by Charles Dean
Titles:
Cheat Code Fighter
The Great Deceiver
Normally, after sleeping on bed rolls in the woods and on tarps for so long, Lee would have welcomed the transition back to his home with his finest-thread-count sheets. He’d have embraced the air conditioning for all of its glorious pleasure. But it all felt empty. The people of Satterfield may have been used to death, and he may have even seen a good number of innocents die before, but Amber was his first real loss. After so many years living one of the safest lives a man could imagine, Lee had never experienced the loss of a lover, close friend or even a close relative. That was half of the reason Amber’s death hit him so hard. He wasn’t ready to watch the world move on without her, and he wasn’t ready to have fun like nothing had happened.
“Real funny, Augustus,” Lee griped, getting out of bed and heading to the kitchen to grab a bottle of beer.
“Who is Augustus?” a peppy voice answered him as he opened the door. “And was the joke actually funny enough to share?”
It was Masha. When did I give her a key? Lee looked at her and then to the keychain behind her on his table, and he knew the answer. It was Wolfe, wasn’t it? He gave her his key to mess with me. This is his way of showing me that he’s still sore about the multiple languages and magic thing.
“Oh, he’s a guy at the laundromat. I had him clean one of my shirts, and he left a jab at me on one of the tags,” Lee said as he walked into the kitchen and went for the beer.
“Umm . . .” Masha paused and stood frozen, staring at Lee.
“What? You want one too?” Lee asked, bending back over to grab another beer from the bottom shelf of the fridge.
“No, I mean . . . Yes, I’d like . . . I actually need a beer now, but”--she bit her lip and turned her head away--“I think . . . Even if you don’t like the joke he tagged on your clothes, you should still wear some anyway.”
Lee glanced down and realized that he was completely naked. Ah, that’s right. I just transferred. Of course I wouldn’t have any clothes on. He offered up another curse for Augustus just in case all the other invectives he had thrown at the deity in the last ten minutes weren’t enough or somehow had managed not to reach him. “Yeah, just give me a minute first.” He sighed heavily and took a healthy drink from the beer without moving.
“Take your time,” Masha said, but she still didn’t turn around to look in his direction.
“Hmm . . .” Lee studied her backside as he drank his beer, almost sullenly deciding to take her up on the offer to ‘take his time.’ As awkward as it used to be to bare all in front of another person, he had advanced quite a bit with Masha, and with all that had happened in the other world, with being around Amber, his sense of shame and propriety had faded.
“So . . .” Lee strolled back into his bedroom, carrying the beer with him as he went. He reemerged a few minutes later in his date-night finest: an oxford shirt and khakis, the ensemble that had defined much of his wardrobe since he started working in the corporate world. “What brings you over?”
“Oh.” Masha looked around for a moment. “Oh, umm . . . I just . . . I was on my way over to see Olga about brunch when I ran into Wolfe. He gave me the key you lent him, and he . . . He said you were hoping to actually ask me out somewhere, so . . .” Her cheeks flushed and she looked down, refusing to make eye contact. Even though he was fully dressed, she still couldn’t seem to bring her eyes to look at him. “I figured I’d just say yes to whatever you had planned instead. I’m sure it will be a lot of fun.”
Lee started considering what date he could possibly take Masha on in the middle of the morning, but before he could come up with an answer, she pressed on and kept talking.
“But! But if you wanted to do that lunch instead, Wolfe said he was taking Olga to the same place we ate at last time. We could still meet up with them if you like . . . If you want to do brunch, that is.”
Lee let out a sigh of relief. He had been thinking that Wolfe was still angry over the incident from before, but if he had been on his way over and just given her the key so he could take Olga out for brunch while encouraging Lee to get closer to Masha, then things weren’t as bad as he had initially believed.
“Not that we have to do either!” Masha interjected yet again. She must have interpreted his sigh of relief as a sign of disappointment. “I mean . . . Not if you don’t want to . . . We can, you know, instead . . .”
