Interlude- Brandon (9 page)

Chapter 25

“Um, guys…”

“Hush, Kay,” Alan whispered. “We’re supposed to meditate til the timer goes off.”

“Yeah… I think we can all stop meditating now. Open your eyes, boys, now.”

Brandon was reluctant to end the session; he’d felt a deep sense of calm settle over him. Every day they meditated for ten minutes in the mess hall before they ate. Today he felt so focused that even the noises from the hundreds of other children had seemed to melt away. Kay’s tone was insistent, though, so he opened his eyes… and found himself staring at the General!

Brandon and his group quickly pushed their chairs back and stood at attention. Thoughts raced through Brandon’s mind; what was the General doing here in the mess hall? Were they in trouble? Brandon took a deep breath and saluted with the rest of his group. A quick glance left and right revealed that everyone in the mess hall was standing at attention. Everyone was quietly looking at the General. Brandon smiled as he realized why the busy sounds of the room had disappeared during his meditation.

The General returned their salute. “At ease, everyone,” he said. “Please go about your business. I’ll be here for a short visit with Brandon, Kay, Alan, Easton, and Tony. Then I must be off.”

The General sat down at the table and waved his hand for the kids to do the same. The mess hall slowly returned to as normal a state as it could, although other children continued to steal glances in their direction as often as they felt they could get away with it.

The General smiled and winked at the group. He knew exactly what this visit would do for their reputation. He took a moment to make sincere eye contact with each of them. He looked at Brandon last, and after a serious moment he let out his trademark booming laugh and slapped his hand lightly on the table.

The General opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself and turned to look at the table behind him where the neighbouring children were watching intently. “Hey, Bob, Trudy, Jen, Keith, Michael, Brian, and Shandi? I know it’s a bit of a pain, but I really need to talk to these kids alone. How ‘bout you give us some space and run along, please.” The kids nodded and got up from their table to leave. Then the General spoke loudly but to no one in particular. “If you can hear my voice right now but you’re not sitting at my table… then go ahead and excuse yourselves, please. Thanks, everyone.” Kids at four surrounding tables stood up and quickly left the area.

The General looked around one more time then he nodded and smiled at Brandon’s team. “There,” he said. “That will help build a bit more mystery. Everyone will be wondering what the old man said to all of you. You’re going to gain popularity points today.”

The team nodded in agreement. No one knew what to say. A visit from the General was very rare, and it usually involved a visit to address the entire facility. To have the General come sit at your table during lunch in the mess hall… well, it just didn’t happen. They sat quietly and waited for the General to speak. They didn’t have to wait long.

“All I can say is wow. I’ve seen the video; watched it at least a dozen times. No one has ever captured four trees. It was impossible to accomplish, we made sure of that when we set it up. Brilliant teamwork, people, just incredible playing. I’m very proud of all of you.”

Kay, Alan, and Tony beamed with pride. Easton’s face became slightly flushed from excitement. Brandon smiled politely and nodded as he looked at each of his teammates with a pleased expression on his face.

“I have to make one tiny request,” the General said. “I know it probably won’t sound fair, but it’s important that you agree with what I’m about to ask you.”

“We will do our best, General,” Brandon said.

The General smiled. “I knew I could count on you all. Thank you very much.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I need you to keep the details of that game top secret,” he said.

“We spent a lot of time, money, and effort to create that game. Your team did exactly what we wanted someone to come forward and do; you beat it through teamwork and strategy. If you were to tell the rest of the Gamers how you did it, then there are other teams who could soon replicate your performance. It wouldn’t be fair, and it goes against what we’re trying to do here.”

“You want more teams to figure out how to beat it on their own,” Brandon said. “So you get as many great players as possible.”

The General tilted his head to look at Brandon and nodded. “You’re absolutely right, Brandon. It would do us no good to have everyone beat the game the same way you did. All that would prove is that others can do what they see. We aren’t here for that; we're here to create independent thinkers who can win many different ways.”

Brandon looked around the table. Each of the children nodded in answer to his unspoken question. After a moment, Brandon looked back at the General. “We won’t tell anyone how we did it, General,” Brandon assured him.

“Excellent!” the General said. “Neither will the other kids who saw how you did it from their tree tops. I also want to talk to you about the contest.”

“To win a spot in the VR trials?” Alan asked.

“Yes,” the General said. “I realize there’s another three weeks left to compete, but with the points you just won from ‘Monkey See, Monkey Don’t,’ you have enough points to do nothing from now until the end of the competition and still win your age class.”

