Mind Games (20 page)

But all that stuff she said about him has made me uneasy, and then annoyed. I do
not
need help walking out a door and down a clearly defined path: this is stupid.

I don’t need to even go down the path, do I? Back in the PIP I reach to unplug.

When I emerge, everyone from my group is already there, waiting for the straggler. We’re told we can come back to plug in after dinner, stay until tomorrow morning if we want to. Then we’ll move on to something else. But I’m too tired to be hungry; weary to my bones. I head for my room.

33

‘I hear you skipped dinner, and didn’t plug in with the rest of the interns last night.’ Dr Rafferty smiles back at me, giant-sized on my interface screen. He’s not in a white coat now, he’s in a tunic similar to mine, and something hits me that should have done a long time ago. He’s still here: he works here. He doesn’t work for HealthCo, does he? He probably never did. He’s PareCo, through and through.

I shrug. ‘They didn’t say we had to; they just said we could.’

‘Yet the rest of them did. I’m worried about you, Luna.’

‘Oh?’

‘Without an Implant, you can’t keep up with the others. This is a competition, make no mistake about that. You are all competing for the best places. Don’t get left behind.’

‘But they’re all Hackers. How can I possibly compete with them in virtual?’

‘How do you know what you could do if you had an Implant? And that’s not all. With an Implant you could be in constant contact with your family back home, whenever you want. Think about it, Luna.’

His face fades away from my interface wall, and the island view comes back again. It was locked on
no calls
, so he has the ability to override that. Which basically means he can appear on the wall of my bedroom whenever he wants.

Nice.

And now he’s openly promoting getting an Implant. He hasn’t done that before, though I’d wondered how long it would be before someone raised it in this place. But is there really any reason not to any more? And I could be in contact with my family, too.

Everything inside screams
no, don’t do it
. But whether that is reasonable or is from years of resistance and fear, I don’t know.

I meet the others in the meeting room, ANDs already swallowed and more in my pockets. I’m last in.

Marina frowns. ‘Are you all right? I tried your interface last night when you didn’t come to dinner, but it was blocked.’

‘Sorry. I switched it off so I could sleep. I wasn’t feeling that great,’ I say, kind of a lie and kind of the truth.

‘Hex asked where you were at dinner; he seemed really worried about you. Asked whether you got back OK from the void. Weren’t you supposed to wait for him?’

Guilt registers inside. But before I can come up with anything to say about it, the Beamer is back.

‘Today we begin the next phase: boundaries. We want you to push boundaries, do things you can’t do. Things you are afraid of. To make it interesting, we’re having a little competition. Two groups, with leaders I will choose.’ She points at a tall girl, Sparky, whose skin is so dark that she’s chosen to have her Hacker tattoos in white instead of black so they can be seen. Then she chooses one of the boys, Blood. I wonder what his Hacker name means, then decide I probably don’t want to know. ‘Team leaders, you will take turns picking your teams. Blood, you begin.’

He picks someone, then it is Sparky’s turn. They continue, back and forth, until the room is down to just me and one boy. It’s Sparky’s pick; Marina is on her team, and judging by the blank looks on their faces they’re having an Implant conversation. Sparky finally says, ‘Luna,’ and then winces: was there an Implant backlash from her team? Our team, that is, and if me being on it isn’t bad enough, there are seven of them and six of us.

‘We’re taking you to test-run a new world that is under development. It’s great fun; kind of urban warfare in a ruined city!’

Marina and I exchange glances. Not my idea of great fun, and judging by her eyes, not hers, either.

‘So today one group are hunters, the other are hunted. You can use any means at your disposal in the world to achieve a kill, and you can code any changes in the world to assist you that you can, and use any weapons you find or create.’

I stare at her. A
kill
? We’re going to kill each other?

Blood raises a hand. ‘Which group is which?’

Beamer beams. Flips a coin. ‘Call it?’ she says to Sparky.

‘Heads!’ she says.

It flies through the air, lands. Tails. The sense of dread deep in my gut that started with the word
kill
deepens.

‘Your choice,’ Beamer says to Blood.

‘We’ll hunt.’ He smiles, but there is no warmth in thin lips pulled across teeth.

‘Hunted, you get a head start: meet in Sparky’s hallway. Quickly friend anyone you need to in order to get them in. The door to world 5691 will be there. Sixty minutes later the hunters will be allowed in at the opposite side of the city. Escape code will return any kills automatically to a virtual meeting place where they are to wait for the others. The team with the most left standing after twenty-four hours wins. Any questions?’

