Thrill switch, p.5
Thrill Switch, page 5
Switch announced her spectacular invention with her initial show of power. Then she melted into the shadows, appearing at people’s shoulders when they experimented with being shot, shooting others, pushing the limits of their own shadows. More and more turned up dead. An epidemic. She’d gotten away with it for seven days before she found there were consequences for being a fucking psycho. Seven days. Was that it? No, that was a coincidence. It didn’t feel right. There was something else. Something I couldn’t quite grasp. All I needed to do was keep thinking.
‘I think she likes you,’ Gibson interrupted my contemplation. ‘If you solve this, the powers might let you reopen her case, see if you can trace her to her jack-in spot somehow.’
It was tempting. To make my mark as a detective like that. To finally bring Jazlin Switch, the Specter Slayer, to proper justice. Yet the thought of confronting that creature again threw me off balance. The world was safe while she was in digital prison anyway. As long as her mind was caged, I didn’t need to catch her real body. I just wanted to make sure no one did what she did ever again. I wanted to understand her actions better. Make sense of my dad’s death somehow. I didn’t think that understanding was possible anymore, not now that I’d seen the depth of her delusion first hand. But I could stop her copycat. I checked my pulse. It was slowly returning to normal, even though the fingers on my wrist still trembled.
‘We won’t catch her by speaking with her,’ I said. ‘If there was hope that way, we’d have done it by now.’
‘There’s always a chance,’ Gibson said.
‘Let’s just concentrate on this case,’ I said, wanting to steer away from Switch. ‘She said Rama was missing for seven days before he was found dead. Can we confirm that?’
‘I already checked with Cline while you were in there,’ he said. ‘Rama was reported missing almost exactly a week before he was killed.’
A thrill ran through me that quickly turned to a shiver. Switch was right. She’d said that meant this was a physical murder. But how could she know? How did that confirm it?
‘What if someone can do what Switch did but it takes them longer?’ I thought aloud. But that didn’t fit. She’d said it would confirm that people still couldn’t replicate her methods. ‘Or what if Rama knew someone was after him and he went underground on purpose? Who reported him missing?’
‘Sheila Rommel,’ Gibson said. ‘He was a supporter of hers. Apparently he missed a campaign meeting and she got worried.’
This was something.
‘Senator Rommel? So it could be politically motivated?’ I said, working to fit the clues together. ‘Someone trying to silence critics of the bill?’
‘Makes sense,’ Gibson said. ‘But why seven days missing?’
A pinging on Gibson’s wrist drew our attention.
‘Cline,’ he said, looking down. ‘Hopefully, he’s got some more info.’
Gibson clicked accept and held up his comm so we could both see. Cline’s afro filled the whole screen. He looked concerned.
‘Cline, we’ve just had a break through,’ I said. ‘We’ve ruled out Switch. There’s also a strong suggestion these weren’t Specter slayings.’
I now felt energized. It’s amazing how one small success can make you forget about all the negative in a heartbeat.
‘All thanks to Ada,’ Gibson confirmed.
First name terms now, I noted.
‘Oh,’ Cline said, not reacting like I hoped he would. He looked like he was going to be sick.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
‘You had better come back to the station,’ he said. ‘Someone just claimed responsibility for the murder of Rama. They said they’re going to kill more people.’
8
THE CROWD SAT on the edge of their seats, watching Lilith on stage. She was chained to a chair. Blood dripped from her gagged mouth. She wanted to scream. To tell these filthy cretins that this wasn’t part of the act. How long had she been here before they arrived? It felt like days. Would they believe her if she begged them for help? Probably not. She’d run this twist to her own show before, but that was all pure fantasy. Theatre. Acted. Virtual in every way. Didn’t they understand that?
Lilith struggled again. Zero movement. The frustration of it made her want to cry. As if she’d give the crowd the satisfaction of seeing her tears.
