Claire heaved, expecting to cough out gel from her lungs. But there was none. She looked around, realizing that she was now fully in the virtual reality simulation Juzhi had programmed. She had been sent to a tiny, featureless room, with white walls. She gasped and fell back.
She looked around. The room was real. It must have been. Juzhi must have taken her out of the tube, and sent her to a hotel somewhere.
Claire tried to clear her mind, and tried to focus. "No, Claire. No." She commanded herself. "This is not real." She had to remember that. The moment the mind could not perceive the difference was the moment it was lost.
Claire pushed at the walls. They felt solid, with paint chipping off their sides, rust appearing through the chips. "How is this possible?" she whispered to herself. This type of detail had yet to have been achieved anywhere she had seen. Nothing looked procedurally generated, as she would expect from a typical virtual reality system. She stood.
"You can't stay here," Claire said to herself. "You have to keep moving."
Claire opened the white door in front of her, and stepped into a circular stone chamber more than fifty feet wide. A soothing string quartet reverberated across the hall, which was dimly lit save for a light in the center. The door behind her closed; Claire spun around to see that no door remained. Her heart thumped in her chest.
Claire turned around and looked towards the center of the room. She could discern a figure moving about, but the light was far too bright to make out details. As she neared the center of the hall she could make out a marble table, and standing next to it was James, clothed in a white robe.
"James?" she exclaimed. She didn't expect to find him so soon, and had so many questions. "Where are we? How long have you been here, how..."
James looked, puzzled at her. "Are you my 10:30?"
Claire was taken aback by the question. "What? James, we have to get out of here, I..."
James smiled thinly. "Ma'am, I have a long day ahead of me. Unfortunately I can't leave now."
Claire was dumbfounded. She looked at what James had been working at. The marble table was lined with thick cushions. At its side was a small shelf with bottles filled with glowing substances. We're in some sort of spa?
"James, don't you recognize me? I'm Claire, we work together..."
James shook his head. "Ma'am, this is your first time here, I've never seen you. If I've upset you for some reason I can find a different masseuse for you..."
James began to step away. Claire panicked. She couldn't lose him, so soon. "No, wait." Claire was starting to realize that the simulation was stronger than what she had ever experienced; James had appeared to have lost all sense of self. It wouldn't be as simple as just pulling him out.
Claire swallowed, realizing she'd have to let this play out, at least for a little bit. "I'm ready for my appointment."
James nodded and smiled. "Wonderful." He gestured towards the table. "Please disrobe and lie face up on the table."
Claire blinked at the abruptness of the request. James wants me to strip, in front of him? Simultaneously she realized that the clothes she had entered with were gone, and replaced by a thick white robe, similar to what James was wearing.
"Ma'am... Claire, is it? Surely the front desk informed you about the nature of massages here..."
Claire trembled. A rush of memory came back to her. Wait a minute... I've been here before. The spa near Oslo. Claire had been convinced to get a massage by a new friend she had met at a conference there. She had come in a room, similar to this one. Five minutes into the massage, she had bolted from the room, clutching her robe to her chest and legs. The effect of a stranger touching her frightened her, pulling her into feelings she her timidity couldn't cope with. The simulation is drawing from my own memories, she realized, her heart sinking.
"Claire, are we ready to get started?"
In Norway I didn't have to take my clothes off. What's going on here? "James, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable removing the robe... can we please continue with my robe on?"
James' eyes darkened. "Claire, I am an artist; would you expect Rodin to have sculpted with a curtain around his stone? You are welcome to consult with a less experienced masseuse if you wish."
The commanding tone in James' voice prodded Claire into action. I can't lose him to the simulation, not when I just found him. Claire unhooked a shoulder from her robe, and then the other. The robe fell loosely onto her breasts. Claire steeled herself, eyes closed, as though diving into a cold pool, and then wriggled the robe off. It fell loosely onto the stone ground.
Claire could feel James gaze on her naked body even though her eyes were closed. "Claire," James whispered strangely. "I need you to put your arms by your side."
Claire realized, somewhat foolishly, that her right arm was hugged across her chest, hiding her nipples. Her left hand was between her legs, guarding her privates. She could feel his eyes were piercing harder into her. "James, if I get this massage, do you think I can talk to you as you work?" She tried to find some saving grace in this embarrassing affair.
James nodded. Claire slowly drew her hands away from a guarding position and to her sides. James approached her, and Claire gritted her teeth. He stepped behind her and gingerly touched her neck. "I'm going to probe your body for sources of tension."
Claire shivered as his hands worked across her shoulders and down her back. "James, how long have you worked here?" That was how we most easily pulled ourselves out of the lucid state. By finding contradictions in the simulation, by asking questions we had no easy answers to.
"About a year." James's right hand was moving down her lower back now.
"And you've always worked as a masseuse?"
"No. I've had a lot of different jobs." James had one hand on her shoulder, and his other hand was now approaching the curve of her buttocks. Claire's modesty instinctively took over, and her hips jerked away; but James was faster; in a flash his other hand was on her hips, and held her in place. Claire gasped.
"James, I...wait..."
He didn't listen. His hand was now caressing and digging deeply across her buttocks. Strangely, his grip on her was not terribly strong. It was almost as though some other force was holding her in place while his hands crawled over her body. Is this what I want...? No, the simulation must be holding me here...