The Great Game

by O. J. Lowe

  Either way it was something he was about to find out, the video referee trilled and he saw the energy already forming about the centre of the golem. Stuffed into the pool, there wasn’t really anything Snooze could do to avoid the uniblast that streamed towards it, Scott gave the order to protect the head but it felt like so little. It struck Snooze on one of the arms, the sloth bear letting out a bellow of frenzied pain as Scott smelt singed fur. Smoke billowed up from the wound.

  Trying to ignore the smell, Scott saw the platform the golem stood on wasn’t going to stay afloat much longer. Already the water was up to its feet, slowly the two were sinking down beneath the surface of the water. He didn’t know if it gave him the advantage or not. At least on the surface he’d know for sure where it was and what it was about to do, but at the same time at least it wasn’t going to be able to move under the water like Seasel or that bloody eel.

  At that point, he made the choice to take the initiative and at the mental command, Snooze pushed forward off the bottom of the pool and hit the golem hard in the centre of its blocky body with his head, the force of the blow bringing a loud clang to silence the crowd as bone met steel and the golem suddenly found itself being thrown back into the other side of the pool, its weight shattering the tiling that made up the edge. Bits of plaster and brick floated to the surface and the crowd let out an ooh of delight. Snooze rubbed his head, a little dazed by the looks of things.

  Okay, so don’t do too many more of them, Scott thought with a wince. Snooze had a hard skull but there was little point in pushing it. The golem didn’t look too badly hurt by the attack, it slid down into the water and moments later he heard a muffled thump as it hit the bottom of the pool.

  Hey, Snooze, he called mentally. How about hitting it with a uniblast of your own?

  Through the mental connection he shared with the spirit, he was sure he sensed a flicker of glee before the energy started to charge up about the great maw that was Snooze’s mouth and the blast ripped through the water, parting it until it hit the stationary golem stood at the bottom. Scott winced as he saw the blast slash into the great steel body but other than that, there wasn’t too much visible damage. A few burns maybe, he heard them hiss as the water closed back around it. Huh, maybe he could superheat it into submission. A nice thought, one he probably would have liked to try in a different set of circumstances. Here, it wasn’t likely a practical solution.

  That was when the golem sprang from the water with a sudden burst of speed, a sharp acrid smell hitting Scott’s nose as it leaped for Snooze, one fist brought back. He reacted just a fraction of a second too late, Snooze made to strike back and missed, one cumbersome fist batting only at the air. And the golem’s aim was true, it caught Snooze about the chin and sent the bear toppling backwards, Scott having to jump back a few inches as the tip of the great head came to a rest in his area on the side lines.

  Shit!

  It wasn’t a fatal blow but Snooze’s eyes looked unfocused like there was some struggling going on. He reached down to pat the great head and sighed. Come on, Snooze. Get up. We can still win this. Don’t take that.

  The video referee was observing, Scott prayed it didn’t give a swift verdict…

  Please, I just need more time, come on Snooze!

  Silently he was shouting now, resisting the urge to jump up and down impatiently. Snooze!

  Come on!

  Finally! He breathed a sigh of relief as the eyes opened and slowly the sloth bear pushed himself up to his feet and stretched again. Scott heard the crack of muscles flexing and a big grin moved across his face. This was going to be it. One final effort, Snooze rose up to his full height, held there for a moment. He looked strong, Scott breathed out, before giving the command.

  It took a few seconds but the legs gave way and the bear fell forward straight onto the golem. It was the same tactic he’d used on the eel and Scott watched with satisfaction as there was another great splash, yet more water thrown up and the golem vanished beneath Snooze’s bulk.

  “See ya,” he muttered, folding his arms confidently. “Wouldn’t want to be ya.”

  For a few seconds more he stood, not quite sure when the feeling that something wasn’t quite right passed across him. Something clutched at his chest and he straightened up, suddenly looking out down into the water with a very real sense of worry. There Snooze was, laid face down…

  SHIT!

  He glanced up to the large video monitor atop the north stand, saw exactly what the underwater camera could see. The golem had Snooze atop its back, holding the sloth bear at bay with its shoulders, straining under the weight but not exactly uncomfortable.

  “Snooze, uniblast!” Scott yelled, suddenly worried. He didn’t like the look of this. How effective a uniblast would be underneath the water would be debateable but he needed to do something. Before…

  Too late. The golem flexed its legs and suddenly Snooze was thrown up and out of the pool, Scott’s heart fell with it as the giant bear landed in an untidy heap on his right, face first into the ground and the neck bent at a horrible angle.

  No! No! No! Silently he repeated the words, not quite able to believe it as the video referee trilled out a decision that announced Bruzack as the winner and the applause of the crowd rained down upon him, cheers and adoration for the rat faced man drowning out Scott’s curse as he walked towards Snooze, his heart heavy with the spectre of defeat.

  He’d blown it. Completely.

