Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic #1) (24 page)

I trailed behind Danelle and Tony, putting my hand to my mouth to cough a couple of times on the way. My stomach gurgled and churned, and I wondered if the sushi had been a good idea after all. Now that I'd been awake for a while, it seemed my system was getting moving again, reminding me of the truth of my conditioning.

"So, what kind of mods you got?" Tony asked once we were in the elevator and on the way up.
 

I hadn't realized he was talking to me. I opened my mouth, and was saved by Danelle.

"I'm having him shadow me. He's kind of a newbie. I've got reversal, marksman, agility, ghost, and some other odds and ends."

"Nice." Tony laughed and put his attention on me. "Fresh meat, huh?" His beady eyes looked me over. "You look like you'd be happier to spend more time in the Machine."

"Make it a quarter of the price, and I'd consider it."

He rolled his eyes. "Please. We just increased the prices, and we're still filling to ninety five percent every night. Guess you're just stuck being you."

I was going to say something unfriendly, but Danelle put up her hand to shut me up. It wouldn't help anything to start with the man in charge of the node.

"So where'd you get reversal from?" Tony asked. "That one's pretty rare."

Danelle looked at me, and I could tell she wasn't sure if she should answer or not.
 

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, D... You told me that one's pretty rare."

"Shut up. A guy I met inside was selling his, said he needed to raise more cash to buy time."

And she gave me a hard time about sending money to my daughter?
 

"How much?"

"Do we have to do this now?"

"How much?"

"Fifty."

I laughed. "You were getting me all worked up over fifty dollars?"
 

Tony looked at me with a strange smirk on his green face, and I stopped laughing.
 

"There are a lot more zeroes attached to that fifty, aren't there?"
 

Danelle was silent. The elevator reached the twelfth floor. She rolled out ahead of us.

"D..."

"Later. Please."

I let it go. What was done was done. I would save it for later when I needed something, or the next time she got pissed about Karen and Molly.

Tony got ahead of her and put his fingerprint to the sensor on the door to 1214. It clicked and swung open, and he led us in.

Aldred Jones was a technomancer, but there was a different kind of magic written into the code that ran the Machine: a billion or so lines of brilliance. The special sauce was in the equipment that immersed the 'machinist' into the world.
 

Visually, it was nothing more than a really comfy recliner and a motorcycle helmet. Except, the helmet wasn't just a helmet. It was infused with magic in the form of a pattern like a circuit that rested at the base of the neck right above the spine.
 

When you put the helmet on, the magic-powered circuit connected with the latent field energy that humans of every kind had trickling through their systems, and essentially hot-wired it, sending it signals that were able to fool the brain into thinking it was running, falling, lifting a heavy object, having sex, whatever. Ultra-high resolution screens filled the field of vision to trick the brain even further, and the end result was that you felt like you were really in some new three dimensional space.
 

I followed Danelle over to the left-hand chair, and gave her my arm so she could swing herself into it. Then I flopped over onto my own rig. Tony hit a couple of switches on each, a soft hum the only indication the system was running.
 

"Interfaces." He tapped the helmets resting on the arm of the chair. I picked mine up and slipped it over my head. Foam moved away to let my skull through, then expanded back out to cut off the light from below. It was a lot lighter than I had expected; a newer, better, more breathable version of the one I had used during my only other excursion in the Machine. It sat comfortable and snug, supported by the shape of the chair around it. The screen wasn't on, leaving me in pitch black.

"The timer starts as soon as I put the tickets in," I heard Tony's muffled voice say. "If you want to know how much time you have left, check your watch. Which zone do you want to start in?"

"Free," Dannie said. "Near the Jungle."

I was glad she knew where we were supposed to start.
 

"You got it. Three...two...one..."

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Machine head.

I felt a slight tingle in my neck, and the high res screen blew up in a solid white light. The sound of running water filled my ears, and then all at once it started fading, the white replaced with a blur of color, the water overcome by the sound of... engines?

