Biting down on her lip, Ari fought to keep her emotions locked down. She gave a curt nod. She understood. She understood that when she first lined up to get her assignment, she was signing her life away. This may be a different cage, but it still was a cage to her. One she’d never be happy living in.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ari wanted to wait before she contacted Emil to think things over, but she didn’t have time, not if Niomi expected her to take a vacation when the session was out. If she wanted answers, she needed them now.
Friday morning, Ari entered VLEX as Kari. Before she started the day, she reached out to Hailey using her contact info with the European Union. Unfortunately, she didn’t reply right away. So, Ari turned to her work for a distraction. Even with a long conversation with President Higgins, she finished before lunch. When she was about to give up and head out to meet Antoine, a message came through from Hailey.
Meet me by the fountain.
After messaging Antoine a lame excuse, she headed out. The sun lit up the fountain in the courtyard, the one of a merman rising up out of the colored stone waves. The statue mirrored those of old, the colored marbles with flecks of gold shimmered in the sun. She approached the fountain and with no sign of Hailey, Ari dipped her hand into the cool water.
“You ready to know the truth?” Hailey spoke behind her.
Ari spun around. “Where did you come from?”
“I asked if you’re ready to take off your training wheels.”
She couldn’t help her eye roll and was more than a bit tired of being treated like an idiot. “I want some answers.”
“Do you know the questions?” Hailey’s demur look held a lot more of an attitude today with her lips pursed tight.
“Stop playing games or I’m gone.” Ari stepped away from her.
“Okay.” Hailey reached out a hand to stop her. “It’s this way.”
Ari followed her down a row of shops. They turned towards a coffee shop, but before they went through the door, Hailey entered a code. When she opened the door, there wasn’t anything that resembled a coffee shop in sight.
A long corridor of a shiny black material stretched out towards them. The never-ending hall had no decorations, only black doors with silver door knobs.
Ari glanced at Hailey. “If you’re going for a dark ominous bad guy feel, you nailed it.”
It was Hailey’s turn to roll her eyes as they stepped into a room. “It’s to protect our butts, and it keeps the look of the regular code in place for the others.”
“Is it like a different dimension?”
“If you want to consider it that.” Hailey continued down the hall to the fifth door on the right.
“What do these other doors hold?”
“Nothing but place holders.” She knocked once and then entered. “Hey, Emil.”
He sat at a desk but when he saw the girls, he waved it away with a wipe of his hand. The desk disappeared, and he stood to greet them. “Good to see both of you. Please have a seat.”
Ari sat down in the dark chair and sank back into the smooth interior.
“What I can help you with?”
“What do you know about VisionTech? How do you do what you do? What did you mean when—”
He held up a hand. “One at a time. First, VisionTech. The company you work for is one of many that have a limited role in the government here. I’m not personally familiar with them, but I had Hailey conduct some research.” He turned to Hailey.
“As far as blood-sucking corporations go, they aren’t the worst.” She gave Ari a look like that was supposed to be comforting. “They were one of the first to jump on the VR bandwagon and soon pulled ahead as a major competitor.”
“Skip ahead to the essentials.” Emil urged with a wave of his hand.
“They have been searching for a warper for some time. You first appeared on their radar when playing online games.” Hailey glanced at her. “Not your best move showing off in a public arena.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“That’s obvious.” Hailey’s lips drew up in a smug smile.
“Continue, Hailey,” Emil ordered.
“Since that point, they have monitored all of your family. They have detailed notes, pictures, and information on your mother, your father in the VR coma, even your boyfriend’s family.”
Ari straightened, remembering the folders VisionTech had on the people for Ari to impersonate. She was just like Kari, her life scrutinized to the last detail. It was no accident when Dave ran into Ari and Reed on their date. They must have been watching her at school. “What about the people I impersonate?”
“That varies. No one has seen Kari personally. So that usually means she’s hidden away in some induced coma of some sort.”
“Is it possible they paid her to leave?” Ari hoped some of what Niomi said was true.
“Anything’s possible,” Hailey laughed. “But you’re still not asking the right questions.”
Ari leaned back and thought for a moment. She wanted to know the truth about VisionTech but that seemed impossible. Not until she talked to Kari herself. That may be impossible now, but maybe one day. She did think of one thing.
“What about your powers? How can you manipulate this world so easily?”
“Closer.” Emil answered. “We’ve been perfecting our abilities for some time. You can learn to do what I do.”
“No one is better than Emil though,” Hailey interjected.
“But you can learn. Your trainer is not a warper, though. It’s like the someone who is colorblind teaching a normal person how to decipher colors. Your trainer can’t see the possibilities in front of you.”
Ari’s mind whipped about what those possibilities were. “How did you hurt me before? How do I protect myself?”
“I didn’t hurt you.”
