VR Interactive Game Worlds

Book 1 : The Notorious Mutant

Contents

Chapter 1 : VR - Innovation in interactive computers

Chapter 2 : It's so real, the audience can feel you breath

Chapter 3 : Visiting the mall

Chapter 4 : Doctor Frankenstein, a body please!

Chapter 5 : The mother of all smells

Chapter 6 : Interlude of the punisher

Chapter 7 : An interactive story

Chapter 8 : The open deck, and the blue water

Chapter 9 : To confuse the issue further

Chapter 10 : An epic voyage

Chapter 11 : World wide disruptions...

Chapter 12 : High society

Chapter 13 : Island paradise

Chapter 14 : The viper within

Chapter 15 :Paradise lost

Chapter 16 : Waiting for help

Chapter 17 : A bigger playground

Chapter 18 : Introduction to the Mutant world

Chapter 19 : Creating an expedition team

Chapter 20 : Crazy stunts and new abilities

Chapter 21 : The new order of defenders

Chapter 22 : A wild goose chase, maybe...

Chapter 23 : Catch 22

Chapter 24 : The beginning of the end

Chapter 25 : Ant attack

Chapter 26 : Truth and dare

Chapter 27 : Epilogue

Chapter 1 : VR - Innovation in interactive computers

Kate was in a hurry to get home from work this particular day. On the back seat of the car, were a couple of boxes, containing the latest, and possibly the greatest innovation ever for computers. Not that there weren't new things been developed every week in the computing field, but in the commercial market, this had only been out in Australia for two weeks.

Kate had watched the news with some interest a few years back, as on-line VR providers started up all over the world. They weren't as big as or had the infrastructure of the Internet, as the providers didn't connect with each other. Several went national in America and other counties as interest grew, allowing users to interact with people on the other side of the country, but never grew as popular as the Internet.

At one stage, Kate had read that some kid had hacked into one of the big gaming systems, nearly killing some people by locking them into their VR environments, and hacking into personal and financial records, to discredit them when they finally escaped the VR system.

Kate had tried some of the systems out at the main offices of the providers, working out the better systems from the not so good ones. Kate couldn't afford one at the time, as they had been very expensive, and the charges for going on-line were beyond her current earnings.

After reading about the hacker, Kate had dropped the thought about buying a system. Then recently, she found out about the newer generation of VR systems. Apparently several companies had contended for a US government defence contract, to develop new human controlled guidance systems with VR. A particular company had lost its bid to another, but went ahead after receiving funding from a number of private sources who had heard the details of the systems they already had working. From there they had, developed the VR4 system, while the contractor for the government had wasted its time, working from current weapons system which were totally out of date.

Kate honked her horn at a car making an illegal turn, blocking her in. It was frustrating, as most drivers seemed to act like total idiots. She also didn't like the fact the most of the ones she had seen were also female. But men designed most cars and road systems. What could they have been thinking, developing the world's number one killer of people?

News reports she had read recently, showed the introduction of VR4 at the World E-Trade Fair and was been claimed as the most real and involving experience by the exhibitors and customers that had forked out the $500 dollars to try it for 15 minutes. They claimed that existing systems supporting the Internet could easily be changed to allow users across the globe to interact, and also have them access information usually accessible on the Internet. Apparently they had demonstrated this, with one of their systems located back in the States logging on-line, and playing games with whoever was in the World E-Trade Fair, and allowing them to browse information on the Internet.

Kate had followed the progress of the VR4 on every source she could find, until several weeks ago when it had been released to the general market. As soon as she could, she tried out one of the VR4 systems at the first place that had it available. As it happened, it was at in the biggest shopping complex in the city. She had waited for two hours, spending a long lunch break waiting in a line just to try out the system for 5 minutes. When she opened her eyes again, she was hooked. The VR4 was much cheaper than the old systems Kate had tried, now given the title of VR3. Kate spent more than a week after that, trying to find a shop that could sell her the VR4 components rather than a whole system.

The VR4 had been designed to work with the commercial parts in personal computers. Kate already had a reasonable computer at home, and could plug the VR4 parts straight in almost.

Paying for the VR4 components up front, had worried Kate, but the shop had her notarise a couple of documents, for bill of sale but allowing her to cancel the bill of sale an get her money back at any time up to thirty days after delivery.

So eleven days later, just after 10 in the morning, Kate had three boxes delivered to her personally at work. She opened the boxes and confirmed the contents before signing the special delivery form. All day she worked at her desk, with the boxes underneath where she knew where they were. The news the night before had reported people breaking into neighbour's houses to steal the VR4 systems they had seen their neighbour being home. So Kate was conscious of the boxes against her right leg all day.

Kate had quit a bit earlier in her rush to get home as soon as possible, ending up in the worst part of the rush hour traffic in Perth.

It was a relief to finally pull up in front of her flat and back the car into the garage.

Kate walked into her flat with her arms full. She shucked her shoes which had been cramping her feet all day, and let the soft carpeting relax her feet making her way upstairs to her study. She unpacked the boxes planning to put it together immediately, but found a big ugly red and green striped envelope, marked "Read This First, Before You Plug Your VR4 OS Chip Into Anything."

The envelope had a Digital Versatile Disc, or DVD, and a document that detailed instructions for converting a PC into a stand-alone or on-line VR4 system. Kate ran the DVD in her computer, as the instructions were also made available in full voice and sound, with helper programs for examining the system to remove unnecessary files.

Kate let the disc play, turning up the volume and listening to it as she changed out of her office clothes and slipped something more comfortable on. The voice rattled on about the features, capabilities, and uses already been made of VR4 systems. Kate prepared her dinner and let it sit in the fridge ready to heat in the microwave.

Kate returned to the computer when she heard the voice stop. It had examined the system settings as it had played the instructions, and concluded that Kate's system was quite capable of running the VR4 system, but lacked memory for the larger, more dynamic environments. Otherwise the program was ready to prepare the data one the system for the VR4 OS chip.

Kate already knew about the need for lots of memory in the VR4 systems, and had thoughtfully purchased some at the same time. This resided in the third box along with some additional components.

Kate hit a button and let the program whirr away on an automatic setting. She had no information on the computer she hadn't already backed up on DVD's.

It was now a matter of waiting while it pruned down non-essential applications and data. Kate spent the time in the lounge room, working out on a rowing machine she had inherited from a friend who moved interstate after getting married.

Finishing with the rowing machine, Kate checked on the progress of the computer but found it was only 20% complete. She was getting hungry now, so returned to the kitchen downstairs to cook her dinner. Letting it take care of itself, Kate prowled around her flat, checking both the microwave and the computer before settling down in front of the TV.

Waiting was unnerving, so she watched some new show she had no interest in trying to understand what it was about. Finally she heard the microwave, and broke away from the TV long enough to spread her dinner on a plate and grab a drink before returning to the TV. It wasn't that good a show, but she had seen the climatic start, and she was curious as to how it would end.

Kate forced herself to eat slowly. Several times she thought she had heard the computer, and dashed upstairs to find the it hadn't finished so returned to the sofa in front of the TV. After checking the computer once more and dispensing with the dishes Kate started to watch the next show.

During the first commercial break, she heard the distinctive repetitive tones of the computer. Kate jumped up from the sofa, knocking it back to hit the wall with a thud. She ignored it and rushed back to the study. The computer was now ready to be converted. The program displayed a few more instructions for some components to be removed as they were no longer necessary, but could be retained if the user required certain functions.

Kate was sure she didn't need them as she let the computer shut down. Kate had spent enough time with computers to know enough to put one together or pull one apart. They were easy enough these days. All the parts were pretty much modular. The side panel popped off, and she removed the Operating System chip. This was the first thing that went, and Kate pushed in the VR4 OS chip. It looked good with its fancy hologram. Kate pulled out the removable floppy drive, and the sound and video mini boards. Next she put the new memory in, expanding it out to 4 gigabytes. It could handle more, but she really couldn't afford it. Last of all was the interface module and connector for the head set. Off came the keyboard and mouse, as the VR4 system didn't use these for anything.

Now the computer looked quite strange. All it had left was two sockets. One for the power cable and the other for the digital net cable. The supplied instructions had specified moving the system to a location where you could relax comfortably. There were only two locations in her flat with the digital net cable sockets, so unplugging the computer, she carried it downstairs into the lounge room with the cables. The socket was close enough to the sofa, where she plugged it back in. The small LCD display on the front of the computer lit up with diagnostic information even with the computer turned off. It showed sufficient power levels and indicated an active connection to a network provider.

Kate retuned to the study to grab the headset with its 5-metre cable, and a Sampler soft-pack for the VR4 system.

It was now a simple mater of plugging in the VR4 system. The last part of the instructions had stated to put on the headset before turning on the system, otherwise it wouldn't be able to adjust its sensors when you put it on, and to start the system first time by itself with any packages of the soft-packs.

Kate slipped the headset on over her neck, under her hair, and adjusted the receptors in the metallic net that ran from the carbon fibre frame from the neck clasp up either side of her face. It didn't sit firmly, so she secured the chinstrap.

Now came the final moment. Kate switched on the computer and sat down on the sofa, shifting the headset's cable out of the way.

Unlike the system Kate had tried at the shopping centre, which was set up for demonstration purposes, first time users on any VR4 system were introduced to the system's capabilities slowly. It allowed the user to go down though the levels of complexity without the feeling of been overwhelmed.

Chapter 2 : It's so real, the audience can feel you breath

Initially Kate heard a voice speaking, it wasn't readily identifiable, but she could hear what it was saying, "Please don't move you head while the VR4 system attunes itself with you the first time. As the system functions come on-line, it will test each portion accordingly. Currently the sound test is running, providing aural input."

The voice continued, but the source started moving, from what sounded like having been in front to moving around her head. "Your auditory responses react quite well with the system, as it now tests the input characteristics. If you have a sound source located nearby please turn it on now."

Kate had the TV control near her hand so she switched it on, and turned the volume up a bit.

She heard disembodied voice continued over the TV sound at an increased level, "The audio levels have increased sufficiently. Now the system will test audio blanking."

Kate heard the TV go dead. She looked up, and could still see the picture but there was no sound. Kate clicked her fingers in front of her face, and couldn't hear a thing.

She was starting to get worried when she heard voice continue. "The auditory system responds perfectly." Slowly, the TV volume returned, "Please turn off your sound source now."

Kate switched off the TV, leaving her with the feeling of been half deaf. She clicked her fingers again, and clearly heard the sound.

"Now the VR4 will test visual systems. The standard method of entering a VR4 environment is to close you eyes briefly and opening them again. Please do so now."

Kate didn't close her eyes, wonder what the system would do if she didn't. After about half a minute the voice came back "This system didn't detect a sufficient drop in light levels. If you did close your eyes as requested, then this VR4 system may be faulty. If you cannot close you eyes you can bypass this test by clapping your hands loudly or making a similar noise. You can try this test again, otherwise this system recommends you contact your nearest VR4 service centre."

The system was well integrated, allowing for faults to be automatically detected and resolved. The older VR systems didn't have their own diagnostics, but this made Kate feel much better. She closed her eyes now, and slowly opened them to see a static picture of countryside. "Visual input systems are working fine. Please do not disregard the directives during the testing procedure."

It at least knew when it was been fobbed off during a test. Slowly the scene changed, taking on a visual depth. Kate moved her eyes about, as the scene now looked realistic, except it didn't move. Then in one heartbeat, it came alive. The trees close by were moving and she could hear wind. Just in front of her a bird dropped down onto a small bush, and chirped at her.

"Visual responses responded successful. This system will now test for visual overlay." Slowly the picture contracted back into a 2D picture focused on the moving bird. Now Kate saw the image reduce down into a square, and she could see her room around the sides of the square image. The image reduced down to a small square, but she could still focus on the bird within the square and set it clearly as it poked at an insect on the bush.

"Please look away from the visual overlay." Kate moved her eye away from the bird, and the square image stayed exactly where it was. She looked over to her far left, leaving the image out of sight.

"Visual responses reacted successfully. This system will now test for visual overlay." Slowly the picture contracted back into a 2D picture focused on the moving bird. Now Kate saw the image reduce down into a square, and she could see her room around the sides of the square image. The image reduced down to a small square, but she could still focus on the bird within the square and set it clearly as it poked at an insect on the bush.

"Please look away from the visual overlay." Kate moved her eyes away from the bird, and the square image stayed exactly where it was. She looked over to her far left, leaving the image out of sight.

"Visual system responses successful."

The VR4 system now ran though system tests for the smell and taste. Its test weren't as complex as for the sight and sound, but Kate got the full treatment by smelling various objects represented by boxed symbols that floated past her in the air. The taste tests were much the same but less foul then some of the smells.

"The VR4 will test nerve, tactile and pressure sensation, using neural feedback for responses. Please just lay still and let your body respond normally."

Kate relaxed her body, lying very still. Slowly she felt all body sensations cease. She couldn't feel the weight of her body on the sofa, the texture of the sofa under her hands, her hair on the back of her neck, or feel the light pressure of elastics in her clothing. It all just drifted away.

She still had the sensation of gravity, but slowly even that faded, leaving her with a weightless feeling. Gradually she felt gravity returning, but from above. It increased gradually, until Kate felt like she was going to tip over as it kept increasing. To Kate it felt like a truck was squashing her, then the sensation of gravity abated leaving her weightless again.

Next she felt her hands slowly get warn, and the sensation extended along her arms, and flowed down the rest of her body, then up to her head, making her feel like she was bathing in warm water. Then her hands went cold, and this extended along her arms also, and spread into her body, like someone had just turned the hot water off, leaving her with just cold water.

The coldness evaporated quickly, before Kate felt pin pricks on her body. They moved across her skin making her feel like an army of ants had just swarmed over her pinching her as they went.

Slowly Kate feeling return to normal. "All senses test are complete." The voice said.

Kate felt relived, and ran her hands over her face and down her body, checking her to see if she could feel herself again. All body parts seemed to check out.

After a short time the voice continued, "The VR4 system will now complete final tests with user interaction. Please close you eyes momentarily to start the VR4 environment."

Finally Kate knew she was nearing completion of the system tests. She complied with the request and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she found herself sitting in a small room. It looked like her dentists waiting room, small plain, with a couple of chairs, a small table in the centre with magazines, and two doors, one on either end of the room.

Nothing seemed to be happening at the moment so Kate waited patiently, looking around at the room. It looked quite plain actually, and the textures of one wall were the same on each wall. Kate picked a magazine off the table to look at it. The magazine felt new, and as she leafed through it, it felt like she was the first person to open the magazine since it was printed.

It wasn't a common magazine, as Kate browsed through it, as it contained a collection of stories, publications and articles written about the VR4 system. Some of it detailed how the system worked, and how it affected the human brain. Other parts covered the information on how the VR4 systems will be upgraded in the future. Kate skipped the complex parts, and skip read though facts she hadn't known before, like the previous generation of VR systems were found to be dangerous to people with pace makers, and Haemophiliacs often started bleeding from electrical impulses received from the wraparounds they used to simulate tactile sensation.

Kate had just closed the magazine, as one of the doors opened, and a man poked his head out.

"Hello." he said.

Kate recognised the voice as the same as the one during the sense tests.

"I'm your guide, if you'll just follow me I'll show you around as you get used to interacting with the VR4 system."

Kate dropped the magazine on the table as she got up, and followed him through the door into a corridor.

"At this stage, the VR4 system is starting to interpret how you interact with your environment, and will adjust accordingly so it will be as natural as possible."

Kate remained silent listening to the guide.

"For instance, you haven't spoken a single word since activation of the VR4 system, and it's unsure whether you can speak." He said.

"Oh, I can speak." Kate said, not realising the system could react to people who couldn't speak. It made sense to make the system respond to all people, including those who couldn't speak. "I just didn't know you... I mean I didn't know the system would respond."

"As I said, the system has to learn how you interact with your environment. The main part of the system is designed to respond to voice commands. If not, you can think your commands and it will respond just as well." He said.

So it can read thoughts! Kate was astounded with that development, but the system could read almost everything else from her brain, like the environment and the clothing she was wearing, so why not her thoughts as well?

"Yes it can read thoughts. And only thoughts directed as commands are interpreted." He said.

"But what about other users on-line?" Kate asked.

"Only the local system, the one you are attached to can read your thoughts." He said, "All other information it interprets is disregarded. It was one of the security issues during development. This came up as a problem during the development as several of the testers tried some of the higher level functions for reading information about other on-line users, and they were able to listen to the other testers thoughts. Some people left the program because of that incident. That unfortunate incident is listed in one of the magazines in the waiting room."

It made sense to Kate, otherwise people's personal lives would be destroyed, and the using it as a way to steal information would be invaluable to any government.

"The system is about ready for you to use now. The VR4 system has many settings and options you can change, to make the system easier to use." He said.

They came to a door in the end of the straight corridor, and the guide opened it up and stepped through. Kate followed, and they were back in the waiting room, exactly as she'd left it through the opposite door.

"At any time you can command for help, and I will appear." He said, "A menu of options can be called up as a screen, and you can direct them to appear as any surface." The guide gestured, and one wall changed to appear as a big screen menu. "Most of the options can be called as verbal or thought commands. Almost all-environmental settings can be adjusted through this menu, including the appearance of your guide. If there's nothing else, I shall leave you now."

"Nothing right now thanks." Kate replied, and the guide stepped back through a door, and closed it behind him.

Kate studied the menu. Most of the command options looked common enough. Some might say they were copied from some of the TV series that made use of voice operated computers.

Kate wasn't getting anywhere now, so she directed the thought listed on the screen "Computer, quit." Kate blinked her eyes, and found herself back in her lounge room, on the sofa.

All was well, except it was getting late. Playing with the Sampler soft-pack would have to wait until tomorrow evening.

Kate was a little conscious of someone breaking into her flat to steal the VR4 system. Sure she had an alarm, but it wouldn't take much to break in, pull two cables, and run out carrying the thing. So Kate pushed it behind the sofa, and carefully stacked the headset and cable on top, before covering both with a cloth.

At least this way, nobody would find it quickly.

Kate cleaned up the study, which she'd left with computer parts and boxes all over it. The room didn't have much use now, as she'd only used it as it was the biggest room in the flat apart from her own bedroom. Perfect to hold a large desk for a computer. Even the desk didn't have much use now, so she just stacked the computer parts on top. Maybe someone would be interested in buying the parts and desk second hand. The boxes went out into the recycling, as Kate chucked the packing material into the bin.

Kate took a shower before going to bed. She was restless and thinking about the VR4, before she finally fell asleep.

Chapter 3 : Visiting the mall

Kate left for work at the usual time, eyeing the covered box behind the sofa as she stepped out the front door.

It was a long day at work, so as soon as Kate got home that evening she put dinner on to cook in the microwave on automatic. Before Kate sat down on the sofa, she took a moment to slip out of her office clothes, folding them on a chair so they wouldn't get crinkled.

Not bothering to go upstairs to put something else on, she went and pulled the cover off the computer, and put the headset on. From there Kate turned the computer on, and pushed the Sampler soft-pack DVD into the slot.

Kate relaxed back on the sofa, after closing her eyes momentarily she found herself standing at the entrance of a brightly-lit shopping mall. There were people bustling about inside but not coming near her, leaving a wide area about her, enough to see the facades of the shops along each side displaying their warez and services.

Kate stepped though the open doorway, feeling the slight chilly air blowing down from above from the air curtain. She felt the air blow across her whole body. Wondering at the sensation, she looked down, realising she was standing only in her underwear.

The VR4 system had automatically modelled whatever clothing Kate wore, into the VR environment. She put her hands over her bra, feeling exposed to the people inside. It took a moment for it to sink in that all the people milling about were just moving aimlessly, not really interacting with each other or even taking notice of her in her lingerie.

Kate thought she was been foolish by reacting to the computer generated people, and lowered her hands to her sides. The air was warm enough that she felt comfortable enough in the mall in just her underwear. She didn't know how to change her VR clothing yet, but she didn't think it was significant what she wore, as no one could see her and it was kind of kinky to be walking about a public place in just her underwear.

Kate stepped forward, hearing the doors swish shut behind her. She looked behind her, at the glass doors. She could see her reflection in the glass doors, wearing bra, underpants and stockings. Not a good look, but she wasn't going to change it now. Outside, all she could see was a broad road and a high brick wall on the other side, with a bus terminus on this side of the road. Kate turned back to look at the shops on the left as she walked.

Some of them were just window displays, advertising VR4 programs and games available. Kate stopped in front of a display advertising holidays. It showed on-line holidays like riding bikes along the Great Wall of China, or catching the surf on any beach in the world as it happens in real time. The advertising also had fictional holiday settings pre-packaged on a soft-pack, so you could select a different holiday every weekend.

Kate moved on, seeing normal commercial advertising for VR books and TV show rewrites. Several had open doors, permitting Kate to enter and look about. Kate stepped into one for an old film called "Water World". Through the arch she found a rickety dock like structure, with water all around. A large wall with objects floated around her on the waters surface. A large gate opened in the wall, and a sleek sailing vessel glided in silently under the control of a single person who brought it into a nearby dock with grace. She'd been in for no more than a couple of minutes, before she could feel the hot sun on uncovered arms and back, so retreated back through the arch to look further on. Maybe she could find a rendition of one of her favourite movies.

The mall broadened out, into an open area over looking several levels both above and below. Kate walked up to the railing and leaned on it as she looked about at the large expanse of the mall. "Gee, there must be hundreds of displays." She whispered.

"There are in fact one thousand, two hundred and thirty five displays."

Kate was startled by the voice, recognising it as she turned about to see the familiar form of her guide.

"Only two hundred and six of the displays have walk in samples available. The rest have displays with visual, sound and olfactory sense for advertising." The guide said.

Kate glanced at the people in the background moving about with seeming purpose, but not looking at displays or doing anything. "What are all the people for?" Kate asked.

"The description given from the program is: Humanoid simulacrum's to emulate the physical environment of a mall with milling people."

"Can you get rid of them? It kind of irritates me that they aren't doing anything except walking about."

The guide didn't say a thing for a moment, just standing there. Kate was about to rephrase the request thinking either the Guide or the system didn't understand, when all the people just vanished, the mall sounding quiet now without the sound of their footsteps. The guide said, "Done."

"You said I could change the settings of my guide, could you make a gesture like this..." Kate clicked the fingers of her right hand, "when you perform a command like that?"

"Yes I can." The guide imitated her gesture closely, making a different sound with his larger fingers.

"Good. Now you can give me a run down on what sort of stuff this sampler has."

The guide clicked his fingers and a list appeared mid air. He read off each item one at a time. Kate glanced through the list of items, ignoring the guide's voice. There were VR stories which were just books and movies made available in 3D. The VR interactive stories were more interesting to Kate, as you could choose to play one of the characters in the stories, or play your own part and change the story however you wanted. VR games were a big item, with multiple listings for on-line adventures, simulations, and re-releases of well-known games from the PC and arcade. The remaining items were world tours and VR service programs and enhanced functions.

Kate had an understanding of the tours, games and stories, but didn't know what the service programs consisted of. She interrupted the guide from his oration, "What's in the service programs?"

The guide clicked his fingers, and the mall changed. They were on the lowest level now. "Most service programs are free additions to your VR4 system which you can download. They consist of programs for enhancing routines and features used within any environment. Here is a listing of all services available and those already in use on your system."

The guide clicked his fingers and up appeared a large list, of dozens of items. Kate noted the ones with a check mark next to them. VR phone service, interactive guide, V-mail program, and general programs. Kate browsed through the other items, glancing at the Body editor momentarily with interest, but stopping immediately after at the item called Clothes emporium.

"How do I change my clothes?" Kate asked the guide.

"The system can make available any form of attire you wish to wear. Unfortunately individual computer systems have a limited capacity storing a selection of clothing, so the VR4 system only comes available with a limited selection of clothes. Most programs make available their own selection of clothes for use. You may of course bring in you own clothes and store them for later use in another environment if the particular program allows the use of you own selection of clothes. An on-line service called Clothes emporium is available to download a large selection of clothes for use."

Kate was impressed. "I think I'll..."

The guide suddenly spoke out "There is an external audio alarm active."

Kate thought for a moment, and realised that he must mean the microwave cooking dinner. "Computer, quit!" she called out, and closed her eyes. She heard the beeping as she opened her eyes, and pulled off the headset.

Kate ran upstairs and grabbed a tracksuit from her room and pulled it on before sitting down to eat her dinner. She ate it a bit faster than usual, in a hurry to get back to the computer.

Kate was back on the sofa a moment after rinsing the dishes down and leaving them on the sink. A brief moment later, she was back in the mall right where she had left.

Chapter 4 : Doctor Frankenstein, a body please!

Kate looked at the list, focusing back on the Clothes emporium. "I don't know what clothes I want to use just yet so I'll leave the emporium alone for the moment."

The guide just stood there without making a comment.

Kate looked down at her clothes, feeling they were more suitable to exploring the system in, except she didn't have any footwear on. "Do you have any white sneakers available?"

"These are part of the standard system." The guide said clicking his fingers.

Kate didn't feel a thing, but looking down she saw the sneakers on the floor, not on her feet. She bent down and pulled them on, tying the laces.

Kate was satisfied with her appearance now. "Could I save this set of clothes?" she asked her guide.

The list of items dissolved to be replaced by an image of the clothes she was wearing layed out, including her underwear, watch and jewellery. "Do you wish a description saved also?" He said.

"Just..." Kate thought for a moment, "a plain tracksuit." She said.

The guide clicked his fingers as the image vanished, replaced by the list once more.

"Can you, um make it the standard clothes I wear when I start up?" Kate asked.

"Default VR environment clothes on initialisation." Her guide stated, using the technical names, and clicked his fingers.

Kate's curiosity got the better of her. "What's the body editor?"

"A program for modifying body shapes. Either a body shape you wish to use, or for your guide, or it can be used in building your own VR environment with characters you have made or modified from existing ones."

"Sounds good, I'd like that one." Kate said.

"Your authorisation is needed before this system can connect to the VR Internet. It will send a copy of personal details and your body profile to the main system." the guide said bringing up a screen of details, some already filled out.

Kate looked through the items, only thinking out the details then seeing the results pop up in the appropriate box. Kate noted details were lists in different colours, specifying details that were only transmitted to the VR4 secure home site and others that were made available to other systems on the Internet, and various others depending on the security level needed to connect to a specific site.

Kate finished several screens of details before completing the final authorisation and granting connection to the Internet. It was a long process, but the details were only filled out once, and authorisation only needed to be granted once for each secure site.

"Details have been sent, and access granted." The guide said. "Down loading the body editor now."

Kate continued looking through the lists of programs, skipping a lot of the ones designed for kids, and disabled people.

The list shifted for a moment, and she realised the Body editor was now at the top with a check mark beside it.

Kate had seen enough of the list, dismissing it with a hand gesture that made it disappear.

"Load the body editor." Kate said.

The guide clicked his fingers and the mall faded away, like a fog clearing to reveal a small artist's studio with a big golem like body standing in the centre, and a screen full of settings on one wall.

"I want to change my body." Kate said.

Kate watched the golem morph into the naked form of a woman. Looking up at the face, she was slightly shocked as she realised it was her body.

Kate looked down at her body before looking up again at the model. Well it was a body editor after all, she thought.

It felt strange looking over her body from a separate perspective, even naked, the perspective seemed confusing somehow, "Let's see your body." She said to the guide.

The guide clicked his fingers, and Kate's form was replaced by form of the guide, also nude. It was a bit erotic to Kate to look at this naked man, but he wasn't moving. Stiff as a statue in fact. Kate walked around it, thinking a moment. "This thing isn't moving, can you animate it, like get it breathing for starters, and oh, walking on the spot."

Kate's guide clicked his fingers, and the form started walking along, but not moving forward.

Kate said, "I think those clicking fingers a getting on my nerves, just blink your eyes when performing a command."

Kate stepped up next to the screen, looking at the main details. "Hmm, let's experiment a bit. You need a bit of a tan." She said, point with her finger at the skin colour, and dragging her finger down as she looked at the model. The skin colour darkened slightly.

"That's good, now the hair colour." Kate dragged her finger across a large rectangle, shifting the colour from a black to a light blonde.

"Can we get rid of the body hair too?" Kate saw the display change. She applied her finger dragging it down as she looked at the model. The body hair disappeared when her finger reached the bottom. Kate moved her finger sideways and gasped when the model lost all of its pubic hair. It looked unnatural, like a little boy, so Kate shifted her finger back until the pubic hair reappeared, but in slightly less proportion than before.

"Okay, I want to adjust the body dimensions a bit." The screen adjusted to show a representation, and Kate moved portions of the body, broadening the chest, and waist, and making him a bit taller.

"Nice but he looks a bit thin. Can I sculpt the muscles on the model?"

The guide replied, "Yes. Simple apply your hands to model to adjust these physical parameters."

The model stopped walking when Kate approached it, but it kept breathing.

Kate poked at the chest with a finger, expecting to feel the muscular body, but instead the chest shrunk back, making it look skeletal. Kate felt sick looking at it, and made a pinching motion at the skin, and pulled it back out. She got the feel of it then, pulling parts of legs and arms out, sometimes pushing and pulling simultaneously to create a funny bulged effect, but finally fixing it to look approximately normal.

