by Dante Doom
The team began to advance up the side of the mountain, moving with great caution. The snow wasn't too bad, and the cold wind was refreshing after the heat of battle, but an eerie silence had fallen across the team. Everyone was glancing around nervously, watching their backs for signs of danger.
"This way," Fredlin said as he pointed to a large cave sticking out of the mountain. The words Cave of Terror floated above the cavern.
"Gee, that sounds like a nice place to hide out," Van said.
"It'll lead to an underground network," Fredlin explained. "The Gorgon Brothers use the network to travel around and avoid detection by Draco pros. They built some kind of work-around that prevents anyone from detecting them with any kind of program. Only sight reveals these guys."
"That's quite the work-around," Sang said. "Almost sounds impossible."
"Well, I guess they might have made it up," Fredlin replied. "I have no idea. Either way, we'll have to search the tunnels for them. Be careful, though… if they don't like the way we look or talk, they might just kill us."
"How do you know all this?" Sahara asked as she poked her head into the cave. She raised her staff high, causing a powerful burst of light to flash through the darkness, illuminating the entire area. The words Daytime Visions Successful appeared above her head. A gentle orange light glowed in the cave, providing enough light for everyone to see into it.
"Well, if you must know, I had a girlfriend who wanted to play, but didn't want to be low level, so we sprung to get her a character. And, of course, she grew bored with the game in a matter of days. So, that was a messy break-up."
"Sounds like you made the right choice," Kylian said. "I'd kill for a free high level character."
They began to walk through the warmly lit cavern. Their footsteps echoed for quite some distance. The fire spell seemed to provide warmth as well as sight, and Sang felt rather cozy, despite how cramped the spaces were. She could feel the gentle heat ebb and flow against her skin. It was making her a little sleepy. The rest of the team soon began to yawn, as well.
They had been travelling for three days with only four or five hours of sleep a night. And while Sang and Van were used to this kind of rough running, for the others, it was growing harder for them to keep up the pace. It was only a matter of time before they'd need to take a longer break.
"There!" Fredlin said as he pointed to a small painted circle on the wall. The paint was bright red and there were three dots in the middle. "That's the Gorgon Brothers symbol. Let's search for a hidden tunnel or something."
Sang activated her Search skill and began to feel her hands along the wall. A small stone embedded in the wall began to glow. She grabbed it and pushed it back, causing the entire wall to slide open.
"Is this it?" Sang asked with a grin. No matter how many times she found a secret door, it always made her feel accomplished.
Van held up a hand. "Not so fast," he said as he walked up to the entrance. The passage led to a set of stairs that went spiraling downwards. "If these guys are cautious, I'm willing to bet this is rigged with a trap." He knelt down and placed a hand on the ground, running his fingers along the floor. He jerked his hand forward for a moment. "Gotcha!" he triumphantly declared as he pulled a wire.
Four large axes came swinging down at once, slicing in all directions on the inside of the secret room. Van was safe, as he had triggered the trap while remaining outside of the passage. The axes swung around violently for a few seconds and then retracted up into the ceiling. Van took out a knife and cut the wire. "It's clear. Let's go."
"Nice work," Kylian complimented him as they walked down the stairs in a single-file line. The stairwell was far too narrow for them to move while side by side.
"I don't like everyone being so squished together," Van said once they reached the bottom of the stairs. The stairwell led to another hall, although this space was equally as narrow as the stairwell. "Makes us way to vulnerable in a fight."
"That goes both ways," Fredlin said. "Only one person can come at us at a time."
"True," Van replied. He knelt down to check for further traps for a few moments before moving forward to lead the team.
In the distance, they could hear some talking. There were three distinct voices – all male. They were arguing about something.
"I'm telling you, I sent the money," said a high-pitched voice.
"And we're telling you that it didn't arrive," said another, lower voice. "So, you don't get your character."
"I travelled a long way here, Bramif!" the high-pitched voice shouted. "I did everything that you guys said."
