Hera vanished into random pixelation, fading away to announce my presence. The garage door rumbled to life, traveling noisily upon its tracks as it lifted up and exposed the old bay. I hurried inside, happy to get rid of my morbid delivery as I took the stairs down to Ava's workshop two at a time. The place felt like a small dungeon, but at least it kept cool during the summer and warm during the winter. Ava had perfected a sort of ordered chaos, with everything mingling with everything; for the past few years she'd been heavily into the occult after finding a few boxes of her great aunt's old mystic crap.
The lights were out and my heart sank. Since we were little, she'd always hated the dark. It was the glowing pink optical fiber cable woven into her hair as highlights that made it easy to see that she was slumped in her seat. My heart pounded, not with worry, but a distinct and enveloping sense of disappointment. I'd found her like this a few times before.
Ava was a bit too thin to be called lean, and her deep blue eyes were flecked with gray. She was a little shorter than me, with a face that had endured hard years of struggle and remained youthful, vibrant and beautiful. Her black hair was illuminated pink at the tips, and it hung mussed and uncombed around her face. She reclined in a ratty old office chair, her favorite one, with her mouth slack and a glistening line of drool traveling like a rivulet down the side of her chin.
“She's jacked herself into a Synth Sim.” Hera offered. “End_of_The_Journey, a very popular upload from acclaimed neuropathologist, Mitsuke Hiromashi. A sense log of the moments following his completion of dual master's programs from Harvard Global. Two hundred seventy seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty two hits. User Ava has accessed this particular synth thirty nine times.”
I nodded, but I wasn't really listening. The words bounced off me like rain. Ava promised me that if we went for this, she'd stay clean. I was angry, hurt, but it'd been less than a year since she stopped jacking synths religiously. I told myself I should have expected some backslide and it's not like what she was doing was illegal - the damn things are actually encouraged as a learning tool. Why experience it for yourself when someone else already has? Joy, contentment, pride, true love, happiness, earth-shattering orgasms? As long as someone's uploaded their mental state onto the Grid, anyone can access it. There are people who'll upload their whole lives, and others who'll waste theirs living out someone else's.
“End it,” I whispered to Hera, wiping the spilled saliva off Ava with a rub of my sleeve. I took a moment to run my hands through her hair, and even though I couldn't keep my fingers still, I could feel how soft and smooth she was to the touch.
“Slag it, Ava. We don't have time for this...” I knew she couldn't hear me. Hera's hand slid into sight, passing through mine with an electronic tingle and down into Ava's forehead. Hera's form flickered and Ava's eyes went wide and alert, focusing around the room as she shifted back so far in the chair that I had to reach over to stop it from toppling.
She stared up at me, her chest rising and falling with deep-but-sporadic breaths. When she realized that I was standing over her, there were no words, her face turning red and twisting into a tableau of grief, shame and anger. Her hands pressed up to her face and she shook her head, sobbing into her palms. What could I do? Yell at her? It wouldn't be anything that she wasn't doing to herself already. I wanted to pull her against me, I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay. I had this intense need to hold her. And yet, I didn't. I couldn't remember the last time I regretted anything so much. She sobbed and I stood there like an idiot, my shaking hands tucked into jeans pockets trying to look at anything but her. After an awkward eternity, she was done.
“You crashed up. You know that. This happens again, and I'm done,” I muttered. But that was all I had to say on the subject. I let it drop like a bad habit should be dropped.
“Did you get the stuff?” she asked, sniffling as she wiped the balls of her palm beneath her eyes.
“I think so, I mean... you'll have to look. The liver's good but... hanged man, eyes of green? I did the best I could.” I shrugged and set my bag down next to her. Hera floated close to me, but she never interjected when I was interacting with someone in the meat. I didn't program her like that; I think she just liked watching how humans bounced off one another.
Ava frowned lightly and shook her head. “Oh, okay. I'll take a look. But I mean this spell has to be perfect,” she said, and slid herself back over to a table that she'd jury rigged from scavenged bricks and plywood.
