S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11) (37 page)

“There was something missing from the cart that she needed. She left those two attendants alone, the ones who brought Micah into the room.”

“Those jokers? You think they could've pulled off a fake conscription?”

“Not a chance. But they're not the ones who did it. There was a third guy, an Arc engineer or something. He came in because of a problem with Micah's Link, remember?”

Kelly nodded. “Something about it blocking the network from querying his implant. They thought he didn't have one at first.”

“Blocking the network? Doesn't that sound familiar? Like the firewall on my Link?”

Eric turned and frowned at Kelly.

“Yeah, I remember. They needed an x-ray to confirm the implant was present.”

Jessie shushed him impatiently. “That third guy, he spent a lot of time up near Micah's head, which is where the conscription machine was. Those attendants weren't paying attention. He could've switched out the syringes without anyone noticing.”

Kelly was quiet for a moment. Now he wished he hadn't been too chickenshit to watch the conscription.

“Okay, assuming he did — and I'm not saying I believe it — then where is he?” Eric asked. “Where's Micah? His house is empty. And I searched through the Evans place and found no sign that anyone was staying there. How is he doing this?”

Kelly could see behind her the house across the street. He watched as she unlocked the front door and let herself in.

“He's in Gameland,” she answered, the image jouncing as she hurried up the stairs to her room. “The other day when we were checking the gear, Kelly and I saw something inside the compound on Jayne's Hill. It was him, I'm sure of it.”

“We saw something,” Kelly said. “But it could've been anything— another Player, an Arc employee. Jessie, we're worried about you. So, whatever you're doing, you need to stop.”

“I'm going to get him.”

“How? Our Player's dead.”

“No
your
Player is dead. But not mine.”

There was a moment of silence. “What are you talking about?” Kelly asked.

“I've been sponsored.”

“What? Since when? And by who?”

She didn't answer.

“Damn it, Jessie!” Eric shouted. “Stop right now! Let Arc deal with this. Let the police handle it. You need to think about—”

“I have to stop him, Eric. It's why he's doing this. It's why he used you guys to take Mom— and why he tried to use me. To get back at all of us. Micah won't stop until somebody stops him first, or we're all dead.”

“Jessie,” Kelly begged.

“I'll ping you once I get there.”

“What? Get where?” Eric demanded.

“Jess? Damn it!” Kelly punched in the contact again. “She disconnected.”

“Ping her back!”

“I'm trying, but she's not connecting.”

‡ ‡ ‡

The Arc technician had been telling her about the state-of-the-art VR setup when she heard the whisper:
jessie

“It comes complete with—”

“
Shh!
” The harshness of her whisper cut him off like a scythe through dense grass. He gave her a puzzled look.

“Did you hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what?”

She cocked her head to the side, frowning. But the voice didn't repeat itself.

Several seconds passed with neither of them returning to the setup. The tech — she glanced at the tag on his ArcTech shirt and was reminded that his name was Tony — raised an eyebrow at her and fidgeted with the snaps on his uniform.

He probably thinks I'm some kind of nutcase
, Jessie thought to herself,
hearing voices that aren't there
.

Actually, considering the type of clientele he was probably used to dealing with — rich, spoiled, and in all likelihood, sociopathic — the way she was acting she'd probably fit right in with them.

“Nothing,” she finally said, shaking her head as if to dislodge a fly. “It was nothing. I just thought I heard someone say something.”

Tony-the-Tech cleared his throat and looked pointedly around the room at the unadorned sound-deadening walls. Even their voices seemed to be swallowed up by the material. There wasn't even a trace of an echo. He checked the system's mic in his ear, adjusting the volume. Shrugged.

Jessie watched this with a mix of confusion and apprehension. She was afraid to tell him what she'd heard hadn't come from the device he was speaking into. It hadn't come from him. It hadn't even come from outside of her own head.

So, you
are
crazy.

The idea no longer frightened her. Maybe she was.

Except right now, she'd never felt more sane.

What was most disturbing about hearing that voice was her certainty who it belonged to: someone she'd watched die inside Gameland.

Maybe it's your subconscious starting to chicken out.

Half of her wished she could oblige. The other half knew it wasn't an option.

“Could be there's a glitch with the equipment?” she found herself saying. “Or in
The Game
's programming.”

“Ha!” Tony barked in amusement. “Not likely. This gear is fresh out of the wrappers. And I happen to know that QC checked it a half dozen times since we got your specs. As far as the codex, it's foolproof.”

This, she happened to know, wasn't true. The programming was full of holes—
if
you knew where and how to look for them.

He proceeded to babble on about the care which had gone into the gear's manufacture and customization for her planned entry into
The Game
, but she found herself drifting, only faintly aware of him as he proceeded with the checklist, making sure to note each step's successful passing on the computer's screen. She found herself straining to hear— not him, and not just with her ears, but beyond the limits of sound, beyond the limits of her consciousness even. But the whisper did not repeat itself.

It was the first time his voice had come to her since returning, though it wasn't the first voice she'd heard. The rest had been—

strangers

—too faint to recognize with any certainty.

Before today, she'd tried to convince herself that it had just been her overwrought imagination, the consequence of a guilty conscience for all the terrible things she'd seen and done in the past few weeks — the people who had died or been lost because of her decisions when they were trapped inside the very same arcade she was about to break into a second time — but now she wasn't so sure.

The voice came again, once again whispering her name. Louder this time. Unmistakable.

Jake.

yes jessie it's me

Her body jerked and she pulled away from the tech with a choking gasp, her eyes wide with fright. She scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over the low bench which spanned the length of the wall.

