CHAPTER 14 - GUILT

Trixi and Witney managed to get Mallory cleaned up by dawn. At one dark moment Trixi was certain they were going to loose her. But with Witney’s help and a lot of residual survival instinct deep within Mallory she had pulled through. Then at Chris’ suggestion they decided to take her to Chris’ official residence on Immunity Parkway. They could both take better care of her there, and watch her more carefully on the isolated estate.

“I just don’t understand,” sighed Trixi sitting in a dark brown leather chair in the ornate Argentium Room of the Pecunia Wing of the Chris’ estate. Trixi was gazing out the window toward the Monforte Detached Palace which could be seen in the distance through the trees and parklands. The early morning sun was streaming through the lower branches of the trees and the ground looked all golden, clean, and sparkly new.

Chris sat not far away looking into a fire which was blazing in the pre-baronial fire place. “What?” asked Chris, “What don’t you understand?”

Trixi sat for a while thinking, as Chris loaded his pipe with fruity tobacco. She began to reply as Chris scraped a wooden match across a black sandy surface and it burst into flame.

“Oh,” Trixi said, “I just don’t know why someone with all the brains and charm of Mallory would do this to herself.” The sun was a bit higher and concentrated sun beams were entering the room from the clear eastern sky.

Chris nodded as if in agreement, but he did know why Mallory acted as she did. He knew a lot about Mallory.

Trixi wanted to say more just to fill up the empty space in the room. But there was really nothing to say. Earlier Chris had told her and Witney that Mallory Sauternau was the most intelligent, observant, logical person he had ever met. Mallory could have been President of the Reserve Bank and Counting House under different circumstances. Perhaps even Governor, or Treasurer of Linden Labs.

But Trixi knew the demons were bad to Mallory and that if you clobbered Mallory enough times with doubt and fear she would collapse like a paper towel on the wet bar at Gigot’s gin joint.

Sam’s death had been hard on Trixi too. Their little group had broken up following Sam’s death. The grief was too much. Danny who really liked Sam had drifted away from Trixi in the weeks after the funeral. Trixi found it painful to be with Mallory so she too drifted away. Later Trixi realized what an awful mistake that had been, to leave Mallory all alone with the demons.

Trixi heard footsteps from down the hall.

Witney entered and said,” Doctor Benway says it was close.”

Then Witney paused she was simply at a loss for words.

Witney continued, “If she gets that drunk again she’s probably a gonner.” After another long pause Witney continued, “She got a shot of vitamins and stuff. She should be ok by tomorrow. But we gotta keep her off the sauce.”

“Tommorw is too late. I need here awake and in full reasoning power today,” said Chris between tightly clenched teeth. “If we don’t find the Linux Ambassador soon, then there will be an international incident of unprecedented proportions. Witney go back and tell the good Doctor we need her compus mentus now.”

Witney started to object, but Chris raised his hand. Witney knew that the fate of Second Life was at stake again and that without Mallory they really had no chance. The cops were useless.

“Why I ever agreed with the Governor to use that intelligence test to qualify police recruits I will never know,” mumbled Chris.

“I took the test once, years ago,” said Trixi. I flunked. I could identify things like isosceles triangles, Stuben glass, and shoe sizes. I guess you don’t make a good cop if you know those things, although I don’t know why.”

Chris knew. Chris understood that in order to keep law and order in Second Life that you didn’t need imagination, ingenuity, or vision. You needed only to toil, trod, and clomp through the streets and dives of Second Life. Small bribes were to be expected in a police force, they were like the VAT tax. But the Lindens and Chris had learned a long time ago that really big corruption could work only if the police were part of the deal. Big corruption required smart minds, so Lindens had decided to keep any one with smarts off the force. The failure level had been set at an IQ of 79. Above 79 you failed. The strategy had been a spectacular success. Real organized crime could not exist with such a dumb police force. But on occasion when there was a really dangerous crime or sophisticated plot the strategy failed to work. That’s where Private Detective Mallory Sauternau came in.

