Back in the Game

by Christopher Keene

  The speeding truck that crashed into me, unsurprisingly, had no logo on it, but I assumed from the rough paint job that it was a company truck. As it approached, it ever so slightly turned into the side of my car, flipping it off the road.

  “Whamo!” Windsor called in place of actual sound. “I tell you, I’m surprised you got out of that with just a little brain damage.”

  Watching the moment that my life was changed forever as President Wona confessed that it was his nephew who did it drove me into a fit a rage. “Why didn’t you have this one deleted, huh? Why did this one slip through? It’s almost like you’re building evidence in a case against your own nephew!”

  Windsor winked at me. “Astute as always, Noah. And last but definitely not least!”

  He pressed a button on the control and a familiar voice arose from the walls around us. “Because I was the driver who followed you onto the highway, and the truck driver who crashed into your car was this guy here! You’re in here because of us!”

  It was Bitcon, his exact words from when he confronted me in Rubik’s Castle. It suddenly dawned on me why I had been invited to this meeting in the first place.

  “You’re going to use your nephew to get Wona off the hook! Bitcon and his team are your company’s scapegoat!”

  “Come now, Noah,” Windsor chided, shaking his head. “It’s not a scapegoat if the person being punished for the crime is the one at fault.”

  “B-but he’s your own family!” I cried but stopped myself, not believing my own words when realizing I was defending him, the one who had killed Sue.

  Windsor’s friendly expression changed, and he gave me a grave look as he brought back the video of the crash, pausing it a second after the moment of impact. “He’s a murderer, Noah. Even if he wasn’t the one behind the wheel of the truck, and trust me, Colban will be convicted along with him, Samuel is a self-confessed accessory to Sue’s death.”

  So if Samuel Wona is Bitcon, Colban must be the name of the barbarian-looking Heavy in Bitcon’s team.

  I shook my head, not believing my ears. “Why didn’t you have them arrested as soon as you found out?”

  Windsor grinned at me again. “I was waiting for you, Noah. I knew putting you at the head of this would be the only way to help you finally put Sue’s memory to rest. That’s why I invested thousands of dollars into a Dream Engine powerful enough to get you into the Dream State despite your injuries. That’s why there were always security guards outside your door at the hospital and rehabilitation center; so no one could harm you while you recovered. Heck, I even allowed Data to tutor you at half the usual price that other players would’ve had to pay for someone of his caliber.”

  I shook my head, his voice seeming to reach out to my rational mind.

  “Don’t you see? I was trying to help you recover the whole time! I had no idea Samuel was still trying to get at you inside the game!”

  “But you gave him the orders to steal the evidence!” I was breathing hard now, trying to find a hole in what he was saying. “You had me lured to a dungeon to kill me and used Sue to do it!”

  Windsor shook his head. “It’s true that I wanted the orb. I’m a completionist, Noah, like most gamers. I love for everything to be gathered into a nice little collection to show off, especially evidence. Why do you think I didn’t just wipe out every Transfer Orb in the game? I could have, you know. But no, instead I sent players like Dice to go out and search the orbs to see which of them contained the videos.”

  I gaped at this revelation. It’s true, he could have just deleted them all. Why didn’t I think of that before?

  “Heck, I had already given orders for Samuel to stand down from his command so Dice could take over. It was his job to retrieve the evidence from you, but Samuel caught wind of this and made his own plans, hoping to silence you so he wouldn’t get caught.” Windsor raised his palms. “As loyal as he is, Dice lacks the charisma to be a good leader . . .” He grinned at me. “But that’s where you come in!”

  My head was buzzing with the implications of all this new information. If what he had said was true, not only were Wona themselves innocent of killing Sue, but they were offering to help me bring the ones that were responsible to justice.

  Could it really have all been just a big misunderstanding?

  Chapter 22: Making a Deal

  I was still whirling with the consequences of my discoveries when Windsor made his offer.

