GodsRealm- Betrayal

by Luke Isaacs

  “Now I am going to call Central,” Jones pushes the small pad on her wrist to bring up the dialer. “Unless you tell me what the heck you are dragging me into.”

  “Wait! There is a hooded man working with Jamal Yu and god knows who else, that plans to take over the VNet,” Dana said. She knew Jones meant to do what she threatened and jumped in to tell her everything before she did something they would all regret.

  “I see, ‘The Hooded Man’,” Jones said thoughtfully. “So, he is real then.”

  “An acquaintance of yours?” Rania asked her.

  “A legend in the criminal world of VNet,” Jones answered her. “And sometimes even in the business world.”

  “Well, he has some sway over my father and around 200 other men,” Edward told her.

  “OK, now, speak fast, what is the information you found?” she asked Edward.

  Around five minutes later, Dahlia Jones led the group to suit up for VNet.

  “You were right, and I was a fool,” she said, placing the visor and ear piece in as she spoke. “We don’t have much time, and I think I know exactly where they are going to hit.”

  “Where is it?” Edward stood by the nearby holo monitor and keyboard. “I will put in the coordinates of the places we will spawn and the other areas we will upload to.”

  “Ever heard of the Gamers Lounge?” she asked him.

  “Lady, we are all professional gamers here,” Rania addressed her as she was plugging her suit in. “We all know the Gamers Lounge.”

  “Well, Gamers Lounge is the cover of the UN security hub for the entire VNet,” Jones finished plugging her suit. “It is the one place that can pull down the entire security protection of VNet with a single coding command.”

  “Odin’s Beard!” Rick also finished plugging in. “Edward, we have to be there now!”

  39

  Jamal Yu stood in front of the Gamers Lounge with 20 other men, ready to charge the place. All he needed was the signal from the Hooded Man telling him that the six backbones had been taken over.

  Over the past few weeks, he’d had moments of doubt concerning the plan of the Hooded Man, especially after the injury of his son. One of those moments culminated in him taking control of the giant that protected the Valhalla Greatest team by attacking the dragon inside of the simulation. An act of rebellion by the non-augmented part of his brain. This was made doubly worse since it went against the wishes of the Hooded Man, who was controlling the other AI and intent on destroying the Valhalla Greatest team.

  That night after he took the broken body of his son home to begin nanite treatment, he received a coded and encrypted message from the Hooded Man. His conscious self was oblivious; only his augmented AI brain could accept and decipher it:

  Trust the plan.

  Since then, his conscious belief in the Hooded Man returned ten times stronger than before. So much so, that he was willing to illegally imprison his son and the rest of the team indefinitely because his primary objective was to promote the plan of his associate, and master.

  He even volunteered his own punishment for resisting the will of his master during the simulation. The Hooded Man never ordered it, yet, he willingly punished his body by starving and depriving it of nourishment in order to atone for the grave sin. For Jamal, this was an easy sacrifice; after all, his master could command his death as easily as he commanded his rebirth as an augmented AI after his wife’s death.

  He remembered their meeting as if it was just yesterday. Jamal had been vulnerable, weak and depressed beyond measure at losing his life partner. He had stumbled through the VNet redundancy zones, a suicidal mission from one backdoor to the next, hoping to fry his mind and kill the unbearable pain in the process.

  Maybe guilt motivated him too? Guilt over the poor father and husband he had been in the last few years. Regardless, fate led him to the Hooded Man, who showed him a way to kill the pain and guilt without killing himself in the process. The Hooded Man merged his mind to an evolved AI unlike any he ever coded or worked with in his life. It was sentient and didn’t obey the normal laws protecting humans from AI. He didn’t know or care, what the AI did to remove his pain and make him smarter, faster and more powerful.

  The price he paid was eternal servitude to the Hooded Man, himself augmented or something far more evolved, obliged and destined to serve the mysterious entity until he ascended to glory and unprecedented power with Yu riding his coattails.

  Jamal Yu made sure that Yee and Mehemet were on the front line during the attack on the backbones, and, even though they had people inside the servers themselves, helping from the real-life side of the battle, they and their men would take most of the counterstrike from the security of the backbone servers.

  They would suffer for daring to harm his son, even if it had been sanctioned by the Hooded Man himself; these two were mere humans who deserved no better treatment.

  He forced himself to stop thinking about all this and entered a special meditative state that the Hooded Man taught him about, the one that he had been in for the entire month before presenting ROBAGUARD to the world. An important piece of the puzzle that the Hooded Man that would use to give them access to the security server of the UN.

  40

  When the Valhalla Greatest tried to spawn at the Gamers Lounge, they were logged off immediately and figured that some sort of anti-spawning code was being used. They tried again, this time spawning further away and then ran for the Gamers Lounge. It cost them a few minutes, but they eventually arrived.

  As they approached, amongst the regular gaming crowd in their gameplay avatars, they spotted several men standing in groups talking and others sitting in the café. It was apparent from their forced conversation and strategic placement that they waited for something, most likely a signal to attack.

