Lost in the Game

by Christopher Keene

  I made a mental note to keep the boy in front of me when we decided to return to the boat. Eventually, we made it to the top of the hill. Instead of the hill simply hitting a peak and leading down, it ended at a cliff with a full view of the hills that rose and fell along the rest of the island.

  Riccardo slowed and crouched low, lifting his hand, palm face-down, and signaling us to lower ourselves to the ground before we came to the bushes at the top of the cliffs. We all crouched and edged ourselves through the bush and to the edge of the cliff. Lying down next to Riccardo, I looked to where he was pointing, making out a thin path in the shadow that led through the trees. I followed it until my vision landed on a different surface, one that didn’t reflect light, but absorbed it.

  I pointed to the area and looked to Riccardo. He nodded and I looked to Chloe who was lying in the bushes beside me.

  “I see it,” she whispered, her body rising and falling with her heavy breathing. “So Lucas is down there.”

  She stirred, and for a second, I felt like she was going to walk down there and find out for herself.

  “We should wait until it gets a little lighter,” Brock said as he lifted his binoculars. “I can’t see much through these without some light.”

  I nodded. “Riccardo, would it be possible to get a look from a closer angle?”

  “Closer?” He shook his head. “Militares ‘round.”

  “Military?” Brock asked. “The company’s hired the military to guard this place, too? What kind of company has that kind of connection?”

  “One with government ties,” Chloe cursed.

  Is this as far as we can get? I can kind of relate to Chloe’s urge to just rush down there and break in.

  In the growing dawn shadows, we noticed movement among the brush. Brock pulled out his binoculars and then passed them to Chloe. Chloe’s lips pulled inward, trying to hold back some intense emotion. She passed the binoculars my way next, and I took a look at the area where there had been movement.

  Men in green camouflage and black berets moved onto the path and began circling the facility. I also saw that the place, at least on the surface, resembled the first level of the Mountain Research Center on the Yarburn archipelago. However, where the black had looked clean in the Dream State, here vines had grown up the side and most of the windows had either been broken or boarded up.

  One of those will be our opening point if we decide to use the drones.

  “Come on, gimme,” Keri whispered, and so I passed the binoculars over for her to have a look.

  “They’re armed with automatic weapons,” Brock murmured. “No way I’m risking getting shot down there. We’ll need to find another way to search the place, or at least find some way of the distracting the guards.”

  I shook my head. “There are other ways to infiltrate this place. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve seen all we need to see.”

  Chloe frowned at me. “What? You want to turn back now?”

  “As I said, there are other ways. Windsor gave us all we need to get there. When we head back to the boat, I can show you.”

  It was clear by now that I would have to resort to my Plan B.

  Keri passed David the binoculars, but I saw that, in the rising sun, the laboratory and soldiers were clearly visible below us. It was still early morning, but if we could see the soldiers, they could see us as well. I didn’t know if they were to track us and find us or shoot anyone on sight. Either way, I wasn’t going to risk my friends’ lives when I knew there was another way.

  Riccardo caught my eyes and tapped the lack of a watch on his wrist. “Tempo.”

  “Alright, it’s getting too light. We should head back.”

  David handed Keri the binoculars and we passed them back down to Brock. We then shimmied back through the bush and crawled through the grass until we were back behind the ridge.

  “Ah, I’m all dusty,” Keri complained.

  “Pressa!” Riccardo hissed impatiently.

  “I know, I know. Come on, guys.” I turned but then noticed Chloe still staring down the hill at the lab. “Chloe?” Her jaw was clenched so I grabbed her by the hand. “Come on, we’ll be back soon to check that place out, I promise.”

  She looked away and allowed me to pull her down the hill after the others. We had to jog to keep up with Riccardo. I wasn’t as worried as he was. It wasn’t like Philippe was going to just leave us behind and not take his other thousand dollars from me. When we came to the ring of traps, Riccardo stopped and allowed us through. He then bent down and pulled the bear trap back down and locked it in place. I was impressed that a kid with such scrawny arms could pull off such a feat.

  Then we all ran down the hill. On the way down, David tripped but then caught himself on a tree branch. I gave him a withering look and he grinned back.

  “Close call,” he said.

  “I’m just glad you didn’t scream this time.”

  In fact, with all five of us here, I was surprised we had all kept our wits about us and hadn’t signaled everyone of our presence. It had worked out better than I’d hoped. We came in secret, we scoped the place out, and we would leave in secret.

  At least, that’s what I’d hoped. However, when we came to the rocky shore where Philippe had dropped us off, all of us halted and Keri cried, “Oh, no!”

  My first thought was that Phillipe was hiding his boat and I scanned the darkness for it, but no matter where I looked, the conclusion seemed clear: he was no longer there.

  Chapter 20: Proxy

  “No worries,” Riccardo started when he saw our expressions. “Philippe move. Be back soon.”

  “You could have told us,” David said, shoulders lowering. “Nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  I calmed and watched everyone else’s expressions relax. We spread out along the back of the island shore as we waited. It was getting too bright for my comfort, and I had no doubt that if Philippe did come back for us, he would have to go far out into the water so we weren’t spotted.