“Do brunch without them?” Lee offered, cutting off her rambling before it went too far. How is it that you had the guts to come into a man’s home this early in the morning and look at him naked, but you can’t properly ask him out? Lee chuckled at poor Masha’s expense. “I think it’s a good plan. In fact, we don’t even have to go out at all. We could just order desserts from every restaurant near us, have someone deliver some wine, and just skip leaving the apartment at all. In fact . . .” Lee looked both ways before leaning in closer as if he were about to tell her a secret of dire importance. “We could just take off our socks, plop ourselves down on that couch, watch terribly-awful romantic comedies while eating said desserts and drinking some delicious red wine. That sound okay to you?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “That sounds fine. That sounds good, actually. I like it.”
“Great, let’s just do that then,” Lee replied.
Masha had agreed to his plan cheerily enough, but Lee felt guilty about it nonetheless. She had wanted to go out and have fun, but he had just basically hijacked her into a day of moping over ice cream, wine and romcoms without telling her that was what he was doing. Plus, when he considered that it was because of another woman, he felt even worse. Still, he couldn’t blow her off--she was far too cute to do that--but he didn’t have the energy to go out and about and entertain her on a proper date.
Lee pulled out his phone, keyed up a few apps and began ordering a myriad of different treats for himself and Masha, making sure that he had enough so that he’d still have plenty extra when she left. As long as he was going to put in the effort today, he wanted to make sure that he didn’t have to do anything else tomorrow to acquire more.
An hour and a half later, Lee was cuddled up on the couch with Masha watching what Lee could only guess was the nineteenth attempt at recreating a movie from the fifties and milking it for all the nostalgia points Hollywood could harvest and eating the oddest flavor of ice cream he had ever seen: a strawberry rocky road with a hot fudge and peanut cover.
“You’re not talking much,” Masha said as she leaned against Lee.
“Mmm . . .” Lee looked over at her. “We’re watching a movie. Wouldn’t it be rude to interrupt?”
“Has that ever stopped you before? Even in the theaters, you still tease me during the movies,” Masha pointed out, rebuffing his defense.
“Ah, well . . .” Lee looked at the ice cream. “I’m also eating.”
“That hasn’t stopped you either,” she countered. “You talk more during movies and meals than you do during some walks.”
“Maybe I’m trying to learn manners,” Lee retorted.
“You haven’t laughed either,” Masha pressed. “Even at that ridiculous pun earlier . . . and you always laugh at bad puns.”
“Must have heard it before,” Lee deflected yet again.
“You look upset. You’re not frowning, but your expression matches my dad’s when he comes back from an important business trip. You just . . . You don’t have a serious job. I mean, not like his, you know?” Masha noted.
Lee set down his pint of ice cream and picked up the bottle of wine the two were sharing and took a large swig from it as he tried to come up with a way to change the topic. He much preferred the shy and bashful Masha from when she had first entered the apartment, the one who had trouble getting out so much as a single question, to the one who fired off nosey inquiries one after the other like a machine.
“Something bad happen?” she asked, posing yet another question without even so much as waiting for him to
finish his drink. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Lee looked down at her out of the corner of his eye. Well, you see, I kind of fell in love with another girl . . . Or, rather, I was kind of in love with her to begin with, but we weren’t an item . . . So, when I came back here, I fell in love with you too . . . And then, when I went back there, we sort of got super close only for me to watch her die as I held her in my arms, and her death was all because of a series of events I set in motion but couldn’t finish on my own.
“No, I don’t think I want to talk about it,” he sighed. There was no way to tell her about it and have her believe him, and even if she did, he didn’t think it would do anything more than hurt her. Plus, he didn’t want to put the effort into trying to explain it only to have her rebuke him. Amber was real, what he felt for her was real, and losing her had been real. He didn’t think he could handle having her tell him that she was just some imaginary, delusional, made-up fantasy.
