Dangerously Placed (4 page)

Kiyoko looked thoughtful.

‘It
would
have the advantage of being extremely safe,' she mused. ‘After all, the participants could hardly catch anything when their actual bodies aren't even in the same city.'

‘Ewww!' Sky screwed up her face in disgust.

‘Yeah, thanks for that image, Ki.' I shook my head at her. ‘So, how was your day?'

‘Excellent. My mentor, Evan, said my meticulousness and inquisitive nature make me perfect for pathology work. And the lab was fascinating – they even let me help with blood cultures and use the phase-contrast microscope on urine samples.'

‘Every girl's dream job, in other words,' I said. Sky looked even more disgusted than before.

‘Mine, certainly.' Ki's eyes gleamed. ‘Evan told me that if I keep up the good work, he'll let me work with the forensic pathologist in the morgue across the road.'

I didn't dare look at Sky.

‘And clearly there's no need to ask if Sky's first day went well,' continued Ki, pointing at a bunch of gerberas in a vase on Sky's dressing table.

‘A present from your mentor for all your hard work?' I guessed.

Sky grinned. ‘Actually, the delivery guy gave them to me. He said they matched my sunny personality.'

‘Nice work, Sky – one day in the place and you've got a not-so-secret admirer! So what's he like?'

Sky flicked a strand of hair over her shoulder.

‘Well, his name's Robbie, he's twenty, he has a motorbike, he's studying Fine Art part-time, he has light brown hair and these cute freckles …'

‘How tall is he?' asked Kiyoko.

Sky put her head on one side, considering.

‘About 180?'

‘Any distinguishing marks?'

I looked at Ki and saw she was making notes on her phone.

‘What is this, a police investigation?' demanded Sky.

‘I just like to keep track,' Ki told her, saving her note. ‘In case anything goes wrong.'

‘Man, Ki, it's not like I'm moving in with the guy! I thought he was cute, okay? Didn't you like the look of any of the guys at
your
placement?'

‘I was busy focusing on my work,' said Ki sanctimoniously.

‘Oh, come on!' Sky turned a look of appeal on me. ‘
You
must have noticed some cute boys at Simulcorp, right, Alex?'

‘The “boys”, as you term them, are mostly twice my age, Sky!' I let her look disappointed for a moment. ‘But … some of them are quite cute, yeah.'

‘Nice! See, Ki, we all know how work-focused Alex is, and she still had time to check out the menfolk. So who were these guys?'

‘Well, Budi, who's kind of my second mentor, is only twenty-one.' I didn't tell them that it was Dale
who'd finally plucked up the courage to ask Budi his age. ‘He's pretty handsome, and he's really kind and funny too. Actually, I think you'd like him a lot, but he lives in Indonesia, so it's not like I could really introduce you.'

‘And what about this Dale you mentioned?' asked Ki.

I knew they were watching me carefully, but I couldn't help going a bit red.

‘Ooooh!' Sky laughed. ‘Tell us!'

‘He just seemed like a nice guy, okay? I really don't know that much about him yet. And it's kind of tricky; I mean, he's competing against me at work. When Inge took us down to Data Analysis this afternoon, he practically broke a sweat making sure he read through the graphs as fast as me. At least, his face looked kind of shiny; the rest of the Virk Suit doesn't sense sweat, actually …'

‘Not that you would've
minded
seeing the rest of him all sweaty, though, huh?' teased Sky. Even Ki was smirking.

‘Shut up!' But I couldn't help giggling. ‘All right, all right, he is pretty hot. He's tall and blond, with really blue eyes …' I stopped, remembering how he'd smiled down at me when we met.

‘Is that it? He's just a handsome face?' asked Sky.

‘Well, he does have the cutest butt I've ever seen!'

‘Talking about me?'

A face appeared around the door.

‘Nix!' Sky whirled around. ‘Don't just barge in here – what if we'd been changing?'

‘Don't
encourage
him, Sky!' I groaned.

Nix just grinned. ‘Come on in, Joel,' he called. A lanky, blond-dreadlocked figure followed him into the room.

‘Dudes,' said Joel, by way of greeting.

‘Don't be shy, Alex,' said Nix, throwing himself down on Sky's bed and winking at me. ‘No need to stop describing my many fine qualities just because I'm in the room.'

I rolled my eyes.

‘I suppose we must assume from your demeanour that your first day of work experience was a positive one?' asked Kiyoko.

Sky had told us Nix had a placement at a special effects studio.

