Cheat, page 14
Mason had worked nearly the whole time, since then. Leslie clapped her hands together, and Deidre smiled.
“I have people now? For tech things only, but still, that’s coming up in the world! You can call on me if you need any acting done.” She made it sound like it was just a thing that could come up in her world.
“Sounds good. Now, let’s get the next group of people around? I need to get to bed soon, if I can.” Mason would get grumpier, if he didn’t sleep soon.
The last group turned out to be actors and actresses that all seemed surprised that they were being included. John had put them on the list, but also arranged for them to stay to the end. They were, as one of the young men pointed out, basically all on the D-list. Whatever that was.
A cute girl that looked to be about nineteen winked at him and explained.
“We’re all on the lists for things, but aren’t really famous enough to count, most of the time. We only make the network links, even the gossip pages, when we’re near someone more famous. None of us are really going to be followed that hard, even if we are on that app.” She seemed humble enough about it, and batted her sleepy looking blue eyes at him. She needed to get a shower though, he realized, since she had what seemed like real makeup on.
The woman sighed, and so did the other four that were left, trooping off together to the bathroom. They had to share the last clean towel, Mason noticed. They all had real goop on their faces to make them prettier.
Sighing, he thought about how to ruin an economy, and spoke to them after they were all naked and standing in his work room.
“Tomorrow, I mean later today now, at four…” Everyone looked at him, fake interest on their exhausted faces. “If you show up, I’m going to be doing some makeup imbeds. Free, like this is. You won’t get a call for it, so if you don’t come, you don’t get it, but if you do… Well, you each have an invitation?” It was stupid of him. Not because he could have charged them for it. Part of his goal was to make that kind of thing, money, mean something different.
It was just that he was going to have a house full of people again, if he wasn’t careful.
As it was he set the nano assembler to making the seven copies he thought he might need already, then put in for fifteen in all. It would end up working all night, but he could sleep while that happened. The roller bottles would have to be set up before he went to bed, but… The thought made him yawn.
He stayed in his workroom, doing that, as the D-listers dried and got a bit of a lecture about how to control the new tech, as well as how to get in touch with him. During the day. He was firm on that point.
This group was actually a bit huggy, on the way out, but left directly, getting the idea well enough. Now, if only the others would pick up on the theme he was trying to present, that of an empty apartment, he could get a few hours sleep before they started showing up again.
That didn’t seem to be what anyone else had in mind, however. The living room had four people in it that were standing, or at least sitting and talking. Adam Genesh was sleeping over in the corner of the space, having pulled two of the sofa cushions off for that purpose. He was wrapped around someone that upon closer inspection turned out to be little Tara. Not that she was that small, but she was too young for the guy. At least in the real world.
Mason had a sneaking suspicion that Adam didn’t really follow rules though, most days. None of these people did. Not the normal ones that he lived by.
There were people in his bed too. At least three of them, and he had no clue as to who they were. Thankfully the others were kind of familiar to him by now.
Sam, dressed up as Lexi, sat on the remaining sofa cushion, Lisa standing behind her, looking stoic, and a bit sleepy. John was using one of the dining room chairs, and Mike was standing by the front door, having just walked the last of the D-list out. Rather politely.
That left Ben, the chef, who was in the Kitchen, making something. He turned when Mason walked in and nodded his head.
“If you can help me make a decent cup of coffee, I’ll make us both rich.” He’d clearly been trying, and failing, at it, taking a sip and dumping the cup in his hand after making a face.
It was a big deal, apparently, since everyone else in the room seemed interested in the idea. Coffee was rare and expensive, since the crops really hadn’t been doing well for the last twenty years or so. It sold for a little over a hundred dollars a pound. So even if they had to print it out themselves, a good quality blend really would make them wealthy.
He nodded, and stumbled over to the machine, even though he really needed his float screen. That came when he thought about it, and he started in, working out what portions everyone else had been getting wrong about coffee so far. People had, naturally, gotten close, so he cribbed from that, and made some changes. Ten tries later Ben took a sip off of the blue mug in his hand and sighed.
“All right. We aren’t going to do better without sleep. Can you save this one? Here, everyone, try it.”
Mugs were passed out from his cupboard, including to him. He took a drink, and nearly spit the swill out, since it was bitter and burnt tasting, but the rest of them acted like he and Ben had put together the best thing in the world. Shuddering, he set his down, making a face. John smiled at him, and drank about half of his in one go.
“An acquired taste.” Then he set his blue cup down and stood. “So, about earlier…”
Sam nodded, her face nearly blank.
“Yeah. That was… Insane, Mason. I mean you walked up to one of the thousand or so most powerful men in the world and told him no. How are you still alive?” There was a quit awe in her voice, which was better than the anger that he’d sort of thought might come.
No one wanted to be raped, but he’d endangered the plan. Only his little part of it, but until they had the tech set up, him dying would be annoying. Not that he was the only person in the world that could get the work done, but not many others at his level of ability would be willing to.
