The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death
Page 1
THE
METAVERSE
By
William Kurth
Copyright 2017 © William Kurth
ISBN:978-1-64007-494-1
Cover Art by: https://selfpubbookcovers.com/RLSather
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either used fictitiously or are just products of the author’s imagination.
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Dedication
To my wife, Angela for all your encouragement and love and to my daughters Nia and Toula who are my greatest treasures.
Table of Contents
The Las Vegas Strip 2046
FLETC Training Facility, Artesia, New Mexico
Boulder, Colorado
New Polis, the Metaverse
Boulder, Colorado
Luna Hotel Baglioni, Canal District, New Polis, Metaverse
Boulder, Colorado
Luna Hotel Baglioni, Canal District, New Polis, Metaverse
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Artesia, New Mexico
Port Arthur, Texas
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Artesia, New Mexico
Port Arthur, Texas
Centennial Airport, Denver, Colorado
New Polis, Metaverse
FBI Regional HQ, Denver, Colorado
New Polis, Metaverse
San Diego, California
Denver FBI HQ
New Polis, Metaverse
Above the Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, the Metaverse
New Polis, Metaverse
South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Metaverse
University Metaverse Portal Club, San Diego, California
New Polis, Metaverse
Denver, Colorado
New Polis, Metaverse
Denver, Colorado
New Polis, Metaverse
Denver FBI HQ
New Polis, Metaverse
Centennial Airport, Denver, Colorado
Airborne over San Diego, California
New Polis, Metaverse
San Diego, California
The Real World
Denver FBI HQ
GEI Building, New Polis, Metaverse
MCT Lab, New Polis, Metaverse
Weston, Connecticut
MCT Lab, New Polis, Metaverse
Boulder Colorado Police Department
New Polis, Metaverse
FBI-MCT HQ, Metaverse
Business District, New Polis, Metaverse
MCT LAB, Metaverse
CEO Office Suite, Bank of St. Petersburg, Metaverse
Aboard The Pinnacle of the Seas, Horseshoe Isle Bay, Metaverse
New Polis, Metaverse
MCT Lab, New Polis, Metaverse
State Highway 24 Northeast of Roanoke, Indiana
The Business District, New Polis, Metaverse
MCT Conference Room, New Polis, Metaverse
Central Indiana
Central, Indiana
MCT Lab, New Polis, Metaverse
Central, Indiana
MCT Lab, New Polis
Central Indiana
Business District, New Polis, Metaverse
Aboard The Pinnacle of The Seas, Metaverse
Central Indiana
MCT Lab, Metaverse
The Bank of St. Petersburg, New Polis, Metaverse
MCT Lab, New Polis, Metaverse
Business District, New Polis, Metaverse
Digital Life Systems Campus, New Polis, Metaverse
Somewhere in New Polis, Metaverse
New Polis, Metaverse
FBI Building Denver, Colorado
The Bank of St. Petersburg, New Polis, Metaverse
FBI HQ Denver
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Davis Field, Muskogee, Oklahoma, 0300 hours
About the Author
The Las Vegas Strip 2046
Dominic Argosi let his CAR-20 rifle dangle, secured to his body by the three-point sling. His right hand flashed on pure muscle memory to the handgun on his right hip. In one smooth motion, he snapped the sidearm from his holster and brought it up to the “low ready” position. In his Modified Weaver Stance, he kept the iron sight just below his eye level.
Drawing the handgun in towards his chest, Argosi’s left hand glided atop the slide. In a silky-smooth move honed from thousands of hours on a firing range, Argosi’s right thumb depressed the safety. His left hand gripped the top of the slide’s rear between his forefingers and thumb, pulling it back just far enough for him to glimpse the shiny black .45 caliber round perched in the chamber.
Although Argosi was confident that both his assault rifle and sidearm were locked and loaded, the “press check” always helped him deal with the anxiety that they might not be. It was also a bit of a ritual he performed before any operation.
Or during a lull in the action.
Releasing the slide snuggled the round tight in the chamber with a reassuring thunk. Argosi flipped the gun around and tilted his brow in respect. Based on the 1911 Colt model, this handgun was still a favorite among special operations people. Despite its century and a half old design, the hand cannon was renowned as a man-stopper. Accurate and reliable when it counted.
While the handling and operation of the weapon remained the same, that’s where any similarity with the original ended. Packed with digital doodads controlling everything from the integrated sighting system in Argosi’s facemask to the electronic firing of the round. Even the bullets were different now. More lethal than ever too, with the “smart expansion” feature ripping out a much larger chunk of the target.
The old-timey casing and shell were now one and the same. The casing, or brass, that used to contain the gunpowder was now the base of the bullet, and packed with a composite material that burned like gunpowder but far more efficiently. At the bottom of the round was a small disc that held a stored electrical charge in place of a fuse for the firing pin to hit.
