“What do you mean?” Detective Tromble’s eyes fixed on Jake. “What kind of glitch?”
“Well, there were some changes in the program – things I didn’t do,” Jake explained slowly. “Something was overriding one of the AI settings, and some landscape features had changed.” In addition to the mountain, Jake and the others had discovered a newly formed river and a thickly tangled forest where there had been open field before. Everywhere they had gone, the NPCs had been terrified by the strange events in their world. Des and Kari had ribbed Jake about it all night long, assuming he’d made the changes himself by accident.
Detective Tromble was frowning, and he turned from Jake to gaze out the window with a thoughtful expression. He glanced down at the digital notebook and flicked a fingertip across the screen a couple times.
“Tell me Jake, is this game of yours connected to the open Net?”
“No,” Jake answered at once. “It’s totally private. Nobody’s got access besides me, Des, and Kari.”
“You’re certain of that?”
“Absolutely,” said Jake firmly. “Just me, Des, and Kari.”
The detective nodded and closed his notebook down, clearing his throat as he did. “Thank you for your help, boys,” he said. “If you think of anything else, please let Principal Edward know so he can make sure I hear about it. Tom, can you have someone make my personal number available on their digital classrooms?”
“Of course,” said Mr. Edward.
There were no more questions after that, so Detective Tromble and the other police man left. Mr. Myers guided his weeping wife out of the office as well, and that left Jake and Des alone with Mr. Edward. The principal ran his hand back through his graying hair again, looking more worried than either boy had ever seen him.
“Okay, boys,” he said after a long, uncomfortable silence. Edward got up and came around his desk to lead Jake and Des out to the administration lobby. Jake’s mom sat beside Des’s mother, talking quietly. They both wore puzzled expressions. Jake’s mom stood as he, Des, and the principal approached. She pulled Jake in for a tight hug.
“Is everything alright?” she whispered.
“No,” he answered her just as quietly. “I don’t know what to do.”
Principal Edward quickly filled the two mothers in about Kari and the detective’s interview in his office. Then he turned to Jake’s mother.
“Mrs. Lowell, the detective asked if there was anyone else with access to your VR network. Jake said no, but I wanted to make sure. Sometimes parents know about things their kids might not.”
“No,” she replied quickly, surprised. “As far as I know, Jake’s the only one who uses it at all. Isn’t that right?” She looked at Jake.
“That’s right,” he said. “Me, Des, and Kari.”
“Thank you,” said the principal. He looked sympathetically down at Jake and Des before he went on. “Well, you may want to take the boys home. I’m not sure they’ll be feeling up to going back to class today.”
“Yes, of course.”
Jake followed his mother outside to the waiting transport. Des gave a small wave before he got into his mom’s vehicle, and Jake waved back. Jake stared out the window as his mother told the car to take them home. He watched the bland scenery pass in silence for several minutes before his mother turned to him.
“Why did the detective ask if anyone else had access to our VR feed?” Her eyes searched Jake’s, trying to understand. “You know more than I do about how all that works. Explain it to me.”
Jake’s brow furrowed as he tried to find the words to describe the virtual system so his mother could understand. It wasn’t easy, distracted as he was over Kari. How could she have been in the game if she was in a coma? Had the program copied her, created an NPC version of her when the real Kari failed to come back to the game with him and Des? But that didn’t make sense, and it still would mean he wasn’t in control of Xaloria.
“When you log in to the VR feed from a different physical location,” he said slowly, choosing his words with care, “the system records what each person is doing and displays it as part of the program. Sort of like a TV vid, but rather than recording what the actors did weeks ago and then showing it on your wall, this records what you’re doing right now and shows it in real-time on your friend’s vid. It’s still just a recording though. Those people aren’t actually in the VR room with you.”
His mother nodded in understanding, but she already had that faraway look in her eyes that she got when Jake tried to explain something complicated.