“Maybe that’s true, General, but that’s not how we do things,” Tony said. “This team plays, and we play to win.”

“I know that’s true, Tony,” the General said. “I had something in mind that I think you might enjoy more than playing the same games you already seemed to have mastered.”

“Oh, I hope you say what I think you’re going to say,” Kay said.

The General smiled. “How would you like to enter the VR training a bit earlier than the rest of the kids? You’re obviously the best in your age group, and I see no reason to hold you back.”

Kay squealed with excitement and shook clenched fists above her head. Alan held his hand out, and Tony tapped his chest three times before slapping Alan’s hand in a high five. Easton patted Brandon on the shoulder and laughed happily, while Brandon grinned back.

“Can I take this response as a yes?” the General asked.

“Yes, sir!” Brandon said. “We can’t wait to get started.”

Chapter 26

In an isolated underground office, Samson Thorn exited the virtual reality simulation. He lifted a complex looking helmet from his head and rested it on the desk.

Thorn walked over to the small refrigerator, grabbed a bottle of water, and drained it dry in one long pull as he walked back to his desk. He looked at the VR headset and nodded with satisfaction. Thorn’s most trustworthy and intelligent employees had finally developed a headset that worked. With this apparatus Thorn could quickly enter and leave the simulations, bypassing the cumbersome process of being put under by medical staff. At the moment Thorn possessed the only working unit and he intended to make certain it stayed that way for some time. If the General found out about this, Thorn guessed that he might be considered no longer necessary to have Thorn around. 

Thorn glanced at his computer monitor and saw that Cooper was still inside the simulation. The computer showed Cooper walking towards the exit gate, a room inside the simulation with special chairs that allowed the subject to leave their avatar and return to
the real world.

Cooper had done very well during his session. Thorn would report everything to the General.

Well, not quite everything.

He wasn’t sure if Cooper believed the scene with his parents or not. It was genuine, but Cooper might be too wary to believe the truth about what the General had done… especially when presented with the evidence inside a computer generated simulation.

Thorn pressed a button on his desk and waited a few moments. Soon there was a knock on his door.

“Come in,” he said.

The door opened and a middle aged man wearing glasses and a white lab coat walked in. He was the lead designer who had developed the headset which sat on Thorn’s desk.

“How did it perform?” Thorn asked.

The tech smiled. “It worked great, sir.”

Thorn nodded. “It felt good. I don’t have a headache or anything this time,” he said.

“There was just one small glitch, but I believe I can make a few adjustments to correct it.”

“What glitch?”

“It seems that time passed at a slightly different rate for you inside the Sim, but it’s nothing to worry about. An hour passed out here, while an hour and fifteen minutes passed inside the Sim for you.”

Thorn frowned. “What do you mean time passed at a different rate? How is such a thing possible?”

The tech shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not certain how it happened, Sir. It’s nothing to worry about. I expect some fine tuning will be required as we perfect the headset.”

“Do you think you can extend the time difference?” he asked.

The tech frowned. “Maybe, but I don’t understand why you would want to do that.”

Thorn smiled. How could he not understand why that would be desirable? Until this point every minute spent in the Sim equaled one minute of real time. One of Thorn’s great disappointments was that customers would only be able to play inside for limited amounts of time. It would be slow going and difficult for advancement of the technology if people could only spare a few hours to play before having to get back to their real life chores.

His biggest customer at the moment was the military, but Thorn planned to quickly take the product to market and offer it to the civilian population.

With a time-scaled effect, it would be possible for a customer to spend more time inside the simulation. They could spend one hour of real time while enjoying hours, days, maybe even years, inside the VR world. It would be much easier to get people hooked on — and consuming — his product if they spent more time with it. Visions of billing not by real time played, but by virtual years spent, began to flash in Thorn’s head. It would be an excellent money making opportunity. But even more important than that, his Sim world would grow and evolve quicker with customers spending more time inside it.

“Just see what you can do, please. The larger the time variance, the happier I will be. I also want to know if you can replicate this effect for subjects entering the Sim through the traditional method. I want everyone inside the simulations to experience time the same way.”

“They will, Sir. It wouldn’t work any different from…”

Brandon held up his hand to silence the man. “I don’t care how it works, I just care that it works. Get to work and bring me the best results you can.”

