The Sapporo Outbreak

by Craighead, Brian

  Skinner watched as the men threw themselves at each other, falling to the floor with a crunch. The shorter, plumper man looked hurt as the other continued to flail away.

  Skinner couldn't believe what he was seeing.

  "What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On."

  "Ben, Tanaka's wrong. He hasn't created an extension of the 'real' world online. He's created something very different - a new world. And who knows how people perfectly evolved for this world will react in this odd new one."

  "Eva - that's what I wanted to tell you. That 'problem' Clark called about?"

  Santos nodded. "Go on."

  Skinner glanced over his shoulder, lowered his voice to a whisper.

  "He's not sure yet, you know how careful Steve is, but he suspects WhiteStar are tied up in the attack in Palo Alto."

  Santos stared incredulously at Skinner, "WhiteStar! How?"

  "He say's he's found similar attacks, nasty ones that fit the Palo Alto profile, cropping up in different parts of the world. All in the last few weeks. All within a few miles of a WhiteStar centre. And - Clark is trying to confirm this - all the perpetrators were iSight 3 testers."

  "Holy shit!"

  "I know, it's hard to believe ..."

  Santos interrupted, talking in a low, urgent whisper.

  "Actually Ben, it's not too hard at all. The game's so damn realistic that I wouldn't be surprised if it induced some sort of psychosis with some of the more fervent or suggestible players. I mean - look at what's happening in there!"

  Skinner watched as the initial look of surprise on Santos' face quickly morphed into a professional detachment. She continued, her tone now calm, as if discussing a challenging patient diagnosis with a colleague. "I don't get what triggers such extreme violence. Could be some sort of paranoid schizophrenia. But multiple times? And within groups? And why now? What's changed in the last few weeks to make this all happen?"

  Santos turned back to the scene unfolding in the room for a few seconds, before swivelling back to Skinner.

  "So what's the deal with taking out our lenses? How does that tie in? Are you worried we'd get 'infected' in some way?"

  Before Skinner could answer, an enormous crash echoed down the corridor, stopping him in his tracks.

  #

  The crash resonated up through the corridor catching everyone's attention. Sakura's head pivoted instantly toward the source of the sound. She paused for a few seconds and then slowly returned her gaze to the group.

  "I'm sorry about that. We have maintenance teams working around the clock ahead of the game's launch next week. Sounds like something expensive's been broken."

  The beautiful young Japanese woman smiled as she spoke, but to Santos it seemed forced. Unnatural. The typically unflappable Sakura suddenly seemed nervous. Uneasy somehow. Santos shot a quizzical glance at Skinner, who raised an eyebrow.

  Sakura continued.

  "For the past twelve weeks this floor has been dedicated entirely to final testing of iSight 3. As I speak, every one of the research rooms on this floor and the second floor below us are filled with players immersed in different levels of the game. That's over four hundred players testing sections of the game. And the same thing is happening in our Berlin, London, New York, Sydney and Palo Alto centres."

  More crashes echoed up through the long corridors, and this time it seemed to come from all directions. Sakura's calm facade dissolved, and a look of real alarm spread over her face as she spun around.

  Senses heightened, Skinner instinctively began examining his surroundings. A labyrinth of identical rooms were organised into a grid of narrow corridors stretching out to on either side. Without his iSight lenses he felt blind. He knew the rooms would be splashed with big bold signs (in his case, in English) proclaiming their use, and emblazoned with colours to help quickly identify them. But with his lenses out all he could see was a baffling maze of white walls and tiles stretching left, right and far into the distance. He briefly watched the room to his immediate right, the same room he and Santos had been observing a few seconds earlier, as the agitation and aggression of the players continued.

  "I wonder if that's how it starts?" Skinner muttered, before continuing his scan of the research lab.

  Skinner was struck by the starkly clinical environment, so different from the five-star interior design effect portrayed by the iSight system. In reality, the area he was standing in was crisp, clean and incredibly, mind-numbingly bland. A sea of white. Spotlessly clean oversized rectangular floor tiles, white walls and white ceiling tiles dotted with hundreds of small led lights. With no visible markers anywhere, anyone on this floor would quickly get lost without the help of the iSight system. Skinner felt sure Tanaka would consider this a minimalist triumph by the building's designers, but without the iSight system it was a disorienting and unnervingly featureless space.

  Skinner caught a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see the bulky form of Tanaka's formidable bodyguard enter the corridor from the open lounge area they had all stood in just a few minutes earlier. Without acknowledging the group, the big man walked quickly toward Sakura, took her elbow in his big paw, leaned in close and started an urgent, whispered conversation. His broad back completely obscured their petite host. There was nothing subtle about it. This was a conversation Itou did not want the others to hear.

