The Rift by J.T. Stoll

strap to cover Vero’s blade. Plus some clothes. A little bit
of dried meat and some crackers. Some other odds and ends and, get
this… a flashlight.”
    Neil stopped spinning. “A flashlight? It
works?”
    “ Yeah. It’s metal, has a clear
switch on it and everything. I even managed to get the battery
out—at least, what I assumed was the battery. It’s not exactly
double-A.”
    “ Flashlight, flashlight,” Neil
muttered. “Why a flashlight?”
    “ Uhh… to see in the
dark?”
    “ No, I mean, they use swords and
axes and stuff for weapons. If they had that kind of technology,
shouldn’t they have guns or something?”
    Pieter shrugged. “Well, if you hadn’t noticed,
it’s not exactly your normal sword. I think with Croga, I could
take somebody with a gun.”
    “ But it’s a full-blown fantasy
world! I totally had them pegged at a medieval technology
level.”
    “ Umm… Neil? What’s the big
deal?”
    Neil snatched his laptop off his other
computer’s tower. “Yeah, but the more advanced they are, the more
threat they pose. Anyways, I’ve been drawing up plans since
Saturday night.”
    “ Plans?”
    Neil set his laptop on his knees and tapped the
keyboard. “I just finished installing hard drive encryption
software on both my boxes.”
    “ For…”
    “ Security, of course. And don’t use
public email services for communication. They’re too easily
accessed by law enforcement. As the dimensional barrier becomes
breached more and more often, we all know that the three-letter
agencies will end up involved. Did you know they took the field off
the market?”
    “ What?”
    “ I drove by today. Not for sale.
And they’re building a chain-link fence.”
    Pieter shrugged. “So they sold it.”
    “ This exact weekend? And now
they’re building a fence? Don’t call that a
coincidence.”
    “ I wasn’t going to,” Pieter said.
“But don’t call it the FBI.”
    “ CIA, more likely. Or some agency
we’ve never heard of. But that tipped me off that somebody else
knows about this. So I set up a secure email server in Panama. I’ve
already deleted my Facebook account and suggest you do the same in
about a week—not too close to mine.”
    “ Umm… You wake up yesterday with a
hangover, too?”
    “ I’ve never had a hangover, but
yes. It’s obvious that using the soul armors drained us, as it will
probably continue to do.”
    Neil tapped on his laptop.
    “ I’ve outlined three scenarios. In
number one, we’ll grow used to the devices and eventually function
normally when using them. In numer two, we’ll continue to
experience exhaustion. In number three, the strain on our bodies
will eventually kill us.”
    This is what Neil had been up to? Pieter was
really, really glad to have a girlfriend. “So, what’d you think of
Gloria?”
    “ Don’t we have bigger things to
worry about right now?”
    Not a particularly surprising response. Nothing
during the date had convinced Pieter they’d work as a
couple.
    Neil slid his finger over the track pad.
“Anyways, let’s at least get your email set up.” He handed the
laptop to Pieter. “Enter your password. You’re
[email protected].”
    Despite thinking that a secure email was the
least of their worries, Pieter typed mashup , the password he
used for most things. Bright-red text appeared on the screen,
explaining how the password wasn’t long enough.
    “ You’ll have to do better than
that,” Neil said. “Make it longer. Throw in some numbers and
special characters.”
    Pieter stared at the password screen. “You’re
sure jumping into this quick.”
    “ Of course. You think that waiting
is going to make our problems vanish?”
    “ No, this is all just… weird, you
know?”
    “ Weird’s an understatement. What
difference does ‘weird’ make?”
    Pieter typed Mashupmashup@ for his
password. The server accepted it. He bitterly swore not to use this
email.
    “ So, think it’s real?” Pieter
asked.
    Neil planted his elbows