  “I guess a frontal attack on these guys is out of the question,” Dana looked at their number and counted at least 20 men. “How should we go through with this then?”

  “Rania,” Edward said. “Can you provide a distraction for me to reach my father?”

  “Of course, I can,” she answered him. “But what good would that do?”

  “I think I might reach out to him,” Edward faced the group. “Talk to his conscience and try to understand why he thinks he needs to do this. He is already the most famous man and one of the wealthiest men on the planet. I don’t see a single logical reason for him to be doing something like this.”

  “No, not a good plan,” Jones shook her head, “if your father has been illegally augmented, the AI takes over the higher brain function to enhance them while the emotional parts are suppressed for better performance. If his AI sees what is happening as logical, you just can’t dissuade it.”

  “This is if he is augmented!” Edward was getting heated. “You assume too much with no evidence.”

  “Edward,” Rick put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “We are all on the same team here; please calm down.”

  Edward looked at him, puzzled, and realized he was about to unleash his terror again.

  “Sorry guys,” he turned away from the group, looking across to where he spotted his father talking causally to six men at a table. “You are family, but so is he.”

  “I have a brilliant idea,” Rania said, pulling Edward back into the group. “Your terror thing is at the core of it!”

  “Please explain,” Jones squared her arms over her chest as she looked at the younger, smaller girl with amusement.

  “OK, you assume that his terror doesn’t work on augmented people, right?” she asked the group.

  Mario answers her.

  “Yeah, something about the suppressed emotions of augmentation means terror and fear don’t affect them.” Mario spotted Edward glaring at him. “Sorry Edward, but I suspect it’s true; your father is augmented.”

  Edward nodded after a moment as if accepting what was obvious to the others. He looked to Rania.

  “Go on.”

  “It’s not a c
ommon process, right?” She talked fast with excitement. “Because it is highly illegal and resource consuming…”

  “Yes, and we monitor changes in suspicious individuals all the time to get the jump on them,” Jones answered her.

  “So, add this to that and the plan becomes clear,” she smiled a maniacal smile. “If Mr. Yu had 20 people with him, what are the chances that all of them are augmented?”

  “Slim, very slim,” Jones now smiled, understanding where she was headed. “It means we would be facing a maximum three to six people. That evens the odds a bit.”

  “Sorry, what are you suggesting?” Dana asked Rania.

  “It is simple really,” Rania said. “Edward stands in front of the Lounge and unleashes his terror thing; people run, scream, milk is curdled, etcetera until only the augmented ones remain.”

  “He can’t do that!” Dana said heatedly. “He would be a sitting duck, a target for all.”

  “I will be with him,” Rania said emphatically. “I can hide him from their sight for a while.”

  “Then when you cower like everyone else under the terror effect, you will leave him exposed,” Dana said, vigorously defending the youngest member of the group.

  “I will go with them,” Rick suggested. “I can call on an air shield to protect us till the terror wave is finished, so, even if Rania fails, I will be with Edward.”

  They all knew that Rick was the one among them who could resist and fight the terror, not completely, but enough that his plan might actually work.

  “OK, still risky, but I think it is doable,” Jones said. “We have to be far away enough that the terror doesn’t affect us as much as the enemy too.”

  “I think staying in the far end of the square would do it,” Edward said. “The effect should be minimal from this far away.”

  “But we have to move immediately after we see the people running away,” Mario said. “Otherwise Edward will still be a prime target. If they take him down, all will be lost.”

  41

  Jamal Yu thought that he glimpsed an avatar much like his son’s in the crowd of gamers but brushed it off as his weak human mind playing tricks. The improved Stasis Can was impervious; his son and his gang of misfits were secured safe and sound back at his hidden base.

  He buried the disquiet of his human mind knowing it was an obstacle on his real path to glory. That path led to the unveiling of his master to the world and rule with him over a new order where segmented AIs would become the new nobility.

  He checked on Yee and Mehemet and was informed that they were almost through the defenses of the last backbone, meaning five had already fallen.

  He signaled his men to get ready and checked on his arsenal of malicious codes that he would throw at the defenses of the UN security central. He was ready for anything.

  Ready to give the order, something strange happened – he felt an illogical fear building in his primitive brain. He shut it down quickly and looked around to find the source of it as pandemonium broke out in the Gamers Lounge. People, including men from his own team, began running in all directions as panic set in, screams rang through the virtual area and sirens began to sound. He quickly counted his remaining men. Only seven of the original 20 in his strike force remained, all of them augmented like him.

  And there, in the middle of the square, was his wayward son appearing out of nowhere, and next to him stood the avatar of the scraggly youth Rick. He would have to deal with them now. There were supposed to be no human causalities in this fast war, but his AI brain quickly calculated that he must kill them to ensure the success of the mission.

  He drew his surge gun even as the other augmented men began hammering the two targets. Jamal Yu fired. Light and energy crackled, and his son and his friend disappeared from view in a haze of smoke, noise and light.

  As the smoke dissipated, so did the sensation of terror in the back of his mind, and for a moment, just a fleeting moment, he felt regret that his son was dead. That was until the smoke revealed both men standing unscathed behind a shimmering wall of power.