It didn’t help that Jake couldn’t understand it himself. Kari had been there. It was the real Kari, not some computerized clone of her. But if she really was in a coma, then she couldn’t have been in Xaloria. It wasn’t like they’d have a VR set-up in her hospital room.
“I get it,” his mother was saying. “So if someone could access our feed, they could have made it look like Kari was there even if she wasn’t.”
Jake blinked in surprise. His mother had made a very good point, and it was one he hadn’t thought of himself. “You’re right,” he said. Someone else could project Kari’s image…but only if that someone else had access to Xaloria in the first place! Jake groaned.
The car pulled into their driveway. Jake and his mom climbed out and headed inside. To his surprise, his mother followed him to his room. He stopped just inside the door, looking back at her in puzzlement.
“Jake,” she said reluctantly with a pained expression. “This might not be the best time for it, but there’s something I have to tell you.”
Jake felt his body tense up, and he thought back to his mother’s “special dinner.” He had forgotten all about it, worried about Kari instead. Now he knew that more bad news was coming.
“Honey,” his mother continued, attempting a smile that was not as bright as she meant for it to be. “Gerald has asked me to marry him. I’ve said yes.”
Jake’s head spun. He retreated across the room, sinking down heavily on his bed without even looking behind him first. “You said yes?” he asked, as breathless as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. “Why?”
“What do you mean, why?” his mother snapped. She scowled at him in irritation. “Because I love him, that’s why. Jake, I love Gerald and I want us to be a family.”
Jake scowled right back at her. “Nobody ever asked me if I want us to be a family,” he said sharply, barely stopping himself from yelling. “Did you even think about that, Mom? Did you even think about asking what I want?”
His mother’s face flushed, and he could see her making an effort to keep her voice calm. “I know you and Gerald haven’t always gotten along,” she told him firmly. “But I know you two will work your differences out in time. I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t think it was the best thing for all of us.”
Jake was trembling all over. His eyes blurred, and he wasn’t sure if it was from tears or anger. All at once, his fragile self control shattered.
“You mean the best thing for you!” he shouted. “You and Gerald! Neither one of you could care less about what’s best for me!” Jumping off the bed, Jake pushed past his mother and ran into the hall. He fled to the familiar safety of the VR room, slamming the door and locking it behind him.
He could hear his mother’s rushing footsteps, then they stopped just on the other side of the door. She tried to open it. Jake held his breath, stifling tears of fury as he silently prayed that she’d just go away and leave him alone. He was still shaking all over. He should have seen this coming. Why couldn’t his mother understand? Why wouldn’t she just go away? At last, after several long minutes had passed, he heard her footsteps receding and then the door to her bedroom clicked.
Jake sagged against the door, pounding it once with his fist. Why did it have to be now, on top of everything else? Couldn’t she have waited until later? Who cared about Gerald when Kari was in the hospital? Jake’s mother seemed to think Gerald’s feelings were more important than tha
t, more important than Kari, more important than anything Jake might be worried about. It was all about Gerald, and Jake didn’t get a vote.
He breathed heavily, squeezing his eyes shut. Jake’s mind whirled with thoughts of Kari, his mother, Gerald, all of them swirling around together in confusion. He wished he could go back somehow, back before yesterday or maybe even earlier. Back to when he, Kari and Des had been happily exploring Xaloria and he was in control.
He knew he couldn’t escape the facts. Real life wasn’t VR, and he couldn’t fiddle with the settings. Jake opened his eyes, wiping tears away with the back of his hand. There wasn’t anything he could do about his mom and Gerald – that much was painfully obvious – but maybe there was something he could do for Kari.
Virtual, recorded “projection” or not, he and Des had seen her yesterday. They had been the last ones to see her the day before as well, before she fell into this coma. Surely that meant something. Why would anyone go to all the trouble of fooling him and Des into believing she was in the program yesterday if she was actually in the hospital. That didn’t make any sense. A thought struck him, and he stood up and moved to the center of the room.