Such an electrical firing system sped up the chambering process so much that a second round could be fired with just a slightly longer trigger squeeze. Essentially turning the old gun into a fully auto pistol.
Firing two shots at once was formally known in the business as the Standard Defensive Response, but most often referred to as a “double tap” by operators. The idea was to induce maximum trauma on your adversary by hitting or “tapping” him in quick succession, preferably in the center of mass. Which carved massive wound channels that would shut down his central nervous system and thus his ability to remain in the fight. It was a tactic in use since the late 20th century.
Argosi canted the weapon slightly to make sure the two-round option was selected, confirmed by a LED indicator on the slide. Argosi chuckled to himself as the word gunfighter entered his mind. That was a profession the world supposedly no longer needed, but sadly still did.
“Job security,” Argosi muttered as he re-holstered the sidearm and repeated the press check on his compressed assault rifle, which functioned in a similar fashion to the handgun but with more powerful rounds and a higher magazine capacity. The CAR-20 was an ideal weapon for close quarters combat and was still effective to 750 meter
s with its advanced optics system. The weapon could “see” farther but the round’s energy quickly dissipated beyond that distance. The holstered sidearm was insurance should the CAR go down and the gunfight still raged.
A loud “Ahem” by a well-dressed young woman across the room interrupted Argosi’s brief interlude with his weapons. Argosi cast a bored eye her way. Confident that she now held his attention, twenty-eight-year-old Caroline Greshold spat as she spoke.
“If you’re done playing with your toys, I’d like to get back to my life.”
Argosi looked at the woman he’d taken hostage some ninety minutes earlier. She struggled against the industrial tape that held her securely to a very elegant dining room chair. He wondered if the tape would harm the finish of the wood as he moved closer to the woman and the floor to ceiling window she sat near.
Argosi briefly made eye contact with the other two hostages, both males had their hands secured behind their backs by the same industrial tape, but sat on the floor. One was Caroline’s assistant and the other her butler. Both dressed for the part. The assistant in a nice Brooks Brothers suit, the butler in traditional black tie garb. Neither spoke, but their mannerisms suggested that they would prefer that their boss be more polite to the heavily armed man.
Gliding next to Caroline, Argosi gazed out the angled window offering an unobstructed view of the Las Vegas Strip, just 1000 feet below. The “Sky Tower Resort and Hotel” was the latest addition to the town that had been continuously remaking itself for over a hundred years. It was also the tallest building in North America. The tower was narrow for the first 500 feet above the base housing a casino, fine dining establishments, shopping and a nightclub. An architectural masterpiece, the 500-foot stem housed internal wind harnessing generators and solar panels on the outside.
The top 500 feet bulged out and with each successive story angled outwards. A pie shape was cut out of about one-quarter of the structure at the bottom level all the way into the center of the building and then expanded out with each successive floor as it rose. The internal facing suites had patios and many their own pools. The external rooms offered unobstructed views of the strip below. The angled windows allowed one to lean out over the edge of the building which provided an unobstructed view.
The structure, from a distance, looked something like a rose on a stem, causing it to have the informal name of “The Sky Flower.” Arthur Greshold, Caroline’s father, had created quite a marvel. But then, as one of the world’s wealthiest men, what else was he supposed to do with his fortune?
Argosi kept his voice as steady as his gaze.
“You know how this works. When daddy has deposited the funds then we all get to get on with our lives, as you say.”
Caroline growled and spat again.
“My father has peons like you to wipe his ass! You’ve made yourself a hunted man, with a price on your head for doing this.”
Her furious eyes flicked to the two dead security guards collapsed nearby; one draped over the dining room table and the other’s still-twitching legs sticking out of the butler’s pantry. Blood covered the expensive carpeting and tile, at least what wasn’t splattered across the cabinets and elegant marble counter tops in the butler’s pantry. Both gave their lives for Caroline, although she knew little about either.
“You’re nothing but a coward. You didn’t have to kill them; they were just doing their jobs.” A hint of emotion in her voice caught Argosi’s attention.
“And I was just doing mine. They were impediments. It was a business decision. Something I’m sure your father would appreciate. Wasn’t he quoted saying something about regulations being ‘impediments to good business decisions?’ Not too long before his chemical plant in China exploded and killed hundreds just last year.”
Caroline glared at her captor.
“You and your kind will never succeed. Even if my father gives your organization the money, you are still going to be hunted down like the animal that you are.”
Argosi perched himself on the edge of the dining room table and leered.
“Now, now, Caroline. Do we really have to talk politics? What’s that old saying about never bringing up politics or religion in polite conversation?” Argosi tapped his sidearm against the table playfully.
“The reality is that if daddy wants to see his little girl again, he will pay up. Hopefully he’ll see to it that his stooges surrounding the penthouse don’t do anything stupid and just follow my instructions.”
“I hope one of those stooges blows your pathetic brain out of your skull.”
