by Aies Jay
-Hey, mine never looked like that.
She winks at me.
-I know.
She inserts the token, turns the knob and after a series of clinks, a gum ball is sucked through a clear tube, making a little roller coaster ride in the machine and then plonks into the little flapped hatch. She picks it out for me and hands it to me. It’s red.
-I never got a red one before.
I mumble but she’s already on the move, walking into the elevator next to the gum ball machine. It looks old and crabby and as far as I know it only leads to boring places, like living quarters or security stations where there’s a hell of a lot of “you’re not supposed to be here and do you have any parents” sort of people. I frown as I follow her. The doors open and the insides are just as boring as the outside of it, but as the front doors have slid fully shut, the back wall of the elevator opens into another elevator.
-Shit…!
She grins.
-Scorpio 2 is full of secrets like this. But you can’t tell, of course.
-What loses its nature by being revealed?
I ask her in return, and we say in a chorus together
-If you tell, it’s no longer a secret.
She giggles and insists on a high five. I smile, tiredly, and oblige her. My sensations must be returning, I felt that, actually felt it, not just the pressure. The elevator we step into now looks top notch. A load of buttons are pressed by her in a series, like a code. There are no numbers on them or any markings at all, indicating what they do.
-High security much?
I ask she looks at me and grins again.
-It is the President, after all.
-Agreed.
I reply, suddenly getting a smooth ride that seems to travel not only upwards but to the sides as well and even down again at least twice.
As the doors slide open again I fight not to gawk. If I’d come here as a kid, I would have blurted out “When I’m getting my own place it’s going to be just like this!” and run around, poking everything. It’s like a really rich kid’s place. The floor is black carpet, the walls are white where they’re not covered with graffiti and splatter marks from paint ball battles, the celling in itself is one huge lamp. The far wall is a huge screen playing anime, and three couches, four oversize armchairs and three bean bags lie in front of it. A vending machine in the corner is brimming with cold sodas and another one next to it is brimming with snacks, everything from dried fruit packs to crisps to popcorn. To the left of the door there’s a cabinet, holding weapons like paint ball guns, nerf guns and laser guns as well as game swords and knives of any kind and even four huge staffs with wadded ends. Next to it is a body scanner and devices that look no bigger than wrist Gates. That’s probably the game body modules. A corridor leads on ahead from here and I can see four more doors in it, another corridor next to the furthest snack machine continues into the unknown. The clothes pegs for jackets and the like next to the opened elevator doors look like fingers coming out of the wall, some less than human. A calico cat suddenly trots in from a room in the corridor straight ahead of us and announces in a posh accent
-The President is having his exercise. Please continue to the gaming room.
-AI.
I mumble but Kawaii-chan corrects me
-H model, cat. The difference is kind of huge.
The cat cuts in, putting a proud paw to his chest.
-An AI is a sophisticated robot. I, on the other hand, am an exquisite independent fully equipped computer with all you could need, and in a glorious form, too. It’s like the difference between a toaster and a wrist Gate, really.
I snort half a laugh but at that point a tiny dog, supposedly an H model, too, sticks his head into the room.
-Is the cat in here…?
The cat roars his fury and launches himself at it, calling it a toaster and promises imminent death. Kawaii-chan wrings her hands.
-Mister Bubblesocks, be nice to the doggie!
I just shake my head at it all and follow her to the gaming room, four doors down the corridor. On the way there we pass a huge room that’s a playground, lowered into a ball pit, a luxurious guest bathroom and a room so full of stuffed animals you’d think every claw game ever has been plundered and its winnings used to fill the room. The room we do enter has a couple of warning labels on the door but the huge placket “Gaming Room” is the one giving my stomach a pinch. Once, I was giddy over treasures like this. Now I’m just old. Or am I? Or did that pinch mean something else? Kawaii-chan opens the door for me.
-Guests first!
I step inside and behold the room and the kid that is the President of Scorpio 2. The room is odd, it looks plain white, walls with a grey, weird padded carpet on the floor. To the immediate left of the door is a Gate, mounted on a wall, and I vaguely recognize it. It’s a gaming computer Gate with not a single cord, and there are several little jacks on the board telling me this thing can get hooked up to a lot of stuff. To the immediate right, I find the stuff, a rack full of VR gloves, swords, guns and glasses, with a pair of glasses and one sword missing. The man himself, or kid, is using those. I take a good look at the legend. He looks like seventeen, Asian heritage, thin and trimmed, wearing a pretty fashionable workout overall in matte black with paddings. His haircut is a rather proper version of a flock of seagulls with silver streaks in the black. The surgery he’s had is all bioware as far as I can tell, apart from a couple of add-ons I don’t even know what they are, like that silver button in the groove below his neck. His attention is fully on the game, and his moves are qualified for proper sword fighting. I recognize the style he holds the VR weapon and it was the same way Teeth wielded his katana. Six speaker units in the room mounted on a wall each fill it with the sounds of combat, screaming men running on gravel and swords clashing. The display on the Gate informs me that the game is called “The Castle of Nagoya” and he’s on the fifth course, level fifteen, hard mode. I remember hearing about it, it’s brand new. You’re investigating a murder mystery in a feudal Japanese castle that’s on fire after half of the game due to the murderer trying to covering up his crime. Plus, you’re being constantly attacked if you’re caught, since no one knows you’re sneaking about the place because the Shogun sent you there covertly, thus everyone thinks you’re an intruder. Renown, “hard as fuck”. The President seems to agree to that because suddenly he curses loudly and a voice booms over the room.