It was a thing that he’d never really known about himself before, but in his heart, Mason Sims was kind of a subversive. The thing with that one was that these people, the ones in that room, seemed to understand that. Well, not Ben and Adam maybe, but the others looked to have a clue.
Without having to be told, he understood that they were probably being listened to, so he shrugged and turned to Sam.
“I hope I didn’t get you, any of you, into any trouble? I mean, I just met you all today, so it wouldn’t be fair to blame any of you for it. Charlton seemed, I dunno, good probably isn’t the word for it, but not upset over it all. The guy is pretty confused about things though. Some kind of VR dementia?” It wasn’t a real term. Not a clinical one.
Everyone knew what he meant however, and Ben, who’d taken the other chair by the cluttered dining room table shook his head.
“Nope. All of them, all the top people, are pretty much like that. It might be similar, to that kind of unreality thing, I guess. They never have to deal with real world consequences, and almost no one can call them on what they do, so they grow up just knowing that they’re untouchable. They do what they want, and if other people don’t like it, well, tough. We have to work, and part of the cost going in is sometimes putting up with that kind of person. We all knew that going in.”
Except Mason, who worked as a freelancer in an industry where no one cared that much about who did what. They cared about who owned the copyright on it, and that was pretty much the only thing of value. VR, movies and t-shows were the same, really. Except that they all had actors and actresses that were important too. Not irreplaceable, however.
That seemed to be the theme of what was said next.
Sam looked at him, her eyes glinting a little.
“So, my hero. I guess I should keep you around, like a good luck charm? That wasn’t the first time something like that has happened to me, but it’s the only time anyone said anything about it, other than to call me a slut the next day on the networks.” She was playing for Ben, it seemed. Everyone else would know that they knew each other, most likely.
Maybe not though, so Mason smiled.
“I guess I got lucky. Charlton was in a good mood, or whatever that was. I think he didn’t want to be rude to the host of the party, in his own way. So it probably won’t work anywhere else. That… Is that really normal? I mean, I swear, the other parties I’ve gone to weren’t like that.”
Okay, so Mark Mitchell’s tenth birthday party might not be a good barometer of such things, but that one had just been cake and some prizes, with the little guy getting some presents at the end. No one had been bent over anything, and if that had started to happen, there would have been an outcry, he was almost certain.
John picked up his cup and took a drink from it.
“It was close, whatever it was. We should all get some sleep if we can. Do you have a cleaning service set to come in on the weekends?” That was pointed to him.
Mason shook his head.
“Nope. I’ll get to it, after I get up. I told people, a few, to come around at about four to get makeup imbeds. That’s already printing out. Adam there mentioned that I should get one, so that I could look good for the cameras that would be trying to show us in bed together? Something like that. So I already have the new design, and copyright on it.” That got waved away, as Sam rolled her eyes at him. It was out of character though, given that Lexi wasn’t really supposed to know him.
That was the way he was playing it.
“Damn. I just got a new one when I had the shield put in, too. Hey, can you do things like that? This, I mean?” She held out her right arm, to show the tinted skin.
Sam already knew that he could, or at least that he’d said so, but Lexi didn’t, so he had to reassess his idea about how well she was doing not knowing him at the moment. Instead of taking her hand directly he went to the other room and got his little scanner out. She let him take full readings, not understanding, or possibly not caring, that he knew an awful lot about her from them.
Like how very frightened she was at the moment. He couldn’t tell why, but the chemicals were in her system. If it were him it would have been about nearly being raped, but that might not be what she was thinking about at the moment.
The girl was also a bit younger than he’d assumed. He’d always thought of Sam as a contemporary, but Lexi Horn was about four years younger than he was. Twenty-one, or about that, biologically speaking. There were some strange things to the readings, in the electrical ranges. It probably meant she had things inside her that he didn’t know about. That wasn’t impossible. In the main she seemed healthy though, and he focused on the specific imbed that she’d gotten.
Her shield was of good quality, and had been applied consistently over her whole body. Mason had already worked out how to mimic the thing, in his head, but hadn’t run the plans out yet, not feeling the need, personally.
Nodding he tried to seem professional with the woman, “I can even make a few improvements on it. More than enough for it to get a new copyright. For instance, I can make it lighter in color. It will still be black tinted, but by adding in nano copper, that can be partially green, too, making it harder to see. That will be stronger on the base level, by about five times. It should be as flexible.” He tapped her hand a few times, nearly slapping it before the interlocking pieces stiffened under the force enough to notice.
That portion would be about the same. There was only so much you could do that way. He started to work on it, jotting down notes, and then smiled and shook his head.
“I need to get some sleep. There are bodies in my bed though. Would it be rude to pull them out, and take their place?”
John grinned, “probably. Plenty of floor though. I call one of the pillows.”
That meant getting blankets for all of them, which had him printing those and some pillows out, before the lights were turned off. He ended up on the living room floor, lying on his side, about three feet from both Sam and Ben. It wasn’t comfy, but he slept anyway, needing to.