‘
Oh
, yeah! Did some
awesome
stuff.' Nix bounced on the bed like an eight-year-old, his brown hair flopping over his eyes. ‘You know that ad where the two zombies are walking down the street and everyone's screaming, and it turns out they're just after the raisin toast some kid's having for breakfast?'

‘“Smells good enough to wake the dead,”' I quoted. ‘Pretty lame slogan, if you ask me.'

Nix's green eyes glittered.

‘Good thing they didn't ask you, then. Apparently that ad's boosted sales massively, and they're making a sequel. I got to help make all these latex prosthetics
to put on the actors today: squashed eyeballs, rotting flesh, exposed muscles …'

‘Gross!' Joel said appreciatively. ‘Hey, you should make one of them look like their bones are sticking out through the skin.'

‘And I thought Ki was the only one with an unholy desire to look at corpses around here,' I said.

‘Who needs to look at the real thing when you can create something so much gorier?' asked Nix.

‘Okay, enough with the corpse talk,' ordered Sky. ‘Did you just want to gross us out, Nix, or did you guys actually have a reason for coming over here?'

‘As a matter of fact, we did,' said Nix, with an offended air. ‘We came to invite Miss Skydreamer Pedersen and her companions to go bodyboarding with us.' Sky scowled at him. She hates it when anyone uses her full name. I can't really blame her – being called Skydreamer isn't exactly a ticket to being taken seriously. ‘However,' Nix continued, ‘if you would rather not favour us with your company, we shall depart, alone and unwanted …' He put a tragic hand to his brow, which might have been a more effective gesture if it hadn't revealed the words ‘clean eyeball moulds' written in pen on his palm.

‘Okay, okay, I'll come,' muttered Sky. She turned to us. ‘What about you guys?'

‘The beach does have its appeal after a hard day's work,' said Kiyoko, getting up. ‘Though I would prefer to stay out of the water.'

‘Alex?' Nix looked at me.

‘I should be heading home. See you guys tomorrow, okay?'

‘Call me when you finish work,' said Sky. ‘Nix, Joel: get out of the room while I change.'

Ki and I followed them out.

‘So, how was your day, Joel?' I asked.

‘It was cool. Sold a couple of boards and some wax.'

‘Oh. Good work.' Obviously Joel was doing his work experience at his brother Ryan's surf shop, which was where he worked on the weekends anyway.
Oh well
, I thought,
I guess if you know what you want in life …

‘Sure you don't want to come down to the beach?' Nix ran a hand through his unruly hair.

‘You can borrow my board,' offered Joel.

‘Thanks, but no thanks. I'll come down another day.'

‘You used to love boarding. I hardly ever see you out there any more,' said Nix. ‘You don't even come down to Virtuadventures as much as you used to.'

‘I'm a lot busier these days.'

Nix gave a jaunty shrug. ‘Your loss. I'm just sad you won't be there to make my boarding look better.'

‘Well, gee, I'm glad I've been so helpful in the past.' I frowned at him, but it just made him grin. ‘But tonight I've got a whole lot of reading to do.'

‘Homework?' Joel looked confused. ‘I thought none
of the teachers were giving any while we were on work experience.'

‘It's not homework, Joel.' I stepped out the front door. ‘It's work prep.' I waved to Ki and set off for home.

As it turned out, however, nothing I read that night could have prepared me for what the next day was to bring.

My second day at Simulcorp started out so well. Budi had put in a request for changes to my all-grey look, and when I entered the office, I was delighted to find that I was wearing a beautifully tailored, chocolate-coloured skirt and jacket, with a cream shirt and calf-length boots. I was even more delighted when Dale came in wearing a stripy shirt that matched his deep blue eyes, and pants so well-fitting they would have attracted even Kiyoko's attention.

‘Alex!' he said, raising his eyebrows. ‘Looking good!'

‘You clean up quite nicely yourself,' I said, trying very hard to sound casual and not to stare at anywhere too inappropriate.

I had plenty of opportunity to sneak peeks at Dale that morning. Budi set us to work together on a marketing proposal of our own, for Impression
Jeans. He told us one of the other employees was already working on an official one, but that it would be a great learning experience to try doing a proposal ourselves. I was excited – not just because this was real work, but because unlike the marketing campaigns Mr Guildenhall had taught us about in year ten Commerce, everything Simulcorp Marketing did involved virtual elements. That was their specialty, the reason big clients came to Simulcorp: they made virtual environments work in the real world. What Dale and I had to design went way beyond billboards and magazine pages; we had to take the Impression brand by the seat of its dark denim bootcuts and lift it into the future.

