The Sapporo Outbreak (3 page)

Hill interrupted. "I understand he's late sir, but with respect, Tanaka has always been late releasing his games to market. I think we have to balance that with the results from the game testers in the labs - which are better than anything any one of us has ever seen before. When we interview players after they've been exposed to the game, they describe the game as if its some sort of addictive drug. That's true across the board. Age, gender, culture - they all fall in love with the experience. Given how strong the reaction has been, and the fact that it launches in just over two weeks, is there a chance that the investors are over-reacting?"

Miller glared at Hill as if offended by the idea.

"The problem, Mr Hill, is that costs keep rising, the new game launches in two weeks time - almost a year late I might add - and not one of the investors has seen a final version of the technology in action. In my opinion, all very good reasons to be worried. But the real concern is the rumours that won't go away. The whispers that the old
problems
are back again."

Miller paused briefly as if expecting a response. Getting none, he continued.
 

"The investors have instructed us to find out what the hell that man is up to and report back within 48 hours. They've made a fortune from Kaito Tanaka, and they intend to do so again. They don't want anything to get in the way, which is why we need to find out more about these..." he paused, ".. issues. Alex, we have an obligation to protect the interests of the investors in WhiteStar - our client - whatever it takes. Do you understand?"

Miller fixed his hard gaze on the firm's newest and brightest partner.
 

Hill was determined not to show any weakness in front of the old bulldog. Effecting an air of calm, Hill returned the older man's stare.
 

Hill replied, "Of course sir. We've been through this before with Tanaka. He's a visionary, in many ways he's a genius. However he's also a little awkward around strangers, and when it gets this close to the launch of a new game he can get a little ... unpredictable. I agree he can be hard to manage, but I've had three good years representing our clients' interests with Tanaka and I'm sure I'll have no problem with him this time."

Miller flicked impatiently though the folder in front of him for a few awkward moments before his gaze lifted. Seemingly ignoring Hill's comments, he growled.
 

"Something is going on here, and I don't like it Alex. There's a lot of money on the line here - not just for our clients but for this firm and you as the partner leading this work. I don't need to tell you that these latest reports are ... troubling. I need to find out exactly what's going on, and if there's any substance to the investors' concerns. However, I can't seem to make any progress when I'm in San Francisco and Tanaka's in Japan. To be honest, I have a very strong suspicion that Tanaka is avoiding me."

Hill nodded. Miller was the sort of person a lot of people tried to avoid.

"I have to admit, over the last few weeks I've had the same experience sir. So what do you want me to do?"

Miller fixed his hard gaze on the younger man, his jaw tightening.
 

"Go to Japan. Take the advisory team with you. Look around this hi-tech operation he's built and see what he's up to. Get the Professor to check all's well and report back to me. I need to hear that things are on track and that we won't have any of the issues we had two years ago."
 

Hill nodded. "Ok - it might take me a while to gather the advisory team together, and coordinate with Tanaka's team in Japan. When were you thinking I'd leave?"

Abruptly, Miller stood up, snatching the folder and spinning it across the polished oak table toward Hill.
 

"Tanaka's team have been contacted and are expecting you. Our people have already worked things out with Santos and Harper. The only guy you have to organise is the Professor. Everything else is taken care of. Go home and get packed - you're flight leaves in a couple of hours."

#

6pm Tuesday, Washington D.C (Minus 31 Hours)

"Any further questions for Professor Skinner?"

Ben Skinner glanced up at the clock on the wall as it ticked past 6:00pm and winced. He really needed this to wrap up quickly. In the next two hours, he needed to get back to the hotel, wade through messages, get changed and to the restaurant for dinner with Doctor Santos. With Eva. He'd first met the beautiful psychologist when they were hired as an advisory team for a high-tech gaming company 18 months earlier. Since then they'd often travelled together and talked at least one a week as part of the ongoing project. Skinner had grown very fond of Eva, the first time this had happened since his messy, self-destruction of a divorce a couple of years back. Skinner suspected that Dr Santos -
Eva
- felt the same but he wasn't sure. Well, tonight he was going to find out. He'd decided to gather his courage, set aside his nervousness and tell Eva how he felt. It would make things awkward between them if she didn't feel the same way - but Skinner was willing to take the risk. It was time to find out.

