Unbound Deathlord: Challenge

by Edward Castle

  Not as kind as my mother. That described him well.

  Looking angrily at him, she got up and left. She passed by me on the way, really close, looking into my eyes without shame.

  She was using a perfume I had given her for her birthday.

  "Phillip, release him. Jack, get in and sit. We have to talk."

  I obeyed mechanically. Richard's room was like any other old lawyer's workroom: table, chairs, computer, and books everywhere.

  Grandfather pulled up a chair and sat right in front of me.

  "She was a country girl who came to the big city dreaming of being an actress. Soon, she was working as a hooker instead."

  "She betrayed me," I said without emotion. "'It's not wrong to be betrayed; having only trustworthy people around you is impossible. However, all traitors must be dealt with. The sooner, the better.' Mother taught me."

  "Such a good boy. Do with her as you please, I don't care. My point is that she was just a frustrated woman desperate for money. As you know, all humans put their needs in front of anything else. For what it's worth, she told your mother she wanted to quit multiple times. She said she was falling in love with you. Nothing that a little whoring didn't cure, apparently."

  I focused on his face.

  "Why are you protecting her?"

  "I killed my 'aunt.' Personally. Your mother had her 'uncle' poisoned. They had been sleeping together, and he laughed in her face when it was time for him to leave. He's still being kept alive by machines in an induced coma, dead for all purposes. Murder is a nasty business. When you do that, it changes you permanently."

  "Isn't that what you want?" My anger flared, ripping me out of my shock. "Isn't that the whole point of my education? Turning me into a monster like you? Well, I'm ready, grandfather. Let me go and kill that bitch."

  He shook his head. "Do you have any idea how much you cost the entire family with that gang of yours? With your sex scandals? With your youth? Don't you find it strange that even though we reprimanded you for it, we never forbid you, never forced you to stop?" He leaned back in the chair, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette. "This is the most valuable lesson, boy. Family comes first."

  "Are you shitting me? After all I went through, after- This! I don't even know what to call it! You make me get attached to a damn whore just to make me suffer! How dare you say family comes first?!"

  "Didn't you hear anything I said? She's not just a whore; she's an actress. We hired her not to sleep with you, but to teach you something we can't: all the “good” that people sell in the media: love, justice, and so on. And later, when the truth came to light, was to teach you that you can only really trust your own family.

  "Your father would have withdrawn from the next election to prevent you from being arrested in the scandal of the century; I'm confident you didn't do it, but our political enemies had proof of your gang raping and murdering women in their own homes.

  "Family comes first. You needed space, and your parents gave it to you. We are not psychopaths; we understand we aren't exactly good people. But we also know the world isn't a fairy tale, and whatever our family members want to do with their lives, they have to be prepared.

  "That's what family is for: to nurture its members to survive the world. In other times we'd have sent you to the jungle with a hunting instructor. These days, we teach you the rules of the concrete jungle.

  "Individuals also count, but being played by the wrong person could ruin the whole family. That's why we teach and prepare you. You have five cousins who have chosen their own path, away from us. They got their money and their experiences, and they are all doing fine. One of them is in the Doctors Without Borders, if you can believe that."

  "I can't. I call bullshit."

  "You'll receive an email with their names and you can investigate them however you'd like. I'm also transferring you your parent's funds."

  "I already have their money."

  "You have their legal money, boy. I'm talking about their real riches. You must also meet the next family head. With your mother dead, your real aunt will inherit everything."

  He blew smoke my way. I looked at him in silence. He finished the cigarette and lit a new one.

  I don't know how much time passed, but the sun set and a bodyguard had to buy him a new pack of cigarettes by the time I finally spoke.

  "Why now?"

  "I thought you wouldn't ask. I believed you had killed your parents; it wouldn't be the first time it happened. That's why I called you that time, to confirm it before I sent you to rot in prison. But you didn't do it."

  What was he talking about?

  "That's when I spoke to Richard, and he told me the firefighters weren't pursuing investigation. A gas leak would never do the kind of damage your house received; it was evident that very well placed incendiary bombs were used."

  My heart accelerated. It couldn't be, could it?

  "After that, it wasn't difficult to discover the culprits. I'll show you all the evidence if you want, but you must come to my house. I keep them in a private server. I've been battling the masterminds behind it ever since, but they grow more powerful each day and have a very effective method of getting blackmail material on everyone. Even on me, and I only used their helmet once."

  "I- What- I wasn't the culprit? But I used the oven that night."

  "Boy, use your head. Do you think a gas leak on the first floor could've had completely incinerated you parents room on the second floor? That it could destroy your house like that in the forty minutes the fire took to die? Your parents were assassinated, and I don't think I'll ever be able to avenge them. As incredible as it may sound, the enemy might be too powerful this time."

  A surge of energy consumed me. I hadn't done it! I wasn't a patricide!

  He could be lying. It'd be easy enough to discover, though. I could check his evidence with experts all over the world.

  What if he was telling the truth?

  What if I was innocent?

  My whole body felt lighter, and I felt tears in my eyes.

