by Justin Coke
“I’m sorry,” Jim said, “they’re usually not this bad.”
“It’s okay,” Hayes said. “Just loud.”
“Hooligan money spends too,” Jim muttered, and Hayes starting playing with twenty-sided dice.[232]Hayes decided to buy some Magic cards just to kill time.[233]
They rode back to the Squid Pistol estate.
“Show us the staff,” the gamers said. Braylen sat down at his computer to comply. He got out his authenticator.[234]Braylen put in the digits from his authenticator.
ACCESS DENIED: INCORRECT PASSWORD/AUTHENTICATOR CODE
He tried again.
ACCESS DENIED: INCORRECT PASSWORD/AUTHENTICATOR CODE
“What the fuck,” Braylen said.[235] “Maybe you crashed the server,” someone said.
“Nah, I’m still on. So is Teabagz.”
“What?” Braylen said.
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re in some forest.”
“What?!” Braylen shouted, and put in the code again.
ACCESS DENIED.
He looked closely at his authenticator; he’d dropped it on concrete a while back, and a thin crack ran down the back.
This authenticator’s plastic was flawless.
“Fuck! Where are they?”
“Who?”
“The assholes sitting next to me! They stole my account!”
“I don’t know, they left.”[236]Braylen stormed out and found Hayes carrying a bag of Magic cards.
“You,” Braylen said, looking at him for the first time. “It’s you ... in a stupid fucking wig, but it’s you ... ”
Mad Hatter came out of the bathroom[237] and gaped at the scene.
“You’re the one who’ve been stalking me!” Braylen said. “Give it back.” Angry gamers starting circling Hayes.
“Give what back?” Hayes said.
“My authenticator.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You do.”
“I don’t.”[238]Mad Hatter walked past Braylen and grabbed Hayes by the shoulder.
“We’re leaving,” Mad Hatter said. Hayes hesitated, then turned to follow.
“Stop them!” Braylen shouted.
“You touch us we’re calling the cops. It’ll be a hate crime,” Mad Hatter said, hoping to confuse them long enough to hit the door.
“What?” Braylen said.
“You called us faggots,” Mad Hatter said as they got to the door.
“No I didn’t!”
“That’s not what the cops will hear,” Mad Hatter said, as he opened the door.
Hayes walked through, right into two people; they recognized each other instantly—the kidnappers were here. They lunged at Hayes, while Terry’s huge arms grabbed their collars.
“Run!” Terry said, as he shook the kidnappers like a bad parent. Hayes and Mad Hatter took off, leaving Braylen and the rest behind. They looked back; the woman had broken free. She pulled a Taser and shot Terry. Terry and the man both fell, convulsing.
With a shriek, they ran faster. The woman chased them. Braylen appeared, jumped over the convulsing bodies, and began to follow. He was faster than he looked.
They ran until they couldn’t run anymore, which wasn’t that far, juking backyards and alleys, and dived into a dumpster as soon as they couldn’t see anyone chasing them.
Breathing hard, Mad Hatter pulled out his phone.
He stared at the text, then showed it to Hayes.
IT’S CHILD PORN. STARRING BRAYLEN. GET BACK HERE. They heard the pounding footsteps of someone coming and tried to hold their breath. They had run too hard; and it sounded as loud as passing trains as the footsteps approached.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
The footsteps stopped in front of their dumpster; Mad Hatter peed himself a little bit.[239] Another pair of feet ran up to the dumpster.
“They’re around here somewhere,” a woman, calm and not even slightly winded, said.
“I ... ” Braylen said, substantially more winded, “saw a foot underneath a kiddy pool three houses back.”
The woman ran that way, and a head appeared in the dumpster. Braylen, eyes frightened and no longer angry, looked at them.
“Take me with you,” Braylen said. “Or I’ll scream. They will kill you.”
That was a deal that needed no discussion, and the three ran as fast as they could to the main drag, where they hailed a cab, which paused as the driver sized them up, then sped off.
