* * * * *
When word of the violence was first reported to the corporate office, Christopher Mark was quick to dispatch Anand back to China as if it was a technical problem, as if the interface device had malfunctioned and was causing the hosts to kill each other. But, what else could he do. There really was no other authority in charge at Wild West Alive. RSI Gaming owned the whole town, and RSI Gaming was controlled by a hierarchy of technicians and network analysts. When Anand arrived at WWA, he was the senior person in charge and on the scene. There was no head of security that he could call.
Even though Anand was in charge he felt quite impotent. When he was on the vid-phone with Christopher Mark, Christopher would instantly veto any suggestion Anand had to shut down, or interrupt the game.”
Christopher Mark was convinced he could successfully pass this incident off as normal violence that was part of the game. Anand, however, knew better. He was seeing and hearing feedback directly from the technicians in the control room, and he was quite sure the players and viewers could tell the difference. From the control room Anand could see that there were over three-thousand viewers following the rogue cowboy making his way up the main street of Squabash. Anand argued with Christopher about shutting down the game until the argument became academic.
Realizing he was getting nowhere with Christopher, Anand returned his focus to the crisis in Squabash. He could see that the one red dot, representing the rogue cowboy on the central overhead vid-screen display, was just in front of the graphic cut away of the saloon entrance. He could see the red dot confronting three green dots, each representing one of Marshal Redburn’s deputies. Inside the saloon a variety of green and yellow dots were moving about or staying still. Anand knew the dots that were staying still were hosts who were hiding from the impending gunfight inside the Saloon.
On the central media screen, Henry continued to click on the interface, and arrange the vid-screen display, so that the point of view from the rogue cowboy was now clearly visible in a small window. This window was labeled as the ‘Host View’. Anand, Henry, and the technicians in the control room, watched, along with the three-thousand viewers, as the rogue gunman studied the men blocking the entrance to the Saloon. The host view display showed that the rogue cowboy was scanning the faces of the deputies one by one. First he looked at the man in the center who kept talking. Next, he looked at the deputy to his left side, who had a thin scar on his face. Finally, the rogue cowboy scanned the face of the deputy on his right side. This deputy was heavy set and wore a thick beard. As they were watching from the perspective of the rogue cowboy, Anand became distracted by one of the green dots inside the saloon. The green dot turned yellow, and then red.
“What’s this?” Anand asked pointing to the map view and the new red dot, “Is this another rogue cowboy?”
Henry quickly clicked on the new red dot and brought up an information window. The information in the display window hovering near the new red dot said:
Name: Angie Yu
Role: Sadie – Saloon Girl
Age: 21
Sex: Female
Popularity: 18%
Player Control: 0%
Viewers: 1
“She’s one of our Saloon Girls,” Henry said.
“What is she …” Anand’s broken question was interrupted by the answer.
On the Host View screen, which was still displaying the perspective from the rogue cowboy, they watched as the window of the saloon exploded outward. The thin cowboy, with the scar on his face, tumbled out of the field of vision and out of the rogue cowboy’s point of view.
Within the same instant, the rogue cowboy was shooting directly into the remaining saloon guards at point blank range. They watched as the cowboy fired two shots in quick succession, one shot for each of the remaining deputies. They watched as the deputies guarding the saloon twisted, turned, and fell.
On the map display the synaptic activity counter, for the three green dots that had been positioned at the entrance of the saloon, slowed and then quickly dropped to zero. These were the dots that indicated the positions of the deputies outside the Saloon. One by one, these green dots turned to grey, indicating a complete malfunction of the synaptic interface device. As Anand watched together with the technicians, they all were uncomfortably aware that the interface devices were not malfunctioning. The technicians gathered about the room did not move or speak. They all knew there was no technical failure.
As they watched the synaptic activity of the deputies drop to zero, and the green dots turn to grey, it occurred to Anand that the cowboys guarding the saloon were not rogue or even resisting. They were green dots on the map before they turned to grey, which meant that they were in compliance with their remote players.
“Who was controlling those Cowboys?” Anand asked pointing to the grey dots.
“The link is down, the hosts are ‘Off’” Henry said, who seemed ignorant of the morbid irony in his reply.
