by Terry Schott
"Yes," Arthur said. "I'll tell you now. When a player shears a target, they are actually hacking into it; downloading all data received by the target's video cameras, phone lines, computer activity, and every other bit of personal information. We then take that data and sell it to governments and businesses."
Sam and Dawn looked at their grandfather as the implications sank in.
Sam spoke. "Are you saying that we are hacking security and private information, and then selling it to other organizations?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"When we shear a person?" Dawn asked.
"Then you are downloading their PIN numbers, bank account information, every personal bit of information they type into their phones, computers, or speak into their phones while they are a target under your control in the game."
"Then entire cities that we control in the game–" Sam began.
"Provide us with every intimate detail of each person's day-to-day life," Arthur finished.
The room was quiet. Neither could believe what they were hearing.
"What do you do with all of that information?" Dawn asked.
"We sort it, and then sell the good stuff to whichever customer will most benefit from it. The majority of the information goes to businesses who pay incredible amounts of money to know who likes their products best, what incentives will most attract customers, and a myriad of other competitive advantages."
"Much information is sold to governments, as well?" Sam asked.
"Yes."
"Who use it to manipulate the populations? To root out possible threats and control the masses?"
"There are millions of things that our customers do with the information which we mine for them."
"No one has any privacy," Dawn said.
"Correct."
"This is dangerous," Sam said. "We could get into a lot of trouble for this."
"From who?"
"The very governments that you're selling the information to," Sam said. "They could decide you are too dangerous, and someday try and eliminate the Family."
Arthur laughed. "Don't worry about that happening, my boy," he said. "There is no reason to fear the banks, corporations, governments, or any other organization."
"Why not?" Dawn asked.
"Because," Arthur said with a smile that sent a chill through Dawn's spine, "we own every single one of them."
37
"Wow!" Sarah-Marie's eyes widened in surprise. "What did you just do?"
Kerstin tried to appear nonchalant, but a grin poked through her serious demeanour. "I sheared a moving target."
"A person!" Sarah-Marie heard her voice exulting a bit too loudly, looked around, then leaned toward Kerstin and lowered her voice. "That opens up a whole new group of targets, right?"
"Yeah."
"That means I don't have to walk the mall anymore?"
Kerstin nodded. "That's right. You've started to form your own cell of players, which means that you pick one of them to do it. You no longer have to walk it, just make sure that your new team of five are doing their routes. You're responsible for more than the mall, now. If your people don't do their jobs, then you have to do it in their place."
"Yes, of course, that makes sense," Sarah-Marie said. "So with this new ability to shear people, do I have a daily quota?"
Kerstin nodded. "Yes, you will get a weekly e-mail from game headquarters to let you know how many people you are required to shear. There are different levels to this aspect of SHEPHERDS, same as with the property shearing."
"Anything special or different about shearing people?"
"Not that I have noticed. Just don't try to shear another player."
Sarah-Marie's eyebrow rose. "We can shear other players?"
"Yes," Kerstin frowned, "but don't until I let you know it's okay."
"Why not?"
"I'm not really sure. I haven't attempted it yet, and I've been at this level for weeks now. Dawn told me not to, until we discussed it further."
"What did she say when you talked to her later on?" Sarah-Marie asked.
"We didn't. She was out of the city for a long while. She's back now, but all we've been able to do is text. I can understand her being busy. The higher up a player levels, the more work there seems to be. I miss the days when all I had to do was walk my route. Now I have to train my leaders and make sure the six of you take proper care of the twenty-five that you've brought in. Plus I have to keep on top of my own team of fifty."
"Fifty? Wow. You're doing awesome at growing your group, Kerstin."
"That's just my personal group, which includes you. I'm responsible for over three hundred players at the moment, on some level or another."
"How much money you making?"
Kerstin smiled. "The money does help ease the burden of leadership. My cheque this week was nine hundred dollars."
"That's around fifty thousand a year!" Sarah-Marie exclaimed.
"Shh," Kerstin said. "Quiet down."
"Sorry." Sarah-Marie looked around sheepishly, then she whispered, "I think we should shear a player."
"I don't know. Dawn looked pretty serious when she warned me to wait."
"Don't be so scared. She likely just wanted you to wait until someone was with you that had the same talent. Now that I can shear people too, let's go find a player and see what the big deal is."
"I guess she didn't forbid me to do it..." Kerstin said.
"Exactly," Sarah-Marie nodded and stood up. "I know where we can find someone, I discovered him months ago by accident. He comes to the mall to shear our targets. He's actually pretty good at nabbing them from us. He comes by every day, just to take a stab at them."
Kerstin knew about the player in question. After his activity had been reported, her team had continued to keep tabs on him. She nodded. "Okay. Let's give it a try."
***
"There he is. The one with the red hoodie sitting in the booth over by the sub place."
Kerstin glanced casually to her right, her gaze passing over the target. He was paying attention only to his food. "We're in luck," she said. "There is one kid close to him with his own cell out, and a few others just behind him."
"So?"
"I don't know why Dawn warned me not to try this without talking to her." Kerstin pushed her fork around her food. "Maybe we run the risk of being detected by the player we try to shear. That will be hard for him, because, look around: lots of phones out in the open."
