by Thom Parsons
“Where are we?” Kate asked as she looked around at the city. “I recognise the New York skyline around us, but I can’t place which building we’re on…”
This viewpoint was one of the first places that Owen liked to come to when he entered PRoGRaM. He loved bringing others here to share in the wonder of it all, regardless of the fact that it was never exactly relevant to any operation that they were conducting. It was a location that held a significant place in his mind, despite the fact that in the real world, this place no longer existed.
It hadn’t existed for a long, long time.
This building was one of the focal points of a huge event at the beginning of the 21st century. And it’s also where my parents were killed when I was only a year old.
“Where we’re standing now is the Northern Tower of The World Trade Centre, which was destroyed over thirty years ago.”
Chapter Three
Date: December 15th 2035 (Present Day)
Location: Unknown
“Perception Recreation Geist-Reality Manipulator, or, as it’s more commonly known, PRoGRaM," Owen explained as Victoria sat listening to what he had to say. "This machine is a revolution that can take your consciousness inside a virtual world, whilst your body stays here, in the real world.”
He rubbed the underside of his chin and felt a fair chunk of stubble. It had been a rough few days for Owen Archer, and he was feeling it all over. His dark, scraggly, medium length hair was all over the place and his blue eyes looked glazed over. His body was worn out and his mind was broken, but he was damned if he was going to show signs of vulnerability to these people.
“Where is it you go in this… virtual world?” Victoria asked him.
Owen looked up at her, studying her for the first time since she had walked into the room a few minutes before. She had shoulder length brunette hair that rested on top of her black suit jacket, and dark brown eyes hidden behind her thin glasses. All in all, she looked stunning; completely out of place in the bland room that the two of them were sat in. Plain grey walls surrounded them, with one exit, and no windows. Two huge lights stretched the ceiling above him, and a huge one way mirror sat alongside the wall to the left. The room was straight out of a retro cop show.
“Well, you can go pretty much anywhere you want to go,” Owen said, answering her question. "The creators of PRoGRaM took an entire 3D map of the world that had already been captured. That was thanks to the company called Veridian.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” Victoria said, shaking her head slowly as she spoke yet never breaking eye contact.
“They’re not that well-known a company," Owen explained. "But I guarantee you’ve used some of their technology in the past.” He realised that he was rambling, going off on a tangent and away from the important things. “Anyway, back to Veridian. They’d been developing their mapping system since the beginning of the millennium. Towards the end of 2029, Veridian had a complete 3D map of the world. It included everything, even the insides of every building in existence. It had all been mapped out through a new, experimental sonar technology. The creators of PRoGRaM took this map and re-coded it to their own use.”
"And who was it that created PRoGRaM?" Victoria asked.
"We'll get to that shortly," Owen said, shaking her question off. “Back to the facts. This sonar scanned map was the beginning of what would become PRoGRaM. A massively scaled, highly detailed, complete 3D map of the world, and we could just walk around inside it as if we were in the real world, with the added ability to go absolutely anywhere we wanted to in the flash of an eye.” He watched Victoria note down the things that he was saying.
“And these creators of PRoGRaM? Did you ever meet them? After all, you were using their machine,” Victoria questioned.
“Yes, I met them. But we’ll get to that,” Owen replied, trying not to get ahead of himself.
“Okay,” she said, making a note of it for later. “Can you describe what PRoGRaM is like? I’d like to know how the experience is, in your own words, so that I can understand the story more coherently.”
Owen sat and thought about it a little, wanting to give as detailed an answer as possible. “To some extent, being inside PRoGRaM is just like being inside a video game, except that in PRoGRaM, everything looks real, and it’s pretty damn difficult to separate the real world away from PRoGRaM’s reality once you’re in there.”
"I see. And inside, how do you, look like… you?"
"PRoGRaM is capable of reading you genetic makeup. All it needs is something as small as a drop of your own blood. It translates this into an accurate representation of yourself inside the digital world. Clothing is all programmed in afterwards, but we'll get to that later."
Owen took a drink from his glass of water that was on the table in front of him before he continued. “Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Creating a world isn’t enough, it’s what you use it for that really matters. I know that additions were slowly made to the original PRoGRaM basic world model. The virtual world gradually became more realistic. The creators who coded the world added things such as avatars, these life-like people walking around the world. They programmed vehicles, added different weather conditions, absolutely everything that you can think of. Everything that was done, was to make the experience seem more real. Then, and only then, was the attention for PRoGRaM turned to the real world applications. The general public had no common knowledge of PRoGRaM, as the entire project was still under wraps with the FBI.”
“And still is?” Victoria questioned.
“And still is.”
“You know a lot about the development of PRoGRaM, Mr Archer,” Victoria said, probing him into explaining himself.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing?" he responded. "It’s a part of my job to know everything about the technology that I’m using. Like how I know that originally, PRoGRaM was only used for simulation purposes. One of its more elaborate current functions was discovered completely by accident.”
“Go on.”
