LevelUP: an 8-bit novel by Micah Joel. Author's definitive online edition.
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Barely-contained energy crackles between Hemera’s fingers. Molly winces.
“Go ahead; don’t bother me none,” Hadley Root says from the safety of his electronic display.
“What?!” Max says. “No! He didn’t mean that.”
“If she wants to throw away what little leverage she’s got—let her. There are bigger issues at play here,” Hadley says. “Think of everything that’s led to this point. Don’t get distracted, son.”
“Distracted? Whose side are you on?” Max says. He feels his fingers start to ball into fists, but Hemera catches the movement and flinches. Max forces himself to relax, but his breathing remains ragged.
“Another winning strategy for the books,” Hadley says, addressing Hemera directly. His voice drips with sarcasm. “Not counting Pittsburgh. Or the BlueBear initiative. And don’t forget how project Quiet Thunder ended up. Huh. I guess you haven’t been a success at a single thing in life besides hitting people with a big stick someone else handed you.”
Just how much history did Hadley and Hemera have together?
“I built this company from the ground up,” Hemera snarls. “I led the recovery after Damage. Without me, global industry would still be in tatters. Millions more would’ve died.” Hemera’s hand twitches, and a small spark lights up beneath her fingertips. Molly calls out in pain.
“Stop!” Max screams at the screen. “You’ll make her lose control.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Hadley says. “She never had control to begin with. That’s the whole problem. Despite being one of the few people in the world equipped with the right hardware to participate in the games I assembled, despite the obscene amount of resources at her disposal, in the end she couldn’t get the key.”
“That remains to be seen,” Hemera says. She focuses on Max. “Give it to me. Now. Before I fill this room with her smoke.”
Give it to her, just like that? “I don’t know how,” Max says. Immediately he feels disgusted about giving in to a bully. But still. Molly.
“You know,” Hadley continues, ignoring Hemera’s demand, “I had to plan for cheaters like Hemera. That’s why it had to be a game.” He puts his hand alongside his mouth and theatrically stage-whispers: “She wouldn’t know fun if it came in a hard-bound corporate report.”
Hadley looks around and feigns surprise. “Oh, was that out loud?” He clears his throat. “About the key… No shortcuts. No emulators or simulators or trainers or twinking or ghosting. I needed the key to only be available to the person who appreciated our electronic heritage enough to discover and make it through all the levels.”
“Ridiculous,” Hemera says. A bigger spark escapes her fingers, and Molly screams. Judging by the look in Hemera’s eye, this time wasn’t accidental.
“OK, OK, OK,” Max says. “You win. Let her go unhurt, and I’ll figure out how to give you the key.”
“Advanced technology,” Molly whimpers.
That’s Molly for you. Even under the stress of a moment like this, her mind can’t help but seek to understand the technology around her.
“Inventory,” Max says. His HUD shows a skill, but no items that he could drop or otherwise give away.
“Go on. Keep on using your zappy thing,” Hadley says. “Burn off that stored energy til your capacitors are as empty as your heart.”
Max puts his hands up in a placating gesture. “No, don’t. Give me a minute to figure this out.”
“Advanced technology,” Molly says. Repeating herself again.
“Let her go,” Max says. “We’ll work this out. You have my word.”
Hemera doesn’t move to let Molly go. If anything, she shifts her fingers to Molly’s neck, pressing deep. Molly’s breathing turns into a wheeze.
“Tech—nolly—gee…”
Finally, Max gets it. As usual, Molly has been right all along.
“Hemera,” Max booms, and the sheer volume and authority in his voice surprises even himself.
Hemera looks at him with new eyes, startled. She loosens her grip, and Molly’s breathing gets a little more even.
“You have some very advanced hardware under your skin. And I’ve gotta admit, I’d rather figure out how to use the key rather than hand it over.”
Hemera studies him for a long moment. He holds her gaze. “You wouldn’t,” she says, defiant.
“Try to speak in complete sentences,” Max says. “For example, you could say, ‘You wouldn’t dare restore the world to its pre-Damage state.”
Hadley smiles and taps his nose twice. “Took you long enough.”
Hemera scowls. Molly breaks free of her grasp and squirms away, kicking Hemera’s shin as she passes. “That’s for calling my game ‘stupid.’”
“I actually don’t know. What would happen if I just threw the doors wide open?” Max asks.
“It would trigger an immune system of sorts. It was Hemera’s idea, actually,” Hadley says. “There are two—or is it three now?—agents roaming around the internet, searching and destroying anything rating above a 1.0 on the Turing scale.”
“The black slime,” Max says. “Is an immune reaction?”
“Well, it started out that way,” Hadley says. “All these little gadgets that LevelUP puts out need some way to counteract the technological lock. It’s possible to do so on tiny scales, a few seconds at a time, but it requires a ridiculous amount of processing power, especially for an 8-bit system. We’re talking a solid 0.75 Turings. Over time, some branches of that code got smarter.
“Like any immune system, it’s self-adaptive. Every threat it encounters leaves it changed. That’s why it’s important for it to be sub-sentient. At least that was the working theory inside LevelUP.” Hadley makes a point of looking around. “At least it was, last time I checked.”
Max thinks back to the Eigenthief and Bode and even Princess Daisy. Were all of them killers on the prowl? Were they evaluating Max the whole time, to see whether he was human or not?
“You might want to check your code,” Max says. “Seems it’s still got some bugs. Now, I’ve taken a personal interest in you. Let me give you a little lesson in how the world actually works.”
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