Reaper

  “No,” said Michael. “People on Celestius tend to stick to the foods we knew and liked before we entered Game.”

  “You don’t spend all your time on Celestius though,” said Nathan.

  “No, but if I go to an event where there’s food involved, people make sure there’s plenty of my favourite ...”

  Michael was interrupted by another buzzing sound from Nathan’s bank of controls. Nathan scurried across to tap at them. Michael and I watched hopefully, but got restless when he didn’t say anything for a full minute.

  “Is that a report from the Game Tech investigation?” I asked.

  “Yah.” Nathan was still staring at his screens.

  “Judging from the expression on your face, it isn’t good news,” said Michael.

  “It isn’t,” said Nathan. “The Game Techs couldn’t track Harper’s location using his identity number, so they tried the alternative method of looking for his constream. That’s the stream of data in Game which... Well, it’s a bit hard to describe, but you can think of it as Harper’s consciousness in Game.”

  “I’ve never found a good way to describe it either,” said Michael. “I like to think of myself as a person, not a lot of data floating around in a computer.”

  “Everyone’s constream has its designated position in the Game system,” said Nathan. “When the Game Techs checked the designated position for Harper’s constream, they found it had been deleted.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t believe that Harper would just delete himself from existence.”

  “Harper hasn’t deleted himself,” said Nathan. “I’ve explained to you before that Game Techs can enter areas of Game that players can’t reach. Game Tech constreams are also held in completely different data storage areas from those of players. When a player is recruited as a Game Tech, an automated process is used to transfer the new recruit’s constream from player data storage to Game Tech data storage.”

  He paused. “When Harper vanished, it was because he’d run that automated process in reverse.”

  I tried to work out what that meant. Michael got there faster than me. “You mean that Harper has changed himself from a Game Tech into an ordinary player?”

  “Yah,” said Nathan. “Harper’s recreated himself as a player, but he’s changed both his name and his identity number. The Game Techs can’t find any clues to what player name he’s using now, what he looks like, or where he went.”

  Michael’s eyes widened in alarm. “Could he have gone to Celestius?”

  “That’s the one world in Game where Harper definitely can’t be,” said Nathan. “The system only allows entry to Celestius for those on the list of Founder Players.”

  “Could Harper have added himself to that list?” I asked.

  “There are under a thousand Founder Players,” said Nathan. “It was easy for the Game Techs to check that no new ones have suddenly appeared. You can’t have two players with the same identity number, so Harper can’t have duplicated an existing Founder Player.”

  I had an extremely nasty thought. “Is it possible that Harper has deleted one of the Founder Players from Game and replaced them?”

  “No,” said Nathan. “This automated process is used to transfer a single constream between the player and Game Tech data storage. It couldn’t have affected any other players.”

  “So, the Reaper has created a new player identity for himself,” I said. “We know he isn’t a Founder Player, but other than that ...”

  Michael groaned. “There are fifty billion players in Game, and any one of them could be the Reaper.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  There was a long silence before Nathan spoke. “I’m sorry. After all you two went through ...”

  Michael literally shook himself. “No. We mustn’t let ourselves think of this as a failure. When this investigation started, no one could think of anything more useful to do than randomly arresting kids from the body stacks.”

  I frowned as I remembered the Unilaw droid that had broken into my room and held me at gunpoint.

  “Think how far we’ve come since then,” said Michael. “We’ve found out which Game Tech was the Reaper, and that means we can trust the rest of them. It’s a huge relief to know I can enter Game again without worrying that the Game Techs guarding my back might delete me.”

  “Are we sure that the Reaper was the only Game Tech involved in the bombing?” I asked.

  “The Reaper was planning to make himself the ruler of Game,” said Michael. “I can’t believe he’d be willing to share his throne with another Game Tech. It’s not just his ego that would stop him involving a rival, but his caution too. Another Game Tech would be a potential threat. We know the Reaper reacts to threats by eliminating them, and he’d be well aware that he couldn’t eliminate another Game Tech as easily as a teenager.”