  "What the hell is going on?" Santos whispered into Skinner's right ear.

  "Seems to me there's more than just maintenance issues here." Skinner shrugged. He was about to say more when Harper interrupted.

  Keeping his eyes fixed forward, the tall man said, "While you two lovebirds were making out back there, iSight has reported some sort of disturbance in one of the research room's down there." He waved his right hand in the general direction of corridor disappearing into the distance, straight ahead.

  I'm betting that's why Mr muscle showed up."

  It was the first time either of them had heard anything of substance from Harper for some time, and it caught both by surprise.

  Santos looked up at the tall man standing a step in front of her and smiled. "Welcome back to the land of the conscious Andy, nice to know you're still with us!"

  Harper wheeled 180 degrees toward Santos and Skinner. Intrigued, Hill followed. Now the four were huddled together, the lawyer and CEO facing professor and psychologist. It occurred to Skinner that this was the first time they'd all connected together since their arrival.

  Harper, his eyes red and sore, gazed first at Skinner then turned looked to the petite brown-skinned Santos and for the first time in hours, smiled. "Ben. Eva. I know I might have seemed a little distant, but I've been trying to dive as deep into the iSight system as possible during our little tour. I knew you guys would keep on top of Sakura's spin, and our little legal eagle here," Harper playfully nudged a buttoned-up Hill to his side, "would worry about Tanaka's money-spending, risk-taking ways." Hill smiled and nodded, "So I figured - as security guy and chief nerd among us, I'd best serve the cause by getting to know the tech."

  Skinner looked over Harper's shoulder, and reassured at seeing Sakura and Itou still huddled in hushed conversation, replied.

  "Good call Andy. So ... what's your take on all this?"

  "In a word Ben. Revolutionary!"

  Harper paused for a second, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before he continued.

  "I have absolutely no idea how or why Tanaka didn't reveal this system when we visited other centres. It's clearly something that's been in operation for some time. I'm ... concerned ... not only as a member of this advisory group," Harper nodded graciously to his three colleagues, "but also as the CEO of their security software provider. We can't protect what we don't know about - which means this system. That said, in my opinion what Tanaka's built here is a generation ahead of anything else I'm aware of. I've spent the last couple of hours saying yes to all offers of information from the iSight system, and yes to any explanations our ghostly friend 'Jo' might o
ffer.

  Skinner spoke slowly, "And?"

  "And our friend Tanaka has created a system which blends the real and the digital so perfectly as to be indistinguishable to the 'player'. I mean - I don't know about you guys but I simply can't tell who or what is really in front of me. I don't know if the paintings on the wall are really there. I suspect not, but all my senses say they are. Same thing with the plants, the furniture and the digital signs. I'm not even sure the people bustling around in the distance are real or created by the system."

  Santos gave the corridor and rooms either side a quick glance. Plain white walls. No paintings. No plants. No signs. And no people other than Sakura and Itou huddled in conversation and their small group of four.

  Hill spoke next, his voice wavering slightly, betraying an anxiety that had been building since they had arrived.

  "I'm no tech guy, but I've been using the system as much as possible during our tour and I still can't believe what it does. It's like walking through a different, multi-coloured world. I love it. And that's what concerns me most. It's been ..." Hill shot a glance at his steel-banded wristwatch, "... eight hours since I first tried the system and already I catch myself relying on iSight. I don't want to unplug. It's like I'm addicted to the service."

  Distant voices - it sounded like shouting - interrupted Hill's thoughts. Before anyone could talk, Sakura appeared at Hill's shoulder and softly cleared her throat.

  "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm afraid we have to stop the tour here. As you can hear, we have a few last minute maintenance issues to address. It's nothing serious of course but", Sakura flashed a forced smile at the visitors, "with just a few days left until iSight 3 is released they are pressing. Therefore, Mr Itou will accompany us all back to the 6th floor visitors lounge, where Mr Tanaka will meet you in the near future."

  Itou nodded silently, first to Sakura, and then to the group, the muscles in his thick neck bulging over his crisp white shirt collar. The group of four returned the gesture, and with that Itou silently turned back along the corridor, retracing their entry into the research labs just a few minutes earlier.

  Sakura glided silently behind Tanaka's enormous security chief, with Harper and Hill following closely. As had been the case for most of the tour, Santos and Skinner trailed at the back.

  Santos whispered, "Seems pretty obvious the loud crash was glass breaking down there. And it also looked to me like the situation we watched in the research room was also escalating."

