by David Petrie
Ripper’s ear pricked up at the name, Cline, wondering if it was Berwyn’s real one. From the sudden irritation on his Lord’s face, he guessed that he was right.
“Sorry, Lord Berwyn.” Holiday corrected, bracing like he expected to be slapped at any second.
With that, the Lord of Serpents sighed. “Do you know why I choose to do my negotiations here in Noctem?”
“Ahh–” Holiday started.
“Obviously, it makes it easy to meet with clients all over the world, that’s true for any business. But really, it’s about safety. You know what I mean? In the real world, you and I are both considered… dangerous, but online, we can simply stop by and have a chat without worrying that one of us might end up face down in the harbor. That gives people peace of mind. Which, in turn, helps business move forward.” He grinned. “I mean, do you have any idea how much my client list has grown since Carpe Noctem came out?”
Holiday shook his head.
“Well, let me just say, business is booming,” he pulled out his player journal and flipped to the back where his inspector lay, “but do you know what the best part is?”
Holiday shook his head again, sweat pouring down in buckets.
“The best part is that same feeling of safety is just as fake as this bourbon. It’s a false sense of security.” That’s when he dug his inspector from his journal and dropped it on the desk.
An image of a rather portly man sleeping peacefully in bed, a Somno unit clearly visible on his head was displayed. The shadow of an unknown man fell across him.
Ripper’s heart skipped a beat, unable to believe what he was witnessing. The implications of the image were clear. Berwyn actually had a man in Holiday’s house in the real world.
The Lord of Serpents leaned down to his prey. “I would not have pegged you as the type to wear pink pajamas.”
“Oh god,” Holiday gasped as he pushed back into his chair as if trying to get away from the image. His hand shot to his other wrist to activate his system menu that was blended into his stat-sleeve. His finger hovered around the sign off option.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Berwyn placed his hand on top of Holiday’s wrist to cover his menu. “It takes around ten to fifteen minutes to fully wake up after logging out, and I can guarantee you that I can send out a kill order in that amount of time. So how about you just stay here and listen to what I have to say?”
A wave of heat rushed through Ripper’s skin. It was real. This was actually happening. Berwyn held a man’s life in his hand. There were consequences.
“Please, I can get you the money.” Holiday’s hand slipped away from his menu. “I can get you anything you want.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. But can you save my reputation? Because there is a reason that clients pay up, and sadly, it’s not because of my winning personality.” Berwyn sighed. “No, in the end, even through the veneer of safety that this amazing technology allows, it all comes down to good, old-fashioned fear. I built my reputation on it decades ago, but a side effect of running my business through Noctem has been that people start to forget that. So I’m sure you can understand, examples must be made.”
Holiday gripped the arms of his chair hard enough to make the wood creak. “But you’ll be left without a buyer for the shipment.”
Berwyn simply waved a hand as if it didn’t matter. “There’s always someone who wants to blow something up.”
“Oh, god, please,” Holiday begged, his eyes filling with tears. “I can fix this.”
Berwyn leaned back on his desk casually. “Well, that’s the thing. Even if you could, it would be too late. You were dead before I even entered the room.”
Holiday’s mouth fell open.
“It was just a tiny injection. Right between the toes.”
“But…” Holiday trailed off.
Berwyn turned back to Ripper. “Have you ever seen someone die while logged in?”
Ripper couldn’t hide his curiosity. He’d seen the light fade from a player’s eyes dozens of times, but that was just pretend. This was real. He shook his head and stepped closer. His heart raced.
“It happens every now and then. But I’ve seen it a few times, from well, less natural causes, and it’s,” Berwyn paused, looking back at the man as he clutched at his face, “interesting.”
Holiday looked broken, momentarily reaching for his menu, only to drop his hand to his lap. Then without warning, he lunged at Berwyn, tears streamed down his face.
“I’ll kill y–”
Ripper moved fast, catching the man by the collar and drawing back his claws to strike.
Berwyn held up a hand to stop him. “He’s not a threat.”
Ripper forced Holiday back into the chair, feeling the man tremble as he resisted.
“This is it.” Berwyn leaned in closer, staring into Holiday’s eyes. “Watch, there’s a moment when the spark fades from their eyes.”
The man fell back, no longer fighting Ripper's grip. His head lolled, his eyes staring at the ceiling. It was fascinating. Nothing like when a player disconnected. It was more subtle than that, just a shift in the tone of his iris.
Ripper held his breath. He hadn’t felt anything like it before.
Berwyn waved him away from Holiday’s empty shell. “This is where things get interesting.”
Strangely, the body didn’t disappear. Instead, Holiday was still talking. No words came out, but that didn’t stop the thing from trying. It just mouthed the word 'please' over and over in a silent plea for mercy.
“Why doesn’t he die here too?” Ripper placed a hand on its shoulder.
“There’s a delay, I think.” Berwyn folded his arms and tapped his chin with one finger. “He’s gone, but the system didn’t receive a logoff command, so it’s still trying to represent him. He’s like an echo.” He leaned back on his desk.
“So why does he keep begging? Where does that input come from if he’s gone?”