  “Yah,” I said thoughtfully. “The Reaper would stick to recruiting convenient tools that he could dispose of easily when their usefulness was at an end.”

  “The Reaper had centuries to prepare for this,” said Michael. “It’s not surprising that he’d have an escape route ready to use if things went wrong, but transferring to being a player must severely limit his actions. He won’t be able to use any special Game Tech abilities now, will he, Nathan?”

  “Definitely not. The systems and tools that Game Techs use are accessed from their backstage areas of Game. It’s impossible for the Reaper to reach those now that he’s an ordinary player. When players ask to move location within Game, they can only go to player areas. When Game Techs move location, they can either go to player areas or backstage.”

  “The Reaper just has to get a job in the real world to have access to a controlled droid though,” I said. “That means he’ll still be able to make bombs. He shouldn’t be able to get hold of the force field codes for the server complexes now, but he could attack other vulnerable places.”

  “If the Reaper arranges another bombing,” said Michael, “we’ll get clues to his new identity. He won’t be able to bribe any teenagers by clearing their records now, or play around with identity numbers to hide who is controlling a droid.”

  “Point,” I acknowledged, “but I’d still feel happier if we had a way to catch him before there’s another bombing. Do the Game Techs know which frozen body belongs to the Reaper?”

  “Yah,” said Nathan. “It’s under guard now, but guarding the Reaper’s frozen body doesn’t stop him doing things in Game.”

  “Of course not,” I said, “but can’t the Game Techs run checks to find what player owns that body?”

  Nathan sighed. “They’ve already gone through their records, but no player is listed as owning the Reaper’s body. He’s probably set up his new identity without any information on a physical body. That’s not going to attract attention, because a lot of players don’t have a body any longer.”

  “What? No physical body?” I shook my head. “How could that happen?”

  “When someone critically ill enters Game, their body may not survive the freezing process,” said Nathan. “You end up with an orphaned mind in Game with no body in the real world. After four centuries of rushing people into Game before they die, there must be hundreds of thousands of players in that situation.”

  I could see that was better than letting someone die in real life, and logically the person in Game was just as real whether they had a body in a freezer unit or not. Still, I found it disturbing to think of people not having a physical body at all. Presumably they’d be told about their situation, perhaps they’d even be asked if they wanted their body buried or cremated. I wondered if they ever thought of themselves as ghosts haunting Game.

  Michael abandoned the remains of his meal and stood up. “I need to report back to Game now, and then we should all get some sleep. Is it possible to get more beds in here, or do we have to share? If so, I’m first in line to share with Jex.”

  I threw an apple core at him. “We agreed not to rush things!”

/>   Nathan coughed pointedly. “I’ll, um, see what I can arrange about beds.”

  Michael wandered over to the mosaic of screens and tapped at the controls. The four screens at the centre of the mosaic merged together to form a single, larger screen, and a woman appeared on it. She was wearing a purple sari trimmed with gold, and had diamonds sparkling on her dark forehead. I knew she was in Game, because she was too lovely to be a real human being. Besides, I recognized her even before Michael greeted her with a grin.

  “Cassandra, it’s me.”

  This was Cassandra, who people called the Dream Weaver. Everyone agreed she was the loveliest of the female Founder Players. Not because of her looks – anyone could choose to be beautiful in Game – but because of her smile. People said it was the most fascinating smile of any woman in Game, and eulogized about the Mona Lisa and Helen of Troy. Cassandra was smiling at Michael now.

  “Not quite Hawk the Unvanquished,” she said.

  He pulled a face of self-deprecation. “No, Michael’s back.”

  She laughed. “Michael looks better than I remember him in the old days. Did someone pin you down and forcibly cut your hair?”

  “They have machines that cut your hair now,” said Michael. “I tried one out while I was showering. I was worried it would cut my ears off, but it didn’t.”

