Hard Wired Trilogy

by DeAnna Pearce

  “Closer.” Emil answered. “We’ve been perfecting our abilities for some time. You can learn to do what I do.”

  “No one is better than Emil though,” Hailey interjected.

  “But you can learn. Your trainer is not a warper, though. It’s like the someone who is colorblind teaching a normal person how to decipher colors. Your trainer can’t see the possibilities in front of you.”

  Ari’s mind whipped about what those possibilities were. “How did you hurt me before? How do I protect myself?”

  “I didn’t hurt you.”

  “I can still feel that migraine haunting me sometimes.” Ari hadn’t felt that type of pain before, ever. Emil couldn’t pretend that he was any better than VisionTech at this point.

  “You did that to yourself. When trying to fight me, you exhausted yourself. You need to be more careful in the future.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t restrain people.”

  “Have you ever felt that before?”

  “No…” then she remembered her fight with Williams when she visited her father in the VR world and the confusion after that. “Once, when I got into a fight with an Advisor from school.”

  “Only twice. That’s not a bad start.” Emil glanced at Hailey, and something unspoken passed between them.

  “What?” Ari asked. “What aren’t you telling me? I want to know how to protect myself.”

  “Okay.” Emil leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Two things. First, if you want to learn more, you need to join us.”

  “Us?”

  “We’re an Elite Team that monitors worldwide virtual sites, keeping government officials in line. There are over a hundred people who work with us in different capacities all over the globe.”

  “In line? You need to be more specific. Because right now you sound like a different version of the same company I’m working for without the benefits.”

  “We have benefits,” Hailey said. “Like not being trapped on some island with limited access. It’s called freedom.”

  “We watch those that have no one watching,” Emil said. “At this point that is all I can say, until you prove yourself.”

  Ari stood, not wanting to even know what prove yourself meant. This guy may have answers, but she wasn’t willing to play his little games to find out. “Then sorry. I’m out of here.” She headed to the door.

  “You didn’t ask what number two was.”

  Hand on door, she stopped. Something in her gut told her to stay, just a moment longer. “What?”

  “You never asked me why you have headaches?”

  Icy tentacle gripped her spine as she forced herself to turn around. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re lucky you’ve only had two episodes. Maybe because you never spent much time in the VR as a child. But warpers have their own special Achilles heel. Ever wonder why VisionTech cares about your health so much?”

  Ari’s hand stayed frozen on the handle, waiting for him to continue. She questioned that hundreds of times while Niomi was torturing her.

  “It’s because they don’t know how to save your mind. They’ll try everything they can to keep their asset around a little longer. Every time you use your power, you slip away a little more.” He tapped the side of his temple. “These tools up here may be worth millions to the right companies, but they have a shelf life. Some get five years, some ten or twenty, but everyone slowly slips away to their own little world. We just want to make the biggest impact on this world as we can, before we slip away. And we found a way to hold it off a little bit longer.”

  Ari glanced at Hailey, and for the first time saw a sadness lurking behind those beautiful eyes. Could this be real? Or is this just another corporation manipulating her?

  She gave a short laugh. “You really expect me to believe all this. You’re the one who caused my headache. Now you want me to prove myself to you guys. How do I know you’re not just manipulating me to do your dirty work for you? And you want me to believe you guys oversee all of this for the good of men and not your own benefit?”

  “Of course we benefit.” Emil stood. “We’re not saints. But most of us came from simple means and want to keep these governments and corporations in line. Given your upbringing, I thought you’d be interested. We can help you and your family.”

  “VisionTech told me the same thing then trapped me on an island.”

  “We’ll give you the money and papers to get out of the country, you do the rest.”

  She didn’t forget the caveat though. “But I have to do something for you first, right?”

  “You need to prove yourself. It’s different. We need to know you’ve cut ties to VisionTech and are ready to commit to us.”

  Commit to someone I didn’t know. He was ballsy. “And what would that be?”

  “Steal us the project file from your trainer.”

  Ari pulled back a touch with surprise. “What project file?”

  “They’ll have a file on you. With your expected longevity, goals they have, and other pertinent information. Feel free to delete your family’s information. We have no need of that. But your health history will be helpful to both of us if we’re working together in the future.”

  The words ‘expected longevity’ struck Ari with a force that took her back a step against the door. Words blurred together and got jammed in her throat. What scared her the most was that maybe he was telling the truth. With that terrifying thought, she left.

  Chapter 23

  Ari’s steps echoed down the dark corridor. Once outside and back in the regular VLEX program, she focused on keeping her breath steady. Niomi would notice any spike in her heart rate. She walked past the shops, past the fountain and up to her office. Gratefully, she was alone. Staring at her blank computer screen, she replayed her conversation with Emil over and over, picking apart what he said and trying to decide if he was being honest.

  Her boss startled her when he walked through the door, and she hurried back to her work. She continued to copy his private correspondence and sent it off for VisionTech, though now her conscience nagged her about it. Was she only helping some obscenely rich company rake in more money? Ari needed to figure things out before she took her next step.

