Before I could look at the First Shard again, I received an urgent text message from Faisal, informing me that an emergency GSS co-owners meeting had just been called, to deal with a “serious system stability issue.”
I let out a long sigh of frustration. Then I teleported to the reception area on the top floor of Gregarious Tower, wondering what else could possibly go wrong today.
The answer, it turned out, was pretty much everything…
When my avatar rematerialized in the reception area, Faisal greeted me with his usual handshake.
“Thank you for coming so quickly, sir,” he said, turning hastily to usher me toward the conference room. “The other co-owners arrived a moment ago. Ms. Cook is aboard her jet at the moment, but she appears to have a good connection.”
Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto were already seated around the table, and all three of them looked pretty freaked-out. Art3mis actually looked relieved to see me.
Faisal, now standing behind the small podium beneath the giant viewscreen, made a sickly attempt at a smile. Then something changed. He stood taller, arms hanging loose—and instead of worry and alarm, his facial expression suddenly projected only calm complacency.
We all stared at him for a few awkward seconds while he stared blankly back at us.
“Faisal?” Aech said. “We’re all here, man. You wanna start this meeting or what?”
“Ah, of course!” Faisal said, speaking in a much deeper voice. He raised his arms theatrically. “This meeting of the co-owners of Gregarious Simulation Systems is hereby called to order. Wushz-uh-kuh-bam!”
His avatar began to transform, melting and morphing into a familiar likeness. That of a middle-aged geek with unkempt hair and thick eyeglasses, dressed in worn jeans and a faded Space Invaders T-shirt.
James Donovan Halliday.
Holy shit!
“Greetings, Parzival,” he said, giving me a small wave.
That was when I realized that I’d said “holy shit” out loud.
“Art3mis. Aech. Shoto.” He waved to each of them too. Then he smiled his famously dorky smile. “It’s so good to see all of you again, even under these circumstances.”
Shoto leaped out of his chair, then dropped to his knees.
“Mr. Halliday,” he said, bowing low before the creator’s avatar.
Aech, Art3mis, and I all shook our heads.
“No,” I said. “James Halliday is dead.” I nodded toward the digital doppelg?nger standing in front of us. “This is Anorak.”
Anorak nodded and gave me a playful wink that was so off-the-scale creepy it sent a chill cascading through my nervous system.
Just then, the doors flew open and the avatar of the real Faisal burst into the conference room.
“I’m so sorry!” he said. “There was some sort of glitch that immobilized my avatar and I’m still not sure—”
Faisal froze in midstep as he spotted Anorak, and all the color drained out of his face. He looked as if he’d just seen a ghost—an appropriate response, considering.
Originally, Anorak was Halliday’s OASIS avatar, a powerful gray-bearded wizard in ominous black robes that he’d modeled after the high-level Dungeons & Dragons character of the same name he’d played back in high school. The same D&D character that also inspired the titular hero in Halliday’s early Anorak’s Quest adventure game series.
But after Halliday’s death, Anorak had continued to roam the OASIS as an autonomous NPC, programmed to preside over its creator’s Easter-egg hunt in his absence. Halliday’s ghost in the machine.
The last time any of us had seen Anorak was three years ago, just after I’d found Halliday’s egg and won the contest. That was when Anorak had appeared to present me with his magic robes and all of the superuser abilities they bestowed upon their wearer. During that transfer of power, Anorak had also transformed, from a gray-bearded wizard into what we saw now: a perfect likeness of a healthy middle-aged James Halliday. Then he’d thanked me for playing his game and vanished.
I’d always wondered if I might see Anorak again someday—if he was presiding over Halliday’s new hunt, just as he had the last one. And now here he was, standing in our private conference room on Gregarious, a place that no NPC should have been able to enter, doing things no normal NPC could or would ever do…
But if my acquisition of the First Shard was what had triggered Anorak’s return, then why hadn’t he appeared last night, right after I’d obtained it? Why would he wait until now to show up? And why in the hell had he disguised himself as Faisal, only to reveal his true identity after a few seconds?