Cold War Rune: A Virtual Reality novel (Rune Universe Book 2)

by Hugo Huesca

  “Turns out, I do have something you don’t—” My power-armor was dead, but my cybernetic arm still worked and it was still strong enough to tear the antimatter core out of my own exo-suit.

  “What? No, you don’t—” he repeated. He looked like a man whose reality was about to crash down all around him and there was nothing he could do to avoid it.

  “A signature move.”

  You have died! An antimatter explosion reduced your body, and the body of your new rival, to atoms. A hero’s sacrifice! Time of death: 11:23am. You’ve lost an item [Tarsonnite MkII Blaster Pistol (Uncommon)] during your Quantum Safeguard. Don’t despair! In Rune Universe, death is part of the adventure! And the adventure… continues!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Aftermath

  Irene and I waited with our hearts in our throats to hear from Walpurgis, who was next to Van in the real world, to tell us if my sister had managed to get away.

  I didn’t dare speak. Last time I had seen Spark Bandit’s avatar, a grenade was glancing off her…

  But 401 wouldn’t have followed my request if she’d died, right?

  Irene took out her mindjack, her face pale as a ghost. Her green eyes were glinting, but I couldn’t tell if it was with relief or sadness.

  “Don’t you dare pull a joke now, Irene,” I told her. “Lay out the facts. Did we win?”

  Her grimace turned into a smile. “Van and 401 reached the Teddy and just jumped away. She was the last survivor, too.”

  “Yes! Yes!” I fist-bumped the air and we laughed like maniacs. “I could kiss that drone of yours.”

  “Programmed it myself,” she declared proudly. “But I’d prefer if you kissed me, pal. The drone doesn’t have lips.”

  That was a very good idea, and I was happy to comply.

  Stefania Caputi called less than an hour later and told us the rescue operations had gone according to plan—with no casualties.

  “—At least not casualties from our guys, of course. So, if you could transfer that succulent piece of decoded alien software to the PDF—”

  “How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Irene told Caputi as she passed a hand over her disheveled hair.

  “Grace Dorsett explicitly requested Lieutenant Foreman to tell his son she’s going to, and I quote, ‘literally murder him for almost getting himself killed—’”

  “Yeah, that’s her alright. Don’t worry, Caputi, a deal is a deal.”

  Caputi smiled with the beatific happiness of someone who just keeps winning at life. “We’ll have you extracted from your current location via Whistleblower. I assume Jacob Monferrer will need our services soon, so we’ll discuss his dealings with Charli Dervaux over a private hearing. So… where’s your current location?”

  Both of us looked around. Now that it was over—at least for today—the air seemed lighter, somehow. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, even if I knew work wasn’t even close to over yet.

  Soon enough, I’d again delve into the unknown. I still had no idea what the Device actually did. Or the consequences it would have. But that was still far away in the future, and my present was a bright morning in a green meadow with a beautiful girl. And our stealth helicopter.

  The future could wait.

  “If you don’t mind,” said Irene. “We’ll tell you in an hour.”

  We cut the feed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Familiar Faces

  The military base bristled with activity. The security personnel and their drones surrounded every exposed surface and regarded even the base’s soldiers with suspicion, earning resentful looks from said soldiers.

  Irene, Van, Walpurgis, and I would join the big event soon enough, but first we had to wait for the tall forty-something in the white shirt. He looked like your stereotypical movie nerd: two pens in the pocket of his white shirt, a mustard stain on his tie. The works. He also had a buzzcut and muscled arms covered in fantasy tattoos. He was currently being subjected to a myriad of scanners and other tests that made the security in my former safe house seem like child’s play.

  Finally, Gabrijel Ivanic crossed the security perimeter and reunited with us in the field that surrounded the Research Laboratory Facility where the event was going to take place in a few hours.

  “I think my teeth are going to glow in the dark after that last scan,” Gabrijel said.

