by Hayes, Drew
Britney was also in class, which was something of a rarity. Her training had largely involved a shifting room that randomized the layout and security features. She was working on her stealth and retrieval skills, being given targets to locate without getting detected on each round. It was a pass-fail system: one detection and she was out. Alice had learned about the room’s workings when Britney requested a multiple life system and Professor Pendleton had replied that she only got one in the field, so she only got one in practice. Without a good rebuttal, Britney had merely doubled down on her training.
Alice’s days had been spent chiefly reviewing books on combat tactics and cypher decryption. It wasn’t the most fun way to spend her time, but she knew it was necessary information. Still, she was looking forward to seeing what sort of training was in store for her social manipulation skills, which was why she felt her stomach drop in disappointment when Professor Pendleton walked into the classroom empty-handed.
“Another delay?”
“Not even a proper greeting, I see,” Professor Pendleton replied. “No, in fact I was just overseeing the last of the test runs to make sure everything is functional. Class, put your equipment away. Today, we’re taking a trip further into Lander’s depths. We’ve got a new toy to play with, and I don’t trust you to read the instructions, so I’m giving you a tour.”
Will and Britney dutifully rose from their seats, while Alice hadn’t even bothered to take hers. They followed Professor Pendleton down the hall to the entry area where the lifts were waiting. As they all stepped inside, Professor Pendleton gestured to a small panel below the buttons for Lander’s main campus and the HCP.
“Alice, if you would do the honors, just press your thumb anywhere inside that slightly raised rectangle.”
Alice complied, not sure what to expect. They’d all seen the odd shape in question on the lifts in their first year, but as it never responded to touch or words, it was written off as little more than an odd design feature. Such was not the case this time. A bright green light flashed the moment her skin made contact, sending them down beneath the HCP’s main floor.
“Britney has already experienced this, but Will and Alice, you’ve both been given access to a special training area in the lower levels,” Professor Pendleton explained. “It’s only accessible to Subtlety students and professors, because this equipment is dedicated to your use. Will and Britney, I invite you both to take some time with the machine I’m about to show you; however, please keep in mind that Alice has priority on using it. Just as you two both have your main fields of focus, this is hers. But the skills it trains are something any good Subtlety major should polish as much as they can.”
The lift came to a stop. The doors opened up at the end of a short hallway with a single door at the end. Professor Pendleton led them forward, asked Will to press his thumb to the door to open it, and then escorted them inside. What awaited them was a touch underwhelming: it seemed to be little more than a black suit draped over an oddly-shaped treadmill. Rather than going in one linear direction, this treadmill was round, and seemed to have a ball in the center. The idea for 360-degree movement was interesting, though Alice wasn’t sure exactly how it would help them train. In the corner was a gray changing screen and a computer terminal.
“Presenting the absolute latest in virtual reality: the Blonk.” Professor Pendleton made a ta-da motion with his hands as he gestured to the machine, eyes all but pleading for them not to ask about the name.
“The Blonk?” Alice said, willfully ignoring his desperate sentiment.
“Look, if you invent something, you get to name it, and the tech Super who made this has an… odd sense of humor.” Professor Pendleton walked over and pulled the rubber suit off the treadmill’s railing. As he did, Alice could see glimpses of circuits woven through it, as well as a black helmet that had been hidden beneath the fabric. “Try and be a little excited here. There aren’t many of these, and they’re expensive as all hell to rent. Dumb as the name might be, it really is top-of-the-line in simulated experiences. The suit tricks your sense of touch, the tread system allows you to move freely, and the helmet handles the heavy lifting with sight, sound, and smell. Supposedly there’s a tongue add on for taste, but we didn’t spring for that.”
“What if I need to learn the taste of poison?” Alice joked.
“Oh, we’re already going to cover that later in the year.” Professor Pendleton was either not kidding or had decided to pay her back by staying uncharacteristically stoic on the subject. “But for now, let’s stick to the training tool at hand. Use is easy: you just load a scenario, put on the suit, get inside the treadmill railing, and then pop on the helmet. We’ve got hundreds of situations programmed in—trying to talk your way into an embassy, or trick a client into giving up information, or even peacefully disarming a dangerous situation. Best training tool there is for a Subtlety major’s social skills, and a damn sight better than what we had to work with when I went to Lander.”
“Forgive me for saying so, but I see an issue here,” Will pointed out. “While the VR tech might be top-notch, no programming will be able to accurately encapsulate the chaotic nature of a real encounter. Won’t it just be us trying to find the right solution, the one the program will accept, rather than any that work? It seems like this will discourage thinking outside the box, a trait you’ve frequently reaffirmed is a Subtlety Hero’s greatest asset.”
“That’s an interesting theory, Will.” Professor Pendleton bunched the suit into a tight ball and threw it forward, directly into Will’s chest. The smaller Super caught it with ease but looked unsure of what to do with it.
