Chapter Four: By The Time You Hear The Siren
197 Days until D-Day
“You are being stubborn.”
Marc ignored the scolding tone. Instead, he continued to carefully check the seedlings for problems, pretending not to hear his unexpected guest.
“Mal really wants you out at the new HQ and is willing to pay whatever you want. Look, I’ve been pushing for you since I joined up, and I finally got through to them. With this, we can be set for life!”
Cocking his eyebrow, Marc scrutinized the other man. When Ryan showed up at the front door, he quickly noted the changes to his appearance, which were extensive and striking. That old cocky swagger was back, but what was gone were the scars.
Ryan had gleefully explained that after his awakening, initially, he had been knocked out. When he woke up, his scars and injuries had completely disappeared. Not just the damage to his face, but his hand was completely recovered, something the doctors at the VA had told him was impossible.
The internet was now flooded with similar stories of people recovering from injuries after awakening. Indeed, this had been a driving force behind why the drive for testing had been so successful, despite the prevalence of dark rumors and general fear and disbelief of anything portal-related.
Marc had been expecting something, but was still surprised at the changes. Ryan had always been on the thin and bookish side, but he had filled out in the months since they had last seen each other, a week after the tournament in Salt Lake. All these changes must have taken place in just the last few weeks. Ryan had been one of the first batch of people who accepted the request for activation, and the changes to both his appearance and demeanor were shocking.
At the time, Ryan had been in Detroit, already scouted by Malcolm Heineman’s burgeoning new gaming empire. He had flown out, along with Leeroy. They had tried to get Selena as well, but she had refused the offer outright as she was unwilling even to consider moving out of state.
Marc had found out through Sheila that Malcolm had also reached out to recruit him, even before the police dropped the charges against him. He asked Shiela to politely rebuff the offer, and had never told anyone else on the team about it.
“You won’t believe what it’s like. Mal’s got some serious backers, and they are going all in, using the players who have awakened as a core of the new business. They have already applied for a PIM license and should be one of the first ones to get official approval. Oh, PIM stands for Private Incursion Manager,” Ryan explained.
Marc had already heard about these new PIMs sprouting up in the aftermath of the appearance of the portals. It had been a few days since the President had announced a new agency within the government, similar to Homeland Security, but tasked with dealing with everything related to the portals. The D.A.C., or Department of Awakened Coordination, had both the authority to register and test all awakened individuals, as well as license private companies to secure and manage all the portals that had appeared in the United States. Similar setups and organizations were appearing around the world.
Marc had even been paid another visit by a familiar-looking pair of suit-wearing government spooks, this time self-identifying as D.A.C. agents. They had come to confirm Marc’s status as he was a famous Awakened player.
While their arrival was perhaps not very surprising, seeing as I.S.K. was now a quasi-government agency in its own right. What was surprising to his guests, at least, was the outcome of the visit. They had been shocked to find that Marc was not among the Awakened, as it was confirmed that all the highly ranked players had received the activation notice. Marc explained that since he no longer played the game, he didn’t even carry a cell phone anymore. They only left after Marc firmly refused their repeated offers to accompany him to the newly opened D.A.C. Testing Center in El Paso.
He explained as much to Ryan, and was met with a similar level of disbelief and eventual frustration.
“You don’t know what this feels like. How can you say you are not interested? It didn’t just fix me, but I’m better, stronger, faster… some of the players have even been able to use skills like they did in the game, but in the real world! It’s incredible. You have to get activated. Once you do, I guarantee Mal will offer you at least as much as I got.”
“Look, I’m good. Don’t worry about it. I’m happy here.”
They had been going back and forth like this since Ryan arrived. His pushy insistence reminded Marc of the annoying call center supervisor. It was a nostalgic feeling that was not particularly welcome. He already had a lot of information on Chrysler’s, no, he had dropped the handle, Malcolm’s new organization.
Initially formed as a new eSports team called the Bashan Clan, Malcolm’s new team had quickly moved into the space of a government contractor. Realizing the value of gathering powerful awakened individuals, the Bashan Clan, which had swiftly gathered top players from around the world after the tournament, was positioning itself to become a major player in the new world order. The transition from video game nerds to super-powered defenders was facilitated by corporate sponsors eager to find a way to participate in the potential riches associated with portal energy.
“Watch this,” Ryan’s face was twisted in an excited grin as he reached out with his left arm and pointed out from the porch of the cabin where they were both sitting.
A flash of purple light shot out and hit the rear tire of Marc’s Chevy. The tire exploded in a cloud of smoke.
“I’m not supposed to use this outside yet. The eggheads are still running tests, and it’s harder to control in real life than it was in the game, but its-“
“Poison kunai,” Marc identified the skill in a deadpan voice while he stared at his truck while the cloud dispersed.
