SmallvilleGuy: Exactly. We can’t see what they were seeing, but I think it’s probably a special sandbox real-sim environment not all that different than the game, and there’s a visual cue in there that goes with those tones. But the tones were the same both times. I checked. If he was right, every time they see and hear the cue, it’s making the connection stronger. From what I can tell, the lab guys don’t even realize they aren’t disconnecting the link. They have no idea they’re connecting it more strongly at the end of the session.
SkepticGirl1: Strong enough to stick outside the lab by accident? That makes sense. The guy obviously didn’t believe they were linked before they got there. The Warheads must be able to keep the new minds in line until the real link is put in place at the lab. That would mean it—this group consciousness—is growing on its own, right? That’s why the Warheads are recruiting. That’s what they called Anavi. A recruit.
SmallvilleGuy: The creator thought it was possible to maintain the link, but that there were ways around it. He didn’t think people would want to live as part of a hive mind outside the game. He also theorized that the mind protects itself—that if a linked group was disconnected during the audiovisual cue by a hard interruption then the neural pathways would seal themselves back up permanently.
If I understood it right, this was the best news of the day.
SkepticGirl1: Then there’s a way to stop it.
SmallvilleGuy: I hope so. What they’re doing isn’t right. And I got the sense on the forum that at least the one researcher doesn’t want to be doing any of this, that he knows it’s wrong.
SkepticGirl1: Agreed. It seems like it’s got to be the guy in the audio on the bug, Mr. Sympathetic. Is the creator involved in this too, do you think? Could he be using the same tones on purpose?
SmallvilleGuy: No, he died last year. My guess is they were only able to get their hands on his research after that. What’s available publicly is just theories, no details.
SkepticGirl1: Then the boss they report to has to be the CEO of ARL. We were on the right path all along. They’re taking ARL’s old ideas about syncing up a unit and mashing them up with the new tech. I can’t figure out how they think they can use the Warheads this way and get away with it . . . There’s still a missing piece.
SkepticGirl1: But I’ll find it. I’m going in there tomorrow.
SmallvilleGuy: Promise me you won’t go alone. If they’re your friends then you can trust them to have your back.
SkepticGirl1: And they can trust me to have theirs.
SmallvilleGuy: Lois, it’s not safe.
SkepticGirl1: The only one who signed up for this is me. End of story. (Well, a whole new story, hopefully.)
I jumped in my chair when Maddy cleared her throat. Loudly.
James and Maddy—and even Devin—sat in their tribunal formation, a straight line together watching me.
SkepticGirl1: Gotta go.
I signed off and said, “What?”
“Who were you arguing with?” James asked.
“And don’t say nobody or that you weren’t, because you were,” Maddy said. “Or at least starting to. I know argument face when I see it. And you were flirting before. Don’t deny that either.” She gave me a look that let me know there would be a private interrogation about that later.
Which was okay with me. I’d love to have someone I could talk things over with. See if she thought SmallvilleGuy and I were just friends . . . or something more.
But when I opened my mouth to speak, Maddy went on before I could get a word out: “Was the argument about what we heard and saw today in the study room?”
Devin said, “Lois, it’s time to stop keeping secrets from us. The Warheads . . . they can do things, can’t they? Things they shouldn’t be able to.”
It was nice to see Devin acting more like himself, asking questions again. But I gathered my hands in my lap, my palms gone ice cold.
There was no good move here. If I lied, didn’t tell them anything, sure, they’d be safe—probably—but they’d never trust me again. If I told them the truth, they’d—almost certainly—believe that I was a full-time resident of crazytown.
I knew what I wanted to do. Sometimes you just had to be brave.
CHAPTER 22
I faced them without blinking. If I wasn’t going to hide the truth anymore, I might as well see the moment they started to doubt me.
“You’re going to think I’m completely crazy,” I said.
“No,” Maddy said, “we’re not. Don’t you get it?”
No matter how animated James got, his glossy brown hair stayed perfectly in place. “We’re not stupid, Lois. Gamers don’t read each other’s minds. Not normally.”
They were willing to listen. They were receptive to hearing what I’d been so certain would make me an outcast of the highest order.
“That’s it,” I said. “Sounds like you were figuring it out already. They might not be mind readers, not exactly, but they are sharing a consciousness. They’re connected to each other.” I paused, then finished, “What we saw and heard from the lab is an experiment using real-sim tech to link the Warheads into one many-headed mind. Project Hydra in action.”
“To what end?” James asked with a frown.