Frankie dove straight into cyberspace. Leaving her body and the apartment behind, she found herself floating in a black void surrounded by glowing lines, shapes, and code that acted as a visual representation of the local networks she was now inside of. She could see the VR rig with its connection to Rin and his cyber brain, the back and forth of data between the two systems represented by glowing wireframe lines.
Frankie herself also glowed with light as golden lines that covered her body pulsed with a golden energy. She called up a floating holographic control terminal that looked like a series of concentric circles and lines a little bigger than her hand. With her fingers on her right hand splayed out, she could twist and turn it, which in turn controlled the environment around her. She used it to run a quick search on the VR rig and quickly found the game that Rin was within. Wasting no time, she ran another of her cracking algorithms, a much more subtle one this time that gave her a great deal of control over the game itself, and allowed her access to its virtual reality world.
With that in place, Frankie sent herself into the game. The environment around her stretched and fluoresced as if she was dropping into a tunnel before she was surrounded by a bright white glow, which receded as quickly as it appeared and she found herself standing on a beach. The air felt warm as a lazy breeze blew past her while the hot sun shone through the palm trees. She could feel the sand beneath her feet as well. She looked to be stood on some kind of tropical island with its deep azure sky, soft white sands, and the sound of the sea rhythmically surging against the beach nearby. It was lovely in here. Suddenly, another person appeared right next to her out of thin air. She was a slim blonde in a tiny bikini and looked over at Frankie, wrinkling her nose.
‘I think you’re lost, babe. This isn’t an FPS server,’ she said.
Frankie blinked. ‘What?’
The girl nodded down at Frankie’s body. Frankie looked down and realised she had appeared wearing the black stealth suit she was wearing in real life.
‘Oh, yeah, right. Thanks,’ she said and concentrated for a moment. Her clothing suddenly changed and shrunk into a small black bikini.
‘That’ll do,’ the girl said and turned to walk away.
‘Oh, hey, where do people tend to hang out around here?’ Frankie asked her.
‘That depends. What do you want to do? This place is huge.’
‘Well, I’m looking for someone,’ Frankie said.
‘Run a search. If you know their online name then you can find them quite easily,’ the girl said.
‘Oh, okay, thanks.’
‘No problem. Hope you find who you’re looking for. Have fun,’ she said and walked off. Someone else appeared next to her then, and Frankie realised she was stood within a glowing circle on the floor. This was a spawn point where new players would appear in the game.
Frankie moved away and headed towards where she could hear the sea, while, at the same time, accessing the link she still had open to Dion.
‘Can you hear me, Dion?’ she asked.
‘I can do better than that, I can see you. Now, you’re in there I can piggy back off your signal. I’m in spectate mode, and by the way… Damn, girl. Wow, you look good in that swimsuit!’
Frankie sighed to herself. She felt like a piece of meat with a comment like that.
‘Dion, get your head out of the gutter and concentrate or I’ll personally knock some sense into you when I get back, understand?’
‘Sorry, yeah. I hear you. What can I do for you?’
‘I need to find Rin, and quickly. Where is he?’
‘Aah, hold on, give me a second,’ he said. Suddenly a little arrow with the name “Rin” above it appeared in her vision, as well as “800m” just next to it.
She reached the beach and saw there were lots more islands dotted about the sea off into the distance. Some had buildings on them, some had mountains or trees, a couple were just bare or maybe with a single palm tree on them. There were quite a few boats, jet skis, and other vehicles on, under, or above the water as well.
Rin looked to be on one of these other islands by the looks of it.
‘He’s nowhere near me, Dion,’ she said.
‘Fast Travel to him,’ Dion said. ‘Access your in-game menu and you should be able to teleport to him instantly, or, if you’ve hacked the game enough, you can do it that way. too.’
