Immersion (Part 2)

John

          Jaya was a happy man when they got in line to enter the city. He and Jeanne had made good time on their trip to the city and the day was still young. Even the line to enter the southern gates of Ruchang was shorter than usual.

With the land of Pladir in relative peace, security was lax and the guards at the gates waved them through without much problem. Although he grew up in a rural area, Jaya had always loved the city. Take the Southern Gate District for example; upon entering the southern gate, people were bustling all around them. On his left was a stall selling dried food stuff for travelers exiting the city on long journey; to the right of him was the small tax office for merchants bringing goods into the city; and in front of him was Travelers Street.

Jaya took the street and like always immediately saw how the street got its name. On both sides of the street were stalls and shops hawking their wares to travelers either entering or leaving Ruchang. There were shops selling souvenirs, a blacksmith selling and repairing horseshoes, even a shaman selling wards and charms to travelers. Men were rushing from stall to stall and their females were running behind them covered in their g’ao and cheche. The men engaged in negotiations while their females were carrying their master’s goods on their arms, on their backs, even on their heads. Compare to the peace and quiet of the farm, Ruchang was delightful chaos.

Jaya took a side lane and soon enter into the Merchant District. Unlike the Southern Gate District where all the focus and attention were directed at the gate, the much bigger Merchant District is split into several sections. Commerce after all comes in all forms.

The money-lending business was in the north-most section of the district; finished products like cloths, tools and such were in the west section; farm products like tea, rice and such were in the east. The southern section where Jaya was at handled everything else that does not fall nicely into these categories. 

Side lanes crisscross the southern section, making it a confusing place unless you know where you are going. This was no accident. Although all the buildings were only one or two storey high, the placement of the buildings were such that there were a lot of blind spots and secret meeting places for merchants to make deals beyond the eyes of their rivals. Commerce is nothing but another form of battle.

Luckily for him, Jaya was no merchant but a farmer. However even a farmer sometimes need the skills of a merchant as a remote farm beyond the city walls needs supplies only a city can provide. With that in mind, Jaya stepped into the first store of the day. It was going to be a long day of haggling for him.

Tara

There had been days in her life when Jeanne hate being born a woman. From the moment she was born, she learned from her mother the ways of life in Pladir. For a girl, that meant a life of drudgery.

She was to sweat in the day and suffered humiliation in the night. It was a life of hard work, kneeling and bowing to men. Yes, there had been days in her life when Jeanne hated being born a woman.

Today was not one of them.

The day had started out uneventfully. As her master visited the city, all she had to do was to stand behind him as he negotiated with the various merchants of the city. As her master and the merchants engaged in endless arguments over prices of goods, she was the ornament to show that her master was a responsible man. Some of the deals required credit as her master could only pay after the harvest and a man with a family was unlikely to run away from his debts.

After the successful talks with the merchants, they left the city with Jeanne carrying a big bag of goods on her head. The talks had been relatively successful for her master and it was up to Jeanne to carry the goods back home.

As they walked towards the family homestead, her master was stopped by 4 men. Her master greeted the men with the traditional greeting between men; his right hand in a fist with the left hand open covering it. However the swords on the waist of the 4 men showed the intent of the men.  

The men “asked” her master to walk away, leaving her and the goods behind. The tradition of Pladir state that men must always protect their property and as expected, her master refused the men’s request even though he was unarmed and the 4 men were armed with swords.

The fight was mercifully short. Jaya managed to punch one of the men before being overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers. One of the men came from behind and knocked him out with his sheathed sword. The men were bandits, not killers and they did not want to risk killing her master. The guards of the city could ignore the occasional bandit gang, but not a bunch of killers.

As she was led away by the men, Jeanne looked back at her master. Yes, there had been days in her life when Jeanne hate being born a woman but seeing her master laying on the dirt road, Jeanne realized that perhaps being born a girl wasn’t such a bad deal after all.

Hal

“No”

“No?” John Mitchell said in bemusement. “Just a flat no?”

“Yes, just a flat no.” I knew that you should never say no to a customer but sometimes…“I’m not changing the program.”

“Hal, you have no problem changing it before”

“No, I never did that.” I corrected. “You said you wanted to speak to me in private. You were knocked out in the program, so I brought you out while your wife is still in session. There’s a hell of a difference between that and changing the program mid-session.”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it.” Actually I had no idea what John was implying so I let him continue. “Hal, you knew that I never told Tara I was the one who choose the Pladir program. And you never said anything to her.”

