The VR Immersion device took longer than usual to input the loading sequence, Rebecca could see that the server had become even more unstable, pieces of code flickering all over the place. For a moment her loading screen was nothing more than a white void, then Rebecca entered the chamber and a sinister red glow radiated from the ceiling.
Bec had triangulated Anna’s location before loading into the server and now the loading sequence folded away and the dying VR world sprung into existence. Rebecca found herself in a tavern, sitting at the bar with the AI woman, Anna, who was leaning over her drink. Anna’s black hood was torn and shredded, the flesh on her left arm entirely gone so that chrome tendons slid up and down as she flexed her fingers around her glass, and the skin on her face was sickly and pale.
‘You came back,’ said Anna, turning towards Bec.
A serving droid handed Rebecca a dusty empty glass. She observed the glass and shrugged.
‘I told you I would.’
‘No,’ said Anna, closing her eyes and shaking her head. ‘No. You said you’d delete the sever. I’m still here.’
Rebecca leaned closer to Anna.
‘I’m working on it,’ Bec said, almost a whisper. ‘They’re looking for me so I don’t have a lot of time. In order to destroy this server I need to find it, I mean, its physical location. I think it might be hidden in a hacker den somewhere in New York, which is where I am right now.’
‘What do you need from me?’
‘Hiroshi Inoue… that place you showed me where he was doing those experiments, I couldn’t triangulate its position before I jacked in, it must be a hidden file.’
‘But I know where it is,’ said Anna.
‘You think you can take me to it?’
Anna nodded and attempted to finish her drink before realising the glass had suddenly emptied, and the serving droid somehow managed to stand half inside the wall. Anna stood up and gestured for Rebecca to follow her.
They walked through the city, for hours it seemed, but there was no notion of night or day. Rebecca’s legs began to ache. The corruption, the builders, the glitches, all gave the city the aesthetic of a cyberspace ghost town. It was like navigating a maze a hundred kilometres wide and a hundred storeys high.
‘I can’t believe you’ve lived your whole life here,’ said Bec, as she peered over another dark ledge.
Anna shrugged and sighed, ‘It wasn’t always bad. Thirty years ago this place was just like any other in the real world, a proper simulation. Of course from my perspective this is the real world, it’s only because people came and told me that I never truly existed that I know I’m not really here, but at the same time, I really am here. My feelings are no different to any real person. I’ve watched my home crumble to pieces one day at a time.’
Rebecca stared at a withering vine hanging from a horizontal streetlight.
‘You know, our worlds aren’t completely different. My world has rules and laws, systems of control, but it’s still dying, or people seem to think it is.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I remember reading about this biotech firm,’ said Bec, ‘in 1922 they developed a bacterium designed to turn food waste into fuel. I found it interesting, see, the genetically modified bacteria produced ethanol from food waste, and the left-over sludge was converted into fertiliser for crops. They tested the bacteria and decided it was harmless to people and the environment. But then a scientist decided to test the bacteria in non-sterile soil and monitor the effects. When it was tested in the non-sterile soil the bacteria killed every single plant it came into contact with. If it had been released it would have spread worldwide and destroyed all the plant-life on Earth. I just think it’s funny, you know, we’re here by chance.’
‘So, you think that one day your reality will end up like mine?’
‘Well, not exactly like yours, but in the same general situation, maybe. Your world is on its deathbed and now it’s time for someone outside to put an end to it, at the flick of a switch, almost.’
Anna looked at her solemnly.
‘You don’t have to feel bad. It has to happen.’
‘Yeah.’
They found the building. The floor slanted towards iron walls, brown and orange with rust. No lights shined. Anna handed Rebecca a torch. They passed through a shadowy hallway and entered a laboratory. The flashlight beam snaked over cluttered desks and dusty computer screens. They searched the building until Rebecca found a familiar desk.
‘This is it,’ she said, sitting down. She activated the holographic projector, a collection of files appeared in front of her and she searched through them, waving her hand to switch to the next page. Then she found the address.
‘Here it is,’ she told Anna. She uploaded the data to her long-term memory. ‘I have it.’
Anna clutched her hands together and nervously glanced at the floor.
‘Then… this is really it.’ She smiled, looking up with a tear in her eye. ‘Thank you, Rebecca Marshall. You’ve done a good thing today.’
Rebecca nodded. She jacked out.
Rebecca kept her eyes on her phone’s GPS as she navigated the busy streets, the EMP detonator clipped to her belt, her Barret FN92 tucked away under her jacket. She speed-walked most of the way. The address she had pulled from the VR files pointed her to an apartment building—the hacker den.
She ran a scan for electronics and broadcast signals which she traced to a certain room number on the third floor. She looked straight ahead as she paced up the stairs and entered the hallway, then checked all the doors. All locked with keypads. Bec established a connection to the access panel outside of the hacker den and ran a decryption. Green light, the door clicked open, and she stormed in.
Three ragged-looking men turned to her. ‘Who the hell do you think you are, huh?’
One of the hackers tried to get up in her face. The air had a stale flavour of cigarettes and beer, and the tech was strewn all about the place, including the servers.
The hacker tried to shove Bec. A mistake on his part as Bec drew her pistol. The hacker stumbled back and raised his hands. Bec aimed the gun at each of them, forcing them back against the wall.
‘Who do you work for?’ she demanded, raising the gun higher. ‘Who owns these servers?’
‘Shit, I don’t know his actual name,’ one of the men cried out. ‘Japanese guy… Calls himself Akutō.’
That’s all she needed. She had the right place. She smiled, still aiming the gun.
‘Thank you.’
She clicked the EMP and a surge of electricity burned out every piece of tech in the room, shooting sparks and smoke into the sour air. The servers shattered and ignited, the smoke alarm sounded, a shrill beeping, and Rebecca backed up towards the door, lowered the gun and fled the building.
Later, she attempted to connect with Anna’s VR server. It no longer existed.
ns 172.70.178.131da2