“I think it comes from us. At least, that’s my theory. From what I’ve seen, I think that when the system stops receiving from him, it looks for information elsewhere.” He picked up his glass again. “In a way, he’s the same as this bourbon. The system just pulls the necessary data from our memories. But we don’t really know him well, so all we get is this pathetic mess.”
Finally, the man fell limp as the system caught up to what had happened, leaving Ripper captivated as the particles began to dissipate, taking the body with them.
Berwyn walked away as if losing interest, stopping at the window to finish his drink.
“Ripper?”
“Yes?” He paused as the last of the glowing fragments drifted past his fingers.
“I trust you won’t mention this to anyone.”
“Of course.” Ripper nearly tripped over himself as he crossed the room to his Lord’s side.
“Good. I won’t have to send anyone to your house then.” Berwyn gave him a sideways smile.
Ripper let a laugh slip, not sure if Berwyn was joking or not.
“Stick with me, kid. I think you have a bright future ahead of you.” The Lord of Serpents patted him on the back before finishing his bourbon. “Now, let’s see if we can spot that breathtaking little fairy I had so much fun with tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wyatt woke to sunlight shining through the narrow slits between the blinds of his new house. The memory of landing the Cloudbreaker a few miles outside of Reliqua before logging out was still fresh in his mind. He rubbed at his eyes and motioned to run his hand through his hair. His fingers, however, only met with the bare skin of his scalp, unapologetically reminding him that he was in the real world.
He groaned.
His hair was really the only difference between him and the avatar that he‘d created online as MaxDamage24.
He sat up and sighed, then immediately laughed to himself as he remembered Kira’s performance on the dance floor. That was when a squeaking noise coming from the balcony of his bedroom drew his
attention.
As mentioned, the house he lived in was new. It had been his one big purchase after receiving the payout from the mission the previous year. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple two-story duplex in Sarasota, Florida. It had left him with plenty of money left over. Not enough to retire, but enough so that he didn’t have too much to worry about in the immediate future.
He still worked for the time being but not very hard. As such, he had taken a few days off so he could focus on the heist since that seemed to be the responsible thing to do. Hell, it might even be able to bring in enough so that he wouldn’t even need a day job afterward.
Again, he heard a high-pitched squeak from outside the sliding door that lead to his balcony. He shoved his body out of bed and walked over to open the blinds. With the pull of a string, they slid to the side. He yawned, then gazed out at the sky and stretched as if the source of the irritating squeaking wasn’t there. Then he turned and walked out of the room.
A moment later, he came back and unlocked the glass door so that Seth, who had been pressing his face up against the window for the last minute and a half, could get in.
“You could at least react,” Seth complained as he slid open the door, letting the sound of their neighbor’s sprinklers in behind him. “I don’t do this for my health, you know. I’m just trying to brighten your day.”
“Shut up and get inside, twinkle toes.”
Seth wrinkled his nose. Even on his scruffy face, it was easy to tell that he and Kira were the same person.
Outside, Wyatt’s balcony sat on the back of the house with only four feet between it and the balcony belonging to the other side of the duplex. Of course, that side had been purchased by Seth.
Despite the fact that they always logged out at the same time, Seth usually woke up first. Ever since they’d moved, he had hopped the gap between balconies every morning to entertain Wyatt. Sometimes, he would show up simply waving like a goon, while other times, he had performed puppet shows using a variety of socks. It was, well, really stupid.
Wyatt went down to the kitchen, his friend following behind him.
Seth took the blender from the cabinet and began grabbing things to make a well-balanced protein shake. It was all he could really digest with his defective stomach.
Wyatt, on the other hand, had no problem with solid foods. He poured a bowl of the finest breakfast cereal to ever grace a table, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He opened his mouth to speak but wasn’t able to get out any more than a, “So–” before Seth turned on the blender.
Wyatt sighed and waited patiently before starting again.
“So–”
Seth flipped it back on. “Sorry, I can’t hear you.”
Wyatt shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
Seth shut off the blender. “What were you trying to say?”
Wyatt chewed fast and swallowed so that he could speak.
“So–”
Seth hit blender again, grinning like an idiot before turning it off.
This time, Wyatt didn’t speak. Instead, he just sat and stared at his friend with his arms crossed while letting his cereal get soggy. Finally, after almost a minute, he started again, “So–”
Seth flipped the blender on again, this time, forgetting to hold the lid on so that the contents spurted out the side.
“You deserve that.” Wyatt laughed as Seth struggled to turn it off again without knocking it over.
“Yeah, I know, instant karma.” Seth groaned as he wiped his shake off his cheek with the sleeve of his shirt.
“So, last night went well. Hopefully, the guys can get us in tonight when we get back on.” Wyatt stirred his cereal a little.
“Yeah, I can’t believe how smooth everything went. We might actually be criminal masterminds. Well, minus the dance-off.”
“Ha! That was the best part. I mean, forget sneaking back in, I bet you get a personal invite to the palace before the day is out.”
“How’d Farn sneak off to get the guys in, by the way?” Seth changed the subject.
“Oh, she performed an amazing stealth maneuver using ventriloquism to throw her voice and distract a guard.”
“Really?”
