| THE LORELEI SIGNAL |
.
| Written by Lettie Prell / Artwork by Lee Kuruganti |
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| Stalking the Virtual Mysteries |
All Guatemala City, especially the Zona Viva, had become safe—for tourists, women, teens, everyone—in the years since
the country had abolished its government and made itself into, if not the richest corporation, certainly the most interesting.
Security was a presence on nearly every street corner, wielding machetes as often as rifles or machine guns. Nadine could
park her scooter without a second thought, among a long line of others in front of La Cueva, and proceed unescorted to
its black metal door.
Inside, she found the place packed with teens and the loud beat of technofusion. Nadine paid the twelve quetzales cover,
and scanned the room. It was hard to make out the faces of the loungers ranged along the darkened periphery. Easier to
see those on the dance floor, illuminated by bright lights that switched from orange to purple to a white brighter than
sunlight, then back to orange. Yet Nadine’s gaze was inevitably drawn above the dancers’ heads, towards the virtual
reality players, who pranced and swooped on their glowing power pods, on a balcony that ringed the dance floor. Their
movements often seemed strange, even nonsensical, and wholly out of rhythm to the music, for they were acting within a
world hidden from everyone’s view but their own.
The players wore the latest in game gear. Tall, rectangular headdresses descended to rest just above their noses,
completely concealing the visual and auditory hardware. Large, rose-colored targets were strapped to their chests, and
wing-like plates secured to their arms enabled them to shield themselves, then return fire. The blasts from their weaponry
were visible at least, and the distance between the players was often pierced by laser light, hurtling like thunderbolts over
the heads of the dancers. The effect was stunning. The players’ movements added to the club’s kinetic power, making
Nadine desire a glimpse of that shared inner world.
“Nadine!” Someone called from the shadows. “Over here!”
Like her, Nadine’s friends were in the accelerated computer classes, in virtual reality applications. Looking around, she
saw an arm wave from over by the stairs to the balcony. She approached, finding the arm belonged to her classmate
Nuria. She was with Marcos, Enrique and Alice, an exchange student from Minnesota in the United States. It was usually
easy to pick her out in a crowd, because of her light skin and blonde hair, but here the lighting was low.
“I was hoping you’d show up soon,” Nuria said, pulling Nadine into the seat next to hers. She spoke loudly so she could
be heard over the music. “It’s so great you got into Universidad. And so early!”
Marcos’ smile stood out from the shadows. “Yeah, what strings did your father pull?”
She frowned, reminded that her father hadn’t been here to celebrate her good news in person. He was in the States.
“Leave her alone,” Alice said.
Enrique punched Marcos in the arm for emphasis, and Nadine winced as the delicate bones of his fist encountered
Marcos’ thick, muscular flesh. “It’s because she’s smarter than you, asshole. She’s a mathematician—”
“Statistician,” Nadine corrected.
“Her thesis was in visual mapping techniques for multilinear analyses in a virtual reality environment.” Alice nearly shouted
the words.
“See?” Enrique said, waving an arm at the girls. “What she said. A genius. Meanwhile, you sit around all day painting
pretty little virtual pictures.”
Marcos glared at Enrique, like a Spanish bull staring down a matador. “Oh, now you’ve gone too far, my friend. I’m the
best VR scape designer of all time. You’ll be begging to enter my environments. Or at least you would if you weren’t
about to die. We must go outside now and duel with machetes.”
Enrique broke into laughter, his eyes squeezed shut. Nadine laughed too, and so did Alice, though nervously. Nuria just
rolled her eyes.
A cry went up from the dance floor. Nadine looked around in time to see two players engulfed in the throes of their laser-
light deaths, the rose-colored circles at their chests appearing to shatter outward in a profusion of holographic shards. The
lights on their power pods winked out, casting them into darkness. A single player remained, a triumphant god, raising his
wings skyward as the crowd cheered over the din of the music. A green-shirted game attendant rushed forward to help
him down from his pod.
This is interesting, what I’m here for, her father had said on the phone earlier this evening. I got invited up by the CEO of
Applied Energy Intelligence. It’s a new breakthrough in affordable energy. Not solar, not wind, but definitely green. Just
don’t tell anyone anything just yet, okay?
Nadine shook off the memory of her disappointment. “I’m going to go play,” she said, jumping up.
“There she is, forgetting us already,” Marcos said.
“I’m playing too,” Enrique said, rising from his seat.
“There better be machetes,” Marcos said, kicking back his chair.
Then they were all up, scrambling for a place in line. Their table was closest to the stairs, and they ended up toward the
front of the line. Nadine’s quick count revealed they would all make the cut. They waited while the players from the
previous match descended the stairs, some laughing, others dejected. Then the line surged forward and she was swept up
to the balcony with ten others. A game attendant waved her to one of the power pods, a glowing circular platform ringed
with a sleek black railing running around two-thirds of the platform. She eagerly mounted it, the driving beat of the music
pounding in her ears. Below, she could see the dancers gyrating. She grinned. This was a great way to celebrate her
graduation. She had to force herself to remain still as two men dressed her in game equipment.
Her attendant, a boy that reminded her of Enrique, hung a circular breastplate around her neck, anchoring it with straps to
her waist. It dwarfed her slight frame, poking out on either side. Next came flexible arm shields, with plastic tabs that fit
across her palms that would trigger her laser light weaponry. She swung her arms experimentally, realizing she’d have to
hold her arms away from her body to keep them from knocking into her chest target.
Last was the headdress, fitting over her thick dark hair. Nadine caught a final glimpse of her fellow players as her helmet
was lowered into place over her eyes.
The lights from their power pods cast looming shadows on the walls behind them. Then she was plunged into the pressing
darkness of the helmet.
“There are lots of things you can do in the game,” the boy shouted over the music, close to her left ear. “Don’t be afraid
to try things.”
“I know,” Nadine said, but the boy did not seem to hear her.
“To move,” he said, “shift your weight in the direction you want to go. The sensors in the power pod will do the rest.
Remember where you really are and you won’t have any problems. If you feel dizzy, grab your railing. Any questions?”
Nadine shook her head. She was left to stare at the darkness. She smiled to herself, clenching and unclenching her fists,
imagining the light bursts that would soon be emanating from the raised cuffs of her arm shields. She hoped she wasn’t
too rusty. It had been a while since she had played, what with the whirlwind of completing her special project, practicum,
and college entrance exam.
Then a new world exploded to life, shutting out all other thoughts. She found herself on a shimmering plateau dotted with
multi-hued structures in geometric shapes. The one next to her was a six-foot cube that appeared to be made of purple
glass. She admired it. The quality of the video was far superior to any game she had played before. If she had known this
game was upgraded, she might have asked a few questions.
“Welcome to Tier Challenge,” a voice boomed in Nadine’s ear, drowning out the music momentarily. “A Silver Net
production. You are one of eleven players. You must find your opponents and kill them. But beware of the floating tiers!
They pose special dangers.”
The voice broke off with a maniacal laugh. Then: “The game will begin in ten seconds. Nine...eight...”
Nadine leaned slightly to the right, and found her virtual body glided as if it were wearing in-line skates that afforded her
excellent control. She edged cautiously around her glass cube. There was a red pyramid straight in front of her, and to one
side, a gigantic green ball. She peered up at a cloudless light blue sky.
What did a floating tier look like? How fast could one move?
“...three...two...one,” the voice said. “The game has now begun.”
On the last word, a gamester leapt from behind the green ball, startling her. The opponent loomed, a perfectly rendered
holographic image. He was older than Nadine, and unusually tall, his height accentuated by the soaring headdress. He wasn’
t looking in her direction, though. He aimed a laser-strapped arm at something out of Nadine’s line of sight. She wasted no
time. Pointing an arm at the player, she clenched her fist, activating the light beam. A white burst shot out from her wrist
cuff and found its mark on the surface of the player’s rose-colored chest target.
The player swung to face her full-on. Then he vanished in a blaze of light. Nadine blinked, unprepared for the effect. It
was as if she had vaporized him.
“One player down,” noted the voice gleefully. “Ten players remain alive.”
She had scored the first hit. Her eyes darted about. An orange tetrahedron blocked her view to the left. She would have to
be alert for an assault from that direction, or a possible floating tier. Otherwise she seemed to have some breathing room.
The game voice announced two more deaths, in quick succession. Down to eight already. She might not be the only one
getting used to the new technology.
A movement by the pyramid caught her attention. She fired on impulse, and obliterated a little crystal ball in mid-bounce.
Before she could recover, a lone figure darted across the open space and took cover behind the sphere. She knew that
thick muscular build. It was Marcos. He had obviously thrown the crystal as a ruse. What a good move. Where had he
found it? And what was this crazy theme supposed to be? Usually it was space wars or urban warfare. This was rocket
cool, though, and the lack of theme added some attitude. She approved.
With no one else to assault at the moment, Nadine fired experimentally at the green sphere. She was surprised when it
turned white and vanished, exposing an equally startled Marcos. She fired again, this time straight at him, but he was too
fast. Rolling to one side, he deflected the blast with one of his shields. Nadine ducked back behind her cube just as he
fired. She watched in dismay as her shelter disintegrated under the laser fire. Marcos grinned menacingly.
Out in the open like this, she was no match for him. She made a break for it, gliding fast toward the tetrahedron. It wasn’t
until she was committed to the move that she saw another player, game gear contrasting sharply with mini and high heels,
ease around the tetrahedron’s shadow side.
Nadine pirouetted away just in time to avoid another round of laser fire from Marcos, then raised her left arm to fend off
yet another blast, this time from the woman, with her shield.
“Four players remain alive,” announced the voice.
The low number surprised Nadine. She must have been focusing too hard on her own plight to hear the rising body count.
She figured she would be next, judging from the way Marcos and the woman were ganging up on her. Marcos glided
toward her. The woman by the tetrahedron fired at her again. Nadine deflected the blast with one of her shields. Then she
heard a strange whirring.
Edging backward, Nadine tried to keep an eye on both of her opponents while she glanced furtively overhead. They
gawked as well. Racing toward them was a flying checkerboard.
So that was a floating tier. It was fascinating, but Nadine had her own objectives. She fired quickly in a sweeping pattern,
then deflected a return shot from Marcos. The checkerboard was almost directly overhead. Again she deflected a laser
light burst. She had to think fast.
As she took another step back, her toe caught air. She nearly lost her balance, and stealing a glance behind her, she found
that she was at the edge of the plateau. Beyond was a sheer drop into nothingness.
Twin strands of laser light shot for her, one from each of her opponents. She threw one arm up across her face, blocking
a volley, and wrapped the other arm across her chest to deflect a hit to her target that would have taken her out of the
game.
