The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death

by William Kurth

  “Way to go, Tex.” Argosi raised his mug in a salute before putting it to his mouth and taking a large gulp of lukewarm coffee.

  Argosi read the banner underneath the talking head palavering on about GEI and other corporations whose employees hadn’t come to work today in the Metaverse. The banner said that the killer had sent out another video to subscribers in the same manner as the earlier two.

  Argosi told the screen to bring up his email which appeared a half second later. He scrolled through it until he found the video. He opened it. It began like the last two before cutting to a close-up of Reynolds standing in front of the GEI building entrance. Reynolds started by introducing himself before walking down the sidewalk to the car with Joanne Hendricks body lying on the crushed roof.

  Reynolds went on about paying the fee without delay and then said something that Argosi found interesting. He backed it up and listened again to Reynolds’s last few sentences.

  “Please remember that we have the ability to reach out into your world, the real world as you arrogantly call it. Do not assume that you can enter into our world and then leave to be safe in yours. We have already demonstrated that ability with Dr. Sullivan. We may choose to exhibit that ability again at a time and place of our choosing.”

  Reynolds then closed with a chilling statement. “Within the next few hours, we will select two victims. Right here in the business district.”

  Argosi voice dialed parker.

  “Morning, Dom. I guess you’ve seen it already?”

  “Yup, I have Charlie. I’m afraid to ask because I know the answer. Anything come up overnight that we can work with?”

  “Fraid not, boss. We have noticed an uptick in money transfers from The Bank of St. Petersburg out to the real world. I suspect part of that could be people getting panicked and moving their money into a more secure place.”

  “Or it could be the offenders moving all the cash they’re collecting,” Argosi added.

  “Yes, sir that occurred to me as well. I have a call into Mathias’s office for a meeting, but they are difficult. Saying he’s busy entertaining business clients on this yacht.”

  “His yacht? What the hell is an AE doing with a yacht?”

  “Beats me, boss. He is a character. He believes himself to be a life form just as we are. When you meet him, Dom, try to stay calm. He likes to wax poetic and take up our time. Time that for us is fleeting but to him represents a weakness.”

  “He thinks we are weak because of time? I’m not sure I follow.”

  “Time, in his view, is the thing that most makes us mortal. It is a resource that is finite for each of us. If he can get us to waste it, he believes that he has attained a victory over us. Or at least that’s what the shrinks at Quantico think who have studied him.”

  “Great, just what I need. An AE with a superiority complex,” Argosi said.

  “Ok. I’m gonna go for a run then I will be down in the lab in an hour. Tell Mathias’s people if they don’t want us just showing up on his yacht they better give us a time.”

  “Yes, sir. That will get their attention but a word of caution. Mathias is connected to a lot of political types.”

  “Not if I unplug his digital ass.” Argosi snapped.

  “Yes sir, I’ll get on it.”

  “Thanks, see you in an hour.”

  ***

  Argosi entered the lab a little past 0730. He had put in a three-mile run along the waterfront and then showered, which felt soreal.Certainly, the water-based cleaning solution that flushed his second skin was real and refreshing. Wearing a crisp dark suit, he was all set for the day.

  “Susan, do I have any messages?” Argosi asked tapping the intercom icon on his wrist device as he stepped into his office off the lab floor.

  Although she was in the real world, she would hear his voice over the intercom on the phone or if she was away from her desk through her earpiece.

  “Good morning, Commander. You have one from a Lt. Shoemaker with the Boulder PD. She wants you to call her. Says she has some information that might be of use. The patch to her phone is ready to go on your notification screen.”

  “Thanks, try to hold all my calls unless it’s from DC. Use your judgment. If you think one needs to go through, send it.”

  “No problem, Commander. They have to go through me first.”

  Argosi closed the intercom and pushed the number on his monitor that would connect him to Shoemaker. After a few rings, she picked up.

  “Investigations, Lt. Shoemaker speaking.”

  “Good morning, LT. It’s Dominic Argosi.”

  “Morning, Commander. Are you in Denver?”

  “Well, in a matter of speaking I am. I’m in-world at the moment. My admin person said that you had some information for us that might be of use?”

  “Yes, sir. I think we have something for you to work with. Our lab guy drilled down into the sample that the offender left in the garage and low and behold a couple of little tidbits emerged about him. The sample also confirms that it is a ‘He.’ It also revealed that he is on Nutrient and that he is a vegan based on some chemical tags that the lab guy was able to identify and confirm with the Nutrient Lab...”

  “Whew, hold on a minute, Lieutenant. I need to make some notes and want to conference a couple of people in on the call.”

  “Take your time, Commander; I’m still not to the best part.”

  “I had a feeling that you weren’t. This way you don’t have to go through it all over again, just one sec.”

  Argosi put the call on hold and did a group page for everyone to get in the conference room ASAP. Argosi exited his office and walked the few steps into the meeting room. Parker, Wu, Callum and two other agents on duty in the lab, whose names he couldn’t remember, walked briskly to the conference room.

  Argosi went to the center seat and motioned everyone to take a seat. Then pushed the button on the phone console in front of him.