“That’s between you and her.” I carefully said. “You were the one who made the initial booking and said that you and your wife would be coming. That’s all I know. If there’s a lack of communication between you two, I and everyone here in Immersion have nothing to do with it.”

“Ha.” John actually chuckled. “As a lawyer, I must say you missed your calling Mr. Green. You would have made an excellent lawyer.”

“No, I would not. I have some morals.”

“What do say to $100,000 then?”

“A bribe? Don’t make me laugh.”

“That and a $10 million investment in Immersion.”

“An in...investment… $10 million?” I didn’t try to keep the shock from my voice.

“I did some checking and I know your company is in trouble.” John moved around the room and touched the capsule he just came out of. “You guys have a great product but it’s an expensive business with all these programs and machines. Cash flow is a huge problem for you especially.”

“We are making money”

“Not so great that your banks aren’t worried about your loans.” John must have seen the surprise on my face because he continued, “Please give me some credit. I won’t be making this pitch if I didn’t know of your troubles. If it makes you feel better, know that I am a believer in your business.”

“You are!”

“No need to be sarcastic Hal.” John actually managed to sound upset at my disbelief.  “I am a believer. I am a regular customer for the past few weeks haven’t I? I also have skills that will help your company. All I ask is for a small percentage of your company and certain…perks and benefits that comes with being an owner of the company.”

“Like changing a program halfway through an immersion”

“I was the one who choose the Pladir program and what characters Tara and I will play as. Think of it as acting on the feedback of your customer.”

“Wonderful. $10 million?” I wish I could just say no, but Immersion could use the money. “How are you going to get the money?”

“I’m rich. I’ve been a corporate lawyer for over 10 years.”

“As I recall,” pride could be a prickly thing so I had to be careful. “Your wife is the partner of the law firm you two work for. Not you.”

“Yes, but the money is not a problem for me.” John was smooth if nothing else. I could almost believe he didn’t mind working under his wife. “And I can also put you in touch with people.”
“People?”

“You and your 2 partners are thinking too small Hal. I’m thinking of offering your companies as corporate training centers.”

“Corporate training centers?”

“A place where companies can send their employees for training,” as he spoke John pointed at the control panel for the immersion machine. “You and your partners can write programs for their employees; we will market them as real-life market training.”  

“Good idea “John” but technically impossible.” As they say, reality is the place where good ideas die. “Immersion is a personal experience so the programs can only be run solo or in tandem with each other. The most number of people we can put in one session is 4. Can you imagine how long it will take if a company of 100 sent their people for training? It will…”

“That’s something we can get around…” John paused. If I didn’t know better, I swear the guy is enjoying this. “I was thinking of calling it corrective training.”

“Corrective training?”

“They only need to send employee with “issues” to us.” John explained his idea. “Immersion would offer a quick, painless but very involved scenario for these workers. A scenario that will help “correct” their issues.”

“Immersion don’t change people’s opinions. We can put in…scenarios like you said, but the programs don’t change people’s minds. The immersion machine is not a mind-control machine.”

“But if you put in a strong enough scenario, there’s no reason to think it won’t work. After all, people change with their experiences and I know from experience your machine and program are as real as anything in real-life.”

“In…intriguing,” no need to lie, it was very intriguing. “But we have no data, even secret data to back it up.”

“Then let’s get those data for our future clients.” John’s smile said it all. He thought he got me hooked. “Consider Tara your first guinea pig.”

“You want to change her…what?”

“Attitude, personality...consider this a $10 million experiment Hal. You are a scientist right?”

Oh, he really did do some research. I did think of myself as a scientist. “Okay, I’ll do it.” I started thinking the changes needed on the immersion program. “I can’t guarantee it’ll work but…she has been captured by bandits but that’s probably not a powerful enough scenario. She will be beaten, raped…”

“No rape.” John saw my look and said, “I’m her husband. I do have some morals you know.”

I don’t know if I should laugh or cry at that but okay. “No rape…a threat of rape then. Badly beaten with a rape on the cards before you come flying in to save the day. How do you want to do it?”

“Huh?” Now it was his turn to be surprised.

“You intend to save her from 4 bandits as a farmer?” I smiled at John, glad to finally got him on something. 

I could see his mind racing through all the alternatives. Then he smiled. “I want kung-fu.”