  He had been the last to arrive at the base, since he’d had to fly from Russia. He had brought his family with him, but like with Mom, they weren’t allowed to be inside the Lab with the rest of us. Security concerns. Gabrijel’s wife and my mom were still screaming at some poor lieutenant over the decision.

  My friends managed to sneak in the same way Irene had tricked Sleipnir, by pointing out that since they’d been around during the Signal’s activation, the Device may need them at some point. It was a flimsy excuse that worked because no one was willing to be the idiot who screwed up an historic event by refusing entry to some kids and one of the world’s best engineers.

  “Perhaps my teeth will glow in the dark after that blasted thing is done with my brain,” I said with a confident smile that was meant to hide my internal squirming.

  The bulky machine that occupied almost an entire room in the Lab had been in the back of my mind during the months the PDF had taken to make the Device work properly in Rune.

  It was an unholy hybrid between a giant MRI machine and something Darth Vader would use as a bathtub. Enough cables to be menacing, but the most dangerous part was the old VR-Brain hooked into the middle of it. I was going to put that thing on. Apparently, Lab personnel had tried to use a mindjack instead, but mindjacks had too many safeguards.

  Yep.

  “That’s not funny,” said Van, who didn’t bother to fake the strained smiles my friends had gone with. “You know you don’t have to do this, right? It’s your life they’re playing with.”

  “Yeah, I know. You’ve all told me the same thing like a thousand times.”

  “We have?” said Walpurgis. “That’s surprising, because somehow you’re still going to do it. So either you’re not hearing, or we haven’t told you enough times for your donkey of a brain to process.”

  “Interesting choice of words, Walps,” I flashed her a strange, in-the-know smile. The girl raised her eyebrows in confusion. “Interesting indeed.”

  Irene sighed. “If what happened to Keles didn’t dissuade you, then I don’t know what will. We’ve survived until now, so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.”

  “It’s very different,” I said. “This is a military facility. It has the best minds in the world—including our friend here—looking after me. Keles tried to make his own Device with Sleipnir’s help, and even rushed the completion when Caputi’s forces got close to them. No, even if things went catastrophically wrong here, we have extinguishers, so I won’t stay on fire for long.”

  Keles’ Device didn’t have any extinguishers. The fire had taken down the entire Sleipnir’s facility and several abandoned factories of the slum District where he was holed up. The SWAT team that found him reported that his body was so mangled they’d had to identify him by his teeth. I had a chance to confirm it myself, days later, when it was brought to base to be examined, along with the remains of Sleipnir’s Device.

  At least that’s someone I won’t have to worry about ever again, I thought as I suppressed a chill. The man had been right about something. It was different to see Rune’s interpretation of a burnt, destroyed body, than seeing it in real life. The mere memory still made me shiver.

  “That’s not funny,” said Van. My sister’s foul mood wasn’t enough to overcome the natural Dorsett black humor, but it was enough to make me smile.

  I was surrounded by friends and family that cared about me, and in the middle of this warm, bright day, it was hard to think of knock-off Devices that could fry a brain.

  Truth was, I wanted to use the Device, even if Beard’s inklings about what it did
were true. I didn’t share Derry’s bleak outlook about mankind’s role in the universe. The mere possibility that the future could become even a shadow of what Rune promised would be well worth the lives and pain of a thousand Cole Dorsetts.

  And I had started this a year ago. It was my responsibility to see it through. Whoever built the plans for this Device agreed with me. Keles had died by refusing to use the software that asked for me specifically. His motives remained a mystery.

  What did you even want to prove? Not even John Derry (whereabouts unknown) had been as stubborn as the mad prophet.

  No. Even thinking of Keles’ fate was impossible on a day like this one. Beneath the fear that things could go terribly wrong, I was hopeful.

  But just in case…

  “Guys, you know I love you,” I told them, looking at each of them in the eyes. I stopped a second longer on Irene’s sad, green gaze, to make sure she understood my words meant something different for her.

