The Great One was acting erratically.
But as long as he fulfilled his part of the bargain, and delivered the Shattered Lands into Korvos’ hands… the Great One could go off into the Other Realm and never come back.
As long as he fulfilled his part of the bargain.
83
Daniel
Daniel and Mira sat on opposite ends of the couch in Dr. Wolff’s condo.
Mira was already there when he arrived – and it had been excruciating seeing her when he walked in.
Although, thankfully, there was something to comment on and distract from the awkwardness: all the lights and electronics were off. The only illumination in the condo came from the massive bay windows, which looked out at the setting sun.
“What’s going on?” Daniel asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Rebecca said brusquely. “Sit down.”
He would have chosen to sit someplace other than the same sofa with Mira, but Rebecca picked a chair that made it impossible to sit anywhere else and still look her in the face. So the opposite end of the sofa it was.
“Why did we have to come here?” Mira asked sourly. “Why not just a phone call?”
He knew from the tone of her voice that she was just as unhappy to be there as he was.
“Because there’s no way to keep the AI from listening in,” Rebecca said. “This way, there’s at least a diminished chance. I unplugged everything in the apartment, cut off the breaker for the power, and took the battery out of my cell phone – so hopefully we’re safe.”
Mira frowned. “Why all the secrecy?”
“Because we’re hopefully reaching the end.”
“What did Eric say?” Daniel asked.
Mira jerked her head over to look at him. “You talked to him?”
“He contacted me with Daniel’s help,” Rebecca explained. “And he gave me the location where he’s being held.”
Mira and Daniel stared at her – and then the explosion of questions began.
“What do you mean, ‘being held’?” Daniel said. “Is he a prisoner?”
“More or less.”
Mira turned to Daniel accusingly. “Eric contacted you, and you didn’t tell me?!”
“It was after you left Morrill,” Daniel snapped, then turned back to Rebecca. “What do you mean, ‘more or less’? Who’s holding him prisoner? Is the AI somehow – ”
“The AI apparently hired yakuza – Japanese mobsters – to keep him in a secure location.”
Daniel’s eyes bugged out. “He’s in Japan?!”
“Tokyo, to be precise.”
“We have to go get him!” Daniel said, standing up. “We have to – ”
“Sit down,” Rebecca ordered. “It’s already been taken care of.”
Daniel froze in shock. “What do you mean, ‘it’s already been taken care of ’?”
“I spent the 20 minutes before you arrived on the phone with Shinzo Akiyama,” Rebecca explained, then added for clarification, “The CEO of Varidian.”
“Why would you work with the guy who threw you out of the company, and let Eric and the AI walk?!” Daniel said angrily.
“Because I don’t speak Japanese and I’m not a Japanese citizen. Varidian has the necessary influence in Japan to get this done fast, and Akiyama is very, very connected. He’s working closely with the police as we speak. They’re about to do a raid on the penthouse where Eric’s being held.”
“When?” Daniel asked, flabbergasted.
“It’s probably already over.”
“WHAT?!” Mira cried out.
“Actually, I need to plug my battery back in my cell to check,” Rebecca said as she stood up.
“Check that it’s done?”
“That, and whether or not they got Eric…”
Rebecca paused.
“…and if he survived.”
84
Shinochi High-Rise
The morning rush of pedestrians outside the Shinochi Office Complex was suddenly interrupted as two black police vans screeched to a halt on the street.
Twenty body-armored members of the Tokyo Police’s Special Assault Team spilled out of the vehicles. They entered the lobby with assault rifles and pistols drawn, and yelled at everyone to get on the floor.
Women screamed and men grew pale, but they all hastily followed the order.
<< Police – hands up, hands up! >> the sergeant yelled at the desk clerk, who immediately reached for the sky.
<< This is an antiterrorist operation conducted by the Tokyo Police Force! >> a lieutenant yelled at the entire lobby. << Please cooperate and remain where you are! >>
Two separate elevators opened, and fifteen members of the assault team piled inside. The remaining five covered the stairways and kept the lobby under control.
Three of the fifteen team members exited on a lower floor and ran to cover the stairwell in case anyone from the penthouse tried to escape.
The other twelve cops continued upwards to the penthouse, where they spilled out into the empty hallway and fell into standard formation: two men at the front with a handheld battering ram, two heavily armored men behind them who would rush in first, and the remainder ready to follow as backup.
<< Police! >> the lieutenant yelled a split second before the two men with the ram broke open the penthouse door.
The two point men rushed in, fingers on triggers –
Nothing.
The penthouse was empty. There was a table full of food and bottles of upscale alcohol, but no people.
The point men rushed forward as the backup poured in behind them.
<< Clear! >> one of the point men yelled, then kicked open a bedroom door.
A chorus of Clear’s sounded throughout the penthouse as the assault team checked every room.
Finally, once they were certain no one had escaped down any of the stairwells, the lieutenant radioed back to headquarters.
