Hard Wired Trilogy DeAnna Pearce (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

of Ari’s search. She didn’t have access to many other important files. Kari’s position forwarded files, but she never got to keep a copy of them. Even half of the messages she forwarded to Higgins were classified and closed to her. Ari couldn’t even read the bill that she translated as President Tao. She needed more access, but where?

President Higgins pressed through the doors at the exact moment. “How are you feeling today, Ms. Trenton?”

“Much better, sir, thank you.”

“Glad to hear it.” He continued into his office.

Higgins’ computer had all the information she needed, she just needed him. Between his passwords and facial recognition, it would be hard to break into undetected, even for Ari. But what if Higgins did it for her?

Checking his schedule, she saw that he didn’t have a meeting for a couple hours, which meant he’d spend the morning in his office glued to his computer. Quietly she snuck out of the office and rode the elevator. On the first floor, she stepped around the corner to find a space with relative privacy. Not wanting to draw attention to Higgins’ office, in case there was some security measure in place to alert people when code changed, she came down stairs and became invisible. It was an easy enough transformation that didn’t require too much work.

The elevator on the way back up was the tricky part. It took five minutes to wait for the right floor to be selected. While she was invisible, she was still physically present in the VR. So, walking next to people or through walls didn’t prove a problem. She could have just popped into Higgins’ office, but again didn’t want to set off too many alarms or use her powers too much and get another headache.

When she entered his office, she found Higgins on the phone staring at the screen in front of him. “Yes, I know the vote went the way we wanted, but I still worry that we unearthed something we don’t want to and will only give other countries ideas they didn’t have before.”

Ari moved behind him and realized the bill was on the screen. Taking her time to read it, she realized the supposedly illegal methods the Russians were accused of were Virtual Reality Torture and Forced Incarceration inside the system. As she couldn’t scroll down on his screen, her mind sped through the implications of this. This took war to a new level. If you could force someone inside a program and keep them there, you could psychologically withdraw any information you could want.

It reminded her of the first program she walked in on with Niomi and the Director. Did VisionTech already have this technology as well? The idea made her ill. Her father was trapped in a VR coma due to his own addiction, now they wanted to force prisoners or anyone they didn’t agree with to be incarcerated inside of one?

“Let’s schedule a joint commission meeting to seal the specifics of the findings. I’ll have my assistant set it up.”

Ari snapped out of her thoughts by these words. She raced down the hall where other offices from the Icelandic States were held. When no one was looking, she reappeared in the program, then headed back to her office.

She walked in as Higgins opened his door.

“Sorry, sir. Just needed some fresh air.”

“I need a meeting scheduled. I sent you the details.”

She hurried to her desk. “I’ll get to it right away.”

The rest of the morning she spent getting caught up on Kari’s work. Things were busy with this new bill that passed. A committee to investigate VR research was being created. Even Antoine didn’t have time to meet. They tentatively planned time for coffee later in the day.

By the time Ari finished Kari’s work, she took a late lunch while President Higgins was out at a meeting. She didn’t bother with going to the center to eat but headed straight for Ryope Industries. It was a small business compared to the worldwide organizations present inside VLEX.

The building had a basic tall rectangular design, but advertisements covered it completely. Not only for Ryope Industries, but other businesses, products, and vacation services. Unlike some of the more cultural designs for buildings in VLEX, this felt like a hundred-foot tall billboard.

After checking the directory, she traveled up to the tenth floor designated to Ryope. The inside of the building looked similar to the outside. Loud advertisements covered the walls, cheapening the sleek design of the office.

The young man sitting at reception welcomed Ari and informed her that neither Tessa nor her father—Ari had met him once before—were in the office today.

With his manicured hair and nails, along with his pressed bow tie, his perfection appeared robotic. Maybe he was part of the program in here. “Would they have left any files or packages for you?”

“Maybe.” Ari remembered Tessa saying they could pass messages through this office.

“Your name?” he asked.

Ari wasn’t about to give him her real name. “Oya.”

The fact he didn’t even react to that name told Ari he was a program. He had the same stiff no nonsense personality as Ari’s AI. Functional but not fun.

“Tessa did leave you a file.” He glanced up at Ari. “What format do you want it on?”

Ari couldn’t take it back to work. “Do you have a reader I could use?”

“Of course. There is a password to open the file.” He handed her a small screen.

“Thanks.” Internally, Ari cursed Tessa. Now she had to guess at a password. After a few different tries all involving Tessa’s game, Ari finally opened it using a variation of Tessa’s gamer name: VegaRules.

“Figures,” Ari muttered.

The AI glanced up at Ari.

“I’m good. Thanks.”

Tessa left a message at the top of the screen.

Your family is safe. Better than this girl you had me check up on. I hope this isn’t your co-worker.

Scrolling down, Ari found information on Kari’s current address, phone number, position and title. A picture of Kari’s apartment, green and white, rotated on the screen.