"Good thinking," Sarah-Marie pulled her phone out, keeping it low and out of sight. "Okay. Here goes nothing."
Both girls watched the bar creep toward the line that would indicate success. It jumped forwards, but soon began to slow. Just short of the halfway point, it came to a sudden stop. A shrill whistling sound erupted from Red Hoodie's pocket. His head snapped up and whipped first left and then right, his eyes narrowing as he drew his phone.
"Cancel the attempt," Kerstin muttered softly.
"Already have." Sarah-Marie's phone was turned off and back in her pocket. She raised her sandwich to her mouth and took a bite, watching the target in her peripheral vision. Red Hoodie hadn't even glanced in their direction. Instead, he was already up and striding toward a table where a teenager was typing on his phone. He put his hood up.
"Was that you?" Red Hoodie demanded of the boy in the booth.
"What are you talking about?" the boy asked.
Red Hoodie leaned closer and inspected the phone, then straightened and began to walk toward another table, where two girls sat drinking smoothies. "How 'bout you girls?" he snapped. "One of you stupid enough to make a play for me here in the mall?"
"What?" exclaimed one of the girls, a redhead. "Are you high?"
"Leave us alone, creep," said her friend, a brunette.
Before she could say anything else, Red Hoodie grabbed the brunette's cell phone, scanned, then dropped it onto the table with a loud smack. As he reached for the redhead's phone, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
It belonged to the first boy Red Hoodie had interrogated.
"They said to leave them alone."
Kerstin and Sarah-Marie watched in horror as Red Hoodie's hand flashed to the first boy's head, twisted it sideways, and slammed it against the table with a dull thunk. The girls screamed as Red Hoodie snatched the second phone from the stunned redhead's grip, looked at the screen, and dropped it beside the other. Red Hoodie then headed for the door, his head rotating from side to side like some evil robot from a science fiction movie searching for prey.
Sarah-Marie and Kerstin did their best to ignore him as he walked past. A few bystanders began to call out for security. A few seconds later, Red Hoodie left the mall.
Sarah-Marie released her breath loudly; neither of them had moved since the episode began. She opened her mouth to speak, but Kerstin stopped her by squeezing her leg.
"Just sit here quietly and finish our lunch," Kerstin said. "Then we'll go out the far doors and get to your place."
"Do you think he's going to be out there looking for us?" Sarah-Marie asked.
"I don't know. I hope not," said Kerstin uneasily.
"We should have waited for Dawn," Sarah-Marie said.
"Ya think?" Kerstin could feel her pulse racing. Her eyes flicked to the booth with the girls and the kid who had come to their defence. He was still on the floor, unconscious by the looks of it.
"I'm not trying that again any time soon."
"Definitely not." Kerstin felt sweat trickling down her brow.
38
Sam and Dawn entered a drawing room with a large table, where their father sat conversing with half a dozen relatives. The conversation ceased as they sat down near him. "How was the visit with your grandfather?" Harry asked.
"It was good," Sam said. "Great, actually."
"Really?" asked an attractive woman sitting across from Harry. "That's something I never thought I'd hear."
The others chuckled and nodded, but Dawn frowned. "It really was," she said.
"I'm glad to hear it," Harry took a sip from his glass, eyes sparkling with interest. "It was definitely a long chat."
"We miss anything?" Dawn asked.
"The chance to meet your grandmother before dinner," Harry said.
A short bark of laughter escaped from the man sitting beside Harry. "That's too bad. If they had a good time with grandfather, imagine the party they missed with her."
Laughter rippled. "I'm sure it would have been fine," Harry said. "Kids, let me introduce you to some of your cousins." Harry called out the names of the adults at the table, who each nodded in turn. "Dinner will be served in just a few minutes. It will be a fairly large gathering in the dining hall tonight." He pointed to two large doors.
"Gathering in the dining hall?" Dawn asked. "I still find it hard to believe that everyone is here just to meet Sam and I."
"You're a clever girl, Dawn," the pretty lady at the table said.
"Everyone is excited to meet you," Harry said, "but you're right. There is something else going on."
"What?" Sam asked.
"Every three months, the Families meet to discuss the status of SHEPHERDS and take care of any outstanding details. After the meetings, there is a dinner. Each Family takes turns hosting, and it's our turn this time."
"The Families?"
"Each of the powerful Families is based in Wallaceton," Harry said. "Four large manors located equal distances apart from each other on the outskirts of town. We are in the north section, the Hearthkins in the south. Two other Families occupy the west and east: the Jarlborns and Goldstones."
"All four powerful Families live in the same town and get together for dinner every three months?" Dawn asked. "Do they hate each other or not?"
"Absolutely," William answered as he arrived at the table and pulled out a chair to join the group. He looked at Harry and shook his head. "Shame on you, Harry, you've taught these pups nothing about the world."
Harry shrugged. "They're quick studies, Brother, don't worry." He turned to face his children. "These are the four most powerful and influential Families, but there are many other smaller families involved on the world stage as well. We do hate each other, for the most part, but the game has managed to bring us together to live in relative peace so that everyone can participate and profit from the endeavour that we invented."