The whirring was nearly deafening now, and Nadine had no cover. She gasped as a giant red knight on a black horse came
leaping from the checkerboard. She watched wide-eyed as the horse bore down on Marcos. The knight swiftly skewered
her friend’s chest target. Marcos cried out in frustration as he was vaporized. That settled it. She had to get out of here.
No wonder players were dropping out fast.
The words of the game attendant echoed in her mind. Don’t be afraid to try things.
Nadine drew herself up straight. If this was Tier Challenge she was going to go for it. There could be other tiers — other
levels of play — to be discovered. Firing a last series of laser bursts from both arms, she spun on her heel and leapt off
the plateau.
She felt as if she were going down a big slide, with flashes of bright colors all around. Then her feet touched earth and she
landed gently, in the middle of a desert night. A full moon hung overhead, illuminating the black outline of a butte in the
middle distance, across the plain on which she stood. A light, warm breeze wicked the sweat off her cheeks.
“Wow,” she breathed. This scene was more to her liking. It was certainly more sophisticated.
Just twelve feet away a boy about her age, maybe younger, squatted in front of a small campfire. He wasn’t wearing any
game gear, just jeans, red high-top sneakers, and a blue and black plaid shirt. Nevertheless, Nadine edged forward warily.
The boy looked up. He wore a red bandanna tied around his forehead, partly obscured by dark, razor-cut bangs. Nadine
stopped in her tracks. His eyes radiated honesty, serenity, and wisdom.
He remained crouched in the desert sand. There was no rose-colored target on his chest. Still, it could be a trick. She
pointed an arm and fired.
Click.
Nadine tried again, but her lasers weren’t working. Was she dead? Who had hit her? She turned, scanning the area, but
could see no one else. Her surroundings made her uneasy. The landscape seemed vast and empty.
“Who are you?” asked the boy, breaking the silence. His eyes were half-closed, but the gleam beneath his dark lashes
looked uncannily alert. He spoke in English, but Nadine was familiar with the language. It was her father’s native tongue.
“Nadine.” She fidgeted. She wanted to ask where everyone had gone, but couldn’t form the words.
Her companion regarded her up and down. “Where did you just come from? A costume party?”
Nadine looked down at herself. Here the virtual reality game gear possessed none of the glamour it had generated in the
dramatic lighting of the bar. No one would have programmed such ordinariness into a computer image. She shivered.
What she was seeing wasn’t part of the game.
“I was in Guate,” Nadine managed to say through her constricted throat. “Guatemala City. Where am I now?”
He grinned. “With me. Now it’s my turn to ask you a question.”
The firelight accentuated his high cheekbones. Nadine took a cue from Nuria and tossed her head as if unimpressed. “I
told you my name. Who are you?”
“Three Crows.”
It took a moment for her to realize that he had indeed spoken his name.
“May I ask my question now?” he asked with a smirk.
“But I don’t know anything.” Her cheeks burned. She knew lots of things, just nothing that would interest him, she was
sure.
He inclined his head in an air of confidence. “The universe wouldn’t have brought you here unless you could answer me.”
Nadine scanned the landscape again. “If I can answer your question, do I get to go back to Guate?”
“That will happen anyway,” he said.
“So what’s your question?” She tried to ask it like Nuria would, without a care in the world.
Three Crows spoke slowly. “There is a man I want to know about.”
Nadine blinked. “A man?”
“An important man.”
Nadine’s mouth fell open. Her father. She wanted to quash the idea, the illogic of it, this thought that had come up from
nowhere. She wanted to say she didn’t know what he was talking about. But the openness in her companion’s eyes
stopped her.
Three Crows resumed his easy crouch by his fire, seemingly lost in his thoughts. Nadine fidgeted nervously with her game
gear. “You didn’t phrase that as a question,” she said, meaning to tease him like she would Marcos or Enrique. It came out
sounding confused.
Three Crows continued to stare into the flames, but Nadine felt him focus intently on her words. His shoulders twitched.
She sensed he was afraid to speak. He suddenly appeared alone and vulnerable. Why was he out here in the middle of the
desert?
“Well, all I can think of is my dad,” she said at last.
Three Crows jumped to his feet as if someone had kicked him. “It’s him.”
“My dad? Why?”
“It’s just him. He’s the one. Quick. This is my question. What’s he working on right now?”
Just like that, she felt anguished. “I don’t know!”
“But you must know,” he urged quietly. “That’s the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The rules that say you know the answer because otherwise you wouldn’t have come here. Rules of the universe. Now
tell me.”
“It’s a secret thing,” she said. “I don’t know a lot about it, except it’s secret.”
“So what do you know about it? That’ll be enough.”
He was asking her to break her father’s confidence. “What will you do if I say?”
“Guard the earth.”
“What?”
“I took a pledge to safeguard the earth. There’s something big going on, threatening the earth’s natural balance, and I want
to know what it is.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be anything my dad’s working on,” Nadine said. “He works for what’s good. Look what he did for
Guatemala. He turned the country into our own corporation.”
Three Crows’ eyes grew wide. “Your father is Cypress Washington?” He covered his mouth.
Nadine nodded. “So you know he wouldn’t be involved in anything bad.”
“Maybe he doesn’t realize the danger,” Three Crows said. “Or maybe it’s not him, but people around him. Please, I need
to know what you know.”
Nadine figured she had two choices. Break her father’s confidence and tell, and get to go back to the game, or not tell and
get to go back anyway. Maybe. If this strange boy could be believed. Again, she was impressed by the honesty and
vulnerability that emanated from him.
His concern ate at her. What if something really was going to go wrong? A bit of fear crept around the back of her neck.
What if there were dangerous people around her father, wanting things? He might not be safe.
“Okay,” she said. “All I know is it’s some kind of new energy system. To power people’s homes and stuff. It’s supposed
to be cheaper and better.”
Three Crows stared at her. “Energy system?”
“What’s the deal?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, looking a little sick. “I don’t know yet. Damn, I’m not going to remember any of this when I
wake up, am I?”
“You’re asking me?” Who was this kid? It sounded like he had brought her here on purpose, but if he didn’t know what
he was doing—
He approached with a sense of urgency, his red bandanna glowing in the firelight, then bent over so his face brushed
against her headdress, uncomfortably close. She could smell a peculiar tobacco odor about him. He smoked? It wasn’t pot.
Nadine knew what that smelled like, from rounding corners unexpectedly on campus at school. The scent on Three
Crows was more like a cigarette, but muskier.
“You’re part of it, too,” he said in a disbelieving tone. He cocked his head as he studied what he could see of her face.
She didn’t know what to think anymore, or what to say. She just stood there and stared up at him. She saw for the first
time that there was a crude sign on his bandanna, right in the middle of his forehead. It looked like it was made with a
black magic marker. It was a circular design made of straight lines with their ends bent to form elbows all facing in the
same direction, like a pinwheel. It seemed to spin as Nadine stared at it.
She felt herself being drawn away by her feet. The sensation was familiar, but she couldn’t place it. The world became
momentarily black.
Then loud drums assaulted her ears. Someone was tugging her helmet off. The visor was lifted from her face. Slowly, she
became aware of her body, slumped over the railing of her power pod.
A face swam into view. It was the game attendant who had helped her into her gear. “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding
not at all concerned. “I think you blanked out there.”
She rubbed her eyes as he tore away the rest of her game gear. “How long was I out?”
“Just a second,” he said. “Sometimes people get a little dizzy, you know. You just need some air.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the high-heeled woman in the miniskirt striding toward the stairs, beaming. Winner
of the game.
#
Nadine debarked the blue multi-bus that ran from the Hartsfield-Jackson airport to downtown Atlanta. She was an adult
now, but still short — instantly she was caught up in a sea of pedestrians that all seemed taller than her. They were
dressed mainly in whites, tans, blacks, browns — colorless and muddy. She couldn’t see more than a few people in front
of her, let alone landmarks or signs. Then she caught sight of the curb and strands of cyclists whizzing past on the street,
weaving among the brightly colored buses, and beyond, the Marquis Towers, her destination. She let herself be swept
along in a stream of humanity heading across the street. Once there, she fought toward the front door and finally stood
free like a pebble washed ashore. She stared up at a pair of golden tube sculptures basking in the sun. At first they looked
like abstract nudes, but then the shapes resolved into lions. Suddenly remembering, she whipped around. My suitcase! But
there it was, waiting behind her. She walked between the patient lions and into the building, her luggage dutifully following.
She checked into her room, showered and dressed in her interview attire, a thoroughly American navy pinstripe skirt and
suit jacket that could have been two or twenty years old. She’d had it special-made before she left, since it would have
been difficult to find her tiny size, even in a store that catered to petites. Surveying herself in the mirror, she saw the dark
colors fade into her dark skin. Business camouflage. It didn’t become her, but it did fit the situation, in a strange way. She
was traveling under the mother’s name only, and she had not told her prospective employer she was Cypress Washington’
s daughter — or even that her other name was Washington. She was exercising a bit of Latino prerogative, where
interchangeable surnames were customary. Mother’s name, father’s name, or both together, hyphenated or not. Still, she
had made the decision to use Xitumul, to avoid advertising her connections. Remain a bit anonymous. And if they found
out, well, they found out. No big deal, she told herself. Except it was a big deal. She was journeying into the heart of the
mystery about the energy system, on quest to discover what her father had known before he had died.
Applied Energy Intelligence offices were a swift elevator ride from her hotel room down to the atrium, then a hike across
the impressive lobby to the tower entrance, then another elevator ride to the twenty-third floor. The décor was
conservative, with black leather and glass the dominant materials. The secretary introduced himself with a measured smile.
His name was Kevin, he informed her, and Ms. Cooperrider would meet with her shortly. Nadine waited in one of the
leather chairs, perched uncomfortably on the edge so her feet would remain on the floor.
Ms. Cooperrider was a disturbingly white, prim woman, with a tense bun balled at the nape of her neck. Nadine wondered
at the whiteness. She would have thought Southerners got out in the sun more. But there was no trace of an accent in Ms.
Cooperrider’s voice as she greeted Nadine, only perfunctory efficiency and an obligatory politeness. “Won’t you follow
me, please?” she said, already marching down the hallway in rubber-soled exercise shoes that in no way matched her dull
tan suit.
Nadine followed, nearly doubling her pace in order to keep up. Passing a doorway on her left, she glanced in, and nearly
stopped in amazement. One wall was taken up by a huge aquarium. Tentacled plants bobbed hypnotically in the greenish
light. A burst of colorful fish broke up the scene, and Nadine hurried on, catching a glimpse of a drafting table, and a
figure seated almost completely out of the line of sight. It was someone’s office.
Curious, she craned her neck as she passed another office on her right, and discovered an Oriental rug in rich reds, and a
gold tapestry on the opposite wall. A person sat on a plush brown sofa facing the tapestry. Her back was to the door, but
Nadine caught a glimpse of dark hair and skin. She couldn’t see what the woman was working on.
