But as he shifted his gaze toward the stairwell he saw a sliver of light, faint but present. And as Shane's eyes followed it he caught a glimpse of a hooded figure standing at the top of the stairs…
If Shane had been carrying a gun he might have shot the black figure out of pure reflex. As it was he gripped the hilt of his cutlass tightly.
“You came, then,” the hooded figure said with a feminine voice. “We've been expecting you.”
“Are you-”
“I am not your contact,” she said. “He's waiting for you up here. And you won't need your weapons.”
Shane looked at her for a moment, then sheathed his cutlass. “You'll forgive me if I seem a little on edge tonight,” he said. “Because it seems like nothing's going the way we were told it would.”
“No. No it isn't,” she said. “But perhaps we can make things a little clearer for you.”
Shane started to say something else, but Gordon walked up the steps with Will and Teresa close behind. He and the others had no choice but to follow.
The hooded figure led them to a room at the top of the stairs, lit my a faint, shimmering oil lamp sitting on a table. The light caught Shane's attention so much that at first he didn't realize there was another person in the room standing behind the tabled, dressed in dark clothing with their hoof pulled up.
“Welcome,” he said. “We have business to discuss.”
“Are you our contact?” Gordon asked.
“That depends on your turn of phrase.”
“Who rides so late through night and wind?”
The man in the hood nodded. “Very well. Yes, I'm your contact.”
“What can you tell us?”
“There are many things that I can tell you. Some of little importance, but others-”
Shane finally had enough. “OK, enough of this. We've been jerked around more than enough tonight. Get to the point. What do we have to do?”
“That's up in the air at this point,” the man in the hood said. “Our original plan has been compromised, and most of our crews have been forced to go to ground.”
“Compromised how?” Kelvin said. “Is it the Iron Guild?”
“Of course. They've been snooping around lately, trying to gather information. Lately it seems like they've found something, because they've been targeting our ships. But they haven't declared a kill order on our guild.”
“So they think they don't know, but they don't actually know for sure. That's what it sound like,” Teresa said.
Gordon spoke up. “We haven't heard anything.”
“From your sources? No, I'd think not. Alex was very clear about that. But I wonder if your source really knows everything there is to about the activities going on inside the Iron Guild.”
“So we get to the ship, reflag it as our own, and then we head back to Beylan,” Shane said. “Easy enough.”
The man in the hood waved his hand. “Not quite. The Iron Guild has eyes throughout the city, and many of them are focused on the ship in the harbor. As soon as you reflag it they'll notice, and that will give your guild away.”
“And we can't afford to do that,” Gordon said. “So I assume that you have a different plan?”
“I do. Once-”
The man in the hood didn't get to finish his sentence. The woman that greeted them hurried into the room and interrupted the conversation.
“They're here,” she said. “The Iron Guild found us.”
Shane moved toward a window for a better look. He could see dark shapes moving on the streets below. And as he looked across the rooftops more shadows appeared. And-
He flinched back, just in time to avoid the bullet that came crashing through the glass. Shane threw himself flat, hearing the faint thump of steam rifles in the distance. More bullets crashed through the window, showering him with shards of glass.
As soon as the shooting stopped he looked up.
“Everyone alright?” he asked.
His group called back, but then he noticed the man lying face-down on the floor, shot through the back several times.
“Guess that's a dead-end,” he said.
Brandon shot him a look. “That's a terrible one-liner.”
“I thought it was pretty good.”
Kelvin crawled over to the body and took the guidebook. “Talk later,” he said. “I have a feeling this place is going to be swarming with guild troops.”
“We'll go over the rooftops,” Gordon said. “Put on your masks. And let's go while they're reloading.” He turned to their other contact. “Can you guide us?”
“I can,” she said.
“Then let's go.”
Shane pushed himself up to his feet, tied his cloth mask across his face and hurried after the others. Their guide led them to a window and jumped out into the night. Shane heard shouts from below, the sound of boots pounding across the cobblestones. He tried to ignore it all.
If he slipped, if a lapse in concentration got him killed and sent him plummeting to the streets below, if the Iron Guild got their hands on his guidebook, it was over for all of them. The guild would have proof that Rho Trading Company was involved in clandestine dealings, and Shane didn't think even the best agent could clean up that kind of mess.
By any means, they had to escape.
Chapter Eight
Kelvin sprinted across the rooftops as fast as his legs could manage, trying to keep his balance and maintain the pace. He ducked behind a chimney as the enemy fired another volley. One shot blew a chunk out of the side, smashing away shards of brick and dust. If that hit him in any spot…
He didn't have time to dwell on it. As soon as the shooting stopped Kelvin rose back to his feet and ran. He saw their guide up ahead. She made a jump, followed by some of the others. Kelvin braced himself to make the leap as well.
Only, when he neared the edge of the rooftop he realized how wide the gap actually was, at least six, maybe eight feet across.
