Time Locked - C P Clarke

. .

Résumé :
Twelve players. Two realities. One game. The world has changed. The only way to escape the New World Order is through the new concept virtual reality game Time Locked. This is VR like never experienced before, but once in, you can't get out. The follow up to Stalking The Daylight. Kevin Crist's is long dead, but his game lives on. Now rebuilt and reinvented Crist's dream has been brought alive by programmer Karl Anderson using advanced virtual reality technology. Twelve players agree to play the prototype as they seek an escape from the depths of the depravity the world has fallen into. War has torn the world apart, and the political structure has changed vastly in the space of a couple of decades, with the world carved up into Quadrants controlled by conglomerates. As the players enter the game, they marvel at the realism of space travel and the adventures of other worlds. They must travel through a wormhole to another universe to recover The Key to reset time and save the Earth from extinction. They must work as a team to survive, but a cash prize awaits for the one to return The Key. The rules of the game are clear, but the AI controlling them isn't playing fair, and nor it seems are some of the players. Some have their own agenda for being there, and one shouldn't be there at all. Hidden behind their avatars, all the players have a secret to hide. Keen not to die in the game they are keen to get out, but Anderson and his team are blocked from access, and time is against them as the programming proves to have a fatal flaw....