  “Lt. Shoemaker, this is Commander Argosi again. I have my team with me in the conference room. Go ahead and brief them on what you just told me.”

  Shoemaker explained to the group about the sample and took them up to the point that she had gotten to with Argosi.

  “This is where it gets interesting. Our killer likes a certain kind of mineral water along with his vegan Nutrient. It’s something called ‘Irish Moss.’ It’s not a high seller and produced in limited numbers–”

  “Making it easier to track,” Parker interjected.

  “Exactly.” Shoemaker yawned.

  “That’s what Sgt. Martinez and I have been up to all last night. There are only five places in the whole state that sell it. One of them is right here in Boulder just a few miles from the Sullivan residence. We started with that one first. According to the manager they only normally have a few sales of this stuff a month, apparently even among vegans it’s somewhat unique, but then the day before the murder of Dr. Sullivan a guy came in and bought every container they had in stock, nine of them. The manager used his point of sale application and found the purchase complete with a video of the transaction. All in cash. Unfortunately, the security video had already looped through so there are no other images of him, nor a vehicle. We visited or called the other stores in the state that sell this stuff, and we got around two dozen sales going back a week or so before the murder up until yesterday. Unfortunately, only three of the five stores use a point of sale application.”

  Shoemaker shrugged.

  “We got all of the videos and made stills and ran them through the interstate facial recognition program accessing known criminal and court databases, social media, and state motor vehicle departments. We got positive ID’s on all of them. A few had some minor run-ins with the law, nothing violent. There was one individual that is interesting. We had multiple hits on him, nothing criminal, but the address on his driver’s license is from Palo Alto Ca. Home of DLS and the Silicon Data Group where this individual was an employee according to several social media h
its on him. Supposed to be some genius in artificial intelligence. Several articles quoting him, that sort of thing. There is a chain of periodic posts mentioning him and then about eighteen months ago nothing. No more activity.”

  “What’s his name?” Argosi asked.

  “John Wayne Maddox, Ph.D.”

  Business District, New Polis, Metaverse

  Alex exited the cab, stepping onto the sidewalk where he took a moment to look up at the skyscraper, some 140 stories in height. Alex then walked towards the main doors, on either side flagpoles angled toward the sky. A sign over the entrance read “2 Enterprise Ave.” The doorman nodded to him and opened the door.

  Stepping into the large lobby with the dark colored marble floor Alex removed his sunglasses. A few people walked past him heading for the door. They nodded and smiled. A friendly couple even said good morning. Alex’s logical mind was at a loss to explain how it was that as one of the most viewed figures in or out of the Metaverse in recent days no one seemed to recognize him. According to Mr. Swanson, it had to do with the fact that most everyone here used an avatar.

  Even if the doppelganger looked like the owner, it was them at their prime and looking their very best. Everyone could look like anyone. While the ideal of beauty still existed, the appreciation of it had waned since it was so commonplace now. With that waning was also lost the attention to detail of the human form.

  People just looked past him, as they did everyone. Some may have stared a little longer not sure, but most were caught up doing other things even as they or rather their avatar strolled along.

  Alex went to a business directory hanging near the entrance to the long bank of elevators. He looked at it a minute, confirming that what was on the sign had matched his research which was, in fact, correct. American Enterprise was a huge financial conglomerate that occupied almost all of the commercial space in this building. The specific location of his interest was on the 125th floor. The board of directors had a suite of offices where, according to Federal Trade Commission disclosures, a board meeting was currently in progress.

  Alex entered an elevator with another gentleman who was kind enough to push the button to the 125th floor for him. The two made small talk as the express elevator raced to its zone. The other man exited at 118 and a moment or two after the door closed it opened on the 125th floor.

  Alex exited and found himself in a lobby with dark paneled wood walls and plush leather chairs. After only a step or two out of the elevator, Alex found himself face to face with two uniformed security guards who had closed flanks on him. A quick scan revealed that they were in an H-Pod and therefore human. Without any indication to them, Alex took control of those pods.

  Interesting. Most likely they think the AE’s usually responsible for security cannot be trusted. Alex lost himself in dark thoughts.

  “May I help you, sir?” The first guard asked while the second seemed more alarmed.

  He may have recognized him, Alex observed as the guard touched a pressure button on his belt and transmitted some code. Alex remained motionless and expressionless as he studied the man broadcasting over his radio.

  “Code Red! Code Red! Code Red!” He said loud enough for anyone nearby to hear as well as into the mic.

  The first guard repeated his question in an elevated voice, having no other option but to stall for time.

  “SIR, CAN I HELP YOU?”

  Alex swiveled his head in his direction before answering.

  “No, but you can help yourself. Eject from your pod. If I see you here on my way out you will not survive that encounter.”

  Alex walked past them. Both guards tried to follow but could not move, or rather despite moving in their pod, they remained frozen in the sim. The two guards looked at each other. “I don’t know about you, but I’m doing an emergency eject.” The first guard said to the second guard.

