by Terry Schott
“What?” Ivan leaned forward and grabbed her arm. “Did you or didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I saw him.”
Ivan gauged her expression for a moment. “You recognized him?”
She nodded.
“Well.” His eyes widened and he spread his arms. “Who was it?”
She shook her head. “This is gonna sound crazy, but I think it was Cooper.”
Ivan looked confused. “Cooper? That name rings a bell but I don’t think I’ve met anyone by that name. Is he an old friend from your other life?”
Loredana rubbed her forehead with one hand. “I think there’s only one place either of us has encountered anyone named Cooper.”
Ivan looked at the wall, mumbling the name as he searched his memory. Then his gaze snapped back to her and his eyebrows furrowed. “No.”
“I think so.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He disappeared through a door of light.”
Ivan blinked. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not. I think a character from Shawn Whitehurst’s science fiction book saved my life.”
#13
Shawn entered the coffee shop and looked around. He saw a man and woman sitting in a booth. The woman smiled and raised her hand. Shawn did the same and began moving toward them.
The woman stood and shook his hand. “Hello, Shawn. It’s so good to meet you. I’m Loredana. This is Ivan Thorne.”
Shawn’s smile froze as he looked down at Ivan. “Did she just say your last name is Thorne?”
Ivan laughed and shook the author’s hand. “She did. Kind of cool, huh?”
“Uh. Yeah.”
“Don’t worry, my name is spelled different.”
Shawn looked pale. “Let me guess. Your name has an e on the end of it?”
Ivan frowned. “That’s right.”
Loredana sat down. Shawn remained standing, his expression grim. “You messing with me, Loredana?”
She looked at Ivan. “What do you mean, Shawn?”
“Someone get you an advance copy of my new book, Shadows?”
“I had no idea you were about to release a new book. Is it set in the Game is Life universe as well?”
Shawn rested his blank stare on Ivan. “How ‘bout you, champ? You read Shadows?”
Ivan laughed. “Nope. Sorry. I loved your Game is Life books, though. I will check it out when it comes out for sure.”
The author watched them both for another moment, then laughed and sat across from them. “Okay, fine. Sorry ‘bout that. I guess I’m just a little tense with the new book coming out and all.”
“No problem.” Loredana reached for the coffee thermos and poured them each a cup. “I’m sorry we asked you to meet us in a coffee shop. I suppose we should really invest in an office of some sort.” She smiled. “We can certainly afford it.”
“I love coffee shops.” Shawn reached for a cup and took a drink. “I spend a lot of time in them, writing my books. I find the background noise comforting.” He set the cup down and scanned the other booths. “I think I also like the company. I get lonely sitting by myself in my apartment.” He shrugged. “Sure, I’m surrounded by strangers, but they are still people, right?”
“Yeah.” Ivan nodded. “How are the books doing for you? I mean in the sales category.”
“They are doing great.” Shawn smiled. “I’m building an awesome fan base of diverse people who all seem to love the stuff I write. Can’t ask for more than that as an author.”
“You could ask for millions of dollars.” Ivan raised the cup to his lips, his eyes glinting over the rim.
“Someday.”
“You own all the rights to your work?” Loredana reached down and pulled a file from the briefcase on the ground beside her.
“I do.”
“Are you in talks to develop a movie or television show based on the series?”
“No.”
“What about theme park rights?” Ivan asked.
Shawn laughed. “No. I haven’t talked to anyone about theme park rights.” His smile faded and he cocked his head to one side as he looked at Loredana. “Look, Miss Cyber—”
“Please, call me Loredana.”
“Okay. Look, Loredana, I don’t know what the two of you are playing at, but when your secretary called—”
Ivan raised his hand. “That was me.” His gaze slid to his partner. “We seriously need to hire a secretary.”
“And get an office.” She nodded.
“Anyway.” Shawn frowned as he looked back and forth between the two across from him. “When Ivan called, he said you wanted to meet me and talk about the books. I don’t normally do that, but you’re a pretty famous person.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ve always loved your family’s theme parks.” Shawn smiled. “Give my kids a choice of where to vacation, and it is always at one CyberWorld park or another.”
Ivan groaned and shook his head. “That’s not her stuff anymore.”
“Oh.” Shawn coughed and raised one hand. “That’s right. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.” Loredana nodded. “Please continue.”
“Yeah. Anyway. Now that I’m here, sitting with the two of you. I get the impression you’re not here to talk about the story.” He jutted his chin toward Ivan. “First you tell me this one is a Thorne.”
“I am.” Ivan frowned.
“Then you start asking me about the rights I own.” Shawn shook his head. “I’m a guy who writes stories. That’s about the extent of my excitement in life these days.”
“You sit around and write stories?” Ivan reached for the thermos and poured more coffee.
“That’s right.”
“Sure you aren’t writing about real people?” Ivan raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms.
“What?” Shawn sighed. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” He stood. “Thanks for the coffee, but I think it’s best if I get going.”
