by P. R. Adams
Silence fell.
Riyun ran a gloved finger over the glass. Once again, there was stone or sand or dirt or some sort of machinery beyond—not a forest.
He spun around. “What sort of game is that?”
“The sort of game that draws the attention of much larger and more powerful companies.”
“It seemed so…real.”
“When you’re fully immersed, it might as well be. And when you use an avatar, the sensation is reality.”
The blood on the floor. Riyun crossed to it and pulled a glove off. He ran fingers through the fluid, feeling the familiar warmth and slickness. Why would Beraga need biologists and physicists for virtual reality? Why Golgar Portal technicians? “This is blood.”
“Oh, most definitely. The technological advances we have made in the last three years, the monumental breakthroughs…” The executive clasped his hands in front of him. “And that, Mr. Molliro, is what you cannot discuss beyond the walls of this room, because this technology will make Total Rewrite the most valuable company in existence by such a margin that no one can deny it! We expect to see revenue growth quadruple in the next decade.”
“All of this—for a game?”
“People are desperate for entertainment. They want to escape the drudgery and misery.”
Naru separated from the others and scuffed up to the wall. “Something that immersive should require sensory suits.”
Beraga scurried to the hacker’s side. “You can touch it.”
The young woman did as he suggested. “It’s…cool.”
“The heat dissipates in seconds. We actually recycle it.”
“Convert it back into energy?”
“Heat is energy. But yes, we convert it back into something useful.”
Riyun wiped his finger on the floor and pulled his glove back on. The others were just as confused as he was. Javika in particular seemed disturbed.
He turned to Quil. “What do you make of it?”
The pseudo shook his head. “I am afraid that it is beyond my limited knowledge of VR.”
Quil had a habit of reading up on all the latest technology. It seemed impossible that he wouldn’t have some knowledge of such a system. But Riyun knew better than to question the young man. It did seem as if Beraga’s company was sitting on next-generation technology. Significantly next generation. But technology that someone like Yola Tromon would use her own daughter to get at?
“All right, Mr. Beraga. It looks like you have something here that could set you up for life. That doesn’t change that five people—”
Beraga pursed his lips. “I wish you would quit saying that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“You said that one body had been found in the last three days. While that’s tragic, it hardly points to five deaths.”
“One body and four people missing for weeks.”
“And I think I have an explanation for that.” Beraga crossed his arms over his chest. “Would you be willing to sign a second nondisclosure agreement?”
“For what?”
“To show you what the system is really like.” Beraga’s eyebrows arched in a challenge.
Riyun glanced at his team. They seemed open to the idea. “All right.”
“We’ll need to step out in the hallway. I’m afraid you’ll find systems other than our own don’t work within the room.”
Quil and Naru nodded; they had been testing.
Riyun gathered everyone around him once they were outside. “Listen up. No legal document is going to stop us from doing the right thing. If we find out Zabila is in here, we’ll do whatever it takes to get her out. Understood?”
Hirvok looked over Riyun’s shoulder at Beraga. “I don’t trust this guy.”
“Nope. Something’s definitely not right here.”
“You think he let us bring our weapons because they won’t work in there?”
The thought had occurred to Riyun, but he and Javika still had their blades. “We’re not helpless.”
“But Kozmut went into hiding. He could be grabbing some of his people now.”
“I don’t think he’d want to risk their uniforms getting dirty.”
“I’m still keeping my eye out.”
A message dinged on Riyun’s tablet: There were NDAs waiting for them. He gave his thumbprint to his, then passed the tablet around.
Beraga stared off into the distance, nodding. “Thank you. Now, I can show you the true capabilities of Wholesale Fantasy.”
Riyun let his team back into the corridor that led to the big room, stopping when Beraga held a hand up. “What? Change your mind? Think we’re going to steal your technology?”
“No. But I do have concerns about your gear. There is a chance the electronics could interfere with the demonstration.” The bald man pointed to the floor. “If you could just leave them here. The inner room is a closed circuit. They’ll be safe here.”
“I thought you said you trusted us to have our weapons.”
“I’m not asking you to take them outside. I don’t want to risk any damage to my technology. Once we close the door, it completes the circuit, and nothing will reach your weapons.”
“Just the ones with electronics.”
“Exactly.”
The inner door didn’t have any obvious controls beyond whatever Beraga was doing, but it seemed a little less dense than the outer door. Was it light enough to break through if something went wrong?
Riyun pulled his guns out and set them on the ground in front of the door. “Guns here.”
Groans floated from the back of the hall. “We were supposed to keep our weapons.”
“You can bring your knives, Hirvok.”
The sergeant marched forward and set his Minkaur Annihilator 13mm assault rifle down. “I’ll always have my sharp wit.”
“I guess we’re safe, then.”
After making sure everyone had left their weapons behind, Riyun joined the others in the big room. The blood on the floor screamed that Beraga was lying, that this was all a big trap. Deep red, growing tacky—it seemed far too real, simulacra or not. Symbra edged back to the blood pool, while the others circled around the billionaire. She seemed as disturbed by the fluid as Riyun.