As Argosi snickered at his hostage, some aircraft roared in and circled the top of the hotel. Maybe just two dozen meters from the shaking windows.
Argosi studied the VTAL-11, a conventional utility aircraft capable of vertical and hovering flight as well as forward flight. Its box-like fuselage hung from two stubby wings that angled slightly downward to maximize the cushion of air underneath that it rode on when in ground effect.
In each wing were two bladed fans a smaller one near the tip that controlled roll and yaw and provided some vertical lift. Inboard of each of these was a much larger fan with rotor blades that functioned in a similar way to helicopters which the VTAL’s had mostly replaced. Rather than the blades turning about a rotor head they instead moved about a circular frame. The whole rotor system could be pivoted from the horizontal position parallel with the wing for a slow or hovering flight to the vertical, becoming two massive props that pushed the aircraft forward at speeds in excess of 300 knots.
Argosi’s mind snapped back to the words the angry young woman had just spoken. He wondered if the authorities would keep their part of the bargain, providing him with an aircraft after the elder Greshold paid up or would they use it and the noise it made as a diversion to assault the penthouse in a rescue attempt. Argosi made a mental note to kill her at the first indication of such an attempt.
A buzzing sound vibrated in his ear; it was the penthouse phone, now linked to the earpiece in his helmet. It was the line that he used to communicate with the crisis negotiator assigned to talk him out of his actions, or keep him busy until the assault dogs could be uncaged to take him out.
Argosi was having none of it; he opened the line by clicking a pressure button on his rifle. That system allowed him to control radios and other integrated systems without taking his hands off his weapons. Without saying even a hello, Argosi spoke quickly.
“The bird I see better be as I ordered, one pilot no one else, have him lower the back ramp and circle slowly. I’ll let you know when he’s cleared in.” With that, Argosi again pressed the button and ended the one-sided conversation.
Argosi moved to the two male hostages, stepping behind each one at a time and lifting them to their feet by their arms secured behind their backs. The sound of the approaching aircraft turned his attention back to the window. The VTAL-11 came around slower and closer to the building, maybe twenty meters away from the windows. Just as Argosi demanded, both side doors and the pilot doors were removed. The tail ramp was now down, and Argosi could see clearly into the aircraft as it passed. One pilot and nothing in the passenger area or cargo hold. As the aircraft swept by he could see straight through to the front from the wide tail ramp further confirming that the pilot was the sole occupant.
After the aircraft moved out of his sight, Argosi bent down to the underside of the room service cart that he used to smuggle in his equipment and weapons. From a large tactical bag, he retrieved a tactical vest with brick-like packages covering it front and rear. After helping the butler and the assistant to their feet he draped the vest over Caroline’s assistant whose eyes grew wide as he looked down to see Argosi activating an electronic control on the front of the garment now securely attached to him by industrial tape. The assistant shifted his gaze back to Argosi with pleading eyes.
“Is... is this a bomb?”
“U-huh,” Argosi answered curtly.
Argosi synced the detonation firing system t
o the control system on his Car-20. A pleasant artificial voice in his headset let him know that the system was armed.
“Use him instead.” The assistant nodded to the butler standing next to him.
“As Ms. Greshold’s personal aide, I’m much more valuable to Ms. Greshold, and of course to helping you resolve the situation. I’m her most trusted staff member.”
“That’s why you get to die first,” Argosi replied with no emotion.
“Of course, I’m sure since Arthur knows your value to his daughter, then he will make sure to meet our demands.”
The assistant looked pleadingly to Caroline, who just studied the ceiling.
“Yeah I can see your real valuable,” Argosi stated as he did a once over to make sure the vest he had placed on the assistant was secure.
The sound and vibration of the VTAL-11 once again filled the penthouse. Argosi took a look at Caroline as he pushed the other two hostages towards the foyer. Stopping for a minute he turned.
“So how bout dinner and drinks when this is over? My treat, just so there are no hard feelings.”
“Not in this lifetime, which for you I hope is about to end,” Caroline said without turning her gaze from the window.
Argosi laughed to himself as he reached between the two hostages, and opened the double door. He then pushed them into the hallway and then quickly stepped between them. Looking first to his left, down the long hallway that served the other penthouses on this floor, Argosi saw that the stairway access remained closed. He then pivoted to his right and viewed the open stairway door with its stairs to the roof. Both the hall door and the roof access door remained propped open as he had left them. Next to the roof access stairs the elevator doors were open; Argosi had earlier locked all of them including the service elevator to this level. Any Assault team would have to come up the hard way, by the stairs, or from the roof above.
Argosi pressed the communications button connecting him to the negotiator. Hearing the line open Argosi again skipped any niceties.
“Tell the pilot to land on the pad, and to turn the tail towards the door. Once airborne I will direct the pilot to a location where all the hostages will be freed, after my people have confirmed that our demands have been met. Fuck it up, make a stupid move... then they all die. No negotiation, no further communication, no nothing, got it?”