  He turned to gesture at me and Nathan. “Cassandra, you know all about me defrosting to help Jex and Nathan chase the bomber. Jex, Nathan, this is Cassandra. She’s been helping me hide the fact I’d left Game.”

  Cassandra nodded. “Hello Jex. Hello Nathan.”

  Nathan was staring in awe at Cassandra. He blushed and mumbled a greeting. I was a bit tongue tied too. It wasn’t just that I was being introduced to Cassandra the Dream Weaver. Michael was smiling at her in a way that meant she was very special to him. I felt horribly jealous.

  “So ...” said Michael, or Hawk. “What’s happening in Game, Cassandra?”

  She sighed. “The player population is getting upset. It’s been a long time since you gave them an update.”

  “Unavoidable. If people saw me as Michael, they’d lose all confidence in my ability to save them from a rat, let alone a bomber. Besides, I’ve been very busy.”

  “But you’re coming back to Game to make a broadcast now?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid I won’t be in Game and ready to make a broadcast for about another twelve hours.”

  “Twelve hours!” Cassandra took a deep breath. “I don’t think I can keep people calm for that long. They’re losing faith in the Game Techs, Unilaw, and even you.”

  “I could give you an update to pass on to them.”

  She looked doubtful. “It would have to be something good.”

  Michael thought for a moment. “It should be safe to let people know that I’m not in Game now. Let’s go for the sympathy vote. Tell people that I defrosted to chase the bomber in real life. Say that I’ve been wounded, and I need to heal up before returning to Game or I’ll have to have my arm amputated. I’ll be back in Game and making an important broadcast in twelve hours’ time.”

  Cassandra’s eyes widened with concern. “You’ve been wounded? Are you all right?”

  “I’ll be fine,” said Michael. “Absolutely fine, so long as I let my arm heal before they freeze me.”

  “The players should respond to that,” said Cassandra. “Heroic Hawk chasing the bomber in the real world, struggling on despite his wounds, willing to die permanently to save his fellow players.”

  Michael laughed. “I’m sure you’ll make a great speech. There’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

  His expression abruptly changed to be deadly serious. “This is for your ears only, Cassandra. Tell your husband if you wish, but no one else. I’ll tell the player population about it eventually, but I’ll need to break the news to the family first.”

  She looked alarmed. “What’s happened?”

  “The bomber tried to blow up another server complex. Jex helped me get recruited as his assistant. She acted the role of human sacrifice, and was even willing to die genuinely if necessary. That meant I found out about the bombing and was able to stop it, but ... The bomber’s target was Celestius.”

  Cassandra’s famous smile vanished. She no longer looked assured and immortal, but like an ordinary woman.

  “Thank you for stopping the bombing,” she said, her eyes going from Michael, to me, and to Nathan in turn. “I would have died.”

  I wasn’t jealous of her any longer. I’d just been reminded of the fact that she’d been married to Thor for more than three hundred years, and anyway Michael had told me that none of the female Founder Players had ever been interested in him.

  I hastily tried to reassure Cassandra. “There were millions of players on Avalon when it crashed, so over eleven thousand people died in emergency defrost. With less than a thousand people on Celestius, a world crash might not cause any deaths at all.”

  She lifted a graceful hand to stop me. “You don’t understand, Jex. People entering Game now are still young and healthy, but the Founder Players were very different. A third of us entered the Game because we were terminally ill. My body was very weak indeed. Even a planned defrost would be extremely dangerous for me. An unscheduled, high-speed defrost would certainly have killed me and many of the rest of the family as well.”

  “Oh,” I murmured, thinking of how the players would have reacted to the deaths of hundreds of their legendary Founder Players. It would have been far worse than the panic after the Avalon deaths.

  Cassandra made a visible effort to pull herself together. “I’ll give your message to the player population, Hawk. I’ll leave you to tell the family about ... the other news.”