“Com to Des,” he ordered the system. A low tone sounded twice before being replaced by Des’s voice, distorted slightly by the digital speaker.
“Hey, Jake.” Des sounded sad.
“Des. What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” was the reply. “What are you doing?”
“Going to look for Kari,” said Jake with grim determination.
“Huh? What do you mean? Her parents didn’t want us to visit her at the hospital, remember?”
“I’m logging in to Xaloria.”
“Jake, don’t be stupid. You know she’s not there.”
“She was there last night, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah, I guess…I mean…” Des trailed off, confused.
“So maybe she’s still in there, Des. Maybe if we can find her in Xaloria, we can find out what’s wrong with her for real. Did you ever think of that?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” protested Des over the com line. “Even if we do find her in the VR program, Kari’s in the hospital. The hospital, Jake. That’s not her in Xaloria.”
“Maybe not,” Jake allowed. “Maybe somebody else made her appear in the game. But why would they do that? And even if that’s what happened, then they’d have to be the same person who’s messing with my game. So the answers are still in Xaloria.”
“I don’t know, Jake,” said Des uncertainly.
Jake hesitated. He didn’t believe someone else had projected Kari’s image. He just couldn’t think of any reason to do that. But he was afraid to tell Des what he was really thinking, because Des would probably say he was crazy. But it might be the only way to convince Des to come with him. It looked like Jake didn’t have a choice.
Go figure, he thought bitterly. Then he took a deep breath and told Des about his theory.
Chapter 11
A windblown plain replaced the blank VR room walls. Jake stood confused on a bare patch of earth, looking around at the tumbled stone ruins surrounding him. Hidden by the low grass around him, he could see a few blackened cobbles. Half a scorched wall stood to his right, and before him a single shattered window remained in another broken wall. Nearby, he saw further ruins – stones, broken pottery…even bones. He shook his head as if to clear it, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
Des materialized beside him, brown leather armor snug over his skinny frame. His face registered the same confusion Jake felt. “Where are we?” he asked, peering around at the destruction.
Jake reached into his pouch and took out the magical map he always carried. It was actually a part of the game mechanics, and never failed him. He unrolled the map and then stared at it in shock. Two orange dots glowed below a title inscribed next to a sketch of a broken tower.
“Myrrordom,” Jake breathed in disbelief. “This is Lord Ryden’s castle, right where we left off last night.”
Des snatched the map from Jake’s hand, running his eyes rapidly over it. “It can’t be. Where’s the castle? What about the people, Lord Ryden and his guards and…everything?” Des trailed off, lowering the map and looking around again at the tumbled stone ruins.
Jake looked to the ruins as well, tracing their shape with his eyes and imagining the walls before they had been pulled down by whatever force destroyed the castle. It was Myrrordom, alright. What was left of it, anyway. There was no sign of Ryden anywhere.
If only the wizard lord were there, Jake thought, maybe they could get some answers. Ryden could at least tell them what had happened to Myrrordom. Besides that, connected as he was to the main program AI, Ryden might have been able to tell them what was going on. Jake might have to fiddle with Ryden’s coding a bit first, but it should be possible. Except Ryden was nowhere around, and there was no sign of where he’d gone. Assuming, that was, the wizard was even still alive.
“There’s no way this is the same place,” said Des, still not believing it. He had walked a few paces away from Jake, and now he kicked at a thick clump of tall weeds growing through the shattered remnants of a massive flagstone that had been part of the floor. “Look at this wreck? No way this place has been abandoned for less than a hundred years. Maybe longer.”
“The map changed too,” Jake pointed out. “The drawing used to be a tower, but now it’s broken. Just like Myrrordom itself.” Jake walked over to join Des and take back the map to study it. Des peered over his shoulder, pointing out another familiar area.
“Look at Everheart,” he said in a hushed voice. “It’s turned into a huge city. That’s not right, either.”