"That you invented," William said to Harry with a smile on his face.
Harry ignored his brother. "Each of the four Families is involved in SHEPHERDS in equal shares, with the smaller families making up the remainder of the mix. In this endeavour, at least, we all prosper or fail as one."
"Why would they agree to such a thing?" Sam asked.
"Because," William chuckled, "we are all greedy little pigs when it comes to money and power, and the game is something that no one wanted to miss out on."
"Did your grandfather tell you the true purpose of SHEPHERDS?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Dawn and Sam said in unison.
"Then you understand the implications of not being part of it," Harry said. "A Family ejected from the game is in danger of losing everything they have worked centuries to build."
"The Families control the world, don't they?" Dawn asked.
"Yes," Harry answered, "but that is nothing new. They have controlled society, all major societies, for a long way back. The game is a very clean, efficient way to keep doing what has always been done."
"There are new dangers with the game in play," William said.
"There are always new dangers with anything," Harry said, "but the rewards outweigh the risks."
A familiar voice from behind Dawn interrupted the discussion. "Look, brother, our new friend is here. What a pleasant surprise."
Dawn blinked and slowly turned her head. Vector and Logan Hearthkin walked toward her, a dozen others following behind. Vector approached with his seemingly loose, carefree gait, while Logan looked slightly uncomfortable.
"With the stunt you two pulled recently, I should be annoyed to see you here," William said without standing up. "In your defence, though, I doubt you have the brains to understand why you should be too embarrassed to show your faces. Hearthkin genes are often lacking when it comes to common sense, I suppose, but still."
Vector laughed as he walked past the table, not bothering to turn his head toward William. "Come along, brother," he said. "There is no intelligent life worth speaking to in this area of the room. Let's get closer to civilized creatures. I see Hearthkins over there. Shall we join them?"
Logan looked at Dawn, looking miserable. A smile forced its way onto her lips; he caught it and returned it, then slowed down. As he opened his mouth, Harry rumbled: "Keep walking, Junior." Logan glanced at Harry's eyes, and his grin disappeared. He nodded and walked past the table without saying a word.
William chuckled. "Must you always be so fearsome to them, Harry? This gathering is supposed to be a civil event."
"Me? You're the one that insulted their genetics."
"Oh." William winked at Dawn. "Maybe I didn't help the situation any, but can you blame me? The little bastards tried to kidnap my favourite niece."
"I'm your favourite niece, now?" Dawn asked.
"Absolutely," said William. "You're the niece who has done the least amount to annoy me, which makes you my favourite."
Dawn laughed. "That could all change once I spend a little bit more time with you, Uncle."
"I have no doubt you're right," he said. "I guess we should make the most of this close affection while it lasts."
Harry laughed and stood up. "Come on, it's time for dinner."
On cue, the dining hall's doors swung open. The group stood and made its way toward them.
***
"Anything wrong?" Harry asked as he pushed Dawn's chair in for her. He noticed the look of concern on her face as she listened to her voice messages.
"Maybe," Dawn said. "Kerstin and Sarah-Marie tried to shear another player, and they almost got caught."
"Did it get violent?" Sam asked.
"Not for them, but the player knocked another kid out and harassed a couple of innocent girls." She shared the details of the attempt with them.
Harry shook his head. "They are lucky they didn't succeed. Didn't you tell them not to try shearing players unless you or Sam were present?"
"Yes," Dawn said, "but they got impatient and decided there would be no harm in trying it anyway."
"What did you learn?" Harry asked. He was never upset when the kids made mistakes, provided they did, in fact, learn.
"I had better convey the warning more firmly. I didn't tell Kerstin how dangerous that could sometimes be, and I should have."
"Good," Harry nodded. "Do you need to call her back and make sure she's okay?"
Dawn stood up. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea."
Dawn exited the room and made a quick call to Kerstin. When she was certain that things were under control, she returned to the dining hall. It was a very large, high-ceilinged room with tapestries on the walls. Dozens of round tables each seated six to eight occupants. At the front of the room was a dais with a long, ornate wooden table that looked like a museum piece. Dawn noticed her grandfather sitting beside a beautiful woman at the head of the main table, joined by other people who looked about the same age. Many of them were having conversations, mostly in formal, polite tones. As Dawn sat back down, she asked her father about the lady beside her grandfather.
"Is that Grandmother?"
Harry followed his daughter's line of sight and nodded. "Yeah, that's her."
"She's beautiful. Are the rest of the people with them also Family leaders?"
"Yes," William answered. "The elders of the bunch. The most powerful of the most powerful."
"Do we just sit here and eat?" Sam asked.
"For now," Harry said. "After dinner there will be some mingling, but not a lot."
"Why do this if we don't interact with the other Families?" Dawn asked.
"To show that we are civilized," Harry said.
"Oh." It was clear from the expression on her face that her father's comment did not answer her question.
"I know, it's silly," William said, "but it's tradition. Maybe when we become wiser and smarter like our elders, we'll see the benefit of it. Until then, just enjoy the delicious food and loving Family company."