Damian delighted in tormenting him about his dating life, or lack thereof. Jace had dated a few girls in high school but college had been so busy, he hadn’t had time to do much outside classes and work. Most of the other kids had partied all the time. They weren’t worried about failing out or making bad grades, since mommy or daddy would bail them out if they screwed up.
If he had screwed up, he would have had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Consequently, his dating life in college had been nonexistent. After college, he’d worked two jobs to make ends meet. That hadn’t lent itself to dating much either.
He’d actually had two girl friends in his first two years of college. They’d both been really nice girls and they’d shared some interests. But neither relationship had lasted beyond a few weeks. In the end, both had left him. After the second one, he’d just given up and focused on his studies.
Of course, now he had no excuse. And Damian knew it. Jace still wasn’t sure whether the older programmer was actually trying to encourage him to date more or whether Damian liked to simply embarrass him. The man did seem to delight in the failures of his teammates for some reason.
“Your silence is its own answer. No girls again,” Damian scoffed. “You need to put yourself out there.”
Jace rolled his eyes but then Minu chimed in as well.
“Jace, Damian is right for once,” came Minu’s voice. “You need to put yourself out there. You are a nice guy. There are plenty of girls looking for nice guys.”
Laughter came from Damian’s cube. “Hah! Girls don’t want nice guys. They want danger and excitement. That’s why I’m hooking up with 3 girls this weekend.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Danger and excitement,” retorted Minu. “You ‘hook up’ with girls. But how many have you actually been in a relationship with?”
“Zero,” the older programmer responded wistfully. “Why would I want a relationship. We use each other and then move on.”
“Ugh,” said Minu. “That’s like rutting animals.”
Damian only chuckled at her.
Jace knew better than to inject himself into their arguments about relationships. They were polar opposites. Minu believed in traditional relationships and marriage. Damian was the opposite. He seemed to like to “hook up” with women for brief periods of time, have sex and then move on.
The two were never going to see eye to eye and if he said anything, he’d get a lecture from one or both of them about how their way was the right way.
“Oh,” Minu said suddenly. “I need to go. I have this afternoon off. I have to take Dinesh to the doctor this afternoon.”
Sounds came from her cubicle as she cleaned her desk and gathered her stuff. A few minutes later, she appeared on his side of the cube.
“You two have a good weekend,” she told them.
“You too,” he replied, glancing over at her.
“See ya,” Damian’s voice said from inside his cubicle.
Jace watched her walk to the door. She stopped at the brain backup booth and stepped inside. Technically, it was called a Cranial Digitizer, but everyone just called them brain backup booths. Minu swiped her badge and entered a pin number on the keypad. When she did, the door slid shut behind her and a percentage countdown appeared on the screen in front of her. As it counted down, he knew there were invisible low-light lasers that were reading her neurons and storing the information in a memory crystal.
It took about a minute, but the counter reached zero and the door slid open. Minu stepped out, waved back at them and then turned the corner towards the elevators.
Tiredly, he raised his hand to wave back, but she was already gone.
“I’m going to grab some lunch,” Jace told Damian and locked his computer. He heard some incomprehensible mutter from Damian’s cube and assumed that was the older programmer’s acknowledgment.
He walked around the office floor until he found an empty conference room. He looked up the conference room in the calendar to make sure it wasn’t in use for the next hour and then ducked inside. Closing the door behind him, Jace sat back in one of the uncomfortable chairs. Before he knew it, he was dreaming of VEIL.
It wasn’t uncommon for him to dream of the game since he spent so much time inside. But this time was a little different. He dreamed he was in the game, but as himself. And he was being chased. And whatever was chasing him was getting closer. It was right behind him. Then the alarm on his phone went off and he was back in the real world.
Chapter 6
Jace didn’t really feel any better after his short nap in the conference room. He couldn’t help but remember that feeling of being chased. Whatever it was that had been after him, it had almost got him. He grabbed a caffeinated soda and a candy bar from the vending machine on his way back to his desk. Candy and soda, the lunch of champions.
Dragging himself back to his desk, he went back to work and resolved several more code issues. Still tired, his mind still wandered back to the earlier conversation about dating.
Part of him did want to date. In fact, a tiny part of him even thought about marriage one day. But a larger part of him resisted. It told don’t him not to get involved. Don’t get too close. He couldn’t open himself up to that pain again. That pain of losing everyone you love.
It was safer not to get involved at all. The closer you got to people, the more you had to lose. And Jace couldn’t afford to lose any more.
He focused his attention on the issue he was troubleshooting. He had to read through the code several times before he spotted the error. It took him a few more minutes to program around it. Once Jace tested it, he documented the code and re-submitted it. One more issue resolved.
He glanced up at the clock. It was 4:30 p.m. Another thirty minutes and the work week would be over, and he could go home and rest before logging into the game. He wanted to be more excited about being ready for raids, but he was just so tired.
Jace rubbed his eyes and clicked on the next issue. He read the description and looked at the routine involved. Wow. It was an issue in the insertion routine. The insertion routine was the code which handled the process of inserting a new memory crystal into the game. The code looked like it scrolled for pages and pages. He began paging through it to see how many lines of code there were when something caught his eye.
