Gunner Skale Read Free Page A

archaic virtual technology, but what he saw spread before him was almost indiscernible from what he might see in an average VirtNet program. Gunner, George, and the others stood on a massive cloud that was billowy and white and brilliantly lit, glowing and pulsing as if filled with lightning. Mist swirled around Gunner’s ankles.
    Above them, planets and stars hung in the sky like Christmas ornaments, far too large and close to be realistic, but stunning in scale and beauty. There was a purple moon and a bright red planet and a streaking comet and several suns that were almost too blinding to look at directly. Between the cloud on which they stood and the constellations above, the sky was filled with mythical beasts—a dragon, a Pegasus, a griffin, things Gunner had never seen or heard of before—and the air was filled with a resonating hum that vibrated his bones.
    He couldn’t believe it.
    He couldn’t believe that the fantastic sights surrounding him had been generated by nothing more than a fancy pair of glasses and a specially equipped room. Too tempted not to do it, he edged the glasses down his nose and took a peek—those hundreds of pinpricks he’d seen in the walls were blazing with life, moving and projecting and flashing. He slipped the VRSpecs back into place, and the wondrous view enveloped him once again.
    “Not bad,” he said, hoping they caught the sarcasm in his understatement. “Man, visually, they nailed the programming a long time ago. Obviously.” He let out an impressed whistle. “I guess we just needed fifty years or so to catch up with all our other senses.”
    “Exactly,” George said. In the virtual world, he was dressed like a medieval knight and looked ridiculous. Which made him likable. “This is where we gather to dive into our coding—it’s cheaper than using NerveBoxes, easier on our old bones to come inand out, yet still beautiful. A nice escape from the world without spending money that we don’t have.”
    “Yet,” said Kent. He looked like an android, standing stiffly as if his joints didn’t quite work, with silver wires running along his skin in various places. Cherry was a medieval princess; Marta an old-fashioned soldier. “Once we show you what we’ve done—”
    “Yeah, I know,” Gunner interrupted. “Then you’ll be raking in the dough. Got it. But I’m still waiting to see it.” With a start, he realized he hadn’t noticed what he was wearing yet and looked down. Thankfully, just a plain gray jumpsuit, like something a mechanic might don to fix cars.
    “Now,” George said, his virtual face showing he was ready to get down to business. “Let’s remove ourselves to the sitting area and let the show begin.”
    They moved through some wispy clouds and made their way down a slope. Gunner walked tentatively at first, sure he was going to slip through a hole and plummet to the ground. He didn’t know how that worked when wearing a pair of VRSpecs, but he didn’t want to find out.
    After passing a pillow-like wall of cloud, they came upon a circle of wooden stumps, about ten in all, looking as if their trunks had just been chopped and felled. In the middle of the circle was a ring of stones with blackened ashes at its center. It all reminded Gunner of a scouting camp he’d gone to as a kid, before people were allowed to use Coffins. He hated to admit it, but fake camping, to him, beat real camping any day of the week.
    “Please, have a seat,” George said.
    He motioned to the stump closest to Gunner, who sat down, wondering where in the world all this was going. He had a sudden longing for Rachel, wishing she were there with him. The second this crazy meeting was over, he’d book it home and take her somewhere special inside the Sleep. Somewhere familiar.
    The others took their own stumps and spread out around the circle. Everyone looked to George to begin.
    “Now,” the old man said, adjusting his unnecessary armor. “Look into the fire, Mr. Skale.