by Abhisek Basu
“She’s awake!” a voice shouted. Natalie immediately opened her eyes and tried to sit up.
“Stand back! Everyone stay back!” the male voice said. Natalie tried to crane her head up to look at the people near her, but she couldn’t. She felt like every part of her body, including her head, was locked onto the bed. Natalie struggled, trying to break free of whatever was holding her in place.
Suddenly, the murmurs in the room ceased as she kept struggling.
“Please just. Stop! We’re not here to hurt you,” the woman said.
“Yeah?” Natalie shouted, “Then why can’t I move? What have you done to my uncle?”
“Your uncle’s safe, dear. And you’re safe too! Just calm down,” she said.
Natalie tried to move one last time, trying to apply as much force as she could, almost hearing her bed shake as she tried to break free of whatever was holding her in place. When it didn’t work, she decided to remain still.
“Now, I’m going to walk towards you. At any moment, if you feel unsafe- let me know. I’m just here to answer your questions and make you feel safe. Then we can talk about…”
“Why am I here? Who are you people?”
“You’re at the FBI tri-state tower,” the woman said. Before she could say anything else, Natalie shouted, “I don’t even know where that is. Get me out of here,” she shouted. She started trying to move around, trying to free herself from whatever was holding her in place, but it didn’t work.
“We have experts and scientists here who assisted MindHaven in recent projects with us. I’m sure you have heard of the mass experiment on the news, but if you give us a few minutes, we can explain our position well and why we had to bring you here like this. Your uncle is…”
“Where is he?” Natalie said, interrupting her..
“He’s safe and sound. We are not your enemy, Natalie,” she said.
“Get these off me and then I’ll believe you,” Natalie said.
“Okay then,” the woman said. A few voices immediately started murmuring around her. Natalie distinctly heard the male voice say, “Are you out of your mind? This could be dangerous. She could be dangerous. She could try to escape and we’d have to kill her. We couldn’t even get that key off her and you saw what it did to Harry’s hand.”
“At this stage, trust is more important than anything, and if she has to work with us in taking the hacktivists down, she has to start by trusting the people she’s working with, and likewise,” she said in a louder voice as if she wanted Natalie to hear her.
Natalie felt footsteps near her bed, and then a hissing sound filled the air. Suddenly, the tightness around her wrists, neck, waist and feet felt lighter. She turned her head and realized that she could move. Immediately she sat up on the bed. A guy wearing a white lab coat scurried away before she could react, and within a second, he was outside the glass wall separating her from a team of what looked to be doctors and nurses and military personnel.
The soldiers were carrying sub-machine guns which they pointed towards the floor, but Natalie could see them holding their weapons steadily as if they wouldn’t hesitate to point their weapons at her if it was necessary.
A woman stood ahead of all of them with a clipboard in her hand. She wore large round glasses that covered half her face and appeared calmer than the rest of the people behind her.
“Okay, Natalie. Please sit down. My name is Alice Chatterjee. You can call me Dr. Alice. I’m in charge of this project. I’ll be entering the room along with Dr. Jerry Hofstadter here, and while I explain to you and answer the many questions you must be having- Dr. Jerry here will take a look at your vitals. You’ve probably seen him on the news with the President, so it’s safe to assume that we are not here to harm you,” she said. Dr. Jerry, a bald man with a short moustache that almost covered the entirety of his upper lip, looked at Dr. Alice and wiped a nervous sweat off his forehead as she mentioned that they’d both enter the room.
Natalie realized that if they wanted to harm her or kill her, they could have, but they didn’t. She looked at her bed and saw deflated tubes which were used to restrain her.
Dr. Alice looked like she was from South Asia, and Natalie had heard that surname earlier. She seemed like she genuinely cared about her and didn’t fear her as much as everyone else outside the room did. Plus, they all did look like they worked for the US government. The soldiers had the logo of the flag stitched above their pockets. But behind them, Natalie saw a familiar red sweater. It was Evan. He was right when he said that the next time they’d meet was when they’d be surrounded by feds. She craned her head sideways and tried to get a better look at him. Dr. Alice noticed her trying to get a glimpse of Evan, turned around and gestured at one of the soldiers standing in front of Evan to step aside.