  “Once Sirswift is behind bars . . .” He said his in-game name, as though trying to distance himself from his nephew IRL. “He’ll need to be replaced. You’ve proven yourself to be a man who can lead people. The amount of times your friends have followed you into dungeons with near impossible odds shows you to be a charismatic leader.”

  I shook my head at the proposition. “You . . . want me to work for Wona?”

  He nodded and spread his hands. “Catastrophe’s new leader: Noah Newbolt.”

  Catastrophe . . . that’s the group they wanted Data to join. Maybe we could . . . No! This is ridiculous!

  “It’s not so ridiculous, is it?” Windsor shrugged, as though he could read my mind. “Think about it this way. You can’t trust I’ll do what I say I will with my nephew.”

  “Damn right,” I agreed.

  “But you also know that I want you working for me. If you work for me, you’ll be able to witness every stage of Samuel’s downfall from beginning to end with a front row seat.” He lifted his eyebrows at me. “I’ll put it in the contract.”

  “And I know how seriously you follow those.” I couldn’t seem to make this remark sound sarcastic after what he had just shown me.

  Windsor raised his palms, as though it were obvious. “I’m a businessman.”

  “What about Brock breaking his agreement, then?”

  If I have as much leverage as he says I do, maybe I can get a bit more out of this than just a job.

  Windsor nodded, his eyes catching the screen again. “Well, the confidentiality agreement says he’ll not share the information with anyone outside of the company. The way I see it, if you’re a part of the company, he wouldn’t have broken his contract, now would he?”

  Wraps everything up with a nice little bow. I would almost consider it clever if it wasn’t so cruel.

  “But if you have a reason to trust me, I’ll need a reason to trust you.” He sighed. “Although the company won’t be found guilty in any court for the beta-testers overdosing, the good name of the Wona Company itself is still at stake. If those videos become public, it will be a PR disaster and Brock will be charged with releasing private information. Do you catch my drift?”

  I nodded. “So the deal is, I work for you in return for putting your nephew in prison, and for the videos, you’ll leave Brock alone and clear him of all charges?”

  “You have my word,” he confirmed. “So long as no one else sees the videos, the contract will not have been broken, so there will be nothing to charge him with. So long as we work together, it will be mutually beneficial. You want to see Sue’s murderers brought in front of a judge, don’t you? It’s a win-win.”

  I nodded, too deep in thought to agree to the deal right away. I wanted it, more than anything, but I wasn’t willing to sign my name to anything just yet, not until I had all the information I needed.

  “I need to think about it.”

  Windsor leaned back in his chair and spread his hands. “By all means, take as much time as you need. But remember, if the videos become public, this offer will become void. Think of it as a package deal.”

  I stood and went to make my way back up to Heaven’s Gate, stopping before I reached the stairs. “I guess I can’t get into Heaven until I sign on with you either?

  He smiled and bowed his head. “Heaven is still in its testing stages. At this point it’s only accessible by Hero rank administrators and Wona employees.”

  “Trying to sweeten the deal?” I asked.

  He frowned. “I understand how you might see i
t that way, but that’s just the rules for new dungeons. If you want, you can think of it as one of the perks of the job.”

  “I will.” I turned and climbed the stairway to Heaven.

  When I came out of the darkness, the bright light over the clouds was almost blinding. I squinted and saw Sentry Peter still at his podium. He raised his wrinkled brow at me, as though asking me if I wanted something. I turned, ignoring him in favor of leaving. I had enough on my plate after coming here.

  Wait? Why did I enter the Dream State again?

  I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to meet with Brock and pulled up my messages to see two notifications from him. The newest read:

  Brockodile: “Where are you? I’ve been waiting in this rain for two hours!”

  Crap!

  I replied: “Where are you now?”

  Brockodile: “Entry to the Barren’s Rift dungeon.”

  I was about to ask where it was in the Barrens, but then remembered I still had time to use the map Dice had given me and decided not to bother.

