Episode Twenty-Three: Anguish

    William, Jim, and Elizabeth stood silently on the deck of the boat. Elizabeth still had the phone open in her hand. Jim sighed heavily and looked up at the sky. William's words, “he knows”, still hung in the air.
    “What does Dean know?” she asked.
    “The Endless Frontier isn't really endless. It will only expand as long as there is room for the new landscape to fit in the computer's memory. If the memory were full, the horizon would move away from us and we could walk into the void, triggering an emergency exit sequence. That is what we were really looking for. The edge of the world.” William spoke softly and slowly. “We only have three more days to look, and forty-eight percent of the memory to fill up. We never would have made it, even if he didn't know.”
    “So why did you want me to have him reset the program?”
    “Every time you start the program it opens a new file. I hoped there wouldn't be enough memory to fit the origin valley and the program would fail to restart, letting us out. Or, even better, the origin valley would barely fit. That way we could cross the horizon when Dean wasn't ready. It doesn't matter now. Thanks for trying to help.”
    “William,” said Jim, speaking up. “I think you should accept Dean's offer.”
    “No,” said William.
    “He's right,” said Elizabeth. “The only way any of us have a chance at getting home is if you help him until you get a chance to escape.”
    “Isn't Dean going to let you back out. You could easily pretend that we lied to you. I told William that we should lie to you. He is the one who wanted to give you a chance to really help us against Dean. Pretend you didn't know it was lie. He will still think he is on your side.”
    “I don't think that will work. He was really cold with me on the phone right now, and he knows I'm considering going to the police. I think I've become part of the evidence that he has to get rid of. I think I have about the same chance of you getting out of here, Jim. William, you really do have a chance. And make sure that Dean will keep us alive as part of the deal.”
    “I will never cooperate with Dean again,” said William. The tone of his voice was final.
    “William,” said Jim, “please think it over. You don't actually have to help him at all. Tell he that you will help, then get help as soon as you can. No one would tell you it was dishonest to deceive him, think of what he has done to us. It is good and right to fight him back, even through deception.”
    “I already told you, Jim. I will not even talk with him.”
    “Do you want to die?”
    “I would rather die with a clean conscience than live knowing I had helped that monster destroy more lives,” William shouted back. “I've already been tormented by knowing my dream has become a prison. All the good I've worked for he has turned to evil. I cannot trust him with anything, and refuse to give him another chance to take advantage of me.”
    “What are you going to do then?”
    The two men stood with less than two feet between them. After a moment of silence, William dropped his eyes, then looked out to sea. “I'm going to look for the horizon. If I have a million to one chance, I have to try. You taught me that. Perhaps Dean lied about the memory to get us to stop looking.”
    “You know that isn't true.”
    “I have to do something.”
    “Call Dean.”
    “I already told you—”
    “I said, call Dean. If you really have to do something, do that. It the only chance we have.”
    “I'm sorry Jim. I can't”
    “You disgust me,” said Jim turning away. He stormed into the cabin and slammed the door.
    William remained standing, looking at the cabin door, smoldering.
    Elizabeth, who had shrunk away from the heated discussion and was sitting on the railing turned back to William. “I don't have any right to judge you, but do you know why Jim hates you?” she couldn't help the sarcasm that slid into her voice. “Because if you have your way, his children will grow up without a father.”
