VirtualGrams
by
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The crowd grew restless. They had come to see a show, a highly-acclaimed Virtual Reality experience like none other--a new Generation breakthrough in immersive environments. Colorful banners hung from the ceiling proclaiming a New Era in telepresence and augmented reality, each with the name VirTel and the company logo printed on them, as well as the Micro-Tech symbol of the parent corporation. Pictures adorned the walls showing the game combatants, and life-size carboard cutouts in fierce battle-action stances flanked the ballroom.
The dinner had been magnificent, the service superb, and the standup comic imported from Hollywood quite entertaining, but those present had come to see the demonstration of this new Virtual Reality. They came with checkbooks in hand. To make sure none lost sight of why they were invited, a complete, illustrated order form rested at each place setting. However, nothing would be purchased until after the demonstration...a lavish display meant to revolutionize the world of Virtual Reality, and, of course, make the creators rich!
Now the time for the main event had finally arrived!
Abigail Kincaid sat at the head table looking over the expectant audience with mixed emotions. She spent a sleepless night anticipating this hour, and now stared wordlessly at the sea of faces, her pulse pounding loudly in her ears. Her creation lay waiting to be unveiled to the world. Naturally desirous for the accolades that would come her way, not to mention the senior partnership that VirTel would surely offer, she felt exhilaration at the possibilities.
She could even picture tomorrow's headlines which she had written and sent out in promotional packs to all the papers: Abigail Kincaid Takes Virtual Reality to its Ultimate Level! Micro-Tech's Virtual Intelligence Division Has A Big Winner! Kincaid and Micro-Tech create the ultimate immersive environment!
That would make Micro-Tech Chairman Fredrich Gambill very happy. He had spent a bundle of Micro-Tech's money investing in her program. And what a program! Ten years in development, the last two at VirTel with an unlimited budget, her system would become the ultimate in Virtual Reality technology for Cyberspace far into this new century. Others would eventually find ways to copy it, but Micro-Tech would hold the patents and VirTel would be the big winner with an ever-increasing share of Micro-Tech's budget.
"The people that’ll be at the showing," Gambill informed her during an earlier planning of the demonstration, "will have enough buying power between them to purchase more than a million copies of your little game."
A million packages at five hundred apiece translated into billions of dollars overnight, and Abby felt the wonderful euphoria of success. In that ebullient state, she had agreed to whatever Gambill wanted to do for the showing, even temporarily expanding her program to allow a hundred people simultaneous involvement in the immersive reality of her adventure. The money he dangled in front of her was so extensive, she allowed it to outweigh her concerns that a hundred simultaneous emotional inputs could cause power spikes and failures in the feedback stimuli. She understood the danger, but becoming an instant billionaire required some risk. Her adjusted figures showed that it could be done, even with the enormous power wattage generation station Gambill had installed behind the hotel. Throwing his weight and money around, he obtained government and electric company approvals for the mini sub-station for this one, magnificent night.
A butterfly revolution waged war in her stomach and she found it hard to breathe. Even a tiny glitch could prove disastrous. Bombing out in front of every buyer in the world would certainly not sit well with either Micro-Tech or Fredrich Gambill. Instead of raking in billions, VirTel would be bankrupt and they would all be on the street looking for a job, which is why everyone from "the store" at VirTel worked the show, most behind the scenes running the computers and tapping into the added power sources. Once the remote connectors were activated, there would be plenty for everyone to do.
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About the Book
The savage combatants in Abby Kincaid’s computer Game have gained a life of their own and have gone on a killing rampage through the streets of Manhattan, and she is the only one that can cancel out their program. But due to Abby’s design, the escaped electromagnetic character now knows as much about computers as she does, eliminating the possibility of simply ending the program.
Only the game’s hero, Jack McGee, based on an actual ex-SEAL and jungle fighter, can kill Thundercloud, the Quechua savage bent on kidnapping Abby and making her his woman, thinking she is the Game’s female antagonist.
Knowing only Jack can kill Thundercloud, Abby embarks on a series of Virtual Realities meant to fool Jack into thinking he is helping her find a lost city in the Amazon jungle. But the real Jack refuses to take her into the jungle until she passes some SEAL training exercises, designed with the intent of keeping her from going. However, Abby has more pluck than Jack imagined and finds himself liking her spunk and determination until he finally agrees to take her to that lost city even though he seriously doubt it exists.
On the way, Jack finds himself in a reality not his own, fighting a Thundercloud unlike the one he knows, with images appearing and disappearing which effect the outcome in a way Jack could never have imagined.
The intrigue creates on-going excitement, with ex-SEALs, stolen Peruvian helicopters, GPS and Landsat imagery, free-fall parachuting, and a very questionable map to a city lost in the overgrowth of the Amazon jungle. All the time neither Jack nor Abby understand which Reality they fight and love in, or the terrible results of extended immersion in these Realities.
Based on true events from Percy Fawcett’s searches for a lost city of gold in the Amazon jungle, and Hugh McCarthy’s recorded travel from which he never returned. This is a sweeping adventure pitting a modern-day warrior against the most unusual weapons he has ever encountered, and a tribe of Peruvian savages that never die, and a love that spans two continents and several unusual realities.
About the Author
Del DowDell is a talented writer, speaker and artist. He has written over a dozen fiction books, nearly a dozen non-fiction works, more than two dozen screenplays, and lectured in over 40 states. As a scientific hobbyist and researcher, he has written several volumes on the fallacies of scientific beliefs, such as the Inaccuracy of the Carbon-14 Time Clock, Scientific Refutations of Organic Evolution, The Fallacy of the Geologic Time Scale, and The Big Bang Theory is a Dud. He has also authored several works on Mesoamerica and the Andes Mountains, disproving the old belief that earliest inhabitants of North and South America arrived via a land bridge across the Aleutians. His work on What’s What in the Legal Hut was used by businesses and major corporations to design and implement training programs on legal management methods.
Del is also a talented lecturer, having been invited to speak to and train thousands throughout the country on far ranging subjects from corporate management to self-image psychology. He developed some of the earliest understandings of Behavioral Styles that swept the country in the 1980s, writing several works and holding numerous seminars on the subject.
Currently, Del is involved in the organization and operations of several companies, consults with corporations on management techniques, provides numerous works to help the fledging writer, owns an internet retail sales company, and has begun raising, breeding and selling koi fish.
An avid researcher and trivia buff, all of Del’s works are both scientifically and historically accurate. As a father of seven and a grandfather of 16 and counting, Del’s diverse and copious experiences and credentials show up in his ability to write science-fiction, westerns, contemporary political thrillers, military adventures, and comedic works with equal aplomb.
A former baseball pitcher and architect, Del currently lives with his wife of 40 years in a house he personally designed and they built themselves on a high ridge overlooking a spacious valley in a rural area of Southern Utah.