I have a load of questions. Like what will the Hunters do to us when they catch us? What does being killed virtually actually feel like? What does
any means necessary
really mean – guns, knives, explosives, ritual eviscerations? But none of them are questions I’m prepared to ask out loud, not when everyone else stays silent. Not when most of their faces are like they’ve been asked to a party, not a fight to the death.

Beamer takes out two timers, and gives one to Blood and one to Sparky. ‘The sixty minute countdown has begun.’ Beamer glances at me. ‘To make things a level playing field, all Implant communications will be blocked as soon as you plug in. Away you go!’

I plug in fast. With the speed, the neural net isn’t soft like yesterday – it slams in and makes my head spin.

Sparky’s friend invite is already in my hallway. I hit
accept
and her door appears; I rush through. Even with hurrying I’m still the last one there. Not used to non-Implant aided discussion, they’re all talking at once.

Sparky raises a hand. ‘To summarise for Luna, we feel there are two possible game strategies: separate and hide, or combine and defend. Let’s get out there now, and see what’s what before we decide. Come on.’ Sparky opens the door to VeeDub 5691. It actually has
in development
scrawled across it. We step through.

Purple sky? Nice. There is a haze of smoke hanging in the air, with an odd smell. Bombed-out buildings mix with still standing structures in various stages of falling down. It’s hot and humid, and beads of sweat instantly form and trickle down my back. We’re on a hill, the door behind us. I feel to the side of the door. It looks to my eyes like the city carries on, but when I touch it, no. There is a barrier. This place has edges.

Below us the ruined city is bisected by a wide river. Even from here the water looks and smells evil: is it polluted, poisoned? The air makes me cough. There is one bridge across the river. A hill on the other side.

‘Bet that’s where they’ll appear,’ a boy says, pointing at the other hill.

Sparky glances at the stopwatch. ‘In fifty-four minutes.’

‘There are lots of hiding places. They could take forever going through buildings looking for us if we separate,’ he says.

‘Boring. We should destroy the bridge and defend the river,’ Sparky suggests.

Eyes turn to her. ‘Can you do that?’ Marina asks.

She nods. ‘Yep. Easy. Let’s vote: who wants to destroy the bridge?’

Five hands go up, including mine. Anything that has us hiding on our own scares me more.

We hurry down the city streets as a group. It’s slow going with debris and bombed-out vehicles to get around. With all the lovely places and things they could make in a VeeDub, why this? Why a fake war zone? I don’t get it. Sparky stops at a burnt-out car near the bridge, rips something out of the engine. She and another boy do some weird Hacker thing and start pulling wires and charges out of stone, running them to bridge supports.

‘Ready,’ Sparky says. ‘Has anyone got a watch?’ One is volunteered. Another weird Hacker thing and she’s changed it into a timer. ‘Let’s make sure they know who did this. I’ve set it on a delay for when they arrive in five minutes. Come on; let’s get out of here.’

‘No, wait!’ I say, an idea forming, and Sparky hesitates.

‘What is it?’

‘They’ll expect us to hide, to defend. If they see the bridge explode, they’ll know we destroyed it, and expect us to be over here.’

‘And?’

‘Why don’t we go to the other side of the bridge? They won’t expect that.’

‘But then we’ll be on the same side as the hunters,’ Marina says. ‘Four minutes left. We need to run one way or the other soon.’

‘Wait a minute,’ Sparky says. ‘Luna is right. They’ll use all their efforts to get across the river. They won’t expect us to be on the same side. How about instead of sitting back and hiding or defending, we hunt the hunters?’

Startled looks are exchanged.

‘Three minutes,’ Marina says.

‘Let’s do it! Run!’ We follow Sparky over the bridge at full speed, and dive behind a burnt-out building.

‘Twenty seconds,’ Marina says.

‘Wait,’ I say. ‘Stop the countdown! Wait until they’re
on
the bridge.’

Sparky does something frantic in the air with her hands, then smiles. ‘Good idea. But without enough time to reset it, I’ve disabled the timer. I’ll need to have the bridge in sight to set it off now. Somewhere they won’t see me. There’s not enough cover around here.’

Marina points: a few streets up the hill. ‘There’s a clock tower. How about up there?’

