The Ragdoll Sequence Box set

by J P Carver

  A few keystrokes had me connected to the underground subsystem boards. Trade talk was common here, and jobs were often posted for newbies or those without groups, but the top posts tonight were about the commotion I made. Luckily, my name hadn’t been mentioned.

  They talked as though I had already died, as though I was some martyr for them to pin their hopes to. Some trashed me, which was to be expected, but most just seemed to be in awe of the news they were hearing. As if I was the first good strike in a war against the Corps. It seemed so surreal.

  When backing out, I caught a News article with a picture that actually made me gasp. It was of a man, well groomed and wearing a nice tan shirt and brown slacks. He had a woman beside him and a little girl stood between them. The image of a perfect little family.

  I’d seen the man dead in his office. Morgan Park.

  But that wasn’t the only place I’d seen him, and I could finally give an answer to the familiar feeling I’d gotten from the bridge program.

  They were both Park.

  I jumped through the article, frantic and sure that I was only seeing things. As I read, my leg began to shake, banging the table.

  Mr. Park was the CEO of MicroManagement Systems, a startup that had just begun prepping for production of a new product, available as a bridge or implant. The new software is a breakthrough in the development of Artificial Intelligence, creating a system where someone can basically set themselves on autopilot.

  The bridge was released to dealers a few weeks ago, but it has already found its way into the hands of college youths. Tasks that take hours are done while you live out any fantasy you like, and you can return at any point to consciousness, to find that the task was worked on while you were away.

  Many humanity groups have opposed the new software, stating that it allows far too much control of a person to a computer program. These groups are now under investigation in connection with the murder of Mr. Park.

  There have also been recent arrests of college students who were caught stealing and vandalizing while under the influence of this bridge.

  With Mr. Park’s death, the release of the new product has fallen into limbo as shareholders begin to pick up the pieces. Many other companies have already expressed interest in purchasing the company to keep production on schedule.

  “Son of a bitch,” I mumbled as I rubbed an eye. I couldn’t believe it. The guy in the bridge was Morgan Park—who’d created the damn thing.

  It had to be a setup. The entire night made sense when framed with that idea. Corporations had always done shady stuff, but it was the first time I heard of them using Crackers as their scapegoat in a takeover.

  I stood and started to pace the room, fingers gripping at my hair. Thoughts raced through my head, each one a new blossom of fear. Did they choose me? Was I just in the wrong place? Did someone sell me out?

  Each option felt as plausible as the next. In my line of work, friendships were more about convenience than loyalty. I had lucked out in joining the Mourning Stars, but that didn’t mean someone from my past didn’t have a grudge.

  Still, there was no way to know I’d take the ad job. I hadn’t done one in months. Maybe it was all just bad luck.

  I scoffed at the idea and grabbed another beer from the fridge, downing half as I crossed the room back to the computer. The chair squeaked as I flopped down on it and cursed. I hadn’t felt so tired in a long time, and this whole thing was only just getting started.

  The bridge lay on the desktop. I picked it up. No wonder he made me uneasy. He was some clone of a CEO.

  Maybe it was because I had a slight buzz going, but I decided the best step forward was having a little chat with the program. I inserted the bridge and waited for it to load. The world built itself up, and I stalked across the room to the couch. My hands gripped the back of it with enough force that it felt like the fabric would tear.

  I didn’t see him. “Park! Where the hell are you?”

  No answer.

  I pushed off the couch and kicked it over. That made me feel better. The coffee table shattered under the fall, glass shattering across the rug. “Get the hell out here, I got some questions that you need to answer.”

  “Well, that’s one way to make an entrance, I guess.”

  I turned to see the back wall had parted into a doorway, and he came waltzing out.

  “Everything all right? It’s too soon for you to be in trouble.” He smiled.

  I walked to him and shoved him back against the door. “No, still in the same trouble as before, and all because of you.”

  “Oh, how might that be?”

  “Do you know who you are? What you are?”

  He paused, and for the first time, his facade broke. His eyes went still, as did his breathing. A voice that sounded nothing like him droned out, “I am version 0.25323 of the MicroManagement system. I am programmed to help my user in all ways that I can. I am also the final build of Morgan Park’s VB program.” He looked down, his expression softening. “Does that help?”

  “What the hell is a VB?”

  “Virtual Body. I was a prototype, part of a program to recreate a person inside a computer. I wasn’t very successful in that portion and so, from what I’ve gathered, they moved on to the second goal: allowing control of a human through their neural.”

  “So you can control me right now?” I took a step back.

  He stood from the wall and adjusted his clothes, shaking his head. “Yes and no. I can’t do anything unless you say I can. Fail-safes are in place so that I can never move beyond that.”

  “That’s at least something. But how the hell did you get in my bridge?”

  “I don’t have an answer, but I can speculate, if that would suffice.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  He walked around me and righted the couch. “I’m a very close copy of Mr. Park. I was supposed to be disposed of, but before that could happen, a trigger was set up to transfer me somewhere else. From your memories, I know you were in Mr. Park’s office and on the network. I believe by using his account, you tripped the datatrigger, which downloaded me to your neural. When you used the bridge, my code overwrote the original information.”

