Escape The Grid: Volume 1

by Patrick F. Kelly

  “No,” she said. “There’s something about him. He has real leadership qualities, a strong desire to learn, and he is a living cautionary tale. He’s been in the grid twenty years – almost from the beginning.”

  “You just like that he learned Spanish for you,” Tito said, smirking at her and gulping his coffee. The blue mug had white letters that read “Castro Cigars - Smoke Cubans”.

  Julia looked at him almost in desperation. “That’s an example of his ability to learn and his desire to transcend the trivialities of the grid. We can use him, Tito.” She was pleading now.

  “Transcend the trivialities of the grid? You sound like a textbook. Didn’t you tell me that he likes a thick Venezuelan accent? Aren’t you wearing a bikini every time you see him? Doesn’t sound like a guy transcending trivialities.”

  “He’s a man. He likes a bikini. That’s true. But he’s smart and he’s always trying to improve himself.”

  “He thinks you are a software algorithm tailored to please him.”

  “Imagine his excitement when he finds that I’m real.”

  “Imagine his horror when he finds that you don’t look in real life anything like you do in Resort World. Your plan may backfire and put him back on the grid forever. And then he won’t talk to you again, and we’ll lose him as an asset.” Tito smiled, but Julia could tell that he was serious.

  “This guy has had twenty years of looking at beautiful but superficial women. He wants a deeper relationship. I can tell from the things he says, the way he acts.”

  “This guy checked himself into the grid twenty years ago because all he wanted was the superficial life.”

  “Men grow up,” she said.

  “Don’t count on it, Julia.”

  JULIA WALKED TO her office and ran into Vanessa in the hallway. Vanessa was another agent on Tito’s team. She was brunette, attractive, and about ten years younger than Julia.

  “Hey, girl. I was looking for you,” Vanessa said, in Spanish.

  “What’s up?” Julia replied.

  “When you worked for the Cuban government, did you know a guy on the cyber-warfare team named Emilio?”

  “Jimenez?” Julia asked.

  “That’s him,” Vanessa replied.

  “Yeah, I knew him. We worked together about a year before I came over here. What about him?”

  “He says he has found some good contacts in an underground railroad in New Mexico.”

  “Interesting.”

  “He said lots of nice things about you,” Vanessa smiled. “He’s cute.”

  “He was nice. Not my type though. I trained him for a few months. A little too ready for war, if you know what I mean. Lots of drama.”

  “He was one of the Miami migrants?” Vanessa asked.

  “Yeah, his family and mine knew each other. We all came back to Cuba in the fifties.” Julia’s parents were from Miami and had left the US for Cuba twenty years prior, with a wave of migrants returning to their motherland. She had been in college at the time and had decided to make the move with the whole family. It was a bitter and ironic twist that her family had escaped Cuba in the 1950’s only to return for similar reasons in the 2050’s.

  Vanessa continued, “Well, I’m going to get these contacts in the UR sites. See if we can work together. You don’t mind if I ask him out, right? I mean, if the opportunity presents itself.”

  “Fine by me,” Julia replied. She turned and walked to her office.

  JULIA REFLECTED ON her time with the cyber-warfare team. She had studied computer engineering in the US but had taken a job after college with the Cuban government. Her initial work was on security systems, trying to find and prevent cyber espionage from the US. She used a variety of tactics, both online and human spies offline. Her team’s most common enemy was the NSA, who tried to monitor the activities of Cuban leaders and prominent citizens. Since Julia was fluent in both English and Spanish, she could use her cultural knowledge to great effect. She began to understand how the NSA thought and acted, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

  I can’t believe Vanessa thinks Emilio’s cute.

  She thought about Emilio and her other past romances, all brief. As a workaholic, she didn’t have much time for normal romance. There had been men in her life, but none of them had kept her interest for more than a month or two. And with her current job, she spent nearly ten hours a day going out with different men. She was their companion, their lover, their trophy, whatever they needed.

