“Thanks, yeah I do. I had Susan load up the Sullivan file on my tablet and some other MCT info.”
“Well, if you have any questions just give me a call, Commander.”
“Will do, Charlie.”
Argosi ended the call and was going to take back the driving controls, but the car already parked itself.
Argosi sat there for a moment and thought about how the day began. Now nearly twelve hours later he was in a different job with different challenges in a different location. None of which he had any reason to believe would happen when he rose at 0500 and went for his morning run.
As the saying goes, shit happens. Let’s go in and get this purge going. Argosi smiled to himself at the unintentional pun as he marched into the lobby.
New Polis, Metaverse
MD and Alex stared at the screen as both players jumped from the bridge just to the west of Hoover Dam. They had a view of them from just above as they trailed behind both flyers almost from the same point of view.
If I have to watch them go through the canyon one more time, I’m going to get sick. MD thought.
Alex, of course, had no inner ear to get affected by such things and was busy typing in some last minute line of code. “Think we will be ready this time? Who knows how many more runs they will make?”
Didn’t matter though. They could kill both in their pods at any time and then recreate the crash later. Of course, it was optimal to do it in real time when other players would be watching, as would be any of the hundreds of people visiting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon today. At least the one in the Metaverse.
Normally it was two different operations. The racecourse through the canyon and the flyers attempting it would never be viewable or have any interaction with people. Mostly from Europe and especially Asia who used the Metaverse to visit the National Park.
Today however Alex had linked the two. Anyone in the Metaverse anywhere along the route flown would see the two boys racing through at hundreds of miles an hour. The idea was to create as much buzz and video content as possible. Doing so however, required optimum conditions to achieve.
Such logic guiding Alex right now clearly escaped MD.
“No hurry. Proceed when we are optimal.”
“No need for concern, Mr. Swanson. These boys typically make numerous runs, if not here than in some other place. They will be online a while longer I’m sure. As of now it’s a go.”
Alex pointed to a large monitor showing two human forms with what looked like webbing around them. MD squinted at the exoskeleton and the highlighted areas at various points representing servos that drove the suits’ mechanical systems. He had tested what they were about to do on empty exoskeletons. MD wasn’t concerned about the safety protocols, which were already bypassed by Alex. His immediate concern was if they could direct enough power to the servos to get the desired result before either the servo burned out or the power was cut?
Even if the victims can fight against the servos, they would get so hot that they would cause severe burns. But would they be fatal?
That was the goal, after all.
“I’m just confirming that we have taken full control of their exoskeletons,” Alex said and pointed to another screen.
“Between the hotel on the rim here,” Alex tapped a location on a map, tracing his finger to another point, “and Mather Point they should have a catastrophic crash. I think you will be quite impressed with it.”
“Let’s hope the world will be quite impressed.”
“Of course, Mr. Swanson. After all, that is the desired outcome.”
Above the Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, the Metaverse
Mike was still in the lead as he gazed up at the Tovar Hotel on the South Rim. He was rapidly approaching and angled up towards the wider part of the Rim so he could use more speed. At least before beginning the dive down to the finish line.
Checking his fuel, Mike decided that he had plenty enough and squeezed the throttle to its stop. He was planning on crossing Lee’s Ferry at rooftop level where the finish line was. Once past the finish line, Mike was planning on going vertically straight up out of the canyon then pull into a loop. He would then bleed off his speed and slow to a hover where he would land victoriously, hopefully even break a speed record.
Daniel who had been trailing his friend since they jumped from the bridge had closed some of the distance. He was only a few meters behind and to the left of Mike. Daniel saw the exhaust of Mike’s jet pack glow brighter as Mike slowly pulled away.
Daniel increased his throttle, no longer concerned with fuel burn. He still had a chance to take him. It would be close either way.
Suddenly Daniel felt a kick of speed as his jet pack rocketed him forward. Not only was Mike no longer pulling away Daniel was gaining! Daniel didn’t concern himself about why he had the extra oomph; he just knew he was about to overtake his friend who maybe was trying to conserve fuel or doing something else that increased the relative closure speed between the two.
Daniel wondered if maybe Mike was out of fuel as the closure rate was increasing. Daniel was sure that he was going to win now and couldn’t resist rubbing it in as he came over the comms.
“Later, sucker.”
He had no idea that would be the last intelligible thing he would ever say, and his friend would ever hear.
New Polis, Metaverse
MD and Alex waited while the two boys raced through the canyon. MD had to frequently look away as he found himself suffering from vertigo if he stared too intently.
“I’ve got control,” Alex muttered.
“Increasing the trailing target’s speed now.”
Alex moved his cursor a little and the trailing flyer dipped a little.
“Positive control.”
MD stayed silent listening to Alex’s play by play.
“Just another second or so.”
“Now,” Alex said as he clicked on a command prompt.
