“Sounds kind of fun. I’ve never been in there. Just you and Chip?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“I have a bit more work to do, but I’ll come over as soon as I can,” she said. “Maybe afterward we can continue our conversation from the other night?”
“That would be great,” I replied.
“Okay, see you soon,” she said before she hung up.
“Alright, this should be fun. Haven’t done much ‘hanging out’ since I got here,” I said to Chip when I put down the phone.
“Hard to believe it has only been a month and a half since Sal and Dale died,” Chip said. “Seems like it has been a lifetime. Hey, can you call the cafeteria and have them deliver food to the rec room? They expect the regular staff to eat inside of the restaurant, but you aren’t a normal employee.”
“Sure.” I picked up the phone and asked the operator to transfer me to the cafeteria.
“Get pub food and a bucket or two of beer on ice. We don’t need someone standing around waiting for us. I’d like to have a private conversation,” Chip commented.
“Got it,” I told him, and then I ordered from the young woman on the phone.
A few minutes later we were walking down the gray halls of Arnacript. I ordinarily played Ohlavar Quest all day, so I never got much of a chance to talk to the employees, but we passed some of them while we walked, and they each greeted me warmly.
“People are very proud that you are working here,” Chip commented.
“Yeah, this is much easier to deal with than the mobs.” I smiled at him.
“Ha, you got that right. I feel like I’m on vacation here. What I meant was that the employees here love talking about you. Whenever they see me, they ask how you are doing with the playtesting.” Chip gestured to a doorway that had ‘Recreation Room’ etched on the nameplate, and we walked inside.
The room was bigger than I expected. There were three pool tables, an air hockey table, a foosball table, a pair of skee ball alleys, a shuffleboard station, and several dart boards. There were a dozen various sized tables and chairs for people to sit scattered in the center of the room. The far side of the room had a large panel screen TV with a few plush looking couches around it. I saw a few retired console game systems stacked on a table by the screen, and I figured some of the employees used the systems to get the feeling of non-VR games.
“Nice place, huh? Looks like no one ever uses it,” Chip said as he walked up to one of the pool tables. The ex-SEAL ran his hand over the felt of the top, and my eyes followed his movement.
The table looked brand new. As did everything else in the room.
“Let’s check out these old game systems,” I said as I walked across the long room to the TV. “Man, I haven’t seen a Playstation 6 in ages. My grandfather bought one for my dad when he was a kid. I remember finding it in a box when we moved once.” I laughed a bit. “I played it a bunch, but I was into basketball then. Jax and Garf weren’t interested in the thing.”
“How long ago was that?” Chip asked. “You had to have been in high school.”
“Yeah. It was about two years or so before Astafar Unlimited came out. The VR games up until then were all kinds of cool, but we didn’t really get into them. Once we started playing Astafar Unlimited, I got more into video games, and I’ve played a bunch of the classics. Heck, I can play all the games on this system on my phone. Look, it even has a cable to connect it to the TV.” I laughed as I pointed at the cord.
“Let’s play some pool. I’m pretty sure that is a game I can kick your ass at,” Chip said as he gestured to the table.
“I dunno man,” I said as I smirked at him. “I’ve clocked a bunch of VR time playing cyber billiards. I hit top ten in the USA a few years ago.”
“You are fucking with me,” Chip said as the smile faded from his face.
“Yep. Haha. You are going to kick my ass.”
We both laughed and then walked to the table. I knew how to play the game, but I probably hadn’t spent more than an hour total messing around with it. My house in Los Angeles had a table, but I only lived there for ten or so weeks out of the year.
“I’ll rack,” Chip said as he grabbed the triangle shaped device from under the table.
“Cool. So, what’s up?” I asked as he arranged the balls.
“Hold up.” Chip looked over his shoulder at the closed door. “I’m going to turn on some music.” He pulled out a device from his pocket and set it on the table, it looked like a phone, but a little thicker. My friend pushed a button on the top of the device, and angry rock music started playing from its tiny speakers.
“I’m confident they missed this room with their surveillance. I’ve been inside of every security station in the building now. Most public areas are tapped, along with some of the rooms. As I said before, I didn’t see your room anywhere, but I also didn’t see this room.”
“Okay,” I said.
“What did Zarra say about your strength?” he asked as he lined up his first shot.
“She said that my nervous system was probably used to me lifting more in the game, so it thought I could do it in real life,” I said.
“Huh, you know, that makes a bit of sense actually,” he said as he hit the white ball into the other balls. One of the striped ones went in, and he moved to line up another shot.
“It does?”
“Yeah. Fucking old man strength. You know what I mean?”
“Huh?” I asked.
“I’ve worked with a ton of old military guys. Dudes who look like they have gone soft on the outside, but then they can lift heavy when they need to. Their bodies are used to doing those things, even if they don’t have the muscles for it anymore. Did you ask her about her eyes?”
“Yeah. Zarra confirmed that she has hazel eyes.” I shrugged.
“Maybe the VR system they have you use is messing up with your vision?” he asked.
