“I do not believe this!” Spence exclaimed as he stared at the screen. “Do you know what this means?”
Sanjara nodded but said nothing. Spence rubbed at his eyes and looked at the screen again as if what he had read was some kind of mirage. “Do you know what this means?” he said again.
Sanjara sighed. “It means the AI has created EWO’s very first expansion pack.”
“But that’s impossible!” exclaimed Spence. “It shouldn’t be able to do that!”
“Technically, the AI can do anything,” Sanjara pointed out. “It’s sophisticated enough to evolve and think for itself.”
“But the NPCs inside it aren’t!” Spence said in exasperation. “At least not sophisticated enough to do anything like this. We got criminal groups in all three factions expanding their territories, taking over shops and businesses, hustling out vendors and players. Prices for basic services have gone through the roof! The support server is rammed full of complaints! I got whiny players coming out of my butthole! These gangs control whole neighborhoods and the law enforcement NPCs have just left them to it. Players can go fight and kill each other and get killed in these lawless zones and there are no penalties for doing it! You got Tongs, Bandits and Heretics all working together thanks to these Merchants of Death and their NPC leader. How the hell did that happen? And what are the players doing? They’re slugging it out on the Eternal Battlefield, day after day, while their cities and settlements get overrun by the crooks. This goes way beyond the game’s original parameters! I don’t get how this happened!”
Sanjara didn’t fully get it either, but she suspected who was behind it. It had been six weeks since she’d gone in game to search for John, but with no success. The side quests had brought down a few of the salvage gangs but others soon sprang up to replace them. She was still looking, but so much had happened since then, she had been completely overwhelmed but how fast events had moved. First the Noble Griffins had launched a coup that effectively seized control of all the other Holy Seal guilds that possessed any real power, and that aimed to wipe out the Heretic element altogether. It had looked like Gilles and his slimy cronies had won the day, but then messages started coming in from players of a mysterious NPC turning up to save some of the Heretics and the remnants of the Frenzied Barbarians guild.
After that, things really started to go downhill for Gilles and the Noble Griffins. The other two factions had waged devastating attacks on Holy Seal holdings, aided by information they had received from a mysterious source, no doubt the Merchants. As a result, the Noble Griffins and the other Holy Seal guilds had been locked in brutal warfare to hold onto their territories. The presence of organized criminal empires in all three of the game faction settlements had triggered an all-out war between the Enlightened, Seven Paths and Holy Seal as they were forced to try and steal resources from each other to compensate for their loss of influence in their home turfs.
The increase in fighting had seen EWO surge in popularity with Guild leaders like Gilles pumping in huge amounts of money to regain dominance. In a stranger twist, real life criminals, who had used the game for profit, were actually entering the game to play for fun. Drawn to the NPC criminal factions and actually doing business with them, gangsters and crime bosses were as common a sight in the game as teenagers and seasoned gamers. One man, who the Bureau and the EWO Admins knew only as Packard, was playing a very active part in all this. He already controlled several gambling consortiums and retrieval operations which were doing good money thanks to these developments. Sanjara had suspected Packard to be behind the Merchants of Death himself, but that proved not to be the case. Like everyone else of a criminal bent, he was just taking advantage of the situation.
Besides, popular opinion now believed the head of the Merchants was an NPC that had evolved to become independently minded. That was the story the EWO board of directors wanted to encourage, and the Bureau, as it stopped people asking too many awkward questions. Sanjara knew that wasn’t the case though. During her time playing as a Holy Priest, she had managed to pick up the trail of the mysterious leader of the Merchants of Death, but hadn’t pinpointed him exactly. He had also been one step ahead. There was no evidence it was Taggart either, but the Bureau were confident enough to keep her inserted to find out the truth one way or another. That was why she had accepted the quest the Knights of the Noble Griffin had put out to all Holy Seal guilds that morning. Gilles had made his intention clear. He wanted the leader of the Merchants of Death found and brought to him for justice. The reward he was offering was phenomenal, and from what she could tell almost every Holy Seal faction member had accepted the quest.
With all those players searching for him, it would make Sanjara’s job easier. She only had to make an ID on him and send his details back to the Bureau, and then she could go back to her old life again. It should be plain sailing, but Sanjara knew nothing was ever easy where John Taggart was concerned. If he was the leader of the Merchants of Death, it was not going to be easy to take him down, but it had to be done. He had angered too many powerful people according to the rumors she’d picked up. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to be the one to do it.
Saying goodbye to Spence, she went back home, logged into EWO and headed to the magnificent palace in Heaven’s Shield that served as the Noble Griffins’ headquarters to get herself assigned to a search team. She had the feeling this business would soon be coming to an end, but it remained to be seen if John was going to get out of this alive or not.
Chapter 19
Sitting in his bunker, John read through the intelligence reports he had received from Lozenge. Specifically, he was reading through the personal file of one Sanjara Taur—an EWO administrator who was also a Bureau sleeper agent who had been assigned to follow through on rumors that John was active in the game.