Mallory was unique. She had analyzed the police department test and cheated to get exactly a passing grade of 79. Shortly after she started on the department Chris and other bureaucrats became aware that she was an odd woman out. So was her partner Sam Smart. How Sam got on the force no one could figure out. Probably a series of small bribes the Governor had suggested. Like peas in a pod they found each other and together they were crime busting machine.

However after a few years of tolerating Mallory and Sam, the pressure groups became too loud about that team of coppers. The Union of Ticket Scalpers and Pick Pockets had started the complaints. Then the Possum Corporation chimed in with complaints about vendor harassment or ticketing its sausages for jay walking or speeding. Then the campaign donations started to dry up. The crime tax revenues fell, money laundries closed shop and became hair salons, and land speculators started looking over their shoulders and property values started to stabilize. Finally when the Order of the Bloody Stain of Saint Hymenos the Benighted complained about their diminishing take at the Goodword homeless shelter, Chris and the Governor had had too much.

But the plan to rid Second Life of Mallory and Sam had gone badly wrong. To this day Chris was haunted by the cascading errors that lead to Sam’s death. Too many unintended consequences and a real failure to understand what righteousness and justice could mean to some avatars. Second Life was not a place for the righteous and the just.

Chris and the Governor had gotten Mallory off the force and on a full pension. The Chief had wanted to eliminate the pension over some imagined slight, but both the Governor and Chris knew what they had done was so very wrong. The loss of Sam was tragic, but they had gained something really valuable that they had not anticipated. Mallory the private detective. Give her a set of facts and a basic question or two and within hours or days you had an answer. No cuffs, no paparazzi, no perp walk, no drama. Just a straight answer.

Kees Kepler and Macboy Jewell moved through the forest only at night. During the day they had climbed high into the tree tops to observe the construction of the hidden sims in the distance. In two nights they had closed in to within 50 meters of the hidden sim boundary. The didn’t dare venture any further because in-sim radar would surely show their presence. That is if the hidden sim operators had in-sim radar. But there was no doubt in either Kees or Macboy’s minds that these operators were tough, rich, and smart.

The hidden sim had hanging above it a camouflage screen. Anything flying above would see nothing more than empty space or open seas. Below the camouflage screen they were building furiously, but only during the night. During the day the Omega squad boys could see bunnies and squirrel avatars frolicking in the hidden sim. Using his monocular Kees could see that they were packing heat. They were security, or even worse – a private army.

What they were building and why then needed such secrecy and security Kees and Macboy could only guess.

The Second Sea Lord had not said much about what to expect. Just travel to the Kun Lun mountain range, locate the hidden sim or sims, scope out what they were up to, and return fast.

The Second Sea Lord had been specific about a few things. They were under no circumstances to use the instant messaging system or chat because the Second Sea Lord knew that whoever was behind all this was monitoring all messages. That had been quite a shock to Kees and Macboy. Kees immediately stopped IM’s to his sixteen girl friends out of fear that they might start comparing notes. Kees was not an original thinker and all his love notes were identical. He had purchased them in a book store as a prepared set. He even called his girl friends by the same love name to avoid complications – Bubbles.

The Monocular had shown at least three or possibly four sims on the edge of existence. But Kees and Macboy agreed that there must be more. One odd thing that they had noted was that the number of avatars working on construction within the closest sim exceeded the 40 avatar limit for any given sim. It looked like they had over a hundred avatars constructing buildings, and creating landscaping, and ornamenting structures. And most amazing the sims had no lag. Both Kees and Macboy knew this was impossible, but they carefully noted it their notebook. Those are really powerful servers though Kees who knew a bit about computer stuff.

The Second Sea Lord had ordered them not to enter the hidden sims. Just to observe. And lastly they were not to be caught or captured under any circumstances.