by Harper North
“Man cave,” Atlas says, trying not to smile in appreciation. My lips thin in disgust. “I bet the main ICC doesn’t know about this.”
“He has bad taste,” Nan whispers to me, leaning close. “We’ll give the two of you some privacy to decide. Make yourselves comfortable.”
Coco looks at me but says nothing. Choked with what might be guilt, she follows the male guard and Marcus out of the room and through another set of doors.
“Well,” Morrow says. “Do you see any other options yet? I’m tired of trusting people only to get stabbed in the back.”
“So am I,” I say, thinking of Coco. But am I any better? I led Vadie and GloryStealer into a mess when they just wanted to be part of a cluster and level up like everyone else. “But here we are. We do have another option, and it’s to leave and try to survive in the Outskirts like the scavengers. And while we live out our lives, we dodge the ICC and pray they don’t try to exterminate us.”
Morrow scratches the back of his neck, thinking. He’s standing close to me, almost close enough to make my skin tingle. Backing away to end the strange sensation, I force myself to speak. “We have no other chance than this. I don’t like this, but it’s not as if we can go back to our old lives. And I doubt Marcus will let us go to Mera and live in Raralin without us first completing this task.”
“I think you’re right,” Morrow says, locking his deep gaze with mine. The tingling returns. “We have to cave and tell him that we’ll do this task that’s not dangerous at all.”
“Then it’s agreed,” I say. “We go ahead, but we don’t trust Renton and we ask The Hermit not to either. The only people we can trust is each other.”
Morrow takes my hand and squeezes, offering a faint smile. “Then that’s what we’re going to do. Let’s find the others.”
His grip on my hand leaves a strange feeling after he releases it.
I follow Morrow through what he calls a “man cave,” passing sculptures of video game warriors, some of which I don’t recognize. Most hold guns and two who look like space marines flank the doors that Nan and the others had used. Morrow pushes them open onto another lounge on the other side. Coco sits on a couch, controlling an old keyboard and clicking on a corded device as she plays an animated game . . . on the computer itself. The screen offers a first-person view of a game environment made of pixels. As I watch, she clicks the mouse to fire a chain gun at an approaching pink demon creature with horns and a huge mouth. It makes a gurgling noise as it turns into a bloody pile and dies.
“What is that?” Morrow asks.
“Retro gaming at its finest,” Coco explains, firing on a flaming skull that sails through the air at her in some sort of basic dungeon corridor. “Sure, the graphics are terrible, but it’s great to see what eventually gave rise to The Binding.”
Morrow’s jaw falls. “I’m next,” he says. “Is it multiplayer?”
“Yes,” Coco says. “It can be multiplayer.”
“Morrow, seriously?” I ask. “You nerd.” But even with the situation floating over our heads, I can’t help but smile as Morrow sits down, ready to get immersed in something so old that it’s essentially new.
CHAPTER 14
EVEN THOUGH THE game Morrow and Coco are playing isn’t inside The Binding, they’re having no less fun shooting monsters and navigating a landscape that looks worse than the molten rivers of the Gangras city. Morrow’s getting his butt kicked by something that looks like a man with horns who keeps throwing green fireballs at his avatar. Coco laughs.
I wonder if I’ll ever be able to forgive her. She doesn’t understand what she’s done.
“Morrow, you’ve died fifteen times,” Coco says. “Maybe you should let me take out the guy with the chain gun at the top of the stairs. You won’t get far with only a pistol.”
“This game takes your whole inventory when you die!” Morrow’s jaw falls open.
“That’s how these games work,” Coco says. “In the old days, people just re-loaded from their saves.”
“We can’t do that in multiplayer.” Morrow leans forward and stares at his laptop, stepping around two-dimensional sprites of dead monsters.
They’ve been playing this old game for an hour now. Though it’s been fun, a more pressing matter eats at me. I swallow, forcing myself to push aside any sense of betrayal. It’s not as if Coco lied to hurt me. I’m overreacting. Maybe.
But perhaps not about Marcus Renton.
I wave to Coco. She looks up at me and frowns, knowing full well that this won’t be an easy conversation. It might be the reason for this gaming session.
“We should finish this level,” she says. “Then we’ll save and pick it back up later.”
They do, and once she presses the button inside what looks like a badly rendered Jump Pod, Coco powers down both laptops.
I get Coco to follow me back into the Man Cave. Morrow goes to find something to eat, as if sensing my need for a private conversation.
Coco adjusts her dark uniform. “Look, Tyisa. I didn’t want to lie to you, but Marcus demanded that I keep this secret until we knew for sure that you and Morrow were the ones for this mission.”
Her words ease the tension in my gut a little. “It’s fine,” I say, knowing that it isn’t. Who’s going to lie to me next? My mind drifts to Morrow, but that doesn’t feel right. Still, I can’t let my feelings get in the way. There’s no way I’m going to experience the nightmare with trusting my parents or anyone else ever again. “Have you been in the new Binding’s beta version?”
Coco sits on one of the skin couches. “I have,” she says. “And yes, I’m Level 31 there because it’s where I left off. Players start in the new world with their former Binding level and work up from there. Once you enter, you’ll start out at Level 29.”