    William exploded with furry, “I never trapped anyone in here! This is not the world I tried to make! I didn't even know Jim before his maniac brother threw him in here!” For the next few minutes the air was full of his angry shouts. Some were directed at Dean, some at Elizabeth, some at Jim for not understanding him, and others where at himself for not realizing what Dean was planning until it was too late. He paced up and down the deck, considered jumping overboard, in general acted like a caged tiger.
    Elizabeth was surprised at her own calmness. She patiently waited for William to calm down. With Jim in the cabin there was no where William could go to be alone. Eventually he sat down on the far side of the boat looking out to sea.
    “After we successfully made mind connections to mice, Dean and I went to a poor village on the other side of the world to test the equipment on humans,” said Elizabeth, coming up behind William. Caught up in his own grief, William was unable to form thoughts in a response to her sudden confession. “After we announced the price we were willing to pay for anyone willing to volunteer for an experiment we had a line of around a hundred people, but after the first few experiments they people of the village realized they wanted nothing to do with us. The first man's connection was only partial, and the input was a recording of a movie. Horrified at what he saw—we realized later it had been scrambled—he covered his eyes, but that only made it worse because the real world vanished, but the wild moving colors became more vibrant. He was lucky though, afterward everything was normal for him. In that village we left two men blind and a child who developed frequent seizures as a result of our failed mind connection, before the locals got together and drove us out at gun point.
    “I was devastated. At first I refused to help Dean anymore. He kept preaching to me about the good of science and how although a few would be hurt until we got it right, the technology would bless millions in the future. Reluctantly I resumed helping him, but I never let him accept child subject.
    “By the time we were back in the United States, I was having nightmares every night. If I had gone to the police then, I might have gotten away with only a little prison time fine, but I didn't. To cover our tracks we had to pretend it was a vacation. You can read the whole big lie on my blog, which is kind of funny because that is the only post I have made in the past year.
    “Just when I had promised myself I would never get involved with that kind of thing again, Dean told me that Troy was going to discover our illegal experiments if we didn't do something to stop him. After that I just kind of became numb to it all, following Dean every instruction and praying no one would ever find out.” After her confession, Elizabeth fell quiet and watched the waves pass under the boat. The evening was coming on, and the wind was cool. Tears streamed down her face.
    “Why did you tell me that?” asked William.
    “I don't know. Maybe I just needed to say it to someone, and since Dean betrayed you too, I thought you might understand. He has ruined everything for me.”
    “Do you really think I should pretend to help him?”
    “It is better than giving up.”
    They sat in silence for a long time.
    “Fifty-two percent. You must have put a lot of hard drives into the computer.”
    “Just eight.”
    “That's it? What size?”
    “I don't know. Large, but just ordinary one you could purchase on-line.”
    “But that doesn't make sense. Even with eight commercial hard drives we would at least be around seventy or eighty percent. I can't believe my math is that far off.”
    “Why does it matter?”
    “Just. I wonder if maybe Dean is lying, trying to get us to stop looking for the horizon.”
    “If you really think there might be a chance, I'll help you keep looking. I don't like who I have become, and if we never get out, I'll never have a chance to change.”
    “And if we don't find the horizon by the time the week is up. I'll negotiate with Dean.”