“Something is really wrong,” Jake agreed, lowering the map and staring off into the distance with worry plain on his face. “The program keeps changing, and I’m not the one doing it.”
“So who is?” Des asked, nervousness creeping into his voice. They had all gotten used to being powerful adventurers in Xaloria, but all that strength and confidence was fading in the face of this troubling mystery. Des no longer sounded like Des the Hand, prince among thieves. He sounded like Des, the thirteen-year-old boy.
“I don’t know,” Jake told him, forcing himself to stay calm and at least act like he was still in control. “Whoever it is, I’ll bet he knows what’s happening to Kari.”
Jake locked eyes with Des, who nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “You’re right.”
“So let’s find out who’s messing with our world,” Jake said angrily.
***
An hour later, Jake and Des were huddled together in an alcove behind Everheart Manor.
“I can’t believe he wouldn’t take our money,” Des said for at least the fifth time. “You built that place.”
“I know,” Jake said. “But it’s completely different now.” He peered out around the edge of the building, looking across the city commons to study the tall, white marble mansions that had been built up all around delicate, hand-carved fountains. The Everheart he had built just a few days ago was a memory. “Everything’s different.”
No one in Everheart had ever heard of the noble Sir Xend or his companion, Des the Hand. Jake’s quaint country village had vanished, replaced by a massive city filled with wealthy merchants and scheming noblemen. The new breed of citizen had little use for a steel-plated knight and his seedy thief companion. When the boys had tried to rent a room at the Everheart Inn, the highbrowed host in the richly cut black suit informed them with exaggerated and utterly false politeness that their antiquated coins no longer had any value. He added quickly that, until they had some of the High Emperor’s currency, they would have to sleep elsewhere. Behind the man’s cold smile, a framed portrait of Innkeeper Albred Gordor hung on one wall of the common room.
“Where’s he?” Jake asked the man, pointing to the painting. “Where’s Master Albred?”
The man’s already arched eyebrows rose even further. “Albred Gordor
, the founder of Xaloria’s Guild of Innkeepers?” The man turned halfway around to look incredulously at the framed portrait. “Are you daft? He’s been dead for more than a thousand years!”
Stunned, the boys had said no more. They left the inn quickly and searched for some place of seclusion where they could get out of sight and figure out what to do. Des had started complaining immediately.
“Thousand years,” he said now, again repeating himself. “That NPC in there thinks we’re a couple of dumb kids, that’s what he thinks. A thousand years. That’s not possible!”
“No, it’s possible,” Jake said. “Don’t forget, time in the simulation doesn’t have to match real time. Especially if nobody’s in the sim, but even when you’re here the VR can fool your mind the same way a dream can.”
“Okay,” argued Des, shaking his head, “so where’s Kari? Shouldn’t it have to wait for her if she was in here the whole time? I mean, sure, it could run a little fast or slow if you like, but a thousand years?”
“You’re right, that shouldn’t happen.” Jake sighed. “But someone’s been overriding the other settings, I don’t see why he couldn’t change that one too. Whoever it is, he probably doesn’t care whether this world seems real to Kari or not.”
Jake paused for a moment, then made his decision. Standing up, he moved out of the alcove and started across the main square. He was headed for the city gates.
“Come on,” he called back to Des over his shoulder. “Sitting here isn’t getting us anywhere.”
He led the way out through the broad, white stone gate in the thirty-foot high wall surrounding the medieval metropolis. On the other side of the gate, Jake turned toward a large stable built up against the outside of the city wall. A stable-hand leaned against one of the posts holding up the slanted roof, chewing a piece of straw. Behind him in the stall, a big gray gelding with black mane and tale was also chewing straw. They made quite a pair.
“Hello there,” said Jake, forcing himself to sound cheerful as he approached the stable-hand. “We’ve just arrived here, and were hoping to find news of our friend. It’s been some time since we saw her last, though we were to meet near here. Have you heard any news of the Lady Alista?”
Game Alive: A Science Fiction Adventure Novel Page 7