Collecting himself, Skinner turned back toward the group and watched as the bull-like Department Chief scanned the room, daring his team of law enforcement and homeland security executives to speak. As the youngest ever Chair of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, Ben Skinner had been invited to present his most recent research to the Homeland Security's New York CyberSecurity team. In the early days, he had dreaded these presentations, but over time he had come to accept them as part of the job. In fact, he'd made some useful connections from these meetings and one or two new friendships.

When he'd arrived for this meeting two hours earlier, Skinner had been surprised to discover this formidable high-tech surveillance unit operating out of a nondescript office building in mid-town Washington. In its glory days, the building had been head office for a worldwide magazine publisher. When the world stopped buying print, the business had morphed into one failed Internet business after another and then finally disappeared a couple of years ago. A few months after that, the Department of Homeland Security's CyberSecurity Division moved in - an irony that hadn't escaped Skinner.

Skinner had presented his findings on the criminal potential of a new generation of multiplayer online game technology over a dozen times in the last two months. Starting at the top and slowly working his way down the food chain. No matter what level he presented to the audience - overworked and battle-weary law enforcement teams, always responded the same way.

With a shrug.

Tech crimes were complicated, convictions took time and investigations chewed up lots of resources. With far more digital criminals than digital cops, priorities needed to be set. Terrorism, money laundering, fraud, sex and hate crimes took up everyone's time. The rising criminal activity tucked away in massive multiplayer games just wasn't big enough, wasn't scary enough - wasn't
real
enough - to get any serious attention.
   

Today's group was no different. After a moment's silence, the Chief ('damn - what is his name?') thanked Skinner for the lecture and delivered some final housekeeping instructions to the group. Liberated from their forced silence, conversations sparked into life, cheap plastic chairs and desks were pushed aside and, in less than a minute, Skinner was left alone. Which was just the way he liked it.

Eager to get back to his hotel and dinner with the brilliant and beautiful Dr. Eva Santos, Skinner hurriedly tucked his smartphone into his back pocket, the micro-projector into his jacket pocket and bustled out of the room. Skinner hurried down a corridor of shoulder-height white cubicles and was walking through the reception area when a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Ben, do you have a moment to talk?"

Skinner stopped and turned to the voice. Sitting on a black leather sofa opposite the reception desk was a craggy-faced man in his mid-fifties, impeccably dressed in a fitted dark blue suit, white shirt and red 'power' tie. Skinner's slightly rumpled chinos, tan sand shoes and faded blue cotton shirt were a sharp contrast.

Skinner grinned. "Bad news I'm afraid Andrew. You've missed my presentation. Pity, it brought the house down."

Andrew Morris didn't smile. He rarely did.

Morris was a cautious man by nature. His training and a career tracking down the worst in society had heightened an already innate suspicion of people. After 30 years in the business, Morris had learned to trust his instincts - and instinctively he liked Ben Skinner. He admired the Professor's ability to relate to people, no matter their station. He wasn't on a power trip and didn't talk down to anyone. He came across as a good guy who just happened to be the smartest guy in the room, and Morris respected him for that. Most of all, Morris was impressed with the way Skinner had turned his life around after his ugly divorce two or three years back.

"Sit down Ben - you'll want to hear this."
 

#

Intrigued, Skinner navigated his way past the oversized white vinyl coffee table and thudded onto the same leather sofa as the man from Homeland Security.

"What's up Andrew? It's always good to see you, but I've got a lot to do in the next hour or two
and
a dinner meeting with a colleague at eight. Any chance we can make this quick?"

