“Howdy Champ!” A woman’s face appeared on a drop down screen in front of my chair. She had short, dirty blonde hair, and a splattering of cute freckles on her face.
“Hello,” I greeted her.
“I’m Renee Vacca, and I’ll be your pilot for our short trip. I’m coming at you from the control desk here at the Arnacript Campus. Can you buckle your seatbelt please?”
“Oh, sorry.” I grabbed the belt parts and put them together.
“Thank you, I have to admit. I’m a little nervous right now. I’m a huge fan. Huge fan.” She smiled slightly, and I felt the aircraft lift through the air before my eyes could actually register that we have moved away from the hotel building.
“Thanks.” I forced myself to smile as the pod spun in the air. I risked a glance out the window and saw that we levitated well above the tops of the tallest skyscraper. “This thing is safe, right?” I asked.
“Sure. I mean, I’m not actually in the aircraft now, so, that assurance probably doesn’t mean that much to you, but I’ve gotta say that, not only would I feel really, really, really damn bad if I killed you by accident. I would definitely get fired. Like super fired. Really bad fired. Then I’m sure the world would find out that I crashed the jet pod you were in, and I’d probably get murdered until I was a pool of blood.”
The ground started to race below me, and I felt my stomach spin with confusion. My back pushed against the comfortable leather of my seat, but then I felt the pressure begin to relax from my chest. I risked another glance out the window, realized that the ground looked like an impressionist painting of mostly browns, and decided to focus on the empty seat in front of me.
“-- believe she had bet against you. Can you believe it? I was all like ‘Mom, you know that Leo is the best there is, was, and will ever be?’ But now she has to do all the chores around the house for the next six months.” Renee had been talking, but I’d lost the first part of her sentence when she accelerated.
“Are you from California?” I asked.
“Kind of! Lived there until I was twelve, then the family moved to Texas. Hill Country area, you ever been?”
“The Championship match five years ago was in Austin, but I didn’t get a chance to leave the hotel or venue.”
“Ahh, yeah. I remember that one. Sorry, I’m like, really nervous and am blabbering. The good news is that we are here!”
I felt the aircraft slow and then drop glide slowly downward. We were above a massive building that almost looked like a futuristic castle made out of gray concrete. Part of the roof opened up like a trap door, and the vehicle descended into the maw of the massive structure as if it was a tiny fish falling into a whale’s mouth.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe I should have brought Chip, or Dale, or one of my friends. Granted, I was in very good physical shape, knew over twenty different martial arts, and played a virtual fighting game for a living, so my two bodyguards weren’t exactly necessary.
But I couldn’t outfight being trapped in a building that looked suspiciously like a high-security prison.
The tinting on the windows seemed to lighten, and I saw the interior of the hanger when we descended. There were two more jet pods parked on the polished floor, as well as a larger fixed wing jet, and a fleet of black painted vans. All of the vehicles had the magenta Arnacript name and logo painted on their sides, and the logo looked like the cross between a brain and a planet.
“Thank you for flying Air Arnacript. Please remember to unbuckle your seatbelt, and don’t forget any of your belongings,” Renee said in a rather monotonous voice, and I wondered if she was reading a script.
The pod stopped moving, and the door slid open. I unbuckled the seatbelt, grabbed my suitcase, and then peered out the door. It looked like the craft was sitting on some sort of landing gear, and I didn’t have to worry about exiting while it hovered.
“Thanks for the ride, Renee,” I turned to look back at the screen.
“Oh, well, ummm, you are welcome. Maybe I’ll be assigned to take you back home. I can’t wait to tell my mom.” Her freckled face turned a dark shade of red as she spoke.
“Mr. Lennox,” a voice called to me from outside of the jet. I turned toward it and saw an older man, dressed in a dark black suit. He was a few inches shorter than me, but his gray hair was thick, long, and he looked as if he maintained his body.