South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Metaverse
Daniel suddenly felt the G’s come on as his Jet-Wing banked suddenly to the right and up with no input from him. He pushed his flight control stick to the left. When no corresponding change in his path occurred, he pushed more. His friend Mike now filled his field of vision. Mike was to his right and just above him and closing fast. Daniel pushed down now on the control, still nothing. Daniel released his throttle in a last-minute bid to keep from ramming Mike. The power stayed on.
“What the–”
Daniel impacted his friend with his helmet just above Mike’s waist as Daniel’s right wing sliced into Mike’s left wing. There was a momentary flash as the two wings became stuck to one another. Both boys now became a single projectile spinning out of control and racing through the portion of the canyon where the Tovar Hotel rose above the South Rim.
Tourists strolling along the walkway overlooking the park in one of the most majestic parts of the canyon looked down after hearing the whine of jet engines followed by a loud bang. They screamed as both small aircraft collided and became one. Both heading for the canyon floor at incredible speed.
Almost before their minds could even register what they were seeing, the projectile collided with an outcropping causing an explosion of dirt and rocks slowing the projectile considerably. It now slowly arced downward towards the Colorado River below where it impacted on the south shore.
University Metaverse Portal Club, San Diego, California
21-year-old Alice Foster made her rounds through a section of pods at the University Metaverse Portal Club. Alice was part simulation controller and part safety person. She was on hand to take guests to and from their pods, conduct safety briefings and answer questions about simulations or fix any glitches that came up.
Something swooshed behind her. She flipped around in response to the unusual sound from the pods and immediately spotted the source of the noise. Her brain spent a long, breathless pause trying to understand what was going on.
Pods nu
mber 33 and 35 across from one another both spun around their center support column at a speed she had never witnessed and didn’t think was possible. She rushed to a nearby control station to see what simulation was running that would cause the pods to act this way.
When she tried to bring up the simulation and the controls, she discovered that the system was frozen and unresponsive. She looked up to see both pods spinning faster and faster, not just around the center support column but also now within their individual axis. The robotic arm that held the pod to the center column was shaking the pod violently as it went up and down its full eight meters of travel.
I need to stop these things; someone’s gonna get hurt. Alice thought, having no idea of the horror going on inside the H-Pods.
***
After colliding mid-air, both boys expected the simulation would end and default back to the starting point. Not only did that not happen they both felt the G-Forces increase as they spun out of control. There was not much time for their brains to register what was going on before impacting with the outcropping jutting out from the south canyon wall.
What did register was the immense pain and heat. Daniel felt the exoskeleton bend his legs at the knees, so his heels went up past his hips and thighs at the same time the exoskeleton split his legs straight out from each other past 180 degrees and dislocating his right hip, the femur yanked from the socket. His left femur snapped slicing the femoral artery before protruding grotesquely through his I-Suit.
At the same instant both, his arms were rotated and pulled behind him with an extreme force far beyond the distance they were capable of moving resulting in multiple fractures before being yanked straight up behind and above him, tearing his arms from their sockets. Daniel lost consciousness from either bleeding out or the rapidly spinning pod. The centrifugal force tore apart his internal organs before his back was bent backward and snapped.
Michael was a little more fortunate, his back snapped by the exoskeleton that bent him over backwards. His severed spinal cord spared him from the pain as his lower legs were torn from their sockets in the same fashion as his friends. But not the pain of both of his arms being subject to the same fate. Soon the centrifugal force took his consciousness.
Both boys would be dead within the next minute or two from those injuries alone.
On the ground below, their pods spun out of control. Alice Foster worked feverishly to get the controls to respond. She looked up to see both pods screaming at an incredible speed around and around while the H-Pods spun within their axis at an even more terrifying speed.
Alice heard the alarms, all of the pods were brought gently to the ground and opened. Thank god someone hit the emergency stop.
That relief was short-lived as Pods 33 and 35 continued to race around faster and faster, the robotic arm shaking the pod up and down so fast that it was nothing but a blur. Alice stood in shock as the smoke from the bases of H-Pod’s 33 and 35 filled the area. Oh, my God, they are on fire! Alice scrambled for the nearest fire extinguisher.
Slowing, but still spinning, both pods opened. The bodies of one Michael Collins and Daniel Simpson shot out like rag dolls from their respective H-Pods. Michael’s body hit a wall about six feet up before it landed with a sickening thud on the floor. Daniel’s body flew into the console that Alice had been using to try and regain control. Both bodies had smoke coming from them, and Alice was immediately sickened from the burnt rubber smell of the I-Suits.
Alice dashed to the nearest corpse. It was Daniel, his body horribly twisted and his arms and legs bent at sickening angles. Alice, already nauseous from the smoke and burnt rubber smell, fell to her knees vomiting after seeing Daniel’s white femur protruding through his I-Suit.
Other club members sprang out of their pods, disorientated by what had happened.
One 14-year-old girl exited her pod nearest the body of Michael and stared at his broken and smoking body, with parts of his I-Suit melted into his flesh. She brought her hands to her mouth and began screaming and crying.
“Am I still in-world? Am I still in-world?”
