The room was stark. A nothing-special blue extra-hard wearing carpet, smooth white walls, topped with a depressing false ceiling made of a grid of mottled polystyrene tiles. The chair was hard and unforgiving, in front of a cold metal desk. At the other side of the desk was a plush leather task chair, currently unoccupied, and turned slightly towards the door. A single window opposed the door, looking out to a featureless grey sky.
It wasn't exactly what Anatoly had been expecting.
The door opened and a balding man in his mid 50s entered.
"Mr Volkov. A pleasure to finally meet you." The man offered his hand. "Alexis Vechi".
This was Vechi? This was Vechi?
A confused Anatoly shook Vechi's hand.
"I wanted to thank you for your hard work the last few months Anatoly, you're one of the best developers we've had the pleasure to work with."
"..."
"Your work on DENT and the other protocols has been most excellent. It will be a great asset to the business."
"Sure." Anatoly had no idea what to say.
"So next, we are hoping to revolutionize copyright. Like the digital world before it, the production and distribution of physical items is becoming easier and easier everyday, and we want to be involved. We thought you might be interested in helping us, we think you would be perfect."
"Umm, but what about DENT, we have barely started."
"Quite the contrary, our work on DENT is complete."
"What do you mean complete? Hardly anyone is using it yet, we've just finished proving the concept and..."
"Exactly."
"I don't understand, I thought we were democratizing communication, taking it away from the SILOS, making communication between citizens fair, and safe."
"Oh my dear boy. Whoever gave you that idea?"
"YOU DID!"
Vichi chuckled. "Nobody has told you yet have they?"
"Told me what?"
"We don't actually make anything here. We just patent it, to prevent others from making it. We are protectors of the SILOS, not destroyers of them." Vichi grinned.
Anatoly laughed nervously. "Are you serious?"
"Deadly."
Anatoly felt ill. Could it be true, had he really been working for a SILOS patent troll this whole time.
"But what about Z, and Ali-Data, Giovanni?"
Vichi laughed. "And Magnum Dati, and Williamette Moreau? All the products of patent 20490296651."
"..."
"Oh I'm sorry, patent US20120296651 covers the creation of a 'networked graph of artificially intelligent actors'. It's basically a way to create a graph of artificial actors who can individually pass a turing test, but also provide a coherent story with one and other. A fake company if you will."
"You're telling me that none of them are real?!"
"Yep."
"W-w-what? Why?"
"We needed you Anatoly. We needed someone with your skills on our side. And after you left Zygex, one of our parent companies where we were training you up, we had to figure out how to get you back. Turned out that patent was useful - one of the few we've actually implemented!" Vechi chuckled, apparently pleased with himself.
"And we figure you'll help us with our next challenge too."
Anatoly shook his head, staring at Vechi mouth agape, his right hand grasping his stomach which was doing it's best not to throw up. "N-n-no way. Are you crazy? What the f-"
"We have good incentives for you Anatoly."
"You think I want money? For this? No way. I-I-I'm going to leave now." He headed for the door and opened it. A burly man stood, blocking his exit.
"Sure, you can leave any time Anatoly, but I'm pretty sure you'll want to hear what we have to offer you."
"I don't think I want to hear any more." He pushed his way past the guard.
"We can destroy you Anatoly." Vechy called after him. "And Natalia. But we don't have to. All we ask for is your help. We will pay you well, as long as you cooperate with us Anatoly. It's not difficult. Just keep doing what you've been doing. And just as a warning, if you leave here now, you can kiss your little thing with Natalia goodbye. I can guarantee she will never want to see you again."
The world spun. What the fuck was this lunatic talking about? His heart raced. The only thing he could do was run, down the fluorescently lit corridor, lined with door upon door like the one he had just exited. He wondered who else might be trapped behind them. He broke into the stairwell, relieved to find it empty. Grabbing the banister he tried to catch his breath, and vomited down the stairwell in the process.
He continued down flight after flight, desperate to get out of the building and back into the real world. He still couldn't believe it was happening. None of them are real? They are all fake? What in the fuck had the world come to?
Finally at the bottom of the stairwell, breathing hard he opened the door to the foyer. To find Vechy standing in front of him, still grinning.
"I'm serious Anatoly. We can end you. Your life, your career, your sanity. We can take it all. But we don't have to."
Anatoly, wishing he had the muscle to punch Vechy in the gut, instead ran past him into the foyer, through the revolving door, and straight into a taxi waiting outside. Then, feeling paranoid, carried on straight out the other side of the cab into the busy street and carried on running.
A few blocks later he had to stop. He could hardly breath, he could hardly see, he could hardly think. He spotted a small park with a quiet bench and collapsed into it.
I need to call Natalia. I don't know what they think they are going to do, but I need to call her. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and, despite his shaking hands, succeeded in punching her name into it.
The phone rang. And rang. Until her voicemail kicked in.
He hung up and tried again. And again. No answer.
It was probably late with her, she may have been asleep, but he still expected her to pick up.
"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the FUCK."
He raided his bag. Phone, wallet, computer, glasses, passport, room key. Everything else was at the hotel. Where was he? He headed toward the next main road to get a taxi to the hotel, then remembered it was Vechy who had booked it for him. He didn't really like the idea of going back there. What had he left there? Some money, some clothes. Nothing important. Fuck it, not worth it. I have to get home.
He hopped in the nearest cab.
"I need to get to the airport, as soon as possible."
"No problem man, bad day?"
"You've no fucking idea."
"Certainly sir, we can get you out on a flight tomorrow morning. 7:15am."
"Is that the earliest you can do?"
"I'm afraid so sir, the last flight of the day just left."
"Okay, I'll take it I guess."
"Sure thing, here's your boarding pass for tomorrow. Will you need to check in any luggage?"
"No, I guess not."
"Alright, well you're all set then, 7:15am tomorrow".
Paranoid, Anatoly wondered what to do next. Vechy seemed like the kinda guy who'd have goons out to keep an eye on him. He decided if anywhere was going to be a safe bet it would be the other side of security.
"Sir, you do realise your flight is not until tomorrow morning?"
"Yes."
"Okay, well the airport's open all night but there's nowhere to sleep to speak of. There's a 24 hour bar though, international law and all that."
"Perfect."
"Man of few words huh?"
"..."
"Okay, well have a good night."
Anatoly scanned the faces around him and tried to memorise them, then dissapeared into a stall in the bathroom to hide for a while. Nobody seemed to follow him in.
He called Natalia again, no answers. He thought about jacking in to see if he could find someone who could help him, but he had no idea who to trust any more. So instead he just hid, until it seemed like the bathroom was empty. Leaving, he scanned the faces again, to see if he could recognise anyone, but nobody stood out. He headed for the largest crowd of people he could see, tried to get himself lost amongst them as best he could, and then headed to find that bar for the night.
This was written as part of NaNoWriMo - an attempt to write a 50,000 word novely before the end of November, and will fit somewhere into the novel.
If you enjoyed it, (or if you didn't but want to support me anyway) you should totally sponsor me for charity! It's going to a great cause, the Scottish Association for Mental Health.
<3 Phil