3 minutes
"We need to wrap it up," Lena whispers in the comm. "Meet back in the corridor."
Air escapes my lips as I shake off the vision and leave the lab. Meyer and Lena are already in the hall.
"Did you guys see that?" I ask.
"What?" Lena answers, looking puzzled.
Meyer shakes his head.
2 minutes flashes, then immediately changes to 30 seconds.
"Something's changed. There's been a patrol shift," Meyer says. "All part of the training."
Lena and I book it to the alcove we used before, but Meyer stays behind to re-arm the security for 1008. When we reach our hiding spot, he still lags.
15 seconds…14...13…
"Come on, Meyer," I whisper.
"It's not working. You both should go."
10...9…8…
Lena grabs my shoulder, but I pull away. "I'm staying. I want to help."
"He'll be fine," she insists. "If it were real, that would be one thing, but it's only a sim."
I shake my head. She clicks her tongue and surges toward the stairwell out of sight.
Stairwell: Secure
Odds of Success 89%
Just then Meyer lets out a shout as if he was hit. Everything suddenly takes on a white, hazy effect, and the nausea in my stomach surges.
Fear grips my chest and I tuck myself further into the alcove, pulling my stunner tight to me. "It's only a sim... it's only a sim," I whisper.
"End sim!" Meyer yells.
But it doesn't end. I bite my lip and peek around the corner.
Meyer lay sprawled on the ground, a weapon trained at his chest, the guard a few feet from him.
I blink hard twice to end the sim, but it doesn't work for me either. My mind races to come up with a solution.
I fling myself toward Meyer, my hands going cold at the sight of the guard. I aim my stunner, but I feel all wrong. I have no idea how to hold this thing.
I depress the trigger, but again, nothing happens.
The guard slowly raises his weapon toward me. His eyes are cold, determined.
Desperate, I blink two times again as hard as I can to end the experience.
"End sim!" I yell. My lids force together before opening a second time to blinding white, replacing the haze. I gasp and throw my hand to the wall, or what used to be the wall. Now it's made up of scrolling code. Where my hand touches it, the spot grows brighter.
I whip toward Meyer and the guard. They're there too, only, just as the wall, made up of code. Not solid matter, but code figures frozen in time.
A tingling runs through my hand and I turn back to it, still touching the wall. The code moves up my fingers and into my hand.
"Something's wrong with the program..."
How it happens, I don't know, but I call up the damaged code and it appears in the wall in front of me. As fast as my fingers will go, I remove the vulnerability.
As if the vision never existed, the white code vanishes, replaced by the corridor.
I turn toward Meyer and the guard, finding Meyer's face is directly in front of mine, brows furrowed.
"Why'd you do that?" he demands.
Air sucks into my lungs, expelled in a squeak.
The guard's caught mid-step, hand still pointing his weapon where Meyer had been on the ground. Frozen.
"Snap out of it, Avlyn. From now on, go with the highest probability of survival. Trying to prove yourself before you're ready gets people killed. Now move."
"But something was wrong with the sim," I say. "I… I fixed the code."
"You fixed the code?" he repeats, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
"My weapon didn't fire... and that guard was about to take you out. You tried to end the sim."
"No I didn't," he says. "I had it under control and stunned him. You trying to be a hero could have gotten us killed. Well, at least in here."
"It didn't look like you had it under control," I mutter. "And something was wrong."
"Fine, put it in your report. It's time to go."
Bewildered, I peer back toward the still-frozen guard, then silently follow Meyer into the stairwell to the storage room. Lena's already gone. Who knows if she saw anything either.
"Here's where I take my leave," Meyer says. "Follow your instructions and the sim will end." Then he's gone. Vanished.
In my view, a drone patrol shows one minute away, and I duck behind into the storage room and open the panel. After, I follow the same route Lena and I used on the way in without incident, other than ducking out of sight a few times, all the way back to the start.
Was any of that real? Or am I just out of my mind?
Simulation complete
The street scene disappears, replaced with a blurry version of Lena's apartment. I pull out the EP and blink a few times.
"It takes some time to adjust when you've been in for a while," Lena says from her kitchen. "Especially the first few times."
"So you didn't see anything out of the ordinary in that sim?" I ask.
"Seemed pretty average to me." She shrugs. "Probably just new for you. It was weird for me at first too."
Like seeing impossible things kind of weird?
"You should probably go," she continues. "Make your report, and then grab a few hours of sleep. It will be hard to sleep after that, but I wouldn't take any sleep meds. They're bad news. Direction says their natural, but I have my doubts."
I shift on my feet. What would she think if she knew I'd already been taking anti-anxiety MedTech too?
I hold out the EP. "What should I do with this?"
"Take it with you, and the box. Ruiz wants a few of us to test them out. You can practice in your apartment. Oh, and two things. If you're not wearing it, store it in the box for cleaning, and if you're caught, destroy it if you can. To do that, rip it in half and crush the pieces. The EP will dissolve."
I return the EP to the box and head out the door. "Um, okay… bye." I check if the hall's clear and dart into my unit.
