KILLER GAMERS

by D Gemcats Purcell

  The Securinet computers were now crunching numbers and utilizing their full AI capabilities to make sense of this strange crime wave. It was realized rather quickly that this slow attrition of mid level county, city, provincial leaders had started about one and a half years ago over the whole planet and had been in fact accelerating. As a result it was becoming more noticeable. Yet there was no clear pattern of culprits. A few suspects in fact had been brought in for interrogation, none had been so far helpful. This new ‘perp’ Ashley seemed to raise a whole new line of investigation. Plus he was caught red handed. Within minutes of this information going up the chain, the supreme chief, head of all things Securinet, Mr. Breecher was on secure vidcom with the Command Headquarters (CH) in Bainbridge speaking with Miss Sarah Whiteman. Over the whole of Toigan, the deaths were over one thousand and increasing, totally confounding law enforcement. This was top priority now and Mr. Ronald Breecher was expressing his thankfulness to the city of Bainbridge Securinet Officers, but told them that they were to engage the assassin gently and let him talk if he wanted to, but to be gentle. He was going to come personally and would be with his high powered Team Five.

  Team Five got the call. There was red flashing all over their vidcoms. ‘Possible lead on the mysterious murders’ so plan on a trip to the city of Bainbridge normally eight hours away by commercial aircraft but only one and a half by hypersonic transport. They were going with the hypersonic transport of course. Team Six got only a warning alert, letting them know of Team Five’s imminent deployment and the gravity of the situation. Plus with two of Team Five wedded to Team Six, there would be crossover of information anyway. They were to be ready to travel in three hours from the air force base on the outskirts of the city Pommerose.

  5. CAPTAIN RONALD’S DISTRESS

  Jonah and Jessi had just returned from helping Moog and Juliana with their early spring planting on their spread in Minorcaville. They had helped with the plowing and fertilizing days ago and today completed the rest of the chores. It was fantastic to be able to help his brother and to see how their two wives worked so well together. Jessi, despite not having grown up in a farming community, had mastered the chores and threw herself into it in a way that showed how much she enjoyed being out in nature. Obviously too, she enjoyed being with her man and her brother in law and his wife Juliana. Jonah was adoring of her. It really brought joy to him and the rest of his family too, to experience the genuine way that she had melded into the routines and workings of their agrarian existence. Even his former schoolmates, Ruston and Charlie over the last few months got to really meet her and appreciate her. He had taken her to their farming and factory operations to spend the day when they had some down time. She was particularly intrigued by the Ruston family’s operation that involved growing cultured meats in huge vats under extremely stringent hygienic conditions from genetic stock. She took great interest in the way the fibroblast lines worked along with the adipocyte lines to create the marbled meats with lines of connective tissue-like septa plus the rows of pinned trays to spread out the strips of meat to exercise them and thus impart toughness. It was also nice to observe her keen interest in the way the Noncoms recycled nutrients like factory waste to help grow tremendous crops of vegetables and fruit trees. Then the cycle continued with those same vegetable raw materials being used back in the factories to make healthy foods for Noncom and Modern communities alike. Not bad for a Modern, who prior to meeting him, had never interacted with any Noncoms. She was totally taken in by Fetch, Charlie’s super AI infused robot. It was fun to see her down on the floor arguing with Fetch over some obscure theoretical problem. As they pulled into the driveway of his parents home, his wrist vibrated and he quickly turned on the sound button. The call was coming from Captain Ronald, surprise, surprise!

  Captain Ronald’s voice came on, “Jonah good evening, I hope that I’m not catching you at a bad time. I hate to impose on you, but I needed some help quickly and the only person that I could think of with the skill set that may be pertinent here is you and your team. “

  Jonah, “Oh my gosh Captain, I am thrilled that you thought of me and us really. “

