“Is he keeping his hands to himself?”
“A bit too much, actually. Could you talk to him about that?”
“Gross, sis.” He pushed her slightly. “Also, Tessa wants you to say hi soon. I have a couple messages for you to download off the server when we’re done. And that idiot Garrett from school keeps posting on all the gaming boards for you. Saying you owe him or some trash like that.”
Her stomach sank at the idea of Garrett. She did owe him a favor but didn’t see how to return it here in the middle of the ocean. She’d worry about that later. Maybe Tessa—her old roommate—would have an idea. “What else have I missed?”
Marco continued updating her on all the neighborhood gossip and when done grilled Ari on what she was doing, eating, and playing. Her brother loved gaming as much as anyone. She told him what she could while remaining as vague as possible. The minutes flew by and took her back to the time when they last lived in the same house. They would sneak into each other’s rooms and talk until they fell asleep. Except this time neither came close to tired, and Niomi’s voice signaled three minutes left.
“That didn’t feel like half an hour,” Marco said, standing up.
“Not at all.”
“So when will we see you next?”
Ari shrugged. “Not sure. I’m starting the next phase of my training soon, not that I’m sure what that entails.”
“Well, don’t get crazy in there, you’ll—”
“Get out now! And cover your tracks.” Niomi’s voice boomed inside the program. “Now!”
Marco’s smile fell, and he nodded. “I’ll be fine. Get out.” And he quickly vanished.
Only then did Ari pull out of the program.
Chapter 4
“What the hell?” Niomi shouted as she pulled the cable out of Ari’s port. “When I said leave, I meant it.”
“I needed to make sure Marco was okay.”
“That was really stupid.”
Ari ignored the insult. “What happened in there?”
Niomi stormed back to her computer, her fingers flying over the keys. “Someone hacked into our site. Security is looking into it now. You didn’t do anything in there did you? Morph the program?”
“No. I was just talking to my brother.” Ari pushed up from the chair, slowly curling her fist. “By the way, the government is after my mother. She had to go into hiding. Did you know?”
“I don’t follow your mother. My job is you.”
Ari slammed her fist onto the table. “You promised they would be taken care of.”
“Take it up with HR. I have enough trouble taking care of you.”
“Niomi!” Fury raced through her veins. This wasn’t something Niomi could just blow off.
Her trainer slowly turned, glancing at Ari’s fist on the table. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You’re right. Your family is important. Are they safe and getting the money they need?”
Ari realized her body trembled in fear. Would her family be okay? She forced herself to focus on the here and now. “Marco got my mom out, and they are in hiding. Dave has been getting them the money. But what about now? Will Marco be okay?”
“I’m trying to find that out.” Niomi motioned to the screen. “We take every threat seriously and will track down the hack. It could be just a bored troll out there or something more. But given what I read about your brother in your file, I think he’ll be okay. After hacking into the Mayor’s feed and escaping unscathed, he can make it. He’s smart and has connections. And if we have to, we can relocate them if they want.”
Sitting down on a nearby stool, the tightness in Ari’s chest lessened. “You’re right. Marco can take care of himself. And he’d hate for me to pull him out and trap him somewhere in a real job.” He told her no more than once when she tried to convince him to come with her.
“We have a team that will assess the situation. They’ll let us know as soon as they know. If people don’t connect you to them, the safer they will be.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Go grab a drink and calm down. I’ll go over things with Security and create an incident report. Vinh will be dropping off your upgraded suit soon as well.” Niomi turned back to her computer.
Trying to calm herself, Ari headed down to the kitchen to grab a drink. Since she’d accepted the position at VisionTech, she worried whether it was the right decision for her family. If she hadn’t, the government would have forced her into another position without ever seeing her family again. Was it selfish to want freedom, even if your family had to pay the cost? Next time, she’d talk her brother into coming here or at least sending her mom.
Sick of being stuck with her own thoughts, she called Vinh. “Are you heading over with my suit?”
“No hello? How are you doing, Vinh? I’m sad at how downhill your manners have gone since you arrived at VisionTech.”
Vinh continued rambling. As she turned the corner, she found he stood in the hall with a suit in hand. “I blame Niomi really. This isolation can’t be good for a person.”
Ignoring his lecture on manners, her lips curled up in a smile at the sight of her new suit. “You finished it.”
“You doubted me?” It was a shiny gray material that was clearly expensive.
“Never.” She reached for her suit, the soft material lighter than she expected. With the ache and worry of her family still present, she was grateful for the distraction. “Have time for a drink?”
He glanced at the time on his wrist. “Yeah. They won’t miss me for a while.”
They headed to the kitchen for some hot drinks. Ari thought the coffee machine in the communal kitchen must have authentic beans growing in the walls, along with farmers grounding them by hand. It was better than anything she ever tasted. They each grabbed a latte and sat down to chat. Talking to him about home, the fear faded to the background. Vinh laughed as she relayed some of Marco’s old stunts, and he shared some of his own.
Vinh grew up not too far from where they were and was recruited as an engineer. Making his own AI by the age of fourteen, he was brilliant and left his home in Thalasia when he was seventeen. He’d been here only a few months longer than Ari.