Morris examined his friend and colleague. He'd known Skinner for years, and while Morris felt older every day, Skinner seemed to stay just the same. The casual way he dressed, the trim frame of a keen runner and a distinctive mop of straight sandy blond hair - ruffled and spiky on top and short everywhere else. However, as Morris had often reflected, it was Skinner's attitude - his curiosity, his energy and enthusiasm - which seemed to keep him young.

"Ah yes, Dr Santos. She's very impressive Ben. Smart and - if you don't mind me saying so - very attractive. Way out of your league!" Morris deadpanned.

Skinner shook his head and with a mock-pained expression. "No arguing with that, but the truth still hurts."
 

Skinner paused for a second, then as the man from Homeland Security started to speak, he jumped in.

"Wait. How do you know my dinner was with Eva? I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned her before."

"Actually Ben, Dr Santos - or rather her research - is related to the issue I have come to discuss."

Baffled, Skinner stared at the older man for a few seconds, before nodding cautiously. "Go on."

"How much do you know about the WhiteStar Corporation Ben?"

"WhiteStar?" Skinner responded quickly, surprised and even more curious about where this was heading.
 

"Well ... let me see. Pretty much anyone over thirteen and under sixty has played one of their iSight online games at some point. As a result, they're a household name and have made billions of dollars. Which is great - because it's WhiteStar's sponsorship dollars that fund a large part of the Criminology research facility back at the University."

"And your relationship with WhiteStar Ben?"

Skinner cast a quizzical glance at the lined face gazing back at him.

"It hasn't changed since we last talked Andrew. As you know WhiteStar's been investing enormously in a new game which tries to create as real an environment as possible. They're not calling it a 'virtual world' anymore - they describe this new game as an 'alternate world'."

Clearly getting impatient, Morris interrupted. "All very interesting, but why would a global software company selling online entertainment engage a Professor of Criminology, a criminal psychologist and a team of researchers. What sort of game needs that sort of research?"

Skinner face lit up as he shuffled forward slightly in his seat.
 

"What I've seen Andrew really is quite remarkable. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that their games create lots of scenarios players can enter into. Some of them fun, some adventurous and some a little surreal. Well - some have good guys and bad guys. Our work has helped WhiteStar simulate as accurately as possible the criminal mind in different situations. In effect, in the new game players will find the more they play, the smarter the bad guys get and the more realistic the scenarios become. It's amazing really. A few months ago I had the chance to try an early version and it's like nothing I've ever seen. The whole planet's going to be playing this damn game, mark my words."

Morris raised an eyebrow. "Helping promote violence Ben, that doesn't sound like you at all."

"Completely the opposite. Like a lot of these games, simulated crime and violence play a part. It's a fantasy world of good and bad guys. I've been concerned for years about the potential for that pretend violence to bleed over to the real world. I've written papers on it from a criminology perspective, and Doctor Santos has written about the psychological risks involved. Tanaka seemed to share our concern, and asked that we act as advisors, guiding their developers on how to walk the line between realism and risk."

Morris leaned back and absorbed Skinner's words. 10, 20, 30 seconds past in silence while Morris gazed into the middle distance, clearly lost in thought.

"So Ben, what you're saying is that you - and Doctor Santos - are responsible for making sure the game doesn't turn spotty-faced teenagers into hardened criminals?"

Skinner gave a wry grin. "I guess you could say that. Look, I really do have to get going. Is there anything else you need from me?"

Morris turned toward Skinner, the focus in his eyes returning.
 

"Sorry Ben - just trying to join some dots. Actually I do have two more quick questions then we're done. Is that ok?"

Skinner sighed. "Sure Andrew - what do you need to know?"

"Ok - do you have any idea why WhiteStar would be investing so heavily - and I mean over three billion dollars and counting Ben - in buying up augmented reality and artificial intelligence companies? Why a game company would need massive new data centres around the world? And why WhiteStar would install military-grade supercomputer technology in these centres? I mean - what the hell Ben. It's just a game right?"