New Polis, Metaverse
MD felt stoked up as he left Alex at the office to make the next video, edit it and get it out by the morning. It would not take long for word to get out. MD had been monitoring the activity around the portal club. Alex had completely severed all their links with that facility, so they no longer had a direct visual. But there were plenty of videos already hitting the internet. It did not take long for local, national and Metaverse media organizations and bloggers to saturate the net with coverage.
The trending information centered around some type of mechanical malfunction that sent the two H-Pods out of control, ejecting the occupants. Most of the news flashes read something along the lines of “Fatal H-Pod Accident” or “H-Pod Malfunction Claims 2” or some variation.
“That’s good,” MD mused. “Let Digital-Life try to support that story.” The fact is, dozens and possibly hundreds of real people had witnessed the crash at the Grand Canyon. There was even a video record of it. Of course, in the Metaverse everything was a video representation to one degree or another. The whole of the Metaverse was itself nothing more than a 3D video that you could enter. So, of course, there would be skeptics.
The timeline of the accident inside the Metaverse exactly matched the one in the real world. Most telling was the fact that there were two dead teenage boys. That was not something made up. The dead bodies sprawled on the floor were very real.
MD had not given much thought to the two victims; they were simply props. To the extent that MD cared about them it was in the context of how useful their deaths would be to his goals. No doubt the perpetrator would be intensely vilified for killing children.
On the other hand, the death of those two youngsters, MD had forgotten their names, would cause parents by the millions to pull their kids offline. That would dramatically affect clubs like the one in San Diego this afternoon. It would profoundly devastate the Metaverse economy and in particular Digital-Life. Parents would either cancel their accounts or would pay the ransom.
Even those that paid the ransom might not come back in, adopting a wait and see attitude. Then there were all the adult users in-world 24/7. Would they be frightened enough to leave the Metaverse? Many worked there, recreated there and a not insignificant number went there for sex.
Not to mention the corporations. Employees might stay out of their virtual offices if their safety could not be guaranteed. The next victim should work at a corporation that has not paid the fee. MD made a mental note.
Then there was the big daddy of them all, Digital-Life Systems. Soon they will be on their knees, and I can dictate the terms. MD’s elation grew.
No, there was no downside about murdering two teenagers that MD could think of as he strolled along the busy sidewalk back to the penthouse. MD nodded to other pedestrians, all racing somewhere at the end of the business day. How many had their minds on today’s events as they passed him?
The whole episode gave MD a rush. He should celebrate. Maybe have a female friend up to his penthouse? MD chuckled, dreaming of a former liaison, and brought up a list of contacts.
What was her name again? MD remembered her only vaguely.
Denver, Colorado
Argosi stretched across his bed, wishing it would be over. He looked at the time, 8:06 pm. He drank the purge solution at just past 5:30. By 6:00 he was in the bathroom and had spent probably an hour and 55 minutes of that elapsed time in there.
He finally had enough of a reprieve where he felt almost normal. Normal enough to sprawl on the bed dreading the next onslaught.
His phone announced that he was getting a call from Charlie Parker. Argosi told the phone to open the line.
“Argosi.”
“Hey, boss, sorry to bother you. Have you seen the news?”
“No, Charlie. I’ve been a little predisposed, I honestly haven’t even looked at my inbox. No one told me I would be cramping up lik
e this. It sucks. From your original question, I’m guessing you’re not calling to check to see if I’m in balance or whatever the hell it’s called.”
“Equilibrium, and no, sir. I’m not. We have two dead kids. Some kind of H-Pod accident. Totally unprecedented and so far out of probability that we need to consider this another attack.”
Argosi felt his gut rumbling. He stood up and started for the bathroom.
“Two kids?”
“Yes, sir. I don’t have specifics yet–”
“Wait, I’ll call you right back.”
Argosi felt his knees buckling. Part of it was trying to keep what was so intent on coming out, at least for the few more steps to the commode. The other part was the sudden fear and panic that gripped him about his two children whom he knew were themselves in-world just a few hours ago. Easy Dom, if anything bad had happened Christine would have called not Charlie. Argosi reassured himself before another surge of panic kicked in. Unless she couldn’t for some reason.
Waiting for both his nerves and his intestines to calm Argosi hit speed dial to his home. Come on pick up. The waiting was nerve racking.
“Hi, Dad.” It was the voice of his 12-year-old son, Dom Jr.
Thank God. Argosi breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey, sport. What’s going on? Are you doing a good job taking care of things there?
“Um yeah, ah... Dad how come we can’t go in-world? Does it have anything to do with the two kids that got killed today in California?
“Dominic, you know about that?”
“Yeah, it’s all over the news. Mom took us out of the pods earlier and told us we couldn’t go in. Too bad those kids didn’t get warned. Mom says you knew something and that maybe if it were on the news, they wouldn’t be dead.”
“Well, mom is right about some of that, I suppose. But things are a little more complicated than just telling people to stay offline.”
The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death Page 19
