To keep Clansman happy!
Four
Stein eyed me in the mirror. “I very much doubt that killing him would improve matters. As this Jack Carter persona is an illegal character then there’s nothing to stop him simply logging back in.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, I guess we’re talking real-world or nothing here. Miss Harry, this crew you’re working for, HanaMed, do you have some way of contacting them?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, no. They’ve always been the one to reach out. Anyway, I don’t see them being overly keen on applying any kind of covert pressure on Cromarty, even if it means losing Chris.” She squeezed his shoulder and he put a hand up to touch her.
We joined a semi-solid stream of traffic heading towards the market district and I cracked the window in search of a breeze, the air conditioning being out. “No, well, it strikes me that you don’t actually have any proof of who’s behind all this. Someone approached you with the idea of stealing Stein, using the game environment as a stepping-stone. Someone kidnapped Vaughn’s daughter so that he’d carry the virtual virus in the form of a sword and use it to screw Cromarty’s security protocols. Trouble is, short of a hand-written invitation to HanaMed head office and a guided tour with all the trimmings it could be just about anyone out there pulling the strings.”
Miss Harry frowned. “But why bother to lie? They must have known I’d jump at the chance to help Chris escape, regardless of who they were.”
“No, you’re looking at this the wrong way round. Why bother to tell the truth when you’d have been happy to work for an anonymous backer?” I wiped sweat from my top lip. “Corporations are notoriously reluctant to acknowledge any kind of covert activity, even when they’re the victims. Hell, especially when they’re the victims. Officially the only cyber-security these boys have are counter-intelligence agents. Those who do the dirty, as it were, tend to be freelancers with little or no idea who they’re actually working for.”
Stein laughed. “So whoever is offering me a new home, is a pretty safe bet it’s not HanaMed?”
“You got it. It could be a genuine commercial rival, it could be someone wanting to sell you on to the highest bidder, it could even be contactors hired by Cromarty to test their own security. The real-world equivalents of Juan Canasta make a living from not knowing who they represent. Nor do they care, as long as the money is decent.”
Miss Harry shivered. “I know, the real Canasta is even more of a creep than his virtual representation. But look, there must be something we can do? I don’t fancy going through all this just to have Chris handed back to Cromarty. They’d never let him out again!”
Stein had both form and function. It was the form, his persona, that Miss Harry had fallen in love with. Unfortunately it was his function as sentient index to the Cromarty database that everyone else valued. If his former employers ever got their hands on him again then the form would probably face the cyber equivalent of a firing squad, regardless of the Turing Conventions. I knew that and I could tell from the eyes in the rear-view mirror that Stein knew it as well. I tried to sound reassuring. “Despite all the shadow-play our best bet is still to find out who wants him. It’s in their best interests to look after us in the real world, at least while the game is still in progress.”
Stein sounded sceptical. “And if they decline to get involved, or don’t have the global reach required?”
“Then we can threaten to rat them out to Cromarty unless they give us some protection, if only by proxy. A corporate vendetta tends to be very nasty and quite personal. Definitely something they’d want to avoid.”
Man, that sounded weak, even to me. I think everyone knew that if we did try and blackmail ‘HanaMed’ then their preferred option would be to have us quietly snuffed out.
There was an awkward silence inside the car, although we were surrounded by the cheerful bedlam of back-street life. Miss Harry’s fingers tapped out a two-two beat on the back of Stein’s seat as the BMW slowed to a crawl.
“Look, I’ve been thinking. The only way Carter can exist in the game is if something else is missing. Some other system with the same virtual footprint. As I said, all the background and environmental housekeeping is farmed out to an array of integrated smart systems. One of these is obviously being used to support the Carter avatar on the sly.”
I snorted. “What, you mean that now it won’t rain, so that he can get in here and cause us grief?”
“Something like that. Unfortunately all the FrontPage tags are still intact so I don’t have any way of knowing which system has been compromised until it fails to function. Well, short of a low-level diagnostic, but the performance hit on game response times would be too severe. I certainly don’t want some Second Reality cyber tech sticking his nose in at this juncture.”
Something she’d said just clicked. “Hang on, you’re saying there is a real Juan Canasta? So his game representation is some kind of licensing deal, like your own?”
She blinked. “Well, as I understand it, he fronted some anonymous backers who felt that the virtual game industry wouldn’t be seen as a sound investment. They didn’t want to damage their portfolio credibility and let Canasta act as money-man. He’s incredibly vain and took a virtual representation in this and all subsequent versions as part of his fee. Why is that important?”
There was the start of an idea in my head. “How accurate is his avatar? Not physically, but in terms of his contacts, well, who he thinks he knows?”
Miss Harry frowned. “I, well, I’ve no real idea. Not without digging into his personality protocol structure and that’s really a job for a qualified tech. There’s Madame Tisa I suppose, but she’s just an intro feed smart system with no simulated cognitive ability. In the ‘Money Talks’ end-game scenario, he does go on a bit about his international presence in terms of what he can do for you, if the-“.
“The emergency contact system, you can use it to place a call, yeah? Sorry to cut you off but this is important.”
The ECS allowed a player to receive a phone call from the real world without being yanked out of the game. If the problem was serious then the player would bug out and be replaced by the default persona for that character, so the scenario could continue for the other (paying) participants.
She glared at me. “This is important? How is this important? Yes you can call out, but it’s a two-stage process. Initially to a fake international number that’s common to all games and then again, through this automated switchboard, to the connection you want. Who you gonna’ call?”
Stein laughed. “Ghostbusters!”
I grinned, feeling almost light-headed at the audacity of what I wanted to try. “Not exactly, but I think it’s time we let our version of Juan Canasta loose in the real world.”