“I can still feel that migraine haunting me sometimes.” Ari hadn’t felt that type of pain before, ever. Emil couldn’t pretend that he was any better than VisionTech at this point.
“You did that to yourself. When trying to fight me, you exhausted yourself. You need to be more careful in the future.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t restrain people.”
“Have you ever felt that before?”
“No…” then she remembered her fight with Williams when she visited her father in the VR world and the confusion after that. “Once, when I got into a fight with an Advisor from school.”
“Only twice. That’s not a bad start.” Emil glanced at Hailey, and something unspoken passed between them.
“What?” Ari asked. “What aren’t you telling me? I want to know how to protect myself.”
“Okay.” Emil leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Two things. First, if you want to learn more, you need to join us.”
“Us?”
“We’re an Elite Team that monitors worldwide virtual sites, keeping government officials in line. There are over a hundred people who work with us in different capacities all over the globe.”
“In line? You need to be more specific. Because right now you sound like a different version of the same company I’m working for without the benefits.”
“We have benefits,” Hailey said. “Like not being trapped on some island with limited access. It’s called freedom.”
“We watch those that have no one watching,” Emil said. “At this point that is all I can say, until you prove yourself.”
Ari stood, not wanting to even know what prove yourself meant. This guy may have answers, but she wasn’t willing to play his little games to find out. “Then sorry. I’m out of here.” She headed to the door.
“You didn’t ask what number two was.”
Hand on door, she stopped. Something in her gut told her to stay, just a moment longer. “What?”
“You never asked me why you have headaches?”
Icy tentacle gripped her spine as she forced herself to turn around. “What are you talking about?”
Ari’s hand stayed frozen on the handle, waiting for him to continue. She questioned that hundreds of times while Niomi was torturing her.
“It’s because they don’t know how to save your mind. They’ll try everything they can to keep their asset around a little longer. Every time you use your power, you slip away a little more.” He tapped the side of his temple. “These tools up here may be worth millions to the right companies, but they have a shelf life. Some get five years, some ten or twenty, but everyone slowly slips away to their own little world. We just want to make the biggest impact on this world as we can, before we slip away. And we found a way to hold it off a little bit longer.”
Ari glanced at Hailey, and for the first time saw a sadness lurking behind those beautiful eyes. Could this be real? Or is this just another corporation manipulating her?
She gave a short laugh. “You really expect me to believe all this. You’re the one who caused my headache. Now you want me to prove myself to you guys. How do I know you’re not just manipulating me to do your dirty work for you? And you want me to believe you guys oversee all of this for the good of men and not your own benefit?”
“Of course we benefit.” Emil stood. “We’re not saints. But most of us came from simple means and want to keep these governments and corporations in line. Given your upbringing, I thought you’d be interested. We can help you and your family.”
“VisionTech told me the same thing then trapped me on an island.”
“We’ll give you the money and papers to get out of the country, you do the rest.”
She didn’t forget the caveat though. “But I have to do something for you first, right?”
“You need to prove yourself. It’s different. We need to know you’ve cut ties to VisionTech and are ready to commit to us.”
Commit to someone I didn’t know. He was ballsy. “And what would that be?”
“Steal us the project file from your trainer.”
Ari pulled back a touch with surprise. “What project file?”
“They’ll have a file on you. With your expected longevity, goals they have, and other pertinent information. Feel free to delete your family’s information. We have no need of that. But your health history will be helpful to both of us if we’re working together in the future.”
The words ‘expected longevity’ struck Ari with a force that took her back a step against the door. Words blurred together and got jammed in her throat. What scared her the most was that maybe he was telling the truth. With that terrifying thought, she left.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ari’s steps echoed down the dark corridor. Once outside and back in the regular VLEX program, she focused on keeping her breath steady. Niomi would notice any spike in her heart rate. She walked past the shops, past the fountain and up to her office. Gratefully, she was alone. Staring at her blank computer screen, she replayed her conversation with Emil over and over, picking apart what he said and trying to decide if he was being honest.
Her boss startled her when he walked through the door, and she hurried back to her work. She continued to copy his private correspondence and sent it off for VisionTech, though now her conscience nagged her about it. Was she only helping some obscenely rich company rake in more money? Ari needed to figure things out before she took her next step.
She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do, but ever since Emil mentioned her file, she knew she had to see it for herself. It held the truth, or she hoped it did. Getting her hands on it would be another story.
Niomi greeted Ari as she returned to the lab. Ari unplugged and wrote her notes, remembering to keep her poker face firmly in place. Lately, it had become easier and easier.
“Hey, I noticed a spike in blood pressure at lunch. What happened?”
“Just Antoine.”
“What happened now?”
“Nothing really. Just in the process of breaking up with him, like you said.”
Niomi turned towards her, the tattoo in her ear flashing. “You need to make it clean and quick. Just like a bandage. It hurts more at first, but it heals quicker.”