  He began, now a bit hesitantly, reluctantly, “Its sort of personal and not at all anything good. I sort of hate exposing you to my unpleasant laundry. It’s about my son Josh. Even when I’m away up top performing my space duties, I make it a point to stay in close touch with my family daily and at worse, every other day. I know my wife Esmeralda appreciates it. I try to be a part of their every day lives. He is twenty, just a year older than you guys and he chose to be a software salesperson mostly involving games, online games. As such he spends a lot of time playing games and some of them are reportedly very hardcore. He has a lot of exposure on Playernet and some interplanetary version of it that he has mentioned. Whatever, I, we, meaning Esmeralda and I can tell when he has spent quite a bit of time playing on those networks. He becomes tired, morose, bad tempered frankly. He himself has over the last few months made statements to the effect that he really does not like the way those games or the network makes him feel. He has said that he feels drawn to go back even when he feels like ‘shit’ after playing it. He used the word ‘angry and feels like he is supposed to go kill people’. He is a very astute young man and somewhat introspective and if he says that about himself, then I fear what it might be doing to others who might be of a weaker constitution! It’s something called Vid net or a similar name. Now that I am physically down here with him and seeing the transition of his moods in my face up close, I really am concerned.”

  Captain Ronald sighed, “I am sure that you’ll think that I’m a bit unhinged over this, but this is so abnormal. He has been through the Immersion and coped well. Usually if there is some underlying mental illness brewing, they’ll find it then, I’m told. It is devastating to find him like that. I know you guys seem to be able to probe minds, could you look at him for me.”

  Jonah said, “We can try, but only with his consent you know.” Captain Ronald said, “He was so impressed with you all when we got to spend that fun evening over at your brother’s place and he is aware that you and your group have some special talent. I mentioned that you all may come over and take a look at those videos that seem to bother him the most and he said ‘OK’ to that at least. Hey bring Matt if you can drag him along. I know Rona has asked about him and he is a sweet young man, just the kind I hope she would get to know to be honest. He is much more upstanding than some of the bozos she has spent her time with in my opinion and she is my daughter.”

  Jonah said, “OK matchmaker Dad, we will work on it. I’ve got your address now from this link up. Can we try to pop over in the morning, would that work for you and him?”

  “Yes most definitely it would,” he said. Jonah said, “We don’t know what Matt’s status and time is like though.” The Captain said, “I understand and of course, there is no rush on that! Thank you and see you soon.”

  Jessi who had been listening, had a furrowed brow. Her lips tightened as she said, “Do you remember when we went through the ‘Human Foibles’ course, that about ten thousand years ago, there was a rash of crimes wherein young people were brainwashed by unconscious induction through visual stimuli into doing dangerous things. AI was created to weed out the introduction of such stimuli whether visual or auditory to prevent the public from consuming such thrash, but what if someone has figured out a way to get around that. Oh my gosh, that would be horrible.”

  Jonah stopped suddenly, “Lord Meneer, you are right. Those crimes that have been occurring all over Toigan! We have to get on this right away. Team Five is about to go on the hunt. We need to let them know of this possibility right away. The Captain has opened our minds to this, even though it might not be what’s happening to his son though. Someone may just have found a way to defeat the controls placed on games and videos to facilitate their own twisted ideas.”

  Jessi and Jonah finally, after some discussion, got out of their van where they had taken
the call from Captain Ronald and trudged through the backyard from the garage area to the house side door. Jonah put his arm around her waist and she leaned into him feeling his muscles coiling and uncoiling through his work pants. Jessi punched in the code, even though the facial recognition would have done the job. She did not want to wait the second for the camera software to get a good look though. Jonah’s family and all of Six’s families had taken some additional security measures around their properties after the attempt by Outlaws to take revenge for Six’s participation in the dismantling of their mob like activities in the region. The Outlaws as a group, had now largely been extirpated from society. However, precautions taken were not to be dismantled. They entered the mud room, and shucked their work boots and coveralls. Their feet breathed a sigh of relief since they had been encased in those boots literally all day long. Once through the mud room and now in slippers, they made their way past the kitchen where Mom Elma was already spooning some soup out into some tureens on the warmer for their dinner. Jessi and Jonah’s stomach did the rumble as they walked by, while waving hello to Mom. She knew her hungry brood were needing to be fed and must have just started to warm up a portion of the dinner meal when she heard them pull in. There was Dad on his vidcom speaking, likely to Moog about the days work on both their farms, if they had to guess. Moog was his older son, through adopted at age one and was quite a few years older than Jonah. Now Moog was married to his longtime sweetheart Juliana and they worked their own farm several villages over in Minorcaville. This was his biological parent’s farm before the tragic accident that claimed them, which he had inherited and he had subsequently bought additional acreage from a neighbor to add to it. They had refurbished the old farmstead and built onto it, plus added city type amenities like a covered heated swimming pool. They were fancy country folks now. Dreams must not be denied. They rushed past Jonah’s parents, intent on getting a quick shower first, then the all important meal would be next.

