Death Dream

by Ben Bova

  "I hope the company's insurance covers this," he said.

  "The government's paying for everything," Susan replied.

  "Smith?"

  "That's what Vickie told me. There are a couple of federal agents guarding the door. They don't want the media to know anything about this."

  "How is Jace?"

  Her eyes shifted away from him. "You broke his nose and they think he's got a slight concussion."

  Dan let his head sink back on the pillows. "What a mess. What a god damned black hole of a mess."

  "Angie's all right," Susan said. "You saved her."

  He looked into his wife's eyes. Susan leaned over and kissed him again. "Nothing else matters, Dan. You saved our daughter from Muncrief."

  He touched her cheek with his bandaged hand. "She's really okay?"

  "Really. She's home right now with a psychologist from the school system babysitting. She's proud of her daddy. You rescued her."

  "Yeah. But Muncrief's dead and the whole company's going to go down the tubes now. Unless—"

  "You can get another job. A better job."

  "What about Jace?"

  He felt her body tense. "You don't need Jace."

  "I know that. It's Smith I'm worried about. Him and his plans to put VR into the White House. Jace said Smith was going to protect him."

  "Let him. What difference does it make?"

  "VR shouldn't be used to manipulate people—especially the President of the United States."

  "What's that got to do with us?"

  "Honey, when they manipulate the president they manipulate us. All of us."

  "But Smith—"

  "Get him in here, will you, Sue? Find him, wherever he is and get him in here. I've got to talk to him."

  Susan gave Dan a strange look, then got up from the bed. With an odd little smile she said, "To hear is to obey, O master."

  Dan lay back in the cranked-up bed, his mind whirling. So much had happened so fast. Got to call Doc and tell him about Jace and everything. Tell him the simulation's safe now. But Angie's okay. That's the most important part. She's right about that. Angie's okay. Got to build safeguards into the simulations. Got to make sure people can't tinker with them, corrupt them. But how? How?

  He was still pondering when the door opened and Susan, Smith and Vickie came in. Dan could see that there were two beefy men in dark suits standing guard out in the hallway.

  "How you feeling, Dan?" said Smith with a strained smile showing perfect teeth.

  "I'll be all right," Dan said.

  Vickie looked like a woman who had just lost her boss and probably her job: tense, uncertain, fearful. The two of them came up to the bed, almost in step. Susan stayed back by the door.

  "You said you wanted to see me," Smith said.

  "Why is there a guard outside?"

  Smith flicked a glance at Vickie, then answered. "For your own protection."

  "Protection from what?"

  "The media. We don't want any scare stories leaking out."

  Dan puffed out a breath. "Some guy tried to kidnap me, my daughter was—"

  "Kidnap you?"

  "Last night. Said there were some people who wanted to pick my brain."

  "Peterson," Vickie blurted. Turning to Smith, "You said you scared him off."

  "Apparently not." He looked back to Dan. "When was this? Tell me exactly what happened."

  "Later. I want you to tell me what you plan to do about Jace first."

  "That doesn't concern you." Tightly.

  "The hell it doesn't. He's killed three men. He tried to kill me."

  "We'll take care of Jace," Smith said. Then he added, "Don't try to rock the boat, Santorini. You're dealing with the federal government here."

  "Susan," Dan called. "Go home and look up the nastiest goddamned lawyer in Florida. I think we're going to need one."

  "There's no call for that," Smith said.

  "Be reasonable, Dan," said Vickie.

  Pointing a bandaged hand at them, he accused, "You two want to use a homicidal maniac to advise the President? And you want me to be reasonable?"

  "Dan, it's not what you think. Not at all," Vickie said soothingly. "But we can't let the media get their hands on this, they'll distort it and ruin everything."

  "Jace can not be allowed to run your VR system," he said to Smith. "Under no circumstances whatsoever."

  "I know that," Smith said. "But we're going to use VR anyway, Santorini. You can't stop it."

  "Maybe I can't stop it, but I'll have to see to it that it's properly controlled."

