Thief in the Game Read online

  “No.” I don’t even know why I should lie about that. I try to draw my thoughts together and focus.

  Tag says, “Where have you taken it?”

  “It’s still in Carbondale.” I don’t want to say I’m in the hospital. It would complicate things and they’re already about as complicated as I can cope with. “It’s just a Cab-U away from your home.”

  “I can’t afford Cab-Us.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” I’m brightening. I take a pull off a water bottle. It makes me realize how dry and rusty the air is. There are still a couple of squeeze-bottles of air. I take a pull on one. “I think you might be able to afford the ride.”

  “You juiced me up?” Tag’s playing. It’s cute. But I need to move this along.

  “In all three senses. You got credit, you got power credit, and you’re all charged up. Ready to go in every way.”

  “So. You did pay your debts. After you got what you wanted, I’m sure.”

  “Tag, I juiced you up before I did anything. As soon as I arrived. You can check.”

  “But you took me out on the town. Did you show me a good time?”

  “In Carbondale? Is there one?”

  “There are places people go. But I guess the people who grew up there, so they don’t know any better.”

  “Do you know any better?” I was really curious to know some more about Tag. Now was not the time, though.

  There was a pause. She said, “I read.”

  I wanted to get us moving, but I could tell Tag was having too good a time playing hard to get. I restrained myself from pushing it for a moment. She asked, “So, did you take me to meet a lot of new people?”

  “Yeah, new to me. I met your mom.”

  “That must have been awkward. What did you say to her?”

  “I didn’t say anything. I just kind of barged past her.”

  “How funny.”

  “I feel bad. It was kind of rude.”

  “Rude.” She seemed to be thinking about this for a moment. “Monk, you really are full of surprises.”

  “I figured she had a teenage daughter, at least she did in the recent past, not too long ago. She’d be used to it.”

  “You barged by her with your head down?”

  “Yup. Like teenage girls do.“

  “No, Monk. That’s what teenage boys do. Teenage girls do it with their heads up. We skewer you with our eye.”

  “Oh, yeah, of course. Right.”

  She said, “Then they avoid eye contact, but they’re looking at the ceiling, not the floor.”

  “Okay, look,” I said, anxious to get moving, “A slight change of plan, but I want to swap back now, okay?”

  “I don’t know, Monk. I think I like it here.”

  “Well, we can get you back. But I really want to make sure your body stays undamaged.”

  “See, that’s the other thing. I want my mom to have the body. I can stay up here.”

  “We can talk about it. It’s all possible. But first, let’s make sure we keep your body in good shape, okay? Anyway, have you ever run it fully juiced up?”

  “No. Have you?”

  “No. But now’s your chance.”

  “And how is my body, is she okay?”

  “Sure, it’s fine…”

  “Has she been interfered with much?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, I think you probably do. I’ve heard boys say what they would do if they ever had the chance to be inside a girl’s body.’

  “Tag, really. I haven’t had time to even think about anything like that.” Okay, I had one thought, but this wasn’t the time to admit it. Anyway, if she found herself in a boy’s body, what’s the first thing she’d think of doing?

  In her best sarcastic tone she said, “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “If you haven’t found time to do any of it, well, that’s pretty suspicious in itself. But you haven’t had time to think about it? Monk, even you think fast enough for me to be certain that isn’t true.”

  “Okay. I did. You got me. I thought about it. Okay? Now can we please…”

  “What did you think about?”

  “Tag, we don’t have time. Not now. And, anyway, we don’t have that kind of a relationship.”

  “Monk, you’re saying that from inside my body. Does that not strike you as ironic at all?”

  “Please.”

  “Okay. It had better all be true about the juice, though.”

  “I promise.”

  “And sometime, I’ll need you to apologize to my mom.”

  “Alright. Now…”

  “Soon, okay? Not just one of those ‘sometimes’ that never happen.”

  “You know that I can get the juice back out of your account as easily as I put it in there?”

  “Alright, Monk. I can’t wait to show you through the next level, though.” Was she talking about Vulcan’s Finalé?

  “So, can we please get on with it?”

  There was a longer pause. Then Tag said, “Look, why not just transfer my mom instead, alright? Let me stay up here, she can have the charged up, cyber-amped bod and you can do whatever you want.”

  “Tag, I don’t know if it would work for her. It could kill your body and her too.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “I don’t know how long your body can survive without you in it. Truly.”

  Tag was quiet. I said, “We might be able to do it, but we’d definitely need to do some tests first.”

  “Will you promise to try?” Why not? I thought. It might work, I could see a way I may be able to do it. I could always insist on access to the bod from time to time as a condition. “Sure. I’ll definitely try.”

  “You keep your promises, Monk. I’m counting on you.”

  “No problem.”

  “Same as before?”

