Page 41 of Control

Paintings from well known artists such as Picasso and Matisse hung on the walls and the furniture appeared custom and was covered with golden adornments which made it look almost gaudy. The floors were covered in Persian rugs which looked as if they’d cost a small fortune to acquire. The coffee table which sat between two massive chairs was made of wood, oak from the looks of it, and was red in color. The smells in the room reminded me of times when I’d had the opportunity to visit some very wealthy business people and was allowed to roam their homes with them while we talked about various money matters. I turned around and took in more lavish antiques, sculptures, and pieces of art as well as a large black bar where behind it stood a massive rack completely filled with wine bottles.

“I hope this place is alright,” he said as he walked over to one of the large chairs and sat in it, adjusting his position so he’d be comfortable. “Please. Sit.” I cautiously walked over to the other oversized chair directly across from him and sat down, also taking a moment to adjust myself. “I like coming here when I’m taking a break from all my work. I don’t like having many things like this in real life, but here…I don’t mind. Makes this place feel cozy and welcoming. If I wanted I could probably put together something like this for real, but I’d never have time to enjoy it.”

“Why am I here?” I said, interrupting him. “Who are you really” I kept my gaze on him as he looked around the room more as he was describing it only for his eyes to slingshot back to me after I cut him off. He looked down for a moment and then slapped his hands on his knees.

“Very well,” he said in a lower tone as if he wanted to skip any further pleasantries. “My name is Thaddeus Mann. I can see you’re already looking me up in the web search in your HUD, but I assure you that’s not necessary.”

“You’re in my HUD?” I asked, annoyed that he could see what I was doing.

“I can see all of it,” he replied. “In fact I can see your vision as you look back at me. All your data, your friends lists, your real life heart rate, breathing. There isn’t much I can’t see.” It all made sense though. If he really were the creator of Aurora, surely he could see every single aspect of the game as well as all the things any average player could see. It made sense that he could, if he wanted, mirror someone’s HUD and simply watch the game as they would as they played. It was unnerving, but something any Game Master could do if needed. “I apologize. I know it’s invasive and it feels like an invasion of privacy, but I had to keep an eye on what was going on with you. With all the chaos that was breaking out in Aurora, all of the GMs and myself have been in game and watching it all unfold.”

“So you knew all of this,” I said, feeling a sense of anger coming over me. “So you knew…shit. Of course you knew. You knew what was happening all this time and you just…what, let it happen?”

“Not exactly,” he said to me, putting his fisted hand under his chin and resting his elbow on the arm of the chair. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Enlighten me,” I said, matching his posture and resting my chin on my clenched fist. “If you really are the creator of this place, I really would want to know why you let all of this happen, especially today.”

“Yeah,” he said, closing his eyes to me. “About that….”

“You almost let Reyna and I get assaulted!” I said, cutting him off again and raising my voice. “You let some troll get into her apartment when he was dead set on….” I stopped myself a moment, the realization that he very well could have let Reyna and I be severally traumatized.

“You’re right,” he said, opening his eyes again and sitting back in his chair and dropping his hands into his lap. “That was something that never should have happened and I apologize.”

“How is that even possible?” I asked him, genuinely wondering how someone could get into a room that was specifically marked as private. Such a thing should not have been possible.

“That was a hiccup on our part,” he said, nodding to me. “We screwed that up. There was a bug that allowed people to go into private rooms. When a room opens, there is a 2 second window where the room opens and it gets marked as private. If someone were to try and enter it at that time, even if marked private, they could enter it as if it were public.” I stared at him long and hard and came to a very simple conclusion.

“Another one of those things you all failed to mention?” I said, eluding to the length of time it took for them to mention that they’d been hacked. Thaddeus openly sighed, knowing I had every right to be upset over both of these issues.

“I deserved that,” he said, nodding his head once again and looking me in the eye. “As much as I…we work on the game, there are always going to be bugs and issues.”

“That’s a huge bug,” I said, not letting him schmooze his way out of it. “The amount of damage that could cause to people in massive. Do I even want to know how long that bug was around or are you gonna drop another bullshit statement like the one you did earlier. And in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep.”

“Players would find out sooner if they were asleep,” he said.

“ I mean the non players,” I said. “The rest of the world! It doesn’t matter though. Word is already spreading and everyone else around the world that plays is already finding out. You have no idea the amount of damage this is going to cause! You’re going to get sued into oblivion!”

“Do you think I don’t know that!” Thadeus barked at me, almost breaking into a scream. I stared back at him, unwavering because I knew in my heart that I was right. Someone had to answer for this massive failure and since I had this rare opportunity, I felt I should make the most of it. “Ana, I know. We screwed up. Royally. I’ve been up most of the night trying to figure out the best way to go about this and you’re right. The statement we put out was all corporate crap that the lawyers put together. I know you’re angry and you have every right to be. The fact is we got hacked and the data was stolen. Not only that, but we also had a rogue agent in our midst that we had to take care of. He’s the reason so many of those false accounts were started. He also granted new hardware IDs and if I’m being honest with you, we have no idea which ones are legitimate and which ones were forged.” Given he was talking about hardware IDs, I assumed he had been mirroring my HUD while I was in The Stormfront and when speaking with Cris and Reyna about it all. He’d been watching the entire time!

Thaddeus put his hand to his forehead. I could tell he really did feel remorseful for the problems that had all come to a head that night. It was weighing on him heavily and it occurred to me after watching him like that for a moment that as upset as I was, he had to be feeling 100 times worse. Aurora really was his baby and his baby was sick and under attack not only from the outside, but also by someone from the inside. He remained quiet for an extended period of time as if this, out first meeting, should have gone in a much different direction.

“Thank you,” he said to me after a while. Eventually he dropped his hand from his head and looked back at me. “That speech you gave earlier to everyone…you didn’t have to do that. I have to admit you kind of saved our asses there. I thought for sure things were going to get worse, but you managed to calm people down with that.”

“The choice was never really mine,” I said, the real reason I did it sticking in my throat for a moment. “You made me do it. You put me in this position. With this…title you gave me.”

“You didn’t have to,” he said, shaking his head at me.

“But I did!” I said as I stood up from my chair. “No one else was going to do it! The people needed a voice to calm them down and it fell to me to be that voice!” I turned from him and looked over to the Picasso he had on the wall, unsure of its’ proper name. I stared at it for a few more seconds. “I swear…this god damn title. Ever since you all gave it to me, it’s been nothing but heartache. All it did was drive the person I cared for the most away! What even is the point of them? Why even give them out? Why push this on me? On any of us?”

“I have my reasons,” Thaddeus said without elaborating. I turned back around to him.

“I guess that’s another one of your big secrets,” I said bitterly. “Just more shit you’re gonna shovel my way!”

“Ana,” he said, rising from his chair. “Please stop this.”

“No!” I said, my anger building more. “Why do this! Why!”

“Do you really want to know?” he said to me.

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