Hard Wired Trilogy

by DeAnna Pearce

  Hailey clapped, applauding the man. Straightening up, he ran a hand through his hair, short and dark with a hint of silver. It may be to show his age, but no one ever knew in here. His red tie stood out against his black suit, a perfect match to the woman’s dress.

  “This must be Kari.” He took Ari’s hand and kissed the knuckles. “Pleasure to meet you. You may call me Emil.”

  She had to reminder herself to stay in character but noticed how he phrased that with a curl of his lips—pleasure.

  “Hailey tells me you have some gifts.”

  Ari spared Hailey a quick look. “I guess that’s a matter of opinion.”

  A light laughter filled the air, almost as musical as the dance. The musical perfection of his laugh couldn’t have been natural, but only something a warper could do. “Glad you have a sense of humor.”

  Nerves on edge, Ari got straight to the point. “How many people like you are in here?”

  His smile remained in place. “You mean warpers like you?”

  Biting her lower lip, she nodded. She wasn’t ready to admit to anyone her abilities, but this man had abilities of his own. “That’s not an answer.” Ari didn’t want to play games anymore. Could no one be straight? She turned to leave, and a wall appeared in front of her where the hall used to be. Turning around, she realized there was no longer an exit in the room. Yes, she could have moved it, but she didn’t want to use her powers unless necessary. As she turned, she narrowed her gaze.

  He held a hand open. “Dance with me?”

  “Really?” A laugh escaped her. “I don’t know how to dance.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Before she could reply, he took her hand and spun her into his arms. The smell of spicy cinnamon, presumably his cologne, wafted around her. He kept his hand on her lower back while lifting hers up in a formal position. Soon they spun around the room with an agility and grace Ari didn’t possess.

  Uncomfortable, she pulled back, resisting, but nothing happened. Her body continued to dance close to his. Her hips twisted as her feet danced steps foreign to her. The Spanish number played out of the music player nearby.

  Unnerved, she tried harder to stop dancing. Ari slammed her foot hard into the ground, but nothing happened. She focused on the code, the characters and digits flowing along everything in this world. Her power of manipulation, which normally came as easily as walking, didn’t work. She could see the code but couldn’t change it. Her body continued dancing against its will.

  He leaned towards her, his breath warm on her neck “Don’t fight it. You’ll only hurt yourself.”

  Panic clamped down on her chest. Her breaths came in jagged gasps. Helpless in his arms, his touch became repulsive.

  “You’re more special than anyone wants to tell you. You are more than the tool people want you to be.”

  Closing her eyes, she tried to pull out of the program. Normally, she only had to will herself back into reality, simple and easy. Instead, she remained in the program with Emil’s hands still on her.

  Focusing, she changed the world around her. Brightly colored letters and numbers spun around her, but she was powerless to change anything. This was her current reality. She swallowed back the tears and fear that threatened to overwhelm her.

  The music continued playing and when she opened her eyes, Emil smiled back at her. “You’re the future.”

  Slowly the music ended, and she spun out of his hands. A wave of dizziness threatened to overtake her. Holding onto a nearby wall, she struggled to slow her breath. “What the hell was that?”

  “What I’m capable of, and what you will be capable of one day. Your company claims to save you, protect you from those who would poach us like wild animals. Yet all they want is this power for themselves.” He reached out his hand, and Hailey stepped next to him, grasping it. “They probably even claim to keep you safe and healthy, but they don’t even know how.”

  “What are you talking about?” The hundreds of questions Ari had fled as she tried to decipher what he was really saying. A headache began to grow behind her eyes, her mind fuzzy. Trying to manipulate the code hurt her more than she realized.

  “Why don’t you dig a little deeper into this VisionTech of yours? Instead of being their puppet, consider holding the reins for a while.”