“Yeah! They are saying that we might get even more of our game skills as time goes on. Can you believe it? It’s the game in real life!”
When Marc said nothing else for several seconds, Ryan followed his line of sight and added with a sheepish look.
“Oh, sorry about that. I’ll get that fixed. Anyway, you can get a brand new truck, fully loaded, with less than a month’s salary at Bashan. C’mon! You gotta join.”
There was a hint of desperation in Ryan’s voice, and Marc turned to look him in the eye.
Marc couldn’t tell if it was out of loyalty to their friendship, a sense of loneliness, or if it was the order to bring him in that he had undoubtedly received from Malcolm, but there was an intense sincerity in the offer. Likely, it was a combination of all of that.
For a moment, Marc felt a twinge of guilt for not bringing Ryan into his own plans. As certain as he was now that he had made the prudent choice, he did feel bad for having to now keep Ryan at arm’s length.
Marc’s small group of cohorts in apocalypse planning had been growing over the last few weeks, but he had yet to include any of his old teammates, with the exception of Jess. He wasn’t sure if it was because he still felt some shame and embarrassment after his absence had lost the team their shot at the championship.
After portals had appeared all over the world and the news of the attacks went public, Marc had explained some of what he knew about the situation to Sheila and her husband, George. Considering that the news was showing videos of monsters attacking cities, it had been easier to convince them than it had been to bring Jess inside.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He had also considered talking to Cyrus and Lily, but they both had expressed no interest in what was happening at all. Lily, in particular, seemed disturbed by any talk of the monster attacks or portals, and Marc wondered if it might be trauma related to the goblin attack during his birthday party the previous year.
Jess was busy recruiting and vetting a small team of people to help her with her investigations. Her news website, The Daily Wake Up had switched from game coverage to serious news coverage overnight, and it quickly became the most viewed unofficial news source for everything related to the portals.
No one knew that Jess had weeks to prepare and lay the foundations for this change, even before the portals appeared. She and her new shadow editor, the former lead game designer of Awakening, who was now living in her old RV parked across from the Lobo, had cultivated sources and organized stories, quickly cutting through the chaff and posting up a constant stream of useful, well-sourced coverage that was burning up the internet.
Sandra had used her understanding of I.S.K.’s organizational structure and memories from internal emails and meetings to help Jess put together background for a big story when the whole thing went public. Since then, they switched their strategy. Now, they were focused on cooperating with the official line. Timing the big releases to scoop other media outlets. This appeared to have worked, as The Daily was now invited to all major press conferences from both the White House and the Association.
Marc watched as Ryan drove away. His friend had been bitter at Marc’s stubborn refusal, but there was nothing he could do. He doubted that this was the last time he would have this argument with his old friend.
Going inside his cabin, Marc retrieved a small black box, then went back outside to survey the damage to his truck.
The poison smoke would have completely dispersed by now, but he was careful not to touch any surfaces. He’d have to wash the truck to decontaminate it before it was safe to touch it again. Luckily he kept a few spare tires around.
He held out the box and checked the plastic meter. As soon as he moved within a couple of feet of the blown tire, the little needle shot up. He made note of the number, then went back inside to get a bucket and some soap and vinegar to wash down the truck.
----------------------------------------
“How did it go?”
“You were right. Bashan is in deep with the Association, and Ryan is up to his neck in it. Probably Leeroy, too.”
“He is? Sorry. I know you were close to all of them.”
Marc dropped the box on the little table in the RV beside the laptop Sandra was busy typing on.
“He was able to use a skill without augmentation. Blew the back tire off my truck. I measured the area a few minutes later, and it registered at around four point five. Took about half an hour to drop to match the ambient readings.”
Sandra looked up with a concerned look.
“Four point five? That’s too high. Are they feeding him crystals or something?”
Marc shook his head.
“I don’t think so. But they are definitely doing something. It was only a low-level skill, and I’m sure it tapped out any mana he had, but there were no symptoms of saturation. Whatever they are doing, it’s something… new.”
Marc sat down on the couch next to Sandra, then started to fiddle with the box.
“I’d like to get the sensitivity on these up. This meter doesn’t really measure the ambient levels accurately at current saturation.”
“Already done,” Sandra said while pounding on her keyboard.
“We have an updated design based on the dosimeters used around nuclear power plants. Jess’s team has a factory manufacturing them in quantity in Taiwan, though we’ll have to do the final component and calibration here for now. Expect a big crate to arrive in a week or so.”
“Crate? Why so many?”
“God, you are still so dim sometimes. We need to start checking the readings on a global scale. We’ll instill the new ones all over the world. There is an auto-reporting feature built into the new hardware.”
“Isn’t the Association already doing that?”
“Yes, and those numbers are not public. So unless you want to go up to Salt Lake and knock on Mary’s door to ask for direct access to her secret data network-“
Marc blurted out his first thought.
