Chapter 87: Club Velvet (4)
When Jack mentioned to Nora that Rina was sitting on his lap at Club Velvet, she shouted, "Jack! You have to bond her. Please! When you talk to her in a simulation, please include me."
So, while physical world Jack sat and chatted with Rina and Miranda, parallel Jack entered a simulation, along with Nora, Miranda, and Madison.
The simulation started with him still sitting in the booth, with Rina on his lap and Miranda snuggled next to him. Madison and Nora appeared standing in front of them, Madison in her camisole and shorts, Nora in a lab coat.
He’d set the boundaries of the simulation to cover just the VIP area and set the lighting to be a dim glow to match what it had been like in the club before the simulation started.
Rina had been looking at Jack when he took the snapshot, so she was still looking at him when the simulation started.
"...the union rep was saying we were not allowed to-" she said, her voice loud in the sudden silence that came with the start of the simulation.
Rina looked around and said, "Jack, what just happened? Where did everyone go? Why- What is that?"
She hopped off his lap and walked over to the simulation border. And just like Anjali, she rapped on the border with her knuckles. Next, she ran her hand over the impossibly smooth surface, then rubbed her fingers together.
"This is impossible. There’s no friction! No oil, yet it’s impossibly smooth, and glowing! What IS this?!"
She turned, walked back to Jack, and stared at him with that same desperately inquisitive look he’d given him when they first met.
"I received divine-"