  "I agree," Skinner nodded past Harper, Hill and Sakura to the big expressionless man striding forward. "I think others do too, which is why Mr Itou has just become our guardian angel."

  Santos glanced back down the brightly lit white corridor stretching behind them, and drawled "Yeah ... but what exactly are we being guarded against?"

  #

  Less than 30 seconds later, Itou stopped abruptly and in one fluid motion turned to his right and entered one of the smaller research rooms.

  Skinner watched through the large pane of glass outside the room. It was a feature common to every research room. Skinner assumed it was a one-way mirror. Inside, the room appeared a little dishevelled. Thick winter coats lay on the floor, still draped over upended chairs. Coffee - lots of it - had been spilled over a large semi-circular sky-blue sofa. Skinner could see the steam rising from the ugly dark stain.

  Inside, a wiry grey-haired man in a white lab coat was kneeling beside a garishly dressed young man who lay still on the floor. Skinner could make out blood trickling from the man's left eye, and a much larger pool of blood around his nose and mouth. Skinner watched as Itou walked over men, all the while cautiously scanning the room. When he reached the men, Skinner noticed that he disregarded the injured man altogether, instead asking the grey-haired man a series of short questions. For the first time, Skinner realised there was no sound emanating from the room at all - even though he was more or less touching the glass now, and the open door was a few short steps away. A combination of the most expensive soundproofed construction and the use of white noise piped into the room effectively prevented any noise from escaping. Tanaka didn't like noise - he'd seen the same technology used in Tanaka's offices around the world and in his personal jet.

  Sakura and all four consultants were now watching the scene in the room in stunned silence.

  Harper was the first to speak.

  Turning to Sakura, he asked, "Look - exactly what is happening here? We're clearly being escorted out of an area where some sort of trouble has broken out. Now I'm looking at a man lying injured - maybe seriously. What the hell is going on Miss Sakura?"

  Sakura looked up from the window to see four concerned faces staring at her. She hesitated, seemingly collecting her thoughts.

  Sakura knew what was happening. She'd seen it before. Only this time it was different, much more concentrated. Incidents were springing up throughout the building. Not only in the 2nd and 3rd floor research labs, but bizarrely in other areas of the building. Her iSight system was flooding her with alerts. As soon as she acknowledged one, another would pop up and float in the middle distance, red and slowly blinking, informing her of another problem.

  Security L3 Orange/Compromise. Multiple participants.

  Security L2 Blue/Negotiate. Multiple participants.

  Communication External comms down. Issue unknown

  Security L1 Reception. Unknown participants.

  Communication Firewall alert. Issue unknown

  Security L5 NOC. Unknown participants.

  Medical All certified staff to medical

  Communication Failsafe comms down. Issue unknown

  Security L3. Red/Conflict. Unknown participants.

  She had to control the situation. Tanaka was depending on her. He was a brilliant man. A true visionary. It was Tanaka who'd chosen her to manage public relations and media for the group. She was far less experienced than the others he'd considered, and yet Tanaka had seen something in her. She had joined his team just after the incident in Hong Kong that almost took his life. The incident that left him a widow. That left him a man who had dedicated the rest of his life to his daughter. Sakura knew how hard he had fought to get this far. She knew how important, no, how vital, it was to Tanaka that iSight 3 be built. She understood why it meant so much to him.

  She could not, she would not, let him down.

  Sakura collected herself, then smiling benignly at the anxious faces in front of her, replied calmly, "The man in the room is the centre's doctor. On very rare occasions, a few iSight 3.0 testers have complained of some disorientation. It's a minor complaint resembling sea sickness that goes away after a short time. In a few cases, these players trip and injure themselves. We identified the issue some time ago, and have developed a pre-game procedure which every new player must go through. It identifies any potential for this to occur in a player. If there's any likelihood at all of this happening, the player is advised that they cannot proceed into iSight 3, and the game locks them out."

  Harper didn't buy it.

  "If such a system exists, why is this man," Harper jabbed a finger in the direction of the unconscious young man, "lying injured? And even if it is true, it still doesn't explain what happened to everyone else in this room, and why we're being rushed out of here by Mr Muscles in there." Harper jutted his chin out in the direction of Itou as he wound up his conversation with the doctor and walked out of the room.

  Santos picked up on Harper's tone. He'd shifted up the gears really quickly, from calm assertive to anger - almost fury. She glanced up at the tall man, the skin around his bloodshot eyes rubbed raw by his now constant habit of pawing at his eyes.

  Keeping a wary eye on Harper's rising anger, Santos spoke. "Miss Sakura, were the players affected by the game having some sort of episode brought on by the extremely realistic experience?"