Desert

by Caiden Walker

  Similar status? But he was just a programmed NPC... or was he? Her brow cleared, and she asked, "You mean...?"

  He nodded. "Yes, it appears that your old nemesis Cora pulled the plug on my outside world life just after I'd entered the game. I have to admit that I wondered why I couldn't remember logging out, but I thought that had just been erased from my code." Smiling at Nika, he continued. "Come to find out, I never did log out. I've been here in the game just as I am the whole time. Just like you, my little pixie friend."

  "That means you're the real Cameron Logan?" Evan asked, his voice holding more than a little reverence.

  "That's right, Evan," Nika said grinning. "He really is Dad, not just some NPC coded to think like him. Isn't that great?"

  "More than great actually," Evan said.

  "The reason we wanted to meet with the two of you before introducing me to your friends is that we have a slight dilemma on our hands," Cameron said.

  "Yes," Nika agreed. "We can't introduce him as my actual father without first explaining to the team about Louella and what we've learned about how the game handles our deaths in the outside world." She glanced at her father. "Dad feels pretty strongly that they have a right to know."

  Louella agreed with Cameron. It had been killing her to keep this secret.

  "Are you okay with that, Louella?" Evan asked quietly. "Letting the others know?"

  "Oh, yes," Louella said. "Though I don't think they are going to be happy to have been kept in the dark for so long."

  "I'll make sure they know it was my decision," Nika assured her. "Hopefully they won't hold the grudge for too long. We all need to work together to finish this game as quickly as possible. Knowing how Cora operates, she won't stop with killing us, she'll destroy the game too."

  And her father. Nika didn't say it, but Louella could read between the lines. As much as Nika wanted herself and the others to live, she wanted to keep him alive even more. Even if it was just inside the game. It was far better than nothing.

  Thinking about it like that actually helped Louella come to grips a bit with her own situation. If Nika felt that way about her dad, surely her own parents would feel the same way about her? Coming to visit her in the game would be a fun trip for everyone.

  If only they could figure out a way to stop the reboot from killing them for good.

  "So, it looks like we are all in agreement," Cameron said. "We tell the others and let them know they've all just met a ghost."

  Is that what she was now too? A ghost? Louella smiled. Well, as long as this ghost could still kick some monster butt out in the desert, she was surprised to find she was perfectly okay with that. Kind of cool, actually.

  Evan stood to let the others in and once they had all settled in on the floor around Louella, Nika told them everything. It didn't take nearly as long as it had to fill her father in on things as they already knew most of the story.

  As they had expected, Ash wasn't at all happy. She didn't say a word, but the hurt was written all over her face. Dean just seemed to be in shock with the fact that he might not have a body to return to, and Blake... well, nobody cared much about what Blake was feeling at this point.

  "I'm truly sorry, Ash," Nika said. "Knowing wouldn't have changed anything, and I really did want you to enjoy the beta test without that stress hanging over you. If there had been any way to change things, I swear I would have told you all sooner."

  "So why tell us now?" Dean said. "Truthfully, I think I was much happier living in ignorance. I'm not sure I'm okay with the fact that I might truly never get out of this game." He swallowed. "I have family out there you know. Friends, too."

  Nika glanced at Louella. "So does Louella, Dean, but that doesn't change the way things stand. As to why we're telling you now, I wanted you to know that this man really is my father, Cameron Logan, and the brains behind Gaia's Rebirth."

  "And because I kind of put my foot down that you all had a right to know," Cameron said, giving them a sad smile.

  "Yeah, that too," Nika admitted.

  "Now that you all do know," Cameron said. "We need to figure out how to get to Gaia as soon as possible and what we're going to do once we get there."

  "Whoa, wait a minute, Dad," Nika said. "You aren't going with us."

  He turned to face her. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am, my dear," he said. "You may need me, and I happen to have chosen the Priest class when I entered the game. It will give your team two high powered healers, which can only help."