‘Aaah, great!’ With little more than a thought, she suddenly found herself on the shore of another island entirely. She was standing in the sea up to her hips in water, and it was wonderfully warm. She could see Rin, tagged in her vision, just up on the beach, surrounded by a handful of people, mainly girls, but a few guys, too.
Frankie took a breath and steeled herself. She would need to go up there and distract him, but before she did that, she couldn’t resist crouching into the water and submerging herself in the lovely warm caress of the sea here. The water closed over her head, feeling just as good as the real thing. She stood up and brushed her hair away from her face. This was lovely, she could get used to coming here.
Feeling refreshed, she started to walk up through the water towards Rin and noticed that he had actually sat up and was watching her walk through the surf.
Smiling slightly to herself, she swung her hips a touch more and ran her fingers over hair again. She caught his eye then and smiled at him.
He smiled back.
This was working, it was actually working. She had no idea what she was doing that was getting his attention, but something had clicked into place.
She veered off to her right and with a small motion of her head, invited him to join her. She watched him make his excuses, leaving the people he was with and walk over to where she would meet him in the shallow waters as they lapped the white sands.
What on earth would she say to him, she thought? She’d need to engage him in conversation of some kind. She looked him over and tried to think if he looked like his real life body. She hadn’t really looked too closely at him in the VR rig in his apartment, so couldn’t be sure, but he did look fit and toned here. It wasn’t uncommon for people to appear as idealised versions of themselves or even as someone completely different, and not uncommonly as a member of the opposite sex.
She’d tried VR before, of course, back in her days at University and at school before then, but she just preferred real life. That said, this was nice. She could get used to taking a break on a quiet island here from time to time.
She took the last few steps up out of the water towards Rin, feeling very aware that he was getting a good look at her as she rose from the water. She did her best not to care, though, and smiled as she stepped up to him.
‘And to think, I was just about to log off,’ he said.
‘Oh, really? That would have been a shame. Were you bored?’
‘No, I would have come back, I just got a strange message from one of my dolls, but it got cut off before it finished. I’m sure it’s nothing, probably just another malfunction,’ he said.
‘I’m sure,’ she smiled to herself, feeling glad she had come here to distract him now, and not a moment too soon, either.
‘Have you been here before?’ he asked her.
‘Actually, no, I haven’t. It’s my first time, but it’s wonderful. I love it. These islands are idyllic,’ she said. ‘I guess you come here a lot?’ she asked, wanting to keep the conversation going.
‘I have been for a while, yes, but I don’t know, it’s not what it once was. I still like it, though. Makes for a nice break between runs on Ultimate Hunter or Crime Boss 4.’
‘I see. You’re a keen gamer, then?’
‘We’re ready to hack him, Frankie,’ Gibson said through the link over the top of whatever Rin was saying.
‘He’ll notice this,’ Dion said. ‘Let us know when you’re ready as you might need to use your hack to keep him from logging out.’
She hadn’t heard what Rin was saying to her, she just hoped it wasn’t anything really important. She gla
nced around her. There were some large rocks up ahead, so she aimed for them.
‘Hold for a second, guys’ she sent back through the link.
‘Hey? You in there?’ he said.
‘Um, sorry, I just had a message from a friend come up. I missed that last thing you said.’
‘Don’t worry, it’s not important,’ he said. ‘So, tell me about you. What brings you here?’ he said as they started to make their way around the first rock and out of sight of his friends.
‘Now,’ she sent through the link. ‘Me? Oh, nothing much,’ she said aloud to Rin with a smile as she used her control over the games local mechanics. She could make the game do pretty much whatever she wanted, but, for now, she settled on a local effect that she hoped would stop people close to her from logging off.
Rin frowned suddenly, his focus shifting inwards as he clearly sensed the hack into his cyber brain.
‘I er… I gotta go. I think something’s wrong… I don’t…’
‘Sorry? What’s the matter? What is it? Everything looks fine to me,’ she said, acting confused. ‘We’ve only just met. You can stay here a little longer, surely?’
