Mind-Altering Murder

Chapter Seventeen

“What the hell are you doing?”Juliet O’Hara backed away from Shawn, but not fast enough. She could feel the bullet whizzing past her ear.

“The guard was reaching for his gun,” Shawn said, wheeling around to level his shotgun at the other security guard, who was cowering under a desk.

“So you killed three hostages to teach him a lesson?” she said, pointing at the bodies lying on the jewelry store’s marble floor.

“Oh, no,” Shawn said. “That’s going to cost me a chunk of my inventory. We’d better check their pockets to see if there’s anything we can use.”

O’Hara looked around the jewelry store in disgust. She’d been at hundreds of crime scenes in her career, and seen more than one hostage situation go bad. But she’d never actually been one of the hostage takers before, and even though the victims were all virtual, she wanted to throw up.

“People do this for fun?” she said, practically spitting the last word.

“Not yet they don’t,” Shawn said. “I’m the only outsider who’s been allowed to play the game. Except for Gus, of course, and he left before he got anywhere near level seven.”

“At least I can see why you were looking so bad when I picked you up,” she said. “This can’t be good for you.”

“It’s just a game, Jules,” Shawn said. “Don’t take it so seriously.”

If she had been taking this seriously, O’Hara thought, she would have pulled off her helmet after thirty seconds and called Judge Sanderson to get a warrant to shut the entire company down. She wasn’t sure what law this game violated, but there had to be something. And if there wasn’t, she’d run for Congress so she could write one.

It wasn’t that O’Hara had anything against computer games. She’d grown up playing Zork and Myst, and even wasted some time at her previous jobs blowing away Nazi soldiers in Castle Wolfenstein.

But Criminal Genius wasn’t just a game. It was an entire world, completely immersive and realistic in almost every way. And it wasn’t just sights and sounds. Thanks to the full-body virtual suits, the game also provided a sense of touch. When you picked up a virtual object you could feel its weight, its texture. O’Hara had to admit that when Shawn first led her into Darksyde City she had been astonished. This was an entirely new art form, and one that could bring marvels to life.

Unfortunately, the designers of Criminal Genius apparently had no interest in bring marvels-or anything else-to life. Every bit of technological and artistic wizardry that had gone into the game had only one purpose: to teach the player how to be a successful criminal. And the more vicious, the better.

This wasn’t a computer game-it was a training program for incipient psychopaths. And as she looked at Shawn aiming his gun at the trembling hostages, she saw the virtual world’s effect on him. He was enjoying this, committing hideous acts of virtual violence even when he didn’t need to in order to advance the plot. What kind of impact would this have on him in the real world?

“I’m not the one who’s taking it too seriously, Shawn,” she said. “You dragged me in here to help you solve a crime, remember?”

“Of course I remember,” Shawn said. “We need to find Fawn Liebowitz.”

“I thought you said she’d show up when you tried to steal the diamond,” O’Hara said. “Where is she?”

“It has to be a new attempt,” Shawn said. “I’ve tried this approach before.”

She stared at him in horror. “You mean you did this for nothing?”

“You needed to get a feel for how the game works,” Shawn said. “You don’t want to find yourself in a gunfight if you don’t know what it’s like when people start dying in here.”

“I don’t want to find myself in a gunfight at all,” O’Hara said. “I just want to get out of here and take a long, hot shower.”

She reached up to pull off her helmet, but Shawn put a hand on her arm to stop her. “Jules, just try to relax a little.”

“This room is bathed in blood,” O’Hara said.

“Hardly bathed. Maybe a little shower,” Shawn said, then seemed to realize how upset she was becoming. “It’s pixels. No one actually gets hurt. Geez, when did you become such an old lady?”

“I’m an old lady?” O’Hara said, feeling the veins in her temples throbbing. “I’m an old lady?”

“You’re sure acting like one,” Shawn said. “Lighten up. Play the game. Have some fun.”

She dropped her hand away from the helmet. “You want me to play the game?”

“That’s kind of the point.”

“You want me to have some fun?”

“Ideally,” Shawn said.

“Okay, then,” O’Hara said.

Shawn broke into a wide smile. “You’re really going to enjoy this, Jules. I bet you’re going to-”

Shawn’s lips finished the sentence, but no sound came out of his mouth. Which wasn’t surprising since his head was no longer attached to his neck.

O’Hara dropped her still-smoking shotgun to the floor. It hit just as Shawn’s body crumpled down beside it.

“You were right, Shawn,” O’Hara said. “This game can be fun if you give it a chance.”

She reached up and gave her ears a sharp twist, then lifted her own head off her shoulders. The jewelry story dissolved around her and the last thing she saw before everything went black was Shawn’s body, twitching slightly on the floor.