Sparky nods. ‘Assuming it’s intact enough to get up. Let’s try it. But there’s no easy way out if they track us there. We need to split up.’ She points down a street that winds along the foul river. ‘Find a defensive position. Keep your fingers crossed, and keep a look out for us.’ Sparky’s eyes settle on me. ‘This was your bright idea, Luna. You can come with me.’

The others vanish and we run for the clock tower.

Sparky glances at me. ‘You look pale.’

‘You look like you’re having fun.’

‘I am. I love combat games. Don’t you?’

‘Er…I’ve never actually been in a combat world.’

‘No way. Not ever?’

I shake my head. ‘Sorry.’

‘You had some good ideas, and maybe that is why. You’re not trying to recreate the same old scenarios from
Zombie Wars
or
Last Combat
.’

‘But I can’t fight.’

‘This isn’t about slogging it out in a punch-up, and it isn’t real. It’s about strategy and outthinking their manoeuvres. Think of it like a chess game, and you’ll be fine.’

The tower door is locked with a padlock. ‘Damn. I’m rubbish at hacking physical locks,’ she says, and looks at me with an eyebrow raised.

I shake my head. ‘I’m no Hacker.’ Then I look at it more closely – damaged and rusty. ‘But I’m good at breaking things.’

I find a rock and smash it into the lock. No dice. I do it again and then again, and it falls to the ground.

She grins. ‘Knew I brought you for a reason.’

I open the door; we peer in. It’s dark, musty. We sneeze.

‘A simul-sneeze,’ she says. ‘Nice bonding moment. Come on.’ We go in, she pulls the door shut. ‘Wait a sec while I set a charge. If they try to come up here, the door will blow.’

Nice touch.

We find the stairs, and I go first, slow and tentative. The stairs are wooden, uneven, some missing. Half rotten. ‘Be careful, they’re rubbish,’ I say, and hang onto the handrail.

Halfway up the next flight a step gives way under my foot. I grasp for the rail but it breaks, and I start to fall, foot slipping through the broken step. There is a sharp pain in my calf, and I almost scream.

I scramble, pull myself back up.

‘All right?’ she calls from below.

‘A step is missing, and I’ve hurt my leg. Be careful.’

One more level and I’m at the top. The clock is dislodged, hanging at an angle. The space is flooded with light.

I stagger, sit down. There is
pain
: something warm and red running down my leg.

Sparky catches up. She curses when she sees what I’ve done to my calf. ‘That’s too much blood.’ She rips a strip off her tunic and ties it around my leg. ‘Blood’ll be onto us now.’

‘Blood? You mean the Hacker?’

‘He can smell the stuff. He’ll follow it right to us, I bet.’

She peers out the tower. ‘Got one thing right: there’s a perfect view of the bridge. I hope they separate and we can knock off a few of them before he finds us.’

My vision is fuzzy, and it’s all I can do to not reach out to unplug back in the PIP.

‘Why does it hurt so much? This is virtual! It’s not supposed to hurt, is it?’

‘Depends on the world. In most of them when you get killed you don’t really even feel it. You bounce back to your hallway, can go straight back in to try again. But I’ve heard some of the eighteen-plus ones are more real. You feel pain like real pain. This must be like that.’

‘So if they kill us, it’ll be like we’re really dying.’

‘I guess.’

‘This is a sick and twisted version of fun.’

‘Just gives you more reason to want to win.’

I’m focusing on her words, struggling not to unplug. Double awareness, double pain.

Double pain? Back in the PIP, careful not to disturb the neural connection, I reach a hand down my leg. Warm. Wet. Pain. My leg is bleeding, in the PIP? This makes no sense.

My head is spinning. My leg isn’t tied up to slow the blood loss in the PIP. It’s bleeding there too?

‘Company below,’ Sparky says, voice low. ‘Approaching now: Blood and one other. Here’s hoping the charge—’

Boom!

‘Damn. Blood is OK. Got the other one, though, that’s one for us. Blood looks unhurt, but really, really pissed off. He’s gone through the door. The others are still heading for the bridge.’ There’s a creak below.

We exchange a look. ‘How near are they to the bridge?’

‘Not near enough; a few minutes from it still. Thank heavens there’s no Implant communications, or he’d call them here. There’s two of us and one of him, right?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper.

‘Not your fault. Could have been my leg, not yours. But is there anything you can do to slow him down? The others are nearing the bridge. I need them to get there before Blood gets up here.’

‘Right.’

I stand up, swaying on my feet, and look around for weapons. A piece of wood?