“Hi,” I finished stepping out of the aircraft and moved toward the man with my hand outstretched.
“Pleasure to meet you,” he said as our palms touched. “I am Casper Protter, the vice president of operations here.”
“Nice to meet you.” His grip was stronger than I expected.
“I want to show you around, but we have some paperwork to do first.” He gestured across the hanger to some distant doors, and we walked toward them. “You can leave your suitcase by the jet pod, and someone will take it to your room.”
“NDA stuff?” I asked as I set my luggage on the hanger floor. It was normal procedure to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I got a glimpse at new technology.
“Exactly.”
“Should I have brought my lawyer?”
“It is just boilerplate stuff really. If you have any questions, we have no problem sending the jet pod to pick him or her up. Did you enjoy the flight?”
“Yes, it was much faster than I expected.”
“It can go up to three thousand miles per hour.” The man smiled as he spoke. “We actually just recently acquired the fleet.”
“Had to cost a pretty penny,” I said, but the man only smiled at me and then opened a thick steel door.
“President Zerne is finishing up a few phone calls. She is sorry that she couldn’t meet you in the hangar.” He led me down a colorless, and sterile hallway to a glass-walled conference room.
“Oh, that’s no problem.”
“If you’ll take a seat here. I’ll show you your itinerary for the rest of the day.” I followed his instructions and sat on a brown leather seat at the glass table.
“We expect the paperwork to be quick, but we can be flexible if you need to speak with your lawyer.” He passed me a thick slip of paper with a timetable printed in bold lettering. “We have allocated a few hours to show you our research. That will include a tour of our medical facilities. Then we’ll have an hour-long lunch with a Q and A session. Afterward, we will show you our full immersion VR station, and you can test our game. We think you’ll really enjoy it, so we’ve allocated five hours for that activity.”
“The game is still in its early Alpha phase. So we would welcome any feedback you can offer us,” Zarra’s voice yanked me away from my study of the itinerary.
The beautiful woman had snuck in while Casper spoke, and we both rose from our seats to greet her. She wore a houndstooth patterned pencil skirt that hugged her curves as if it was made out of plastic wrap. Her blouse was a pastel salmon color, and the hue seemed to accentuate her tan skin. The shirt seemed to make the strange color of her eyes even brighter, and I found myself trying not to fall into them when we shook hands.
“I am very happy to see you, Leo. I am sorry about the delay,” she apologized. The lighting in the room was better than in the diner where we had first met, but I still didn’t see a wrinkle, blemish, or oily spot on the woman's skin. It was hard to tell her age exactly, but I guessed that she was in her late twenties.
“Mr. Lennox and I were reviewing the itinerary, but now we need to move onto the documentation.” Casper opened a black case and handed me a digipad.
“Excellent,” she said as she lowered herself into the chair next to me. She smelled faintly of night jasmine and honey.
I took the device from his hand and began to read. My lawyer was actually Sal’s cousin, but I had seen enough NDAs to know the basics of what I was getting myself into: “don’t tell anyone about what you see here or we'll sue you”. I finished reading the legal speak and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I didn’t think I n
eeded to call her.
“This looks fine.”
“Sign at the bottom with your finger, and then push that same finger against the sensor on the bottom for your print approval,” Casper said, and I followed his instructions.
“Next is the medical release form,” the suited man said as the pad displayed a new block of text.
I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary on this either. It was summarizing that I couldn’t sue them if their VR system or game did any damage to me. I hesitated for a bit, only because Zarra had hinted that some of the game was in the alpha phase, but if their new fangled full immersion machine seemed too dangerous, I just wouldn’t use it.
I signed the bottom and then approved it with my fingertip.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“No, that is it,” Casper said as he took the digipad from me.
“We will show you around now. Please follow me,” Zarra seemed to levitate out of her chair. She was wearing a tall pair of black heels, and I tried to keep my eyes from all the wrong places of her backside.
