HE SHOULDN’T HAVE SEEN him. Maybe there was some kind of a punishment coming. He knew that he shouldn’t have taken off his visor. He probably shouldn’t have even been stepping out of his game role to help another player. And, Carter, of all people. He had to be the most likely in the group to shaft him or anybody else, not to mention the least likely to come to his aid if he needed it.

The tap on his shoulder made him jump. Thinking about what happened to Hacker — Joel had no way to know what really happened, but he was pretty damned sure it wasn’t good.

“Come on. Take off the kit. The visor, the headset. All of it.”

As he lifted the visor, Joel was shocked by the hollow, hooded eyes in the dark sockets. He wasn’t prepared for them to be so close.

The cloaked and hooded figure stared into his face. He felt as though he were being read. Scanned like a stretch of code. Line by line.

When the face smiled, the smile was one that could have been a response to seeing food.

“Come.” The cloak flowed around the tall figure as it turned. The large box followed behind with soft, hydraulic ‘shooshes’ and the hum of quiet motors. Joel saw that the box was attached. Something thick and flexible, wires or pipes or tubes, connected up and under the cloak.

A chill shuddered from the base of Joel’s spine as he followed.

He was led though a door, then down a long, dark hallway. The doors along the hallway were all shut. All except for one. There was light inside the room. As they passed, Joel heard scraping. Something heavy, being dragged.

He glimpsed a wall of cabinets, all about waist high. With upturned glass bell jars on top. Colored liquid filled the jars. And inside were dark shapes like coconuts. He stopped looking. As he followed the gaunt figure and its box down the hall, he told himself he hadn’t seen what he thought he saw. He was mistaken.

At the end of the hallway, his tall host opened a door. He held if for Joel to enter. Joel was cold. Shivering. But he wouldn’t let it show.

Fear can make you imagine things. That was what happened. The shape that he saw in one of the jars somehow looked like he recognized it. But it was only a glimpse. It may have been domed and like it had thick tufts running over it in ridges. Like two tight, parallel lines of braids. But it was a trick of the light. Or something.

The room seemed large, but it wasn’t easy to tell. The light was dim and low. The sound in the room, the pad of Joel’s feet and the rustle of his clothes gave him more of a clue than his eyes. His footsteps and the trundling wheels of the trolley.

The Gabriel followed him in and closed the door. The trolley shushed along behind him. A large table was in the center of the room with a chair on either side. The Gabriel extended a hand to point Joel to the chair on the far side.

The room was cold and the light was low. So low that as Joel sat, he could only just make out the door. The Gabriel kept his sunken eyes on Joel as he lowered himself into the seat opposite. The thin smile didn’t seem to have much cheer.

“How are you enjoying the process?”

“Enjoying?” Joel almost said what was on his mind, but then he thought better of it. Joel only knew what was whispered and muttered about the Gabriel. Until now he doubted that he was real at all. He certainly didn’t believe any of the wild tales.

Seeing him in the flesh, if it was flesh, it was easy enough to see what prompted the myths and horror stories. He existed, Joel couldn’t doubt that.

Since he had brought Joel for a private interview, Joel decided that opening their conversation with a frank review of his hospitality may be unwise.

“So far it’s a very interesting process. The virtus are about the best I’ve seen. Not that I know much.”

A grin spread across “Oh, Joel,” Hearing his name on the Gabriel’s lips, Joel’s whole body tingled and tensed, “That really isn’t true. Your interests and insights in simulation are remarkable.”

“How do you know?” DAMN! He was too tense. He shouldn’t have said that out loud. He needed to take control of himself.

The Gabriel’s eyes narrowed as his thin smile spread. “That’s why you’re here, Joel. That’s one of the most important qualities that you bring to the party.”

“But isn’t it going to come down to a test of strength and reactions? A battle of skills?”

As the Gabriel began to say, “The process is not what it appears to be,” Joel had a flash of insight. “You’ve worked that out though, haven’t you?”