To top it all off, he was already tired of thinking about it. He was tired of reliving it. Rehashing the entire fiasco was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. He was ready to be through with the subject altogether, but if Lee stopped remembering her, then the part of his life that he had shared with her would fade away too. So, he was just stuck in a weird sort of mourning limbo.
Masha nuzzled herself back onto Lee’s side and said, “That’s fine then. We don’t have to talk about anything if you don’t want to.”
“You sure?” he asked. He wasn’t trying to bring the subject back up, but he wanted to know whether or not she was truly bothered by his refusal to open up to her or not.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m used to it anyway. My dad never talks about his problems, and neither does my mom. They’re both tight-tipped when it comes to their own issues, and I have learned to accept that there are just some things people don’t want to mention.”
Lee nodded to himself, happy with that answer but also a little curious. What exactly does her dad do? He considered it for a bit, but then just went back to eating his ice cream and watching poorly-written romcoms without ever asking.
Masha, for her part, just mumbled, “That’s right. You go back to watching the movie. These snugs are all mine.”
Masha’s behavior was so adorable that Lee feel even worse about the whole situation. He knew that he should trust her, that he should find some way to tell her about what was bothering him, but he just couldn’t. In the end, he simply wrapped an arm around her and enjoyed the fact that he wasn’t alone.
-----
Olga had apparently invited her own boyfriend to join the brunch with Wolfe, and the three of them ended up spending the entire day afterward at an arcade while waiting to see if she needed to escort Masha. That meant that it became Lee’s job to see Masha home once the day was over, and the two took their time as they strolled through the park-sized estate that was her home. Masha’s mother insisted on inviting Lee in for a proper meal. When Lee protested by telling her that he’d already eaten, Masha just harrumphed and asserted that “Ice cream, candy and chocolates do not count as a meal,” to which Lee couldn’t disagree, so he joined them for golubtsy and beef stroganoff--two great dishes that he enjoyed immensely but would probably never eat if he was in charge of the cooking.
Alexander stopped Lee from leaving after the meal, instead turning him toward the study. “You were quiet today,” he observed.
“It’s been a long day.” Lee answered with a noncommittal shrug. What is with this family and these questions?
“Perhaps the best way to finish it is with some vodka and a peaceful game of chess,” Alexander said while gesturing to the board he had already set up in his office.
“You know, if I keep spending the after-dinner parts of my trips here with you, Masha is going to start thinking I’m ignoring her,” Lee said, trying to evoke his daughter’s ire as an excuse to get out of the game.
“That’s nonsense. She has to clean up the kitchen for her mother anyway,” Alexander laughed. “After all, what’s the point of having children if you can’t put them to work, eh?”
“I hope this isn’t rude, but aren’t you well off enough to have someone else clean your kitchen?” Lee asked. The man had enough money to hire full-time bodyguards for his daughter, so how was hiring a maid or someone to clean the kitchen too costly?
Alexander nodded as he sat down in front of the board. “That I am. But there are some things you shouldn’t leave to others, and the handling of my food or where it is prepared are among them.”
“Then you probably don’t want to hear that I ordered all the food Masha and I ate together today,” Lee said as he sat down.
Alexander didn’t seem bothered as he poured himself and Lee a glass of vodka before setting the bottle next to the board. “She can choose her own paranoias.”
Alexander used one of his standard openings as he began the game of chess, and Lee started countering like he always did until Alexander suddenly, and without a reason Lee could see, changed up his playstyle and made a risky move that could potentially take Lee’s knight.
Lee leaned forward in his chair, looking over the board as he plotted out his next move against Masha’s father.
“You’ve been busy since we last played,” MD noted as he studied Lee.
“Maybe,” Lee responded as he moved a pawn forward to protect his knight. “You could say a few things happened.”