She was investigating the possibility that he was head of the Merchants of Death and was now playing the game as a Holy Seal priest. After failing to locate him on her own alongside smaller groups of players, she was now taking part in the huge quest the Noble Griffins were hosting to locate John at all costs. Almost all of the Holy Seal guilds were taking part, and it had taken Gilles away from his goal of seizing full control of the faction.
It was a goal that was drifting further and further away. The criminal factions now ruled with virtual autonomy in many of the cities across the three factions. The Jet Dragon Tong had installed a puppet mandarin and conducted their business unchallenged. The Black Powder Boys lorded it up over a loose confederacy of bandits and gunslingers, and were now able to hire players to commit robberies and mercenary work. Finally, in the Holy Seal, the Frenzied Barbarians allied with a united Heretic faction under Hain had established a new power base in a mountain fortress close to Heaven’s Shield. From there, they had conducted lightning raids against Noble Griffin holdings and had enticed disgruntled guilds to join them, offering them cheaper prices on equipment thanks to John’s salvaging business and access to his specialized items.
Thanks to all these developments, the Noble Griffins were now universally hated in the Holy Seal. The rise in the criminal factions had left Heaven’s Shield in chaos, and armies of Enlightened and Seven Paths forces had swarmed into it, bringing the fighting from the Eternal Battlefield straight to the front door of the Holy Seal’s most prominent city.
Things were not going well in the Enlightened and Seven Paths territories either. Huge lawless zones now thrived, and players from rival factions would now easily enter cities in rival factions without fear of being attacked or killed. The EWO servers were in uproar over this dominance of the criminal factions, but more players signed up every day, excited by the variety offered by the Crime Wave expansion. John’s salvage and supply business was doing fantastic trade. Working in partnership with real life criminal operations—such as the one ran by Packard that was linked to the gambling syndicate that Manny and Rourke worked for—he had made more than enough money now to set up his new
identity.
Which was perfect, as Lozenge had also sent him a report from the Chinese Ministry of State Security explaining how they had Mafia operatives who worked for them hunting for him. They suspected John was still in the States and holed up in one location, and they were closing in on him. It would only be a matter of time before his location was compromised.
Lozenge had been very useful to him, but John still had no idea who the hacker was. He didn’t like loose ends, and he resolved to track down Lozenge and discover his agenda when he was safely out of the States.
First though, he had unfinished business in EWO. He had to make sure Kate and Mark were well provisioned for after all their help, and he made arrangements to channel funds from one of the shell companies he had set up into their accounts to show his gratitude. He also had to repay Gilles for all the trouble the little worm had caused, and he had come up with the perfect payback.
As he switched off his laptop and climbed into bed, he made the final mental preparations for his trap.
* * *
Concealed in the shadows on the ridge above, Sanjara looked down into the cavern where John and the other leaders of the Merchants of Death were conducting their secret meeting. She could scarcely believe that she had finally got to see him, but the information from Gilles contact had proven spot on. They had found the secret door to the tunnel complex the Merchants and their criminal allies used to carry out their business and there was inside a meeting going on at the allotted time in one of the way stations scattered around the tunnels which the leader of the Merchants was attending himself. He was a prime target, and victory was in sight.
She glanced over and saw the look of vengeance that flashed in Gilles’ eyes in the dim light. When she got wind of this raid, she had gotten herself attached to his attack squad that was going to go in and capture John. Most of it was made up of Gilles’ most loyal supporters and he was leading the attack personally. It was the only way he was going to save face with the other guilds and maintain his position as leader of the Noble Griffins. The Crime Wave expansion had seriously depleted his power and influence, and more and more guilds were breaking away from his influence now they could obtain their supplies from the Merchants. He had a score to settle with John and he was going to do it face to face.
It did look like John was going to face the music. She could confirm he was in the game and get a lock on his position in the real world once Gilles had had his revenge. Still, something about this felt wrong. She had been part of the advance group who had cleared out all the wards and deactivated the traps that lined the tunnels leading to this spot, and though it had been complicated and risky work, it felt a little too easy.
All of this felt too easy. After all this time being careful to cover his tracks, it seemed very convenient that John had come out into the open like this. That wasn’t his style at all.
Gilles raised his hand. “Forward!” he hissed to the rest of his team.
“Wait!” Sanjara whispered to the nearest Noble Griffin. “This could all be a trap. Let’s launch a range attack.”
She was ignored. Gilles swept to his feet and led his troops down to the cavern floor, sword drawn. He wanted to see the look of shock on John’s face when he claimed him as his prize. With no other option, Sanjara went down with the rest of the players, preparing to open up her virtual tracer and put a lock on John’s real time position before he got a chance to log off the game.
“You must be the famous leader of the Merchants of Death,” Gilles bellowed as he marched up to the meeting table. “I recognize your two friends as Xan from the Jet Dragon Tong and Hain the Heretic, so you must be the main man himself. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
John blinked in shock, and the three criminals jumped to their feet. The rest of the Holy Seal players had their weapons drawn and pointed straight at them.
