Shadows

by Terry Schott

"You knew I was following you?" she asked.

  "I knew somebody was following me." He pushed away from the wall and began walking. "Come on, let's hurry and get you to someplace safe."

  She jogged forward to join him. "Where's my dad? You were supposed to bring him here."

  "Change of plans," he grimaced. "Bit of a problem in the chain of command."

  "What kind of problem?"

  "Tank is working for the enemy."

  "That's crazy," Dawn had known Tank for a long time. He had always been a loyal member of the leadership.

  "Crazy but true." Kyle continued to scan the streets as they walked. "I went to tell him about you so he could contact your dad. When I walked into his office, Vector and him were having a friendly little chat."

  Dawn stopped walking. "How do you know Vector?"

  Kyle kept walking. "I know lots of people. It's the main reason everyone puts up with me and keeps me around. Which, in turn, leads to me knowing more people."

  Dawn jogged to catch up. "Did you hear what they were talking about?"

  "No," Kyle shook his head. "Vector left as soon as I came in, but him being there means Tank is dirty."

  "How do you know so much about all this stuff and I don't?"

  "I'm a couple years older. I've been playing games longer. And I've been on the streets since I was a young kid, struggling to find ways to survive. You never had to do that."

  "I'm sorry to hear that, I didn't know."

  Kyle shrugged. "No big deal. You asked and I answered."

  "You must have some family?"

  "Not really. Lots of acquaintances. A few friends."

  The two walked in silence for a few blocks.

  "Where are we going?" Dawn asked.

  "I've been asking myself the same question," Kyle admitted. "I don't want to hide you anywhere near Tank's group. I have a feeling it's only Tank and maybe a couple of his lieutenants that are dirty, but I don't want to risk being wrong. I'm walking toward Annie's territory, so I guess that's where we're heading."

  A rapid chirping began to sound from Kyle's pocket. "What the heck is that?" he said as he pulled out his phone.

  "Those are game alerts," Dawn said.

  "Yeah, about a thousand of them all at once. What's up with that?" Kyle opened the game screen on his phone and his frown quickly became a smile. "Well, I don't know what just happened, but it's good news for us."

  "What is it?"

  Kyle turned his phone toward her. He'd zoomed the playing grid out to show a large area of the city. Everything in enemy-controlled red had changed colour to ally-owned blue. Dawn laughed with relief. "Looks like we have our city back," Kyle said.

  "Does that mean it's safe to call my dad to come get me?"

  "I think it's worth a try." Kyle handed the phone to her. "Let's grab a coffee over here and give him a call."

  27

  Vector laughed and raised his glass of wine in salute to Logan, sitting next to him in first class of the commercial jet. "Well, that was fun, little brother. A very profitable operation."

  Logan's face did not mirror his brother's. "It wasn't all fun," he growled. "We got lucky. If something had happened to Harry's daughter, we would have started a war. Father would have killed at least one of us for such a mistake, and just my bad luck it would have been me when it should be you."

  Vector drained his glass and smacked his lips loudly. "You're being overly dramatic, I think. He's invested too much into us to throw us away. Besides, nothing happened to her, so everything is fine." He reached for a cracker and spread some black caviar onto it. "Harry Thorn is lucky I didn't make a move for him when I had the chance. I'm pretty sure neither of us would be punished for killing him, even if it did start a war."

  Logan shook his head and sighed. "Father might be a match for Harry Thorn. Might." He looked out the window, then back at his brother. "You can't best our old man on his worst day. If you had tried to kill Harry, I'd be bringing you home with a new smile cut into your throat."

  Vector opened his mouth to disagree, but nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought as I was reaching for a blade. Old fart would have likely stuck me in the eye or some other nasty place." He popped the rest of the cracker into his mouth and poured more wine. "We'll just have to keep training and hope Harry Thorn stays alive long enough for one of us to kill him. How much do you figure we made from holding City Three?"