  For the most part, the men she spent time with reinforced her belief that she would never find a soulmate. The men on the grid were so narcissistic, it was hard to believe that they were even real. They spent time with her assuming that she was a computer algorithm, while she watched them behave and couldn’t believe that they weren’t a cartoon.

  And then there’s Thomas. And last night… Ugh. I probably shouldn’t have..

  But, what the hell? You only live once.

  JULIA WAS BACK in her office cube with her headset on. She decided to review one of the Resort World memories.

  All these thoughts about romance…

  Resort World allowed users to record and store memorable events in full VR. A small amount of memory storage was free, but users like Thomas would have to buy the premium package for unlimited storage. Julia’s team had hacked into this access, which meant that everything Julia’s many characters did online was available for her to re-watch and re-live.

  She normally would review these recordings to look for ideas to better understand her targets. The more she understood each asset, the more she could exploit. With Thomas, though, she found herself watching the videos for personal reasons. She enjoyed her time with him, and many experiences, like the one she was about to pull up, were borderline romantic.

  Julia had been trained in the Cuban government to never get personally involved with a mark. Tito had reinforced this principle with all of the team members. It was a job. An agent who lost control of her emotions could make critical mistakes and jeopardize the mission. No sex was allowed with a mark; that was left for the simulations.

  If they wanted a rule-follower, they hired the wrong girl, she thought. Her hands moved and the gesture detector interpreted her selections. Past memories -> Resort World -> Thomas and Julia -> July 14, 2074 -> sunset.

  The two of them were sitting on the beach, outside of the Casablanca Bar. She could see the private planes flying above with avatars jumping out of them. She could hear the waves softly crashing into the sand. Thomas sat beside her and touched her hand.

  Julia was doing a version of review where she had the perspective of herself but didn’t talk or move. The recorded version did the talking and the moving. Other perspectives would let her transcend the scene and see both her and Thomas from a bird’s eye view, but she enjoyed re-living the experience as herself.

  In her real office, her hands fumbled to grab the haptic gloves and put them on. She wanted to feel Thomas’ hands touching hers. Once the gloves were around her fingers, the beach scene intensified and immersed her fully.

  This was a moment from their lives about a year ago. A private date, just the two of them; it was one of her favorites. She let herself be lost in the simulation, willingly suspending disbelief. The sound of seagulls in the distance, the waves striking the beach, and the feel of his hands engulfed her.

  “Do you ever think about getting off the grid and sitting on a real beach?” Julia’s year-ago avatar asked him.

  “Of course I do,” he replied.

  “Did you ever do it before you went to the camp?”

  “Nah. I thought about going to Florida with some buddies, but never did.”

  “You’ve really never seen the ocean?”

  “I’m looking at it right now. Plus, I have a beautiful woman by my side. On a real beach, it would just be me.” He turned to look into her eyes. “Now, if I could turn you into a real person and take you with me… Well, then we’d have something.”

&nbs
p; “That would be nice,” she smiled.

  “You and me on a beach in Florida? That would just about do it. I’d drink a Margarita with you and then maybe die and go to heaven.”

  “Make it a Mojito and you’ve got a deal.”

  “Done,” he replied and kissed her.

  Julia was basking in the year-ago kiss when she realized that someone in real life was tapping her on the shoulder. She took off her headset and saw Vanessa.

  “That must have been really good,” Vanessa said in Spanish, smiling at her. “Can I see? You were totally absorbed and looked like you were making out.”

  Julia was flustered and embarrassed. “No, it was nothing,” she sputtered.

  “Didn’t seem like nothing. What were you doing in there?” Vanessa chided her.

  “What did you want, Vanessa? Why did you come into my office?”

  “Tito wants to see you.”

  7

  THOMAS HAD BEEN HIKING up Mount Kilimanjaro for two hours and he was physically spent. He came to a little area on the trail and looked out at the vast African landscape. It was breath-taking.