For the next thirty minutes, the three of us walked around Arnacript’s main building. Zarra and Casper kept the conversation flowing with a tasteful mix of background on the company, explanation of the various departments that we visited, and personal introductions. The last part probably ended up taking a little longer than Casper expected, and I could see some annoyance on the older man’s chiseled face. The company seemed to have over a few thousand employees, and my hosts eventually had to tell their people that I couldn’t do individual photo ops with them.
The history of Arnacript Incorporated was typical of any pharmaceutical or software company. The two founders each came from a different segment. One was looking for a cure for Alzheimer's, and the other had a long resume of consulting with VR companies that were trying to beat Astafar Unlimited. As Zarra was telling me their story, we walked into an area of the office complex with significantly nicer furniture, Greek looking sculptures, and potted fern plants. I had been on many company tours, and this looked to be the foyer to the usual executive office suites.
“These are the founders. Mikael and Sabella Zerne,” Zarra gestured to the large painting that hung near us.
“Your parents?” I asked the obvious.
“Yes, they would like to meet you later for dinner tonight,” Zarra said with a wide smile. “I know it is very sudden, meeting my parents after only our first date, but…” Her smile turned into a smirk.
“I look forward to meeting them. Can you show me the medical facilities? I want to speak with the patients that you have cured.” I felt a flurry of emotions battle in my stomach, and I tried to keep my face impassive. I could admit to myself that I was attracted to Zarra, and that I was partially here to see more of her. But the picture of her rich parents made me realize that I needed to keep our relationship professional. I’d grown up poor, and had worked my ass off to become world champion. I didn’t think there was any way I could develop a romantic relationship with a woman born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
Nepotism just didn’t sit well with me, even though I knew it was the way that most of the world worked.
“Of course, Leo. We will need to leave this building and head to the next one. Right this way.” I followed her and Casper down a few more halls, and then we came to a security checkpoint.
There were two men in suits pacing beside a metal detector. There were also weird airlock doors behind the checkpoint. Perhaps the men wouldn’t have been intimidating, since they were both smaller than me, and I was used to being around Chip and Dale, but both of them had military looking auto-shotguns hanging from their shoulders.
“What’s with the muscle?” I asked my hosts as I nodded to the gorillas.
“We work with younger patients, and sometimes their condition makes them violent. I’m sure you’ve seen it with your parents. The guns are loaded with sandbags, in case a patient has a violent episode.” Zarra frowned as she spoke.
“You don’t need to leave your wallet, but please leave your phone. Seeing the device sometimes disturbs our patients,” Casper said.
“I get it,” I handed my phone to the nearest gorilla, and he set it down on a far desk. The other one gestured for me to walk through the archway.
“And the metal detector?”
“We once had an employee forget that he carried his pocket knife. One of the patients grabbed it, and two of our doctors were seriously injured,” Zarra said as she walked through the detector behind me.
“Ahh,” I said with a nod, but her story sounded strange, and the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand on end. Sure, some people in the later stages of Alzheimer's or Dementia could become violent, but most of that happened because they had hallucinations, or had nightmares that they believed were real. The amount of security here seemed absurd.
There were plenty of drugs that could treat those negative symptoms.
But then again, I was an athlete, and not a doctor. If Zarra was saying that they had success treating this disease, I needed to have an open mind for as long as it would take for me to determine that she was full of shit.
Okay, so maybe I didn’t have that open of a mind.
We walked into the first air lock portion of the tunnel into the next building. The two goons moved to the doorway, and pressed a switch on the side wall. A thick steel door with a small glass window slid into place, and the door on the opposite side of the chamber opened a few seconds after.
“And an airlock?” I asked my two hosts with a raised eyebrow.
“Our facilities are near a major highway. We don’t want patients to somehow exit the building and get hurt,” Casper explained with a nod.
