“I believe so,” Scott said.
They left us in Scott's tender mercy.
Vee turned to Scott when everyone had left. “So what do you think?”
“Let's start with the documents. These are pretty standard and straight forward. There are two agreements. One is a settlement. In plain English, the company will give you some money on the condition that you consider this matter closed. Obviously, they are offering Andi a considerable amount of money. I don't know what you did with your demonstration but he upped the amount from 1 million to 5 million. You have not asked for compensation, but, my guess is that if you were to take your case to court, the company, or more importantly the company lawyer, believes that you could win, and even if you didn't win, they would not want the bad press. Even so, what they are offering is in excess of what I would expect. I could go back for more if you want, but I think they are offering too much because they want this matter settled with no argument. Veronica, I believe the lawyer does not think you have a case and is only offering you some money for your inconvenience. The reason why they have been so generous and the reason for the non-disclosure agreement is guesswork on my part.”
Vee looked him in the eye. “Your guesswork is at least professional guesswork. Please give us your opinion.”
“I think they want something. In order to ask for what they want they have to disclose trade secrets and the generosity is to buy your goodwill, hoping for a more favourable response. I have also spoken to them about your concerns regarding identity and the changes you are undergoing. They have a plan for that. If you sign these agreements, I have to leave so that they can speak to you without worrying about lawyers. However, they have asked me not to leave the building, just the room, as there may be a further proposal that you may need my advice on. There have been no hints on what that is about.”
I looked at Vee. “What do you think? Do we sign or not?”
She looked at Scott. “Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't see any downside to signing. They are paying us money that we have not asked for and I'm curious about what they want. We are not committing to anything other than not suing them, which we weren't going to do and not disclosing any trade secrets, which we are not interested in doing either. If we don't like what their next proposal is, we can always say no and walk away.”
Scott nodded his head. “My advice would be to sign. If you didn't and decided to sue them later, you would be lucky to get this settlement.”
I shrugged my shoulders. I was quite willing to become 5 million dollars richer. “Where is the pen?”
Scott had a pen. Under his guidance, we signed where he showed and initialled where he suggested.
Chapter 16
Scott left with about half of their party to leave the two of us facing about five of them.
“I don't think I have introduced myself, I am Brett Winslow. I am the owner of the company. I have a proposal for you, but first I need to explain a few things.” He took a sip of water and looked at us earnestly. “I need your help. And I don't mean the company, I mean as a father.” He gathered himself together. “Let me start at the beginning. I have always been good at making money. Never the smartest, I didn't even graduate from high school, but I could see opportunities no one else did. I was a millionaire before I was 25 and seemed to have the golden touch. My first marriage didn't work out, but it left me with two beautiful children. The problem with having money is that when my kids asked for something, I found it very hard to refuse. I could afford it, so why shouldn't they have it. Well, I made a mistake.”
He needed a few moments to gather himself. Took another sip of water and cleared his throat a few times. “I bought my son a car on his seventeenth birthday. It was exactly what he wanted, I think you would call it a muscle car. I'll be honest, I am not into cars and I didn't do any research. He wanted it and so I bought it for him. On that same day, he took his sister out for a drive. The police report suggests that he was driving way too fast, tried to turn too quickly, lost control of the car and wrapped it around a tree. He died, we hope instantly, his sister, Katie, suffered spinal injuries as well as a few bruises and breaks. She has been unable to walk since. That was 8 years ago.”
What do you say to something like that? I don't think Vee knew what to say either. We both held each other's hand and waited.
“My main goal since that day has been to make my daughter's life better. The doctors said it is incurable and I have accepted that. I have been trying to create a perfect virtual reality so that my daughter can really experience all that life has to offer. There are difficulties in creating realistic virtual reality. Computers were not fast enough, not intelligent enough, they couldn't engage all the senses. Trying to get a computer to interface with the human mind came to nothing. We came up with the idea of getting the brain to do all the work. That presented its own challenges but all those we were able to overcome. Now we come to our trade secrets. We tell people that the reality that you create is a combination of your mind interacting with the computer and that is true. Let me ask you this, how much do you think is your mind and how much is the computer? Think of it as a percentage score, give me a guess.”
“Err maybe 70% from the computer and 30% from our minds?” I opined.
