Rescue (The Stork Tower Book 4) Read online

  Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright

  History

  Chapter One - December 10, 2073 - Part 1

  Chapter Two - December 10, 2073 - Part 2

  Chapter Three - December 10, 2073 - Part 3

  Diary December 10, 2073

  Chapter Four - December 11, 2073 - Part 1

  Chapter Five - December 11, 2073 - Part 2

  Chapter Six - December 11, 2073 - Part 3

  Chapter Seven - December 11, 2073 - Part 4

  Chapter Eight - December 11, 2073 - Part 5

  Diary December 11, 2073

  Chapter Nine - December 12, 2073 - Part 1

  Chapter Ten - December 12, 2073 - Part 2

  Chapter Eleven - December 12, 2073 - Part 3

  Chapter Twelve - December 12, 2073 - Part 4

  Diary December 12, 2073

  Chapter Thirteen - December 13, 2073 - Part 1

  Chapter Fourteen - December 13, 2073 - Part 2

  Chapter Fifteen - December 13, 2073 - Part 3

  Excerpt from 'Identity' Book 5

  Excerpt from 'Mirasçi' A Stork Tower Backstory

  In gratitude to those

  who work to bring

  freedom from slavery,

  irrespective of its form.

  Rescue

  The Stork Tower # 4

  By

  Tony Corden

  Copyright 2018 Tony Corden

  Kindle Edition

  Cover image from Shutterstock.com

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  E-book ISBN: 978-0-6482890-4-3

  HISTORY

  It was the advent of safe electromagnetic neural manipulation in 2021 which led to the rise of a viable and sustainable virtual reality industry. Within thirty years almost all leisure, education, and work-related activity occurred inside virtual reality constructs. Individuals were suspended in a neutral buoyancy liquid which had a gel-like consistency. Their bodies were held in induced quasi-comas, while their nervous system was manipulated to provide a virtual sensory experience indistinguishable from reality while constantly stimulating the motor neurones to prevent muscular deterioration. The variety and complexity of the devices developed was frequently changing yet the market continued to refer to all such devices as Neural Interface SIM (Sensory, Integrative and Motor) Pods or SIM Pods.

  Many regulatory bodies, conservatives, and sceptics initially raised the problems of privacy and security. They were worried about the potential for brainwashing, for thought control, or even of subtle thought reform. In response, the VR industry developed and introduced an intelligently controlled interface which included a self-adaptive firewall. This device was controlled by the user and capable of protecting personal privacy and safeguarding the minds of the growing number of people both working and living in virtual space. With many users wanting even greater control over their virtual experience these interfaces quickly matured into personally managed, and owned, Artificial Intelligence Chips. The AI chips were physically implanted adjacent to the nervous system and able to protect, inform and assist individuals both inside and outside the virtual world. The chips micro-manipulated the auditory and visual cortices making it possible for the owner to hear and see implanted information, even in the real world.

  Various interest groups including parents, educators and civil libertarians raised concerns over the appropriate age for POD immersion. In research commissioned by the International Institute of Applied Neuroplasticity, there was clear evidence that extended immersion in SIM Pods was detrimental for those under the age of fifteen. Further studies led to International guidelines banning POD use for those under the age of five and limiting their use until age ten to two hours per day, then to four hours daily until age fifteen.

  At the Dubai Convention for Virtual Modality in 2050 the United Nations’ ‘Declaration of Human Rights’ was modified and the changes formally adopted the following August by the UN General Assembly. These changes asserted that the access to a personal AI was a fundamental human right for full access to modern society. The right to education was amended to include the right to access the virtual environment.

  SUMMARY OF NASCENT

  Atherleah Carroll grew up in a negative-tax family in the gang-controlled suburbs of Brisbane at the end of the twenty-first century. From the age of six, she decided that she wanted more and with the help of her local gang-leader, she learned the skills to escape the relentless pressure to accept a life of mediocrity. On her sixteenth birthday, she was inadvertently implanted with a Neural Enhancement Chip instead of the free Government provided basic level personal AI. This mistake not only removed the limits placed on the AI but also broke some of the Government instigated control parameters. Leah’s life rapidly became a battle, both in the virtual-multiverse and in real life.

  On the advice of the local ‘boss’, Leah began playing the virtual fantasy game Dunyanin to earn the money she needed to live at the local POD facility and help with her education. With the help of her rapidly evolving AI, she has not only thwarted attempts by the government to limit her opportunities but evaded kidnapping by virtual slavers. Co-opted by several Virtual Security AI Leah has helped shut down a virtual sweat-shop which used mind-controlled players to farm for resources. The family, which runs the virtual crime syndicate, has cornered Leah in the depths of a virtual-mine and sent twenty player-mercenaries to capture her. Fleeing through a hidden doorway into a mirror mine operated by goblins Leah hopes to escape her pursuers.