“So, did you ask out Tara from Marketing?” She’d been hearing about Tara for weeks now.
He shrugged. “She started dating some idiot from Security. I guess some people are into big muscles and not big brains.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Glad I found out now and didn’t waste any of my brilliance on her.” A message pinged on his HUB, and he heaved a sigh as he read it. “I got to head out. Thanks for the coffee.”
“Anytime.” Ari realized that they didn’t even get to talk about her suit, really. Which must have been hard for Vinh. She traced a silver line that caught the light against the black material. Guess the time for moping was done.
Ari got to test out the suit sooner than she thought. The next day they went inside a basic VR program. With Vinh’s new suit on, Ari stood across from Niomi at what looked like a park of some kind. Cement paths curved around large grassy areas. Large trees were scattered around, providing cool shade as colorful flowers dotted the landscape, adding the perfect amount of color. It would have been a great place to spend the day with Reed, instead Ari stared at Niomi who looked ready to fight someone.
“Do you remember the first profile in the notebook I gave you?”
Ari thought of the strawberry blond woman and nodded.
“Become her.”
“Now?” Ari had never assumed another personality, though she’d been taught how.
Niomi looked around, her shoulders raised. “Anything better to do?”
“Okay.” Ari closed her eyes, thinking back to the woman, Kari. Most people would consider her attractive with wavy strawberry blond hair and dark blue eyes. Though Kari tried to hide her large forehead with bangs, her full cheeks took up a lot of real estate on her face. Her body was thin, except for a large chest, which A
ri didn’t look forward to wearing or creating.
Taking a deep breath, she began the writing code. Instead of manually writing code number by number, with Ari’s gift, the world morphed around. Her heart picked up with exhilaration as she recreated herself, pulling from Kari’s picture. When completed, Ari opened her eyes.
“Look at yourself.” Niomi brow slanted in annoyance. “This ‘close your eyes’ thing has to go.”
Looking down, Ari saw the problem. She exaggerated all the physical aspects she remembered. This version of Kari could have passed for a cartoon character. Her chest was double what Ari remembered, while the rest of her thin frame lacked any muscular definition. Her face warmed at the embarrassing rendition. “I guess I need some work.”
“You guess?” Niomi cocked a brow, but her mouth twitched as if tapping down a smile. “First rule, keep your eyes open so you can make adjustments along the way.”
Ari lifted her arm and focused on the code that laid underneath the image. It took her a few minutes to complete the arm perfectly, and to add the freckles to the right locations. A perfect imitation proved harder than she thought.
With a huff of breath, she dropped her arm. “I can’t be expected to do this every time I enter a VR. I can’t possibly memorize every freckle and hair for every person you gave me. I may be a warper, but I don’t have a photographic memory.”
“That’s where your suit comes in. It can memorize files you create and recall them for you.”
“Really?” Ari chuckled with relief.
“You still have to create them all yourself and learn to do it fast.”
Nothing could be easy with Niomi. “Why? Why does everything have to be the hard way with you?”
“What if your suit malfunctions? What if you have to become somebody else to survive?”
“I didn’t think about that.” Ari swallowed, embarrassed for her overreaction.
“The VLEX is a world unto itself with a whole different set of rules. Imagine sneaking into a top-secret meeting, the punishment for which was life in prison.”
“Wait, wait a moment.” Ari rose a hand, grateful to find it hers. “What I’m doing could make me end up in prison?”
“If they could catch you or us, yes, but they won’t. It is that serious though. They will track you down if they can. Warpers have always been banned from VLEX. Not that it stops all the powerful countries and corporations from sending their spies in.”
“Then why am I going there?”
“To find out information about a new bill that has been introduced to the world council. They will not let private corporations in on the dealings, only governments, and we can’t trust them to tell us what this bill entails. Information is power and some small message or captured conversation could be worth millions.”
Ari paced for a moment inside the program. She knew what she was hired to do couldn’t be easy, not for what she made, but the realization of what she had to do was a bit daunting. Steeling her resolve, she lifted her hands and began again, forming the arm into Kari.
Minutes, then hours passed as they worked on perfecting Kari. Ari felt almost embarrassed how intimately she knew this woman’s body. When they were complete, they saved the data and worked on the different ways the woman liked to style her hair. She looked forward to someone with a simple short crew cut, maybe a man.
If it ended at looks, maybe Ari could have handled it, but then there were even more things to perfect. The sound of her voice, how she took her coffee, her education, and they even covered her past lovers—which Ari found disturbing. Ari’s mind felt like a pile of mush. The thoughts of all the files on her computer overwhelmed her as well. Just when she thought she couldn’t do any more, Niomi had one more test for her.
“Kari,” Niomi began, she’d been referring to Ari as Kari for some time now. “What would you do if I did this?” Niomi shoved Ari backwards.