Kate was after a totally new look, but the facial features still looked the same. She worked a bit more delicately adjusting the face, making it look somewhat like an old boyfriend, but definitely different from what it was.

She didn't dare touch the anatomy, for fear of making it unrealistically big or too small. Overall Kate was happy with her efforts. She looked back at her guide, "What's the designation for your body?"

"Human Guide Male one." he replied.

"Okay, can I have this saved as Male one?"

She saw him blink clearly, confirming her command.

"How many bodies are predefined for guides?" She asked.

"Two." The guide replied. "One male, one female. Both can be adjusted to look older and younger depending on the user's age."

"Cool. Bring my body back up." When Kate was looking at her body once again. She adjusted the age, making it look older, turning the hair grey, wrinkling skin, and making the breasts sag. "Ooohh, I'll look like that when I'm old! Disgusting." Kate pushed it back the other way too quickly, turning the model into a child. "Wow. I suppose if I ever need to play a child in an interactive story, I could fit right in."

Kate slowly cycled the model older, stopping at when she was approximately 16 years old. Kate made some finer manipulations, making the hair a bit longer, smoothing out skin blemishes, and making the bust bigger. "There. Save that as Female one."

Kate looked from the model to the guide for a moment, getting an inspiration, "Can we switch bodies?" she asked.

The guide replied, "Yes, but the purpose of changing the body of the guide is for make you feel more comfortable in the VR environment. Only a user can perceive their guide. And when you feel competent enough, you can dispense with your guide."

"Just do it." Kate said.

She watched as the guide blinked, then found she was looking over the guide's head. Kate looked down at herself, or rather at the guide, seeing the guide in the similar clothing as before, but obviously adjusted for the different body size and gender. He had been wearing casual white trousers, a shirt, and shoes, but now as a female, she was in a plain white sleeveless knee length dress and white dress shoes.

Kate spoke for the first time, "Nice selection of clothes." Kate realised her voice sounded completed different, just like the guide's in fact.

"You have my voice now?" Kate asked.

The guide replied with her voice "Of course. Your body profile is about 88 percent complete. The more you use the system, the more it will understand how you react as an individual, making interaction much smoother and realistic."

Kate had looked enough at her own body, and was interested in the one she was using now. She was wearing a version of the tracksuit she had put on, so she pulled the collar out, thinking to see a bra on the male body but couldn't see a thing down the dark top. Kate resorted to pulling the top completely off, to see a plain flat chest.

Kate had heard and seen all the stories of breast cancer and seen the graphic results of some women missing a breast, but this was almost as distressing, to have grown up with two firm breasts, to now have a flat chest.

Kate saw the nipples, and poked at them with her oversized hands, reassured that they hadn't been surgically removed. She examined her hands and arms, and chest down to the belly button, looking all over.

In Kate's age, sexually transmitted diseases were pretty common so it became the common thing to stay a virgin until finding a permanent partner. Kate was the sort of person to follow this unsaid rule, but she did have some experiences to say otherwise, providing a real education to the sexuality of humans, especially of some men. That, and had seen plenty pictures of dicks and of them been used on the Internet, but she was still wanted to see how it would operate in VR. So she pulled the tracksuit pants down, letting them slide around her ankles. The legs looked like legs, just larger with some hair, it was what the red underpants covered which interested her.

She pulled the front on the underpants forward, peeking in at the smallish mass surrounded by a growth of pubic hair. Getting over the dissatisfaction of not seeing it erect, she let the underpants go and received a shock as the elastic snapped back. "Ouch!" Kate cried out.

Kate rubbed the smarting skin with a hand as she addressed her guide, "How do get this thing to operate?" she said poking the underpants.

"When making use of a body of the opposite gender, sexual functions are activated by making contact with any sense of predefined areas of the opposite gender." the guide said.

Kate heard it, but wasn't sure she got it straight, "You mean, I have to look at either the tits or cunt of a women?"

"Effectively, yes."

Kate didn't feel particularly interested using a male body if it wouldn't react normally, and only under certain conditions. "Give me female one." She said.

In a moment, Kate was back in a female body. Looking down, she confirmed that she had two breasts supported by a bra, and panties without the bulge behind them. She pulled the tracksuit pants up, securing them around her waist.

"Okay, enough playing with myself. What games can I access on-line right now?"

The guide made to answer Kate's question "There is a vast variety of on-line games, including sport..."

Kate cut in, "Sport? People get on-line to play sport?"

"Quite often, users can join in sports events played world wide. Also when they are used in conjunction with the physical exercise extension program, it can stimulate the muscles of your real body, allowing you to have a physical exercise while performing another activity in VR."

"I think I've already read about that, give your body an aerobic work out while your relaxing on a sunny beach on Mars." Kate was saying, "I must have missed that in the programs, download that would you?"

The guide blinked at Kate before continuing, "Also recreation, computer games, adventures, simulations, action, and various others."

Kate thought for a moment, realising that there must be a massive selection of on-line games she could just join in. "Can you just get me into anything free, where there is already one other person playing, on-line locally, that is also within Australia?"

"There are five such games running." The guide said, as a list appeared.

Kate scanned through the items, discounting the golf, adventure skydiving, and the NASCAR racing. The two remaining people were playing in replicated games of the 3D-style shoot 'em ups. Kate was about to select the second one, when she noticed the amount of time the game had been running, over four hours already. Kate didn't want to be playing with someone who'd already been though most of the game, so she selected the other which had only been running for 11 minutes.

Kate pressed the join game button, and the scene changed around her. She was strapped in what appeared to be the back of a small aircraft. She could hear the droning of the engines, and the slight bumpy motion like and aircraft as she looked about and saw another guy standing in the doorway to the cockpit. He turned about and started to speak to her.

"I'm Major Price. Private, this mission is of utmost importance, we have sent several squads into this hell hole already, and only one unit has responded with confirmed deployment..." The Major talked to Kate, describing the outline of the game. It sounded pretty similar to most she had seen on the market and played herself. Go in, shoot lots of ugly looking creatures, collect items for weapons and health, and reach the objectives.

Kate looked about as the Major talked, noting her clothing. She was in green camouflaged pants, a camouflage crop top and matching green boots. Any bare skin was also coloured, with black and green paints. Also, she could feel a headphone and microphone attachment on her head. And last of all she had several weapons hanging from her body, and an assault rifle between he legs, pointed at the ceiling.

As the Major was saying good luck, the aircraft was suddenly struck hard. Kate felt lucky to be strapped in as she was thrown violently about.

The craft was still shaking violently, as Kate was able look about once more and saw the Major's body lying on the floor at an odd angle.

Probably broke his neck, Kate thought.

A voice from the cockpit started calling out, "Mayday, this is flight Foxtrot Sierra Five. We have been hit by enemy fire, and have lost flight control. We are going to attempt to land in sector 78-35. I repeat..."

Kate listened as the voice repeated several times, until she heard over the intercom, "If we still have any passengers alive back there, secure for impact, we're about to crash."

"Great, good bloody way to start a game, get killed in the first five minutes without been able to lift a finger." Kate said for her own benefit, since she doubted the pilot would respond.

Kate had been able to hold onto the assault rifle with her legs when they were hit, and now hooked the strap over her arms as she braced the harness that secured her.

"Hold on back there, here we go." The pilot called back.

All Kate heard was a massive booming sound as the craft hit the ground followed by crumpling as everything seemed to spin about before she blacked out.

Chapter 5 : The mother of all smells

Tony had got gotten plastered by several enemy units who'd set up an ambush, and barely gotten away when he heard the Mayday call on his radio.

After that the radio beeped, informing of a change of mission objectives. Tony glanced at the screen on his wrist, pressing the button it illuminate it briefly. Friendly squad inbound. Intercept at landing site before enemy units do, and regroup with any survivors.

Tony pressed another button for the map, seeing the location just east of his current position. It wasn't too far out of the way, but he had no idea what was between here and there as he'd been progressing north until the recent encounter. East looked as good as way as any.

There was no resistance as Tony headed towards the landing site, and found it odd. Usually he found one, or two enemies patrolling some area. He stopped at the corner of a building, and double-checked his map for the landing coordinates. It should be coming down just around the corner.

Tony had a bad feeling as he poked his head around the corner, and drew it back quickly as he heard bullets and energy weapons sizzle off the masonry.

He'd just found all the enemy units that he had been wondering about. They must have used their own source to track the aircraft and gathered ground units to take out anyone who disembarked from the descending aircraft.

Well, he'd just have to take care of that. Tony pulled a grenade off his vest, and pulled the pin from the striker leaver. He heard a metallic ping as he tossed the grenade around the building at knee height above the ground. Just after it went off, Tony sprang from the corner spraying bullets at any enemy unit that was still standing.

Two were further back and hadn't been hit by the explosion, and Tony had to duck down into the gutter as they fired at him. Tony was about to jump up as the ground shook heavily, followed by the heavy boom, and a long crunching sound like truck been dragged along a road on its side.

Slowly, Tony raised his head up, expecting to see the two guys about to blow his head away. Instead he was rewarded with the sight of the damaged hull of VTOL transport rolling along until it hit a building and settled on its side.

Tony could see the crash path from the left, where went straight through a small red patch where the two enemy units had been standing.

He moved quickly to see who survived the wreck before the enemy sent reinforcements. He picked up some intact ammo and items from the corpses he'd cut down after the grenade exploded, as he ran over to the aircraft.

Moving around the wreck, he was able to make out the crumpled nose that had been bashed in as the craft had rolled. It looked a real mess, but the fuselage was all that was left from the impact. Thoughtfully, engineers put a hatch in the bottom of the craft as Tony opened a small plate and punched a few buttons, before hearing the locks release the hatch. Tony had to push hard to open the hatch up enough before he could stick his head in.

"Come any further, and I blow your head away." A voice said, as Tony felt the cold metal press against the side of his face causing him to freeze.

Tony said slowly, so he wouldn't frighten the other player "Private Tony Osborne, I'm here to rescue you."

The voice responded, "Anybody else with you?"

"Nope, just me." Tony said with some confidence. "But if you keep that thing to my head much longer, I'll probably have my arse blown away by anyone who decided come looking. You didn't exactly land quietly."

The pressure withdrew from Tony's face, "Just back out real slowly, and keep your weapon pointed away from me."

Tony pulled back out of the hatch as directed, and watched as the form followed the rifle out, resolving into a girl, or a young women. It was hard to tell, but she seemed to act older.

She stumbled on a piece of masonry, falling towards Tony. He released his rifle, letting the strap keep it from the ground, as he caught the women before she fell headfirst into the rubble.

The woman spoke as Tony lifted her up, getting his right arm under her arms. "Great bloody way to start, getting dropped like a rock, beaten around like a egg in a blender, and take on a group of strange looking grey dudes as soon as your on the ground."

Tony looked about, seeing the enemy units. He couldn't reach his rifle stuck behind him, with the woman next to him. He had to reach around to her rifle, holding it up with one hand as he pulled the trigger. As it spat empty shell casings out the side, the rifle started swinging around without support, forcing him to reach around the woman with his left arm to steady the rifle.

He had to switch between firing, and dragging the woman along so they didn't present a stationary target.

Figuring he was safe enough around another building, Tony let the women down with her rifle and pulled his own rifle up before moving back around the corner to pick off the grey men he hadn't hit.

The grey guys were easy enough. It was the red striped ones that were a pain because they were a lot more nimble, making them harder to hit.

After Tony had got them all, he returned to the women. "Anybody else in the crate you come down in?"

She shook her head "The Major bought it when we were hit. It was just the pilot and me, but I couldn't see the cockpit when I came to. I didn't have time to search when I head the hatch opening, thinking someone had come to finish the job of killing me."

"It looks like the pilot bought it on impact. We had better move too, cause the enemy will keep sending units in here until it's secured your craft, or what's left of it." He said.

"Give me a hand, I still don't feel too good." She said.

Tony shifted his rifle to his left shoulder before helping her up.

He was more aware of her body against his this time without his attention on the rifle and been shot at. He had to ignore this as he concentrated on where they were going, and looking around every so often in case they were spotted.

"My name's Kate." She said as they moved across an open area into a tunnel.

"Nice to meet you Kate. I'm Tony, from Melbourne." He said, and added "Under the circumstances. We better stop here a moment, and use one of these nifty medical packs."

Kate leaned against the tunnel wall, and Tony pulled out a small black packet with a white cross on green on it and applied it to Kate's arms.

It made a few beeping sounds, and Kate sighed. "Oh! That is much better."

Tony put the pack away noting the charge left in it. "Wonderful device. Better than aspirin."

Kate said, "Uh, huh. Well I feel much better now. What are we supposed to be doing down here."

Tony had completed the current objective, by regrouping with Kate, so he looked at his wrist screen.

Kate noted his action, and looked at her own wrist noting the device for the first time. She pressed a button and was rewarded with screen listing the next objective.

"We have to proceed into the East River tunnel, and cut across to secure a subway platform." Tony said.

Kate read out sign on the opposite wall, "East River tunnel, this looks like the right place."

Tony proceeded into the tunnel, with Kate a short distance to one side. There were burnt out cars, some intact but with holes and scorch marks on them, none of it looked recent. The tunnel was almost pitch black with only a few lights working at distant intervals, leaving Tony to turn on the torch attached to his rifle to give some light to their footsteps.

There wasn't any sound except the occasional drip of water somewhere, and their own footsteps on the road surface. Tony thought it was the best time to make conversation with his new companion. "So, Kate. This your first time in VR?"

"Not quite." Kate replied, "I've sampled a few of the VR systems, but I just got my own yesterday, and this is my first time on-line."

"Well, at least you have some experience, I just jumped straight in today." Tony said.

"You don't act like it. They way you dragged me out, shooting those grey guys was pretty good."

Tony put in, "You might say I had some practice. I used to play the computer games like this. Never did quite like it, because they didn't have the player realism of leaning around corners and such. When they released the advanced VR system's a few years back, I found myself too busy to try them out. But now I have some time and just jumped at the chance."

Kate took a step, and something squealed from under her foot. She jumped back, ready to shoot bullets into it as Tony shone his torch at it.

"Rats! "Kate exclaimed, "Damn thing frightened me, I ought to blow it away."

"It's not worth the bullets, and something is bound to hear the gun fire."

"Yeah." Kate agreed, and took a swipe at it with her foot, barely missing as it scuttled away. Kate turned her torch on, so she wouldn't step on any more rats.

She hadn't had the time before to look at Tony, and her torch gave enough light to make out his features. He was clean-shaven, not over muscled. Looked older, but then players could appear to be any age.

"Tony?" she said.

"Yeah?"

"How old are you?" Kate asked.

"Oh, my appearance? I made it older. I'm actually 25, and less well built." He answered. "You don't act you age either you know."

"You noticed? I suppose it's a bit hard for me to act like a teenager again. I even tried out a male body just to get the feel, but it didn't, well, feel right." She turned about, hearing him sniffing. "What is it?"

"Can't you smell it?"

Kate sniffed the air, noting a slight odour. A few steps further it smelled distinctly worse, "Something does stink, and rotten too." She said.

The smell got worse as they progressed, and Tony held his free arm and sleeve over his mouth and nose.

Kate didn't have a sleeve, so she had to tear some material off her top to hold it to her nose. She kept her mouth shut as the progressed, swinging her weapon about to shine the torch on her surroundings when she picked out something.

"What's that?"

Tony moved across to Kate, shining his torch onto the pulsing object. It seemed to withdraw from the light. "Don't know. Maybe it's what the rats eat down here."

They kept moving forward. Kate took a look behind them, but could no longer see the light from the tunnel entrance.

Eventually they had to stop, because the stench was almost choking as they drew in each breath. Tony heard it first, pointing his rifle into the darkness ahead before Kate heard a squishing sound.

Kate raised her rifle up also, before a large something moved into the light, with a pulsing mush like surface.

It kept coming closer and Kate felt an overwhelming cloying stench wash over her, causing her to start coughing.

"Fire! Fire!"

She barely made out Tony's words over her coughing, and pulled the trigger, letting the weapon spray back and forth with one hand trying to regain her breath.

They weren't having any affect on the creature, so Kate pulled on one of the grenades hanging from the strap on her chest. She gave Tony a warning, before she hurled it at the creature. Both of them turned about and dived to the ground for lack of cover.

Tony caught the flash of light from behind his eyelids, then heard the eerie scream. Turning back around, he caught sight of the blob moving away, back into the darkness, some of its surface looking blackened and burnt. "What'd you throw?"

"I don't know!" Kate said.

"Must have been a phosphors grenade, and gave our blobby friend a sun burn."

Kate got up from the ground, feeling her arms for non-existent scrapes. "Blobby?"

"What would you call it?" he retorted.

"The mother of thing from the tunnel that stank!" she said.

"A stink blob." Tony said.

Kate gave a short snort of a laugh at the pun. "We had better find that cross tunnel soon, because that blob may just come back."

Not much further, there was a dim red light on a wall next to a closed steel door. Kate shone her torch across a sign marked, Railway Access - Railway Personnel Only. "I think this is it."

Tony tried the door hopefully, but it was locked. He stepped back for a moment, thinking.

When Kate saw he was standing back clear of the door, she pointed her weapon at lock and pulled the trigger for a moment, sending bullets bouncing off the steel plate and ricocheting about the tunnel.

Tony ducked down as he yelled "Hey! What are you trying to do?" When he realised she had stopped he lowered his voice, "Kill us?"

"Sorry." Kate rubbed the side of her face, thinking one of the ricocheting bullets had just missed her head. "Seen too many TV shows where they shoot the door out. Usually they weren't steel plate."

"I like your enthusiasm, but I was hoping to open the door without damaging it. That blob may just follow us in there." Tony slung his rifle onto his back and bent down, running his hands and fingers around the frame of the doorway.

Kate put the safety on and shone her light down as he worked. Tony went right around the frame without finding a thing, and checked the housing for the light too. He almost gave up before he noticed the shadow within the light itself. "Bingo."

Tony used the butt of his rifle, and smashed the light in. It took a moment to locate the key on the ground within the fallen glass. He didn't realise he was holding his breath until after the key clicked over in the lock, and the door swung in at a push.

"I wouldn't have figured that out." Kate said. "I probably would have tried a grenade next, and maybe gassed myself."

Tony let Kate go in first, and pushed the door shut locking it with the key, before slipping the key into a pocket. The tunnel was well lit and the air was easier to breathe, and they both relaxed as they turned their torches off.

"See, that's what I like. Not the normal running around shooting everything games. You can get through it with some thinking..." Tony laughed for a moment, "Or luck when you pick a phosphors grenade."

Kate was in front as they walked along the narrow tunnel, and flicked the safety off in case something came at them. "No luck." Kate said. "That one's been annoying me by bouncing between my breasts, so it was first to go. The one on my hip goes next."

Tony looked down at the grenade in question, seeing it bounce out dangerously. He looked from the grenade to the hip, and was distracted enough to stumble into Kate as she stopped suddenly.

"Hey! You watching where you're going?" Kate said, as she flicked on her torch and looked down the barrel at something.

"Sorry, I was distracted by your hips!" he said just before Kate let loose with a few rounds, making the tunnel echo loudly.

Tony pulled his fingers from his ears, hearing the tinkle of shell casings hit the concrete, or the maybe it was just his ears ringing.

Kate turned about to face Tony, "What did you say?" she said a little loudly.

"I was distracted." He said in a raised voice.

Kate turned back, to continue down the tunnel, evidently happy that she had hit what she had been aiming for. Kate lowered her voice, "And I thought you said you were distracted by my hips."

Tony followed at a further distance. He hadn't been lucky with women, either not doing the right thing or not saying the right thing. This time he was thinking he had done both things wrong.

He saw Kate stop a moment to poke her foot at something. "Another rat." She said before continuing along the tunnel.

It wasn't much further until they reached another door. Tony passed the key to Kate to unlock the door.

She stepped out into a small alcove next to a railway track, and stuck her head out looking both ways as Tony locked the door behind them. It looked like any normal subway tunnel. Plain concrete with lights at regular intervals. "Which way?"

Tony consulted his map. The railway led off the map to the left, but a small square was located along to the right. "I think it's to the right."

Kate stepped out onto the track feeling nervous about what could be coming along the track. "Any idea if any trains still run along here?" she asked Tony.

"None, but the track looks pretty clean. Let's not stay too long down here." He replied.

"Good idea." Kate moved off at a jog, putting her feet down on the concrete sleepers on either side of the left rail. Tony stuck to the right rail, stopping occasionally to look back in case there was something coming from behind them.

At one stage they heard the distinct sound of a train, but it wasn't in their tunnel. Finally they saw the light of the subway station lighting the tunnel in front, before hearing the grunting and shuffling movement. They had a good view from the wall further down the tunnel of many enemy soldiers, carrying and loading unmarked crates. Several blue ones could bee seen directing them about, but Tony and Kate couldn't see enough of the platform to see what they were loading or unloading.

Tony whispered to Kate, "You stay at this end of the platform, and I'll crawl down to the other end. I'll flash my light to you when I'm in position. Flash your light back three times then we'll pop up simultaneously to catch them in our crossfire. And keep your rifle angled up with so don't catch each other ricochets." Tony gave a wide grin, "Throw a grenade if you want, but stay away from the phosphorus ones."

Kate nodded back, as Tony moved along under the edge of the platform. She saw a few of the enemies' move to the edge of the platform near Tony, she whispered "Don't move." Thinking he wouldn't have heard her, but he stopped dead still. When they moved away she whispered again "They're gone now." and saw Tony start moving again.

When he reached the other side, she heard his voice in her headset "Thanks for the warning."

"Your welcome. You still want to flash at me?"

"Nah, if your ready, well go on the count of zero." He said.

Kate moved up under the edge of the platform, kneeling over. "Ready."

"Three... Two... One... Zero!"

Kate stood up, opening fire on those closest first, seeing them drop she swung about catching a blue guy who was waving his arms frantically. Letting one hand handle the rifle, she pulled the grenade from her hip. After yelling grenade into her headset, she tossed it into a cluster of units hiding behind some of the crates.

Tony saw the crates explode outwards, showering the area with bodies, bits of wood, and packing material.

They cleaned up quick after that, picking them off without much resistance.

"Looks clear." Kate said.

"Meet you on the platform." She heard back.

She put her rifle up, and climbed up an access ladder on the edge of the platform. It was quite a mess, with coloured bodies everywhere. She looked at the crates she had blown open with her grenade and found weapons.

Kate gave a whistle looking the weapons over. She heard the beeping in her headset as Tony came over looking at the open crates. Looking at the screen on her wrist for the new objective. "Jeez." Kate said.

"What now?"

Kate read off the screen "Enemy units are utilising the subway for troop transport. A fully loaded train is due through this station at 11:15. Use any means to stop it."

"Hell." Tony said, looking around. He saw a working clock reading 11:07. "Bloody Hell!"

Kate looked at it, recognising the problem. She saw the weapons on the ground, and only looked at the other crates momentary, before she reversed her rifle and started pounding at the boards, breaking it open before pulling out some unusual looking rifles.

Tony moved quickly to another box, breaking it open. It held containers of grey plasticine, probably C4 or something similar. Useless without a detonator, he thought, and moved on, finding equally useless stuff.

"What are these?" Kate asked holding one up for Tony to see.

"If that's a detonator, then we're saved. Bring a dozen over."

Tony went back to the explosives, and started pulling out several containers. The crate was way too much, and they only needed to blow up a train, not the whole subway.

Kate stuffed several of the digital timers with short wires into pockets, and carried a handful over to Tony.

Tony took one, playing with it a moment. It was really simple, almost like a cooking timer. There wasn't much time to figure it out, so he pinched a small amount of plasticine, sticking it on the wires, and pasting it to the back of the clock. He set it for 15 seconds, and threw it hard into the opposite tunnel.

There was a loud pop, as dust floated back up onto the platform. "Perfect."

Tony looked up at the clock, reading 11:11. Tony took two more from Kate. "Let's hope they're running on time. Set those for 4 minutes, and I'll set these for 6 minutes. Okay? Start."

Tony jammed the wires and timers into four blocks. "Take those to that end of the platform, and put them next to the rails." Tony took his to the other end, the direction the train should be coming from, and put one between the rails, and one nearer to the platform, before returning.

He pulled out a few more blocks of explosive before setting one timer for 15 minutes and shoved it back into the crate with all plastic explosive.

Kate could hear the familiar rumble of an approaching train, as she carried some of the explosive with Tony to the subway stairs.

Tony dropped his bundles, "Give me a timer." He said.

Kate passed him one, and he jammed it into a block, and set 20 seconds but didn't start the timer yet.

There was a loud concussive boom as the explosives Kate had placed, blew at the end of the platform, sending bricks and concrete flying with a cloud of dust. There was a rumble of part of the tunnel collapsing before it was replaced with the screech of metal on metal brakes of the train stopping.

As the train ground to a halt, Tony started the timer on the explosive charge in his hand, and threw the package along the floor, sending it sliding towards the middle of the train.

"Time to get out." Kate said, seeing the multitude of forms in the windows and retreated up the platform stairs.

"No doubt about it." Tony picked the unused containers of explosive and followed Kate, taking the steps three and four at a time. He stumbled when the steps shook, then heard the rumbling behind him, but kept moving.

Almost at the top, the ground shook once more with the other explosives. They emerged from the stairway into the subway entrance proper. Kate knew they didn't have long, and had seen many soldiers on the train that wouldn't have been touched by the explosives. Their only route of escape would be up these stairs, which she was about to block as she planted explosives, pushing a timer in set for one minute.

"This should contain them until that big crate blows." She said.

"Time to leave then." Tony led off, leaping the ticketing gates, and running for the doorway. The large room echoed with the explosion that seemed to continue like rolling thunder.

Kate just kept following Tony, out the front doors into the city proper, complete with high rise buildings.

It looked deserted, but they kept moving, putting more distance between them and the subway. Up ahead they saw some moving figures. Rather than risk confrontation in the open street, he turned up a side street, still moving away from the subway.

They were half a dozen blocks away when the ground shook. Kate missed a step, almost twisting her ankle as the ground shifted underneath. The rumbling sound reached them, as it echoed around the buildings.

They slowed to a stop, seeing they were far enough away. Simultaneously, the headsets chimed and they both looked at the screens on their wrists.

"Mission complete." Tony said.

"Extraction craft has been deployed. Board it at designated LZ, on top of an office block." Kate continued.

Tony switched his map on, "Two blocks in this direction, and three to the left."

"Not much further then." Kate commented.

They turned left, rounding the office building. Kate stopped, putting a hand out to stop Tony.

Tony turned back to question her, but she held a finger to her lips then pointed ahead. Tony peered though the glass windows on the corner, moving his head slightly to see around window frames, before he made out rows of road works signs blocking the roadway, and layers of sandbags hidden behind them.

The streets they'd walked along were littered with rubbish, cars and various other items. The road works signs were a deceptive camouflage that he would have walked right into if Kate hadn't stopped him.

He couldn't see any opposition, but that didn't mean there wasn't any, or what sort of armaments they had hidden around the corner. There was no other way, but back around the other side of the building.

Kate led the way back, moving around the building. She moved more cautiously approaching the second corner, and saw exactly the same arrangement with the road work signs.

She shook her head at Tony, as they backed away to converse. "Same thing." She said.

He turned on his map to look at it. "That's two sites. They might as well have the whole area blocked."

"Except we don't know what's behind the sand bags." She said.

"We'll have to chance it and find out somehow. Look we can try though here." He said, indicating on the map, "It's the closest point to the LZ building, so we don't have as far to go."

After making their way back a couple of blocks, and going over the three blocks, they made their way cautiously forward to another barricade. It could be seen clearly now, as well as an armoured emplacement sitting in the centre of the road behind the barricade.

"Nut's." Tony said. "I'm glad we didn't just walk around that other corner."

"But what is it?" Kate asked.

"I think it's a flame thrower. Can you see that small flame at the end of the turret?" Tony said as he pointed.

Kate could see what he meant. It also looked blackened with use. Maybe not recently, as the surrounding walls and the barricade weren't blackened.

"I guessing it's also automated." Tony said. "It's not pointing in out general direction, but at the wall. Any sane person would have the turret pointed towards the obvious direction of approach."

"That's pretty good." Kate said.

"Well, that's what I'd do if I had control of that thing. Except we still have to get past it."

Kate looked around on the ground until she found what she was looking for. A big chunk of asphalt, that had broken off of the road somewhere. She hefted it for a moment, before tossing it in a big arc to land on the ground behind the barricade, on the opposite the side of the turret.

Tony watched as the emplacement turned about swiftly to orient on the rock before a long flame lanced out at the piece of asphalt. He could feel the backwash of heat from the hot flame before it died down.

The turret didn't move after it's impressive display, still pointing towards the burning pavement. "It's definitely automated." Kate said. "Can we blow the thing up?"

"I wouldn't want to try." Tony said, sitting down on the ground. "It turned quick enough to fry the rock. It'd do the same to a container of explosives. Not to mention, it would make a big mess if it blew up with whatever it's using for fuel."

"Let's just go around it then. Go up this building and across to the other, or something." Kate said, shrugging her shoulders like jumping from one building to the next would be a walk in the park.

"That's it!" Tony said, jumping up.

"What! What's it?" Kate asked.

"Go around it! These are just buildings. We can just walk through the building, one side to another. I must have been blind not to think of it."

