“That’s impossible,” the A.I. asserted, his tone, like his expression, firm.
“Why?” Thel countered, pushing her point. “He’s got control of the mainframe, something we know he’s coveted.”
“We don’t know he’s coveted it for sure,” James pointed out.
“And he’s about to lose control of it,” the A.I. added. “He’s gained nothing from us being trapped in here.”
“That’s not true. He got the two of you out of the way,” Thel continued to argue. “You posed the question yourself,” she pointed out to the A.I., “who benefits by trapping you inside the sim but who also doesn’t want you dead? Aldous checks both of those boxes. Who else does? Plus, he’s been a real asshole on many—”
“Your assessment of his character is purely subjective,” the A.I. insisted. “I and others have known him to be of extraordinary character. Aldous is not the perpetrator we seek.”
“Hang on,” James cut in after Thel’s arguments began to resonate with him, “he has been trying to keep us from developing Planck technology,” he observed. “He’s partly the reason we moved our test of the candidate ahead of schedule.”
“And now he can communicate to us,” Thel added, “but he can’t get us out? Convenient.”
“The trapdoor code eluded both James and me, Thel,” the A.I. returned, sticking to his firm, emphatic tone. “That means it is extraordinarily sophisticated. It is highly plausible that Aldous, who has only been in control of the mainframe for mere minutes, is unable to break the code.”
“Yeah, but—” James began before he was interrupted by the sound of glass smashing and, seconds later, raining down on the marble floor in front of the balcony. A second after that, a cold gust of damp air blew through the room.
“Oh no,” Thel said as she saw a woman’s arm desperately lunging, mindlessly flailing through the sharp, jagged hole, cutting itself in its attempts to form a larger opening. “An NPC!”
“Dear God,” the candidate said as he back peddled from the balcony, the streaks of blood from the NPC’s bicep raining down from the hole and splashing to the floor; it was in danger of cutting its own limb off before the glass door broke open.
Seconds later, dozens more NPCs leapt over the balcony, having climbed the exterior of the building. Their bodies crashed against the weakening glass.
“We’re in deep trouble,” Thel announced, turning to James and the A.I. “We’ve got no way of defending ourselves against those things, and we’re about to be overwhelmed.”
James cut into communication with Aldous as he waved for his companions to follow him to the elevator. They hit the button and waited with desperate impatience for the elevator to arrive. They could hear it audibly shimmy its way up from the lobby.
“Aldous, we’re in the penthouse, and we’ve been discovered by the NPCs. We’re about to be purged, unless you can get us some help!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Aldous replied. “Stand by.”
“Stand by again?” Thel shouted. “Is that all you can ever say? Do something!” Her eyes were then suddenly drawn to the A.I. as he took the Kali avatar by the hand and guided the empty shell as though he were guiding a somnambulist toward the elevator. “Speaking of doing something, what the hell are you doing? We don’t have time for a puppet show!”
The A.I. shot her a warning look and held his finger to his lips, motioning for her to be silent.
Thel’s eyes narrowed as she looked on in utter disbelief, but she heeded his warning and remained silent, trusting that there had to be some sort of method to the A.I.’s seeming mad behavior.
“Do you have something for us?” James shouted to Aldous as the entire group collected around the still-closed elevator door.
“Stand by,” Aldous repeated.
“Stand by,” Thel repeated as she shook her head in frustration. She listened to the hum of the elevator as it made its way up the shaft, closer and closer. “What if an NPC is in there when the door opens?”
“We outnumber it,” the A.I. pointed out. “If we work together—”
“We need to get to the roof,” the candidate suddenly announced. “I can fly. That’s one ability that the stranger endowed me with. If we can get to the roof, I can get us out of here.”
The elevator reached the penthouse and a second later, the door opened, empty. There wasn’t time to be grateful, however, as in the same second, they heard the last of the glass balcony door give way, shattering as a herd of NPCs brought it down.