  "Controlled? By who?

  "By me," Dan snapped.

  "You?" Vickie and Susan said it together.

  "What happens to ParaReality with Kyle dead?" Dan asked Vickie.

  She looked confused by the abrupt change of subject. "I don't know," she said. "This has happened so suddenly . . ."

  "All right, then," Dan said, "I'll tell you. You're going to be the new president of ParaReality, Vickie."

  "I am?"

  "Who the hell else is there?"

  "But I—"

  "Do you want the company to go under?"

  Vickie shook her head. "No. Of course not."

  "Then you've got to convince Kyle's backers that you've been running the operation anyway. We'll open Cyber World on schedule and go on from there."

  "But you said you were going to head the Washington project."

  Nodding, Dan said, "And I will. I assume we have a formal contract?"

  "A letter of agreement," she said.

  "I'll handle that end of it. Gary Chan can head up the technical staff, under my direction."

  "You're taking over the company!"

  "No, Vickie, the two of us are going to save the company. And save the jobs of the rest of the staff."

  Vickie glanced at Susan, then turned back to Dan. "I didn't know what Kyle. was doing, honestly I didn't. I wouldn't have let him hurt your daughter."

  Dan saw Susan glaring at her. "Vickie, if there was somebody else—anybody else—but there isn't. I'm stuck with you, and you're stuck with me."

  Smith gave him a studied stare. "What's going on in your head, Santorini? You think you're some kind of a saint or something?"

  "A saint?" Dan laughed at him. "I'm just an ordinary citizen, Smitty. But I'm not going to let you or anybody else use VR systems without the proper safeguards."

  "That's big talk for one man."

  "There are others like me," Dan said. "If you want a VR system set up in the White House you're going to have to do it through me."

  "There are other people," said Smith.

  "Sure there are. But the more people you involve the more leaks you're going to have. Technical people talk to each other, Smitty. How'd you like to have the Washington Post snooping around your operation?"

  "We're not doing anything wrong!"

  "VR is so new that nobody's made up the rules about what's right and wrong," Dan countered.

  "And that's what you want to do," Susan realized. "Make up the rules."

  "Somebody's got to," said Dan, "and I don't see anybody else volunteering for the job."

  "You think it's so fucking easy?" Smith almost snarled. "Just like that: you waltz in and take control of everything we're trying to do."

  Dan said, "I don't want to control anything. I just want to make certain that everybody involved with VR knows what they're getting into."

  "The nation's conscience," Smith sneered.

  Dan grinned at him. "That's what saints are supposed to do, isn't it? Act as a conscience."

  "What about Jace?" Susan asked.

  "Jace." All Dan's enthusiasm ebbed away. He's my friend, he thought. He tried to kill me but he was like a kid high on drugs. All those years we worked together.

  Was Doc right? Is Jace incapable of real friendship? Is he missing a sense of morality altogether?

  "You can't prosecute Lowrey," Smith said sternly. "Bringing him to trial would blow this whole
story wide open. Besides—"

  "I'm not certain that we shouldn't blow it wide open," Dan said.

  "I can't permit that."

  "You can't stop it. I don't care how many guards you put on my door, sooner or later the story's going to leak out. You know that and there's nothing you can do about it. Sooner or later the media's going to find out about it and the longer you try to keep it secret the bigger the explosion will be when the media does find out."

  "Okay then. We won't involve Lowrey in it. Will that satisfy you?" Smith asked.

  "A court trial would be gonzo anyway," Dan muttered thinking aloud. "He was right about that. Try proving he killed people remotely. The legal system isn't ready to handle anything like this, not yet. The real evidence is inside his own head."

  "We could track down his research," Susan said. She came up from the door toward the bed. "He must have copies of his programs stored in a computer somewhere. Maybe his home."

  Dan nodded. "And the helmets he rewired for the biofeedback loops."

  "I don't want this dragged into court," Smith insisted.

