Digital Heretic (5 page)

Chapter 11

  “It is with sadness that Tygon says farewell to a great player of the Game.

 
Brandon Strayne, Zack’s Patron, sadly confirmed what we learned through Danielle. Zack didn’t get to celebrate one of the best plays we’ve ever seen, especially the final events that resulted in his achieving Rank One. We’ve learned that Zack’s body is still being kept alive by machines, but his brain is fully absent of any function.

 
Today is the fifth day since ending his play, and sources close to Zack’s camp tell us that he will be taken off of life support today.

 
From the bottom of our hearts, Tygon thanks you for your efforts, Zack.  You will not be forgotten.”

Lisa Rohansen,  Game Channel 42

 
“
Just press tha
t
button, sir,” the doctor said. “All the machines are linked and will turn off at the same time.”

 
Brandon looked at the button, then nodded. The doctor stepped back and Brandon gazed down at Zack. He lay peacefully on the bed, breathing at a normal rate. It was difficult for Brandon to believe he wasn’t simply sleeping. But Zack was gone; he’d never made it out of the Game.

 
Brandon gently stroked Zack’s hair.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to turn out,
Brandon thought sadly.
Finishing his last play was only the beginning.
Brandon stood silently, looking down at

Zack for a few moments, then straightened his back and turned to face the small group behind him.

  Michelle, Lilith and Angelica stood silently in the room. None of them wanted Brandon to be alone for this.

  “
Would anyone like to say anything?” Brandon asked. He met each of their eyes. They shook their heads slightly; everyone had spent a few moments alone with Zack. Goodbyes had already been said.

  “
He was a good boy — a good man
,
” Brandon said. “We all wish things had turned out differently, but the Game is life, and neither one is fair. You can play everything perfectly and still fail. I sincerely hope that your soul finds peace, Zack. We will miss you.”

 
Brandon reached towards the button, paused briefly, and pressed it. The sounds of the machines went silent. No one said a word; they watched Zack’s chest rise and fall, waiting for it to stop as the life support systems no longer did his breathing for him.

 
The silence became heavy. Zack’s chest continued to determinedly move up and down. Everyone in the room had seen death; they knew it would take a few seconds for his body to quit functioning.

 
Moments later, Zack’s chest stopped moving. The doctor stepped forward and quickly untaped the breathing tube from Zack’s mouth. Brandon had given clear instructions earlier; he didn’t want Zack remaining connected to the myriad of wires and tubes. The doctor waited respectfully for a moment, then gripped the tube and pulled it out from Zack’s lungs in one practiced motion.

 
As the  tube cleared Zack’s mouth, his body took a huge gulp of air, startling everyone in the room. Seconds passed, then Zack began to breathe regularly.

 
Brandon looked at the doctor in confusion. The doctor looked back, equally confused. The doctor felt Zack’s wrist and frowned. “There’s a pulse,” he muttered. 

 
He lifted Zack’s eyelid and flashed a light quickly back and forth across the pupil. “This isn’t possible,” he said quietly.

  “
What is it, Doctor?” Brandon asked.

  “
He’s breathing, there’s a pulse, and his pupils are reacting. I’m looking at a normally functioning, but unconscious, human here.”

  “
You mean he’s…?” Michelle began.

  “
Alive.” The voice was raspy and groggy, but it came from Zack
.
His hand raised slowly to push the doctor’s out of the way. His eyes were open and he was looking at Brandon, weary, but with a half grin on his face. “It appears that way. How did we do, Brandon? Did I finish number one?”

Chapter 12

 
“Miracles happen every day. All that is required to witness them is to look. So often we ignore them or explain them away as nonsense.

 
It’s a shame we don’t give them the wonder they deserve.”

Trew Radfield - Avatar

 
“What’sthe matte
r
?” Zack asked. “You all look as if you’ve seen a ghost.” He sat up on the edge of the bed, looking strong, fit, and ready to get up and go home. 

 
Brandon looked at the doctor who just shook his head in confusion. The others quickly surrounded the bed, and began to talk excitedly, everyone asking questions at once. Michelle and Lilith were crying; Angelica was speechless.

