by Terry Schott
Harry looked up and snapped his fingers. "Wait," he said, pulling out his ansible and tapping at it quickly. "Don't answer that."
Sam complied, and the ringing stopped. Dawn's ansible began to ring. She looked down and frowned. "It says Kerstin is calling me."
"She is, although she dialled Sam," Harry said. "Just answer the call and help her out, Kitten. I'll explain after you hang up."
Dawn nodded and answered the call. "Hey, Kerstin, what's up?"
"Dawn? I'm sorry, I meant to call your brother."
"Don't hang up," Dawn said. "As of now, you call me with any problems." She looked at her dad for verification, and he gave her a smile and thumbs-up.
"Are you sure? I'm running into some pretty confusing stuff here. Wouldn't your brother be able to handle things better?"
"Maybe, but Sam's busy. I can help you. What's up?"
Kerstin explained the problem. Dawn listened attentively, biting at her lip. "Let me repeat that back to make sure I have it right." As she recited the issue aloud, her father's and brother's eyes raised in interest.
"How do I fix this, Dawn?"
"What are you thinking?" Dawn asked.
"Well, we could bring in a higher-level player to help us get control back. Then scope out the mall and see if we can identify any strangers when they return to take it again?"
"What's the handle of the player holding the targets now?" Dawn asked. Each Shepherd chose a game name, also known as a handle.
"Player named 'NoManners,'" Kerstin said.
"Spell it," Dawn opened her notebook and wrote the name down followed by a question mark. Both father and brother shook their heads. "What level is this NoManners?" she asked.
"There's no number," Kerstin said.
"There has to be a number."
"Well, there isn't."
"Only the mall is taken?"
"Yeah," Kerstin confirmed. "I called the rest of my group and no one else is having a problem. Want me to go down and try to shear the targets back?"
"Sure," Dawn said. "Even if you don't succeed, you can still farm some kb and digicash by trying. Head down there now, and I'll meet you in the food court in about fifteen minutes."
"You bringing Sam, too?"
"If I need to." Dawn hung up the phone and looked to her dad.
"When you first get your ansible," he explained, "problems will begin to occur in your territory. It's like a tutorial session. The best way to learn the new technology is to experience it through crisis."
"Makes sense," Dawn said. "That's the way the game works from the beginning levels."
"I wasn't sure where the crisis would come from, but my guess is that Kerstin's new level and your new level occurring at the same time are an excellent opportunity for the game to combine tutorials."
"Dad, you know this game so well."
Harry smiled. "Just experience, Kitten. As you're about to gain shortly."
"I have to handle this on my own then?" Dawn asked.
"Do your best," Harry said. "When you get stuck, then come to us. Sam had some real challenging times when he got his ansible, didn't you, Son?"
"Yeah," Sam said. "Although it looks like Dawn might be in for more fun than I had."
"Why do you say that?" Dawn asked.
"Just a hunch," Sam said. "I can drive you to the mall and hang out with you, I think."
Harry nodded. "Just let her do all she can before you help her."
"Agreed," Sam stood up, and Dawn followed him to the door.
10
Josh strolled into the coffee shop and walked directly to the counter without looking aside. He ordered a coffee, then saw a plump, golden strawberry muffin through the glass and asked for that as well. He paid, stuffed the change into the tip jar, and joined Harry at the booth in the far right back corner. He set his coffee on the table, pulled off a small piece of muffin top and popped it into his mouth, then sat down. After a sip of coffee, Josh made eye contact.
"Let me guess," Harry drawled, "Wallaceton?"
Josh lifted the mug for a sip, giving Harry a sly grin. "Very well hidden, but yes. I wonder, with the combined intelligence and wit at this table, how can the rest of the world hope to compete?"
"Somehow the world is doing just fine against us," Harry said. "Give me the basics."
"Kenny's dad is named Tranton."
"That is one strange name."
Josh shrugged. "It's an alias, so give the guy marks for creativity."
