S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11)

by Tanpepper, Saul

  Jake.

  yes jessie it’s me

  Her body jerked and she pulled away from the tech with a choking gasp, her eyes wide with fright. She scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over the low bench which spanned the length of the wall.

  “Look,” the technician said, managing to look both amused and impatient, “it’s understandable that you’re nervous. Most new Operators get cold feet. It’s a butt-load of cash to be dropping all at once, especially on the latest gear. And on a Player you’ve never even seen before . . . .” His voice trailed off as he shook his head. She could hear him muttering into his chest: “Never heard of anything like it before in my life.”

  “I’m not nervous,” she snapped at him, momentarily forgetting her fright.

  And why should she be nervous? It hadn’t been her money that had paid for the equipment or the million-dollar entrance fee. She didn’t know whose money it had been, to tell the truth, though she did have her suspicions.

  He wants you to go back in.

  The sane thing would’ve been not to. If Micah wanted her to get back into The Game, then that’s the last thing she should do. But how could she not? Reggie and Kelly were vulnerable. And what he’d made them do to her mother had been inexcusable.

  “He won’t be expecting me to come after him myself.”

  “Excuse me?” Tony asked.

  “Nothing. Just just excited is all.”

  He’s not that stupid, Jessie. The moment you connect, Micah’s going to—

  No! It didn’t matter. None of it did. Only one thing mattered and that was getting back into Gameland, finding him, and stopping him. The rest of it — this charade — this was just a means to an end.

  “You know there’s no refunds,” Tony said. He passed a wand over her arm and measured the signal.

  “I don’t give a crap about the money! Just finish up with the adjustments already.”

  He looked her up and down, appraising her in her skintight white cotton bodysuit with its thousands of invisible embedded electrodes, and suddenly she felt as naked as if she was wearing nothing at all.

  “Yeah, makes sense, I guess. First-time Operators — ones who pay their way in themselves — they usually opt for the entry-level package, equipment that’s been fully vetted in the field, not the platinum level model with the latest sensory relays. Folks usually don’t upgrade until they’ve gotten a few kills under their belt, have some confidence in their ability to control a Player. Your dad like some kind of politician or something? Because that happens a lot around here.”

  Jessie snorted. If this poor sap ever found out the truth of who she was and why she needed to get into The Game, he’d go straight to Arc’s security and have her arrested. What she was planning wasn’t exactly legal. Hell, if she got caught before she could find Micah, this time there’d be no clemency. They’d conscript her in a flash. And, with her luck, she’d probably end up as one of those sanitation zombies scraping shit off sewer pipes underneath Detroit or something.

  “Just finish with the setup already,” she growled again, feeling her face flush with anger and embarrassment.

  The guy chuckled smugly to himself.

  “When do I get to see my Player?” she barked.

  “You can see him right now,” he answered, and he leaned over and tapped the screen. The image with her specs on it folded neatly away and was replaced by a photo of the zombie who was to be her avatar in The Game.

  When Jessie saw his face, her knees collapsed beneath her, and she fell senseless to the floor.

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 47

  “She’s planning to go back to Gameland,” Kelly said.

  Jessie hadn’t told him this in so many words, yet he knew. He knew she wouldn’t risk putting herself in Micah’s hands by simply connecting to a game stream, not if she didn’t have to. She was too smart for that. No, she was planning to go after him herself.

  The problem was, she was deluding herself.

  Doctor White pushed herself up in her chair and let out a sigh. There was a foulness in her breath, and the stiffness in her movements suggested she was ill.

  Kelly watched her carefully. He’d just told her about Jessie’s mom and about her theory that Micah had somehow hacked their implants through the gaming gear. Doctor White had immediately dismissed the idea that the gear she’d given him was somehow to blame. “And what do you believe?”

  “Honestly?” Kelly answered. “I’m having difficulty accepting it. On the other hand, it would explain the blackouts.”

  “And free you of any responsibility for her mother’s abduction. How convenient.”

  Kelly nodded.

  “Has anyone wondered if maybe Jessie is doing this herself?”

  Kelly frowned, then nodded again. “It’s crossed our minds.”

  “After all, she has been very angry at her mother. And you. And you did say she was obsessed with Survivalist. Have you ever considered that she might subconsciously want to go back?”

  “To Gameland? Not Jessie.” He shook his head, but he knew it was a lie.

  “I saw the blood results on your friend, Reggie, from when he was in before. He had high levels of an illicit drug in his bloodstream. Zoners, I think they call them. Do you have any idea where he got them?”

  Kelly stared at her in shock. “I found some in Jessie’s pocket a few days ago.”

  “They’re known to reduce one’s inhibitions, make one more susceptible to suggestion. They can also cause one to become violent. And to experience blackouts. Do you have any ideas why she’d give them to him?”

  Kelly shook his head, his mouth hanging open.

  Doctor White reached over and took a drink of water from the bottle on her desk. “I’m not judging her. What you all suffered was extremely traumatic. But I think it would be best if she saw a professional, got some help.”

  Kelly averted his gaze from the doctor’s face.