"Also, it isn't uncommon in this day and age for corporations to steal from each other. They even hire ex-military or criminals to do the work. Our research here is valuable, and I need to protect my employees, patients, and shareholders. The security might seem a bit overbearing, but it is necessary. I'm sure you understand," Zarra added.
"That makes sense."
Unlike the drab gray decor of the business side of Arnacript’s facility, the treatment area beyond the airlock was a polished white. Every surface looked as if it was brand new, and the hallway seemed to stretch out into forever as if it led to heaven.
“This place seems huge,” I said as we walked across the flooring, I almost thought it was marble, but my shoes didn’t resonate with the same sound as they did with stone, and I guessed that they were just some sort of polished dense rubber.
“We have built it for success. In five years we hope to be able to house two thousand patients at a time, spend a few months treating them, and then return them to their families as if they never had any form of mental disability.” Zarra’s amethyst eyes seemed to sparkle as she spoke, and it did seem to me that the woman was passionate about her work.
“This way, Mr. Lennox.” Casper pointed to a double swinging door, and I followed the suited man. We were in a common room that was maybe half the size of a football field, with a ceiling that was made out of muted skylights, couches scattered into small hexagon shapes, leather reclining chairs, tables with board games, and small clumps of waist-high plants.
Calming music flowed through the large room. I saw that a grand piano sat in the far corner, and a well-dressed man was playing the instrument. I didn’t know if the furniture or plants were arranged in some secret feng shui matrix, but something about the room combined with the sunlight and the piano playing put me at ease, and the tension in my muscles relaxed a bit.
“We have a small group of patients who are on the path of recovery. They are waiting to speak with you,” Zarra gestured across the open room to a group of eight people. Two of them appeared to be doctors, or at least, they wore white lab coats. The other six were dressed in comfortable looking cotton uniforms and wore slippers.
“Is there anything I shouldn’t talk about?” I asked as we walked toward the group.
&
nbsp; “No, you can speak of anything, but I would prefer that you don’t get into too much detail about our game. I don’t want you to have any preconceived notions of what is in store for you.” I could tell that she was trying to use her Sexy Wicked Grin ability on me, but I was definitely building up a resistance.
The doctors were male, and they gave me the look of adoration that I had seen too many times to count. As soon as we neared one of them cleared his throat and then spoke to the six patients.
“We have a special guest meeting with us today. Do any of you know who Leo Lennox is?” The doctor finished talking as I approached and Zarra gestured for me to sit on the couch next to her, opposite the patients.
“I know! He is the champ!” The speaker was an older black man, maybe in his late seventies, and he beamed at me.
“Hey, grampa, nice to meet you.” I held my hand out, and he shook it gratefully.
“Champ of what?” a woman asked. She had long gray hair with some pink colored bow ties in the loose braids.
“He plays Astafar Unlimited. Everyone knows the champ! Best there is, was, and ever will be,” a tiny Asian woman said from the far end.
“Ahhh, thank you… Becca,” I said after I glanced at her sticker name tag.
They all seemed really nervous, and a few of them made quick glances at Zarra. Most of them did smile, though, and I figured that they were either excited that I was here, or they knew that Zarra was in ultimate charge of their treatment.
“Leo had some questions for all of you,” the mocha skinned beauty said as she rested her hand on my bicep.
“I do. Can you all tell me about your recovery?” I asked
“It has been wonderful, Champ,” the older black man that I had shaken hands with said. He sat up a bit on the couch, and I could see his name was Sam. “I used to forget stuff. Well, that’s not entirely correct. I used to remember the wrong stuff. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah. I do,” I said and tried not to think about my parents.
“I’d think dreams were real, but they weren’t of course, and then I wouldn’t understand where I was. The crazy thing is that I can look back at all that now, and I know that I wasn’t in my right mind. I knew I was sick. That normally doesn’t happen with this disease. You just get worse and worse.” He smiled and nodded at me when he finished.
Lion's Quest: Undefeated: A LitRPG Saga Page 5