Argosi’s seizure of the backup system and many of the hardware interface components was a sore point with the managers of the H-Pod rental facility who protested that they could not open without them and that it would take weeks or longer to build a new system. It didn’t help when Argosi told them that the building potentially would be sealed up that long or longer. No doubt they were on the phones to corporate which would then be on the phones to politicians that they had heavily contributed.
Argosi walked onto the FastJet and handed the container to a crewman who took it to the rear cargo hold then turned and helped wrestle the exoskeletons worn by the two victims through the door. They were not particularly heavy but were ungainly in the large vinyl bags containing them.
Argosi found his seat as the startup whistling sound of the engines turned into a steady whine. The FastJet taxied to the runway and was airborne in a matter of minutes, the tower giving it priority over other traffic.
Argosi opened a container of Nutrient and began to sip his lunch. He had not experienced any side effects so far and felt good, even energetic. Argosi turned on the monitor built into the armrest watching it rise and unfold in front him beore it quickly synched with his phone after he gave it authorization. Argosi busied himself reading and answering emails for the 850-mile flight that the FastJet would make in just about an hour or less depending on the traffic in its way on the approach into Centennial.
By the time the FastJet was in the landing pattern Argosi had switched from clearing out his inbox to reading the news. A story caught his eye that said that a hundred thousand account users had paid the fee by early afternoon. The story cited “undisclosed sources,” but offered up anecdotal evidence of reporters on the street-finding person after person who said that they had or would be soon paying the fee. Those that said something different did not want to be identified.
Argosi thought it a mistake to pay Reynolds et al. This would only embolden the extortionists. The correct course of action he thought was for people to stay out of the Metaverse in any full or partial emersion. The common threads between the deaths so far were that all three victims were in-world and inside a pod. There might be other commonalities, but from what was known, and in terms of what a potential victim could control, all they could do was not enter an H-Pod at all.
Argosi knew that would never happen. People, even if they still had them around, would not trade in their I-suits or SecondSkin and H-Pods to wear headgear and gloves. They’d pay the fee first and apparently were.
After the FastJet had taxied up to the waiting VTAL at the FBO Argosi, Callum, Wu and Matt transferred their cargo to it. A few minutes later the VTAL was leaving Centennial airspace and heading northwest towards Boulder, Colorado.
“Everything is all set, Commander.” Callum spoke through his headset over the comm system into Argosi’s.
“The primary investigators will meet us at the Sullivan house. They will have marked units blocking the street, and we will land between them. The local cops think that’s going to cause a lot of complaints, just FYI, sir.”
“Thanks, Pete,” Argosi said, surprising the younger agent by using his first name.
Fifteen minutes later the VTAL was circling a residential street two blocks from the Boulder Medical Center where Dr. Sullivan was well known. Argosi looked down to see the two marked units, their bright strobes visible in the early afternoon sun blocking a section of street to create a landing zone.
He could see some people gathered on either side of the cars. Argosi was glad that he did not see any media vehicles. He was certain that someone was recording their arrival, but at least he would not have anyone shouting questions at him which gave rise to a thought.
Argosi clicked the headset button that opened the comm to the pilots.
“Hey, guys, when you see us coming back out of the house, start the engines so if there are any reporters around or other nosey people trying to ask questions, I can act like I didn’t hear them over the noise.” Argosi hoped that would not make it look like he was deliberately ignoring the media.
“Roger that, sir. We’ll be on the ground in ten seconds.”
As soon as the aircraft touched down, the crewman opened the side sliding door that was on the side of the street facing Dr. Sullivan’s driveway. Argosi saw two detectives, identifiable by their plainclothes and sidearms with the gold badges clipped to their belt. One was a male and one a female. They stood in front of the open garage door as he stepped off the aircraft. He walked briskly towards them with the rest of the group in tow.
All six of them stepped into the garage and introductions were quickly made. The two Boulder PD detectives led the team down into the basement and into a room that housed the H-Pod.
Or what remained of it.
The elongated sphere, a shape known technically as a prolate spheroid, lay in two pieces on the floor. Jagged cuts indicated where the chainsaw had cut through it. Dark stains were all over both halves as well as on the floor. The stains were from blood. A lot of blood.
“Careful where you step gentleman.” It was the female detective who had yet to smile. “You don’t want to take any of Dr. Sullivan with you when you leave. If you need to enter past this point, you’ll want to put on booties and gloves. Although the victim probably won’t care. I know I won’t, so it’s up to you.”
Argosi chuckled. He always got a kick out of gallows humor. “I’m guessing your CSI is all complete then?”
“Yes, sir. But you are free to any and all of it as well as anything here that you might find useful. You’d be doing us, or rather me a big favor if you catch the guy soon. Or failing that, at least take the case off my hands.”
Argosi noticed that the gold badge clipped to her belt just in front of her sidearm read “Lieutenant,” and her partner’s “Sergeant.” That made her the senior investigator on scene.
“Well, we would be glad to, but I don’t want you to feel like the Bureau is racing in here and taking over things.”
