The Rule of Thoughts (34 page)

“A lot of situations?” he asked. “Are you kidding me? Do you—”

Sarah interrupted him. “Let’s just get started. Please?” Michael was surprised that she looked nervous.

He looked back at their audience and realized that most of the VNS agents had stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the new arrivals. He waved feebly, feeling like the stupidest person who’d ever lived. No one waved back.

“By all means,” Agent Weber said, once again motioning
to the podium. “The floor is yours. I’ll be at the controls—just link with my system if you want anything displayed on the War Board.”

“War this and War that,” Bryson murmured under his breath to Michael. “Seems kinda weird for people who’re just supposed to be monitoring the VirtNet. This place gives me the willies.”

“The willies?” Michael repeated.

“The willies.”

Sarah had already made her way to the center of the vast room. Agent Weber matched her stride for stride. Michael grabbed Bryson by the shirt and hurried after them. The whole situation seemed a little off, but what could they expect? The entire world was a little off when a computer program tried to take over the human race.

Weber stepped up to the podium and pulled the microphone closer to her mouth, just as Michael and the other two settled in right behind her. Before she said a word, the room quieted, the murmurs of conversation cutting off instantly.

“Good afternoon,” Weber began, her voice echoing. “Thank you for gathering today, especially on such short notice. Some of you are here virtually, but I’m glad that as many of you as possible are actually present. I’ve only invited those with whom I’ve built a solid relationship of trust over many years.”

Curious, Michael scanned the room, and sure enough, he could see what he hadn’t before: about three in ten agents were holographic projections in their seats. It was hardly noticeable except for an odd glow to their faces or an occasional glitch here and there interrupting the feed.

“As we are all well aware,” Weber continued, “the VirtNet is faced with perhaps its most dangerous situation since our agency was formed nearly fifty years ago. To share a very old quote, ‘We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.’ And I wanted all of you here today so that …”

Michael tuned out, looking around the room as she droned on. Something had been bothering him, and his unease was growing. As he studied the faces of all these agents—men and women, dressed in a cornucopia of cultural attire—it suddenly hit him. Hit him hard. Something wasn’t right, and he knew why.

“Sarah,” he whispered, leaning closer to her.

She shushed him with an angry look.

Michael shook his head. He thought back to Agent Weber’s performance on the uplink they’d used in that dingy office they’d found. How she’d denied everything and then explained later, when they broke into the VNS headquarters and confronted her, that she’d had no choice, that she was worried about people within her agency who might have shady intentions.

So why, then, were they standing here, in front of everyone, being presented like winners at an awards ceremony? And what about all the warrants for their arrest? And the search for the missing Jackson Porter?

Michael had the sudden urge to grab his friends by the hands and drag them out of the room. To run while they still could. But so many people had seen them. They didn’t have a chance. Not here.

Sarah was stepping to the podium by the time he returned his attention to her. She cleared her throat and opened her
NetScreen, pulling up her notes. Weber came over to stand beside Michael and, as if she’d hacked into his mind, leaned in to whisper to him.

“I’ve only brought in the ones I can completely, utterly trust. But even they don’t know everything. You’re going to have to trust me.”

She paused, scanning the room with a thoughtful expression, as if considering everything one last time. Then she spoke in a low voice, “I have a plan.”

“Well,” Michael said, “don’t you think you should’ve let Sarah in on it before you threw her to the wolves like this?” Weber shook her head ever so slightly. “These people will think their way around an ice cream cone before ever giving it a lick. Once they get far enough with whatever Sarah tells them to actually accomplish anything, the matter will probably be settled anyway. They’re essentially my backup plan.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Michael looked at her, not knowing what else to say. He had no idea if he could trust her yet, but all he could do was nod. Weber seemed satisfied, and she walked toward the back of the room, where a large systems console waited. Michael turned his attention to Sarah, who finally began speaking.

“I’m glad we—” She stopped when the microphone squawked, pushed it away a bit, then tried again. “I’m glad
we have the opportunity to speak about what we’ve seen. Because my friends and I”—she turned and gestured toward Michael and Bryson—“have seen a lot. A lot of things we should all be worried about. What we’re about to tell you should be the top priority of this agency, and we need to act quickly.”

Michael almost groaned. He loved Sarah, he really did, but the faster she got to the facts, the better.

“I think all of you are far too familiar with the Tangent known as Kaine by now,” Sarah continued. “My friends and I have seen firsthand that he is self-sentient and not exactly out for the good of humankind. The complicated part of this is that unlike traditional Tangents, he seems to be everywhere at once, not just part of one specific program.

“I’m not sure how much you’ve been briefed on the Mortality Doctrine, but I assume you know what’s happening. Something you may not know, however, is that Michael, here”—she gestured again—“was the first example of the Doctrine’s being successfully implemented. He was once a Tangent, but his consciousness, his intelligence, his memories—everything that makes him who he is—were transferred to a human body. My colleagues and I are ready to share vital information on how we can stop Kaine.”

This time Michael did groan a little. My
colleagues
? Bryson just stared out at the audience, his thoughts well hidden.