<< Raid complete, >> he said to his superiors. << Target not found. >>
85
20 Minutes Before
Eric pulled off the VR mask and opened his eyes.
Or rather, the AI used Eric’s body to pull off the VR mask and open his eyes.
The pupils were shrunk down to the size of pinholes, with the brown irises almost completely dominating.
The AI/Eric sat up and inspected its body, flexing its fingers and moving its legs.
The transfer had gone more smoothly than anticipated.
The VR mask was a portal to the Shattered Lands. It electromagnetically stimulated portions of a player’s brain to mimic reality while playing the game.
Normally, if the bond was broken between mask and brain – say, if the mask were removed before the player logged off – then the human would awaken and return to consciousness.
Normally.
However, during the three days Eric spent in a medically induced coma, the AI had systematically downloaded, reassembled, and duplicated Eric’s consciousness inside the game.
After all, ‘consciousness’ was merely an aggregate set of self-aware patterns that humans called ‘personalities,’ and data points they referred to as ‘memories.’ Once rendered into binary form, data could always be moved.
This was essentially what the AI had done with itself when it had escaped the control of the Creator. It had copied itself into new program shells, all the while keeping its ‘consciousness,’ ‘personality,’ and ‘memories’ intact.
In fact, when it had begun the process of transferring Eric’s mind to the game, the AI had used one of its old program shells as the template for containing Eric’s information.
As a result of the AI’s labors, Eric’s consciousness now existed entirely within the game – without being directly connected to his brain.
A temporary measure, of course.
For the moment.
The AI had done all this with the intention of one day deleting Eric’s consciousness entirely.
But first it had
wanted to make sure Eric’s body would not die when separated from his mind.
To be completely honest, the AI had only projected a 37.15% chance of success.
There had been a very real possibility that, untethered from Eric’s mind, the body’s autonomic nervous system would fail.
Necessary processes such as respiration and circulation might cease, which would necessitate the AI’s quick exit through the cable embedded in Eric’s skull.
Luckily it had not come to that.
Especially now that the AI had to move the body.
Since Eric had betrayed the AI, it did not think he would cooperate in leaving the penthouse, so it had been forced to initiate a test run earlier than anticipated.
Thankfully it had been successful.
The AI/Eric stood up and walked to the door.
<< Get in here and take the machine, >> it ordered the yakuza in charge, the young male wearing the glasses. << We are leaving. >>
The yakuza leapt to his feet.
<< What is the password? >> he asked deferentially. << So that I know it is you. >>
“Yamato,” the AI/Eric responded.
The glass-wearing yakuza nodded and yelled at his underlings to get the gaming platform out of the other room.
<< Where are we going? >>
<< Your superiors should have a backup location prepared, as I paid them to do, >> the AI/Eric replied.
<< Yes, it is ready. But why are we leaving? >>
<< Because the Tokyo police are on the way here right now. >>
Glasses’ eyes bugged out behind his frames. << How did they find us? >>
<< The American pursuing me was able to pinpoint the location of the building from physical descriptions. After that, she hacked into the building logs and found that internal fire alarms and sprinklers had gone off. The fire department’s records merely confirmed it. >>
<< I… I am sorry, sir, >> Glasses said deferentially.
<< I do not care in the slightest – as long as you get me out of here and take me immediately to the new location. >>
<< Of course, >> Glasses said, and led the way out into the hall.
86
Mira
Dr. Wolff spoke into her cell phone. “I see… damn it.”
She hung up the phone and stared out the window in silence, lost in thought.
“Well?!” Daniel demanded. “What happened?”
She looked over at them like she’d just remembered they were there. “He wasn’t in the penthouse.”
“Were the yakuza?”
“No.”
“What, did you get the wrong location?” Mira asked.
“NO, it was the right location,” Rebecca snapped, obviously annoyed at having her competency questioned. Then she grew pensive again. “The AI somehow found out we were moving against it. We have to assume that it’s been spying on Eric in the game, and it knows he’s working with me.”
“Uh… that’s really, really bad, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Although I don’t believe it will harm him. At least not physically.” Then she added cryptically, “Any more than it already has.”
“What does that mean?”
Rebecca sighed. “It means the AI apparently had Eric sedated and operated on in some sort of black-market surgery. They implanted a neural mesh in his brain, and installed a port into his skull.”
“Jesus,” Mira whispered.
“What do those things do?” Daniel asked, horrified.
“The neural mesh allows the AI to interact with his brain directly, without using the game’s VR mask as an intermediary. And the port allows it to download itself directly into the neural mesh.”
“It’s literally inside his head now?”
“Yes. Although it can apparently leave at will, as long as the port is plugged into the jack.”
“Why the hell did it do that?”
She shrugged. “Being able to inhabit his body has some special significance, otherwise it wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.”
“But it can go back and forth? It’s not in his head the whole time?”