He stepped aside.
“And I’m sure you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting our rogue PA friend Evan who claims he was there in the simulated world with you,” she said. Evan’s hands were tied with glowing inflated tubes that went round his neck and extended down to lock either leg. It was as if he was a prisoner, locked in by magical tube-shaped chains. He looked at Natalie and gave a knowing smile.
“We don’t know whether he’s lying to avoid getting his memory wiped and re-instated, so we need you to confirm this fact. Was he there in the simulated world with you?”
Natalie hated the fact that they were referring to her experience in Tholos as merely a simulated world. Dr. Alice caught her staring at Evan’s restraints.
“Don’t let these restraints fool you. He’s very much free to do anything he wants anytime he glitches, which should hopefully not happen anytime soon. He just can’t leave the facility till we decide what to do about his unaccounted travels,” she said.
“He was there with me,” Natalie said.
“Good. Truth will get you out of those very quickly, Evan,” Dr. Alice said to him.
Evan smiled at her. “Oh, come on. A man’s got to be free,” he said in a mocking tone. Dr. Alice nodded condescendingly at him and then turned back at Natalie.
“Please take a seat, Natalie. I’ll be entering the chamber now with Dr. Jerry. If at any point you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, let me know and we’ll make sure you don’t feel that way. We are here to help you, and we have to be on the same side,” she said and pointed at the bed. Natalie walked over to the bed and sat down. A part of her wanted to trust Dr. Alice. She was calm and reassuring, as if she really did want the best for her.
Dr. Alice walked towards the glass door which slid towards the left automatically as she walked towards it and opened up. Dr. Jerry followed her, although Natalie could notice that he was reluctant and nervous, taking small steps and sweating along the way.
The other soldiers and doctors remained standing outside the glass wall, all of their eyes watching her intently.
“How much can you tell us briefly about this journey that you went on, which you remember in the simulated world?” Dr. Alice asked.
“It wasn’t a simulated world for me. It felt real,” Natalie said, and just as he did, she saw Evan raising his eyebrows as if she wasn’t supposed to say that. Dr. Alice turned to look at Dr. Jerry, who said, “There aren’t any signs of brain damage. Our teams have checked thoroughly.”
“Natalie, I know it felt real, but I can assure you, it wasn’t real. You weren’t supposed to remember, like the rest of us, what a part of your consciousness was subjected to, but somehow you do,” she said.
“That’s because she won,” Evan shouted. Dr. Alice pretended to ignore him.
“Evan tells us that you, and Josh Bones, are the only two winners of this supposedly un-winnable game, which is why you remember. Do you think that is true?” Dr. Alice asked.
“He was there with me. He can attest to what I went through and what I saw. There were other people with me there, who don’t remember,” Natalie said, thinking about Ian and Travis.
“Natalie, I want you to know that I believe you. I
f we had more time, we could run more tests, but you have to be at Quanti Valley alive and safe in a few hours. Now, I don’t don’t want to come off as being the person who is forcing you to do this,” Dr. Alice said and stopped talking abruptly.
Dr. Jerry came over and lifted her hand up cautiously and placed an infrared stethoscope on her wrist. On a holograph above her wrist, a steadily rising and falling line popped up, showing her heartbeat. Dr. Jerry started scrolling through the information.
“But maybe, with your help, we can stop this group and save the Vice President of the United States from dying. We don’t know what their long-term plan is, but we know that their leader is Josh Bones and if we manage to kill him, their organisation may give in. Do you have any questions?” she asked.
“How did you get access to my or everyone’s consciousness?” Natalie asked.