“You’ll notice I say ‘interesting,’ and not ‘good,’ because it omits the possibility that the people who designed this also foresaw such a flaw. Being smart is fine; just don’t ever assume you’re the smartest one around. I was going to let Alice have the first test-drive, since she’s why we requisitioned this bad boy, but I feel like Will just made himself a volunteer. Any objections, Alice?”
“None at all,” Alice replied. “I think Britney and I would both benefit from seeing the machine in action, and no one here knows tech better than Will.” There was also the unspoken truth that whatever test-run Professor Pendleton had rigged up, it was bound to be nearly impossible and potentially highly embarrassing, just because he’d find it funny. She liked Will, but if he was going to throw himself under a bus, then he needed to learn to brace for the wheels.
“Then it’s settled,” Professor Pendleton said. “Suit up, Will. You’ve got a virtual mission waiting.”
49.
The world materialized around him slowly. First a backdrop—pink sky that filled bit by bit with multi-colored clouds and a setting sun. Then came the ground beneath his feet—dark stone that strangely felt firmer than the circular treadmill he knew he was standing on. The stone stretched outward, branching off at seemingly random intervals; buildings soon began to rise into those blank spaces. They were an older style and packed tightly together. Will had never left the country, and based solely on what he’d seen from television and movies, his best guess was that he was somewhere in Europe.
Last came the people. They shuddered into being mid-step as though they’d always been there going about their lives, and only now was Will able to see them. More details bombarded his senses: the sound of softly lapping water; the scent of baking bread mixed with fresh rain. Whatever doubts he might have had about the system’s limitations, there was no skirting the fact that this was an absolute marvel. Not even he could figure out how the designers had crafted something so realistic, although his fingers were itching with the desire to crack open the device and find out.
“I see someone isn’t so quick with the criticism now.” Professor Pendleton’s crisp voice came from directly behind Will, who turned to find a perfectly rendered version of his teacher standing on the stone street, browsing a small cart selling baked goods. “Neat, right? I asked them to add me in as a tutorial
character. Or you can load me up to beat the crap out of if you’ve got any unchecked aggression to work out. Whatever floats your boat.”
“This is not part of the programming,” Will declared, still a little too taken aback by the realism of his environment to think of something more cutting.
“No. I’m at the terminal, using a direct input function and microphone. Basically, for me, this is like a video game. Except with fewer elves and swords. Wait, hang on.” Professor Pendleton stuck out his hand and waited for several seconds until all of nothing happened. “Yup, no magic swords. At least, none that I could figure out the commands for.”
“You are enjoying this far too much,” Will said.
“Can you blame me? I’ve wanted one of these things for ages, and now we’ve actually got one. But, fine, we’ll stick to the task at hand, spoilsport.” Letting his hand drop, Professor Pendleton began walking down the street, pausing after a few seconds to be sure that Will was following.
The two of them strolled down winding lanes, passing a wide variety of people, which was in itself impressive. Will’s eyes carefully scanned each face they passed, checking for reused assets or outright clones, anything that betrayed cheap redundancies. He found nothing, at least that his eyes could perceive. Each person seemed unique, if not striking. One face did give him pause, however, and as he caught sight of it, he froze in place.
“I’m… me.” Will was staring in the window of a butcher’s shop, looking at his reflection. His real reflection. Every aspect, from his haircut to his glasses, was perfect. The only oddity was his outfit, a tailored suit rather than the usual Lander uniform or t-shirt-and-shorts combo.
“Of course it’s you. We had to upload your basic stats and abilities in here if it was going to be a good training simulator. Realistic practice means having access to your powers,” Professor Pendleton replied. “Plus, between the bodysuit and the helmet, your whole body is pretty much mapped out, so it created a faithful avatar. People will respond appropriately to said avatar, I might add, so don’t step into a lady’s restroom unless you want to get the cops called.”
Will blushed—and so did his reflection—at the outlandish accusation. “I would never—”
“That was the designer’s warning; I’m just passing it along.” Professor Pendleton threw up his hands as if to exonerate himself from the whole debacle. “Now, hurry it up. There’s a mission that needs your attention.”
They continued on for a little while longer before finally arriving at a small dock along a gently moving river. Dozens of boats were tied off with about half as many putting about lazily on the water. Just like the city, everything was perfectly rendered to the point where Will was beginning to wonder if people inside this system could lose the ability to tell the difference between it and reality.
“How do I get out of here?” Will asked.
“Giving up already? I thought you’d at least take a crack at it,” Professor Pendleton said.
Will shook his head. “There’s no menu, and when dealing with any simulated reality, it’s important to know how to discern real from false and how to exit.”
“Creepy that you’ve put that much thought into it, but I suppose it’s a fair point.” Professor Pendleton raised his hands to the side of his head, like he was gripping an invisible bubble. “You’re still moving around in the real world, remember? The system just keeps you in place. If you want out, all you have to do is pull off the helmet.”
Reaching up tentatively, Will could feel the hard surface of the helmet surrounding his head, even though no such object existed in the simulation. The knot of anxiety in his stomach eased now that he had an exit route; this was all a touch too real without knowing how to leave for his tastes.
