by Alex Knight
“We’ll need to get it to expose its stomach again,” Kaiden said, watching as the manhunter rolled to its feet, but kept its belly low to the ground.
“Distract it for me!” Zelda said. “I have an idea.”
“Over here, big ugly!” Titus banged his hammer against a tree trunk and his shield upon the undergrowth. The manhunter eyed him, then Zelda, apparently unsure which was the bigger threat. A moment later, it turned to face Zelda.
She backed up a pace.
Kaiden bellowed and threw himself at the manhunter. He slammed into it shield first, bouncing off its shoulder and doing virtually no damage, but definitely getting the beast’s attention.
The manhunter turned with a slash that caught Kaiden across the chest and knocked him on his rear, dropping his health into the yellow.
Seeing his weakness, the manhunter growled and rushed forward.
Zelda was quicker. As soon as the beast had turned away from her, she sprinted forward. Looking every bit a professional baseball player, she fell into a slide and slipped right underneath the creature’s stomach.
Zelda pulled the trigger on her hammer-gun.
A new attack Kaiden hadn’t seen before – something she must have unlocked at level seven – exploded upward. It looked like a shotgun blast of lasers, and considering the force with which it hit the manhunter, it dealt damage like one, too.
Ability: Scatter Shot
Fires an expanding spray of 10 energy blasts each dealing 30% of base damage. Cost: 35 charge. Cooldown: 1 minute.
Every one of those blasts hit the beast squarely in its weakened belly, meaning her attack essentially hit the thing for triple damage. And if she got a crit, too…
The beast yelped as it was blasted up and to the side. When it collapsed back to the ground, its health bar was empty.
Baboulian Manhunter assisted kill - 1,500 EXP gained!
“Note to self,” Zelda said, standing up from the mud she’d slid through. “Scatter Shot does a lot of damage in close quarters.”
“You can say that again.” Titus stared in awe at the dead beast as the jungle returned to quiet but for the pitter patter of rain on the leaves.
“Hopefully we didn’t attract too much attention with that fight,” Kaiden said, looking around. As far as he could see, they were still boxed in by dense foliage. Except…was that...?
He moved forward several steps. The fight with the manhunter had led them some distance from the route they’d been following, and now he could just make out a gap in between two trees.
He came to a squelching stop in the mud as the brush gave way. The world before him was all open air. He was standing right on the edge of a vast cliff.
But not just any cliff. It was the overlook they’d been trekking to. And sure enough, as Kaiden turned his eyes down to the valley floor below, he spotted what they’d come for.
The base was housed in the crumbling frame of an ancient temple, but the massive power cables running along the ground, the ships berthed beneath the surrounding trees, and most importantly, the flag hung on the side of the temple, told Kaiden all he needed to know.
Zelda stepped up beside him. Titus did the same. The big man whistled low.
“Looks like we found our assassin guild.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Waiting. It was perhaps the single worst thing to have to do in a game, and it was still morning in the real world. It was going to be a long day.
No one gamed so they could waste their precious free time sitting around waiting for something to happen. It was just objectively not fun. But Kaiden wasn’t playing Nova Online for fun. Neither were Zelda or Titus. And so, from their vantage point above the Oneshot guild headquarters, they waited, and they watched.
And nothing happened.
Night fell, and still nothing. Except for more rain. Kaiden had pretty much given up all hope of that ever stopping. The sound of it had beat an unending rhythm into his mind. A symphony of drizzles and drips and light splashes, performed along with a chorus of crickets, frogs, chirping birds, and the occasional long, deep moan of something else. Something big. Hopefully not another Baboulian manhunter.
“I’ve never camped before,” Titus said, lying prone on his stomach between Kaiden and Zelda as they all peered over the cliff’s edge and down to the valley below. “Aren’t we supposed to, I don’t know, make a fire or something?” He adjusted his position for what seemed the thousandth time. “I mean, I know we don’t feel overly cold or hot in this game, but I’d at least like to be able to see something. It’s so dark I might as well have my eyes closed.”
“No fire,” Zelda said, eyes focused on the base below. She hadn’t moved in what seemed like hours. It’d likely only been an hour, even though Kal Reya had gone from daylight to the deep dark of night.
In-game day and night cycles moved faster than in real life. It helped players experience the full effect of the game without having to actually spend entire days online. There was also the fact that Kaiden had no idea how long a day was on Kal Reya. Space was funny like that. And Nova, the hyper-realistic, physics engine-driven game that it was, was sure to emulate it accurately.
“No fire,” Zelda said again. “It’ll give away our position. If anyone down there is paying even a bit of attention, they’ll instantly spot us. We’re too close to finding Jax to make a mistake like that now.”
“You’re right, as usual,” Titus said, sounding none too happy about it. “I just wish I could see.”
“It’s not that I don’t also want some light,” Zelda said, her usually sharp tone softening somewhat. “It’s just that the stakes are high now. Think of how hard we’ve worked to get here. Think of everything we’ve overcome. And we’re so close now. If we catch this assassin, we can prove Kaiden’s innocence. We can get justice for Bernstein’s murder, and we’ll finally be able to expose...” She trailed off suddenly.