  With a snap of his fingers, Ari stood outside the restaurant. She spun around looking for any sign of them, but only saw strangers continue down the busy walkway. Nauseated, she leaned against a nearby wall and slowly sunk to the ground. Code blinked in and out of her vision as a sharp pain grew behind her eyes. Trying to escape Emil exhausted her energy, but she didn’t figure it would be this bad.

  Sitting down, head between her bent knees, she tried to catch her breath. She squeezed her eyes shut, and a rainbow of colored code ran against the back of her eyelids. She fought the migraine that threatened to keep her down.

  “Are you okay, Miss?” A middle-aged man stood above her in a dark suit. His face was a blur of flesh and code that hurt to look at.

  “Just not feeling well.” She turned away and prayed he’d leave her be. People weren’t sick inside the VR or if so, it would be hidden back in the real world. If somebody was too ill, then the VR monitors would pull them out.

  The man remained nearby, obviously not believing her.

  She lifted her chin and forced her face to not show the pain she felt. “Seriously. I just got some bad news from my boyfriend. I’ll be okay.”

  He finally turned to leave, mumbling something about drama.

  After several minutes, she used the wall to stand. The world around her spun several times, but slowly straightened out. Unsure of how she would finish her work, she stumbled into a nearby bar and asked for a drink. With a swipe of her hand, Kari paid for it with her employee credits. The taste repelled her, but she finished it. With a gasp, she set the bottle down. Characters danced around the glass, and she realized fake alcohol may not fix this type of headache.

  If she pulled out of the VR, it would be obvious something happened. Niomi would demand answers. Was Ari ready to tell her?

  No, not yet. Not until she had all the answers about VisionTech. With a hand lifted to block out the fake sun, she shuffled back to work. Gratefully, President Higgins had a meeting that kept him busy most of the afternoon. Ari laid her head on the desk, closed her eyes, and prayed for the pain to stop.

  Chapter 16

  With trembling fingers, Ari typed out her report. Her headache turned to a full-blown migraine. Black spots filled her vision, and she worried how long she would be able to stand.

  Niomi grabbed her hand and pulled her into a chair. “What’s going on?” She slapped on a medi-cuff. A bright light pierced Ari’s vision, and she flinched back in pain.

  “It’s just a bad headache. Let me lay down and I’ll be fine.” Ari closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

  “I’ll take some blood and then get you to your room.”

  Ari didn’t have the energy to protest, but thought taking blood, when she hadn’t eaten real food all day, wasn’t the smartest idea. By the time Niomi finished her workups, Ari could barely stand by herself. Her trainer escorted her to her room. Ari crawled into bed, hiding from the light that stabbed sharp daggers in her eyes. Jewels spoke in the distance. Absently, she felt someone take off her shoes and inject something into her arm. The pain that should have registered from the injection was little more than a prick. Finally, the lights dimmed, darkness surrounding her.

  “Contact me or your AI if you need anything. Jewels or I will be close by,” Niomi said then, with a swish of the door, left.

  Minutes or maybe hours passed, and Ari drifted in and out of consciousness. Eventually, the pain lifted, leaving her in a fog of drugs. When she could finally sit up, all the light fixtures in the room were glowing softly. Glancing at her HUB, it was nine at night. Her dry mouth tasted like vomit, though she didn’t remember throwing up. Stumbling out of bed, she brushed her teeth and downed
a full glass of water.

  Refilling it, she took a seat. Her muscles ached like she had ran a marathon. There was an exhaustion she didn’t think any sleep would cure. Ordering some soup, she checked her HUB and found it was flashing with new messages. Vinh sent a short note, checking up on her and wanting her to call him.

  She flipped on her electronic assistant. “Hey, you annoying piece of crap, your new name is Emil. Call Vinh.” Maybe she shouldn’t so blatantly use his name, though she doubted it was his real name, anyway. Somehow ordering people around gave her some evil satisfaction. Her pain was because of him.

  Vinh picked up right away. “How are you doing?”

  “Better than I was. What’s up?”

