Mr. Real (Code of Shadows #1) Read Online Free Page A

sledgehammer. And the cam running on time lapse.
    At 2:58, she saw a pulse of brown. In the next instant, the brown spot expanded out from the middle, practically exploding out.
    Exploding out into a barrel.

    And there it sat. A big, old, weathered, wooden barrel.
    She stayed there, staring, not breathing. A barrel had just materialized before her eyes. She crept to the door and opened it slowly.
    Lindy went out and casually sniffed it, and then bounded down the steps and into the yard.
    The barrel was cool to the touch, much cooler than the muggy August air. Alix recalled that the majorette boots ensemble and the necklace had felt cool, too.
    Her heart pounded.
    Back inside, she reviewed the footage, which showed it all: a brown dot exploding outwards into a barrel. She forwarded the clip to Karen, and got her on the phone.
    “This is just…whoa,” Karen said.
    “I know! Whoa!” Alix said.
    “Maybe I was wrong. Could this be magic? I mean, assuming you’re not messing with me here. ‘Cause April Fool’s day is past—”
    “I swear,” Alix interrupted breathlessly. “I watched it with my own eyes. Out of thin air.”
    “Wow. What if it really was those floppies you converted?”
    “I think it was. What other connection does my laptop have to Aunt Veronica?”
    Karen hissed out a breath. “Maybe she found some way to computerize occult commands. The computer as we know it today is based on everything being either one or zero, and look what we’ve made from that—the whole Internet. Maybe your aunt developed some voodoo interface with reality. Some kind of conversion. Those 1980s computer geeks got into some weird stuff.”
    “An occult computer program,” Alix whispered.
    “And then you come along and dump all that freak code into your modern laptop and fire up some kind of magic. Oh, now I’m dying to look at that code again. But wait! Don’t email it.”
    “Oh my god—the smashed machines in her computer room!” Alix said. “And the padlock on the door? And the writing on the floor? And remember how it smelled in there? Like it hadn’t been opened for years?”
    “She didn’t want that stuff getting out.”
    “Because she knew it was powerful,” Alix said. “I have a magic computer. I can have anything in the world.”
    “Okay, hold on. Let’s think and not act.”
    “But the magic needs one more test, just to be sure,” Alix said. “For the next thing, I have to choose something that doesn’t technically exist. Or something that would be impossible to get, to make sure it’s really magic. Like, a unicorn. That would be the ultimate test to prove it’s magic.”
    “No. Stop—”
    “Right, it has to be something I want,” Alix said. Her new white boots were fabulous; so was her ruby necklace, which she was currently wearing with her faded black MonkeyDemon tank top. The barrel, not so much. “No wonder Lindy didn’t bark.”
    “Don’t order anything else until I’m there. I’m back in town Sunday. I’ll drive out and we’ll test it together, okay? You don’t want to change the course of history or whatever. Changing the course of history is way easier to do than you think. In fact, shit! If this is what we think it is, you have the potential right now to call up something that could destroy us all. You could rip the fabric of the universe.”
    “Are you stoned right now?” Alix asked.
    “That’s irrelevant,” Karen said. “I’m being serious. This is no time for a Crazy Alix caper.”
    A Crazy Alix caper.

    Alix felt the wind whoosh out of her. Crazy Alix? Karen had never called her that. Other people had, but not Karen. With a lightness she didn’t feel, Alix said, “I think Crazy Alix can test the occult computer program without ending life as we know it.” And then, just to needle Karen, “It’s not like I’m going to order the planet Mars to arrive at my doorstep. Though, that would sure test the magic, wouldn’t it?”
    “Oh my god, don’t even say