  “Now!” a voice shouted to his right.

  Two females, one a member of Valhalla Greatest and another he didn’t recognize, and an avatar in the form of a cleric, rushed across the square to join Edward and Rick and stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

  “Father,” Edward’s voice boomed across the distance between them. “You don’t have to do this; we don’t have to fight each other.”

  “Then leave Eddy,” Jamal Yu shouted louder than his son. “I have to be here, and I want to be here, you don’t understand the forces you are standing against.”

  “There is nothing but imprisonment and servitude facing you Yu,” Jones said in a firm and determined voice. “Pull your men out, and we might consider lowering the charges and punishment that you deserve.”

  “Was she this stupid during college years?” the invisible Rania whispered, causing Dana to jump.

  “She was always a very bad liar,” Dana said from the side of her mouth. “So, I guess she grew up to be too honest – not a survival trait, as you can see.”

  “Miss Jones, you have to understand that you mean far less to me than my own son,” Jamal Yu aimed his surge gun at her. “You are just the paid help and trust me; your meager pay is not worth your life.”

  “I think we should act before they start shooting and putting us on the defense,” Mario said in a low voice. “Rania, ready?”

  “Yes!” Came the answer and Edward suddenly disappeared.

  Jamal Yu smiled.

  “You see, fools? My son was wise enough to upload himself away from here,” he adjusted his aim a bit. “You should follow his example.”

  “We are!” Rick yelled as he hurled a fireball at the nearest of Yu’s men, engulfing him from head to toe in the fire; his screams could be heard ringing long after he suited off.

  This was the signal. Rania ran with Edward, invisible to all the combatants as electricity surges showered all around them until they reached the man to the west of Jamal Yu. His body jerked like a marionette on a string as they stabbed him, only stopping when he fell unconscious and was suited off automatically.

  The rest of the team and Jones took cover behind upturned tables and furniture, moving quickly each time their cover was blown away by a surge. They made their way slowly but surely towards their destination, the doorway of the Gamers Lounge, while Edward and Rania kept the enemy busy.

  The door was not just another door to a virtual venture but a fully functioning firewall now locked in place because of the firefight in the outdoors area. Dana, Jones, Mario, and Rick made it to the relative safety of thick stone portico first and took turns shooting and casting to keep Jamal Yu and his men busy.

  A few minutes passed before Edward and Rania joined them, breathing heavily.

  “We took down four of Mr. Yu’s men,” Rania said as she leaned against the wall behind her. “There are only three plus Mr. Yu left.”

  “Next phase then,” Jones said. “I’ll access the security system and bring the defensive powers of the Lounge to bear against the forces outside.”

  She reached out and placed her hands against the door. After a moment she was granted access and her hands, followed by the rest of her body, appeared to dissolve into the heavy virtual timber of the door before finally disappearing inside.

  Only a second after disappearing, Jones found herself thrown out of the system and back into the portico with the others.

  “What program do you use?” Edward asked her when she told them what happened.

  “The very latest version of ROBAGUARD of course.”

  “Oh shit! I think it was created after my father was corrupted,” Edward swallowed. “We’ll have to hunt them one at a time without the help of the defenses of the Lounge.”

  They looked at each other and nodded.

  “I will cast rubber shield on all of you, not to deflect but to ground the surges if they touch you. I don’t know how man
y hits you can take before you become vulnerable, but hopefully it’s enough,” Edward said, then began the incantation and followed it with a blessing for the entire group.

  “I don’t know how you and your group do the things that you do,” said Jones, coming forward to receive her blessing. “And I can’t say I won’t investigate you when all of this is done, but I will take whatever you are willing to give so we can finish this fight.”

  When he was done, they exploded out of the doorway in every direction. Rick charged at the man standing beside the entrance of the next building over and hammered him with fireballs till the man suited off.

  Rania had Dana in tow this time, and they attacked the man standing at the west end of the square. One Soul Shatter spell from Dana knocked him unconscious, and he automatically suited off.

  This left Jamal Yu facing his son, and Jones facing the last man at the eastern end of the square.

  Edward weaved and evaded the surges until he was only a meter away from his father. Using his superior strength and reach as the Tank Fighter Son of Beelzebub, he landed a huge blow to his father’s jaw, throwing him meters in the air before he came crashing down onto the hard pavement of the square.

  Meanwhile, Jones fired three times at the cowering man facing her, then lowered her gun and stood very still. The man couldn’t believe his luck. She missed! He was still smiling when the heavy sign advertising Better Tomorrow Health Insurance crashed down upon him.

  Rick looked at her in admiration as they inspected the mess.

  “What the poor s.o.b didn’t realize,” Jones said, “is that I never miss. He was wearing very sophisticated body armor, and my shots would have done nothing, so, I aimed for something that would do some damage.”

  “Awesome,” said Rick in newfound respect as they joined Edward, who stood over his father.

  “Father, all your men, are gone,” Edward said, looking down upon Jamal Yu. “Surrender please and let’s end this madness.”