Dangerously Placed Page 2

  ‘Delta three seven omega,’ I said out loud, and there was a click as the golden door unlocked. I reached out, then stopped as I saw that my hands looked just like the real thing. I mean, they looked like my hands, not like a generic pair of hands in a virtuadventure. I stared at them for a moment, then blinked. This was no time to stand around gawking. I raised my chin, grasped the wooden handle and pushed.

  My first thought was that someone had turned the colour levels in my visor up way too much. I was standing in a corridor that appeared to have solid gold walls, emerald-green grass for carpet and a bank of doors on either side, each one painted a different, strident colour. And in the middle of the lawn-like carpet stood a tall blonde woman in the reddest dress I had ever seen.

  ‘Alexandra!’ she exclaimed, and sauntered forward to take my hands in hers. ‘What a pleasure to meet you. I am Inge Wellenschnitter. I am to be your mentor.’

  ‘It’s nice to meet you,’ I said, trying not to gape at her. Not only was Inge’s dress radioactive red, she was wearing heels so high they were practically stilts, her hair was coiled up in enormous platinum-blonde plaits on the back of her head, and she had the kind of figure that Ms Harmond, our Health Ed teacher, was always telling us was unattainable in real life. The overall effect was … well, surreal. But her curves, at least, had to be genuine, because I’d read that whatever your dimensions were inside the suit, that was what was projected into Virk. If it didn’t work that way, people might program in their hips smaller than they really were and find themselves wedged against a colleague in a virtual doorway whenever the system didn’t allow room for their real size. Not that most guys I knew would complain about being stuck in a doorway with Inge, I reflected.

  ‘Come,’ said Inge. ‘Let us meet the colleagues. Don’t worry, Alexandra, everyone is looking forward very much to meeting you.’ She gave my hands a reassuring squeeze, and I was startled at how real her fingers felt – soft and skin-textured, with the solidity of bone underneath. I’d told my friends Virk was supposed to be incredibly realistic, but I’d never imagined it would be this detailed.

  ‘These are the entrances of the Marketing subdivisions,’ Inge told me, waving a hand at the brightly coloured doors. ‘Data Analysis, CGI, Public Relations and so on. We will visit these during your placement. But those of us who are at the core of Marketing, we prefer to be together in the central open space area. It promotes the free exchange of ideas – and makes it all so much more cosy, yes?’ She bent her head to bestow a twinkling smile on me. ‘Here we are.’

  With a sweep of her hand, she opened another golden door, and I gasped. If what I’d seen so far was surreal, the open space area took it to a whole new level. It was a room almost as big as the gym at Flinders High, with floor-to-ceiling windows for walls looking out on the kind of landscape I’d only ever seen on the cover of fantasy novels: towering pink mountains capped with sparkling snow, delicate turrets and domes rising out of walled cities in the distance, gold-tinged clouds drifting slowly across a soft blue sky. In front of this extraordinary backdrop was a ring of blackmarble cubicles with tropical plants spilling over the top, surrounding a central seating arrangement that appeared to be made of water. Seriously. It was a big, circular, couch-shaped object that had ripples and even a few bubbles floating around inside it, but no sign of plastic or anything else on the outside to hold the water in. I guess that’s the beauty of a virtual environment, I told myself, you don’t have to be bound by the laws of physics. Or even the laws of cleaning, I thought, looking down at the pristine white wool carpet. Meanwhile, I wasn’t going to sit on that couch until I’d seen someone else do it.

  ‘So, we will meet our colleagues now, yes?’ Inge put her hand on my back and propelled me into the middle of the room. ‘Everyone, this is Alexandra Thaler, our new work experience student.’

  Heads popped out from cubicles; a few hands were raised in greeting. I felt myself blushing at all the sudden attention and hoped that was something the Virk Suit couldn’t detect.

  ‘Hi,’ I said, giving a lame little wave. ‘Please call me Alex.’

