Chapter The Burning Eye

The van had stopped outside what looked like a barn.Josh could see a narrow driveway twisting towards the lights of a main road.The only other illumination was a line of harsh fluorescent light that spilledout from under the door of the barn.

DoomLord got out of the van and crunched across thegravel drive. He pressed a button next to the door and held his ear against it.After a moment he straightened up and gestured for Kat and Josh to come andjoin him.

The door swung open, revealing a dazzlingly brightinterior. A huge man emerged, who was so tall and wide that he could havehidden DoomLord behind one of his tree trunk legs.

As they got closer, Josh could see the enormous manwas smiling widely. “Hello.” He rumbled. “I’m Bandicoot.” His good nature wasobvious and Josh thought he could see friendliness written all over his heavyfeatures.

“Bandicoot? That’s your handle?”

“Yep. We’re all online so much we get used to callingeach other by them all the time. My real name is Matthew Niven. You can call meMatt, if you like.”

Josh looked at DoomLord.

“I am DoomLord.” The smaller man intoned seriously andushered Josh and Kat inside.

Once Josh’s eyes had got used to the garish artificiallight inside the barn he saw that it had been converted into a hi tech computerroom which, Josh thought, would have made Toby physically sick with envy.

They stood between the wooden outer wall of the barnand an inner wall that was made of transparent material. The inner chamber wassplit into two levels. The ground floor contained banks and banks of hummingcabinets which Josh assumed were computers, while upstairs about half a dozenpeople sat in front of many-screenedworkstations all too engrossed in their work to notice the arrival of thevisitors.

DoomLord led them around the side of the glass box toa transparent lift which was attached to it. He pressed some buttons and, witha hiss, the doors slid apart.

They all managed to squeeze inside, although Bandicoothad to crouch. The doors slid shut and a low hum reverberated around them for afew seconds before they rose slowly. They came to a smooth stop and the innerdoors opened.

“Welcome to the Box.” DoomLord walked out and bowedfloridly. “The nerve centre of the Burning Eye.”

“You’ll have to forgive him. We don’t get to show itto many people.” Bandicoot whispered.

A young woman in a wheelchair span herself around togreet them. She had dark blonde hair and a stern face which made her look olderthan Josh had originally thought. “Hello, Josh. Are you ready for youradventure?” She talked quickly and didn’t wait for a response from Josh. “I’mFrancine, which I hate. My handle is Spokes, which I like. Pleased to meetyou.” She extended a slender hand and when Josh shook it he was surprised bythe strength of her fingers. He realised why they were so strong a momentlater, when she span her wheelchair around once more and sped along an aislebetween two sets of desks, her hands controlling the wheels with the finelytuned skill of many years.

Bandicootindicated for them to follow so Josh and Kat hurried after her. She slotted herwheelchair underneath a desk and started typing rapidly.

“How much did Dougal tell you about how our operationworks?”

“Dougal?”

“Ooops.” She grinned mischievously, making her lookyounger for an instant. “Sorry. DoomLord. How much did DoomLord tell you?”

Josh glanced quickly at DoomLord who was gloweringfuriously. “Nothing really. I was asleep.”

“Well, you probably needed it. Listen. We can get intothe Plexus no problem from here. And I think we should be able to get into theVrealm that your friend is trapped in. Do you know what it’s called?”

“Er, the Doge called it Vienopolis, I think.”

Spokes nodded, still rapidly keying things into thecomputer. “Yes. Found it.” She finished typing with a flourish and wheeledaround to look at Josh again.

“Right. I need for you to listen carefully now Josh,because what I’m going to tell you is very important and also complicated.”

Josh bit his lip. “I don’t know very much aboutcomputers.”

“Well, that shouldn’t matter too much. You don’t needto know how this all works, Josh. You just need to be able to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Get out of a Vrealm.”

Josh nodded quickly. “Yes.”

“Well there are two ways doing it. The first is ratherunlikely to work, especially once you’re not connected through hardware. Itrelies on your subconscious suddenly realising that your mind and body are intwo different places. Sometimes an external stimulus will trigger it, perhaps afamiliar smell, we’re not sure.”

Josh looked sideways at Kat, remembering the peachyscent of her perfume and he reddened slightly.