‘So I guess we start with a basic SWOT analysis before we work out how we're going to use virtual marketing,' I said as we sat at the little table in our shared cubicle.

‘Sounds good,' said Dale, dividing the paper in front of us into four squares with his pencil and labelling them ‘Strengths', ‘Weaknesses', ‘Opportunities' and ‘Threats'. ‘Hey, how do you think this works?' he asked, pointing at the paper.

‘The paper's just a visual that's linked to an individual memory file – when you're happy with what's on it, you put it in the Mainframe Room to get saved. Didn't you read the stuff Inge emailed us yesterday?'

‘Not
all
of it. A guy's got to have a
little
time to relax,' Dale said.

‘You do realise it's possible to have time to relax and
still take your work seriously, right?' I told him, trying to sound professional. But I couldn't help smiling as he shot me a look of mock horror. ‘Okay, so what do you think are Impression's strengths?'

‘That they're already high-profile, I guess,' Dale said, noting it down. ‘I did manage to read enough of their background file to know that their previous campaigns have been pretty popular with people our age …' He paused, tapping his pencil on the table. ‘What do you do to relax, then?'

‘Oh, you know … gaming, hanging out at the beach, that kind of stuff.' I took the paper. ‘We should put down that they're a Fair Trade brand – that's got to be a strength, right?'

‘That must be cool, living near the beach. I'm up in the hills, in a suburb called Blackwood Heights. Do you know it?'

‘Yeah, we went up that way for our camp in year seven.' I looked up at him. ‘Wait, you mean we live in the same city?'

‘It's a happy coincidence, don't you think?' Dale leant closer, and I felt my face heating up. I quickly looked down at the paper again to hide it.

‘It might not be,' I said. ‘If you'd read the company history, you'd know that the CEO lives in Australia too. There are more Aussie employees than any other nationality in Simulcorp, because a lot of them were already working here before they started using Virk. Obviously that means there'd be more Virk Rooms
available here too. I guess I thought you might have been from Sydney or somewhere, though.'

Dale shook his head. I found myself noticing how dark his eyelashes were despite his golden hair, and how soft his lips looked …

‘So … weaknesses,' I said, pulling myself together. ‘Impression haven't really brought out a new look for a while, so that's probably a bad thing – not keeping ahead of fashion enough.'

‘Do you know if anyone else in here is local?' asked Dale as I wrote on the paper.

‘The company profiles Inge sent were only about the top-level people, so there could be plenty for all I know. But there is Mr Grody.'

‘The dragon-keeping Demon Lord? He lives around here?' Dale suddenly looked a whole lot more interested. ‘Do you know where exactly he –'

He stopped as Elena walked into the cubicle.

‘How are you both going?' she asked, putting one hand on Dale's shoulder and the other on mine.

‘Fine,' I said, making sure I looked extra happy so she wouldn't get all worried again. ‘We're just working on our own proposal.'

‘A proposal!' Elena clapped her hands. ‘Oh, how lovely!'

‘Yes, I was just about to propose something interesting to Alex, actually.' Dale winked at me, making me lose my grip on my pencil.

‘Well, I'd better leave you two alone, then,' I heard
Elena say as I crawled under the table to retrieve my pencil. ‘But I can see you're going to work really well together.'

‘I think so too,' said Dale.

I got back up, not looking at Dale, because I knew my cheeks were absolutely flamered now. In the silence between us, we could faintly hear Budi in the next cubicle saying, ‘Yes, but does anyone really want to wear something that short? It's more like a belt than a skirt!'

‘Can I ask you something?' I said.

‘Sure,' said Dale.

‘How did you know I lived near you? I'm not in any of the company files we have access to.'

‘Simple,' said Dale, smiling down at me with his oh-so-blue eyes. ‘I asked Budi. He knows you better than me, remember?'

I opened my mouth to ask why he'd wanted to know, but at that moment Inge strutted into the cubicle.

‘Alex, my dear, I'm just going to take Dale to visit the Legal Department. You don't mind, do you? It will be your turn to go there tomorrow,' she went on without a pause. Obviously asking whether I minded was purely rhetorical. ‘Come, Dale.' She leant over him until her ample chest was at his eye-level, and smiled. ‘I will show you exactly what we can legally get away with, yes?'

Mine wasn't the only suit that could project a reddened face, I noted, as Dale got up to follow her.

‘Don't let it worry you, Peaches,' came a voice from the next cubicle. ‘Some people just need to be constantly admired, that's all.' Budi's head appeared over the divider, and he lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘And believe me, those “artificial enhancements” of Inge's really do lose their fascination after a while!'