  “I’ll be there soon.”

  Brockodile: “You’d better be. I’m soaked through!”

  Instead of flying all the way to the Barrens, I summoned Peragon and flew down into the Land’s End port town. Inside, it definitely hinted at the steampunk society beyond Heaven’s Gates. I didn’t get a chance to appreciate the clean, cobblestoned town before I landed at the Gateway to an airship landing pad.

  As I’d thought, the Gateway was in the middle of the airstrip. I selected the Onjira Village, ran out of the city, and again called forth Peragon from my Summoning Stone. Flying through the mountains, it took me less than half an hour to get to the stormy wastelands of the Barrens.

  I pulled up the map and found that the Gateway to Barren’s Rift was just south of the Storm Wall. The sketches around the Gateway made it look like a massive crater in the already pockmarked land. The earth surrounding it was cracked with thick ravines, as though whatever lightning bolt had caused the hollow was involved with the story of the land itself.

  I swooped down toward it, my robes becoming sodden in the rain. The water pooled at the base of the crater where the Gateway floated, and I was starting to think the rain wasn’t the only reason Brock had become drenched.

  I spotted him, a cloaked form on the edge of the crater’s slope. He waved at me and I shot down toward him and jumped off my mount. I didn’t plan on hanging around in the rain so I kept Peragon out. I was fascinated at the little character animation as my Pegasus-dragon hybrid began playing in the puddles, as though it felt at home in such a place.

  “Hey!” Brock called. “Did you bring my copy of the videos?”

  Oh, that’s right! How to explain this without . . . wait a minute, he’s my friend and he lied to me. Why am I the one walking on eggshells around him?

  “Why did you lie about Wona forging your signature?”

  I think this was my first question because talking to President Wona had agitated me. I was mostly agitated at myself for not being more suspicious of how Brock claimed to know about the forgery, despite the fact that no one had used the confidentiality agreement against him yet.

  Brock’s eyes widened but he played dumb. “Sorry?”

  “Did you see the confidentiality agreement after you refused to sign it?”

  “No.” His brow furrowed, as though already aware of what I was accusing him of. “Why are you asking me this now?”

  “It’s just odd that you can so confidently say they forged your signature if you never saw it afterward.” Despite this hole in his story, I decided I should give him an out. “It’s almost like you’re trying to cover up for a mistake you made.”

  Brock stepped forward. “What kind of mistake?”

  I realized he wasn’t going to admit it unless I spelled it out. “Oh . . . I don’t know. That you signed it in distress and regretted it later, and so you lied about it?”

  Brock’s eyes hardened. “Who have you been talking to? Did Data—?”

  “Why are you always blaming Data?” I stopped and shook my head. “I can’t believe you would lie to me like that!”

  Brock looked down, eyelids tightly closed. “Okay, fine! But it wasn’t completely a lie, okay? When I signed it, I wasn’t in my right mind. I was coming off of the aftereffects of whatever drugs I had been on at the time. The way they forced it on me when they did, they may as well have forged it themselves!”

  This made sense, but I wasn’t going to let it slide just like that. Windsor’s words still weighed heavily on my mind.

  “What are you going to do if I give you the videos?” I asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He flicked his hand out, rain splattering from his cloak. “Make it public, show everyone with eyes to see it, and make Wona confess to what they did! What Sue always wanted!”

  As soon as he tried to use Sue to make my emotions overtake my reason, I knew I couldn’t give him the videos, no matter what he said.

  “If you did, they would be after you.” I then shouted, “You’d be guilty of everything they’re accusing you of!”

  “How would you know what they’re accusing me of?” Brock looked at me in confusion, but then sudden understanding came over his expression. “You were approached by them, weren’t you? They tried making a deal with you!”

  I nodded. “I won’t deny it. That’s how I know you lied about them forging the agreement. That’s how I know that you’ll get screwed if those videos ever go public and they take you to court. They have everything recorded from when you first arrived at Wona Laboratories to the security footage of you stealing the videos!”