It felt like there was something crawling beneath her skin. The Spider had injected her with something, and it was worming around her, spiking worse with every jolt of panic she felt. Lilith wrenched against the chains around her wrists. They dug into her skin, but she didn’t care about the physical pain—it was the frustration and fear that hurt her. That sense of powerlessness took her back to her darkest days, the times when she’d been a victim with no way out. It paralyzed her.
Then applause.
Lilith whipped her head to the side to see the Spider wheeling a little girl onto stage. The beast who’d kidnapped her leered with multiple eyes. The girl was dressed in leather, her black hair cut in a bob. She was a mirror of Lilith, but younger. Much younger.
No.
Lilith screamed against her gag. She could take the punishment on herself, but an innocent? That wasn’t fair, was never part of what she’d stood for.
The burning and churning under her skin got worse again, flaring white hot. It only added to Lilith’s sense of terror.
The Spider stopped in front of Lilith, letting his eyes linger on the little girl. Lilith screamed against the cloth in her mouth. The Spider reached out and ripped Lilith’s gag down.
‘Stop this!’ she rasped. ‘You can’t.’ She looked into the crowd, pleading. ‘This isn’t an act! Call the police! Call someone!’
They cheered. Actually cheered.
Tears almost came then, but Lilith swallowed them down. The worming sensation beneath her skin intensified.
The Spider glanced at something on his wrist. A screen display.
‘Goooood,’ he said, watching Lilith again. ‘It’s started. I’ll find you soon.’
The strange comment made Lilith feel even more disoriented.
‘What do you want?’ she scowled at The Spider, anger churning over her fear.
‘I want you to suffer,’ he said softly, bringing his face right up to hers. ‘To die for trying to bring laws to my playground.’
‘I don’t want laws,’ she spat. ‘I want protection for victims. For innocents.’ Her eyes flashed toward the little girl who was whimpering.
The Spider clicked his fingers and a synth drumbeat started from above. A catchy keyboard riff kicked in. The crowd started to clap.
‘I saw your letter to the senator,’ The Spider said in her face. ‘You asked for laws. For oppression.’
Lilith struggled again, lost for words, her thoughts only for the girl. Surely this Spider wouldn’t. But she knew he would. She knew the depth of depravity some people in the Holos would sink to just for kicks.
The pop music got louder, building the crowd’s anticipation. Whatever virus or parasite was inside of her, it fed on her rising dread. While it squirmed and writhed with satisfaction, people started whistling, calling for the show to start.
‘She’s the daughter of one of your fans, you know,’ The Spider said over the music, pulling out a knife. ‘He’s in the audience. He wanted to see you play together.’
‘Stop!’ Lilith begged, her voice hoarse now. ‘Please stop.’
The Spider paused, holding the knife to the girl’s throat. Tears spilled down her young, terrified face.
‘Only you can make it stop,’ the Spider said to Lilith. ‘Tell me where you are in the real world and this goes fast. I’ll find you anyway, you know. You can feel it inside you, can’t you? The tracer? Tick tock.’
The Spider brought his knife up. Lilith’s screams mixed with the sounds of her most popular song, an upbeat tune about love and sacrifice.
9
I SAT IN the briefing room at HQ. A shadowed figure stood paused on-screen in front of us, half hidden in the murky background. The only detail visible was a mouth with fanged teeth.
Gibson crossed his arms and nodded for Cline to hit play. The figure stepped into view. A troll’s face. Green skin. Boils. Grotesque. He smiled directly at the camera.
‘I have killed an enemy of the Holos,’ the troll said.
Then the screen split. Now we were looking at two faces. The troll and a goth vampire with incisors tipped with blood. Both avatars spoke as one.
‘Our virtual world must remain free from the tyranny of government,’ they said. ‘We must be allowed to satisfy our shadow side if we want to see the light. The more real this is, the more we will emerge from the darkness we have harnessed throughout history. Matching reality is the only way to then go beyond it.’