“Why can’t you just…”
He clamped his jaws shut as Sandra brought a solar flare-level intense glare up from her laptop screen and focused the heat on Marc’s face.
“When are you going to get it into your head what we are facing? Do you think this is as simple as some industrial espionage on the most influential technology company in history? Have you forgotten who Mary is?”
“…Sandra, I know. It’s just… it doesn’t make any sense.”
Marc was glad that he had caught himself before letting her other name slip out again. It was harder when she scolded him like that.
“We both know that Mary is some kind of all-powerful being. That she sent me to another world and created you. So how can anything we do make any difference? I don’t have any powers, and even if I had everything I built up in the other world, that’s nothing compared to what she must be able to do. I mean, I don’t have a clue what her actual abilities and position in this reality are, but it makes no sense that she doesn’t know exactly what you and I are doing at any given moment.”
Sandra’s look softened.
“I know. It’s weird to me, too. I never actually ‘met’ Mary as an interface. There was an understanding of her role, and imperatives I knew I needed to follow through on. The Mary that I know now… She’s been more like a friend to me than a boss. I know now that it was all an act. She is not at all the person I thought she was, but as to who, or what, she truly is…”
Biting her lip, Sandra looked down, then shook her head, as if banishing a disturbing thought.
“That’s why we are doing this. There is too much we don’t understand. What is happening, I think we are getting a good picture, but why… where this is going, I have no clue at all. I know that if Mary had the ability to find me, to interfere with us directly, well, she probably would have already done so. But she hasn’t sent anyone down here to grab me or you. It’s like she doesn’t even register us anymore. There has to be more to what is going on. Considering what we know, there is no way she wouldn’t consider us a threat to her plans.”
“Reality Engineering,” Marc whispered.
“Yes. Something that should not be allowed, something that should be against her core purpose. A crime committed against the universe with knowledge that does not even exist in this universe.”
“Knowledge that I gave her,” Marc said with a sick and pained expression.
“You don’t know that. We don’t know anything for sure. That’s why we are investigating for now. Most importantly, we need to get an idea of why Mary is doing all this. Why turn the laws of nature upside down? Why bring Mana to this world?”
“Why not ask her? Why can’t we both drive over there and show up on her doorstep and demand answers? It’s what I have wanted to do every day since I learned you…” Marc faltered again.
This time, Sandra did not get angry. She could see how Marc was still confused by what was happening. She was just as conflicted. To have memories of not even being a human was as disturbing of an identity crisis as one could imagine. She tried as much as possible to focus on other tasks, which, thankfully, she had in quantity, thanks to her work with Jess.
“No. Not yet,” Sandra said firmly.
“If Mary does know what we are doing, then nothing we do will make any difference. If somehow she is unable to track us down, then this may be our one chance to get our own answers to the questions we both have. I can say one thing for certain, though: we don’t have a lot of time to wait.”
“You have a projection?”
Sandra turned the laptop screen so Marc could see it. It was full of windows with data and programming code, but then Sandra hit a key, and a large line chart popped up in the middle of the screen. The line started at zero at the axis, and crept up in a slow and uneven line as it moved toward the right of the chart. After it passed the line that Marc knew represented the current date, a projected line continued to go up as it continued to move forwards in time.
“How long?” He asked.
“Six months, maybe more. We can get a better estimate if we get the sensor network up and running.”
“Six months until?”
“Until we exceed the amount of Mana density required for the natural formation of Mana cores. If that is indeed her goal.”
“What about the ones who awakened via the Perkana effect?”
“Likely nothing. They should continue developing as if they had a core, but will remain reliant on ambient Mana. The power levels of people in this world will remain relatively low until the next generation, assuming that Mana levels stabilize, but if they continue to rise…”
“Yeah, I know. I remember that part. What about…”
“We have no way of knowing what is happening on the other side of those portals. As far as anyone has been able to determine, they are one-way tunnels. There is no way to see through to the other side.”
Marc nodded thoughtfully. He expected as much, but he still wondered if there might be a return portal somewhere.
After a moment, Sandra changed the subject.
“What about your friend? You said he had some injuries from a previous accident?”
“Completely healed.”
“Really? Wow. I guess that much is true then.”
“Yeah. So, do you think I should talk to the Maeda’s again?”
“I think you should,” Sandra agreed, but with concern and apprehension in her voice.
“Are you sure there won’t be any… any other side effects?”
“Marc, I can’t say for certain. But we both know what will happen if she doesn’t do it.”
“Yeah… Okay, I’m heading over to use the phone over at the Lobo. I think we should get the Maeda’s over here for this, and you should be there too.”
Marc stood up and moved to the door. He was nervous. The stakes were high and he still wasn’t sure if this was good news or bad news.