Mad Hatter called Kid Twist. The call was answered instantly.
“What is going on?” Kid Twist shouted.
“They tasered Terry, we’re on foot I don’t even know where. Braylen is with us.”
“What?”
“He saved us, I guess. He wants to come with us.”
“Yeah, yeah, good.”
“Good?”
“I saw the tape. Give me an address, anything, we’re already in the car on the way.”
“There’s a White Castle and a Hardees right across the street from each other up the way.”
Mad Hatter heard Tick Tock say “Got it” from somewhere in the car.
“Be there in three minutes,” Kid Twist said, and hung up.
“Let’s go,” Mad Hatter said, “they’ll meet us at the Hardees.”
Wind-stitched and sore-footed they limped to the store.
Braylen looked behind them.
“God,” he said. “She found us.”
They started running again, for what little good it did.
“That bitch do track and field?” Mad Hatter said.
“Iron Mans,” Braylen gasped.
A car coming the other way pulled a U-turn across the grassy median and came to a shrieking stop in front of them. The door opened to reveal a pasty, terrified Tick Tock. They piled into the car as firecrackers went off behind them. Hayes looked up to see her in the middle of a pool of light, holding a pistol.
“She’s shooting at us,” Hayes screamed. “Hurry.”
A shot hit metal as Braylen dived in, and Hayes hurled himself on top of him. They peeled away.
They rode in cold shakes of dying adrenaline for a long time.
Kid Twist’s phone buzzed, and Tick Tock picked it up.
“Terry is up and heading back to the hotel,” Tick Tock said. “The other guy limped off before the cops got there.”
“Who were those people?” Kid Twist said. “Who are you?”
“I’m Braylen,” Braylen said. “But I guess you know that.”
“Who are they?”
“I ... it’s hard to explain.”
“We saw the video,” Tick Tock blurted. Braylen turned bright red and shrank away from them and burst into tears. Kid Twist shot Tick Tock a baleful look.
“Look, I know this is hard to believe, given our history,” Kid Twist said. “But we had no idea. We just thought you were a jerk.”
That didn’t help.
“We’re the Thrill Kill Cult,” Mad Hatter said. “Blondie hired us because you threw him in the Hole of Calcutta.”
That slowed down the sobbing.
“Which time?” Braylen said.
Hayes bit his lip in rage.
“Point being,” Kid Twist said, “If we knew the truth we wouldn’t have been your enemies.”
“Are you Jason Angel?” Braylen said. “You look just like him.”
“Yes,” Kid Twist said.
“I must be having a stupid dream,” Braylen said. “This is too weird.”
Hayes punched him in the face.
“Did that hurt?” Hayes said. “Then this isn’t a dream!”
Braylen started crying again while everyone in the car stared at him like he was the devil.
“Well, he knows he isn’t dreaming now,” Hayes said.
“I ... ” Braylen said between sobs “was ... being ... metaphorical.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Terry was already back at the hotel room by the time they piled in, half dead from the adrenaline crash. He had two precise
red welts on his neck, as if some tidy vampire had fed on him.
“Thanks, man,” Mad Hatter said, and went in for a hug that got a confused reply from Terry.
“Just my job,” Terry said.
“You saved our lives,” Hayes said.
“I know. I’m more interested in why he is here. Klaatu barada?”[240]“Necktie,”[241] Kid Twist said.Terry gave Kid Twist a questioning look.
“Emily, go find a room for Braylen. Get his clothing sizes too,” Kid Twist said. Tick Tock almost protested but decided to fight another day and took Braylen by the arm, leading him to one of the vacant bedrooms.
“So. Turns out it was kiddy porn,” Mad Hatter said.
“You know this how?”
“We stole the file. I saw ... enough,” Kid Twist said, his voice tightening in remembered pain.