He didn't have time to stop. Kelvin charged forward and pushed off as hard as he could, trying to propel his bulk across the chasm. If he fell he was fairly sure the impact would kill him, and there would be no way for his comrades to retrieve his guidebook…
Kelvin felt a hard impact and slipped, almost falling backward into thin air, but he managed to right himself and complete his landing. He felt his heart pounding, but he didn't have time to contemplate just how close he had come to certain death. He kept running, following the others across the rooftops of Kromus.
He hated Gordon's choice to take this route, even if he completely understood the decision. Trying to flee through the streets was just asking for trouble. Their group would be exposed to fire from both ground level and from above, and they could end up trapped in an alleyway if they took a wrong turn. Going across the rooftops gave them a few more options, even if that meant exposing themselves to the enemy gunners.
But it also posed a significant risk to some of their members, Kelvin included. Those with the shadow temperament wouldn't have much trouble, but champions and brutes lacked their agility and quick feet. And with some of the gaps they had to clear…
Keep moving. Keep moving, slip away through the darkness. That was all he could do at this point. Their path had been chosen for them.
“Cover! Cover!” Brandon yelled.
Kelvin threw himself flat and heard the thump of steam rifles. Bullets zipped by them, one skipping off the roof dangerously close to his head. But as he looked up he realized they were fairly close to their assailants.
“Close the distance, cut them down. Cut them down!” Gordon ordered.
Kelvin pushed himself back up to his feet and followed the rest, drawing his blade. He saw the enemy frantically scrambling, trying to reload their weapons before they had a chase to move in, but his party moved far too quickly.
Some of the guild troops dropped their guns and tried to draw their close-combat weapons, but it was too late. With ruthless efficiency his group cut them all down.
/> Kelvin was about to move on when he spotted Brandon kneeling down beside one of their fallen enemies, fumbling around with something.
“What are you doing?”
“I'm not letting this go to waste,” Brandon said. He pulled the mini-boiler off, slung it over his back and then took the corpse's ammunition belt.
“Come on!” Shane yelled back at them.
Kelvin yanked Brandon to his feet and took off running, wondering how long their luck would hold out. More and more guild troops swarmed the streets below, many trying to climb up to the rooftops to continue the pursuit.
Whatever their clients had done, it was enough to stir up a veritable hornet nest.
“What's our plan? Station?” Shane asked Gordon as they ran across the rooftops.
“They'll be expecting that,” Gordon said. “And they'll track us.”
“Then what's our plan?”
“We get to one of the safe zones and hide. Lay low until they stop looking.”
Shan gritted his teeth and didn't respond. He should have insisted on his gut instinct. They should have cut and run as soon as they knew things weren't going according to plan. Instead they had followed the whims of someone who had gotten into deep trouble in the first place, and now they were paying the price.
At the very least they needed to find a good spot to hide so they could log out. Maybe some time outside of the virtual world would give them a new perspective and help them come up with a solution, but they couldn't just leave the game. To keep players from logging out whenever they got into serious trouble their virtual avatars froze in place for thirty seconds after they logged out, letting enemies do damage and likely killing the player in the process.
They continued to run, dodging scattered shots from their pursuers and maneuvering their way through the district. By some minor miracle none of them had been hit, and one quick glance at his guidebook told him they were nearing one of the safe areas.
Their guide made a signal and suddenly jumped off the roof. For a moment Shane thought she had plummeted straight toward the ground, but as he reached the edge he saw another roof a little lower. He swung himself down and dropped, then continued his sprint. Their guide jumped down again.
A few minutes later they were at ground level and out on the main boulevard. Shane breathed a sigh of relief, though he didn't dare take off his mask. The Iron Guild might not be able to attack them in a safe zone, but they could still get a good look at their faces.
“Is this good enough?” Brandon said. “Or do we want to find someplace to hide so they can't track us when we log back in?”
Gordon shrugged and then turned to their guide. “Can we access the ship?”
“We can, but that's not going to end well for you if you switch the registry,” she said. “They have eyes and ears all around.”
“Then we switch it to anonymous and get out of the bay.”
“They might not know who we're working for, but they can still follow us,” Kelvin said. “I'm willing to bet that they'll have gunboats waiting for us, and it's not like we have a lot of room to maneuver.”
Shane agreed that they were in a bad spot. Kromus sat in the midst of a relatively narrow channel, with only two points of exit. The enemy could set a blockade at both ends and wait for them to show up.
“Isn't this a large freighter too?”
“Over three hundred feet long, yes.”
“Then this is going to be a problem. We can't maneuver with something that big in narrow waters.”
“But we can't leave this job uncompleted,” Gordon said. “We were contracted to do it, and we're going to do everything to make sure it happens.”
“Even if we're risking exposure?” Shane asked pointedly. He kept an eye out for any eavesdroppers, but it looked like the Iron Guild had given up the pursuit for now.
Gordon fixed him with a steely gaze. “Yeah. Even that. This is important enough to risk that.”
“I don't suppose you're going to tell me why,” Shane grumbled.