“When I first met her, I noticed her eyes. I think I need to get mine checked. Damn, you are going to win before I can take a shot,” I said as Chip knocked his third ball into the hole.
“I once spent eight months on a battleship waiting for a mission to get the proper authorization to start. The only thing to do was workout, play poker, or play pool,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah. I’m smart enough not to play poker against anyone that has ever been in the Navy,” I said.
“Not so much anymore. Everyone has a VR headset in their bunks. I was one of the last generations to play cards.”
The door opened, and three men from the kitchen staff entered with rolling carts. Chip turned off the angry music quickly, and the staff set the food on one of the tables, opened bottles of beer for us, and then asked if there was anything else we needed. I told them we were good, but then one asked for my autograph and a picture before they left.
“That will probably go on for another ten years,” Chip said after they left and he had turned on his music device again.
“The autographs and photos? Yeah, probably.” I sighed. “I don’t mind actually. It was what I wanted when I set out to be the best, and the Arnacript employees are super friendly. I guess they all kind of work for me now.”
“Cheers to that,” Chip said as he raised his bottle of beer. We touched them together, and then each took a drink.
“I talked to Jax and Garf,” Chip said after he set his beer down and lined up his next shot.
“How are they doing? I need to set up a visit with them,” I said.
“Good. You probably aren’t watching the news at all.”
“No. What’s going on?” I asked.
“With Astafar LLC’s stock. There are rumors that people are asking Arensto to step down.”
“Ugh,” I said.
“Yeah, but Jax and Garf are benefiting from all the confusion. They landed some of your old sponsorship deals.”
“Cool. I need to talk to them,” I said. I did miss my friends, but I had to focus on getting these relic
s.
“I’ve done more of the things I told you about the other day,” Chip said as he lined up another shot. He made this one also, and the eight ball was the only one left for him.
“Oh?” I asked, and I guessed he was talking about snooping around Arnacript.
“Yep. More along the lines of our boss. I got a lead on one of the numbers that Sal had called before he died.”
“Who was it?” I whispered.
“It was Zarra. Left center,” Chip said a second before he hit the eight ball into the pocket he indicated.
“Wait, so you are saying that he called Zarra right before he came to the gym. I thought no one knew who those numbers belonged to?” I asked.
“I got an update from a friend I have that is close to the investigation. The number was traced to Arnacript. Yesterday I was at one of the security desks, and the other guys were on break. I’m no computer guy, but I was able to check out some phone logs. We have records of the call coming in from Sal, getting routed to Zarra’s secretary, and then going into her office.”
“What do you think it means? You were in the room with him. Did you hear him talk to Zarra?” I asked.
“He spoke to a bunch of people. He was also walking between the rooms of his bungalow. When he actually got someone on the phone, he would kind of walk away from me. In hindsight, I should have paid more attention, but Sal was on phone calls all day long, so I didn’t think anything strange was going on.” Chip shrugged.
“He was speaking Hebrew on most of the calls.”
“Yep. I couldn’t understand what he said.”
“Even on that last one? You think he spoke with her?” I asked. Zarra’s skin and hair coloring made me think she could have been Persian or Middle Eastern, but I hadn’t thought of her as Jewish.
I really didn’t know much about her.
“Hey, it could have been that he didn’t actually talk to her. Okay, here is the deal.” Chip sighed and then racked up the balls again. “I really don’t have much of a reason to be suspicious of anything. Yeah, they have some security here, but that is all standard corp stuff. She can’t afford to have any of her secrets stolen, and corporate espionage is very lucrative.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“She also hired me. If she had something to hide why would she do that?” Chip asked with a shrug.
“That is also a good point,” I said.
“Also, I like her. Obviously, she is damn good looking, but she has been very kind to me. The few times I’ve talked to her she’s been great, and I can tell she has a thing for you. Hey, most women do, but she’s doing a poor job of hiding it.”
“Yeah, I like her. I like her game as well,” I said.
“But there is still something weird going on, Leo,” Chip’s whisper got even lower, and he leaned over the device that was playing the music when he took his shot. “I don’t buy that Sal was killed by the Cult of Leo fucks. Maybe Arensto actually set it up, but my gut is telling me that Zarra knows way more than she is letting on. I don’t think she had anything to do with Sal’s death, but I bet she knows exactly who they are, or she has a good idea.”
“Okay,” I said, and it felt as if a hundred pound weight had just been set on my shoulders. “How do we do this?”
“I don’t think it is a ‘we’ buddy. It is a how do ‘you’ do this,” Chip said with a chuckle. “She likes you. You like her. There are only two reasons she might not be telling the truth. She either wants to protect her own ass, or she is trying to protect you. Maybe it is a combination of both.”
“What if it is just the first one? What if she’s at the center of all of this?” I didn’t want to ask him that question, but I did anyway.
“Eh… I really doubt it. Unless she’s got Dinah, you, me, and all of her employees fooled. Everyone here loves her. They say she is tough, but they adore her. I’m sure you’ve seen that as well.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You said Sal was speaking to others in Hebrew for a long time?” My brain did a painful shuffle back to the day my manager and Dale had died. It had taken us a few minutes to get unpacked, then to the gym, then we worked out a bit before Sal came in. He had been worried. He had wanted to warn me about something. It had obviously been about Zarra.