  ‘That’s Kamil, Ricky, Li-Mei, Yasuo, Thetis, Viktor, Hannah, Natalya, Stefan, Jorge, Radek and Sohalia,’ Inge told me, indicating each of them in turn. ‘And that’s Dusty.’ She pointed at a small man in overalls who seemed to be sweeping the floor in one corner. ‘He’s a bot – an automated character who cleans up programming glitches and so on. We often have one or two of them around the office performing menial tasks. You can talk to them if you need to, though they mostly have quite limited understanding.’ Dusty disappeared through a side door.

  ‘So,’ continued Inge. ‘As you might guess from the names of our co-workers, we are almost all from different countries. In fact, many of us still live in our homelands – in realspace, I am at home in Stuttgart right now.’

  ‘So there are Simulcorp Virk Rooms all over the world?’ I asked.

  ‘That’s right. There are thirty-eight of us in the Marketing Division, and we are located in fourteen countries altogether.’

  ‘Wow,’ I said. ‘I would’ve thought it’d take a lot more people to run a whole division of a company this big.’

  ‘Oh, yes, of course,’ smiled Inge, ‘but most of them just work in realspace.’

  She gave a dismissive wave, and for a moment I felt kind of sorry for the realspace guys. I had the feeling Inge saw them as some kind of mindless worker group, like ants.

  ‘And here is the most important man for you,’ said Inge as a door to the left of us opened. In stepped a guy who looked only a year or two older than me. As he came up to us, I saw that he was wearing a purple sarong that would have turned Sky green with envy, an open-necked linen shirt and a wide smile on his face.

  ‘Alex, this is Budi. He specialises in youth marketing, so we thought you might like to help him out while you’re here. You can learn a lot from him – Budi has an uncanny knack for working out what the latest trends will be before they happen. Actually, it’s more like he starts them than discovers them!’ Inge ruffled Budi’s dark hair, as if he were a pet or something, but Budi’s grin just became more mischievous. I found myself smiling back at him.

  ‘And now I will leave you to chat,’ Inge told us. ‘If you need me, Alex, I will be just over there.’

  Budi watched her go.

  ‘I’ve no idea what makes her think those shoes work, do you?’ he sighed. ‘But I’m glad she brought you! You’re here for work experience, right?’

  ‘Yeah.’ I felt kind of disappointed that he could tell straight away. ‘I guess I look too young to be an intern or anything.’

  ‘Actually, it’s your outfit, sweetie.’ He pointed at my stomach and I looked down. To my dismay, I realised that, unlike everyone else, I wasn’t wearing a representation of real clothes at all. Instead, there was just my body shape – in full, curvy detail, I noted – and all of it except my hands and arms was shaded a monotonous dark grey.

  ‘My face isn’t all grey too, is it?’ I asked Budi anxiously.

  ‘Not at all. Those beautiful brown eyes match your hair just perfectly, and your skin is as soft and rosy as a peach. And getting rosier all the time!’ Budi laughed.

  Well, there was my answer to whether the suit could detect me blushing.

  ‘Hey, don’t worry about it,’ Budi said. ‘A lot of girls here in Indonesia would pay thousands to have peachy skin like yours. Not us guys, of course. We prefer the manly look: a good tan, plenty of muscle, a pretty sarong …’

  I laughed. There was something infectious about Budi’s cheeky attitude.

  ‘Well, I have a friend who’d pay a lot for a sarong as pretty as yours,’ I told him.

  Budi raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Maybe you can introduce me sometime. I like a girl with good taste in sarongs!’ He glanced up, and I saw that Inge was heading back our way. ‘But we’d better get to work. If we have a bit of free time later, we can work on programming you something gorgeous to wear. First
I’ll show you both around and explain how everything works, okay?’

  ‘Both?’ I asked, confused.

  ‘Alex, Budi, this is Dale McCarthy,’ came Inge’s voice behind me. ‘He’s our other work experience student.’

  I turned to see a tall, fair-haired figure with a grey body outline just like mine stepping out from behind my mentor. Well, not exactly like mine – the Virk Suits left nothing to the imagination and there was nothing feminine about the firm, muscled body facing me.

  ‘Hi,’ said the newcomer, his deep blue eyes twinkling and his chiselled features softened by a warm smile. I felt Budi nudge me with his elbow.