  She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do, but ever since Emil mentioned her file, she knew she had to see it for herself. It held the truth, or she hoped it did. Getting her hands on it would be another story.

  Niomi greeted Ari as she returned to the lab. Ari unplugged and wrote her notes, remembering to keep her poker face firmly in place. Lately, it had become easier and easier.

  “Hey, I noticed a spike in blood pressure at lunch. What happened?”

  “Just Antoine.”

  “What happened now?”

  “Nothing really. Just in the process of breaking up with him, like you said.”

  Niomi turned towards her, the tattoo in her ear flashing. “You need to make it clean and quick. Just like a bandage. It hurts more at first, but it heals quicker.”

  Ari nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’m going to head off and get some rest.” She didn’t feel like getting a lecture on relationships from a drill sergeant.

  “Okay. Vinh’s on the schedule to run some tests on your suit this afternoon. It would be awesome if you could be in it.”

  Ari pushed through the doors thinking that a lot of things would be awesome. Despite the bitter feelings she had though, she looked forward to seeing Vinh. He had worked here longer than Ari, maybe he could help.

  With her mind whirling about, she didn’t bother resting, but headed to the gym. After beating the dummy until her arms ached, she made her way to the kitchen for lunch. She read over a message from Reed while she dug into her sandwich. He did well with his art project and would be recommended for a full-time position in the graphics department. She replied:

  I knew you could do it. You’re going to blow them all out of the water. Congrats!

  As she sent it off, she bit he
r lip. While Ari was genuinely happy for Reed, and wouldn’t want it any other way, she knew this meant he had to stay. VisionTech was better than most corporations. But could she stay? That depended on what she found. For once she was grateful her brother didn’t want to join her on the island. She couldn’t leave everyone she loved.

  Her AI announced Vinh at the front door. Allowing him in, she hurried and placed her dirty plate in the sink. She turned around in time to catch Vinh walking down the hall. “In here,” she called.

  He stopped. “Anything good left?”

  She joined him in the hall. “Just finished off my sandwich, sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I better get to these tests.”

  “What’s it for?”

  “Just usual upkeep. With any new gear they want regular checkups. We can run it through a basic VR and see how it’s doing.”

  “Great.” The sarcasm leaked through her voice as they headed down the hall.

  “You can pick the program.” He offered, obviously picking up on her mood and trying to be nice.

  “It’s not that. Just tired of being online.” She rubbed the skin under her port.

  He shrugged. “Can’t say I’ve had that problem. Sorry.”

  They entered one of Ari’s rooms, which was set up for VR. VisionTech provided it for her to practice or for recreation, but she had never used it. “What do I need to do?”

  “I just need you to go through some exercises in there. I’ll be tracking the reports your suit sends and verify them manually.”

  “You’ll be prodding me while I’m unconscious? That doesn’t sound creepy at all.”

  “I only need one arm. I promise no creepiness.”

  Sitting in the chair, Ari’s lunch gurgled in her stomach. Another part of being in the VR she hated was her unconscious form just sitting in reality. It reminded her of her father, sitting in a coma with tubes and machines to take care of him.

  Before she plugged in, she wanted to talk to Vinh. “Can you tell me why the company is so interested in my health?”

  Vinh busied himself with setting up his med kit. “You’re worth a lot. They take care of their assets.”

  “It has nothing to do with my migraine the other day?”

  His hands stilled for a moment too long. He lifted his gaze. “Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious if the headaches were common with people like me.”

  He turned back to his bag. “I’ve never worked with a warper before.”

  “There has to be reports or something from previous warpers.”

  He shrugged.

  He didn’t answer the question, and Ari struggled to swallow the knot in her throat. Vinh worked for VisionTech with a contract and probable restrictions as well. He may be one of the few people she could really talk to about her job, but could he really talk to her?

  “How about tea in some gardens?” Vinh searched available programs on the nearby computer.

  “Only if you take out all the characters. I’m not in the mood for their chatter.” Tea in the gardens sounded historical, and Ari could only take so much of that. “Or leave them in and I can slowly kill them off one by one.” She joked.

  “Have a seat. I’ll take them out. We don’t want to start giving you homicidal tendencies.”

  She leaned back, plugging herself in, and mumbled, “Yeah, we wouldn’t want that.”

  The VR ran smoothly enough. Vinh could speak to her inside the program and instructed her to do basic calisthenics to measure her response. What weirded her out the most was that he was doing the tests on her unconscious body. She jogged, stretched, jumped off nearby fountains. Laying on her back after a long set of pushups, she stared at the sky and noticed the clouds that weren’t quite right. The randomness of nature was hard for programmers to duplicate.

  Anxiety crawled up her back, and she found herself constantly picking at her fingers. Vinh obviously was keeping something from her. But what?

  Who could she trust? Emil, a stranger she just met, over the people who she now considered friends, almost family? Her gut had been telling her for weeks that something was up with Vinh though.

  An idea popped into her head, one that may be stupid, but she didn’t care. She sat up in the fake grass. White tables were scattered through the garden. On top were an array of delectable treats, and accompanied by the fresh flowers and roses, it was almost picturesque. Ari didn’t feel like picturesque.