Neither office fit the glass and black entryway, or Ms. Cooperrider’s stiff walk, and that agreed with her. She smiled. She
had heard of companies indulging their tech workers, and these luxurious offices-to-order were over the top.
Ms. Cooperrider ushered her into a conference room where a young man with tousled hair turned from the window as
they entered. Behind him was a panoramic scene of skyscrapers haphazardly arranged under a stark sky. Nadine fought
not to stare at the spectacular view. She looked the young man in the eye and smiled as she shook his hand. The man
wore shorts and a T-shirt, as if he had just come from the gym.
“My partner, Louie LaLonde,” Ms. Cooperrider said.
“Pleased to meet you,” she said, trying not to look surprised. Partner? They took seats at the table, side by side, and
looked at her expectantly. She sat down next to Ms. Cooperrider and instantly regretted it. It felt awkward to all be sitting
on the same side of the table.
Mr. Lalonde didn’t seem to mind. He leaned forward in his chair so he could see around Ms. Cooperrider. “So Nadine—
may I call you Nadine and not Ms. Xitumul?”
His smile was amiable, but Ms. Cooperrider pursed her lips as she gave Nadine an appraising stare. What was she to say?
“Yes sir.” The words fell flat. Maybe she should have been more informal, but she couldn’t with Ms. Cooperrider there.
The entire interview progressed like this, as if in two entirely different musical keys. She learned to pitch her answers in a
neutral style, pleasant and helpful, yet she held her body immobile, reserved. At times she was even grateful for Ms.
Cooperrider’s questions, who wanted to know the facts of her schooling, and turned the conversation along technical lines.
Mr. Lalonde’s questions were more personal. How did she hear about AEI? Why did she want to work in the United
States? She spoke about her interest in alternative energy, and wanting to expand her worldview beyond her own country.
“I’m intrigued by your analytical work in virtual reality,” Ms. Cooperrider said at last. “We don’t have anyone doing that
here. Would you mind giving us a brief demonstration?”
She’d been waiting for this. “I don’t mind at all.” She touched her satchel. “I have my unit, but I’ll need a pod.”
“Of course.” Ms. Cooperrider rose. There’s an empty office down the hall.”
Mr. Lalonde trailed behind them uncertainly and hovered in the doorway of the office Ms. Cooperrider indicated. The
nameplate on the door read T.C. Hess. Ms. Cooperrider’s empty meant not occupied at the moment.
The room’s furnishings were a complete disappointment compared to the other offices she had seen. A large wooden desk
and chair took up a third of the space and was strewn with papers, computing magazines, three coffee mugs and some
photos, which she couldn’t make out in the glare of the light. The pod crowded up against the desk, its padded railing
cracked in a few places. She busied herself reconfiguring the pod to her specifications. The railing whirred tiredly in
response, lowering to accommodate her smaller size relative to the usual occupant. The standard screen and ports were
affixed to arms bolted into the ceiling, and she lowered these as well, then fitted her VR scope into one of the ports, and
clamped her splitboard onto the railing. Mr. Lalonde whistled when he saw the board. “So colorful.”
“It’s customized to work in virtual reality.” She ran her fingers lightly over the upper tier of keys on each pad, each inlaid
with a different design. “These hotkeys are associated with each of the specialized commands I use.”
“What are those symbols?” he asked.
“Mayan. Just for fun.” She ducked her head, pretending to do a final equipment check, so they wouldn’t see her gloat.
She doubted they would guess they were simply the symbols for the twenty day-names in the old Mayan calendar.
Waterlily through dog were on the left board; monkey through lord — Ahaw — on the right. They would look esoteric to
American eyes, and lend an aura of secret knowledge to her demonstration. But then, if they’ve never seen a VR analyst at
play—
She mounted the pod — a slimmer and sleeker version than the VR gaming pods she grew up playing on in Guate — and
adjusted the splitboard against her wrists. She touched a key and her VR scope moved forward and snugged up against
her left eye. Nadine preferred the scope to VR goggles. It enabled a dual focus, allowing her to monitor the standard
screen in a separate eye alongside virtual reality.
Her system was now linked into AEI’s, but she didn’t expect to be allowed access to that today. “Is there a data set you’d
like me to demonstrate on?” she asked, hoping her tone sounded innocent.
“Of course,” Ms. Cooperrider said. “There is some basic data on resource needs for our new solar energy system at six
hundred and twenty-five separate locations around the globe. Call up weatherfile. It’s in csv format, in the public access
folder.”
Nadine did so, and let out a breath when she saw the size.
“Weather measures include temperature, degree of cloud cover, precipitation and so forth for one thousand and ninety-five
consecutive days,” Ms. Cooperrider said. “Economic variables include median income in eight distinct earnings groups.
Then we have separate estimated costs for materials, labor and ongoing annual maintenance for each location. Plus some
miscellaneous variables, but that’s the general overview.”
Nadine scanned the data on the main screen as she waited for her VR analytical software to load from the memory disk in
her splitboard. She frowned. “I can see labels Econ one, two, three and so forth. Social one, two. Is there a key that I can
tell what I’m looking at?”
“It’s partially de-identified for security reasons,” Ms. Cooperrider said. “The file contains proprietary information. If we
hire you on you’ll have access as needed to perform your functions.”
Nadine nodded, even as she wondered how she was going to do her demonstration. “Is there a certain kind of analysis you
would like me to do?”
“Just show us how you would work with the file using your software.”
She nodded. So they wanted a show. She touched a key. “I’m projecting the virtual landscape on the wall behind me so
you can see the analysis in progress.” Real analysis would be impossible without knowing what she was looking at, but
she could still fly over the data and impress them with the visuals.
She decided to project in city mode, because it was spectacular. “This is phase one of building a predictive model,” she
said. “Each building represents an association between variables. The higher the building, the greater the statistical
strength.”
She touched the Men symbol, eagle, and then caressed the fingerpad on her splitboard to fly into the high points of the
virtual city. Then she touched Eb, tooth, to make a pointer appear, which she guided with a second finger on the pad. As
soon as Eb touched a building, it glowed gold. “Here, for example, is Weather variable seven in association with Location
variable nine. It’s one of the highest buildings, so it has a particularly strong association. It could be something like
temperature and distance from the equator. When one increases, the other decreases.”
She activated Men again, and flew around the landscape to orient herself. As she did so, she noticed a vast flatland beyond
the city. Doing a quick check that the others would hardly notice, she found out those were cost variables for the solar
energy system — the so-called solar energy system. Strange. These didn’t seem to be associated with any other items at
all. She still remembered what her father had said, years ago. Not solar, not wind, but definitely green. And: Just don’t tell
anyone anything just yet.
She steered clear of the flatland and went on with the demonstration. “Now we’ll go to actual data mining,” she said. “For
example, neural networks will find associations in a manner modeled on the way the brain works.” The city warped into a
dazzling geometric array that kaliedescoped in and out in constant motion. She could hear Ms. Cooperrider gasp, and
smiled. Nadine had succeeded in impressing them, and she was still in the baby stages of an analysis.
“This is showing the neural network training itself on the data, finding associations,” she said. “I can also guide the
training by forming a symbiotic relationship with the software, becoming a kind of intelligent agent.”
She activated Etz-nab, knife, and dove in, slashing some connections apart, which caused the neural net to focus on the
remaining ones, growing entire cities like nodes on a quartz crystal. She heard both onlookers gasp now, but she was only
looking like she knew what she was doing. With the data deidentified, she had no idea what she was pruning, what she
was encouraging. All she knew was that the program was not at all interested in that flatland of information.
She could tell she was losing them in her technical patter, so she concluded the demo quickly and gracefully, and shut
down, making sure she didn’t leave a copy of her software behind on their system. Mr. Lalonde reached out to shake her
hand even before she dismounted the pod.
Ms. Cooperrider maintained her cool demeanor, but Nadine noticed the corners of her mouth tug into a smile as she said,
“We’ll be making a hiring decision within the next two days.”
As Nadine gathered her things, she made light chat about her first impression of the States. She detached her splitboard
from the railing and laid the pieces on the desk while she unplugged her VR scope. She stuffed the scope into her satchel
then reached for the splitboard. Her eyes landed on a photograph on the desk. Her whole body jerked, and she choked
back a cry of surprise. Although she hadn’t seen him in years, she recognized the person in the photo. It was Three
Crows.
She knew that dark straight hair, those sculpted cheekbones, brown skin, and tall, lean body. And that gaze, level and
honest and open in a way that fascinated her. He was older now, but she still knew him. She had convinced herself over
the years that he wasn’t real.
Mr. Lalonde was at her side. “What’s the matter? Are you feeling all right?”
“Yes, I—” She struggled to find an explanation that didn’t involve Three Crows. “Sometimes after coming out of virtual
reality I can have…reactions.”
Mr. Lalonde nodded. “That was a pretty intense visual you showed us. We were just watching but you were really in
there, weren’t you?”
She nodded, even though it wasn’t quite the truth. She touched her forehead. She did feel a bit unsteady. “May I use your
restroom?”
Ms. Cooperrider’s hand landed on her shoulder, edging out Mr. Lalonde. “Of course. I’ll show you. It’s just down the
hall.”
Nadine was grateful for the privacy of the small single facility. She shut the door and slumped against the sink, letting
herself go quietly insane. Three Crows. That name on the door, T.C. Hess, the initials stood for Three Crows. He worked
here.
The hairs on her arms stood on end. Who was Three Crows? Like she, he had been much too young to be employed by
AEI when they first met, in the virtual reality game. But she had never forgotten, and now they were both here. What if he
had been working today? They could have bumped into each other in the hallway. What would have happened?
She had been in the bathroom long enough. She didn’t want them to become suspicious. But she exited to find the corridor
empty, Ms. Cooperrider and anyone else nowhere to be seen. She hesitated, then went back to retrieve her things. Two
people passed her in the hallway, talking animatedly, and neither of them paid her any attention. When she got to Three
Crows’ office, she found it empty. She was surprised they would let her escort herself out, but as she picked up her
things, she took the opportunity to look once again at the photograph of Three Crows. He was standing in a barren
landscape, a desert, possibly even the one where she had met him. The flat-topped butte behind him looked familiar.
Before she was conscious of what she was doing, she found herself stuffing the photo, frame and all, into her bag. She
didn’t want to walk away and later come back to find none of this. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn’t
help it. She needed evidence that Three Crows was real.
She heard someone behind her and stiffened. She plastered a smile on her face before she turned around. It was Mr.
Lalonde. His face radiated good-natured concern.
“Feeling better?”
“Oh yes.” She shouldered her satchel then stretched out her hand. “It was really nice to meet you and Ms. Cooperrider.