“Yeah, spell. Hey, listen. I wanted to ask you about that.” I rubbed the back of my head and forced myself to ask: “This thing, how many times has it worked?”
“Never,” she answered, pulling a leather-bound, yellow-papered book towards her that was easily the size of her head.
“Crash,” I muttered sarcastically.
“But it will, Holden. That's what the Game is for. Two sides, winner takes all,” she whispered.
“Only we're the side that's never won.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose and dropped onto the ratty, flat-cushioned couch. “Which is to say we don't really know if it'll even work.”
“Not really... why, all of a sudden you want out?”
“That's not what I'm saying.” I gritted my teeth.
“Fine,” she huffed.
“Fine.” I sat in silence for a long moment, Hera sitting at my side, running her fingers along my back consolingly. “Did you get what you needed today?”
“Yeah, I swished it and if the ingredients that you snagged work out, we'll be platinum.” Her voice caught at the end, a little twinge of worry.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“What happened?”
“I... I saw that guy again. Only for a second... but he was there. I think he's following me,” she offered, looking back over her shoulder.
“The huge guy?” She'd mentioned something about a giant watching her from the shadows a couple of times over the past few weeks.
She nodded. “Yeah. Except... he's getting sloppier. Or maybe more brazen... I think he might be letting me see him. He's gotta be at least eight feet tall, and he's built like a damn gorilla.”
“Okay.” I tried to keep any skepticism out of my voice. “So, uh, is this ape-man playing or what?”
“I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out...” she flipped through the pages of the ancient book in front of her.
“Anything I can help with?”
“Not unless you know anything about divination!” she snapped. I pursed my lips, struggling not to take the bait. I understood her frustration, but I've been around Ava all my life, ever since her family and mine shared a floor in the projects. The only way to win with her was not to play. Her shoulders drooped when I didn't engage. “I'm sorry, this shit's just... it's hard, okay?”
“Changing the world should be hard, you know?” I said softly. “Listen, I might not know much about mysticism, but I do know search programs. Hera, execute program BigBrother, search for any individuals whose height exceeds seven feet in a two-block radius of User Ava, backlog to the first of October.”
Hera nodded crisply, a smile playing across her face. “Right away, Holden.”
“Still plugged into the City Sec Watch Protocol?” Ava shook her head in a mock rebuke.
“Eh, the way I see it, if they arrest me it wouldn't be the end of the world,” I said dryly, with an impressively straight face.
Ava stared at me for a second and then she laughed. She laughed her beautiful, sharp, barking laugh as she buckled over in her chair. It's the kind of laugh that grabs you and drags you along for the ride. We were both in tears and gasping for air when it died out.
“Here,” Ava said finally, a smile on her face. “I want to show you something.” She beckoned me over and I pushed myself off of the couch and made my way to her side. In front of her there was a cherry-wood box with all kinds of strange engravings on the side, twists and turns that reminded me of a Celtic
knot designed by M.C. Escher and regurgitated by Pollock. Ava lifted the box lid, and inside was a dark, gnarled stick with a similarly engraved bottom part that was worked into what looked like a handle. “The Opening Wand,” she said in a tone of reverence.
“And that's for....”
“Opening.” She brushed her glowing, neon-pink bangs from her face. “It's the key. Listen, do you want to help me go over pronunciations for some of these words in the spell? We really don't want to frag this up.”
“Anyway you think I can help, Ava,” I said softly.
“You already are. Thank you, I-I don't think I could have done this on my own,” she stared up at me.
I smiled. “Probably not, you are kind of a spaz.”
She punched me lightly in the arm. “Twip.”
“Holden, I have found a match,” Hera chimed in. “Suspect is eight-foot-eight-inches tall and has been pinpointed by Watch Protocol seven times in the designated radius from User Ava.”
“Yes!” I spun to face her, still sitting on the couch, her eyes staring intently at me.
“What?” Ava asked.
I looked back and forth between the daemon and the witch and smiled. “Hera's got the guy. All right, who is he? I want everything. Name, place of birth, medical history, Citizen Registry Number, bank statements, receipts, vids he's uploaded, synths he's jacked.”
