Lost Portals

by Bruce X Brown

  “We’ll worry about that when we get there,” Priest walked up behind the coder and put a hand on his shoulder. “Can you get me in that school? Samantha is the key… She’s a portal mage, your search algorithm said so—”

  “Well, I don’t know about that,” Dee said. “My algorithm searched for criteria based on traits from a database of other known portal mages. It’s a completely untested method. I mean, the system herself chooses people to be portal mages and none of us, no human, really knows why she chooses the few that she does. My search app is going off of pure speculation.”

  “Dee, I need to be in Samantha’s class. Your algorithm is right. I’m sure of it. And I have a plan,” Priest said.

  Dee leaned back, smiled, and handed him a piece of paper with the time and room of the class, “I’ve already got you in, Priest McKenna. You’ll have to administer a test in the first part of the class, but you’re in.”

  “You sly dog…” Priest smiled, “I thought you were ready to quit on me.”

  “I-I just wasn’t sure, Priest. This is my first mission. The developers and Game Master Corps don’t tell me much. We get protocols and tasks but they don’t really tell us how to proceed. I don’t have the big picture. It’s gotten so compartmentalized.”

  Priest nodded and said, “Yeah, Game Master Corps doesn’t tell us how to play or how to explore and experience the Czarzakian Multiverse because no one really knows. No one has the answers on how to proceed. All of us are figuring it all out. Even the protocols are like a traffic light in Florida… mere suggestions.”

  Dee turned and typed on the green keyboard on his desk, “Found something you might be interested in, Priest.” Dee brought up a recording of a camera feed. It showed the front of a parking lot of a warehouse at night. Abandon cars cast shadows from the dim light of a lamp post 30 meters away.

  “You told me to monitor the feed of your old warehouse,” D-6174 tapped the plus key and control to zoom the video in.

  The warehouse is where Priest and his crew had stashed magical loot and gear when he’d had his powers. The Game Master Corps and Developer Lab had quarantined the entire area until they could investigate the ground that Phaze6 had opened the lost portal on and all the items in the nearby warehouse. They wanted to determine if one of the items had contributed to his loss of powers. Which was ridiculous because they had already been over the ground where Phaze6 opened the portal and they KNEW the real story. It had nothing to do with magical items in his warehouse.

  It was his loot and it had taken him months to amass and protect. Now the GMC would more than likely assign another Game Master Corps unit to go through HIS stuff. And if that group was anything like him, they’d steal as much stuff as they could get away with. He’d amassed so much stuff that he actually had no idea what some of it was. They’d been stuck on scavenging duty for months so finding cool stuff was not even fun anymore.

  The Game Master Corps had probably contracted a thieves’ den to change all the locks and security mechanisms. After failing to break into his own place for the fifth time, he decided to install a camera system on the outside of the building. Then he told D-6174 that those cameras had been there all along so he could have him monitor the place.

  The recording showed an empty parking lot with some abandon cars until Dee fast forwarded to the part where a team of 10 men were running out of the warehouse with huge backpacks full of stuff.

  “What the hell!?” Priest said. “Who are those guys? How the hell did they get—”

  A Lamborghini slid in their path and a woman with swords flew out before the vehicle stopped. Her hair whipped in the night. She plunged a sword in the chest of the quickest thief who tried to jump over the car. She beheaded another before the first body hit the ground. She cut off the legs of two who had tried to run. Two others tried to shoot her and she threw the swords in their necks. She was unarmed so two more ran at her with swords. She was too fast. She caught the thrusting arm of the thief closest to her, disarmed him and used his body as a shield from the killing blow of the other thief. She stabbed the swordsman through the body of his partner and had them both skewered on the same blade like a shish kebob. The two with no legs tried to crawl away. She stabbed them in the head. There were two men still alive. They had the good sense to put their hands up while curled up on the wheel of her Lamborghini. Two hummers arrived. Some huge men got out and sprayed the massacred bodies with an automatic Furbreeze of bullets to make sure they were dead.