Thanks for the interview. I’m excited to get a chance to work with a firm like this.”
They continued to chat as they strolled to the front desk. Kevin smiled good-naturedly as he watched Mr. Lalonde bid her
a good visit in Atlanta.
#
Back in her room, she ordered an American cheeseburger just because she had never had one, and crab cakes because the
menu proclaimed them “a real Southern treat.” She ditched her business attire for a black sweat suit, and then turned the
bed into Computer Central, jacking her splitboard into the hotel’s screen at bedside, and propping herself on the pillows
like she did at home.
She searched the Net on Three Crows Hess, and then T.C. Hess, and got a hit on the latter name. Several hits, actually,
and she knew at a glance not all of them could be him. But which of them were? She didn’t know Three Crows well
enough. Did he play chess? Had he published scientific papers? She cross-referenced with Applied Energy Intelligence,
and found his name on their website, but it didn’t tell her anything new.
Next she tried the government websites. So much was public information now. She worked her way up, beginning with
the city of Atlanta, then Fulton County. Three Crows paid his taxes on time, wasn’t a homeowner, had no registered pets.
Nadine’s cheeseburger arrived then, with French fries, onion, lettuce and tomato on the plate. The crab cakes were
supposed to be an appetizer, but looked like a whole little meal by themselves. The waiter who set the large tray on the
desk in the corner didn’t seem to think it odd all this food was for her. She signed for it then when he was gone, moved
the whole thing to the bed and dug in while she continued her searches. The crab cakes were delicious but rich tasting;
she preferred the comfortable, savory taste of the burger, on its exotic white bun all puffed up with air.
It was while she was alternating bites of burger with the slice of tomato on her plate that she got a hit. She had been
flipping through the industry data on the state Department of Labor website, when she saw she could search workforce
data for an individual. Three Crows’ entire employment history would be here, she thought, at least as far as his
employment within Georgia, and how much of a history could he have, as young as he was?
She punched it up. Sure enough, he’d only had one job. AEI. He had been working there since a little over a year ago.
From there she found he was three years older than she was, and had a master’s degree in engineering from Iowa State
University.
She sighed, flopping back on her pillows, feeling full but not much wiser. She had spent nearly an hour researching him,
and couldn’t claim much. Although she didn’t need it, she speared the rest of her first crab cake and chewed it
thoughtfully, staring idly at the hotel’s screen mounted on the bedside table. It was still windowed to Three Crows’
employment history, the single entry, AEI, with its start date and then today’s date, July 16th.
She sat up. It was the 18th today, not the 16th. She peered at the screen. The display wasn’t supposed to be today’s date.
It was his termination date. He didn’t work at AEI anymore.
Did Three Crows get fired? Quit? Nadine tried to find out, but the reason for termination was not public information. She
could understand why. Even down in Guatemala, it was well-known that lawsuits were the American pastime.
Where had he gone? She looked up his current phone number and steeled herself as she dialed. She was almost relieved
when she got his answering machine. What did she think she was going to say, anyway? She hung up before the
recording was over.
She considered going to his address, but that felt equally stupid, even incriminating if AEI found out. Hadn’t she come
here to get a job? And here she was in the middle of her own personal interests.
Except to be truly honest, her personal interests were exactly what had prompted this journey. It wasn’t even five o’clock
yet, so Nadine looked up the management of Three Crows’ apartment building and dialed that.
A tired-sounding man answered the phone. When he found out she wasn’t a tenant, he said, “I just got a vacancy, but I’ll
need a couple of weeks to clean it and do some painting.”
“Well, I might be interested,” Nadine stammered, caught off-guard. She was suddenly faced with the reality that if she got
the job at AEI, she’d have to find a place to stay. That had been her plan, hadn’t it?
“A tenant of yours, T.C. Hess,” she said. She was suddenly at a loss of what to say next.
“He tell you about it? Nice kid,” the man said, his tone becoming friendlier. “Too bad he had to move away. So you know
it was his apartment then, that’s open.”
Nadine was speechless.
“That’s right nice,” the man said, going on. “Well, I’d be happy to show it to you, darling.”
“Sure.” She gave the man her name and cell phone number, found out his name was Bill, and made plans for him to show
her the apartment when it was nearly ready.
“By the way,” she said, feeling bold. “T.C. told me where he was going, but I’ve forgotten.”
“Yeah,” Bill said. “It was out to some property that was in his family. Out west somewhere.”
That’s all he seemed to know, so Nadine thanked him and hung up. She sank back onto the pillows, breathing raggedly.
Her heart thumped in her ears. She picked up the remaining crab cake and ate half of it in one bite, staring at the blank
white ceiling.
West somewhere. How far west? There were so many Hess names on the Internet, it might take weeks of searching to
figure out which Hess family he belonged to, and then where the family homes were located, and then which one he had
moved to. It would be easier to wait and see where his name popped up next. Property tax rolls, address listings, whatever.
West. She dove for the satchel on the floor by the bed, and fished out the photograph of Three Crows. She gazed at the
desert landscape in the background, and that butte. A clue?
The hotel’s system didn’t have a scanner, but there was a small one built into the bottom of the splitboard. She scanned
the photo, then fished out her VR scope. It took a while to find the eye patch and strap that went with it — given the pods
that had cropped up everywhere in the last two years, complete with their universal ports, she rarely was in a situation
where she needed to actually wear the thing.
Her software could do pattern recognition searches. Surely somewhere on the Internet there would be information about
this shape. She kept the conventional view on the hotel’s screen, then jacked her virtual reality software into the search
engine, activating forest mode, and started her quest for a particular tree, the one that held the key to that butte.
A green forest appeared in her VR scope. Her old school friend, Marcos, had designed it, and it was truly beautiful, a
paradisial rain forest of tall trees with bright green trunks lush with black marbling. Their solidity and almost inorganic
coloring made them look like stone. Patterns among the trees were represented by various flora and faunae. The tree she
was searching for, that is, the image of the butte she had downloaded, wore two orchids, representing the tags she had
entered: rock formation, and western United States. She pushed the Ix function on the splitboard, and her perspective
shifted as she became the jaguar.
That was how Marcos had designed his scape, that the user would transform like this. He preferred all his scapes to run in
a VR chamber so there would be maximum impact. In the chamber, the user would appear to shape-shift into the creature,
altering perception of his forest to reflect his own interpretation of the function key. He lamented the fact that Nadine ran
his scape through a VR scope. At least use goggles! he had urged. You’ve got to enter the world in order to appreciate it.
But who could afford one’s own VR chamber? Even renting one was too expensive to use regularly. Yet even through the
scope, she appreciated Marcos’ skill. The view alone gave her the impression of slinking through the jungle, low and silent
and aware.
Yet after all these delightful special effects, it only took her thirty seconds to find the match. It turned out to be a common
sight. It was Fajada Butte, in a state called New Mexico, a name that made her smile. The butte was in an area called
Chaco Culture National Historic Park.
She touched the Kimi function on the splitboard to end program. The scope went blank, and she pulled it off, turning to
the conventional hotel screen to research travel routes. There was a flight leaving for Albuquerque at 7:22 p.m. tonight.
She checked the clock icon at the bottom of the screen. It was already after five. She’d never make it.
There were other flights leaving in the morning. She should stay in Atlanta tonight, sleep off the cheeseburger and those
rich crab cakes, and go in the morning. She needed the rest anyway. The news about Three Crows was enough for one
day, and she’d had a lot more besides.
But maybe she’d turn coward in the morning. Maybe she’d just look for apartments while she waited for AEI to call and
offer her a job. Maybe she’d even put in some years at the place, wondering what the energy source really was,
wondering what her father had known —
Maybe she could make the flight after all, if she hurried. She charged the 7:22 p.m. flight to her mother’s credit card, and
then became a whirlwind, one determined to make it to a certain airport gate on time.
#
It was well past midnight as Nadine neared her destination, rental car bumping along the Blanco trail into Chaco Canyon.
She smiled whenever she hit a particularly deep rut or long stretch of washboard road, picturing the horror on the face of
the rental car clerk in Albuquerque if he knew where she was taking his brand new Mustang. The trail into the canyon was
paved all of the way from Nageezi, but Nadine had missed the turn. In fact, she had glided right through Nageezi itself,
totally unaware of its presence. When she had at last slowed to read the sign on a lonely building, it was to discover she
was at the Blanco trading post, which marked the last turn into the canyon, an unpaved track.
Now that her destination was at hand, she thought the whole thing was crazy. “He’s not going to be down here.” She
wiped a strand of hair from her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she had scolded herself tonight. She was lucky she could see
to find the canyon at all, even with the nearly full moon high overhead, defining shapes in a vast black landscape.
But what if he was here? She might as well ask around about him in the morning.
Eventually the bumpy road gave way to smooth dirt that her headlights turned the color of sunset. She turned off the air
conditioning and rolled down the window, reveling in the quiet. A fox appeared at the side of her car, in the headlights,
running along with her. Then it veered off again and she was alone in the dark once more.
She knew she had arrived at the canyon only by the way the road wound upward sharply before cutting down along a few
switchbacks. Then abruptly she was gliding along on blacktop. The bright yellow centerline was a surreal contrast to the
primitive trail behind her. The Anasazi ruins lurked in the shadows, now and then visible as irregular shapes as she coasted
along the loop. Hers was the only vehicle on the road. The hairs on her arms stirred as it sank in that she was really here.
It suddenly seemed quite possible that she would see Three Crows. She was solemn as she drove on to the camping area.
“Lot full,” she moaned. The sign barred her way to the campground. On another, smaller sign, an arrow pointed to the
right. Use Overflow Area. Beyond, a primitive dirt and sand lane wound out among the cacti. She could see it was a short
drive. She could make out the shadow of a parked pickup truck some distance away, reflecting the soft glow of a
campfire. Someone was up late.
Nadine sat in the car, listening to her breath, then drove to the overflow area. She parked several yards from the truck and
got out. One lone figure crouched by the fire. Without consciously deciding, she began walking slowly his way. Her body
seemed to be floating several inches above the sandy terrain. The roots of her hair felt electric. She had met Three Crows
here in the virtual reality game.
Before he looked up, she recognized him. Firelight raised a sheen in his long, razor-straight hair. Slender arms extended
this time from the rolled-up sleeves of a tailored white business shirt. He rose to his feet as she approached.
Her skin tingled. She had made this happen. She was the one with the real power. She was the girl of his dreams, come to
life, and what she said next would set everything in motion. She didn’t know how this had come about, but she would
learn. She already knew there was a mysterious side of the world alongside the reality she had known, separate but
connected like a VR environment. And like VR, the more she knew about this side of things, the more power she would
have to act within it. Here and now she would discover the truth about the energy system, the truth about her father.
