Interlude- Brandon (25 page)

Chapter 71

“Once this world has Virtual Reality technology, they’re going to go crazy.” Easton said.

Brandon took a bite of his hamburger and chewed thoughtfully. He swallowed, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and flashed a smile. “Duh,” he said.

Easton laughed and shook his head. “Shouldn’t we just squash it? We aren’t here to work with VR technology, we’re here to learn how to design and program computers.”

Brandon looked at Easton and raised his eyebrows.

“Okay, I know what you’re going to say. Virtual reality functions entirely on quantum computing. There’s no better method for developing and learning the field than by working with VR.”

Brandon laughed. “You know what I’m going to say before I say it. Do I even need to be here for this conversation? Why don’t I go see a movie with the others while you argue with yourself about what we’re planning? As long as I get to win the conversation in your head, that is.”

Easton smiled. “We’ve been a team for so many years now that it’s only natural we all know what the other is thinking.”

“I bet you don’t know what I’m thinking at this exact moment,” Brandon said.

Easton’s smile disappeared. He looked at Brandon blankly for a moment and then shook his head.

“I’m wondering how long I have to wait until you betray the group.”

Easton frowned and squinted his eyes, then cocked his head slightly. “Why are you asking me something so ridiculous? Have I ever betrayed the team?”

“Never,” Brandon said with absolute certainty, “but that’s what moles do, Easton, they infiltrate and eventually betray the group. If it hasn’t happened yet, then it has to happen sometime.”

Easton stared at Brandon, his composure relaxed and calm. “How long have you known?” he finally asked.

“Before I invited you to join the Hand,” Brandon said.

Easton shook his head in disbelief. “Yet you still invited me? How could you keep it hidden all these years?”

Brandon smiled “I’m the best of us, remember? If you could keep it hidden, then so could I.”

Easton nodded thoughtfully, looking guilty and ashamed for the first time that Brandon could ever remember. “Why bring it up now, then?” he asked.

Brandon sat forward and fixed Easton with an intense stare. “Because now it finally matters, Easton. For our entire lives we’ve just been playing harmless children’s games. We’ve been put in here to learn the most we can, but I have another plan for this lifetime, and it relies on all of us working together like never before. Over the next thirty years, from inside a computer simulation, I think we can do something pretty impressive.”

“What’s that?” Easton asked.

“I intend to save our race from total annihilation,” Brandon said.

The two sat quietly for a time.

“The General approached me personally,” Easton said. “He told me I would be doing him a great service to infiltrate your Hand and help you develop as a team.”

Easton looked up at Brandon. Brandon nodded quietly for Easton to continue.

“He said that there would come a time when I’d need to share information with him about you. That he might need me to bring you down at a crucial moment during a game, or even after that, once we’d graduated and become a real Hand in his army.”

“When he would come to you,” Brandon said, “for information about us. What did you tell him?”

“I told him what was safe to tell him, and that’s all. I swear to you that I never once told him anything secret that he couldn’t have learned from other sources.”

“And during crucial moments of games? Did you throw opportunities that caused us to lose?”

Easton shook his head vehemently, “Never! I’m sure you can recall many times over the years when I would recommend a change to your plans? When you wanted to use me for a specific role and I would encourage someone else to perform the task?”

Brandon nodded.

“That was how I helped us win and still kept the General’s trust. I would tell the General that you made changes at the last moment and put me out of the situation he wanted ruined.”

“You removed yourself from situations to avoid throwing games,” Brandon said, “but that could have put us in danger of still losing. If you were the best person to do the task but persuaded us to use another team member, then you were still effectively helping the General.”

Easton smiled proudly, “When no one else could do the job as well as me, and the General ordered me to fail, then I disobeyed the General and did my best for you and the Hand. Every time, without fail.”

Brandon scrutinized Easton for a moment, then nodded. “You have always been on our side, Easton. When I brought you in I knew the game you played. I hoped that being part of something more would persuade you to be with us. It’s impossible to have two lovers and be faithful to both, Easton.”

