The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death

by William Kurth

  Alex lifted Petrov up as he had Sanders, by the throat. His kicking feet were now hanging in the air. Alex rotated himself and the kicking Petrov, so the man’s back was against an unbroken section of the floor to ceiling window that went from wall to wall behind him.

  Alex pushed his body through the glass which fell in small and large shards, crashing to the sidewalk below. Like he had with Sanders he held him there. The man kicked frantically while trying to grab onto Alex.

  “Please sir, we can come to an accommodation, I’m sure that the Bank will pay the fee, not just for Mr. Petrov, but all of their employees.” Mason pleaded.

  Alex turned his head back towards the chairman.

  “Mr. Mason, are you able to authorize that transaction on behalf of Mr. Petrov’s employer?”

  “Well of course not, but I’m sure–”

  Alex dropped Petrov, his screams bouncing back into the board room through the two large openings of the shattered windows and then trailing away.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Mason. You were saying?” Alex asked.

  Mason stood stone-faced.

  “Hmm well, it must not have been that important.” Alex paused and gave a slight smile to the group. “Good day gentlemen, ma’am.” Alex nodded towards the female assistant standing near the doorway.

  He walked past her and out to the reception area before entering an elevator which took him to the lobby. Stepping from the elevator, Alex found the lobby to be quite empty. Nothing like when he arrived earlier with all the business people and residents coming and going.

  Alex bounded out the main doors, held open by a doorman. A crowd had already formed around the two bodies.

  Sanders, like Joanne Hendricks, landed on a parked car. Alex had to lift his gaze slightly to see Petrov who landed on one of the massive flagpoles jutting out at an upward angle away from the building. Petrov’s body was impaled on the pole where it pierced him just below the sternum, and he hung face down with the flagpole protruding through his back. His mouth and eyes open in horror, a steady stream of blood fell onto the sidewalk from his mouth as well as from where the flagpole impaled him.

  Alex signaled for a taxi which pulled over and picked him up. He had the driver, a talkative T-2, drive him around a bit before going into a series of teleporters and PDR’s and then into a couple of other taxis before repeating the teleport and PDR routine.

  MCT LAB, Metaverse

  Argosi didn’t want to get too excited about the information that the Boulder PD had dug up. He knew that investigators could too easily get tunnel vision when a potential suspect emerged. They sometimes began to try and build the case around him or her, often diverting resources and objectivity away from the investigation in that pursuit.

  Still, this was solid police work and the only lead they had. He wanted to find Dr. Maddox and interview him. If nothing else he may have some insight into how the killer or killers are gaining control of the H-Pods as well as the servers since nobody at either DLS or SDG seemed to know, or wouldn’t say. He also wanted to obtain a DNA sample. The forensics would not be able to match him at the scene positively but could eliminate him as a suspect.

  Argosi’s instincts wanted to focus on him, especially as his whereabouts were unknown. He quite literally went off the grid. He was most likely “living” in the Metaverse under an assumed name in a pod somewhere. So far as they could tell he disappeared eighteen months ago shortly after resigning, although some former colleagues had told his investigators that he was allowed to do so instead of being terminated.

  None of the former co-workers being interviewed so far at Silicon Data Group had much good to say about him other than his brilliance with artificial intelligence and virtual reality. All of them stated that he is hard to communicate with and that he constantly berated subordinates, peers, and even upper management.

  Sounds like a real piece of work, but that doesn’t make him a killer.

  Shortly after leaving, SDG Maddox sold his home, belongings and even vehicles. He left no forwarding address other than an email. They had a cell phone number, but it was no longer active. Argosi weighed sending him an email. On the one hand, it might result in contact, helping the investigation move forward. On the other, if he were involved in any of this it could tip their hand and scare him deeper. Argosi preferred to try and find him first and failing that at least learn as much about him and his activities over the last year and a half as he could before reaching out to him.

  SDG did not want to give out much information about their former employee. But Parker leaned on one of the HR people and found out that he did his banking through the Bank of St. Petersburg, or at least at that time that’s where Maddox’s direct deposit went for his salary, which was quite substantial.