My ears pricked up at that last familiar sentence. I was about to speak up when the number of faces grew again. Four avatars now. Two beautiful women to offset the ugly others. Then eight faces. Then sixteen, all appearing in quick succession, each saying the words of the broadcast.
‘This is why I have delivered death to the virtual world. So our lives here have consequences, just like the real. We now know what we do in the Holos truly matters.’ The screen continued to split into more speakers. ‘It’s beyond a game’, they all said. ‘It’s hyperlife. Ultimate freedom. Ultimate thrill. Ultimate meaning. Christos Rama was a threat to this way of life, so needed erasing. I will delete anyone else who stands in the way of our right to an untouched playground. You are next, Senator Rommel. You too…’
By now there were hundreds of thumbnail videos, all speaking the words in a single, dark chorus. Each said ‘Senator Rommel’ in a collective growl. Then more names were rattled off, but every face listed different people. The whole thing turned into a mess of chaotic noise.
‘Pause!’ Gibson barked. ‘Lights!’
The briefing room snapped into bright relief. It felt like we’d just emerged from the end of a horror film. Really, it was just beginning. There would be more than one body. Why copycat a serial killer otherwise? That’s what Switch had said.
‘What do you have on those people in the clip?’ Gibson asked Cline.
The hirsute analyst clicked a few buttons on his wrist-comm. ‘The first avatar is a well-known Holosian troll called Bleesh. He started the broadcast on a public chat board in The Feed. We have no IP linking him to a real-world location or identity. He’s famous for spewing hatred and death threats wherever he can. The next are other trolls who piled on. Some are just full virtual freedom advocates. People around the web are already saying these are false claims of responsibility. It’s hard to know.’
‘Do you have a list of all the people they threatened at the end?’ I asked.
‘I’m having the AIs parse everything out now.’
‘Good,’ I said, feeling a growing sense of urgency.
This wasn’t about solving one murder any more—it was about stopping future ones. Gone was my sense of imbalance after meeting Switch. I was on the hunt now. It wasn’t her doing this, but it was someone just as dangerous. Hopefully, someone easier to catch.
‘Cross reference all of those names with people who have been reported missing in the Holos in the past two weeks,’ I said. ‘We obviously know who Senator Rommel is and she’s not missing. She held a big rally in virtual a day or two ago. It’s worth alerting her security teams to make sure they tighten protocols, just in case they haven’t done it already.’
Senator Rommel was no stranger to death threats and controversy. I was sure she would have this in hand. She’d originally become a public face as Lieutenant Rommel, commanding ground forces during the Unification Wars between North and South Korea. At first there was intense resistance from the public to that war, but the success of the campaign, without resorting to nuclear attack, made Rommel a rising star of US politics when she returned.
She’d first resettled in her home in Salt Lake City, but soon moved over the border to spread her influence in the more powerful state of Nevada. Her first move was to revive dormant laws enabling the death penalty both as a deterrent and punishment for murder in the state. It was something people resisted initially. Since then though, real-world murder had plummeted. Her critics attributed the statistics to most of the population shifting into virtual. Her supporters though, loved her. She was about law, order, safety and family values; something I could get behind as a cop. Now she was trying to extend the always-increasing safety we enjoyed in the real world to the Holos. Rommel wanted to put laws in place there. Obviously, looking at that screen, there were plenty who didn’t want that to happen. But there were just as many who did. Just as many who believed in her vision. The market price of her current policy proved that. This murder could be a threat to its success. The threat to her life was more pressing in my mind though.
‘Okay,’ Cline said, ‘First step, I’m going to see if I can match the speech patterns of the broadcast to anyone on public record. There’s billions of hours of just about everyone in the world speaking now. It’s bound to turn up something.’
‘Don’t bother,’ I said.
Now it was Gibson’s turn to spark up. ‘Why the hell not?’ he asked. ‘That sounds like good detective work.’
‘Because apart from a few minor tailored pieces, it’s all lifted from The Hyperrealist’s Manifesto by Jazlin Switch,’ I said. ‘And we’ve just ruled her out.’