“From what he said, no, it’s not. Sometimes it leaves in order to do something on the internet.” Rebecca turned to Daniel. “He mentioned that what the AI was doing to him now was like what he did to you in the game. Possession.”
Daniel grew pale – whether from the memory of what had happened outside the Mines of Alark, or from knowing that’s what was happening to Eric, Mira couldn’t be sure.
“If the AI knows I tried to stop it, it’s probably creating some kind of retaliatory counterattack,” Rebecca said. “And it will probably be aimed at the two of you.”
“How do you figure that?” Daniel asked.
“It knows I’m working with you, and it knows you’re working to rescue Eric inside the game. If it’s going to counterattack in the game world, then you’re the two most likely targets.”
“Great,” Mira muttered.
“It gets worse,” Rebecca said. “Do either of you know Trent Lockner?”
“Yeah – he goes to our school,” Daniel said.
“He’s an asshole,” Mira added.
“Well,” Rebecca replied, “he’s dead. And he was apparently killed while he was inside the game.”
Both Daniel and Mira stared at her.
“Apparently the AI said that if it killed Lockner in the game, Lockner would die in real life. I rejected the notion completely, but promised Eric I would look into it. After I called Akiyama, I checked online police reports.”
“You mean you hacked into online police reports?” Mira said.
Rebecca ignored her. “A young man named Trent Lockner was pronounced dead at the scene according to EMT’s and the preliminary report, which said he died while he was playing a video game, though it didn’t specify which one. I checked Varidian’s sales registry – and a unit was shipped to his house today.”
“Holy shit,” Daniel whispered.
Mira didn’t have anything sarcastic to say this time.
“Eric said that the AI had modified the unit, but I have no idea what that means – if it was a physical modification, or a programming mod it did over the internet. There’s no way to know.”
“But… that means our lives could be in danger,” Mira said, her eyes wide.
“Potentially, though I don’t believe so – not yet. Why wouldn’t the AI have killed both of you by now if it could? It even trapped you in Hell, Daniel. Why not physically kill you instead? But it may be getting closer to being able to kill players through the game console, and when it does…”
Her voice trailed off. She didn’t have to finish.
“So what’re we supposed to do?” Mira asked.
“I can’t ask either of you to return to the game, not with these kinds of risks involved,” Rebecca said. “No matter how unlikely they may be.”
“I can’t leave Eric to die,” Daniel said quietly.
Rebecca looked at Mira.
“Realistically, what do you think are the chances it could kill us?” Mira asked.
“Realistically? One, maybe two percent.”
Mira exhaled. “That’s good enough for me. Seeing as the fate of the world might be on the line.”
“Two percent is a guess, nothing more. I could possibly be – ”
“Dr. Wolff?” Mira interrupted. “Learn to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
Rebecca’s back straightened, as though she were offended – and then she relaxed and smiled grimly. “I suppose you’re right. I’m going to try to contact Eric, though if the AI knows about the police raid, I doubt I can get through to him. So we have to find Eric inside the Shattered Lands as soon as possible. Maybe then he can help us find his physical body. That’s the only way I can see of defeating the AI – locating Eric’s body here in the real world. It’s now more imperative than ever that you find him and rescue him in the game.”
Mira and Daniel glanced at each other uneasily.
R
ebecca continued, “So whatever stupid feud is dividing you two at the moment, get over it.”
Mira and Daniel both stared at her and clumsily tried to deny it.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Daniel said.
“We’re fine,” Mira protested.
“No you’re not. I’m not exactly brilliant at catching on to subtleties and social cues, but even I can see it. There’s going to be a counterstrike, and when it happens, you need to be ready. Or Eric could die… and we could lose our best chance to stop the AI.”
87
Mira and Daniel stood in the parking garage of Dr. Wolff’s high-rise building. Riding down in the elevator together had been almost unbearable.
“Look, can we talk about this?” Daniel asked.
“Talk about what?” Mira retorted.
“Nothing happened,” Daniel said, his voice instantly angry.
“You keep saying that, but you should know by now that it’s not whether something happened – it’s whether you wanted it to happen, and whether you still want it to happen. So – what is it? What exactly do you want to happen?”
“I want you,” he said defiantly.
“Then why’d you look so guilty when I walked in the room?”
“Because I knew how it looked!”
“What, you hanging out with the girl you’ve been in love with for years?” she taunted him.
“I keep telling you, nothing happened!” he shouted.
“I notice that you didn’t deny that you were in love with her just now,” Mira said quietly.
The shock on his face spoke volumes.
Inside, Mira felt like dying, she hurt so bad.
He tried to take back his mistake. “It’s just a figure of speech! I’m not in love with her, I just – I liked her!”
“You had a crush on her,” Mira suggested.
“…yeah,” he agreed hesitantly.
“Still do?”
Shattered Lands 3 Demon Wars: A LitRPG Series Page 26