It was hard, especially when the buzzing in his head started. There was a flashing light as well, and it woke him, though he still had to take a minute to realize what was going on. Someone was calling him. It was annoying, he decided, as he picked up, his avatar being projected as a default.
“Mason Sims. How may I help you?”
“Mr. Sims? This is Deidre Omry? From earlier? You said that I should call you if I needed help with the new thing? Um, help? There’s a man following me. I don’t know if he’s papo or not. Sometimes people just recognize me. I was getting some coffee, and when I left the place he followed, so what do I do, if he has that app from the vultures?”
Mason sat, looking at the woman’s face. Her avatar, rather than the real thing. It was transparent, so he could see the dark room he was in, and a quick glance to the left showed that it was nearly noon anyway. Time to get up, or near enough. Otherwise his whole schedule would be thrown off.
“Do you have a camera on you?”
There was a pause, and the sound of heels clicking as she walked on what sounded like concrete.
“Yes. What do I do with it?”
He guided her through getting a picture of the man that was following her, since they didn’t want to act like he was some kind of professional if he was just looking to kidnap her or something. He looked pretty normal though. A little chubby, and wearing a windbreaker, which couldn’t be in fashion. He didn’t have a lot of hair and wore wire rimmed glasses. That was probably so that he could carry a camera rig on his face in public, rather than his eyes being bad. You just got that fixed now, most of the time.
Bringing up a map, Mason got Deidre’s position. She was downtown, and there were a lot of places to go. The man was only about twenty meters behind her, and closing.
When he ran the face, it turned out that he really was just a guy that did freelance work for one of the networks. That particular one even had a name.
“He’s Gerald Zackary Dogget, from Gossip Guy? So, that means he’s almost certainly tracking you. We can lose him, if you go to the next business, there’s a back way out. I’ll change the bio-markers for you as soon as he can’t see you anymore.”
Sam sat up, her brow furrowed.
“Who is that?”
She was pointing at his face, indicating who was on the phone with him.
“Um, Deidre Omry. She was here last night, and didn’t have anyone to handle things for her, so I told her to call if she needed help. A man is following her. From a-”
She nodded, having heard what he’d said.
“Tell her to turn and face him. Smile, and let him get the pictures. She isn’t so big that she can turn down the free publicity. How’s her makeup?”
He had to speak the words, so that the women could hear him, and her answer wasn’t a happy one.
“Um, she says that it isn’t great. She washed it off last night, and doesn’t have an imbed. You know to come here at four for that, today?” He was being confusing, but the woman seemed relieved.
“Lexi says I should let him get me though? Like this?”
There was a shrug from Sam, who had moved closer to him, still sitting on the floor and looking exhausted.
“Do it. They’ll use the worst still shot they can get, to show that you’re actually not a goddess, but like I said, you can’t afford to miss out on being seen.”
Mason told the girl what had been said, and stayed with her as the man practically mugged her with a camera. He was on video too though, so all of it was being seen at the same time.
Finally Deidre had to walk away, and with a bit of help, vanished. As far as sensors went. It was a bit of walking for her to stay out of sight, but they managed it.
Then Mason stood up, knowing that someone had to clean up all the mess. Since he was his own maid service, that meant getting to work, before people started coming again.
Chapter ten
“You know…” Mason was half bent over, picking up spent napkins that had been thrown on top of a small pile of something that looked to have come from a dog. At least he hoped that was the case, because otherwise someone had simply failed to get to the bathroom in time. “If someone really wanted to make the famous look bad, they could just do a show about the residue of parties. I mean, if we can call that thing last night one of those. I know it wasn’t very good, but…”
Sam, still wearing the dress from the night before, helped him pick the room up, even though it was kind of clear she’d rather be sleeping herself. Adam still was, snoring away gently across the room, even as they moved around and talked. Ben too. The assistants were all up, though they wisely headed to get cleaned up first thing.
It was bit gross, taking care of all the mess, but his place was small enough that it didn’t take that long. It wasn’t even a problem until he realized that he couldn’t strip the sheets off his bed, because there were people in it. Having sex.
One of them was George, from the night before, and there was a man and a woman with him. It seemed consensual enough, though the woman was working pretty hard, entertaining both men at once. Mason sighed, and just stood in the doorway for a bit, then turned and left. Then, just because he lived there, he walked in, and got his clothing for the day, ignoring them. It was embarrassing, but he had some things to actually do.
Like shower. That was hard to do, since he didn’t have any clean towels, though he printed a new one out, before going in. It took an extra ten minutes, but was worth it, he felt. The tan thing was clean, and smelled fresh, which none of the others he had would. There was a washing machine in the building, on the ground floor near the back. Actually, there were six of them, so he traipsed down there with two large cloth bags, each kind of bland gray in color, and started two big loads of things. No one would steal them, meaning he didn’t have to babysit his underwear. When he got back home, taking the stairs just for the exercise value, everyone that had been there was gone.