Four
Stein eyed me in the mirror. “I very much doubt that killing him would improve matters. As this Jack Carter persona is an illegal character then there’s nothing to stop him simply logging back in.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, I guess we’re talking real-world or nothing here. Miss Harry, this crew you’re working for, HanaMed, do you have some way of contacting them?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, no. They’ve always been the one to reach out. Anyway, I don’t see them being overly keen on applying any kind of covert pressure on Cromarty, even if it means losing Chris.” She squeezed his shoulder and he put a hand up to touch her.
We joined a semi-solid stream of traffic heading towards the market district and I cracked the window in search of a breeze, the air conditioning being out. “No, well, it strikes me that you don’t actually have any proof of who’s behind all this. Someone approached you with the idea of stealing Stein, using the game environment as a stepping-stone. Someone kidnapped Vaughn’s daughter so that he’d carry the virtual virus in the form of a sword and use it to screw Cromarty’s security protocols. Trouble is, short of a hand-written invitation to HanaMed head office and a guided tour with all the trimmings it could be just about anyone out there pulling the strings.”
Miss Harry frowned. “But why bother to lie? They must have known I’d jump at the chance to help Chris escape, regardless of who they were.”
“No, you’re looking at this the wrong way round. Why bother to tell the truth when you’d have been happy to work for an anonymous backer?” I wiped sweat from my top lip. “Corporations are notoriously reluctant to acknowledge any kind of covert activity, even when they’re the victims. Hell, especially when they’re the victims. Officially the only cyber-security these boys have are counter-intelligence agents. Those who do the dirty, as it were, tend to be freelancers with little or no idea who they’re actually working for.”
Stein laughed. “So whoever is offering me a new home, is a pretty safe bet it’s not HanaMed?”
“You got it. It could be a genuine commercial rival, it could be someone wanting to sell you on to the highest bidder, it could even be contactors hired by Cromarty to test their own security. The real-world equivalents of Juan Canasta make a living from not knowing who they represent. Nor do they care, as long as the money is decent.”
Miss Harry shivered. “I know, the real Canasta is even more of a creep than his virtual representation. But look, there must be something we can do? I don’t fancy going through all this just to have Chris handed back to Cromarty. They’d never let him out again!”
Stein had both form and function. It was the form, his persona, that Miss Harry had fallen in love with. Unfortunately it was his function as sentient index to the Cromarty database that everyone else valued. If his former employers ever got their hands on him again then the form would probably face the cyber equivalent of a firing squad, regardless of the Turing Conventions. I knew that and I could tell from the eyes in the rear-view mirror that Stein knew it as well. I tried to sound reassuring. “Despite all the shadow-play our best bet is still to find out who wants him. It’s in their best interests to look after us in the real world, at least while the game is still in progress.”
Stein sounded sceptical. “And if they decline to get involved, or don’t have the global reach required?”
“Then we can threaten to rat them out to Cromarty unless they give us some protection, if only by proxy. A corporate vendetta tends to be very nasty and quite personal. Definitely something they’d want to avoid.”
Man, that sounded weak, even to me. I think everyone knew that if we did try and blackmail ‘HanaMed’ then their preferred option would be to have us quietly snuffed out.
There was an awkward silence inside the car, although we were surrounded by the cheerful bedlam of back-street life. Miss Harry’s fingers tapped out a two-two beat on the back of Stein’s seat as the BMW slowed to a crawl.
“Look, I’ve been thinking. The only way Carter can exist in the game is if something else is missing. Some other system with the same virtual footprint. As I said, all the background and environmental housekeeping is farmed out to an array of integrated smart systems. One of these is obviously being used to support the Carter avatar on the sly.”
I snorted. “What, you mean that now it won’t rain, so that he can get in here and cause us grief?”
“Something like that. Unfortunately all the FrontPage tags are still intact so I don’t have any way of knowing which system has been compromised until it fails to function. Well, short of a low-level diagnostic, but the performance hit on game response times would be too severe. I certainly don’t want some Second Reality cyber tech sticking his nose in at this juncture.”
Something she’d said just clicked. “Hang on, you’re saying there is a real Juan Canasta? So his game representation is some kind of licensing deal, like your own?”
She blinked. “Well, as I understand it, he fronted some anonymous backers who felt that the virtual game industry wouldn’t be seen as a sound investment. They didn’t want to damage their portfolio credibility and let Canasta act as money-man. He’s incredibly vain and took a virtual representation in this and all subsequent versions as part of his fee. Why is that important?”
There was the start of an idea in my head. “How accurate is his avatar? Not physically, but in terms of his contacts, well, who he thinks he knows?”
Miss Harry frowned. “I, well, I’ve no real idea. Not without digging into his personality protocol structure and that’s really a job for a qualified tech. There’s Madame Tisa I suppose, but she’s just an intro feed smart system with no simulated cognitive ability. In the ‘Money Talks’ end-game scenario, he does go on a bit about his international presence in terms of what he can do for you, if the-“.
“The emergency contact system, you can use it to place a call, yeah? Sorry to cut you off but this is important.”
The ECS allowed a player to receive a phone call from the real world without being yanked out of the game. If the problem was serious then the player would bug out and be replaced by the default persona for that character, so the scenario could continue for the other (paying) participants.
She glared at me. “This is important? How is this important? Yes you can call out, but it’s a two-stage process. Initially to a fake international number that’s common to all games and then again, through this automated switchboard, to the connection you want. Who you gonna’ call?”
Stein laughed. “Ghostbusters!”
I grinned, feeling almost light-headed at the audacity of what I wanted to try. “Not exactly, but I think it’s time we let our version of Juan Canasta loose in the real world.”