"Well, obviously they didn't think of it either. Otherwise they'd put those things at the intersections, instead of between buildings."

Tony led the way cautiously around to the side of the building, until they were blocked from view of the flame thrower emplacement by the building itself.

It was a simple matter of pushing through the doors, and walking though. There weren't any normal doors leading out the opposite side of the building away from the emplacements, but Tony found the emergency fire exit, which led out between shop fronts on the side they wanted.

After re-consulting the map, Kate led across to their destination, entering the main entrance. Kate pressed one of the buttons for the lifts expecting it to light up, but it remained dim after pressing it a few more times.

"No power." Tony said.

Kate looked about; realising the lights in the lobby also weren't lit. "Guess we have to take he stairs then."

Tony pushed on the door, holding open, "Ladies first."

"Thank you." Kate said. "Does this mean I get be shot first if there's something up there?"

"If we're been followed, I probably get shot in the butt." He replied.

"How many floors are there?"

"I think the signs said about forty." He said.

"Good, we'll switch around at the twentieth floor, and I'll watch your butt for a while." She said, smiling to herself.

Instead they took a break when they reach the twentieth floor. It was hard going, walking up stairs with packs and weapons.

"You know. When we reach the aircraft, it's the end of this game." Tony said.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering, if we could have another game together some time?"

"I'm not sure..." Kate said, "that I want to play this particular game again."

"There's heaps of free access games on-line." Tony commented.

"You're a good player. I'd love to join you for another game sometime. How would I find you again?"

"You should be able to apply a Friends tag to me, and just do a search later for any friend's that are on line." Tony started up the stairs again, letting Kate follow. He was sure she wouldn't see much, as he didn't see much of her butt on the way up, covered as it was by the loose fitting camouflage pants.

They reached the roof in due course, to find the VTOL transport waiting with it engines running. The side door opened as they approached. Tony waited a moment for Kate to climb in, then got in. He barely had his feet in, before the craft started rising away from the rooftop. He had a good look of the flame throwing turrets on the ground before the door slid closed.

"Welcome back grunts." Tony turned about to look at a voice, but noted it was just the pilot speaking from his seat at the front. "You guy's made a hell of a mess down there I hear. Should be promotions waiting for you back at base. You up for another mission?"

Kate took the question to mean if she wanted to continue playing. It was probably late enough as it was, and she had to work tomorrow. "No thanks. Just save whatever settings there are. I better go. Thanks for the game Tony. I'll see you tomorrow perhaps?" She gave a wave, but the system determined she'd finished, and she faded from Tony's view.

He was left sitting there, staring at the blank space on the floor, before he remembered, "Computer, tag that last player as a friend, and tell me whenever she logs on or off the network."

He ignored the reply before hearing the pilot cut in, "So hot shot, you want to go another round with the Freak patrol?"

"Uh, no thanks. Is there some place where I can meet other people on line?"

He was asking the pilot, but his guide took the question directly, answering in its disembodied female voice, "The airport lounge. There are several such areas operating. All are interconnected together."

"Then take me to the most populated." Tony said before been gripped by a field.

He'd made changes to his settings, to allow himself to move from one scene to another using the style of a transporter from Star Trek. It was something he always wanted to try, as the area around him sparkled and shifted before he found himself standing in a stylised Airport.

He was garbed in the natural attire he'd selected for this body, something he was comfortable wearing, jeans and t-shirt. The air temperature was just right, comfortable, even though he could see some people getting around with a lot less on, and some others with more.

The lounge area was large, and less defined, with many people sitting on chairs or standing and talking. This was where he noticed most of the standing people were at the departure points, where an aircraft would usually be waiting, except he didn't see aircraft behind the very open looking glass windows surrounding each departure arch.

One particular window extended from the departure door a lunar landscape. Tony surmised this lounge also provided starting points into numerous VR simulations. He looked up, at the signs seeing they had all sorts of names and figures under different groupings.

Tony watched for a while, looking at the people queuing for particular simulations. He was distracted by some of the scantily clad girls walking about. There were some guys with them, obviously some group. He hadn't seen any people going about completely naked yet, but there were sure to be some in another airport lounge.

His guide interrupted him, as it said, "Kate Phillips has added you to her Friend's list, and has logged off the network." He took note, realising that she would have received a similar message from his system. She would know his last name now. Not that he cared who knew it. What's in a name anyhow, other than the label that defines you to society. Just another Fred Smith to gum up the white pages.

He caught sight of a short line of people disappearing into one arch as it closed after them, before the scene changed in the windows and the door opened again. Obviously they had many more simulations running then what was currently accessible.

When he'd seen enough, Tony quit the system, logging off the network simultaneously. He might not have been working at the moment, but at least he wasn't sitting around the house all day doing nothing. Actually, he was looking through newspapers for permanent jobs, and glancing though housing looking for that special place he could call his own home, and not have to live with his parents any longer than necessary.

The house was quiet as he settled himself to sleep with the faint sound of dogs barking in the distance at nothing in particular, before dragging the pillow over his head to deaden the intruding sound.

Chapter 6 : Interlude of the punisher

The lounge area was quietening down somewhat, sort of a low period this early in the morning for most people on-line. It was the right time, and place to leave his message. These new systems were infuriatingly simple to hack past with the right equipment, and know how.

A shudder ran down his body, thinking about what he had to do to his real body to log into these new linked VR systems. Technology was getting much too easy for any individual to use, let alone businesses, corporations, or governments.

In his eyes, it was destroying the world. Mankind, or rather, Humankind was leaving its dirty imprint all over the planet, as well as around it. The sky was literally filled with satellites and garbage of various sorts.

Every time he thought about it, he was back there again; the fiery trail imprinted on his eyes as it struck the ground not far ahead of him, where his parents had been. Then he would realise where he was, with his hands shaking, and skin all sweaty. Even here in VR, he couldn't stop it. He closed his eyes, and cleared his mind thinking about the greenness of the trees around his cabin in daytime.

When he was ready again, he opened his eyes, and mouthed the words to leave his special package. It wasn't much, a small routine to make the lounge program think there are too many users already in the lounge system, so any people trying to get in are bounced back to where ever they came from.

He didn't log off right away, but ran a secondary program to lead history sniffer programs away, and onto whoever logged onto the system right after him, and keep jumping form user to user, at random intervals to confuse on-line diagnostic programs.

It was a simple way to loose any pursuit, but they would be quick enough to bypass this next time. He closed down his system and pulled the head set off quickly. He'd had it on longer this time and felt nauseated from using the thing.

He ran to across to the small sink feeling his stomach cramp up prior to heaving up the contents of his stomach, but held it down by will power, with only a slight taste reaching his mouth.

After drinking down some water, he returned to sit down in front of the fire under the light of an oil lamp, and picked up a piece of wood and the knife next to it.

It didn't look much at the moment as he whittled it, but eventually it would look like the great buffalo that once roamed these parts, that humankind had extinguished. It would be one more for the collection he was slowly creating.

The ones on the shelf were very detailed. He'd sold a few of the first once he'd made, because they weren't part of the collection, just of people and places. Things that other people had considered more important than the endangered plant and wildlife.

It made enough money to keep the so-called government happy, but not enough to bring justice to his parents. That was his goal in life now. And the reason for making use of little money he had to purchase the computer and equipment necessary to run it.

It may take time, but he would make humanity pay for what it has done to the planet, and to himself. He spent the time, trying to relax himself before returning to the computer.

Chapter 7 : An interactive story

Tony's Friday was full of unending routines; Sleeping in later than usual, looking through on-line news articles for jobs, doing odd little jobs about the house for himself or his family.

He was relived when as he got away in the evening from the bickering between his parents about something trivial, and let the VR system separate himself from the reality.

It became a shield to him, blocking off all sound, light and feeling but left him with his troubled thoughts. These were harder to dissipate by just jacking in. He needed a distraction, something he'd done once in reality, but had to find out how good it was in VR. He called up the free sporting programs, and found what he wanted.

It wasn't the same as before, as he'd only done static line parachuting. This time he was going for accelerated free fall, without going through the training routines attached to the program. He just wanted to get straight into it.

He climbed into the aircraft, wearing a black free fall suit, with a rig strapped across his back and chest. He wasn't up on aircraft design, but recognised it as one of the common craft used by free fall parachutists.

His felt his heart beating rapidly as the craft ascended to drop height, a little more than 10 thousand feet. The sky was perfectly clear, which was another good reason to use the VR program, as it gave perfect weather conditions every time, as compared to reality.

This was his first free fall jump, and the federated parachute authorities don't condone unassisted jumps, but since VR put this program on-line, they really couldn't do a thing.

Tony nerved himself to approach the door, getting ready to jump when the signal from the pilot came on, indicating they were at 10,000 feet and over the drop zone. The door opened by all itself, letting the sound of rushing air fill the cabin, then he heard rather than felt the engines throttle down as the second signal light came on. He heaved himself out keeping the arch he learnt long ago whilst doing training for static line jumping.

It was a thrill, with the almost weightless feeling. He wasn't up to doing somersaults so looked about at the view through the goggles. It was impressive. The altimeter was strapped to his wrist, and he checked this every so often, before reaching around to pull the cord at four and half thousand feet.

The jerk as the drogue chute caught and pulled the main chute out, pulled the breath out of him momentarily, before he checked the lines and the integrity of the chute. He'd specified random conditions for the chute, so anything could have happened, but as luck or random probability would go, his chute opened successfully.

It was almost quiet now, without the rush of air during free fall, as he pulled on the cords to turn about to locate the landing field. It was marked off with big red circles of a target, making it easy to see at this altitude. Now that he knew where it was, he pulled on the cords, making the chute spin about, or come to a sudden stop and drop before releasing the cords.

He was lining up with the target again when the serene quiet was broken by the voice of his guide; "Kate Phillips is now on-line."

He brought the chute down to the target. He was pretty novice at this, but the lack of strong wind made it easy enough to land near the bull's eye. He was still following the procedures that he could remember as reeled in the chute and gathered it up in a neat bundle before wandering to the edge of the field.

The free fall was a real thrill, but to have feet firmly back on the ground after hanging around in the harness for the few minutes was a relief.

"Tell me, where is Kate Phillips currently?" he asked his guide.

His guide started to answer "Kate Phillips is currently..."

"Right behind you." He heard a voice cut in.

Tony turned about to find Kate standing there, with hand on hips looking first at him then up at the blue sky.

"So how was it? You made a jump didn't you?" She asked.

"It's a real rush, hard to put into words really. You have to try it, to understand It." he answered, pulling off the goggles with one hand. "You want to go up?" he asked her.

"Ah, no thanks." Her hands shifted from her hips, sweeping them side to side like to give emphasis. "I don't think so. Definitely not in real life, and not in VR. I'm not fond of heights." She said.

"You sure? We could jump together, maybe tandem."

"I'm sure." She said. "No jumping from aircraft."

Tony called up his casual clothes, and the parachute faded from his arms leaving them empty. "You seen the airport lounge yet?" She shook her head. "It's pretty impressive, lots of people. Follow my lead." Tony readdressed his guide, "Take me to the most populated lounge." He said.

For a moment he started to disappear, and reappeared. Tony was confused, thinking his request wasn't being understood, so repeated it clearly and slowly, and again he reappeared.

Kate didn't understand what was happening and was about to question Tony about it as he spoke up asking his guide, "Why do I keep returning here?"

"The specified lounge area currently has too many users in its bounds." The voice replied.

Tony shook his head; "There's too many users? How many is too many?" he asked.

"Unknown. The system is unable to get a specific number."

"Well, then let's try somewhere not so populated. How many people in the main airport lounge for Australia?" he asked.

"As of this second, six hundred and thirty eight."

"Well, take me there then." He said.

Kate suppressed a grin seeing the half aborted effect of before, now take full hold of Tony, breaking him down into light particles, and separating into twin beams of light that separated with that unforgettable sound as he disappeared.

"Cool." She said to nobody in particular, although she knew her guide was always listening. "Too abrupt for me. What was that show of the two guys travelling in a telephone box? Get me one of those, and let me follow Tony."

It took a few moments for the computer to find the necessary records, and establish the request. But the outline of a box glittered on the ground, and the phone box pushed up out of the ground, with arcs of glowing light before it stopped at ground level. Kate opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind it. The box didn't move, so she spoke into the receiver up, "Follow Tony Shaw." And hung it up.

The phone box shot up into the air, but the scenery change quickly as she saw the box raising itself through a floor. When it came to a stop, she opened the door.

"Nice entrance." Tony said standing there as she stepped out. The phone box leapt from the ground, and disappeared, leaving an outline of a box of light in the air, which faded quickly. "I think everyone saw your entrance."

Kate looked about at the faces looking her way before they turned away to resume their conversations. "I didn't feel like just popping in. I remembered this from some old movie. Just lucky I didn't end up with Doctor Who's Tardis when I asked for a phone box the travels."

Kate took more notice of her surroundings now as she looked about at the people sitting and talking, those passing though terminals into simulations and other recreated adventures, and the large animated signs both above terminals and in the main lounge area.

Tony saw her looking up at the signs, "From what my guide tells me, the signs show simulations that can be joined, with the number of character slots available, and time left until it begins, and when a new simulation will start. Also you can make requests for special simulations not usually available."

Tony hadn't looked through the entire airport lounge he'd visited before, so he followed when Kate walked about exploring the lounge. There were some things he hadn't seen yet, like the wall-sized screens, showing live scenes from simulations. Tony thoughts drifted on algorithms to track the action, as each screen always showed people in action. From ancient galleons shooting at each other with bows and miniature catapults, groups of people fencing Musketeer style, sports cars racing along highways, and images Tony would have thought came straight from recent movies, except the characters where replaced by people Tony had never seen before.

They walked around the entire lounge, and Tony was glad he didn't have sore feet, because it was fairly big.

"So, see anything you want to try?" Kate asked.

"I don't think so. There's so many, I wouldn't be able to make a decision." He said.

Kate let it hang for a moment, before probing him again "Come on, there must be something! Something you've always wanted to do, dreamt about, thought about at odd moments."

"Ohhh, you don't want to try my dreams." Tony said.

"What?" Kate asked, playfully hitting him across the shoulder. They hadn't so much as shaken hands with each other, but she felt as if she knew Tony well enough not to be intimidated at getting physical with him. "Spit it out, it can't hurt."

Tony looked indecisive, looking about to avoid the issue with Kate.

Kate stepped up in front of Tony, to stare him in the face. She had to tip her head up to look straight in his face "Look at me, and tell me." She said.

Tony turned his head slowly back to Kate. She was standing quite close. Closer then he was accustomed to with women, except when in an elevator, when, well it couldn't be helped. But Kate was standing close on purpose.

Tony moved his eye's down to look Kate in the face, but he found his eye's drifting down further. One of those unconscious moves a guy couldn't help sometimes. Kate was wearing a tracksuit with a zipper front that was down slightly. But from Tony's perspective, he saw little of the tracksuit itself and more of the cleavage that Kate's bra partially visible bra held.

He wouldn't have swallowed, but his throat felt dry. It didn't take much effort to move his eye's back up, but it took will power to keep them up, and then try to form a reply.

"I... don't think I should tell you... It's kind of... personal." He said.

Maybe Kate didn't realise what Tony could see, as his eye's shifted now and then, but she understood that Tony didn't want to discuss it.

They'd known each other now for what... more than a day? She shouldn't expect this kind of thing from Tony. "Okay." she said, "I'll choose something."

Tony was more relieved then disappointed as Kate turned about. His past relationships with women were all failed, right from the beginning. He didn't understand why. Maybe he was only attractive to a small percent of the female population, and he hadn't found any of them yet. He knew for sure that he wasn't homosexual, having no feelings or inclinations towards men, or boys. The thought of anyone sexually interested in boys disgusted him, unless it was girl or course. So he knew for sure he was straight.

Sure, the recorded rate for teenagers having sex by the age of 18 was about 70%! He was 25 now. So why hadn't he been so lucky?

Now here was Kate, and they barely knew each other. What did he know about her really? Her name, that she lives in the same country, and she approximately 21 years old. He knew he was attracted to her. Well sure her body was younger then it appeared, but she exhibited this personality he was attracted to and liked. Tony always knew for sure if he liked a person or not, by their personality. What other way was there?

You can't say you like Sarah Michelle Geller just by looking at a picture of her, or watching any of her films on TV. You had to know a person, their likes, and their dislikes. Like Kate doesn't like heights and aircraft.

While Tony had been thinking, Kate meanwhile had been looking about, deciding on what she wanted to do. She had been waiting for ages to try an interactive story. It was just a matter of picking an appropriate one. She found one that she liked, and wanted to experience for some time. The Titanic. It wasn't to be the real account from events, but from the big movie made almost two decades ago.

"I've got one I've been wanting to try for ages." She said, stepping away from Tony towards an archway marked for interactive stories.

Tony half heard what she said, realising she had made a decision. She was halfway there before he made an effort to follow.

There was a display panel set next to the arch, that Kate finished speaking to, and tapping a few items on the screen as Tony walked up.

"The interactive story is ready, you may now enter." A voice spoke from the panel.

"Come on in." Kate said, grabbing Tony's arm and leading him through the arch. Tony was able to make out the words "Titanic - James Cameron's director's cut." on the panel before he disappeared.

Chapter 8 : The open deck, and the blue water

Stepping through the doorway, he found himself on the outside of a wooden building, on a very large dock. Across from him was an impressive sight. Sure he'd seen a few ships in his time, both passenger liners, and naval vessels including several nuclear powered aircraft carriers that were bigger, but the RMS Titanic held it's own awe. It was new, with the paint still glistening, and the crowds of people, dock workers, passengers and those waving goodbye lent an air of thrill.

He wasn't too sure what he was meant to be doing, standing there, looking at this large ship. He became aware of someone now, shouting his name. Some guy he didn't recognise was over towards the ship, waving his hands and shouting his name. Well, it was appropriate that he use his own name, and not a character's name. It was easy to get confused otherwise.

He walked on over, still looking up at the ship, as it loomed up larger as he approached.

"About time, Tony. If you be much longer, they won't be allowing us on board, with or without a ticket." He said.

"I'm sorry..." he started to say. Even if the guy knew Tony's name, Tony realised he didn't know his. "I was sort of awed by its size."

"Yah, tis an impressive sight." He grabbed Tony's pulling him along.

They were running towards the ship, into the lee of the 7-story high hull, headed towards 3rd class gangway aft. Tony felt the crunching of something in his hand. He glanced at the object in his hand, finding the ticket for passage on the famous ship.

The Officer was preparing to close the hatch at the top of the ramp.

"Hey, we're passengers!" Tony called, waving the ticket in his hand.

"Have you been through the inspection queue?" he asks.

Tony gave a justified lie to the officer, "Sure, that's why we're late!"

"Right, come aboard." The Officer said.

It was a quick trip up the ramp; to then get their tickets inspected by another officer. He eyed the tickets then Tony and his colleague in turn.

They made their way from the suspicious Officer with tickets in hand, towards upper decks. It seemed the right thing to do, to get a perspective of the ship from above.

When Tony reached the deck, the Titanic had already started moving, as several tugs pulled it out of the dock. He had an impressive view of the dock area off one side, and the water out on the other side, as it stretched out from the docks of Southampton, out to the ocean in the distance.

The view was more then impressive, with the many small dots of people on the docks waving to passengers on the departing ship.

Time moves more rapidly now as the, simulation adjusts to the important points in the film, and Tony finds himself at the front of the bow, as the huge vessel makes it's way out to sea proper.

The wind streaming in his face. Leaning on the rail he can see dolphins playing in the ships' bow wave, diving across the front of the sharp edged bow.

Turning his back now on the sea, he looks across the ship itself. It was masterful piece of engineering, he thought. But his eye's caught something familiar. Leaning against the railing of an upper deck, he saw her. She was an image, but unmistakable in the large dress and wide hat. She was looking his way, with a big smile.

Kate stood upon the B deck of first class, staring back at Tony. She was happy that she'd found Tony finally. He looked a little younger, but she had adjusted the settings on the story for variation, and their bodies to make it work more to the storyline.

She'd put them into the lead characters of the story, but adjusted their own characteristics, so Kate was looking 3 years younger at 19, and Tony was looking more like 23.

She'd also kept their own names, rather then the character's names. Actually she found it hard to remember the character's names, as the last time she'd watched the movie had been a couple of years ago, when it was last re-run on cable.

As to the story itself, she'd adjusted it to put some leeway in the story, so they could affect the outcome. Like hijacking the ship to avert the iceberg, or stealing one of the life rafts. Basically so they didn't have to go through the experience of freezing in the Atlantic Ocean if the ship did go through with the sinking.

The characters themselves were adjusted to keep with the storyline where possible, but still keep the story going in whatever direction that may be, and assist the players where they could get away with it.

The only thing she skipped from the original story, were the sequences from the future and all the intervening parts that really didn't involve both of them. Otherwise it didn't hold too well as an experience.

She pretty much had Tony's attention now. On with the story, Kate thought, hearing the footsteps of Cal, the fiancé of her character, and a pain in the ass.

Chapter 9 : To confuse the issue further

It was no more than two hours ago, when he'd left the package, which would now have the attention of the VR4 Internet data security.

Slowly he scrolled through the massive screen fulls of code, tracing out FNP addresses of Internet sites providing VR4 access.

The old IP addresses made more sense to him. But ever since it was realised all known IP address would be all used up in a matter of years, there was a scramble to develop a new system for all the current and all the future connections been made to the Internet daily.

The Flex Net Protocol addressing was similar to Internet Protocol addressing, but hardware manufactures had gotten coy, and integrated part of it into all the new CPU's, making it necessary to broadcast your CPU ID to receive an FNP address.

It was confusing for a short while, as people were more or less forced to move over to new systems, discarding the old IP addresses, but it was all made their worthwhile for added encryption and security for the access to the expanded Internet.

It almost became a disaster actually. The biggest since the Y2K scare. Even that was a shallow let down. The world didn't blow up.

Sometimes he wished it had. Like a nuke been launched because of the "Millennium Bug". All issues would be resolved then, but it would have left the planet devastated. This wasn't part of his plan, but one of his objectives to stop.

He was drifting again. This always happened when he was making use of technology. Making his brain do weird things, like thinking of blowing the world up. He blamed this all on technology.

He dispelled the notions, focusing on the characters and letters, and tracing out the path of data for several of the main VR4 servers.

They weren't exactly protected, as they constantly had data going in and out of them, but they had a habit of tracing back any connections made and logging them.

It just so happened that they wouldn't be able to log his FNP address, as it habitually changed as often as the water in the bowl of a public toilet.

It was a bad association he agreed, but accurate to what he was going to do to the servers. Flush them away.

He picked up the statistics of approximately 50,000 games and other things currently dependent on the servers for data.

His last effort at disruption was localised, and wouldn't be fixed until all applications on a particular servers have all been shut down, and the servers re-started. It would cause a complete outage for many services, if albeit temporarily.

He was going a bit larger in scope now. He fed in data packets that had been routed through several hundred nodes, and every now and then, exposing a Trojan horse data packet, that continued the journey so it looked as if the data had originated from that source and not from somewhere else.

This effort was designed not to disrupt players this time, but the simulations themselves. The problem he found when researching, before implementing this was that he couldn't actually adjust any simulation already running, as the program constrains were already set to a point. Maybe later he would figure out how to get around this.

But for now, there was a loophole, or rather an easy way to change the data streams for programs, by mixing up the pointers where each program pulled its data. These pointers designated where a particular object was stored, both on the network and on what server.

This produced an amazing effect of having robots appear in Jurassic Park, dinosaurs wandering through downtown New York in the 1920's, gangsters shooting up Indians, and the cavalry riding to the rescue of star ships.

This was simplistic explanation, but the effects of mixed items would grow, and the simulations would try their best to integrate them into the games and stories. The simulations would end up pulling data from too many varying sources, and eventually cause the servers to lock up, or at least slow down so dramatically they wide scale disruptions would occur to any computers connected to the servers in question.

It was sheer brilliance he thought, as the last data packet loaded into the server, and the first changes started to occur.

Chapter 10 : An epic voyage

Quite a lot had happened, in so short a time then Tony had anticipated. It was late in real time, but not very late.

And from what Tony could remember of the movie, they had progressed far. Several days had passed in fact, since leaving England on a Wednesday. He'd gotten to be with Kate several times including the dinner in first class last evening, in a penguin suit he had borrowed from joyful Molly Brown, and elicited the attention of the boyfriend, Cal.

His words to Tony had been blunt, but as Tony had control of his character, much of that he turned back on the poor fool.

Right now however, they were both walking slowly along the deck in the late afternoon, and approaching the bow. The sun edging slowly to the sea in front of them.

"The sunset is so beautiful." Kate said.

"Umm." Tony said. "I wish I could draw like..." he stopped a moment trying to remember his character's name.

"Jack." Kate said.

"Yeah, like Jack." He continued. "This would make a wonderful background to any of his drawings."

"Not that the drawings would need much improvement." Kate said, thinking of the drawings that Tony had in a sketchbook that his character Jack had drawn. Various human portraits, many were well rendered female nudes.

Kate had been half thrilled by the images captured, sort of erotic in a way. Now she was enraptured by the sunset.

The air was chilly, as it came in off the cold ocean and she shook a little. She could feel goose bumps on her arms as she hugged herself.

"You're getting cold." Tony said, pulling off the jacket he'd acquired from who knows where and slipping it on Kate's shoulders.

She accepted Tony's efforts to keep her warm as they watched the sky slowly darkening. He wrapped his arms around her, to help keep her warm, and maybe himself also.

It was a hell of a feeling, standing there holding a beautiful and intelligent woman, and watching one of the most beautiful natural phenomena to be ever simulated.

Tony hoped for the moment to continue forever, but knew it would get dark eventually and they would both freeze to death first. Not literally, but cold enough to wish they were.

He was to be entirely wrong, as a buzzing sound slowly overtook the sound of the wind and ocean below.

The effect was broken as sound of propellers broke the air, as two aircraft flew over the ship from behind them, then slowly banked about in the dimming light.

"Jeez, where did they come from?" Tony asked, coming out of rapture.

Kate heard the dinging of a bell from behind her, as the ships' crew became aware of the two aircraft. "I don't know, but they looked like Messerschmitts. German fighters."

"Do you what you're saying?" Tony asked. As they both tracked the black images of the aircraft.

"Yeah, we have two aircraft from the Second World War flying over a ship in 1912." She replied.

"Yeah, two German aircraft who see a English passenger liner."

"Shit." She said. "But... how did they get in here? This is supposed to be a locked simulation!"

"I don't know, and I don't much care about it at the moment." Tony said, "But they're coming back."

The two silhouettes came in low now, before lighting up as both let loose on their wing mounted machine guns, sweeping up the side of the ship with a hail of bullets marked by the intermittent rounds of tracer.

Tony was at a loss for words.

Kate had something to say. "This ship doesn't stand a chance. It'll be ripped to shreds."

It was too dark to see either aircraft now, but the ship was well lit by lights on most of the decks. Kate knew the captain would be very ignorant of the situation. But that was just it. It was all a computer simulation.

"Computer." The called out. "Please explain why there are two aircraft in this story."

She heard her guide's voice start to speak to her, "The..."

She interrupted the guide, "Computer, make my guide audible to all players."

"...Two aircraft of the German Luftwaffe struck the RMS Titanic at 2:30 in the morning of Monday April 15, 1912. With the prevailing conditions within the current interactive story, both aircraft stuck the ship 10 hours earlier than expected, causing massive damage to the Titanic's upper structure, and burning out 60% of the bow section."

Tony heard all of it. "That time sounds right, except it was an iceberg that hit the ship, not two aircraft. Something's really weird here."

"That's an understatement." Kate said. "Computer, restore story to default settings."

"The interactive story is already at default parameters." The guide said.

"Bull crap it is!" Kate exclaimed.

Tony was still embracing her as they had watched the progress of the two intruders in the sky, and felt the vehemence in her words through the jacket. Kate continued. "Computer, replace the two aircraft with an iceberg, now!"

"That operation cannot be carried out at this time." The guide said.

"Why?" Tony asked. There was no reply until he realised it was Kate's guide, and it didn't respond to him. "Ask it why."

"Why?" She said.

"That object cannot be found."

"This is the Atlantic, for Christ's sake. It's supposed to have icebergs, not aircraft!" Kate was fuming now. The story had gone so well until now. She and Tony had established a relationship in the time they'd spent, getting to know each other better.

And now what? Even in the dark, you couldn't mistake the shifting sound of the aircraft's engines, as they came back. "We've got to warn the crew." She said. "Get them to turn all the lights off."

She went to step forward, but Tony was still holding her. "Come on."

"No." He said. "There's too much light from the stars. They'll just keep shooting until she starts burning. Maybe we should just leave now."

"No." It's was Kate's turn to get angry, as she turned about in Tony's grip. "I want to see this voyage out, and not have some stupid computer glitch ruin it."

"Okay." He said, to her face. "As we can make changes to the story. How about we order some factory made aircraft repellent?"

"Like what?" she asked.

"Computer, please mount a computer automated AA battery on the starboard side of the poop deck. And have it fire at any air targets within the vicinity."

Almost instantly, there was the familiar sound of a high-speed gun. Not the anti aircraft batteries of old days, but a fully automated radar operated 40mm cannon. The sort used on the modern AEGIS guided missile cruisers for the express purpose of shooting down light aircraft.