  SUMMARY OF ODYSSEY

  Leah’s escape from her pursuers catapults her into a multi-dungeon Odyssey which promises challenges and rewards beyond anything she has yet faced. She invites her new virtual friends along and together they are melded into a team. In the real world, she is blocked by people within the Government who want to prevent her rising from her set position in society. Some in the Government are allied with her enemies in the crime syndicate and force her to relocate from the public POD facility. They also try to put an end to her academic aspirations.

  She attends a meeting with the Matriarch of the syndicate on a space station in a new virtual universe. When she uses her childhood skills to pickpocket the Matriarch’s head guard she inadvertently steals something of immense value and exacerbates the conflict. In Dunyanin Leah embarks on a journey to fulfil the only timed quest she has. The route includes a visit to both heaven and the place of the dead. She changes history and finds herself rewarded in the court of the High Elves. The reward sends her on a detour and a confrontation with a clan of vampires.

  Through all of this, Leah finds time to go on her first date.

  SUMMARY OF CHANGE

  When Namus, the Vampire Patriarch, changes Leah into a vampire, an error in Dunyanin’s code initiates real-world changes in Leah’s anatomy. She begins learning how to access and use the additional connections her chip has made throughout her body. In Dunyanin Leah is finally able to finish the timed quest. On the way she discovers that the crime syndicate has an even greater presence in the virtual multiverse than she’d imagined, she once again helps free some slaves. Leah is separated from her friends during an ambush and has to continue alone. On the journey, she makes new friends, learns new skills, hatches her dragon, and finds a mega quest which thrusts her into the spotlight, not just in Dunyanin but throughout the multiverse.

  Leah not only reaches an agreement with MIT to begin her studies but they agree to let her start researching her theories, all she has to do is find some professors who will work with her. The Pod facility she opened expands as she helps others from her neighbourhood get higher education and access the multiverse. Her battle with the crim
e family escalates as she begins to unravel the secrets of the syndicate and they both tarnish her reputation and remove the allies and friends who could help her.

  Her relationship with Thad grows as they find time to have several dates.

  CHAPTER ONE

  December 10, 2073 - Part 1

  Leah arrived back in the Tower to find both Sharon and Stephen still in residence. She said, “Have you two left or are you still here from five hours ago?”

  Sharon replied, “I haven’t left. Stephen did, but he returned over an hour ago. We’ve been trying to get Dunyanin to make a statement on the integrity of their servers and game AI, but they’ve basically ignored us. I have some statements for release that you need to approve.”

  “Does it really matter? It is just a game. I’m not really hurt in any way, why not let it slide?”

  Sharon said, “You can’t! This is no longer just a game. Dunyanin has made your gameplay and the gameplay of the others in the competition into a worldwide media event. Big money is riding on the outcome, even on everyday activities in the game. The other major gaming platforms are already gearing up to win back the large number of people defecting to Dunyanin. A shake-up like this hasn’t happened in over a decade. You are popular at the moment and what you do and how you react will affect the direction of change. If you don’t maintain your positive profile now, then you’ll find it hard to get it back, and that will change every aspect of your virtual existence. For example, if you are vilified by the press and by Dunyanin then you could lose your support at MIT. It shouldn’t happen but it very well could.”

  “I see. Can it wait until we have all had a break?”

  “Yes. You have nine more Dunyanin hours before the feed goes public. You need to have a statement ready for when that happens, and you must be ready to answer questions. I suggest you give permission for me to let one or two journalists know something big is coming and prep them beforehand. They’ll respond by giving you airtime to explain your side of the story.”

  “What if Dunyanin doesn’t show what happened?”

  “That’ll be worse. In the absence of a feed or facts, people will just make stuff up.”

  “Stephen?”

  “I agree with Sharon. You need to get your story out first and have Dunyanin and others scrambling to verify. If they speak first, then you are the one left scrambling. My only suggestion would be that you give Dunyanin a lifeline. Don’t back them into a corner. Big corporations like being given a way out. As for Merideath, I wouldn’t mention her at all. You can’t prove she was involved except by airing the threat. The police will be all over your facility, and you know as well as I do that she’ll weasel her way out of that simply by saying Son_of_Aulë is a deranged individual or something like that. Instead, portray her as irrelevant.”

  “I can be back in twenty real-minutes. I’d like to head to church with my mum but that is right on the time the feed starts. Are you sure I need to be available? Could it wait?”

  Sharon shook her head and said, “I don’t think so. Over a half-a-billion people watched segments of the first few days of live feed, and that number is growing. The clip of you being accused of ordering the slaughter of women and children will go viral, as will your execution of Son_of_Aulë while a vampire. The fact that he exonerates you and that you save the Forge may not register unless we help people see the facts. We need to help people see these things, and you need to be the one to help them.”

  “I’ll give tentative approval but which journalists will you contact?”

  “Lisa Wilks from The Virtual World Today and Mark Stevens from DMR Interactions.”

  “Why them? They are big names. Why would they be interested?”

  “They have shown an interest in the whole Merkize promotion and both have already interviewed several of the other contestants.”