  Dan looked at him. This could get very nasty, he told himself. Smith will do everything in his power to keep this mess quiet. I can't buck the whole Washington power structure. I've got to ease his fear of exposure to get what I want.

  "Jace has got to be kept under lock and key," Dan said. "The guy is brilliant, but you can't trust him in the real world. Keep him in his lab and let him work at the things he likes to do. Keep him happy. But somebody's got to watch over him like a surveillance camera."

  "Don't worry about Jace."

  "But I do worry about him," Dan said. "He was my friend. I can't turn my back on him."

  Smith glanced at Vickie. Her eyes were wide, trying to digest everything that was flowing past her. Susan watched them both, as well as her husband.

  It was Vickie who broke the silence. "Do you really think Toshimura and the others would accept me as president of the company?"

  "I don't know. It's your job to convince them to. If you can't, then we'll have to find somebody who can."

  "They'll want to sell out to Sony or Disney," Vickie said.

  "Well then, maybe you can get them to sell the company as a unit. Keep the staff together, that's the important thing."

  She nodded, but she still looked terribly uncertain.

  "And you," Dan said, pointing a bandaged hand at Smith, "you ought to get some of those guys you've got stashed out in the hall to track down this jerk who tried to kidnap me. And the people he's working for."

  "We already know who he is," Smith said. "Attempted kidnapping is something we can nail him on."

  "Okay, then, get on it. Vickie, maybe you ought to get a conference call going with the investors. Tell them that Kyle's dead and you're taking over."

  Vickie smiled at him. "You're a strange man, Damon Santorini." But she headed for the door. Smith stared at him a moment longer, as if he was trying to make up his mind about something. Finally he turned wordlessly and followed Vickie to the door.

  Dan called to him. "And I want to meet your boss, Smitty."

  Smith turned back, frowning. "My boss? You know Quigley?"

  "I mean the President."

  "The President?" Smith's voice almost cracked.

  "You owe me that. I want to tell him about virtual reality, face to face."

  "What the hell have the medics pumped you up with, Santorini?"

  Dan laughed. "You can introduce me to him. It'll be a feather in your cap."

  Shaking his head, Smith opened the door and left the room, with Vickie close behind him.

  Susan came over and sat on the edge of the bed. "My God, Dan, you take my breath away."

  "Do you think I'm a strange man, too?"

  She studied his face. "Not strange. But different."

  "I learned something in the VR games with Jace. Something important."

  "You've grown."

  Looking down at his bandaged hands, Dan said, "I faced death, Sue. More than once. It was only a simulation . . . but I don't think I'll ever be afraid of anything again."

  Susan reached out, touched his shoulder. "Do you really think you can control the way the government uses VR?"

  "Not really. But somebody's got to. I've got to try. VR's too powerful to allow them to use it any way they like."

  "I wouldn't trust Smith further than I could throw a horse," Susan said. "Or Vickie, either, for that matter."

  "It's got to be done, Sue. We've got to do this. God knows what Smith is really up to. He needs a watchdog just as much as Jace does."

  "But does it have to be you?"

  "Until we can find somebody better," Dan said.

  She kissed him gently on the lips: "I can't think of a better man for the job," Susan murmured.

  "It's going to be a hell of a life for us."

  She looked into his eyes and saw something new there, and something familiar: Dan's rock-steady sense of responsibility.

  "I love you, Dan," she said.

  He started to say he loved her, too. But instead, "Dorothy was in one of the sims Jace sprang on me."

  "I thought so."

  "I thought I loved her," Dan said. "But it wasn't real. You're my real world, Sue. I've loved you ever since I met you."

  "And I've always loved you, Dan. I've always been proud of you. But now—now you're going to show the whole world the man I've always known you could be."

  "You think so?"

  "I know it."

  Inwardly Dan wondered how either one of them going to like the life he saw ahead. All the intrigues and power plays of Washington. He wondered if he could survive in that jungle. But he said nothing of that to his wife. He simply held her, knowing that no matter what the world threw at them, as long as they could be together they would be strong enough to face it. He clung to her and she held him tightly.