Kaiden felt himself frown at that. He pulled his eyes from the dark valley below to look at her.
“Finally be able to expose what?”
“The truth about Bernstein’s murder,” she said, hesitant at first, then with more confidence. “The criminals who killed him framed you for it, Kai. That’s why the Party found it so easy to convict you. The evidence was stacked against you – too obvious to be true, but the Party took it at face value. Or didn’t care to dig deeper.”
Framed? Kaiden mulled over the word. That was quite the illogical jump. Someone had definitely murdered Bernstein; of that there was no doubt. But that he had stumbled upon the scene right before the police had arrived, that’d just been sheer bad luck, right? As bad as it was, it’d been a case of wrong place, wrong time. Hadn’t it?
“Bernstein’s killer likely tripped some sort of security measure, which made an emergency call to the police, who arrived right after I did. Look, I’m not happy about it, not by any means, but I can understand how it looked.”
“Planted evidence and bribes are a powerful combo, Kai,” Zelda said. “How could the crime scene investigators, the detectives on your case, even the judge, get the facts so wrong? All it takes is a sixty-second conversation with you and it’s obvious you’re no murderer.”
“When we first met, you were convinced I killed Bernstein.”
“Because that’s how they wanted it to look. Whatever criminal organization killed him needed someone to take the fall so they could lie low. At least until they ransom the information they took from him back to the Party.”
“You think the Party would make a deal with criminals?” Kaiden felt himself frown at that.
“They do it more than you’d think. They do a lot of things most people don’t know about.”
A shuffling in the darkness signified Titus was moving. In the dim light, Kaiden could just make out his form, crouched now and staring at Zelda.
“The only people who say ‘they’ like that are a dangerous kind to be associated with,” Titus said. “Dissidents don’t have a long shel
f life, if you know what I mean.”
Zelda sighed, then crawled back from the lip of the cliff herself.
“Look, I’m not trying to go all conspiracy theorist on you. But you have to look at the facts.”
Kaiden joined them now, edging back from the overlook of the valley. Zelda turned to him.
“The obvious answer is often a distraction. True answers are found when one digs deeper.”
Bernstein’s words. The same ones I used to convince her I wasn’t his murderer.
“Dig deeper into something like this, and all you’re going to end up is dead,” Titus said, stepping over to him. “Look, Kai. There are factions even the gangs steer clear of. I’m starting to think she might be involved with one.”
Factions even the gangs steer clear of? What was he talking about?
“Oh, that’s rich,” Zelda scoffed. “Coming from a gangster like yourself.”
“Guys,” Kaiden said, stepping between the two of them. “Calm down.”
“We made a mistake getting involved with her.”
“Well, at least we agree on that,” Zelda said. “It was Kai’s idea to bring you in, anyway. I warned him we couldn’t trust someone like you.”
“Guys!” Kaiden near shouted. “Stop it!”
“Oh, someone like me, huh? You see these tattoos and you think you know me. Think you know my story.” Titus took one stomping step forward, his voice boiling into anger. “You want to know why I joined the King Street Gang, Zelda?”
“Oh, this’ll be good.” She was yelling now, too. “Here, let me take a guess. Money? Greed? For the thrill of it?”
“To protect my family.”
It was spoken soft. Slow. Gentle, almost. Silence followed for many moments.
“To protect my family.” He finally said it again, with a sigh this time, all anger gone from his voice. “After I retired from boxing, I worked a regular job. Made terrible money, but it was honest work. Problem was, the people who ran the gym I used to box at? They were powerful people on the streets. The kind of people I kept far away from.” He paused, taking a long breath.
“But my little brother, he always had a nose for trouble. A nose that led him to owing these people a whole lot of money. Now, I’m all for paying for your mistakes – every man has to own up to his actions – but the people my brother owed money to, well, when you don’t pay, they don’t come after you. They come after your family – all of them. You want to know why I joined the King Street Gang? It was to work off my brother’s debt. To keep my family from being abducted and murdered, or worse.”
He finished with a shake of his head, his lower lip quivering in rage.
“And now I’m in here, playing a ridiculous video game, and hoping for the sake of my family that my brother can keep making his payments.”
He inhaled deeply, and when he spoke again, there was a renewed resolve in his voice.
“I don’t want to see anyone else walk the road I have. Getting involved with people who go against the Party sounds like an even more dangerous path.” He turned to Zelda as he finished, giving her a long, hard look.
“Jeez, Titus,” Kaiden said. “I’m...I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
Behind the tattoos and wall of muscle, Titus was a gentler person than his outward appearance would suggest. But that didn’t mean he was a big ball of fluff. Didn’t mean Kaiden could just make things better with a hug or an apology. Instead, he was left standing a step away, wanting to comfort the big man, but not knowing how. Emotions weren’t exactly either of their strong points.
“Titus,” Zelda said, breaking the awkward silence. Her voice was sincere as she spoke. There wasn’t even a hint of its usual cutting edge. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things about you. And worse, I shouldn’t have let my prejudice influence my opinion of you.”
“Yeah, well. That’s the way of the world, isn’t it?”
From his tone, he wasn’t too interested in apologies.
