Shadows

by Terry Schott

  SHADOWS

  by

  Terry Schott

  Shadows

  by Terry Schott

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author.

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Dedication

  Opening an email from someone who has just read and enjoyed one of my books is such a thrill. Thank you to all fans who have taken the time to contact me and let me know how much you have enjoyed my writing. There have been many days when a well-timed email has put new wind in my sails and helped me to write my next sentence, paragraph, and chapter.

  Thank you also to Shawn Inmon. Your advice and friendship has significantly improved my life. I have always tried to pay attention to those more successful than me. Shawn, you are one those people, and I thank you for your encouragement and support.

  Thank you to Jonathan Kelley for editing this beast of a novel. I appreciate your patience and instruction. I am certain that your advice will help me to become a better writer.

  Kerstin Hutchinson, as always, deserves a very special thank you. She is always quick to reply to my silly emails and help me with website issues, graphic design questions and challenges, and any other issue that falls within her expertise. Thank you so much, Kerstin. I am lucky to have you on my team.

  Thank you to Carl, Sarah-Marie, Dawn, Zack, and Heather for all of your constant support and assistance. I hope that I do not take advantage of your goodwill and skills. I appreciate them immensely.

  Karen. You are there at the beginning of each new book, and patiently endure all of my quirks and ticks until the time that I click the 'publish' button. I truly appreciate all of your help and input, especially the encouragement on my challenging days. As always, I Thank you.

  To my hundreds of Facebook fans. Thank you for your daily interaction, support, likes, and shares. A person could not hope for a more positive and supportive group of people from all over the world!

  I also want to thank the small voice in my head. The one that has learned to stand up to the other voice that seems to be in each of us. The louder, aggressive, negative voice that tells us we are not enough. That laughs at us as we try to do something better and tells us that we will fail. Thank you to the little voice for standing up in the face of that horrible tyrant. For battling with the bigger foe and banishing it to the corner so that I might create.

  Thank you reader. For your patience, and for taking the time to read this story.

  I hope you enjoy it.

  Grammar and Spelling

  I am Canadian. You will find that the spelling and grammar in my books follows Canadian/British format.

  You will see words like: colour, honour, gray, and many others that, if you live in the USA, appear to be spelled incorrectly.

  They are not.

  =D

  1

  "Something came in the mail for you today."

  Dawn looked up from her cell phone with interest. "Any idea what it is?” she asked her father.

  "I have an excellent idea of what it is.”

  Dawn saw the excitement in his eyes and her face lit up. "Seriously? It's here? Did you open it?"

  Her father chuckled. "Of course not, Kitten. This is a very important occasion, and I wouldn't dream of ruining it. Now go sit down and I'll get it."

  Dawn nodded and gave him a quick hug before returning to sit at the kitchen table. A shiver of energy coursed through her body. She started to speak, but her dad had already disappeared into the other room. He returned smiling and carrying a small, plain, brown package.

  "This is a proud moment, daughter of mine," he handed her the package and sat down on the opposite side of the table. "Well, what are you waiting for? Open the darned thing up already."

  Dawn set the package down and placed her hands gently on top of it. A heartbeat later, she grinned and began to tear the wrapping away .

  The plain brown paper parted to reveal a box bearing a logo most would not recognize: a greyish-blue symbol Dawn knew well. It was a grey glove holding a small rectangle with a bluish stream dripping downward, representing data.

  Dawn ran her hands slowly over the box and lifted the lid to reveal a sleek, black, rectangular phone. The face was made from the clearest glass Dawn had ever seen, with a thin border of shiny black surrounding it. It looked like most of the high-end smartphones on the market, but this one was different.

  She reached down and gently lifted the phone, pressing the single button and holding it so that both of them could watch it power up. The screen came to life and shone with a soft golden light, briefly displaying the dripping hand logo, which in turn gave way to the functional icons. The background was black, the icons gold.

  "My very own ansible," she whispered. "It looks different than yours."

  "It's the newest model. I got mine a few days ago, but I wanted to wait until you had yours."

  "How many other people have an ansible in our city?"

  Harry grinned. Dawn had always been a curious girl, and these particular questions had been unanswerable until now. He expected several days of grilling as Dawn sought the answers she'd craved for so long. "Counting you, there are now four people in the city who carry an ansible." He grinned. "You, your brother, myself, and Josh. I can also tell you how many ansibles exist in the surrounding cities, if you like?"

  Dawn nodded eagerly.

  He laughed, "In the six surrounding cities, there thirteen."

  "I would have guessed there would be more," Dawn said.

  "These are very special phones, my darling."

  "I know, but still—"

  Harry grew serious. "Listen to me, now. An ansible will allow you to play the game at a whole new level. Every skill you've learned in the past two years is nothing compared to what you can do now. Remember what I told you when we agreed that you were ready for this step."