  “I’m bringing over your suit tonight. Will you be up for a bit, or should I leave it for you?”

  “I’ll be up. I need to move and clear my head. I’ll be in the kitchen, eating.”

  Realizing her old smart suit was stiff due to sweat, she peeled out of it and jumped in the shower. The warm water massaged her stiff muscles. Wrapping her hair up into a bun, she put on PJs and headed to the kitchen.

  By the time Vinh showed up, she had already finished off her soup and was halfway through the carton of ice cream. Vinh set the suit on the back of the chair. “Is there enough for me?”

  “If you hurry.”

  He grabbed a spoon and dug out his own bite of chocolate ice cream. “You gave Niomi a real scare today.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. She screamed at me for letting you forget your suit in the common lockers. Not that the suit would have helped you, but it would have helped Niomi watch your vitals.”

  She took another bite, savoring the cold chocolate in her mouth. “I should have gone back for it. Thanks for getting it for me.”

  “What happened in there?”

  He asked the question casually, but it felt off. She watched him until he noticed. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

  The medicine must still be in her system. Things felt off; Vinh felt off. She shook off the feeling and tried to answer. “Sorry, I’m still a little foggy from the meds. I just started getting a bad headache and instead of coming back, I pushed through it. It just made things worse.”

  “You better take care of yourself, and I’m doing my part by eating some of this ice cream for you.”

  Ari laughed, but then quieted down and thought about his comment of taking care of herself. What wasn’t he telling her?

  The rest of the evening passed with them talking, opening another tub of ice cream, and watching crappy old movies. Vinh loved adding horrible accents to the villains. She wondered why she even thought something was wrong with him.

  Chapter 17

  Niomi wanted to keep Ari out of VLEX longer, but Kari needed to go back to work. Anxious for her own answers, Ari pushed to go back in as well. Her fortitude faltered slightly when her alarm went off at 2:30 in the morning, but after some caffeine she was ready for work.

  “If the headache returns, come back in. Even a slight headache can improve with some rest at your lunch break.” This time, Niomi put Ari on the patch before she was plugged in.

  “I will.” Ari planned to lie low today. No Latin dancing for sure.

  “Be careful,” Niomi said as she slid the cable in Ari’s neck.

  Ari leaned back and closed her eyes.

  She arrived at Kari’s usual desk, not a thing out of place. Her usual in-box was piled with messages, but one stood out to her. It came from Worldwide News Source, a VLEX newspaper that usually held headlines from all over the world, along with design changes and other pertinent information for those inside the VLEX. This message caught her eye with the mention of President Tao, the man she impersonated last week.

  Opening the news, she learned President Tao had a heart attack. His picture, stoic and strong emerged in 3D from the screen. Being eighty-three, the attack wasn’t a total surprise given his family history, but his last doctor appointment reported the Representative was in good health.

  Watching his picture, a heavy feeling settled in her gut. Was there even such a thing as coincidence when dealing with a business as successful and precise as VisionTech? And the fact that Ari currently worked in the office of President Higgins, who co-founded that she just voted, must not be a surprise either.

  She didn’t have time to panic. Not yet. Not without the facts. Checking President Higgin’s schedule, she realized she had an hour before he made it in. Hopefully that would be enough.

  Instead of the normal tasks of forwarding emails and scheduling meetings, Ari started searching Kari’s computer. Any possible important information had been copied and sent over to VisionTech, but that wasn’t what Ari wanted this time.

  She began in Kari’s personal files and found that on the days Ari had been absent Kari had taken personal days.

  Her home country was the Icelandic States, where her parents and younger brother still lived. Kari moved into the city and probably didn’t stay in contact much anymore. After the political session was over soon, Kari’s schedule inside the VLEX shortened, leaving only a few hours a day to schedule meetings. She didn’t have the vacation with Antoine scheduled for a couple weeks. Some snowy mountain resort, Ari gathered by the notes left in the computer.