"Bye," I hear Lena call as my door shuts. A low auto light illuminates the room.
A long sigh escapes me.
What if I'm caught with it?
I find the way over to the couch to make my report. The app asks a series of questions, and I document that I thought something was glitchy, and that they might want to check security. Anything more and they will probably question my mental stability.
As I record, my eyelids drift closed, and I pinch myself to stay alert for a second time.
Finally, I enter the last words and stumble into the bedroom. The nanos consistently wake me every morning, but I don't trust them today, and set the alarm on my handheld.
Before I doze off, my fingers graze the chain still encircling my neck, still thinking of the boy with the freckles, my twin, who gave it to me.
* * *
The crisp air on the way to work clears away my fog of barely getting any sleep. This is all moving so fast. Me… breaking into GenTech? There's no way they'd really have me do that.
Citizens on the way to their positions perform a mechanical dance, never touching or interacting unless necessary. So orderly, and even more so since Manning's announcement. All the cogs in Direction's machine working as they should.
I check in at GenTech and take the main stairwell, not the service passage from last night's sim. I slip into InfoSec, passing behind Daniel and his slick, sandy-brown hair. He works furiously, wearing his headset and immersed in VR. At least he's dedicated.
Once at my desk, I sit and link my Flexx. In my mind, an imaginary version of the Affinity program engaging with GenTech ignites. The spy program flutters in like a butterfly and grabs the information it needs. I shake my head from the ridiculous vision, but the jitter in my core remains.
No turning back. I'm trusting that my mission is important after all.
I activate my screen, and instructions appear.
A. Lark and D. Carter
One member will repor
t to Lab 1008 to secure system hardware for a physical information security check. After completion, perform maintenance scan of each system to ensure there is no errant code or files which need uploaded to Genesis Technologies Server mainframe. Begin with workstation 519.
In other words, boring, low-level work.
A box waits by each of our names to decline or accept. Daniel has checked the working in InfoSec box.
Of course he did. That's the more prestigious job, and he thinks it will gain him more clout and push me from advancement. I affix my headset and dive in. Daniel's avatar works on the project in VR even more furiously than he appeared at his desk and doesn't acknowledge me.
"Daniel."
"You're working in the lab," he says without turning.
"Oh?" My heart quickens at the chance to go check out if the real lab is like the one in last night's sim. But he doesn't need to know that, so I keep my voice flat. "And why is this your decision?"
"I got here first."
Any other day, I'd argue with him out of spite. I don't know why, I just can't help myself. But it's foolish, and to be honest, I'm thrilled to go.
I pull off my headset, leaving me staring at my system screen. I accept the job, and Daniel's name disappears from the list. Before I leave, I take my handheld and attach it to my wrist.
Once in the lab, I quickly note the similarities and differences between last night and the real thing. The lights are on this morning, of course, and the rooms are not lit with glowing night view anymore. That makes a major difference. But the layout is the same. Cabinets line the walls, and workstations are situated throughout the middle. A door panel labeled 1008b stands between two sizable cabinets, the same door that was glowing in my vision.
There has to be something important behind it.
Chemists are busy ignoring each other and me as they focus on their own tasks. A girl with curly red hair, thin frame wrapped in a white coat, peers into a magnifier at the station on my right. She doesn't look up.
I scan for the workstation numbers; 517… 518… 519. An SI assistant hovers with a chemist. Must be another newbie. Since her back is to me, all I see is her neat blonde hair and white lab coat. I slip to the station.
"I'm assigned to secure your system and account," I say.
She turns, and I recognize Corra Bradley, the nosey girl from my class at university. Guess her bragging came true. Instead of her usual messy hair, it's now clean and short. Under the coat, her charcoal pants and fitted matching shirt are neatly pressed. She seems to have used her credits to upgrade her appearance to fit in at GenTech.
A smug expression overtakes her face. "You'll need a lab coat to be in here."
Yes, Corra. You know all the rules here too.
15
During my second day in the lab, I work on the errant file part of my assignment, making sure all information is secured in the mainframe. I'm kind of amazed at how sloppy some of these chemists are, there's so many mismatched filenames and formats, but their specialty is biology, not system code, so it's no wonder. In turn, I'm sure I'd be mediocre at their job.
All in all, spending these two days in a different department is refreshing. I've also been able to make more mental notes concerning the lab to use in the sim later. Nothing big, but it makes me feel useful.
Once, Corra stared my way when I yawned a few too many times, so now I try to keep my back to her. As I finish at the last station, voices interrupt the relative silence of the suite. I turn as a group of people donning white coats enters. Margo Yates, the president of GenTech, is first. I recognize her from the vids in my introduction the first day.
She's followed by more faces I'm unfamiliar with—all but one. Kyra. Beside her is a stocky, middle-aged man who must be Representative Ayers. I think I've seen him once on a broadcast.
Ayers leans into her and says something I can't hear. Kyra pulls out a handheld from the bag slung over her shoulder, unfolds it, and taps the screen, then shows it to him. I can tell by the glimmer in her eyes that she's proud of her work.