"Apparently not," the one called Bramif replied, "because your money didn't come through."
"And it's not like we haven't been patient," said the third voice.
"So, get the hell out and don't come back," Bramif said.
"Whatever. Just give me a few days, and I'll get the money to you guys."
"Sorry, but if you say you're going to have it on Friday," the third voice said, "then you better have it on Friday. We don't work with people who can't keep their word."
"But –"
"Get out!" Bramif said. Sang could hear the sound of a weapon being drawn.
"Alright, alright, I'm going. Jeez, lay off, will ya?" the voice responded. They could hear footsteps coming towards them.
"Excuse me," a short man with several gold chains and a flute hanging from his back said as he tried to push by Van. It was awkward as he shoved and pushed until finally he made it to the back of the team's line of players. "If you ask me, these guys are a bunch of scammers," he muttered to Sang. "I'd spend my money elsewhere." And with that, he began his ascent up the stairs.
"We can hear you all!" one of the voices cried. "Please, come into our office. But we would prefer it if your weapons were put away."
Van turned to face his team and nodded. They all quickly sheathed their weapons in compliance with his nod. Then, one by one, they walked toward a large open door. Fortunately, this entryway opened up considerably and there was enough space within the room for everyone to fit comfortably.
The room itself was nothing special; there was a wooden table resting in the center, and two men were standing on opposites sides of the table playing with what looked like little miniature figures of people. The men were dressed identically, wearing silver jackets and thick coke bottle glasses. One was slightly shorter than the other.
"Well, hello," said the short man. "I'm Bramif and this is my brother, Sulif. We're pleased you managed to find us here."
"It's not an easy journey to get here," Sulif said. "Not when you fill this mountain full of traps and Ogres."
"Yeah, it was a bit of a journey," Van said. He pointed to Fredlin. "I believe you two have made his acquaintance?"
Bramif adjusted his glasses and scuttled over to Fredlin. "Hmmm, I remember you. You had that girlfriend, right? Sylvia, I think?"
"Yeah," Fredlin said as he sheepishly grinned.
"My favorite customer!" Sulif laughed. "This guy, head over heels, buys a three-hundred-dollar character for his girl and she barely plays it for an afternoon before saying she's bored."
"We had to make an exception in our no-refund policies because of how hard we laughed when she dumped him!" Bramif said, chuckling heartily.
"Yeah, right," Fredlin coughed. "Well, we're looking for some alts for our characters."
"All of you?" Bramif asked.
"Yeah," Kylian said as he slowly walked around the room, inspecting the space. There was nothing in the room except for the table. There weren't even any entryways except for the one they had just entered through. All in all, it was a very odd place for people to be meeting.
"Well that won't be cheap," Sulif said. "And it certainly won't be something we'll be completing today. You folks are from the Iron Dragons, yeah?"
"We are," Sang answered as she leaned against the table. She looked at the walls carefully, searching for some kind of secret compartment or cracks in the walls
, but there was nothing that she could see.
"Figures," Bramif replied. "Well, you guys might be crazy, but at least you're not friends with Draco. Are you expecting to be banned from the game? Is that why you're going for alts?"
"It's long and complicated," Van said. "The only thing that you need to know is that we have the money to pay and we're needing these characters as soon as possible."
"Sorry, friends," Sulif said as she shook his head vehemently, "but we're not particularly inclined to rush on anything."
"Why not?" Sahara asked as she stomped her staff on the ground hard.
"Because," Bramif replied, "we're easily making a six-figure salary from this job, and it's also super illegal, so we need to be careful. Here are the rules: you gotta pay up front, and then we do a background check. Then one of you goes out to meet us in the real world, to pick up the data sticks with the new characters. All you gotta do is plug them into whatever haptic systems you're using and you'll be golden."
"Where are you guys located?" Kylian asked.
Bramif shrugged. "You'll know once you pass our background check."
