Diana gave him a sly look that made both Jace and Mika blush, but the older woman just stared at him in open invitation.
Jace was half tempted to take her up on the offer. He desperately needed a distraction from his thoughts. But he doubted Charlena or Mika would like it very much and he wasn’t even sure it really would take his mind off it.
He checked his timepiece. It was only 9pm. Still another hour to go. He looked and saw Diana still looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Even if you were serious,” Jace told the older woman. “I can’t.”
“Well, never say I didn’t offer,” Diana said, fluttering her eyelids at him. Then a playful smile crossed her face. He couldn’t tell if that meant she had just been teasing him or if it had been a genuine offer.
They all grew quiet as the time slowly ticked by and they continued to drink the wine and mead. Jace continued his pacing, desperately trying to get his mind on anything but what Charlena was going to say.
Finally, at almost 10pm, the tell-tale swirl of color appeared in the chair where Charlena had logged off. A moment later, the red-headed elf’s body formed in the exact spot where she had disappeared the previous night.
Charlena blinked and looked around the room until her eyes found Jace’s. She didn’t move from the chair but stared at him for nearly a minute without saying a word.
Finally, Jace couldn’t take it any longer. “Was it me? What shape am I in?”
The red-head didn’t say anything at first but then she narrowed her eyes. “I did see a body today and it looks like you - except not quite as heroic.”
So, it was his body in a coma. He was alive after all. He felt part of him relax but the other part of him was still tied in a knot. “Am I okay? I mean, what shape is my body in?”
“The body I saw looks fine,” she told him. “The doctor said there were some hairline fractures to the legs where the car hit but the main trauma was to the head. Severe concussion.”
“So, my arms and legs work?” Jace asked, feeling a little more tension drain away. Hairline fractures weren’t bad. In fact, given how long it had been since the accident, they were probably already healed. He smiled but noticed that Charlena wasn’t returning his smile. In fact, she didn’t look happy at all.
“What? What’s wrong?” Jace asked.
“What’s wrong is,” she replied, “you’re not Jace Burton.”
Jace couldn’t keep the confusion out of his mind and off his Jace. “What? What do you mean? You said it’s me.”
“No,” she interrupted. “The body I saw today was Jace Burton. I did a quick search and found some pictures online to verify and show the doctors. He came in as a John Doe because apparently your wallet got lost somewhere after the accident. The problem is, you’re not him.”
Now Jace was really confused. The body was his. She’d said it. It looked like him. She’d found pictures online of him to confirm. “I don’t understand. The body’s mine. I’m in a coma inside a medical FEVRE pod.”
Charlena shook her head. “That’s the thing. Jace Burton, the real Jace Burton, isn’t in a medical pod. He’s not hooked up to the internet at all. He’s on a bed, in a hospital, hooked up to a respirator.”
“Wait? What? That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “How can I be in the game if my body isn’t in a pod?”
“Exactly,” Charlena said. “So, who are you really? And why are you impersonating Jace Burton?”
Jace could feel the eyes of all three girls on him, waiting for an answer. The problem was, he had no idea what to tell them.
Chapter 50
Jace didn’t understand Charlena’s revelation. It made no sense. If he was in a coma, that meant he was alive. If he were alive, then he wasn’t a brain backup loaded into the system. That only happened when a person died.
But she said he wasn’t in a medical pod. So, how was he in the game? None of this made any sense. He couldn’t just magically be in the game. He had to be hooked up to the game somehow. Charlena must be mistaken. “Are you sure I’m not in a medical pod? I mean, they probably look different.”
Her face was hard. “I’m positive. I even asked the doctor. He showed me an actual medical pod. You’re not in one. I told him I’d been talking with you in the game and he said that he didn’t know who I was talking to, but it wasn’t you.”
Jace just stared at her. This wasn’t possible. He was Jace Burton. How could he not be in a medical pod? He opened his mouth to say something else but closed it. He couldn’t think of anything he could say just then.
“I’m not sure what your game is but I’m tired and this is too much for me to handle right now,” Charlena said abruptly and then disappeared as she logged out.
Mika and Diana glanced at where the other girl disappeared, and then looked back at him. Jace fell back into one of the chairs, his mind whirling.
“Are you Jace?” Mika asked in a quiet voice. “It’s okay if you’re not. You helped me get out of the monster bodies. You helped Diana too and the man in the groll. You are a good person, it doesn’t matter what your name is.”
Jace looked at her and forced a smile. “As far as I know, I’m Jace Burton. I remember my childhood, my parents…” He paused as he remembered the moment, he’d been told about the accident that killed his parents and sister. “I remember their death. I remember college, all the odd jobs I worked and then working for WorldCog. I am Jace Burton.”
Mika smiled. “I believe you.”
“I believe that you believe you are,” Diana shrugged. “A rose by any other name and all that. Unless you’re a ghost in the machine.”
His smile faltered. A ghost in the machine. Is that what he was? Had his consciousness somehow entered the game? No. That was ridiculous. It might make for good fiction, but it was impossible.