“That’s good. What else is there?” I’m back to business. “How do the stats work? Is it the same lore?”
“I think it’s the same lore with the universe being held together with one device, if that’s what you’re asking. The universe is much bigger, however. Renton had his programmers add many new features and I’m still figuring out exactly what they are. Morrow will like the Aggro Injections.”
“The what?” I ask.
“Every time you kill ten enemies in a row without dying, one pops into your inventory. If you use the Injection, it ups all your base stats by five points and your specialty stat by ten for two minutes. Can you imagine how that would work in boss fights? You’d only be able to use it once, unless that boss is throwing lots of smaller enemies at you, and so long as you’re not GloryStealer. I kind of miss that guy. Hopefully we can find him again.”
I laugh. “He’s not as bad as he used to be.” I find that I miss Vadie too. It’s unexpected.
“There are also—get this—pets,” Coco says. “They might not be much benefit to a Sniper or a Scout, but some specialties could really use companions. You can buy a pet for XP at special floating bases in-between planets.”
“It’s about time,” I say. Players in The Binding have wanted pets for years.
“They’re Mechs,” Coco says. “I haven’t bought one yet since they cost a lot of XP. Buying options depend on your player level too. The downside? Pets can break down and you have to repair them.”
“Sounds like a good trade-off,” I say. My tension melts away as we talk. Maybe Coco lie wasn’t such a bad thing.
“And,” Coco says, leaning forward on the skin couch. “Top-level players will be able to create their own planets. It’s similar to how clusters can claim territory in the regular Binding, but so, so much better. Top players can make maps for others to play. Map makers will make XP royalties off their maps. Marcus wants this new version of the game to be an instant addiction.”
“And money,” I say.
“Well, yes.”
I’m already itching to play this new version, but I hold my expression neutral. Marcus knows what he’s doing. I imagine a whole universe that grants true freedom t
o have whatever experience you want. It almost sounds as good as finding a new life in reality.
“But think about it,” Coco says. “Marcus wants an unlimited experience that players can’t get sick of. He knows what people want. The guy works in sales and studies the market. I’ve heard the programmers mutter things about adding parallel universes outside of the two halves we’ve seen in the game.”
“Did Renton come up with all of these features?” I ask.
“Honestly? I don’t even think he knows everything about this new game,” Coco says. “He pays a bunch of talented programmers under the table to develop it for him. Marcus gives them creative liberty.”
I’m not sure I like that. My thoughts turn to Lucky_Champ and everyone else who has ever lied to me.
“How did you get involved in all of this?” I ask, watching Coco for any sign of falsehood.
Coco speaks right away. “I was an assistant to someone on his staff a few years back. People talk in the office. I’m sure you know that. Once I heard Renton was doing black market stuff in the normal game, I had to troll him. I hated all ICC executives at the time.”
“Don’t we all?” I ask, pacing. I stop near a statue of a space marine. Maybe he’s from a game like the one Coco and Morrow were playing.
“Trolling was one of the few ways to get back at them,” Coco says. “I’d find Rare Artifacts and offer them to him for outrageous prices. Then I’d demand that he humiliate himself in order to get others.” She slaps a hand to her mouth to smother her laughter. “I made him dress the way his NPC’s do one time, and—”
“Screenshots?” I ask.
Coco laughs even harder.
“And he did it?”
Coco doubles over and laughs so loud that I check the door to see if anyone is coming through to check on us. As expected, someone does. Morrow enters the room and lifts one eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t think you want to know,” I say.
“I’ll take your word on that,” Morrow says.
“Anyway,” Coco says, collecting herself, wiping away humored tear. “TheBigGuy was so impressed with me that he asked me to beta test the new game his team was still developing. It didn’t take him long to find me in real life. He also rescued me from my assistant job and provided lodging here in Sector 15. I got to train with his guards. He likes to make it look like he can push others around but, in reality, he’s not that tough.”
I nod, glad that Coco is willing to share this information with us. I look to Morrow, not even angry that she had deceived me anymore. It’s not as if anyone was missing or killed, right?
Taking a breath, I turn away and remind myself to stay vigilant.
“How sure are you that this is the right thing to do?” I ask.
“Do you mean working with Marcus?” Morrow asks.
“Yes,” I say.
“I know Marcus Renton is a slime ball who just cares about his bottom line,” Coco says. “But in this world, his plan to dismantle the current game and replace it with his version might be the only way to free people from the ICC. If the ICC loses the current Binding, players lose the only thing keeping them complacent. They’ll rebel. Even the ICC won’t be able to keep their hold on so many people.”
“Their hold is mental,” I say, pointing to my forehead. “They change people. It’s just as bad on Mera.” A lump forms in my throat as I think of my parents.
Morrow looks at me and nods in agreement.
The door to the Man Cave swings open and the others step through. Nan comes first, followed by Marcus, and then the male guard. Marcus flashes us a smile, but it’s a commercial smile that I’d see on a billboard and not one of warmth.
“Have you two made your decision?” he asks. “I’m not trying to rush you, but I’d like to know how far you’ve come along.”
