Ocean in the Sea Page 9

  Silence loomed deep and seemed to last forever until a single drip fell off a pipe and landed at the bottom of the cistern.

  “If that’s your answer, then fine. I’ll do it. Tomorrow I’m ending this, one way or another. You don’t believe me? Watch.”

  Closing his eyes, he ticked off the seconds in his head. Another drip sounded. They came every five minutes. He counted for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually, he fell asleep counting.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Lewis awoke in a chair. He tried to move and felt the resistance of cold metal against his arms and legs. Security clamps, held him in place. Pressure against his head ran in a ring around his skull. A cervical lock, he realized. It kept him from turning. He could only see forward.

  Across from Lewis, Valon Kang sat on a wooden stool playing with his cane. “Ah, you’ve finally come to. Excellent. I was getting tired of waiting.”

  “What the Hell is this!?” demanded Lewis. His voice rose to a shout. “How did I get here? Where AM I?”

  “Relax. This is all a memory. Or it will be by the time you get around to hearing it. Message in a bottle, but in this case, your cerebral cortex.”

  Lewis struggled, but only for a second. It was pointless. He was wasting his strength.

  “Good lad. Those restraints were made for chimpanzees. They’re about three times stronger than humans, I’m told. Shall we begin?”

  “Begin what?”

  Valon rolled his eyes. “You’re training, Lewis. I can’t send you off without some training. You’re worthless to me if you can’t deliver my message.”

  “His heart rate is evening out,” said a female voice.

  Doctor Trent, realized Lewis. A pulse of anxiety ran through him. She hated him. There was no reason why, but he was confident he’d read the signals correctly. Plus she’d shot him in the chest with a tranquilizer dart. Her presence hinted at worse to come. Torture, most likely. He clenched his jaw.

  “And now it’s going back up. Do you want me to give him a sedative?” she asked.

  “No, that’s not necessary. Is the thallamic dampener functioning?”

  “Everything’s set for theta level. He won’t recall a thing until he hears the key words. They’re already in place.”

  “Good. I’d like you to leave us now, Nora. What I have to say is for Lewis alone.”

  Footsteps clicked across the floor and a door opened and closed. Lewis let out his breath. “Where am I?” he asked again.

  Valon leaned forward. Flipping his cane from hand to hand, he stared at the middle-aged analyst. “You’re someplace else right now, Lewis. I don’t know precisely where that is, but I’m certain it’s different than anything you’ve experienced before. The world has changed around you. Memories like this one will be your only guide. You’ll recall them a little at a time. They’ll teach you what you need to know as you progress.”

  “Why are you doing this?” grunted Lewis. “What message?”

  “It’s a message for a private audience. Don’t worry, it’s already in your head, and it will travel with you wherever you go. When – if, you arrive – the recipients of the message will know how to get it out. You should find that fascinating, but getting there is the problem. There are a slew of different simulations to traverse along the ring before you arrive at the uplink point. My goal in leaving you these memories is to provide you with some answers and some weapons. You’ll need them.

  “When you first arrive, you won’t remember anything except being summoned to meet with me. Your awakening will trigger an initial message that should help keep you alive, but you’ll be in a foreign environment. Hopefully, you’ll be able to reach safety and fall asleep. That will trigger this memory. If you’re hearing it, then you’re still alive. Congratulations! If you’re not, then you’re dead. In which case, I’m very disappointed, but don’t worry. I’ll find someone else. You’re not the first messenger I’ve sent, and you won’t be the last.”

  “I’m not comforted,” rasped Lewis through his dry throat.

  “Pity. In any case, whatever suppositions you’ve come to are undoubtedly in error. You are not insane, and you are not currently in the Majutay building.”

  “I’m not?”

  “No, I mean yes, you are right now, but when you get this memory, you won’t be. So you aren’t here at the moment, but you were. Is that at all clear?”

  Lewis sputtered with irritation, “couldn’t be clearer.”