“That is all I have to report, Holden.” Hera canted her head, a frown on her face.
“Impossible. You know the drill: use his biometrics to access-”
“There's nothing. This individual is not on file.” The AI looked dejected for a moment. “I'm sorry.”
I gritted my teeth. Someone who was off the Grid? Completely off the Grid? How could that person even survive? They imprinted your biometrics at birth, the Grid’s constantly being updated without our knowledge - there would have to be something! I slumped back onto the couch with Hera.
“No, it's not your fault. I don't know what it is, but it's not you.” I looked over at the old monitor screen that Ava had bracketed onto the wall. “Give me something, Hera. Stream the vid, group watch.”
The monitor buzzed to life now it was given something to display; the screen divided into seven separate squares. There the guy was in all of them, helpfully outlined by Hera, this hulking, broad-shouldered mass in a dark coat and an old-fashioned wide-brimmed hat. We couldn't make out his features, but he had a loping, nearly feral presence. He deftly navigated the crowds and even the Watch cameras couldn't keep up with him. I've never seen anything so large move so fast, so fluidly.
“That's him....” Ava's voice trailed off for a second but returned uneasily with: “W-who the hell is he?”
“The better question is – what is he?” I stared hard at the screen. I couldn't get a look at the thing's face, but there was no doubt in my mind. Even radical limb replacement cybermods couldn't get someone to move like that.
We were dealing with a monster.
October 30th
The October night sky was darker than usual; a storm front had rolled in and was sporadically coating New Detroit in a fresh layer of sleet that froze almost instantly when it hit the blisteringly cold wind blowing down from the Lake. It was the kind of weather where no matter how many layers you wrapped around you, it was never enough. The only solace Ava and I found from the predatory, stinging gusts was standing before the tallest corporate-owned building on the planet, Olympus Tech's eponymous “Mount Olympus” skyscraper – the centerpiece of New Detroit's urban renewal projects.
I wrapped my arms a bit tighter around my chest and played the “am I shivering because I'm Vibe-ing or freezing,” game. My eyes shifted over to Ava, dressed in her dark winter gear, her glowing hair tucked up under a long beanie hat. She held a silver chain wrapped around an oddly shaped crystal, between her fingers, which were bare against the cold. Better for the spell, she had said. Her eyes were closed, her face twisted in concentration and her lips moved inaudibly. It might have been a trick of the light, or the crystal reflecting the large, harsh, neon-yellow Olympus sign that ran down the front of the monstrous building, but I could swear that the rock was glowing from the inside. Maybe that trinket was exactly what she said it was, a Diviner's Crystal, kind of a mystic abacus to help with the “calculations” - whatever that meant. Hera watched on with interest as Ava did her thing. That rock had led us through town for the past three hours. I was cold, miserable and bored, but I promised not to run the Grid while we were out. I never really noticed how hard it was to go a few hours without the stimulation until I had to.
Ava huffed and let the crystal fall back against her jacket. She twitched like someone had hooked her up to a live wire as she struggled with something I didn't have the gray to understand. Her eyes opened, focused, and then she met my stare.
“Oh, crash, what a rush.” She shivered as she gestured to the skyscraper. “It's definitely in there.”
“So, you have to do the ritual inside a building that houses the largest office-workforce in New Detroit.” I shook my head.
“Not just inside... inside and, up, I think.” Ava craned her neck back as she strained to see the very top of the building. Somewhere around forty floors up, the Sky Rail hissed along its track, casting bright, electric-blue flashes out and down to the streets below like an army of paparazzi taking photos in old star-exploitation footage. Back when our idols were at least human, and not some virtual AI designed to sing or act. “Can Hera keep us off the security vids?”
I looked over to where Hera was standing.
“It's difficult to say without trying,” Hera said. “However, Olympus Tech has some of the world's most sophisticated anti-AI-tampering technology. Much more formidable than City Sec. If I was able to shield you from detection, it's unlikely that I would be able to do so for very long, or that I would remain unnoticed.” Hera sized up the building and I could imagine the countless programs she was running seamlessly behind those stark, white eyes.
