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“I wanted to see that.”
I turned, and found myself staring at my prototype. Already Preston was making his way toward it.
“It’s—it’s not nearly ready, yet,” I stammered. “The input code is wonky as hell. Even when the tactile connectors are firing in sequence, there’s still a ton of delay issues.”
“Can I try it?”
Preston’s eyes weren’t just wide, they were eager and full of excitement. They scanned left and right over my workbench area, stopping in all the same places my own eyes would stop, if I were in his shoes. He looked like a kid on Christmas.
“Well…”
Jax, on the other hand, had produced an eighteen-pack of beer. It was soggy from apparently sitting in the snow for the past half hour or more, but also, ice-cold.
“This was all his idea,” he said, nodding toward Preston. “He told me you guys were gonna do nerd stuff all night. I told him I’d tag along, but there was no way I was going to face this geekfest sober.”
He cracked a beer, then held it out to me. “Here dork.”
To my surprise, I found myself taking it. “Thanks, dick.”
I tilted it back, and the liquid was so cold it slid right down my throat. I finished half the can before coming up for air, that’s how thirsty I was.
When I looked back at them, glassy eyed, they were staring at me. Preston’s look was especially pleading.
“Ummm… okay,” I shrugged. “Sure, why not? Let’s get you hooked up.”
~ 16 ~
HARPER
“Oh my God…”
“DUCK!”
Preston ducked, twisting left and out of the way. The dragon’s fire just barely missed him. On the monitor, we could see his avatar was actually singed, as the winged beast climbed back into the smoke-swirled sky.
“I felt the heat!” Preston cried, whirling around. His arms were held outward, gripping an imaginary sword and shield. Haptic leads sprang from his body in every direction. The VR headset was secured tightly to his face.
“On the right side of my body, I could actually feel the—”
His sentence ended abruptly as he dropped to his knees, jolted there by an earthquake that only he could feel. The dragon’s tail had slammed the cobblestone courtyard of the ancient castle, sending bricks and mortar flying everywhere.
“My legs… you shocked them!”
“No!” I said loudly, so he could hear me through the headset. Then, with a renewed sense of pride: “It only feels that way.”
Preston had been hooked up to the game for nearly an hour now; a custom-modded version that I’d created myself. He’d made his way through a medieval town, and completed the dungeon crawl. He’d climbed the hill, and found the castle.
The dragon was bearing down on him again. The flapping of its wings took up the entire screen.
“What do I do? What do I DO!?”
“Kick it in the balls!” Jax cried from the couch. By now, he’d put away a significant number of beers. His eyes were half-lidded as they watched the monitor.
“It does have balls, doesn’t it?” Jax asked me confidentially.
I didn’t answer. I was too busy watching Preston’s reaction as the dragon soared over him. The haptic patches on his shoulders and upper arms would be giving him tingles now, just enough to simulate a wind.
“Holy shit, Harper…” he swore, turning another one-eighty. “This is incredible!”