  "What about my aunt- Sarah's body? Wasn't it found?"

  "She slept with one of the arsonists the night before. He took a liking to the whore and made her leave that night and staged it to look like she had also died. He died soon after, though, and Sarah went back to her old business."

  "Why didn't you tell me before?"

  "Because I feared for your life. Like I said, family-"

  "-comes first. Why now, then? What changed?"

  "They called me a few days after you entered your Dreamer. They had very detailed information about your education; very sensitive data about things your parents did. They read your mind, and now they hold this family in the palm of their hands. That's why I'm giving you all the money, too. I'm advising all family members to hide. They promised they'd not pursue anyone who disappeared and kept quiet."

  "Wait, are you talking about who I think you are?"

  "When I tried to call you, they blocked the call and changed the rules of the Challenge. They have been keeping you hostage for a month. These were a hellish thirty days. They just passed a bill to allow them to keep doing it, under the guise of some bullshit AI bill. They are conquering the whole damn Commonwealth."

  I looked dumbfounded at him. "V-Soft?"

  "Yes, boy. V-Soft killed your parents. Your parents saw through the dangers of the mind-reader early on. They were murdered for it."

  "I- That's- That's impossible," I said. "The government are very zealous about this kind of thing. They must have-" Sudden realization hit me. "They are with the government."

  The orange ember of his cigarette glowed more intensely as he slowly drew in his breath.

  "Not exactly. They were part of the government, but they went rogue."

  "So? Why can't you just crush them?"

  "When I left political life, I retained some influence with my party, but everything else, my connections, my knowledge, I gave over to Diana." That was mother's name. "Deali
ng with a rogue agency isn't the same as dealing with rival politicians in the Senate. I've been out of the game for far too long and my power is a shadow of what it was. Mariah, your real aunt will run next year, but I don't expect much from her."

  "I don't understand. Why isn't a rogue agency the same?"

  "When people in the government want to do something that should be kept secret and keep their hands clean, they create a fake private company and enact the right laws and regulations to make whatever they intended viable much faster. Sometimes the private company decides it wants to really be private. That's what going rogue means. They were supposed to be under the control of some public agency or another, but they aren't."

  Grandfather lit another cigarette, and I extended my hand. Nicotine had been long gone from my system, but I needed some now, to think.

  "They have too much power in the form of money and blackmail material. The media are kept from saying anything negative about the Immersion Technology. Anyone in the government who dares speak against V-Soft one day is suddenly V-Soft's greatest supporter the next day. People have been fired, disappeared, died in “accidents” like your parents."

  That was some crazy shit.

  "If they are private, can't you just start a corporate war against it? You have the money and even a little political support should be enough." I drew the smoke through my mouth. God, I missed it.

  "I'm a politician, boy, not a businessman. 'Knowing your limitations-'"

  "'-is the first step to success.'" I completed the quote. There were multiple quotes with different 'first steps to success' in the family.

  We smoked quietly for a few moments.

  This sudden chaos into which grandfather threw me gave me focus. Purpose. It took my mind off the hooker.

  Someone had killed my parents.

  If I hadn't done it, no one could be allowed to do that and walk away, either.

  The gears in my head were spinning full speed.

  It was strange, though, that grandfather would just accept defeat like that.

  I took a good look at him through the toxic smoke that left my mouth. His shoulders were lower than they should be. His tie wasn't knotted perfectly. He wasn't sitting upright.

  That was a defeated man.

  "Do you trust them?" I nodded to the two bodyguards in the room.

  "Yes." He didn't explain further, which meant he didn't trust them at all.

  Bodyguards were kind of modern mercenaries. As much as grandfather could bribe them, it was never a surety with people who traded their lives for money; V-Soft could well be paying them too.

  "Could V-Soft be listening to us right now?"

  "Obviously. My boys tell me they did the usual counter-espionage routine, but you can never be sure with technology."

  "That's bad." Just in case, I shifted so I wasn't in view of the window. "Do you think V-Soft could kill me depending on what I say in here?"

  " No. If they did it, it'd be over for them. We are fighting a cold war. If they touch my family, they know I'll talk, and it'll be over for them. And I also have countermeasures in case I die."

  "Why don't you do it now?"

  "Talk? Or die?"

  "Yes." I answered vaguely and smiled.

  He looked annoyed at me. "If I talk, they talk too. And it would destroy our family in the process"

  "And family comes first," I repeated.

  He nodded.

  "If this goes on, won't the family be destroyed anyway?"

  He shook his head. "If you can't beat them, join them. That's why our enemies allow us the space they do. They know we'll do the rational thing if it comes to that."

  That sounded about right. Mother's teachings had been all about being rational and keeping power.

  Grandfather was predictable.

  But father had also taught me a few things. A few things that Manhart had believed to be the right way to deal with the best laid plans.

  I couldn't be predicted. And I had the business know-how that grandfather lacked.

  "Tell me, old man. If I asked you to change the AI bill, how fast do you think you could pass it?"

