by Mark C. Wade
Finally, he said, “And? You violated an injunction issued by a judge. I could throw you in jail for that. Why would you admit that to me?”
So, he was going to play hardball. Henry marveled at how this turned him on, and he hoped the same was happening to Quillen. Maybe a last-minute seduction could save him.
Henry said, “Are you serious? That’s a real thing? I didn’t realize a game could take out a restraining order to have someone not play it. I thought I just couldn’t go near suspects in real life.”
Quillen smirked. “Don’t you ever watch the news? A few years ago, there was the case Namclizzard Entertainment v Landry that went all the way to the Supreme Court—”
Henry interrupted him. “—Okay, whatever. That’s not the important part. Aren’t you the least bit concerned that someone went to great lengths to keep me away from Aeden?”
“Nope.”
Quillen had that look in his eye. Henry knew it well. He was hiding something, but Henry knew he had to pry it out carefully or he’d shut down.
Henry continued, “…and why not? This isn’t an ordinary murderer. Nyissa said that no one short of the Restin Corporation itself would be able to put in a fake quest like that. That means the murderer has major resources at their disposal that you’re probably not considering. They’re way more powerful than we thought.”
Quillen’s eyebrows raised, and the tiniest of smiles tugged at the corner of his mouth. He was loving this.
Henry gulped and shifted to try to hide his hardon. It would be totally inappropriate to have sex in the police chief’s office, right?
Visions of clawing at Quillen’s uniform in ecstasy as the man hammered the cum out of him flowed through Henry’s mind. He could even use that belt to punish him first.
Henry briefly shuddered and then shook his head to clear it.
That response had said everything. The Restin Corporation was in on it for some reason.
This was big; maybe too big.
Quillen said, “By the look on your face, you’ve figured it out. The Restin Corporation had to comply with the judge’s orders to enforce the injunction, so they put up a barrier. Then they made it seem possible to get through to keep you busy. But they made sure you wouldn’t ever get through. I can only imagine what that means.”
“Wait, what?! You’re the one behind all this? I can’t believe you.”
Henry stepped right up into Quillen’s face.
Why does he always smell so good and manly?
Quillen seemed to think better of whatever he was about to do and stepped back into his desk. Then he did the weirdest thing. He put a finger to his mouth that told Henry to be quiet and then motioned with his hand to follow.
But he said nothing more through all this.
Henry followed Quillen out of the building and into the middle of the park across the street. Quillen’s eyes had a piercing intensity to them, and it scared Henry.
Quillen said, “That was the line I’m supposed to tell you, but this bureaucratic machine is driving me crazy. Let’s just say this is bigger than your wildest imagination, and I’m sick of it. I don’t even know what’s going on, but the Restin Corp is paying a lot of money to keep people off the trail. I want to catch the bastards, and it’s not going to happen if I keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
Henry said, “I don’t understand. Why would you go along with it?”
“Because it’s the DA. He’s either bought off or naïve or in on whatever’s going on. It’s easier to get information from them and then to finally catch them doing something illegal if we look like we’re working with them. But I’m not. You have to believe me.”
Henry squinted, trying to decide if this was the truth. It had to be. When had Quillen ever broken a rule in his entire life?
Henry said, “I hate to even ask this, but why are we out here?”
“I don’t know if they’ve planted people in the force to keep an eye on things.”
Henry laughed. “Holy shit. You’ve gone full-on conspiracy nutjob on me. I have to say, I kind of like this side of you. You’ve always been so by-the-book.”
Quillen blushed and looked down at his feet. “I’m going to need your help.”
“Really? I never thought I’d hear those words come from you.”
“Oh, shut up. This isn’t the time for that.”
Henry asked, “What should we do?”
“First, we need to invent a reason to meet periodically so that it isn’t suspicious.”
“I’ve got something in mind.”
Quillen stared. “What?”
Henry leaned forward and kissed Quillen. Quillen hesitated before giving in to the kiss.
Then he seemed to realize what was going on and pulled away. “Hey! What was that for?”
“We’re dating. We can discuss things on dates. Now anyone watching us from the Police Department, which is still in our line of sight, by the way, will think we’re out here discussing romantic-type stuff.”
Quillen’s cheeks flushed red again. Henry would never get used that. His heart raced each time he got such an intense reaction from him.
Quillen said, “You’re so infuriating. I’d prefer it if the force doesn’t gossip about my love life.”
Henry tried to get back on track. He asked, “So, what’s the motivation? I don’t get it. All the current suspects have strong motivation, but if the Restin Corporation is secretly behind it. I don’t know. Why would they want the top player dead? It makes no sense.”
Quillen asked, “What’s Lukas’s motivation?”
“Advertising. Everyone now tunes in to his podcast to hear about the murder.”
Quillen shrugged. “So why not the game, too? It’s perfect timing. It got Eburnean Passage into the news for free right before the big tournament. I looked up the numbers. The viewership of the tournament was decreasing every year before this one.