‘No, no, I can’t. Something’s wrong. I’m logging off,’ he sputtered.
Shit, she thought to herself.
2.17
Rin started to look frustrated as if he was trying to do something, but nothing was happening. ‘W… what? What's going on? Why can’t I…’ he said and looked up at Frankie.
Frankie only smiled at him. ‘Can’t what?’
‘Is this you? Are you doing this?’ he asked.
‘Doing what?’ she asked back to him.
‘It is you!’ Rin lunged at her, then, reaching out with his hands as if to strangle her, but Frankie was quicker and deflected his hands away, shoving them back, grasping them and slamming him bodily into the rock behind him.
‘What the…’ he muttered.
Suddenly, his hands sunk into the rock, melding with him and immobilising him, all at Frankie’s command. He wanted to shout, to call for help, but, no matter how hard he tried, he found he could only speak in a whisper.
‘Yeah, it’s me,’ Frankie said. ‘Sorry, but you can’t leave right now. We won’t be a moment,’ she said.
‘Okay, we got what we need, running the memory wipe now. You’d better get out of there,’ Gibson said to her through their link.
Frankie smiled down at Rin. ‘Toodle-loo,’ she said in a sing-song voice as she did a hard log-off from the game, dropping back into cyberspace, and then pulled herself out of her dive to find herself back in the real world.
She blinked. It took her a moment to re-orientate herself, but she was back to normal after a couple of seconds and picked up her gun from the sofa beside her.
‘Ready to go?’ Gibson said. He was standing next to her.
‘Yes,’ she said and got to her feet, turning to see Cole and Kalypso heading for the balcony where their flyer was now hovering. One by one, her teammates jumped onto the rear ramp of the flyer. Frankie followed suit and took hold of the rigging inside of it as the flyer’s engine powered up and moved them away from the building. Within seconds, they had disappeared into the endless air traffic and were on their way back to the airport. Frankie walked over to where Dion sat at the terminal.
‘Are you still logged in?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, I’m watching him. He’s just come round. The memory wipe seems to have worked, and your bindings have been taken off him. Yeah, he’s heading back to his friends, now. Looks a little confused, but he’s not logging out, which is a good sign. I think we can call that a successful raid,’ he said.
‘Excellent. Keep monitoring him for the moment and report anything suspicious, but if there’s no change in the next thirty minutes, you can revert to a more passive surveillance.’
‘Sure thing, Frankie,’ he said.
‘Oh, and by the way, thanks for the compliment earlier, but let’s keep things professional, hey?’ she said.
Dion blushed, his cheeks going a bright shade of crimson. ‘Uh, yeah, sure,’ he said.
Frankie winked at him and left him to his work. It was easy to forget that he was a teenager and probably still had some raging hormones surging through his system. He probably only meant to compliment her, but there was a time and place for that, and in the middle of a mission was most certainly not it. Still, it made her smile. Not least because he seemed to have done a complete one-eighty turn on his opinion of her. It wasn’t long ago that he wouldn’t even share a lift with her, probably because she had refused cybernetic implants up to that point, but now he was basically cat-calling her and complimenting her on her looks.
She just found the whole thing amusing.
So, that was two missions down and two still to go. The next two were much closer to home, though, so they had a long flight back to London and would be going after either Brenna at Psytech in Neo-London or Angela at Nano Technic in Berlin in Germany. Which one would depend on the research that Xenox and William had done while Frankie was away. They were looking for a good entry way into Psytech; something different from before, something a little more covert than just walking in the front door. With Nano Technic, it was more a case of finding Angela, as she had thus far proven to be somewhat elusive. They had narrowed it down to one of the many sites that the Corporation owned in Germany and thought it likely that it would be one of the ones in Berlin, close to the headquarters there.
This pleased Frankie because her parents were based at a Nano Technic site in London, meaning she wouldn’t have to deal with them getting in the way. She just didn’t want to see them, anyway.