I didn't see Dale again for the rest of the morning. I logged out for lunch and spent a while sitting in my bodysuit in the lobby of AU-3, looking out of the window at the people on Beach Road and wondering why I should care if Dale wanted to go around ogling co-workers.
You've only known him for two days!
I told myself, shaking my head as I reached for the other half of my sandwich.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a familiar figure in the street.

‘Dale?' I jumped up, craning to see better through the narrow window, but the guy's face had turned away from me and a second later he was gone. Had it really been Dale? Maybe he was looking for AU-3 – trying to visit me in realspace. But … no, he'd told me he lived in Blackwood Heights. That was way too far off, right on the other side of the city. I sat down again. It probably wasn't Dale at all, I realised, just me thinking about him too much. My mind was obviously projecting his image onto some random blond guy.

‘Really have to get a grip,' I muttered, biting into my sandwich. I was here to learn and to impress my mentors, and I intended to remember that.

Dale and I worked on our Impression Jeans proposal again that afternoon, but I made sure I kept the conversation strictly professional. Only once did I ask him anything personal, and that was purely to confirm my own suspicions.

‘So which Virk Room do you use, Dale?'

‘AU-7. It's up in Woorenong – a bit further north than where I live. Why do you ask?'

‘Just curious.' It was even further away from AU-3 than Blackwood Heights. There was no way he could have just wandered down to see me in his lunch break – even the train wouldn't have got him there and back in that time. Clearly my brain was at fault here.

Later, Inge came by to see how we were progressing. Dale and I showed her our rough outline, and I have to say, we were both pretty pleased with it. It had been Dale's idea that retail outlets who stocked Impression products could use a light-scanner to detect a customer's body contours, and my idea that they could then use gaming masks – the cheap kind that any Virtuadventures centre had a stack of – to show the customer exactly how they'd look wearing any of Impression's line of jeans.

‘See, it'd be much better than looking in a mirror,' explained Dale, ‘because you could see yourself from literally any angle, in any position. In fact,' he joked, ‘it completely eliminates the need to ever ask: “Does my butt look big in this?”'

I winced. Surely that was a rather tasteless thing to say to your mentor? But Inge looked amused. I guessed that, unlike some of us, she was secure in the knowledge that her rear end never looked big in anything.

‘We also thought the use of direct virtual imaging would have the advantage of making customers feel more comfortable,' I added. ‘Using the gaming mask would mean no one else would get to see the images. And not only would it eliminate the need to have someone else tell you how you look, you wouldn't necessarily even have to get undressed. We'd need to ask someone about the scanner's accuracy and ability to compensate for existing clothing to be sure about that, though. This method would also be able to tell customers what size would be perfect for them, without them having to take several pairs of jeans into the change room for trying on, or potentially becoming discouraged from purchasing by trying on a pair that doesn't fit.'

Inge leant over to examine the sketches on our rough draft, raising a thoughtful eyebrow.

‘These are certainly some interesting ideas! The images – they would be still shots?'

I shook my head. ‘We think they can probably be
continuously streamed from the scanners, so you can see how you look as you move.'

‘I see. Well, you will still need to determine how you will tie this to the rest of the campaign, and address some privacy and costing issues …'

‘We've got some ideas about those too,' I assured her.

‘Then I see no reason you should not continue with your proposal,' said Inge, straightening up. Dale shot me a triumphant smile. Apparently we'd impressed her. ‘Of course,' she added, ‘you will need to get Pierce's approval to take the next step and make it into a formal draft, so I would advise one of you to go and see him straight away while the other starts gathering some of that information you need.'

‘See Mr Grody?' I couldn't say it sounded inviting. ‘Won't we be disturbing him?'

‘Alex,' said Inge in a voice like honey-coated steel, ‘everyone is a disturbance to Pierce Grody. But we must work with him nonetheless, yes? So.' She gave me a little push in the direction of the door. ‘Now will be the best time in any case – I have heard he has just had good news.'

I licked my lips nervously.

‘Um … Inge? There was one more thing I wanted to ask about …'

‘Yes?'

‘Mr Grody's dragon … it doesn't actually, you know, bite or anything, does it?'

‘Good heavens, no!' Inge chuckled. ‘Such imagination you young people have! It is merely a decoration. An unpleasant one, perhaps, but harmless; it does little more than crawl around and hiss at people. You don't need to be afraid of it, Alex,' she concluded, with a look of patronising amusement that made me wish I hadn't asked. Of course they wouldn't let something dangerous live in an office! I had to remember that this wasn't a virtuadventure, where things were often
designed
to try to harm you. This was Virk.