As he started to walk away, Loredana spoke. “Mr. Whitehurst, we would like to offer you ten million dollars for the theme park rights to your Game world.”
Shawn stopped walking. “How much?”
“Ten million.”
“For theme park rights?”
“Yes, please.”
He turned and looked at Loredana. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
She nodded.
Shawn came back to the booth and sat down. He pushed the cup out of his way and placed his hands in his lap. “Okay, then. Let’s hear your offer. I think we might have a deal.”
Loredana looked at Ivan. They both smiled.
#14
The technicians and salespeople all stopped talking as Glen entered the room. He smiled and placed both hands on the back of his chair as he glanced around the room.
“I have to admit, ladies and gentlemen, I did not think this day would come.” He laughed and sat, reaching for the pair of glasses in front of him, unfolding and holding them up in order to see them from as many angles as possible. There was a small red button near the hinge on the left. “Is this how they get turned on, Adrian?”
“Yes.” The woman sitting to his right nodded. “Before you activate them, there are a few things to go over.”
“Nonsense.” He held the glasses close enough to his eyes so that he could see through the lenses. “You said they were plug and play. Put them on and turn ‘em on?”
“That’s right, but if you will allow me to cover some of the bas—”
Glen waved his hand. “Adrian, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for our team of nerds”—he smiled at the technicians seated at the table. “No offence.”
“None taken.” A pretty blonde woman with green eyes smiled.
“Thank you.” He smiled at her, his eyes lingering on her shapely form and tight red dress before turning back to Adrian. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for our nerds to develop a virtual reality of our own?”
“Yea
rs.”
“Years.” Glen placed the glasses on the table and ran a hand through his hair. “Ever since that little—” He paused and laughed. “Ever since Loredana put sOar on the market, I’ve been waiting for us to respond with virtual reality of our own. Now that she has stopped selling hers, we will be the leaders in this brand new industry.”
“Sir?” Adrian leaned toward him.
Glen raised one hand. “In a minute. Please, for God’s sake, let me enjoy this without nattering in my ear.”
Adrian sighed and crossed her arms. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” He picked up the glasses, put them on, and touched the red button.
Nothing happened.
“Did I do something wrong?” He looked at Adrian, who raised one eyebrow and stayed quiet.
A few moments passed, and still Glen did not sense anything different. One hand drifted toward the red button to turn it off.
“Ah, ah, ah.” A technician called out from one side of the table. “Leave ‘em on.”
“Why?” Glen scowled. “They’re broken.”
The technician reached toward the middle of the board table and tapped against the surface. Glen’s eyes widened as the wood rippled like water. “What the—”
The wood exploded toward the ceiling. Glen jumped back, then leaned forward to see a fluffy black and white puppy crawl out of the hole. It looked around, let out a small bark, then plopped down on the table with its head resting on its paws.
“Well, that’s cute,” Glen said.
The puppy raised its head and looked down the table. When it saw him, it stood up and began running toward him, barking and wagging its tail. When it was only a short distance away, it jumped toward him, sailing through the air with paws outstretched. Glen leaned back and braced himself for the impact.
At the exact moment the two should have touched, the puppy disappeared.
“What the?” Glen’s head swivelled around, looking first behind him and then beneath the table. “Where did it go?” He got down on his hands and knees.
“It’s not under there.” Adrian drawled.
Glen poked his head above the table and looked at her. “Where is it, then?”
She reached out and touched the red button on his glasses, then removed them and placed them on the table. “That’s what I was trying to tell you. The glasses aren’t virtual reality.”
Glen stood. “What are they, then?”
“Augmented reality. The glasses allow us to project a type of reality over top of our own. We take the items in our world and augment them with additional images and sounds, as observed through the glasses.”
Glen frowned and plopped down into his chair. “Is that how sOar worked?”
Adrian’s eyes widened. “You didn’t buy a ticket?”
“Of course not.”
“Congratulations, you are likely the only person with access to technology who did not fly when given the opportunity.”
He scowled and nodded toward the glasses. “Tell me how these differ from the virtual reality of sOar.”
“This isn’t virtual reality.”
“What?”
Adrian shrugged. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for months now. We can’t replicate what they did. We can’t create VR.”
Glen swore and slammed his hand against the table, breaking the glasses. Blood ran down his hand.
“You just destroyed a two hundred thousand dollar piece of technology.”
“Who cares! If it’s not virtual reality then it’s garbage.”
“That’s not exactly true, sir,” the technician in the red dress said. “Without sOar, our augmented reality—brand new and cutting-edge technology that no one else can figure out how to do, by the way—will be very successful.”
“Really?” Glen frowned as his eyes slid to Adrian.
“Absolutely. Especially when we program it so that our characters can appear in their habitats and interact with park visitors who are paying to wear these new glasses.”