  The call ended, and Michael turned to Nathan. “Beds?”

  “Beds?” asked Nathan blankly.

  The tension in Michael’s face was replaced with amusement. “The flat things you sleep on. I thought I was the one who was four hundred years out of date on things like food and sleep.”

  “Oh yah,” said Nathan. “Beds. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I needed a moment of humour. I’ve been going through a whole series of living nightmares in the last few hours. Thinking I’d really killed Jex. Carrying round bombs. Finding out I’d been sent to destroy my own home, my own family. Seeing Cassandra’s face just now made everything pile on top of me. We came so close to losing the whole Sisterhood, and that’s ...”

  Michael broke off and brushed his face with his hand. “I mustn’t rip myself apart over things that didn’t happen. I don’t know how I’m going to tell the family about the attack on Celestius though. I can’t lie to them, not about something like this, and if Cassandra takes it that hard then some of the others will be totally hysterical.”

  He shook his head. “People seem to think Hawk is an invulnerable legend, but I have limits. Here in the real world, being Michael again, that’s even more true. A funny moment is just what I needed to relax. Please, let’s forget human sacrifices, bombs, the Reaper, everything, and think about silly things for a while.”

  Nathan gave him a thoughtful look. “If you want to think about silly things, then just remember that shower.”

  Nathan tugged three chairs into a line, went over to the wall, and worked on a control panel. The chairs shuffled closer together and merged to form a small bed.

  “That’s one bed,” he said cheerfully. “Now the one in the bedroom is extra large to give pregnant women plenty of comfortable space. At least, that’s what it told me.”

  I giggled. “Your bed talked to you?”

  “Oh yah,” said Nathan. “The shower and the bed are both worried about my hormones, so they talk to me a lot.”

  Michael and I followed him into the bedroom. “I think I can ...” Nathan adjusted a control panel at the side of the bed.

  “Are you sure you wish to make that change?” asked the bed.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” said Nathan.

  “Durin
g pregnancy a larger sleeping area ...”

  “Just shut up and make the change,” said Nathan.

  The bed split down the middle and the two sides moved smoothly apart, but it still wasn’t happy about the new arrangement. “If you wish to restore default sleeping accommodation then ...”

  “I don’t!”

  Nathan waited a moment, in case the bed tried to mutiny, but it stayed silently in two halves.

  “I think the bed’s sulking,” said Michael, with a grin. “I feel a bit like sulking too. If we’d been stuck with that large bed, and it came down to a fight over which of us was going to share it with Jex, I was pretty sure I’d beat you, Nathan.”

  “I’m not so sure,” said Nathan, looking at Michael with concern. “Do you realize you’re swaying from side to side?”

  I could see what he meant. Michael had seemed perfectly normal while he was getting the news report from Nathan. He’d looked tired while talking to Cassandra. Now he was clearly about to drop from exhaustion combined with the aftermath of stress.

  “It doesn’t matter who would win now,” said Michael gloomily. “You’ve blown both our chances by finding us three beds. I know what Jex is going to say.”

  I grinned and said it. “You two sleep in the bedroom. I’m sleeping next door.”

  I went out of the bedroom, and was startled to find Michael following me and shutting the door firmly behind him. I gave him a reproving look. “I said you two were sleeping in the bedroom. You promised not to rush things between us, and frankly you’re in no state to rush things anyway.”

  “I know,” he said. “I just need to talk to you about something in private.”

  “Yah?”

  “In the morning, I have to go back into Game. I’ve arranged for two freezer units to be brought here where Unilaw can keep them safely under guard.”

  I frowned. “Why do you want two freezer units?”

  “I don’t think the Reaper will risk another bombing. I think the chase is moving away from the real world and into Game. Will you come there with me, Jex?”

  I had to replay his words in my head to make sure I hadn’t somehow misheard them. “You want me to enter Game now? I’d love to, but I have to wait until I’m nineteen.”