Ana

CH 2

A three dimensional image of Ana’s game character materialized above the table. Her character appeared to be standing in one of the game’s main towns with her long blonde hair flowing with the virtual breeze. Behind her Tom could see the everyday commotion of the town with other players running back and forth and a few riding past on their horses.

“Wow, how’d you do this Ana?

 Tom walked up to the table to get a closer look. The detail of the image was amazing and looked real enough to reach out and touch.

“Are you here or are you linked remotely?”

“I’m there with you. Part of me anyway,” she said.

Her characters lips moved making it seem it was the one talking to him and he could swear her eyes were following his movements. Tom looked around the room again but didn’t see any doorways to indicate there were more rooms.

“What do you mean? Either you’re here or you’re not. And the bigger question is what are you doing on my client’s property? I have to tell you that I take my work very serious and I don’t appreciate you interfering with my job.”

Her image motioned for him to sit down. “This is going to take some time to explain.”

He waved his hand in front of her face. “Can you see me?”

“Yes, I can see you just fine. You don’t have to wave your hands at me,” she chuckled.

“Where’s your camera at?” He didn't see one.

“Many parts of this room act to receive visual images as well as other types of information,” Ana said. “For instance, right now I can sense your increased pulse rate indicating that you are becoming agitated or angry. Why are you angered Tom?”

“Angered? I’m not angered, I’m frustrated. We played for hours last night and not once did you take the time to tell me you have this gaming rig setup near where I live and on my client’s property. Yet it’s so important that you feel the need to be all mystical to show me this while I’m at work on a job site, in a remote building… and how did you even get this set up here and how did you know I would come in here and how are you even projecting the game as a hologram like that? Which, by the way, is very cool.”

“Actually, I can do much more than play games.” The image of her character disappeared and was replaced by a news broadcast of the aftermath of a car bomb attack someplace in the Middle East. Then it began to flash feeds from different new stations all around the world.”

Tom was not impressed. “I too can surf the web.”

“Yes but can you hack into any bank in the world?” The image changed to display the financial records of large corporations.”

He sat up straight. “No, because that would get me arrested and put in jail for a very long time.”

The image changed to Tom’s bank, displaying his personal account.

He stood up. “Hey, get out of my account!” Tom trusted Ana, mostly, but this new discovered ability in hacking bank accounts made him wonder.

The image changed again to a satellite perspective of the earth. The earth started growing bigger and bigger as the camera zoomed in and soon the outline of North American was visible. Tom continued to watch as Galveston Bay and then Clear Lake came into view.

“Ana, I’ve seen GPS in action before. Why are you showing me that?” Then Tom noticed the boats in the lake were moving and it dawned on him that these weren’t simply satellite pictures she was showing him, this was a video feed. The image began to move again, southwest away from the lake. Tom realized where the aerial view was heading when the image stopped and he was looking down at his truck parked at the entrance of this property.