The Elias Anomaly

Nineteen

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It was a place like no other in the Cluster that Dulcie had seen. A beautiful ornamental garden laid out before a giant period mansion. The mansion itself modernised and fitted with all modern conveniences. It was not impossible that such a work existed in a folly somewhere but the detailing work here was incredible.

There was enough work in this simple, European style estate to base an entire plex on. It was nothing like Cristemont, the architecture was further forward in the eighteenth century. The only other place something like this could exist was Westwick. That plex was filled with modern architecture, it was a world without history. There was nothing there that represented this marriage of old and new.

Dulcie instantly thought about the things that could happen here. What could you do with a Mediterranean styled modern setting? How much fun would it be to use the buildings of history as a playground?

She pictured some sort of espionage scenario, like the old-style spy films. That was definitely a new flavour to add into the expanded Cluster. Maybe one day she would be in a position to suggest it. Maybe it should be her next project.

Of course that would totally be ripping off this place, but she didn't even know where or what this place was. It appeared to mix technology with an old-style menace in a way that she hadn't experienced in the Cluster before.

"In case you were wondering," the Agent said. "I assembled this place, but I did not design it. I lack the cultural reference points. It affords an extra layer of security in its code in that it blends in with... the other place."

"What other place?" Dulcie asked. She had been examining a statue, a female nude carved in marble, on the corner of a raised flower bed. She marvelled at the detail on the weathering. The subtlety of the marble veining, the solidity of the surface were beautifully rendered.

The moment she put her fingers on the hip of the nude the Agent had said 'the other place'. She had felt the chill not just from the stone but also in the Agent's tone. The Agent was afraid.

"How much of the Cluster do you know, Miss Fernandez?" the Agent asked.

"I don't know, there are parts I'm not so familiar with. During an apprenticeship an architect sees, well, pretty much everything," she replied.

"I don't think you do," the Agent said. "Not everything."

"If you're talking about the Fog Theatre," Dulcie said. "It is true that all I've ever seen of that is a guided tour. We're required to be aware of it by law and we do take a look around but its only people who elect to specialise in war games who go any further. I'm not a rigid simulationist so I just work on the main product, but I know the other stuff is there."

The Agent sighed.

"Would you like some sort of refreshment, Miss Fernandez?" He asked. "I'll have it sent down, then we should sit on the patio and I will tell you of things you do not know."

Dulcie accepted an iced tonic water and a bowl of tortilla chips. She sat with the Agent as the Agent sipped at a tumbler of whiskey. His gaze was focused beyond the garden. His eyes fixed on a point off over the gentle roll of the green hills painted across the distant, hazy horizon.

"You people, Endoverse Incorporated, you take money from spies and murderers," said the Agent. "You have built a seam of cancerous evil into this world of fantasy and decadent indulgence. You have created an environment where there is more than you are even capable of understanding. You do not consider unintended consequences of your actions."