Determination gripped me. We could do this. But we’d gone from barely any clues to too many leads. Questions started rattling through my brain. Who did that first avatar belong to in real life? Was he working alone, or with the other trolls who jumped in to take credit too? Was this Bleesh troll just taking credit for kicks? Did he have any links to Rama? Was anyone else missing now as well? And, why the link to seven days with Switch?
Just then, someone else burst into the room. Sheriff Rosa Maria Mendez. She looked like a Latina doll—if that doll was used for evil hexes. Five foot nothing, dark eye shadow, a jawline as strong as her titanium will. Someone who, despite coming from nothing, had clawed to the top of the Las Vegas police department. Fierce. Arrogant. What everyone else called a total bitch. My absolute hero.
She leveled her gaze at me, then Cline, then Gibson.
‘Who is running this joke of an investigation,’ she asked, ‘and where is their resignation?’
My heart stopped, actually froze in my chest. Gibson looked directly at me. I could sense him about to throw me under the self-drive bus to save himself, but the Sheriff bulldozed on.
‘I’ve just had Senator Rommel on the phone, demanding we track down who’s threatened her and who’s killed Rama. The policy markets are in chaos. People are starting to log out of the Holos afraid that it’s the Specter Slaughter all over again. This city doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle an influx of people actually leaving their homes. It’s crowded enough as it is. Tell me something good. Where are we at?’
All three of us stood silent. You could have heard dust mites fart in the carpet through the stillness.
‘Gibson!’ Mendez snapped, jolting everyone back to life. ‘How on earth were the media ahead of us on this? The bloodsucking media! And what about these people claiming responsibility? People are saying one of them is Jazlin Switch in disguise.’
‘If I may…’ Cline started to speak.
‘You may not,’ Mendez said, holding up her palm to stop him talking.
‘Someone leaked the details of the crime scene,’ Gibson said, regaining his composure.
‘They were on the station’s open server so it could have been anyone,’ Cline added quickly. ‘I’ve since created a secure file that only this team has access to.’
‘We also ruled out Jazlin Switch as a suspect,’ Gibson barreled on. ‘Interviewing her produced a new lead too.’
It was Sheriff Mendez’s turn to pause.
‘Who interviewed Switch?’ she asked Gibson. ‘I know you didn’t have the huevos.’
My hero.
‘I interviewed her,’ I said, stepping up. ‘Switch denies any involvement. She can’t have done it from digital confinement regardless. She also provided a clue I think confirms this wasn’t a Specter Slaying. We just need to confirm the details.’
Mendez sized me up.
‘Ada Byron, right? Aren’t you normally Missing Persons?’
The fact Mendez knew my name made me stop. What had I done to get on her radar? Something good, or…?
‘I pulled her into this one,’ Gibson said, moving back into responsibility mode. ‘She did her thesis on Jazlin Switch.’
‘You’re a Holos expert?’ she asked, her look turning even more positive.
‘A Specter Slaughter expert,’ I corrected reluctantly, not wanting to spoil the moment.
‘She doesn’t go into the Holos,’ Gibson added. The prick.
‘Well, she does now,’ Mendez nodded at me. ‘If our victim lived his whole life virtually, you’re going to have to investigate on the virtual ground.’
I was caught. A deer in the headlights of a small Latina Mack truck.
‘I think that might be hasty,’ I said slowly. ‘We have other leads to follow first, starting with confirming why Christos Rama’s avatar went missing in the Holos a week before his real body was found.’
‘He went missing a week before?’ Mendez asked. ‘That’s new.’
‘It didn’t clock on our radars at first because millions of avatars are reported missing in there every week,’ Cline said. ‘But Ada’s interview with Switch prompted us to check.’
I could have kissed him, making me look good in front of the Sheriff like that. I made a mental note that I owed him at least two cappuccinos and fewer fun nugget jabs.
‘Okay, so what’s the significance of that?’ Mendez asked.