No tracer lit the sky from its muzzles, as only human operators required the phosphor laden shells to help in aiming, but the sudden explosion of one aircraft showed that it was working efficiently.

Tracer flashed from the other Messerschmitt as it retaliated. Although the AA pod didn't user tracer, its muzzle flashes were quite visible, identifying it as a target for the aircraft.

A rain of bullets ricocheted around the metal super structure and penetrated the wooden decking around the AA pod, but never quite hitting it. Several passengers on the lower deck were given a fright as holes appeared both in the ceiling and the floor in the dining area of the ship.

The AA pod had difficulty in tracking the incoming aircraft; unable to track it effectively as the aircraft bobbed a slewed as the pilot adjusted his aim.

Only as the aircraft now came in too close, did it start to pull up and the AA pod was able to get a reasonable fix on the aircraft's path before filling it with 40mm rounds.

It exploded as it came across the Titanic, leaving a fiery arc as it hit the sea on the other side of the ship.

"Wow." Kate said. "Which I had one of those on my roof, to keep the seagulls away."

"You live by the sea? You never told me." Tony said.

"Not by the sea." Kate said, still watching the burning hulk of the aircraft sink into the depths. "A few kilometres away. It's a lot more expensive to live near the beach. But the seagulls go almost anywhere."

Everything was quiet for the moment, except the sound of the sea and the wind. Tony remembered feeling cold now. "Let's head inside. I think my butt's frozen to the rail."

They headed for her cabin in the first class area, and sat on the divan, surrounded by paintings decorating Kate's suite.

"You've got to wonder how an iceberg turns into two aircraft." Tony said. "And if all other icebergs have suffered the same fate."

"Well, if they have, it'll be smooth sailing all the way to New York." Kate said, relaxing now.

"You know, I like been with you Kate." Tony said suddenly. "I mean..."

"I know what you mean." Kate said, for Tony's abrupt silence. "I enjoy your company too. I don't think there's anyone else I rather have with me on the maiden voyage of the Titanic."

"Yeah, even if I can't draw you in the nude." Tony said, and instantly regretted making the mark.

He didn't have a chance to withdraw the comment, as a noise at the door had both of their attention.

Almost in imitation of the movie, Kate led Tony through the bedrooms. She opened the door to the corridor, as a male voice called out "Miss Kate? Hello?"

Tony eased the door closed, relaxing the handle back quietly. Together they walked slowly away, until they reached some distance away, then broke into a run, frightening a few of the other passengers.

By some luck they ended up at the elevators. Kate took a short moment to compose herself before requesting the operator to take them down.

As they started to descend, Tony saw the Cal's muscle man come out of Kate's suite looking about for them.

They headed down, away from possible pursuit through F-deck, leading though areas they hadn't seen during their voyage.

Down in the boiler room, Tony can't resist himself, and yells out. "Carry on! Just be glad we won't hit any icebergs!"

"You're incorrigible." Kate said, as they passed into the next boiler room.

"And you look beautiful in this light." Tony replied, with the glow from the boilers flickering across both of them.

They end up in the recognisable cargo area, with the all too familiar Renault strapped down to its pallet.

Both of them were cooling down rapidly as their skin hit the cool night air. They looked at each other a moment, seeing the other getting cold and answering the unvoiced question of getting into the car to warm up.

They both climbed into the back seat, at first holding each other, but realising they were still getting cold.

As a result, they ended up embraced to keep each other warm. It seemed a natural progression then, to end up together they same way as it was in the movie. Perhaps the simulation had other influences upon them to keep the story going, raising emotions in both of them that wouldn't have expected in real life, but it felt so real to both of them.

They lay together after their exertions, half-naked, within the fogged windows of the car.

"This was my first time." Tony said, with his face near hers.

"Mine too." She said.

"No. I mean, this was my very first time." He said, adding emphasis.

"You mean, you hadn't..." she started.

"Never before slept with a woman." He said, and added to make sure he was 100% clear, "In reality or virtual reality."

"I didn't know." Kate said. "If you'd said something..."

"We still would have done it." Tony said. "It was just the moment."

"And such a great moment too. Reality has nothing on this." Kate said.

"So this is better then the real thing?" Tony asked, probing for her past relationships, and probing with his lips on her cheek.

"Let's just say, that VR is the best contraceptive a woman can have." She answered.

"Nothing more?"

"The past is the past, and the present is..." Kate shifted herself feeling the jacket slip off them, "getting cold again."

"Then maybe we need to warm ourselves up again." Tony said, tracing sliding a still warm hand up her thigh.

Kate was bemused. She'd spent most of the night, and the morning with Tony on the Titanic to finally have it arrive in New York. A whole 7 day voyage compressed into just as many hours.

Strangely the ship arrived on the Wednesday morning of April 17th, and not on the Tuesday as many would have historically hoped, where they disembarked the Titanic together, before logging off.

The time they had spent together was well imprinted upon her consciousness, as her dreams had informed her after getting to sleep that late night, or early morning as it turned out.

The episode with the aircraft had been disturbing, as they had heard the AA pod shooting again the day before arriving into New York.

So they parted each other on the pier 54, promising to see each other again on Sunday. The real Sunday, as they had already used up part of Saturday and they more than likely needed sleep after spending seven days without a wink of it.

She had been grateful for the comfort of her own bed, but half wishing Tony was there also, when she fell asleep.

Chapter 11 : World wide disruptions...

The volume of news coverage on the outages world wide of Internet and VR services was astounding. From the closing of minor business dependant on moving information, to several international financial institutions which depended on the Internet for exchanging electronic funds.

How it had spread so far, he didn't care. That it had spread, he was happy. So much so that he could almost manage a smile. Almost he thought, as he resumed his state of emotional detachment.

It was a clear win by any count, that there had been a major disruption on a worldwide scale.

He had no newspapers to read this, or a TV to watch the comments of well dressed news presenters. The computer read it from an anonymous e-mail account, which had subscribed several news services to send news reports to. He listened to this as we worked on the near complete buffalo.

"Disruptions world wide over the weekend, caused enormous havoc with most major information centres. The effects which seem to have resulted from the VR four Internet which went on-line several months ago, has let loose speculation that the systems aren't as capable as originally thought. That the new systems were so loaded down on last Friday that the information flow leaked out onto other systems causing entire failures..."

The other reports sounded similar, or talked about what businesses were affected and how. A couple news articles followed back upon the story of VR4's development, citing the benefits.

The main thing was, there was nothing reported in any way that a hacker or hackers had been involved. It wasn't his way to leave a calling card, as it was tantamount to leaving a fingerprint for hounds to follow. But he now wished that he'd a tag or something. Like, "Kilroy was 'ere", or something from the Bible.

People always thought you were nuts if you quoted from the Bible. To him it didn't mean a thing, other than having a good memory.

It didn't matter now. If whoever investigating the problem at VR4 was efficient, they'd notice in the logs the irregular data traffic that came in just before the first problems started. It was amazing enough to have received the e-mailed news articles.

He'd heard enough from the synthesised voice of the computer and turned it off. The batteries could do with a charge, letting the sun do the work it was meant to, rather then using a generator that polluted the atmosphere.

He took the carving outside, where he could relax in the sunlight. It was a little cool, as it was this time of year. The snow would be deeper again, as weather patterns were disrupted by pollution from the human population. He'd gotten his small crop of vegetables in, with the small necessary supplement of preserved foods from a nearby town.

It would be a small wait before resuming his attack on the technology of human society. It would be pointless making an advance while the server's were still inactive. They would be up and running again soon enough.

So he used the time to prepare himself mentally and physically to return into the artificial realm, this time for a lot longer as he had much to accomplish.

Chapter 12 : High society

The phone rang several times as Tony ran to grab it before the answering machine took it.

"Hello?"

"Am I speaking to Tony Shaw?" the voice asked.

"Yes."

"Mr Shaw. My name is Jeffrey Devereaux, and I'm calling from the VR4 Data security centre. Before I continue, I must inform you that this conversation is been recorded for security purposes. Are you happy to continue speaking with me?"

"Ah sure." Tony said. This was the first time he'd been aware of been recorded on the phone.

"Are you aware of the system outages that occurred last weekend?" Jeffrey asked.

"Yes. I was meant to meet a friend on-line on Sunday, but I got a system message about system resources not been accessible."

"That is true Mr Shaw." Tony listened intently to Jeffrey as he talked on. "We've been following up on that and a number of other irregularities on the network that occurred just before that on Friday morning. That would be approximately 7 in the evening your time. Did you log onto the VR4 Internet last Friday evening Mr Shaw?"

"Yeah." Tony was a little nervous now, wondering about the direction of the conversation, if they were implying he was involved. "I logged on a little earlier then 7 though. More like 6:40."

He knew much about the VR4 system, and got enough confidence back to direct the answer back. "You should be able to tell when I logged on, as it's supposed to log that data."

"That is the problem. We've detected some tampering with the system records. We've been backtracking the records, and you are the last one we could identify as the earliest to log on."

"What has this to do with the outages?" Tony asked.

"Please bear with me Mr Shaw. Did you notice any problems on Friday evening after you logged on?"

Tony took a moment to try and remember what had happened before his memorable trip on the Titanic. "I did a Skydiving session, then met with my friend... in the same area. Then we went to a lounge... Yes there was a problem. I make a request to go to the most populated lounge, and got rebuffed with the explanation that there too many people there."

"This matches with the logs we have been able to make sense of. What happened after that?"

"We went to another lounge area before my friend started an interactive story based on the Titanic movie." Tony said.

"So your were in the story for approximately 7 hours?'

"Approximately. I don't remember what time we finished, but it was early in the morning. I think it was 2 something. I can't remember more than that."

"Did you notice any peculiarities whilst running the interactive story?"

"Yes! We did! It's been bugging me, and I was wondering whom to notify after it happened. The iceberg that we were meant to hit, somehow changed into a couple of World War 2 fighter planes which attacked the Titanic."

"Could you be more specific on the type of craft?"

"They were German. My friend was able to identify them as Messerschmitts in think."

"Thank you for you time Mr Shaw. If we have any more questions, we can contact you again on this number?"

"Sure." Tony answered.

"If you have any more difficulties, please contact us immediately at our helpdesk either on-line, or call our local number from your white pages. You should find the VR4 services returning to full operation shortly. And thanks again."

"Your welcome." Tony replied almost automatically, from his own experience working on a helpdesk.

The line went dead with the disconnected signal before Tony hung up.

When Kate tried her access Tuesday evening, she found the VR4 Network active, and a voice message waiting for her.

"Sorry we couldn't get together Sunday." It was Tony's voice. "As it happens, it was out of our control. But I'd like to cash in that rain check now. I've reserved a little spot for us. If I'm not there when you arrive, just wait, as I may not be on-line when you get there, but I'll come as soon as I know your waiting."

Kate thought this was very imaginative of him, as an archway opened up to a well-decorated entrance to a restaurant. A man was standing at a small stand with neatly arranged books. She approached him, unsure.

"Excuse me miss, do you have a reservation?" He asked.

"I'm not sure." She replied. "I'm here to meet Tony Shaw."

"Yes, right this way." Kate noticed that his head never moved to look at the open reservation book. "Mr Shaw has a table already reserved for this evening."

The maître d' guided her to the cloak room, "Please choose your apparel for this evening."

Kate walked in. On the left were suits of various types. The right held dresses of numerous colours, styles and lengths. They all seemed to resemble a particular style she couldn't pick. It took her a minute to make decision, pulling out a hanger with the entire outfit from its place. "I'll try this one." She said.

"Yes, that is an excellent choice." He said, his head still as immobile as before.

Kate felt the change, and looked down to find herself wearing the silk green dress.

"I will now show you to your table, if would please follow me." The maître d' said.

Kate hung the other dress up, and followed. He pushed open a double set of oak panelled doors into a large circular room filled with tables and many diners, all dressed in the same 1930's style clothes she was wearing. The centre area was surround by an ornate stone rail with the occasional opening onto stairs leading down to the centre floor.

She was lead over to a table near the railing, with a fine view of the centre that revealed a domed glass ceiling over a dance floor, and a band playing the "Bugle boys of company B". There wasn't anybody on the dance floor at the moment, maybe because of the hazard sign's she could see posted about. There were words printed on them, which she couldn't make out from her vantage.

The maître d' called over a waiter with a hand before departing. The waiter came to a halt at an appropriate distance, "Would your like to order a drink now while you wait, madam?"

Kate had to break her attention away from the view, "Ah, no thanks. I'll wait until Tony arrives."

"As you wish." He said and departed.

It was an impressive place, as she looked around. Many people were in animated conversation, or actually dining and eating food. She wasn't sure if the other dinners were real people also or how useful eating VR food was.

She didn't have to dwell upon this too long as Tony arrived. He was in a well-tailored evening suit, better then the one he'd worn on the Titanic.

She raised herself from the seat to greet Tony.

"No, don't get up. So you got my message." He said, a statement as she was here. He said down in the other chair opposite.

"I didn't know places like this existed!" She said astonished, looking about once more. "How did you ever find it?"

"When the system came back on-line today, I went looking around for the most visited places. This was rated in the Top 50. Usually you have to make booking well in advance, but the outage created a lot of free openings and I got lucky." Tony said.

"I like it. So all these other people are real people logged on?" She asked.

"As far as I know, they're all real except for the staff and the band." Tony said. "Let me check." Tony lifted his hand, and a waiter appeared from almost nowhere.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked.

"Ah, not yet, we would like some menu's first." Tony said.

The waiter pulled two menus from under his arm, and placed them neatly in front of both of them. "Would you like anything else?" He asked.

"Yes, all these other patrons. They're real people, and not artificial patrons?" Tony asked.

"All people here are real. We do not allow entry to any simulacrums." The waiter state flatly.

"Thankyou." Tony said, and the waiter walked off to attend to someone else calling him.

"Amazing." Kate said, watching the waiter for a moment.

"So what would you like to dine on tonight, my dear." Tony said, trying to imitate a high society accent as he picked up his menu.

Kate laughed out loud, and clamped a hand over her mouth as people noticed her outburst and turned to look. She picked up her menu trying to bury her face behind it.

The menus, although looking like flimsy folded cardboard, were essentially electronic interfaces with a browsing surface like a web page. There were electronic ads on the front, from the restaurant's real world owners, a variety of business that happened to be real restaurants. They used the VR restaurant as their advertising and testing medium for refining current dishes and creating new ones. It was better than having real customers keel over with food poising.

Tony selected the menu for main dishes, dispensing with the entrees. The list separated further into meat and fish dishes, pastas, vegetarian and more categories he wouldn't have guessed at.

He took a chance and selected pastas, finding a multitude of selections and cross selections. It was a difficult choice, he saw many he recognised and liked, as well as those he didn't like. It came down to choosing something he'd never heard of and couldn't pronounce. There were some beverages and wines that were recommended to go with the meal, but he dispensed with them choosing instead, an exotic drink listed on the menu.

Kate came to a similar conclusion with a seafood dish that took her fancy.

Service was almost instantaneous, as when they put their menus down, two waiters appeared, carrying over their dinner. It wasn't really their dinner, as Tony had had his earlier, and Kate had eaten just before entering VR. The restaurant atmosphere itself provided a feeling of short of hunger, so patrons could eat without feeling full but neither famished.

Between bites, Kate broached the subject about last Sunday "Did you hear what happened to the networks?" She asked.

"Heard it all." Tony said, "And more."

He repeated his conversation that morning with the VR4 Data security guy to Kate, and added some of his thoughts at the time.

"So you thought they were investigating you for the crash of the servers?" Kate asked.

"That's what it sounded like to me at first." Tony said. "But if they really suspected me, I figure they would have sent around some of the local police and had me picked up and taken into for questioning"

Kate was quiet for a moment, filling her mouth with sauteed king prawns. "They didn't attempt to call me at work today, and there weren't any messages at home. But I could swear I was with you all of Friday night."

"So why didn't they contact you?" Tony asked. It was rhetorical, as neither of them had an answer.

They finished off their dishes, and tried one more dish each, before deciding that was enough. It was enough of an experience for both of them.

They sat staring at each other, wondering what to do next. Kate broached the quiet between them. "Do you know why the dance floor is closed?" She said, pointing to the floor on her right without looking.

Tony looked over, and turned back to Kate, "It doesn't look closed to me."

Kate turned her head, to look. The floor was still empty, but above it, and almost up to the dome itself, was several couple dancing in the air. "Oh! I thought..."

"It's a zero Gee area." Tony said. "I can't dance, but if you're willing to try it, I'm willing."

"Sure, why not." Kate agreed, standing up with Tony. They walked down to the dance floor together, hand in hand. Kate could make out the hazard signs now, with bold marks tapering off at her chest level, and words above it, "WARNING, ZERO GRAVITY".

She could feel the differential now, her feet still firm on the floor, yet decreasing though her body, with her head feeling as light as a helium filled balloon.

The band was in the middle of a song, so they slowly tried to integrate themselves first into the music, holding each other hands, and shuffling back and forth.

Several other couples followed them onto the floor, that appeared to be more accustomed to the dance floor, and soon leapt up to drift into air, still holding each other and they attempted to dance.

Tony and Kate's eyes drifted up following one couple, watching the perfect looking blonde. No doubt a make over from reality. But both of them caught a glimpse under her dress as she drifted over them. Kate's mouth dropped open, and Tony could only stare, as she didn't have any underparts on underneath.

Kate looked down first, having less interest in the anatomy of a another female with what was clearly a fake body. She saw Tony's attention still on the blonde, so gave a quick tug on one hand, which got Tony's attention back. "I definitely didn't know about that!" He exclaimed.

"Lets go up, that way you don't have to crane your neck." Kate said, with a grin.

Together they jumped, and left gravity behind, to drift upwards. There wasn't an absolute lack of gravity, but a number of small projected pockets of gravity which dancers settled into, so they wouldn't bump into other couples. It didn't stop them from turning about, sometimes seeing the floor and band above them, sometimes facing directly out the dome to a brilliant view of a black sky full of stars.

Tony figured it wasn't truly glass, as there should be a glare of light from inside reflecting back. But it gave a view that made one feel like they were actually standing in space.

The pockets of gravity drifted about inside the dome, giving all couples equal opportunity to look outside.

They'd been up for a number of songs when Kate decided she had had enough, and asked "So how do we get down?"

"I saw one the couples earlier, they just pushed apart when they were near the floor, and they just drifted down." He replied. "We've gone near the floor several times now."

Kate waited patiently until they were close to the floor again. With a good push, they separated and started to spin, before feeling a separate pull that brought them down to the floor on both feet.

Kate had to adjust her dress, which had also drifted, before been escorted back to the table by Tony.

"So, some sweets?" Tony asked

"Yes please." Kate answered.

The selections were more varied then the main courses. Kate wasn't sure that the real restaurants really served this many dishes, even between them all. But the options available were staggering as Kate sorted the sweets by confection, flavour, calorie content, weight, and volume.

It was enough to send a professional model into convulsions from the amount of sugar or fat alone. Kate was sterner of stomach and knew it was all fake, but her mouth was watering in anticipation as she choose a strawberry sorbet, with a spread of actual strawberries half dipped into Swiss chocolate.

Delicious as it was, she envied Tony's choice of 6 fruit flavoured gelati that was carefully combined in a swirl of six segments, each segment been one flavour. It was like a rainbow of colours in his bowl.

However pleasurable it was, their bowls were soon empty.

"This has been very enjoyable." Kate said.

"Very." Tony repeated, with a smile. "Would you like to join me again some time?"

"I'd love to." She said with more enthusiasm then she expected. "I'll choose the entertainment. How does Thursday night sound?" She asked.

"Suitably perfect." He answered.

Together they left the table; the dishes disappearing as soon as their view was turned, leaving the table set for the next couple who entered. Tony tried to play the gentleman, escorting Kate to the door of the restaurant, before they both logged off.

Chapter 13 : Island paradise

Kate took Tony to see a re-make of Matrix 2 - The electronic invasion. The original film had been good, but seeing it in VR, to be immersed into the film's effects had really gotten to him. To Tony it was indescribable, and impossible to put words to. As the line goes, "No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

Tony understood why the film had been re-released, as the VR4 systems made the film's storyline almost a reality. The only things missing were the self governed AI computers. This had still been a thing missing in computer development. The fact that some computers had actually been designed to actually pass the well-known Turning test, to have a human converse with a computer and believe it was another human was an important fact. But none had ever achieved the pedestal of "Sentience".

VR had pushed this fact considerably, bringing forth simulacrums that looked, talked and acted like humans, but were only governed by well designed algorithms that could not match the spark that gave humans intelligence.

Would a computer ever find beauty in a painting by Divinci or Picasso, or the setting of the sun across a blue sky? It was one of those questions that had no answer at the moment.

Tony could only make do with his own intuition as he finished off his first masterpiece. Well, maybe it needed some more detail, but it could wait now as his guide interrupted, "Kate Phillips is now on-line."

When Kate logged on, she was able to enter the arch Tony had established and found herself in an open grassy field. Nearby was a forest with markings for a trail, and a short wooden railing with a horse tied to it. The horse appeared to be already saddled and just loosely tied to the post. It looked so real to her as it pulled up long green grass and munched it.

She walked up to its side slowly until it took notice. Holding out her hand she approached cautiously. A few inches away, the horse pushed it's nose forward into her hand, startling her before realising it was only nudging her open palm.

"No I haven't got any sugar for you." Kate said to it, as she ran a hand down its forelock. "But you are such a wonderful looking creature."

It neighed in response, moving it head up and down.

She went slowly around it, running her hands along its sides, and testing the straps holding the saddle. The horse was friendly and active, yet docile as she came up the left side next to the railing.

"So you're here for me to ride?" She asked.

The horse responded again by nodding its head.

"Let's get you untied first." She said, and turned to untie the reins from the rail. She noticed now, a set of clothes hanging on the rail next to the reins.

"For me?" she asked, leaving the reins.

She didn't realise she voiced the question, until the horse neighed in response. She held up a shirt and a hat, turning back to the horse she asked, "So, should I put them on?"

The horse nodded again.

"Don't you answer in any other way?"

The horse nodded then shook its head. Then proceeded to scratch at the grass with one hoof.

"Just making sure." Kate said.

Making sure she was between the horse and railing she proceeded strip off her clothing. After taking the sneakers off first, she had one leg out of the tracksuit, as the horse swung about on its reins leaving her exposed to the open in her underpants.

"Hey..." She started to call out, then realised it didn't matter as there was nobody else there. She stood barefoot on the grass, feeling the long strands between her toes. She was looking at the horse as she unzipped the top. "You're staring at me, aren't you?" She asked.

The horse shook its head sideways, before resuming the same pose, with one eye locked on her.

She had the tracksuit off now, and only stood in her underwear. "I definitely know your staring at me." She said.

The only response this time, was a small snort.

"Well, since you won't tell me the truth..."

Kate still had the top in one hand. The horse stood its ground as she approached, and tied it over its head, covering its eyes. From there she was able to dress in all the gear without any more interference from the horse.

Only after she'd untied the horse and mounted up, then did she remove tracksuit. She let the tracksuit flutter to the ground. The horse shook its head, and tried to peer around to its back.

Kate saw the effort. "Too bad." Kate said "And I thought you were nice horse, but since you can't answer truthfully, you're not gonna see what I'm wearing now. I could be up here as naked as Lady Godiva, and you're not going to see!"

Kate took control of the reins and gave a small pull to turn from the rail, before a kick to get the horse into a slow trot.

She didn't know where she was going, but the trail seemed the best bet.

Tony had re-oriented himself to another location, and it took some moments to figure the commands to get there. But once there he was able to attire himself suitably in riding gear, and get himself seated atop a beautifully speckled grey horse. He wasn't sure if it was the filly or the stud he'd created, not been to familiar with horses, and only having ridden them a few hours at most.

This simulation he partially pieced together from a few pre-made simulations and remodelled to fit, and then added the rest himself, by hand so to speak.

Although the primary data came from the main VR4 servers, he had the creation itself stored on his on PC at home. But to run it, required more computing power then the average PC, so Tony had it running off a temporary node that wasn't in use, that he located on some obscure server somewhere on the globe. It's Flex Net Protocol address just popped up when he searched for a suitable site to run his simulation on.

The processing power was mostly required for horses and other animated creatures. But this was necessary since he'd added enough intelligence to the horses so they would assist the rider. He figured he'd need the help.

It seemed to be working okay, as he got the horse moving forward along a second trail that would, hopefully intersect with Kate's trail at the right moment.

He could hear the thudding of the other horse's hoofs now as he approached. He gave the horse another nudge, so he could get on to the other trail before Kate arrived.

He was a bit off, as the sound of the hoofs carried better in the open forest and he had to slow and let Kate catch him. With a short nudge, his horse matched strides with Kate's.

"Glad to see you could make it." Tony said with a slight rattle in his voice.

"I am too. But this horse had it's own ideas when I changed into these clothes." Kate said.

Tony didn't quite comprehend what she was saying, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, he was eye balling me when I stripped off." Kate said.

It took two seconds for it to filter to Tony's brain. "You stripped? Why didn't you just change?"

Kate mimed slapping her forehead. "It didn't occur to me. The restaurant change was sort of automatic, and... well I guess I was occupied by the scenery, and forgot where I was. But this horse, has an eye for human flesh."

"Hmm, I think I put to much intelligence in him." Tony said.

"Hear anything new about the network outage last week?" She asked.

"Nothing at all." Tony said. "I guess whatever the problem is, has been fixed."

It was dead quiet between them for the moment, except for the hoofs of the horses and the sound of their breaths.

"It was nice of you to come." Tony said trying to keep a conversation going.

"Well, it's raining outside at the moment. So going anywhere today is out of the question." She said.

Tony hadn't looked over his entire creation personally, having modelled most of it via a super-scaled version. It left him with some way of seeing it for the first time with Kate. But he had some idea of what to expect.

The forest thinned out, breaking out to a shot stretch of grass to hill. Coming to the top of the rise, Tony held his breath just as Kate breath caught in her throat.

It was beautiful white sand beach, flowing down to tropical blue waters. The beach itself was wide and long, curving around a lagoon in an arc that almost seemed to reach around and touch itself off to the left. Spotting the edge of the beach were palm trees, and to complete the seen was some dolphins playing in the deep lagoon.

Tony was able to edge his horse forward into a slow walk down the beach. Kate followed after a moment, after taking in everything.

On the wet sand, they eased their mounts into gallop along the longer beach to the right. As they approached the opposite side, the horses came to a halt at a set of recliner deck chairs and a beach umbrella planted in the beach above the water line.

Tony dismounted the right hand side without falling off, then helped Kate down, though she seemed to do it by herself. She took a few steps, hearing the sand squeak around the riding boots.

Tony turned about and suggested the horses go off and play by themselves. The were intelligent enough to take the hint, leaving the two humans to their own devices as they returned to the forest edge, Kate's horse giving a whinny before it departed.

"What do you think?" Tony said, turning back to Kate.

"It ain't the Atlantic." She replied.

"And it's definitely not the Indian either."

"It's still beautiful." She said.

"Not perfect though." Tony added. "I forgot a lot of detail. Like no fish in the water for the dolphins. No weather patterns, so there isn't any tide, just a slight breeze to make the water curl a bit. Also there isn't..."

Kate interrupter him, "Say any more and I'll stuff you mouth full of sand. It's perfect as it is."

"Okay" He said, "That reminds me, the sand..."

"No more!" She said, holding her hands on her hips as she stared at him.

"I think I've got the hint." He said, pretending he was zipping up his lips, and dropping the key in the sand, then pushing sand over it with his boot.

Kate realised the she was getting hot, standing in the sun in the riding clothes. "It is a bit hot." She said, only trying to comment on her condition.

Tony took it as a comment on the simulation. "Well..."

"Ugh!" Kate launched her self at Tony before he could get another word out, and they fell down onto the sand. Seeing one of Kate's hands scoop up some sand, he tried to wrestle with it, causing them to roll and send the sand flying over both of them.

Kate thought he was trying to force the sand back on her and they wrestled further, they ended up spreading more sand all over themselves.

"No more!" Tony called. He relaxed, letting Kate's full hand of sand come up to his face.

"Good, so you give up?" She asked.

"I never started!" Tony said, trying to defend himself verbally. "I was going to suggest we change into something more conformable."

Kate paused, and let the sand dribble out of her hand back on to the beach. "Good idea." She simply stated.

They rolled over, and stood up, with sand pouring out of their clothes at various points.

"Computer." Tony called, "Change my clothes for a Hawaiian shirt and matching board shorts."

His clothes faded to reveal the requested clothes, like they were underneath. "Damn it." Tony exclaimed, as he patted out the shirt and shorts letting more sand escape.

Kate gave a small laugh as sand poured from one leg of his shorts. "No so shabby." She said. She stood there thinking for a moment.

Tony stood there waiting for her. "So, you going to change?"

"Yes. I know the perfect thing, but it's at home. Give me a moment, okay?"

"Sure." Tony replied.

Kate mumbled the words for the computer to hold her place in VR as she went off line temporarily,

To Tony, it appeared as if she was still there, except her figure had taken on a translucent look and stopped moving. He stepped up, to Kate, thinking she was going to blink her eyes, but she was totally immobile.