  Whatever there was to say between us, we’d already said in private, stealing away private moments from the eyes of the military drones with Francis’ help.

  “If anything goes wrong…”

  “Oh, God,” whispered Van as if she was going to faint. “Don’t fucking speak like that…”

  I shook my head. “Just indulge me. It’s not like I’m a year away from retirement.”

  My friends and I talked for a long time.

  When we were done, Gabrijel asked me to have a private chat. We walked away from the others. I correctly guessed what he wanted to tell me:

  “So, you’re doing this…” he trailed off. “You already know what I think will happen.”

  He had written a dissertation on the subject. Won several prizes for it in the scientific community. That was before he was proven right.

  “Yes, I know.” I told him.

  “It’s going to suck, Cole,” he told me. “It’s going to suck very, very, very much.”

  “I know.”

  “Even if you’re not the one who loses the coin toss. It’s still going to suck, Cole.”

  “I know,” I said again, but my mouth was dry. I took a deep breath and at the same time tried to fake a confidence I didn’t feel. “I can take it.”

  “That’s easy to say now, but later…” he shook his head. “There have been attempts before, you know. Of course, the tech wasn’t even close to the sophistication of this alien toaster. But still. All the evidence shows the human mind isn’t built for that kind of strain…”

  “Man, you’re so encouraging. You should give pep talks to depressed people.” Deep breaths, Cole. Deep breaths.

  “Trust me, your best chance… I mean… well, let’s not argue semantics now. Your best chance is to get your mind ready for what will happen later. OK? Go into the Device already expecting the worst. It’s like getting stabbed in the guts. It hurts like a motherfucker, but if you’re ready for it at least you have time to ready your intestines inside your body.”

  “You’re an engineer. You’ve never been stabbed.”

  He shrugged and mysteriously gained a heavy Russian accent. “Engineers are hardcore in the frozen steps of the motherland. When we graduate, we must survive in the treacherous Siberian wilderness armed only with a ruler and a pencil—”

  “Okay, cut that out,” I said, but I laughed a bit. Made us both feel better and lessened the tension a bit.

  We sighed and for a minute neither of us said anything. Then my friend’s gaze steeled and I could tell he had reached a decision. He put one heavy hand over my shoulder (almost throwing me down to the floor) and said:

  “Open a window. That has to be the first thing you do. Think of it right before the Device starts, so it’s fresh in your mind. The VR-Brain won’t do it automatically, like a mindjack, so you’ll need to open the menu option. You got it? Open a window.”

  I bit my lip and nodded. “Yes. Got it.”

  “OK. Good. That’ll be your best shot. It will make the impact a little bit… well, more manageable. It will make things crystal clear for you.”

  “If you’re right,” I added.

  His smile was a sad version of the one Irene had when she knew she was right. “Sure. If I’m right.”

  We walked back to the others. Around us, security and military personnel from Caputi’s own guard were gathering, getting ready to escort us into the Facility. The Device was still hours away from being used. First, there would be declarations, perhaps a couple speeches. It wouldn’t be streamed live, of course, but it would be recorded in case everything went perfectly well.

  I could almost feel the Device calling. But there was something important I had to do first:

  “Okay guys,” I said. “I have one more thing to say before I do this. A revelation. Of a dark, terrible secret.”

  “You said you wouldn’t talk like that anymore!” Van exclaimed.

  “No, no, you see, it’s not my dark secret,” I told her with a smile. Then she got it.

  “Ahh…” a smile slowly drew on her lips.

  “What’re you talking about?” asked Irene.

  “Yeah, stop being cryptic for the sake of drama, just tell us,” said Walpurgis.

  “Funny you say so,” I told the girl with a growing smile that made her pale a bit. “As it’s your dark secret I’m going to reveal to the world…”

  Irene, Gabrijel, and Walpurgis all started talking at the same time.

