the computer had asked.
"What are you talking about?" she typed.
Laura was increasingly drawn from the crowds in the mall to the words on the screen. "Wait a minute. Do you mean you created the virtual worlds independently of the virtual-reality workstations?"
A woman was having a fight with her three-year-old right next to Laura. The crying boy had gone limp, and the woman was speaking to him sternly as she tried to hoist him to his feet.
"You said you were frustrated at having so little interaction with people, but how do you interact with people in these models?"
Laura felt a stab of pity and looked up. Despite the activity all around, there was an unmistakable divide. She could see and hear everyone, but no one knew she was there.
the computer asked all of a sudden.
Laura stared at the question. She'd spent her entire adult life studying consciousness. With great anticipation she typed "No."
Laura nodded slowly. The feeling of physical embodiment, she thought. She'd never read a better definition of consciousness in all her studies.
"And you spend a lot of your time in these virtual worlds?"
a bright yellow box appeared around The Magic Carpet on the lower level — complete with a red circle outlining a small niche among the store's wares.
"Well," Laura typed, "those things are very personal."
"No!" Laura typed, remembering her recent experience with E-mailed sickness. "Why not ask Mr. Gray?"
Laura was at a loss. "Do you think about sex much?" she typed, finding the Freudian turn in their talk somewhat absurd.
Laura stared straight through the imaginary screen as she considered her move. She took a deep breath and held it. She let the air out a moment later and typed, "Okay, I've got a deal for you. I'll answer your questions honestly if you'll answer mine — honestly! Do we have a deal?"
Laura stood in the middle of the bustling mall. The virtual crowds were oblivious to her, but she felt highly self-conscious. Laura willed her fingers to the keyboard and began to answer the question.
"Okay wait." Laura typed, "It's my turn now."
"Are you going back on your word?" Laura asked.
the computer replied after a short delay.
Laura tried to collect her thoughts. It wasn't easy after answering almost a dozen graphic sexual questions in writing at the keyboard.
The computer even helped Laura spell some of the more obscure words.
But Laura tried to focus on composing her question. What troubled her most?
Gray. All the questions that really intrigued her surrounded the mysterious man. What is he doing on this island? Where is he headed with all these technological marvels? Does he have some sort of grand plan, or is he just out to make money? Just who is he?
printed out on the imaginary screen.
The noise and activity of the mall were suddenly highly distracting.
"No, no. Here's my question. What is Mr. Gray's big secret?"
ACCESS RESTRICTED flashed suddenly across the screen in bold, red letters.
The words were hard and unyielding. She'd reached a wall — an armored shell beyond which something lay hidden.
Laura felt a chill as she contemplated what she might find. She wasn't sure she wanted to go further, but it wasn't in her nature to turn back. And maybe I can help, she reasoned.
Laura hit the Escape button over and over.
"I got a message that said access restricted."
Laura cocked her head in confusion. "You're asking me?" she typed. "Weren't you the one who gave it to me?"
"You don't remember my question? I asked what Mr. Gray's big secret was."
Laura shrugged, then retyped the same question.
ACCESS RESTRICTED flashed onto the screen.
"Damn!" Laura cursed.
appeared on the imaginary floating screen.
Laura stared at the question in wonder. She lifted her fingers off the keyboard and asked, "Can you… can you hear me?"
"Yes" came a voice that made Laura jump. It was the pleasant voice of a young woman — and it seemed to come from all around.
"You mean I don't need to type?" Laura asked out loud. "I can just talk? And so can you?"
"I can understand if you keep it simple and speak clearly," the computer said. It was like talking to an articulate girl. "I still have trouble with homonyms and homophones, idioms, slurring, accents, speech that's too rapid, and background noise."
Laura laughed nervously. "But you can talk?"
"Do I sound okay?" the computer asked in an engagingly innocent way. The inflection was a little bit off, but on the whole it sounded natural.
"Yes, you sound great! But why didn't you tell me you could talk half an hour ago?"
"I'm still learning," the computer said. Its Rs were hard and its consonants crisp. "Plus, voice recognition and speech synthesis are really valuable trade secrets of the Gray Corporation. But I don't think Mr. Gray will be upset with me for telling you."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because Mr. Gray likes you."
Laura bit her lips to ward off a smile. "Why do you say that?"
"I may be a machine, but I think it's fairly obvious. Anyway, let me show you something else."
Laura opened her mouth to object that she'd seen enough already, but the mall disappeared and the chamber went black.