Episode Twenty-Two: Guilt

    Troy fetched another bag of chips from the kitchen cupboard, plopped down into the large couch, and devoured it. Four empty cereal boxes leaned against each other on top of the fireplace, a fifth had fallen sometime earlier under the weight of the others. A pile of both chip bags and crumbs slumped next to the couch. Fifty-eight glasses—Troy had counted them—covered the small coffee table, most were empty, but some he hadn't bothered to finish before getting another one. An abandoned roast that was still mostly raw waited on the spigot to be cooked, but after the fire died, Troy hadn't bothered to get it going again.
    After finishing the chips and adding the bag to the pile, he stood and paced the room. After a few minutes he returned to the kitchen and opened the cupboard again. A new bag of chips waited next to a box of raisins where he had already removed so many. Its appearance infuriated him. The billionaire took the bag and threw it out the window. He knew it was irrational, but he didn't care. As soon as he looked back there was another one in the cupboard. He tossed that one too. And the next.
    Suddenly remembering he was being watched by cameras, he froze. Then began a hunt that lasted a few hours. He searched the rooms of the cabin one by one gathering all the cameras he could find and tossing them in the lake. Every camera time he pulled a camera off the wall and every time he threw one in the lake, his anger increased. By the time he couldn't find another camera he was storming through the lodge, ripping paintings off the walls and lights off the ceiling, wanting to spite Dean just one more time by destroying another camera.
    Eventually his anger burnt itself out and he took an impromptu nap on a pile of furs. Waking up he just felt miserable. Whatever chance they had of getting out, he had ruined it. Over and over he wished he would have promised to tell Dean after he was out, but deep inside he knew it wouldn't have even mattered then. Dean wasn't going to let any of them out ever again. They were evidence that needed to be destroyed.
    Seized by hunger he returned to the cupboard where he found yet another bag of chips waiting for him. Maddened by the sight of it, he flung open the cupboard door, breaking off one of its hinges, and hurled it out the window. The wooden door hung oddly on the remaining upper hinge, behind it was a bag of chips. The fire burning inside of him was suddenly doused by an idea. Here in the lodge's kitchen, the computer did more than just calculate physics: food appeared out of no where and the garbage can made anything thrown into it disappear. Perhaps, he thought, there was a way to mess things up and make the program crash.
    Grabbing the perpetually empty trash can, he ran out to the lake and dipped it under the water. Immediately it began sucking up water like a pipe.  Hoping it was at least forcing the computer to use some extra processing power he left underwater a few feet from shore. He knew it couldn't drain the lake, not with how much water came down the waterfall.
    In the kitchen he attacked with the replenishing cupboards with an ax. After a time he grew a little more sensible and fetched a crowbar from the shed. Even after the wood had been removed, food appeared in midair where the shelves had been and began heaping up in great piles of boxes, bags, and haphazard piles, as new items appeared and immediately fell.
    He fetched the trash can from the lake, pushed the top of the pile of chips, and place the trash can under the first new bag that appeared. Watching hundreds of bags of chips appear from nowhere and vanish into the oblivion, entertained him only a short while. His idea wasn't working.
    The kitchen was now totally full of food and very difficult to move around in, so he took the trash can back to the lake where he thought it was probably doing more good. Then he went to each room on the second floor of the lodge and turned on every faucet in every bathroom and bathtub, plugging all the drains so they filled up and ran over. He took out a few light bulbs, stripped and crossed the electric wires, then turned the switches back on. All he got were a few sparks and the power died. Outside he found a fusebox. While looking for extra fuses in the shed he came across a box of signal flares and had a wonderful idea.
    Three hours later, he  dumped one last box of flares inside the lodge, splashed another bottle of kerosene around for good measure, and ate one last bag of chips. One the porch, where a trail of kerosene ended, he had placed a wax candle. Lighting the candle, he ran for the hill. Laying on top of the hill he watched as the candle slowly burnt down.
    Whatever made the food appear in the kitchen, water appear in the pipes, electricity in the wires, and supplies in the shed had held up to Troy's manipulations so far, but this would far outdo anything William could have anticipated. Troy wondered what the program crashing would be like. Would a sort of black hole appear where the lodge had been and suck him up? Or would the whole program stop and everyone would wake up at the portal? What if it didn't end the program, just messed it up? Images of a strange convoluted world where he couldn't move and bags of chips appeared everywhere choking him suddenly filled his imagination, and Troy watched the last bit of candle burn away wondering if he would live to see the result.
    The candle's flame reached the fuel, dashed into the house, and exploded into all directions in a deafening roar. Of the hundreds of flares Troy had tossed around earlier, only a small portion happened to be pointed at a window, but they the frequency of trails of smoke and flame that escaped the inferno trapped behind the wooden walls was enough to rival independence day fireworks.  A huge pillar of smoke reared above the lodge. Flame poured from the windows.
    Perhaps a flare burst through one of its windows, perhaps a flaming bit of wood landed on the roof, or the temperature might have just been raised high enough. The shed exploded into a ball of fire, sending a shock wave that would have thrown Troy off his feet if he had been standing. Only a moment passed before an equally loud and strong explosion rocked the ground again, and again, and again. Before his eyes, the lodge crumpled away from the blasts. Troy couldn't help but wonder if the bags of chips were still appearing in the inferno.
    The anticipated crash in the program never came, but the blasts continued unmercifully destroying the peace of the valley. Troy guessed there was dynamite in the shed that, like the chips, flares, and other supplies, kept reappearing. Frustrated that the program ran on smoothly and unable to think of anything else that might possible add to the strain, Troy wandered into the woods looking for shelter.