“But this method is unreliable,” Spokes continuedseemingly oblivious to Josh’s embarrassment. “I think it was just lucky that itworked for you.

“The second method is the one that we’ve come to relyon, but it is still not perfect and you might have to try it more than oncebefore it works. You basically have to do something unexpected. Something theprogram is not designed for, or that requires some information that is notstored directly within it. Sometimes defects will appear and these glitcheswill remind your subconscious that what you are experiencing is not real, andyou will wake up. Sometimes the Vrealm will try to connect to another programand retrieve the information it requires and this opens a gateway to somewhereelse, and gives you a means to escape.”

“It does sound very complicated.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. If we had more time I’msure I could get you to understand. The best thing we can do, I think, is foryou to practise for a while using this workstation.”

Josh looked blank and Spokes sighed. “You dounderstand what we’re trying to do, don’t you?”

“Well, sort of. You’re sending me back into Vienopolisto rescue Toby. And I want to, I really do. But I don’t think I’m necessarilythe best person for the job.”

“Listen Josh. You’ve got to come. You are the only oneToby will recognise and trust. So you will have to be there for him.”

She leaned forward and Josh could see behind thedetermined hardness of her expression a deep, soft sadness in her eyes. “Ireally want to help your friend, Josh. But you need to help me.”

“Right.” Josh said determinedly. “Show me how itworks.”

Bandicoot, who had been pulling on some virtualreality gloves sat down and broke the seat. He collapsed after it and sprawledon the floor like an enormous, helpless gorilla. DoomLord helped pull him tohis feet and Bandicoot apologised for being so clumsy.

Spokes smiled indulgently. “It’s alright Bandi. Getyour lid on.”

Once Bandicoot had found another chair DoomLord putwhat looked like a motorcycle helmet onto his big head. Bandicoot moved hisarms around slowly and deliberately for a moment or two and then sat still withhis hands in his lap.

“If you look at this screen you’ll see where he is.Look he’s got into the Plexus.”

The screen showed the familiar tunnels that Toby andJosh had started their adventure in seemingly so long ago now. Crouched in thecentre of the screen was a small monkey.

“Bandicoot’s avatar is a monkey. It allows him toutilise his full dexterity online. As you can see from his physical body he nowdoes not need to move his gloves to interact within the Plexus. Bandi, wouldyou do something?”

The monkey skittered around the tunnel on its handsand feet. On the chair, Bandicoot hadn’t moved a muscle.

“It will take you a while before you can integrateinto the Plexus as quickly as that, Josh. That’s what makes it so dangerous. Itseems to have an unexplained link into our minds, somehow. But,” she shrugged,“you’ve done it once, which is quite an achievement for someone who has had notraining. Bandi? Can you break into MoonBase Delta?”

The monkey saluted comically and raced off.

Spokes turned back to Josh. “MoonBase Delta is perfectfor this tutorial. It was one of the earliest developments for a start and Idon’t think it’s given very high priority, so when we cause a rift in itscontinuity or a tear in its realism it’s always slow to catch up. Other worldslike Vienopolis are constructed with much more attention to detail and usesoftware technologies that we’ve never seen before. It may be a universityproject that has been forgotten about.”

“Rose Cormack wrote it.”

Spokes nodded slowly. “Yes, that makes sense. She’sone of the few people who could have the skills for it, but I thought she’dretired.”

“No. She’s stuck there as well.”

“Really?” Spokes grimaced. “If she’s trapped in therethen the Vrealm must be even more powerful than I thought. Still we do havesome power in Vienopolis. We’ve sent drones in before and most of thosereturned.”

“Power?” Kat asked. Josh could tell from the way shelooked at Spokes that she was in some awe of the young woman.

“Yeah, we can program special abilities into ouravatars. For instance Bandicoot has all the dexterity of a monkey while he’sonline.”

“Toby did something like that before we went inbefore. Flying and stuff. But nothing worked.”

“It’s all about the programming. If your programmingis stronger than the Vrealm you’re in then your powers will work. We havewritten code that makes us quite formidable online, and it hasn’t failed usyet. Good.” She indicated the screen. “Bandicoot has arrived.”

The monkey was capering about in a corridor made ofshiny steel and white plastic. Two guards were ineffectually chasing it roundand round.