  Valon laughed. “Sarcasm! That’s so rare for you, isn’t it Lewis. I think you’ve made a breakthrough. Ezra would be proud.”

  Lewis curled his lips back at the reference to his therapist. “You know about Ezra?”

  “I know everything about you. And what I didn’t know, I made up. Convenience, Lewis, when you have it, everything comes pre-packaged to specification. I feed the system a need, and the need is met. That doesn’t mean I created you, it just means you were the right fit. It’s simple statistics. There are billions of people to pick from, it was inevitable that someone would meet my requirements. You’re the winner.”

  “I’m overjoyed. What do I get?”

  “A one-way trip through the ring. The adventure of a lifetime. Power beyond the ken of mortal man.” Spinning his cane in his fingers, Valon lowered the end at Lewis. “This, I will give unto thee. But!” he added, withdrawing the cane, “it won’t be easy. There will be suffering, hardship, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll survive.” He shrugged. “Nothing a man with a death-wish can’t handle, am I right?”

  Lewis averted his eyes. “I don’t have a death-wish.”

  “Oh, let’s not start lying to each other! That won’t benefit either of us. Instead, let’s focus on the wonderful blessings I’m about to bestow. There are three of them. The first is the ability to communicate. That’s important. Languages will differ where you’re going, and you’ll need to access to host memories to understand it. The second is your weapon – the manipulation of probability. The less you know, the more powerful you’ll be. And the third is the ability to jump. A mental slip across the overriding interface linking the simulations together in the ring. Power, Lewis, beyond the ken of mortal man.”

  “You already said that.”

  “It sounded good the first time, so I thought I’d repeat it.”

  Lowering his brow in anger, Lewis blinked. He swallowed several times to clear his dry scratchy throat. “What did you give me? What did Nora shoot me with?”

  “A drug. Same one used on the chimps. You’re wondering how long you’ve been unconscious.” He checked his watch. “It’s been about five hours. Thirsty?” He got up and grabbed a squirt bottle, feeding Lewis through the tube. Lewis gulped greedily. The warm water soothed his throat.

  “The scanner,” said Lewis, “it’s never been tested on a human. You don’t know if it’s going to kill me.”

  “Nonsense.” Valon resumed his seat on the stool and pulled a set of dice out of his pocket. “I tested it on myself. Remember when I told you about recording skills and talents? That’s a requirement – a necessity. The ability to interface with the local Attistar – that’s the system we’re in – resides strictly in my head. The protocols can’t be learned, they have to be transferred. To do that, I had to extract them. While you were unconscious, they were implanted and now reside in a host of locations within your brain. A gift, from me to you. But accessing the interface will require a bit of practice, which is why we’re here.” He shook the dice. “First, though, a demonstration is in order. Ever wonder how I acquired my fortune, Lewis?”

  “I figured you inherited it.”

  “Initially, the person of Valon Kang did start out with a sizable bank account,” agreed Valon. “It was seed money. The rest came from gambling. I had to use proxies to avoid detection by the authorities, but, to be blunt, I’ve won lotteries a total of 23 times and grew that through tactical investments in businesses I knew would succeed. On worlds where gambling exists,
it’s a simple trick, and one you can use. Fours.” He threw ten dice on the ground. “Drat. You can’t see them can you? The collar holds you head in place. Sorry, that’s necessary to record this. Well, they’re all fours.” He sighed. “I suppose I need a better demonstration.” He picked up a box lying on the counter. “Here’s a better example. I have no idea what’s in here, do you?”

  “Of course not. Mister Kang, this is kidnapping and torture. If you let me out now, I promise not to press charges. Let me walk away and I’ll stay out of your hair.”

  “Sorry, you’re in it to win it.” Valon set the box on his lap. “What do you want to be in this box? Not what you think is in it, but what you want to be in it. Make something up. Something crazy that makes no sense.”

  “What will that tell me?” snapped Lewis. “You’ve got your fingers in my brain. You could have implanted anything I might suggest could be in that box and have arranged the entire thing.”