  Brock raised his arms in exasperation. “Of course they do! Don’t you think I know that? I’ve been on the run for the better part of a year! And now that I finally have the chance to clear my conscience, you’re telling me that doing so will land me in even more hot water? I’m already too far in to pull out now, Noah!”

  “There’s a way out of it,” I said.

  Brock nodded dramatically. “And here it comes! Go on, tell me their offer! Does it happen to involve giving them the evidence and hoping for the best?”

  “Listen to me. I’m the only one who you showed the videos to, right? Well, the agreement states that you can’t show people outside the company, so if I join the company you wouldn’t have t—”

  Brock seemed to crack when hearing this. “Are you absolutely nuts? Join Wona? They killed Sue, for Pete’s sake, Noah! Can you think of a better way of spitting on her memory than joining the very company that killed her?”

  “It wasn’t them,” I said, although even coming from my lips, it sounded like a weak excuse.

  “I must be going crazy.” Brock palmed his forehead. “You told me, only a month ago, that Bitcon admitted to purposefully crashing a truck into your car! How is that not Wona’s fault?”

  “Bitcon didn’t do that at Wona’s request; his team did that on their own!”

  “Oh, well, isn’t that convenient?”

  I could tell Brock had been pushed to his limits, finally having what he had been working for within arm’s reach and realizing he wasn’t going to get it. I knew what he must have been feeling, but I still had to try and get through to him.

  “I saw the instructions they gave him. His team was only supposed to scare us,” I said, not believing that I was defending Wona to my best friend.

  “Of course!” Brock shouted sarcastically.

  “Just listen to me, okay?” I tried to calm my head. “They’re going to turn him in, they were planning on doing it from the beginning, but they wanted me involved.”

  Brock waved his hand in the air again. “A scapegoat, brilliant!”

  “He’s the one who killed Sue!” I then yelled, “I need this game, Brock!”

  There was a crash of lightning then. During the flash and in the silence after it, I saw his face. I mean, really saw it, and in that instant, I knew why this was going to turn out badly for our friendship. Fro
m the change in his expression, I think he understood then as well.

  “That’s all that matters to you, isn’t it?” Brock sounded like a broken man. “Staying in the Dream State . . . avenging Sue. So long as they put Bitcon and his men behind bars and keep you in the game, you couldn’t give a crap about my friends who died.”

  I felt a deep ache pull in my chest as the full weight of our disagreement hit me all at once.

  I said, “Your friends made their decision as soon as they signed up to be beta testers.”

  With a flash, Brock’s bow appeared in his hands and he was nocking an arrow and firing at me. On instinct, I leapt back to dodge it and cast an Ice Wall in front of me to block the second arrow he tried to shoot my way.

  “What the heck are you doing?” I cried.

  “I’m going to get that evidence!” Brock growled. “Even if I have to paralyze you, drag you to Tertiatier and loot it off your corpse!”

  Chapter 23: Frenemies

  Behind my wall of ice, I called Peragon over to mount it before Brock could run around and fire at my flanks. I took off, only barely dodging one of Brock’s arrows as it whizzed past me. The wind and rain whipped at me as I flew. However, as I looked back, I saw that Brock wasn’t going to give up so easily.

  He had summoned his Ice Dragon, and, having the larger of the two mounts, he was quickly gaining on me. Afraid he might try to freeze me with his mount’s Ice Breath, I tried some evasive maneuvers. However, this more or less had me flying blindly into the rain as he rushed to catch up.

  An arrow zoomed past and exploded into a Fire Ball spell in front of me. I turned north to avoid it. In a sense, Brock and I had similar abilities. With my Boomstick, I could launch spells at greater distances, and with his specialty arrows, Brock could cast a spell at me with each one he loosed.

  However, his arrows were limited to level two spells, while I had two level threes in my arsenal, and one of them was a spell that I didn’t think his mount would like.