  He knew that his eyes weren’t seeing the real panorama of Tanzania, but yet, what he saw seemed so real that he could lose himself in the moment. He could hear the sounds of nature, he could feel the heat and the wind.

  It was real and yet it wasn’t. He was in a cement box in Tennessee and simultaneously in virtual Africa. A veritable separation of the mind and the body.

  Thomas reached in front of his face and pushed the invisible button. Peek a boo. He left his goggles on, set in transparent mode, like a pair of ordinary glasses. He was back in the concrete jungle, standing on the elliptical. He stopped the exercise but didn’t take off his equipment.

  In real life, he had powered two hours of electric generation, using his legs and arms on the elliptical. The energy would be stored at the camp and used to power his equipment. The latest generation of VR equipment used incredibly low power, so his two hours would provide several days’ worth of electricity. The suspension wires were the energy hogs, lifting and moving his body based on the simulation. Any camper with suspension wires installed has to pay extra for electricity or exercise more often.

  He saw the mandarin oranges on the counter. He imagined the sensation of tearing off the orange skin with his finger nails and then eating one slice at a time. Savoring every bite. Thomas treated himself every few days, a reward for something challenging like a Spanish lesson.

  Two hours of exercise surely merits a reward. No?

  He shook his head, remembering his rules. After exercise, everything tastes better. Therefore, he had a rule to only drink vitamin water. Walking a couple feet to the tap, he turned it on and slurped up the cold, invigorating liquid. Slightly sweetened and filled with vitamins, it was delicious.

  The camp maintained an abundant supply of vitamin-enriched water on tap and nutrient-enriched fluids for his nightly tube feeding. He never went hungry and he always had a roof over his head. What more could a man want?

  A man wants some Spanish lessons from Julia, me thinks.

  Perhaps also a mandarin orange for dessert?

  Thomas walked over to the friction-free floor and hooked the suspension wires onto his suit. He then pushed the button on his goggles that re-engaged the VR. “Back to Spanish lessons,” he said.

  JULIA HAD JUST left Tito’s office when Vanessa found her in the hall. “Your man started a Spanish lesson and requested you,” she said.

  “Thomas?” Julia smiled.

  “Who else?”

  Julia walked to her cube and put on her grid equipment. She didn’t need everything right now. Goggles and ear buds were plenty.

  Gloves? Don’t need ‘em. But, uhh… Really want ‘em. Maybe I should put on the full suit?

  She was completely falling for Thomas, which was a big problem. Tito was right about her situation, but he didn’t know the half of it.

  No one knew how she spent her free time last night finding Thomas and taking him to bed with her. She had logged on from her apartment, so that she could be with him in the privacy of her home. It wasn’t the first time either.

  Her job was for Cuba, and Thomas was a better asset left on the grid, to work on the inside. Julia’s loyalty had to be for the mission.

  For the briefest of moments, she considered not logging in. Thomas could play with the algorithm version and probably not notice the difference. The original avatar he had configured, with its basic AI and Venezuelan accent. The avatar Julia had discovered and hacked into years ago.

  Back when Thomas was just a guy we targeted for his access to the IRS and department of Energy. A guy who named his favorite avatar Julia.

  Her hand waivered in the air, not ready to make the final gestures. The selection that would give her control of the Julia avatar.

  We shouldn’t fuck with fate, Julia.

  She moved her hands for the login. Next, she selected the Julia avatar.

  Where the hell is she? Madrid, Spain. Is that a bullfighting arena?

  THOMAS SMILED when Julia walked onto the field. He was in the middle of a bullfighting ring in downtown Madrid. Not just any ring – Thomas had scheduled his lesson for the Plaza de Toros – the most famous bullfighting arena in the world. Besides Spanish lessons, he decided to learn about bull fighting today.

  Julia was walking slowly and at one point in her walk, she seemed to lose her balance, almost falling. Thomas had noticed weird idiosyncrasies about her - things that made her different from a typical female simulation.