“You’ve been playing at strategy without me,” Alexander chuckled, advancing his bishop to put pressure on Lee’s knight. “It shows. Your thinking is different.”
“I don’t know if you’d call it strategy. Not exactly, anyway.” Lee sighed, thinking about the plans he had made and how they had actually played out as he castled his rook and king. “It felt too chaotic.”
“I understand.” Alexander nodded as he picked up a pawn, one that would easily allow him to move his queen farther onto the field. “Too often, the moves we make with our hands don’t translate to the board. The pieces we play hold more value than pawns, but they also hold more freedom. It makes things difficult, and it makes the sacrifices we must plan that much harder,” he continued, still gripping his chess piece.
“I don’t know if you could say that,” Lee answered. He had benefited from that freedom. Without Miller’s irrational rush for vengeance, Ling and Lee would have died, Miller would have had to retreat back to Satterfield and wait for Devin to kill everyone there, and Lee could only guess what would have happened to Amber, Dave and Pelham. “The king having faith in his pawns is as important as the pawns having faith in the king. Without that trust, there is no way for a king to maneuver through the chaos of an unpredictable board.”
Alexander looked at Lee with a pensive expression and then finally placed his pawn, giving his queen the breathing room that she needed to maneuver. “What you say is indeed true, but that much value given to your pawns will only make it all the more difficult to exchange them for victory when the time comes. With that attitude of mutual trust, of strong ties between pawn and king, will you be able to make the needed sacrifice to triumph and achieve dominion over the board?”
Lee knew what Alexander was asking him: would he be able to take away a life to protect the greater good? Would he be able to sacrifice soldiers in order to ensure that his conquest would be successful? It was the same question that he had asked of himself a thousand times after everything that had happened with Amber. It had occupied his mind for what felt like an eternity. Now, this old man had seen through his moral dilemma and was attacking the crux of the matter. Yet, without hesitation, he answered Alexander as he moved his pawn forward to block a bishop while leaving his knight undefended, exposed and certain to die.
Alexander knew Lee’s answer by the move. “Good, good. Heavy is the crown, and heavy is the cost to wear it. The pawn has the freedom of choice, but for a king, choices are just different sacrifices he must make.”
Lee thought about what Alexander said as
he watched his piece get taken. Memories of Amber, the people he had shared drinks with who had died fighting with him in Kirshtein, even the men and women who had died during his first venture in the other world flooded his mind as he watched the board. “Yeah,” Lee answered quietly. He moved another piece and then picked up his glass of vodka from next to the board. “Every choice a leader makes is indeed a sacrifice.”
A dozen moves went by as Lee watched. His eyes were on the game, but his thoughts were in the other world.
Alexander frowned as he looked down at the pieces. “It seems you planned this game out.”
“Yes, I did,” Lee answered solemnly, moving his rook to checkmate Masha’s father.
Lee kept studying the board as if the game hadn’t ended. In his mind, there were no pieces. There was Satterfield, Kirshtein and the armies of General Brigid of Kildare, and he could see a thousand different ways in which each of them might perish.
But there is still much more to do, he told himself as he realized the price and scale of the wars to come.
-----
“That boy is drinking more than you these days,” Mary said as she stepped into Augustus’s room. Augustus had shifted to human form for his guest, but he still hadn’t stood up or taken his eyes off the monitors he was using to watch Lee.
“What can I say? He takes after his divine progenitor,” Augustus responded, taking a sip of his drink while watching Lee start a second game of chess.
“Does he?” Mary asked. She sat down at the table next to Augustus and said, “I seem to recall you reacting much more violently when--”
“Don’t!” Augustus yelled, his voice powerful and deep as if he were a raging lion.
The one word caused Mary to freeze, her body trembling in place as she dared not even breathe for a moment. “I’m sorry,” she said, quickly apologizing as soon as she had collected her senses. She was then quiet for a time before attempting to restart the conversation. “It was just hard watching what happened to that boy.”