"This doesn't look like a jungle," I said.
 

We were standing on a sidewalk. Cars raced past us in the street. Most were the same brands and models that existed on the outside, but there were a few that stood out. One had paint that seemed to ooze and flow and morph the shape of the vehicle as it cruised down the street, while others sported more complete mods that turned the car into a hovercraft or even a flying pink Cadillac. They were the attention getters, and they captured mine, leaving me staring.

"The Jungle is a club." Danelle grabbed my arm, breaking me out of my trance.

I started to look down to where her face usually sat. I had to adjust my angle to look her in the eye. Her purple eye. She looked different here. It was her, but not her. It distracted me more than the cars had. "Dannie, I..."

"Shhh. No names, remember? I'm Daaé here. You're Baron. Don't forget."

"Right. You said the Jungle is a club? What kind of club?"

She turned me to the left. We were standing in front of a large, square building. It had a large neon sign arcing across a vine covered entrance, where a huge man-eating plant snapped at the avatars as they tried to enter. It took good timing to smack it on the head and force it to back away, and if you didn't make it... You were done for the week.

"Just a regular club with a fun theme. It's run by machinist number forty-two. It's popular here because it's a trade zone. It's also a ghost hangout. Come on."

She started tugging me towards the entrance, but I pulled back. "Hold on. You told Tony I was shadowing you. What does that mean?"

She sighed at my inexperience. "Okay, so the Machine is like an alternate reality, right?"

"I guess."

"Right. It's also like one massive game. You can choose whether or not you want to play, but the basic idea is that you get in-Machine credits for different things, including just spending time here. The credits can be spent on mods, vehicles, even virtual property."

"I thought you said the Machine only has three rules?"
 

"Damn it, Co...Baron, it has three basic rules. The game part is opt-in, get it?"

I nodded. "Okay, I get it. What does that have to do with us?"

"I'm playing the game. Shadowing means whatever you do to earn credits, they go to my account. That's the benefit to me. The benefit to you is that you get to share all of my mods."

I didn't care about earning credits for myself, so whatever. "How do you earn credits, besides just being here?" I turned my head and followed a white streak of light in the sky - some machinist shooting by riding a jet pack.

"Mainly through admin organized events with credit pools for the winners. Item hunts, death matches, missile races, that kind of thing."

"Did you say missile races?"

"Yes. And yes, you have to ride the missile."

"This place is fucked up."

"More fucked up than the real thing?"

I put up my hands in submission.

"You can also get points for bounty hunting machinists who are tagged for killing someone else against the rules, or for successful self-defense. They want to reward people for not being pansies."

"How does it feel?"

She tilted her head like a dog. "What?"

"To be able to walk? To have your legs?"
 

She didn't need to say anything for me to see what it meant to her. I decided right there that I wasn't going to use the reversal mod fiasco against her.

"I know why Ivan spends all his time here."

"Would you, if you could?"

She took a deep breath and shook her head. "No. Somebody has to watch out for your stupid ass."

"Thanks."

"Can we go in now?"

"Yeah."

We walked up to the entrance. Danelle leaned in towards me. "Want to see why reversal is awesome?"

"Sure."

"When the plant attacks you, just say 'mod reverse'."

"I need to say 'mod reverse'?"
 

"I know it sounds a little silly, but just try it. It isn't any different from vocalizing the magic."

Except I didn't have to add stupid prefixes to the magic. I went ahead of her, approaching the plant without worry. I trusted her that the mod was awesome, even if I didn't know why or how.

The massive red bulb of a head slithered back and forth as I approached. I kept my own head straight, watching it out of the corner of my eye. The moment it darted towards me, I said the special words, and it bounced back with a huge chunk out of its front. A second later, it vanished.

"Hey, hey, hey, what the fuck?" A dwarf dropped from up in the neon sign, landing in front of me. "You can't null Audrey Three."

I shrugged. "I was just trying out my mod."