“No.”
“If it's any consolation, I don't know either,” Teresa said. “Apparently it's one of those need to know secrets that they like to keep.”
“That's really not all that comforting,” Kelvin said.
Shane said nothing else, his mind turning. What could be so important that they'd risk outing their guild and bringing down the full wrath of the Iron Guild upon them? Nothing about this made sense.
Log out
They met at Kelvin and Bailey's home the next afternoon. Shane appreciated the distraction. The events of the previous night still bothered him, and he didn't want to immediately jump back in. It could wait for another night.
Besides, there were some friends that he wanted to see.
“So, Kelvin tells me that you got into quite a scrap last night,” Bailey said.
“Is that what you called it? I'd say running for our lives is a better way to put it,” Shane said. He turned toward two of the others. “Bryan. Naomi. It's been way too long.”
“It has,” Bryan said, standing up to hug him.
Shane hugged him back. “I see you finally got rid of the lumberjack beard. Did she finally make you cut it off?”
“No, this was my choice.”
“Thankfully,” Naomi said. She stood up and hugged him as well.
Shane laughed. “So, was this really a choice, or was it a thinly-veiled demand?”
“The beard? Well, I'll let him think that.”
“So how have you been?”
“We've been good. Busy, but good.”
“How long are you in town for?
“Just a few days. I would have liked to get more time off, but this was what we could manage,” Bryan said. “Wish we could have more time to hang with you all, but we haven't seen our families in months either.”
“Hey, I'll take what I can get.”
“Still playing Age of Steam, from what I've heard?” Bryan said.
Shane nodded. “Yeah. We miss having you two around.”
“Sometimes I do miss playing it. But I think it was time for me to go, at least. The world changed too much for me to want to stay any longer.”
“Me too,” Naomi said. “I liked adventuring with you all, but when it started become more about one large group trying to squeeze as much profit as they could out of everyone else, well...”
“No, I see where you're coming from,” Shane said.
“Unfortunately, things haven't changed a whole lot,” Brandon said. “The only difference is that we're playing a really complicated game of cops and robbers now.”
“And the people with all the power get to be the cops. Not exactly a fun time to be had. Or at least not the kind of fun we had before,” Naomi said. “I liked the quests.”
“I think we all did,” Bryan agreed.
Shane could remember quite a few. Exploring isolated areas and lonely islands, fighting their way through hordes of monsters to retrieve something valuable, every one of them held some form of excitement. And the best part was that they could do it as a group, working as a team to accomplish their goals. There was no better feeling than coming out on top after going through a hard quest and winning as a team.
But the guild had destroyed it, crushed that along with so many others. Now Age of Steam was either about gaining control of the trade routes and keeping them under an iron fist, or finding some small way to fight back against their overwhelming power. As the balance of the world shifted many players left, unwilling to deal with the seismic shift the virtual world was undergoing.
Shane had lost plenty of friends during the exodus, but Bryan and Naomi hurt the worst. Bryan had been the one to introduce them all to Age of Steam and approached it with an infectious enthusiasm. He had been their guild-master, the one who gave them a sense of direction and a purpose. With him around there was never a dull moment. They always had another adventure to go on, a way to connect and hang out with each other even with hundreds of miles be
tween them.
The fact that a guild had been allowed to take that away angered him, but there was little point in hoping for an outside intervention. The developers had already stated that they wouldn't do anything to break up the Iron Guild, since everything they had done was within the limits of the game rules. If the other players wanted to do anything, they needed to find another way to fight back.
Shane also wondered if they had made that decision to avoid angering the guild's player-base and possibly have them all quit, but no matter what the effect was still the same. The Iron Guild controlled the trade, and with that they had control of the world.
“We wish you'd come back, though,” Bailey said. “Virtual reality is the best way to hang out with you over long distances.”
Bryan nodded. “Yeah, I know. But what's the point if you can't do what you want?”
“I guess it's part of the game?” Kelvin said. “Or it's competition, of sorts? You can have the feeling of going through high-risk activities without any real danger. And I've got to say that sometimes it's pretty fun. It gets your blood pumping.”
“Like the running you were saying something about?”
“What did you do?” Naomi asked.
Shane took a seat in one of the deck chairs. “Well, we ended up in a bit of trouble. We're in a new guild, they give us a mission for a simple cargo run, only when we go to meet our contact we find out that the Iron Guild is watching them. And they're ready to shoot to kill.”
“Huh, sounds a lot like them. I guess that some things never change.”
“So did you get away?” Bryan asked.
“We're still stuck in Kromus, trying to figure out a way to get back to the city without tipping off the guild.”
“Sound like you got yourself in quite the situation,” Bryan said. “Do you have a way out?”
“Sounds like you're still interested in the game,” Brandon observed.
Bryan shrugged. “I played it for a long time. So I'm bound to have a little bit of interest.”
Rising Tide: A LitRPG Novel (Age of Steam Book 1) Page 8