Sarah pressed on, picking up steam as she went. “We visited a town within the Slee—within the VirtNet that was almost completely empty of players. And the ones we saw seemed troubled or emotionless. We witnessed a lady who’d
been attacked by something we’ve seen before—a program designed to digitally rip her apart. The next thing we knew …”

Sarah went on and on, her confidence growing as she spoke, as if she’d done this a thousand times. Michael thought that maybe she’d end up being the boss at VNS someday. He had no doubts that she could do it. Piece by piece, she told the agents—most of whom seemed rapt with attention—all the details of what she, Michael, and Bryson had seen, what they’d been through. From the destruction of the town to the purple sea to the massive pool of code they’d swum through to build a picture of Kaine and what he’d been doing. Michael listened intently but found his thoughts wandering from time to time. He couldn’t stop thinking about Agent Weber. The woman was an enigma.

“… were able to trace the code back to see just how many places Kaine had destroyed. Why he’s doing it, we don’t know. Another thing he’s doing is taking over commerce sites, stealing personal ID codes, manipulating financial markets. Why he’d be doing that is obvious: the Tangent is accumulating a good chunk of wealth.”

Accumulating
, Michael thought. She really did sound like a professional. Someone tried to interrupt Sarah to ask a question and she told him—didn’t ask,
told
him—to wait until she’d finished talking.

She continued, saving the best for last. “After all the coding we assembled—which I recorded, and I’ve sent a copy to Agent Weber—we know where Kaine is. And I don’t mean where he’s walking around, or where he’s eating his virtual
food, or where he’s sitting, scheming what to do next. We found something much more important.” She paused, making sure everyone was listening. “We know where Kaine’s central programming is located.”

This set off quite the buzz among the agents, and Michael couldn’t help but feel that surge of pride once again. How educated were these people? How experienced? How many hours and days had they spent searching for Kaine, ever since back when they still thought he was an actual gamer, a human, not a Tangent? And yet it ended up being three punk teenagers who’d found him. Michael, Sarah, and Bryson, the Burn-and-Pillage-y Trilogy. He had to fight hard to keep a smile off his face.

“We know where it is,” Sarah continued. “We found his source code, his intelligence. One would think it’d be part of—or near to, at least—the massive array of code that makes up the VirtNet’s structure itself, so that he could easily be wherever he needed, whenever he wanted, but that’s not the case.”

Another pause, and Michael wondered if she was hamming it up just a bit too much. And then she finally said the one sentence that probably would’ve sufficed from the very beginning.

“Kaine the Tangent is inside a game. He’s inside
Lifeblood Deep
.”

Another flurry of questions and conversation erupted around the chamber. Michael heard a
tap-tap-tap
behind him and he turned to see Agent Weber walking toward the podium, holding a small remote device. She pushed a button just as she reached Sarah’s side and suddenly the rotating globe above them vanished, replaced by an aerial, three-dimensional view of a city, zooming in toward one section. Standing beneath it, and so close, sent Michael’s stomach pitching. He quickly looked away since he already knew what it was.

Downtown Atlanta. Zeroing in on a small building no one would ever think twice about as they passed it. Kaine had hidden his virtual home right under the virtual equivalent of VirtNet Security’s noses. He’d probably done it just to make a point, to display his power.

A small, stupid thing, but it made Michael hate him just a little bit more. The Tangent seemed to learn all his moves from old films.

“Kaine’s presence is felt all over the Sleep,” Sarah said, not bothering to correct herself with the more proper term this time. She was too much in the zone. “But he’s just like any other Tangent, no matter how powerful he has become. He’s still a program, and he’s still made up of code, no matter how complicated, and that programming is centrally located somewhere, just like any other. He’s hidden it well. But my friends and I have become very familiar with him. And by comparing the sea of code we just escaped from and crossanalyzing it with all our other experiences, we were able to
construct a back door to his home base. It wasn’t easy, but we did it.”

“Who programmed him in the first place?” someone yelled from the audience.

Sarah looked over at Michael. He shrugged, because it was a guess at best.

“We don’t really know,” she said. “But it seems his origins go all the way back to the beginning of the Internet age. Programmed to learn and to grow, he’s been working toward sentience ever since, from what we can tell.” She cleared her throat and hesitated, obviously worried that they’d gotten off track. “Now back to his code’s location …”

The giant image hanging above them zoomed in on the building in question—a small, three-story structure wedged between two skyscrapers. Being
Lifeblood Deep
, Atlanta was an exact replica of the real deal, and Kaine’s home had been classified as a historical building. That was the only reason it hadn’t been demolished a long time ago. The perfect hiding place for a rogue Tangent.

“Because he’s spotted in the Sleep all the time,” Sarah continued, “I don’t think there’s any way Kaine has used the Mortality Doctrine on himself. It’s way too early. He’ll want a lot more testing done before he dares do it. So we’re pretty sure he’s here.”

Agent Weber stepped up to the microphone, and Sarah moved aside as naturally as if they’d practiced. It bugged Michael. He was sure the agent wanted to take all the glory now that it was time for the meat of the presentation.

“Thank you, Sarah,” the woman said, giving Sarah one of
those professional smiles that said her mind had already moved on to the next thought. She turned to the audience. “I don’t think I need to tell you how much we owe Sarah and her friends. They’re under an incredible amount of stress. Suffice it to say that they’ve undertaken incredibly dangerous assignments for us on more than one occasion, and our debt to them is significant.”