“Don’t bother trying to log out either,” Gilles said smugly. “I’ve put a lock on this whole area. You’re going to face justice for what you’ve done to me and a complete ban from the game. First though, I’m going to have my boys here make you suffer. I’m sure you’re familiar with medieval torture?”
John and his allies said nothing. They simply stared at Gilles and then sat down again.
“What do you think you’re doing?” yelled Gilles. “Stand up when I’m talking to you!”
John went back to talking to Xan and Hain as if Gilles and the others weren’t even there. Sanjara tensed. Something was very wrong here indeed.
“I’m talking to you!” Gilles bellowed. He reached down to grab John’s shoulder and his hand passed through thin air. Gilles stared in confusion. “What is this? What’s happening?”
“They’re holograms,” Sanjara said, the truth dawning on her. “This is a set up!”
“Hey look,” one of the Holy Seal players said. “There’s something strapped to the bottom of the table.”
The explosion took Sanjara clean off her feet and knocked the air out of her lungs. Players let out cries of pain and several slumped dead around her. She could feel her own life force was ebbing away. As she struggled to sit up, she saw a secret doorway open on the far side of the chamber and players wearing the crest of the Frenzied Barbarians surge in to finish off the survivors. She heard a high pitched shriek as Gilles was hacked to pieces and then everything went black.
She respawned a few moments later in the farmstead she had been using as a base of operations and where she’d placed her Save Marker. To her surprise, John was sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for her.
“Hello Sanjara,” he said. “I believe you’ve been looking for me.”
She stared at him and then walked up and touched his arm. Her fingers went through him. “Another hologram. You’re always one step ahead.”
“You can thank my Bureau training,” John said. “It served us both well, didn’t it?”
“Not well enough,” Sanjara said in a sour voice. “You know who I am.”
John opened a file that was resting on the table and showed it to her. Sanjara stared at the details, reading her own life story. “This is my personal file from the Bureau. How did you get this?”
“I am resourceful. You need to be to stay alive, we both know that,” John replied. “You know if this information was made public to your colleagues at EWO, your usefulness to the Bureau would go up in smoke.”
Sanjara smiled bitterly. “You’re going to blackmail me.”
“I’m just giving you a friendly warning,” John replied. “I’m leaving EWO for good today and there’s no need for any trouble. If you tell the Bureau the Merchants of Death were a false lead, then this file won’t be seen by anyone that isn’t meant to see it. That way everyone is happy.”
“It’s not just the Bureau you need to be worried about. The Chinese are after you too.”
“I’ve made preparations for them too,” John said. “All I’m interested with now is making sure you don’t cause me any more problems. Do we have a deal?”
Sanjara considered her options. If that file was made public, her life with EWO would be over. The Bureau would dump her—if not worse—and she’d have to start a completely new life.
Reluctantly, she nodded. “All right. If you really are leaving, then I’ll inform the Bureau all of this was a wild goose chase.”
“I am going,” John said. “Thank you.”
With that, he was gone, along with the file, and Sanjara was left alone. She sat down at the table, exhausted and looked down at her hands. The mission was over as far as she was concerned, though she wondered if John would shake off the Chinese so easily.
* * *
Gilles seethed with rage. The Merchants of Death had cheated him for the last time. He would make them all pay no matter how long it took.
Angrily, he plotted his revenge as he waited to respawn. He realized after a few moments that he was still suspended in a grey void and had not rejoined the game.
&nb
sp; “What’s going on now!” he snapped.
Error: Unable to log on
Gilles glared at the message that had popped up in front of him. “What is this? Let me back on!”
A second screen popped up, which made Gilles’ blood go cold.
Your current character has been irreversibly corrupted and can no longer be accessed. Please go to the Main Menu and create a new character. We are sorry for this inconvenience.
“NO! NO! NO!” yelled Gilles. “This can’t be happening!”
He logged out of the game completely and tried to call up his character through his computer. To his horror, it had been completely wiped, along with his reserves of platinum in his player account. All his hard work building up his avatar and the guild had been destroyed. This was the work of the Merchants of Death, he realized. He tried to connect to the other commanders of the Noble Griffins and soon discovered that the same thing had happened to them. Without the ruling council, the guild would fall apart and it would take months to build up their characters to a level strong enough to build another guild.
Sitting in his room, Gilles screamed with rage and hurled his desk against the wall.
* * *
Kate rushed into the workshop, an excited flush in her cheeks. “John! You’ll never guess what’s happened. Gilles has lost his character, along with the rest of the Noble Griffin goons. The guild has folded and its members are joining the Frenzied Barbarians! Can you believe it?”
It took her a moment to realize she was talking to thin air. She looked around and saw that the equipment in the workshop was missing as well. Her heart plummeted. She knew this day was going to come.
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