  The tall dark woman wore a black pants suit. She talked to the two henchmen who had shot up the bodies.

  “Wait, what are they saying?” Priest asked. His face inches from the screen. “Can you turn it up?”

  Dee turned up the volume.

  They could hear the two remaining captives crying. One had hands covering his face. The other tried to give a bag full of loot back, “No. No, plea—”

  His voice turned into a bloody gurgle as she sliced his throat with a quick flick of the sword. His body slumped on the ground. They threw the other man in the hummer.

  The woman said, “Bring him back tomorrow night at 11 pm. Clean up this mess.”

  One of the large men responded, “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Wait. Wait, stop the video,” Priest said. “Zoom in on her. Who in the hell—”

  The camera got the face of a dark model. Her eyes concealed in shadow. There was a cold expression across voluptuous poorly lit lips.

  “Kiera,” Priest said to himself and fell into a chair.

  Dee looked at him and pointed at the woman on the screen, “You-you know her?”

  “My ex…” Priest stared at her cruel mouth. She used to smile a lot.

  Chapter 6:

  His Ex-Wife is a Player Killer

  Dee shook his head, “Really? So, your ex-girlfriend is a stone-cold player killer? Because I’m pretty sure those weren’t all NPCs she just—”

  “Ex-WIFE,” Priest kept staring at the screen. “I haven’t seen her in months. She’s… different...”

  “Wife? As in, online NPC ‘waifu’ or physical, real-world actual wife?” Dee asked.

  “Wife.” Priest corrected, “As in, eloped without permission, wife. As in, we used to file taxes jointly within the North American Nation States, wife. As in, her in-laws hate me. As in, real divorce. As in, a legal dispute over co-owned property, wife. As in, we used to talk about having little beige kids together but then the trick stabbed me, wife.”

  “Whoa, real-world wives seem like trouble,” Dee said with his face pinched.

  “Only if you reeeally piss them off,” Priest nodded. “I am pretty good at pissing people off without even trying.”

  “I think I will stick with an NPC waifu... Or a waifu pillow… So, she’s a player character. What is she doing at your warehouse? Looks like she is leading that group of Humvee thugs. You two were in the corps together, I assume. She must be in the corps with those skills. Did the GMC give her a Game Master role?”

  “Good question. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her since… since about the time I lost my class and abilities,” Priest said staring at her high cheeks and delicate chin. He tried to look away.

  D-6174 brought out his phone, “You said her name was Kiera? I’ll look her up on the Game Master database… Czara, are there any game masters named ‘Kiera’ in the Universal Set .0001?”

  The device spoke back to him in a soft female voice, “Yes, D-6174. There is one Game Master named Kiera in Universal Set .0001 of the Czarzakian Multiverse.”

  “What the hell?” Priest said looking at the handheld device Dee was holding. “A cell phone linked to the Czarzakian Multiverse system? Who is Czara?”

  “It’s actually my own interface to the system. I’ve connected it to this mobile device and the home office for the benefit of showing you this. It’s also a way to hide access to the game in plain sight. The NPCs think I am talking on the phone but I’m talking to Czara writing code in the grocery store. Our missi
on here requires a low profile so it works great,” D-6174 gave a generic smile. “Czara is just what I’ve named my interface to the system.”

  Dee noticed Priest giving him a slack jaw stare so he explained loudly like he was suddenly talking to a slightly deaf child, “The system interface is a menu that a player uses to access special abilities, options, and—”

  “I KNOW WHAT AN INTERFACE IS,” Priest interrupted.

  “Ok, ok. Just making sure, Priest McKenna. Anyway, unlike you hack and slash types, some classes and professions need to talk to their interface more. For example, developers have to do more than just access ‘wounding hands’ or access spells. For us, writing code is a conversation with the interface to access features of a given Universal Set. The interface is a part of us. So we develop a… relationship with it. You can name your interface too… I mean, provided we get your access to the system back.”