  While Jessi was in the shower performing her ablutions, Jonah was attempting to make video connections with Arthur of Team Five who is Cherese’s husband and when that attempt failed, with Adrianna instead. She is Mader’s wife. Of course, he and Jessi and it was true to say, the whole of Team Six had gotten to be more acquainted with Arthur and Adrianna simply because they were married to members of Team Six and thus had gotten to spend more time around those two. The other members of Five included Wesley, Serena and Dorothy and the two groups Team Five and Team Six had gotten to train together a few times, so they were familiar with each other and each other’s capabilities. So Jonah went ahead and left a typed text information to them all. If as he reasoned to be likely, they were enroute to their new job for which they had been called up, they would get it anyway when they checked their vidcoms. In fact, a few minutes later, Serena texted back a terse, “Got it, thanks, in the air.”

  Then Jessi was out and toweling her hair that she had taken to keeping a lot shorter than before. She started to do that after they’d gotten married and she had realized that long hair was difficult to manage not only when they were traveling in space but also on the farm with all the straw and debris that took evil pleasure in creating dirty tangles. Something had to give. Jonah loved her hair whether short as it was now or long as it was when they first met. It hadn’t gotten to a full boy cut though. One nice thing that resulted was the ease with which she could wash it now and get it dry, well mostly dry anyway she wryly thought. As her arms windmilled through her hair, her gorgeous chest adornments bounced back and forth, leaving Jonah’s mouth to fall open. She noticed and her left hand came up to his lower lip and she pushed his lips closed with a giggle as he walked by. “Why is your lip hanging to the floor Mr. Jonah Capri? We’ve got dinner to get to, so no hanky panky yet, my boy.” He shook his head and patted her on her tight little buns as he opened the shower door and stepped in. They both could actually shower together but there was great danger of mischief with that. Dinner was more important now and his parents would undoubtedly be awaiting their presence downstairs. Not surprisingly, Jessi turned around to look at her husband as he took his shower with all his wings flapping, so to speak. Her nipples became noticeably prominent he observed, when he opened his eyes between the torrents of rushing water. ‘Ahh’ he thought when he saw that. ‘My Darling wife will need attending to tonight.’

  They dressed in comfortable wear for the trip downstairs. Jessi was in baggy shorts with one of Jonah’s old long sleeved shirts on and Jonah was in a T-shirt and shorts. Both were in slippers, no socks. That was like extreme freedom for them. Their vidcoms were carried in their hands and placed on one of the couches nearby. Jonah felt totally unencumbered and free to not even have to wear his vidcom against his skin. They made small talk at the table with Jonah and Jessi enquiring about how the day had passed for Daddy Jonah and Mom Elma. A few cattle had broken though one small section of fence and had needed herding back and the fence repaired. Some of the sowing for new hay for fodder had been completed and Jonah Sr bemoaned the time wasted doing fence repair, so that the sowing was not yet complete. Such is the life of the farmer Jonah thought, always at the vagaries of nature, animals and weather. It felt good to him that he was not totally at the mercy of such things in order to make a living. It was a joy to help with his Dad’s farm, but he was not cut out to do that he knew for the rest of his life. It had taken one good foray into space months ago to deal with some dangerous hijackers for him to realize that his boyhood interest in space and space travel was not his cup of tea either on a full time basis. He mused, short forays yes, but not years and years of journeying as many human generations had done before. He mentally took off his cap in salute to those hardy folks; people did those crazy things either when there was no choice or that was their calling, period!

