I'd lost the closest thing I'd had to family when I’d lost Lesley, my very best friend with Bartholomew's death, and now I was going to lose all the other friends I'd made in Evanasia.
I forced my body to move through the weight of depression that was crushing me and rose from my bed, dressed in formal attire, made sure I looked professional, and waited in my living room for the knock announcing my escort’s arrival.
They would be here shortly. SimTech Headquarters was on the other side of town, but it would only take them about twenty minutes by car if they took the highway route.
When the knock came, I marched heavy-footed toward the door and found two men dressed in black suits wearing sunglasses on my porch. They wore guns holstered at their belts and both flashed me an ID badge that labeled them as SimTech Security Personnel. It looked like SimTech wouldn't take no for an answer. These people would either be my armed escort to SimTech or my armed escort to the nearest police station.
“Are you Mrs. Lisa Hampton?” The taller of the two guards had an indifferent tone when he spoke.
“Yes,” I answered, “I am Miss Hampton.”
I thought I saw the smaller guard’s mouth twist into a small smirk at my cheeky answer, but the smirk disappeared before I could be certain. He said, “If you would please come with us.” It wasn't a question. “We are to escort you to SimTech Headquarters to speak with CEO Roland Evermoss.”
I took my jacket from the wall hanger, pulled it on, and stepped out onto my apartment’s small porch. The taller of the guards held up his hands to stop me while the other guard searched me for weapons. When they were satisfied, they brought me to their car. It was incredibly cliché. They had driven a black Crown Victoria with tinted windows.
At least they were gentlemanly in one aspect. They held the back door for me and helped me into the vehicle, which felt like riding in a police cruiser. The back doors couldn't be opened from the inside and there was a screen between the back and front seats to prevent people from assaulting the security guards.
I spent the trip in a stupor. The security guards were like immovable mountains, silent and steady. They wouldn't even put the radio on, so all I could do was contemplate what was to come, staring blankly out the window. Fall was coming to an end and the first signs of winter were creeping gradually over the city. I went through all the different scenarios that I could think of. None of them were good. I guess the only thing I could hope for was that Roland Evermoss would keep his word and not press charges if I went to speak with him.
The ride took about twenty minutes. Then we were in front of security gates, the guard behind the wheel flashing his badge to allow us entry. SimTech Headquarters was an incredible sight. I'd only ever seen it in pictures and they didn't do it justice.
The reason it was built on the outskirts of town was because it was practically a city of its own. All SimTech factories, research facilities, and distribution centers were located inside headquarters. They even had a community where all SimTech employees and their families lived.
SimTech was the most coveted company in the world. The leaps they'd made in advancing technology made them a perfect target for corporate espionage. To keep their inventions secure and prevent theft of their ideas and concepts, all SimTech personnel had to reside inside the secure compound that was SimTech Headquarters. It was also for this reason that all their factories, research facilities, and distribution centers were localized in headquarters.
The guards took me into the heart of headquarters, a thirty-story high-rise building at the center of the city-esque complex. This was the building where the higher-ups at SimTech made their corporate decisions. There were no laboratories or the like in this building. It was purely an office building for accounting, advertising, and administration.
I was led to the elevators and escorted all the way to the top floor. The top floor was like a penthouse suite. The CEO didn't live in the apartment complexes built inside the administration high-rise. His home and office were one and the same. The entire top floor was devoted to the CEO. Living and working in the same place made it possible for him to be contacted at any time in the event of an emergency, like my hacking.
There was only a small entryway outside the elevator with a bench and single boring plant for people who were waiting to see the CEO. There were two people seated on the bench. I started to sit down to wait my turn, but the shorter guard shook his head and ushered me toward the door. He knocked and a muffled voice answered. Then he opened the door, gestured for me to proceed, and entered after me.
One guard stayed on the outside of the door to prevent others from listening in on our conversation and the other came in to protect the CEO in case I got violent. I wasn't upset by it. I was an unknown entity, one that had hacked into a supposedly unhackable system, so it was only natural for them to be suspicious of me.
The middle-aged man I remembered from the SimTech demonstration I'd attended stood before me. He seemed more intimidating now than when I'd seen him last and I finally understood that the persona I'd encountered before was nothing more than an illusion to put people at ease in his presence. This was a man of power, not because of money, but because his very demeanor demanded respect and loyalty.
“Please, have a seat,” Roland Evermoss spoke in a voice that seemed friendly, but with a hint of something that told me one wrong step and I'd be in serious trouble. I felt like I had the first time I'd met Bartholomew and stood before him waiting to be eaten.
I sat in the chair opposite his desk and waited silently for him to continue. There was a large monitor behind him that was currently blank. He picked up a stack of papers so large they barely fit in his hand, shuffled through them briefly, and spoke.
“Do you know what this is?” It was a rhetorical question, so I waited. “This is a full report of all the activity you have undergone, Ms. Hampton, as Valkyrie in the SRU. I have been reviewing the data while I waited for you.