Perhaps most important — she’d find the truth about herself.
She stepped forward into the firelight, daring the future to arrive.
the country had abolished its government and made itself into, if not the richest corporation, certainly the most interesting.
Security was a presence on nearly every street corner, wielding machetes as often as rifles or machine guns. Nadine could
park her scooter without a second thought, among a long line of others in front of La Cueva, and proceed unescorted to
its black metal door.
Inside, she found the place packed with teens and the loud beat of technofusion. Nadine paid the twelve quetzales cover,
and scanned the room. It was hard to make out the faces of the loungers ranged along the darkened periphery. Easier to
see those on the dance floor, illuminated by bright lights that switched from orange to purple to a white brighter than
sunlight, then back to orange. Yet Nadine’s gaze was inevitably drawn above the dancers’ heads, towards the virtual
reality players, who pranced and swooped on their glowing power pods, on a balcony that ringed the dance floor. Their
movements often seemed strange, even nonsensical, and wholly out of rhythm to the music, for they were acting within a
world hidden from everyone’s view but their own.
The players wore the latest in game gear. Tall, rectangular headdresses descended to rest just above their noses,
completely concealing the visual and auditory hardware. Large, rose-colored targets were strapped to their chests, and
wing-like plates secured to their arms enabled them to shield themselves, then return fire. The blasts from their weaponry
were visible at least, and the distance between the players was often pierced by laser light, hurtling like thunderbolts over
the heads of the dancers. The effect was stunning. The players’ movements added to the club’s kinetic power, making
Nadine desire a glimpse of that shared inner world.
“Nadine!” Someone called from the shadows. “Over here!”
Like her, Nadine’s friends were in the accelerated computer classes, in virtual reality applications. Looking around, she
saw an arm wave from over by the stairs to the balcony. She approached, finding the arm belonged to her classmate
Nuria. She was with Marcos, Enrique and Alice, an exchange student from Minnesota in the United States. It was usually
easy to pick her out in a crowd, because of her light skin and blonde hair, but here the lighting was low.
“I was hoping you’d show up soon,” Nuria said, pulling Nadine into the seat next to hers. She spoke loudly so she could
be heard over the music. “It’s so great you got into Universidad. And so early!”
Marcos’ smile stood out from the shadows. “Yeah, what strings did your father pull?”
She frowned, reminded that her father hadn’t been here to celebrate her good news in person. He was in the States.
“Leave her alone,” Alice said.
Enrique punched Marcos in the arm for emphasis, and Nadine winced as the delicate bones of his fist encountered
Marcos’ thick, muscular flesh. “It’s because she’s smarter than you, asshole. She’s a mathematician—”
“Statistician,” Nadine corrected.
“Her thesis was in visual mapping techniques for multilinear analyses in a virtual reality environment.” Alice nearly shouted
the words.
“See?” Enrique said, waving an arm at the girls. “What she said. A genius. Meanwhile, you sit around all day painting
pretty little virtual pictures.”
Marcos glared at Enrique, like a Spanish bull staring down a matador. “Oh, now you’ve gone too far, my friend. I’m the
best VR scape designer of all time. You’ll be begging to enter my environments. Or at least you would if you weren’t
about to die. We must go outside now and duel with machetes.”
Enrique broke into laughter, his eyes squeezed shut. Nadine laughed too, and so did Alice, though nervously. Nuria just
rolled her eyes.
A cry went up from the dance floor. Nadine looked around in time to see two players engulfed in the throes of their laser-
light deaths, the rose-colored circles at their chests appearing to shatter outward in a profusion of holographic shards. The
lights on their power pods winked out, casting them into darkness. A single player remained, a triumphant god, raising his
wings skyward as the crowd cheered over the din of the music. A green-shirted game attendant rushed forward to help
him down from his pod.
This is interesting, what I’m here for, her father had said on the phone earlier this evening. I got invited up by the CEO of
Applied Energy Intelligence. It’s a new breakthrough in affordable energy. Not solar, not wind, but definitely green. Just
don’t tell anyone anything just yet, okay?
Nadine shook off the memory of her disappointment. “I’m going to go play,” she said, jumping up.
“There she is, forgetting us already,” Marcos said.
“I’m playing too,” Enrique said, rising from his seat.
“There better be machetes,” Marcos said, kicking back his chair.
Then they were all up, scrambling for a place in line. Their table was closest to the stairs, and they ended up toward the
front of the line. Nadine’s quick count revealed they would all make the cut. They waited while the players from the
previous match descended the stairs, some laughing, others dejected. Then the line surged forward and she was swept up
to the balcony with ten others. A game attendant waved her to one of the power pods, a glowing circular platform ringed
with a sleek black railing running around two-thirds of the platform. She eagerly mounted it, the driving beat of the music
pounding in her ears. Below, she could see the dancers gyrating. She grinned. This was a great way to celebrate her
graduation. She had to force herself to remain still as two men dressed her in game equipment.
Her attendant, a boy that reminded her of Enrique, hung a circular breastplate around her neck, anchoring it with straps to
her waist. It dwarfed her slight frame, poking out on either side. Next came flexible arm shields, with plastic tabs that fit
across her palms that would trigger her laser light weaponry. She swung her arms experimentally, realizing she’d have to
hold her arms away from her body to keep them from knocking into her chest target.
Last was the headdress, fitting over her thick dark hair. Nadine caught a final glimpse of her fellow players as her helmet
was lowered into place over her eyes.
The lights from their power pods cast looming shadows on the walls behind them. Then she was plunged into the pressing
darkness of the helmet.
“There are lots of things you can do in the game,” the boy shouted over the music, close to her left ear. “Don’t be afraid
to try things.”
“I know,” Nadine said, but the boy did not seem to hear her.
“To move,” he said, “shift your weight in the direction you want to go. The sensors in the power pod will do the rest.
Remember where you really are and you won’t have any problems. If you feel dizzy, grab your railing. Any questions?”
Nadine shook her head. She was left to stare at the darkness. She smiled to herself, clenching and unclenching her fists,
imagining the light bursts that would soon be emanating from the raised cuffs of her arm shields. She hoped she wasn’t
too rusty. It had been a while since she had played, what with the whirlwind of completing her special project, practicum,
and college entrance exam.
Then a new world exploded to life, shutting out all other thoughts. She found herself on a shimmering plateau dotted with
multi-hued structures in geometric shapes. The one next to her was a six-foot cube that appeared to be made of purple
glass. She admired it. The quality of the video was far superior to any game she had played before. If she had known this
game was upgraded, she might have asked a few questions.
“Welcome to Tier Challenge,” a voice boomed in Nadine’s ear, drowning out the music momentarily. “A Silver Net
production. You are one of eleven players. You must find your opponents and kill them. But beware of the floating tiers!
They pose special dangers.”
The voice broke off with a maniacal laugh. Then: “The game will begin in ten seconds. Nine...eight...”
Nadine leaned slightly to the right, and found her virtual body glided as if it were wearing in-line skates that afforded her
excellent control. She edged cautiously around her glass cube. There was a red pyramid straight in front of her, and to one
side, a gigantic green ball. She peered up at a cloudless light blue sky.
What did a floating tier look like? How fast could one move?
“...three...two...one,” the voice said. “The game has now begun.”
On the last word, a gamester leapt from behind the green ball, startling her. The opponent loomed, a perfectly rendered
holographic image. He was older than Nadine, and unusually tall, his height accentuated by the soaring headdress. He wasn’
t looking in her direction, though. He aimed a laser-strapped arm at something out of Nadine’s line of sight. She wasted no
time. Pointing an arm at the player, she clenched her fist, activating the light beam. A white burst shot out from her wrist
cuff and found its mark on the surface of the player’s rose-colored chest target.
The player swung to face her full-on. Then he vanished in a blaze of light. Nadine blinked, unprepared for the effect. It
was as if she had vaporized him.
“One player down,” noted the voice gleefully. “Ten players remain alive.”
She had scored the first hit. Her eyes darted about. An orange tetrahedron blocked her view to the left. She would have to
be alert for an assault from that direction, or a possible floating tier. Otherwise she seemed to have some breathing room.
The game voice announced two more deaths, in quick succession. Down to eight already. She might not be the only one
getting used to the new technology.
A movement by the pyramid caught her attention. She fired on impulse, and obliterated a little crystal ball in mid-bounce.
Before she could recover, a lone figure darted across the open space and took cover behind the sphere. She knew that
thick muscular build. It was Marcos. He had obviously thrown the crystal as a ruse. What a good move. Where had he
found it? And what was this crazy theme supposed to be? Usually it was space wars or urban warfare. This was rocket
cool, though, and the lack of theme added some attitude. She approved.
With no one else to assault at the moment, Nadine fired experimentally at the green sphere. She was surprised when it
turned white and vanished, exposing an equally startled Marcos. She fired again, this time straight at him, but he was too
fast. Rolling to one side, he deflected the blast with one of his shields. Nadine ducked back behind her cube just as he
fired. She watched in dismay as her shelter disintegrated under the laser fire. Marcos grinned menacingly.
Out in the open like this, she was no match for him. She made a break for it, gliding fast toward the tetrahedron. It wasn’t
until she was committed to the move that she saw another player, game gear contrasting sharply with mini and high heels,
ease around the tetrahedron’s shadow side.
Nadine pirouetted away just in time to avoid another round of laser fire from Marcos, then raised her left arm to fend off
yet another blast, this time from the woman, with her shield.
“Four players remain alive,” announced the voice.
The low number surprised Nadine. She must have been focusing too hard on her own plight to hear the rising body count.
She figured she would be next, judging from the way Marcos and the woman were ganging up on her. Marcos glided
toward her. The woman by the tetrahedron fired at her again. Nadine deflected the blast with one of her shields. Then she
heard a strange whirring.
Edging backward, Nadine tried to keep an eye on both of her opponents while she glanced furtively overhead. They
gawked as well. Racing toward them was a flying checkerboard.
So that was a floating tier. It was fascinating, but Nadine had her own objectives. She fired quickly in a sweeping pattern,
then deflected a return shot from Marcos. The checkerboard was almost directly overhead. Again she deflected a laser
light burst. She had to think fast.
As she took another step back, her toe caught air. She nearly lost her balance, and stealing a glance behind her, she found
that she was at the edge of the plateau. Beyond was a sheer drop into nothingness.
Twin strands of laser light shot for her, one from each of her opponents. She threw one arm up across her face, blocking
a volley, and wrapped the other arm across her chest to deflect a hit to her target that would have taken her out of the
game.
The whirring was nearly deafening now, and Nadine had no cover. She gasped as a giant red knight on a black horse came
leaping from the checkerboard. She watched wide-eyed as the horse bore down on Marcos. The knight swiftly skewered
her friend’s chest target. Marcos cried out in frustration as he was vaporized. That settled it. She had to get out of here.