 
After a few minutes, they all stood back and Brandon spoke up. “We feel like we’re looking at a ghost, Zack. What’s the last thing you remember?”

 
Zack shook his head. “It’s all still a jumble, but something inside me says that’s normal, right? I definitely remember that this isn’t how I’m supposed to come out of the Game. Usually the room is quiet, all white, and there’s only one friend to greet me. Last time it was Kyle, I think?”

 
Brandon looked at Zack quietly, searching for irregularities. His eyes remained locked on the young man as he addressed the doctor. “How soon can we get him out of here, doctor?”

  “
Couple of weeks, maybe a bit less,” the doctor said.

  “
What?” Zack and Brandon said in unison.

 
The doctor swivelled his head between the two of them, not certain who he should address. He finally decided on Brandon and looked at him seriously. “The boy was dead, sir. It’s a miracle he’s even alive, let alone acting normal. I want to run a barrage of tests to make sure he’s all right, then see if we can determine what happened to him in the first place and how he came out of it.”

 
Brandon shook his head. “There’s no time for any of that, doctor.” The doctor started to protest, but Brandon raised his hand to stop him. “You’ve got two hours. I’ve got billions of dollars. Run all the tests you can in that time, then make sure he’s fine and release him.”

 
The doctor closed his mouth and nodded.

 
Brandon looked at the ladies. “You three, I need you to get to the command centre and prepare the team for us. I’ll have Zack there four hours from now. Be ready to bring him up to speed on everything that has happened, is happening, and we think might happen with Danielle. Questions?”

 
No one spoke. Brandon nodded. “Okay, then. See you all soon.” The women left immediately.

 
Brandon waited until they left, then looked back at Zack. “All right, my boy. You remember the drill?”

 
Zack nodded. “Don’t say anything until we’re alone, just you and me.”

  “That’s
right. I’ll be back in an hour and a half to collect you myself, then we have a couple of things to go over before we meet with the others.” 

 
Brandon walked to the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he looked back at Zack. “I’m so happy to have you back.”

  “
Thanks, Brandon.” Zack looked sad, like he wasn’t happy to be out of the Game, but that was to be expected. His life in the Game

had ended abruptly
. It was common to regret leaving that life, plus he was missing Danielle, his wife.

  “
Tell me one thing?” Brandon said.

  “
I will if I can.” 

  “
Tell me you have some exciting things to share.”

  “
I sure do, Brandon.  See ya soon.”

***

  One hour and forty-five minutes later, Brandon signed the release form and Zack accompanied him to the penthouse suite on the highest floor of the VirtDyne building. Zack was given a clean bill of health; the doctor said it was as if he had a normal exit from stasis. 

 
The two men went to the patio and Zack took a seat while Brandon got them each a drink.

 
Brandon handed Zack his drink and wasted no time getting down to business. “First off, congratulations are in order, Zack. You finished your play ranked Number One; the world we are looking out on is now your oyster. After a final tally of credits being converted from the Game into your bank account, it’s clear that you are now one of the richest men in the world.”

 
Zack smiled politely, although he didn’t seem as excited by the wealth now as he was before he entered his last play. “That’s great, Brandon.  I’m very pleased about that.”

  “
As am I,” Brandon said. “I wonder if you’d mind waiting a few weeks before you start to go out and spend it, though? I really need you on Danielle’s team until she comes out.”

  “
Of course,” Zack said. “How is she doing? The doctor said I’ve been out of the Game for five days. That’s right around seven years inside.”

 
Brandon nodded. “She’s having a hard time. She really loves Trew.” 

  “What’s
she been up to?” Zack asked with genuine concern.

  “She’s
been wasting time looking for your killer.”

  “
Oh, god, I hope she hasn’t actually run into Carl?” Zack asked.

 
Brandon chuckled. “Not even close. Carl has been kept busy in other areas of the Game. He’s hard to keep track of, but I do get occasional reports on his status. He is nowhere near her.”

  “
Well, that’s good,” Zack said. “How is her rank?” 