Ari stumbled back in surprise. Her training kicked in and she took a defensive stance. Niomi attacked, striking with her fists. Ari blocked, spun under to force Niomi to turn. Her face tightened, her lips pulling down in a scowl. Without warning, Niomi lunged forward, tackling her to the ground. It took mere seconds before Ari was on her stomach pinned to the ground eating grass.
“Give.” Ari mumbled from her position. With Niomi’s fierce attack, Ari tried to figure out what the hell was Niomi trying to prove here.
“There is no give, here.”
“What?”
Niomi dug her knee into Ari’s back. She grunted with pain. Ari had seen Niomi pissed before, but not like this.
“If you remember anything, remember this. You are always in character. Kari wouldn’t fight back. She’d be scared, startled, probably scream. And if she fought back, it’d be like a girl who had never fought before.”
“So, I’m supposed to just take it.”
“Yes, you are. You can take pain. Distance yourself in the program if you have to, but take it.”
Ari swallowed, still bound by Niomi’s tight grasp. Angry tears welled in Ari’s eyes as her helpless frustration built. “Then why teach me to fight at all?”
“Because one day you will need it. You won’t always be Kari.” Niomi leaned close. “Remember you are a warper. You don’t have to fight, you can change this program to be whatever you need it to be. You, better than anyone, know this is only a game. Separate yourself and outsmart them. You always have more than one choice.”
The next second, Niomi vanished, leaving the program.
Ari lay panting face down in the grass. Sometimes her life felt like a game, whether it be the government or VisionTech, she’d constantly be playing by other people’s rules in and out of virtual reality programs. One day, she’d love to live her life on her own terms, but that wasn’t her reality for now.
Chapter 5
By the time she got back to her room and showered, Ari only wanted to curl up in front of a show and eat all the ice cream she could get her hands on. Heading down to the kitchen, she found Jewels tidying up. She found some ice cream in the freezer from before. Jewels was one of the few people on the island that had access to Ari’s rooms, and she helped clean, launder and do anything that a robot couldn’t. Not a busy job, but Ari appreciated having her around.
“How are you doing today?” Ari grabbed two different cartons: mint chip and rocky road.
Jewels motioned to the cartons. “Better than you.”
“Do you want some?”
“No, dear. These old bones work better with a light load. Can I get anything for you?” Jewels’ eyes sparkled with kindness. Her old age was seen in the silver that lined her hair, or the age lines etched on her face, but those eyes shone.
“No.” Looking down, she questioned her choice of food and grabbed a bag of popcorn just in case before heading to her room. “I’ll catch you later, Jewels.”
“Take care, dear.”
Not wanting to see Niomi, who was the only other person to live in their annex of the Wave, Ari kept to her own rooms. She’d opened the bag and dug in by the time she got to her bedroom and curled up on her couch. The familiar ache flared up. Missing home, she called Reed.
He picked up with audio only, “Hey Ari.” People spoke in the background.
“Hey, you busy?”
“A bit. I’m meeting with the art club, working on my design project.” He had to submit a portfolio to be accepted as an art intern with VisionTech, and right now they liked him a lot more in security. To move divisions wasn’t impossible, but not many people did it.
“Okay… I just—”
“Give me a minute guys,” Reed spoke to the others in the room.
Instead of quieting down, they got louder. Several cat calls made it through the line to Ari. She felt embarrassed to be bothering Reed when he already had so much on his plate.
“Sorry, Ari. I’m stepping into the bathroom now.” The background noise muted quite a bit.
“I know you’re busy. I can let you go. I j
ust wanted to say good night.” Her stomach sunk, already missing him.
“You sure?” Before she could reply, he continued. “I am swamped over here but can take a break if you need.”
“Don’t worry about. We can talk tomorrow. Goodnight, Reed.”
“Goodnight.” The click ending the phone call, echoed through her empty apartment.
She dug into ice cream, angry at herself for being so disappointed. Reed came to VisionTech because of her and to be with her. Wasn’t that enough confirmation of his feelings? He was busy chasing his dreams and she needed to be supportive. She usually was, but today was a long day and she just wanted to talk. After a while, these quiet rooms started to get to her.
Halfway through the carton of rocky road, Vinh video called her. Once she answered, he started laughing.
“Really?” She didn’t find herself amusing. Self-consciously, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“Sorry,” he tried to reign in his jovial expression. “Was my suit that hard on you that you’re eating a whole carton of ice cream?”
“I can turn you off,” she threatened.
“Come on. Tell me how it went.”
Digging into one more big bite just to prove to him that she could, she told him how it went. Vinh was one of the few people she could talk over some of her missions with. He had a high security clearance with the company so that he could improve and work on the gear for virtual reality programs. Despite his sarcasm, or maybe because of it, she relaxed as she vented about how Niomi trashed her in the program.
Their conversation turned to home, a common topic between the two of them. “I’m tired of machine food. I wouldn’t think fish would be that hard to cook,” Vinh complained. “But I tried it again, and I couldn’t make it through the plate.”
“Home cooked can’t be beat.” Ari’s stomach tightened at the thought of her mother’s food.
“I just have to convince them to let me in the kitchen. Show them a thing or two about the value of fat.”
Hard Wired Trilogy Page 32