“I guess people just aren’t that interested in watching video games anymore, especially a game that’s been around for that long. This year, viewership is the highest ever. Like, by a lot.”
Henry wasn’t convinced yet. He said, “I’m on board with the idea that corporations are evil but come on. Can you imagine the meeting where some marketing person pitches the idea of killing the top player and then the president signs off on it? If the Restin Corporation behind it, there must be something else going on. Lukas being desperate and acting alone makes more sense than what you’re proposing.”
Quillen said, “I’ll keep digging, and I’ll get you tapes of the interrogation of Aeden. I’ll warn you ahead of time, his alibi is tight. No one in the room thought he was lying. So, get to work on other leads. Aeden is a dead end as far as I’m concerned.”
“Shit. I was sure he’d lead somewhere.”
Henry wanted to get home and ask Ykülma some questions about the Restin Corporation.
He said, “Thanks. I’ll keep in touch.”
Henry turned to leave, and Quillen said, “Hey.” Henry looked back. He had a kind smile on his face. “I think we’re going to make a great team.”
Henry said, “Me, too.”
He began to walk away before letting a wide smile cross his face. Henry didn’t want Quillen to see how happy that made him.
Quillen jogged to catch up with Henry and took his hand as they headed back toward the station. Henry liked that feeling. Even when they’d dated in the past, they’d kept it a secret from the rest of the police force.
Quillen suddenly pulled away and pointed to the large clock tower. “Is it really that late?”
Henry didn’t care; time had become a strange and fluid thing the past few days.
Henry replied, “Probably.”
“Crap. I’m behind schedule. I have to get my team in place for the semi-finals. I’ll see you there.”
Quillen ran full speed ahead.
Henry stopped and marveled at how physically fit Quillen was. That tight butt outline through his pants barely m
oved with the steps.
Henry still had two hours to kill before the event, and he decided he’d go pour over everything he knew so far. He’d need some good trick questions to ask Lukas to try to get some more information.
Chapter 22
Henry didn’t go home. He had an idea, and once he got one of those, there was no pushing it aside until he followed through.
Henry dug into his brain to find his way back to the internet café where Nyissa had taken him. Once he got into the Cybernetics District of the city, he recalled its location with ease.
Henry meandered in and got a bunch of intense stares from the few people not engrossed in the screens. He looked at himself and realized he was two decades older than the average customer and still had on a pressed, clean suit.
This wasn’t his crowd, and they knew it.
He approached the counter and paid for an hour in Eburnean Passage.
Henry set up a new account under a fake name. He even cloaked his identity by using his old company credit card for the subscription fee.
He’d always kept it for a moment like this because he never knew when he’d need to conceal a payment for his job.
Everything was going smoothly. There was no way the Restin Corporation would know it was him to keep him out of the Grand Manor unless they had thought to run any new account name against his personal history.
Even then, that would take some time.
Henry hadn’t learned his lesson from the first time and decided to roll a random character again. He only had an hour, and he couldn’t waste it on character creation.
Even after learning more about the game, the thought of picking out the traits of a character combination made his stomach turn.
As soon as the starter location materialized, he opened his stats screen to see his character. The top of the screen said: Tengu Gladiator.
All Henry could think was: What in the fuck is a tengu?
At least gladiator sounded good, much stronger than a corruptor. He tried to move his eight appendages and was surprised to find he only had six.
Only?
How quickly he’d adjusted to such unnatural motion.
Henry tried to understand what he felt: two arms, two legs, …
He shifted again to figure out what was going on near his back.
He looked over his shoulder and saw two huge wings. Henry flapped as hard as he could, but he couldn’t fly. That was probably a skill he got after a few levels, and this excited him. He brought his hands to his face and felt a beak.
Henry shook his head. How had he rolled an animal again? Everyone else had no problem picking humanoid races.
This meant he would stick out again, making it hard to sneak around.
He moved through the starter area, and it felt strange to not have eight tentacles to flow over the ground.
Still, controlling this body was very natural and easy and took no time to get used to. He’d have to wait and see about flying, though.
Henry started with some sort of javelin, and when he came upon the first slime mold, he threw it. His arm felt unsteady and awkward, but some skill must have kicked in, because the javelin righted itself, piercing the enemy.
The slime mold exploded, giving Henry experience points and gold. His heart leaped at how easy this would be compared to last time.
Henry quickly tore through the leveling process and made it out of the starter zone in no time. He looked around at the familiar place. A sense of calm washed over him at having returned. Some part of him felt like he might never come back after he’d died.
Henry went back to the status screen. He didn’t have to worry about Intelligence anymore, and so he jacked up his Strength as far as it would let him. He’d be big and strong this time, not some squishy octopode.
The VR gear automatically logged him out, and Henry looked at his watch. His time was up, which was fine because he needed to get back to the convention center for the semi-finals of the tournament.
∞∞∞
Henry sulked as he watched Lukas chatting into his recording device for the podcast. Lukas exuded the type of excitement for the game and players that couldn’t be faked. It was no wonder the podcast took off. That type of excitement was contagious.