  Chloe wandered over to me. “So what’s this way of infiltrating the lab you were telling me about?”

  I looked over to her and then back out at the water. “Something Windsor gave me. I haven’t actually looked at it yet, so we’ll both see for ourselves when we get back to the guesthouse.”

  Honestly, I didn’t want to get my hopes up just in case the stuff Windsor gave me turned out to be inadequate for what we needed it for, but it seems like we have no choice now. We didn’t come all this way for nothing, after all.

  The churning of water cut off my pessimistic thoughts, and Riccardo jumped up from the rock he had been sitting on as Philippe coasted into view. As soon as his small boat hit the rocks, he waved at us.

  Riccardo waved at us to get in. “Pressa!”

  We got in, and David floundered, being the one to slip on a rock this time. Brock wasn’t so quick to help him as he had been with Keri. After we had all climbed in, Philippe turned the boat around and we slowly began to purr into the open blue. As I had suspected, it took us twice as long to get back to Tutuala, and it was light as we finally began heading back toward the bay.

  Despite what I had told her, Chloe’s expression was listless, as though a little of the hope she had come with had been left on the island. After seeing how well-guarded the island was, I couldn’t blame her. Because of the soldiers, our entire mission all came down to the power of the drones Windsor had given me.

  Philippe began talking to Riccardo on the way back, sounding angry. We were getting close to the Tutuala jetty and I saw no reason for why he was getting worked up at this point of our journey. Then I saw the men waiting for us on the dock.

  Son of a— Did the receptionist talk?

  We pulled up next to where they stood and I had a close look at the men standing above us. There were three of them. Two of them wore the same uniform as the soldiers stationed on the island. The third contrasted them by not only being Cauca
sian but by wearing a red Hawaiian shirt. To say he looked out of place was an understatement. In fact, he looked more like a tourist than any of us.

  “Jaco Island is a restricted zone,” one of the soldiers called before we could disembark.

  “Since when?” Brock pulled out his electronic guidebook and held up a screenshot with Jaco Island. “Doesn’t say that in here.”

  The soldier robotically took his phone and threw it into the water.

  “Since Sonics Electronics and Software bought the island from the local government this year,” the Caucasian man said. He was large and had graying hair and one of the most bleached smiles I had ever seen. “However, being that the site you were using was outdated and you were given an ignorant guide”—he gestured to Philippe—“we can’t really blame you for being ignorant tourists.”

  He smiled warmly, playing the good cop to the soldier’s disciplined frowns. Being from a conglomerate like Sonics, it was no wonder they had the power to request assistance from the local government. But buying the entire island for a single laboratory . . . Isn’t that bit much?

  I decided to play along with his perception of us being nothing but tourists. “So, this is a slap on the wrist? As long as we don’t go back to the island, you won’t press charges for trespassing?”

  “Noah!” Chloe called, but I raised a hand and thanked whatever gods there were that she didn’t say more.

  “If we swear never to set foot on the island again . . .”

  The man nodded jovially. I knew that he could have his men shoot the boat and us and leave us dead at the bottom of the bay. They moved aside so that we could exit the skip. After we had climbed up onto the jetty, however, the soldiers remained close, and as Philippe went to join us on the dock, one of the soldiers kicked him back into the boat.

  The other soldier shouted, “Mãos ao ar!” and as Philippe raised his hands, he jumped down and tied a rope from the boat around Philippe’s ankles.

  “Wait, what are you doing?” I asked.

  The Sonic representative’s smile left his tanned face. “You were given your one warning today, but this is the second warning we have given him.” He pointed to Philippe, and as Riccardo rushed to help him up, one of the soldiers held the boy back. “Now, let this be a lesson that we don’t give the same warning twice.”

  No! He can’t mean—

  My thought was cut off as the soldier’s guns thundered on either side of us, piercing holes in not just the boat, but Philippe also. In the movies, the body always jerks around when it is hit by bullets, thrashing with the last struggle to live. It turned out that bullets puncture bodies more easily than that. Philippe simply dropped into a diluted pool of his own blood, the holes that riddled the boat allowing water in.

  “Philippe, nao!” Ricardo cried. He rushed toward the man as the boat slowly began to sink.

  The soldiers held him steady.

  Keri covered her mouth to muffle a scream.

  All I could do was stare as a mounting hatred poured into me. Chloe shook her head and looked away, eyes filled with tears. I was too frozen to move to comfort her.

  The representative nodded. “I believe that should teach her to stop encouraging people to trespass onto our property.”

  The three of them walked off toward where their car was parked. All the five of us could do was stand there, utterly speechless, watching as the boat and its occupant sank into the cloudy water. When it disappeared, we forced ourselves to look away and walk from the jetty, sickened to our very cores at the cold-blooded murder we had just witnessed.

  David vomited onto the jetty.

  We were witnesses and they’re leaving us like this? Do they have so much influence here that they’re not even worried that we might come forward about this? Or do they think fear will keep us quiet?

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it, and no one seemed to want to discuss it. After hearing what I had promised and seeing what the consequences would be if we broke that promise, Chloe looked the most shaken up. Keri and David may have been stunned, but the fact that she wouldn’t get to see if her brother was in the lab after everything we had been through was, it seemed, all Chloe could bear.