Ari nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’m going to head off and get some rest.” She didn’t feel like getting a lecture on relationships from a drill sergeant.
“Okay. Vinh’s on the schedule to run some tests on your suit this afternoon. It would be awesome if you could be in it.”
Ari pushed through the doors thinking that a lot of things would be awesome. Despite the bitter feelings she had though, she looked forward to seeing Vinh. He had worked here longer than Ari, maybe he could help.
With her mind whirling about, she didn’t bother resting, but headed to the gym. After beating the dummy until her arms ached, she made her way to the kitchen for lunch. She read over a message from Reed while she dug into her sandwich. He did well with his art project and would be recommended for a full-time position in the graphics department. She replied:
I knew you could do it. You’re going to blow them all out of the water. Congrats!
As she sent it off, she bit her lip. While Ari was genuinely happy for Reed, and wouldn’t want it any other way, she knew this meant he had to stay. VisionTech was better than most corporations. But could she stay? That depended on what she found. For once she was grateful her brother didn’t want to join her on the island. She couldn’t leave everyone she loved.
Her AI announced Vinh at the front door. Allowing him in, she hurried and placed her dirty plate in the sink. She turned around in time to catch Vinh walking down the hall. “In here,” she called.
He stopped. “Anything good left?”
She joined him in the hall. “Just finished off my sandwich, sorry.”
“It’s okay. I better get to these tests.”
“What’s it for?”
“Just usual upkeep. With any new gear they want regular checkups. We can run it through a basic VR and see how it’s doing.”
“Great.” The sarcasm leaked through her voice as they headed down the hall.
“You can pick the program.” He offered, obviously picking up on her mood and trying to be nice.
“It’s not that. Just tired of being online.” She rubbed the skin under her port.
He shrugged. “Can’t say I’ve had that problem. Sorry.”
They entered one of Ari’s rooms, which was set up for VR. VisionTech provided it for her to practice or for recreation, but she had never used it. “What do I need to do?”
“I just need you to go through some exercises in there. I’ll be tracking the reports your suit sends and verify them manually.”
“You’ll be prodding me while I’m unconscious? That doesn’t sound creepy at all.”
“I only need one arm. I promise no creepiness.”
Sitting in the chair, Ari’s lunch gurgled in her stomach. Another part of being in the VR she hated was her unconscious form just sitting in reality. It reminded her of her father, sitting in a coma with tubes and machines to take care of him.
Before she plugged in, she wanted to talk to Vinh. “Can you tell me why the company is so interested in my health?”
Vinh busied himself with setting up his med kit. “You’re worth a lot. They take care of their assets.”
“It has nothing to do with my migraine the other day?”
His hands stilled for a moment too long. He lifted his gaze. “Why do you ask?”
“Just curious if the headaches were common with people like me.”
He turned back to his bag. “I’ve never worked with a warper before.”
“There has to be reports or something from previous warpers.”
He shrugged.
He didn’t answer the question, and Ari struggled to swallow the knot in her throat. Vinh worked for VisionTe
ch with a contract and probable restrictions as well. He may be one of the few people she could really talk to about her job, but could he really talk to her?
“How about tea in some gardens?” Vinh searched available programs on the nearby computer.
“Only if you take out all the characters. I’m not in the mood for their chatter.” Tea in the gardens sounded historical, and Ari could only take so much of that. “Or leave them in and I can slowly kill them off one by one.” She joked.
“Have a seat. I’ll take them out. We don’t want to start giving you homicidal tendencies.”
She leaned back, plugging herself in, and mumbled, “Yeah, we wouldn’t want that.”
The VR ran smoothly enough. Vinh could speak to her inside the program and instructed her to do basic calisthenics to measure her response. What weirded her out the most was that he was doing the tests on her unconscious body. She jogged, stretched, jumped off nearby fountains. Laying on her back after a long set of pushups, she stared at the sky and noticed the clouds that weren’t quite right. The randomness of nature was hard for programmers to duplicate.
Anxiety crawled up her back, and she found herself constantly picking at her fingers. Vinh obviously was keeping something from her. But what?
Who could she trust? Emil, a stranger she just met, over the people who she now considered friends, almost family? Her gut had been telling her for weeks that something was up with Vinh though.
An idea popped into her head, one that may be stupid, but she didn’t care. She sat up in the fake grass. White tables were scattered through the garden. On top were an array of delectable treats and, accompanied by the fresh flowers and roses, it was almost picturesque. Ari didn’t feel like picturesque.
With a swipe of her hand, the tables disappeared. Glimpsing the code in the greenery, she amplified it to a neon green. Beautiful roses grew to the size of dinner plates. In a nearby fountain, Ari changed the crystal blue water to black with specks of gold throughout. It looked like the night sky rushing by. She smiled at her creation, and she wasn’t done playing.
Synched Page 13