“What!?” He poked his head through the door.
“We need to come up with a plan,” she frowned.
Yup, he knew it. He knew there was a reason. She could’ve sent Roy to deliver whatever the fuck that thing was, instead of beckoning him over there to look at her old stank ass.
“Ok, I’ll humor you. What do you mean?” he rolled his eyes again. They were starting to hurt from all the rolling. The ache reminded him that he needed a drink.
“For the wolves. For the Veil Apocalypse. To stop it all from happening. We need to come up with a plan.”
Hunter’s head jerked back and his eyes widened. Over twenty-five years of his own obliviousness struck him. She didn’t know; Suren didn’t know; Ken never told her. All those years she worried and aged and wrinkled and had no idea. She probably worried and fretted that whole time, while marinating all up in her own urine and stench. The realization brought him such a victorious smile. The Great Geisha Tsay didn’t know.
Suren doesn’t know … Suren doesn’t know … Suren doesn’t know … Suren doesn’t know.
Hunter sucked air through his teeth and smacked his lips. Holy fuck balls, the satisfaction tasted so sickly sweet. He let the candied, succulent words shoot at Suren from his mouth like jagged pieces of crystalized molasses. He wanted each shard from his tongue to tear into her skin as painfully as Jin’s memory tore apart Ken’s brain.
“Ken had a plan. We already put it in place. It’s in the Temple.” He started to leave but stopped and poked his head back through the door. He had to take that one final lick. “In fact, we had to use—what Jin did to you.”
With a smile so broad it threatened to tear at the corners of his mouth, Hunter slammed Suren’s bedroom door and swaggered down the hall, gaily switching his hips and swinging the glass skull to and fro.
22
ETHOS
“I only have one condition, in terms of what you’ve made.”
“Oh … ok.”
“Take Lundy out.”
“Wh—what do you mean? Take him out? He’s … he’s … crucial to—”
“Don’t take his part of the story out. You can leave that in. I mean take him out. Remove any trace of him as a physical being. I don’t care how you do it, but I don’t want there to be any representation of him in this. Not his body, not his face, not his voice. Nothing. At all. It’s non-negotiable. No one should ever be forced to look at, hear, or experience that demon again.”
“So, leave him in the story but don’t show him?”
“Precisely.”
“I … I … I guess I could make him like an empty space. Like a cutout—yeah, like a black cutout. He’d be an empty space. Veilers would see he’s there, but they wouldn’t see him.”
“Perfect. Whatever you have to do to make it work. That’s my only condition in terms of what you’ve created. The Veil story.”
“Ok.”
“Roy?” Suren inquired, although she already knew his answer.
“Oh, I’m fine with it. Totally fine with it. Totally.”
Peyton smiled.
“Hunter?” Suren asked.
He looked at Suren and rolled his eyes. He couldn’t stand the sound of that sow’s voice. Hearing her say his name was especially traumatic. About as traumatic as … say … being stuck in an elevator for eternity with a coked-up Gilbert Gottfried arguing with a methed-up Fran Drescher while a drunk Harvey Fierstein attempted to mediate.
Oh god, kill it with fire. Someone please harness the power of the sun and kill Suren with slow, painful drips of liquid fire. Like water torture.
The thought of so much delicious, deadly heat made Hunter’s mouth dry and reminded him that he needed a drink.
He realized everyone was staring at him. Oh yeah, it was his turn to speak. He slipped back into his old Caltech composure. Ignoring Suren, Hunter directed his statement at Peyton. “Actually, I have some questions. Or concerns maybe.”
“O—ok.” Peyton braced herself. She didn’t look forward to interactions with Dr. Hunter Kennerly. It was easier to look forward to flying spiders that were as big as her head and stung like hornets. Their company would probably be much more pleasant and entertaining.
“Mainly, I’d like to know where you got your information. Your accuracy is … well, it’s shocking to be honest. What I’m concerned with are some of the scenes. There are a few that are pretty close to accurate, and that’s the problem—because of who all was present in those scenes and who wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“For example, take the scene of your Veillusion that you showed off. It took place in Ken’s lab, and it was myself, Ken, Brock and—her,” he titled his head in Suren’s direction and rolled his eyes.
“That’s right.”
“My question is—how could you know anything about that? How could you know the details? It was only the four of us, and I know for a fact none of us four squealed. None of us told anyone what took place during moments like those.”
“Ok, I see what you mean.”
“Good. Now explain.”
Suren realized Hunter asked a question she was unconsciously curious about as well. There was a nag tugging at her, but she didn’t know what it was before Hunter verbalized it. It was as if her mind hadn’t fully gone there yet, so Hunter did it for her.
“The data came from different sources. Most of it is out there. Almost everything about each of you is out there. Articles, books, court documents, interviews, vMemories, and Mr. Elsbeth’s journals that you allowed to be published after he … after he passed away. Using that, I was able to piece together a pretty specific, detailed timeline of what happened and when. All the way up from the beginning to the end. I had dates, names, places, people, all of that. And most importantly, I had the beginning and end—not only of the story but also of each scene in the story. Everything that propelled the story along. Surely, you must realize that the steps you five took to make Veil happen and catch Lundy are documented in lots and lots of places.”