  Argosi would need a warrant if he wanted to look at any of his financials. So far, they lacked the probable cause to obtain one. They knew from the facial recognition technology that he was physically in Boulder Colo. the day before Dr. Sullivan’s murder only a few miles from the crime scene. If Dr. Maddox went in-world and off the grid. What brought him out?

  Why Boulder and why around the time frame of the first murder? Add to that the urine sample at the scene which makes the suspect a male and on Nutrient adhering to a vegan diet. Drinking a type of Nutrient mineral water that is relatively unique, even among vegans.

  Interviews so far with some of the coworkers revealed that Dr. Maddox was militantly vegan. He would demand you not share his table if you were consuming meat, fish or dairy products in your meal, even cream in your coffee. Maddox would belittle non-vegans and as a result mainly ate by himself. In one famously explosive tirade, he screamed at an employee who brought cream cheese in with the bagels to a morning meeting.

  This is the guy. There are just too many coincidences.

  Parker barreled into Argosi’s office.

  “We’ve got two dead, business district, same MO as yesterday both thrown through plate glass windows. One was the former CEO of Silicon Data Group. Callum and Wu are on sight.”

  “Shit, I wonder if it had anything to do with us nosing around SDG all day? Who’s the other victim?” Argosi asked.

  “Interestingly enough, he was a real world representative of The Bank of St. Petersburg based in London. As far as your other question I sure hope not. At this point we have to leave that as an open possibility. Maybe a warning to not talk to the feds?” Parker answered.

  “Or settling a long-held grudge. I think there are too many coincidences to this. I believe the killer targeted the Silicon Data Group CEO before we ever went there this morning. Plus, it’s not like this Dr. Maddox seemed to have many friends at SDG.” Argosi said, thinking through motives aloud.

  “No friends that we could identify, that’s for sure. But we still need to consider that it is an inside job from SDG, either someone who might want to lay the blame on this Maddox character or perhaps is working in cahoots with him?” Parker added.

  “Why the banker though?” Argosi asked.

  Parker shrugged his shoulders, and Argosi droned on. “Too many unknowns. We need to find either him or Reynolds. I think either will lead to the other. Where are we on the facial recognition on the interstate toll zones and public transit including from the Transportation Security Administration?”

  “No luck so far. We’re looking through Colorado and every state that touches it with a connecting Interstate, airport or Hyperloop. We have tens of thousands of partial hits that we are working through but nothing promising.”

  “Partial hits?”

  “Yeah, since we already have him ID’d, we can take parts of his face and run it against other faces that have traveled through those locations since the Sullivan murder. If he was wearing large glasses, a hat or something else to conceal his face, we might be able to match it up. That is a long shot at this point unless he is traveling a considerable distance and we get the same hits over and over. Then we might be able to build a probability estimate if we see a patter
n where the same guy is getting a hit but from different angles that add to the first hit and so on. Needle in a whole field of haystacks, but the algorithm can chew through haystacks pretty quickly.”

  Argosi nodded. “Any word from Mathias’s people?”

  Parker smiled. “That’s the other news. His people have told me they can meet. We have an appointment at his office in the St. Petersburg Bank building at 1700.”

  “That’s in an hour.” Argosi stared off into space. “Ok you, me, Callum and Wu will teleport over to the bank and see what, if anything, Mr. Mathias can do for us. Maybe since he lost an employee in the attack, he will be more empathetic.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that, sir.” Parker marched out of Argosi’s office without another word.

  CEO Office Suite, Bank of St. Petersburg, Metaverse

  Argosi looked at his watch. The time was 1712, or 5:12 pm in civilian time and seventeen minutes since their arrival. They were seated in the plush outer offices of the Metaverse billionaire sentient being and majority shareholder of The Bank of St. Petersburg, one Edgar Bartholomew Mathias.

