eXistenZ

Written like this. One word. Small e. Capital X, capital Z. He turns back to face an as-yet-unseen audience.

eXistenZ. It's new, it's from Antenna Research, and it's here, right now. We now see Levi's audience, about seventy-five people, some standing, some sitting on plastic folding chairs. They are of very mixed age and type, but they all cheer and applaud enthusiastically. We are in the central playing area of a small, deconsecrated country church, and Levi performs on a broad, low, carpeted plywood dais. At the far end of the dais, a man and a woman - assistants to Levi - are carefully laying out about two dozen plastic modules that look somewhat like high-tech ski boots.

My name is Wittold Levi, my friends call me Witt - and I'm the project manager for eXistenZ. I recognize some familiar faces - that's all right, that's all right. We won't throw you out. We encourage consumer loyalty, and we want you to help us with our product testing. We're a team, Antenna and you. A delighted stir from the crowd.

Those of you who have come to our invited seminars before will know that I normally lead the group through our new games, but

tonight, it won't be me. No, for the test launch of eXistenZ by Antenna, we have brought you a seminar leader who is rather special. An unbelieving, excited stir. Could it really be?

Yes, it is. The world's greatest game designer is here, in person, to lead you, the first test enclave, through her newest creation, eXistenZ by Antenna... The small crowd is now tremendously excited, wide-eyed, murmuring, one or two have actually gotten on their knees.

I give you, the Game-Pod Goddess herself - Allegra Geller! Levi moves to the edge of the crowd, works his way into it until he has reached a small, unobtrusive figure who up to now has hardly been noticed. She stands next to a security guard who is dressed in a suit and tie but carries an electronic wand of some sort. His name-tag identifies him as Ted Pikul (rhymes with "Michael", not with "pickle"), and we will see more of him later. As Levi takes her hand and gently leads her out of the crowd, her fans applaud softly, touch her hem. They part like water as she passes amongst them, clutching her own personal game-pod case with both hands. She mounts the dais like a blind person led by her seeing-eye dog. Allegra Geller, early thirties, conservatively dressed, is bright, acutely aware, but wary and controlled. When she speaks, she is deliciously, sexily shy, serious, melodic.

The world of games is in a kind of a trance. People are programmed to accept so little, but the possibilities are so great.

But there is no new game to test, at least, not in the usual sense. Confused, slightly disappointed mutterings.

No, no, it's going to be much better than you expected, because eXistenZ is not just a game. It's an entirely new game system. Antenna Research and I developed it together - the eXistenZ System by Antenna - and it involves a whole lot of new toys, which you are going to be the first to try out. The crowd's spirit rises again. Levi steps forward, smiling, playing off the renewed energy.

MetaFlesh. Levi turns to the chalkboard and writes the word.

Written like this. One word. Capital M, capital F. MetaFlesh is what our new toys are made of - the MetaFlesh Game-Pod, only from Antenna Research. It connects with any industry standard bioport, which I know you all have or you wouldn't be here... (chuckles from the crowd) .using, however, a very non- standard connecting device which we call... Levi turns again to the chalkboard.

.we call an UmbyCord. Spelled like this. Levi writes the word out and then turns back to his by-now- salivating audience.

I guess you can tell I started off as a schoolteacher.

But I never had anything quite so fun or so revolutionary to teach as what Allegra and I are going to teach you all tonight. With a theatrical flourish, Levi whirls around to face his two assistants, who have finished laying out their devices on the back table and are now standing crisply at attention at either end of it.

Are the MetaFlesh Game-Pods by Antenna Research ready?

And how many of these precious prototypes did we manage to bring with us?

Twenty-one, Mr. Levi. Levi's face clouds slightly. The audience does not hear the following exchange.

The first three we opened were... unhealthy.

Really? Any chance that some of the others...?

We think we're clean.

We have twenty-one prototype MetaFlesh Game-Pods, and that means that for our first wave test enclave we need twenty-one volunteers who will port in these slave units with the Game-Pod Goddess herself... Levi doesn't need to finish his pitch. Every hand is waving in the air, and every pair of lips is saying, "Me, me, oh God, please, let it be me!" Geller can only stand by modestly and beam at the intensity of the small crowd's enthusiasm.