“Who are they?”

“They’re players. MoonBase Delta is a game played bythousands of online gamers around the world. These two guards are probablynewbies who have been given the task of capturing a rogue animal in sectortwelve. You see the program will assimilate the arrival of Bandicoot andincorporate it into its own storyline.

“That is the essence of what a Vrealm does. It triesto make sense of everything that happens within it and make sure that nothingbreaks its own rules.”

She addressed the screen where Bandicoot was pullingthe trousers of one of the guards off. “Show them what you’re made of Bandi.”

The monkey grew to the size of a gorilla and then tothe size of a rhinoceros. It could barely turn round in the narrow confines ofthe corridor, but its large hands grabbed the throats of the two guards andflung them roughly against the corridor walls.

“That’s all very well,” said Josh. “But we couldn’t dothat. I’ve told you our extra powers didn’t work.”

“Yes, I know. Bandicoot only did that to get rid ofthe guards. He’s going to show you how to get out of a closed Vrealm now.

”Bandi? Go to the library. It’s in sector two.”

Spokes instructed DoomLord to connect Josh up to thecomputer. Josh felt suddenly afraid, but he knew he had to do it for Toby. Hecouldn’t leave him to be tortured or killed in the insane world of thenightmarish Doge. As the helmet was positioned over his head, he saw Kat smileencouragingly at him and he felt a little braver.

He was in complete darkness. There was nothing to seeor hear, but he could still feel the seat beneath him and the helmet resting onhis head.

Then suddenly he was sitting in a steel and plasticroom. One wall was lined with books, and a dozen computers were laid out onseparate reading desks. An important looking man looked up from a magazine thathe had been reading.

“Who on Earth are you? And what do you think you’redoing on my station?” He pulled a device out of his pocket. “Intruder alert inthe library.”

Just then a monstrous monkey bounded through the door,grabbed the indignant man by the ankle and swung him outside.

“Hi Josh! It’s me.” The monkey said.

“Hello Bandicoot.” Josh couldn’t completely hide hisnervousness, even though he knew that Bandicoot wouldn’t hurt him. The casualviolence the monkey had performed was terrifying.

“Don’t you care about hurting them?” He said shakily.

“Who?”

Josh pointed at the man sprawled in the corridor.“Him. And the guards before.”

Bandicoot chattered a shrill monkey laugh. “Don’tworry about them, Josh. They’re just playing this on their PlayStation orwhatever. They’ll love it. This guy’ll tell all his mates about a killergorilla in sector two and before long everyone will know about the killergorilla in the library. We’ll be an Internet myth before breakfast tomorrow.”

The enormous monkey grinned and, with an accompanyingpopping noise, changed back to a more sensible size. “Right, you need to beshown some real Kung Foo.”

The monkey span around on its back legs and clamberedup the shelves. “What’s your favourite book, Josh?”

“What?”

“Your favourite book, or a book you know well.”

“Er… Lord of the Rings.” He ventured.

“Oh, very nice.” Bandicoot ran his monkey fingers overthe spines of some books. “Here we are. In a simulation like this you wouldn’texpect the full text of the book to be contained within the covers of thisbook. And,” he flipped open the pages. “Here we are. Nothing at all. Well thatis poor.” He showed Josh.

“So?”

“Well, now the program will try to rectify thisanomaly by connecting to somewhere else on the Plexus or the Internet anddownload the actual text for the book. Look!”

As Bandicoot spoke, the book juddered and seemed grow.Josh could see letters appearing on the riffling pages.

“Come on. We’ve got to find the connection.”

“What does it look like?”

“It could be anything. Anything out of the ordinary.”

“Like a talking monkey?”

“Spokes won’t like you messing about Josh. We don’thave long.” Bandicoot said seriously, but his face had wrinkled into a hugegrin.

Josh saw a brilliant square glimmering beneath thebook. He pointed at it. “Here?”

“Well done, Josh. Let’s go.” Bandicoot dropped thebook and was somehow sucked through the small square and out of sight. Josh wasleft alone and the square seemed to be shrinking. He held his breath and jumpedhead first into the disappearing shimmer.