  “You’re a wise man, Lewis Herman. And you’re right.” Valon tossed the box to the floor in frustration. “The dice could be rigged. The information could be implanted. Let’s just start the training.” Reaching over to the nearby computer console, his hand hovered over a key. “Pay attention to this sensation.” His finger dropped.

  A flare of energy passed through Lewis. He shivered. It began at the base of his brain, flowed down his spine, and caused his skin to tingle. “AH!”

  “That’s it,” said Valon. “You’ve just interfaced with the Attistar. You didn’t send it anything, that’s just a ping, but you’ll feel that sensation every time you manipulate probability in the ring. What you need to learn now is how to evoke the sensation at will, and how to input what you want. It’s an API, a function, a method, and it has parameters. You must supply those parameters.”

  This, thought Lewis, was absolute bullshit. But, maybe if he played along, Kang would eventually let him go. Whatever he’d just felt, it wasn’t painful. There wasn’t a lot of choice in any case. Humor him. “How do I… evoke the sensation?”

  “It’s a mental trigger. It starts at the base of your skull near your brain stem, but the cascade begins in your cerebrum. The best way to learn is by doing. Give it a try. Imagine the sensation you just felt, move your way into it. As you go, you’ll sense something like a soft sponge, a fuzzy sphere of energy. There’s a bit of a build as you push, and you’ll feel the increase in power until it tips over the edge, at which point you can’t stop it, and the sensation will actualize as it did when I triggered it. In some ways, it’s not all that different from an orgasm.”

  Lewis was trying to evoke the sensation when Valon mentioned the orgasm. He stopped and narrowed his eyes. “Dear God, Valon, is this some kind of sick sexual fetish of yours? Is that why you have me here?”

  The elderly man pounded the desk in front of the console. “NO. It was an example. Don’t be resistant. I’ve got other things to do. There are people waiting to kill me, and I can’t let them until you’ve been dispatched. That’s putting a load on the local system. I should have been dead Saturday. Now concentrate and try again.”

  Dead Saturday? thought Lewis. Yes, he decided, Valon was most definitely insane. He was in the hands of a maniac. His head was inside an experimental medical scanner. And he was trapped. There was no way out. “How did you convince Doctor Trent to go along with this?”

  Valon’s eyes flashed in rage. He stabbed the button again. Lewis squirmed as the sensation flowed through him. “This isn’t ABOUT Doctor TRENT!” shouted Valon. “This is about you’re survival. If you don’t learn, you’re going to die. Does that provide you with any incentive?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then try again.”

  Lewis closed his eyes and returned to feeling for the sensation. Actually, there was something, but it wasn’t where Valon said it would be. It was located more in the center of his spine. As he pushed, he felt it build, and as he kept pushing, the energy overflowed. Like water in a cup under the tap, it poured over him in tingling waves.

  “Perfect!” Valon smiled at the display. “You’re a natural, just as you should be.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I picked you to be.” An upbeat chiming ringtone chirped from Valon’s pocket. He looked at his watch and frowned. “Just a second. I have to take this. Keep practicing.” Whipping his phone out, he stood up and put it to his ear. “What is it?”

  Lewis listened raptly. This could be his chance. Should he call out for help? Valon would be angry, but whatever his delusions, the crazy bastard didn’t seem interested in murder.

  “No, I do not want steak,” Valon said into the phone. “You know I’m a vegetarian.”

  “HELP ME!” Lewis screamed as loud as he could. “I’m LEWIS HERMAN. I’m being HELD HOSTAGE by VALON KANG!”

  Valon rolled his eyes. “Just a second.” He turned to Lewis with a disgusted expression. “Would you SHUT UP? Can’t you see I’m on the PHONE!?” He lifted the receiver. “Just a salad. That’s all I want. Oh, and a side of those crispy noodles, you know the ones. They’re made out of sesame seeds and they have that honey flavor? Right. Those. I’ll see you later.” He put the phone back in his pocket and frowned at Lewis. “You weren’t practicing were you? How are you going to learn anything if you don’t practice?”