He had used the hold place routine once on the titanic when he was warned the he needed to empty his bladder. But he hadn't seen Kate or anybody else do it, until now.

He poked at Kate's shoulder, and her clothes were as stiff as stone. Then he touched her hand next. It felt he same as normal, texture, temperature, but a stiff as stone, like she was statue.

He wasn't sure of the nature of the hardness, and pressed harder on Kate, until he found himself leaning over, as he tried to push her over. Just a stiff and unmovable as the stone that held Excalibur.

He hoped that she wouldn't be much longer, so took the opportunity to make those last minute changes and prepared another surprise for her.

Kate lifted off the headset, and dashed madly for her bedroom. She had a bright orange two piece bikini that she'd been meaning to wear to the beach but hadn't had time to try it the previous summer.

It was a quick change to strip off, and change into the bikini. She looked herself over in the mirror so the VR4 system had some visual to fix on when she re-entered. At the last instant, she grabbed her favourite beach towel and headed back down stairs. She linked back in, but didn't re-enter Tony's simulation just yet.

Instead she loaded the body editor, and did a quick check over her appearance as she brought up the golem up to represent her current image. She was still as she appeared when she'd left Tony's simulation. A set of riding clothes, similar to the western cowboy outfits, but not with all the frills.

She instructed the guide to save this outfit, as it could be useful later. Then had it model the clothing she was currently wearing in reality.

She hadn't realised how long it actually took to model real clothing, as she first watched her current outfit disappear from the golem's body. The new outfit appeared in its place, but as a blur, which slowly became clearer as she watched.

Walking about the golem, she double-checked that all the details were there, including picking up the towel, and feeling its fluffy texture in her hands.

After a moment she placed it back. "It's good, save that outfit as beach one." She said.

Now she made the definitive check of her bikini line, except she checked the golem's legs. She became overzealous, and possibly removed more hair than she should have, but effect was more than she anticipated when she loaded up the new image and clothes onto her own body, finding her legs so smooth, that she figured that water wouldn't even touch her.

Taking a stance she thought was right; she called "Okay, resume location of my last hold."

Chapter 14 : The viper within

The rabbit stew he'd had at sun down felt good sitting in his stomach. He just hoped it wouldn't be coming up again, as he plunged himself into the artificial reality.

His computer wasn't currently connected to the Internet as yet, as he stood in a grey room he'd chosen to represent an anteroom to the world. The door in front of him represented the connection to that world, even if it did use all sorts of routines to keep the room and what was behind him, a secret.

He double-checked his attire, to find the casual black suit he selected. It seemed better than wandering about in his usual clothes.

He gripped the handle, and twisted, pulling open the door, deciding that he didn't want to waste time inside. He was surprised by the view he found. This connection was supposed to go to a back stage node that wasn't in use. So his connections would be harder to detect, except somehow he'd stumbled into something else.

He found himself in a forest scene. Nothing like the trees surrounding the land about his cabin, more of a tropical variety with a noticeable level of heat.

He didn't understand why this was here, where it shouldn't have been on an obscure server running in some remote town connected to the Christian Network Fellowship.

Maybe they'd decided to start using it for it's original purpose, but the original specs of the server he'd found didn't really list it as been able to do much beyond small simulations. There would be no way they could re-create any important scene from the bible, unless they severely cut down on the detail.

He pushed his way past some of the undergrowth deciding to find out what was running here, in case it did have some direct relationship to himself.

The brush was difficult to move thorough, but making use of more adverse methods to move, might allow him to miss something important.

Like that fact he couldn't hear any fauna. No birds. No insects. Just the sound of his footsteps.

He moved on treading carefully, not that he was worried about damaging foliage, but that he didn't want to give his presence away to any sentinel programs that could be running.

Finally he broke his way clear to a track. Not just any track, he observed. His instincts took over as he squatted down to get a closer look at the markings in the soil. Very clear markings from the hoofs of two horses. That is, unless the animals had been altered from the normal, but the outline, the depth, and they way the soil has compressed, shows both horses under load and headed to his right. He couldn't tell the age of marks, as the weather conditions were anything but normal. They could have been there minutes, or days.

There wasn't any other mark on the track, as if the horses had been the only things to ever pass this way. He was sure then, that nothing would be following so he followed along on the edge of the track so as not to leave his own prints and not to disturb any other prints that might appear. It would also be easier to hide himself quickly in case something did come along.

It took him about ten minutes before he saw the track beginning to end. He moved more cautiously now as the trees thinned. The track itself faded into green grass, as the forest stopped abruptly at the grass edge.

He could see the grass extend far out to the left and right, curving forward toward a ridge. It was very open, so he approached slowly on his feet. The hoof marks were still barely visible in the grass, so guessed they were only hours old at the most.

When he started to see something over the ridge, he crouched down lower working his way forward until he was on his belly. He checked once more behind himself, at the track behind him and the tree line, then moved the last bit to the edge of the ridge and looked upon a large sandy beach.

He hadn't seen a real beach before, but this looked no different from pictures he'd seen. Beautiful and pristine, except for the twin hoof marks leading down the beach and off to the right.

He tried to follow the tracks with his eyes, but lost sight of them as they entered the water where the surf wiped them away.

Obviously the horses had followed the beach around, so he carefully scanned the expanse of beach around. Off in the distance, almost directly opposite he could see something. It wasn't too clear. His eye sight had never been as good as his father's, but after the accident, he never went to get them tested otherwise he would have found out he was short sighted. So now, he needed to get round closer to see whatever it was, clearer.

He had to back away from the ridge backwards. When he was able to stand up without seeing over the ridge, he started to walk. First along the grass, then moved over to the edge of the forest, following the edge of the grass.

It was going to take too much time to round the entire beach area. Instead he called up one of his prepared routines for travelling and started to jog. The routine was activated when he reached a certain speed, and the jogging almost became a flying leap, as each stride covered four or five metres at a time.

This wouldn't have worked on the track, as five meters would have carried him back into the forest, and most likely into a tree. On the open grass it worked perfect. A few short minutes later he saw the two horses out in front, so cut his stride back which dropped him back to a normal jog. From there he slowed and stopped.

The horses were just standing about, pulling up and eating grass. Occasionally one or the other would make a sound, like they were having a conversation. It seemed ridiculous to him, but he had to remember that the horses weren't necessarily horses.

Could two people be animating horse bodies? It seemed a strange enough notion, but not impossible. But what purpose was there in eating grass? He felt he was missing something, when he looked at the horses backs. Saddles. That indicated riders. So the horses were horses, even if they acted unusually.

Deciding not to approach the horses, he made his way directly to the ridge again. This time he could see what was on the beach.

Other than the two deck chairs, table and beach umbrella, were the two people. One male, and one female. Well, it looked like two people at first, but the female wasn't moving.

Watching carefully for a minute, he saw the female's clothing disappear. He almost chocked in shock, seeing all that skin, but saw the bright colouring of underwear. No? It must be beach wear or whatever the California people call it. A bikini.

Not that he minded seeing woman in such a state. Sure he's seen women in town. But they don't walk about in their underwear. The most he had ever seen was when he went down the year before during summer for emergency supplies because some of his smoked meat had somehow gone rancid. A bunch of out of state tourists came through in their RV. He'd been curious and watched when they stopped as the gas station across the road from the store he visited. Out came the parents, and two girls. One was young, but the other closer to his age and dressed so provocatively. A dress so short, he'd swear when she went back up the stairs into the RV, that he should have seen her underwear. He was stunned then also, and never moved from his position across the street, just watched as she went to the toilet, and came back out to return to the RV.

But this woman was moving now, as the man was leaning in kissing her. They moved toward the deck chairs now, to sit down.

Two people enjoying themselves on an open beach all by themselves. To him it seemed reasonable, to enjoy nature. Maybe he'll be able to rip a copy of this for use later. No, he didn't. He wanted the real thing to be like this. Not some technological imitation.

This was when he decided to change his aim, and start closing down all of these simulations... Permanently.

He'd been adjusting the worm program he'd written to deliver the data packets for switching data pointers on the VR4 servers. As the program could already trace along Flex Net Protocol addresses, he'd altered it as a way of shutting down an address by blocking it so people couldn't trace him. It was possible to work around it by re-initialising the affected system which could take hours for an effected computer server.

The worm's only drawback, was that it tended to be slow in blocking an address as it had to locate it physicality, and load the data packet to block it. Also the worm had a guide path, so it wouldn't block itself accidentally. Just in case he was tricked into blocking himself.

He initiated this now, directing it to cut off any connections into this node. He waited patiently for what must have been a full minute, watching the guy happily help spread sun cream lotion on the woman. When the blocker did work, it wasn't as expected. He didn't find himself standing in blackness from the disconnection of data from all programs, but rather, all the effects disappeared.

The grass became just a shapeless green surface. The trees disappeared, as with the horses. The beach became a flat yellowish surface, with the water becoming a blue surface. The sky was still blue, without any clouds now.

As for the couple on the deck chairs. All the furniture decorating the sand was gone. So was the woman. But the guy was still there, sitting on the yellow surface, completely naked.

This was unusual, as he should have been disconnected, unless... he thought, that this man was one of the them.

Chapter 15 :Paradise lost

When Kate had disappeared, as well as most everything else including Tony's clothing, he was first concerned about some accident causing Kate to leave, then confused about why his simulation broke down, leaving him sitting on a flat yellow surface in his birthday suit.

He questioned his guide, only getting a brief answer "Data from the main VR4 servers has been blocked, as has that of Kate Phillips."

Then of all things, some maniac appears dressed in a black lounge suit calling him various things he didn't half understand.

"So they finally sent a monkey man after me huh?"

"What do you want?" Tony replied

"Want? Want! Have you people regressed so much, you don't know what clothes are any more?"

"Look, what the hell are you doing here?", Tony was trying to understand what was happening.

"It doesn't fucking well matter to you. Only that you won't be here much longer. No one will be here much longer. I got rid of your slut girl, your imitation beach. You'll be gone soon too."

Tony added a few swear words of his own to the conversation, some of which really pissed off the guy.

"You will suffer for all your misdeeds." He said straightly, then came at Tony.

Tony always practised been a pacifist, but when physically abused, he responded accordingly to defend himself. Tony didn't want to hit the guy, but when he was laying punches, you had to hit back, block them, or get out of the way. Tony did the last, until he was tripped over by a leg sweep he didn't expect and fell to the ground.

Tony fully expected the guy to start kicking him, but instead he started mumbling words, like an incantation. He wouldn't have been surprised if is eye's lit up, and lighting sprung from his fingers. Instead he vanished in a cylindrical flame that appeared around him, and flaming up several meters.

Tony could feel the sudden heat wash across his body. He knew he wouldn't suffer real burns, but he didn't want to know what it felt like to receive them. Some experiences were better left alone, so he just rolled.

Like a living serpent the flame reached over and struck at Tony, missing him but still feeling like he was rolling over a barbecue hot plate.

It was nuts, like a scene from the Prince of Egypt. Except the flame, the snake and the bad dude were one and the same thing.

Unable to do anything as he spun bodily, Tony's mind quickly run through commands had remembered in developing his simulation. As the author and designated owner, he had rights and privileges that weren't usually accessible to a general user.

"Re-initiate the program, now!" he called. Doing this, caused all external connections to be closed to the program, and the entire program reset. The horses and all other items would start all over in their original positions. Only the developer would remain unaffected.

The entire scene flickered for a short instant, and the flame disappeared from Tony's spinning view. He stopped rolling and came to a halt. He sat up, feeling very dizzy, so he put his hands out steadying himself, as he tried to make sense of what happened.

No rational thought came to his mind, except the possibility of some nutcase, an escapee from a loony bin had tried to give him an experience of a life time.

The VR4 environment not been physically real, could still cause people mental distress from harmful experiences, like burning alive. There were safety precautions of course, to diminish or cease such effects if a user was detected to be suffering. These were built into each and every program individually because the simulated environment required a certain amount of realism.

It would be pointless making a program for students to explore the magma layers under the earth's crust if they all felt like burning up, or a skydiver feeling like he was swimming. The effects were individual to the program and not the user.

Tony's thought's ran along these lines, as he considered was safely levels he'd set. Almost none really. If he'd fallen from the horse earlier, he could well have broken a bone, and felt all the effects. And because he'd felt the heat of the flame, then its effects would have been just as painful as the real thing. Though he wasn't sure how the man in black did it without ill effects to himself.

Tony shook a little as he looked where the flame had been, considering the near experience.

Kate thought something was wrong when Tony's hands stopped. The sound in her ears had changed also, from the gentle gush of water on the beach to the drumming of falling rain on a roof. She'd had her eye's closed as Tony was applying the sun cream. Tony had said he'd made the environment as real as possible, including UV rays.

She cracked here eye's open, and found the familiar sight of her lounge room. She was bewildered, wondering what had happened. After a moment, she got up and flicked on the light switch. It came on, confirming that it wasn't a power loss to her flat because of the rain.

The computer was the next thing to try. Maybe a power surge had knocked it out. Pressing the power switch, its lights and fans started up. The small led panel on the front indicated that nothing was wrong. Resolutely, she pulled the head set back on. She got comfortable on the couch again, laying the towel over her as she was a little cool in the bikini, then closed her eyes.

She appeared in her waiting room area. Immediately she called up commands on the screen, to find out what happened. All she discovered was, that she was disconnected from the server that the simulation was running on. It didn't tell her enough, so she tried to locate Tony to get some answers.

"Tony Shaw is currently running a personal simulation on a server isolated from this connection." It responded.

"Isolated? Then how was I able to log in there before?" She demanded.

"Unknown. It is now currently isolated from this..."

"Connection. Yeah I heard that." She was feeling angry now. Not at Tony, but at the system. "Then can you route me though somewhere else, like they do with phones?"

"This can be done. Currently establishing connection through the shortest route to that location." It said.

"Make sure you return me to my previous location and attire." Kate added, then waited until the scene around her faded. She found herself sitting on a flat yellowish surface, like the colour of sand, but feeling more like a wooden board.

Standing up, she thought she was in the wrong place, but looking about she could vaguely make out the outline of the beach and the surrounding hill.

Looking about , she found Tony's still form, just sitting there on the flat yellow surface.

"Tony?" she called, approaching. She saw that there was something wrong now, as he had nothing on, and looked a little red.

He didn't answer her call, until she came right up and knelt in front of him and said his name again, "Tony?"

"Oh, hi Kate.", he said in the preoccupied way.

When he didn't say another thing, Kate sat down in front of Tony, crossing her legs.

Tony's thoughts were still churning the details over, as he watched Kate sitting right where the flame had been, just within reach. "Touching distance." He murmured.

Kate heard this, and grasped his hands in hers. "Tony, are you okay.? What happened?"

"I'm fine, I think." He said, hearing her words but not her voice. "Somehow this server got isolated, then this guy turns up trying to KFC me."

Kate had figured out the first part, but didn't understand the second. KFC? Kentucky Fried... Kate looked over Tony's body again, her eye's reflexively straying towards his uncovered genitals, but focusing on the red marks on his skin. She gained comprehension now of what he was talking about..

"Jesus." Was all she could say at once.

"No, he wasn't able to help." Tony said, starting to get over the scare. "Nobody could help, except me." He said, looking at Kate now. "How did you get back?" He asked.

"I had to route through somewhere else." Kate replied

"It figures." He said. "Computer, re-route the severed connections through another server."

After a moment the hard surface under her buttocks, was replaced with more comfortable sand. The water also returned with a flourish as a small wave rolled up to them, getting them both wet.

Tony was trying to replace his previous fear with humour, "Looks even better wet." He said, looking down at Kate's wet bikini pants.

Kate got to her feet, pulling Tony with her. "Come on. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you had a one track mind."

Although he didn't need it, Kate put her left arm around him, and his arm over her shoulder, holding it there with her right hand. She walked back with him like this towards the recliner deck chairs which had re-appeared with the rest of the beach.

"You might want to re-load your body too." Kate said. "Getting sun burnt now won't help."

"I wish it would.", Tony said with few words.

The computer was able to interpret the words as a command, and having recorded the conversation, was able to pick out the content that represented commands.

Kate saw the difference, as his skin returned to a normal complexion. She became aware of Tony's hand on her breast, taking a glimpse at it she realised that was where she was holding it. Tony didn't seem to be reacting to it anyhow.

She reached the chairs, turning about she sat Tony down. He wasn't helping much so she had to slide across on the chair, and drag Tony with her.

The result of her efforts got Tony on the chair laying down, but she was stuck next to him. It actually wasn't too uncomfortable, except for the chair arm in her back.

Instead of getting up, and risking the chair tipping over, she adjusted the program settings.

While Tony would have full control over all the settings of the program, Kate still had what was termed "user access". She couldn't make changes to the main aspect of the program, like changing the trees, or adjusting the landscape, or removing the horses. But she could introduce new things like a beach ball, or sailing yacht. Also she could adjust small items like her clothes, and the deck chair.

Their outing seemed at an end, but she didn't think it was good idea to leave Tony in the current condition he was in.

She widened the deck chair, so both of them could lie together. It was more comfortable now, instead of pressing her front against Tony.

Even though he seemed out of it, her physical presence had been affecting Tony noticeably. It was just as well; she didn't want to place herself in a more awkward situation with Tony. She just wanted to lie back and relax. When Tony was ready, she'd be there for him.

Tony more or less came out of it, after awaking from a short sleep. Kate had come and gone several times, having gone swimming in the water, venturing to the toilet once, and answering the phone for a survey that she had hung up on.

What woke Tony up this time was the playful sounds of the dolphins as Kate re-entered the water to swim with them. There was a lot to live for in this life, rather then sleep it away.

He was thinking that he should join her, but he didn't want to move just yet. He watched her and the dolphins as he regained his equilibrium. He also thought move objectively on his recent experience. Why the inferno man in the black suit entered this simulation was beyond Tony's reasoning. How was within his reasoning.

Tony had inadvertently left security protocols off. No ID, password, or voiceprint protection had been activated. It was already too late, but he activated this now. What was the saying? "Once bitten, twice shy."

He'd have to report this also. The VR4 Data security man had said to contact them of any strange occurrences. Well, not to those words, but anything like this needed reporting, Tony thought.

He tried to think though the whole thing, to remember all the details. Funnily, he could remember Kate appearing right after. Like the Superman effect, Clarke Kent always disappeared when Superman appeared. Tony had no suspicions of Kate, as he saw the effects of all the external data connections disappear, including Kate's. Then he appeared. To Tony, this indicated that he had to be local to this node somehow.

He also remembered Kate helping him back, and staying with him. She'd left his sight a few times, but came back soon as if checking on him. He felt grateful for that. She'd even layed next to him, like a comfort blanket. Lifting his head, he looked at the altered deckchair and smiled at the innovative re-design.

Looking over the chair, he become aware that he had no clothing on. He remembered Kate saying something about his skin, but no mention of his clothes. Not that she'd take advantage of him. Only men did that. Except for the few reported cases of women, including a couple of incidents of cutting off a man's penis.

No, Kate was most definitely not like that. Though Tony thought she might be a bit voyeuristic, in keeping him buck-naked. She was still in her bikini. Well, he could keep up the pretence then, with no pun intended. He'd always had an interest in visiting a nudist colony.

He felt ready to get up now, and pulled himself to a seating position first. Then slowly drew him-self up. Physically he felt okay, so made his way down the beach to the water's edge.

Kate saw him, and swam towards him into the shallows, before standing up and wading over to him through the sparkling blue water. She pulled her wet hair back, placing it carefully over her shoulder.

"You look a lot better." Kate said, giving him an eye over.

"Yeah, thanks for staying.", he said.

Kate didn't say anything for a moment, "Well, I expect you would have done the same."

"I would have.", he said, "I'll need to report this to the VR4 security also."

"You're going to report it in VR?" She asked, and Tony nodded, "I'll come with you then."

"Only if you really want to." He said.

"Sure I want to. But do we have to go yet." She said. "You haven't been in the water, and it'd be a real share to let it go to waste."

"Sure." He said, moving with her back into the deep water. The water was warm as it reached up to his waist. He lowered himself, and kicked off doing some simple breast strokes.

Kate stayed next to him, "The dolphins are very friendly. They like been touched."

They kept themselves afloat as the dolphins came up to them, nosing at their open hands, and swimming past quickly.

"I think they want to give me a ride." Tony said, seeing one dolphin slow down with its dorsal fin offered to him.

"They never did that for me." Kate said, turning about to watch.

He didn't take the proffered fin, but the dolphin came back around again, and this time he slid a hand down to cup the leading edge. He felt the pull and had to grab hold with his other hand, before finding himself pulled along.

The water rushed past, and occasionally the dolphin would dip down, making Tony feel like he was skimming the top of the water by himself.

They came back around in a big circle back to Kate, where he released his hold and came to a stop near her.

"That was cool. I never knew that was part of the construct of the dolphins I used." He said.

"Well, I wish they'd give me a chance." Kate said.

Another dolphin came by Tony again. He thought it was a different one, but couldn't be sure. "Maybe they don't like your bathing costume." He said, joking about his nakedness. His hands grasped the dolphin, and he was off again before he could hear Kate's reply.

Around he went again, urging the dolphin to dive deeper a few times, and holding his breath before surfacing. Coming back around, he didn't see Kate in the water. He tried to look about, but the dolphin dipped his snout, jerking his view at that moment. When it came back up, Tony could see the bright orange of Kate's bikini top and bottom tied together.

He was wondering where Kate was, when he heard her distinctive voice, whooping with delight behind him.

Chapter 16 : Waiting for help

Together they entered the main on-line portion of VR4 Data Services. Tony had put on some more appropriate clothing, retrieving a casual shirt and slacks. Kate accompanied him, though in a less casual Japanese silk kimono she put on after leaving the water with the dolphins.

She could almost pass for a Japanese woman of the old order, the way she was dressed. With her long dark hair carefully tied up with two sticks, and feet in sandals. All she was missing was the white face paint.

Tony smoothed his still wet hair back once more, as they followed the signs. They came to an area, reminiscent of government social security offices. Many dozens of chairs all in long rows with people sitting in some of them. There were specially marked doors arrayed around the large room.

On one side was what they required. The main desk area. Where a short line of people waited in turn to be served by any of the 12 active desks. It didn't take too long to actually get service, but Tony understood why once they got there. It was an automated service, that categorised their problem.

"What is the nature of your problem?" The female simulacrum asked. "Complaint, service difficulty, censorship..."

"Service difficulty." Tony interrupted.

"Is this to do with hardware, access, running programs..."

"Running programs." He said.

"Would this be a problem with a pre-made or a user made program?"

"Uh, user-made." Tony said.

A small token appeared on the desk, "Please take this token, and take a seat. A representative will be along to help you shortly."

He picked up the token looking at it, but changed his mind. "You don't understand." he said. "Something came into the program, and changed it."

"If you require more detailed service please press the button to summon a human operator."

Tony pressed it, and the simulacrum said "A human operator will be here within a minute to help you."

He looked back at Kate, but she only shrugged her shoulders.

Not too long, the simulacrum changed features into another person, "Okay, what's the problem.." She fingered the screen, reading off it. "with the user-made program."

"Well, first of all, the program somehow lost its connections and all but the main landscape remained. No trees, water, or my clothes." Tony said.

The woman typed at a keyboard, and raised an eyebrow at the last like it would have been interesting to see.

"The this guy appeared in a black suit, while there was still no program data. He spoke some religious crap, turned into a big flame and tried to turn me into a human torch." Tony said, then added. "I only got rid of him after re-initiating the program. And then I only got the data back after re-routing it through somewhere else."

The woman took this all calmly, like it was an everyday event. "Okay, so your data stream was disconnected from our servers, and another user violated your program with intent to harm." She said.

"Yeah." Tony agreed.

"Okay, someone will be able to help you further if you can take a seat." She said, pointing towards all the chairs, "You'll be called shortly."

"I talked to someone earlier this week on the phone, a Mr Devereaux, he said to contact the helpdesk about any further problems." Tony said.

She tapped a few more keys, "Oh, Jeffrey Devereaux." She tapped some more keys. "You're Tony Shaw?" she asked

"Yes." He said.

"I think you'll need to see Jeffrey then." She said. "The problem you encountered may be related. He's currently available, so I'll let him sort it out. Please take a seat and wait."

"Thanks." Tony said, turning about.

They took a couple of vacant seats. It was the sort of thing you encountered on commercial airlines. Comfortable recliner seats, individual flat entertainment screens attached to each.

Tony glanced at the token; all that was written on it was "Data Security services. Please wait."

"Looks like we have to wait." he said to Kate.

Tony pulled up the screen attached to the armrest to a comfortable viewing position.

It came to life of its own accord, with a preset view channel. Like an information network, it showed available viewing material. As Tony had no idea how long they were going to wait, he scanned through the channels, surfing for anything interesting.

The next screen channel has various images rolling across it, of commercials both of regular products for sale, and of internal VR4 advertising, showing programs and stories available.

Whilst Tony skimmed more channels, Kate followed some of the information prompts, pulling up recent news items on VR4.

She found network information, on growth on the network since going on-line. The population of people worldwide showed a mark increase in ownership of VR4 systems. It was still no where near the population levels of home owned personal computers, but it was steadily climbing as prices of computer components came down.

She found herself watching information on new releases of games and interactive stories worldwide. One gained her interest, a rendition of Jules Verne's classic, Around the World in Eighty Days. People could actually participate in the event of racing around the world in the 19th century. As Kate listened further, she found that it was a follow on of the story, as Phileas Fogg gathered new people together for a new race to beat his record, with the added competition of racing against other people.

To her, it sounded like a great game to play, but when she read over the game details, she found that the game ran in real time, so 80 days, was actually 80 days.

Tony mean while had wandered through new movie releases both in the theatres and VR theatres. Nothing exceptional really, except for the last film in the Space Odyssey trilogy, 3001 The Final Odyssey.

In an alternate area, Tony found a list of VR games based on both TV and Movies. One particular heading caught his eye, Highlander. Skimming through he found the horrible truth. People would enter the game as an Immortal, into any time zone within the world. And when they met another Immortal, they inevitably fought, the result been of one of the players losing their head.

All the historical references were interesting, but not really Tony's cup of tea.

Tony was starting to listen to something about the Lord of the Rings, when Kate pulled his arm over to look at something on her screen.

"...The age of the 22nd century brought much in the way of technological advances to the human species and to all inhabitants of the Earth. Major advances began as early as the start of the 21st century, bringing swift changes to both economic and religious areas. The number of wars had been reduced to little than small conflicts within global states.

The main advances came about at the middle of the 21st century, with a breakthrough in the area of physics, in the creation of a stable polar electric field. To the average citizen, this field was found to be a miracle. It could be used to move solid matter, as well as liquid and gas. One notable experiment was a pressurised air pocket, created at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean without a physical diving bell.

Later developments had scientists launch satellites into orbit without a support vehicle of any kind.

The only immediate drawbacks were the need for enormous amounts of energy whenever the field had to be altered. To sustain such a field took little or no energy, as it was almost self-sustaining.

But the prospects far outweighed the needs, as advanced solar platforms were launched into space, and the final aspect of the field was known. It could transfer electricity though any thin medium.

It was a boon to mankind. It foresaw the coming of personalised vehicles that could fly. Manned expeditions to the stars were now possible.

Other main advances that came about of need to the polar field, was a portable energy source. A chemical company chiefly by accident discovered an Enzyme, which would produce an electric current under certain conditions. It was kept under wraps for many years as they developed the idea further into a marketable form. But rumours were abounding, so they soon let it be known. No actual name was given to the Enzyme other then its chemical name, which became the most well protected security of the company. So the creators called it the E-cell, short for the Enzyme cell. Through misinformation, the public started to call it the Energy cell. And it stuck.

But the technology was soon used for other purposes, and countries went to war again. When a small Arabian state went too far and detonated a nuclear bomb kept in the arsenal of a neighbouring country. Then all hell broke loose literary, and quietly the large missiles went up, and came down all over the globe, eradicating civilisation. But not the human race.

Enclaves of humans remained in protected shelters. Those that weren't as well protected suffered from changes and adverse mutations.

And so the remnants of civilisation have banded together in... Scavengers of the Mutant world."

The real images of the game world now came on screen, for both Kate and Tony to see. Some eerily quiet cities, a group of people trekking in a very inhospitable open plain, and fierce fights between humans and creatures that were indescribable.

It came across much like a commercial, enthralling Tony. Kate was interested enough to notice that the game was a commercial release, not a free public game. Hopefully it was available locally, and well... maybe Tony would be interested. And maybe he'd notice the token was beeping also.

She hit him lightly on the shoulder to get his notice.

"Hey!" she had his attention now, and pointed to the token.

Looking at it, he noticed the flashing text "Jeffrey Devereaux is waiting in room 1811." A little arrow on the device had rotating colours, and shifted about as Tony moved the token. It was obviously pointing towards his destination.

Following the blinking arrow across the room, and around chairs, Tony and Kate entered a door marked "1800-1899".

A corridor presented itself on the other side, and still following the arrow, they found room 1811.

Tony gave a short glace between the arrow, the door and Kate, before pushing open the door.

A tall black man stood from a tidy desk, "Do come in Mr Shaw. And you too..." a short glance at his screen, "Ms Phillips."

They came in, and at Mr Devereaux's direction took two conveniently placed seats.