“So, what’s my mission?” Will asked.
“Nothing too hard. See the riverboat with the bright red paddle?” Professor Pendleton pointed toward it, though the gesture was hardly necessary. The bright splash of crimson stood out like a beacon among the more muted, neutral colors of the other vessels. “It’s a casino boat where people are losing loads of money. One such person on there is a man named Rick Deckard, who—”
“Wait, Rick Deckard? Like from Blade Runner?”
“Yeah, go figure, the people who built and programmed a VR machine were into sci-fi,” Professor Pendleton replied. “As I was saying, on that boat is a man named Deckard. He’s a professional messenger, and in his possession right now is an encrypted list of Supers who are covertly working for an illegal organization. If we can get that, we can scoop them up, cripple the organization, and keep a lot of innocent people safe.”
“A noble cause,” Will agreed. “And how do I do it?”
“Beats me.” Professor Pendleton somehow shrugged, though Will was hardly surprised the real one had figured out how to make his avatar pull off such a feat. “I know how I would do it, but you don’t have the same powers as me… or looks, or experience, or any of it. Besides, it defeats the point if I tell you what to do. Welcome to the Hero world, Will. We don’t get game guides, we get tasks. Find a way to make it happen.”
“And if I fail?”
“Then it should reload to right here, the time when you got the mission,” Professor Pendleton explained. “It’s a learning experience. Fail until you get it right. Or give up. Either way, the rest of us will be watching from the terminal.”
Professor Pendleton flickered for a moment and then vanished. Will was on his own, at least within this world. All he had was a name, a place, and a goal. Despite the fact that this sort of scenario was clearly designed for someone with Alice’s skills over his own, Will found himself a bit excited.
Even if it was virtual, this was his first taste of what waited on the other side of graduation for a Subtlety Hero.
50.
Swimming on board was out of the question, Will quickly learned. While he had the stamina and arm strength for it, the moment someone spotted his wet clothes after climbing onto the riverboat, it was a short trip to being thrown off. He tried lying his way past the hurdle, saying he’d fallen overboard, but the staff demanded to see identification, tickets, and other proof that he lacked. This scenario was set so that the boat was secretive and secure, which meant bullshitting his way past the guards while wearing a dripping suit was above Will’s level of fast-talking, even as he tried to find key-phrases that would trigger the security AI into letting him pass.
After some trial and error, Will eventually found a docked boat that he was able to hotwire without being noticed. Arriving at the floating casino, he was quickly shut down by the staff as they refused to let him leave his boat abandoned in the water—which, he had to admit, did seem like a basic safety issue that he’d overlooked.
In a move born more of desperation than planning, Will checked the pockets of his suit and discovered he had been given a tablet computer roughly the size of a phone and a wallet swollen with Euros. Feeling a touch miffed that Professor Pendleton hadn’t mentioned the scenario came with starting inventory, Will reassessed his strategy. He walked over to a small café that advertised free Wi-Fi, paid too much for a cup of coffee he couldn’t taste, and sat down with the tablet.
When Professor Pendleton had told him they still had their powers in the scenario, Will hadn’t thought much of it. To him, his ability had always only been functional in terms of preparation—building things well in advance, laying traps long before the battle started. But having hit endless dead ends on other avenues, it seemed worthwhile to try and take an approach more tailored to his abilities. And that started with research.
He’d been braced for hours of setting up programs with which he could crack into the necessary systems, but to Will’s surprise, there was no need. Almost everything he wanted was right there, instantly accessible. It took a moment for him to understand why, and when it hit him, he felt utterly ridiculous for forgetting such an important detail. In this make-believe situation, he wasn’t Will Murray, Lander student. He was a Hero, and
that meant he had access and support to complete his jobs.
Twenty minutes of speedy work, made easier by the fact that his tablet was above top-of-the-line—in fact, it felt like tech he would have designed—and Will exited the café with something like a plan rooted in his head.
Finding someone willing to take him over to the casino was no issue now that he was flush with cash, and this time, no one made a fuss about an abandoned vehicle because the driver headed back to the docks. Will was immediately approached by two men he knew to be security; they’d thrown him overboard on many of his previous attempts. They asked for his name and invitation, which was met with a lie and a truth. Will honestly admitted he didn’t have an invitation, though the name he used wasn’t his own. It belonged to a smuggler who worked routes between America and Europe, and who was currently at large. He wasn’t particularly notorious—Will had needed to dig deep in the systems to find him—so the man’s priority was low. In fact, that was what made him appealing. The smuggler stayed so below the radar, there weren’t even pictures of him. Yet he was the sort of fellow who was bound to work off of reputation, one that might just earn the benefit of the doubt when walking into illegal establishments. Doctoring up the digital identification had been the hardest part of the job, and there was still a chance they wouldn’t bite, but it wasn’t like smugglers went out of their way to advertise who they were. And it was just a name. More than one person had the same name, if push came to shove.