Hold it. Not so fast. In response, the fan thrusts a card at him. Pikul takes the card, a complex invitation card which includes a holographic photo of the fan under which floats his name, Joel Dichter. Dichter anxiously looks past Pikul into the depths of the church, nervously adjusting the vinyl case slung over his shoulder.

Oh, god. I hope I'm not too late. Did I miss the port-in?

It's just the first wave. You can be part of the second wave. (rereads the invitation) OK, Joel Dichter. Put your arms up. I have to scan you. Metal and heavy synthetics can't come in.

More for recording devices. Lotta money invested in these games. Industrial espionage happens. What's in this case?

I brought my game-pod. It's got original Marway tissue architecture. It's kind of obsolete but I was hoping,...

even though I couldn't afford the Antenna Fifteen upgrade, I figured out a method of virtual porting that I thought might... Pikul uses his wand to scan the vinyl case, then opens the zipper and feels around. In the case is a more solid, rubbery version of the new MetaFlesh pods.

You won't need it tonight. Everything's provided for. Dichter suddenly spots Geller on the dais. He almost faints.

Migod! Is that who I think it is?

(with paternal pride)

Yeah, that's her. She's something, isn't she?

But why would a star like her come to a product seminar in a little one-horse town like this?

This is where the real people live, Joel. Her real fans, like you.

Yeah, well, you said it. Just like me. Dichter has scanned OK. Pikul waves him into the church to join the spectators who will form the second wave and re- locks the door. On the dais, in the center of the circle of linked game players, Levi nods at Geller.

Everything's in order. Are you ready, Allegra?

I'm ready to download eXistenZ by Antenna Research into you all now. I'm warning you, it's going to be a wild ride, but don't panic no matter what happens. I'll see you all back here in no time at all. Now the giddy laughter goes a touch nervous, uncertain, but it's too late. Geller depresses a nipple-like protuberance on the game-pod on her lap, and all the players close their eyes and go rigid, like members of a seance who have suddenly been contacted by the spirit world. The pods in their laps begin a rhythmic, peristaltic rippling. At the edge of the crowd, Pikul sidles up to Levi.

She spends most of her time alone in a room designing her games. I think she'd like it best if she never had to show them to anybody.

Really? She doesn't enjoy all the adulation?

She hates having to port in with her fans. It's too intimate.

Then why does she do it?

By "we" you mean, the game company, Antenna Research?

That's what I mean.

Why?

Me? Oh, I'm with your own management training program. (shows him a card) I want to end up in marketing and public relations. (holds up security wand) The only thing I know about security is how to switch this thing on.

eXistenZ is a lot more than a game.

Yeah, right, it's a game system. I heard that.

And we're worried that it's too intellectual, too complex, too weird, too artsy. That argument ; never bothers her until she faces her fans. She hates to be rejected in the flesh, so we make her come out sometimes to take the heat.

What are they doing?

Catchy. Levi helps him out, and soon the whole room is humming along happily, warmed by the Antenna Research corporate theme song. The whole room, that is, except for Joel Dichter, who, at the edge of the dais, is more concerned with fumbling around in the vinyl pod-case hanging from his shoulder. In the case, we watch as Dichter tears open his obsolete game-pod to reveal a bizarre weapon, a pistol made of bone and gristle, almost like the half-decayed body of a small mammal - whose snout is the barrel, whose rigid hind leg is the trigger. Dichter takes his weapon out of its case, shakes off a few gelatinous strips of game-pod flesh, and steps up onto the dais. Pikul is the first to notice this. He glances at Levi, who's still blissed out and humming, then launches himself awkwardly through the crowd. Now in the middle of the circle, Dichter makes his way towards the blissfully unsuspecting Geller, raising his weapon as he goes.

Death to eXistenZ! Death to Antenna Research! Death to the demoness Allegra Geller!

Get her out of here! Save her! There might be more of them! Go on!

Me? Me take her?