“Okay, let me call the cops. I know a guy who works for the Orlando cops, he used to work for NPC, he’ll know how to deal with this discretely.”
“That sounds fantastic,” Kid Twist said.[242] “And you guys got away! Impressive. That chick surprised the hell out of me. She knows BJJ[243] or I’ll eat my hat.”
“Barely,” Mad Hatter said. “Braylen lured her away, actually.”
Terry laughed.
“So turns out the big bad was the victim and he saved your lives?” he asked, rubbing his taser wounds.
“Yes,” Hayes said, like a child admitting that he had in fact pooped his pants.
“She shot the car,” Kid Twist said.
“I can square that with Avis,” Terry said. “Want me to call in backup?”
“No,” Kid Twist said.
“You probably should. That bitch tasered me and her buddy, then tried to kill all of you. They’re ruthless and willing to kill.”
“He’s the expert,” Mad Hatter said, remembering what it felt like to be in the garbage bin and feeling like a few backup Terrys would be a great idea.
“Ok, fine. But they should all be arrested soon.”
“They are all probably thinking the same thing. Unless they kill the witnesses and retrieve the file,” Terry said as he got up.
“Where you going?”
“Get my guns,” Terry replied. “If you’d let me carry them I wouldn’t have gotten tasered, by the way.”
“Yeah, you’d probably be dead.”
“I had the drop on them,” Terry replied, voice fading down the hall. “Though I guess I would have run a high risk of shooting some nerds.”
“See?”
“It was a risk I would have been willing to take,” Terry said. Terry returned with a shoulder holster with a Glock on each side.
“Can I hold one?” Mad Hatter said, staring at the guns with an almost erotic arousal.
“No,” Terry said. “The cops will be here in thirty. Davis is my guy.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Terry took Officer Davis aside, explaining the situation. It was clear from Davis’s expression that he was having a hard time wrapping his head around core concepts relevant to the story. Finally, he put Terry off with a gentle shove and came to talk to them.
“So, now, I’m in my forties and I still have an AOL email, so be gentle. Ya’ll were playing this game, Moondial. You start thinking that the kid in the back was up to something shady, so you engaged in some things I’m pretty sure are crimes but that I’m willing to overlook because I don’t care about Moondial at all. You ended up stealing a file, which, unbeknownst to you, contained kiddy porn, starring the kid in the back. At the same time there was a gun fight earlier tonight, people getting tasered, and the victim is now in the back. Is that the gist of things?”
“Mundis,” Mad Hatter said.
“Excuse me?”
“The game is Mundis, not Moondial.”
“Okay, okay. But the rest of it?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“You still have this file?”
“Yes,” Kid Twist said, handing him laptop with a cracked screen. “Tick Tock, I mean Emily, broke it because it was too gross.”
“Tick Tock?”
“It’s her in game name...”
“Like a street name?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
“Uh huh. Will it play?” Davis said, looking at the laptop.
“Yes,” Kid Twist said. “I think so.”
Davis took the laptop and went into another room. He came back, pale and angry.
“Didn’t watch it all,” Davis said. “Just enough to know that you’re right. Where’s the kid?”
“Let me go get him,” Tick Tock said.
Braylen came out, pale and shaking, staring at Davis like he a demon.
“Hi, Braylen, I’m Officer Davis.”
“H ... hi,” Braylen stuttered.
“We need to go the station. I have some questions for you. You aren’t in any trouble, you understand? But we need to go somewhere private.”
“I don’t have anything to say,” Braylen said.
“Okay, okay, well, I need to call your parents then,” Officer Davis said.
“No, don’t call him,” Braylen whimpered.
“Okay, okay. I won’t do that.[244] You look like you have some cuts.[245] Let me take you to the hospital.”
“Then what?” Braylen said.
“We’ll find you a place to sleep tonight.”[246] “I want to stay here.”
“I get it. This place is amazing. But I have my job; there are procedures in place. You don’t want to get me in trouble, do you?”