“I know, Brandon,” Easton said. “That’s why I chose the Hand years ago. I can assure you that I will never betray you or the team. We’re family, and I think my character and record have shown you that I can be trusted.”

Brandon took a bite of his burger and smiled. “I believe you, brother. I’m glad we finally had this conversation. It’s been hanging over us for years.”

Easton smiled and nodded. “I agree, brother.”

“Let’s finish lunch and go to a movie,” Brandon said. “I’ll text the others to meet us.”

Chapter 72

Brandon Strayne’s eighteenth birthday party was an extravagant event. His father, feeling guilty for never being around during the boy’s upbringing, spared no expense when it came to celebrating this coming-of-age celebration.

During a brief and rare moment, he embraced Brandon and told him that they would spend much more time together now that Brandon was a man. Brandon smiled graciously and returned the hug, acknowledging in his mind that this father was just an empty computer NPC doing the best that it could, even though it wasn’t enough to make a difference in the life of a son. Then, his father slapped him on the shoulder and apologized for having to leave immediately for a business meeting on another continent, and he had left.

Brandon laughed and went to join his true friends, the ones he’d spent his lives with, the ones who would help with his bold plan to save the Dream.

After enjoying a private and lavish dinner, Brandon stood in the small, private room, surrounded by his closest friends, and proposed a toast.

“Today we gather here not to celebrate another birthday, but to begin the operation that we’ve been planning for the past five years.”

Brandon sat down before continuing to speak. The room was small, and there were only twelve people present. He didn’t need to stand like some great leader addressing his troops before a historic battle, although that is exactly who he was, and what he was doing.

“This world perfectly mirrors our own before it was struck by the virtual reality plague. Thorn wants us to live a full and constructive life here so that when we get back to the Dream, we’ll have the tools to help him fix the tremendous problem created by a game.”

His friends nodded in agreement.

“If this world is like ours, then we can do more than learn here, we can create our own virtual reality simulations. We can work on fixing the problem out there, from inside this reality. Time is running out in our world, but here we have more than mere months, we have decades.”

“Tomorrow I approach VirtDyne and begin the process to acquire the company and its technology. You all know your initial roles. We will constantly communicate and adapt to what needs attention, modifying each of your parts in this operation as required. We’ve spent our entire lives playing games for this moment. I will be the face everyone sees, but each of you helps to make up the team that will make this happen. The skills and experience we have in this room are extensive, and I know we can succeed.”

Brandon raised his glass as did the others. “To the Game,” he toasted.

“To the Game!” the others cheered.

Chapter 73

“They’re developing virtual reality technology, Lohkam.”

Lohkam looked up from his computer screen and frowned. “Who is?” he asked.

“Some company called VirtDyne,” his team mate said, turning his monitor to face Lohkam and tapping the screen to point at the news feed. “Says they’re having a few issues, but they expect to get the bugs out very shortly and will soon be introducing the technology to the world. Experts predict that it’ll change the way everyone does business and plays games.”

Lohkam snorted and looked back towards his monitor. “There’s an understatement for ya,” he said.

“Should we do something about it?”

“Give me a second. I’m about to do something right now.” Lohkam said. He pulled up a number from his computer directory and initiated contact with one of his other teammates off-site.

“Hey, Boss, what’s the word?” The man on the view screen was a handsome man dressed in a business suit standing on the street in the busiest city of Tygon. He was tall and athletic, with dark hair and blue eyes.

“VirtDyne is the word,” Lohkam said.

The man nodded. He took out a hand held device and typed the name into it. “Okay, what do I do with it?”

“Find out who runs the company, who the major stockholders are, and how close they are to making their technology operational.”

“What are they working on?” the man asked.

Lohkam frowned. “VR technology,” he said.

“Oh, crap,” his team mate said. “This is top priority?”

“Absolutely,” Lohkam nodded. “Word is that they’re having trouble keeping people alive when they put them inside the Sim, but I want to confirm that.”