  Then she found a picture. Ari thought it would be of Antoine, he was handsome enough to keep a few of those on hand, but it was of Kari’s family. All pale skinned with scattered freckles. Her father had a strong build with blond hair; her mother had the red hair, like Kari, and was just as pretty. Kari and her brother were younger, maybe in their teens. Instead of the serious pose of their parents, Ari could tell the kids were trying hard not to laugh. Their green eyes lit up the picture, and their mouths were pressed hard into a tight smile.

  It reminded Ari of her own family. Not perfect, but family. She had to find out what happened to Kari. Hopefully Tessa would have some answers. Ari owed it to her. It was one thing to be a stand-in worker, but to stand in as a girlfriend was a whole other thing. One Ari still wasn’t sure how she felt about.

  After closing Kari’s personal files, she did a search for VisionTech on Kari’s database. It pulled the corporation, with the familiar blue and white logo. Clicking on it, Ari could see the company directory inside VLEX.

  VisionTech was listed as an electronic technology and software company residing in the United Asian States. The CEO appeared to be an older man with Asian heritage. It could have been Vinh’s grandpa for all Ari knew. Ari recognized the photo below it. It was the Director of Special Projects, no other name listed. He was the director of her division that met with Niomi weeks ago.

  Recognizing the director didn’t help with the rest of Ari’s search. She didn’t have access to many other important files. Kari’s position forwarded files, but she never got to keep a copy of them. Even half of the messages she forwarded to Higgins were classified and closed to her. Ari couldn’t even read the bill that she translated as President Tao. She needed more access, but where?

  President Higgins pressed through the doors at the exact moment. “How are you feeling today, Ms. Trenton?”

  “Much better, sir, thank you.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He continued into his office.

  Higgins’ computer had all the information she needed, she just needed him. Between his passwords and facial recognition, it would be hard to break into undetected, even for Ari. But what if Higgins did it for her?

  Checking his schedule, she saw that he didn’t have a meeting for a couple hours, which meant he’d spend the morning in his office glued to his computer. Quietly she snuck out of the office and rode the elevator. On the first floor, she stepped around the corner to find a space with relative privacy. Not wanting to draw attention to Higgins’ office, in case there was some security measure in place to alert people when code changed, she came down stairs and became invisible. It was an easy enough transformation that didn’t require too much work.

  Th
e elevator on the way back up was the tricky part. It took five minutes to wait for the right floor to be selected. While she was invisible, she was still physically present in the VR. So, walking next to people or through walls didn’t prove a problem. She could have just popped into Higgins’ office, but again didn’t want to set off too many alarms or use her powers too much and get another headache.

  When she entered his office, she found Higgins on the phone staring at the screen in front of him. “Yes, I know the vote went the way we wanted, but I still worry that we unearthed something we don’t want to and will only give other countries ideas they didn’t have before.”

  Ari moved behind him and realized the bill was on the screen. Taking her time to read it, she realized the supposedly illegal methods the Russians were accused of were Virtual Reality Torture and Forced Incarceration inside the system. As she couldn’t scroll down on his screen, her mind sped through the implications of this. This took war to a new level. If you could force someone inside a program and keep them there, you could psychologically withdraw any information you could want.

  It reminded her of the first program she walked in on with Niomi and the Director. Did VisionTech already have this technology as well? The idea made her ill. Her father was trapped in a VR coma due to his own addiction, now they wanted to force prisoners or anyone they didn’t agree with to be incarcerated inside of one?

  “Let’s schedule a joint commission meeting to seal the specifics of the findings. I’ll have my assistant set it up.”

  Ari snapped out of her thoughts by these words. She raced down the hall where other offices from the Icelandic States were held. When no one was looking, she reappeared in the program, then headed back to her office.

  She walked in as Higgins opened his door.

  “Sorry, sir. Just needed some fresh air.”