  “It was good of him to make sure he got his hands on this,” Okocha said, looking down at the wallet in front of him. Already he and Noorland had started the process of going through it, the few contents of it laid to the side of it. On a screen in front of him, he had the profile of one Doctor Jeremiah Blut up and available, he’d forwarded it to all Unisco agents on the island for reference, on another screen he had facial recognition programs running not just for the doctor but for the three men who were with him. Their bodies were returning to the mainland as they worked, ready to be examined in a Unisco laboratory due to the nature of their identical features. It was something, in Okocha’s opinion, worth investigating. Noorland had agreed on it, Brendan had signed the orders for them to be transported. All they could do now was wait.

  “Yeah,” Noorland said. “Heh, bet he wishes he hadn’t.”

  “Huh?” Okocha didn’t get it. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Roper did this, didn’t he? He got this. This proves Blut existed and now there’s no trace of him. Roper even admits he threw him into that portal thing, even if there’s only his and Wilsin’s word that it even existed…”

  “Should have taken a spectrometer down there to scan for energy residue,” Okocha remarked. “Hindsight, eh?” Noorland nodded in agreement. The truth was, they hadn’t expected to need one on the island. By the time they’d scrounged up the parts to put together a makeshift one, it had been too late and there wasn’t any residue left to scan. At least nothing they could pick up on what they’d put together. Okocha was expecting a reprimand to come their way on that sometime soon.

  “Yeah, but I imagine they’ll be wanting words with Roper about what went down in there,” Noorland continued as if Okocha hadn’t spoken. “I mean, it’s not the most professional of things to start throwing suspects into the unknown.”

  “Yeah but…” Okocha didn’t know what to say. Noorland was right, of course. It’d be professionally negligent if they didn’t at least talk to Roper about the whole thing. The reports had come in, he’d seen the transmission through to the director and well, he was glad he hadn’t chosen to be a hero right now.

  He busied himself fiddling with the wallet, examining it again for what felt like the thousandth time. They’d emptied it, a few credit chips, some identification, a badge for the University of Bacar where Blut’s file had said he’d both graduated from and worked and that bit of card that had no significant value on the face of it. They both had studied it several times, found it blank on both sides. A combinati
on of professionalism and curiosity had prevented them from ripping it up and tossing it. Yet as William Okocha stared at it yet again, he had a feeling that there was something about it that neither of them were seeing.

  He moved over to his equipment bench, found the hand scanner and hefted it in his hand. It was a multi-purpose piece of examination equipment, perfect for a mission away from home like this. Various functions in one small piece of technology. Noorland had built it, he glanced over and shook his head. “Already tried that.”

  “Yeah, you did,” Okocha said. “Now it’s my turn.”

  Noorland laughed. “Yeah, you pull something off it with that and I’ll buy you a steak.

  Deal?”

  “Very much so,” Okocha replied, returning the grin before returning his attention to the task at hand. He ran the wand over the card, picking up nothing but the material composition of it. Cellulose, recycled paper… ink? He jerked it up to his eyes, not sure he’d read it right.

  “Al.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I like my steak extra-large, well done, plenty of onions…”

  “Excuse me?” Noorland sounded sceptical. “No way you found something.” He moved over, snatched the scanner from Okocha. “What the hells are you looking at?”

  “There’s something written on here,” Okocha said. “We just can’t see it. Try UV lighting, see if that’ll show it up. If not, heat it up. That usually works as well. You missed the ink in it when you scanned it.”

  “Penmanship,” Noorland said, glancing down at it. “How dreadfully archaic.” He sounded rueful, Okocha wasn’t about to blame him for it. Everyone made mistakes. It hadn’t cost them. Especially if it turned out to be a shopping list. And yet if it were, why the secrecy?

  “And yet,” Okocha added, picking the card up and running the scanner back over it, a purple light scanning over the centre of each side. For several seconds nothing happened until some words came into view, ever so slightly and he felt a giddy rush of triumph. Oh yes! “A cunning way of keeping it hidden. I very nearly missed it. Sometimes we get so caught up that we forget to look at the obvious.” He held it up to the light and read it to himself. “Huh.”

  “Interesting reading?” Noorland asked, taking it from him. “Let’s see what it says, shall we?” He read aloud from the card, his face knotting up with bemusement as he studied it. His voice sounded just as confused, Okocha couldn’t blame him.

  “What was once shall be again.

  First there was chaos

  As order became unrestrained.

  A champion falls and inferno rises

  And sacrifice is its name.

  A new rising, an age gone since the last.

  The three pillars shall fall in their wake

  The cherished will be united.

  Courage. Hope. Compassion.

  Anger. Fear. Love. Greed.

  All will form the chain of fate

  That will shackle the beast beyond.

  And the Green will overcome.”

  It wasn’t something that made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, they had to regard the words as evidence, part of an ongoing investigation. No matter how much babble about three pillars and chains of fate and sacrifices might truly grate on them. Because a vanished man linked to a truly horrific event had had it on his person, he’d deemed it important enough to keep. Might be nothing. Might be something.

  Okocha just knew that someone was going to be a victim of an awful headache working it all out.

  Chapter Twenty. Things Not Said.

  “No matter how much you must lie in the line of duty, it’s very important you never swallow your own bullshit.”

  A famous lecture from long ago in the Unisco archives, care of Terrence Arnholt.