  After a long while he said, "I guess I ought to see Jace."

  Susan said nothing.

  "He's here in the hospital, isn't he?"

  "Yes," she answered. "But . . ."

  "What is it?"

  "You'd better see for yourself."

  It took almost half an hour of cajoling nurses and calling in three different doctors and arguing with the federal agents guarding his door, but finally Dan was lifted into a wheelchair and allowed to go up to the top floor of the hospital where they were keeping Jace.

  "I'm not an invalid," Dan grumbled to Susan, walking beside him. "I can walk on my own two feet."

  "Don't be difficult, dear," said Susan. One of the agents was pushing the wheelchair, the other walked ahead of them, like a big blocky football player in street clothes clearing their path.

  Dan was still complaining when they wheeled him through the door of Jace's private room. "I still don't see why—"

  Jace lay on the bed, uncovered, clothed in a green hospital gown, curled into a fetal ball, knees pulled up to his chin, skinny arms wrapped around his shins, eyes squeezed tightly shut. His nose was taped; an ugly bluish bruise spread across his forehead. A feeding tube was connected to one arm. Sensors were plastered to his chest and back, trailing thin wires to the monitoring equipment stacked on one side of the railed bed.

  "Jesus Christ," Dan gasped.

  "He's been like that since they pulled him out of the simulation chamber," Susan said.

  "That's why Smith said I wouldn't have to worry about him," said Dan. "He's in a catatonic trance, for God's sake."

  "The doctors said there's no telling how long he'll stay this way. No one's able to reach him."

  "I can." Dan felt tears in his eyes. Looking up at Susan, he said, "Call Gary Chan. Tell him to get one of the minis up here. And a set of gloves and helmet."

  Jace knew he had been bad and now they were going to punish him for it. But he had fooled them all and run far, far away where nobody could find him. It was lonely, though. There was nobody here, nothing at all except endless darkness.

  "Can you h
ear me, Jace?"

  That was Dan's voice. Jace froze like a rabbit caught in a car's headlights. Don't answer! Don't move! Don't even breathe. Stay quiet and he can't find you. Stay quiet and he'll go away.

  "I'm putting on one of the programs we found at your bungalow, Jace." Dan sounded worried, concerned. But Jace knew it was a trap. They're all against me. All of them, even Dan. There's nobody in the whole world who cares about me. Nobody in the whole universe.

  "I'm starting the program now, Jace. I hope it makes you happy. I hope you'll want to talk to me when it's finished."

  Never, Jace answered silently. I'm all alone in my own world and it's a better world than the one outside. Lonely but better. Cold but better. Dark but—

  The darkness shifted, lightened. Jace squinted into the gray dawn and saw his old friends, the robots. And their evil masters, the slimy aliens who had enslaved them. He raised his right hand and the purifying sword of energy glowed brightly.

  The battle was long and hard but at its end Jace was victorious. The slain enemy aliens lay in piles all around him. The robots bowed at his feet.

  "This is only the first battle of many," Jace warned them. "The war will be long and hard. But we will win! Our victory is inevitable."

  And then he saw the coldly beautiful queen standing before him. His mother stretched out her arms to him. His mother smiled at him and Jace felt his heart break with happiness.

  I'll never leave this world, he told himself. I'll stay here always and always and ever.

  EPILOGUE

  Dan coughed nervously as Susan straightened his tie. For the past two weeks she had dressed him and undressed him, pulling his sleeves over his bandaged hands, tying his shoelaces, combing his hair. She would let no one else do it.

  Dan felt like a helpless idiot, an invalid. He did not mind the undressing so much, though. Susan turned it into a game that they both enjoyed.

  But now he felt so tense that the first warning rasp of a wheeze scratched inside his chest. Not now! he commanded himself. Relax.

  Good advice, he said to himself as Susan patted at a cowlick.

  "Stop fussing," he grumbled.

  She inspected him from head to toe. Dan did the same for her.