “We won’t hurt you. Can you show me what you have there, Ronnie?”
Ronnie slowly opened his hand. A virtual flash drive rested on his palm. “Elise” took the object from him.
“Ajay,” said Elise. “See what that is.”
Her syn-app held out the flash drive behind her. “Ajay” darted over and took it like a relay baton. He took a virtual tablet from his backpack and inserted the drive into it, just as the real Ajay had with the real one.
“So let me see if I’ve got this straight,” said Will. “A virtual flash drive … inserted by a virtual character … into its virtual computer.”
“Think of it this way,” said Ajay quietly. “They’re all levels of the same file on a real flash drive, being read by a real computer. Now that we’ve cracked his puzzle, maybe this flash drive represents the final level and contains what Ronnie wanted us to see.”