“I figured as much,” Hunter nodded. “However, that still doesn’t get to what I’m asking. That’s the cake. For the most part, you have the whole cake; I’ll give you that. But, you also have the icing. That’s not out there. I’m asking who gave it to you. Who gave the icing that I know for a fact you didn’t have?”
“I wrote a program,” was Peyton’s flat answer.
“A program?” Hunter scoffed. She must think him to be a damn fool.
“Yes, a program. After I had the skeleton and organs, all I needed was the flesh. So I created a program—an algorithm—where I input the story scene-by-scene, and for all the scenes where I had no record of what transpired between any of you, I told the computer to make it up, in a sense. To predict the progression of the scene and author the most likely dialog. I programmed the computer to make it up.”
“To make it up?” Hunter pressed her. He wasn’t entirely buying it … yet.
“In a sense, yes. I’ll give an example. From years of appearances, interviews, and testimony from other people, I already had all your personalities. All those things. I was able to create extensive personality templates and profiles for each of you. Templates that could be used to predict how you’d act or react in certain situations. When I inserted your personalities into the program, it could algorithmically project how each of you would get from point A to point B. That is, based on your individual personalities. Add that algorithm to the things I did know and toss in the records of your appearance, your voice, your mannerisms. Mix it all up together and there you go … there’s the icing.”
“For example?” Suren pressed her that time.
“Ok, let’s take that same scene Hunter used as an example. Everyone knew the four of you met up after Dr. Kennerly stole the plans for Veil from the military. He and Mr. Elsbeth met up with you and Dr. Wise at the lab. Dr. Wise’s lab, where they built the museum after he died. Your meeting at the lab is common knowledge, and it placed a
ll four of you in the scene. Even if no one could know the exact details of your conversations, everything that happened in the lab that day is totally common knowledge, ”
“Yes,” Suren agreed and nodded.
“I had almost everything I needed. Every single detail. The only things I didn’t have were the tiny details of what happened during the meeting inside the lab. Like your conversations and stuff. But, it didn’t take much research to find Dr. Kennerly made three phone calls that day. Those phone calls wrote his role in that scene, and the program could use the algorithm of his personality in that particular situation to script Dr. Kennerly’s most likely performance. All I needed to do was plug in the phone calls. The one to the manufacturer of those prototypic Veil devices, the one to that Anderson Cooper guy, and the one to some woman who he met up with the next day, which was described in one of Mr. Elsbeth’s journals. She might’ve been a hooker or something. That was kinda unclear. Anyway, once I plugged in those factors and Dr. Kennerly’s personality, the scene pretty much wrote itself.
“That’s how I approached every scene that was a donut scene—that is, every scene where only a combination of you four could’ve known the details … the middle. For a handful scenes, I only had the outer ring, so all I had to do was fill in some of the missing middles. Luckily, because of how famous the story is, I had at least the beginning and end of every scene, so I let the program fill in the rest. I let it fill in the missing holes, and to be honest there weren’t many. If it was anyone but the four of you, I don’t think it would’ve been possible. There’s so much information floating around out there about each one of you. About the story of how Veil happened and how Dr. Jin’s killer was caught, with you scanning the vNet. Plus, Mr. Elsbeth’s journals had an incredible amount of information. Some stuff was unclear, like how exactly you traced Lundy. But I could logically piece everything together. I hope that answers your question enough.”
“Ken would’ve liked her.” Suren looked at Hunter and raised her eyebrows.
“How long did it take you?” Hunter asked, ignoring Suren. He refused look at her.
“For the story itself, about seven months, starting with Suren’s perspective as the main one. To take that framework and then write the story from all the other perspectives—each one of those took about three months. Then after each was done, I had to go back and compile them to make sure all the perspectives matched up throughout the story in order to form an overall cohesive Veillusion. Continuity, you know? Like you know, people couldn’t be talking at the same time, and I couldn’t have you do something from your perspective but have it be different from another character’s perspective. Compiling everything and fixing the continuity took another five months, give or take.”
“So it took you pretty much two years to write this Veillusion,” Hunter summed it up.
“Yes, a little over two years.”
“And you did it, according to her, to sway us to revoke our opposition to storing neuroelectrical patterns. Specifically artificial ones.”
“Only artificial ones, yes.”
“What if we say no fucking way?” Hunter asked bluntly.
“Well, if we’re being honest, if you say no, I hold onto the drives that are storing the Veillusion I wrote and us Veillusionists sit around and wait for you all to get it over with and finally die already. Then hopefully, by Jin’s Good Grace, when I’m your age they’ll rewrite the law, and I can release it and write others. Until then, there’s not much I can do except hide the fact that I have those,” she frowned and pointed at the boxes spread out in front of Hunter.
Hunter laughed. “Ken would’ve liked you.” He said it as if Suren hadn’t said it minutes earlier.
They sat in silence for a while until Hunter clapped his hands once and startled them.