The man nodded and left the room

Chapter 27

Lohkam sat with his back to the wall and watched his teammates move around the ready room. His boys were
making their way to each of the other teams and speaking with the leaders. One of the leaders looked at Lohkam with a questioning face. Lohkam gave her an intimidating look and nodded slowly. Lohkam knew how unsettling his look was, it could make your skin crawl. It made you want to be anywhere other than on the receiving end of it. Lohkam’s flat stare and aggressive body language said that he didn’t care about you or what happened to you. The bored look and piercing gaze assured you that something bad could happen. He’d been practicing this look for years; even before he came to the Game Facility. By the time he was ten, Lohkam had a reputation with the others. No one could prove anything, but Lohkam’s smile conveyed that he was a kid who would punish you if you crossed him, and he would enjoy it.

A few moments later his team returned and sat down. Lohkam looked slowly around the room. He knew where the issue was before his crew even announced it. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Then he rolled his neck slowly back and forth and closed his eyes. “Billy’s the problem, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” one teammate said. “Billy and his crew aren’t in the mood to cut a deal today, Lock.”

“Why not?” Lohkam asked. He opened his eyes and saw that Billy was watching him with a grim expression on his face.

“He knows if we win this game today then we lock our division for the VR contest.”

“Billy isn’t gonna beat us for the spot. Trying to do that
during this game is plain stupid.”

“That’s what I told him, Lock. He said he didn’t care. He said it’s a tie for sure. It’s too embarrassing for them to lose this game. Brandon and his team just broke the high score on it a couple days ago. Billy says for a crew to not capture at least one tree would be shameful for them.”

Lohkam spread his arm to point at the other three teams in the ready room; they weren’t even bothering to put on their wraps. “They aren’t worried about being shamed. It’s a stupid game anyway. They can get us out of their hair and try for the wildcard spot.”

Lohkam’s crew just nodded in agreement and looked at him quietly.

“Fine. I’ll talk to him,” Lohkam said. He stood up and sauntered over to Billy.

“Need a minute, Billy,” Lohkam said.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I hear you’re gonna go ahead and capture a tree.”

“Yeah, sorry, but we gotta get one.”

Lohkam nodded. “Sounds like a great plan.” He said. “The price seems a bit steep, but I’m sure you can do something else once you’re out of the Facility.”

Billy frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Lohkam pointed towards his team. “See my crew over there?”

“Yeah.”

“You notice the tank isn’t our regular one?”

“I do,” Billy said.

“The one joining us today is sick of games,” Lohkam said. “He can’t wait to get out of here. So I told him I could help him out.”

“How you gonna do that?”

“He wants to enter Weapons Facility. It’s violent and physical, not something I would want to sign up for, but some kids just like to go that way.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Billy said.

“If he busts someone up bad, and I mean real bad, then he’ll use up his last warning here and get kicked from the facility. Then he can go ahead and apply to Weapons.”

Billy didn’t say anything. He was sizing up the tank, who was smiling in Billy’s direction with a cruel look on his face.

“Anyone who walks onto that field today with wraps on their hands and isn’t on my team… well, they’re gonna be his main target. He’ll be kicked from the facility, but before he is, it’s gonna get violent. This is his third strike. First strike was because he beat someone so bad the kid had to drop out. His second strike involved paralyzing some poor guy in an accident. They couldn’t prove it was done on purpose, so they could only give him a strike, but I’m here to tell you that he did do it on purpose.”

Billy looked pale and his eyes were wide.

“This is just one stupid little game, Billy, not worth getting hurt over. Definitely not worth losing the use of your legs… or maybe your life, if he gets a bit too carried away.”

Lohkam turned around and began to walk back to his group. “Or maybe it is,” he called back over his shoulder. “I guess that’s just gonna have to be up to you.”

Lohkam got back to his group and stopped, keeping his back to Billy. “What’s he doing?” Lohkam asked.

“He’s taking his wraps off, Lock. Same with the rest of his team. What the hell’d you say to him?”

“Same thing you did,” Lohkam said with a smile. “I just said it better.”

===

Five minutes later, the door opened for the game ‘Monkey See, Monkey Don’t.’ Of the five teams, only one entered the field.

Lohkam and his crew captured one tree, then exited the arena. They walked back into the ready room, which was now empty. They boys laughed at their victory.

“Not as fancy as Brandon’s win,” one of the teammates said.

Lohkam laughed harshly. “It’s a win. No one gets to see how they did it, so maybe our win was more skillful than theirs. That’s the proper way to spin the story.”

“I doubt it. I heard they took four trees,” another said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Lohkam snapped. “They won early and we won early. Pretty soon we’ll see who the real winner is. I’d put my money on us, boys.