He felt like he was being stretched through a tube.Lights lasered along both sides of him and electricity arced through him. Hefelt like he was travelling through the actual wires that connected websitestogether. He was a photon moving at the speed of light. He was…

…in an electric library.

“Wow!”

Each book was made up of bright, pulsing electricityand every shelf glowed with this power. Bandicoot was sitting motionless infront of him.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know exactly. This is the data server thatthe MoonBase Delta program got the text for your book from. It’s just a repositoryof information. Here we can just take our helmets off and we’re free.”

“Will this work in Vienopolis?”

Bandicoot’s simian face didn’t show any emotion, buthis voice wavered slightly. “Well that’s the million dollar question. It’spossible. The main problem is that it’s so real, so detailed. You have to workreally hard to find anything that needs external modification.” He monkeysmiled. “We’ll be fine.” But the tiny waver was still there. “Come on. Let’sget back to the Box.”

The two figures motioned with their hands to taketheir helmets off, and the fantastical sight of the electric library wasreplaced with the brightness of the Box. It was in uproar.

Spokes was shouting, and everyone else was runningaround like soldiers on drill training.

Kat was standing next to Josh, but even she seemed tobe monitoring a screen. Every time Spokes called out her name she respondedwith a series of numbers.

“What’s going on?” Josh asked.

“We’re under attack.” Kat said quickly before givingSpokes another list.

“From what?”

“I don’t know. Someone’s trying to hack into the Box.It’s never happened before apparently.”

Spokes had stopped keying in commands and was doingsome more shouting. This time though she was directing her considerable ire atBandicoot.

“Did anyone follow you? You should have been on thelookout for any thing strange. You know that Josh hadn’t done this before. Whatwere you thinking?” The tirade continued without giving Bandicoot a chance tospeak.

A siren from the other side of the glass room.

“He’s in.” Spokes stopped berating poor Bandicoot, whohad the look of a postman who had just delivered a letter to the RottweilerRescue Centre. Everyone else in the room fell silent and still.

“What’s he doing?” Spokes voice broke the silence. “What’shappening?”

“He wants to talk to Josh.” DoomLord said.

“Who is it, Josh?”

“I don’t know.” Josh said surprised, but then added.“I guess it could be Geigerzalion. He’s trapped somewhere. He’s how we foundthe Plexus in the first place.”

“Talk to him. And get him out of my system.”

Josh stood up shakily. He hadn’t completely recoveredfrom the experience of being pulled through a wire into the electric library.His arms and legs felt very weak, and he trembled as he leant on DoomLord’sdesk to peer at the message on the screen.

“Please. I need to speak to Josh.”

Josh typed in a short message. “Are you Geigerzalion?”

Nothing happened for a few long moments. Then themessage changed. “No. You know me as ZX82.”

“What are you doing here?” Josh typed shakily.

“I told you I would try and find you. I have beentrying to help Toby, but I cannot.”

DoomLord keyed a few buttons and the end of ZX82’ssentence was given a tinny voice.

“Can I speak directly?” Josh asked and DoomLordnodded. Josh continued. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“The computer that you have entered is run by myfriends they think you are attacking them. Can you get off their system?”

“Yes, but then I will not be able to communicate withyou. I will not do any harm. I am your friend. I owe you everything.”

Spokes, who had wheeled herself next to Josh,whispered into his ear. “I don’t like him being on my system. Can you trusthim?”

“Yes. I do trust him. He’s just a kid. He’s… aDelphixian. We rescued him from a different Vrealm.”

Spokes rolled her eyes. “For someone who doesn’t knowanything about computers Josh you do seem to have uncovered a lot of thingsthat should remain secret.”

“You know about the Delphixians?”

“Not very much, but the Vrealm they inhabit radiatespower like a nuclear bomb on the Internet. We thought it was a collection ofnew supercomputers, but we’ve never got close to it. We almost got in once whenthe FBI punched a hole in its defences.”

“It’s not supercomputers; they’re children. They’vewired their brains directly up to some hardware so they can use them ascomputers.”

“That’s terrible.” She said, and once again Josh sawthe haunted sadness behind her eyes. “Have you freed this boy’s body or hismind?”

“Only his mind. He thinks that his body will havedied.”