Harry nodded, waited.
"This guy, Tranton, has lived here all his life. Same story with his parents. I had to go back to the grandparents to find anyone living in Wallaceton."
Harry shook his head. "If you have to go back that far, then they aren't from Wallaceton, Josh, they're from here."
Josh broke off another piece of muffin. "The grandfather goes by the name of Archibald Hearthkin."
Harry's eyebrows rose. "That's not funny."
"No, it's not."
Harry turned on his ansible and went to work while Josh focused on his coffee and muffin.
Ten minutes later, Harry slid his phone across the table. Josh looked at it, read the information on the screen, and nodded.
"Looks like we finally have ourselves a game," said Harry, standing up and putting his jacket on.
Josh finished his coffee and stood as well. "About time, if you ask me," he said, following Harry to the front door.
***
"Where's Kerstin?" Sam asked.
"She's supposed to be right here," Dawn was scanning the food court.
"Maybe she had to go to the washroom."
Dawn took out her ansible and started dialling. "Maybe. I'll call and find out where she's at."
"Never mind," Sam said. "Here she comes."
Kerstin didn't look happy. Dawn smiled anyway. "Any luck getting some targets back?" she asked.
"Not a single one," Kerstin said.
"Well, at least you got some points for trying," Sam said.
"No, I didn't get a single point," she said.
"That's not right," Dawn said, looking at Sam with concern.
"That's nothing," Kerstin said. "We have much bigger problems than not getting kb or digicash for attempting to shear targets."
"Like what?" She isn't normally this excitable.
"Sis." Sam was looking at his ansible. "You better take a look at this shear map."
Dawn pulled up the map on her ansible, then frowned. "This can't be right, can it?"
"The mall has one hundred fifty-two targets, right?" Sam asked.
"Yes. And I'm not seeing any," she said.
"Me neither," Kerstin said.
"Nor am I," added Sam.
"NoManners did more than just shear the targets here," Dawn said.
A male voice chuckled from a nearby table. When they looked over, he waved. He was a fit young man with angular features, early twenties, with shoulder-length black hair tied up in a warrior-style ponytail. His icy blue eyes sparkled with a mischievous glint, and a cocky grin displayed perfect white teeth. He wore a black leather trench coat over a form-fitting black t-shirt and baggy black pants. Polished black combat boots rested on the seat across from him in the booth.
"That's right, little Shepherds," he said. "I hacked your targets, then I went ahead and deleted them all."
11
"I thought NoManners would have been more active," Josh said.
Harry nodded agreement. It had been a week since the mall incident. "I don't like calling him NoManners. We need a real name."
"Until we discover his true name, what else can we call him?" Dawn pointed out.
Josh sighed and nodded as he held up his ansible. "This thing has spoiled me. Us."
"It hasn't spoiled us," Sam said. "We worked hard to earn them. I think we've all been very responsible."
"I agree," Harry said. "Ansibles aren't helping us find this guy, though. Any idea why?"
"New technology is my guess," Josh said. "By the
time something comes out, it's already outdated and something new exists. This kid has ways to remain anonymous. He's also found a way to shear our targets and make them disappear."
"I'm glad that's all that happened," Harry said. Two days after the incident they discovered that the targets hadn't been deleted, only hidden from the SHEPHERDS game technology. It had taken another day to unscramble whatever had been done, freeing up the targets and allowing Sarah-Marie to go back in and shear them. The affair had been costly.
"Also lucky for us that he didn't keep going," Dawn said. No other sites or targets had disappeared. For whatever reason, so far the mall was the only problem site.
Sam looked blandly at his father, then at Josh. "I know you both thought that kids from Wallaceton shearing our diner wasn't necessarily a message. But is it safe to say that this is?"
Josh laughed, a rare occurrence for him, and Harry smiled. "Yeah, I think it's safe to say this is a message, Sam, and that the diner was too, although only the most clever of us picked up on that one."