He was Jace Burton. He was a programmer. A troubleshooter. He needed to think logically, like the programmer he was. He needed to troubleshoot the issue as if he were troubleshooting bad code. Yes, that was it. But where to start.
Sometimes it helped him if he talked aloud like he would with his co-workers. He stood up and began pacing.
“I’m Jace Burton. Fact,” he said aloud and noticed that the girls were watching him. “My body is in the hospital and in a coma. Fact. Assuming Charlena is right, my body is not in a medical pod. Fact. But my consciousness is in the game. Fact.”
He turned a paced the other direction. Mika and Diana were looking at him curiously. “If I am not in the game using a pod, I must be in the game some other method. There are only two methods I know for getting into the game. One, using a pod. Two, having a backup of your consciousness uploaded. But… That only happens when you’re dead. And I’m not dead.”
He turned again, resumed pacing, and continued his thoughts. “So, how am I in the game? I was in a car accident. I was taken to the hospital. I’ve been in a coma. I’m not hooked up to a medical pod. It doesn’t make sense. Unless there’s some new technology that transfers a person’s mind into the game and leaves the body in a vegetative state.”
Jace realized how impossible that sounded. It was like something from a bad science fiction book. And who would have done that to him? WorldCog? Why do that if they could have just killed him? And hadn’t they tried to kill him with the car accident? No, that didn’t make sense.
“Occam’s Razor,” Diana said and Jace turned to look at the older woman. “All things being equal, the simplest explanation is probably the most correct.”
“I know what Occam’s Razor is, I’m a programmer,” he smiled. “What do you mean?”
“Well, dear one,” the older woman said. “To paraphrase a great detective, when you rule out the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the solution. Go back to your first two solutions.”
“What? That there are only two ways to be in the game?” he asked.
“Right,” Diana nodded. “You said there are only two ways. Either using a pod or having your consc
iousness uploaded.”
“That we know of,” Jace countered.
“Well, let’s go with what we know,” she replied. “There are only two ways.”
“Okay,” Jace agreed.
“Let’s assume Charlena is right and that she did talk to a doctor who knows what he’s talking about and you are not in a medical pod or connected to the internet in any way. That means, you are not directly connected. Right?”
“Right.”
“So, what does that leave you?”
Jace frowned. “It leaves an upload. Only that can’t happen unless you're dead. It’s regulated by the government.”
Diana raised an eyebrow. “And mistakes never happen?”
That tickled something in the back of his mind. Something from a very early conversation he’d had with Charlena. “When I first met Charlena, I thought I was dead and had been uploaded. When I told her, she’d looked me up in the newsfeeds.”
“That seems morbid,” Diana interrupted, making a face.
Ignoring her, he continued. “She told me about the blurb that mentioned me being hit by a truck. And that… I had been pronounced dead at the scene.”
“So, you are dead?” Mika asked. “Like us?”
Jace shook his head. “Not quite. The paramedics must have pronounced me dead and notified WorldCog since it would have been in my file.”
“But then he’d been revived, maybe on the way to the hospital,” Mika offered.
“Or at the hospital. Charlena did say you arrived at the hospital without identification, so you were treated as a John Doe,” Diana added. “What do you want to bet one of the paramedics stole your wallet since they thought you were dead.”
“That means, I’m not the real Jace,” he sighed. “I am his last brain backup.”
Walking back over to the chair, Jace collapsed into it as he considered what this meant.
Mika started to open her mouth to say something, but Diana shook her head and Mika clamped her mouth closed. He couldn’t help but see the concern on her face, but he didn’t know what to say.
When he first arrived in the game, inside the body of a monster, he’d thought he was dead. Now, he didn’t know what to think. The real him was alive and he was just an out of date copy. It was a lot to come to grips with again.
As he was thinking about it, something suddenly struck him. He was a copy of the real Jace’s brain uploaded into the game WHILE the real Jace was still alive. What would happen to him when WorldCog or the government found out? Would they delete him like old programming code?
That was a terrifying thought. Being deleted. Ceasing to exist. Dying. It didn’t matter that the real him would keep on living. He, copy or not, didn’t want to die. “I don’t want to die.”
Mika looked at him with alarm. “Die?”
Diana made a dismissive gesture. “Darling, you can’t die. You’re inserted into the game, like us.”
“No,” Jace said bitterly. “Not like you. You were inserted when you died. You willed yourself into the game. It was all legal and above board.”
“Yes, but you did too…” Mika started but he shook his head.
“No. I was put in here by accident,” Jace said. “And the real me is out in the real world, alive.”
“So, there’s two of you,” Diana said. “So what?”
“So,” Jace replied. “When WorldCog finds out about me, an accident, they’ll want to correct that accident. They’ll purge me from the system.”
“No,” Mika said. “They can’t do that!”
“They can and they will. Insertion is heavily regulated by the government,” he told them. “Once the mistake is discovered, they’ll delete me. They have to by law.”
“Then we don’t tell them,” Mika said fiercely.