“Maybe,” I translated. “Gonna be tough, and we might not have many ticks after we B&E. Hera would be in danger too. A place like this probably has several high-grade AIs dedicated to cyber-security.”
“Didn't you used to work for Olympus Tech?” Ava asked.
“Not at this corporate headquarters, a smaller building downtown. This thing had just been completed when I left to pursue, uh, independent enterprises.” I smiled sheepishly.
“What'd you do, security? Repair?”
“Nah, security was all automated, even then. Repair? Not without a Doctorate and a few references with some pull. The technical term for the department I was in was Efficiency and Support Services. My 'job' was sitting down in a basement room, right next to the boiler, with about fifty other people and letting some middle managers jack our neurals for extra brain power during the day. Sixteen-hour shifts, minimum wage, no benefits, no breaks, no hope of anything better coming down the pike.” I sighed.
“That's... Holden, I had no idea.” She raised her brows in a look of surprise. “But, you were some kind of wunderkind, I mean, you programmed your own AI, you can do all these things that I haven't even heard other... hackers, no offense-”
“None taken.”
“-other hacker's wouldn’t even try. How can it be that you were just used for extra RAM?”
“The candy jobs don't go to the best, they go to the best connected and there just aren't as many of them to go around these days.” My shoulders rolled into a shrug. “Been that way since the dawn of time; too late to do anything about it, I guess.”
“Not yet.” Ava frowned and placed a hand on my shoulder. Her touch felt clumsy and hesitant. I stared at her cold- reddened fingers and tensed, but she wouldn't let me go, squeezing lightly until my muscles relaxed into her grip. My stomach churned.
“What are you-”
“We don't touch anymore. It feels really weird,” she whispered quietly. “But I like it.”
I grunted nervously.
&
nbsp; “Relax,” she said. “I get it. I was just wondering, why we never-”
“All right that's enough.” I pressed my hand over her fingers and shakily pushed them away. “This is not day-before-the-end-of-the-world conversation. Focus up.”
Ava looked to the ground; I had hurt her feelings. But that just made me not want to follow that line of thought any further.
“Hera: blueprints, holographic display,” I held out my hand, palm upturned and fingers clawed upwards like half of a ribcage. The emitters at the end of my artificial fingertips flared to life, and with my other hand wrapped around my wrist the three-dimensional projection of the Olympus Tech building flared into quivering, light-blue existence. “What do you see?”
“That your Vibe's getting worse,” Ava said softly.
“Thanks,” I snapped. “No, the building is mainly storage, some offices, an ESS area – of course, drone bays for security, repair and cleaning. But also a lot of useless space. They built this building to be big, to make a statement, not to be functional. There are whole patches of this place where security is pretty much nonexistent - probably to save on costs, capitalize investments. So, while they've got mondo firewalls and AI to protect their corporate assets on the Grid -”
“We could just walk in,” Ava finished, her eyes widening. “Holden, you're a genius!”
“If I can get the door open - maglocked, security access linked to the employees’ core.” I tapped a finger against the side of my head for emphasis.
“But you used to have one of those codes?” she asked, hopefully.
I offered a wolfish grin and turned towards the front door. “We'll be on camera in this room and if all goes to plan, none of the others. Hera, nav route with least surveillance, destination: up, and pop these doors.”
“Establishing link with employee access protocols,” Hera sounded cheerily. “Badge code reinstated. Good thinking, Holden.”
“Nah.” I chuckled softly as the doors slid open for us with a pleasant chime.
Ava gave me a questioning look, but she followed as I took the route that Hera had laid down for us with a helpful yellow arrow that stretched along the floor. It led us through several back rooms and a hallway that seemed to be doubling as a maintenance supply closet. We found ourselves an elevator that took us up several levels, and Ava would stop every ten floors or so and do her trick with the crystal. Each time, she had us go a little higher and then she would check again.
Lovecraft eZine Megapack - 2013 Page 56