  Dee put up a finger for Priest to hold any further questions, “Czara, display the avatar stats of Kiera who is located in Universal Set .0001 in the home office, screen four.”

  A full body image of Kiera showed up on the 4th monitor. She was tall and athletic wearing a dark pants suit leaning on two gold katanas. Silky black hair draped over a cute face. Her stats appeared beneath the rotating moving image of her and Czara read the stats:

  Kiera Kali (Lady Blades)

  Level 8, Warrior

  Role(s): Game Master

  HP: 800

  Strength: 14 (Heavy Tank +1000 kg deadlift)

  Stamina: 700

  Dexterity: 16

  “Jesus! Look at the dexterity and strength on this avatar. She could cut off all your limbs before you knew what was happening,” Dee tapped the screen. “And look at that. She’s a game master. That’s her group in those Humvees. Looks like a gang.”

  “Lady Blades,” Priest said. “Always hated that user name. So, they commissioned her as a game master?”

  “Very attractive for a blood-thirsty psychopath. Did you break up with her? Well, I guess she does not look like that in real life,” Dee said zooming into her face.

  “Yeah, that’s how she looks,” Priest said.

  “Then why’d you break up… Oh, she broke up with you, right?”

  “She freakin’ hates me, man,” Priest said staring at the grainy paused video image of her cold expression.

  “Why?” Dee asked.

  “She blames me for her sister being in a coma,” Priest said absently.

  “My god,” Dee said, “You put her sister in a coma?”

  “Yes. What?! No!” Priest protested. “I mean, it wasn’t my fault… not... really.”

  “Not really? I think you would know if you put someone in a coma or not.” Dee looked at Priest and back to the angry looking woman on the grainy parking lot video, “Well, what happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  Priest looked annoyed, “Yes, Dee. I DO mind. I DO mind you asking. Can we PLEASE stick to the mission here?”

  “Sorry. Yes. Of course,” Dee said. “Well, it looks like she is the game master who has been tasked with going through all the items in your warehouse. Otherwise, I’m not sure she’d be going in and out so casually. I’ve been going through this footage and they’ve made quite a few visits. I was going to suggest that we just ask her if we can go in and find a—”

  “Yes!” Priest agreed. “Now that the warehouse is open—”

  “No,” Dee said shaking his head. “No, Priest McKenna. I was going to suggest that we ask her but you just said that you may or may not have put her sister in a coma. You said it yourself… she hates you. And she clearly has no problem slicing out the throats of other players trying to sneak into the place. Another thing to consider is that if you get killed, we don’t even know if you would respawn. And if you can’t respawn this avatar, could you make a new avatar? I really don’t know. I suppose you could just jump into the others, but they are in the Staging universe, right? You’re having an extremely anomalous reaction to the system. It’s just too risky. Would she kill you if she caught you?”

  “Yes,” Priest said.

  Dee shook his head, “Well, there you are. Don’t do it.”

  Priest laughed, “Relax, just an idea. Didn’t say I was going to do it. I was sayin’ like maybe sneak in… in fact, I know I have at least a few portal devices laying around in there. Or maybe we could just get close enough to the warehouse to show the group evidence that they are in a simulated multiverse with magic so we can persuade them until I get my powers back?”

  Dee gave him a look of disgust, “That is a terrible idea. If you just want to convince them to join us. Bring them here and I could show them some of the system data and amazing infographics. It is very convincing if you correlate the data. I am stripped of the ability to do any serious evocation or code, and we don’t have magic, but I could show them how much I know about their friends and families. It’s magical how much data is available on these people in the pre-singularity era. You’d think there was no such thing as security here. I could hack into their bank accounts right before their eyes.” He moved his hands around like a stage magician.

  “Dee, we aren’t going to hack their bank accounts and we aren’t going to convince anybody that they are living in a gameified simulated universe with an infographic.”

  Priest thought for a moment. “Oh, wait, I got it!” He said. “What if I murder you right in front of them then you just respawn?”