  "I remember, Daddy," Dawn said. "I'm not a little girl. I can handle this."

  "You're sixteen, and I know that feels grown up, but you still have a few things to learn, Kitten. Keep me close and use me as much as you can. Use your brother too; he's had his ansible for almost six months and he's found uses for it that I would have never imagined."

  Dawn bit her lip at the mention of her older brother. "I wonder why he isn't here to celebrate with me."

  Her dad gently squeezed her arm. "That's my fault. He wanted to be here, but something came up that I needed him to take care of." He nodded at her new phone. "Wielding an ansible means there will be times when you miss out. Don't worry, Sam has a big party planned for you later."

  "Great! Do I have to pretend to be surprised?"

  "No," he chuckled. "Sam said I could tell you. Now, let's go over the basics of the ansible, and then I'll let you go play with it for a bit..."

  ***

  "Is this everyone?" Sam scanned the group before finally resting his gaze on his friend, Kerstin.

  Kerstin n
odded. "Yeah, this is it. Good turnout, right?"

  "Six is a good number," he nodded. "Too many is a pain, and too few is a waste of my time these days." Sam stood and rapped the table lightly. A waiter appeared and closed the door to the private room.

  "All right, then, let's get started, shall we?" Sam sat down and placed both hands on the table. "If Kerstin has done her job correctly, then none of you know why you're here. Is that correct?"

  The assembled mid-teenagers shrugged their shoulders. Sam continued. "Kerstin has been playing a cool new game called SHEPHERDS. Anyone heard of it?"

  No one said a word.

  "Good. That means I won't have to kill any of you." He got the obligatory polite laughter. "It's a pretty simple game, but it's an exclusive one. You can only play if a current player invites you to join. Kerstin is an excellent player, and has now reached the level where she can invite friends to join her. She is about to start assembling her own team of operatives."

  One of the boys raised his hand to ask a question.

  "I have a good script for explaining this," Sam said. "Let me get to the end before asking questions. If there are loose ends to tie up, we can do it then."

  The kid lowered his hand.

  Sam extended his hand to Kerstin, who passed him her smartphone. "SHEPHERDS is played on your phone. The main activity of the game involves hacking targets." He swiped the screen. A welcome message with the logo of a grey hand holding a cell phone appeared. "We don't call it hacking, though; we use the term 'shearing.' It's kind of a clever take on what hacking is: shearing security systems and programs to manipulate them for different purposes."

  Sam tapped a few commands into the phone, then handed it to the girl on his right. "Take a look and pass it around, please. What you're seeing is a real map of the local area with game targets overlaid and identified. Some targets look the same, while others have different icons. Above each one is a number. Each target can be sheared, but the higher the number above it, the tougher it is for you to shear."

  Sam waited while everyone looked at the phone. When each teen had nodded, he continued. "Your job as a player is to move around the city and shear as many targets as you can. Shearing a target makes it yours. While you control it, you earn digital dollars and also data in the form of kilobytes, or kb for short. Over time, you will use the kilobytes and digital dollars to buy upgrades and other cool stuff. That's the first part of the game. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them now."

  The room remained silent.

  "The second part of the game is more fun," Sam continued. "Shearing works both ways. Other players will wander in and attempt to steal your controlled targets from you." He moved the map to another part of the city, then passed the phone around once more. "When you see a blue diamond, it belongs to you or your team. When you see a red diamond, it belongs to someone else and can be sheared by you. Players can steal targets from each other. The reward for shearing a property owned by another player is much greater than the reward for shearing a free target."

  Sam took the phone back, turned it off, and handed it to Kerstin. "The targets are stationary. Bus stops, banks, libraries, lawyers' offices, hospitals, taxi stands, schools, coffee shops, gyms; there are a ton of different targets spread throughout the city. They aren't just confined to our city, either. All across the country there are millions of targets to acquire. SHEPHERDS is a very vast game of shear and hold."

  "Sounds boring," one kid said.

  Sam looked at him. "I guess it could be boring," he agreed. "Not as much action as a shooter or driving game."

  "Exactly."

  "This game pays, though," Kerstin said.

  Sam stroked his eyebrow and nodded. "That's right. This game pays."

  "How much?" The kid asked.

  "I've been playing for just over three years," Sam said. "The more you play, the more money you make. The year is half over and I've made...just over seventy thousand dollars so far."

  The room erupted into excited discussion. Sam exchanged grins with Kerstin. They let the excitement build for a few minutes before Sam raised his hand for silence.

  "I'm not typical," he admitted. "After a couple years, the average player will still be making less than I do now. Most only manage to bring in forty to sixty thousand in a year."

  "Holy crap!" one of the girls exclaimed. "My dad works his butt off. He's been at his job for like, fifteen years and that's about what he makes. Are you saying I could make that much playing SHEPHERDS?"