  With a swipe of her hand, the tables disappeared. Glimpsing the code in the greenery, she amplified it to a neon green. Beautiful roses grew to the size of dinner plates. In a nearby fountain, Ari changed the crystal blue water to black with specks of gold throughout. It looked like the night sky rushing by. She smiled at her creation, and she wasn’t done playing.

  Instead of bright and sunny, she swirled the colors of a sunset all over the expanse above her head. Even with the drastic changes, the program felt empty to her, so she filled it with the people she had been living with for the last several months.

  Kari appeared sitting by the fountain. Her beautiful hair waving around her shoulders. She didn’t speak but just trailed a finger through the night sky twirling in the fountain. Ari couldn’t muster the heart to fill her voice with fake words.

  Guilt and ache grew steadily in her stomach. Ari might not have stolen her life, VisionTech did that, but she wasn’t returning it. Her self-loathing was interrupted by Vinh.

  He spoke over the coms. “What’s going on in there Ari? Your blood pressure is spiking?”

  “Nothing. Just playing with the scenery a bit.”

  “Well cut it out.”

  A moment is relative right? She took a deep breath, then pushed herself. Remembering Emil and his powers, she didn’t hold back. A huge building grew in the distance, like one from school. Then she played with it, changing color and design like a kid with clay. Then she turned back to Kari, all alone.

  Ari created people, some profiles she had learned from Niomi and others from her memory: friends from school, her home, Jewels and other islanders. A pain began radiating from behind her eyes and somewhere in the distance Vinh yelled at her. She didn’t, no couldn’t, stop. The pain and regret burst from within, and she deserved the pain. Her brother appeared next to Kari, pushing a hair behind her ear. He would have loved Kari. Then, their mother next to him.

  Finally, right in front of her, she created her father from her childhood memory. He wasn’t wide-eyed and crazy from the last time she saw him, but kind and happy. His dark eyes welcomed her, and she lifted his lips in a smile, the smile she had always wanted to see one more time.

  Hot tears fell onto her cheeks. “Hey, Dad.”

  He didn’t respond. He couldn’t unless she programmed him too. Then without warning, the world blackened around her. Vinh must be manually pulling her out of the program, and she didn’t even get to say goodbye.

  The bright lights stabbed her eyes, even behind closed lids. “Turn off the lights.”

  Vinh rushed around the room. Equipment clattered to the floor, mingled with swear words. A patch was pressed onto her arm with a sharp prick.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Vinh asked. “I only needed a couple tests, not a full-blown remodel. Niomi’s going to kill me.”

  “Don’t tell her.” Ari answered, an arm strewn over her eyes blocking out the light Vinh still hadn’t turned off.

  “She’ll be running in here any minute, I’m sure.” Vinh brushed back Ari’s hair. “Seriously, why were you doing that?”

  “AI, light off.” She needed that light off before she could think. The darkness felt like a cool blanket. When she tried to open her eyes, the small lights of nearby equipment had an aura around them. Except the aura ran with code. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried not to dwell on the consequences of her actions in the program. “I’m trying to figure out what you guys aren’t telling me.”

  He didn’t reply. Silence filled the dark room, only the thrum of the machines pumping medici
ne into her body.

  Despite the throbbing pain, she couldn’t regret her decisions. She had found her answer. The headaches were a side effect of her powers, just how bad would they get was the question. It must be bad, or everyone wouldn’t be lying to her.

  Niomi’s voiced boomed through Vinh’s intercom. “Don’t move. I’ll be there right away.”

  “Great,” Ari moaned. While she didn’t regret her decision, didn’t mean she felt like dealing with Niomi while her head throbbed. The patch had turned the knives into small hammers at least.

  Vinh let a loud breath go and something clicked nearby. “There are some things I can’t say. To anyone. If I do, I worry my contract will be the least of my problems. Do you understand?”

  Ari tried to sit up, but the room spun around her.

  “Don’t. Stay put until she comes.” He leaned her back down, and then spoke close to her ear. “Please don’t push things too much. Not for me, but for you as well.”

  “You know how much I care for you, Vinh, but I can’t promise that.”

  Chapter 24

  Niomi stormed in, a bite in her voice. “What the hell happened? And why are we in the dark?”

  Before she could tear into Vinh, Ari answered, “To lessen the pounding in my brain.”

  “Vinh?”

  “It wasn’t Vinh’s fault. AI, low light.” While a dim glow bathed the room, Ari sat up, pushing aside Vinh’s hand. She couldn’t deal with Niomi while laying down.

  The tattoo on Niomi’s ear, pulsed rapidly with a blue light. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing really. Just played around in the program, redecorated a bit and invited some friends over.”

  “Must have been a hell of a party.”

  “It was until Vinh pulled me out.”

  She turned to Vinh. “What are her stats?”

  Vinh handed her a screen. “Elevated, but slowly returning to normal.”

  “Are you guys going to finally tell me the truth?” Ari looked back and forth between them.