“That wall—” Beraga pointed to the wall that had turned into a thick forest, “—will be like a gateway to an entirely new world. And when you experience it, you will find that this life is no longer as certain as you thought it was. You’ll find yourself questioning all that you have accepted your entire life. And you’ll want more. You’ll want to go back.”
It was like the Portals, then. Some people found them…addictive. Riyun wasn’t sure he was ready for such an experience, but it was the job.
Tawod held up a hand. “You said something about using simulacra?”
“You won’t need them with this full experience.” The executive’s smile showed teeth. “What I’m about to show you is further than anyone has ever gone. Anyone but me and Zabila.”
That brought Symbra’s attention back from the thickening blood. She settled at Riyun’s side. “Addiction issues. She probably has addiction issues. Along with the other ones.”
That made its own sort of sense to Riyun. “Do we need some sort of suits?”
Beraga frowned, disapproving. “I can get some protective gear for you. If you’re worried.”
Riyun bristled at the implied challenge. “We don’t want your technology addicting us.”
“It’ll take me a minute. They’re kept in storage. Excuse me.” Beraga pursed his lips again and stormed out of the room.
Lonar rapped his thick knuckles against the blue-glass plate. “You think she’s in here, Lieutenant? Somewhere hidden in this compound?”
Riyun put a finger to his lips. The people in the observation area had been able to hear everything Beraga said. That might not have been through radio. The lieutenant stepped up behind the big man. “If she’s in here, we’ll find her.”
“That’s
all we’re worried about? What if this guy’s planning—”
The inner door hissed shut.
Beraga stepped up to the observation window above. “Actually, now that I think about it, protective gear wouldn’t be a good idea for this test, Mr. Molliro.”
Kozmut joined the billionaire, smiling smugly.
Lonar sprinted to the inner door. “Our weapons!”
Riyun could feel the heat coming off the rest of the team. He’d fallen for a simple deception. “Beraga—”
A soft hum came from the glass wall, and Riyun’s hair stood on end.
The test was beginning.
14
The glass wall flared a pure, blinding white that forced Riyun to shield his eyes. He staggered away from it, one arm held up. The heavy smell of dense woods carried in on air gone thick. This time, it wasn’t just animal sounds filling the big room. There was a different sense of pressure in his ears, like when a ship rapidly plunged from high altitude.
“Lonar, our gear!” Riyun almost slipped in the blood pool.
The big man was already at the inner door, beefy fist drawn back. “On it.”
In the observation window, looking down on them, Beraga clapped his hands. “That will prove to be a waste of time, Mr. Molliro. That glass is impenetrable by design.”
Riyun caught the flare of alien images again, heard winds pressing against the walls of his father’s house. Not real. Dreams. Fight it. “There aren’t a lot of things Lonar can’t break, given time.”
“Time isn’t something you have. This test you volunteered to help me out with—it won’t be long now, then you’ll be quite involved.”
Javika launched herself at the wall beneath the observation window. Her gloves caught on the slick glass, and she quickly scampered up, just as Lonar’s first strike landed with a deep, reverberating crack.
The bald billionaire took a step back. “What—?”
“That—” Riyun pointed at the Biwali warrior now a few feet above the other man’s position. “—happens to be someone you grossly underestimated.”
Hirvok was at Riyun’s side. “We don’t get those guns, we’re fu—”
“We’ll get the guns. You get the others ready.”
The sergeant gritted his teeth. “We should’ve walked away.”
A forest clearing replaced the blinding white light. The static and pressure in the air grew stronger. Beraga had said something about time. How much did they have?
Was there something different in the image this time? It seemed like it. “Beraga, Yola knows we’re here. She knows we suspect you.”
The bald executive’s eyes jumped from Javika to Lonar. The Biwali warrior had her blade out now, drawn back, ready to strike. But the big tweak had landed a second blow, and it sounded like something had cracked.
The glass wasn’t unbreakable.
Kozmut squinted down at Riyun. “I would’ve killed you quickly and cleanly, Molliro.”
Riyun caught the hint of fear in the other man’s voice. “That’s the only way to get rid of me.”
“Oh, I think you misunderstand. I mean I was going to show you mercy.”
Javika’s blade slashed against the observation window glass, chipping away a palm-sized chunk with a terrible screeching sound. Even Kozmut looked up.
“I don’t think we’re the ones who need mercy, Ozkyr.” Riyun scooted closer to the others, where they huddled near the inner door. “Lonar—”
“Just—” The big man grunted and drew his fist back again. “—a few more.”
Once again, a fist hammered the glass with a force few could appreciate. It was the sort of power that could crumple metal. Lonar wasn’t just heavy. He wasn’t just strong. He’d been born on a low-gravity orbital platform, then made capable of life on Magilar, a high-gravity world. He’d been tweaked. Modified. Amplified.
And his blows were testing the glass like it had never been tested before.
A faint crack appeared where the last blow had landed.
Riyun’s head twisted up at the sound of another screeching strike from Javika’s blade. It was one more thing someone like Beraga wouldn’t understand: Some weapons were crafted by masters and could do things far beyond reasonable expectations. Javika was one of those weapons, same as her blade.