  “How lucky for you.” I went to the windows and stared at the blinding sun. “So, do you have his memories?”

  “Just from the three months before I was taken off-line… last month.”

  “Good enough. I want you to tell me everything you can about your company and who would want your creator dead.”

  He frowned. “I don’t believe that’ll be possible. There are blocks in place to keep me from speaking about the company to anyone other than Mr. Park himself.”

  “Blocks, huh? All right. I can deal with that.” I went to the wall. A console appeared in front of me, and I went to work.

  A program that was a copy of another person. It had been a pipe dream for years, and only recently had any rumors really got going. Whoever this Park guy was, it looked as though he’d been on the edge of everything. Which meant bypassing his security would be a pain in the ass, and fun.

  “You sure you want to do that?” He stepped behind me.

  I turned slightly. “Are you gonna stop me or something?”

  “No. I probably should, but as I am no longer on the main server and only exist in your program bridge… I don’t see myself having many options.”

  “You’re pretty smart, huh?” The bridge existed in my neural, which meant that I had access to everything I needed. I was already making some progress.

  “Just a small piece of information. Be careful. Unauthorized access to the MicroManagement system could cause you to be kicked out of the system, violently.”

  “All I do is unauthorized access, buddy. Don’t worry about me, and just let me work.”

  The system was protected by layers and walls of security, most of it already glitchy from being shoved into such a small space in the bridge. Still, I barely managed to make it through the last layer bef
ore the trace found me. I slammed the system gate behind me and watched the main program scroll across the screen. There was so much code, my brain felt as if it would leak out through my nose.

  Even so, it was a cakewalk from there on out. Just needed to remove the blocks, and the VB would sing.

  “Stop.”

  I looked up from the console and turned to see Park coming toward me. “What?”

  “I said stop. I’m sorry, but I have to stop you. What you are doing goes against my programming.”

  “Dude, back off. I told you already, this is what I do. You’re gonna tell me what I want, like it or not.” I caught movement out of the corner of my eyes as I finished typing the last command. I stumbled back, his fist just missing me. It hit the console instead, the machine going up in a puff of smoke and sparks. “What the hell, man?”

  “You must leave, now. The security system finished its trace, and I can’t stop it from taking control.” He turned, his face something only a demon could love, with white specks for eyes under heavy brows. He grinned at me, fists balled.

  I darted back toward the couch. “I already cleared the blocks. Tell me why someone would want you dead.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, and it seemed to be a major struggle for him to do so. “The company has always had its bidding wars on stocks, but I still controlled the majority.” He swung at me again and hit the couch, sending it through the glass window. “Please, you must go.”

  “Anyone want to buy you bad enough to kill you? Who were your primary investors?” I danced out of his reach and hit the back wall. There was nowhere to go, as he blocked off the entire front of the room. He looked deformed now, his proportions larger in almost every way, save for the head. “Come on. You had to have known who would want your system bad enough to kill for it.”

  “There were many. The government, a bunch of the larger tech corporations. They all saw a different potential for the MM system. I wouldn’t allow them to use it as they liked. I wanted to make people’s lives better…”

  “And they wanted to do something else. What? What did they want to use the system for?”

  He seemed to be struggling with himself as he came forward, one small step at a time. I touched the wall, wishing another room to appear, but unlike before, nothing showed. The security system must’ve taken control of the bridge from me.

  Park growled, his head twisting back and forth. “They… they wanted to use it to control people. It had always been a goal, and they thought my system was the quickest way to it. The shareholders wanted a backdoor into the system so that if needed, users could be subdued, among other things. The government was deeply interested in that aspect. But who killed me?” He took another heavy step forward, his arm raised. “The best calculations say Vera.”

  The fist hit me. I felt the impact, the pain that shouldn’t have been there. I slumped to the ground and flexed my jaw. Not broken. I touched my lip and looked down at my fingertips. Blood.

  Park loomed over me. I scrambled around him and stumbled to my feet. Logout commands weren’t working. I needed a doorway.

  I hooked myself around the corner and into the kitchen. The room was empty now, the cabinets and countertops gone. Park growled behind me.

  I ran toward the wall where a door had been before. As I neared, it appeared—a wooden door with a gold handle. I hit it at a full run and fought with the knob as Park’s massive form entered the edge of my vision. The door opened, and I tumbled through into the light.

  I re-entered the real world with a gasp, like coming up from underwater. I stared bleary-eyed at the metal ceiling above, listened to the rattle of rain.

  Blood tasted metallic on my tongue, and it brought me back to my senses as I touched my lip again. Bright red coated the pads of my fingers, the same as it had in the bridge.

  “This could be a problem.”

  Five

  CityNet

  Orange sunlight shone across my eyelids, and I gave a moan of annoyance. Everything hurt, and I barely found the strength to lift my arm over my eyes. I shifted some and sighed at the feeling of soft sheets moving across my bare legs. It felt as if it had been years since the last time I’d slept in a bed.