“No, not really.” Max shook his head. “She fell into one of the servers and spilled champagne all over herself. The guards had to take her to a washroom to refresh her gear.”
“Ah. That makes more sense.” Seth poured his shake into a tall glass, then paused as if debating on saying something or not. “So, speaking of Farn. You ever gonna ask her out?”
Wyatt nearly choked on his cereal. “What makes you ask?” He did his best to avoid the question.
“Nothing much, just that Ginger was pushing Farn to ask you out the other night, so I thought I’d ask.”
“And what did you say while Ginger was playing matchmaker?”
Seth tilted his head from side to side. “Farn hasn’t dated in a while, so I tried not to pressure her.”
Wyatt assumed he was being intentionally vague so that he wouldn’t betray the Shield’s trust.
“Besides, I figure I can just pressure you instead.” Seth smirked.
“That’s kinda crappy logic,” Wyatt commented through a mouthful of cinnamon perfection.
Seth shrugged. “So, why haven’t you?”
“I don’t know, man.” Wyatt slumped back. “It’s not like I’m head over heels in love with her or anything.”
“But you do like her, right?”
“Well, sure. We have fun when we play together.”
“That sounds like a good place to start.” Seth took a sip of his shake. “You could just go for it and see where it leads.”
“Yeah, but,” he paused, pushing the last few bites around in his bowl, “if I ask her out, it will change things. And I feel like I should have stronger feelings than just liking her to take that risk.”
Seth looked at him incredulously. “You’re my friend, so I don’t want to call you a stupid baby. But you’re a stupid baby.”
“Yeah yeah, ha ha. I’m bad at dating, I get it. But if I ran around asking out every woman I liked, I’d just make a mess of things. Hell, I probably would have asked out Ginger back when we first met. How do you think that would have turned out?”
This time Seth almost choked. “You had a thing for Ginger?”
“No, not like a thing.” Wyatt made air quotes around the word 'thing.' “But you know, back when we first met, maybe I would have been interested. But that was before I got to know her.”
“Ouch.” Seth scrunched up his nose and winced. “That’s a burn on Ginger.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Wyatt defended.
“Is it cause you found out she has kids?” Seth guessed.
“No”
“Cause she’s older?”
“No.”
“Cause she sleeps with men for money.”
“No. I just find her,” Wyatt hesitated before adding, “intimidating.” He let out a sigh. “She knows a lot more than me about the world. Plus, she teases me a lot.”
“I guess that makes sense. She teases me a lot too, but anyway, back to Farn. What can I say to make you ask her out before this mission is done?”
“You sound like a car salesman.”
“Sorry.” Seth leaned back. “To be honest, I care about Farn,” he sounded uncharacteristically serious, “and she deserves to be happy. That’s why I think you should go for it. You’re the best guy I know. So if someone is going to date her, I’d rather it be you than some jackass she meets at work or something.”
“Aww, you mean I can take your BFF to prom?” Wyatt joked dismissively.
“You know what I mean.” Seth took a sip of his shake.
“Okay, let’s say I ask her out.” Wyatt leaned forward. “What happens to you?”
“What about me?” Seth frowned.
“I mean, are you just going to third wheel it all over Noctem with us?”
Seth laughed, “Oh, I’m fine wit
h that. I’d be like the front wheel of a tricycle. That’s the most important one. It has the pedals. Besides, without me, you’d just be a bicycle, and then you’d never get anywhere.”
“Why not?” Wyatt asked, not realizing the trap he had walked into.
Seth’s smile grew, almost touching his eyes. “Because then you’d be two-tired.”
Wyatt simply laid his forehead down on the table and attempted to ignore the grinning idiot across from him. He rocked his head back and forth as if repeatedly saying no. After about a minute, he shot back up, feeling a little dizzy from the sudden movement.
“Wait a sec, you’ve been on me all morning about my love life. What about yours? You haven’t even gone out with anyone since before last year, and you’ve never been single that long.”
Seth laughed. “I got problems. You know, that damn apocalypse thing screwed me up. I got my brain messed with, fought a bunch of zombies practically naked, and almost died. I have issues to work out.” He picked up his leg by the cuff of the athletic pants that he wore as pajamas and dropped it on to the table. “I shaved my legs the other day. I didn’t plan on it. It just kinda happened, and I don’t know, I might keep doin' it. It’s comfortable.” He let his leg fall back to the floor. “My point is that I’m kind of a mess. So dragging someone else into this situation seems like a bad idea.”
Wyatt laughed despite the seriousness of the problem. It seemed like the best way to help his friend relax. “So did you stop at your legs, or did you just go all out with the manscaping?”
Seth answered with silence and a very telling expression.
“Oh god, I didn’t want to know any of that.” Wyatt recoiled in mock horror.
They both fell silent for a moment before Wyatt started again.
“So, no judgment here, but you’re okay, right? I mean, do you think you should stop playing or create a new charter or something?”
“Can’t,” Seth answered immediately.
“Why not?”
“That damn pendant can’t be deleted, which means Kira can’t either. So it’s not possible to link me to a different character.” Seth hesitated. “But honestly, I don’t think I could delete her even if it was possible.”