The Psytech raid didn’t bother her as much, even with the history she had with them. But she couldn’t say the same for Gibson, who had looked a little troubled by the idea of going back to that Corporation. Frankie knew why, of course. They still held his wife and stepdaughter, and despite their deteriorating relationship, there was a history there that could not be overlooked.
She hoped that one would go smoothly, for Gibson’s sake more than anything.
Frankie settled herself down into a corner of the hold and made herself comfortable. They were closing in on the Tokyo Airport and their plane that would fly them home, but Frankie had already decided she would get some rest in here. The flyer was usually a quiet place as everyone typically disembarked and went into the plane proper for the longer flights, which suited her just fine.
Ω
Even though the cargo plane had VTOL capabilities, it was too big for their current base to hold, so it was kept in a privately rented hanger at a small airport on the edge of Neo-London. They would then take a flyer from there back to their base in the centre of the city.
Frankie woke up at the airport and transferred to another A.C.T. flyer with the rest of the team in near silence as everyone seemed to be just waking up from their own naps on the flight back.
Sitting down inside the back of the flyer, Frankie looked over to Kalypso, who had sat next to her.
‘Any news from base?’ Frankie asked her. With her connections to the intelligence community, it was Kalypso who was most likely to have heard of any developments.
‘William has been in touch, yes. They need to meet with us as soon as we’re back,’ she said.
‘Figures,’ she muttered to herself. It looked like they would be straight onto the next mission with little break for them in between.
The trip into Neo-London didn’t take long, and they were soon back in the A.C.T. base where William was waiting for them as they led Zhou out of the flyer.
William stepped forward and made a direct line for Zhou.
‘Zhou, it’s great to meet you, finally. I have heard so much about you. Thank you for agreeing to help us,’ the director said.
‘You have a great team here, I am impressed. But I have a question, if I may be so bold? Who are you people? Are you with the government?’
‘Yes, we are. Look, let’s get inside and I
will be happy to tell you everything, including how you can help us. Anyway, I think you know Doctor Xenox here?’
‘Xavier, it’s been too long. So, you managed to escape from Psytech?’ Zhou asked.
‘I did. It’s great to see you, Zhou. Thank you for agreeing to help us,’ Xenox said.
Frankie smiled. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard anyone say the doctor’s first name out loud before.
‘So, is Brenna here with you?’ Zhou asked.
‘No, not yet. I couldn’t bring her with me when I left. It would have been too risky. But, we’re going after her today,’ Xenox said.
‘Today? Well, I hope she’s still okay,’ Zhou said.
‘Me, too,’ Xenox said, some hesitation in his voice.
Frankie stepped over to William. ‘Today?’ she asked in hushed tones.
‘Yes, tonight, in fact. We have been working with the intelligence community to set up your infiltration. You’ll be going in as maintenance workers. Everything’s been arranged. We’ve been in touch with Brenna, and she knows your coming for her. She’s keen to help us,’ William said.
‘That’s excellent. You’ve been busy,’ Frankie commented with a cheeky smile.
‘Glad to see we’re living up to your expectations,’ William answered her back, matching her cheeky tone. ‘So, how did it all go in China and Japan?’ he asked in a more serious voice.
‘As well as could be expected. We had a few issues, but nothing too serious and nothing that we couldn’t handle. You were online for the China one, so you know how that went. Has there been any issues from the deaths of the two officers?’
‘Nothing that would impact on us, no, and we’ve heard nothing from Duplex Neural, either, which suggests they don’t suspect anything beyond some head hunting. Rin has also been quite, but that was only about eight hours ago. I take it the memory wipe worked?’
Frankie shrugged. ‘As far as we could tell, yes. Dion seemed to think it took quite well. Again, we’ll have to wait and see, but, so far, I’m hopeful we have not raised any alarms about our true purpose.’
Promethean Files 2: The Prometheus Gambit Page 17