Episode Twenty-One: Deception

When Elizabeth awoke the next morning, she stayed rolled up in her blanket on the cabin floor pretending she was still asleep. All that day, William and Jim ignored her. They never entered the cabin and she never left it. Feeling betrayed by Elizabeth, William felt used. He had given her the benefit of the doubt and even allowed himself to believe that she was just another victim like they were, but now he new better. Both men wanted nothing more to do with her and would have set her on the first land they saw, but they didn't see land all day, and were unwilling to turn back: they had to keep pushing the horizon.
Elizabeth was miserable. Moving as little as possible, sleeping whenever her mind would calm down enough, then waking in trembles, she hated her predicament. Sometimes she would let herself fantasize about punishing them all, finding a way out of the Endless Frontier then trapping Dean in it before he could stop her, but the dream just made her feel worse. Over and over she now realized she had rationalized wrong into right and pretended that everything was okay, that she was innocent. William's sharp words shifted something deep inside her, forcing her to see who she had become.
Perhaps when Dean let her out she could run away from everything. She escape to a foreign country and live under an assumed name. She would get a common job, she had all the skills needed to be a secretary, and spend her free time working in a garden like her grandmother. Then, if she could only forget, life would be bearable again. Her grandmother had always had a quite smile and sure confidence about life, and Elizabeth envied her for it.
The day passed without incident, William and Jim took turns on watch and slept on the boats deck under the stars. Late that night, while William was on watch, he peered into the stars. To his surprise he saw the silhouette of a plane cross in front of the moon. The urge to signal it for help swelled with amazing force within him, but in only lasted a moment. The full moon and all the stars where just a illusions, and he—more than anyone—knew it. The distance involved made it totally impractical to actually simulate the moon and stars. The sky was simply an image, or more accurately a movie, added as a background to his vision. Somewhere in the many thousands of hours of film he had used to create a lifelike vision of the sky, a camera had recorded a plane crossing the sky. He thought of the thousands of errors like that he had found over and over again. Then he had a wonderful idea.

Please with himself, Dean threw the last few cardboard boxes into the trash. That should take them awhile, he thought. In the portal he looked at the four bodies that appeared to be sound asleep, each breathing slowly and rhythmically. William was the only one he cared about, but he cared about the others. That was the whole problem. He needed some way, any way, to get William to work for him.
The computer rang, signaling an incoming call. Hoping that it was William, finally giving in to his demands, Dean pushed the button on the keyboard to answer the call.
“Hello, Dean.” It was Elizabeth's voice.
“What do you want.”
“I need to talk fast. William and Jim are off the boat, but could be back any minute. This morning they finally told me what they are looking for. A few days before they were trapped in here, William was working on a papaya tree, but it still isn't finished. The last time he loaded the program with it, it crashed leaving a hole in the landscape. The hole has a funny effect on the physics that makes it is emitting light. They are on the boat sailing, hoping to find a tropical region where the computer will put a papaya tree and give them a way out. All we have to do to stop them is put them all to sleep again and I can remove the papaya entry from the landscape database. After we tell them what we've done they won't have a hope of getting out!”
Dean just smiled. “Elizabeth, do me a favor.”
“What?”
“Tell William the memory is at fifty two percent.” Before she could react, he pushed a button and closed the call.

“What did he say?” asked Jim. For the first time he was beginning to understand Elizabeth. After William explained the plan to him, he didn't think Elizabeth was willing to try it, but he'd been wrong. When William told her that if she was willing to help they had a good chance of getting out, she had accepted eagerly. Jim now realized that Elizabeth wasn't evil like he thought, just weak. Doing whatever she could to try and save herself.
She had looked pretty sorry that morning when she finally came out of the cabin after a whole day without food or water. Jim guessed she had cried most of the time. He still had a difficult time tolerating her, but after that phone call she had firmly committed herself to there side, and they needed all the help they could get.
If William's plan worked, Dean would reset the Endless Frontier again, giving them another full valley worth of landscape, and think he had them trapped. He would also probably pull Elizabeth out and hopefully this time she would really go to the police.
Elizabeth slowly put the phone down. She new something must be wrong. “I don't think he even listened to what I said. He just gave me a message for you William. He said the computer's memory is at fifty two percent. What does he mean by that?”
William and Jim both suddenly looked crestfallen. “It mean he knows,” said William, “and, we don't have time, even if he didn't.”