  “You’re insane.”

  “We’re all insane, Lewis. Look at us. We live in a computer simulation. We’re tools, each and every one of us. Myself being slightly excluded. Practice – NOW! I want to see you ping that Attistar.”

  Lewis glared but obeyed. Valon watched the console as the neural readout spiked several times. “Good, good,” he finally said. “That’s enough. Let’s move on to the cards.” He took a deck out of his jacket and unwrapped it, shuffling them on the console desktop. After fifteen shuffles, he set the deck face down in front of him. “Only the system knows what order the cards are in. I don’t know, and you don’t know. No one knows but the Attistar. Schrödinger's cat, Lewis, but that was binary. The cat was either dead or alive. In this case, we’ve got fifty two cards in a random order. You aren’t going to guess that order, you’re going to set it.”

  “But the cards are already IN the order they’re in,” protested Lewis. “I can’t change them. All I can do is guess.”

  “Not at all. The cards are matter. Matter is energy. Energy is data. Data can be manipulated. I’m going to give you a phrase to use. The phrase is, ‘what are the odds.’ This is the question you must ask yourself, but instead of thinking about the answer, you’re going to determine the answer. And the answer is 1. In any statistical calculation, 1 is absolute. You’re familiar with standard deviation and probability curves?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright, then. Ask yourself what the odds are of this being a specific card. Imagine the card you want in your mind. Believe with complete conviction that the card is the one you want. The answer is one – it IS the card. As you do this, trigger your link with the Attistar. Go.”

  Lewis took a deep breath and followed the instructions. “Ace of Spades.”

  Valon flipped the card. King of Hearts. “You didn’t believe strongly enough. All doubt has to go bye-bye or this won’t work. Try again, and relax. You’ll get it eventually.”

  “What does belief have to do with it? Why do I have to believe?”

  “It’s a safeguard,” replied Valon. “The interface wasn’t designed for simulants, it was designed for guest administrators to participate in collaborative plot manipulation. Think of belief as a safety switch. You need to overcome it. Make sense? Now try again, and believe.”

  “Three of clubs.”

  Valon flipped over a Two of Diamonds. “Again.”

  “Four of Hearts.”

  Valon flipped over a Five of Spades. “Again.”

  This was never going to work. Lewis squeezed his dry eyes until his tear ducts released some moisture. Even if he got a card right, it was pure chance. “Ten of Clubs.”

  Valon
flipped over a Two of Spades. “You have to believe, Lewis. You’re not even trying, I can tell. We’ll be at this all day if you don’t start to have some faith in your abilities. Would you like me to try and implant my belief schema into your brain?”

  “You didn’t do that already?”

  “No. I try not to tinker with belief. Messengers need their own motivation and drive. When they have mine, it tends to get them killed.” He shuffled the cards again several times, set the deck down, and tapped the top card. “What are the odds, Lewis? Make it one, and believe.”

  “I can’t. I’m a natural cynic.”

  “Cynics can believe anything they want. Being cynical doesn’t prevent you from believing, it only makes you require proof. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, I can’t give you that proof. Anything I do is suspect. The only actual proof I can give you is that which you create.”

  Breathing deeply, Lewis tightened his fingers over the arms of his chair. “You’re expecting me to believe I can do something I know I can’t do!”

  “Bah.” Valon flicked his cane up and grabbed it by the middle. “What are the odds that this stick will land with the perfect angle, weight, and velocity, to stay straight up on its end?” He spun the cane in his fingers and tossed it in the air. It hit the floor on its base, bounced once, wobbled for a moment, and settled standing as if carefully balanced and released. “The answer is one,” said Valon.

  Lewis had to admit, that was pretty impressive. “You’ve got the cane weighted.”

  “That wouldn’t account for this.”