Rune Universe: A Virtual Reality novel (The RUNE UNIVERSE trilogy Book 1)

by Hugo Huesca

  On the back seat, to my left, a blond woman waited.

  “Don’t be scared, Mister Dorsett,” she told me with a deep, melodious voice as the door closed behind me and the limo started moving. “We’re just going to have a little chat.”

  She was in her forties or so, hard to say with the couple anti-aging operations she had obviously been through. No natural skin had that kind of shine unless your mother fucked some photoshop software. She was wearing a business suit at least as expensive as the limo and purple-tinted sunglasses on her beautifully-crafted face. Congratulations to the surgeon, lady.

  Strangely enough, she seemed vaguely familiar.

  “I’m not frightened,” I lied, “you just kidnapped me at gunpoint. Must be Friday, am I right?”

  I noticed the suited man —a bodyguard, I’d bet— hadn’t gotten in with us. Either this woman was very dumb or she was very dangerous. Both of those were accompanied with a heavy dose of arrogance. And it showed. She moved and talked like a Queen probably did half a millennium ago.

  “It isn’t Friday and you aren’t kidnapped,” two statements, only one was true. It wasn’t Friday. Yet, put her in front of a jury and you’d never realize she was telling you a lie until you already pardoned her and bought her the Eiffel Tower with cash.

  “Then, what are we doing here?”

  “Just wanted to talk. You’ve gained the interest of a dangerous man, who is thinking he can use you to further his agenda. My line of work involves keeping dangerous men in check.”

  She reached out to me and lazily extended her hand towards me, like the Pope waiting for a vassal to kiss his ring. Instead, I shook her hand —covered in a white silk glove— and stared at her awkwardly. “My name is Stefania Caputi. I’m pleased to finally make your acquaintance.”

  I’d never met someone like her before. This woman was powerful in a way money could merely imitate. An aristocrat in the neon-age. How did I know this?

  She had just shaken my hand and told me she was pleased to meet me. I was a street rat and I knew it. I’d seen people change sidewalks when they saw me approaching behind them. Stefania Caputi’s eyes hadn’t left mine as she said it, her smile hadn’t wavered one bit. I’d checked.

  Money couldn’t teach you to lie like that. The President lied like that.

  My throat was suddenly dry. “I wish I can say the same, lady—ehm, miss…”

  Sweet god I just started stuttering in front of my kidnapper.

  “Stefania is fine, Cole.” I had the sensation no one in her life felt like calling her Stefania was something they could just do.

  “Stefania. Alright. What do you want from me?”

  “Recently, Cole, you received a package from a late friend of yours —I’m truly sorry for your loss, dear, by the way— in a game called Rune Universe. I’m aware you’re familiar with this game, now,” she said, using her melodious voice. I suspected even her vocal chords had been specifically enhanced to be as enthralling as possible. “And that you’ve been trying to discover a dangerous secret. A secret locked by a Key which, until now, was hidden.”

  “No idea what you’re talking about.”

  “The organization I represent would be very happy if you’d voluntarily hand us over said Key, Cole. I assure you, it’s of no use to you, since the secret it opens has been moved and is out of reach of any normal player. Instead, we’re willing to reward you handsomely for your service.”

  I inhaled deeply and tried to steady my hands, which had begun to sweat. I placed them on my legs and steeled myself. “And what’s this organization you speak of?”

  “The Government of the United States,” she said with the same tone you’d tell someone you work in an Apple Store. “You can trust me, Cole, you’re talking with the good guys.”

  Yeah, like I haven’t heard that before, I thought as my heart rate skyrocketed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Captured

  The limo had been moving for only five minutes or so, but I was wildly aware of two things. First, I didn’t know where we were going. Second, the door behind me was locked. I was trapped in here with Stefania Caputi and I had no idea if she was who she said she was.

  “Why should I believe you?” I asked. When in doubt, stall for time to think.