  Logan turned his ansible on. "A little over four million dollars," he announced.

  "Not bad," Vector said. "I would have expected a bigger take, but the payoff is definitely worth it."

  Logan shook his head. "We should still have control of the city. The way they booted us out is cause for concern. It should have taken them days. They took it all back in minutes. It was like they flipped a switch and sheared them all back at once. The entire city."

  "It was worse than that, Logan," Vector said. "My ansible released every single target in the city at the same time while they somehow sheared everything back simultaneously. The millions of kb that we'd earned from owning the targets went to zero. For a second I was afraid that they would somehow take back our digicash too."

  "That would have been nasty."

  "Yeah, that would have sent us home with no money in our pockets at all."

  "So what do you think happened?"

  "We were hacked."

  "I agree," Logan said. "Someone wrote an aggressive cheat program and uploaded it to the game grid."

  "I want to know who it was, and so will Father."

  "It must be a nasty piece of coding." Logan finally took a sip from his own wine glass. "I bet Grandfather will get involved."

  Vector frowned as he munched another cracker. "You're likely right. Get out your cute smile and hope he focuses most of his energy on making Father squirm."

  "Our 'cute faces' stopped working on Grandfather once we became old enough to contribute to the Family."

  "Figuring out who we're looking for might help ease the pressure they're likely to put on us," Logan said. "Any guesses?"

  "First guess would be Josh," Vector said. "That guy is the Thorn family wizard, right?"

  "Yes. It's likely Josh, which is a shame. If it were someone else, some smaller fish, then we might be able to isolate and grab them for a private little chat." Logan didn't bother finishing the thought. Both of them knew Josh was untouchable unless things escalated.

  "Then let's assume it's not Josh," Vector offered. "We have our own tech geniuses. Let's put them to work and see if they can find the code on the grid. If they can spot it, then perhaps they'll be able to follow it back and identify the owner."

  "If it's someone else, we kill them?"

  "Likely," Vector put his empty wine glass down and leaned back in his seat. "Or recruit them. Let's find out who it is and worry about the details once we do."

  28

  Harry stalked into the coffee shop like a hungry wolf.

  As Dawn stood to greet her father, her smile faltered. She hadn't thought he would be angry with her, but the look in his eyes was terrible. As he got closer, Harry's eyes softened as fury gave way to worried relief. "Thank God you're all right," he whispered hoarsely as he pulled her close to him.

  Safe in her father's arms, Dawn felt the release of will, determination and pent-up fear that had dominated her thoughts since the whole ordeal had begun. She began to sob uncontrollably.

  "It's okay, Kitten." Harry stroked her hair, his eyes welling up with tears. "You're safe now. You're safe."

  After a time, Dawn regained her composure and gently pulled away to smile up at her father. She wiped the tears from her face and the two of them joined Kyle at the table.

  "Tell me everything," Harry's voice sounded calm and detached.

  Dawn nodded and recounted the past few days. Harry interrupted occasionally to ask questions before nodding for her to continue. When she came to the part involving the alley, she did not mention the old man with pop-bottle-cap gloves.
r />   "The brothers will have left the city by now," Harry said.

  "By plane," Kyle confirmed. "First class, direct to Los Angeles."

  Harry nodded. "Who else knows about Tank?"

  "I've told no one," Kyle said.

  "You've done well, Kyle. I'll make sure that you're generously rewarded for protecting my daughter."

  "That's not necessary, sir," Kyle shrugged. "We look out for each other, right? If you're a member of the team then we take care of you."

  Harry took a sip of coffee. "That's the right attitude, son, but trust me, I won't forget this."

  Kyle nodded. "Fair enough."

  "When can we go home, Daddy?" Dawn asked.

  "Today," Harry said.

  "Good," Dawn said. "This trip wasn't as fun as I had hoped. There was definitely more excitement than I could have guessed, but boring would have been better."