  “Stop!” I demanded with an imperious gesture. “There’s no stopping now, I’m committed. You see, long have we wondered the truth about our mysterious friend Walpurgis. What does she do for a living? What’s her real damn name? How does she shoot so well? We never suspected that we were asking the wrong questions!”

  Truth about what was going to happen dawned on Walpurgis face. She turned to face Van with a mix of incredulity and panic in her face. “You told him…!”

  Van was either suffering from either a seizure or a laughter attack. “Well, I’d still to get back at you for what you told him about me, y’know?”

  “You heard that?!”

  “Oh, yes!” I confirmed. “And here’s my revenge, Walpurgis! You’re not a cold-blooded killer; you have pet horses!”

  A heavy silence fell among us. The security personnel that was just now surrounding us in a loose circle exchanged a very unprofessional look of confusion.

  Beard said a short word in Russian, then he corrected himself. “I mean—what?”

  Walpurgis face was a blank mask. “I deny all—”

  “The stables! The open field for them to prance around, the brushes for their hair—”

  “Oh, my God—”

  “All the books in your room, the sugar cubes, the pictures! And you never said a single word… I wonder if you were ashamed—”

  “I deny all—”

  “—of revealing there’s a big heart inside that black power-armor?” I went on.

  The revelation had a stronger stunning effect on my friends than an EMP lance on the head of an android. A soldier nearby coughed.

  Walpurgis’ eye twitched. She squirmed like she was fighting an irresistible force… And then, she lost the battle. “They’re not pets! It’s a reservoir, alright? One of the last remaining in the States! And they remember their names, it’s not like I could just change it. They’re very smart creatures, and there’s so few left and…”

  Her expression switched to one of horror when she realized the totality of her confession.

  The silence lingered for another stunned moment. It seemed like no one could manage to vocalize the complexity of feelings they were experimenting. Walpurgis looked around with dismay at the blank faces.

  It was Irene who put into words the collective thoughts:

  “Awww—”

  “Somebody shoot me,” Walpurgis whispered.

  “—www!”

  It’s the little things in life… Long after that day, having my friends and family reunited became one of my most treasured memories.
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br />   After the speeches, and the commendations, and the serious and grim faces of the men and women who ruled the States from both the public and the shadows, those last few hours were a bit far away in my mind.

  But when the VR-Brain was finally over my head while I was surrounded by the cold metal, and the coils, and the electrodes set all over my body… Well, then, those memories helped me keep from shaking. They helped me mantain my composure and not back down at the last minute. That would’ve been rude to POTUS, I guess. I heard he wasn’t in a great mood anyway, with Charli Dervaux still on the run and evading capture.

  I was surrounded by darkness.

  Will I know when it’s working? I thought. If I did, it would be much simpler for everyone involved. Not less painful, I guess.

  The darkness wasn’t as absolute from one second to the next. It had a texture. A depth.

  There was no notice when the VR-Brain (and the Device) started, and no noise on activation. Caputi’s words to the States’ leadership didn’t reach me with the Brain covering my ears.

  I was standing on a black tower, less than five feet in radius. I couldn’t see its base. Could’ve been a mile away, or an infinity. It looked the same kind of dark.

  But the darkness wasn’t the only thing I could see. There were shapes in the distance, right at the line of the horizon… If such a thing existed here. Black cubes floated, surrounded by green swirls of energy, flying in an organized, complex, unmistakable fashion towards a green star.

  There was the faintest glint of an infinite firmament behind the green star, each of them a planet where the Rune Signal could be activated—if it hadn’t been already. The Quest reward for Kipp Patel’s last wish. Even if my brain was fried the next second, seeing that firmament once more was worth it…

  But my contemplation didn’t last long. As I stood there, the tower’s surface lit with the same green energy that I’d seen in the block we’d stolen from Sleipnir. This time, the energy didn’t stay in the ridges and lines of the tower, but arced around me in jagged surges.