The man on the street nodded. “Okay, Boss, I’ll get right on it.”

“Good,” Lohkam said. “If you find out they have it working, or will soon have it working, go in and kill them. Then lock it down until we get there.”

“Kill who? The programmers?”

“All of them,” Lohkam said. “Right down to the janitor who cleans the building at night.”

The man nodded comfortably. “Roger, Boss. Anything else?”

“They likely aren’t up and running. Confirm where they are right away, Randy, I want to contain this and control it.”

Lohkam concluded the call and brought up the screen he’d been working on before. “Let me know if you find anything else, boys.” He said to the others in the office.

The two men nodded and kept working.

===

“There’s a VirtDyne in two simulations?” Cooper asked Thorn as he looked up from reading update reports on the Elites’ progress.

“There’s a VirtDyne in every Elite simulation,” Thorn said. “Each Elite group's simulation began identically the same way,” Thorn nodded. “How they interact with their world will change it, but until a certain point we’ve replicated the same conditions for each of them. The natural progression of their reality will lead Tygon 1.0 down the same path as our world. Each team will alter the outcome, first by their direct involvement, and then by the ripples that their actions cause.”

“Why only the Elites?” Cooper asked. “You could theoretically create simulations within simulations and, within just a few weeks, have millions of individuals working on the problem. The more chances you have the better, right?”

Thorn frowned and shook his head. “Thirty simulations is all we could manage. The drain that the population is causing on our energy and computing resources is greater than we anticipated, and it’s increasing each day. Also, if they build a simulation within the simulation it draws even more power from our grid, exponentially more. So if they made a VR world, and then another inside that one, and then another inside that one… it would exceed the resources of our power grid very quickly and it would all shut down.”

“How do you prevent it from happening?” Cooper asked.

“We put limitations on the physics of the simulation,” Thorn answered. “If they try to go too deep it simply will not work, they won’t be able to get around it, because the simulation won’t allow it. It’s a big enough struggle keeping thirty simulations going along with the worldwide Tygon 3.0 game. We’re trying to eject players safely and permanently, but they’re banding together and forming defensive compounds to enable each other to play.”

Cooper nodded, “Game nodes,” he said. “We’ve tried to raid some of them, but they’re fortified and protected. It’s not worth losing my soldiers to stop a few Baggers from playing a stupid Sim.”

“Exactly,” Thorn said. “The best I could do was send in the Elites and hope they can do something. Maybe one or two of them will be clever enough to build games within their own realities, but I couldn’t suggest it.”

“Why not?” Cooper asked.

“I don’t want to get in their way,” Thorn said. “These kids are brilliant. They’ve solved hundreds of impossible challenges over the years. Planting certain ideas in their heads might cause them to be stuck on a tangent, resulting in them spending their entire lives on the wrong track.”

“I doubt your involvement would have hurt,” Cooper said.

“It’s not a chance we can afford to take,” Thorn said. “Besides, we have other options to fix this. The Elites are one possible solution; our safest and best if they can come up with something, but there are other ideas to implement.”

“What if they don’t succeed?”

Thorn’s face became grim. “Then we initiate the Beta option.”

“When?”

“The Elites come out of their simulations all at the same time, three months after they entered. If none of them have shown us a solution by then, we hit the button immediately.”

“Refresh me on what the Beta option is, because it sounds more like the Omega option.”

Thorn shook his head. “The Beta option is to shut down the servers totally, killing everyone who is inside Tygon 3.0.”

“How many people is that?”

“Current count is two billion people,” Thorn said.

“It won’t be more than that in a couple of months,” Cooper assured him. “They stopped shipping helmets, right?”

Thorn shook his head. “There are techies springing up out there who can build their own versions of the helmets. If you’re a ‘builder,’ as they call them, you quickly become a very popular — and wealthy — member of the VR community.”

“This is insane,” Cooper shook his head.

“This is a challenge, but there’s still hope,” Thorn said. “If we finally get to the Omega option… that will be when it’s truly insane.”