“Hello, ZX82. My name is Spokes. I have tried beforeto gain access to the Vrealm in which you were held prisoner. We did not knowwhat it was but we suspected something sinister. Please can I ask you to leaveour system? We will assign a workstation so you can communicate with Josh.”

“NO!” A shower of sparks erupted from a terminalbehind Josh. ”I will not be trapped again. Not ever.”

“You will not be trapped. We will only close off thenetwork to the other computers here. You will be able to roam freely on the Internetor the Plexus. We do not want to trap you.”

There was silence. DoomLord turned up the volume untilthe speakers hissed at them.

“I will agree.” The voice boomed. “But if I amrestrained from operating in a free way, I shall destroy your network.” DoomLordmanaged to turn down the volume towards the end, which made it apparent thatZX82 had not been shouting, but even quietly the threat carried enough menacefor Spokes to go very pale.

“We mean you no harm. Please take yourself toworkstation seven.”

“Josh? Do you trust these people?”

“Yes. They’re going to help me rescue Toby.”

“Very well.”

“When he gets onto Zelazny. Lock the whole networkdown, but make sure he is free to get out.” Spokes told DoomLord. “The lastthing we need is an angry sentient program loose within the system.” She smiledsourly. “You’ve got interesting friends, Josh.”

“Only since recently.” He said glumly.

“Hey. You watch it.” Kat punched Josh on the arm.

Josh mumbled an apology. “I didn’t mean…”

Kat smiled. “I’m just teasing.”

Spokes had now started a program which enabled them tocommunicate with ZX82. In fact, they could see him. He had projected his avataronto the screen and a murmur of professional admiration rippled round the roomat the delicacy and beauty of the silver skinned figure.

“You said that Josh knew you as ZX82. Is that yourname?”

“No. That was my designation before Josh and Tobyfreed me. It reminds me of that terrible place. I would prefer to have a morehuman name.”

“Of course. Do you have anything in mind?”

“What is your name?”

“Spokes.“

“That is unusual, is it not? I don’t know very muchabout it, but I’d like something ordinary.”

“How about Michael? How does that sound?”

“Michael?” He said the name a few times. “Yes.Michael. I like the sound of that.”

“Very well, Michael.” Spokes had been speaking softly,soothing Michael like a child, but now Josh heard a dangerous edge to her tone.“Now tell me, why have you very nearly torn down my network security to speakto Josh?”

“I want to help him. His friend is in very greatdanger.”

“Is he okay?” Josh interrupted.

“They’ve captured him. He is being held in the Doge’stower. More than the puppet people guard him. The Doge has somehow added someterrible things to his army. I do not know what they are, but I can feel ataint around them whenever they are close. They are strong though. I cannotdefeat them all.”

“Not to worry.” Spokes said, confidently. “Bandicoot,DoomLord and myself are going with Josh. If you come, surely that will beenough to deal with any aggressors.”

There was a pause. “Perhaps.”

At one end of the Box were six of the virtual realityhelmets that Josh had used to get to MoonBase Delta. These helmets weresuspended above chairs making it look like a super sophisticated hairdresser’sand that was why, Spokes explained, the area was called the Salon.

Spokes positioned herself underneath one of thehelmets, and DoomLord and Bandicoot sat either side of her. Josh sat opposite.There was a pair of gloves on each of the chairs and he pulled his on, tryingnot to notice his shaking hands. When they were comfortable, Spokes gave athumbs up signal and the helmets lowered onto their heads.

Josh could only see blackness for a while and then abead of light appeared in front of him. The bead grew to form the elegant formof Michael.

“Hello again Josh. I am happy to see you in my world.”

“Where are we?”

“This is just a loading area. You are being taken intothe Plexus.”

The darkness was ripped apart by the sudden appearanceof one of the multi-faceted tunnels. Michael was still standing in front ofhim, but now he had been joined by three other figures.

The monkey was obviously Bandicoot and he guessed theseven foot tall, black garbed, spike encrusted warrior was DoomLord. So theslight, elfin lady standing between them must have been Spokes.

“Are you ready Josh?” She said.

Josh nodded and felt the external equipment thatconnected him to the computer simulation slip away. He knew that he had madethe transition from the real world to the virtual and he stepped forward readyto embark on a journey that he wished he didn’t have to make.

“Let’s go.”