  I rolled over to try to sleep a bit longer, but the fullness of my bladder wouldn’t allow that. With a deep sigh, I sat up, but I stopped short of getting out of bed as I stared at the desk across from me.

  The bridge lay on top, the metal shimmering in the sunlight. It had taken a long time and a few beers to calm myself after what had happened in it last night. My lip still burned at the touch of my tongue.

  It wasn’t so much that I came out of the program hurting—that was worrying enough on its own. The problem eating away at me was that I couldn’t do anything with the name Park gave me.

  Maybe I was too drunk and tired by the time I started looking, but Vera seemed like a phantom. I got a gender, but that was it. I was able to connect someone named Vera to a few different corporations, but in the last six months, she’d dropped off the net, taking whoever she was with her.

  I didn’t come away empty-handed, as I had a few systems to look into, but beyond some pieces of random info, I didn’t expect much.

  I went to the bathroom, took a piss, and then brushed my teeth with a toothbrush that was more plastic than bristles. I looked for a different one, but Nina either hid hers really well or she’d taken it with her. When I finished, I took another ration bar from the fridge and peered out the windows.

  There were a bunch of kids and adults out on the perfect little streets. The kids were dressed in nice clothes and new shoes. Bookbags with the most popular cartoon characters on them shone in the early sun. School had started back up.

  A pang tugged at me as I watched them head to the bus stop. It had been a long time since I had experienced anything like getting new shoes for school. Dad had done what he could, but there was only so much money.

  School was tough as kid. Even tougher after you lost both your parents.

  I wiped angrily at a few tears and went back into the room. That was all a long time ago, and I had enough to worry about without dredging up the past.

  The Omni had gone into standby during the night. I swiped a finger across it, and the computer came to life. I opened up the net to see what new hell waited for me.

  I read, not really understanding the words. It was all the same. They were still looking for me, and there were more stories of what a wonderful human being Park had been.

  Annoyed, I switched over to a wiki for an MMORPG I played to try to take my mind off things for a little.

  I was just figuring out the ascension path for my chakrams when a sound from outside put me on alert and got me out of the chair. There were no weapons near me, so all I could do was stand there, breathing heavily and heart thudding, and hope it was a friend.

  Nina slid into the room, the crinkling of a bag sounding behind her.

  “Son of a bitch. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” I dropped back into the chair, drained. “Dammit, Crow.”

  “Not my fault. I tried calling, but you didn’t pick up. You should have that Omni near you when you’re off the grid. What if something happened that you needed to know? You’d never find out.”

  “I was up late. Sorry.”

  “I don’t know how you slept at all, but I’m glad you did.” She held up the bag. “Some food from the shop a few blocks down. Figured you’d be sick of bars by now.” She dropped the bag in my lap and sat on the bed, her gaze traveling the room.

  I tossed my half-eaten bar into the trash. “Everything is still here, Crow. I didn’t pawn any of it.”

  “Right. I know that.”

  I stopped searching through the bag. Something was off, and I felt a familiar, tingling fear. I sighed and dropped the bag between my feet. “What now?”

  “Huh?”

  “What did you come here to tell me? Spit it out. The Mourning Stars found something, didn’t they?”

  Ni
na looked up, her head canted to the side. She stared through me, her eyes distant for a moment before they snapped back to me. Her teeth raked her purple lips. “Remember last night, when you were in the elevator and bleeding everywhere?”

  “Oh shit—oh, Christ…” I dropped my head to my hands.

  “Plotigan found something in the CES databases. Raggy, they got your identity, your DNA, every goddamn thing. Ziller has already fended off three intrusions into Behemoth, and we’re positive they’re from CES, hoping to find something.”

  “They know about the Mourning Stars?”

  “From what Plotigan found—it was an epic crack, Raggy. He’s gotten good lately. Guy just won’t give up—”

  “Crow.”

  “Sorry. It seems like one of their internal squads has kept tabs on the underground. They know about all of us, but only by our handles. You’re the only one in their system that they have actual data on.”

  “So why aren’t I plastered across the city?”

  Nina shrugged as she picked up the bag from the floor and set it beside us. She dug out a coffee and held it out to me. “Ziller thinks they want you alive for questioning. Apparently something has been going on with those bridges that Merigold gave you. A few of the college kids have done some really illegal stuff, but when they’re brought in, they got no idea what happened.”

  She shoved the can into my stomach, and I took the hint.

  “They think you’re using the bridge to do your dirty work. Someone is keeping a lid on it, though. My guess is one of the peeps looking to buy MicroManagement. They’re looking for you, though. Got your picture and everything.”

  The world felt like a vise, every piece of it closing in on me. I took a gulp of the coffee and then stared down at Nina. She wouldn’t meet my eyes and instead picked at the plastic bag.

  It felt strange to look to her for strength. She was four years younger, and for all the time I’d known her, I’d been the strong one for her.

  I couldn’t tell her she was the only person I was relying on—she wouldn’t take the pressure well—but as I watched her, I wanted so badly to tell her that I could feel myself breaking inside.