"I can see you were trying out your fucking mod you damn nitwit newbie. You said it like a damn tourist. You must be one of of those rich assholes who just buys half the stuff in the game. You guys screw it up for everybody."

I didn't know what to say, but Danelle was at my side a second later. "Shit, Oscar, I'm sorry. Will a hundred credits make it better?"
 

I could tell by her voice she knew this was going to happen. She was just screwing with me.

"Daaé? This your new toy or what?"

"A friend. He's a virgin."

"Obviously. Yeah, a hundred and we're even. Just for you."

They shook hands, and I guess the exchange was made. She took my arm and pulled me inside.

"Why did you do that?"
 

"I needed to teach you about the mods. You remember all the ones I mentioned in the elevator?"

"Reversal, agility, ghost... yeah."

"You can use each one once an hour if you need to. Hopefully you won't, but I wanted you to be prepared."

We reached the inside of the club. Like Dannie had said, it was themed to look like a jungle, with vines hanging everywhere, monkeys swinging, birds flying, and snakes slithering. They all moved in a set pattern that I picked up inside of ten seconds, varying only to keep clear of the hundreds of avatars that sat at large tree trunks, stood in dark corners, or lined up at the bar.

"You can get drunk here?" I was surprised by the orc pouring thick, glowing liquids into frosty cylinders.

"Why not? You can do anything here you can do in real life, except die permanently. Get drunk, have an orgasm, even give birth."

"No shit. Why the hell would anyone want to do that?"

Dannie laughed. "Lose a bet, on a dare... You never told Karen you wished you knew what it was like?"

I hadn't, but I knew people who had. "Point made. Are we here for anyone in particular?"

She pointed ahead, to where a young man with long black hair was sitting by himself. "His name is Azeban. If anyone knows anything about Black, it's him."

"Relative?" It was hard not to notice the similar hair and cheekbones. Of course, he could have been anybody outside the Machine. Hell, he could have been Mr. Black.

"Not quite. We hooked up a couple of times."

I looked at her.
 

"Don't you dare judge me, or get jealous, or any of that shit."

"I'm not. To be honest, I'm happy for you, if it gives you a chance to work off some steam. It's the safest kind of sex you can have, right? No VD, no STD..."

"No impotence either," she said quietly. I hadn't even been thinking about that.
 

"I'm not in the market for that kind of fun."
 

It was easy enough to lose interest when it stopped being a possibility.

"You never know."

We walked together to Azeban's table. He didn't move the entire time we approached. He didn't even blink. When we sat down with him, he turned his head towards Danelle.

"Daaé." A pause. "One moment."
 

We waited ten seconds. Then he smiled and stretched his shoulders.

"My apologies, Miss Daaé. I was doing a little business offline. Who's your handsome friend?"

Handsome? I looked over at Dannie, and she shook her head and motioned for me to touch my face. I cupped my chin, and was surprised to feel the two days' worth of stubble pricking my hand.

"This is Baron. I'm helping him with a job. I was hoping maybe you could help him, too."

"Perhaps. What do you have to offer?"

"Nothing right now. Future favors?"

Azeban laughed. His voice was rich and delicate. "Oh, come now, Daaé. You are fantastic in bed, but I have a reputation. I can't just give away information that I work so hard to collect."

"Cut the shit, Az. You wouldn't be here if you weren't looking to make deals. It's what you do. Anyway, my friend Baron here is about to come into his own, if you know what I mean. A small deal today goes a long way tomorrow."

He looked at me. "Come into your own?" He pursed his lips. "An investment, then. A bit of risk. How many credits do you have?"

"Four thousand." Her voice was strained. She didn't want to tell.

"Well, I don't want to leave you penniless. Thirty-five hundred, plus a small favor in the future."

"Wait," I said. "What if you don't know the answer to my questions?"

"She wouldn't have brought you to me if she didn't think I had any answers."

"Done." Dannie held out her hand. Azeban took it and brought it to his lips.