  “Because I’m asking nicely,” she offered with a hearty laugh. Then she produced an ID card from her diminutive purse and showed it to me. The ID was several years old and called Stefania a Customs Officer or somesuch. Half a look at her and I doubted very much she worked in customs.

  Still, the ID looked legit. Not that I’d be able to tell the difference anyway.

  “As I was telling you, Cole, we would be grateful if you cooperated with us in this endeavor. Give over the Key willingly and we will help you out.”

  “Help me out?”

  She produced a holographic dossier with my face on one side. “We know the Dorsett household is struggling. Your sister is heading off to college, you’re working full time while your Mom interviews. Your dad is deceased. It’s a tough spot to be for a seventeen-year-old with full Strikes. Let’s us help you. Your sister can get a full scholarship to the best colleges, your Mom can get a cozy, high-paying job in some bureaucratic office. You can get a full bank account, your Strikes waived. Whatever you want, Cole, if you cooperate with us.”

  If she had smacked me with a sledgehammer I’d have been less stunned than I was after hearing her offer. She was talking seriously about life-changing stuff. I could be out of Lower Cañitas in no time. By tomorrow. Pay all our debts. All over a piece of code of a videogame?

  “Just for an item of a videogame?” I whispered, not even able to look Stefania in the eyes. “What’s so important about the thing?”

  After all Kipp’s suspicions, I knew nothing of the Key. Nothing about what it opened. Only that it was good enough to kill for.

  “Believe me, Cole,” said Stefania Caputi as she slowed her voice to add gravitas to it, “the Government wants that key because it’s very dangerous. It could do a lot of damage in the hands of civilians. More so if it fell into the wrong hands. Those wrong hands are willing to kill for the Key and they know you have it.”

  “You know this? And you say you’re with the government? Just take them out yourself.”

  She smiled coldly. “It’s a bit more complicated than that. So far, those people have done nothing wrong. To the powers that be, they and I are working on the same side.”

  So, government infighting. And I was in the middle of the crossfire.

  The smart decision would be to just hand over the Key and call it quits. I was just a kid, not a special agent ready to kill my way out of a conspiracy.

  “We can sign a contract if that would make you feel better,” suggested Stefania, “we discuss the terms, you sign it, we pay you handsomely. Then you’re on your way back home. Rich.”

  The last time someone made me sign a contract, it was because I was fucked either way. After all, even if I didn’t sign, Stefania could just walk over to my apartment with a warrant and seize my account and my mindjack.

  She was a bully just like the Posse of Iron. This bully dressed better and talked smoother. She would say anything, do anything, to get what she wanted. My hands closed into fists and I had to take a deep breath to control myself.

  “So, let me get this straight. You let my family and all the families in my district rot beneath the cracks of your little system. You forget all about us. Leave us right there in misery. And now that you want something from me, you tell me the only thing you have to do to make all go away is just snap your fingers?” My voice raised higher and higher as I spoke, stopping barely away from full-on screaming.

  The woman didn’t even pretend to be fazed. “Life sucks. What, are you new? We’re giving you a chance to make it better, you’d be crazy not to take it. If you ask for a million dollars, we can add that to the contract.”

  “I guess I’m crazy.”

  For a second, Stefania Ca
puti looked like she was about to start laughing. Instead, she smiled pleasantly at me. “We can just take the Key, you know.”

  “I don’t have it with me, I’m not that stupid.” The Key was still safely stored by a player-run bank. As far as Kipp had told me, the thing wasn’t even an in-game item —it was, as far as I knew, a special string of code, hidden from everyone else. Nordic couldn’t just teleport it out of my account or that’s exactly what they’d have done already.

  Granted, the States could probably find it and take it out of that bank with zero trouble. But it would take them some time. Stefania Caputi seemed willing to pay millions of dollars to avoid that hassle. Which meant they were in a hurry.

  “That’s debatable,” she said dryly, the first time in our friendly chat she had been rude. Great to finally see your true colors, Miss Caputi.

