Roy agreed emphatically and said he’d do whatever it took. He loved the idea.
“See, I told you she’d have a plan for you,” Brock smirked from his chair.
It was Suren’s idea to use the demand for Jin’s memory as their bargaining chip. Actually, it was Hunter’s idea, but he knew if it came from him it would’ve been taken completely differently, so he steered the conversation to a point where Suren thought she arrived at the epiphany herself. The only person in the room who realized Hunter had done so was Brock. When Suren “came up” with and announced the idea, Brock told her she was a genius and quipped at Hunter that being so cunning was usually his trademark.
The five decided Ken and Hunter would develop the technology to record and store a memory of Jin that they obtained from Roy. After that, they’d offer the memory to the public on one condition. One unbreakable condition: the Tsay Trustees would agree to give everyone unlimited and free access to a memory of Jin, provided the technologies used to record and store the memory were never used for any other purpose.
Although they would not initially explain the reasoning behind the ultimatum—they knew there would be much speculation—they agreed among themselves that, after all was said and done, after the policy was enacted and the technology was in place, they should start educating the public on the potential dangers of Veil. They should start sharing Ken’s vision of what the future could hold for Veil should certain avenues be made available. They hoped they could persuade people to understand how, as good as Veil had been for their lives, it could become equally as bad under certain conditions, maybe more so. It could become the Veil Apocalypse.
Hunter joked that maybe they should try to get permission to coin a motto telling the people to, “Use Veil’s Force for good, Luke.” Suren wasn’t amused, which didn’t surprise Hunter much; Hunter seldom amused Suren.
Take a joke, Condoleezza Fried Rice.
Still reluctant to Veil after what happened when he shadowed Suren, Ken had Hunter begin shadowing Roy to assemble memories that Roy possessed of Jin. Ken hoped the process would help them compile enough memories of Jin to create one linear, vibrant, intact memory, which would provide the people an overall aura or impression of Jin. Ken explained how he didn’t merely want to broadcast one single, bland memory of Jin that Roy happened to possess.
Rather, Ken wanted to create a montage of memories that would follow Jin from the time he entered the front door of the hospital until he reached the elevator, out of sight of Roy’s security station. Ken envisioned a time-lapse montage of memories that, if delivered effectively, would paint a living picture of Jin that stretched throughout the years as Roy saw him nearly every morning. Not only would it be Jin, he told the group, it would be unbelievably powerful and gratifying—visually and emotionally fulfilling.
Ken grew increasingly frustrated by the results he got from having Hunter shadow Roy to obtain the memories. He decided to take a different approach. Rather than extract the memories from Roy using Hunter, he would obtain them through the process he was going to use to record and artificially recreate the final memory.
Ken and Hunter developed a way to detect the specific wavelengths created by Roy’s neuroelectrical pattern whenever he remembered Jin. They discovered each component of a memory produced different wavelengths—different frequencies—and similar memory components would have similar wavelengths, if not identical ones. By isolating the specific wavelengths that represented Jin in Roy’s memory, they could reliably isolate all of Roy’s memories of Jin as he actively recalled them.
All they needed to do was create a series of questions and images that would prompt Roy to remember being at work day-by-day over the course of five years. While recording his neuroelectrical pattern, they talked Roy through every calendar day of work for those five years and then digitally singled out each wavelength that represented his memory of Jin, contained in his neuroelectricity.
They found it didn’t matter if Roy remembered seeing Jin on a particular day; it didn’t matter if Roy remembered anything at all about that day. As long as they triggered Roy’s mind effectively enough to recall a specific day, they could scan the entire span of that memory for the wavelength whose frequency represented Jin. They could scan Roy’s memory for Jin and then pluck Jin right out of Roy’s memory.
In reviewing the logs of his vKey to calculate how often he had to enhance the visual components of Roy’s memory, Ken noticed an unusually high amount of activity indicated by the logs from Suren’s key. Higher activity than all the other keys combined.
In a little over three months, Suren intrusively and inconspicuously Veiled eighty-six people. Some of whom she Veiled multiple times. She found herself exploring parts of the New Veil World she only heard about and some of which she never heard. After all those years, Veil was still permeating aspects of life and people were constantly coming up with new ways to apply the technology.
By the end of those three months, Suren couldn’t stop. She was no longer using her vKey as a means to hunt down leads on the identity of Jin’s murderer. She all but gave up hope on that—she simply couldn’t stop Veiling.
There were some activities she preferred to avoid during Veil, but she could never know ahead of time what activities the subject would be participating in, or what kind of person they were. Still, anytime she got her Witness back and it turned out to be someone engaging in vPorn or vSports—two things she detested—she would immediately remove her device and discharge the neuroelectricity. On the other hand, she found Veil Entertainment to be surprisingly addicting.
She caught herself Veiling a few Velebrities, so she could take part in one of those Veillusions she heard about. To her amazement, acting was no longer seen as one’s ability to portray a certain character, but rather the ability to convince oneself they were a character. Velebrities would take months to memorize a script and learn their character. They would then act out that script, like a play, while being Veiled, sometimes by millions of people.
