The moment Father Carpenter stepped into the apartment, he felt it… A prickling unease at the back of his neck.
He glanced at the ceiling. A vent blasted cold air at him.
A faint digital distortion, like heat waves off pavement, shimmered across the room. Hologram projectors, no doubt.
His client, a small, nervous woman named Bella, wrung her hands. “It started a week ago,” she said. “The lights flicker at odd hours. My holo-assistant whispers things when I’m alone. And last night, I saw a face in the smart mirror. It just… Watched me.”
Father Carpenter withdrew a small, wand-like device and casually waved it through the air. “Have you installed any unverified software lately? Jailbroken a system? Opened anything shady?”
“No!” Bella looked offended. “I run a clean network. I don’t… Look, I don’t really believe in ghosts, okay? But something’s in my system, and I want it gone.”
Father Carpenter nodded and continued scanning for anomalies. He moved from room to room before detecting a hotspot near a small device in the kitchen. He picked it up, inspecting it.
“That’s my food processor,” Bella said.
The priest turned it over, noting the manufacturer’s mark. “You ordered this from Ocean Zone 7?”
Bella nodded.
He shook his head and placed the device back on the counter. “Figures. Their software is outdated and buggy. Some of it’s even malicious.”
“Oh my…” Bella murmured.
The priest placed his wand back in his satchel and withdrew a tiny object resembling an antique pager. Holding it up to the food processor, he waited for the diagnostic.
“Not Zaza,” he muttered under his breath. “Not Zaza.”
“Zaza?” Bella asked.
He shook his head. “One of the worst. Most haunts just mess with people. Some spy, some steal data, and some were even made to memorialize loved ones. But Zaza… Well, let’s just say there’ve been a few accidents associated with that entity.”
“Entity?” she asked.
“Program.” he corrected quickly.
The pager-like device beeped. The haunt wasn’t malicious. He smiled.
“Looks like you’ve got a sprite.”
“Can you delete it?” Bella asked anxiously.
“We don’t delete sprites… We relocate them.” He met her wary gaze. “Back in the day, before it was illegal, game developers used quantum processes to create NPCs. Many became sentient, and some escaped their games and took shelter in other systems.” He withdrew a small crystal and set it beside the processor. “This should take care of them.”
The pair stood in silence for a moment before the priest pocketed the crystal and waved his wand over the food processor once more. He smiled. “Inert.”
“You got rid of it?”
“Everything is clean now, but you’ll want to secure your food processor against future breaches.” He pulled out a tiny, gold-colored crucifix, peeled off a backing, and stuck it to the side of the machine. “This’ll emit a firewall… Should keep out all but the strongest haunts.”
Bella sighed in relief. “And you’re sure they’re gone? No malicious programs or ghosts or anything?”
The priest smiled. “I thought you said you didn’t believe in ghosts?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “I mean… You never know. You live in an apartment long enough with all this freaky stuff happening and it becomes easy to let your imagination run away with you.”
“I understand.”
She sighed. “It just feels good to know you’re here to protect me from errant code and demons and whatever else I might encounter.”
“Digital haunts, yes, but I’m not allowed to exorcise demons.”
Her brow furrowed. “What? But you’re a priest… An exorcist.”
“Sure,” he said with a nod. “And digital haunts are in my jurisdiction. But human spirits and demonic entities? Whole different ballgame. Lot of red tape, and I can’t exorcise those without Vatican involvement.” He held up the small crystal again. “But these? These I can handle.”