“This ‘re-invention’ as you might call it, developed when a select few members of the British S.A.S. used PRoGRaM to put a soldier in the middle of a battlefield, as part of a trial for a new battle simulation. I don’t know the soldiers name, is that important?”
“No,” Victoria said back to him without even looking up from her notepad where she was furiously writing down the details.
“Okay,” Owen continued. “So, this was the first ever test of its kind. They loaded up a location in PRoGRaM that the man had actually fought at during one of his tours of Afghanistan. Some avatars that were pre-programmed to fight back were brought in and then the simulation began. Now, here comes something which nobody had yet thought about the consequences of. This soldier ended up virtually dying whilst inside PRoGRaM, shot dead by one of the in-programmed avatars.”
“You can die inside PRoGRaM?” Victoria quickly asked, surprised by this new information.
“Only virtually," Owen responded, trying quickly to explain. "Dying inside PRoGRaM cannot kill your physical body, but it is capable of doing something… else. This soldier, after initially waking up in the real world appeared to have come out of the trauma relatively unscathed. Apart from that is, losing a very specific piece of his memory.”
“You mean…?”
“The memory happened to be the same one that was active at the time he was inside PRoGRaM. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”
Chapter Four
Date: December 8th 2035
Location: PRoGRaM
Owen gathered his thoughts and brought himself back into the present. Standing around looking at the view was mesmerising. Before him lay a perfect world, but regardless of this, he had work to do. He turned around and walked back towards the door from which he and Kate came from.
“Nick?” Owen said out loud. Kate glanced back as she heard Owen speak, but when she realised that he wasn’t talking to her, she continued to admire the scenery beyond the edge of the
rooftop. “Take us back to The White Room, through the same door we came here through please.”
Owen felt stupid, standing there talking to himself, it was something that felt perfectly natural with when he was alone inside PRoGRaM, but now that he had company, he found talking out loud to someone who wasn’t physically there sort of embarrassing. He doubted that he would ever get used to it, although a piece of him was glad that he finally had someone else with him on the inside. Being in this huge world alone was a terrifying thought.
He turned back to look at Kate, who was still staring out at the New York City skyline. “Kate?” Owen asked, making her turn her head from her admiration of the city to look back at him. “Follow me. It’s time for some real work.”
She pushed herself away from the railing, and then slowly jogged up to meet Owen at his side. Together, the two of them walked slowly back towards the rooftop door.
“What’s next?” she enquired.
“Research,” Owen answered plainly as he continued to walk towards the door that Nick was programming to take them back into the White Room. “It’s no good going into any memory without good, decent research first. It’s like trying to fly a plane without any training. You’re going to screw it up.”
“All of my research about Eli…”
“Is absolutely fine,” Owen said quickly, cutting her off. “That’s why you’re here with me. So that I can walk you through it.” He led the way and pushed the door open, seeing that The White Room now lay beyond the threshold. “The White Room," he continued. "As well as being a seriously important part of the entry process of PRoGRaM, is also a great place to combine all of your research about any given job.”
Collectively, Owen and Kate walked into The White Room before Kate turned and pushed the door shut behind her, instantly seeing that the light above switch from green to red. The noise of the city abruptly cut out as the door hissed shut and sealed itself.
“The walls of the White Room can show us all the information that we want it to show," Owen explained. "It can hold any thought that you want it to. For example, let me show you what we know, about... you.”
Owen lifted up his hands in front of him. Carefully, and with much concentration, he aimed the palms of his hands towards The White Room's wall directly in front of him. He pressed his fingers tightly together on both hands, but left the thumbs separated out and spaced away from the rest of his fingers.
Except for the thumb and forefinger on both hands, Owen clenched the other three fingers down into half a fist. Looking at his forefinger and thumb, the only two that were still raised, he saw an ‘L’ and and a backwards 'L'. He twisted both hands in opposite directions and touched the ends of his thumbs to the opposite hands forefinger, making a rectangular shape in front of him.
Owen quickly threw his hands apart diagonally, in an action to make the rectangle bigger.
Instantly, on the wall in front of him, a picture appeared. It was Kate’s FBI basic training graduation picture. Owen pointed to another part of the wall of The White Room, just to the right of the picture that had just manifested itself. Some facts about Kate started to appear. They were just the usual generic facts, such as her name, age, sex, height and profession. These were normal, non-confidential pieces of information that anybody with half a brain and a little skill on the right computer could gain access to.
As Owen was throwing up all the information around the room, he began to explain himself to Kate. “We have to make sure that everybody we work with inside PRoGRaM has a perfect track record. We profile all users, just like we’d profile any suspect, if not more vigorously. But lucky for you, you’re the perfect employee.”
The information that was surrounding them started to become more personal. Pictures of Kate's personal life filled up the four walls all around them. Kate and her friends, family pictures, pictures from her school life, pictures from the police training academy, pictures from her personal holidays with friends. A web of thin black lines began to appear, linking all of the events together and chronicling a timeline of her entire life. All of the photographs and information were gradually connecting together. The places that she had lived, the bars that she frequented when she was younger. Every score from every test she’d ever taken in her life.