  "Don't worry, Kitten, this isn't the way things normally work. It's not often that a couple of rich brats can enter our territory so easily and cause such trouble." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a car key which he handed to Dawn. "Go out and start the car, please. I'll be right there."

  "Okay," Dawn stood and accepted the key. "Thanks again, Kyle. I owe you big time, no matter what you say."

  "Call me next time you hit town," Kyle said. "I'll let you buy me a hot dog or something and we can call it even." Dawn laughed and headed for the front door.

  Kyle waited for Dawn to exit the coffee shop before speaking. "What happens now?" he asked.

  "Tank will need to be handled," Harry said.

  "Any way you can leave him in place for awhile? Maybe put a tail or two on him to see how deep this corruption goes?"

  "Normally, I would say yes," Harry finished his coffee and shook his head, "but what happened here is a big kick in the face. I need to deliver a clear message in return. There's no way I will allow this attack to go unanswered."

  "There's going to be war then?"

  "I don't know." Harry reached into his pocket and dug out enough money to cover the bill. "Since SHEPHERDS went live, everyone has been playing fair and by the rules. The Families have stayed in their own territories and avoided messing with the rest. According to the rules, most of what has just transpired falls within the rules of the game. Shearing and attacking territory is fine; it helps to ensure that the strong survive and the weak are eliminated." Harry's eyes became steely. "Trying to kidnap my daughter is not part of the game."

  "Technically, it is," Kyle said.

  "Yes," Harry agreed, "but that can only escalate the game. I had hoped the other side wouldn't want to open that door, or if they did, it would be with someone else's kids."

  "It was a stupid move," Kyle said. "I can watch Tank for you, if you decide it's worth doing."

  Harry stood up. "Let me think about it. I want you safe, Kyle. You've been a good asset for us. We need you to remain that way."

  "I want more, Harry," Kyle smiled.

  "I know. Leave it with me; there will soon be room for loyal team members to grow."

  "I've heard some of the older guys talking. Things were more violent and dangerous before the game went live."

  "There's a lot of money involved," Harry admitted. "Money and power. Enjoy this time while it lasts, Kyle." He patted the young man on the back and started to walk toward the door. "Things always get violent. It's just a matter of figuring out the timing."

  29

  "We need to have a family discussion," Harry announced.

  Sam groaned as he released his sister from a hug. "Dawn just walked in the door, Dad. Can't we have something to eat and hear the details of her ordeal before we sit down for a new one?"

  Dawn chuckled. Family discussions were often longer than they needed to be. Their father was an excellent communicator and storyteller, but a long-winded one. "I would like to have a shower and rest a bit first, Daddy," she said.

  "I've put this off for long enough," Harry said, shaking his head. "Living room. Now."

  Sam and Dawn sighed and went into the living room.

  Harry sat in his customary large brown leather reading chair while the two of them sat on a comfortable leather couch across from him. He took a sip from a water bottle. Dawn stifled a groan, for a water bottle portended a lot of talking on her father's part.

  "Don't worry. I think you'll find this interesting." Harry paused, took a deep breath, and then sighed. "It's time that I finally told you about the Thorn Family."

  Sam threw Dawn a look, and both sat forward with interest. Their father had always deflected this subject. Neither had pushed the issue; lots of families didn't know much about their extended relatives. Dawn had gone to school with friends who had never met their grandparents or aunts and uncles. After all these years, both had come to assume there was nothing significant to tell. Plus, there was no way to bring the subject up without talking about their mother.

  "I'll be talking about your mom, too, if that's okay with the both of you?" he said, as if directly picking the thought out of Dawn's head.

  "Dad, it's fine," Sam assured him. "She's been gone a long time now. It would actually be good to hear you talk about her. I think it would be healthy."

  Dawn smiled encouragingly and nodded at her father. Their mother had passed away six years ago, which seemed like so long ago, now.

  Harry smiled and nodded. The two of them had been madly in love. Dawn could still remember the joy and happiness they had all felt when her mom had been alive. Her dad had changed when Mom had passed away. He'd done his best to hide it, but his sadness always seemed to be lurking just below the surface.

