The Sapporo Outbreak (32 page)

"You still don't see it, do you? This isn't some unfortunate hacking incident. This is real. People are dying, and it's all because of your
game
. Sure, someone's screwed with it, but all they did was light the spark. Those damn pretend people of yours evolved, and now the players are trapped in some sort of paranoid delusion. Something about this game has altered their reality. They don't feel pain, they don't feel empathy, they maim and kill. Because to them ..." Skinner pointed at the door and the constant screeching and banging of the pack, "... it's how they survive."

Tanaka stared back at Skinner, then Santos.

Incredible. These people were fools. They simply couldn't see that what he'd created was truly remarkable. It wasn't just a game - it was a new life for those trapped in their real life.
 

The game didn't cause this chaos. The game didn't kill people. Only
people
killed people. Of course, some players couldn't distinguish between the game and real life. That had happened before, but it was such a small number. Such a tiny percentage. Why deprive hundreds of millions for the sake of a few?
 

Surely the sacrifice was worth it.

#

"Got it!"

Tait leapt up from his battery-powered monitor, his triumphant cry so loud it briefly drowned out the baying pack screaming and banging at the door.

Tanaka turned his back on the group and strode over to Tait's desk.
 
"What have you found?"

"Someone, somehow, has inserted some very ... elegant ... code into the game. So far I've found traces in the artificial intelligence engine and the social rules engine. It's very, very clever, but if we can see it, we can kill it."

Tanaka glanced at Tait. He actually seemed impressed by the hackers' work. "How bad is it? What is it doing?"

Tait was already back at his desk, typing excitedly while talking over his shoulder to Tanaka and the crowd of observers now surrounding him. "Really hard to say. I think this explains the explosion in virtual players. Wait a minute ... they've also wiped all the real player profiles and the advertiser algorithms. It's early days, but I'm guessing these guys are privacy nuts. Wow - this is smart!"

Infuriated by Tait's attitude, Tanaka grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Instinctively Itou moved forward as if to reinforce Tanaka's point. Leaning inches from Tait's face, Tanaka stretched out his words. "I don't want to hear another word about how impressive you think this is. Just tell me two things. Can you fix it, and how long will it take?"

Shaken back to reality by Tanaka's furious breath in his face and Itou's cold dead-eyed stare, Tait shrunk back in his chair. "I think I can fix it. It's tricky. Some of this looks like it was planted weeks, maybe months ago, but once the power is restored I can probably restore from ...".

"Just fix it!" Tanaka screamed into Tait's face. Itou stared into the engineer's eyes like an obedient attack dog waiting for his master's instruction.

Skinner, Santos and Hill turned toward the noise, and saw a Tanaka they'd never seen before. Gone was the brilliant visionary, engaging entrepreneur they knew, replaced by a threatening, intimidating bully bending people to his will.

Pale and shaken, Tait spun round to his desk and started typing. Skinner, Santos and Hill stared slack-jawed at Tanaka. The rest of the technicians in the room put their heads down and scribbled feverishly on notepads or battery powered monitors as if their lives depended upon it.
 

The monitors on the raised platform briefly flickered on and off again. No one noticed.
 

#

Skinner turned back to Harper, who lay facedown and motionless on the desk, his long legs draped over the edge while his blood-soaked shirt dripped blood onto the polished glass table. Skinner noticed Harper's skin was losing its colour quickly, and his breathing was fast and laboured. He touched the technician treating him lightly on the shoulder, who turned with a start.

"How is he?"

The Japanese technician took a moment as if struggling for the right words.

"He has lost a lot of blood. A lot of body fluids. His breathing is too fast and he is sweating. I am very concerned by this."

Santos listened to the conversation, her face etched with concern. Skinner placed his hand lightly on her back and said, "We'll be out of here soon. He'll be alright."

She nodded and forced a smile.
 

"Ben. Andy saved us out there. I'm not about to let him die in here without doing something."

