Feb 2018 v01 online

I did it anyway. I put Findlay, silent, head
seeping, but still alive, in the trunk of my car
with a sock in his mouth and his hands zip-tied
behind his back. I drove to work, left him there
till lunchtime, and then drove on my
lunchbreak to one of the empty buildings on
the outskirts of the industrial sector and let him
out.
Findlay whimpered, wept, but the blow to the
head had robbed him of words.
The next three robbed him of the rest. I rolled
him into the corner, covered him with a pile of
bricks, and went back to the office for the
afternoon shift.
It wasn’t until I was sat back at my chair,
awash in the glow of the simulation computer’s
several screens in my freezing, dimly lit room,
that the reality of my transgression became clear
to me.
What – what the hell did I just do? What the hell
did I just do? How the hell could I do that? Oh my
God.
I tried not to let emotion – stronger than any
I had felt in months, years – show on my face. I
turned away from the arch that opened out
onto the office, and hid my face in the gloom
toward the computer housing opposite. The
industrial fans hummed, so my suddenly heavy
breathing could only be seen, and not heard, by
the tiny puffs of steam that condensed in the
frigid air. The simulator’s great, hulking form
sat squat in the chill, and all of a sudden I felt
incredibly tiny, so delicate in my place in the
world, here in the simulator computer’s
shadow.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. No. If – I can’t –
***
The simulation ended without definitive
conclusion, much to Daniel’s surprise. The
specific code for his personal universes was set
to end the simulation whenever it was
inevitable that he would be caught and
punished. He scanned the simulation history,
mentally converting scraps of code into
environmental data from the city around him.
He saw a stream of numbers in which a police
officer strolled past the café around 11:00AM
and followed it with interest, but a closer look
indicated she hadn’t even paused.
In the parking lot? Daniel tried to take in preexisting
environmental structures, and
eventually found a security camera on the roof
of the café, exactly where his simulated double
had expected it to be. That would be the issue,
then – just odd that the factor of inevitability
hadn’t been clearly laid out as in previous
simulations. As Daniel deleted the data and
changed the system time on the simulator
computer to mask the late start of his next client
simulation, he absentmindedly wondered what
his double had felt, knowing his actions were
being scrutinised, and that he’d be sent to
prison for the rest of his life as soon as someone
asked after Findlay, who was a semi-wealthy
yuppie with a plethora of friends. Of course,
virtual Daniel had no idea that his life, his
consciousness – the universe in which he lived,
the very reality – would blink out of existence
before any consequences could be met.
Would that be comforting?
The thought hung in his mind, like the taste
of blood in his mouth, as he entered the
supplementary data for the simulator’s next job.
This was going to be a big one; no more
personal simulations for a while. Impatience set
Daniel’s teeth on edge.
While technically the simulator computer,
the services it provided, and the company built
around them existed (just) within the bounds of
the law, the political juggernaut behind the
question to be posed in the next task was well
out of line in engaging with the company. Her
job was already on thin ice, and Daniel