Episode Twenty: A Night Watch

    “Stratford,” Jim whispered forcefully, “your watch.”
    Elizabeth raised a hand signaling she had heard. She had hardly gotten any sleep anyway with the rocking of the boat. Outside the air was cool, but wrapped in a blanket Elizabeth didn't mind it. She sat on the highest part of the boat, on top of the cabin next to the sail. That had become the official post of whoever was on watch. Most of the stars were blocked by clouds, and the moon was nowhere to be seen. Wind filled the open sail, pushing them forward and onward into the unknown.
    She waited for about an hour, long enough that she was sure both Jim and William were asleep, then opened her phone and made a call to the portal. After ten beeps a recording of her own voice asked her to leave a message. “Dean, they don't trust me enough to give me any specifics, but whatever they are looking for is big. We are sailing on an ocean, and they constantly watch the horizons. They even put me on watch. William said as soon as I saw it, I would know that that was it. I'll try and call you tomorrow at about this same time.”
    As she hung up the phone, William, who had been hiding in the doorway cabin, asked, “How's Dean?”
    Startled by his voice, Elizabeth shoved the phone into a pocket and stood up in the same motion. “What are talking about?” she gasped, hoping he hadn't actually seen the phone and was asking the question rhetorically.
    “I couldn't understand what you were saying, but the cellphone lit up your face,” he said. Unsure how to react, Elizabeth just froze. “We need to talk. Jim's a little uptight, so if you don't mind, we'll keep this quite and not wake him up.”
    “What are you going to do to me.”
    He held out his hand. “If you give me your phone, nothing right now.”
    “And if I don't?”
    “I don't want to hurt you, Elizabeth, but I won't let you ruin everything we are working for.”
    She hesitated a minute then slapped the phone into his hand angrily.  Dropping down to the deck again she put her back to him. After a minute she hear him sit down also. For along while they both sat there staring into the night.
    “Is everything you said about Dean blackmailing you true?”
    She didn't answer.
    “Do you mind if I take a guess?”
    She pulled the blanket closer around her, and glared away from him.
    “I think what you told us is true. Except that instead of throwing you in here, Dean blackmailed you into spying on us. You hate Dean, but you don't know how to escape him.”
    Elizabeth suddenly burst into tears. Everything seemed so hopeless. William's kindness to her only made it worse. She wanted him to be mean and cold like Jim. That way she could just spit in his face and hate everyone. “What do you want from me? I can't help you get out of here even if I wanted to. You can't trust me with your secrets. We both know that even though I don't have a phone right now, I could just drown myself and get another one.”
    “You're right. I can't tell you our secret hope.” He paused. “I guess you just reminded me of someone, and I wanted to help you if I could.”
    “I don't need help from you. Dean can't kill me, he can't even keep me in here for any longer than a week or so. Too many people know we work together. If I disappear, the police would investigate him.”
    “Will you go to the police?”
    “I can't, William, I'm just as guilty as he is. I don't want to live the rest of my life in prison.”
    “Is life under Dean's hand any better?”
    She couldn't respond. His suggestion that her life was already wore than prison made her angry, but she knew he was right.
    “Sorry,” he said. “I shouldn't have said that. I guess I'm just wish you were on our side.” He stood up to leave.
    “William,” she said, holding him back. “I won't let Dean kill you, any of you.”
    Something in him snapped. “You have already let him kill all of us!” he exploded.
    “What?”
    “The only person I care about in the world is dead to me, and I am dead to her because of the Endless Fronter. I will never be able to marry Sarah. Never even be able to say goodbye.”
    Every word struck Elizabeth's soul like a physical blow.
    “Do you know why Jim hates you? Because if you get your way, his children are going to grow up without a father. He knows that right now his wife is crying herself to sleep ever night for worry over him, wondering what possibly could have happened to him. Troy doesn't know that you are in here, but I'm sure he feels the same way. He is certain his business if floundering without him. Don't you see Elizabeth, being trapped in here is the same as being dead.”
    The cabin's door opened and Dean stepped out. “What is going on up here?”
    Elizabeth was slumped on the ground with William standing menacingly over her. “Nothing,” said William hopping down to the main deck. “You were right though. She's nothing but a spy.”
 