No wonder players were dropping out fast.
The words of the game attendant echoed in her mind. Don’t be afraid to try things.
Nadine drew herself up straight. If this was Tier Challenge she was going to go for it. There could be other tiers — other
levels of play — to be discovered. Firing a last series of laser bursts from both arms, she spun on her heel and leapt off
the plateau.
She felt as if she were going down a big slide, with flashes of bright colors all around. Then her feet touched earth and she
landed gently, in the middle of a desert night. A full moon hung overhead, illuminating the black outline of a butte in the
middle distance, across the plain on which she stood. A light, warm breeze wicked the sweat off her cheeks.
“Wow,” she breathed. This scene was more to her liking. It was certainly more sophisticated.
Just twelve feet away a boy about her age, maybe younger, squatted in front of a small campfire. He wasn’t wearing any
game gear, just jeans, red high-top sneakers, and a blue and black plaid shirt. Nevertheless, Nadine edged forward warily.
The boy looked up. He wore a red bandanna tied around his forehead, partly obscured by dark, razor-cut bangs. Nadine
stopped in her tracks. His eyes radiated honesty, serenity, and wisdom.
He remained crouched in the desert sand. There was no rose-colored target on his chest. Still, it could be a trick. She
pointed an arm and fired.
Click.
Nadine tried again, but her lasers weren’t working. Was she dead? Who had hit her? She turned, scanning the area, but
could see no one else. Her surroundings made her uneasy. The landscape seemed vast and empty.
“Who are you?” asked the boy, breaking the silence. His eyes were half-closed, but the gleam beneath his dark lashes
looked uncannily alert. He spoke in English, but Nadine was familiar with the language. It was her father’s native tongue.
“Nadine.” She fidgeted. She wanted to ask where everyone had gone, but couldn’t form the words.
Her companion regarded her up and down. “Where did you just come from? A costume party?”
Nadine looked down at herself. Here the virtual reality game gear possessed none of the glamour it had generated in the
dramatic lighting of the bar. No one would have programmed such ordinariness into a computer image. She shivered.
What she was seeing wasn’t part of the game.
“I was in Guate,” Nadine managed to say through her constricted throat. “Guatemala City. Where am I now?”
He grinned. “With me. Now it’s my turn to ask you a question.”
The firelight accentuated his high cheekbones. Nadine took a cue from Nuria and tossed her head as if unimpressed. “I
told you my name. Who are you?”
“Three Crows.”
It took a moment for her to realize that he had indeed spoken his name.
“May I ask my question now?” he asked with a smirk.
“But I don’t know anything.” Her cheeks burned. She knew lots of things, just nothing that would interest him, she was
sure.
He inclined his head in an air of confidence. “The universe wouldn’t have brought you here unless you could answer me.”
Nadine scanned the landscape again. “If I can answer your question, do I get to go back to Guate?”
“That will happen anyway,” he said.
“So what’s your question?” She tried to ask it like Nuria would, without a care in the world.
Three Crows spoke slowly. “There is a man I want to know about.”
Nadine blinked. “A man?”
“An important man.”
Nadine’s mouth fell open. Her father. She wanted to quash the idea, the illogic of it, this thought that had come up from
nowhere. She wanted to say she didn’t know what he was talking about. But the openness in her companion’s eyes
stopped her.
Three Crows resumed his easy crouch by his fire, seemingly lost in his thoughts. Nadine fidgeted nervously with her game
gear. “You didn’t phrase that as a question,” she said, meaning to tease him like she would Marcos or Enrique. It came out
sounding confused.
Three Crows continued to stare into the flames, but Nadine felt him focus intently on her words. His shoulders twitched.
She sensed he was afraid to speak. He suddenly appeared alone and vulnerable. Why was he out here in the middle of the
desert?
“Well, all I can think of is my dad,” she said at last.
Three Crows jumped to his feet as if someone had kicked him. “It’s him.”
“My dad? Why?”
“It’s just him. He’s the one. Quick. This is my question. What’s he working on right now?”
Just like that, she felt anguished. “I don’t know!”
“But you must know,” he urged quietly. “That’s the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The rules that say you know the answer because otherwise you wouldn’t have come here. Rules of the universe. Now
tell me.”
“It’s a secret thing,” she said. “I don’t know a lot about it, except it’s secret.”
“So what do you know about it? That’ll be enough.”
He was asking her to break her father’s confidence. “What will you do if I say?”
“Guard the earth.”
“What?”
“I took a pledge to safeguard the earth. There’s something big going on, threatening the earth’s natural balance, and I want
to know what it is.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be anything my dad’s working on,” Nadine said. “He works for what’s good. Look what he did for
Guatemala. He turned the country into our own corporation.”
Three Crows’ eyes grew wide. “Your father is Cypress Washington?” He covered his mouth.
Nadine nodded. “So you know he wouldn’t be involved in anything bad.”
“Maybe he doesn’t realize the danger,” Three Crows said. “Or maybe it’s not him, but people around him. Please, I need
to know what you know.”
Nadine figured she had two choices. Break her father’s confidence and tell, and get to go back to the game, or not tell and
get to go back anyway. Maybe. If this strange boy could be believed. Again, she was impressed by the honesty and
vulnerability that emanated from him.
His concern ate at her. What if something really was going to go wrong? A bit of fear crept around the back of her neck.
What if there were dangerous people around her father, wanting things? He might not be safe.
“Okay,” she said. “All I know is it’s some kind of new energy system. To power people’s homes and stuff. It’s supposed
to be cheaper and better.”
Three Crows stared at her. “Energy system?”
“What’s the deal?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, looking a little sick. “I don’t know yet. Damn, I’m not going to remember any of this when I
wake up, am I?”
“You’re asking me?” Who was this kid? It sounded like he had brought her here on purpose, but if he didn’t know what
he was doing—
He approached with a sense of urgency, his red bandanna glowing in the firelight, then bent over so his face brushed
against her headdress, uncomfortably close. She could smell a peculiar tobacco odor about him. He smoked? It wasn’t pot.
Nadine knew what that smelled like, from rounding corners unexpectedly on campus at school. The scent on Three
Crows was more like a cigarette, but muskier.
“You’re part of it, too,” he said in a disbelieving tone. He cocked his head as he studied what he could see of her face.
She didn’t know what to think anymore, or what to say. She just stood there and stared up at him. She saw for the first
time that there was a crude sign on his bandanna, right in the middle of his forehead. It looked like it was made with a
black magic marker. It was a circular design made of straight lines with their ends bent to form elbows all facing in the
same direction, like a pinwheel. It seemed to spin as Nadine stared at it.
She felt herself being drawn away by her feet. The sensation was familiar, but she couldn’t place it. The world became
momentarily black.
Then loud drums assaulted her ears. Someone was tugging her helmet off. The visor was lifted from her face. Slowly, she
became aware of her body, slumped over the railing of her power pod.
A face swam into view. It was the game attendant who had helped her into her gear. “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding
not at all concerned. “I think you blanked out there.”
She rubbed her eyes as he tore away the rest of her game gear. “How long was I out?”
“Just a second,” he said. “Sometimes people get a little dizzy, you know. You just need some air.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the high-heeled woman in the miniskirt striding toward the stairs, beaming. Winner
of the game.
#
Nadine debarked the blue multi-bus that ran from the Hartsfield-Jackson airport to downtown Atlanta. She was an adult
now, but still short — instantly she was caught up in a sea of pedestrians that all seemed taller than her. They were
dressed mainly in whites, tans, blacks, browns — colorless and muddy. She couldn’t see more than a few people in front
of her, let alone landmarks or signs. Then she caught sight of the curb and strands of cyclists whizzing past on the street,
weaving among the brightly colored buses, and beyond, the Marquis Towers, her destination. She let herself be swept
along in a stream of humanity heading across the street. Once there, she fought toward the front door and finally stood
free like a pebble washed ashore. She stared up at a pair of golden tube sculptures basking in the sun. At first they looked
like abstract nudes, but then the shapes resolved into lions. Suddenly remembering, she whipped around. My suitcase! But
there it was, waiting behind her. She walked between the patient lions and into the building, her luggage dutifully following.
She checked into her room, showered and dressed in her interview attire, a thoroughly American navy pinstripe skirt and
suit jacket that could have been two or twenty years old. She’d had it special-made before she left, since it would have
been difficult to find her tiny size, even in a store that catered to petites. Surveying herself in the mirror, she saw the dark
colors fade into her dark skin. Business camouflage. It didn’t become her, but it did fit the situation, in a strange way. She
was traveling under the mother’s name only, and she had not told her prospective employer she was Cypress Washington’
s daughter — or even that her other name was Washington. She was exercising a bit of Latino prerogative, where
interchangeable surnames were customary. Mother’s name, father’s name, or both together, hyphenated or not. Still, she
had made the decision to use Xitumul, to avoid advertising her connections. Remain a bit anonymous. And if they found
out, well, they found out. No big deal, she told herself. Except it was a big deal. She was journeying into the heart of the
mystery about the energy system, on quest to discover what her father had known before he had died.
Applied Energy Intelligence offices were a swift elevator ride from her hotel room down to the atrium, then a hike across
the impressive lobby to the tower entrance, then another elevator ride to the twenty-third floor. The décor was
conservative, with black leather and glass the dominant materials. The secretary introduced himself with a measured smile.
His name was Kevin, he informed her, and Ms. Cooperrider would meet with her shortly. Nadine waited in one of the
leather chairs, perched uncomfortably on the edge so her feet would remain on the floor.
Ms. Cooperrider was a disturbingly white, prim woman, with a tense bun balled at the nape of her neck. Nadine wondered
at the whiteness. She would have thought Southerners got out in the sun more. But there was no trace of an accent in Ms.
Cooperrider’s voice as she greeted Nadine, only perfunctory efficiency and an obligatory politeness. “Won’t you follow
me, please?” she said, already marching down the hallway in rubber-soled exercise shoes that in no way matched her dull
tan suit.
Nadine followed, nearly doubling her pace in order to keep up. Passing a doorway on her left, she glanced in, and nearly
stopped in amazement. One wall was taken up by a huge aquarium. Tentacled plants bobbed hypnotically in the greenish
light. A burst of colorful fish broke up the scene, and Nadine hurried on, catching a glimpse of a drafting table, and a
figure seated almost completely out of the line of sight. It was someone’s office.
Curious, she craned her neck as she passed another office on her right, and discovered an Oriental rug in rich reds, and a
gold tapestry on the opposite wall. A person sat on a plush brown sofa facing the tapestry. Her back was to the door, but
Nadine caught a glimpse of dark hair and skin. She couldn’t see what the woman was working on.