  Gèng appeared and said, “I suggest you also find a Chinese journalist and a Russian. Both Yuè_Fēi_Lóng and Боевой_молот have mentioned Atherleah in their interviews — both were positive. A substantial percentage of those who watch Leah come from these locations. It would be useful to keep them onside.”

  Sharon nodded and said, “That is a brilliant suggestion Gèng, I need to increase my vision and my understanding of the audience base. Let me do some work and arrange several interviews. Leah, will you release your personal feed of today and your feed of two weeks ago? Those will prove you weren’t near Clan Molven that day.”

  “Gèng, where was I?”

  Gèng replied, “According to the description of the event in various forums you were in that place we can’t mention. You were in the place with all the loot behind the locked door.”

  “Sorry Sharon, I’ll release today’s footage, but I can’t release the actual footage for the time in question. I can give you the hours before and the hours after but that particular time is not available. I can prove I was half a continent away before and after.”

  “It won’t be enough. Everyone knows you can teleport.”

  Stephen interjected, “Why can’t you show us?”

  “I agreed to keep that part of my time in Dunyanin a secret.”

  “Is the timing a coincidence?”

  “It’d have to be. Meredith didn’t even know my name back then. Well, she did, but she didn’t realise what I’d done yet.”

  “Do I need to know as your lawyer?”

  “I doubt it. I don’t think it’s germane to our discussions.”

  “Do I need to know as your public relations consultant?”

  “Definitely not, you’d find it too juicy not to share.”

  Sharon said, “Unfortunately, now I know about it it’ll drive me crazy not knowing. Either way, this means we’ve lost one of our best proofs. Can we meet back here in half-an-hour to run through what you can and can’t say?”

  Leah nodded, and after a few more minutes she logged out to have breakfast with her family.

  As Leah exited the Pod, she said, “Gèng, could you see if John is free for a chat after breakfast? I’ll also need to talk to Jimmy and give him a heads-up. Can you check with Akia and see if she has any suggestions?”

  “John asked if it is urgent and I said it was. Jimmy was awake and is expecting your call whenever you are free. Akia will not tell me her suggestion. I believe she will tell you if pushed.”

  “I’m not ready to push her into an answer just yet. I know that when I think it best to keep something to myself, then it usually is. When people make me speak when I don’t want to then others are usually hurt by my words.”

  Lin and Michael were already eating, and Leah joined them. After the usual pleasantries she said, “Dad, mum, I received another threat today. It was made clear that unless I agree to return something to the Kodomans by sometime after eleven tonight that they will begin pressuring me in the real world. They referenced mum’s church, and I think they’ll try and harm or abduct someone in the family.”

  Michael sat up straighter and said, “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I’d like to say I’ll resist the pressure because I truly believe what they want is data that will affect the lives of a lot of people. The problem is I still haven’t worked out what the data is, and I’m not willing to risk any of my family.”

  Lin said, “Do we have a say in what you do?”

  “Of course! I need advice, and I want it from both of you. The burden I feel though, is that, in the end it is my responsibility.”

  Lin nodded and said, “In that case, our advice, and here I speak for both of us, our advice is that you decode the data and help stop those people from hurting others. We will take precautions, but we will not be intimidated anymore than you will.”

  Leah’s dad grinned and said, “Your mother answered for both of us because she is a good Christian woman. My answer would have been far more colourful. It would be the same message just far more adjectival. You go stop them my girl.”

  Leah brushed a stray bit of moisture
from the corner of her eye and said, “There is more.” She then shared what had happened during that morning and what plans were in place to counter the most likely outcomes. When she had finished, she waited for a response.

  Her parents were quiet for some time, and then Michael said, “Nothing changes. You go and do what you must. We’ll be ready. I suggest you find some way to broadcast your interview to the people in the Switch. They don’t have access to the virtual news.”

  Leah gave them each a hug and then left to see John. Her talk with him was along the same lines, and she received a similar response. He agreed to increase surveillance and to plan a lockdown of the facility later in the day. Together they worked on some additional security options to help protect Leah’s family. Finally, Leah called Jimmy and explained what had happened and what the plans were. He said, “When you get this data what will you do with it?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on what it is I suppose. But I know that look on your face Jimmy, and the answer is a definite ‘No’. If there is something to be made from it, then I might share it with you, but I won’t simply hand it over to you. You and I both know that if there is a potential for massive financial gain, then your conscience has a holiday.”

  “Sadly, my girl, I resemble that remark — much to my chagrin. Over the years my avarice has lost me many friends. But just so you know, I’ve always wanted more than the Switch, just like you. It’s not so much that I want the money, but I guess I still want out.”

  “You have enough to leave.”

  “I know, but then I’d lose the power.”

  “You’ll get no sympathy from me, Jimmy. What you don’t realise is that you have more than power and money. People in the Switch respect you, they look up to you, and they do that without blinkers. We all know you’re a scheming, controlling, money-grabbing, low-life gang lord, but we also know that buried under all that avarice is a heart that cares what happens in the Switch and a mind that tries to decipher a path to benefit others as well as yourself.”