  The only other person they had seen was the receptionist, a talkative and petite brunette. Callum and Parker had encouraged Wu to make small talk with her. Their reasons were twofold. One, to get Wu used to this type of interaction and secondly to find out if she had anything interesting to say, tidbits about Mathias that they might find useful. Wu scanned her; she was human and a very talkative one, but nothing of interest to the agents.

  She told Wu that she was nervous about all the murders and was concerned for her safety and the other coworkers. She talked about the killing of the bank employee earlier in the day and how it was hard to get any work done. Mostly however, she was interested in Mr. Wu. The two just made small talk about nothing in particular.

  “Wu, pipe me back in if anything pertinent comes up about the bank or Mathias,” Argosi said over their secure comm net.

  “WILCO.”

  The receptionist had no idea that the agents were eavesdropping. Such techniques and applications were not allowed by the realism settings here but those were not applicable to the FBI-MCT.

  At 5:20 the receptionist’s phone buzzed. She spoke to someone for a moment then after disconnecting looked towards Argosi.

  “Mr. Adams sends his apologies; he will be about another ten minutes. Are you gentlemen sure I cannot offer you a refreshment?

  “Who is Mr. Adams?” Argosi asked the receptionist, ignoring the offer of drinks for the second time since he arrived.

  “Mr. Adams is Mr. Mathias’s General Counsel.” The receptionist answered.

  Argosi stood and went over to her desk.

  “I understood this meeting was to be with Mr. Mathias?

  “Yes sir you will meet with him, but Mr. Adams will meet with you first. He shouldn’t be much longer sir. I apologize for the delay.”

  “Thank you. It’s not your fault. We’ll wait.” Argosi answered with a smile.

  Parker came up on the comm.

  “This is par for the course, sir. Take as much of your time from you as they can,”

  “I got all night,” Argosi answered.

  Finally at 5:36 pm the door opened and a fit man with jet black hair came rushing into the lobby.

  “Commander Argosi?”

  “Right here.”

  The man smiled warmly and extended his hand.

  “I’m Robert Adams, General Counsel for Mr. Mathias. I’m so sorry that I am late. Mr. Mathias and I were in a meeting with some business associates that ran over. I hope Ms. Bergman here made you feel right at home.”

  “She did,” Argosi said then introduced the rest of his group, who all shook the lawyer’s hand.

  “Very well. If you gentleman will follow me I will take you to the pad.”

  “The pad?” Argosi asked.

  “The VTAL pad. Mr. Mathias sent a VTAL for you to take him to his yacht. It is not a long ride, perhaps 30 minutes depending on other air traffic.” Adams said with a smile.

  “Mr. Adams I understood we were to meet Mr. Mathias here at 5:00 pm. It is now 5:40 pm and still no Mr. Mathias. Now we need to take a thirty-minute VTAL flight to his yacht? It will be well after six by the time we arrive. If that was the case, then we could have gone in our VTAL to his location.”

  “Again, my apologies. Mr. Mathias preference is to remain out of New Polis at an undisclosed location, given the killings here in the city including the terrible death of a valued employee. An employee, I might remind you, whose body at this very moment remains impaled on a flag pole in a major area of the financial district, not five blocks from here. Sir, forgive me, but what have you been doing to see that he or the other victims do not continue to be monuments to a mad man?” Adams responded

  “FYI, Commander. Adams is an AE, not human.” It was Wu on the secure comm.

  “Roger that, thanks. He’s not the first lawyer without a soul.”

  The group shared a chuckle over Argosi’s comments that Adams could not hear and probably would not understand.

  This is all a game. What role do you or your master play in it, Adams? Argosi fumed and counted to ten. “Mr. Adams, those are questions for DLS and its affiliates, but I do share your concerns and will pass them along. I don’t see any reason to keep Mr. Mathias waiting any longer do you?” Argosi said. He stared at Adams and bit his lip so he did not really say what he was thinking.

  Adams smiled and extended his right arm, motioning towards a doorway. “This way gentlemen.”