  "And if you die out there?" Nika said, her eyes started to brim over again with tears. Not nice ones this time, either.

  "Then I die," he said. Then he paused. "Do we have any proof that if a ghost in the game dies they don't reboot?"

  Nika stared at Louella, but didn't say anything.

  "Just my wings," Louella said. "Not proof exactly, but when Gaia destroyed my wings, they never healed back. I've been lucky not to die in the game since, but if my wings didn't heal..."

  "Then you think you might not reboot," Cameron finished for her, nodding. "I can see that."

  He sighed. "If only we had a computer terminal, it wouldn't take long to find out. I almost programmed one for back here, but what good does a terminal do for an NPC?"

  "We do have one," Ash said, beating the others to the words and pulling the terminal from the backpack and handing it to him. "But I’m not sure how much good it is now. VirTech has locked us all out. Even the hacker."

  "Yeah, they baited me with that last update," Louella said. She was still pissed about that one. "Then they blocked my account."

  Cameron chewed on his lip for a minute, his fingers drumming on the closed terminal now in his lap. Finally, he turned to Nika. "I suppose you deleted my account once I passed away?"

  Nika's eyes widened, and she took a sharp intake of breath. "No, I didn't. You're still in the system, with all your overrides and everything."

  A slow smile crept onto Cameron's face. "Why would VirTech bother to erase a dead man's access?"

  He popped open the terminal and within a matter of seconds he was in Gaia's programming. All of it. He cracked his knuckles and then grinned at them all. "So," he said, "where do we start?"

  "How about starting with getting us out of here?" Dean's voice sounded a bit panicky. For good reason really, he still might have a body back home.

  Cameron's fingers flew over the keyboard. "That's strange," he said. "They have totally deleted the code allowing players to exit the game until they beat Gaia."

  "Can't you recode it?" Dean asked.

  "Yes," Cameron said slowly. "But it would take me some time. I'd have to do it all from scratch. Without my notes from back home, I'm afraid that would be quite the lengthy process."

  "Is there any way to make sure that 'ghosts' can reboot?" Louella asked, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.

  Nika nodded. "Yeah, that's probably where we should start for sure."

  Again, the fingers started flying. The man must have a typing speed of over a hundred words a minute. Louella had thought she was fast at seventy-five.

  After a few seconds of non-stop keying, he started explaining what he was doing. "I'm going to run a quick test by taking an NPC character, killing them and seeing if they reboot."

  "Wouldn't they have to save first?" Ash asked.

  "Ah, good point my dear." More frantic keystrokes quickly followed. "There, all set up. Now to kill him off."

  "Not Tyler from Riser's Creek, right?" Ash asked. "Tell me it isn't Tyler."

  "Or Striker," Nika said, starting to catch Ash's panic. "Those two NPCs are exempt from any and all future testing that might end with less than stellar results."

  Cameron gave them all a weird look but shook his head. "Anyone have an objection to killing off an NPC called Harry that runs a horse farm?"

  Harry, Louella thought. He was the one they'd gotten Sunshine from and the horse had told her some stories about just how he treated the creatures in his stables.

/>   "No problem at all, sir," Louella said. "In fact, he's the perfect one to test in my opinion. He's not nice at all to his horses."

  "Here goes," Cameron said. A few seconds later he shouted. "Eureka! He came back, right at the save point."

  Unfortunately, that really didn't make Louella feel all that much better. It might work on NPCs, but she and Cameron weren't just programs and codes. Even if they did reboot, would their souls stay intact? NPCs didn't have that to worry about.

  "You still don't look convinced," Nika said.

  Louella sighed. "I'm sorry. It's great to know that NPCs can reboot. That way we don't have to worry quite so much about Striker and Tyler getting killed in the game. But, well, I'm more than just code. Even if I do reboot, will I keep my soul?"