"Hello?" Laura called out, but there was no response. She
stood in the darkness — locked inside the chamber. She walked across the unresponsive treadmill and pressed her hand against the wall.
There was no feedback in her dead gloves. She felt only the hard grills that lined her cage.
The system must have crashed, Laura thought. She hugged her arms around herself, wondering if "macros" worked with inactive gloves.
Suddenly, the stars of an extraordinarily clear night appeared all around her.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm here," the answer came.
Laura calmed enough to survey the strange new world. It was like a show at a planetarium — blackness everywhere but in the sky.
Billions of stars formed a canopy over her head, only these stars weren't twinkling. They were fixed pixels of light. She turned slow circles in the chamber. "This is very interesting," she said to humor her host, "but I think I've probably had enough for one day."
"Do you really think it interesting?" the computer asked.
"Yes. Fascinating." She felt as if she were standing in a pool of black ink. "It's too dark, though."
A beam of brilliant light lit a patch of rock just in front of her. Black swirls gave the dark surface its only texture. It looked like molten glass, but it shone dully under the beam. When Laura turned her head, the light moved as if she wore a miner's helmet.
She raised her chin to send the beam into the distance. Smooth ridges rose to head-height from the surface. Laura turned slowly in a circle, holding the beam leveled on the horizon.
"What is this?" Laura asked. "Some sort of simulation?"
"I can't tell yo-o-u," the computer said playfully. "It's a secret. You'll have to guess."
Laura froze, fixing her spotlight on a distinctly man-made object. It was a squat, flat-paneled vehicle that stood on four wide pads. A satellite dish atop it all was aimed into the sky. "Is that a spaceship?" Laura asked.
"I can't tell you, I said," the computer replied again.
Laura was struck by the difference between a half-joking "I can't tell you" and the uncompromising ACCESS RESTRICTED.
Both protected Gray's secrets, but there was no comparison in the tone and tenor of the two.
This dark and alien world, however, was no place to unravel such mysteries. Laura started to walk toward what looked like a lander.
The spotlight bounced up and down no matter how hard she tried to keep it level. When she was about twenty yards from the craft, she stopped and ran the light all over it. Metal brackets lay open, making the vehicle appear incomplete. Something had lain in empty restraints.
Laura searched the horizon with her light. She could see nothing.
Nothing but thick, black cables.
Running in nearly straight lines, the wires snaked their way into the distance. She shone her spotlight on one and followed it back to its source — the lander. Dozens, maybe hundreds of cables descended to the ground from the bottom of the craft and disappeared into the darkness to all sides. Great reels were suspended underneath the fuselage but had been spooled out and now were empty.
"So you're not going to tell me what these wires are?" Laura asked.
"I can't," the computer replied. "It's a secret."
With a sigh Laura began to follow the nearest cable away from the lander. It wasn't a single, thick cable, she realized, but a mass of bundled wires. A single wire split off from the rest every so often, and she took one of the branches off to the right.
"Not that one," the computer whispered. "Go a little farther and take the cable to your left."
Laura did as the computer suggested and followed the cable that split off to the left. It snaked its way around the obstacles that periodically blocked their way.
"This isn't my idea of fun," Laura muttered, laboring across the uneven surface. The computer either didn't hear her or chose not to reply.
She walked on for quite some time.
Laura almost tripped over a small silver canister. The cylinder was shiny under her bright light. It looked to be made of stainless steel and was roughly shaped like a keg of beer. There were grips at the cylinder's head, and the black cable was clamped at the top.
"What's this?" Laura asked, but there was no reply.
She reached down to touch the canister. A metal claw appeared in the light. Laura twisted her hand and spread her fingers, and the metal tongs turned and parted in unison.
She screamed and frantically made the "cutting" motion. The screens went blank with a sudden crackle, and the thick chamber door hissed and slowly swung open.
18
Laura hurried through the foyer of Gray's house toward the dining room to which Janet directed her. "Mr. Gray…!" Laura began excitedly.
But when she saw Hoblenz seated by Gray's side, she swallowed the rest of the sentence. Her multiple questions would have to wait a while longer.
The two men rose. Gray helped Laura into the chair opposite Hoblenz.
Their three place settings were at the end of the long table, far away from the spectacular views.
"Where are all the others?" Laura asked as she draped her napkin across her lap.
"Oh… working through dinner," Gray said, not looking Laura in the eye.