Skinner gently squeezed Santos' hand. Her body was battered and torn, she had almost died and yet she was only concerned about Harper. Skinner had never met a woman as strong, independent and beautiful as her.
 

A loud crack rippled through the room, startling everyone. A second later bright lights bathed the room while the monitors and video walls danced into life. The feverish howling and banging on the door stopped immediately.

For a few seconds, the lights were so bright they hurt, and Skinner had to shield his eyes from the glare. After a few seconds his eyes adjusted to the light, and he surveyed a room brought back to life.

All around, the room buzzed with feverish activity. Numbers, images, figures, charts and flashing warnings screamed for attention. Moving in concert, as if choreographed, the technicians typed frantically at keyboards, whispered quietly or waved their hands in front of monitors in short, precise motions.
 

Santos spoke softly. "Ben. I just want this to be over."

Skinner looked into Santos' eyes. She looked tired. Exhausted.

He started to speak but was immediately interrupted by the pounding at the door. It had started again.
 

At first just one body thudding against the door, then two - and before long the noise was deafening again. Only this time, it seemed more focused. More coordinated. Skinner walked cautiously toward the entrance. He could see they were concentrating their efforts in the centre of door. And it was bowing.
 

Skinner turned slowly and walked back toward Santos and the prone Harper. A voice at the back of the room shouted. "Security monitoring services back online." The giant screen at the far end of the room immediately split into a grid, showing security footage from cameras around the building.

The room fell silent. The only sound was the constant pounding on the door.

Every camera showed complete devastation. Smashed windows, upturned furniture and papers everywhere. And bodies everywhere. A few moved slowly, shuffling on the ground or cowering under desks. But most just lay there, bodies twisted in pools of blood.
 

A few screens showed something different.
 

Groups,
packs
, of infected players were racing through the building. They waved steel pipes and glass in the air, randomly smashing windows as they searched the building. Skinner pulled Santos close as they watched a pack on the 2
^nd
floor move from room to room. At first he was mystified until a grim realisation descended. The pack found a woman in her early 30's hiding under a table. They howled with delight as they dragged her screaming out into the open. Santos turned away quickly, burying her face in Skinner's chest as they descended like animals on the terrified woman.

All around the room, people looked away. Some started crying, one or two threw up.
 

Skinner looked over at Tanaka, who watched the screens next to an impassive Itou. Tanaka leaned in close and whispered something to Itou, who nodded slowly.

The same voice called out from the back of the room."Sir, the security audit is complete. We see five separate packs, the smallest eight people, the largest twenty seven. We only see players. The system shows no staff or security."

The man paused.

"Excuse me. I should say - the system shows no
living
staff or security."

Skinner and Santos exchanged glances.

Again a voice from the back shouted out. "Security alarms were triggered sixteen minutes ago. Emergency services are on their way. At this stage, they estimate arriving in ..." a brief pause, "... eight minutes. The blizzard has slowed them down to a crawl."

Skinner watched as Tanaka's mood darkened considerably. Clearly he did not consider that good news.

The technician monitoring Harper shook his head, stood up, turned to Tanaka and said, "Mr Tanaka. This man has lost too much blood. He needs treatment soon, or he will die."

Tanaka nodded distractedly without turning around. His eyes narrowed on the row of security monitors.

"Itou. These lunatics are on a rampage. They're everywhere. We need to tidy this up before the authorities make this a bigger issue than it is."
 

#

Santos felt the still-unconscious Harper's hand. It felt cold, clammy - and pale. Sweat moistened his forehead and his breathing was fast and shallow. She looked up at Skinner and the technician charged with his care, her moist eyes glinting underneath the bright lights.

"He's getting worse Ben. We have to do something now or we'll lose him."

Skinner nodded and turned to the Japanese technician. "What do you suggest we do?"

The man paused for a few seconds. It seemed to Skinner and Santos like an eternity.
 

The man nodded to himself, his decision made.