  "I'm telling you that the owners of this game pay out millions of dollars each year in prize money. It's all legal, and it's insanely profitable for the players. I don't know how or why they do it, but as long as they keep paying me, I'm gonna keep playing. I would recommend you hop on board and get to work for Kerstin so you can start getting paid as well. What do you all say to that?"

  The six kids in the room grinned and nodded. Sam let them stay hyped up for a long time before he finally settled them down.

  "Well, it sounds like Kerstin knew what she was doing when she picked the six of you. I can't wait to see how successful you each become once you get SHEPHERDS loaded onto your phones and you begin to play." He stood, shook hands with Kerstin, and walked toward the door. With his hand on the door handle, he turned to complete his presentation.

  The ruckus had begun again. It died down.

  "There is one rule which no one breaks. Ever. If you do, the money stops, the game disappears from your phone, and... well, it can get pretty bad, so just take my advice and don't break this rule."

  The group looked at him expectantly. "You tell no one about the game. Not your parents, not your brothers or sisters, not even your spouse if you're still playing when you get older and become married. If you're not a player–a Shepherd—then you don't know about SHEPHERDS. Am I making this point clear?"

  Six heads nodded in unison. The secrecy is the perfect closer, Sam thought. Everyone wants to be part of an exclusive club.

  "Perfect. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going. Kerstin can handle the rest for now. I will see you all again sometime in the future. If you ever need to get in touch with me, just ask around. My name is Samson Thorn, but you can call me Sam."

  2

  "A big day in the family, Sis. Congratulations!"

  Dawn smiled proudly as her big brother slid into the booth across from her.

  "Thanks, Sam, I'm excited to finally be part of the elite crowd."

  "Please," he said with a wry smile. "I think you've learned enough by now to understand that being part of the elite crowd just means more work and bigger problems."

  "It also means that I have access to more information. There are so many secrets I've been wondering about, and now I can start getting answers."

  "To some of them," Sam said. "That's the thing about life, kiddo. As you begin to learn more, you realize that you actually know very little."

  "I want to take a shot at Wallaceton."

  Sam pretended to look at the menu, but Dawn saw the corner of his mouth tick upwards. "Definitely coffee to drink, but I'm not sure what to eat, how 'bout you?"

  "Did you hear me?" asked Dawn.

  Sam's eyes flitted from the menu to hers for a brief instant and he nodded. "I heard you."

  "Well?"

  "Likely just a BLT. We can eat after the movie. You still want to see that movie?"

  Dawn frowned. "You're changing the subject."

  "Yep."

  "We're gonna talk about it, Sam."

  Sam sighed and set his menu down. "Yes, Dawn, I know we're gonna talk about it." He pulled out his ansible. "But before we do, Kerstin is recruiting her first group."

  "Did you help her with the first meeting? How'd it go?"

  "Thought you wanted to talk about Wallaceton?"

  Dawn laughed. "Kerstin first, please."

  Sam laughed as the waitress came by to take their orders. When she left, he continued: "Kerstin brought six to the meeting. They look like a g
ood group; she's vetted them properly and my guess is all six will come in."

  "That's perfect," Dawn said. "Kerstin is a great player and an excellent leader. I bet she'll have them shearing like pros in no time."

  "I agree. Her income will start to seriously climb now."

  "So will ours," Dawn said, and Sam winked in agreement. SHEPHERDS was a game of networks. The larger your group, the more money you made. Dawn and Sam had come into the game on the same level, just below their dad. Their team was interconnected, as were their incomes. The entire city was part of their group, and as it grew, so did their network. Success in SHEPHERDS depended on the size of a player's network. "I'll drop by and see how she's doing."

  "She will like that," Sam said.

  Dawn felt her ansible vibrate in her pocket, the frantic two-pulse burst that announced another shepherd's approach. She rapped her knuckle on the table twice.

  "Yeah," Sam said. Both of them stopped talking and watched the front door open.

  Two teenage boys walked in and sat down at a booth in the far corner, more in Sam's natural field of vision than Dawn's. One of them looked at the menu while the other pulled out his cell phone and began to tap away.

  "Recognize them?" Sam asked.

  "No, but they are players." Neither sibling reached for his or her ansible, instead they ate and made small talk while Sam glanced occasionally at the boys. After a few minutes he chuckled.

  "'Sup?" Dawn asked.

  "The one trying to shear is frowning. He's likely trying to shear the targets around this location and not having much luck."

  "Poor little guys," Dawn said. "Everyone in town knows this sector is locked down tightly. Only a really high-level Shepherd could get through our defences on this block, and these two must be newbies."

  "They still get credit and kb for trying," Sam shrugged. "No harm done. The other kid is pulling out his phone to give it a shot. They'll likely get up and leave after he fails."