-“You Died”.
-Fucking shit.
Even his voice is young. He peels off his VR glasses and looks at me, top to bottom, and nods.
-Want to join in, old timer?
I want to and am about to when I realize something and speak it out loud.
-I just had surgery.
-Spot me, then, as you tell me the story.
I raise my eyebrows and he points out for me.
-Spot me for enemies. Glasses and one glove on, log on as “Guest”, choose “Observer” and then tell me if you see any enemies or hidden stuff as you go.
I hesitate for a moment.
-I’d really need your full attention for this, Mister President.
He raises an eyebrow back at me.
-Then you’ll spot me as I go, giving me the story, and then we talk this one out properly when I’m out of the shower.
I swallow down the “arrogant little prick” comment and put glasses and one glove on. I was just like him when I was his age, after all, or almost. The VR game is ridiculously fine, and as I log in as per instructions, I feel my jacks gripping the hook ups in the VR gloves and glasses. The game begins, and it’s as ridiculously cool as I could imagine. I can almost feel the raindrops on me and the wind in my face during the short intro held while loading time. It’s a gorgeous castle, we hear thunder in the distance as he respawns by a saving point in his hiding spot, and the room moves with him as he goes. The full 3D experience is mind boggling and for a moment I want one of these so bad, or more like wish I had one a couple of years ago bu
t whom am I kidding, I never would have lasted in a proper fight, which you have to be able to in this case. Maybe I can get the game old fashioned style later. The game opens up and now I see him in full getup, using the main character of the story as an Avatar but the moves are all his own. Gorgeous.
-Hidden box on your two, high up, on that shelf.
I comment and then start to tell him in few details, my story of woe. He listens with good attention, even asking a few questions as long as he’s not in combat, and I watch his back to make him last my full story. I finish it off when I tell him the doc saved my life. When he asks me
-Is that it?
I mumble
-Basically.
trying not to feel the weight of it all again. I’ve left out my bioware hopping and a few more details but I almost did tell him everything, game or not. He runs to his hiding spot, saves, and exits the game. We both unplug from it and return to the RL. He takes a short look at me.
-I have to think some, and send me the details you have left to my mail so I get the full picture. Kawaii-chan, give our guest whatever he wants in the meantime. Then I want a light lunch and hot chocolate with whipped cream in the café.
The H model bows to him and accepts the VR glasses and sword from him, hanging them back on the rack.
-Anything particular for lunch?
-Udon noodles, vegetarian style.
-I’ll tell the cook.
He passes me in the doorway, patting my shoulder.
-Don’t worry, old timer. Your war is now mine as well. We’ll get them. I just need to think.
A wave of relief washes over me, even if it doesn’t really fill me up yet.
war talks
Half an hour later I’m sitting by a two seated high café table in hard wood in a tiny rectangular kitchen. The colours in here are caramel and brown with the odd splash of green and all in all it’s surprisingly adult in comparison to the rest of his place. The cook, another amazing H model like Kawaii-chan, reminds me of Nausicaä. She’s dressed in a suit, no shirt, and wears glasses, her long hair in a ponytail. She offered to cook me anything as per instructions handed on, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my steak sandwich and washed down my first set of painkillers and red pills, antibiotics of some sort, with freshly squeezed orange juice. The fries were freshly made from scratch like all the rest of it, and as the President comes in, in perfect timing for his udon noodle soup, I’m enjoying the officially best cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream I ever had. The grated chocolate on top almost adds insult to injury, it’s like a last, killing cut to my gut.
-It’s good to be the President, it seems.
I remark and he nods.
-That it is. Thank you, Karrin.
-Enjoy.
the blonde H model says and starts preparing what must be dinner behind us. The kid now wearing a traditional Japanese school uniform sits down in front of me.
-I suppose that says what I need to know about your parentage.
I comment, nodding at his getup. He shakes his head.
-Mom was Chinese descendant. My dad was Japanese, though. “Warring child”, as they called it on the arcs.
-Hackers?
-Not dad. He was Yakuza, a sword carrying henchman. They made a hell of a racket about me, the impure bastard. After dad died, I faked my death just to be rid of them.
-What did your mom think of that?
-She was a hacker. Ghosted herself at twenty-one minus a day when I was tiny. And no, I never found any traces of her in the System or in the Gate she was hooked up to or any of the software in it either.
I nod at him.
-Both my parents Ghosted. I was five.
-Three. I barely remember her but she left a bad scar in my dad. He attended to her shrine three times a day and spoke of her like she was still alive until the day he was gunned down by Triads when a turf war went south.