"We must address the loss of fluids. If we don't, he will soon go into ..."

The man paused for a second, his eyes flicked to the sky as he whispered in Japanese. Skinner recognised the movement - he was using iSight to translate into English.

".... yes, he will go into hypovolemic shock. His heart won't be able to pump enough blood to the body, and many organs will shut down."

Santos jumped to her feet, "And he'll die?"
 

"Yes"

Santos spoke urgently. "So ... what does he need?"

Another pause. Then the technician continued. "If we administer isotonic fluids, that might help him survive until help arrives."

Santos looked at Skinner, jaw clenched. Determined. "Ben - we need to find an intravenous line and a saline solution. Right now."

Skinner nodded, took her hand and walked over to Tanaka and Itou as they stood and watched the security footage on the video wall.
 

"Mr Tanaka. Our colleague is dying. He needs a saline solution urgently. I'm sure you have a medical facility in the building. Where is it?"

Tanaka kept his eyes on the screen.

"Of course Professor, of course. There is a medical bay down on the 1
^st
floor. However, as you can see ..." He waved a hand at the giant screen, "two large gangs of thugs are roaming nearby. I'm afraid you can't get there right now."

A surge of anger pulsed through Skinner, and at the top of his voice he shouted.
 

"Mr Tanaka. A guest of yours, a man here on
your
invitation is dying. You
will
help or, mark my words, the world will now exactly what sort of man Kaito Tanaka really is!"

A hush fell over the room. The only sound was the increasingly ferocious pounding on the door. For the first time, Skinner noticed that the crashes were less frequent but much bigger. They were ramming the door with something.

Tanaka turned his back to the video wall and stepped forward to face Skinner. Itou followed, his eyes fixed on the furious professor. Skinner didn't care. He was much more concerned about Santos. She looked ready to hit Tanaka, and Skinner had seen first hand that the beautiful doctor swung a mean punch.
 

Tanaka looked closely at the professor. He could see the passion etched in his face. The professor understood the pain of losing a loved one. It was one of the reasons Tanaka chose him after the disaster in Hong Kong.
 

Two years earlier, WhiteStar experienced the first outbreak of players reacting ... unexpectedly. It was far smaller than today's ... incident ... and only occurred in two centres. Palo Alto and Hong Kong. Itou's team quickly contained the situation and destroyed any evidence before the authorities arrived. Tanaka's wife and daughter were with him in Hong Kong when the problems erupted. No one, not even Itou had seen anything like it before. They were completely unprepared. The building had no security. Only the skill and bravery of Itou and his team prevented complete disaster.

Tanaka's wife and daughter had been testing the game when the outbreak happened. There were attacked by an infected player, beaten savagely before Itou broke down the door and killed the man. Tanaka's wife died. His daughter Shou, eleven years old at the time, survived to live the rest of her life paralysed from the neck down.
 

He was to blame. Tanaka knew that. His wife had died because of his carelessness. Shou was trapped in a broken body because of his recklessness.
 

The guilt and grief nearly killed him. It was Shou, beautiful, incredible, inspiring Shou, that saved him. Her spirit shone through. She worried for him.
She
worried for
him
!
 
Exactly 37 days after the incident, Tanaka woke from another restless night, and decided to create a new world unlike anything seen before. A world in which Shou could do anything she wanted to. A world so real that she would feel herself walking. Running. Dancing.

Everything else in his life,
everything else
, was to make this happen.
 

Yes, I know exactly what kind of man I am professor
, Tanaka thought to himself.
 

Gathering himself, Tanaka spoke. "I am sorry Professor, please forgive me. Of course I will help Mr Harper. Now, it's saline solution you need?"

Skinner eyed Tanaka suspiciously. "That's right. Now - is there anywhere else in the building we should look?"

Chastened, Tanaka nodded reluctantly.

"Yes. Yes there is. You will find what you need in my apartment on the 6
^th
floor."