He stopped and scrolled back. A few pages up, he found what had caught his eye. It was a large block of corrupted code. He looked at it closely. Maybe it wasn’t corrupted at all. Maybe it was encrypted or obfuscated, making it completely unreadable to the human eye. He brought up the code history to see who had looked at the code last. It was currently checked out by Damian Teivel. He involuntarily looked over towards the older programmer’s cube.
Should he ask Damian about it? Maybe there was a reason for it. Was it some sort of trade secret code? Yes, that must be it. The whole process of inserting a person’s memory crystal into the game was very secret. It was one of the main factors that made VEIL Online the dominant game in the market. He definitely wouldn’t put it past WorldCog to encrypt sensitive parts of it to prevent it from leaking.
“Hey Damian,” he called out to his coworker. “What’s up with this encrypted code in the insertion routine?”
He heard the other man’s keyboard go silent. Damian’s head peaked out of his cube. His face paled. “Encrypted code?”
That was interesting. Had Damian not found it? He couldn’t see the other programmer missing something as obvious as a huge block of nonsensical code.
Maybe it really was corrupted. “Well, encrypted or corrupted. There’s a huge block of it in the insertion routine.”
The other programmer narrowed his eyes at Jace. His voice began icy. “What are you doing in the insertion routine?”
Jace was confused. The older programmer could be a jerk sometimes, but this seemed more extreme. “I was just clicking a random issue, and this came up.”
Damian stared hard at Jace for a long moment. “And you didn’t see that I w
as already working on it?”
Now he thought he understood. Damian must have already been working on the issue and must have thought Jace was checking up on him. He knew the other programmer hated that. He even hated it when their boss, Phil, did it.
Jace brought up his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t even notice you were in it. I was so tired I didn’t even check to see that it was checked out.”
The older programmer’s expression didn’t soften. “You didn’t notice that it was signed out to me?”
Trying to lighten the mood, Jace forced a smile. “Sorry man, I’ve been dragging all day.”
Damian’s eyebrow rose but his voice was still icy, almost dangerous. “What? You’re so tired you couldn’t read the checked out by but not tired enough to find some obfuscated code?”
“Obfuscated?” Jace asked, confused. Obfuscating code made it almost impossible to read. It took days, sometimes weeks or even years to make it readable. Why would WorldCog obfuscate their code? Especially from troubleshooters like his team.
He noticed the muscles of Damian’s jaw tensing. The older programmer narrowed his eyes. “I meant encrypted, like you said.”
Damian was acting weird, even for Damian. Was the code really encrypted or was it obfuscated? Whichever it was, it must be important.
“Does Phil know about the code?” he asked.
Damian’s face went white, then red. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it. After almost a full minute, he did speak. “Of course, he knows. I’m looking into how the obfuscated code got in there. It’s all hush-hush until I find who did it. Okay?”
Jace considered that. It would make sense. If someone had found some code that didn’t belong, the company would want to find out where it came from and what it was doing. But why wasn’t the Internal Audit department looking at it instead of one of the troubleshooting teams?
“Are you working with Internal Audit?” he asked Damian.
Once again Damian looked like he was about to say something, then paused and finally responded. “Yes, if you must know, I’m working with Internal Audit on this.”
Jace opened his mouth to ask if he could help but Damian cut him off. “Listen, you’re not even supposed to know about this. This is all very top secret stuff. Okay? Don’t go telling anyone.”
“I’ll have to tell Phil,” Jace told him. Phil would know anyway. The moment Jace had opened the issue, his id had been recorded as looking at it. If he didn’t tell Phil before his boss noticed it in an audit report, he’d get in more trouble.
Damian’s eyes went wide. “What?!”
“I opened the ticket,” he explained. “My ID is already logged as reading it. If I don’t tell him and he finds out, I’ll be in big trouble.”
Damian opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again and closed it, as if he couldn’t think of the right thing to say. That in itself was weird since Damian always had something to say about everything. But there was also a weird look to the man’s eyes that Jace found unnerving.
Finally, Damian spoke. “Listen, I can erase your name from the audit log. Then Phil won’t find out.”
“What?!” Jace gasped. No one was supposed to be able to alter the logs. That was the whole point of an audit log, you knew it was a foolproof way to see who had done what to a file and when they’d done it. It was even possible to go back and see exactly what had been changed. If the audit log could be modified, then it was worthless. Someone could change the code, then remove any record that they’d made the change.
“How can you do that? It’s supposed to be impossible,” Jace asked curiously.
The older programmer gave Jace one of his cocky grins. “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.”
Jace snickered. “No seriously, how can you modify the logs?”
Damian gave him a conspiratorial look. “I have heightened access at the moment, since I’m working on this. Don’t say anything to Phil. I’ll delete your log and he’ll never know.”
Jace considered that. What Damian was suggesting went against all sorts of policies. If they were caught doing it, they’d get fired.