  ‘You’re going rosy again, my little peach,’ he murmured.

  ‘So tell me,’ said Budi, ‘what do you know about Virk?’

  ‘It was invented by Simulcorp’s CEO,’ I said, ‘and this is the only company in the world that uses it.’ I tried to look calm and professional, despite the fact that the water couch was lurching under my butt. It was important to take the lead, I felt. Dale was hot, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to be everyone’s favourite student from the start. If there really was the chance of an internship here, I was going to make sure they offered it to me.

  ‘I believe it originated from an idea the CEO had when Simulcorp was trialling a home-based work system – is that right?’ Dale asked, leaning forward in anticipation of Budi’s answer.

  I glanced at Dale. You had to hand it to him – that mix of confidence and deference was pretty smooth. He caught me watching him and smiled.

  ‘Yes, you’re both right,’ said Budi. ‘Ravi Chander was a Marketing executive, like me, when Simulcorp first tried out non-traditional work environments. Having people work from home in a standard internet-based system seemed like a good idea for Simulcorp: the employees provide their own workspace, there are no transport costs, work safety issues are practically nil – it’s a low-risk arrangement and very cost-efficient.’

  ‘So why did Mr Chander want to try another way?’ I asked.

  ‘Because he listened to people,’ said Budi. ‘He watched his fellow employees and he realised that they weren’t happy. You see, when all you see is an image on a screen – perhaps one or two people at a time, usually in arranged meeting formats – you never really feel like you know your colleagues. Sure, you can chat with them, send them funny videos you found during your coffee break, that sort of thing … but it’s just not the same as being in an office, watching people interact in groups, having real conversations. And Ravi also found that, after a while, people who worked at home often felt resentful of the fact that work was always there, not really separated from their home life. He spoke to people in the CGI and IT divisions, and formulated an idea for a virtual workplace, which would have its own separate room in or near the employees’ homes while allowing them to feel as if they were in the same office as their colleagues.’

  ‘Thus reaping all the benefits of the work-from-home system,’ said Dale.

  ‘And promoting a happier, more productive, team-oriented workforce – yes. Ravi Chander pitched his idea, which he’d named Virk, to the Board, and won the right to trial it – as well as a percentage of any profits. He made a fortune and got a lot of good attention at the same time, and it wasn’t long before he became Simulcorp’s new CEO. So you can see the value of paying attention to what people around you are feeling and saying.’

  I nodded. I suspected it wasn’t just Mr Chander that Budi was talking about, it was himself. Being so young, he’d obviously risen a long way in a short time, and he must have done it by paying attention to what people were saying about things you might think were trivial, like what colour their phone was or how tight they liked their jeans.

  ‘So why hasn’t my Virk Room – AU-3, I mean – been relocated?’ I asked.

  ‘These days it’s actually handy for us to have Virk Rooms that aren’t permanently occupied,’ said Budi. ‘It means we have places to allow major clients to log in to Virk, for our tech staff to conduct testing before we do upgrades, and for interns to work. And occasionally students too, obviously.’

  ‘There’s one thing I still don’t understand, though,’ frowned Dale. ‘If Simulcorp is the only company using Virk, how did Mr Chander make so much money out of it?’

  ‘Excellent question!’ Budi smiled. ‘Partly it’s because the technology that he developed also allowed Simulcorp to make a niche for itself in virtual marketing. And partly it’s because although we’re the only ones actually using Virk right now, Simulcorp has sold licences to several other large corporations, who are still working on implementing the technology at the moment.’ He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘In fact, I hear our boss here in Marketing is about to sign off on a huge deal with a modified version of the system, but that’s top secret at the moment.’ His eyes twinkled. ‘You’ll meet Pierce later, but I wouldn’t mention the deal if I were you – he’s not a very trusting man, and he might just decide to have you confined to the Mainframe Room for the rest of your placement to stop you spreading any gossip.’

  I exchanged a glance with Dale, who raised an eyebrow.

  ‘You’re kidding, right, Buddy?’