Insight or imagination. A fantasy, perhaps. Maybe he had worked it out. He pushed the idea aside. It was absurd. More ridiculous even than the evidence in front of his eyes.

The Gabriel produced a data crown and held it toward Joel. Smoother and simpler than any Joel had seen. Even in the rumors and speculation he read in tech blogs in Hopes’ the most fantastic concept renders were crude compared to the lightness and the soft, organic lines.

It appeared to be only a smooth ring with soft curves, ear pads and dark eyepieces.

“Put it on.”

Joel hesitated. But his curiosity got the better of him. When he slipped the crown over his head, it silently adjusted as though it were alive. Small movements that felt like minute breezes adjusted inside the ring to fit the contact points to his cranium.

When it activated, it seemed like his mind was opening. As if wide hangar doors rolled back and light streamed in. A landscape opened, like a bright, multi-colored desert. Mountains in reds and oranges brooded gorgeously at the horizon under a teal and turquoise striped sky.

Joel’s head turned to take in the horizon, to see as far as he could to the left and right. Then he looked all the way up at the bright sky. Then all the way down. Beneath him, on the desert floor grains of sand blew in wisps. But he didn’t see his feet. Or his body. And he wasn’t moving his head on purpose.

He felt the Gabriel’s smile inside his mind as he saw a rendering of his hand, lightning in front of his face. He felt the rise of his arm and he tried to resist but the arm wasn’t in his control.

An undercurrent of sound had a thin band of white noise. At the back of the sound was a low thrum. The rhythmic frequency spread like a thin mist through his mind.

His hand turned. Rotated so he looked at the palm. He saw it turn and he had no control over it. The arm moved to his right. And his head turned to follow.

He heard the Gabriel’s voice. “Relax. Don’t fight it.” The voice was inside his head. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

He stood. The scrape of the chair echoed clearly in the room. He felt the seat against the backs of his legs. His arms spread out wide. Then they rotated to turn his palms down. They turned again to twist his palms upward.

A terror rose deep in his gut. Without looking and without intending to, he stepped back, around the chair.

“Don’t worry,” the Gabriel was telling him. “We’ll do some harmless exercises. That’s all.”

He stood with his palms together. Holding his feet parallel felt odd. His knees locked, then released. His hips tilted. Then tuned. He raised his arms up, and leaned back. “Good,” the Gabriel’s voice was like a breath inside his head.

His spine lengthened as his body folded forward from the waist until his hands reached the floor. One leg stretched back and his head tipped up. His other leg went back. He held his body straight, then lowered his hips to the floor. His legs were flat on the ground as he stretched his torso up and his head back.

The sensation of stretch in his body was powerful and exhilarating. The fact that none of it was in his control terrified him. “Just a little more,” the voice blew like a breeze through his mind.

His feet came forward. The movements were precise. Not mechanical, but disciplined in a way he didn’t recognize. Then he stood, straight again.

“We’ll take off the crown now.” As he lifted off the crown he felt an emptiness, like a powerful force inside him evaporated. The Gabriel still sat at the table. The smile glowed over his whole face now.

“How do you feel?”

“Terrified. Disoriented. But good, in a strange way.”

The Gabriel nodded slowly.

Joel said, “You did that, right? You drove my body. Like a sim.”

“Much better than any sim.”

A short cascade of cold trickled and shuddered through Joel’s body. He staggered and slumped into the chair.

“You missed the introduction and orientation for your simpanion. But you’ll figure it out. They’ll be waiting in your quarters after you’ve eaten dinner.”

Joel didn’t speak.

“Do not mention our meeting to the others in the process.” The Gabriel rose. Joel knew that meant it was time to go. He was exhausted but he didn’t think he’d mention it as he hauled himself back up to his feet. “Not. One. Word. You understand?”

He understood. It was a task. A test. He thought as he left about the sound of the white noise. He’d heard something like it before.