“Commander, that would make me a very happy woman. Something I don’t say often. I retired out of the LAPD then came to this sleepy little college town where quite literally a busy day is if we have a couple of car accidents and maybe a cat in a tree. After two and three murder scenes a day in the City of Angels, it was just the break I needed. Up until the ‘Boulder Chainsaw Massacre’ here I was RIP.”
“RIP?” it was Wu.
“Retired in place.”
“I’ll see what I can do. If we trace the perp to a local address, we’ll let you take him down and get the credit,” Argosi said.
“That sounds dangerous.” She winked. “For the perp, that is.”
Argosi chuckled. “It looks like it was quite a mess.”
“You have no idea, Commander. The medical examiner and the firemen had to cut, or more like scoop him out. That is, what they couldn’t get to pour out on its own.”
“A real god-awful mess. Never seen nothing like it.” The male detective added.
“I can imagine,” Argosi said.
The male detective continued. “I thought they should have taken the whole pod thing. But the OMI didn’t have room in their van to load the whole pod up and wanted to get the body out first. The fire guys weren’t happy.”
“What position was he in when they found him?” Callum asked.
“He was face up with his body parallel to the floor arms extended straight out over his head. Separated about two feet, his bottom from his top I mean, like he got pulled apart.” The male detective answered.
“Or the tension from the exoskeleton pulling at him separated him that far,” Callum added, then asked, “Who found him?”
“His housekeeper when she came to work the next morning. Her alibi is air tight but we want to close some loose ends to make sure that she did not in some way facilitate entry for the perp. She was Dr. Sullivan’s longtime housekeeper and her husband frequently did maintenance and yard work, by all accounts he treated them well. They�
��re both pretty upset.” The male detective said.
“I imagine finding the good doctor cut in half was traumatic enough, not to mention loss of income. They don’t seem to have any motive, but still you never know.”
“No you don’t, Sergeant, you never know. What about forensic evidence? Anything on the offender?” Argosi said.
The male detective ran a hand through his well-groomed scalp. “We have the chainsaw. Also, the offender went to a bathroom just down the hallway where he washed then dried off. We have towels. There are trace elements of the victim’s blood but not much else. We think he probably wore some type of protective garment so as not to get all messy that he took with him.”
“Tell him the best part.” The female detective laughed without mirth.
The male detective looked at her with a grin of his own. “Well, it seems that our offender isn’t the tough, cool and collected guy that he is portraying in his videos.”
“Oh?” Argosi cocked his head to one side.
“We think he peed in his pants. We have a sample of what is definitely urine on the garage floor. It was not fresh when we took the sample, so there are some challenges. We sent it to the lab with all the rest of the forensics. We have a good DNA workup on it. Enough to eliminate someone but not identify them specifically. Well, not yet anyway.” The sergeant answered.
“Oh, and it seems that he is on Nutrient.”
“Callum, see if we can get the results and any untested portions of it the lab might have sent to our lab. A second look wouldn’t hurt. Maybe we can drill down farther into it.”
“Yes, sir.” Callum nodded and made a note on his tablet.
“The local server and pod unit is still intact?” Wu asked pointing to the unit mounted on the wall.
“Haven’t touched it. It’s all yours,” the male detective said.
“Great. Robert and Matt, let’s grab the server and control interface.” Argosi started scooping up gear.
“Yes, Commander,” Wu turned to put on the booties offered to him and Matt by the Boulder PD Lt.
Fifteen minutes later, Argosi and the rest of his team walked out of the garage and down the driveway carrying one plastic container. The VTAL engines started up, drowning out all other ambient sounds. Argosi glanced to his right. Sure enough just beyond the marked unit blocking the street stood a national news affiliate’s van. Argosi could hear someone shouting from that direction but forced himself not to look.
The group quickly strapped in, and the VTAL lifted off. Less than twenty minutes later the VTAL landed on the roof of the FBI Regional HQ where Argosi’s team carried the items that they had collected that day in San Diego and Boulder off the aircraft and down to the Lab.
Argosi checked the time. It was just after 4 pm. Got a lot done today, but will any of it matter, before Reynolds strikes again?
It would not be long before he got the answer to that question.
Denver FBI HQ
Argosi looked at the SecondSkin suit hanging in its “humidor,” as the tech guys called it. He thought it resembled a giant condom with its thin membrane type of material. It was an identical replica of him, or at least his body surface. It looked sort of like a human had been skinned intact and left to hang.
“Latest generation, Commander. I think you’ll be surprised.” A tech, whose name Argosi couldn’t recall broke the silence.
Argosi grunted. “Surprised?”
“Yes, sir. Compared to the I-Suit that you are used to, I think you will get a kick out of how real everything feels.”
“Since I took over the training slot down at FLTEC, I haven’t much use for the I-suits either.”
“Well, I think you will find it the same as your own skin. You will even feel the VR clothing that you put on. Or the sheets in the bed you sleep in.”
“Speaking of that, where do I go to sleep when I’m in-world?”
“Only the best, sir. At our in-world HQ we have suites for the MCT. It’s sort of like a hotel with all the amenities.”
“Where in-world is it located?”
