Multireal Read Online Free PDF Page B

face of John Ridglee, the weasel smirk of V. T. Vel Osbiq.
    The drudges.
    Ridgello, clearly irritated, gave his troops the signal to sheathe
their weapons. The Council lieutenant summoned PokerFace 85a to
mask his own roiling emotions as the drudges formed a receiving line
and began peppering the retreating officers with questions for their
readers.
    "Lieutenant, why has Len Borda decided to seize MultiReal by
force?"
    "Who approved this mission?"
    "Has the Council consulted the Prime Committee about this?"
    "What charges are you planning to bring against Natch?"
    "Is this legal?"
    Magan Kai Lee trudged through the courtyard, saying nothing,
trying to figure out the exchange rate of this new situation. He could
practically taste the bile in the back of his throat. "You see, Rey?" he
said over ConfidentialWhisper. "This snake has fangs."

    3
    Natch stood at his workbench and waved his left hand. A shimmering
bubble the size of a coin appeared in the air before him. The bubble
quickly expanded until it encompassed most of the workbench, until
it enveloped him entirely and blanketed the rest of the world in a
translucent film.
    MindSpace. An empty canvas, a barren universe. Anything was
possible here.
    With his right hand, Natch undid the clasps to the weather-beaten
satchel that sat on the side table. The satchel flopped open to reveal its
hidden treasure: twenty-six thin metal bars, branded with the letters
of the Roman alphabet. Natch's fingers wandered blindly to the bar
labeled F and slid it whisper-quiet from its sheath. As soon as the
bio/logic programming bar passed the borders of MindSpace, spikes
and finials burst from its sides like a butterfly's wings emerging from
the cocoon. Natch swished the bar back and forth in front of him, and
the butterfly took flight.
    The fiefcorp master raised his left hand again and spread his fingers
wide. The MindSpace bubble exploded with a sinuous curve of interlocking spheres, a virtual centipede in hues of purple and brown. The
canvas was covered down to the last square centimeter, and yet still the
shapes multiplied.
    Too close in. Natch hitched his thumb back, zooming out to a
better vantage point. The spheres only grew in density as they receded,
until they became atomic particles in a solid block of gray. Farther out,
the block was now merely one of thousands, a brick in the wall of an
ominous castle of programming code. Natch, impatient, continued
jabbing his thumb backward. Now even the castle was just one small
portion of an immense oval-shaped structure. Parapets and walkways in aqua and silver swirled through the whole and made daring forays
across the central void. A MindSpace megalopolis.

    At last the entire structure lay visible before him. Natch could pan
out no farther. He extended his left index finger and rotated his hand
ninety degrees counterclockwise, causing a legend to appear atop the
block of code.
POSSIBILITIES
    Version: 0.76
    Programmer: The Surina/Natch Multi Real Fiefcorp
    Possibilities was the fiefcorp's brand name for MultiReal. MultiReal: the product of sixteen years' isolation by one of the world's most
brilliant scientists, with virtually unlimited resources at her disposal.
MultiReal: the crowning achievement of an entire line of Surinas
stretching back for generations.
    And now the program belonged to Natch.
    The entrepreneur hefted the spiky programming tool in his hand,
testing its mass. He rotated the castle around and around, looking for
just the right spot.... There. A soft place, a weakness in the virtual
masonry. All at once, Natch raised the bar over his head and struck at
the castle wall with furious strength.
    Clang. The bar bounced off the castle and set his right hand vibrating.
    Natch grabbed the bar again with both hands, wielding it like a
crazed samurai. He began delivering savage blows to the structure
before him. Again and again he struck, snarling with rage. Finally one
of the blows