“No ... ” Braylen said.
“Then let’s go get you taken care of,” Officer Davis said. He put the laptop in an evidence bag, an arm around Braylen.[247]“I don’t need to tell you guys not to leave town, right? I’ll be in touch tomorrow to get full statements,” Davis said, and with that they left.
“Anti-climactic,” Mad Hatter said, after a moment.
“Davis is gentle with kids,” Terry said. “But I guarantee you he’s going to be on the hunt for Braylen’s parents about two seconds after the nurse takes Braylen. He will not be so gentle with them.”
“What happens now?”
“Child Protective Services. He’s in the Florida bureaucracy now,” Terry said.
“That’s horrible,” Tick Tock said.
“It’s the opposite of an ideal situation,” Terry replied.
Chapter Sixty
The next day they Davis came back and took them down to the station. What followed was a long, tedious, sometimes confrontational interrogation. They were each in their own room. Each side felt like they were speaking a different language. With the help of Mundiswiki and some YouTube videos, things like legendary magical staffs, mages and warlocks, the guild politics, the wars, the assassinations, the hacking, Marconi, and all the rest of the things that seemed about like common knowledge to the gamers as they seemed abstruse and ridiculous to the police, began to get hammered out into a coherent story the police could nod their heads to.[248]They were most interested in the Denver attack and watched the six different iPhone videos that had been posted to YouTube with great interest.
“You know,” Officer Davis said, “Panopticons and 1984 and whatnot, but is it nice to be a cop these days. Everybody carries a movie camera in their pocket and then posts all the criminal stuff online. People bragging about their crimes on Facebook. It’s wonderful.”
“You know them?”
“No, but I once got a guy convicted with security camera footage that looked like an Atari game. This will be a cakewalk.”
“I thought you weren’t into computers.”
“I’m not. Doesn’t meant I didn’t play Pong back in the Reagan era.”
“So what now?”
“Well, I know your friend has a bunch of stuff he needs to do out of the country, so I expect ya’ll will at least be suffering from a serious hotel downgrade, if not left to your own devices. Make sure I have a current address and phone number, and we’ll let you know when we’ll need you again.”<
br />
“How soon will the trial be?”
“Pops is in the wind, mom is dead. Their apartment is empty. These two are who the hell knows where. Braylen won’t talk to us about any of it. Could be years. Maybe never. These guys are slick. Without Braylen it gets iffy.”
“Why won’t he talk?”
“My read is that he’s been getting brainwashed about not talking to the cops for so long he just can’t. I could crack him, I think, but it would require methods that I’m not willing to use on the poor kid.”
Hayes shook his head.
“Look, I get that you two had your little nerd war and that you’re not his biggest fan. Fine. But I want you to think about that video, and then I want you to think about how, according to you, he was dead dropping videos three times a week. Then ask yourself if you were in his shoes if you wouldn’t be acting like an asshole too. Our Interpol query[249] hasn’t come back yet, but my guess is he’s been in a lot of bad stuff for a long time.” Hayes, shamed, hung his head. Davis patted him on the back.
“It’s alright, man, I get it’s hard to change gears on people. What’s important is that you saved him. For that, all is forgiven.”
“So what happens to him now?”
“That’s still up in the air,” Davis said. “Until the attackers are arrested I’m not comfortable sending him to a foster home. Juvie doesn’t work either. The general anti-snitching vibe won’t help anything.”
“Can he come back with us?”
Davis laughed. “I don’t think I could talk the judge into letting him go with the people who were seeking revenge on him until two days ago.”
Chapter Sixty-One
After the interviews they rolled back to the hotel, tired of talking, each feeling a bit strange, a combination of relief and victory, with the bitterness of an inconclusive victory and a void. Kid Twist had his tour, and Tick Tock had college, but for Mad Hatter and Hayes now that the fellowship had completed their quest, what was there?