“Everyone gives us much more credit than their own minds. I would say it is 99% your mind and only 1% coming from our programs. We found that we only had to suggest something, or give an image and the mind fills in the rest. We have become very good at directing the mind and give you images of people and places, but the interactions, the personality that the mind can create is amazing. We can put rules in place that your mind happily obeys. If we put in too many rules or try to control too much then the mind does not accept it and it throws you out of the reality. What this means is that when someone logs on, they are creating their own virtual reality and it would be very different if someone else logs on. The basic rules would be the same, but how the mind interprets them will be completely different. The back story that the characters create, is all provided by you. The human mind is still the most capable computer that we have come across. All we can do is guide it.”
I couldn't help but consider my circumstances and gameplay. “So are you saying when I thought I was trapped in a world that I was finding very unpleasant, I was doing it to myself.”
“We have all heard your story and I have got my people to look into it. What they said to me was that the rules in that game, Lagbit's world, didn't fit your mind. What should have happened is that your mind should have rebelled and logged you out. Instead, you worked around the rules and effectively changed your brain to fit the rules. None of us thought this was possible. The only way it could happen is if you wanted it to happen. The issue is that you thought it was a game and that everything would go back to normal when you logged out. The next mind-blowing event for us, is, you took someone else into the game and managed to get them to change their minds to fit the new rules that you had created. All of us believed all of that was impossible.”
The guy to his left spoke. “Brett, I think you should tell them about project Katie.”
“That does help to explain why we think it is impossible.” He had turned towards the speaker, then he turned back towards us. “My daughter's name is Katie and the whole purpose of creating a virtual reality was for her and, to be honest, so far we have failed. Because your body image matches your physical image, when she logs in she is still paralysed. We have been trying to get a different image for her, nothing so far has worked. It has helped us develop the system though. We only connected two of them together in the hopes that one mind could influence the other. We took a childhood friend of Katie, who only knew her when she was whole and tried to get Katie to log on to her created reality in the hopes that if she saw Katie as whole, that is the way she would appear. It didn't work in the way we hoped, but to our surprise, did allow other people to enter a created reality together. The boffins say it is because our minds are so ada
ptable. Say we were in that holiday game, standing next to each other staring out to sea. That sea would be different for each of us although we would presume it was the same. If one of us described part of it, say seeing a dolphin jumping, the other would start showing the same thing and even give the impression that it was already there, just you hadn't noticed it.” He took another sip of water. “Are you still with me?”
I looked at Vee to see how she was reacting and she looked at me. We turned and nodded. “So far,” I said.
“Now we come on to your specific case. I so hoped that what we had been told was true. It changes everything. First things first, we have to make sure of safety. The reason why we asked you to bring your headsets in was to protect them. All headsets are designed to not connect to the internet. However, we knew that no plan survives contact with the enemy and so we designed an ability to connect to all headsets through mobile phone networks. It gives us the ability to reprogramme them. Yours, we want to remove that ability, so that at no point can it be altered. All others need an extra rule or two to prevent what happened to you from happening again. What happened with yours was a miracle, but, it has altered your life, really, without your true consent. That is dangerous and our first priority is to prevent that from occurring again. So, do we have your permission to take your headsets and keep them safe?”
This did require a lot of trust, but if he was telling the truth if we didn't then we could lose Myra and the ability to help others. I looked at Vee and whispered. “Do we trust them?”
“I think we have to,” she whispered back.
“OK, Brett. You have our permission.”
“Great. These are our thoughts about your particular circumstances. Don't forget, we only have the information that you told your lawyer. It is possible that you are changing physically to match your body image. There have been some signs, but the full extent of the changes won't be known until they are complete. That in itself gives us great cause for hope. Potentially, we are sitting on the cure for any problem. If we can learn from what you achieved and replicate it, Katie could walk again and so many people could be helped. Now I know that might not be possible. We have been trying hard to change someone's body image, not even thinking that it would affect their physical body just so they could enjoy life in the virtual world. There is so much potential, and it is all in your hands. My proposal. Are you ready?”
We both nodded our heads.
“We employ you to work for us. Obviously a generous salary. Medically you need to be checked frequently, possibly every day. This needs to be documented carefully and in a legally clear way. We need you to tell us everything so that we can try and recreate this ability. There are a few experiments that have already been proposed, but, you will always choose what you are willing to do.”
“What sort of experiments?” Vee asked cautiously.
“I know what you mean. That doesn't sound very good, does it? One medical doctor we spoke to, suggested that the more time you spend in the VDR, the faster the changes might occur and if you stopped going to VDR, your body image might revert back to its previous one. The experiment might be for one week, every night you go for the full 2 hours or one week game time in VDR and see how much you change and another week, you only spend one day game time each night in VDR and see how much you change.”