  Cameron thought for a minute. "I don't see why you wouldn't," he said. "If your soul transfers into the game with your brain connection, then it has to become a part of the code in some way in order for you to stay you. If the soul stayed in place when you rebooted before, it should now. After all, the game doesn't seem to recognize that you're no longer living in the outside world."

  She gave him a doubtful look. "Do you really think we'll reboot with no problem?"

  He took a deep breath. "There isn't any way to be one hundred percent certain without testing it out, and neither of us is a suitable test subject."

  All the eyes turned to Blake, who started backing up. "Hey! I don't want to die either."

  Nika sighed. "No, and even I'm not capable of killing him if I thought there might be a chance that he'd stay dead. Besides, we are all hoping right now that we have lives to return to. No way to know that he is alive or dead back there."

  Blake sagged back, relieved. Don't get too comfortable, Louella thought. If she found out he was dead in real life, she really didn't think she'd hesitate to end him. Especially if it meant peace of mind for her and Cameron. She was kind of hoping she never had that proof of death because she didn't like having thoughts that brutal. Maybe the game had changed her after all.

  Or maybe she just really hated Blake Nolan.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Cora Foiled

  They got very little sleep that night after planning the lockdown and making lists of what they needed to have ready for their next evening's shift. Les said that wouldn't matter so much because once they were in and locked down, there would be plenty of time to sleep.

  Mary's part wasn't all that bad. She was handling the food preparations. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to stock the player's lounge with enough food for them to make it a week. After a week, things would be pretty much over. Whether Nika and her team made it out of Gaia or not, they wouldn't be able to hold out much longer than that.

  Max was in charge of packaging the evidence and copying what they had. Their plan was to send a copy to the local media in the hopes that perhaps they wouldn't have been as likely to have been bought out by VirTech. And one copy was going in with them to help convince the staff of nurses.

  How Les planned to get the other non-essential employees out of the lounge before the shutdown, she didn't know. But Les wasn't one to leave such a detail uncovered, and it might be better to be kept in the dark on this one as much as possible. Fewer things to worry about that way. Besides, she couldn't see how there would be that many to worry about, anyway. If Nika was anything like she seemed, the player's privacy would be a big issue to her. Especially as one of those players was her.

  They had planned to get to the company a full hour before their shift to take care of the final items on the list, and then at clock-in time to lock up the lounge area for good. When Max popped his head into the living room where she and Les were filling their duffel bags, the expression on his face told her he had bad news.

  "They're doing it tonight," Max said, giving a big swallow. "They're killing the team tonight."

  Thoughts raced through Mary's mind and then settled on one. "The mirror chip?"

  Her brother nodded. "I was reviewing the computer's keystrokes for the last couple of hours, and Cora must have used this terminal for some reason. She sent a message to a Clyde Trenton to be on alert at the start of the second shift because she was going to take care of the loose ends in the Player’s Lounge tonight." He paused with another swallow. "The message said the project was complete."

  Les and Mary's eyes met. She knew hers must be a bit panicky right now, but his were as cold as hardened steel.

  "Then it looks like we skip dinner and head straight there," Les said, hurriedly stuffing the rest of his gear into his bag.

  "Who is Clyde Trenton?" Mary asked.

  Les glanced at her and then back to his task. "My boss," he said. "Head of all the security at Gaia's Rebirth. VirTech's pockets must be really deep to have gotten him on board. He's been with the company for years."

  "Yeah, but maybe he was pulling a double paycheck that whole time too," Max said. "You guards pretty much have full access to the company."

  "True, but not the technical parts, just the building. I didn't think a guard would be on their list of recruits, but VirTech is a little more thorough than I'd thought."

  "You really think we can do this?" Mary asked. Knowing in her heart it didn't matter. Les would go ahead no matter what.

  To her surprise, there was a tiny bit of fear in his eyes when he turned them on her. That was something she had never seen from him. Fear. It should have terrified her, but instead, it seemed to fill her with resolve. Anything that made her man, whether he knew he was her man or not, be afraid was something she had to deal with.