The most renowned Velebrities of the Veillusionism Industry were those who could convince themselves almost entirely that they were a specific character, so that afterwards Veilers could upload back onto themselves in realtime and experience the Veillusion precisely as that character in the story. The best Velebrities were considered to be the most convinced ones and therefore the ones with the most shadowers as the story was acted out and unfolded. It seemed through Veil, Broadway reclaimed its appeal and won out over Hollywood.
However, Suren refused to Veil with those Reality Velebrities. She didn’t enjoy those people. Those individuals whom so many people Veiled just to get a chance to be them. Simply to get a chance to see what it was like to live such a fabulous, wonderful, amazing life … or sometimes such a tragic, scandalous, or pitiful life. To Suren, Reality Veiling was the grossest form of Veil she could imagine. Perhaps it was because she found all the Reality Velebrities to be so reprehensible and vapid.
It was when attempting to hack in and experience the latest installment of her favorite Soap Veillusion that Suren discovered someone tampered with the functionality of her vKey. That didn’t necessarily have to stop her, though. She didn’t have to hack into a Velebrity to participate in a Veillusion. She only needed to use her VSN and purchase a ticket, like everyone else. Still, she’d be damned if she let Ken interfere with her. With her!
“I know it was wrong. I know. And I can explain,” she heard herself say, although it was a show, and she knew it.
“I’m sure you can explain, Suren, and I don’t really give a shit. It was wrong—it is wrong—and you of all people. Jesus, Suren. You of all people.”
All she cared about was the fact that Ken had the gall to shut her out of something … anything having to do with Veil. Having to do with Veil!? Who did he think he was? Jin was her husband. Veil was rightfully hers. She was the Gr—
Ken interrupted her internal tirade. “And what’s more disgusting about all this is now I can’t tak
e any pleasure in telling you that I figured out a way, with the method we used to create the memory of Jin, to track down Jin’s killer. Using the memory I’m Vaulting, the memory of Jin we created from Roy, and the Veil Network … I have a foolproof method to weed out Jin’s killer. We can finally expose the man who killed Jin. We have the key to weed him out, Suren. We can weed him out.”
19
HARMONIUS
Suren found herself instantly humbled. “You … you can find him?”
“Yes,” Ken snapped. He was supposed to enjoy the conversation a great deal more, and he felt Suren robbed him of that.
“You’re sure? You can find him?”
“You know better than I do nothing is certain. But I’ve come up with a way where we could expose him, and it would work better than anything else we could’ve ever come up with. If this doesn’t work, I can’t imagine what would.”
“How long would it take?”
“One day.”
Ken was damn proud of what he dreamed up, and not merely the trap to catch Jin’s murderer. Sure he was proud of that, but the trap was a byproduct of what made him so very proud in the first place. It never dawned on him before, but he had such a small role in the actual development of Veil that it wasn’t a significant source of accomplishment or pride. However, Ken found himself proud of his new accomplishment. That was completely different. That was his baby.
Once he and Hunter perfected the methodology for isolating and extracting Roy’s memories of Jin, the process was quite simple and went by rather quickly. In no time, they digitally mapped out a chronological montage of Roy’s memories of Jin. They were able to merge, crop, and align them until it was exactly what Ken set out to accomplish. They had yet to develop a way to test it out and make it Veilable, but based on the neuroelectrical pattern they pieced together from Roy’s brain, they constructed a three-minute memory loop of Jin.
It was five years worth of memories of Jin, from Roy’s perspective while seated at his security station at the hospital. It was Jin, walking through the front door and over to the elevators. Five years worth of memories of Jin chopped up and condensed down into less than three minutes, looped infinitely. The only thing left to do was create a technology capable of transferring the memory to The Witness. They had to produce a technology capable of stimulating The Witness in the same manner as a brain. A technology that could deliver the memory to the people.
Hunter told Ken the solution was so obvious that they should have thought of it before they even figured out how to record and reproduce the memory. All they had to do, Hunter said, was create an artificial brain.
“Yeah, because that’s so easy. We’ll simply get to creating a fake brain,” Ken whined.
“We don’t have to make an actual artificial, fake brain, asshole,” Hunter argued. “The information is already digital, the memory is already digitized.”
“So…” Ken thought out loud, “we only need to create a digital brain. We could scan and image Roy’s brain to create a digital, virtual version of it.”
“Yes sir,” Hunter acknowledged, “and it can mimic precisely the way Roy’s brain stimulates his Witness in order to produce the same effect.”
“An artificial memory in an artificial brain providing a real experience to a real brain,” Ken grinned.
“Yes sir,” Hunter grinned back. “And because we’re using the topography of a real brain as our template, the Veil process should work seamlessly. We won’t have to tweak anything. Any Witness will fit perfectly over the digital brain and, provided it’s encased in something that can conduct electricity, it will act completely naturally.”