  “
Number One.” 

  “That’s
great!”

  “
Yeah, that’s all good. Listen, Zack, we don’t have much time and I need to talk to you about specific things before we go meet with the group.”

 
Zack understood. “Okay, Brandon. What do you want to talk about?”

  “
Do you remember what happened after you died in the Game?” Brandon asked. “For the past five days you’ve been brain dead  — your mind and soul wasn’t in your body. The doctors confirmed the mind part; I am certain about the soul portion.”

  “
Really? How can you know about the soul?” Zack asked.

 
Brandon made a sour face and Zack smiled, made a motion of zipping his lips shut, locking them with a key and throwing the key away. “Thank you,” Brandon said. “Can you remember anything since you left the Game? The answer to this question is very important. We thought you were dead and gone. It’s a miracle that you’re here at all.”

  “
Oh, yes, I remember things happening after I left the Game. I can tell you about a few things; others I can’t.”

  “That’s
not acceptable, Zack,” Brandon said.

  “
I understand, but it’s not negotiable. I am grateful for everything you’ve done for me, Brandon, but I’m no longer a player in the Game. I will help you in any way that I can; money isn’t an issue, and I think we will be spending a lot of time together. But moving forward, it’s important for us both to understand that legally, I am

now an adult. I will always look up to you and want to remain close to you, but there will be some things that I can only reveal in time, if at all. We must move forward as colleagues now, no longer as Patron and sponsored player.”

 
Brandon looked at Zack seriously for a moment, sipping his drink and saying nothing. Then he stood up, walked over, and extended his hand as he nodded his head. “Of all the people living on this world, you are the closest to my equal that has ever been, Zack. It will be my great honour to treat you so, and to work with you moving forward.”

 
Zack stood up and shook Brandon’s hand, then he enveloped Brandon in a fierce embrace. The two men hugged for a moment, then ended the contact and sat down in their seats.

  “Okay
, Zack. Tell me everything that you can, and then I’ll share some top secret information with you,” Brandon said.

  “I’d
be happy to, Brandon. And from now on please call me Trew. I think it will be easier for everyone to call me that.”

Chapter 13

 
“
And that’swher
e
things sit at the moment on Earth.” Michelle finished her presentation, smiled at Zack — or Trew, as he had asked to be called — then took her seat at his right side. He nodded and thanked his Right Hand, which she would continue to be while the team was active. 

 
Brandon watched Trew, thinking how well he had done for his first meeting. It had been a long one, and the viewers surrounding them had live feeds of Danielle displayed. Before they had begun, Brandon had sent Trew into the office so that he could be alone and watch her. Trew had taken only a few moments, then he had wiped tears from his eyes and called the team in. During the entire debriefing, he occasionally glanced at the viewscreens, but he was focused on the task at hand and had shown that he was paying attention by asking specific and strategic questions.

“So what’s the plan for her, then?” Trew asked the room. 

  “We don’t really
have a plan,” Lilith said.

  “When she entered the Game, you didn’t have a game plan for her?” Trew asked.

  “Well, yes, of course we did,” Lilith said.

  “Okay, great,” Trew said. “Brandon, can you tell me what that plan was?” Trew looked over at Brandon and smiled. Brandon sat silently, saying nothing.

  “I don’t think Brandon knew the plan for Danielle,” Trew continued. “Michelle? Perhaps you can tell Brandon what it was?”

  Michelle looked embarrassed, and she suddenly appeared to be very interested in her tablet. “That’s a good question, Trew,” she said.

  “Indeed,” Trew replied. “How are you going to help her if no one has any clue as to what she’s trying to achieve?”

 
The room was silent.

  “
I think this is a good spot to take a break, team,” Brandon said. “Let’s all meet back here in half an hour. Lilith, Nadine, and Michelle, please stay here with Trew and myself to discuss a couple of minor things.”

 
The team stood up and filed out of the room. Brandon shut the door and then flipped a switch on the wall. The glass on all four sides of the centre office went from transparent to dark, giving the five a private area to talk.

  “What’s
her goal?” Trew asked. 