“We’re going into the palace to talk with the Help Desk and tell them about our situation,” he said. “Once they start investigating and troubleshooting the issue, they’re bound to find out.”
They were all silent for several minutes until Diana smiled. “Darling, why not just lie.”
“What?” he asked.
“Lie,” she told him. “Tell them you’re Jace Burton’s twin brother or something.”
“His twin brother?” he looked at her skeptically.
“That would explain the DNA match, right?” she smiled.
Jace thought about her suggestion. He didn’t know enough about twins to know if they shared the same DNA, but it was worth a try. After all, what were they going to do to him if they caught him lying? Delete him? That would be the end result if he told the truth.
He nodded. “That might work. MIGHT. It’s worth a shot at least.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t go to the Help Desk,” Mika said.
Jace looked at her. “But then you and Diana and the others won’t have your money. And anyone else still in a monster body will be trapped. I don’t know if I can live with myself knowing I could help them and not giving it a try.”
Mika smiled, but her eyes were sad. “See, you are a good person.”
“And just for the record, if it meant keeping you around,” Diana said. “I’d forgo my money. But you’re right. There are other people out there trapped in monster bodies and I don’t wish that on anyone.”
“Me either,” Mika agreed. “It is a terrible way to live.”
“Then we find the Help Desk tomorrow night and contact support,” he told them.
He tried to make his voice sound brave but inside he wasn’t convinced that lying would work. WorldCog had access to all sorts of data. The chance of them finding out that he, or the real Jace, didn’t have a brother was high.
On the other hand, maybe they’d be more worried about the bug than with his real identity. Plus, he realized, he did have a trump card. He could tell them why a dragon was about to destroy one of the largest cities in the game. That might earn him some good will.
Who knew, maybe he’d get out of this situation alive after all. He smirked inwardly. That was the strangest thing. Jace was alive, at least, his real body was alive. But would he, the uploaded Jace, survive. That was the question that concerned him.
Chapter 51
After telling the girls he needed some time alone, Jace retired up to the master bedroom with Luna. The cat hopped up on the bed and found a comfortable spot near the pillows as Jace considered everything. The revelation that he wasn’t the real Jace or even the only Jace had rattled him more than he cared to show the girls.
It was that he wasn’t the real Jace, or even the only Jace. It was also the very real possibility that he would die. Well, maybe not die, but at least cease to exist. And that’s what would happen if they pulled the plug on him.
He didn’t really think that support would believe he was Jace’s twin brother. Even the most minimal research would prove that he wasn’t. He’d have no birth certificate, no school history, no foster history, nothing. Then, once they discover he was just a copy of the real Jace Burton, they’d delete him. They’d have to. After all, there were federal regulations and all sorts of laws governing the insertion of people into the game.
Jace laid back on the bed and sighed. If he found the Help Desk and contacted support, he was screwed. It was as good as signing his own death warrant. It might not happen right away. They’d probably look into the bug first. But eventually, they’d get around to “fixing” him, only to find out he wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. And then… death. Or oblivion. Or whatever happened when a person’s consciousness was pulled out of the game.
What if he decided not to find the Help Desk at all? If support didn’t know about him, they wouldn’t delete him. Except, if he didn’t talk to support and tell them about the bug, Mika and Diana would never get their assets back.
The girls had told him they’d rather give up their money if he lived. He hadn’t told them but that was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever said or offered to do for him. Jace had never really asked anyone for anything sinc
e his family had died, nor had any accepted any charity. But just the fact that they were willing to give up who knew how much money to keep him around really touched him.
But even if he could accept their decision, that didn’t help the poor souls who were, even now, trapped in monster bodies with no chance of rescue unless Jace happened to stumble upon them. They would be forever doomed to an endless cycle of death and rebirth as different monsters. Mika had thought she was in hell. How many others were there in the game right now, trapped in monster bodies who might be thinking the same thing?
No. As much as he wanted to live, to go on existing, he couldn’t do that at the cost of other people suffering some sort of eternal torment. If he did, what kind of person would that make him? Certainly not the kind person his parents had wanted him to be. Not the kind of person he wanted to be.
He’d always wanted to be a hero. Jace had wanted to be the kind of person who would push someone out of the way of a moving car or rush into a burning building to save a child. He had thought he would be brave in that moment and just do the right thing. Now, as he was faced with the very real prospect of giving up his own existence to help others, he found it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.
Maybe that was because he had too much time to think about it. To mull the decision over in his mind and contemplate the consequences. Or maybe he wasn’t as brave or heroic as he really hoped he would be.
Jace struggled with these thoughts until light shone through the bedroom windows. Morning had come and with it, his resolve to go through with finding the Help Desk. He knew it had to be done, even if it meant he had to die.
Getting out of the bed, Jace left the bedroom and went downstairs. Luna trailed after him and he suspected she was hoping for some fish.
They found Mika and Diana chatting in the same room he’d left them in. They both stopped talking as he came down and looked up at him. When neither of the girls said anything, Jace realized they were waiting for him. Waiting for him to tell them what he had decided.
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