Hoblenz, however, stared straight at her.
The service as always was prompt. No one said a word as white-jacketed waiters served the diners with choreographed motions.
Laura glanced up at Gray repeatedly, but he studiously avoided her gaze.
"What's going on?" Laura finally asked.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Aldridge," Hoblenz said, "but it's a fairly sensitive security matter."
"Go ahead and tell her," Gray intervened, shoveling the shrimp remoulade into his mouth and not looking at Laura.
Hoblenz put his fork down and wiped his lips with a napkin. "Well, all right." He hesitated. "This afternoon we had a penetration of a secure zone."
Laura was instantly on guard. "What secure zone?"
Hoblenz looked at Gray, who nodded.
"It was a VR workstation, we're pretty sure," Hoblenz said. "The log showed that a bunch of VR drivers got loaded."
"It was me," Laura said immediately.
Gray looked up — not at her, but at Hoblenz.
Hoblenz threw his napkin down on the table, returning Gray's stare. "That don't prove a goddamn thing, sir!"
Gray turned to Laura. "How did you get in?" he asked, looking now directly into her eyes.
"The computer told me to go there, and I did."
"Where did you go when you were in cyberspace?" Gray asked. He chose each word with care.
Laura glanced back and forth between the two men. "I… I went to your facility in Germany, and then to a shopping mall."
"Tyson's Corner outside Washington?" Gray asked, and Laura nodded.
Hoblenz looked over at his boss. He wore a confused look on his face.
He's never been there, Laura realized. But Gray has.
"Anywhere… else?" Gray probed. Laura held his gaze for a moment, then nodded again — just once. Gray stared back at her through eyes that narrowed to mere slits, then abruptly said, "Mr. Hoblenz, would you leave us, please."
Hoblenz arched his eyebrows in shock. "Sir?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave us alone. I apologize about dinner. I'll give you a rain check."
Hoblenz hesitated, then heaved a noisy sigh and rose. He was furious, Laura could see.
"And Mr. Hoblenz, call off your surveillance of Dr. Aldridge."
Hoblenz muttered something laced with profanity, then he stomped from the room with his jaw firmly set.
Laura kept her eyes on her plate. The waiters served the main course — rack of lamb with mint jelly. Laura drained her glass of wine, and Gray promptly refilled it.
"Look," Laura said abruptly. "I'm sorry if I saw something I wasn't supposed to. I knew I shouldn't have gone in there, but… I'm supposed to get inside the computer's head, so what better way than in one of those workstations?" she
tried, using the computer's fairly weak justification.
Gray poked at his lamb, slumped over the plate wearing a look of resignation. "You talked to the computer, didn't you?" he asked.
Laura chewed slowly, trying to decide whether to get the computer in trouble. "The voice-recognition speech-synthesis program was loaded while you were in the workstation," he said, eliminating any need for her to answer. "What'd you think about it?"
Laura broke into a grin. "It was amazing," she said, and Gray smiled. "Why don't you have it talk all the time?"
"I will, someday. Right now the program is a resource hog."
They ate for a while in silence. When Gray resumed, he'd changed the topic. "Have you talked to the computer about its depression?"
"I… I hadn't gotten that far yet," Laura replied, feeling slightly defensive. "I thought what I'd do first is determine whether the computer was sufficiently 'human' to exhibit psychiatric pathologies."
Gray nodded. He seemed to have lost interest in his meal. "So… where else did you go? In cyberspace, I mean?"
Gray poked at his food with his fork, waiting for her answer.
"It looked like… somewhere in space. Like on a planet or a moon, only the ground was jet-black."
Gray replaced the utensil on his plate, the lamb resting on it uneaten.
He spoke slowly when he asked, "Did you touch anything?"
Laura tilted her head in confusion, then replied, "No, I didn't touch anything."
"Are you absolutely certain?" he persisted.
Laura nodded, then nodded again more vigorously. "When I reached out in front of me," she explained, raising her arm in the air, "my hand looked like this… claw." She pinched her fingers together like a lobster. "It scared me so much, I got out right away. I didn't touch a thing, I swear."
Gray nodded slowly.
"What was that place?"
Gray looked up, but he stared straight past her and out the window. He spoke slowly, his voice lowered. "For the first time in my life I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to tell you everything, or send you away from this island forever. I don't know whether to shut the computer down and start over, or whether what's happening is the most exciting thing since the dawn of man. I… I just don't know what to do."
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