"How long does that take?" Sang asked after she sighed. This was going to take forever, and she knew it.
"Well, we gotta check for each one of you, so we're talking maybe three to four weeks if we can hustle."
"We don't have that kind of time," Van said. "We're trying to get these alts into the big tournament."
Bramif looked at Sulif and they both nodded at the same time. "I'm sorry, but we don't do rush orders," Bramif said. "So, you can take it or leave it. You'll be looking at a thousand bucks per person."
"A thousand?" Sahara gasped.
"It's fine," Sang mumbled. "We'll pay you double if we can get the characters immediately."
"Double? Oh, wow," Sulif said, clapping his hands against his face in a mock expression of surprise. "We've never been offered that kind of money!"
"Sorry, but we don't deviate from the plan. One mistake and we're banned from this game for life. I mean, if we get caught, Draco will take us to court and we'll have to pay them back everything we've earned and more. No temporary gain is worth losing everything in the long run," Sulif said.
"Triple?" Sang asked.
"That ain't gonna work," Kylian said. "These men seem very well versed in their methods and have been running this business for quite some time. I doubt we'll sway them."
"Good man," Bramif said. "Now, how many characters can we put you down for?"
Sang glanced at Van. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "It'll be faster to track these guys down in the real world and make our request in person."
Van shrugged. "How are we going to find them?" he whispered back.
Sang grinned. Very carefully, she raised her hands and activated her user interface. The CIA had been working on figuring out some work-arounds against Draco's security systems and had made some significant progress. Sang's ability to hack had been severely stunted due to the new protocols that Draco had unrolled, but thanks to the increased amount of manpower and funding that the CIA had obtained from the government, she had a few tricks up her sleeve.
Select Target > Bramif LVL 58 Rogue the display said as Sang began to ever so cautiously break a few dozen rules of the game. She ran a quick IP trace and, after a few minutes, was able to determine the player's exact location in New York City. She scanned Sulif and found that he was in the same spot. She ran a few more checks to determine if they were using any kind of spoofing software, but it was clear they weren't. Modifying a haptic system to that degree would mean some advanced computer engineering, and it was doubtful these guys had those skills.
Sang grinned. Now armed with their location, all she and Van would have to do was give Neil a call and… a sharp pain rose up through her stomach. Neil was still in ICU, in critical condition. She gritted her teeth. Of all the people she could trust, she knew that Neil was the guy who'd have gone and roughed up these two without a moment's hesitation. Now he was lying in a hospital bed, comatose. Guilt and fear began to rise up through her stomach. Flashes of the scene from two days ago began to play through her head.
"You okay?" Sahara asked as she put a hand on Sang's shoulder. "You're starting to hyperventilate."
"What?" Sang asked, snapping out of the memory. "No, yeah, I’m fine. I'm fine." She took a deep breath and tried to push the memories away. That whole affair had been a nightmare, but as long as she didn't think about it, she wouldn't have to deal with it. And if she started to freak out, Van would ask what was going on. With the pressure the man was under, he would absolutely snap if he found out that Neil was close to death and that an MP – one of their own – had shot himself in front of her. Van couldn't know.
"if you're going to try and cry to convince us to do business, please save your tears," Bramif said. "I've heard every sob story there is."
"Waaah, little Billy has cancer and will die and he just wants to be an arch-mage," Sulif said as he raised his hands to his face and made a sobbing gesture.
"Oh, my dad's birthday is tomorrow and we can't afford any presents!" Bramif said, imitating his brother.
"Alright, alright," Van said. "We get it."
"We're good here," Sang whispered. Van nodded at her and turned to walk out of the room.
"Come on, team, let's move out."
"Have a nice day," Bramif said.
"Hope you get a better girlfriend next time!" Sulif shouted at Fredlin as the team slowly left the room.
"Well, that was a huge waste of time and energy," Kylian said. "What's next?"
"Take the team back to the base," Sang said. "I don't think we're going to have to worry about waiting too long to get those new characters." And with that, she and Van logged out of the game.