From the rogue cowboy point of view, still active on the control room vid-screen display,Henry, Anand, and the other control technicians, continued to watch as the rogue cowboy stumbled out into the main street. Anand was expecting him to move quickly inside the Saloon and claim his prize, so these steps backwards were unexpected. Anand then realized the rogue cowboy was wounded. He had been shot in the exchange with the deputies.
“What’s going on here?” Anand asked out loud.
Anand realized this was more than a feud between locals. The deputies that were involved in the gunfight were hosts, and they were actively being controlled remotely. The guards had been represented by green dots on the central display, and that meant that they were in compliance with their remote players.
“There are players involved in this.” Anand said, answering his own question.
Anand’s brain buzzed with possibilities. This was more than a local vendetta. This gunfight involved complicity from the players. Maybe it was all engineered by players. The events were continuing to unfold at a rapid rate. Anand realized he needed to do something quickly to get control of the situation.
On the control room map display, they watched a green dot emerge from the Marshal’s office which also served as the jail building. This was now the only green dot on the main street. All the other green dot hosts were still hiding in the buildings. This new green dot began a slow and purposeful walk down the main street, and towards the rogue cowboy.
“The fight is not over,” Anand said continuing his dialogue with himself.
“Who is that?” Anand asked pointing to the new green dot that was walking down the main street of Squabash.
Henry obediently clicked on the green dot and a new host information display window appeared on the central display screen. The information widow followed the green dot on its slow progression down the main street. The data on the information display read:
Name: Tommy Chin
Role: Dirk Redburn - Marshal
Age: 24
Sex: Male
Popularity: 98%
Player Control: 99%
Viewers: 22
“Now we have one who is still alive and is still being controlled remotely. Can you trace the remote player?” Anand asked.
Henry, who looked very stressed, said, “I am working on it.”
Henry clicked loudly on his work-station interface. While waiting for Henry to run his trace, Anand watched the control room map display intently. From the rogue cowboys view window, which was still active, he could clearly see Marshal Dirk Redburn walking towards the rogue cowboy. When Redburn was within range he came to a stop. His broad white oversized cowboy hat shaded his eyes. Marshal Dirk Redburn stood with his right hand poised over the gun strapped to his right leg. The gun handle was painted with a red stripe.
“Can you bring up the Marshal’s point of view on the display?” Anand asked.
Henry clicked and a new window opened showing the ho
st view from the perspective of Marshal Redburn. From this view they could see the rogue cowboy. The rogue cowboy looked pale and young inside a black cowboy costume. The right side of his shirt was wet. The white bandage that was covering his right arm, from elbow to hand, was stained with bright red blood. The image settled and was steady. The Marshal had stopped moving.
On the control room map display the green dot, representing the Marshal, had also stopped moving. The cowboys stood facing each other on Main Street only a few yards apart. It was a classic quick-draw gun fight. It was the type of gun fight the players and host had recreated multiple times each day at Wild West Alive; only this time it was real.
Each of the cowboys waiting for the other to make their first move. Anand looked back at the red dot that represented the rogue cowboy. He noticed that the information on the display was changing. As he watched the display, he could see the synaptic activity counter was dropping steeply, and then it leveled off.
Henry was busy, but Anand distracted him anyway, “What does this mean?” Anand asked.
He then continued, “Why did his Synaptic activity counter drop? Is the rogue cowboy dying?”
Henry looked up from his work station monitor.
“Here,” Anand touched the central vid-screen display indicating the statistics next to the red dot and then said, “The synaptic activity has dropped to less than fifteen hundred.”
“Oh,” Henry responded, “He’s gone into his meditative trance. That is what they do when they are ready for a remote player to take control of their body. He is running on autopilot now.”
Then almost as an afterthought Henry said, “The trace we are running on the other host; we have not yet identified the user controlling the Marshal, but the data is coming in now. The Marshal is being controlled by a player in San Francisco. We should have the players name in another couple of minutes.”
Anand did not need to hear the name. He already knew it. Anand took his shirt off and stepped over to the Synaptic Suit that was setup next to Henry’s work-station.
“I’m Synapping in,” Anand said, “I am taking control of the rogue cowboy.”