“Our fake brain will play The Witness like a piano.”
“And then The Witness will go back home and play the real brain like a piano.”
“Holy shit,” Ken gawked.
“Right,” Hunter smiled. Now who was the dumb man in the room?
They wanted to have the complete package before they approached Congress. Soon, a complete package was exactly what they had. They constructed a digital brain that was hosted inside a silicone and copper brain replica, which was enclosed in a glass shell. For aesthetic purposes, they added a little blue light show right underneath the glass to represent neuroelectricity. That, of course, was Ken’s idea. It was also Ken’s idea to house the artificial brain in the bust of Jin that was already on a pedestal inside the Tsay Temple.
With the artist’s permission, they could cut open the bust, place the brain inside, piece it back together and remove a portion from the back of Jin’s skull, so the brain inside could be seen by visitors. All they had to do then was plug the brain into the Veil Network, provide it with a VSN, which would also act as its vNet Protocol address, and then people could immediately begin to Veil it. It would be transmitting live 24/7 and could be Veiled at any time, for free. It would be configured to accept all incoming connections. It really was as simple as that, Ken told the other Tsay Trustees.
“But, no one has tested the memory yet,” Ken informed Suren and Roy.
“We figured, obviously, you should be the first to see the memory,” Hunter chimed in.
Suren and Roy looked at each other. Suren immediately raised her hand to stop Roy from saying anything.
“Before we sit here and try to convince each other why the other one should be the first to see the memory, and argue over who has the right to decide—because he was my husband, or because it’s your memory—let me nip it right in the bud and remind you that I pointed a gun at your head and pulled the trigger. After I’d already beat you bloody. As a way to make that up to you, please allow me to let you see the memory first.”
Ken and Hunter stared at each other, speechless. They knew Suren’s first encounter with Roy was likely quite a scene, but they really had no idea. No one revealed those particular details of that night. The look between Ken and Hunter indicated to each other that the two of them were definitely going to talk about that later.
“I—I really can’t argue with that,” Roy smiled. “I really can’t.”
“Are you two crazy? Or just stupid?” Hunter shook his head in embarrassment for them both.
Suren and Roy looked back at him with equally blank faces.
“Ummm, helloooo … you can both Veil it at the same time. Freaks.”
“Oh,” they chuckled at themselves and each other.
When the shadowing of Roy’s artificial brain was complete, The Witnesses of Roy and Suren were transferred back over to their vCollars. They sat down next to each other on the couch in Ken’s office. Months earlier, Suren asked Ken to build her a new collar, since she informed him that hers was broken when she flung it off her head near the end of her Veil with Roy. She wasn’t ready to get ported just yet, so having Ken build her another collar was her only option. Her new one wasn’t as fancy. No platinum, no diamonds; it was merely the plain, black, classic variety. The kinds that were no longer mass manufactured, since practically everyone was ported.
“You ready?” she asked Roy as they both placed their vCollars on themselves.
“I think so,” he smiled.
She grabbed Roy’s hand and held it. With their free hands, they both reached up and positioned themselves to push the button that would begin the upload.
Suren counted, “One … two … three.”
They pushed the button on “three,” and their Veils beeped at the same time. They closed their eyes.
First came the chills and then immediately after came the goose bumps. No matter how many times someone Veiled, the chills and goose bumps ushered in every single session. Although, as time wore on for every user, the sensation no longer lasted for the duration of the Veil. It was present only in the beginning of each session followed by a rush of streaming colors that would take a few moments to blend into focus.
As the colors took shape, Roy and Suren noticed that Roy’s thoughts and emotions inside the memory were muted. Coming from far off in the distance, they heard a note
form and get louder. The lobby of the hospital crystallized in their vision along with the single note of music, which gradually intensified in the background.
The vision and sound melded. Suren instantly recognized the music. She immediately recognized the voice. It was Nina Simone’s song “Feeling Good.” Suren let out a tiny squeal and covered her mouth. She wanted to open her eyes and look at Ken, but she didn’t want to miss anything, so instead she clinched them tightly.
When the hospital doors slid open, Nina was already belting out the first line.
Birds in the sky you know how I feel…
Though Roy usually saw Jin so early in the morning that dusk would’ve barely begun to break and the hospital would’ve been dark, Ken and Hunter instead chose to use a bright, sunny image of the lobby as the static backdrop for the memory of Jin.
Right as Jin’s left foot stepped through the doorway, Nina wailed out her next line.
Sun in the sky you know how I feel…
The image of Jin forming in Roy and Suren’s vision was so graceful but so striking and powerful that it left the two of them breathless. Tears immediately fell from Suren’s eyes. Not tears of sorry or joy, tears of absolute astonishment and awe. The background of the hospital remained fixed, but the image of Jin fully transformed in their vision at every passing moment, as if in every single second he burst into existence again and again, right in front of their eyes. Although they could see him clear as day, each image of him appeared as an impression emblazoned on the mind.
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