Episode Nineteen: Interrogation

    Elizabeth struggled to keep upright in the canoe the whole trip downstream to the ocean. The darkness hid sandbanks, rocks, and logs that each in their turn battered the small vessel. She arrived at the shore cold, wet, and bruised. Not wanting to face the awkward situation of waking up Jim and William who must be on the boat tied to the dock, she lay down on some grass above the sand to try and get some sleep. Luckily she had thought to put the supplies she carried in a large plastic bag; the blanket was still dry. Exhausted, she quickly fell into a sound sleep.

    The morning sun rising beyond the horizon to the east woke her, but she didn't care to get up. When she heard footsteps coming toward her from the beach, she sighed. She thought she probably would have been happier if they had just left without her. That way she could forget about having to spy on them.

    “Good morning Elizabeth.” It was William's voice. “Breakfast is ready on board. We'd like to get an early start, so we'll eat just after we leave dock.” Elizabeth ignored him. After some silence William tried again, “Are you okay?”

    “No,” she snarled unable to help herself. “I'm stuck in this stupid wilderness waiting to be killed. You don't trust me a bit, but frankly I don't blame you. I'm a wretched horrible person, so just leave me alone. You don't want me along anyway.” She sat up, but only looked at William's feet.

    “Jim doesn't trust you,” he said squatting down to catch her eyes. “I haven't decided yet. I want you to join us for a while before I cast judgment. Last night Jim tried to convince me that you're spying for Dean.” He smiled. “But I kind of doubt that a spy would try and get us to leave her.” When Elizabeth didn't reply he added “See you on the boat,” and walked away.

    Riding in the boat seemed surreal to Elizabeth. Sailing on a digital ocean in a digital boat with a digital body and being companions with men whom she had held captive for two months, almost felt like a weekend vacation. The sky and water were both clear. She didn't eat very much of the breakfast that William had prepared. Jim and he were talking at the front of the boat. It looked to her like Jim gave William some tips on how to sail. After a while Jim went down into the boats cabin, and William joined her at the back of the boat.

    “We're headed for that small island out there,” he said.

    “Is that where whatever you are looking for is?” she asked.

    “No. We'll just stop there to talk. Jim and I aren't sure where you and Dean placed the cameras and we want to be sure and not have Dean watching when we talk to you. This boat was on the very edge of the preprogrammed valley. We've decided not to talk about anything important while were on it.”

    “I can promise you there aren't any cameras here. We only put them in at the lodge.”

    “We'll hopefully you understand why we can't trust you yet.”

    “Personally, I don't understand why you let me join you at all,” she said, making William laugh. 

    The sandy island didn't have anywhere that the boat could come right up to shore, so they had to get out in waist deep water. Once on the shore, Jim lead them to the far side of a small clump of trees that grew in the center of the island. He hadn't yet said a word to Elizabeth and she could tell that William's kindness to her bothered him. The threesome stood silent for a moment, William looking at Jim with a this-was-your-idea look on his face.

    “Well,” said Jim, turning toward Elizabeth, “What do you have to say for yourself.”

    The abruptness of his manner through Elizabeth off guard. Conflicting emotions swelled up in her, threatening to cause her to burst into tears, but she pushed them back. “When Dean hired me, I thought I was getting an honest job. The chance of a lifetime to work with an expert in the field on a cutting edge project. What I didn't know was that Dean doesn't care about anything other than making a name for himself. When some legal difficulties came up, he sidestepped them at the expense of helpless people. At first I reasoned that some sacrifices needed to be made for the progress of science, but eventually I went along because I knew I was just as guilty as he was.