“Just outside of the downtown district, right on the waterfront, sir.”
“Waterfront? How’d we swing that?”
“Well, the guy that owned it is doing time now, and the federal prosecutor took the place instead of fines. Even a VR property like that costs big bucks.”
“So we share it with other DOJ types?”
“Yes, sir, not a downside. We have lots of space and a digital lab over there.”
Argosi gave a thumbs-up as Matt hovered nearby impatiently.
“Commander, are you ready?”
“I am if you are.”
Argosi checked his old-fashioned, non-smartwatch. It was just before 6 pm Mountain Standard Time. Argosi had no side effects from the Nutrient and felt fine. According to what the doc had told him, he should be okay.
“By the way, what time is it in New Polis?”
“Well, there are two options. You can go in and set your personal time to the current time zone where you reside. The people that do that typically work in the Metaverse and then leave when their work day has ended. The cool thing is that the time for them is the same in their respective time zone regardless of Metaverse Time. If its midnight in-world it might be noon to them for example. It’s dark for everyone else but midday to them.” Matt splayed out his hands.
“Most people that do full emersion will just go in on UMT, Universal Metaverse Time, which is Pacific Time plus two time zones west. Much of the Metaverse was created in Silicon Valley, and that’s the time they settled on to get a little closer to Asian time zones. So, it’s just before 3 pm UMT right now.”
“So there is a five-hour time difference from Eastern Time?” Argosi asked.
“That’s correct, Commander. At first, it was a bit of an issue, but as more and more people have gone in full emersion, it hasn’t been. Once in-world, you really would not suffer from jet lag since anywhere you go in the digital world the time is the same. The jet lag occurs when you come out and go back to your real world time.” Matt answered.
Wu walked up, and Matt told him that the commander’s suit checked out and that Argosi was ready to go in-world. Wu nodded and went to the cabinet where Argosi’s Suit was hanging along with Callum’s. There were several other suits in their assigned slot with names over them belonging to the techs. There were also several slots issued to MCT agents, currently empty.
Wu opened the cabinet and took the suit over to a horizontal pole in front of a shower stall where he hung it up and plugged it in from a wire that protruded from the neck. Callum retrieved his suit and hung it on the same rack plugging it in as well.
Wu cocked his head. “Commander, if you would please shower. You will find two containers in the stall marked Soap and the other one Prep. The first one is to wash with. Please do so thoroughly. When you have completed that, then dry off in the shower and then place the Prep all over your body including your hair and the bottoms of your feet. Be liberal with the amounts. It will be easier to slide into the suit and it will make for a better melding process.”
Argosi followed Wu’s instructions as did Callum, who already knew the drill. When Argosi came out of the shower, he spotted Callum already in his SecondSkin. Argosi had never seen someone wearing the suit in person. It was weird. He seemed like himself but painted with a uniform color that looked slimy and moist. Which it was, as Argosi soon found out.
Wu pushed a button showing Argosi how to expand the suit. Once expanded, Argosi climbed through the neck opening. The slippery lotion made it easy for him to slide on the suit in a matter of moments.
What happened next was indeed a first for Argosi. Wu pushed the button for the suit to shrink around Argosi which it did quite rapidly everywhere, even between his toes.
“Starting melding process,” Wu announced.
The suit shrink-wrapped around him and began vibrating. It wasn’t actually shaking, however. What Argosi felt was the carbon nanotub
es melding at the cellar lever with his skin pores and hair follicles. Argosi remained still at Wu’s instruction so that he could confirm that the suit was a proper fit, something Wu consulted on his tablet.
“See you on the other side, Commander,” Callum said as he walked to the door that led to his H-Pod.
“If I don’t show up, start without me,” Argosi said with a grin.
“You’ll be okay, Commander.” Matt waved as he entered the H-Pod bay.
“I just double checked your pod. It’s all set and calibrated based on our measurements the other day.”
“Thanks.”
“Ok, sir. You are all set we can go to the pod now,” Wu said.
Argosi slipped into a pair of slippers so as not to track any dirt or other foreign debris into the pod and followed Wu through the door to the H-Pod bay. Callum was already in his pod, putting on his hood. Argosi wasn’t looking forward to putting in the contact lenses and was surprised how quickly Callum inserted his.
“I guess he’s fast with the lenses. He’s ready to be sealed up,” Argosi said, nodding towards Callum.
“Agent Callum wears the Bi-Dimensional lenses. I do too.” Matt offered.
“What kind of lenses?”
“Bi-Dimensional. He can view the Metaverse through them as well as use them as a monitor. They aren’t yet available to the public.”
“What can it view? Is it like being in the ghost mode?” Argosi grew curious.
“He can operate an avatar of himself or he can see through an AE that he controls. Or a drone or any view that we have access to which is any public area, private ones with a warrant. He can see in-world while in the real world without having to don a hood or sit at a monitor. The whole system connects through his phone. The cool thing is that unlike other wearable VR systems these lenses can be worn in the pod. So it makes getting in and out a little quicker.” Matt said and then added.
“I’ve got some on order for you, be a couple of days.”
The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death Page 25