Neither office fit the glass and black entryway, or Ms. Cooperrider’s stiff walk, and that agreed with her. She smiled. She
had heard of companies indulging their tech workers, and these luxurious offices-to-order were over the top.
Ms. Cooperrider ushered her into a conference room where a young man with tousled hair turned from the window as
they entered. Behind him was a panoramic scene of skyscrapers haphazardly arranged under a stark sky. Nadine fought
not to stare at the spectacular view. She looked the young man in the eye and smiled as she shook his hand. The man
wore shorts and a T-shirt, as if he had just come from the gym.
“My partner, Louie LaLonde,” Ms. Cooperrider said.
“Pleased to meet you,” she said, trying not to look surprised. Partner? They took seats at the table, side by side, and
looked at her expectantly. She sat down next to Ms. Cooperrider and instantly regretted it. It felt awkward to all be sitting
on the same side of the table.
Mr. Lalonde didn’t seem to mind. He leaned forward in his chair so he could see around Ms. Cooperrider. “So Nadine—
may I call you Nadine and not Ms. Xitumul?”
His smile was amiable, but Ms. Cooperrider pursed her lips as she gave Nadine an appraising stare. What was she to say?
“Yes sir.” The words fell flat. Maybe she should have been more informal, but she couldn’t with Ms. Cooperrider there.
The entire interview progressed like this, as if in two entirely different musical keys. She learned to pitch her answers in a
neutral style, pleasant and helpful, yet she held her body immobile, reserved. At times she was even grateful for Ms.
Cooperrider’s questions, who wanted to know the facts of her schooling, and turned the conversation along technical lines.
Mr. Lalonde’s questions were more personal. How did she hear about AEI? Why did she want to work in the United
States? She spoke about her interest in alternative energy, and wanting to expand her worldview beyond her own country.
“I’m intrigued by your analytical work in virtual reality,” Ms. Cooperrider said at last. “We don’t have anyone doing that
here. Would you mind giving us a brief demonstration?”
She’d been waiting for this. “I don’t mind at all.” She touched her satchel. “I have my unit, but I’ll need a pod.”
“Of course.” Ms. Cooperrider rose. There’s an empty office down the hall.”
Mr. Lalonde trailed behind them uncertainly and hovered in the doorway of the office Ms. Cooperrider indicated. The
nameplate on the door read T.C. Hess. Ms. Cooperrider’s empty meant not occupied at the moment.
The room’s furnishings were a complete disappointment compared to the other offices she had seen. A large wooden desk
and chair took up a third of the space and was strewn with papers, computing magazines, three coffee mugs and some
photos, which she couldn’t make out in the glare of the light. The pod crowded up against the desk, its padded railing
cracked in a few places. She busied herself reconfiguring the pod to her specifications. The railing whirred tiredly in
response, lowering to accommodate her smaller size relative to the usual occupant. The standard screen and ports were
affixed to arms bolted into the ceiling, and she lowered these as well, then fitted her VR scope into one of the ports, and
clamped her splitboard onto the railing. Mr. Lalonde whistled when he saw the board. “So colorful.”
“It’s customized to work in virtual reality.” She ran her fingers lightly over the upper tier of keys on each pad, each inlaid
with a different design. “These hotkeys are associated with each of the specialized commands I use.”
“What are those symbols?” he asked.
“Mayan. Just for fun.” She ducked her head, pretending to do a final equipment check, so they wouldn’t see her gloat.
She doubted they would guess they were simply the symbols for the twenty day-names in the old Mayan calendar.
Waterlily through dog were on the left board; monkey through lord — Ahaw — on the right. They would look esoteric to
American eyes, and lend an aura of secret knowledge to her demonstration. But then, if they’ve never seen a VR analyst at
play—
She mounted the pod — a slimmer and sleeker version than the VR gaming pods she grew up playing on in Guate — and
adjusted the splitboard against her wrists. She touched a key and her VR scope moved forward and snugged up against
her left eye. Nadine preferred the scope to VR goggles. It enabled a dual focus, allowing her to monitor the standard
screen in a separate eye alongside virtual reality.
Her system was now linked into AEI’s, but she didn’t expect to be allowed access to that today. “Is there a data set you’d
like me to demonstrate on?” she asked, hoping her tone sounded innocent.
“Of course,” Ms. Cooperrider said. “There is some basic data on resource needs for our new solar energy system at six
hundred and twenty-five separate locations around the globe. Call up weatherfile. It’s in csv format, in the public access
folder.”
Nadine did so, and let out a breath when she saw the size.
“Weather measures include temperature, degree of cloud cover, precipitation and so forth for one thousand and ninety-five
consecutive days,” Ms. Cooperrider said. “Economic variables include median income in eight distinct earnings groups.
Then we have separate estimated costs for materials, labor and ongoing annual maintenance for each location. Plus some
miscellaneous variables, but that’s the general overview.”
Nadine scanned the data on the main screen as she waited for her VR analytical software to load from the memory disk in
her splitboard. She frowned. “I can see labels Econ one, two, three and so forth. Social one, two. Is there a key that I can
tell what I’m looking at?”
“It’s partially de-identified for security reasons,” Ms. Cooperrider said. “The file contains proprietary information. If we
hire you on you’ll have access as needed to perform your functions.”
Nadine nodded, even as she wondered how she was going to do her demonstration. “Is there a certain kind of analysis you
would like me to do?”
“Just show us how you would work with the file using your software.”
She nodded. So they wanted a show. She touched a key. “I’m projecting the virtual landscape on the wall behind me so
you can see the analysis in progress.” Real analysis would be impossible without knowing what she was looking at, but
she could still fly over the data and impress them with the visuals.
She decided to project in city mode, because it was spectacular. “This is phase one of building a predictive model,” she
said. “Each building represents an association between variables. The higher the building, the greater the statistical
strength.”
She touched the Men symbol, eagle, and then caressed the fingerpad on her splitboard to fly into the high points of the
virtual city. Then she touched Eb, tooth, to make a pointer appear, which she guided with a second finger on the pad. As
soon as Eb touched a building, it glowed gold. “Here, for example, is Weather variable seven in association with Location
variable nine. It’s one of the highest buildings, so it has a particularly strong association. It could be something like
temperature and distance from the equator. When one increases, the other decreases.”
She activated Men again, and flew around the landscape to orient herself. As she did so, she noticed a vast flatland beyond
the city. Doing a quick check that the others would hardly notice, she found out those were cost variables for the solar
energy system — the so-called solar energy system. Strange. These didn’t seem to be associated with any other items at
all. She still remembered what her father had said, years ago. Not solar, not wind, but definitely green. And: Just don’t tell
anyone anything just yet.
She steered clear of the flatland and went on with the demonstration. “Now we’ll go to actual data mining,” she said. “For
example, neural networks will find associations in a manner modeled on the way the brain works.” The city warped into a
dazzling geometric array that kaliedescoped in and out in constant motion. She could hear Ms. Cooperrider gasp, and
smiled. Nadine had succeeded in impressing them, and she was still in the baby stages of an analysis.
“This is showing the neural network training itself on the data, finding associations,” she said. “I can also guide the
training by forming a symbiotic relationship with the software, becoming a kind of intelligent agent.”
She activated Etz-nab, knife, and dove in, slashing some connections apart, which caused the neural net to focus on the
remaining ones, growing entire cities like nodes on a quartz crystal. She heard both onlookers gasp now, but she was only
looking like she knew what she was doing. With the data deidentified, she had no idea what she was pruning, what she
was encouraging. All she knew was that the program was not at all interested in that flatland of information.
She could tell she was losing them in her technical patter, so she concluded the demo quickly and gracefully, and shut
down, making sure she didn’t leave a copy of her software behind on their system. Mr. Lalonde reached out to shake her
hand even before she dismounted the pod.
Ms. Cooperrider maintained her cool demeanor, but Nadine noticed the corners of her mouth tug into a smile as she said,
“We’ll be making a hiring decision within the next two days.”
As Nadine gathered her things, she made light chat about her first impression of the States. She detached her splitboard
from the railing and laid the pieces on the desk while she unplugged her VR scope. She stuffed the scope into her satchel
then reached for the splitboard. Her eyes landed on a photograph on the desk. Her whole body jerked, and she choked
back a cry of surprise. Although she hadn’t seen him in years, she recognized the person in the photo. It was Three
Crows.
She knew that dark straight hair, those sculpted cheekbones, brown skin, and tall, lean body. And that gaze, level and
honest and open in a way that fascinated her. He was older now, but she still knew him. She had convinced herself over
the years that he wasn’t real.
Mr. Lalonde was at her side. “What’s the matter? Are you feeling all right?”
“Yes, I—” She struggled to find an explanation that didn’t involve Three Crows. “Sometimes after coming out of virtual
reality I can have…reactions.”
Mr. Lalonde nodded. “That was a pretty intense visual you showed us. We were just watching but you were really in
there, weren’t you?”
She nodded, even though it wasn’t quite the truth. She touched her forehead. She did feel a bit unsteady. “May I use your
restroom?”
Ms. Cooperrider’s hand landed on her shoulder, edging out Mr. Lalonde. “Of course. I’ll show you. It’s just down the
hall.”
Nadine was grateful for the privacy of the small single facility. She shut the door and slumped against the sink, letting
herself go quietly insane. Three Crows. That name on the door, T.C. Hess, the initials stood for Three Crows. He worked
here.
The hairs on her arms stood on end. Who was Three Crows? Like she, he had been much too young to be employed by
AEI when they first met, in the virtual reality game. But she had never forgotten, and now they were both here. What if he
had been working today? They could have bumped into each other in the hallway. What would have happened?
She had been in the bathroom long enough. She didn’t want them to become suspicious. But she exited to find the corridor
empty, Ms. Cooperrider and anyone else nowhere to be seen. She hesitated, then went back to retrieve her things. Two
people passed her in the hallway, talking animatedly, and neither of them paid her any attention. When she got to Three
Crows’ office, she found it empty. She was surprised they would let her escort herself out, but as she picked up her
things, she took the opportunity to look once again at the photograph of Three Crows. He was standing in a barren
landscape, a desert, possibly even the one where she had met him. The flat-topped butte behind him looked familiar.
Before she was conscious of what she was doing, she found herself stuffing the photo, frame and all, into her bag. She
didn’t want to walk away and later come back to find none of this. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn’t
help it. She needed evidence that Three Crows was real.
She heard someone behind her and stiffened. She plastered a smile on her face before she turned around. It was Mr.
Lalonde. His face radiated good-natured concern.
“Feeling better?”
“Oh yes.” She shouldered her satchel then stretched out her hand. “It was really nice to meet you and Ms. Cooperrider.
Thanks for the interview. I’m excited to get a chance to work with a firm like this.”