  Something’s missing, his mind announced, distractedly. He didn’t want to think about Jessie going crazy or doing something to harm them.

  The hinged skull was present and accounted for, although the top was slightly askew, as if the hinge had been bent. And there was the lamp. The shade was crumpled on one side. And the old telephone with the missing button was now missing two.

  What am I not seeing?

  “Kelly, where is she? I’m worried she might try to hurt herself.”

  He snapped back to her. “We don’t know. We checked the house, Eric and I did, but she was already gone. We tried pinging her, but she wouldn’t connect. I was even going to try the police, but Eric stopped me.”

  Doctor White nodded. “Wise decision. If they find out, it’ll be like trying to put the genie back into the bottle.”

  “Meaning?”

  Her face pinched. “Jessica won’t be able to get back into Gameland. The tunnels have been sealed. All of them, even the LaGuardia tunnel. The only ways on and off the island are tightly controlled.”

  “What are they?”

  “There used to be access points for the Marines, of course. But since Arc took over, neither the military nor local police departments have jurisdiction. I told Jessie about a Player access point, but the ferryman we were using has been replaced. She knows that, too. And she’d have to pass through multiple checkpoints just to reach it. Assuming she made it that far, she’d never be able to get inside.”

  “I know Jessie,” Kelly said. “Once she gets something in her head, she finds a way to make it happen.”

  “She’s just upset about her mother. Once she figures out it’s not possible to go, she’ll come home. Better the police don’t know about any attempt.” She sighed. “I’m actually more worried that we’ll lose her Link. We’re close to needing that packet. I’m doing one final test for the cure. You should try to ping her again.”

  He shook his head. “I have, a couple dozen times already. It goes straight to voice mail. She’s not connecting.”

 
“But she’s still on the stream.”

  Kelly nodded.

  “See? She’s not on Gameland.” She coughed into her hand, and Kelly got another whiff of that rancid smell.

  “Are you feeling alright?”

  “Just the flu is all,” she replied. “Listen, let me try and secure another Player identifier code. Use it to retrieve her grandfather’s Link.”

  “And Micah?”

  “Kelly,” she said, exhaling tiredly, “you know as well as I do that Micah Sandervol is dead.” She wheezed out a dry chuckle. “Now stop worrying so much. She’ll come back sooner the less you push.”

  She got stiffly out of her chair and gestured to the door. “Go sit with your mother-in-law. Don’t worry about Jessica.”

  “Jessie. She doesn’t like Jessica.”

  Doctor White smiled thinly. “Yes, she told me. I keep forgetting not to call her that. Tomorrow, we’ll start fresh. I’ll get another Player and— ” She coughed again and shrugged. “Getting that key is our top priority. Once we have it, everything else will be fine.”

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 48

  What the hell are you doing, Jessie?

  She balled her fists and thrust them against her eyelids until stars shot across the darkness before her eyes.

  You should be with your mother instead of playing with zombies.

  I’m not playing!

  Besides, what good would it do to sit by the bed and pray? She didn’t believe in prayer. She didn’t believe good things happened just because you wanted them to. That had been her problem all these years. All of this had come about because she had just sat by and done nothing but hope for the best.

  But this? This is suicide.

  Maybe. But she owed her mother that much. She owed Kelly and Reggie and the rest of them as much, too.

  The wheels of the bus hummed over the uneven surface of the road. She was glad the inside lights were off. She didn’t want anyone to see her face, not because of the tears — she had shed her last even before showing up at ArcWare’s training facility earlier that evening, demanding they begin her orientation — but because she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. The less people saw of her, the better. If she knew Kelly, he’d probably already tried to get the police to intervene, thinking he was doing her a favor.

  You’re being paranoid.

  “I’m being practical,” she whispered.

  The ghost of the moon followed them as they rode north on the elevated highway. It glimmered over the swamplands to the east, dodging the sunken abandoned buildings, and skimming over the marshes. In less than twenty minutes she’d be back in Greenwich. It was almost midnight, and she wondered whether Eric and Kelly would be at home or the hospital. She guessed Eric would be with their mother. Kelly would be home, waiting for her. She didn’t have a plan for how she was going to deal with either of them.

  She stood up when the bus pulled into the station three blocks from the hospital, and she stretched the stiffness from her muscles. She had brought nothing and so had nothing to carry, and they hadn’t given her anything when she’d left her outfitting. “Be back at eight in the morning,” she’d been told. “Bring enough changes of clothing to stay here a week.”

  Tomorrow was the first day of conditioning. It was also when they would be inserting her sensory devices— corneal and inner ear implants. She was a little nervous about those, but she tried not to think about it. The tech had assured her they were no more of a problem than getting her blood drawn. “A couple tiny pricks and voila, you’re good to go.”

  She thought about how Reggie would’ve cracked a joke about tiny pricks, and it made her angry.

  From what she’d already experienced, the new gear was a thousand times more sensitive than anything Arc had ever developed before. “Makes last year’s model feel old and rickety,” the tech had told her. Though, she was a bit worried to learn she was going to be among the first to use it. Her worry quickly became swallowed by her rage when he’d added, “Arc expects to make five billion just in upgrades during the first twenty-four hours of sales after they make their official announcement next week.”

