Hard Wired Trilogy by DeAnna Pearce (smart books to read .TXT) 📕

completed for your midterm assignment. You will walk through it, criticizing the flaws and assessing potential for the next level of design, the user interface. Please run your program for twenty minutes and then after a brief discussion, we will move on with our normal agenda.”

Ari exhaled a bit loudly, which drew Dr. Coleman’s attention. “Is there a problem, Ariana?”

She shook her head.

“I should hope not. After the weekend you should have no problem with the VR, should you?”

How would he know about the weekend?

His look was piercing though, and there was no doubt that he knew. “We’re going to see if you really have what it takes to do this.”

“Yes, sir,” Ari answered and, under his heavy gaze, reached for the cable to plug in. She ignored an uneasiness in her stomach that had nothing to do with the VR.

The world Ari had created was sparse, but she’d done that on purpose. Lush green countryside traveled for miles in every direction. A small hill rose to the east, next to a wooden house surrounded by several well placed over-sized trees. She’d even created a stream to run behind it. Ari wanted to create a piece from history, when things weren’t as crowded, but with the benefits of indoor plumbing. Her VR world wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t bad.

She strolled near a small plant, a bush really. And without thinking about it she concentrated on the bush, trying to see the code, like she’d done with Garrett. But all she saw was a bush, boring and plain. At least at first.

Continuing to focus, the characters in the code appeared, showing what she used to create such a small simple bush. She laughed out loud in spite of herself. She wondered if that was why she was here. Could that aptitude test she had taken at home somehow predict this?

Ari wondered how easy it would be to change the bush. Not that she would do it, but she itched to try.

“You must be really pleased with your bush there.” Ari turned around to find Dr. Coleman. He always oversaw the VR trips and interacted with students, but today Ari wasn’t prepared for him.

“No, sir. I was thinking about how fake it looked.”

“Good, because you are right. It’s abysmal. What else?” he asked.

Before Ari could continue though, Dr. Coleman put his hand on his temple in a concentrated expression.

A mechanical voice broke into the VR. “Please exit the virtual immediately.”

Dr. Coleman turned to Ari and talked over the voice. “We’re going into lockdown. Leave immediately.”

Panic rushed through Ari’s body. Lockdown. They’d gone over this in the beginning of the semester, and they’d even had lockdown drills at her school, but for some reason this didn’t seem like a drill today. What was happening out there?

Dr. Coleman must have noticed her hesitation. He put a hand on her shoulder, grabbing her attention. “You need to leave. Can you do that? Or does Mica need to pull you out?”

Ari shook her head. “No, I got it.”

Then Ari forced herself to leave, leaving her imperfect world for a scarier, more real one.

Mica appeared, took out Ari’s port without even asking and moved on to the next student. Ari glanced around the classroom, unsure of what to do. The other students were slowly waking up from the VR, asking questions.

“Everyone can be seated.” Dr. Coleman stood at the front. “The room is secure, at the moment.”

Ari clutched her bag onto her lap in case they needed to leave.

“What happened?” Tessa asked from the back of the room.

“There was a gunman apprehended at the entrance of our facility. They are worried he may have an accomplice, so they are searching the rest of the campus. Our systems may also have been breached so only internal network communication is allowed.” Dr. Coleman pulled out a stool to sit on. “All the VR facilities are shut down in case we need to be evacuated, but they should have the place cleared in a couple of hours.”

A moan went through the students.

“Don’t complain to me. This is your fault,” Dr. Coleman said to the class.

“What?” a dark hair boy asked in the back.

“Every time after break, the school has to double security. People watch the students partying on break and are reminded of what we are creating here. It makes the wackos come out of the woodwork. Crackpots from religious groups think virtuals are evil. They think VRs teach kids to have sex, do drugs, and kill others.”

Ari swallowed, thinking that they might be partly right.

Dr. Coleman stood up and resumed his pacing, his argument turning into a lecture. “Ironically though, they seem to have no problem slaughtering us despite their moral objections.” He stared off in the distance for a bit, and then a cough from the back of the class revived his attention. “Nevertheless, here we are. Please start your essay on your virtual and continue with reading the next chapter.”

He began to walk off as the students pulled out their small computers. Then, as a second thought he added, “There will be a quiz tomorrow on the reading in case you decide to skip it.” With a smug smile, he disappeared to his desk in the corner.

The campus was on lockdown: the VR College, IT, IT security, and network management. It seemed the whole world, or Ari’s world, was frozen for the time being. She spent the first hour of lockdown completing her homework. Reed texted her once to make sure she was okay. She’d sent a message to her brother but hadn’t heard back. Reed had told her not to worry about Marco, but something didn’t sit right. Why wouldn’t Marco text back? Maybe he was making out with some girl and locked in her room.

As time ticked by students became restless, stretching out their legs, or having quiet conversations. She ignored Wake and his buddies’ comments and snickers from the back of the room. Tessa sent her a video of a comedian who