  The guard who transmitted the alert was trying to answer radio calls from his colleagues throughout the building in response to the Code Red. Before the guard talking on the radio could respond his partner vanished which startled him. Typically even an emergency eject would not cause that, the realism settings would dictate that the avatar leaves realistically even after the HE had left. Whatever was going on, he was not going to wait around to find out. The guard transmitted “Code Red” again, code for employees of American Enterprise to eject immediately, a recent security implementation. Then he activated his pod ejection sequence, which caused him to vanish similarly.

  Leaving the guards, Alex walked by the receptionist who herself vanished before he got to her. He paid her no attention. His targets were in the boardroom. He pulled the doors open and walked down the hall. Person after person had exited their offices to see what was going on despite hearing the code. As they saw Alex walking down the hallway towards the large closed double doors of wood mahogany, they vanished one after another as they initiated their emergency ejection procedure.

  Finding the boardroom Alex pulled open the double doors and walked in. Alex stopped just inside of the doors and sneered down at the nine seated board members, three women and six men. There was also a bank representative, a stenographer, and another assistant. All of them inside of their respective pods were frantically ordering the sim to eject them from their pods. All to no avail.

  Alex walked over to one older gentleman. Gerry Sanders, former CEO of Silicon Data Group and a voting member of American Enterprise’s board. The gentleman didn’t react to Alex; he was desperately ordering his pod to open, and when it wouldn’t work he tried to notify his household staff to get him out. Those pleas fell on deaf ears.

  “No one can hear you, Mr. Sanders. No one can help you. You, and especially your former employer, not to mention your current one here, should have heeded my warning. You should have paid monetarily. Now, sir, it is time to pay with your life.”

  With that, Alex reached out and grabbed Sanders by the throat and lifted him up, so his feet were off the ground. Alex held the man up only with his right arm which extended up at an angle. Carrying him in this manner, Alex walked calmly over to one of the floor to ceiling windows.

  As he had with Joanne Hendricks Alex used Sanders body to punch through the glass still holding him by the throat. Sanders looked down. He could feel the breeze and hear the traffic on the city street 1200 feet or so below him.

  “Terrifying, isn’t it?” Alex whispered.

  Sanders closed his eyes.

  I’m in a simulation. None of this is real. I’m in an H-Pod in my home. Sanders tried to reassure himself.

  Alex let go, and Sanders plummeted. In the pod, he could feel the air rushing by as his body went to the horizontal. Sanders opened his eyes to see the ground rushing at him. He knew it would be over in another few seconds, one way or another.

  If only his death were as instantaneous as a real fall from that height would have been. Instead, he had to endure another half-minute or so of consciousness. All with his body bent by the exoskeleton until his spine, and other limbs, snapped or were torn from their sockets as the superheated servos burned his flesh.

  Alex spun on the others left in the room. He jabbed a knife hand at Albert Mason, Chairman of the Board of American Enterprise.

  “Mr. Mason, you should have paid the fee. It’s only good business practice, sir.” Alex said.

  Mason tried to back away but couldn’t. He remained motionless.

  “Please sir, we were discussing that very topic just when you entered in here. We will pay; please do not harm anyone else. I will see to it immediately.” Mason said.

  Alex smiled and put his right hand in his pant pocket, a gesture that had come to be a familiar body posture for the AE.

  “Well, that is good news indeed sir. It’s unfortunate for Mr. Sanders that we did not come to this accommodation earlier.”

  Mason breathed a little easier. Alex looked over to the female stenographer. “What’s your name dear?”

  “Naomi, sir.” The young woman answered
, her voice cracking.

  “Well Naomi, did you get that down?”

  “Sir?” Naomi asked looking at Alex.

  Alex smiled. “Did you record in the meeting minutes that Mr. Mason just now has agreed to pay the fee for all of American Enterprise’s employees to be able to enter and work in the Metaverse safely?”

  Naomi looked to Mason and then back to Alex. “Uh, sir, normally there would have been a vote, and then I would record the result.”

  “Oh of course. Where is my head?” Alex turned to the chairman.

  “Mason, do you still have a quorum now that Sanders has left the building?”

  “Yes, yes we do.”

  “Well by all means proceed,” Alex said, turning and helping himself to a beverage in the center of the table. “I’ll wait.”

  Mason quickly made a motion, following parliamentary procedure, to direct funds to be paid for Metaverse safe passage of American Enterprise employees, which was seconded and then passed unanimously.

  “Naomi, dear, why don’t you run along and publish the board minutes. I don’t think anyone would object to us adjourning now, would they?” Alex looked around.

  None of the others said anything or moved. Naomi got up and ran from the room, not needing to be told twice to leave.

  “Well, then that would conclude my business with American Enterprise. But there is an item of new business with the Bank of St. Petersburg.” Argosi turned towards a younger man with blond hair.

  Igor Petrov was a forty-something London-based banker and Russian National attending the board meeting on behalf of the Bank of St. Petersburg.

  Petrov tried to back away but couldn’t. His attempts to eject or summon help had also been in vain. Alex walked along the table until he was across from Petrov and then turned towards him. Leaning over the table, he grabbed Petrov by the neck and dragged him over the table. His kicking feet knocked over a tray of beverages and then a chair on the side of the table Alex was standing on.