“Maybe we can work on that,” Zelda said softly. “I’ll do better.”
Kaiden breathed a sigh of relief that the two weren’t at each other’s throats anymore. Hopefully, this would be a turning point.
But there were still some lingering questions about Zelda. Questions that really needed to be asked.
No better time than the present, huh? Might as well air all the dirty laundry at once.
“Zelda,” Kaiden said, drawing her attention. “You’re interested in Bernstein’s murder because he was your friend. I get that. But there’s more to it, isn’t there? Something you’re not telling me. Something Titus is obviously concerned with.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “You weren’t supposed to find out this way. It’s a...delicate topic. Most people react like, well, about how Titus did. Which isn’t to put any blame on him. Most people just don’t know. But that’s part of my job. I want to help people see.”
“Help them see what?” Kaiden asked. He fought to keep the annoyance from his tone. She was dodging the question better than a politician.
“Help them see that the Party isn’t as in control as it likes to appear, which makes them dangerous. They’re covering up the fact there are criminal elements in the world that they’ve been thoroughly unable to control.”
Hold up. What? Kaiden felt his face scrunch up in confusion.
“Are we thinking of the same Party? The one that led us through the chaos of the great test? That ended the war and united us back into an actual, functioning society?”
“I’m not denying they’ve done good.”
“So what are you saying, then?”
She turned to Titus for a moment, speaking quickly. “Titus, you might not like the path I walk, but you can back up what I’m saying. Working in and around the gangs, I know you’ve heard things. Things the average citizen wouldn’t have.”
He was silent for a long time before finally speaking.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “I’ve heard some stuff. Nasty stuff. The kind that encourages even us to stay far clear of associating with...dissidents.”
“You don’t have to use the Party-approved language. You can call us what we are.”
“Extremists?”
“Rebels.”
Was there a touch of pride as she said the word? Kaiden wasn’t sure. He wasn’t even sure what she meant.
“Rebels?” Kaiden said. “Against what? Against the Party? That’s insane.”
“I don’t blame you for thinking that. But, Kai, listen to me for a moment.” There was a sincerity in her voice, backed by a passion that caught him off guard. This was important to her.
“I’m a journalist. Or I used to be. Bernstein was, too. We worked together at the Broadstreet Herald.”
“Never heard of it.”
“What about Metagamer Weekly?”
“Yeah, they’re an eSports publication covering the competitive gaming scene.”
Zelda laughed at that.
“That wasn’t always the case. When Bernstein and I worked there, it was the Broadstreet Herald. We were investigative journalists, and our first few truly groundbreaking stories were done on the gangs. We dug deep, deeper than anyone before us, and our work resulted in a public outcry. The Party was forced to act – and they did, arresting dozens of gangsters. For our ‘service to the people and the Party,’ Bernstein and I were awarded medals of Special Merit. And then summarily told to close any further investigations.”
“Something tells me you didn’t do that.”
“Of course not. Our digging uncovered more than just gang activity. It led us to believe the Party was not only aware of the gangs, but actively allowing many of them to operate in exchange for a portion of their profits. They were taking bribes to look the other way.”
That’s not good, but it’s nothing groundbreaking.
Kaiden shrugged. “So there were one or two bad officials. Power is a corrupting force; we’ve all been taught that. That’s why the process to get into politics is so r
igorous. You have to truly have the interests of the people at heart.”
“And line the right pockets. This corruption didn’t stop at one or two lowly officials. We were following a trail that led all the way to the top.”
“So why didn’t I ever hear about this? Why wasn’t it all over the news networks?”
“Because when we didn’t stop our investigation, the Broadstreet Herald was purchased by an anonymous business magnate. It was time for a change, they higher-ups told us. Time to get into the eSports game. The entire publication rebranded to ‘Metagamer Weekly.’ All staff were told to refocus on eSports and competitive gaming. Those who refused were fired.”
Kaiden hardly had to ask the question.
“I take it you refused?”
“And Bernstein, too.”
“You got lucky,” Titus chimed in. “You should have let things lie and moved on.”
“I couldn’t,” Zelda said. “I can’t. The gang stuff was just the tip of the iceberg.” She took a steadying breath. “We took our investigation to a new paper. We made some headway, then guess what happened? The paper was bought out. Decided to pivot to a new subject. All staff who complained were fired. Rinse and repeat. Are you starting to see the trend?”
Kaiden pursed his lips. An uneasy feeling was rising in his stomach.
“Do you want to know why the Party’s repressive activities are news to you, Kai?” Zelda went on, her words tumbling like a waterfall now, rushing past one after another with no sign of stopping. “Do you want to know why none of the media questioned the circumstances of your trial? Because there are no independent papers anymore. No independent media. No real journalism. It’s all controlled by the Party. It, and so, so much more.”
In the wake of her words, there was silence. Silence so deep it seemed even the rain itself lessened – for a few moments, at least – as if waiting to hear what was coming next.
“This is a lot to hear all at once,” Kaiden finally said. “Which isn’t me saying I believe you. I’ve come to trust you since we teamed up, and you were Bernstein’s friend. Those are the main reasons I’m even entertaining the idea that what you’re saying is legit.”