    “When he talked to me about trapping you and Mr. Lombardi in the Endless Frontier, I refused. Then he admitted because he had spent Mr. Lombardi's money illegally, he was sure that eventually he would realize what we had done and we would both end up in jail. Feeling trapped and helpless I agreed. I see now that it just made things worse.

    “Things were going fine, until the card Mr. Lombardi gave to Dean stopped working. Then when we tried to set up another Endless Frontier nothing we could do could get it to work. Then yesterday, when you refused to help Dean, I was surprised about his treat to kill you. I faced him when he came out, so he turned on me just like he did on you, Jim. Sent me into this virtual prison. I don't know why he didn't just kill me then. I'm just as much evidence as the rest of you. If we don't somehow stop him he will kill us all next week.”

    “How do we know you aren't just spying for Dean?” said Jim. “He knows that we are looking for something. Perhaps he is afraid our plot will work.”

    “If he were really afraid, he would kill you now,” she said. “The only one he wants alive is William.”

    “He know that if he killed any of us, William would never work with him,” snapped Jim.

    “Hold it you two,” said William, stepping between them. “Elizabeth, you know that we can't trust you. Jim, you know that, even if she is telling the truth, there is nothing she could say right now that wold give us proof, so lets drop that subject.” 

    Jim glared at both of them, but didn't say anything. 

    “Elizabeth,” continued William, “I need to know what changes you made to the Endless Frontier program.”

    “A few days before the first run, I changed the function that triggers when the virtual body dies. After closing the virtual simulation, a fresh one now starts without disconnecting the mind connection.  Two days ago, while you were all drugged I loaded a modified file of the origin valley that has additional cameras in and around the lodge. Other than that I haven't changed a thing, and Dean doesn't know enough about programming to have done anything without me.”

    Jim and William looked at each other, trying to communicate without words. “Let's talk alone in a minute,” William said to dean. Then turning to Elizabeth he said, “If what you said is the truth, its good news. Yesterday you mentioned wanting to help us. The thing we are looking for requires constant vigilance. From here on out we need someone constantly scanning the horizon. We had originally planed on the two of us taking shifts, but we would appreciate it if you took one.”

    “What will I be looking for,” asked Elizabeth.

    “William, don't you dare tell her,” said Jim. “As soon as she knows she'll call Dean.”

    “Don't worry, Jim” said William, “I won't give it away. I'll just say this. When you see it, Elizabeth, you'll know.”     