Dawn's ansible vibrated silently to indicate an incoming text. She read it quietly and grimaced. "I need to go out for a bit," she announced.
"Where?" Harry asked.
Dawn handed the device to her dad, who read it and frowned. "Absolutely not," he said.
"What?" Josh and Sam were both curious. That ominous tone always meant trouble.
Harry strode to the door, moving like a panther stalking prey, and stopped a few feet from the large front window. "NoManners just sent Dawn a text telling her to get into the car parked out front. Seems he wants to meet one of us."
"No way," Sam and Josh both said in unison, Sam sounding as dangerous as his father, and Josh becoming cold and tense like a viper ready to strike.
"Come on," Dawn said. "This is our chance to learn more about him. At the very least we can learn his real name, or a less annoying name than NoManners."
Harry composed a text on Dawn's ansible, still in his hand, pressed send. "He wants to meet anyone, it will be me. I just told him to come on in so we can have a chat."
Everyone except Harry laughed. "Yeah. I'm sure he'll throw the door open as soon as he gets that and rush in to meet us all," Sam said.
Harry set Dawn's ansible down on a desk and took out his own. "He's already proven that he's clever. He can't believe for one second that I'm sending my baby girl to get into a car with him."
"You have someone on the way?" Josh guessed.
Harry nodded.
"Good," Josh walked over, picked up Dawn's ansible, and returned it to her. "Sit down with me, Dawn, and I'll show you how to trace someone who texts you."
"I should go meet with this guy," she said.
"No," Sam said.
"But—"
"No," Harry said. "This guy is dangerous, Kitten. Until we figure out what's happening, there's no way I'm going to allow you to meet with him in private." Harry smiled crookedly. "Okay, even when I do know more about him, there's no way I'll allow you to meet with him in private."
"When I handed you the text to read, I figured you wouldn't let me go. That's fine. I'm sure we'll get the information some other way." She sat down beside Josh, hiding a smile.
She'd deleted the second text before showing her dad, the one that said to meet NoManners tonight behind the mall.
12
"I didn't think you'd come," he said, from behind her.
Dawn didn't turn around. "I had to meet you again." She heard him approach and her pulse quickened. "I don't think you'll hurt me."
She started as his voice spoke softly in her ear, "A correct guess, but foolish to take such a chance, Dawn." He moved to stand in front of her. His outfit was the same: long black trench coat, black shirt and pants tucked into combat boots. He was as strikingly handsome as she remembered.
"You know my name," she said. "How 'bout you tell me yours?"
He smirked and looked around, running a hand through his long, loose black hair. "Sure, why not. My name is Logan."
Logan, you are very handsome. Too old for me, but very easy on the eyes. "Nice to meet you, Logan. Why did you ask to meet me? And why here?"
Logan smiled and spread his arms. "Years from now, they will look back and say that this is where it all started."
"Where what started?"
"The beginning of the end."
"The end of what?"
Logan looked upwards and took a breath, sighing deeply as his gaze came to rest once more on her. "The end of everything, Dawn," he said. "The end of everything."
Dawn's eyes widened in surprise and her hand flew to her mouth. She paused for a moment, then laughed. "That was pretty cryptic," she said. "If this was a TV show, now would be the best time to cut to a commercial."
"Yeah, I guess it would be. That doesn't make it less true, though."
"How do you play SHEPHERDS?" Dawn asked.
"Same way you do," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone. "Except I don't really play it. Not like you and the rest of the kids do."
"SHEPHERDS is played by more than kids."
"Who? Your father? Josh?" Logan's smile flashed white teeth in the dim light. "Trust me, they are playing a very different game."
"What do you mean?"
"It doesn't matter." He walked to the nearby bench and sat down. "I've chosen you, and I hope it doesn't turn out to be a deadly mistake for both of us."
"You move your lips and talk a lot without really saying anything," Dawn observed.
"It's a habit developed over years of practice," he admitted.
