Page 24 of Dark Princess: Shadows

"They do," she whispered conspiratorially. "They also have catacombs under the keep. That's where they keep the Doomers they catch and put in stasis and also where they store the Kra-ell in their stasis chambers. The place is huge. It's spread out under an entire city block."

"Now you tell me?" Rob leaned back. "You should have said something while I was still there and taken me on a tour."

"You were in a rush to get to the village, remember?"

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I have no regrets. I love it here. So what now? How long are Aru and the others planning to wait for the commander to notice that the tracker was moved?"

"Aru wants to wait until the end of next week. If they don't hear from their commander, they will find humans willing to carry the trackers for a fee and send them trekking through Tibet, China, or Russia. The idea is to replace the hosts every now and then so they stay young and healthy."

Rob nodded slowly. "What if something goes wrong? I mean, what happens if one of those humans dies for some reason? Things happen, even to young people. It could be days before the gods could reach that person and transfer the tracker to someone else, and their commander will notice that one of the trackers is not transmitting."

Margo's smile faltered. "Oh, shoot. We hadn't thought of that."

"Could they claim it malfunctioned?" Rob asked.

She shook her head. "The gods' tech is supposedly fail-proof, but maybe they can do that. On the other hand, if that was a viable option, don't you think Aru would have thought of it already? There must be a reason he can't just tell the commander that one of the trackers broke down."

"Right." Rob drummed his fingers on the table, thinking of a way to solve the problem.

Margo's shoulders slumped, the excitement draining from her face. "Fates, how did we not think of that? What do you think we should do?"

Rob took a sip of his cappuccino, buying himself a moment to think. "Honestly? I don't know. But I'll keep thinking about it. There's got to be a solution. It's also possible to ignore the risk and hope for the best. It's not that likely that a young, healthy person would die if they are keeping safe and not doing anything stupid."

"True." Margo's mood seemed to have improved instantly. "By the way, did you get to speak to William?"

"Not yet, why?"

She shrugged. "I was just thinking on the way here how great it would be if both of us got to work for Perfect Match. You could work on the code part of it while I come up with amazing ideas for new adventures. My training is almost complete, and I'm ready to start."

He frowned. "I thought you were training to become an operator."

"I'm flexible. The truth is that I will be happy with any position they give me. I'm dying to experience a virtual trip, but I haven't done it yet because I've been waiting to do it with Negal. He's only agreed to do it in the village because he doesn't feel safe doing it outside and risking exposure. I tried to convince him that it was fine, and that Toven did it in one of the outside studios, and nothing happened, well, other than Mia nearly dying, but that had nothing to do with him being a god or someone discovering that he wasn't human. She got overexcited."

Rob knew about the Perfect Match service, of course.

Who didn't?

Advertisements for the studios were everywhere, and Margo had been talking about it ever since Mia had met her fiancé through the service, but somehow, it had never occurred to him to try it himself.

Rob leaned back in his chair. "From what you've told me, participants are monitored by people with medical training. How come no one noticed that Toven didn't react like a human?"

She shrugged. "I don't think the differences are so evident. We still have the same organs in the same places, but gods and immortals have a much better self-healing ability."

"Also better hearing, eyesight, sense of smell, etc."

"True, but that's not something that would become evident from monitoring blood pressure and heart rate. Negal is worried that the interface will tap into his memories, but since memories are nearly indistinguishable whether they are of real events, dreams, or fantasies, how would the AI running the program know what's real, right?"

Rob nodded. "I wonder what it's like to get completely immersed in an adventure and forget who I am in the real world. Frankly, I don't think it's possible."

Margo's eyes lit up. "It is, and it's incredible. People can't tell it is not real. You feel like you are living inside the virtual world. You can do a solo adventure and experience things like piloting a fighter jet or parachuting or any other dangerous activity that you would have never dared in real life, but in my opinion, the best adventures are those you do with a partner. You're sharing the experience with someone else, either a stranger that the algorithm matched you with or the person you are currently with. In both cases, you get to know them in ways you never could in the real world, and since there are two minds involved, the adventures are richer and more full of surprises."

"It's intriguing, but as someone who is intimately familiar with code, I don't think I trust an algorithm to find my perfect match."

She seemed surprised. "You don't? Why?"

"Biases that are introduced by the programmers or the material the AI is trained on. Despite my obviously inadequate judgment, I still prefer to find my partner myself. That being said, I wouldlove to try an adventure and get out of my comfort zone. I can still hear Lynda screeching about how boring I am."

Margo's eyes softened. "Forget that harpy." She put her hand on his arm. "You are embarking on the greatest adventure of your life by just being here."

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