Episode Eighteen: Bartering

    On sandy beach the north side of lake, Troy watched the flames of his fire dance in the wind.  The moon added an eerie light to his already depressed mood; its rays reflecting off the lake's shifting surface.   The beginnings of a gale added its howling to the waterfalls deafening roar. Troy Lombardi, unmoved by either the beautiful sight or the awful din, sat almost motionless on a piece of driftwood, facing the fire, stroking the stubble on his chin.
    He didn't know much about computers and how they worked, and he had never filled up the in-box on his e-mail account.  The simple PC in his office told him he could play music for a month strait without hearing the same song twice.  A company he started had backed up most of the web with a computer that didn't even take up half of a warehouse.
    William should have accepted Deans offer.  They desperately needed someone on the outside, even if he was a prisoner.  On the outside there was a least a hope of escape.  By staying here, William sentenced them all to death, unless by some miracle they actually found the horizon. Even that was sketchy; Death had failed to get them out, would the horizon be any better?
    Mr. Lombardi resumed pacing.  His feet followed the trail they had left in the sand earlier, circling around the fire and along the base of the cliff then back along the shore.  There had to be another solution.
     Once during the night, he lay down trying to get some sleep, but his mind would not let his body rest.
    When the sun came over the mountains he shouldered his pack and climbed the familiar stairs.  Familiar stairs that were leading him to an unfamiliar place.  A void that was yet to be filled.  The grasslands of a few weeks past could be a jungle, a desert, or a glacier field.  What land the computer generated didn't matter: only seeing it mattered, ensuring that computer was forced to use a little more of its vast memory.
    How many horizons did they have to cross in the short time they had before Dean killed them?    Maybe if they had another month, Troy admitted, they might make it, but six days?
    As he climbed he stone stairs, Troy looked out over the tranquil lake on his left, the solid wall of the cliff on his right.
    As he neared the top he stopped.  Looking up he saw a tuft of grass clinging to the edge of the shear drop silhouetted against the clear blue sky.      If those green stalks could look toward the north, he wondered, what would they see? From their vantage, those weeds could peer into the unfilled void,  the escape that continually fled before his own eyes.
    Sighing heavily Troy turned around and sat on a stair.  His hand strayed to the cell phone still on his belt.  It was his only link to the world, and it only connected to one person.  He toyed with it, opening and closing it, turning it around in his hand.  All the while his eyes were focus on the barely discernible rooftop of the lodge.
    An idea that had been slowly forming ever since he learned Dean was running out of money began to clarify in his mind. He knew it was a long shot, but he was tired of chasing the horizon.  He would tackle the problem his way.
    Standing he began walking down the stairs, back to the lodge and away from the horizon. Later as the sun passed its zenith and began to descend in the sky; Troy, who was cruising across the lake, played with words, rehearsing in his mind different turns the coming conversation could take.
    Once he reached the Lodge he went straight to his room and pulled a suit out of the closet.  After dressing, he looked for one of the hidden cameras, finding one was much easier than he thought.  He had only mildly examined his room before noticing a small white box the same color as the wall paint hanging just above a large painting.  Standing on a chair he examined it closely and decided it was indeed a camera.
    The multi-billionaire pushed the chair into the center of the cameras view and took a seat.  In one swift motion he opened the cell phone, pressed the send button, and lifted it to his ear.  The phone rang.  Once—twice—a third time. Slightly impatient, Troy adjusted himself in the chair.  After a counting over a dozen rings he hung up.
    Not allowing himself to be disturbed by the minor set back, he found paper and wrote a note.

Dr. Dean Senoma,
I will give you $300,000,000 in return for my freedom. My plan ensures the exchange will happen with minor risk for both of us. Call me to work out the details.
Troy S. Lombardi

    After placing the note on the chair, he pushed away his nervousness by visiting the kitchen.  He spent the afternoon wandering around the lodge.  In a half hour he found around thirty different cameras, most mounted on the walls like the one in his bedroom.  He placed a few more copies of the note in front of cameras, so that Dean would see it even if he didn’t check them all.
    Troy was still in the business suit when Dean called, sitting in front of the great fireplace trying to decide if it was cool enough to merit a fire.
    Dean spoke quickly and with only a hint of interest. “I saw your message.  What do you have to say to me?”
    The suddenness of the question caught Mr. Lombardi off guard, but his rehearsed words were ready and he recovered quickly.  He explained to a seemingly dead line how he had many bank accounts and other assets under assumed names worth about three hundred million dollars.  Because he had been unable to keep track of all the account numbers and passwords he had created a personal website with a very strong encryption that contained all the information needed to access the money.
    He told Dean that after he took him out of The Endless Frontier and transported him—even if it had to be in the trunk of a car—to a remote wilderness area, then he would tell him the URL and password to that website.  While he was finding his way back to civilization, Dean could get all the money and use it to buy a new identity and cover his tracks.
    By the end of this explanation, Troy wasn’t sure if Dean was still listening on the other end of the line.
    After a moment of silence, Dean said, “You are a desperate man.  How do I know you aren’t just lying to me about the money?”
    A familiar excitement rose in Troy’s chest.   He had expected the question and immediately responded.  “Because if I am lying you can kill me.  You will know where you dropped me off and where to find me.  Especially if you drop me off somewhere without much cover.”
    Troy knew it was a weak answer, but he had been able to seal business deals with less to work on.  The wooden armrests of the chair he sat in were slick from his shiny palms.
    “No,” said Dean, “That isn’t good enough.  There are too many ways it could go wrong.  Prove to me that I can trust you—tell me what William is looking for.”