  She had moments of grace but then sometimes…

  She seemed to have a different intelligence about her. Slower to answer easy questions, she was better at handling nuanced subject matter. Clearly, she had some kind of new AI design, but Thomas couldn’t put his finger on it.

  Whatever it is, I like it.

  “Buenas tardes, Tomas,” Julia smiled in greeting him. There was an enthusiasm about her face that was human-like. It made him feel alive – like she wanted to be with him. He smiled back. “Are you ready for your next Spanish lesson?”

  “Si, por favor,” he responded. “Actually, I wanted to start with a bull fighting lesson.”

  What just happened, Thomas thought. Julia’s face reacted unexpectedly. For just an instant, she looked scared.

  “I am not a matador, Thomas,” she said. “I don’t know how to teach you to fight a bull.”

  “Can’t you look it up?” he asked. “I brought a sword and I ordered a mid-sized bull which should be here already.”

  There it was again. A look of panic on Julia’s face as she saw something on the other side of the ring.

  Thomas turned around and saw the bull walking in. “Oh, there it is. I wonder if we need those horses with the shield things. Are you ok, babe? Is something the matter, Julia?”

  “Hold on, Papi. I’m going to look up bull fighting lessons for you,” she said.

  JULIA STARED AT THE WALL of her cube. She had relinquished control back to the avatar Julia, who was teaching Thomas how to bullfight, all while wearing high heels and a mini skirt. Maybe Tito was right. Maybe Thomas was just as superficial as the others.

  Hopefully he didn’t notice how clumsy I was walking in, she thought.

  She almost fell down when her body hadn’t accounted for the sensation of high heels walking on a dirt field. She recovered her balance just in time and then he stunned her with the bull fighting questions. The gesture sensors had captured her shocked face.

  Bull fighting, really? How can I have feelings for a man that likes bull fighting?

  He had definitely noticed her panic, which was a huge red flag. If he asks the wrong questions on the search engines, it will flag the Resort World operations team of a possible hacker in the system. He might inquire about Julia’s AI engine. Once he finds that Maggy has the same AI design as Julia, what might he search then? At what point does a Resort World operator get notified that one of the campers thinks tha
t his female avatar is acting weird?

  And then they heighten security on the site and fuck us…

  The best thing about Resort World is the lax security. The government doesn’t believe that any secrets are there. The assumption is that anyone hacking it would try to take the system down. As long as the system stays working, everyone assumes that the security is good enough.

  If they ever found out about Julia’s team and their covert operations, then the US government would turn their full attention on them. And when the US Department of Defense puts its full attention on any group, the game is over.

  For now, her team had the element of surprise. They were playing the long game. Infiltrate over many years and win the hearts and minds of certain key male campers. Establish communication channels. Get everything setup for the one big sabotage operation that can finally take out the US leadership and end the reign of terror.

  As she considered the big goals, Julia reminded herself that her crush on Thomas was a huge liability for the mission. As hard as it was, she needed to ask Tito to re-assign Thomas to another agent. She frowned at the thought, and an empty feeling filled her stomach. This will be agonizing but it has to be done.

  8

  THOMAS WAS SITTING in a church. Really it was a cathedral, gothic and ornate, with stained glass windows everywhere. He and about ten other guys were sitting in the nave, looking up at the impressive fifteenth century architecture of ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. Everything seemed to be gold or silver. It was quite the place for ten dudes to sit around and talk about deviant sex acts.

  The man on Thomas’ left had been telling a story for five minutes or more, droning on.

  “So that was when it hit me,” the man was saying. “I had to join Sexaholics Anonymous. I mean, I was having three orgies a day and couldn’t even get one hour of work done. My money was runnin’ low and they were threatening to shut off my access to Resort World. And, when it came to sex, everything kept escalating. It was unreal what it took to get me off. By the end, it was literally a three-ring circus. I mean, my entourage had dwarves and bearded ladies and unicorns and space aliens. It was ridiculous.”