“Yeah. The last call was Zarra, or her office, or maybe someone else here. Then he left in a hurry and said he needed to speak with you. I asked if I should go with him, and he said not to worry.”
“Alright.” I sighed and then caught a whiff of dinner. Smelled like hamburger, french fries, chicken wings, and grease. “I’m starving. Mind putting your ass kicking on hold so we can eat?” I asked as I gestured to the pool table.
“Do you want to wait for Zarra?” Chip asked, but on cue, the beautiful woman walked through the doors.
“Hey guys, sorry I’m late. Leo, do you remember Daisy?” Zarra asked as she gestured to the pretty woman that walked behind her.
“Of course! Nice to see you again,” I said to the VRIU tech.
“Great to see you also,” she smiled at me and ran her fingers along the edge of her short haircut.
“This is Chip, he is--” Zarra began to introduce my friend, but Daisy interrupted her.
“We met at the gym when I went to get Leo once.”
“Perfect! We all know each other,” Zarra said. “I figured that we could do some girls versus boys stuff when we finished eating.”
“Sounds great. Food just got here.” I pointed to the table, and then everyone moved to sit down.
“How many games did you get in before we got here?” Zarra asked Chip and me when she sat. The woman was wearing her usual expensive business suit, but Daisy was wearing an Arnacript polo shirt and tight blue jeans.
“We were about to start our second. Chip kicked my ass the first round,” I admitted.
“What? You mean there is a game you aren’t good at?” Zarra flashed me a killer smile that made my heart race.
“Ha, I’m not the best at everything, but I’ll--”
There was a flash of lights in the room, and a siren cut off my sentence. The four of us instantly stood. Chip and Zarra both pulled phones out of their pockets, and they started to dial.
“What the hell is going on?” Zarra growled over the sound of the alarm.
Chip turned away from us, and he cupped the device to his head so that he could hear better.
“Okay. I’ll be right there,” Zarra said before she pressed a key on her device.
“Is this for real?” Chip turned to ask her. His phone was still pressed up to his head, and he had a puzzled expression on his face.
“What is going on?” I asked.
“Yes. Can you take Leo to his room?” Zarra asked.
“Probably best if we all stay here. We’ve got food, water, and there is only one entrance,” Chip said as he pointed to the door of the rec room.
“I defer to your expertise, but I have to go to Security Station A and make sure that--”
“What is going on?” I asked again.
“You can’t go there alone, if they are inside, then you are a target.” Chip raised a finger and then spoke into his phone. “Yes, she is with me. So is Mr. Lennox and Daisy…”
“Camilo,” the young woman said. Her pretty face looked terrified.
“Camilo,” Chip replied on the phone. “I’m in the recreation room in the Hospital wing. Ms. Zerne wishes to leave, but I am advising her to stay here with me. Can you send additional staff to the room?”
“Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” I demanded. My heart was pounding in my chest, but Chip’s face didn’t look very concerned by whatever the person on the phone was telling him.
“Okay. Understood. Update me when you can,” Chip said before he put his phone back into his pocket.
Then he lifted up his polo shirt and tucked it behind his pistol holster.
“Someone bombed our front gate and drove an armored vehicle through,” he said.
“Oh shit,
” I replied.
Chapter 18
Zarra asked for Chip to let her leave a few times, but my friend refused to let her go, and she eventually gave up. The ex-SEAL asked us to move to the rear of the room in the first few minutes so he could have a position closest to the door, and he spent most of the time turning over tables on that side of the room and making phone calls to get status updates. Within five minutes of the alarm sounding, four guards with assault rifles and heavy looking riot armor showed up. They took Chip’s previous position while he came back with us.
“We should probably eat,” he said. “No telling how long we are going to be holed up here, and the food will get cold.”
“Is there any news? What kind of bomb was it? What was the vehicle? Why in the hell are people attacking us?” I asked Chip, but my eyes shifted to Zarra while I spoke.
“I don’t have any details right now. They will let us know,” Chip said.
“Zarra, do you know anything about this?” I asked the beautiful woman.
“No,” she answered as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“You sure? There isn’t anything you know about a group of people bombing the front of your compound and driving a tank through the front door?”
“Chip did not say it was a tank,” she pointed out.
“Armored vehicle means tank to me.” I gestured to the guards at the door. “Is there another company trying to take you out?”
“Always. That is the way of things,” Zarra turned to Chip. “I’m sure the bomb at the front was a diversion.”
“Yep. Your Chief Security Officer has already secured the AI, lead architects, and your parents. The crews are performing sweeps across the property.”
“We need to ensure our intranet is locked down. If someone is inside the property, they can do significant damage to our infrastructure.” Zarra pulled out her phone again, and she started to tap her fingers on the screen.
“Well, I’m going to eat,” I said as I stepped toward the table with the food on it.
“How can you eat? I am terrified!” Daisy said as she walked with me.
Lion's Quest: Trinity: A LitRPG Saga Page 25