"What does that mean?"
"Stop asking so many questions. I don't have much time with you right now. Your dad is trying to track us. I may be able to do some tricky things, but my tech in this city is limited."
Dawn smiled sweetly, her mouth closed. Logan nodded. "Good," he said. "The purpose of tonight's meeting was to see if you would come, and to remove your tracking device."
"What tracking device?" she asked.
He extended his hand. "Let me see your phone."
"Why?"
"You ask too many questions." He snapped his fingers. "Let me see it. Please."
Dawn got out her ansible and handed it over. Logan opened the main screen—and since he doesn't know my password, apparently he can bypass it at will—and started tapping commands. "You shouldn't have come, by the way," he said, without looking at her.
"Why not?"
"Obvious reasons." He swiped the screen to access a different menu, and his fingers flashed so rapidly over the clear quartz surface that Dawn couldn't follow what he was doing. "I'm an unknown and likely dangerous."
"Dark and dangerous? This is all just a computer game, Logan, there's no danger in that, except maybe losing a phone or some data."
Logan finished with Dawn's phone, turning it off and handing it back to her. "It's time to grow up, Dawn," he said. "Soon enough your dad will explain that this is much more than a game. I've unlocked your device. Don't let Josh use it, or he'll know something's up."
"It was locked? The ansible is supposed to give me access to more than any other tech device."
"More questions." Logan shook his head and chuckled. "It's a good thing I chose you."
Dawn wanted to ask what he'd chosen her for, but she clamped her mouth shut.
Logan smiled. "Good, there's hope for you yet. I'll contact you soon and tell you more. Until then, don't tell anyone about our meeting."
"It was nice to meet you, Logan," Dawn said.
"You might change your mind about that before too long. But it was nice to meet you as well, Dawn Thorn."
13
"Has he tried to contact you again?"
Dawn sat at the small table in the kitchen, idly shoving food around her plate. "Who?"
Harry closed the oven door and carried his plate to the table, looking at Sam and rolling his eyes. "You know who. NoManners."
Dawn looked up and glanced first at Sam, then her dad.
"No, Daddy, I haven't heard from him again. I guess he got the hint when I didn't get in the car with him. Maybe he's been trying to contact other players?"
Harry and Sam both shook their heads. "He's disappeared off the grid," Harry said. "There have been no further attacks on us, and no more disappearing targets."
"Maybe he moved on," Sam said. "I didn't recognize the guy, and we've spread the word around our territory. If he was here someone would've spotted him."
"You're likely right," Harry agreed. "You ready for your trip to City Three?" he asked.
Dawn took a bite of her mush and smiled. "Yep, all packed and ready to go," she said. The surrounding cities they controlled through SHEPHERDS had real-world names, but the game system referred to them by number. "I'm looking forward to meeting our new leaders and helping them get familiar with their roles."
"Sam, you're off to City Four?" asked his father.
"Yeah," Sam smiled. "You have big plans with both kids out of the house, old man?"
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "It's a good thing I enjoy the game and our work so much, because I don't have any free time to look for other forms of entertainment."
"Take some time," said Dawn. "All work and no play makes for a dull life, Daddy."
"I know," Harry grimaced. "But all we do is play games, Kitten. Maybe in order to rest and relax, I should dust off my résumés and go hunting for a nine-to-five job?"
The three of them laughed. For all the joking about lack of free time , every third month they vacationed together somewhere different in the world. None of them could imagine the drudgery of having to work a traditional occupation.
"We go to Hawaii in five weeks," Harry said.
"Then snowboarding in Switzerland after that," Sam added.
"And then a week in Brazil on the beaches," Dawn said.
"Followed by a victory week in our favourite of the three places," Harry finished.
"I guess until then we'll have to muddle through and play games." Dawn stood up and took her plate to the sink, scraping the remains into the garbage.
"On a serious note," Harry said. "This is your first overnight business trip alone. Please be careful, Kitten, and call in often."