“We don’t have much information about that, and it seems like most MindHaven employees have no idea how the tech works. With the advent of the Quantum America network, it was discovered that the petabytes of data stream could be used to simulate virtual environments and simulate an environment effectively without the participants noticing. Although nothing of value could be done with that research, gaming companies managed to use that technology to launch a wide variety of MMORPGs. When China and Russia got hold of this tech, they shut off all communication and broke out of the AI pact almost instantly.”
“Yeah, I saw it in the news when that happened. I didn’t know it was for this. I just assumed that they did that to make unsafe games and questionable environments because that’s what the public there demanded. That’s what the news said at the time, anyway,” Natalie said.
“Yes, but apparently, they were doing so much more with it. MindHaven promised us that this could be used on a wide enough scale to increase everyone’s productivity and abilities on a subtle scale, which would be major enough to improve everyone’s lives without any adverse effects,” she said, paused to look back at Evan, and then continued talking. “Our intelligence got information that other countries were using a similar technology and reforming their military, recruiting thousands of new soldiers, and these soldiers could do certain feats which were previously considered impossible. In one leaked video from a Chinese headquarters, we saw a soldier walking on water casually as if it was normal,” Dr. Alice said. Dr. Jerry kept checking through her vitals, scrolling through the holographic screen.
“How?” Natalie asked.
“Our best guess is they’re using the same Quantum Fuel technology but at unbelievable levels. The Quantum Fuel is supposed to generate just enough power to keep our augmented virtual assistants running and our devices charged. But somehow, they seem to have figured out how to overclock that procedure for short distances and simulate the augmented into real and tangible objects. Luckily, Quantum Fuel dilutes with the more distance it covers, so it would be interesting to see how or if they manage to overcome that. For now, they’re limited to that local region. That’s not stopping them from questionable human experiments, though.”
“That should call for an ethics violation at the UN. Why weren’t they called out?”
“They denied any and all claims, and because both China and Russia had the other nations on their side, we couldn’t appeal to stop anything,” Dr. Alice said.
“So, you started doing what they were doing, without informing the American public?” Natalie asked.
“It’s not exactly like that. This happened around eight years ago, and so far, there hasn’t been any need or any military aggression with those territories. But we had to be prepared. At MindHaven, we were told that their AI could do what the Chinese and Russians were doing to soldiers, to normal people and instead of making super soldiers, they had figured out a way to increase everyone’s overall productivity, cognitive abilities and physical attributes with no negative effects. With the same Quantum Fuel technology, a minuscule amount would be enough to stimulate everyone’s conscious mind,” she said. Natalie could sense a shift in her voice, as if talking about the AI made her emotional. “I was part of the first randomized control trial, and I tracked how much I could focus before and after a part of my consciousness was made to go through the simulation. It was a drastic improvement.”
“She’s stable, both mentally and physically,” Dr. Jerry announced from beside her, analyzing her vitals.
“Tell me what I need to do, now.” Natalie asked. Dr. Alice nodded at Dr. Jerry. He took off the infrared stethoscope and went out of the room. Dr. Alice turned to face Natalie again.
“You have to kill Josh Bones while you’re there. Or at least get out safely and tell us everything about what is going on there. We will attach implants of explosives and energy weapons to your body and teach you how to trigger them once you’re there. But Natalie, we need to be sure that you want to do this,” Dr. Alice said.
“I know that if I say no, you’ll just take me there and dump me anyway, isn’t that right?” Natalie asked.
Dr. Alice placed her hand on Natalie’s hand, “I would try my best to prevent something like that!” she shouted. “But you’re right. If you deny, there are orders that the team has to obey. Either way, you’ll be at Quanti Valley by 9 pm. They’ve promised to release the Vice President’s daughter once you’re there, and if you’re not there, they’ll kill her.”
“I understand. I’ll try my best to kill him,” Natalie said, knowing that she wouldn’t. She had to figure out how to convince Josh Bones to hand over the key. But for now, she had to pretend that she had no vested interests in that place.