  ‘Not in the slightest,’ said Budi seriously. ‘And it’s not Buddy, Dale – my name’s Budi. Like Buddha, but with “ee” on the end. Try to think of me as the source of all enlightenment, and I’m sure you’ll remember.’ He winked at me, and I tried not to smile at Dale’s mortified expression. ‘Now, a few technical details,’ continued Budi, ‘and then we can get to work. Firstly, make sure you open doors slowly, so the next environment has time to load properly. Secondly, lunch is at 12.30 – you get forty-five minutes where you can be out in realspace to eat, though you don’t have to be out the whole time if you don’t want to. And thirdly, if you need the bathroom, they’re always in the top right-hand corner of any major room.’ Budi caught sight of my expression and laughed. ‘Don’t look so frightened, Peaches! The bathrooms are basically just doorways to realspace. When you go in, your image disappears from Virk temporarily to give you – and anyone else who might come into the same bathroom – some privacy. Your suit visor will display your Virk Room. There’s a real bathroom in your Virk Room for you to use, and when you have a good look at your suit, you’ll see there are quick-release seals at the wrists and hips so you can undo it without taking the whole thing off. At other times, of course, we expect everyone to leave through the main entrance and log off before they take their suits off – otherwise people’s suits would just be projecting them lying all crumpled up around the office whenever they’re out! All right, let’s go meet the boss.’

  He got up and headed for the side door. Dale fell into step beside me.

  ‘Peaches?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s a private joke,’ I told him with dignity.

  ‘Oh, that’s right!’ He grinned, obviously already over his chagrin at mispronouncing our mentor’s name. ‘I forgot – you know Budi better than I do.’

  ‘That’s right. We have three whole minutes’ history together that you know nothing about,’ I said, trying to keep a straight face. ‘And don’t you forget it.’

  ‘No, ma’am.’

  I felt my lips twitch in spite of myself.

  The corridor we headed down was much more subdued than the one I’d come in through. There were only two doors on the sides, one marked ‘Mainframe’ and one marked ‘Conference Room’. And at the end of the corridor was a double door that looked like the gates to Hell: huge, dark and forbidding. If you were lost in here, you wouldn’t have had any trouble guessing where the boss’s office was.

  ‘Do you think this Pierce guy is actually some kind of demon lord?’ whispered Dale.

  I was about to tell him to keep his imagination under control when the big door burst open and a woman in a navy suit tottered out, tears streaming down her face.

  ‘Elena!’ Budi put a hand out to steady her. ‘Are you okay?’

  The woman looked
up. She was very pretty, with a golden colour to her skin, thick black hair twisted up in a bun and enormous dark eyes. She blinked, then wiped the tears from her cheeks.

  ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ she said, giving Budi a shaky smile.

  ‘What did he do to you?’

  Elena’s lip wobbled. For a scary moment I wondered if Dale’s demon lord idea was really that far off the mark.

  ‘He said … he said I was useless and outdated, and that he was going to talk to the CEO about getting rid of me.’

  Budi gave her arm a squeeze.

  ‘He’s just edgy because of this deal he’s about to secure. And if he did talk to the CEO, there are thirty-seven other people here who would tell Mr Chander you’re the best office manager we’ve ever had.’

  Elena beamed at him.

  ‘Besides,’ said Budi, with an expression of deep distaste, ‘what would that man know about outdated? Did you see the tie he’s programmed on himself?’

  Elena giggled. Then she noticed us standing behind Budi.

  ‘Oh, I’m so sorry! You must be the new work experience students. I am Elena.’

  ‘I’m Alex,’ I said, shaking her outstretched hand.

  ‘Dale,’ said Dale.

  Elena smiled warmly. ‘I just love it when we have students! So full of ideas, so eager to learn …’ She looked so pleased, I thought she might actually hug us. ‘I don’t want you to feel nervous, okay? It must be scary to be new here, but we all really want you to feel at home.’ Her smile faltered for a moment. ‘Oh! And I’ve made you worried about Mr Grody now, haven’t I? But there’s no need to be, honestly – it was my fault he shouted at me! I’m sure he’ll be so pleased to meet you …’