  Chapter 7:

  HMB While I Make a Plan

  “I’m an intern with a temporary assignment here,” Dee said. “My respawn point is in a lab in the Staging Universal Set .000. If I die, I would have to get approval to—”

  “Ok, then killing you is out. We need something else. Can’t you fabricate some magical items?” Priest walked over to the Sim Replicator in the dining area of the apartment. It was the size of a chest freezer and had a black glass casing. It was the lowest grade replicator he’d ever seen, and they’d limited the already limited functionality. The top of the line Sim Replicators were five times as large and could create racks of guns, bastard swords and other weapons made of a material that could hold a magical charge. Once created, a magic user or developer could enhance the effectiveness of the weapon.

  They restricted this replicator from making weapons capable of holding a magical charge.

  The Game Master Corps had taken a special interest in Priest’s case and insisted that he keep a low profile. They assigned an intern developer and had only given them what they needed to collect data on Priest’s avatar. The GMC gave them a small budget to live on the economy, a shitty Sim Replicator that could make hammers, and a few ancient pre-singularity computer systems from Best Buy. All the computer systems were useless. They could not talk to you let alone hold a conversation. Useless. The budget was so small that he was thinking of getting a job until Dee found a way to use the Czarzakian Multiverse system to predict the stock market. Now they had about 100K dollars in the bank. But they could not make or spend a lot or the GMC might notice what they were doing and cancel their mission. There was nothing saying they couldn’t participate in the stock market but they wanted to be cautious.

  A low profile meant interacting with the indigenous NPCs as little as was necessary and not interact with other player characters at all.

  Even with all the limitations, Priest was bubbling with ideas, “Once we have Samantha and the whole team together, we’ll convince them they’re in a simulation by showing them some magic. I know we’re limited on magic but I’m sure we can do a LITTLE, right? We’ll just create a little magical item… like a- like a flame sword!”

  “A flame sword?” Dee asked. “We are limited on the magical items and explosives remember. But we can make a flame sword without the use of magic. I could get the parts and assemble that. There are some system instructions I can get from Czara. I could watch some YouTube videos that can show us how to create—”

  “What the hell is a ‘U-tube’?”
Priest frowned. “I’m not talkin’ about making some ancient tools! I am talking about magic, baby! Magic spawned from quantum entangled nanite foglets—”

  Dee interrupted, “Priest McKenna, that’s not how the magic of the system works. Just saying the word ‘quantum’ cannot explain it.”

  “Will you listen for a second!” Priest said. “If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can’t just tell NPCs that they are in a simulated world. You gotta show them some damn magic, my dude! Like a Philosopher’s Stone and transmutation and making lead into gold.”

  Dee shook his head, “No. I-I don’t have the admin rights to make a Philosopher’s Stone.”

  “Alright, Alright… No problem. A Philly Stone is kind of lame anyway, right? I mean, everybody has that. How about some straight up Jesus Christ of Nazareth type shit, like water to wine? Some walkin’ on some freakin’ water, knowWhatImSayin—”

  “No,” Dee said. “I-I do not know what you’re saying.”

  Priest snapped his fingers in an ‘AHA’ moment, “How about some freakin’ Orbs of Dragonkind so we can control some dragon minds.”

  “No,” Dee said. “There are no Dragons in this universes’ version of planet Earth, let alone dragons in pre-singularity Alamogordo, Colorado that would necessitate an Orb of Dragonkind.”

  “How about a Ring of Winter so we can freeze some stuff, baby!” Priest demonstrated with Jazz hands over Dee’s head. “Give them some REAL brain freeze. Then blow some minds!”

  “No,” Dee said quietly, “And why are you talking like that?”

  “This is how I always talk,” Priest said.

  “No,” Dee said. “No. You do not. I’ve never heard you talk like that.”

  “I don’t expect you to understand, Dee, but it’s GMC Protocol 99 which states (and I quote): Adapt the speech patterns of the locals. I’m a vet to the Corporate States of American colloquialisms. This is not my first rodeo shoot. This is how they talk here.”