Beraga slapped his palms against the window. “Stop it! The circuit!”
Riyun shook his head. “Ozkyr should’ve told you, we don’t stop.”
“Well—” The billionaire staggered back as another strike of the blade sliced away a larger piece of glass.
At the same moment, the pressure from the forest clearing grew stronger, and with it the sights, sounds, and smells became even more real. The image extended to the walls on either side of the room, so it seemed as if grass was beneath Riyun’s boots. When he lifted a foot, the blades were bent and darkened.
What sort of VR made it seem like grass was beneath you? Not just beneath you, but bent?
It was just the effect of the Portal, still playing with his mind. He turned at the sound of Hirvok’s voice—far away and weak. From where Riyun stood, it seemed as if he were looking into a glass room in the distance, sheltered in the thick woods.
He took a step toward the room. “Hirvok? Javika?”
Hirvok was looking right at Riyun, but there was no sign that he was truly being looked at. It sounded like a huge sheet of glass shattered in that far room.
Riyun rushed toward the others. “Go! Get out of there!” He waved them away. Whatever he was experiencing, they didn’t need to know. They didn’t need to be put through…
What was he being put through? An alien world? This wasn’t VR.
The glass room grew farther and farther away. No matter how fast Riyun ran, he couldn’t close the distance.
What was happening? How was it possible?
Pressure intensified in his head. It became harder to breathe, and what he did breathe had no hints of the metallic tang in the Kamiyan air or the cool, recycled freshness of the Total Rewrite building. He had tasted something like it before, on the visit to Cologa, a planet not yet corrupted by human imprint.
But this wasn’t Cologa. And it wasn’t Kamiyan.
He had to get back. He had to warn the others. He had to contact Yola, he had to…
Stop Beraga.
The glass room disappeared. The team stood just in front of him and off to the right, gear in hand. They must have gotten past the inner door.
Javika fell from the sky, easily landing on her feet.
Riyun skidded to a stop. “No.”
Lonar held a chunk of thick, blue glass in his monstrous hands. The jagged edges hadn’t cut through his gloves, but he grimaced regardless. “I almost had the outer door…”
“We’re not in the room anymore.” Riyun turned to Quil. “Are we?”
The pseudo glanced around. “Amazing.”
Amazing. A dense forest like nothing Riyun had ever seen before. Strange sounds coming from the trees. Far beyond the trees, cliffs that rose to mountains. The cerulean sky. The puffy white clouds.
It wasn’t amazing.
It was terrifying.
His heart pounded in his chest. It felt like his brain was on the verge of shutting down. How could he possibly make sense of what he was seeing? It didn’t exist, this place. It couldn’t. He spun around in a circle, trying to take it all in.
Then he was knocked to the ground, and he realized Hirvok was on him, punching and growling. The blows cut through the confused haze.
“You stupid son of a—” With each word, the sergeant landed a punch.
Riyun got his hands up. “Hirvok! Stop!”
“—bitch!”
Someone rushed in from the right: Javika. Her boots caught Hirvok in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. She tumbled away and got back to her feet before the sergeant could get to his.
That was all Riyun needed. He scrambled upright, hands up. “Hold it together, everyone.”
Hirvok s
eemed ready to charge again, at least until Lonar tossed aside the chunk of glass and grabbed the smaller man by the collar of his duster.
“You heard the boss.” The big man lifted the other man off the ground to make a point.
“All right!” Hirvok threw his hands up. “I got it.”
Riyun sucked in a deep breath. “We can’t fight amongst ourselves.”
“I said I got it.” The sergeant shrugged the big man’s grip off.
He was under control again, so Riyun turned to Quil. “Quil, talk to me. Where are we?”
The pseudo’s silvery eyes danced around the woods. “I am not sure if this is a question of where, Lieutenant.”
“Not a question of—?” It became even harder for Riyun to breathe for a second.
“These trees. The vegetation. It seems entirely possible this is what this world looked like millennia ago. Many millennia ago.”
“Time—?” Riyun swallowed. “Time travel?”
“It is a possibility. There have been theories about it for decades.”
Riyun turned to Naru. “Signals? Any sign of the network?”
The hacker’s eyes were huge. She seemed worse off than anyone else, even Tawod. “I—”
“Naru.” Riyun dashed over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders and shook them slightly. “Naru.” He softened his voice, hoping that was giving her space. “We need you. We’re all going to need each other.”
Symbra slowly made her way to the hacker’s side and nodded at Riyun. “Naru, let me help.”
The hacker blinked. “No signal. No…network.”
No network. Could that be an illusion? Could it all be an illusion? Images could be beamed into people with the right implants, receivers that connected to the optic nerves or into the brain. Is that what they were experiencing? Was that Beraga’s new technology?
“Is there some way you can check to make sure this isn’t an illusion?”
“Check…an illusion? How…?”
Riyun sighed. “What about something that runs a logic test? Would that get around false images? I don’t know. That’s what I need you people for—thinking outside the box.”
“But if we’re seeing things, we’d still see the bad information.”
“Right.” Riyun’s shoulders sagged. He couldn’t give up, and he couldn’t let the others give up. “See if you can think of something. Quil?”