I raise my eyebrows again.
-I didn’t know it was that bad. The turf wars, I mean.
-It was, before I made President. I mean, they kept it fairly discreetly, most of the time, but blood flowed, I assure you. I shoved the law down hard on the mafia wars here as soon as I got the title. They hate my guts. I don’t give a shit, they can’t get to me. The chief of security has my back and nothing gets past that old lady or her little army of H5s and hired soldiers, plus I upped the security wares myself. I have two H5 security models of my own in my apartment too, Bubba and Sly.
The mentioning of H models catches my attention.
-And the girls? What the hell are they?
He grins like kid proud of his toys and says before starting on the noodles
-H10s. Not even on the market yet.
I smile with him.
-It’s good to be the President.
-It is.
As he’s done with his noodles and gets a serving of hot chocolate like I did, we’ve been small talking for twenty minutes, basic get to know you chit chat. I actually like him. He is a little arrogant when it comes to hacking and that world, but as he said, it’s hard to be humble when you’re the best. He participates in the Tournament every year and no one has beaten him or even come close since DragonFire. As I mention my fears for our common acquaintance, the President who is yet to tell me his name, waves his hand dismissingly.
-That’s not even his second Avatar. It’s his fourth as far as I know. The kid is a bad egg, and he loves to misbehave. There are more people out for him than there are turds on Maxima.
-Wow.
-Wow, indeed. But this does turn us to our subject at hand. And I have a brilliant idea, my fellow hacker.
I actually feel pride in hearing him call me that and he can tell, he’s smiling wider.
-And what might that be?
He eats the last of the whipped cream off the chocolate and starts sipping the lovely beverage below.
-The Tournament. I scrap the theme I intended and make it into this instead, and up the prices and the odds. Find info, find proof, spread the works, infiltrate, confirm and destroy. Most damage done is the winner.
I shake my head.
-No. These are bad people. If they don’t hesitate to kill babies they won’t give a damn about hackers.
-I sort of already got that from your story. But this is important. Babies have died already. So have grown men and women. Maybe even DF. And you are a walking time bomb from what I can scan. This is a noble cause, as far as a war goes. And no hacker will enter the Tournament uninformed of the risks, I guarantee you that.
I shut up for a moment, trying to take it in. As I open my mouth again he shakes his head at me.
-You’ve involved me now. That is a volatile thing to do, as you must have realized. This is happening. You will be our spearhead, a rogue player, and not in the Tournament for obvious reasons, more like an arbiter or an admin. So shall I.
I shut up and give it another thought. He’s right and even if I say no at this point he may go through with it anyway. Suddenly I see an urgent mail from Seizer blinking in the corner of my right eye.
-Hold on a moment.
He nods and I check it out. It’s just two sentences.
“Yamada didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”
-Fuck. Teeth.
I say out loud and rub my face, forcing back the short wave of grief for the man I barely knew but was my faithful brother in arms, who died refusing to give me up to our enemies. The President says nothing. As I’ve fully composed myself I throw it all into the Heavens.
-Fine. Let’s do it. But I will be the spearhead, and you will not stop me or unhook me whatever happens.
His eyes narrow just a tiny bit as he says
-I’m not even sure if I could fully unhook you at this point.
The rest of the chocolate is drunk in silence.
guest
I wasn’t expecting full hospitality from the President but that’s what I got. A careful bathing using a sponge and the borrowing of a fresh jumpsuit later I’m in the t
op in a double bunk bed, staring at a picture nailed to the ceiling of an anime girl with cat’s ears, paws and a tail, who’s barely dressed and eating a fish. I’ve been ushered in here by Kawaii-chan, on the President’s orders, since I can’t do shit for now. He’s on it, though. My paranoid mind screamed at me not to fully trust him like this, but damn, I’m tired and the pain is slowly creeping into the parts of me that were first torn open from the inside then sewed back shut again after having further surgery. I send a laconic mail to the doc, barely stating “still ok and hooking up was a mother”. I pull the covers with the cartoon characters over me, adjust the pillow and try to sleep. My eyes sting and I can hear my pulse throbbing in my ears but I just can’t doze off. Teeth is dead, as well as his daughter, my son and my Yun. DragonFire may be dead. Brute is dead. And who knows how many babies and parents? How many are infected? And what the hell is going to happen at the Tournament? And after it? The President seemed to have a plan but I’m sceptical as fuck. It’s the only chance I have, though. The only chance we all have. For a moment I ask myself what Yun would have done in my place. She’d probably take the President’s help without hesitation. Only she wouldn’t have let Gereld off that table. She was tougher than me… and then Teeth and Brute wouldn’t have died. Back to Teeth again, dead. Shit. The loop goes on and on and the pain is getting worse for every lap. Against all odds, I fall asleep anyway. Maybe it’s a good omen.
When I wake up, I’m not worse off than I was when I fell asleep. The lights are dimmed and I for a while I’m very disoriented. I check the time and date, finding it’s seven days ago we found Ferguson and he cheated us all. Plus it’s time for my pills.