“Let me tell you why you are here instead of prison right now, Ms. Hampton. You are here because our engineers, programmers, and everyone else under the sun had sworn to me that the SRU was a completely unhackable system because no one outside of our company knew the programming language in which it was encoded. Now, I have some questions for you and I expect the truth. I'm very good at discerning a lie, so don't even bother. If I don't like your answers you can guarantee that the next place you enter will be a jail cell.
“First off, I want to know, where did you learn our programming language from and who are you working for?”
Let the interrogation begin.
“I used to work for a magazine called New Tech, New You. I was one of the reporters present at the unveiling of the SRU. Now, I don't work for anyone. I don't know how much you know about my experiences in Evanasia, but after the NPC who became my first instructor died, Lesley Mintlock, I quit my job and devoted myself entirely to the SRU.
“I didn't learn your programming language from anyone. I taught myself the language. I have about as close to an eidetic memory as it is possible to have, and I've been studying everything about computers and technology since I was a child. I love to learn and can't seem to stop myself from uncovering a mystery. The programming language of the SRU was a mystery and I found myself consumed with solving it.”
I sighed longingly as I thought about Evanasia. I missed it so much already.
“I swore to myself that I would never use the knowledge I'd attained to hack into the system. All I wanted was to have the knowledge. I kept that promise too, for a long time. I learned the programming language and that it was possible to use that programming language through the SRU-visor as long as you could visualize the programming in your head.
“Possessing the knowledge itself was enough for me. I had no desire to cheat the system. I just wanted to know, but then something happened that made me break my promise. I was attacked by a dwarf wh
o wanted to kill my friends. I didn't care if he killed me since I would just reappear in town, but I couldn't let him kill my friends.”
Mr. Evermoss gave no outward indications of his emotions. I felt like I was speaking to a rock. A very big rock on the edge of a cliff that could very easily fall and crush me. I plowed on, hoping that what I was saying was at least registering with Mr. Evermoss and his unresponsive face.
“I bet this probably sounds stupid to you, but I remember what you said at the unveiling about the people of the SRU living their lives as we do, so maybe you will understand. The people I interacted with in the SRU weren't just NPC's to me. They were the best friends I'd ever had, and some felt like real family to me. I wanted to protect them and in my current state I couldn't, so I hacked the system, a small hack to give me my voice back, so that I could cast a spell. In the end it wasn't necessary as the elves killed the dwarf in my place, and I felt horrible about breaking my promise, but I resolved never to hack the system again.”
I had to stop talking for a while as my breath hitched in my throat. I was coming up to the part that was most recent, the part that still burned, and tears began flooding my eyes. I took a deep breath to steady myself and continued.
“Then I had to witness the terror of the goblin race being practically annihilated. I admit that it drove me nearly insane for a little while. I hacked the system again, this time to create what I called my Trinity Spells, so that if the time ever came where something like this was about to happen again, I could prevent it. I knew I'd have my account deleted for it, but I didn't care. As long as I could protect the SRU, that was fine by me.
“What I hadn't counted on was what happened this morning. Do you know what it's like to watch a friend be tortured and die in front of your eyes, Mr. Evermoss? For me, it was the final straw. I snapped and wasn't able to stop myself. The fury I felt was so consuming that I used the Trinity Spells for personal vengeance instead of what they were meant to be used for.
“I deleted the two players who instigated the assault on Bartholomew and used my Reset and Suspension spells on many of the remaining players. There is no excuse for my actions, but grief can make us do things we never dreamed we were capable of.”
I heard a clicking noise when I finished. Ithought it was my voice hitching again, but then I heard a familiar voice come from behind Roland.
“You see, Dad? I told you.” Aurora was on the screen behind Roland and when I looked up, she waved at me. “Hello, Valkyrie!”
I laughed through my tears despite myself. “Hello, Aurora.”
Roland stood up and began pacing back and forth in front of the monitor. Aurora and I kept close watch on him, waiting for him to respond. After a moments deliberation, he sat back down and faced me.
“Valkyrie, I mean Ms. Hampton.” Roland reminded me of a judge pronouncing a verdict. “I want you to understand the current situation. I brought you here today for one reason, because Aurora has stood up for you and urged me not to terminate your account. I don't know if you can understand my current position. However, allow me to try to explain this. Just as you have made friends and family in the SRU, so too have I.
“I have been present along every stage of development for the SRU as well as Aurora's creation. I am a single man without a family and to me Aurora is the daughter I never had. The main reason that I have this screen in my office isn't for video conferencing like you might expect, but so that I can communicate with Aurora. The monitor is always on so that Aurora and I can talk whenever one of us is in the mood for conversation.”
Roland picked up the packet of paper that he'd told me was the report on me and handed it to me. It was just a large pile of blank printer paper.
“I had Aurora lie to you about the report in order to make you feel threatened when you came in here.” Roland began to explain in a rush, like he was confessing to a horrible sin and saying it quickly would ease the suffering sooner. “The truth is that I have been living my life alongside you in the SRU, so to speak. The very first day of beta-testing, Aurora came to me and told me about you. She was like a kindergartener telling me about the first friend she’d ever made at school. She went into great detail about who said what and who did what. I'd never seen her as excited as she was when she spoke about you.”