  The twenty ninth day of Summerdawn.

  “And this was easy, easy for Nicholas Roper to romp home to a win here, Leslie Graham never stood a chance and she has fallen before this mighty caller on his way to qualification. What a masterful performance, easy, easy, easy!”

  He’d heard the commentary afterwards and found himself a little uncomfortable with it. It wasn’t something he could control, but sometimes he wished the announcers could reign it in a little. He was all about enthusiasm yet there had to be a limit somewhere. That was the last thought he’d had before falling asleep, the first upon awakening being the realisation the smell of strawberries. That something was the head nestled against his chest, Sharon snoring gently. He smiled, tried to adjust himself for comfort beneath her without waking her. There were worse things to have problems with. And he had a few more days until his final bout now, one that he still needed to get something in to guarantee the top spot in the group but he wasn’t worried. Not about the tournament anyway.

  Brendan King had asked to see him. That had been enough to raise warning bells in his head. Not that he hadn’t been expecting it. It was standard procedure following incidents like the one that had gone down. They’d probably be interviewing David Wilsin as well, maybe he didn’t have much to worry about.

  And maybe he had plenty to worry about. He hated having to justify himself but it was going to be a necessary evil today. Accountability could be a good thing. It could also be very, very irritating when there were things he’d rather be doing. His thoughts were interrupted by a little moan and Sharon shifted on top of him, lifting her head up to look at him through bleary eyes.

  “Morning,” she said through a yawn.

  He smiled, leaned down and kissed her. “Good morning beautiful. Sleep well?” She stretched, rolled over onto her back and checked the time on her summoner before letting her head settle back on the pillow with a sigh. “Take that as a yeah?”

  “Yeah, I did,” she said, covering her eyes with the back of her hand for a moment before snuggling up over to him. “You?”

  Oh boy… How best to tell her that? One of the things he hated doing the most. Lying to her about what he really did on the side. She didn’t know he carried a weapon or that he’d killed more men than he could remember. Somehow, he doubted she’d look at him the same way if she did. Sometimes looking at himself in the mirror took an effort. Even if it was for the greater good. That whole secrecy surrounding Unisco wasn’t just for protection against reprisals. Sometimes he thought it was just as much to keep their families from looking at them differently.

  He’d never killed anyone who didn’t deserve to die. He repeated that a lot to himself. Always in self-defence, never in cold blood…

  Except that wasn’t true anymore, was it? Dress up what had happened to Blut however you liked, it hadn’t been something he could stop thinking about. Blut hadn’t been an imminent threat, despite his alleged complicity in some pretty serious crimes and he’d gone and done the deed. Sure, he might not be dead, chances were that he was just as he might not be, but it didn’t stop the feeling. He didn’t think it was guilt. He’d felt that before many times, mostly involving Sharon if he was honest, evolving from lusty thoughts about other women to lying to her about a lot of things.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” By this point, the lies came easier than he wanted to admit. He’d been with Unisco long enough now to almost have them as second nature. The poor liars didn’t tend to last very long.

  She looked up at him through blue eyes, her manicured brow furrowed. Like she didn’t believe him when he said it. There was something about that look…

  “You sure?” she asked. “You look troubled. Something bothering you?”

  He shook his head, rolled onto his side and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling himself closer to her. She was warm and smooth, he felt a little better just being this close to her. “Nah, I’m good. Just been mulling over tournament stuff.”

  Technically it wasn’t a lie. In the same way it wasn’t technically the truth either. “Trying to work out the group permeations, all that stuff,” he added, mentally blanching. Okay, that was as blatant a lie as he was ever likely to tell.

  “You know what I think?”
she asked. “I think you worry too much.”

  “Really, I think the opposite sometimes,” he said, idly twirling a finger through a strand of her blond hair. She pulled away, gave him a raised eyebrow.

  “What, you think I worry too much?”

  “No, I think I don’t worry enough sometimes,” Nick said. “Sharon…”

  “Yeah?”

  He shook his head. There wasn’t any easy way to say it. One day, he’d stop the lying, there’d be no more deceit and they could start being completely honest with each other and to hells with the consequences. He knew she had her secrets. All the stuff between her and Ruud Baxter for one thing. Nick knew some of the story, he didn’t know the whole thing. And any attempt he’d made to prise it out of her had meant her clamming up. He’d seen it before. He didn’t want to leave Unisco. Not now. There was too much at stake. But one day… “You know I love you, right?”

  She grinned, flashed her ring at him. “I should hope you do. I’d hate to think you were marrying me for my money and my fame.”

  His grin was bigger. “I was actually doing it for your body.” That got the reaction he’d expected, she slapped his arm playfully and climbed on top of him, mounting him with a big grin.

  “Got any other smart comments, smart guy?” she said, rubbing her fingers across his chest, teasing the hair there.

  “You keep going on with that, I’m sure I might have,” Nick grinned, wriggling a little to adjust his position, saw her mouth open in a little O of lust and ecstasy as she felt him enter her, a little moan slipping out of her. “But it’s not important right now. Can think of at least one thing I’d rather be doing.”