  However, my decision was made as soon as we got back and I saw Riccardo run into the receptionist’s arms, finally acting like a child his age and bawling like it was the end of the world. As far as his childhood went, you could very well consider seeing an older friend being killed before your very eyes as the last of the world he knew.

  Seeing his tears only hardened my will. I wasn’t going to let them scare us off. At least not until we had run out of options.

  I walked up to the receptionist and said, “We would like to pack up our stuff and leave now if that’s alright.”

  The woman nodded. “Yes, you better have.”

  “But first I would like to speak to Riccardo alone.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “Just . . . please.”

  The woman gave me a confused look but then nodded, removed the boy from her embrace, and walked away. Riccardo, still quivering and with tears streaming down his face, looked up at me. Although I had been the one to ask him to go to the island, there was no blame in his eyes. It appeared he was saving all of that for those who had murdered his friend.

  “Riccardo, did the soldiers know where Philippe lived?” I asked.

  Riccardo shook his head. “No . . . No one know where shack was . . . Off grid. He didn’t have net.”

  No Internet . . . No tracking him.

  I nodded, trying to make my gaze as serious as I could make it. “When we leave, can you take us there?” Riccardo nodded and I put my hand on his head and ruffled his hair. “Then there might be a chance. Meet us outside when we leave.”

  I stood and turned to see that the others were looking at me.

  “Noah, what are you planning?” Chloe asked.

  “Something risky,” I said. “That’s why we need to be somewhere they can’t find us, so it can’t be traced back to us.”

  Brock grinned, but it seemed like more of a sneer. “Okay, but you have to tell us what you’re planning first.”

  I nodded. “Soon.”

  We moved to our rooms, but as I suspected, our rooms had been searched, our luggage sprawled about. After seeing someone being killed, our stuff being thrown about was little for us to get upset over. I decided to check on my backup plan while the others checked their rooms.

  I returned to the reception where the woman was looking down at her desk, her eyes red and expression drawn. “Still have the suitcase I gave you?”

  She nodded, reached down and grabbed it, and put it on top of the desk.

  “Thanks.”

  This is all I need.

  I returned to my room, got our things together, and left Pousada Lautem. As I had asked, Riccardo was waiting for us outside, looking solemn but determined to help us. It seemed that after we had all witnessed the same thing, there was now something connecting the kid to what we were planning, as though he knew it was at the expense of the people who had killed Philippe.

  I started following him down the road and the others caught up with me.

  “Noah, are you going to fill us in on the plan now?” David asked.

  “Once we’ve made it to Philippe’s place. We need somewhere where we won’t be listened in on, meaning no Internet. It would even be best to leave everything you didn’t take with you to the island outside just in case they bugged our stuff. We can’t be too careful.”

  Brock caught my eyes and nodded, and I could see he understood immediately what I was saying. For him, it was just like trying to avoid Wona all over again. Luckily for him, he had a lot of practice when it came to eluding large corporations.

  Bringing him with us was one of my better ideas, I must say.

  We continued the rest of the way to the boatman’s shack in silence. Chloe put an arm around Keri’s shoulders as it began
to get dark. The shadows always had their worst effect on people’s emotions. The wind was also picking up by the time we left the pathway, and Riccardo led us to a small area in the brush that was fenced off with sheet metal.

  “Leave you here,” he said. “Have go back. Aunty worried.”

  I nodded and the kid ran off. I signaled for everyone to leave their luggage outside before we entered the small shack. It wasn’t as cramped as I had assumed when looking at it from the outside. Inside were deck chairs, a coal range, a table made with wire, and a tarpaulin floor. The most heartbreaking sight of visiting the dead man’s hut was when a friendly black Labrador padded along and looked up at us as though wondering if we were going to feed it. I thought that if there wasn’t some dog food around that Philippe wouldn’t mind if we fed the dog some meat from the fridge.

  “I think we should give him to Riccardo,” Brock said as he knelt down and patted the dog. “We can’t take him with us.”

  “I know.” I surveyed the shack. “Can’t very well leave him to starve. I hope his Aunty is okay with that.”

  I lifted the suitcase up onto the table. Tipping it over onto its side, I spun it so the electronic code plate was facing me. The others all sat down on the deck chairs and stared at me staring at the blank code. From the number of chairs in the room, I assumed the man had had friends that he would sometimes entertain. I sure hoped none of them decided to show up for a visit now.

  “So are you going to tell us your plan now?” Chloe asked.

  I nodded and patted the suitcase. “This was the last ace in the hole that Windsor gave me just before I left the facility. As soon as I open it, though, it will set off a signal to make sure that Wona can cover their backsides if we get killed.”

  “So what’s inside it?” David asked.

  I breathed in, deciding to take the plunge, and tapped in my in-game user code. I then opened it and spun it to face the rest of my friends. Although the case was mostly filled with foam padding, it was what the padding contained that made their jaws drop. Inside were four tiny slips of drones, four SD chips, and a distinctive fifth chip that looked like a SIM card. Covering two of the drones was a square manual.