  Then she composed herself and went back to her dossier of me. “This is a psychological evaluation of you. Compiled by experts all over the country. It was made one month ago, along with all of Kipp Patel’s known associates. A dozen of the best psychologists assured me you’d instantly accept the offer I just made you. Yet, here we are.”

  “You need to get better psychologists, Stefania.”

  “Do I? As far as I’m concerned, they did an excellent job. I think it’s only the time-frame they got wrong. A month. Perhaps people can change radically in just one month, Cole.”

  She wasn’t wrong. One month ago, I’d have taken that offer for sure. I’d have signed anything she gave me, sold anything she wanted. Now…

  “What changed with you, Cole? You started playing Rune. Those very psychologists you derided have found this game has strange effects on the people that play it for any extended length of time. Most of the time, for the better. Other times, not so much.” She paused as she drilled me with a gaze I could feel even behind her sunglasses. “Is that what changed with you?”

  A series of memories flashed in my brain as fast as a spark. The nights watching virtual movies and hanging out with my friends. Rylena and I standing side by side as we watched the impossible star of the Prima sector. The golden avatar of my friend telling me he hoped we could meet again.

  “Yes. I guess it was the game,” I lied through my teeth. The game helped, sure. In the end, it was still a game. The people that played it, though… Those were real.

  This answer satisfied Stefania Caputi. It was the one she expected, after all. She put away the dossier with a gesture. “Very well. I knew this would happen, you know. I’m familiar with the effects Rune has. Then, there’s no contract, Cole. We’ll get the Key by our own means.”

  The limo stopped and the doors behind me opened. I turned back, ready to run away, but I found the bulk of Caputi’s bodyguard guarding my way out. His gun was holstered this time, but his right hand never left its side.

  “What’s this?” I recognized the building behind him, as I’d spent a good chunk of my summers coming and going form the place. It was Lower Cañitas Police Department.

  “This is for your own safety, Cole,” Stefania said. “You may not believe it, but I’m saving your life right now. You may do some time in prison, but at the end of it, you’ll be alive. And this all will be long over.”

  I turned to her and jumped with a scream of rage, only to be caught from the ankle by her bodyguard and dragged out of the limousine like a rabbit caught by a fox outside his rabbit-hole.

  Last I saw of Stefania Caputi, she was smiling amicably.

  “Cole, what have you done?” The disappointment in Officer Harrison’s voice cut deeper now that I hadn’t actually done anything.

  The police had brought me to a cell as soon as Caputi’s bodyguard brought me to the sergeant. The charge? Same as the other —real— ones, actually. Trying to hack a government employee who worked in Customs.

  This time, there was no virtual judge. It was straight to jail until I waited for a real trial and then off for a real prison.

  The cell was dark and dusty and smelled of humidity. The door closed automatically behind me when its mechanism registered an inmate —me— had just stepped inside. Not counting me, it was empty. It looked like I felt: empty, dusty, stunned. I never had a chance.

  Kipp had gone for me for help and I had accepted, knowing full well the risks. But this was another thing entirely. Stefania Caputi had thrown me away without the slightest hesitation.

  After all this coming and going in Rune feeling like I was making a difference, this cell was the cold reminder I was still very much a pawn in a chess match with billions just like me.

  What were you thinking, Kipp? What was I thinking? We never had a chance.

  I sat on the floor while trying hard not to think of anything, without much success. I thought of a lot of things. Like, how right now, the Government must be inside my apartment, searching for my stuff and easily finding it. My mindjack, gone. Same with my Rune account. I hoped Mom and Van would be fine…

  Oh god, I thought, they’ll think I did this.

  To make matters worse, Harrison had come to see me half an hour after I arrived. He was as pale as a sheet, like a man who can’t believe his own eyes.

  “What have you done, Cole?” he asked again, bringing me back to the present.

  I couldn’t say anything to him. He would never believe me. Oh, I’m innocent, Officer Harrison. I have been set-up by a woman who wanted to steal my videogame item. Yes, she works for the government, too.