"So, Mr Shaw..." Mr Devereaux started.

Tony cut in, "Please just Tony."

"And Kate." she added.

"Then must call me Jeffrey. From this I see you've had a spot of trouble."

"More than a spot." Tony said.

"Them please tell me all about it." Jeffrey said.

Tony took his time, explaining in detail everything that happened on the beach. Kate added her own details of what she knew.

Jeffrey raised his eyes from the screen. "Well, if I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a great story."

Tony opened his mouth to say something.

Jeffrey continued. "But it isn't. I know. One of our data servers did shut down all of a sudden. It was fortunate that another took up its load and nothing important was affected. I'm speaking of government and financial service importance. But the fact that this person seems to be responsible for the outages does make this a serious crime."

"So what can you do?" Kate asked.

"Well we are investigating the outage, but with your's and Mr... Tony's information, we have much more to go on."

"How come I wasn't disconnected with the rest of the data from the program?" Tony asked.

"Well, that is a sticky one. Remember our last conversation about system tampering."

Tony nodded perceptibly.

"The tampering caused then, seems to have given you a ghosting Flex Net Protocol address." Jeffrey continued, as the two faces before him showed some confusion. "The FNP address you have allows you to connect to the Internet and all VR4 on-line systems."

"I understand all that." Tony said, "It's the ghosting part I don't know."

"Okay. Put it simply, while you can direct your system to pull data from the networks and send data back, no external system can send you any other data. You effectively disappear from the network. Like a ghost. But yet your system still maintains its connection somehow. Several other people have developed this problem because of the tampering incident. While we thought it was a routine hacking, it has caused problems with automatic functions from working with your system and these other people. This is the first instance where it's been beneficial."

"It didn't feel beneficial at the time." Tony said.

"At the moment we are unable to fix the problem, so I can only tell you to try to relax. Try a game with more people in it." Jeffrey said. "Unless there is anything else, you can go."

Kate looked at Tony, but it was a silent agreement, that they told everything that needed saying.

"I do feel relieved that you are okay. Thankyou for coming in." Jeffrey said.

They left the way they came in, exiting via the doors. Tony's had kept to himself, the suspicion that the inferno man been local to the node where he'd run the beach scenario.

Why else would he have stayed connected when everything else was disconnected. If the data security centre knew what they were doing, they'd come to the same conclusion.

Tony continued to think about this after he disconnected.

Chapter 17 : A bigger playground

The last words he heard before re-appearing in the grey room, was "Re-initiate the program, now."

Lashing out more of fury from been evicted so easily, the walls turned a smouldering black from his efforts. The lava body he'd pulled up for its first test run had made a real impact. He'd noticed the guy had been frightened out of his wits.

It served at least to pay his personal retribution. It was a pity he couldn't make more people feel the same way in one great effort.

No, it would take more than a large flaming creature.

He disconnected himself from the system, and used the screen to clean up his data trail. It wouldn't serve to leave a track for the hounds to find. It was a matter of principle to remain totally elusive. Not a single bit to point the direction.

Anything that couldn't be covered up was obliterated. Totally destroyed. He was also fortunate that the guy didn't establish a tag on him. It would be the best way to initiate a way to locate him. And it wouldn't be possible to delete it unless one had access to the user's computer.

He considered ways of possibly blocking tags. But they all involved alerting some sort of on-line security system.

No, instead of blocking. What about re-directing? It made sense. He could cause a tag to attach to someone else.

He brought up a screen, typing in a framework of his program. Stopping momentarily, he brought up a second screen, to browse on-line materials and to a search. Leaving it activated with his voice, he continued typing and asked it to search for the top twenty selling games. It came up with a list, and he asked for a cross-reference on most populated games on-line.

It took a moment to re-sort the list from most played to least played.

The tag router looked finished. Maybe a few adjustments, but it would work. He took a moment to look at the top item on the list, and thought deeply on the title. No, it shouldn't be too hard. He thought. Some planning, and a little reconnoitring first, and then everyone would think hell had a new name. Scavengers of the Mutant world."

Chapter 18 : Introduction to the Mutant world

Kate discovered that the game was very popular. Eventually she found a copy of it. She was surprised at the packaging, finding the game sold in a small moulded plastic case. Most distributed software came in large cardboard box packed with nothing more than a case with a DVD and several small printed texts.

Opening the case revealed only a small installation manual and two double layered DVD's.

The game was bigger than Kate had first expected, as the stored capacity of both DVD's totalled 35 Gigabytes. Reading the instructions, she discovered why. The first disc was the training disc. It introduced the game, and explained everything required for playing. The second disc was for actual play, allowing on-line play.

Kate would have shoved the second disc in right away, except the instructions said that actual play couldn't start until the training disc had finished. A certain phrase came to Kate's mind; one learned to walk before running.

When she started up the training disc, it brought up all the warning messages. It was quite liberal in explaining that the content of the game contained violence of many degrees, most of which could be inflicted on the player. She had to listen to the entire message before agreeing to the licence to use the software.

Then she had to read some information about game play. It didn't seem relevant at this point, as she hadn't even started playing yet. But bits of it seemed important. One was that players couldn't leave and enter active games whenever they wanted. She could leave, but her game character would die, so it was advised that players use the advanced bio suppression functions on the VR4 equipment. That and go to the toilet before starting game play.

The introduction to the game world started with the history. Much of it was what she and Tony had seen, but this was much more detailed and involving instead of been shown on a small screen.

It came across as a history lecture in a way, but many more things were shown that she hadn't known about from the brief infomercial.

It provided a run down on the development of the underground cities, known as a Geo-Front. They were to be the first step in stopping the spread of cities on the earth's surface, and developing a viable underground city. The dozen cities created around the globe, were powered by the orbital solar arrays, providing endless clean power that otherwise passed around the earth and on into space.

The growth of nation states was explained in some detail, showing the rise and fall of political powers, and how the countries were arranged during the atomic war. Detail was revealed about weapons development, showing how technology had improved, with a vast variety of offensive weapons, as well as defensive.

Finally, the last items shown were on humankind's plans for colonisation of Mars and other natural satellites within the Sol's orbit. Maned missions had been successful in landing on the red planet, and in proving the great mysterious of the planet as no more then freak geological formations. The fact the water did exist within the planet in large quantities of frozen lakes on the poles gave sufficient reason to start a terra-forming project to regenerate the atmosphere to a suitable oxygen level. This would initiate the growth of genetically bread plants on the planet surface to both break down the rocky ground, and regenerate it into useable soil.

The main introduction wound to a close, citing the outbreak of war and the collapse of civilisation, except within the experimental underground cities. While they were able to maintain power, their main shortages came form more essential forms of food and water. Most of the Geo-Fronts had qualified engineers and other specialists, and were able to drill down to tap unspoiled water sources. Open parks within the cities were converted into farms, and animals were cloned from stored DNA samples. And they endured, until centuries have past.

The small environment of the Geo-Fronts made survival hard. Eventually, forcing people to reconsider exploring the surface, even with the radiation still present in the atmosphere outside. Each Geo-Front developed it's own society after the collapse of civilisation. These changed over the years, degrading information passed from generation to generation. But the task of exploring the dangers of the outside world fell to the strong and young. To find anything that can help in returning the Earth to what it was like before the war.

Kate sighed, when the briefing started to load. The introduction had been so long, but insightful.

The VR4 options popped up momentarily, to allow her to adjust body configurations, but she was locked in at many aspects. Her age group was set at 18. Some of the settings were balanced, allowing her to transfer between strength and dexterity and between charisma and observation. The strength had direct association on her appearance, to make her more muscle bound. She didn't want this, and preferred more freedom of movement with dexterity, shifting a greater portion of the setting that way. She did the same with observation. She thought there was no use in been flexible without having some insight in what you were doing.

The game accepted the settings as her final choice for her character, and could not be changed at any time, unless it was during the game itself.

The briefing started in the most unusual way. She found herself lying in a shallow bed made of bundles of cloth scraps, within a small, unfurnished room. All that covered her was a rough woollen blanket.

"Kate, Kate!" a voice rang out as a figure burst in through the open entryway, surprising her so much she almost fell from the bed, pulling the blanket over so far she realised she didn't have any clothes on underneath. She had to re-cover herself in front her intruder, "Come on! You'll be late for the Elder's speech!"

Kate was able to see her trespasser as another young girl, much like herself as she grabbed Kate's hand, and pulled her up from the bed.

Kate had to hold the blanket tightly to her chest with her other hand, or risk losing it.

"There's some clothes and stuff laid out in the other room for you to choose for training." the girl said, now releasing her hand. "Just don't take too long to make a decision." Then she dashed out again, the thud of a door echoing from the other room.

Kate looked about the room first, not seeing anything important, other than been almost bare of anything, and subdued lighting coming from concealed points in the ceiling.

The girl had told her to hurry, but Kate didn't comprehend the need, as this was only the training. Entering the next room, she did make an effort not the take took long to look everything over.

There were various items of clothing and apparel, all of different ages. The boots looked like army surplus, but the socks were hand-made like the blanket. Hand-made or loom woven garments made up most of the clothing, except for the boots and the metal fastenings on the packs and belts.

It wasn't too difficult to select what to wear, as there wasn't much to select from. A pair of hand woven briefs, a strip of leather thong tied up a short skirt and a short sleeveless tunic that revealed a good portion of her midriff. There was no footwear other than the boots. They were sure to give her sore feet without socks, so she had to relent, pulling on the socks and a pair of boots that fit comfortably. The fact that there were several sizes of boots indicated to Kate that the game would be as real as it gets, and didn't alter things to suit the players. Something either fitted, or didn't. She added a few more things, like a studded leather strap to her wrist, and a belt with a strap that went over her shoulder with clips for attaching things. And finally, she tied a strap to hold her hair out of her face.

The door, like the two rooms was part of the original prefabrication and slid sideways into the wall cavity.

"Oh, good you're ready." The girl was standing outside in a wide hallway. "Let's get to the briefing." she said, and led off to the right, allowing Kate to follow.

The corridor was nondescript with sliding doors spaced along on both sides. Some of the doors were open, but Kate saw nothing of interest. Around a few corners, a large set of doors opened into a dilapidated auditorium.

Filling it were many strange objects, which Kate could only presume, was for training. A group of people was gathered in the largest open area. As they approached, the group opened up for them.

Filling it were many strange objects, which Kate could only presume, was for training. A group of people was gathered in the largest open area. As they approached, the group opened up for them.

In the centre was a wizened old figure of a man. "Now that you're all here, I will begin." He said.

"But first I will sit down. These old bones of mine, don't hold my skin up well any more." He lowered himself to the hard floor, crossing his legs underneath him.

"Don't all just stand there, sit down!" he said with his creaking voice. "It won't help if I have bend my neck up to talk to all of you."

Kate lowered herself to the hard floor. It wasn't cold as she expected. Presumably with all the power, they had no problem keeping the rooms warm or cool.

"I am city elder Garth Andor, and I am honoured that you have all volunteered to join the expedition teams. The expedition team means a lot to our small city. While we continue to survive daily as we are, we are also slowly losing the battle for survival. This city has been established for nearly seven centuries, and it is deteriorating."

Some of the young people in the group let out an audible gasp. Kate could understand, looking about the auditorium. The walls looked patched, and some of the ceiling was unlit, as if some of the lights had burnt out.

"This was one of the primary reasons the expeditions were created. To find a way of halting the gradual decline of our city, and to find a way to reverse it.

We believe the other ten Geo-Front's are suffering the same fate as we. Contact was kept with the other cities, until those electronic systems failed a few centuries ago, except of course for the one that didn't survive. But all cities agreed to send out exploration teams when the rad storms had decreased sufficiently.

Our other reason was to find out what happened to our planet. I was in one of the first expeditions to set foot on the surface. We were glad to find that no longer did the harsh radiation exist in quantities to kill us in days. But exist it does, in these strange radiation storms that can blow across the land and catch you unawares. It doesn't kill you, most times. Usually it causes strange changes to happen. One such storm came across my party causing mutations, and death. To me it produced a strange affliction of immortality. I might be able to die of wounds or of infection by any one of the diseases that appear sometimes, but of old age I will never die of."

He stopped a moment to clear his throat.

"I'm starting to ramble now, so I'll try to stick to the subject. From the computers that still work for us, the date is 18th of May, the year 2834. Having volunteered for the expedition teams, your aim when you venture outside is to collect as much information on surroundings, and collect any items that may benefit our city.

Anything of importance will have to be brought back here. We cannot pay for this, but you will be rewarded appropriately in the future. Anything else you collect could be of use to yourself or your team members.

When you return, you will be allowed to store whatever you want in your room. And of course, no one else will be allowed into your room without your permission. What you collect could include anything like weapons, maps, and sources of clean food and water. All of these will affect your survival.

Weapons are the most highly valued items, but unfortunately we cannot offer you any. You should be able to find weapons of varying types on the surface, from the humble piece of rubble to knives and swords. You will find that some weapons are more effective then others. While rocks are plentiful, they do less to a large creature other than to irritate it further. A more effective weapon is a projectile gun. They can still be found, but ammunition that works is very rare. Just as rare would be to find one of the fabled energy weapons. Ah, yes I can see the glint in all your eyes.

You will also find that people who have already ventured out may be willing to trade items with you."

The talk went on for a lot longer than any lecture Kate had attended at school. She was thinking her awards ceremony was shorter than this. After hearing about all the mutant creatures, she felt like she was ready to fall asleep. As her eyes wandered, she vaguely thought that some of the other students had fallen asleep. She wasn't she if it was relevant that she be falling asleep. She didn't really want to miss anything by falling asleep, so instead she took a break from the game.

Logging out, she found it was about lunchtime. If she was able to work through the training disc, she should be able to log some time on-line by this evening. Saturday's tended to be a drag anyhow.

After re-heating some leftover dinner from Thursday, she logged back in to finish the training.

Chapter 19 : Creating an expedition team

The fact that he was able to rip a copy of Scavengers was a simple fact of accessibility to pirated software on the Internet. Truly, he could have down loaded perhaps half a dozen of the top 20 selling titles. Except that he'd be pushing the current storage limits of his drives.

Fortunately the game had been cracked so he could play it without the training disc, and all the unimportant stuff had been ripped out, leaving the game still at about 12 Gigabytes.

Downloading it was never an issue. Sure it took several days, but it gave him the change to break away from the infernal thing and go hiking awhile. The fresh air, the sounds of animals and nature renewed his spirit for what lay ahead.

When it was finished, he took the time to read through the documentation. It gave some insight with the game, but little else. Starting the patched program, he was given some initial settings to adjust. From setting up his player body and statistics, he had to choose clothing for himself.

The selection was quite large, but some of it wasn't suitable. It took some time to choose something reasonable to wear. He found a pair of cloth pants with leather pads stitched on, and a woollen vest that could be closed with the thong ties. Some cut down army style boots went on his feet over socks. And some straps over his shoulders like a set of bandoliers.

Also included in the items were some weapons. They were all arm length weapons like knives, swords, clubs and maces. He strapped a knife in its scabbard to his leg, and tied a machete to his hip, which completed his attire.

Just before launching the game, he remembered one last thing. Pulling down his VR settings, he changed his name. Though the name he had in there wasn't his own, he was thinking that to create a persona for the game was a reasonable thing to do. He became the 24-year-old farmer's son, by the name of Wil Brooks.

Initiating the game, he was given a choice of which Geo-Front to base himself at. He was given no geographical identification, only the number's 1 to 12, and with the number 5 blanked out. Picking a number solely at random, he chose Geo-Front ten.

Wil found he was standing in a small-unfurnished room. A pack leaned against the wall next to the open doorway. He slung this onto one arm as he checked the next room. It was completely empty, apart from a closed door at the other end.

This opened sideways with little effort. A wide hallway went in both directions. Wil pulled the door shut behind him. Checking the door was closed he saw his name etched in the surface, with glowing script.

The sound of voices was emanating from the left. Following this he came to an intersection in the corridor, with a sign. Behind him was dormitories, to the left was the main hall, and the right was the elder's audience room and storerooms.

Most of the sound was coming from the main hall, and that was where Wil was headed.

Wil found the hall at the end of the open corridor, as no doors set it apart. A great babble of voices met him as he entered the cavern like hall. Many people both sat and stood around the room, most in animated discussion in small groups.

A set of doors at the other end opened wide and a group of people stepped in, dragging dust inside. Two were supporting one of the other who couldn't stay on his feet.

"Look's like another safe return for the LAF." a voice from behind him said.

"What?" turning about to meet the voice, and finding a striking young woman.

"The LAF - Los Angeles Federation. This is the tenth time they've been out and returned without any losses. Got to give 'em credit." She turned to him, "Sorry, I'm Sarah, but my handle is SoooLong."

"I'm..." Wil had to think for a moment, "Rat Killer."

"Interesting name, you'll have to explain that one to me, so how long you been coming?" she asked

"Not long." Wil replied.

Sarah was eying his blades, "You're not a PK'er are you?"

Wil didn't quite know the term, "Ah, no."

She took his hesitation for a possible affirmation. "You better not let anyone know you're a PK'er, some of those guys," she used one hand to point at the crowd in general "like to eat PK'ers for breakfast."

"I'll try not to get in their way at lunch then." he replied.

Sarah gave a small laugh, "I like you. Maybe you want to join our group when we go out?"

"Sure." Wil answered.

"Come, and I'll introduce you to the others." Sarah led the way around to a table with a small group in conversation.

"So the wonderful Sarah Long has decided to join us?" a big husky guy stood up from the table.

"Shut your trap Sven." Sarah snapped. "I've found someone to join us on our next foray to deal with our little problem. Everyone, this is Rat Killer. That's Sven, Amber, Jumanji and Athena."

"So Rat Killer?" Sven spoke up; "You like to kill rats? Show us what you can do."

It was a bit impromptu for Wil, but without hesitation he pulled the knife from it sheath, throwing it before he can straighten up. While everyone's eyes followed the knife, he pulled the machete from his hip, and tossed it spinning into the air.

They turn back as the knife embeds itself into the wall. Sven opened his mouth, "That easy trick."

Wil merely waited a moment as the machete dropped to the table surface blade first, embedding itself between two of Sven's fingers.

"Jesus!" he cried, pulling his hand from the table quickly. After a careful inspection for cuts, he looks at Wil with a different perspective now.

Amber got up, and pulled the knife from the wall, "Damn that's good." she said handing the knife back to Wil.

"Thanks." he replied, both for the comment and the knife.

Jumanji turned to Sarah, "Yah, he'll do perfect, as long he doesn't loose his blades too often." he said.

"You're officially in then." Sarah said.

"Thanks." Wil said. He walked around Sven and retrieved his machete.

Athena spoke up; "We can get that greenie now, and make the seven."

"Okay, I'll go see if she's still there." Sarah said, and walked off.

Wil watched her go off, wondering what to do. "Come sit down." Athena said.

Now that she wasn't behind the table, Wil had a chance to look her over now. Unlike some of the other players, Athena had a lot less on in the way of armour. She had some sort of metal alloy plates on her shoulders, and two small plates hanging off the front of these, covering the unmistakable curve of her breasts. Leather straps attached to a belt held this down, and what amounted to a ragged cloth and an assortment of objects was all that covered her crotch. From the side Wil could see only bear legs from the belt down to the open tops of her boots.

She tapped the seat. Wil moved forward and took the seat.

"So Rat Killer." Athena slid sideways on the seat, closer to Wil. "What's your real name?" she asked.

"Wil."

"So you're American too?" she asked.

"Yes, mid west."

"I'm from the east, in Delaware." She said. "You'd be wrong in thinking Sven is from Finland, he's actually a British snob, except that he's a big Conan fan of Arnold Schwartz-his-name."

"That's Schwarzenegger!" Sven called out.

"Jumanji is as he comes. He's South African." Athena said. Wil took another look at the black man. "Except he doesn't speak much."

"And Amber of course, is from Japan."

Wil looked at Amber, "You speak good English", he said.

"Thanks, but that's not me, it's the program." Amber said. "It translates both ways, even synchronises lips. And I see and hear everything in Japanese, including the signs."

"That's pretty good." Wil said.

Sarah soon came back, leading another girl. "Everyone, this is Kate and she's a first timer from Australia." Sarah introduced them one at a time as she'd done with Wil. "One other thing, she hasn't gotten herself a handle yet."

"So we need to do it for her?" Athena groaned.

"Yeah," Sarah said, "but we can do it while we're out and give her a suitable name. And remember she hasn't got any weapons yet."

Athena whispered into Wil's ear, "Another bloody pack mule."

"I heard that." Sarah said. "Okay, if there isn't anything else, go and check your last minute items and don't forget the toilet."

"Yes mummy!" Athena said, extracting herself from the seat next to Wil.

Wil got up, and wandered with Athena.

"Don't worry about Athena." Sarah said. "She's always jealous of any other females in the team."

"She seems okay enough." Kate said, as she waited with Sarah.

"She is, and good with that katana sword of hers too. By the looks of it, she's attached herself to Rat Killer, so it might be wise to stick clear of him and that way you'll stay on her good side."

"Easy enough." Kate said.

"So what do you think of our little group otherwise?" Sarah asked.

"An interesting mix. But I can't wait till we're outside."

"It's got its appeal, that's for sure."

The group soon returned carrying packs one type or another. Sven had a halberd, a long sharpened iron bar with a large axe blade welded to it.

Athena had the wicked looking blade Sarah mentioned, hanging against her bare leg.

Hanging over Jumanji's shoulder was a long bow, and a quiver of arrows. A knife and other objects adorned his chest.

Amber didn't carry any large weapons, just a several knives, and shuriken.

"Okay, lets go register and get moving." Sarah said.

They filled in twos towards the double doors at the end of the hall, Sarah and Kate, Sven and Amber, and Athena noticeably attached to Wil, with Jumanji following up the rear.

Sarah led them to a small iron grille in the wall near the doors.

"New team to go out, seven members." She said. "SoooLong, Kate who doesn't have a handle yet, Sven, Amber, Athena, Rat Killer and Jumanji."

"How long will you be?" a voice behind the grill asked.

"A short foray for our greenie. A few hours."

"Okay, it's full daylight out, and there's an unexplored area south west of here about an hour away, unless you've got mounts?"

"No, no mounts." Sarah said.

"That's all, your cleared for ascent." the voice said, and the doors ground open by themselves.

"Let's move people." Sarah said, leading through the doors. Two sets of wide doors lay on either side and large ramp led up. The ramp made two turns before Kate saw the light from outside ahead. It was red tinged, like blood.

A large portcullis barred the end of the passage. "This is the only other security measure for the city." Sarah said to Kate. "It's here to prevent any creatures from attacking directly."

Sven went up to a small wheel mounted into the wall, and started turning it. The portcullis raised up slowly into the ceiling.

The other companions kept their eyes open for any creatures. Once it was up enough, they all stepped under. Another wheel on the other side yielded to Sven's hands, and the portcullis went down again.

Now that they were outside, Kate saw the world for the first time. A bright orange sun, just past its zenith blazed down on the broken asphalt road that entered the city. The sky was a red hue, creating shadows that seemed to crawl around the deformed trees and ruins.

"Which way's south west?" Sarah asked Jumanji. He raised one hand, and pointed towards the back left of the entrance.

"Let's go, Jumanji you lead, and lets keep our eyes open." Sarah commanded. "Kate, you can walk with me."

They separated into twos again with Jumanji leading them south west of the city, spreading out with 5 to 10 meters between each pair.

Sarah and Kate took up the rear behind Athena and Wil.

"So are we looking for anything in particular?" Kate asked.

"Anything actually." Sarah replied. "We have to watch out for any of the myriad of creatures, and for any ruins that may be unexplored. Also we could find the remains of a battle out here, so we could scavenge something from it."

"Real remains?" Kate asked.

"Usually its only bones left after the creatures have been over it. Sometimes not even that, and all we find left are the few things the creature couldn't eat."

"So they eat everything?"

"Yes, that's we its usually a good idea to kill any creature we find." Sarah said. "We find all sorts of things when we cut it open. Unless it's a plant of course, they usually just drag it along with them in their branches to attract animals to it. The problem is not to attack something stronger than us."

"That ever happen?" Kate asked.

"Twice. We lost another member first time, and we almost lost Sven the second. It's a learning curve, trying to identify which is dangerous, and which is merely a nuisance."

They talked more during the journey, until Jumanji called a halt, "Something up ahead."

Gathering together, Kate asked, "What is it."

"A Reaver." Jumanji said.

"It's a plant creature." Amber filled in, "Particular nasty form, unless you have many blades."

"Long blades." Sarah added. "It's worth the hassle, now that we have three good blades."

"Yah. Let's make Caesar salad." Sven said, pulling his halberd free. Athena pulled her sword and followed on Sven's right. Wil took the other side, pulling the machete from his belt.

The creature sensed them before they got too close. It's tentacle branches quivered in expectation of fresh fertiliser, and leapt forward straight for the trio.

Sven bore his blade down on the largest branch in reach, severing it straight off before cutting off the one wrapping around his foot to crush it. Athena walked slowly in, like a swordsman parrying some of the branches while slicing others.

Wil found it more difficult with the shorter machete then changed tactic. Each branch that came in, he grabbed it with his free hand to hold it still, then hacked it off.

Slowly, the trio moved in, severing each limb, which shook on the ground for a moment more before submitting to death.

Sarah did not merely watch the battle. As the blades swung, she kept turning her head about to make sure nothing else approached while some of their group was occupied. She only turned her attention back after Sven neatly killed the plant by burying the halberd into the thick centre and cleaving it in two. He doubly checked this by cutting off the lower root portion of each piece and leaving it bare to the sun where it would die.

Now that it was still, the rest of them approached. "Not much here." Athena said, cutting a branch to pull a small pack from it.

"Anything important, like a weapon for Kate?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing, just food and some water." Sven answered.

She looked to Wil for his answer, "That's all", he said.

"Okay, we'll have a short break for food and water, then we'll move off again.

Wil bit into one of his ration bars, tasting the familiar flavour of beef as a shadow passed over him.

"Mind if I sit here?" Athena asked.

"Not at all." he replied.

She adjusted her sword carefully as she lowered herself to the ground. He had to wonder if she had anything on under the rag she called a loincloth or did she sit bare bottom on the ground. It wasn't something he personally wanted to dwell upon without drawing attention.

He'd learnt much already from carefully listening to Sarah when she'd been talking to the greenie Kate. Athena had tried hard to distract him, but he'd kept his attention carefully focused, and had maintained the appearance of been with Athena.

When Sarah hadn't been talking, he'd been thinking, and accessing his system consciously and building several programs to interact with the game. One that he'd already tested, was to reduce the pain from the attack.

The plant had been a difficult creature, and he had the scratches from its branches to prove it. Athena however looked as immaculate as she did in the hall, without a mark to mar her beautiful skin.

She was proving to be a distraction now, but with Sarah was involved with her food, it was a welcome distraction from the scenery. He swallowed some water, to cool his throat eyeing her as she did the same.

"You sure are a cool one." She said.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that." She said, "You don't open easily. Most guys would be all over me by now, either with their hands, eyes or talking to me to find out more."

"I'm not like most guys." He stated.

"That's what I'm saying. But you are curious right? You couldn't be human otherwise."

Wil took another bite of his bar, chewing it carefully. When he finished she asked him again, "You are curious aren't you?"

"Yes." he answered and continued eating the bar.

She left it at that, and ate her own food before washing it down with some water.

Sarah called out, "Time's a wasting, let's move."

He was curious about her, but he knew it was best not to get involved. She was only one person, and he had nothing against her other than participating in this game. By finding out more, he might find himself having to cause her harm intentionally.

She would probably get hurt when he got to the final battle, so getting attached wasn't an option.

It was best for both to continue the charade, but he did wait until she got up first, answering the question of what she had under the loincloth.

Chapter 20 : Crazy stunts and new abilities

"OKAY, okay!" Tony said, "I'll go buy it now. It's that good?"

"It's totally awesome." Kate said. "We entered this ruin, and the ground literary came to life under us with thousands of these huge cockroaches." Kate explained over the phone with the VR interface face-to-face with Tony.

She was able to conjure a few images to go with her tale of escaping the bugs, only to fall prey to a couple of trolls.

Kate continued, "They came at us from the sides. One seemed to have an interest in me, except it never got close enough when I shoved my staff into its face and Athena skewered it. The other one received thrown knives both from Rat Killer and Amber. But I think Rat Killer's did the job, as he hit it in the throat.

We found a few things like a map of the area, and some leather armour. SoooLong looked about trying to find something, but gave after the place had been thoroughly searched.

We had two encounters on the way back. They gave me a chance to prove my worth against a giant rabbit, which I beat with some effort. Sarah made sure it was dead by slitting its throat with a knife, and then dissected it right there. Biology 101 all over again."

"So they gave you a nick name?" Tony asked.

"Yep, but they call it a handle." Kate said. "They gave me the name Gabrielle, after that series Xena. A few of them remembered the series, apparently the staff and my clothing reminded them of it."

"So you handle a staff pretty well huh?" Tony asked.

"Not as well as I expected. SoooLong explained that the game gives the players some skills, which they discover as playing. Some already have natural skills like Amber, who can really throw a knife but not too accurately. But she hasn't discovered her game skills yet. She told me that she suspected Rat Killer also had natural knife throwing skills, which have been augmented by the game rather than giving him other skills."