  "I'm not sure," Les said honestly. "But I know it's something I have to try. I can't let that company get away with murder if I can help it." He hesitated. "I'm thinking maybe it's something me and Max could handle. Why don't you get the food and then you can be our outside contact?" He nodded. "Yeah, we just might need one of those."

  "No way in hell," she said, grabbing her duffel and swinging the heavy bag onto her shoulder. "I'm coming too."

  Les didn't look too happy about his plan now, but he nodded. No way was he cutting her out.

  They made their way to the Gaia building at a jog. They would be cutting it close as it was. If Cora and her pet guard were even a few minutes early, they might catch them in the act of the shutdown and be able to stop them. Then it wouldn't be prison they would have to worry about. Once Cora knew they knew, it would be a grave for each of them too.

  All the preparations went as planned and Mary was just finishing the stocking of the little lounge kitchen when she heard Cora arrive. Shit, she thought, glancing at the clock above the sink. She was a full hour early.

  Mary shot a quick text message to Les and her brother and went to stand by the door to the kitchen to hear what was going on.

  "Can I have everyone's attention, please?" Cora said. The woman had one of those voices that didn't allow anyone to ignore it. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned her way.

  When Mary had gotten there with her cart from the kitchen laden down with supplies, she had done a quick head count. Besides the players, there were two nurses and one man whose job she didn't know. At the time it had made her feel better as it meant they would be facing even odds, with conscious people at least, once the shutdown happened. A quick peek around the corner told her that Cora hadn't come alone. There were two men with her. And not small men at that. Thinking quick, Mary saw a mirror on the wall and realized that if she positioned herself just right she could see what was going on out in the main lounge and still stay hidden.

  Hidden was good. The only good thing that Mary could see was that the men weren't armed. That would have been really bad.

  Still, it made the odds two to one, and that wasn't exactly great. They'd hoped to be firmly ensconced in the lounge before Cora and company showed up.

  Once she was sure all eyes were on her, Cora gave the room a smile. "Gaia's Rebirth wants to thank all of you for your hard work and dedication on this project," she said. "We ha
ve arranged for these two men, both qualified nurses and highly respected in their fields to relieve you all for the night so that you can have some much-needed downtime."

  "Excuse me?" said one of the nurses. She was a smaller woman, but her voice sounded strong. "Nika assured Ash Tanner that her nurse would be a female. I wouldn't want her to come back and find herself in the care of a man. I'll stay."

  Cora's smile snapped off her face in a heartbeat. "Okay, so much for being nice," she said. "You are hereby terminated for insubordination." She looked over at the other two in the room. "Do you two of you want a night off? Or to stand in the unemployment lines with your friend here?"

  The two men gave their fellow worker a sad look but left the room. Mary noted the female nurse was still standing her ground, her arms crossed over her chest.

  "You don't have the authority to fire me," she said. "I was hired personally by Cameron Logan and his daughter Nika. And only Nika has the right to terminate my employment."

  Cora glanced over at one of the men who nodded. He'd been watching the others leave.

  "Well, then you give us no choice," Cora said sweetly. "You can stay. And I promise you that you'll be there for Nika and poor Ash right up to the end."

  Ah, shit, guys, Mary thought. Where are you?

  As if in answer to her unspoken question, they stepped through the doorway. As soon as he was through, Max turned and immediately hit the emergency lockdown control and then started keying furiously on the small keypad. Mary knew he was changing the password to the one they had all agreed upon. If he had time, of course. It wasn't something that could be done in a matter of seconds.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Cora screeched, signaling the men beside her to stop them.

  Les gave them both a grin and stepped out between the men and Max, who didn't even hesitate in his keystrokes. Mary stepped through the kitchen doors and went to stand closer to the nurse who had stood her ground. Very likely, she'd be an ally in this and Mary was almost sure she could take Cora if the woman made a move on either of the women.