  “Yup, only…”

  “Oh, just wait a few minutes, though. I need to finish the thing that I’m doing.”

  “What is it you’re doing?”

  I held my breath. Tag’s breath. Even under the tension, the sensation of holding my breath was still something special. Already I was beginning to wish I could stay in a body. Just like a real boy, as Pinnochio said. Only more like a real girl in this case. But did that mean that I was binding into the body? Would it risk damage when I slipped back out again?

  Tag said, “It’s an arms deal. I went back to the level in the Wa’Haab war-zone and stole a couple of tanks.”

  “Wait… Tag, that sounds like it could take some time.”

  “No. Sit tight, I’ll be done before you know it.”

  Very soon after, I felt the dreamlike pull through the NeuRoCrown. Stronger than before, more direct somehow. Purposeful. And it started up without warning. And, as it turned out, it wasn’t Tag.

  Jars

  WHERE HAVE I PORTED? What am I in?

  Shadows. And the red. The red is the light, a soft light like a country morning, soft the way the warm morning air will drift and swirl with tiny flecks of dust, diffuse specks that glimmer and dance. The light glimmers through a half dozen hanging blood packs.

  In the gloom around the sides of a square room are big, squat cabinets. On top of each cabinet is a jar, almost filled with a blueish fluid. Blueish brown. And there’s something in the jars. Each one has something in it, a shape that I don’t want to look at.

  What the fuck is this place? I can’t move. I can feel my body, and that’s not good. it doesn’t feel good. It’s heavy and wet, and I can’t move it. It doesn’t feel familiar. It isn’t Tag’s body, I’m sure of that.

  Maybe it’s my old body. No, tht isn’t possible.

  Gabriel’s voice isn’t coming from a hologram now. It’s right inside my head.

  What am I in?

  “Good morning,” he says. That stiletto smooth tone of his.

  In the middle of the room is a long table. Stretched across the table is the man who’s rec
eiving the blood. Is he receiving, or is he giving? No, he’s receiving. If he were giving, the packs would be down. Not hanging above.

  “Long time no see.”

  It’s not so long, I want to tell him. I saw you in the Cab-U. But I don’t know how long ago that was now. And I can’t tell him that anyway. There’s still a sliver of a chance he doesn’t know about Tag.

  I hope Tag made back it okay. Or that she’s still in good shape in the datasphere. All this time and suddenly here I am caring about someone else. And it’s not like I don’t have anything on my mind right now.

  He has a body. It steps into my view. Says, “You’ve been experimenting.”

  I’m beginning to wonder about the jars. I have to not do that. To distract myslef I start to wonder of this really could be my old body. that starts me thnking about the box or whatever the living fuck it is that I’m suspended in. As distractions go, that was a pretty awful choice.

  I look at the man on the table. I’m trying to work out how old he is. But he’s in silhouette so I can’t tell. He doesnt look well, though. Nobody here looks well. Even the Gabriel’s not exactly looking his best. Even considering how long he must have been in that gaunt frame. Is any of that still made of human? And if it is, does any of the human belong to him?

  He said, “I see you made a download. Pretty successfully, too. I’m impressed.”

  How could he have known? Well, he did. It’s obvious that he fucking did. And I don’t suppose there’s a great deal that I can do about it now.

  What am I in? It feels like I’m in a fluid. No, no, nooooo!

  “You made a very interesting connection, uploading and downloading with your friend.” The voice came closer. “I want to know more about it. A lot more. But you know what it is that I really need to know.”

  I don’t. I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

  “Where is she?”

  First I think he means Tag. But he can’t. Can he? Surely not. Or her mom, does he mean her?

  I try to speak. But I can’t. He steps closer, peers into my eyes. His lips don’t move. I hear him, only inside my head. I’m starting to wonder what my head looks like. I try not to.

  “I’m sure you know.” I’m trying to tell him that I don’t, but I can’t speak. His head tips to one side. “You probably don’t know that you know, though.” I’m feeling a surge of panic. He smiles. It’s not a nice smile. “It’s OK. The knowledge, the recollection is in your mind somewhere.”

  His teeth shine. “I’ll find it.” His smile is cold. “You’ll lead me to her.” His head shakes slowly.

  “I thought when you died, that was going to be the end of it.”

  ~~

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  Garrison’s first taste of R&R back home is a night at Friends Electric but It turns into a bot-brawl and a firefight. Now on the run, his only chance of escape is to sign on for an illegal ghost squad mission, deep in enemy territory. But he returns to the field with a mission of his own; To save a girl he never met IRL on the other side of the world.

  With his body cyber upgraded to a level he can't ever hope to maintain, he's sent as an expendable one-man force on what seems doomed to be a one-way mission. Can he tell who is friend and who is foe, who is real and who is an AI, both online and In ‘Real’ Life?

  WAR IN THE GAME is part 2 of Chronicles of iMortality