“Shit,” I said.
Sidney nodded and then looked around, seemingly unsure if she should continue.
“What?” Chloe asked.
“Baron told me something else about that incident. He said he’d seen something on the woman’s monitor, just before the paramedics arrived and security eventually escorted him out.”
“What was it?” Chloe asked. “What did he see?”
“I don’t know, but he told me that whatever he’d found reminded him of a game called Rabbits.”
I felt a chill.
Sidney continued. “Almost immediately after I’d started asking questions, I was told that all testing connected to my new game was being moved to The Tower and that I would no longer have security access. That’s when I asked Baron if he’d help me look into what was happening. He agreed, and promised he’d send me something as soon as he could. At this point he also mentioned you guys, and promised to introduce us.”
“Did he find anything?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I never heard from him again. I assumed he’d changed his mind about helping me. But when I heard he’d…passed away, I checked his file. It turns out that Baron had been caught trying to access one of WorGames’ behind-the-scenes servers and was sent home, suspended without pay.”
“Shit,” Chloe said.
“Less than a week later, he was…gone. I’m sorry.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“So,” Sidney continued, “it looks like Baron may have been trying to help me after all. I felt terrible about what happened already, but if what happened to him was somehow my fault, I…”
“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” Chloe said.
I nodded in agreement. “Did Baron mention anything specific about what he saw on that woman’s screen before she had that seizure?”
Sidney shook her head. “Just that whatever he’d seen reminded him of Rabbits.”
I looked over at Chloe. I was pretty sure she was thinking exactly the same thing I was.
What the hell had Baron seen?
“Did he say anything to you guys about what he was doing…before he died?” Sidney asked.
We explained how we’d found Baron sitting in front of his computer watching that weird video, about his murder wall, and how we’d lost touch with him for a while shortly before that night.
“I think something is happening in The Tower,” Sidney said. “Something fucked-up and dangerous.”
“What’s The Tower?” Chloe asked.
* * *
—
Sidney explained that The Tower was one of the newer buildings at WorGames. The Scandinavian construction team brought over exclusively to work on the building were flown back overseas the day they completed their work. The Tower was where WorGames kept everything connected to the Byzantine Game Engine.
“What’s so special about this Byzantine thing that it needs its own building?” Chloe asked.
“It’s what made me take the job,” Sidney said. “The BGE produces virtual reality that looks, sounds, and feels exactly like real life. All that’s missing is smell. I have no idea how it works, but it’s amazing. Putting somebody’s face on another person’s body and using available online voice samples to create a deepfake version of a scene that never took place is one thing, but what the BGE technology is capable of doing is game-changing, literally. It’s fucking breathtaking. When this goes mainstream, it’s going to require regulations and oversight on par with complex genetic splicing and manipulation. The BGE will force governments to completely remodel digital ethics and corporations to revamp their intellectual property rules, and players will have to redefine what it means to play a game. It’s also going to make WorGames a shitload of money.”
“That sounds pretty…out there,” Chloe said.
Sidney nodded. “Yeah, it’s an ethical shitshow, but it’s still really fucking awesome. It became Hawk Worricker’s final project. He’d started working on the Byzantine Game Engine shortly before his death. He called it the most important thing he’d ever created.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Apparently he discovered the key to his new technology while combining quantum field theory with something called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.”
“Is that confirmation bias or something?” I said.
“That’s part of it, yes—although the term ‘frequency illusion’ is probably more accurate. It’s about how something you’ve recently been told, experienced, or noticed suddenly crops up everywhere. What Baader-Meinhof suggests is that you’re seeing this thing constantly because of selective attention in your brain.”