The group speaks with the lead lab chem, and Kyra again brings up her device and appears to be recording notes. They move over to a magnifier and peer in to take a look. Kyra still doesn't spot me at the back of the room.
More voices waft in from the hallway outside the lab, and the group turns. Three more men enter. Two are tall and burly, similar to the Guardian officers that roam GenTech. Then, a stiff-looking man already wearing a white coat enters.
Director Manning.
Several of the lab chems look up from their work, and I can tell they want to stare, but doing so would give them away as unfocused. However, the occasional glances up give them away, despite their efforts. Even the best of us can't resist such importance.
Why in the world would he be at GenTech?
Manning motions at the lead chem and Ayers.
"Please, continue along with the tour," she says to the group, gesturing to the door. An SI assistant floats in to retrieve them.
Kyra, along with the rest of them, turn and exit. Manning and Ayers follow the lead chem to the back of the room to the mystery door, 1008b. My heart picks up speed. I look around to make sure no one noticed my own staring, but they've either gone back to work, or are doing some gawking of their own.
That lab door has been untouched yesterday and today. If Manning is going in there, something is going on. Something big.
The chem pulls out her Flexx and swipes the screen, then the three walk through the now-open door. I strain to see inside, but it's a bad angle, and I don't want to make a big deal about it. Unable to get a view inside, the door skims shut, and the burly men stand guard. The other chems return to their work, or pack up as if the leader of Direction wasn't even here.
On my way out, I steal a last glance at the mysterious room. Having the x-ray vision would be nice right now.
Once on the street, I message Kyra. Maybe she knows something.
Flexx 682AB1-ALARK: Do anything interesting today?
I wait for a few seconds, but nothing comes back. She's probably too busy for me.
* * *
After dinner, I activate the EP and blink into the weapons training sim I was instructed to complete in my Affinity account. Instead of the shooting range I selected, I'm in a clearing, flanked by a forest. Overhead, the sky is a soft blue, the sun shrouded in clouds. Short green grasses cover the ground, interrupted with patches of plants growing tiny yellow flowers.
I bend down and run a stem between my fingers. The blossom pops off into my palm. In my view, the flower name appears: Bur Marigold.
I stroke the flower's petals with my thumb, then bring it to my nose, closing my eyes and taking in its sweet scent.
"What do you think?"
My eyelids snap open and I let out a gasp. The flower falls to the ground.
Meyer Quinn
The viewer informs me of the person who owns the voice a little too late. I need to hack in and change that setting.
"Why do you keep doing that?" I ask.
Meyer circles to the front of me, wearing blue pants and a fiery orange shirt, so different than anyone in the city wears. Of course, he's grinning. It's better than him being angry at me like he was after the last sim. The shirt shows off his muscular chest, and the sight of it makes me turn away, embarrassed I even noticed it.
"Sorry. I saw you were in." He crosses his arms and studies the ground. "I'll set it to alert you before someone new enters a sim."
I lower my gaze, laughing to myself. "Thanks. I'd appreciate it. Did you change the location?"
"Thought I'd help practice," he replies, not answering my question.
"That would be helpful. I'm still not getting a few things."
A small brown bird flies overhead. My eyes follow it as it soars over the trees on the side and disappears.
"It's a lark," he says.
"A lark?"
Meyer bends down to the yellow flowers. "Yeah. I loaded it. It's your
last name, and I thought you might enjoy it. And it's also an apology for getting angry at you… it was your first time in a sim."
A blush heats my cheeks. Why is Meyer so nice to me? Must be a strategy to build my trust. Like I'm supposed to do with Aron.
"People thought of them as happy sounding," I say.
"Does seeing one make you happy?" he asks.
"Guess so, but it's not real. Right now my happiness seems unimportant in light of what's happening."
"Everyone should have the right to be happy. It makes Jayson's capture worth something."
Seventeen years of Direction telling us happiness is irrelevant makes it a hard habit to break, so I ignore his words.
"My friend Kyra came in on a tour of the lab today with Representative Ayers and some other citizens," I tell him. "After they were there for a few minutes, Director Manning joined them."
"Manning?" He raises his eyebrows. "He's never out among the people."
"Yeah, it surprised me too. A few minutes after the rest of the group left, he and Ayers entered a door against the back wall."
I don't mention it's the same one I saw glowing in the sim. Sounds too crazy.
He looks puzzled. "Did you report it yet?"
I smile. "I'm telling you."
"Make sure you note it in your report."
I shake my head. "I'll do it when we're done in here."
"Well, we should get going then," Meyer says. "Load indoor shooting range, scenario ten, then eight."
The scene morphs into the indoor shooting range I had originally called for. A stunner fills my hand.
"So you wanted to learn to shoot?"
"Why not?" I shrug. "It's not like programming systems has gotten me a lot of experience in that area. I figure I need the practice."
"Practice is always good." Meyer raises the stunner in his own hands, aiming toward the large black target situated about forty feet from where we are. He depresses the trigger and shoots several times. When each shot hits the mark, it lights the spot.
Configured: (Book #1 in the Configured Trilogy) Page 12