  After dinner, they pitched in with the cleanup and they knew Mom always appreciated that. Of course, it was always like a magic trick show for Mom to watch them use their teleportation skills to help do the dishes and tuck them into the dishwasher and onto the drying racks. Dad by now was immune to the show, but not Mom. Dishes got picked up, and emptied of residue with a spoon, then carefully dunked into the soapy water in the sink. Then the dish rag got picked up and was used to scrub the offending dirt away with the tap being turned on and off for the rinsing part, all with Jonah and Jessi standing there looking at the sink. Nary a hand was involved. Of course there was mental energy involved, but really less than it would take to physically do it, to hear Jonah and Jessi tell it. They gave a quick summary of the trip Five had embarked on and their concerns for the Captain’s son. They wanted Jonah’s parents to know why they were going to be heading out early in the morning. Of course, on the farm early was normally more like 0500am anyway. That’s when things really got started with the chores truly. They said early good nights to Jonah Sr and Mom Elma.Then they both oozed upstairs like in the tales of ghosts, with no feet nor hands touching anything. Even Dad did not get tired seeing that one; he could not resist lifting up his head to watch the spectacle. Of course, he had witnessed the bunch of them lifting whole autos plus a bunch of humans him included, up off the ground and holding them there for long periods. So Jonah and Jessi floating themselves upstairs was a minor matter but no less captivating. Every family should have a few ghosts haunting them, Jonah Sr mused, just that they aren’t usually your still alive son and daughter-in-law!

  Now well fed and in their room, Jessi settled down to make contact via vidcom with her parents, Jace and Stacy. Jonah said a quick hello over Jessi’s vidcom and went back to his planning. First order of business was to talk to Charlie and to see if they might be able to enlist the help of Fetch. As he Jonah figured, if Fetch could be configured to scan some of those online videos and games at rapid pace and detect plus record any subliminal programming messages being beamed at the players whether they be visual or auditory, that would be ideal. Fetch was robotic and likely could do so extremely rapidly and of course not be affected or be induced
like the human mind can be. Jonah figured that none of them in Six would be thrilled to sit through and play days worth of such games and still not necessarily pick up on the subversive cues nor would any of them want to risk coming under the influence either.

  6. CHARLIE AND FETCH TO THE RESCUE

  So he made the call. “Hey Charlie, how are you?” Charlie replied, ”I’m ok, but with that tone, I know you’re not calling about my health Jonah. What’s up?”

  “I need your help and Fetch’s in particular. Have you heard about the wave of deaths, more like killings that have been in the news lately?”Jonah asked.

  “Yeah, its scary Jonah. Just two hours ago, there were two more suspicious deaths right near our neighborhood, just over in Pommerose. That’s a little more than one hour from here Jonah. I’ve wondered when you guys in Six would get involved in solving it. It’s happening all over, like an epidemic. This sort of thing isn’t supposed to be happening in our neat and orderly society right. Thank Lord Meneer, that it’s not an Outlaw and Noncom thing this time.”

  Jonah said, “Yep, you’re right, it seems to be all Moderns suffering and so far the accused are Moderns too. The authorities have caught a few people but can’t seem to get any information out of them. Anyway, you and Fetch might be able to help solve that problem. I know that you play video games online. Have you played on that VidDarknet or other such obscure sites. What can you tell me about those systems?”

  Charlie said, ”I have played there a few times at the invitation of a couple of friends. It is time consuming and all involving and very realistic indeed. As a farming kid, I realized that it was for rich kids who have nothing much to do. The dark part is also very dark with lots of bloodshed and realistic scenarios. I didn’t really enjoy playing on it to be honest. Also you’re playing against others from all across the planet as well as Baclet and Threeme. It’s serious stuff. I did it a few times for fun, but there are sections you can only go if you get vetted, to actually play for real wagers and if you lose, you may have to pay with real money or other things like sex. Someone even said once that payment can be with ‘scalps’ too.”He paused, ”Oh my God, what if they weren’t joking? I assumed they were you know, but maybe... “ He didn’t finish the statement and Jonah could also see his neighbor’s brain ticking over.