I look at Morrow. He pauses and then nods. We’ve already established that there’s nothing left for us on Earth or Mera. Gulping, I nod as well.
“We’ll help,” Morrow says. “But I have a question. If you and your team made this new game version, then why can’t you upgrade us both to Level 50 before we go in, so we can go straight to this exclusive planet and face down the ICC?”
It’s a good question.
Marcus’ lips move like he wants to say something, but Nan steps in front of him. “You’ll want to ask me those questions. This new Binding was designed by an integrated AI neural network. It makes the game more expansive than ever before and is designed to provide a more evolved gaming experience. Not only does it prevent hacking and cheating, but it prevents us from going in and making changes as well. It’s encrypted at a player DNA level. It was a trade-off, but our goal with this new Binding was to create a self-evolving system.”
It sounds as if they’ve created a whole game that is like The Hermit, who is also an evolving AI. “So, the game is thinking and alive?” I ask.
“In a way, yes.” Nan stands tall. “The only change we can make to the new game world is permissions to pull the plug and kill it. The AI is now driving the game development. We laid the framework and now the AI is filling in things and populating the universe within.”
I don’t dare say a word about The Hermit. I wonder if Nan and her team received their inspiration from him. He had altered his own boss map, right?
And I wonder if this new AI has the same lack of tact.
“When can we jump in?” Morrow asks.
Nan looks at Marcus, who nods. “We’ll need to bring in a couple more Immersion Boxes,” she says. “I suggest that all of you rest up and eat before going in. I know we interrupted you, Morrow, and I apologize.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” I say. I need to think before diving into this new world. It’s a place that has a sentient creator. That could be a good or a bad thing. My gut warns me back, but logic propels me forward.
“Then let’s show you a place to sleep,” Nan says. “The guards’ quarters still have plenty of beds. I highly doubt the Sector 14 people will find us here.”
“Show the way,” Marcus says.
Morrow is still hungry, so he heads to wherever the kitchen is while Nan shows me to a room with rows of bunk beds. Once alone, I find a change of clothes on a bed at the end and a shower. I need one. Undressing and closing the frosty door behind me, I let the warm water soothe muscles I hadn’t realized are sore until now. I find a bottle of light blue goo with a pleasant smell in the shower and pour some of it out into my palm, washing my body with it.
Feeling refreshed, I step out of the shower, grabbing a towel on the way.
“Sorry!” Morrow says.
He stands at the other end of the guards’ quarters, right in the open doorway.
I lose my composure, screaming and pulling the towel around me. Aware of how thin it is and how it barely covers vital areas on my tall body, I stare at Morrow, who does the same to me. We’re both in shock. Though, his features soften as his eyes wander away from my face.
“I’m . . . I’m sorry,” he mutters, a little breathy. “I didn’t know the quarters lacked privacy . . . I’ll, uh, just go back to the kitchen now.” But he doesn’t move, blinking rapidly while still looking my way.
“It’s okay,” I blurt, frozen to the spot. My feet won’t move. Heat rushes to my cheeks. I’m not sure who’s more embarrassed in this situation. But I remember my pride and straighten up. “We’ll just need to remember this.”
Morrow swallows and then ducks out of the guards’ quarters.
And as he does, he takes one last peek my way before closing the door, his mouth parted and his gaze reverent.
Trying to put the incident out of my mind, I dress before anyone else comes in. But Morrow’s shock and wandering eyes replay over and over. My body tingles in a strange way.
I won’t let it get to me.
When I finish, after dressing in black pants and a tank top, I leave the quarters to find Morrow sitting at a bench table in the large kitchen, eating so
mething that looks like meat between two sand-colored slices. Morrow glances at me and looks down again.
We’re alone in the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” Morrow offers again.
“It’s okay. You’re forgiven,” I say, shocked that I’m feeling less horror than expected. “Things happen that are out of our control sometimes.” I sit next to him to communicate that I’m not offended. “Nan should have mentioned that the shower is facing the door. It’s poor design.”
“Well, this building wasn’t meant to be inhabited,” Morrow says. “Marcus and company have to do the best they can.”
“Agreed.” I manage to smile at Morrow.
He returns it.
Morrow tells me that the food he’s eating is called a sandwich. I try one and it’s almost as good as the food back home, though the texture of the slices is a bit odd. Earth people and Merans can share much of the same food, though a few items are poisonous to the other species.
My stomach doesn’t protest, and we finish eating in silence as Coco walks into the kitchen and claps. “Lights out,” she says. “We all need to get some sleep before venturing into this brave new world.”
We clean up and follow her back to the guards’ quarters. The male guard already snores in one bunk. Morrow and I take two bunks next to each other and settle in. These sleeping arrangements are odd. Men and women on Mera don’t sleep in the same room unless they’re mated. But maybe things are lax on Earth. Then again, this place isn’t the best example, being an old factory.
The lights turn off automatically. A faint glow illuminates our shared space through a small window. My eyes adjust quickly and I turn over, thinking of the shower incident and the way Morrow checked me out. I flush each time my mind replays that part. Then I turn over again.
Morrow is looking at me from his bunk. I wonder if he’s thinking the same. We make eye contact. A strange sense of warmth sweeps through me.