"Impressive," she said, feeling massively overwhelmed and slightly embarrassed by all of the pictures and facts surrounding them. Owen clapped his hands twice, and all the information around them on the White Room’s walls instantly disappeared, leaving both him and Kate surrounded once again by only plain, white walls. He was satisfied that his demonstration had proved that his team could access anything, anywhere, and get to anyone.
“For this next part, you’re in control,” Owen said to her as he did his usual trick of pacing slowly around the room in a circle. “Using this White Room as a research centre isn’t too complicated, it’s designed to hold your thoughts. So, let’s see your research. And remember, I wont be here all the while. So if you have any questions, ask them now. “
Kate took a breath and stepped forward slowly. “Okay, so…“ She began by clasping her hands together and keeping them held tight in front of her. “Eli Roth is our target, 28 years old and from Boston.”
Kate threw her hands apart, up into the air in front of her, palms facing outwards. Several images of Eli Roth appeared in front of Owen and Kate, covering an entire wall of The White Room. The central image, plastered directly in the middle of the wall was a huge, high definition image of Eli. Even though he looked young in the photo, you could definitely see that he was at his late twenties. He had black spiked hair, but had no striking features on his face that made him stand out in a crowd. He looked like any other young American businessman in a suit, trying to work his way to the top.
The rest of the photos that cropped up were a mixture of professional images, and photos that had obviously been gathered from third-party sources or from social media websites that Eli frequented. “He’s a suspected cyber criminal,” Kate continued. “And our sources on the street confirm that he has links to pretty much all the major organised crime groups operating out of New York.”
Gang symbols appeared around the central image of Eli, and red lines fired out from the edges of his picture, each one leading to a symbol. “We’ve been keeping tabs on him for some time. We’d have no grounds on which to bring him into the station, but from what we can tell he’s some kind of conduit, working all the sides. We don’t know what for though. He’s smart enough not to get himself caught.”
Kate walked around the room, looking closely at all of the information that was up on the walls, feeling impressed with her own ability to show everything clearly. “But they slip up,” she said quietly as she turned back to face Owen. “If you’re watching closely enough, they always do.”
Owen nodded in response, impressed with what he was seeing around him, before letting Kate continue. “One of our agents tailing him recently marked him down as meeting with known affiliates of these gangs.” Next to several of the gang symbols surround Eli’s image on the wall, a small mugshot of each of the noted criminals appeared.
“He didn’t just meet with one of these groups either," Kate said. "There was at least one known member from each of these groups at the same place that Eli was. They didn’t all arrive at the same time, but the fact that they are all in the same place in the same timeframe is more than just a coincidence.”
“Where and when?” Owen asked urgently, knowing that these two questions were by far the most important ones.
“Echo Nightclub on December 2nd, just under a week ago,” Kate answered. On the wall to Owen’s left, some images of the Nightclub appeared, both of the interior and the exterior, as well as blueprints and floor plans of the place. It looked like a modern, loud, high profile club. Surveillance photos appeared, showing the outside of the building; The neon covered exterior, well lit ‘Echo Club’ sign, and larger than life bouncers on the door watching over a queue that stretched b
ack an entire city block showed Owen exactly what he was expecting to see from such a nightclub.
“From your records, your surveillance… does he frequent this place often?” Owen asked inquisitively.
“For as long as we’ve been tailing him, he’s never once been there. Not until December 2nd,” Kate responded with a shake of her head.
“Good.”
“Why is that good?”
“Two reasons,” Owen said, holding two fingers out to her. He grabbed the first one with his other hand. “Firstly. Because he’s not a regular to this nightclub, his memory of this meeting should be relatively unique. it won’t blend in with any other memories that this place shares in his mind.”
“That can happen?”
“Rarely," he explained. "Just remember this. It’s easier to bring forward a unique memory, rather than a memory of something that you do every day. For example, the drive to work. All those memories of that same event mix in together, and can be very difficult to separate should you ever need to pick a specific one out," Owen explained.
“That makes sense,” Kate said, nodding in response. “So we’re in luck here.”
Owen nodded back to her, eyes wide, and grabbed the second finger on the hand that he was holding up. “Secondly,” he continued. “The fact that Eli met these people less than a week ago should make it easier for the memory to surface, whilst it’s still fresh in his mind.”
Kate nodded at this new information, taking on board and listening intently to everything that Owen had said to her so far.
“These groups,” Owen asked. “The ones that Eli met with. They don’t talk to each other?”
“Normally?” Kate said, watching Owen carefully as he paced around the room. “No. We think they’re planning something big. We can’t afford to take any chances, and we need to know what’s going on. Between these gangs, they have enough suspected manpower and resources to pull off any crime they want to. Eli seems to be the one in charge. Or at least the one with the information that we need. That’s why we’ve brought him here.”