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By morning, everything has changed. Congratulatory notes pour in from the staff. Chef Le Clercq
has announced an official banquet to be held in your honor this evening,
while headwaiter Sutherland writes to say he is planning another gala tomorrow night.
There’s even voice
mail from Farnsworth informing you that he is turning his office over to you and
has already dismantled the security system. Christopher arrives and reacts to this by quoting Ronald
Reagan (“Trust, but verify.”) and undertaking another spying mission. His
reconnaissance reveals that your former adversaries have acknowledged your new
role and intend no further harm.
You and Christopher return to the
computer to explore the electronic diary.
Both Van Scoy and Farnsworth soon drop
by, the former eager to serve henceforth as your official spokesperson, since
inquiries are now pouring in from all over the world; the latter happy to
accept your invitation to remain and lend assistance. This proves to be
helpful, for Farnsworth willingly provides a lot of background information
about Lord Hanover’s involvement with VR technology.
Soon after spinning up the disc, it becomes
apparent that Uncle Arthur has again devised a complex game. In the virtual
manor, everything from real life is duplicated—jeweled keys, high-tech
controllers, even the village newspaper with peculiar stories embedded with
clues. You’re required to find hidden videocassettes; and each time you do,
Lord Hanover appears, perfectly composited into the virtual scene, reading yet
another excerpt from his diary. Or you can switch to the game’s “live” option,
whereby Lord Hanover appears life-sized reading from his real chair.
A fantastic tale unfolds. You’re no
blood relation after all, but rather a subject who was selected at random in a
grand scientific experiment. Your late “uncle” was suffering from a terminal
illness and wished to stun the world by proving that he could become
DNA-related to anybody in it, and
thus executed an secret plan to bequeath his entire estate to a total stranger.
These revelations make Farnsworth feel cheated, for the butler always
considered you to be a genuine relation, albeit a closeted one. Another hostile
scene erupts, but a phone call from the Royal Society abruptly ends it. The
news is stunning: Arthur Hanover is about to be nominated for a Nobel Prize in
physiology and medicine and—along with Dennis Rollinsby, now missing and
presumed dead—in physics. The foundation is currently in emergency session
attempting to change its own bylaws: Never before has any of its prizes been
awarded posthumously.
Back in your room, you ponder over this astonishing
turn of events. And reconsider all those conversations you secretly observed over the past few days.
They’ve
somehow been digitized and inserted into a computer game. How? Why? You’re now
certain that people behind the scenes—Rollinsby? CD game designers?—are
orchestrating everything. But further speculation must wait, for night has fallen and
another manor gala is about to begin.
Having
earlier decided to stage “Three Families” with the servants after dinner,
you go over the simulation with Christopher, who will serve as your assistant.
The banquet itself is a fantastic event held in the incomparable grand dining
hall, highlighted by Van Scoy’s virtuoso performance of a piano concerto she composed in your honor.
Afterward, you and Christopher host the game for
twenty-four servants. “Three Families,” in which everyone assumes the role of a
noble vying for a royal crown, proves electrifying and illuminating. By the
end, the players have nearly forgotten it’s a game, so closely does it parallel
the real-life struggle for succession at Hanover Manor. Then, just when all
assembled least expect it, you and Christopher call a halt to the game and
spring a surprise disco bash on them. Tensions evaporate as everyone dances the
night away. Upon returning, however, you find
your quarters stripped of all your possessions.
But this time it’s nothing
sinister. The staff has simply moved you the royal bedchambers on the second
floor, as befits your new status.
They’ve even left a lovely assortment of Godiva chocolates, which you
munch on as your gaze falls upon an article in the local newspaper about a lady
who is suing the company, claiming she is “addicted to chocolate.” The coincidences (or “synchronicities,” as
Christopher would have it) continue unabated. For example, when idly channel
surfing and pausing at an X-Files “crop circles” episode, your gaze
shifts to a local news article on the origin of this local phenomenon. Eerie.
Unable
to sleep, you decide to go on a late-night reconnaissance mission. The blue
controller reveals that all is well in the manor. At the chef’s office, Le Clercq
and his assistants are discussing tomorrow’s menus. At the Whisky Bar,
Sutherland, Stratton and others are planning a fantastic outdoors show they
plan to stage when the weather clears. Down at the Falstaff, Sherlock and
Reddy, McCabe and Simmons are singing karaoke—and, surprisingly, Farnsworth and
Van Scoy are there, too. It seems like they’re all burying the hatchet.
In the morning, thank-you notes pour in from nearly every member in attendance last
night. The game was apparently a rollicking success. Farnsworth, Christopher,
and you continue your investigation of Uncle Arthur’s diaries and his
scheme to immortalize his research. At the end, everyone is shocked not only
when it is fully revealed how he achieved his monumental breakthrough, but also
by how this computer game, which is embedded with powerful voice-recognition
capabilities, has managed to duplicate life in the manor since your arrival.
Uncle Arthur next appears inside a painting,
instructing you to find the receptionist, who knows the whereabouts of his final letter to you.
However, Stratton, as is her wont,
is not at her post and has probably forgotten where she hid the document several days ago.
An all-out search for her proves fruitless; the receptionist has disappeared.
Later
that afternoon, solving yet another puzzle leads you to the library and the discovery of
the missing letter.
In it, he reveals how you were chosen as “heir.”
And there’s more, including an
account of Lord Rollinsby’s breakthrough in matter transference, which, in
addition to Lord Hanover’s genetic research, was conducted at the manor labs.
Not only is teleportation risky, your uncle counsels, but you should also
beware of the national security agencies from at least a dozen countries that
would stop at nothing to obtain this technology or prevent others from doing
so. The discovery of a teleportation
controller in the virtual Manor House assures that a real one must be around
somewhere. Your search for it is postponed, however, when the weather finally
clears.
You step out into brilliant late-afternoon sunshine and find that a
sumptuous Aussie-style barbeque is underway, hosted by an unlikely twosome:
former enemies Sherlock and Le Clercq. Walking around the grounds, you
encounter several manor couples: Farnsworth and Van Scoy, who announce their
engagement and shyly ask to be kept on; Sherlock and Reddy, preparing to zoom
away on a wild motorcycle ride; Sutherland and Stratton, off to the village on
their first official date; McCabe and Simmons, likewise in a mutual swoon,
dancing barefoot on the lawn. It seems the manor has become a
kind of Camelot.
Darkness
envelops and a distinctly magical feeling descends. Suddenly every conversation
is broken in mid-stream by the blare of trumpets and the appearance of
Sutherland and Stratton in costume.
The two MC a dazzling magic show highlighted
by extraordinary special effects. Buttons fly off the doorman’s coat and land
in Sutherland’s outstretched hand; then fly back and magically reattach
themselves. Shakespeare again comes to life and waxes ecstatic on the subject of
love.
Hilarious impersonations of manor notables are performed. Then
from the heavens, a cosmic spectacular explodes—a twelve-ring holographic
circus accompanied by a stirring fanfare and spectacular fireworks. At its
conclusion, Lord Hanover appears, as he did on opening night, this time to bid
everyone a fond farewell. He’s overjoyed to see the family reunited and his
life’s work verified. His image fades and you are left as the new head of a
devoted household, not merely one on whom fortune has brightly shone.