They continued to chat as they strolled to the front desk. Kevin smiled good-naturedly as he watched Mr. Lalonde bid her
a good visit in Atlanta.
#
Back in her room, she ordered an American cheeseburger just because she had never had one, and crab cakes because the
menu proclaimed them “a real Southern treat.” She ditched her business attire for a black sweat suit, and then turned the
bed into Computer Central, jacking her splitboard into the hotel’s screen at bedside, and propping herself on the pillows
like she did at home.
She searched the Net on Three Crows Hess, and then T.C. Hess, and got a hit on the latter name. Several hits, actually,
and she knew at a glance not all of them could be him. But which of them were? She didn’t know Three Crows well
enough. Did he play chess? Had he published scientific papers? She cross-referenced with Applied Energy Intelligence,
and found his name on their website, but it didn’t tell her anything new.
Next she tried the government websites. So much was public information now. She worked her way up, beginning with
the city of Atlanta, then Fulton County. Three Crows paid his taxes on time, wasn’t a homeowner, had no registered pets.
Nadine’s cheeseburger arrived then, with French fries, onion, lettuce and tomato on the plate. The crab cakes were
supposed to be an appetizer, but looked like a whole little meal by themselves. The waiter who set the large tray on the
desk in the corner didn’t seem to think it odd all this food was for her. She signed for it then when he was gone, moved
the whole thing to the bed and dug in while she continued her searches. The crab cakes were delicious but rich tasting;
she preferred the comfortable, savory taste of the burger, on its exotic white bun all puffed up with air.
It was while she was alternating bites of burger with the slice of tomato on her plate that she got a hit. She had been
flipping through the industry data on the state Department of Labor website, when she saw she could search workforce
data for an individual. Three Crows’ entire employment history would be here, she thought, at least as far as his
employment within Georgia, and how much of a history could he have, as young as he was?
She punched it up. Sure enough, he’d only had one job. AEI. He had been working there since a little over a year ago.
From there she found he was three years older than she was, and had a master’s degree in engineering from Iowa State
University.
She sighed, flopping back on her pillows, feeling full but not much wiser. She had spent nearly an hour researching him,
and couldn’t claim much. Although she didn’t need it, she speared the rest of her first crab cake and chewed it
thoughtfully, staring idly at the hotel’s screen mounted on the bedside table. It was still windowed to Three Crows’
employment history, the single entry, AEI, with its start date and then today’s date, July 16th.
She sat up. It was the 18th today, not the 16th. She peered at the screen. The display wasn’t supposed to be today’s date.
It was his termination date. He didn’t work at AEI anymore.
Did Three Crows get fired? Quit? Nadine tried to find out, but the reason for termination was not public information. She
could understand why. Even down in Guatemala, it was well-known that lawsuits were the American pastime.
Where had he gone? She looked up his current phone number and steeled herself as she dialed. She was almost relieved
when she got his answering machine. What did she think she was going to say, anyway? She hung up before the
recording was over.
She considered going to his address, but that felt equally stupid, even incriminating if AEI found out. Hadn’t she come
here to get a job? And here she was in the middle of her own personal interests.
Except to be truly honest, her personal interests were exactly what had prompted this journey. It wasn’t even five o’clock
yet, so Nadine looked up the management of Three Crows’ apartment building and dialed that.
A tired-sounding man answered the phone. When he found out she wasn’t a tenant, he said, “I just got a vacancy, but I’ll
need a couple of weeks to clean it and do some painting.”
“Well, I might be interested,” Nadine stammered, caught off-guard. She was suddenly faced with the reality that if she got
the job at AEI, she’d have to find a place to stay. That had been her plan, hadn’t it?
“A tenant of yours, T.C. Hess,” she said. She was suddenly at a loss of what to say next.
“He tell you about it? Nice kid,” the man said, his tone becoming friendlier. “Too bad he had to move away. So you know
it was his apartment then, that’s open.”
Nadine was speechless.
“That’s right nice,” the man said, going on. “Well, I’d be happy to show it to you, darling.”
“Sure.” She gave the man her name and cell phone number, found out his name was Bill, and made plans for him to show
her the apartment when it was nearly ready.
“By the way,” she said, feeling bold. “T.C. told me where he was going, but I’ve forgotten.”
“Yeah,” Bill said. “It was out to some property that was in his family. Out west somewhere.”
That’s all he seemed to know, so Nadine thanked him and hung up. She sank back onto the pillows, breathing raggedly.
Her heart thumped in her ears. She picked up the remaining crab cake and ate half of it in one bite, staring at the blank
white ceiling.
West somewhere. How far west? There were so many Hess names on the Internet, it might take weeks of searching to
figure out which Hess family he belonged to, and then where the family homes were located, and then which one he had
moved to. It would be easier to wait and see where his name popped up next. Property tax rolls, address listings, whatever.
West. She dove for the satchel on the floor by the bed, and fished out the photograph of Three Crows. She gazed at the
desert landscape in the background, and that butte. A clue?
The hotel’s system didn’t have a scanner, but there was a small one built into the bottom of the splitboard. She scanned
the photo, then fished out her VR scope. It took a while to find the eye patch and strap that went with it — given the pods
that had cropped up everywhere in the last two years, complete with their universal ports, she rarely was in a situation
where she needed to actually wear the thing.
Her software could do pattern recognition searches. Surely somewhere on the Internet there would be information about
this shape. She kept the conventional view on the hotel’s screen, then jacked her virtual reality software into the search
engine, activating forest mode, and started her quest for a particular tree, the one that held the key to that butte.
A green forest appeared in her VR scope. Her old school friend, Marcos, had designed it, and it was truly beautiful, a
paradisial rain forest of tall trees with bright green trunks lush with black marbling. Their solidity and almost inorganic
coloring made them look like stone. Patterns among the trees were represented by various flora and faunae. The tree she
was searching for, that is, the image of the butte she had downloaded, wore two orchids, representing the tags she had
entered: rock formation, and western United States. She pushed the Ix function on the splitboard, and her perspective
shifted as she became the jaguar.
That was how Marcos had designed his scape, that the user would transform like this. He preferred all his scapes to run in
a VR chamber so there would be maximum impact. In the chamber, the user would appear to shape-shift into the creature,
altering perception of his forest to reflect his own interpretation of the function key. He lamented the fact that Nadine ran
his scape through a VR scope. At least use goggles! he had urged. You’ve got to enter the world in order to appreciate it.
But who could afford one’s own VR chamber? Even renting one was too expensive to use regularly. Yet even through the
scope, she appreciated Marcos’ skill. The view alone gave her the impression of slinking through the jungle, low and silent
and aware.
Yet after all these delightful special effects, it only took her thirty seconds to find the match. It turned out to be a common
sight. It was Fajada Butte, in a state called New Mexico, a name that made her smile. The butte was in an area called
Chaco Culture National Historic Park.
She touched the Kimi function on the splitboard to end program. The scope went blank, and she pulled it off, turning to
the conventional hotel screen to research travel routes. There was a flight leaving for Albuquerque at 7:22 p.m. tonight.
She checked the clock icon at the bottom of the screen. It was already after five. She’d never make it.
There were other flights leaving in the morning. She should stay in Atlanta tonight, sleep off the cheeseburger and those
rich crab cakes, and go in the morning. She needed the rest anyway. The news about Three Crows was enough for one
day, and she’d had a lot more besides.
But maybe she’d turn coward in the morning. Maybe she’d just look for apartments while she waited for AEI to call and
offer her a job. Maybe she’d even put in some years at the place, wondering what the energy source really was,
wondering what her father had known —
Maybe she could make the flight after all, if she hurried. She charged the 7:22 p.m. flight to her mother’s credit card, and
then became a whirlwind, one determined to make it to a certain airport gate on time.
#
It was well past midnight as Nadine neared her destination, rental car bumping along the Blanco trail into Chaco Canyon.
She smiled whenever she hit a particularly deep rut or long stretch of washboard road, picturing the horror on the face of
the rental car clerk in Albuquerque if he knew where she was taking his brand new Mustang. The trail into the canyon was
paved all of the way from Nageezi, but Nadine had missed the turn. In fact, she had glided right through Nageezi itself,
totally unaware of its presence. When she had at last slowed to read the sign on a lonely building, it was to discover she
was at the Blanco trading post, which marked the last turn into the canyon, an unpaved track.
Now that her destination was at hand, she thought the whole thing was crazy. “He’s not going to be down here.” She
wiped a strand of hair from her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she had scolded herself tonight. She was lucky she could see
to find the canyon at all, even with the nearly full moon high overhead, defining shapes in a vast black landscape.
But what if he was here? She might as well ask around about him in the morning.
Eventually the bumpy road gave way to smooth dirt that her headlights turned the color of sunset. She turned off the air
conditioning and rolled down the window, reveling in the quiet. A fox appeared at the side of her car, in the headlights,
running along with her. Then it veered off again and she was alone in the dark once more.
She knew she had arrived at the canyon only by the way the road wound upward sharply before cutting down along a few
switchbacks. Then abruptly she was gliding along on blacktop. The bright yellow centerline was a surreal contrast to the
primitive trail behind her. The Anasazi ruins lurked in the shadows, now and then visible as irregular shapes as she coasted
along the loop. Hers was the only vehicle on the road. The hairs on her arms stirred as it sank in that she was really here.
It suddenly seemed quite possible that she would see Three Crows. She was solemn as she drove on to the camping area.
“Lot full,” she moaned. The sign barred her way to the campground. On another, smaller sign, an arrow pointed to the
right. Use Overflow Area. Beyond, a primitive dirt and sand lane wound out among the cacti. She could see it was a short
drive. She could make out the shadow of a parked pickup truck some distance away, reflecting the soft glow of a
campfire. Someone was up late.
Nadine sat in the car, listening to her breath, then drove to the overflow area. She parked several yards from the truck and
got out. One lone figure crouched by the fire. Without consciously deciding, she began walking slowly his way. Her body
seemed to be floating several inches above the sandy terrain. The roots of her hair felt electric. She had met Three Crows
here in the virtual reality game.
Before he looked up, she recognized him. Firelight raised a sheen in his long, razor-straight hair. Slender arms extended
this time from the rolled-up sleeves of a tailored white business shirt. He rose to his feet as she approached.
Her skin tingled. She had made this happen. She was the one with the real power. She was the girl of his dreams, come to
life, and what she said next would set everything in motion. She didn’t know how this had come about, but she would
learn. She already knew there was a mysterious side of the world alongside the reality she had known, separate but
connected like a VR environment. And like VR, the more she knew about this side of things, the more power she would
have to act within it. Here and now she would discover the truth about the energy system, the truth about her father.
Perhaps most important — she’d find the truth about herself.
She stepped forward into the firelight, daring the future to arrive.
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