Glen considered the possibilities and nodded. “Of course, you’re right.” He picked up a broken arm from the glasses. “I am assuming we can make these for less than two hundred thousand a pair?”
Adrian grinned. “Once we begin production it will cost very little, and visitors will pay a premium for the new interactive experience that we can provide them.”
Glen nodded. “Okay, I guess that’s good.” He looked at the technicians. “I still wish we could have created our own virtual reality.”
“So do we.” Adrian rubbed one eyebrow.
“I find it hard to believe we couldn’t reverse engineer the technology. We bought thousands of tickets and put them in the hands of our engineers.”
One of the engineers laughed and Glen looked at him. “What’s so funny?”
“The tickets.” The engineer shook his head. “It was impossible to learn anything from them.”
“Why?”
“Because as far as we were able to determine, using the best technology and equipment that Cyber Inc. could buy, the tickets were nothing more than plain pieces of tape.”
“What? That’s impossible.”
“And so is virtual reality, at least as far as everyone in the world except Loredana Cyber and Ivan Thorne are concerned.”
#15
Loredana took a sip of whiskey and rested the glass on the table, smiling at the older woman sitting across from her. “Thanks for meeting with me, Moriko.”
The Japanese woman smiled. “It is always a pleasure to spend time with you, Loredana.” She looked down at her own glass and turned it slowly on the table. “It has been strange without a Cyber leading us.”
“Have you considered my offer?"
Moriko nodded.
“And spoken with the rest of the division?”
“Those who matter, yes.”
Loredana waited. She had known Moriko since she was a little girl and knew that the woman did not respond to pressure.
Moriko’s head tilted. “Your offer is very generous. We did not need to discuss it for very long before we came to a unanimous decision to accept.”
Loredana exhaled and laughed, tears forming in her eyes. “Oh, Moriko, I am so happy to hear that.”
“We are worried, however.”
“About what? I will keep my word. Each of you will receive two million dollars. You will never have to work again if that is what you choose.”
“That is the problem. We want to work for you, yet some of us do not see how you can use us in your new business.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that. I have work for you to do. Perhaps the most challenging work you have ever encountered.”
Moriko grinned. “Such a thought is exciting.”
***
“I have some bad news.”
Glen looked up from his meal and shook his head. “I prefer it when you bring me good news, Yuri.” The other man did not smile, and Glen sighed. “What is it?”
“You have lost the animatronix team.”
“Oh.” He looked back down at his plate. “About time.” He took a bite, waiting for Yuri to continue, but there was only silence. Finally he looked up. The older man was staring at him with a weird expression on his face. “What?”
“Your reaction wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“About the animatronix division?” He shrugged. “I always figured they were kept around for nostalgia’s sake.” He waited for a response from Yuri but got none. He lowered his fork and knife. “They make creepy robots that move all jerky and pretend to be real, for God’s sake. They were important and key when nothing like them existed decades ago, but technology has moved forward since then. Our newer robots and computer-generated automatons are significantly better today. I don’t know who pulled the plug, but I support it.” He took a bite of food and nodded as he chewed.
“The division wasn’t shut down. They all quit and went to work for Loredana.”
Glen frowned, stil
l chewing. “Huh? Why would she want them?”
“They do much more for this organization than design the old-style ‘scary-looking robots’. The animatronix division is responsible for every moving character part in all of our parks around the world. Even the new ones, although there is a subdivision labelled, ‘robotics’. That is still tied to animatronix.”
“Really?” Glen raised one eyebrow.
Yuri nodded. “If it had a character face or song attached to it, the animatronix team was involved.” He shook his head. “How did you not know this, Glen?”
“There’s a lot I don’t know, Yuri.” He set his cutlery down and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Don’t scold me. People like you are paid a lot of money to tell me what I do need to know, when I need to hear it.”
Yuri folded his arms and pursed his lips.
“Do we need to get them back?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
“I tried.” Yuri shook his head.
Glen dropped his napkin on the plate and pushed it away. “I doubt she took everyone.”
“Only the most experienced. The creators. Those we need to keep things running smoothly.”
“Then promote those who are left and lock it all down so those who are gone cannot access anything to take with them.”
“Already on it.”
“Good.”
***
Loredana and Ivan stood by the back door inside the newly leased warehouse. Ivan looked at his watch. “It’s almost two a.m.”
“They will be here.”
As if on cue, the loud beeping of a truck backing up sounded outside. Ivan winced. “They couldn’t have disabled that? Sounds like a storm siren.”
Loredana laughed. “Only because it’s late and quiet. Don’t worry, no one knows about this location and there is no way anyone can track it back to us.”
The truck shut off and Ivan opened the door. Moriko stood in the back of a large trailer. Men scrambled behind her with dollies and carts, sliding them under large items covered with tarps and lifting them off the floor of the trailer. “Hello, Loredana.”
“Hiya, Moriko. Any problems getting them out?”
The woman shook her head. “We moved them weeks ago to areas where they would be accessible to us.”