  Jessie wondered how Micah could possibly afford it. Or why he’d even bother with the newest gear. But then she realized that he’d probably stolen the funds. And as for the second question, maybe he knew something about it that she didn’t.

  Doesn’t matter, she reminded herself. It’s not like you’re going to be needing it after tomorrow anyway.

  For now, she’d play his game. But after that, she’d make the rules.

  The hospital doors swooshed open and she stepped through into the bright light of the lobby. She swept her gaze left and right for any familiar faces, but saw none. She took the stairs up to the fourth floor, stepping quietly and listening at each landing. She even slipped out on the third floor when the door above her opened and someone entered the stairwell. She hid behind a laundry cart around the corner from Doctor White’s office, and was even tempted to knock on her door. But she knew no good would come of it.

  She still didn’t like the woman, and she trusted her not at all. Besides, it was almost a certainty that Kelly had told her about what she was planning. She didn’t think White would’ve found it to her liking.

  When she was sure the person in the stairwell was gone, she hurried up the last flight.

  As she had expected, Eric was sitting by the bed, their mother’s hand in his. He appeared to be asleep, but with his head tilted back the way it was and the fact that he wasn’t snoring, she knew he was anything but. There was no sign of Kelly.

  She slipped back to the nurse’s station and asked how her mother was doing. The charge nurse checked her tablet. “She’s strong, stable. The doctor was surprised. The first twelve hours are critical. We’ll know better in the morning if she’s going to need surgery.”

  “Has she woken, said anything?”

  “No, I’m sorry, honey. Isn’t your brother in there with her now?”

  “He’s asleep. I didn’t want to wake him.”

  The nurse nodded. “Of course. You look exhausted yourself. You should go on home and get some sleep. I’ll ping you if her condition changes.”

  Jessie took her time walking home, trying to come up with a way to sneak in without Kelly knowing. But after arriving at her front door without a solution, and seeing the lights on inside and Kelly pacing in the living room, she slipped into the shadows beneath a tree down the street and pinged a text to him to come meet her at the hospital. She ignored his reply asking what was happening.

  Two minutes later, she watched him run down the steps pulling a fresh tee shirt over his head. She could see the glow of his Link in his hand as he hurried away down the sidewalk, and she knew he was pinging Eric, which meant she’d only have a few minutes before they discovered her subterfuge. So, as soon as he was out of sight, she slipped into the house. Knowing what she needed, she was in and out in less than seven minutes.

  She spent the balance of the night tucked into a dark doorway downtown. Around three-thirty, a truck pulled up to the curb at the city park across the square and unloaded a team of Undead. For the next hour, she watched as they tended the grounds, not a single Operator in sight. Her head kept bobbing, and her eyelids drooped. When next she looked up, she was alone once more.

  Finally, just as the sky was starting to brighten, she stood up and stretched. According to her Link, both Kelly and Eric had pinged her several times.

  At five minutes past six, she caught the first bus to Arc’s training facility in New Jersey.

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 49

  “The trick to the new rigs,” the instructor was telling her, “is not to act out what you intend your Player to do, but to convey that intention to the Player in a single discrete thought.”

  “One thought,” Jessie said. This guy’s a fruitcake, she thought. “Got it.”

  “Good. Here’s what I want you to do: Walk your Player over to
the middle door there, open it, select the item on the third shelf up, and place that item in the middle of the blue table on the other side of the room.”

  Jessie frowned. “That’s a whole lot of steps. How can I—”

  “One thought. That’s all you need. What should it be?”

  Jessie shook her head. “Walk over and open the door and—”

  “Wrong! Those are steps. You’re itemizing your Player’s actions. We’re entering a new era of game-play, one in which the Players are faster, stronger, more alive because the instructions they’re getting from you are more streamlined. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect, since starting tomorrow some of them will be alive.”

  “Live Players?”

  The instructor nodded. “The public hasn’t been told, yet. The official announcement’s tomorrow, but I don’t think you’ll be going out and blabbing to anyone, right?”

  Jessie shook her head. “Scout’s honor.”

  “That’s my girl. When you go to lunch, make sure you get a chance to introduce yourself to our first official Live team. They’re quite the crew.”

  “They’re here?”

  He nodded. “Okay, back to training. We need to get you comfortable with your new gear and the way you connect. It’s not exactly intuitive, except it actually is. Know what I mean?”

  “No.”

  “Never mind. Just know that once we work out the kinks, you’ll be able to play The Game whenever and wherever you want— at work , school, while eating dinner, sitting in church. Maybe even when you’re asleep.”

  “Seriously?”

  He laughed. “Joking about the church part.”

  “Yeah. Ha ha.”

  “My job is to train you to train your mind to consider the Player as an extension of your own body. It’s all about connecting your intentions to the part of your mind that processes actions.”

  She stared at him, unsure if he was being serious. She couldn’t decide if he was still joking or was just some kind of Zen-master screwball.