Van sat quietly in the back of the car as it sped along the highway. New York City wasn't too far off now. Sang had originally wanted to go alone, but he knew she didn't have a chance of understanding what these guys would try to give her. He needed to make sure that each character the Iron Dragons acquired would be perfect for the fight. There was no point in bothering to get new characters at all if Sang selected some subpar characters because these brothers thought they could pull a fast one over on her.
O'Hara was driving, and Sang was in the passenger's seat. No one said a word. Perhaps the strangest thing about this trip was the fact that Neil wasn't coming. Van would have figured that Neil would relish the chance to loudly threaten nerds and forcibly deprive them of their property, but Sang had said that he had something else going on. O'Hara was different today, too. Her normally violent, angry demeanor had been replaced with a quiet, contemplative silence. Something had to be wrong, but no one would open up about it.
"There," Sang said quietly after twenty minutes of driving through traffic. "That shop over there." She was pointing to a small computer store that read "Gregory Brothers Computer Solutions."
"That's the place?" O'Hara grunted. "Where's the parking?"
"I don't believe you can actually park in New York City," Van said.
"I've heard rumors about it being possible," Sang joked back. Even though she was joking and smiling, though, Van could still hear a sadness in her voice.
"Well, you guys go in and scope it out, and I'll be right there," O'Hara said.
"What?" Van asked. "What are we possibly going to do to convince these guys without… uh, your help, O'Hara?"
"They're nerds – you'll be fine. Just show them your badges and I'm sure they'll cooperate," O'Hara replied. "I'll find a place to park and join you."
"I wish Neil were here," Van mumbled as he climbed out of the car. He paused then to take a moment to absorb the sheer business of the city. People were all over the place, buskers were loudly singing on one of the street corners, and the smells were overwhelming. Van imagined the sheer chaos that the city would devolve into if there was some kind of serious attack, and swallowed hard and turned to face the computer shop.
"You ready
?" Sang asked.
"I guess," Van said as he put his hand on the door. "What should we do?"
"They don't really know who we are, so let's just play it like Neil and O'Hara would," Sang said. "Be tough and aloof. They don't know that we're not really the enforcer types."
"Sure, sure," Van said as he wrapped his fingers around the handle. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The little bell to the shop jingled as he entered.
"Hi there," said a young twenty-something sitting behind the counter of the computer shop. Wires and circuits were all over the counter and he was busy welding two wires together. "What can I help you with?"
"I'm looking for Bramif and Sulif," Sang said as she walked up and slammed her hands on the table. The abrupt action was enough to startle the man into dropping his tools.
"Whoa, take it easy!" he said. "I'm Bramif… I mean, in the game, I am. Who are you?"
"Name's Agent Sang, and this is Agent Van," Sang said as she pulled out her CIA badge and flipped it open. "We're with the CIA."
"Nice business you have here," Van said as he ran his fingers over one of the sets of haptic goggles that was hanging from the wall.
"CIA? Oh, crap!" Bramif said. All the blood drained from his face.
"That's right," Van said as he leaned over the counter. He was trying his best to look as calm and relaxed as possible. "And we're here to ask you a few questions."
"Your brother here?" Sang asked.
"Yeah… Sam! Sam!" Bramif called as he walked over to the back door and opened it. "Come out here, please."
Sang shot a grin over at Van and winked. This was actually kind of fun. As long as the two brothers didn't get violent, they might not even need O'Hara.
"What is it?" Sam asked as he stormed into the room. He was wearing gloves, and was absolutely covered in green liquid. Van recognized it as haptic pod fluid. "I'm right in the middle of fixing a pod."
"These two are with the government," Bramif said. "They want to ask us some questions."
"Government?" Sam growled. "Look, I told you goons a million and a half times, just because we're certified Draco technicians doesn't mean we have access to the technology, okay? We just fix the stupid feedback issues."