"So I could end up with a sword, or staff, or a bow?" Tony asked.

"Or almost anything else." Kate said.

"I'll go get it now, I think there are a few shops that trade late." Tony said.

"Reserve yourself a few hours for the introduction and training, as it explains a lot." Kate said.

"Will do." Tony said.

"Call me when your finished, and I'll see if we can get a game with SoooLong." Kate added.

He nodded, and they parted with a kiss before disconnecting.

"Sarah, this is my friend Tony. Tony, this is SoooLong." Kate said

"Hullo Tony." Sarah said, eyeing him over with appreciation. "Has Kate given you a run down on us?" she asked.

"As much as she can." Tony said.

"Any questions before I introduce you to the troops?" Sarah asked.

"Umm, yes actually. How come you're called SoooLong?"

"Hah, you've got a very direct friend here Gabrielle." Sarah said to Kate, "Well, actually my name is Long. Sarah Long. And a friend started calling me SoooLong, because it'd been so long since, well you get the idea."

Tony nodded with a grin.

"Anything else? No, good." Sarah said quickly. "Over this way."

Tony followed while Kate brought up the rear.

Sarah stopped near a table with five people in conversation. "Hey you guys!" She called. When they stopped talking she introduced Tony. "That's Jumanji, Amber, Sven, Rat Killer, and Athena. Tony's a friend of Gaby's but he's still green. So handle with care okay?"

"With plenty of care." Athena said.

"Since we've got eight now, we can try going further afield, so go pack for a longer journey." Sarah said.

They all got up from the table to go get their stuff. "I'll be back soon." Kate told Tony, and left him with Sarah to get her pack and staff.

"Now I'll give you the personalised talk." She told Tony. "We'll pick a name for you during the journey, after you prove yourself. Same we did with Kate. I know you want to be by Kate's side, but I want you by my side when we go out. I have a rule of making sure all greenies are screened. Not for game play but for how they play, so they can fit into the group easier."

Tony nodded, understanding.

"There's some more you don't know. This is my third incarnation in Mutants." She said.

"Third?" Tony said astonished.

"Don't look so surprised. We all start as unblooded greenies. The first time I was ignorant and got myself killed. When you die, you end up at another Geo-Front and start afresh, no weapons, and new skills, never what you had before. The second time I got a group like this one started, and we'd done well for ourselves. We got a greenie in one time, seemed like a great guy, except we got ambushed for our first fight, and he froze. I went to defend him, and got killed in the process. I haven't heard anything more since coming to this city, but I don't want to repeat any of my mistakes."

"I understand." Tony said.

"Good. Because dying twice is enough for anyone." She said.

Looking about she saw Sven and Amber returning. "One last thing, which shouldn't be too difficult for you been in with Kate. Try to stay away from Athena. She's a good sword, but likes all new male flesh. Rat Killer seems to have a thing for her, though he tries not to show it. So just try okay?"

Tony nodded.

"Personally, you look very inviting, but you're Kate's again after this first outing."

Kate came back now, with Jumanji, Athena and Rat Killer following.

"Let's register then." Sarah said, and led them out.

Against her own wishes, Kate walked next to Jumanji in front as they headed due east into the morning sun.

The trek was long and hot, with a few minor skirmishes with a group of large spiders, and a deranged mutant. They saw a couple of giant soldier ants once, but avoided them on Amber's recommendation.

"This may seem stupid, but why doesn't our skin burn from the sunlight?" Tony asked.

"You know, I don't really know." Sarah said. "I've heard a few things but only as rumour, that either it was left out by accident or bug caused it to fail. I suspect they left it out for a reason. Like maybe after 700 years, the ozone reformed enough to block out UV rays entirely. Just my guess."

"Sounds reasonable enough." Tony commented. "I noticed you don't carry much in the way of weapons."

"Many wonder that too, but few ask about it." Sarah said. "You want to know what I use right?"

"Right".

"I've got the knife on a wrist sheath." She said pointing it out, "Here I've got a set of nunchaku, which I had made up, in the city. And some rope."

"That's all?" Tony asked.

"That's all my working weapons anyway."

"Working?" he questioned.

Sarah pulled open a pouch at her waist; "I collected this little gadget in my second expedition." She held up a small hand held device like a torch. "I had the elders identify it when I got back, and they told me it was one of the revered energy weapons. It's supposed to be some sort of energy rapier, like a light sabre from Star Wars. Unfortunately the energy cell in it was broken, and they have none back at the city."

Tony handed it back to her, and watched her carefully put it away and secure it.

"Must be valuable." He said.

"It is." Sarah said. "I've had several offers for it, in trade for whatever I want in weapons, armour, food, etc. But no one seems to have an energy cell for it."

"So you carry it on you?"

"Just in case I find an energy cell that fits it."

"That explains what Kate said about you searching the ruins so thoroughly." He said.

"It's my aim at the moment. To see it working, and show all..."

A scream lit the air, cutting off all conversation.

"Kate?" Tony called, as they rushed forward, to meet Sven, Amber, Athena and Rat Killer at the edge of a sandy depression, which was growing larger.

Kate and Jumanji were halfway down trying to stop their descent. Their efforts only caused more sand to pile around them and suck them further down into the deepening hole.

"Bloody hell." Sarah said, "It's a sink hole!"

"Rope, where's the rope?" Tony asked.

Sarah, pulled the coils from her shoulder, and tossed it out over the hole. It dropped down near Jumanji, where he was able to wrap a hand around it.

"Sven?" Sarah called, "Give us a hand!"

Quickly, the three of them pulled hard on the rope, dragging Jumanji up the quickly shifting sand.

Amber and Athena helped drag him away from the hole, as Sarah and Tony went back to the edge. Kate was now at the bottom, half buried and using her staff across the hole to stay up.

"She's at the bottom!" Tony called.

Kate pulled the rope back into a coil, and tossed it down again to have it fall just short of Kate.

"It's not going to reach." Sarah said.

"You have any more rope?" Tony asked frantically.

"No, none."

"Bring it up quick." Tony called, pulling the rope up. "Sven, help SoooLong hold the rope." He said, wrapping the end around his wrist, and gripping it in his hand.

Before Sarah could ask what he was doing, he leapt down the sinkhole, trying to lessen the sand he disturbed.

"Hold on Sven!" Sarah called, gripping the rope tightly against sudden pull as Tony reached the end of the rope. She couldn't see what was happening down the hole, as she had to keep moving her feet back from the widening hole.

Tony found Kate with only her head above the sand now. He reached out, trying to grab her hand but found her just out of reach.

"Tony!" She screamed.

"Hold on!" he called, grabbing the only thing in reach, her staff. He got a firm grip on it as her head disappeared.

"Pull!" he yelled, holding tightly onto both staff and rope.

Sarah heard Tony call. "Back it up slowly Sven." She said. "I don't want to lose both of them.

It was slow going, but when there was space, Rat Killer joined in at the end the rope to help.

First Tony's hand came over the edge of the hole, followed by his body. Amber and Athena rushed over to pull him up. His other hand still gripped the staff as it came up. On the other end, both of Kate's hands were gripped tightly.

Sarah was there to help Kate up and away from the sinkhole.

"What happened." Sarah was able to ask finally when they were all safely away from the sinkhole.

"The ground just dropped out from under us." Kate said, as she shook sand from her hair.

"We had no time to do anything." Jumanji added.

"If we'd gotten Gabrielle out first, I don't think we'd have gotten Jumanji." Amber said.

"You always do stupid things like that?" Sarah asked Tony. "No, I'll rephrase that. Do you enjoy doing dangerous and stupid things like that?"

Tony was helping Kate get the sand out of her hair and clothes. He had one boot off, and poured it out. "Well I didn't see you doing anything special."

"Special! Jeez Louise, you got the nerve." Sarah was stamping about now.

"What would you have done?" Tony asked, pouring out the other boot.

"Well, oh, I don't know!" She shouted.

"Exactly, don't complain if it works."

"And if it didn't? You could have dragged both me and Sven in!"

Tony got stood up now, getting really worked up, "Well you had three other people to help you, I'm sure they wouldn't have minded!"

"What and lose the whole expedition? Eight people just vanish!"

"If you were so worried, you could have let go of the bloody rope, and saved your precious hide." Tony shouted back.

"You filthy..." Sarah took a swing at him with a closed fist.

Tony reacted with uncommon speed, blocking and catching it in one hand.

All Sarah could think was to swing with the other hand, which she did and was also caught by Tony.

Her female reactions automatically kicked in from been held, and just reacted by bringing up her knee to where it would hurt.

Tony saw it coming, and leapt backwards out of the way of the ball crusher. The leap sent him up in a backward summersault. He landed lightly, ready for any more moves from Sarah.

She could only stand there with he mouth open, staring at Tony.

"That was cool Tony." Kate said. "Can you do that again?"

Only then did Tony realise what he'd done, looking back towards his foot marks in front of Sarah.

"I don't know", he said a lot quieter than before.

"I believe you've found your skill. Try leaping forward." Sarah said, pointing to the imprints in front of her.

He looked Sarah sceptically, so she backed off a few steps so he didn't feel like she was going to try and hit him again.

Focusing on the jump, Tony pushed off, feeling the world spin by and come to a stop again.

Athena started clapping and whistling. "Are you all finished now?"

"Yes." Jumanji stated flatly for everyone. "We should leave now before we discover what made the sink hole."

Everyone stared at him as he stood up, and checked over his bow and quiver, emptying it of sand.

"Good idea." Tony said, helping Kate up.

Sarah fetched the rope from Sven, coiling it to go back on her shoulder. Jumanji lead the way, veering wide of the sinkhole. Everyone else followed, with Kate, Tony and Sarah bringing up the rear.

"Tony?" Sarah asked.

He looked at her trying to guess what she was going to say, and whether he should hear it. "Yes." he said, admitting that she would say whatever she wanted.

"I'm sorry. You were right. I had no idea back there. Anyone's idea would have been better than nothing."

"Thanks" Tony said. "Maybe we can get a longer rope for next time."

"Next time?" She asked.

"Sure." He said, "You think we're going to leave you now that we're getting along?"

"Well, no, I guess not." Sarah said. "I've just been thinking that maybe I'm not cut out for leading this group."

"And who's going to lead it?" Kate asked.

"I don't know, Tony maybe." Sarah answered.

"No way." Tony said, "I'm no leader. I do ideas and whacked out crazy stunts. That and I'm bad at making decisions."

"Didn't you make a decision back there to jump down a sink hole?" Sarah asked.

"That was no decision." Tony said, "That was a course of action, as no other was available. I make quick logical decisions, but become indecisive when the choice it too well balanced and end up doing nothing."

"Not a good leadership quality when something important is at stake." Sarah said.

"Exactly. My head rules my decisions too much. A good leader should be governed by her gut and her head."

They walked in silence for a short while as Sarah thought over what Tony said.

"Thanks." was all she said.

Chapter 21 : The new order of defenders

By end of the day, they had seen a lot more action at the ruins, and on the way back, but not as life threatening as the sinkhole. One of the radiation storms did sweep by, but the strange sight was some distance away.

The booty as Sven called it, was reasonable this time. They carried back with them, several good weapons, leather armour and a well-preserved kevlar vest.

The group also chose an official handle for Tony. There was some initial pleading from Athena for the name Mad Max, for Tony's wild stunt in the sinkhole, and been Australian. But the name Neo was finally chosen, in recognition of re-make Matrix 2 and the main character Neo, who moved just as fast as Tony did with his new skills.

After re-entering the hall, Sarah debriefed at the iron grille, explaining in detail what they'd found. She also informed them of Tony's new status with the name Neo, and his skills.

"Please take the kevlar vest to the elder for inspection." the voice said. "That is all."

They all gathered outside the door to the elder's chambers. After Sarah knocked, it slid aside to show a small boy. "The elder wishes to see Neo and SoooLong with the new artefact."

It was evident that everyone else had to wait, so they sat against wall as SoooLong and Neo went through the door into another corridor, carrying the vest.

Sarah had done this only once before in this city, and knew the drill, but didn't know why the Elder wanted to speak to Neo also.

They entered a set of rooms like their own, and the boy directed them through to the back room.

The Elder was there, sitting on a moulded chair, and so was another man.

"Jeffrey?" Tony asked.

"Ah, so you remember me Tony, or should I call you Neo now?" Jeffrey Devereaux said.

"You know this guy?" Sarah cut in.

"Yeah, he's Data Security Services for VR4." Tony said, "Right?" he looked back to Jeffrey to verify the position.

"You have good memory." Jeffrey said, "But I suggest you finish your business with the Elder first. He looks like he might die."

"He always looks like he's dying." Sarah said, approaching with the vest.

"Elder." She started, "We found this artefact called a kevlar vest in a ruin several hours walk from here, and bring it for you inspection."

The old man ran his hands over the vest once, then lifted it from Sarah's hands. He placed it over his head, running his hands across it once more before pulling it off.

"This vest is an item worthy of a true expedition member. Keep it and use it wisely." he said, handing it back.

The formality finish, she turned back to the black man. "So what do you want, mister Data Security." she said with annoyance.

"To speak to Tony actually, but I think you should hear this also." Jeffrey said. "We've been tracing that problem you had earlier with the gate crasher, and all things seem to lead to the same person who hacked into VR4 services before that."

"Wow, someone hacked into the VR4 systems?" Sarah said.

"Yes. Off the record, we've had probably a hundred systems hacked into by various people, but this one has been the most elusive and damaging."

"So why are you here now then?" Tony asked.

"Because we've been actively trying to trace this person. We've had one or two strange occurrences coming directly from this game network. Looking into it, we found you of course." Jeffrey said, looking at Tony, "But we already discovered that you aren't the cause, directly or indirectly. All the details indicate it's the same hacker, in the game. And since you are here, and having been in contact with him once, we want your help in finding him."

"Do you know how many people play this game?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, we do." Jeffrey replied, looking at a device in his hand. "There are 1248 people currently within the game environment, and 82 of those playing from this locale. Which is also where the hacker is. So only 79 people could be the hacker, that is excluding you, Tony and Kate of course."

"So you want us to look for this hacker for you?" Sarah asked.

"Not you, just Tony. But you can make it easier for him."

"I'm sorry, but I'm here for the game. What's in it for me?" Sarah asked.

"You're an easy to read person Sarah Jane Long, so we've cooked up a little something for you." Jeffrey said. He turned to the Elder "You can give it to her now."

The old man, put a hand in his tunic pocket, and pulled out a small cylinder, with a glowing edge. He stood up, and shuffled over to Sarah. "A gift from the city for your efforts." he said, holding the object out to her with both hands.

She could only stare at it. "Is it?" was all she could say.

"Yes, an energy cell." Jeffrey said, "Specifically for that energy tool you carry around."

Sarah opened up her pouch, pulling the handle out. She opened the panel, and lifted the cell from the Elder's hands, carefully placing it in. She closed the panel again. Holding it carefully away, she turned it on and a thin bright beam sprung out from the handle, exactly half a metre long. She played with a small dial on the handle, and the blade crept out until it was over a metre long.

She cast her eyes about the room, "Jeffrey could you please stand up?"

He looked a little nervous, but stood up, and shifted to the side as she approached.

With a short slicing action, the moulded chair that Jeffrey had been sitting in split into two. She turned the blade off and examined the smooth cut the blade left in the chair. "You've got a helping hand now." She said, standing up again.

"We're hoping for you to recognise the hacker." Jeffrey said, "But of course he, or possibly she could have changed their appearance for this game. No matter, they should still act like the same person and seem familiar. Also we've equipped you with a few security protocols to aid you."

Jeffrey explained the conscious command codes to Tony, for communication, network tracing, security blocks, and a mix of other things. "These are only to protect your data integrity, not your integrity in the game. If you die, we can't assist. She will be your only help in the game." Jeffrey said, pointing to Sarah. "And the checking programs may possibly not find the hacker if he or she are extremely good. Not doubt he or she will have something to alert them to the use of the security protocols. So be careful."

"I think we can leave now." Sarah said, putting her rapier away with reluctance. "Thankyou for you time Elder."

The boy led them from the front room, and back to the corridor where everyone waited.

"You took a long time!" Athena said, "What were you doing, having an orgy?"

Sarah flushed. She usually didn't let Athena's comments get to her, but she was adjusting to her new role as protector to Neo. She had a strange thought, about been one of the Jedi Knights from Star Wars. A knight and defender of the Republic from all sources of evil. She had the light sabre at least. Her tattered shorts and shirt matched the images of slaves from a popular desert world too.

"The Elder had a lot to tell us." Tony said at Sarah's inconvenient silence.

"What did he say?" Sven asked.

Tony opened his mouth to explain, but Sarah spoke first. "He was quite interested in the kevlar vest, he even wanted to put it on. But finally gave it back after some discussion." She held up the vest in question.

"So who gets it?" Sven asked.

"At the moment, anyone who can make use of it." Sarah said. "Problem is, it's quite bulky."

Sven had his hand out, and she passed it to him. He held it up against his chest. "No it's too small." he said, and passed it back.

"Anyone else?" Sarah asked. "Neo, Gabrielle? You have as much right."

"No thanks." Kate said.

"It's too heavy." Tony said.

"Okay, it'll keep it for the moment." Sarah said. "Tell me if you need anything in particular, and we'll try trading for vest for it later."

The informal meeting came to an end, as they broke up, and headed back to their rooms.

Kate stayed with Tony for a moment as they followed the others. "Kate, you go. I'm not leaving just yet." He said.

"What for?" She asked.

Unsure, who might hear them, he gave her a reasonable story. "I need to speak to SoooLong about trading and my skills."

"I'll join you then." She said.

Tony wasn't sure if it was best for her to join them, but he didn't see any problem. "Sure, let's find her before she leaves."

They found her waiting outside her room. She waved them inside without a word. Sarah made sure the door was closed and they were in the back room before speaking, "Thought you might come, but I didn't think she would."

"She wanted to come, and I couldn't exactly explain to her in the corridor." Tony said.

"Wait a minute." Kate said, "What's going on here."

"You want to tell her?" Sarah asked, pretending to tidy up the room. The kevlar vest now occupied a corner with many other pieces of armour.

"Well, you remember mister Devereaux?" He asked, but continued "He was with the Elder which was why we took so long."

"What did he say?" She asked.

"It seems the guy who interrupted us, was also the hacker who downed the VR4 systems." Tony said. "And the good part is, he's also been playing Mutants, from this city."

"So he's here?" Kate exclaimed, pointing at the floor.

"Shush, keep it down." Sarah said. "He hasn't given you the punch line yet."

Kate looked expectantly to Tony.

"They want us..." He pointed to Sarah and himself, "to look for him. Because Jeffrey believes I'll recognise him or her by their actions, if not by looks."

Kate was bewildered, "Why do they need SoooLong?" she asked.

"Because," Sarah said, "They can't protect him from the game environment itself. If for example, the hacker decides to knife him, he dies. Game over."

"So, why you, and not me?" Kate asked.

"Because, I have something you don't." Sarah said, pulling the handle out of the pouch, and igniting it.

"Crikey! They gave you that?" She said.

"No, I already had it. They provided the power source, care of the Elder."

Sarah turned it off. "I'll need to affix it to my belt, like they did in the movies so I don't have to keep pulling it out of the pouch."

"Wouldn't three be better than two for finding this guy?" Kate asked.

"I suppose, but Jeffrey only gave me the protocols for checking." Tony said. "Sarah is only for protection, and I haven't had time to consider you."

Sarah said, "Having the three of us hanging about might be too obvious."

"I don't have to help you look, I could help you keep a list of who you have checked."

"Well, Jeffrey did say there were 79 people." Sarah said. "We'll need to keep track of who isn't."

"Damn, that prick! Rotten, scum-sucking..." Tony thumped a hand against the wall.

"What?" Sarah said.

"Jeffrey. He never said the hacker was on-line currently, only that he was playing from this city. How many people in total play from this city?"

"He said 82." Sarah added.

"No, that how many on-line currently, not who's registered to play here." Tony said. "It probably more like several hundred to a thousand."

"We'll need Gabrielle's help then." Sarah said. "Willing to keep a list of hundred's of names?"

"Sure, record tracking is my thing. I did it in my last job." Kate said. "What do I write on, or can I use my guide?"

"No guide." Sarah said. "Those features are locked out in game mode, so you can't transpose information to other sources. Just like we can't log out within the game without dying, unless you're in the city. But I have some old scrolls that you can use." Sarah shifted some of the items from another corner, spilling stuff over the floor. "I got ripped off in a trade deal, believing it was a map of a nearby city. Took the Elder to inform me that it was a map of this city. So technically the trade was fair, and it was honoured by its terms. So I kept it, hoping it would be useful one day. Here it is." She found the rolled up scroll, and handed it to Kate.

"And for writing?" Kate asked.

"Um, that's a good question. No inks, how about charcoal?"

"Too messy, it smudges." Kate answered.

"How about ochre?" Tony said.

"What?" Sarah said.

"Ochre." Tony repeated. "The aborigines, native Australians used to break down a type of rock into a powder, mix it with some water, and use it for their cave paintings. I think it had a few other things like saliva to help bind it. But, we only need it like an ink, and then some sort of quill."

"You're right." Sarah said.

Tony said "About what?"

"You do ideas. I'd have gone with charcoal, but this might work better." She answered.

Quickly they gathered a few items necessary. They had to venture outside briefly because they couldn't find any suitable rocks in the city, but it was only just around the entrance and back in again.

For a quill, Sarah had ever so carefully cut a grove into a straight stick with the energy rapier, and a knife finished it off.

The ink came out a reddish colour, but it showed up well on the paper, and didn't smudge after drying.

They were ready now to start their thing. "What do we tell the natives if they ask what we're doing?" Tony said.

"We're doing a survey?" Kate said. "Bad idea, who would do an in-game survey?"

"A competition then?" Sarah said.

"Guess how many people play at this city and win!" Tony added.

"Perfect, their name and their guess." Kate said.

"What do they win? There has to be an incentive, and why they are eligible to enter." Sarah asked.

"Round the world trip to see the VR4 headquarters and try the latest VR technology and games." Tony said. Both Kate and Sarah stared at him. "Well why not, it's all their fault."

"They can be eligible just by been here and playing mutants." Kate said.

"Have we forgotten anything else?" Sarah asked.

"No." Tony and Kate answered in unison.

"Let's find our winner then, and hope he's willing to accept his prize." Sarah said.

Chapter 22 : A wild goose chase, maybe...

Two hours later, Kate had a sore hand and had everyone's name written down. No one else had logged in for the last ten minutes, and all expeditions that had been out, had already returned.

Tony had done his thing, running checks as quickly as possible on each person that Kate listed, and found nothing.

"I suggest we call it a night." Sarah said. "It's almost dawn where I am, and I do need some sleep."

"Good idea. We'll need to come back at a different time to get all the other people." Tony said, as they gathered up the few items.

"See you later then, Neo." Sarah said, reminding him of his new name.

Tony continued searching for the hacker for another two weeks, coming on-line at odd times with Sarah and Kate so it wouldn't conflict with their work and when they went out as a group to play.

There were a few confrontations with players who didn't like the intrusion of the trio asking questions, which Tony was able to resolve without resorting to Sarah using the energy rapier.

"I've nearly filled this scroll on both sides, and we haven't found anything!" Kate complained.

They were in Kate's room this time, sitting or standing against the wall.

"The data trace did pick up some anomalies, but they were all along the lines of pirated software in use, nothing even remotely like a hacker, not even someone cheating." Tony said.

"So what are we missing then?" Sarah asked. "Or is this a wild goose chase. Didn't Jeffrey say it might not pick up the hacker?"

"Yeah he did, but we haven't tested everybody." Tony said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked, "Every single person we've met, I've written down, and you've tested! There's over 500 people here." Pointing to the scroll.

"Not ourselves." Tony said, pausing before adding the rest of the damaging line. "Or our group."

"Our group!" Sarah called, "I've known most of them for ages, and you've been with us a lot of the time." Sarah switched track, feeling the fool. The hacker could be anyone, pretending to be anyone. "Do you really think it's one of them?"

"No harm in checking." Tony said. "I'll do us first, to make sure there isn't anything wrong with the security protocols."

He ran the sequence on Kate first, "You're A Okay Kate."

Next on Sarah, "Nothing wrong with you either, although it did detect an advanced game weapon in your possession."

"You find anything like that with other players?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing like that. I'll check myself now." It was a little harder to focus the program on his own body, because it was visually directed, but he only had to look down.

"That interesting." Tony said. "It's picked up the link anomalies that Jeffrey said I have. Obviously they haven't fixed it yet, but nothing else is wrong."

"If it isn't one of our team, then I suggest you call Jeffrey and call it quits." Sarah said. "Because we've done his searching for him, and found zip, except a few software pirates."

"Okay, so I'll see you on the weekend for our next expedition?" Tony said.

"Yep." Sarah replied. "I hope it isn't one of our team, I've been planning this long one for some time and don't want it ruined."

"If it makes you any happier, I'll check them all before we leave the city, and give you a signal if everything is okay."

"That'll be good, I don't have to worry then. See you later then." Sarah said, before leaving.

"We haven't had much time to ourselves, have we?" Kate said.

"Not when you're busy hunting hackers that seem more like ghosts." Tony said, dropping on the lump of a bed next to Kate.

"But we can take a break from the hunt now can't we?" Kate asked suggestively.

"Absolutely. We can't do a thing until the weekend." Tony replied, stretching his arms, trying to relive the stress.

Kate jumped onto his lap. "Hey!" Kate said to his face. "Can't you take hint except when it's shoved in you face?"

"I'm sorry, I was thinking what if it was one of our group, and what happens when we do discover him?"

"Just drop it. It'll happen when it happens." Kate said, rolling off Tony again. "Now you've killed my mood."

"Well, I did say I was sorry." Tony said, trying to fix the situation. "I didn't know you had something in mind."

"What do you think I was thinking?" Kate said, with and edge of sarcasm. "That I wanted to go bungie jumping naked?"

Tony didn't relish Kate in these moods, but it never lasted long. He could guess what was causing it, but it was also a subject not to be discussed. "Bungie jumping naked?" He repeated, putting as much enthusiasm into it as possible. "I've never been bungie jumping, and you want me to do it naked? Sure you don't want to come and watch?"

It took a moment before Kate's face changed, and she couldn't hold back any longer and burst out laughing. "You're nut's you know?"

"It comes from my father if you must know." Tony said. "He got worse as he got older. If you don't like it you can always admit me to a funny farm."

"Nut's." Kate repeated. "Since it was my idea, we both go."

It didn't take them too long to get out of Mutants and find the sports VR programs for bungie jumping.

Chapter 23 : Catch 22

The group was waiting at its usual table with all the other expedition teams, who talked and jabbered about all manner of things, not always totally related to the game.

"So where's SoooLong and Neo?" Athena asked Kate.

"No idea." She replied, a little nervous, as she didn't know where they were.

She looked over each of the other players, not knowing if any of them was the hacker or not.

Jumanji and his behaviour, that was comparable to a block of wood. Amber had her Japanese connections and strange lack of skills for the game. Sven with his totally fake personality copied from a Conan movie. Rat Killer with his deadly precision with knives. And last of all, Athena who was well adept at distraction, with her body as well as her mouth.

"So they're not getting it off together one more time before the game?" Athena said.

"Knock it off Athena, or I'll do it for you." Sven said.

"Knock or bonk, it's the same thing to me." Athena said.

Sven started to get up, making his muscles stretch visibly.

"Here comes SoooLong." Jumanji said.

"Where?" Athena asked, looking to the entrance for her.

"Coming from the other tables." Jumanji said.

Sven saw her, and lowered himself to the seat, having forgotten Athena's comment for the moment.

"Sorry I'm late, I've been trying to do some trading with some meatheads. Neo not here yet?" She dropped some items onto the table to sort through them.

"Haven't seem him." Kate said. "Athena thought you might have been with him."

"Nope. I've been over there for 20 minutes haggling over which was worth more, a long rope or two daggers."

"Right, so which was worth more?" Sven asked.

"Two daggers." Sarah said, "I beat them down so we can have the rope for one dagger. And Amber, here's that whip you wanted."

"Thanks." She said, taking it.

"Here's our extra food and water stores. And I got us our own grinding stone." Sarah said, separating the large grey stone from the pile. "No I couldn't find that blade for your staff Gabrielle. It might be best to just attach something, like a bayonet. I'll keep asking though."

Everyone was concentrating on Sarah, that they didn't notice Rat Killer's sudden reaction, as he looked about the large room. He gave up, but kept his eyes focused for anything trying to move around the room.

"Okay, we're all here except Neo." Sarah said.

Kate checked the doorway once more. "Here he comes now." She said, turning back.

Tony made it to the table and took the empty space. "Glad you could make it." Sarah said.

"Sorry, I was looking for something." Tony said.

"Did you find it." Sarah asked, too directly.

Tony saw she was overplaying it, and it was putting him in a position. "Ah, yes, and no." It sounded way too obvious. He had to change it. "I did find it, my lucky rabbit's foot, but I lost it again."

"Well, I hope your luck doesn't affect our game." Sarah said, not quite understanding Tony's signal. "Time to gear up and move out."

Tony was gong to stay at the table and tell Sarah directly, but Rat Killer didn't move. He stayed there looking about the room.