“This Josh Bones guy... What information do you have about him?” Natalie asked.
“We have nothing. Hacktivists usually delete their data from the systems as their first task. And that’s exactly what he did,” Dr. Alice said. Then Natalie noticed that she was staring at the key on her chest.
“That key,” Dr. Alice said pointing towards Natalie’s chest. “Whenever we touched any part of it, we got electrocuted. Even the doctors couldn’t get it off, and we were all puzzled by the material. Where did you get it from?”
“My uncle had it custom made from Indonesia. Even I don’t know what material it is made of,” Natalie said and smiled. Evan nodded slightly at her, admiring her quick thinking.
“Does the key open anything or is it just…” Dr. Alice asked and Natalie quickly said, “It’s just a key. These energy weapons, did you say it would be implanted on me?”
The question was sudden, and yet relevant enough that Natalie knew it wouldn’t seem like she was changing the topic.
Dr. Alice gestured at Evan to come inside the room. The soldiers standing beside him stepped aside. Evan smiled looking at them, stepped forward and as the sliding doors opened, he came inside the room.
“I’ll let Evan say some things about Josh Bones that he claims he knows about him. He says it's verified information,” Dr. Alice said.
Before Natalie could say anything, Evan started talking. “Josh isn’t just any random guy. He was like you, and in many aspects, he can be even more powerful than you. Plus, he had a lot of time to plan this. One guy with a plan, that’s all it took to reveal the cracks in our nation.”
“It seems like you admire him a little too much, Evan,” Dr. Alice said.
“I admire winners,” Evan said and smirked.
“Very well,” Dr. Alice said. She started to say something else but was distracted by what was happening outside the glass wall.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” a soldier shouted as Natalie turned her head and looked at the glass wall.
Her uncle pushed the soldier and turned towards the other doctor near him. The remaining soldiers raised their rifles at him.
“No. Hold fire!” Dr. Alice screamed, but it was already too late.
Chapter 10
“Why are you doing this, man? What have we ever done to you?” Ian asked. Josh smacked his head, hoping he would shut up. Travis, on the other hand, remai
ned quiet except when he was being talked to. Josh knew about their personalities beforehand from watching them on the tic drive footage and reading about them from the books. Their behaviour matched exactly to what he expected.
“The more you move, the more you’re increasing the chances of losing an eye. I don’t want that, and I’m sure you don’t either. Stay still,” he said and put on a metal helmet on his head.
“I don’t know what you think I have done, but I can assure you I did nothing. I don’t even know him,” Travis finally said while the helmet was placed on his head.
“Yeah! Let us go, man! I’ll tell no one, I swear!” Ian shouted.
“Of course you won’t,” Josh said. He walked around them in circles as the helmets were being fixed. Lewis finally said to Travis, “Open your eyes wide.”
“Open them!” he shouted, which caused Travis to fearfully do what he was told. As he did, wire strands shot out of the helmet and attached themselves to his eyelids. Travis screamed, perhaps from pain, perhaps from the horror of it, but screaming wouldn’t get him out of that helmet.
“Ah, Russians. Always ahead in questionable technology,” Josh said and chuckled.
He had ordered them from Russia specifically for Travis and Ian, and the fact that the Russians had sold such devices in the commercial market was impressive, given that even an advertisement for such a device would be taken down in the States’ panels.
The wires, once attached to his eyelids, pulled them apart, making sure that they won’t be able to blink or shut their eyes at any moment during the viewing. Ian saw this whole process and started screaming and shouting, moving his head frantically despite Lewis constantly screaming at him to stay still. Finally, Lewis looked up at Josh as if waiting for what to do when Ian wasn’t cooperating.
Josh took his brass knuckles out and threw it at Lewis, and then he nodded to him. One hard punch to the jaw. Then another to his stomach. Then Lewis was about to punch him again when Ian screamed, “Okay! Okay! I won’t move. I’ll stay still.”