(urgent, pleading)

We have enemies in our own house. Trust no one. Trust no one... The wide-eyed Pikul scrambles to his feet and promptly trips over the all-but-dead Dichter. He falls painfully to his knees, struggles up again, and finds the bizarre bone gun in his hand. Pikul stares at it, fascinated, horrified. He turns back to Levi, but Levi's eyes are rolling back as he loses consciousness. The two assistants are making their way towards them through the shoving, shuffling throng, guns cocked, faces set hard. Panicked, Pikul jams the bone gun into his suit pocket and jumps off the platform, wildly looking around for Geller. She and her chair have slipped off the dais in a heap only a few feet away, and she is in several kinds of agony. Pikul unports her, which immediately brings her some relief and a lot of clarity. Pikul wards off a couple of fans with one arm, screams at them.

(quietly, firmly)

Yeah, you're coming with me. Pikul pulls her to her feet, but she immediately dives back to the floor to find her game-pod and UmbyCord.

(suddenly near hysteria)

I can't lose this! I can't lose this! She finds the game-pod still under the folding chair, a bit flattened on one side but in one piece. She grabs the game- pod and its UmbyCord and stuffs them into her MetaFlesh pod case which has been knocked to the edge of the dais. As she clutches it to her, Pikul takes her hand and hauls her through the crowd, which is now spilling off the overcrowded dais and clutching at Geller fitfully, like Velcro. They head for the door, fighting everybody off as though they might be lethal. As they leave through the side door, Pikul sees five or six fans, shrieking like monkeys, still stomping and kicking the body of Dichter viciously, hysterically, while Levi's two assistants carry him to the safety of the church's apse.

Let's take my limo.

Why no?

I don't trust the driver!

You drive, idiot!

What's the commotion, Miss Geller? Say, are you all right? What's goin' on in there?

We need this vehicle, and we need it without you. But with the keys.

I can't do that. I can't abandon my vehicle. Geller pulls the weird gun out of an astonished Pikul's pocket. She points it at Frances.

Get out, Frances. You can say you were hijacked.

(getting out of her seat)

You have to push the shift lever down to get it into reverse.

Thanks, Frances. They drive off down the country road, leaving Frances in the dust.

(manic, scared)

I normally like the countryside, don't you? Normally, the country is relaxing and calm.

Only if you don't really know what's going on.

What do you mean?

There is great stress and anger and violence in the countryside. Thousands of life forms all screaming ME ME ME and trying to kill and dominate and devour the other life forms. It's terrifying and exhausting.

That's good, `cause you might end up spending a lot of time here.

I might?

Sure. If you go back home to the city, they'll probably be waiting for you.

They?

Yeah. My assassins. They'd want to have a little talk with you about where I am.

I was hoping that was just one crazy guy.

Did you hear the way he screamed at me? He wasn't alone.

Everybody likes a conspiracy. It's more satisfying than just one crazy guy doing one crazy thing. Geller goes silent.

Well, what are we going to do out here? Do you know your way around? You know any country people?

Not country people. Games people. The countryside's full of games development people, project co- ordinators, little factories - you name it.

That's weird. I never knew that.

The city's full of bad microwaves, bad thermals, bad electro-optics. You can't shield from it anymore. You can't get true readings. The whole industry moved out of the city years ago.

So you know your way around. We can hide out.

Maybe. But it seems I have some enemies I didn't know I had. "Death to Allegra Geller." How'd you like to hear somebody with a gun screaming, "Death to Ted Pikul"?

Wow. (reflective pause; then) Hey, how'd you know my name?

(indicating his name tag)

You're labelled.

Oh. Yeah.

It has a trigger. I pulled it.

Can I see it?

Later. I think I'm gonna use it in my next game. If there ever is a next game. Pikul glances at her. He hits a pothole and she bounces around in her seat, exposing her far shoulder to him. Her shirt is soaked with blood.

Migod, you're bleeding. I forgot you got hit. There is an urgent buzzing from somewhere in Pikul's breast pocket.

What's that?

It's my pink-fone. I'm not sure I should answer it.

Answer it. Pikul pulls the pink-fone - it's soft surgical plastic, palm-sized - out of his pocket. When he squeezes it open, a diffuse pink light swells up from deep inside it.

What? Can I have my pink-tone back? Geller finds the power button and pushes it. The pink inner light flutters out. She unceremoniously throws the pink-tone out the window. It lands in a rain ditch full of frogs.

That was a rangefinder. As long as you have that, they know where you are.

They? You mean head office?