If Jace just admitted to accidentally clicking on the ticket, he’d probably get a verbal reprimand - possibly a written one - but he’d still have a job. He just couldn’t risk it.
“No thanks,” Jace told him. “I’ll just tell Phil and accept the consequences.”
Damian eyed Jace for a long time before seeming to come to some mental decision. He shrugged. “Yeah, I kind of figured you’d say that. You’re too much of a straight shooter. But listen, don’t tell him by email. Tell him face to face. This is sensitive and no one’s supposed to know.”
Jace nodded. That mostly made sense. He looked over at Phil’s office and then sighed. That’s right, Phil was off today. He’d have to wait until tomorrow. “Fine, I’ll tell him tomorrow.”
“Good boy,” Damian said and moved his chair back to his own cube. “You tell Phil tomorrow.”
Jace logged out of the ticket and looked at the time. It was 5 p.m., time to go. He shut down his system and stood to go. Damian was still at his desk. “You leaving?”
“I need to get some more done on this project,” Damian told him, not bothering to look at him.
“Okay,” Jace said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
When Damian didn’t reply, Jace walked over to the brain backup booth. Jace went inside the booth, swiped his badge and entered his PIN. A moment later, the door shut behind him and the screen in front of him began showing a percent remaining countdown. He closed his eyes to await the beep that would signal the end of the backup.
When the beep didn’t happen after what seemed like a minute, Jace opened his eyes to find he was outside, and everything had changed.
Chapter 7
Jace blinked against the bright light of the sun and it took his eyes a moment to adjust. Even though things were blurry, it was clear he was now outside. How had he gotten outside? His vision cleared and he looked around.
He immediately scrambled back across the ground as he recognized the faces of goblins sitting around a bonfire. He fell as he backpedaled but kept moving backwards on his hands. The goblins around the fire stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to stare at him dumbly.
“You okay?” one of the goblins asked in a high-pitched voice. The other goblins shrugged and went back to talking.
Jace was continuing to back away when he caught sight of his feet. They were large and gray and had claws where the toenails should be. A costume. He must be wearing some sort of costume. Yes, he must be wearing those novelty slippers that look like monster feet.
Reaching down to pull the slippers off, Jace froze as he caught sight of his hands. They were gray and knobby with claws at the end of each finger. They were goblin hands. He wiggled his fingers and the goblin hands wiggled their fingers. He waved them around.
“You get hit in the head or something?” asked the goblin who was still looking at him.
“What?” Jace said reflexively. His voice game out high pitched like the other goblin. What was going on? Was he dreaming?
That must be it. He must have gone home and then fell asleep and for some reason was dreaming he was a goblin.
Relaxing, Jace sat up and looked around. He was in a small village of a half dozen mud and straw huts. There were a dozen more goblins in the village, most of them around the bonfire he’d just crawled away from.
Everything seemed so surreal, so vivid. It was just like being in the game - well, other than being a goblin. He wondered why his subconscious had chosen a goblin. Maybe it was something he ate.
He thought back to the last thing he remembered. He got the brain backup and then what? He didn’t remember anything after the backup. He must have been really tired. It was strange that he didn’t even remember the ride home on the train. Or, had he fallen asleep on the train?
Jace wasn’t sure but he decided to check out things before he woke up.
He had just picked himself off of the ground and started to brush himself off when the world went topsy turvy. There was a flash of blinding light and something hot lifted him off his feet and threw him into the wall of the hut behind him.
He wanted to cry out in pain, but nothing in his body responded. There were shooting pains in his back and his front felt like his skin was on fire. He slid down the wall into a heap on the ground, unable to move. But he could see now.
The place where the bonfire had been just seconds ago was now a large scorched circle. He heard several twangs and some goblin shouts and then everything went quiet. Was that the sound of a bow he’d heard? Was someone attacking them?
Jace fought through the excruciating pain and tried to stand up but his body didn’t respond. Was he dead? Weren’t you supposed to wake up if you died in a dream? Why hadn’t he woken up? And why the heck did it hurt so much?
Then he heard voices and they were speaking English. He tried to move his head to find the source of the voices, but nothing worked. He was either dead or paralyzed. Except being dead shouldn’t hurt so much.
The sound of talking caught his attention. It came from his left, but he couldn’t see anything and still couldn’t move his head to look in that direction. At first the talking was muffled by distance, but then he definitely heard people speaking English.
“I bet there’s not even anything here,” said a male voice.
“Me thinks there something,” said a deeper male voice that sounded like it belonged to a simpleton.
“Geez, knock off the roleplaying… yes, we get it… you’re Frankenstein,” hissed another male voice. This one sounded much more guttural and somewhat serpentine.
“Frankenstein’s monster,” responded the deeper voice, this time sounding much more intelligent. “Frankenstein was the scientist.”
“Whatever,” hissed the guttural voice.
Four figures strode into his view, looking at the carnage in the village. The most striking was a seven-foot man who appeared to be stitched together. It was golem, a stitched together humanoid, very similar to Frankenstein's monster. They were one of the player races in the evil faction. They made excellent front line fighters.
VEIL Online - Book 1 Page 4