Yet Henry hated it. No one should be that happy over anything, especially a game.
But it made Henry reconsider everything. He found it hard to believe a person with such a love for the top players could ever stoop to harming them for mere publicity.
Suddenly, the room darkened, and a long bass drop sounded. Henry rolled his eyes at the drama of it all. The final four players were announced one by one, and they began checking their gear for any tampering.
The players got into their soundproof pods. The large screen was now divided into four quadrants. Henry liked that he’d get to see everyone at once instead of following the top few around.
They each warmed up their skill shots against dummies in small rooms that would lead to the main battle arena. This arena had some walls and abstract obstacles, but for the most part, it was small and contained—each player would know what each was up to if they paid close attention.
There would be no need for shrinking the space this round. The final two remaining would go on to the Grand Finals.
A battle horn sounded, and the four players rushed into the arena to begin the free-for-all. Nyissa stayed close to the first barricade while the other three barreled into the center area.
She activated her assassin’s sneak ability and crept around the corner. Aeden parried a dual-wielder and backflipped over a fireball.
The other two contestants were Varg, who had the appearance of a vicious ogre, and Aleina, some sort of fairy mage.
Henry couldn’t believe Aleina would pose any threat. She looked so delicate with her lacy wings and light blue dress. It looked like she was dancing as she moved rather than fighting.
Varg, on the other hand, looked like he could swing a single arm without a weapon and destroy Nyissa and Aeden. Veiny muscles bulged everywhere, and he wore only a dark brown loincloth.
But this was a game, so looks could be deceiving. The appearances were merely cosmetic, belying all the underlying skills and stats and strength of the characters.
Varg and Aleina coordinated their attacks against Aeden in a barrage, one after another after another. Nyissa squatted into a versatile position, but she didn’t need to move. It looked as if the two against one would take Aeden out for her.
The announcer said, “It appears Varg and Aleina have decided to team up. This is not against the rules and is kind of smart. It will guarantee those two will be in the Grand Finals.”
Aeden was very good, though, and managed to fend them off with minimal damage. But that couldn’t last forever, and Nyissa seemed to realize they would do the same to her once Aeden had been disposed of.
She dashed quickly around Varg, who was the slowest of them and went in for a backstab.
A collective gasp came from the audience as Aleina noticed and cast a magical barrier around him for protection.
The announcer’s voice rose. “This is incredible! Aleina has saved Varg’s life even though they are competing against each other!”
Anger burrowed up inside of Henry. He wanted to shout at the screen how unfair that was. This wasn’t a team competition. It was supposed to be a free-for-all.
Nyissa jumped back, truly comprehending their plan now, and she nodded to Aeden. They would be working together, but they hadn’t had the time to work out an official pact or plan. Either could easily turn on the other if it came down to it.
Aeden and Nyissa swung at Aleina from both sides. She was too quick and nimble, though, and easily flew over the nearby wall.
With her temporarily gone, it left Varg wide open. Aeden’s sword flashed red as he did his swirling fire attack, and Nyissa watched where Varg tried to dodge. She threw a poison dagger ahead of his motion, and it hit him, knocking a significant chunk off his life.
Aleina flew back into sight and cast a healing spell on Varg. The crowd booed. He deserved to die there in a true free-for-all. Somehow this had morphed into an unofficial two-on-two.
Aleina began charging up some major attack spell on Nyissa. Aeden noticed and charged. His blade burst out some magic of its own and knocked Aleina back, interrupting her channeled spell.
She shook her head in frustration and darted out of sight again.
Nyissa still focused on Varg and pulled two more poison daggers out of the straps along her back.
Varg flashed red into berserker mode and charged Aeden before he could attack Aleina.
Henry held his breath. Everyone had suddenly focused on landing something big. None seemed to have noticed the attack coming their own way.
All at once, the four attacks commenced. Aeden’s flame sword flew at Aleina as her swirl of black magic streamed out of her hands as Nyissa’s daggers flew at Varg as Varg’s scythe flurry hit Aeden.
All four quadrants of the screen flashed white in a huge explosion at the same time as the attacks all landed.
The room went dead silent after the explosion.
Henry stared in shock at the gigantic screen. All four semi-finalists were dead. Their bodies lay there in strange contortions, and Henry momentarily forgot it was a game. Bile rose to the back of his throat at the sight of the dead bodies.
What had happened?
How could so many people be in a room and not make a sound?
Henry cautioned a look to the side at Lukas, and Lukas’s mouth hung wide open.
Had everyone lost or won?
The players emerged from their pods in a state of confusion. They, also, seemed to have no idea what was going on. A man in a light gray suit walked to the front stage. He tapped the microphone to test that it was on.
“Judges are reviewing the replay.”
The screen showed a rewinding, and then frame-by-frame, it stepped through that final moment with the explosions reduced for better visibility.
Aleina’s life hit zero first. One frame later, Varg’s disappeared, only because he had already reduced health. One frame later, Varg’s attack finished off Aeden, and finally, the black magic took Nyissa’s life.