  What I did was shrug and look away. My throat was dry and I was sure no sound could come out if I tried.

  “You were doing so well…” he said. He shook his head, sadly. “When your mother hears about this, it’s going to destroy her.”

  Yeah. It would. Worst part of it was, I knew how it all was going to end. Police wouldn’t help me. The judge wouldn’t help me. No one would believe me and anyone who did would get paid off or swallowed by a legal vacuum. I would spend the next couple of decades in jail, alone. Perhaps Mom would visit. Van too, after her anger slowed down. I’d get to see the disappointment in their eyes. They would hate me, perhaps. My father had gone down a similar path, hadn’t he? Before he overdosed in jail.

  My brain wasn’t an empty cell anymore. It had an inmate: cold, hard rage.

  “I need my phone call,” I whispered to Harrison without turning to him.

  “I suppose you do,” he said matching my own volume. He handed me his own smartphone and waited patiently as I keyed the number from memory. “I suppose you do.”

  The phone rang five times before someone picked up. “Hello, Mom? It’s Cole. Yeah, listen, something happened. I’m in jail right now. Yes, out of Strikes. They say it was from Scripting, it’s registered in the archives. Yeah, well, I’m sorry. I really need to see you right now. Please, Mom. Hurry.”

  I hang up and passed Officer Harrison’s phone back to him. “Thanks.”

  “That’s all you’re going to say?”

  “Does it matter? You’re not going to believe anything else,” I told him.

  “You’re going to say you’re innocent?” he asked, not even able to hide his disbelief.

  I sighed. “No. Of course not. Please, Officer, I want to be alone.”

  “Suit yourself, Cole.” He left the cell rooms with a disappointed walk. What the hell was his deal? He was a police officer, he wasn’t my dad.

  It was a slow day in the Police Department. I was all alone in the holding cells and that suited me just fine. I leaned against the wall and slid all the way down to the floor.

  Hours started to pass. I didn’t feel like moving. There was a little window on the top of the cell (it wasn’t really a window, just a screen that imitated sunlight) and it slowly went from bright light into yellow, then orange, then purple. Harrison didn’t return. By now, my family was probably on their way.

  I realized I’d been shivering for the last couple hours. My legs and butt were sore from sitting on the floor and even if it wasn’t cold in the cell, I sure as hell felt freez
ing.

  Strangely, I missed Rylena and the guys just as much as I did my family. Probably I would see neither again.

  What the hell. It was already too late to go back. And I didn’t want to, either. For a long time, I’d been fucked over by people like Stefania Caputi. Kipp had given me a chance to fight back, even if it was over something as small as a videogame.

  Well then. The “window” had finally turned off. It was nighttime outside and, more importantly, it was shift change for the Lower Cañitas Police Department. I would never have a better chance. A bit more and someone would pack me into a police drone and send me to real jail to await trial.

  I stood up and shook my legs around until feeling returned to my body. I took a deep breath as I calmed down my nerves and made sure I was still alone in the holding cells.

  Funny thing about modern Police Departments. Their drone cars are connected into the city’s own network. They are also connected to the Police Station, which is, in a way, any drone’s main brain. Yes, it was an extremely secure network. It was inaccessible to the common citizen —and delinquent.

  For an expert hacker, that meant a chance to show off.

  I walked to the cell’s doors, grabbed the bars and pushed sideways. At first, they didn’t budge, but when I applied more force, they screeched sideways with less and less resistance. The way out was right in front of me.

  I glanced nervously over the cameras at every corner of the room. The unlocked cell doors wouldn’t do me any favors if three seconds from now a dozen police officers rushed me. No point in staying still waiting to see if I heard them, though. I went to the door to the Department and out of the holding room.

  Let’s see how good you truly are, Roscoe.

  The police’s shift change was just underway. The last shift had already checked out and the last of them shuffled their way out, exhausted. The new shift was just getting into “work-mode,” checking their systems, last-minute calls, the like. The Department buzzed with nervous, confused activity.