“Look,” the technician said, managing to look both amused and impatient, “it's understandable that you're nervous. Most new Operators get cold feet. It's a butt-load of cash to be dropping all at once, especially on the latest gear. And on a Player you've never even seen before . . . .” His voice trailed off as he shook his head. She could hear him muttering into his chest: “Never heard of anything like it before in my life.”

“I'm not nervous,” she snapped at him, momentarily forgetting her fright.

And why should she be nervous? It hadn't been her money that had paid for the equipment or the million-dollar entrance fee. She didn't know whose money it had been, to tell the truth, though she did have her suspicions.

He wants you to go back in.

The sane thing would've been not to. If Micah wanted her to get back into
The Game
, then that's the last thing she should do. But how could she not? Reggie and Kelly were vulnerable. And what he'd made them do to her mother had been inexcusable.

“He won't be expecting me to come after him myself.”

“Excuse me?” Tony asked.

“Nothing. Just  just excited is all.”

He's not that stupid, Jessie. The moment you connect, Micah's going to—

No! It didn't matter. None of it did. Only one thing mattered and that was getting back into Gameland, finding him, and stopping him. The rest of it — this charade — this was just a means to an end.

“You know there's no refunds,” Tony said. He passed a wand over her arm and measured the signal.

“I don't give a crap about the money! Just finish up with the adjustments already.”

He looked her up and down, appraising her in her skintight white cotton bodysuit with its thousands of invisible embedded electrodes, and suddenly she felt as naked as if she was wearing nothing at all.

“Yeah, makes sense, I guess. First-time Operators — ones who pay their way in themselves — they usually opt for the entry-level package, equipment that's been fully vetted in the field, not the platinum level model with the latest sensory relays. Folks usually don't upgrade until they've gotten a few kills under their belt, have some confidence in their ability to control a Player. Your dad like some kind of politician or something? Because that happens a lot around here.”

Jessie snorted. If this poor sap ever found out the truth of who she was and why she needed to get into
The Game
, he'd go straight to Arc's security and have her arrested. What she was planning wasn't exactly legal. Hell, if she got caught before she could find Micah, this time there'd be no clemency. They'd conscript her in a flash. And, with her luck, she'd probably end up as one of those sanitation zombies scraping shit off sewer pipes underneath Detroit or something.

“Just finish with the setup already,” she growled again, feeling her face flush with anger and embarrassment.

The guy chuckled smugly to himself.

“When do I get to see my Player?” she barked.

“You can see him right now,” he answered, and he leaned over and tapped the screen. The image with her specs on it folded neatly away and was replaced by a photo of the zombie who was to be her avatar in
The Game
.

When Jessie saw his face, her knees collapsed beneath her, and she fell senseless to the floor.

‡ ‡ ‡

“She's planning to go back to Gameland,” Kelly said.

Jessie hadn't told him this in so many words, yet he knew. He knew she wouldn't risk putting herself in Micah's hands by simply connecting to a game stream, not if she didn't have to. She was too smart for that. No, she was planning to go after him herself.

The problem was, she was deluding herself.

Doctor White pushed herself up in her chair and let out a sigh. There was a foulness in her breath, and the stiffness in her movements suggested she was ill.

Kelly watched her carefully. He'd just told her about Jessie's mom and about her theory that Micah had somehow hacked their implants through the gaming gear. Doctor White had immediately dismissed the idea that the gear she'd given him was somehow to blame. “And what do you believe?”

“Honestly?” Kelly answered. “I'm having difficulty accepting it. On the other hand, it would explain the blackouts.”

“And free you of any responsibility for her mother's abduction. How convenient.”

Kelly nodded.

“Has anyone wondered if maybe Jessie is doing this herself?”

Kelly frowned, then nodded again. “It's crossed our minds.”

“After all, she has been very angry at her mother. And you. And you did say she was obsessed with
Survivalist
. Have you ever considered that she might subconsciously
want
to go back?”

“To Gameland? Not Jessie.” He shook his head, but he knew it was a lie.

“I saw the blood results on your friend, Reggie, from when he was in before. He had high levels of an illicit drug in his bloodstream. Zoners, I think they call them. Do you have any idea where he got them?”

Kelly stared at her in shock. “I found some in Jessie's pocket a few days ago.”

“They're known to reduce one's inhibitions, make one more susceptible to suggestion. They can also cause one to become violent.
And
to experience blackouts. Do you have any ideas why she'd give them to him?”

Kelly shook his head, his mouth hanging open.

Doctor White reached over and took a drink of water from the bottle on her desk. “I'm not judging her. What you all suffered was extremely traumatic. But I think it would be best if she saw a professional, got some help.”

Kelly averted his gaze from the doctor's face.

Something's missing
, his mind announced, distractedly. He didn't want to think about Jessie going crazy or doing something to harm them.

The hinged skull was present and accounted for, although the top was slightly askew, as if the hinge had been bent. And there was the lamp. The shade was crumpled on one side. And the old telephone with the missing button was now missing two.

What am I not seeing?

“Kelly, where is she? I'm worried she might try to hurt herself.”

He snapped back to her. “We don't know. We checked the house, Eric and I did, but she was already gone. We tried pinging her, but she wouldn't connect. I was even going to try the police, but Eric stopped me.”

Doctor White nodded. “Wise decision. If they find out, it'll be like trying to put the genie back into the bottle.”

“Meaning?”

Her face pinched. “Jessica won't be able to get back into Gameland. The tunnels have been sealed.
All
of them, even the LaGuardia tunnel. The only ways on and off the island are tightly controlled.”

“What are they?”

“There used to be access points for the Marines, of course. But since Arc took over, neither the military nor local police departments have jurisdiction. I told Jessie about a Player access point, but the ferryman we were using has been replaced. She knows that, too. And she'd have to pass through multiple checkpoints just to reach it. Assuming she made it that far, she'd never be able to get inside.”