  Adams led the group to an elevator that went to the top of the building and opened into a glass enclosure beyond which Argosi could see a private VTAL with a large “M” in the center of a coat of arms on the tail.

  “A computer program with its own coat of arms, unbelievable.” Argosi mumbled under his breath.

  The group exited the enclosure and walked to the aircraft and then up a set of stairs. The inside had several seating options including a couch. All the seats were of fine Italian leather and the cabinets which held spirits and crystal glasses were fine polished wood.

  Argosi took a seat in an individual chair. Adams sat on the couch across from him. The others found their seats and after the door closed the VTAL lifted into a hover above the pad. Argosi looked out his window never having seen New Polis from this vantage point.

  “Refreshment, sir?” Argosi turned to see a flight attendant with light brown hair tied into a ponytail wearing a short black skirt with a white button-down shirt and black bow tie. “Something from the bar perhaps?”

  “No, thank you. I’m all right.”

  “Very well sir, ring if you need anything. Our flight time is 33 minutes.”

  “Thank you,” Argosi said, returning his gaze to the window.

  The VTAL circled the bank building now.

  “The St. Petersburg building is the tallest in New Polis. The entire three floors below the VTAL pad is Mr. Mathias’s personal residence when in the city. It’s over twenty thousand square feet. In addition to the pools on the terraces that you can see, part of the guest suites, there is also a large indoor lap pool, home theater, ballroom and fitness facilities.” Adams added, ever so helpfully.

  Adams rose from the couch and stood over Argosi’s seat, pointing out the window.

  “Mr. Mathias thought you might find it interesting, so the pilot is circling. It’s quite a piece of architecture. Don’t you think so, Commander?”

  “Great, like to see the inside sometime,” Argosi said, trying to resist pushing the man back down onto the couch. Steady, Dom. This is all a mind fuck...but why?

  “I’m sure that Mr. Mathias would enjoy your company very much, Commander. I shall mention it to him. Perhaps when all this nastiness is over, and Mr. Mathias is entertaining in the city again, he will have you as a dinner guest. I’m sure he would be honored.” Adams added before sitting down.

  “The honor would be all mine, sir,” Argosi said, his disingenuousness lost on the digit
al lawyer.

  Argosi eyed the city racing by below. He had no idea how expansive New Polis was. Looking at it from a monitor screen didn’t do it justice. After leaving the city, the VTAL flew over the Island of “Venice.” Argosi found it indistinguishable from the real one. The plane then headed out over the open sea leaving all sights of land behind. Occasionally a ship, yacht or some other vessel could be spotted on the surface.

  After about twenty-five minutes, Argosi could see some mountain ranges coming into view. As the VTAL got closer, he realized it was not a strip of land but a series of islands. The VTAL crossed the brilliant white sand of a beach then climbed over a mountain range before dropping down into a large horseshoe shaped bay with tall peaks on three sides lush with green vegetation interspersed with steep rock faces. In the distance, Argosi saw a tall waterfall that dropped from a stone outcropping down to the water of the bay. Ribbons of bright white sand beaches lined the coast, and the water was a clear light turquoise. The white sand reflecting off the visible bottom before turning dark blue as the water deepened farther from shore.

  Perhaps a kilometer offshore a large ship, 800 feet or greater in length was resting at anchor. Argosi could see that it contained multiple decks with several large pools and smaller hot tubs on some of them. The VTAL slowed and lowered its altitude to just a hundred feet as it circled the vessel. A large landing pad was visible just aft of the center of it.

  “There she is, the ‘Pinnacle of the Sea.’ That’s her actual name.” Adams leaned over Argosi’s chair. Apparently Argosi’s new best friend.

  Argosi nodded, not wanting to invite more small talk which unfortunately did not work as Adams droned on about all the ships amenities and capabilities. He talked non-stop over Argosi’s shoulder until the VTAL landed.

  Argosi got up from his seat and exited the VTAL. He could feel the heat of the late afternoon sun on his face. He also noticed that it felt more humid and like at the MCT-HQ he could smell the salt in the air.