  "Whatever you have in mind, it won't work. Even if we somehow pass a bill, V-Soft won't obey it, and no one will investigate them. They can just do whatever they want without consequences."

  "Now I understand why father got so upset when I talked back to him without understanding. Tell me, how quick?"

  He looked at me with a little anger in his eyes. Good. I'd need his ferocity. "Three hours. Maybe two."

  "And how fast could you get a particular V-Soft employee's phone number for me? And his daughter's number?"

  "A few minutes."

  "Good. Now, listen carefully. This will have to be done quick, and since V-Soft could be listening in, time has been ticking since my last question. You know the saying you just used? Father taught me a different one."

  I extinguished the cigarette and quoted the dead man:

  "'If you can't win, my idiot son, make sure no one can.'"

  My parents were gone; there was no going back from that. Revenge couldn't be completely achieved since V-Soft was too big to simply disappear.

  But I could force them to run back to the government. And then I'd mess with the government too.

  To do that, I was prepared to sacrifice myself and my family. Grandfather obviously didn't need to know that.

  No winners, just a big mess.

  Mother had called father a sore loser for such tactics, but it was another need-to-know only thing.

  I'd fight a two-front war:

  In the real world, it'd be a political-business war, fought mainly by grandfather under my direction, starting by good old emotional blackmail.

  And in Valia, it'd be a campaign of conquest and annihilation. I'd make sure no player could play the game ever again, not without V-Soft heavily interfering in it.

  That's is why the real world front was so important. I had to make it impossible for V-Soft to interfere. If father's teachings could help grandfather as I thought they could, it might be possible.

  If both fronts were timed right and it all worked out, I'd crush everyone.

  Thoroughly.

  Jack Sunni Carpenter McHolen

  Human

  Rich Bastard, Gang Leader, Anger Driven, Smartass

  Age 24

  Epilogue

  David wore slippers, shorts, and a T-shirt, as if he was in his own home. The lack of a dress code was a big advantage of working in V-Soft – that, and the money.

  He hadn't believed it the first time he read the report, but he had watched his little Theodora on the screen just a few moments ago; she was really playing the game.

  A mixed feeling of anger, betrayal, and pride swirled inside him and he tried to focus on the job.

  And the job today consisted of looking after the daughter-corruptor, deviant, scourge of society, the man who had brought David's little girl to that horrid war and caused her to die screaming horribly...

  He took a deep breath.

  Today the job was watching Jack Thorn's plans come to fruition. There were similar power plays going on everywhere in Valia, but this boy specifically had already broken the game once, and some AI estimates showed that his actions could create big waves.

  All the programmers of the Valia Division in V-Soft – four whole people – plus the Guardian's Engineer, David, were watching. David was there to ban the deviant out of the game at the smallest sign of cheating. The others just wanted to have fun watching their game being awesome.

  'Their' game. The AI did most of the work, they merely had to steer it this way or that. Sometimes they created a character framework, but it was also the AI who completely integrated the character within the world, effectively giving it a 'life.'

  Other times they created some quests and items, tweaked the systems, and things like that. The AI still was the one who made the tweaks happen in a logical way. You can't just change an item price overnight, you h
ave to justify the price fluctuation: a lost caravan here, a shortage of metal there.

  The AI was like a mother to those lazy bastards.

  For all David knew, he was the only one in the whole company who really worked. Oh, and Robert, the Alpha's Engineer, too. Alpha was the AI which created and tweaked the worlds.

  And the Guardian controlled the external output interactions with whatever Alpha created. The mediator between players and world.

  Granted, David was overseen by Robert. The man was like an AI superstar and had developed both technologies, leaving the Guardian for David out of laziness. Alpha was much more fun, he said. Every change David proposed and applied had to be approved by Robert.

  He didn't care much; that tech was almost too much for him to understand and he sometimes even welcomed the man watching over his shoulders.

  "How the hell is Shai there?" Ethan, the lead game designer half-yelled, stirring the Guardian's Engineer from his musings. "Louise, get me her data on the seventh screen right now!" His glasses almost fell from his face as he furiously got up instead of checking it himself. He had styled clothes and hair.

  The five of them were looking at multiple monitors on the wall of the small room. It was a constant complaint among them that V-Soft was earning millions but couldn't allocate more than a closet for its developers.

  "Here it goes, boss!" Said Louise, one of the two females in the room. She was heavily tattooed and wore fewer clothes than most of her male coworkers felt comfortable with.

  She was also the best programmer among the four of them, an ex-cop, and they had learned fast not to throw any demeaning jokes her way.

  The main screen was huge and had three smaller ones to each side, all with small numerical labels on them. On the number seven display, Deathlord's Shai data appeared.

  Ethan immediately became furious. "Last external change two days ago? By Megan?" He turned to the other female worker. "What is the meaning of this? Shai was supposed to be leading a black ops group infiltrating the drow!"

  "So what?" Megan yelled suddenly, and everyone looked shocked at her. She was a nineteen year old Asian, petite, and had only worked with the team for less than a year, always blushing with timidity. She never raised her voice to more than a whisper.