“What about our university courses? Our flat? Our family?” Vee asked.
“There is no question that it will involve some upheaval. We would speak to the university and get you a suspension. You could transfer credits and continue it here, or get on the job training here. The flat is easily dealt with. We would provide food and accommodation here, organise your visa, even pay for your family to come and visit. We would do everything humanly possible to make you happy here. You present a unique opportunity to change the world. What do you think?”
“I think we need to discuss this privately,” Vee stated.
“Of course, of course. We gave the proposal to your lawyer to read through. I would suggest you speak to him first. We have arranged a hotel room locally, when you are ready, just let the receptionist know and she will get the driver to take you there. I am having lunch with Katie at my house tomorrow and I would love for you to join us. There is no time limit on our offer, but your changes do need to be monitored so I would suggest you don't leave it too long.”
“That sounds great. What about our headsets?” Vee inquired.
“They will be ready by tomorrow. They are yours and if you request them I will return them to you. I consider them so valuable that I would prefer to not move them too much until we know more. Some of that is contingent on whether you accept the job. You will always have access to them and ultimately what you do with them is your choice.”
“Alright. I will accept that for now. I guess we need to speak to Scott. Are you OK with that Andi?” Vee asked me.
I just nodded. I was quite happy with her taking charge. We really did need time to think and discuss. The choices ahead of us could affect our whole lives and the lives of so many others.
Chapter 17
They all left and after a little while, Scott came back in.
“Well ladies, how are you doing?”
“I think too much information and choices too soon. I am feeling overwhelmed,” I told him.
“I'm excited. To think I could be part of something that could change the world,” Vee added.
“I don't know too much about that. Remember your NDA. We can't talk about whatever you discussed, but we can talk about this employment contract. I have to say, very generous.”
“Tell us more,” Vee asked.
“The salary is $200,000 a year, paid in monthly instalments. The real generosity is in the terms. The required hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10 am to 3pm with an hour lunch. Practically, semi-retired. All medical expenses paid, all legal paid. Accommodation supplied and food on site. Relocation included. Four weeks holiday a year, but up to 8 weeks of unpaid holiday if required. Extra hours can be worked outside of those stipulated and are on a voluntary basis, with no extra fees. You both have the same contracts for the same amounts, but it is Andi they really want. You are both able to cancel the contract at any time, but if Andi cancels hers, both are cancelled. In short, they want you and they want you bad.”
“What do you suggest?” Vee asked.
“I can't answer that. I don't know what they expect from you. Legally speaking this contract is sound and generous. You have to decide if it is something you want to do. Any more questions?”
We looked at each other. I couldn't think of anything. “I think we are good,” Vee supplied.
“This contract is yours. I would still suggest you read through it yourself, thoroughly. I also have a copy and you can contact me at any time to discuss it. If it is OK with you, I am going back to the hotel. Just so you know, I negotiated with the company on my compensation for coming here and managed to change my one business class seat for an economy seat for all my family. We are going to be spending a week here seeing the sights and maybe some theme parks. I will be contactable by phone and will keep the documents in my hired car in case you have any queries.”
“Thank you very much for your expertise and advise. I don't know what we would have done without you,” Vee said as we all stood up. She kissed him on the cheek. He shook my hand and then left.
“I guess we had better go as well, Vee.”
“I had better call my parents first.” Vee tried phoning them, but it went to message, so she left a message to call her when they were available.
Reception was waiting for us and shortly we were on our way with our bags in the boot. After a relatively short drive, we arrived at another luxurious hotel. I don't think they knew our relationship or didn't want to presume since they had booked us separate rooms, but we managed to change that to one. We changed as quickly as possible and went to the hotel restaurant. Vee had always had to be careful about talking in public, worried that
a PI was watching on her Aunt's behalf. She said she wanted a rest from the important decisions so we put that aside and filled in with small talk. I told her about my idea about clothing and shopping. We got into an animated discussion on virtual versus real shopping, but she agreed to help me. I had already got my program back from India that helped form an avatar based on measurements that you provided and photos of your head. I just needed to work out how to put clothes on it and decide which clothes. Vee was willing to hit the shops and model for me to help me decide on the clothes. She had to admit that until her changes were complete, clothes shopping would have to wait.
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