  "The Thorn Family is large and powerful," he began.

  "Are you serious?" Sam interrupted. "Then how come we've never heard about any of them? Searches on the Internet barely pull up anything. There's the odd conspiracy theory that mentions a family sounding similar to ours, but those references sound like tinfoil hat stuff."

  "Yeah," Harry said. "You won't find much on the Internet, although the stories are about us. Some stories even we can't seem to make disappear."

  "Those stories refer to a family called Thorne, with an 'e' at the end of their name."

  "That's right. When I moved away from the Family I dropped the 'e.'"

  "So," Sam asked, "the Thorne Family: the mythical, powerful, ultra-rich Family that is said to rule almost every country on the planet from behind the scenes? All the conspiracies and crazy stories that no one can prove, but everyone seems to spread?"

  "Correct. That's the Family you were born into."

  Sam and Dawn said nothing.

  "Let me give you the basics," Harry said. "I assume you will have a lot of questions, and over the next few weeks–maybe months–I'll do my best to answer as many as I can. I'll present the Family history to you as it is given to each child when they reach an appropriate age. I'll include a few extra details, because you're older than the average child when they hear it."

  "Okay, that sounds fair," Sam said. Dawn smiled in agreement.

  "It's in our Family's nature to ask a lot of questions. And to talk too much." All three of them laughed. "Even so, please try not to interrupt unless I mention something you can't wait to hear about. All right?" Both kids nodded.

  "The Thorne Family can trace its roots back to the fourth century, A.D." Harry paused. Both kids looked surprised, but neither said a word. "I won't bore you with centuries of minute details, but the basic theme of our history is this: our Family grew to a position of influence and power without once reaching to grab a crown or ruling position. Instead, our ancestors were content to rule from the shadows, to help elevate others to power and then reap the benefits of the favour gained by our help. There are Thorne children from every generation who become Family historians. My little sister is one of them. I've likely heard more about our long and rich history than the average Thorne, because we were close and she couldn't wait to share her knowledge with me whenever I was around. There are libraries f
illed from floor to tall ceiling with volume upon volume of books all containing Thorne Family history."

  "I would love to see that," Dawn said.

  "I'm sure that you will, someday," Harry said. "To make a long story short–which I know is not my forté–the Thorne Family is very old, extremely rich, and incredibly powerful worldwide."

  "Are any Thornes world leaders?" Sam asked.

  Harry shook his head. "No, but we do control over ninety percent of them."

  "Do we own any banks?" Dawn asked.

  "No, but we direct the actions of those who do."

  "I think I see a pattern," Sam said.

  "I would hope so," Harry said. "It's a pretty simple guiding principle. We stay out of the spotlight and control those on the stage. We rule absolutely, but from the shadows."

  "Sounds evil," Sam said, "and so do the rumours and stories about the Thorne Family on the Internet. Are we a bad group of people, Dad?"

  "Nothing is that black or white, Son. In every game there is a winner and a loser. The loser thinks the winner is evil, and the winner sees themselves as good. In the grand timeline, the Thorne Family has won considerably more than we have lost. Those who have lost at our expense have come to view us as evil."

  "Sounds slippery," Dawn said.

  "Our ancestors are no different than any other single person or family," Harry waved a hand. "We all want to prosper and make sure that our children are protected and cared for. We all want the next generation to do better than we did. Our Family was in the right place at the right time in a lot of key moments throughout history, and they prospered while retaining traditional long-term vision and values. It might be difficult for the average person, who spends very little to no time planning for the future, to understand. They don't consider what their lives will be like a decade from now, let alone a century. Life is a game, kids, and it is those who play the long game that triumph over those with less purpose, vision, and discipline."

  "That makes sense," Sam said. Dawn nodded agreement. Harry chuckled.

  "Of course it does—to you. You are both Thorne children, the product of centuries of breeding and success."