  “
She believes she’s a Prodigy,” Lilith said.

  “
In what area?” Brandon asked.

  “
At playing games.”

  “
Is that possible?” Michelle asked.

  “
Yes,” Brandon said.

 
Everyone looked at Brandon, waiting for him to say more. He just looked at them blankly. Finally, Lilith continued her explanation. “Alexandra believed that the Mainframe had removed her from the Game, then gave her another chance to come back in. She used her intuition and gut instinct to spend the limited number of credits she was given, then committed to going in and doing one thing: playing the Game to the best of her ability. She didn’t have specific tasks or goals to achieve; her limited credits prevented that. Her only focus was to play the Game.

  “
She must have set small goals, at least, as markers to move forward,” Trew said. “That’s how the Game works. Lilith, why didn’t you tell the team this when you merged together? As a

Patron
, you owed it to your player to make sure important information was relayed to everyone.”

 
Lilith shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t important. Danielle had a very limited number of credits to spend for this play. It was a free play, and the credits awarded were thin. To defend everyone else here, I think that once the team saw what she had spent her credits on, they realized that anything she might focus on wouldn’t stand a chance of succeeding anyway.”

  “
Really?” Trew asked. “What did she spend her credits on?”

 
Michelle handed her tablet to Trew, and he looked at the data displayed there. After a few moments he chuckled. “Okay, I see what you mean. Not many credits at all. Wow, how did she get this far? She didn’t spend anything on luck at all…”

  “
Yet she's been luckier than any player that I can remember,” Brandon said.

  “
Yes, she really has been,” Trew agreed. He continued to view the tablet for a moment, then looked up. “How did she get an Eternal? And what about the two who showed up to heal her when she lost the baby?”

  “
The Eternal was a gift… from the Mainframe.”

 
Trew sat silently for a time, processing this information. Then he laughed out loud. “That’s awesome. The Mainframe is her Patron!”

  “
What?” Brandon asked.

  “
It makes sense,” Trew said. “The Mainframe awarded her a free play, then it gave her an Eternal. From memory of my last play I can recite a long list of strange occurrences inside the Game that are likely a result of the Mainframe’s involvement.” He looked at Brandon. “It would appear that the Mainframe is much more intelligent than you would have Tygon believe, Brandon.”

 
Brandon leaned forward. “What I’m about to say doesn’t leave this room, can we all agree on that?” Everyone nodded. 

  “
The artificial intelligence chip I created to make Mainframe was much more successful than I anticipated,” Brandon said. “She is fully sentient, and very, very clever.”

  “
She?” Trew asked. “You didn’t happen to give her a name, did you?”

 
Brandon rolled his eyes “Yes, I did.”

 
Trew smiled, but before he could say anything, Michelle guessed the name , “Oh, wow. You called her Sylvia, didn’t you? ”

 
Brandon closed his eyes and nodded. Trew laughed. “That’s incredible, Brandon. So she was communicating with me inside the Game. It wasn’t just my imagination or a premade program.”

  “That’s
right, she can communicate with avatars through prayer. She pretty much admitted she was talking to you on more than one occasion.” Brandon said.

  Trew’s
laughter stopped abruptly. “You can talk to her? Here on Tygon
?
”

  “
Yes,” Brandon said.

  “
I need to speak with her. As soon as possible.” Trew said.

 
Brandon said nothing, but it was apparent that he was weighing the wisdom of allowing such a thing to happen. Finally he nodded in agreement and Trew smiled.

  “Okay, let’s
go talk to her right now! Danielle will be okay for a few hours right?” he asked.

 
All eyes went to the monitor. Danielle was with Stephanie in a deserted field, standing beside a car. A short distance away, another car had pulled up, and Raphael was getting out of it. There was a man and woman with him. The woman looked nervous; the man looked bored.

 
Brandon knew what was happening, and he wanted to see the meeting, but getting Trew to Sylvia was also important. They could watch a recording of Danielle’s meeting later. “Yes, this will keep her occupied. She’s safe while we go talk to Sylvia.”

  “
Good,” Trew said. “Let’s go, then.”