It'd have to wait, maybe he could tell Kate as she went to get her stuff. He jogged to hurry up.

Around the corner, Kate stopped, "You found him?"

"Yes, but not here." Tony said, pushing her along.

In her room, Tony pushed the door closed. "It's Rat Killer." He said straight.

"You sure?"

"I checked everyone, including him. And he also reacted to the data check. It's definitely him."

"You told Jeffrey yet?" Kate asked.

"No." he said, "I'll do that now."

She stood there waiting.

"He knows. They got alerted as soon as the trace lit up." Tony said.

"What do they want us to do?" Kate asked.

"We're to keep playing, and act normal. Don't try do to anything that would alert him." Tony repeated Jeffrey's words. "They're going to try and find him physically though the connections and take him in. That's all he told me."

"So we play." Kate said, grabbing her stuff.

"I'll get my stuff." Tony said, pulling the door open and running to his room.

Chapter 24 : The beginning of the end

Wil was unsure what happened. His system reported to him a data trace to his system from a local source. That meant someone or something else within the game environment was sending test signals player's systems.

The test signal was innocuous, but it carried a routine to do base system checks and report back. That meant someone now knew he wasn't what he appeared to be.

He'd hoped to see the person, but the room was filled with people who may have done it. If it was a person, that is.

Then right after Sarah broke the meeting to get ready for the game, there was another data trace, but from a different source, that couldn't be defined.

It meant that someone was onto him. But what they were going to do, he didn't know.

Between playing sessions, he'd made sure all his data connections were secure and couldn't be tampered with. He couldn't be taken off-line unless he ordered it. He'd also established several routines into his system, to prevent people hacking into it from the outside.

So he felt secure enough to continue with his plan today. It couldn't be stopped now in any event as another expedition team just came in through the doors, yelling and cheering. Step one and two were already complete. He couldn't stop now.

Sarah heard the commotion. "Rat Killer, mind the stuff will you?" She said, and went to investigate

"Sure." He replied, after her back had turned.

She had to push past some people to find one of the expedition members. "What happened?" She called, still trying to get through.

"We found it!" one yelled. "An oasis in the desert!"

"A lost city!" another said.

Sarah finally got to one of the members she knew. "What exactly did you find?" she asked.

"A great crater, covered by an immense energy shield. Through it we saw a green jungle and a city in the centre."

"Where was this?" Sarah asked.

"East-North East. Took us about 3 and a half hours..." He had to break off, as their leader took them all to see the Elder.

She watched the procession of people enter the corridors. People were mumbling East-North East, and Lost Cities. Evidently everyone overheard her conversation.

They room was a hubbub of excitement as she made it back to the table with everyone waiting.

"I guess everyone has heard now?" She asked.

"The lost city." Sven said.

"Big energy shield." Athena added.

"In a crater." Amber said.

"East-North East." Kate added.

"Three..." Tony started to say.

"Okay! So you all heard it." Sarah said. "It doesn't seem they found much more than that. So you all interested in looking at this thing?"

A chorus of yes's sounded from the table, including form Jumanji.

"I had been hoping to explore a new area west of here..." Sarah started to say, when a round of moans and groans came floating back. "But since the city is there, we just need to get in."

"Who Hooo!" Athena yelled.

"You're welcome. Well, lets get moving." She said, and they made for the doors.

Once they were outside, and Jumanji had them headed in the right direction, Sarah realised they weren't alone. One group was already ahead of them and another almost on their heels.

"Looks like everyone wants to get their share of the city." Amber mumbled.

They went out some distance, before seeing more groups still coming out and following in their wake. "No good will come of this." Sarah said. "All these people out here are sure to attract some unfriendly predators. Jumanji, can you take us out a bit from a direct course, and still have us headed in the same direction?" she called.

"Easy." He said, altering his course. The group followed, and the group immediately behind them also followed. After a moment, they changed their course back, realising that they were going in a different direction.

"Like sheep." Sven said.

"Maybe they're from New Zealand?" Kate commented.

Tony saw a horse and rider go by at a gallop. "They have horses?" He asked Sarah.

"A few groups do, but you notice it was only one. That rider will be all alone out there, and if he gets attacked, no one can help." Sarah said.

"I see." He replied.

Jumanji kept a parallel course to the other groups. Now that they were moving along, Sarah dropped back a bit with Tony.

"You found him?" She asked quietly.

"Yes. It's the Rat." He said, pointing at Rat Killer's back.

"So what are we doing out here then?" Sarah said.

"I was told to continue with the game, act as if there was nothing wrong. We've done our part."

"So you didn't recognise him all this time?"

"No. He looks a lot different. He also acts a lot cooler, like he's in a play." Tony replied.

"Let's hope nothing else happens then." Sarah said.

Chapter 25 : Ant attack

Halfway, Tony received a communication from Jeffrey. "Tony, I've got to warn you there's some major net traffic happening through the game node. It might be the hacker."

Tony was able to talk back, using conscious commands. "Yeah, there's been some major discovery, a lost city of some type, and just about every team is out here to have a look at it, and try to get in."

"Wait a moment, let me check." Jeffrey said, and there was nothing for a few minutes.

"Tony? I've been in contact with some of the game developers because of the hacker, and they've just told me that that city isn't supposed to be discovered for a few more months yet. It's possible this same thing is happening to all the other Geo-Fronts. They're also sure that they're systems have been tampered with. Something to do with Geo-Front cities itself. They can't tell, but they are pretty nervous. So be careful. Also, we at VR4 have trace program running to find where this hacker is. It's slow going because it has to move in without tipping him off. Like using a snail to get past a motion sensor."

"Okay, thanks. I'll tell you if our hacker does anything then." Tony said, and the link cut off.

All was quiet for quite a while, except the dust clouds from the other groups.

They were some distance now, almost three-quarters by Jumanji's approximation, when they all heard something, like a loud scuttling noise.

Athena was first to see the source, as a hole broke open in the ground near the other groups, and out clambered giant soldier ants. "Over there!"

"I knew this might happen." Sarah said to herself. Calling to the rest of the group now. "Keep moving, the ant's probably think we're invading their territory. Once we're out we should be fine."

"What about them?" Amber said.

"We'll only put ourselves in danger by trying to help. They're on their own." Sarah said.

They all kept moving forward, occasionally looking over. Some of the ants had gone right into one group, dismembering players and killing them.

"Bloody hell." was the only comment Sarah heard.

It'd been quiet soon after the attack, and the group thought they were safe, when a hole opened up in front.

"Ants!" Sven called, pulling out his halberd.

There were only three, but they were each very dangerous.

Automatically the team grouped off to attack each of the ants. After Jumanji fired two arrows that bounced off the carapaces of the ants, it became apparent that they had to fight them up close.

It took only a moment for Sarah to decide to use the rapier. It detached from her belt quickly, and flicked on as she rushed forward to meet the first ant.

Sven and Athena who were leading the attacks on the other two ant's were surprised at the Sarah's sudden display, but they quickly focused on their own opponents. Rat Killer assisted Athena in her attack, while Kate used her staff to help Sven.

The ant came directly at Sarah, clacking it oversized mandibles in anticipation. She wanted to finish off the ant quickly before the other two had a chance to do damage. The rapier swept through the end of one mandible without any visible effect. A quick victory was not happening.

Taking a step back, she could see the mandible had been sliced, but not off. She needed to get closer so she could slice it off, without losing her own limbs.

She came at it again, this time side stepping and slashing down as she passed. She was only able to cut the end off one mandible, but the ant followed her motion, grazing her with one of it forelegs.

This isn't working, Sarah thought. She glimpsed Amber standing off with Jumanji. "Amber, use that whip and distract this ant!"

She had to dance about, confusing the ant, but its attention stayed directly on her. Amber came up from behind the ant, and her skill with it was evident, as she whipped it out, attaching it to one of the ant's rear legs. Jerking the whip, she got the ant attention as Sarah need. As it started to turn and face this new enemy, she took the advantage by slicing two of the side legs off half way before it could round on Amber.

It still had balance, but couldn't turn as fast, so she quickly, sliced off the remaining leg on her side. As the ant fell over, she cleaved off the head, and amputated the rear.

She ignored the pieces as they twitched in death, to face the remaining ants.

Sven was bleeding from several wounds from close calls with the ant, trying the cut the hard carapace with the halberd, but it merely stunned it momentarily, before it rushed him again. All Kate could to was poke it with her staff and distract it as Sven tried again to cut something off.

As Sarah came up, she called to Sven "Try to stun it again!"

Sven saw the reinforcements arriving, and let the ant have it as hard as he could bring it down on it head.

There was a cracking sound this time as the ant stopped still, and Sarah came in, sweeping the head off in one pass, then crosswise to dismember the headless corpse.

The abdomen went into convulsions, sending the four legs still attached thrashing at anything in reach, including Sarah.

Tony had been a bystander during most of the attack, having no weapons. But as soon as he saw Sarah struck down, he came running.

Sven and Kate pushed the ant away with the halberd and staff, and Amber used her whip to pull the parts clear. But Sarah wasn't in good condition when Tony arrived, with several cuts and a penetrating wound in her leg.

"Bloody ants." Sarah said, clutching her leg with both hands, and trying to stand up.

"Don't move, you'll only make it worse." Tony said.

"The other ant." She complained.

Tony looked back, at Rat Killer and Athena still tangling with the ant. Neither of them was making headway. He didn't relish helping Rat Killer, but he didn't want Athena dying.

Kate and Amber arrived then. "Take care of her." he said, picking up the rapier which was still activated.

"Neo?" Sarah called, but he didn't reply as he ran to help two people, even if one had tried to kill him once.

The ant was confused, turning left and right between Athena and Rat Killer as the both probed with their weapons, and jumped back when the ant turned. They'd both had several wounds from getting too close, but kept the dance up just the same.

Tony didn't know how to approach and still get the ant, so he let the game skill just flow through him as he ran towards it. The ant was side on, as he approached it, leaping up and twisting head over heals in a summersault over the ant, and slicing diagonally through it as it turned. He landed back on his feet on the other side, and turned to see his handiwork lying in two thrashing pieces, each with only three legs.

Rat Killer and Athena left it now, seeing no benefit in trying to kill the ant, and returned with Tony to Sarah's side.

"She'll be okay." Sven said, making sure the bandage he'd put on was firm. "It missed the femoral artery, but she can't walk on it."

Tony looked to Kate trying to understand, "He's a nurse when he's not playing here."

"Oh." was his only comment.

"They're all gone." Tony said, kneeling down and returning the rapier to Sarah's hands.

"There are no more." Jumanji said, walking up. "I doubt we will be attacked again soon, but we should move."

"We'd better carry her then." Tony said.

"I'll do it." Sven said, pulling off his pack.

Together they got her steadied on her feet, and Tony helped lift her onto Sven's back.

"Ah!" Sarah yelled, and Sven let her down.

"This won't work, it's making the wound worse." He said, checking the leg.

They needed something to carry her on. Tony looked about, hoping to see a tree, but this area was as desolate as a desert. Turning back, he saw Kate with her staff.

"Perfect!" he said, walking over to Kate. "We need this." He said, taking the staff from her hands. Sven's halberd was still on the ground where he'd dropped it. He laid the staff next to it.

"Get the rope." He asked Sven.

"Ah, I see." Sven said, helping the rope off Sarah's shoulder.

Tony pulled off his shirt, "Sven, Rat Killer, Jumanji, I'll need yours too."

Soon, he had all four shirts laced in with the ropes to make a stretcher.

They got Sarah carefully laid on the stretcher, and with one person at each corner.

"We might as well keep going." Tony said, trying to maintain the game, "We might find something in the city to help us."

"If we get in." Sven said.

"Keeping going." Sarah said.

"You heard the lady, we keep going." Athena said.

They set off for the crater, which was clearly visible ahead.

Chapter 26 : Truth and dare

It took a little longer to get there, and the climb up the crater side was made difficult with the stretcher, with Sarah complaining at every bump. But it was all worth the sight that met them at the top.

The green canopy of a variegated jungle was close at hand, and the sounds of birds clear through the shimmer of the energy field.

Some of the other groups had made it partially intact, but the losses were clearly visible.

They lowered Sarah down, and helped her sit up against a rock to see the vast field and its imprisoned contents.

"You know, I think it was better to come here, then to try going back through those ants." Sven said.

"I'd agree with you completely there." Rat Killer said. "Because if you were to have gone back, you would most likely have died a horrible death in the inferno."

"What are you talking about?" Kate asked.

"Turn around and have a look." He replied.

Sarah was able to turn about on the rock, looking back the way they came. In the distance, a bright light blossomed and lifted up into the sky, erupting into a large mushroom shaped cloud. A minute and a half later, the sound reached them, the roar of an atomic explosion.

"But I guess now, you'll all die slow and painful deaths." Rat Killer said, staring at the rising cloud.

"And I thought I liked you Wil!" Athena called, but he didn't reply.

"We had better get down on this side of the ridge." Amber said, "Or the wind will blow us away."

Jumanji and Tony helped Sarah further down into the crater, near the field while the rest followed. Sven picked up the stretcher and carried it down, leaving Rat Killer alone with his deadly view.

Tony called Jeffrey again, not bothering with the conscious commands now "The shit has hit the fan Jeffrey."

"You're telling me. The game people are frantic that hundreds of people just got killed at all the Geo-Fronts, and the data structures for all the cities have been destroyed, literally."

"It makes sense, as it seems out hacker just blew up our city with what looked like an atomic bomb. This would be the tampering they detected." Tony said.

"It was more than a bomb Tony. Because a worm virus has spread though the data files for all the Geo-Fronts. It's contained now, so the program is fine for the moment. But they can't start it fix it while there are players in there."

"Oh, and your gonna to tell me next that we can't get out unless there is a city to log out in?"

Everyone else heard this. Tony could hardly hear Jeffrey's reply of "Yes." over their exclamations.

"Additional lockouts have been invoked in the game mode, to stop players from forcefully logging out." Jeffrey explained.

The air was starting to howl now, with pieces of sand hitting Tony's bare back as he tried to listen to Jeffrey.

"We have a way out though. That lost city has what you need to get out. You just need to be within the city structure and you can safely log out."

"That's good news." Tony yelled over the wind, "But how do we get through the field?"

"You've already got the key. Or should I say Sarah has it. That weapon you like to call, is a tool. You can adjust the field to cause destructive interference with city's field. Basic physics principle. That's all you need."

"Well, I'll see you soon then." Tony said.

"Before you go, we have the FBI looking for this guy. We've figured he is in the U.S., but he's in the eastern states, possibly Missouri. It's almost a house to house search, so we should be on him soon."

"Okay." Tony said, cutting the link.

"Sarah, we'll need this again." He said, putting his hand on tool that she calls a rapier, "and we'll need you too. Sven we need to get her to the field."

Together, they carried Sarah close enough to the field, to feel the charge on their hair.

"Okay Sarah, Jeffrey said this is actually a tool." Tony said, lifting it up to her. "It can be adjusted to create a field to interfere with this field. You know how to use it."

"I'll try my best." Sarah said, fiddling with the controls.

"Where is Rat Killer?" Tony called to Jumanji.

"I don't know. We left him on the top." he replied.

"I need to find him, and find out why he did this." Tony said.

Kate was at his side, "You sure it's a good idea?"

"I don't know, but I don't want any surprises either." He said, going back up to the top.

Through the clouds of dust, he found Wil still standing where they left him. "Trying to find a way out of the rat trap?" he said to Tony without turning.

"We're working on it." Tony said.

"It won't work." Wil said. "The field can't be breached without the key. Your only option is to kill yourself, or face hell's hand." Wil pointed out towards the radiation storm that was quickly approaching.

"You don't sound like you did the last time we met." Tony said, still staring at Wil's back.

Wil turned about now to face Tony. "Ah, I thought you looked familiar." He said, before adding "I misjudged you before, but I won't do it again. Are you perhaps afraid that I'll burn you alive now?"

"No, you won't kill me. You want me here, to suffer." Tony said.

"Maybe not kill you, but I can make you suffer more without killing you." Wil said.

Tony saw Wil's eyes light up, almost like a demonic creature. Acting almost on instinct, he threw himself sideways, as a burning fireball shot at him.

He ducked back into the swirling dust, seeing a few more fireballs fly through the air in search of him.

"You will suffer eternal damnation." he heard Wil call out.

Not if I can help it, was Tony's last thought, before turning back to return to the others.

He found them, having gone along the same path twice now. It helped to have a good memory for terrain. He found Jumanji, Amber and Kate standing over the field.

"Where's Athena, SoooLong and Sven?" he asked.

Kate pointed down at a swirling hole in the field, with Sarah on the other side, been held by Sven. Athena was there too, holding the makeshift stretcher.

Jumanji jumped through as he watched.

"SoooLong has to renew the hole each time, otherwise it closes up." Kate said.

"Where is Rat Killer?" Amber asked, looking back up the rocks.

"He wanted to give me another Salem initiation, and burn me. This time he claimed he wasn't going to kill me."

"My turn, see you on the other side." Amber said, and jumped down.

"So where is he now?" Kate asked.

"I lost him in the dust." Tony replied.

A fireball came down through the dust, to explode off a nearby rock.

"And maybe not."

Kate saw Sarah waving for the next person. "It's time to go", she said.

"Then go!" Tony yelled, pushing her toward the hole.

Kate saw two glowing forms floating in the dust, as Wil's form resolved around both with his hands gripping two balls of fire.

As Tony tried to push her in, she grabbed his arms, pulling him with her to tumble through.

Both of them felt the mild charge pass through them, before landing on the less then soft surface below.

Tony heard the screaming "No!" from Wil. Looking up, he saw Wil jump onto the field, bashing it with his bare hands and screaming.

Jumanji and Amber helped untangle Tony and Kate.

"That hurt!" Tony complained, feeling sore in new places. Pointing with a sore hand at the field, he asked Sarah "Can he get through?"

"Not that I know of." Sarah answered. "Sven burnt his hands when he touched the field."

Tony looked up again at Wil, bashing on the field with his bare hands. "He's probably cheating then. He may get through." Tony said.

"Then we had better get to the city." Sarah said. "Get that stretcher of yours moving."

In moments, they had Sarah readied. They each took turns carrying the stretcher.

When Tony took a break from the carrying, he took a moment to look up. He could faintly make out Wil's form still on the field. He could see strange lines around Will, running along the field. Tony stopped, between some trees so he could see what was happening without falling over something. Then the unexpected happened.

The field collapsed.

Tony ran to catch up with the stretcher. "The field is down!"

"That's all I can see from here." Sarah said. "He'll be coming, won't he?"

"No doubt, as he doesn't want us leaving the game." Tony replied.

"Can we make the city in time?" Athena asked.

"No." Tony said. "He'll catch us easily with the stretcher."

"Then leave it. I'll delay him while you all go." Sarah said, thumping the wooden staff on one side.

Tony steadied her hand, before she tipped off the stretcher. "No. I'll do it. He seems to have fixated on me anyhow", he said.

"Then take this." Sarah shoved the energy tool into his hand. "I've reset it back to a rapier. You might need it to kill him."

"I don't want to kill him." Tony said. "Jeffrey has a trace on him. If I kill him, he might log off."

"Then just delay him." Sarah confirmed. "You're wasting time here talking about it. Take the damn thing and go."

Tony didn't say another word. He took the tool, attached it to his belt, and headed back to where they came through the field.

"Rat Killer! Or whatever your name is, where are you?" Tony called.

"Just call me Wil." his voice came back, through the trees. "It's the name I've been using lately, and I kind of like it."

"Not everybody is happy about you Wil." Tony called, to keep the conversation going. Finding him wasn't as important as delaying him.

"No doubt Athena has said a few things. I did truly like her. Did you know she doesn't wear anything under that cloth of hers? A pity really."

"Yes a pity, a pity that you don't know that women don't like been lied to or lead on." Tony said.

"I don't like been lead on either." Wil said, stepping out from behind a bush into Tony's view. "Why are you trying to delay me?"

"Why else, to give the other's time to log out." Tony said truthfully.

"Such noble concerns." Wil said. "I shall just have to curtail your efforts then." Wil gestured at the ground, and it rippled towards Tony.

Tony was surprised as the ground under him heaved up, and he found himself airborne.

He came down, fortunately landing on his feet with the help of his skills. Turning about, Wil was gone again and the ground looked as normal as before.

"Tony? Can you hear me?"

"Jeffrey, what happening?" Tony replied, recognising the disembodied voice.

"We're almost there. We've localised his location, and the FBI are on the way now. But we can't get him out of the VR systems, as he's embedded himself very deep. We have to wait until the Feds physically drag him out. So hang in there."

"Okay, thanks." Tony said.

"Who are you talking to Tony?" Wil's voice came from the jungle behind him. "A friend on the outside? He won't help you in here."

Tony didn't bother to reply. It was a waiting game now, and the best way to play this was to change the rules, and become the hunter.

He griped the energy rapier in his hand, so it wouldn't rattle again his leg. It was very easy to become truly quiet, and move along the ground without a sound. Sometimes he stepped carefully through the underbrush, or leapt from one clear spot to another, as he listened for any minute sound from Wil.

"Trying to find a hole to hide in are we?" Wil called out.

Wil's voice sounded close now, as Tony moved in slowly to find Wil before he was discovered first.

A sound to Tony's left set him on edge, and he realised he was been stalked by a professional. Tony took to the nearest tree, swinging up the limbs with more agility than a chimpanzee. From there, he jumped from tree to tree, following the course that he thought Wil was using to track him and his guess paid out.

"Your friends have left you behind you know." Wil called out.

Crouched in the tree, Tony got another communication from Jeffrey. "Tony, everyone else that can has logged out. It's just you left."

Tony used the conscious commands so Wil wouldn't hear him this time. "What about the FBI?"

"They've got a team on the ground now moving in to a cabin of some sort. They tell me it's loaded with antenna, dishes and solar panels. Unless he's operating remotely from there, they have him cornered."

"Thanks. But I'll stay a while to see the results from this end." Tony replied and cut Jeffrey off.

He sat there watching Wil walk about like a silent predator, stalking a prey. He didn't have much time now, so Tony ignited the rapier, and cut off a precise portion of the tree he was in, and leapt off for another then towards the ground.

Wil heard the energy field buzzing, then the slow creaking of timber above him, and just avoided it landing on him.

Wil looked about the trees now for his prey. "That's not a nice thing to do."

Tony approached now, igniting the rapier again. "I know, but when have you been nice?"

"I believe the French have an expression for that." Wil said, looking at the lit rapier.

"Touché." Tony said.

"So, you interested in a duel?" Wil said.

Tony eyed Wil warily, keeping his distance, and watching the ground again. "If that's what you wish." Tony answered, unsure if it was a good idea.

Tony watched as Wil mumbled something as he had before on the altered beach, except this time an object appeared in Wil's hand. A duplicate of the one Tony now held.

"New device." Wil said, looking it over. "So this is how you got through the field."

There was no point in denying it, "Yes, the key."

Wil's rapier lit up, and he'd advanced at Tony. Neither had sword experience and Wil's game skills were originally made for use with a shorter weapon.

Tony's on the other hand had no weapon skills, only those that lay with gymnastic use of his body. He found the only way was to make the sword be and extension his body.

Wil's cuts and slashes were slow and ineffective, and missed several opportunities to hit Tony.

Tony wanted to hit Wil, but not a killing stroke, and found it difficult to find an opening and still defend himself.

Back and forth the blades met each other, causing bright flashes on the trees until Wil made first contact on Tony's arm. He stepped back to admire the open wound bleeding down Tony's arm. "First blood." He said, then paused. "You've been delaying me!"

"I already told you." Tony said. Overcoming the pain, he launched back at Wil now, knowing that Wil was going to leave when he could.

Wil had received a message from his guide about and audio alarm, and now listening he realised someone was outside his cabin. Seeing Tony come at him, he reacted first to the visible threat to defend himself. Warding off the increasing blows, he attempted to form the commands to eject himself from the game. It didn't come under pressure, and saw he had to relent to Tony's onslaught to get out.

Tony saw the opportunity open, and swung at Wil. At the last moment, Wil's entire form dissolved out in a splatter of pixels and all Tony hit was air. He thought he'd killed Wil as he'd been trying to, but it came over him that Wil had disconnected.

The field above him was still open, and Tony ran for the city. He got the link open to Jeffrey "Wil just disappeared from the game." He said, between breaths for air.

"We saw it. The trace is gone. We heard that the Feds entered the cabin, but we don't know what they found yet."

Tony kept running. In a moment, Jeffrey came back. "Yep, they got him. Coming out of VR, he apparently leapt at them mumbling stuff, swinging his arms about. They had to restrain him from hurting himself."

"That's good." Tony said. "Okay, I'm at the city now. I'm logging off."

"Speak to you soon."

Tony logged off, disappearing from the city, with no flash or special sound effect. As if no longer detecting his presence, the entire city slowly faded like a ghost, along with everything surrounding it, the jungle, the crater, the storm of radiation, leaving only an open and dusty plain.

Chapter 27 : Epilogue

Kate pinned the fresh print out from the CNN web site to her pin board in amongst all the other print outs about VR4. Unlike the others, which had heading about development of VR4, this was entitled "Hacker caught by FBI with on-line assistance from VR4 networks."

It didn't show her name, but it did say that two individual's from Australia were involved, which was enough for her.

The phone started ringing and interrupted her daydream of been famous.

"Hello?" She said into the receiver.

"Hello stranger." The familiar voice said. "Want to come on-line?"

"Sure, be there in a moment." She said, hanging up the phone. She took one more glance before going to the lounge room, and starting up the computer. She pulled on the headset, and launched on-line.

"Tony Shaw is now on-line and has sent you and invitation." her guide said.

"Accept the invitation, and take me there." She replied. Kate faded from her connection room, and reappeared in familiar place.

The glass dome was very similar to the one in the restaurant, except it was smaller, but the view more spectacular. The Earth was above their heads, half lit by the unseen sun.

Thanks for coming." Tony said.

Kate turned from the view to find him standing there. "I'd been waiting for you to call."

"I'm sorry, but I've been occupied recently." he replied.

"With the hacker thing?" She asked.

"Yes, amongst other things." Tony stepped up beside Kate now.

"I've been in contact with Sarah and the others." Kate said.

"How are they?" He asked.

"Pretty good. Sarah can't wait until they restore all the player files so she can go back on-line."

"It shouldn't be much longer. But she won't be getting the energy cell back."

"She won't be happy about that." Kate said, staring out the window. Sun light hit the edge of something outside the window, catching her attention. As she watched, the structure of a huge space station slowly came into view as it rotated into the sun's radiance. The sun's blinding brilliance broke into view on the other side of the dome.

"That's beautiful." She said quietly.

"I thought you'd like it. Let's take a seat, I have something else to tell you." Tony said, with a serious face, but in a way that he was hiding something more.

A uniform bench rose from the floor. Sitting down, they watched a while longer as the massive superstructure came fully into the light.

Kate waited patiently for Tony to say something. They'd been going out for almost three months now, and it had gotten serious. But not once had they mentioned girl or boy friend, or dating. Relationships developed over the Internet were well known, and it took commitment to take it them further. Kate wanted to take it further, but didn't know is she was ready for commitment yet.

"Did I ever tell you I was taking time off from work?" Tony asked. "No I don't think I did. Technically I'm unemployed; I was just staying away from work for the moment. The thing is; Jeffrey Devereaux talked to someone about my helping to find the hacker, and they offered me a job. They didn't say exactly what, but whatever I'm interested in doing, and I could work from home."

"That's good, that you can work from home." Kate said.

"The thing is, VR4 don't have any regional offices, except in Sydney. Also, they said that most of their employees now work from home anyhow." Tony added.

"So, did you take it?" She asked.

"Yes, and no." Tony said.

"What do you mean, yes and no. Either you took it or you didn't."

"I accepted the job, but I told them I can't start yet." Tony said.

"And why not?" Kate demanded.

"So I can move to my own place. I'm still living with my parents." Tony said. "They agreed, in fact they have already paid me in advance, for helping find the hacker."

"Have you found a place then?" Kate asked.

"Not yet. Actually I was thinking of moving cities also, going interstate, maybe living in Perth, know any good places?"

"You want to move here?" Kate stammered, thinking of Tony living in the same city.

"You want me to live with you?" he asked, unsure if that was what she meant.

"Um, I suppose." Kate said, surprising herself that she could consider him living with her. "I do have empty room in my flat now." Kate continued, tying to think of a good reason to say no, "And having a second person would help with the expenses. I'm not that tidy a person, as my last flat mate said when I lived with her in my last place. And I've never lived with a guy before."

"I'm no angel either, but I never leave the toilet lid up." Tony said.

"You don't do you? What sort of car have you got, cause there isn't much garage space either."

"Motorbike. Don't have a car."

As Kate thought, the more she liked the idea. "How much stuff have you got?"

"Not much really. Most of it's crammed into one room, but I'll end up leaving some of it behind. My parent's kept all sort of stuff for when I have kids. But I don't plan on having any soon."

"Any pets? There isn't any space for a dog." Kate said, looking for a reason to say no, but knowing she would say yes eventually.

"None living at any rate." Tony said.

Kate sat there thinking, wondering. Tony Shaw, 25 years old. Good career prospects, single and unattached. Almost a match made in heaven, or in VR.