Mr. Evermoss seemed to hear something more from his own words than what I’d heard because he stumbled a little in his speech. What he said next sounded like an unspoken apology for saying something insulting.
“Now, I want you to know that I had nothing to do with Aurora spending time with you. She befriended you on her own and has always enjoyed your company. Aurora considers me her father and is always open with me, but you are the only other person from this world that she has ever opened up to on the same level.
“I was worried for my daughter, so I asked her to keep me updated on your status. I wanted to make sure that you were a good influence on her. At least that's how it was in the beginning. Later, I just wanted to hear stories about your adventures. The way you treated the people from the SRU was exactly like the dream I'd envisioned when I created it. I kept tabs on you through Aurora's stories because I was enchanted by the depth you saw in that world.
“When my engineers first came and told me that someone had hacked the system, I was just opening my mouth to issue the order to terminate your account when Aurora stopped me. She came on the monitor abruptly and was practically shouting with her frantic appeal. She explained why you had hacked the system and that you had done it to protect a friend. She begged me not to delete your account and I agreed. I decided that under the circumstances it would be better to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I ordered Aurora to notify me immediately if you ever hacked the system again.
“You know the rest. Aurora stopped me from deleting your account again when you hacked the system a second time and explained the story fully. I had been lenient with you before, but I felt I couldn't be so forgiving this time. Despite the reasons, you had hacked into Aurora's system and shown that you were capable of completely rewriting data and even create new data to suit your needs and wants. Still, through Aurora's pleading, I let it slide. Then your third hack showed that you were willing to use the spells you'd created through your hacking. I could no longer stand by. I had to make a choice, but I wanted it to be an informed choice.
“I brought you here today to find out the truth behind Lisa Hampton, not Valkyrie. I needed to know if Valkyrie was a simple persona you'd created to fool the populace or if your personality was like that in this reality too. Now I have my answer and that answer has brought with it one more question. You can hack into the system. Do you believe that others will be able to as well?”
I wasn't sure where Roland was going with his story. Maybe he was just trying to coerce me, but he seemed sincere and Aurora was on the screen behind him as trusting as she ever was with me.
I decided it didn't matter what his intentions were and answered him honestly.
“The system is well designed, and the programming language is the most difficult to decipher that I have ever encountered, but you have already seen that it isn't invincible. Just as the builders of the Titanic called it unsinkable and were proven wrong, so too have you been. I can honestly say that it is possible for others to hack into the system.
“It may be a few months from now or even a few years from now, but it will happen. I managed to crack the programming language in a few weeks, but that isn't possible for most of the population of hackers. The majority of hackers are amateur teens who are just tinkering, but there are elite hackers out there who will stop at nothing to hack into your system simply because your company said it couldn't be done. To them, it is the challenge that makes it worth hacking and even if it takes them years or decades, they will not stop trying as long as the SRU exists.
“The challenge of learning your complex programming language was what prompted me
to start working on hacking the system. Though I never intended to actually hack the system, just being able to say that I knew the programming language well enough to hack it was reward enough for me. They do it, not to grasp knowledge, but to show the world that you aren't invincible, and I can guarantee that when they do hack the system it will be entirely for personal gain.”
Roland smiled at my answer and said, “I understand that very well. Once you hacked the system, I knew others would be able to as well. I just wanted to hear you say those words. The fact that you would warn me about other hackers shows me that I have nothing to worry about from you.
“I have a proposition for you. You said you were out of a job at the moment. How would you like to work for SimTech as a gamemaster whose primary duty is monitoring and dealing with hackers? You see, as of now, the SRU doesn't have any gamemasters in it as Aurora is able to fulfill all the duties of a gamemaster. However, if a hacker can manipulate the system to their advantage it would give Aurora a difficult time dealing with them. That would be where you come in. Fighting a hacker by using a hacker who works for SimTech.”
“Let me get this straight,” I interrupted without meaning too. “You are telling me that you want to pay me to enter the SRU?”
Roland nodded, his smile widening into a seemingly sinister grin that made me shiver. “Exactly. You will have to spend the majority of your time in the SRU, which you already do, because the only way that you will be able to deal with hackers directly is to be in the game, but you will not be required to be in ‘employee mode’ all the time. You can continue to play the game like you normally would. We don't want people in the SRU to know that you work for us, so we want you to just be yourself.
“The only time you will need to be in ‘employee mode’ is when a hacker is identified. You will be given a new skill that works like magic, but without using your magical power. Basically, it is an ability like your Trinity Spells, called Aurora's Call. Whenever Aurora needs you to stop a hacker you will hear her speaking to you through the connection she will establish with Aurora's Call, but no one else will hear it. She will also transmit an image to you of the current location and physical appearance of the hacker. It doesn't matter which world the hacker is on. By using that image as a reference point you will be able to teleport instantly to their location and when you are finished you will be able to teleport back to Evanasia.
Virtual Me- Valkyrie Page 23