“I’m all for it. But I have two conditions of my own,” he announced.
“Ok.”
“First, I want to take a peek inside that program you wrote. That algorithm.”
“That’s not a problem at all. I’m sure it’s linguistically similar to the ones you and Dr. Wise used to create The Jin Experience and to catch Lundy.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Hunter gave her a thumbs up.
Peyton smiled.
“And second—and this is the most important one … I want you to make Suren fat. And maybe a transsexual. But definitely fat. You have to make that bitch really fucking fat.
When it was only the two of them, Hunter made it clear to Peyton that he wouldn’t cosign the release of her Veillusion or the rewriting of The Jin Experience bill to allow for what she was asking until he felt the story was perfect. Peyton told him she understood, as it was his story. It was his life and the lives of his husband and best friend. Hunter also offered Peyton detailed information and additional scenes. They would be details to which she would’ve never been privy. She was delighted.
Hunter told her he was willing to work with her closely—every single day if necessary—to create the best Veillusion possible. After all, he pointed out, it would be the very first Veillusion of that caliber ever to make its way into the world. She would go down in history, he said. If there was one thing he learned from Ken it was that if you’re going to do something, do it right. Go all the way and don’t half-ass it. Peyton agreed wholeheartedly.
Suren called on Peyton to visit her alone. Suren informed Peyton she would not be on board for enacting any of the changes they discussed until she saw the final product and experienced the Veillusion from everyone’s perspective. She said her main concern was that absolutely no representation of Lundy be included anywhere. She didn’t want his voice, his face, his image—nothing. Even in the courtroom he was to be a black, empty space. Peyton assured Suren that would be the case.
Suren also offered two other things, provided Peyton did Suren a favor. Suren promised to replace The Jin Experience in the Tsay Temple with Peyton’s new Veillusion and promised to provide Peyton with exclusive details about anything and everything she desired. All Suren wanted in return was for Peyton’s Veillusion to include not only the storyline of how The Jin Experience was created, but also The Jin Experience itself. Peyton agreed wholeheartedly.
After three and a half months of going back and forth between Suren’s mansion and Hunter’s mansion, Peyton finally pieced together a complete Veillusion about the story of Veil. What started as a tactic to manipulate the remaining Tsay Trustees turned into Peyton’s first Veillusional masterpiece. And masterpiece was an understatement.
Actually, there were two versions of it. One version only Peyton had seen. It was the version that included a storyline about which the entire world had been kept in the dark. Considering they were living in the New Veil World, Peyton thought secrecy of that magnitude was a damn miracle.
“What is this?” Suren asked as she examined the unmarked black box Peyton handed her.
“It’s the alternate ending, you could say.”
“I’m supposed to Veil it?”
“Yes. And if I’m wrong, I’ll destroy it. I wanted you to see it first, though. If I’m wrong, no one else will ever see it and I’ll destroy it.”
While working on the finishing touches, Hunter allowed Peyton to use the streaming technology he and Ken developed for The Jin Experience and Lundy’s trial. Using that, Suren streamed Peyton’s Veillusion without any of the typical delay caused by shadowing. As Suren streamed the Veillusion contained inside that unmarked box, she wasn’t prepared for or expecting what Peyton added. Suren quickly noticed the storyline the young girl included in that secret, alternate version of her Veillusion.
Suren ripped off her collar and snapped at Peyton.
“What have you done? Where did you get this?” she grilled as she lifted the glass skull and snatched up the black box.
“I … I just kinda pieced it together myself. It wasn’t hard. It became obvious when I dug into the story.”
“Has Hunter seen this?”
“No,
no, I swear. Only you.”
Suren wasn’t sure what to do about what Peyton created. The story Peyton told. The one no one but the Trustees knew. Suren contemplated while fidgeting with the unmarked box. She had to figure out the best way to go about addressing what was inside of it.
“What all do you know? And who have you told?” she interrogated.
After the words came out she realized it sounded as if she was threatening Peyton. As if Peyton had uncovered the truth and therefore, was about to be offed. For the first time, it dawned on Suren that back in her Great Widow Tsay days, that was a threat she could’ve easily made good on. Without a doubt in the world, Suren could’ve ordered that someone be offed. Not like going to Roy’s with a handgun, but rather someone who would do the job for her.
The thought amused Suren. She was glad she never had the realization when she was the Great Widow Tsay. A girl like Peyton just might’ve found herself being … Suren couldn’t bring herself finish the thought. She’d taken it too far.
Luckily, Peyton answered her before she could think any further.
“I haven’t told anybody. I haven’t told anybody at all, I swear. And, I mean … it’s all in there, everything I think I know. I figured out Ken was the Vault for a memory. I’m pretty sure the memory belonged to Jin. I know it’s how Lundy killed two people, using that memory. It never came out that Ken was the Vault, but I know that’s the case. Now I know it’s part of how you used the network to track Lundy down. I know … well … I know the big thing. The one thing no one talks about.”
“The big thing?” Suren fished.
“Yes.” Peyton wasn’t going to give it up that easily.
Veil Page 53
