Dangerously Placed Read Free

outside AU-3, staring at a red beam coming out of the door while a computer voice repeated ‘Please align eye for retinal scan’ at me. In a spy-themed virtuadventure, that kind of thing was cheesy and fun,but now that it was for real I couldn’t help wondering if I was the right person for this placement after all.
    â€˜Finally!’ Leaning my weight against the cables that attached the suit’s shoulders to its power source and computer servers in the ceiling, I managed to pull the mask over my face. The Virk Suit sealed itself down my back with a hiss. For a moment, there was a chilling feeling of disorientation as the visor and breathing filters kicked in, and then I could see again. Only, what I could see wasn’t the blank walls and hanging cords of my Virk Room, but a smooth golden door with a handle on one side and ‘Welcome to Simulcorp Virk ™ Marketing Division’ in raised wooden letters at eye-level. Of course you’re the right person for this , I told myself. Putting on the suit and getting in here was just the first test .
    â€˜Delta three seven omega,’ I said out loud, and there was a click as the golden door unlocked. I reached out, then stopped as I saw that my hands looked just like the real thing. I mean, they looked like my hands, not like a generic pair of hands in a virtuadventure. I stared at them for a moment, then blinked. This was no time to stand around gawking. I raised my chin, grasped the wooden handle and pushed.
    My first thought was that someone had turned the colour levels in my visor up way too much. I was standing in a corridor that appeared to have solid gold walls, emerald-green grass for carpet and a bank of doors on either side, each one painted a different,strident colour. And in the middle of the lawn-like carpet stood a tall blonde woman in the reddest dress I had ever seen.
    â€˜Alexandra!’ she exclaimed, and sauntered forward to take my hands in hers. ‘What a pleasure to meet you. I am Inge Wellenschnitter. I am to be your mentor.’
    â€˜It’s nice to meet you,’ I said, trying not to gape at her. Not only was Inge’s dress radioactive red, she was wearing heels so high they were practically stilts, her hair was coiled up in enormous platinum-blonde plaits on the back of her head, and she had the kind of figure that Ms Harmond, our Health Ed teacher, was always telling us was unattainable in real life. The overall effect was … well, surreal. But her curves, at least, had to be genuine, because I’d read that whatever your dimensions were inside the suit, that was what was projected into Virk. If it didn’t work that way, people might program in their hips smaller than they really were and find themselves wedged against a colleague in a virtual doorway whenever the system didn’t allow room for their real size. Not that most guys I knew would complain about being stuck in a doorway with Inge, I reflected.
    â€˜Come,’ said Inge. ‘Let us meet the colleagues. Don’t worry, Alexandra, everyone is looking forward very much to meeting you.’ She gave my hands a reassuring squeeze, and I was startled at how real her fingers felt – soft and skin-textured, with the solidity of bone underneath. I’d told my friends Virk was supposed tobe incredibly realistic, but I’d never imagined it would be this detailed.
    â€˜These are the entrances of the Marketing subdivisions,’ Inge told me, waving a hand at the brightly coloured doors. ‘Data Analysis, CGI, Public Relations and so on. We will visit these during your placement. But those of us who are at the core of Marketing, we prefer to be together in the central open space area. It promotes the free exchange of ideas – and makes it all so much more cosy, yes?’ She bent her head to bestow a twinkling smile on me. ‘Here we are.’
    With a sweep of her hand, she opened another golden door, and I