The Seventh Glitch

by Ronel van Tonder

  His thoughts weren’t his own and now—

  “Calm down,” the wizard said. The hand on William’s shoulder tightened. “I’m sorting through the… mess. Just… give me a moment, then I’ll be done with you. What you’re experiencing is completely normal. Nothing to… worry about.”

  It shouldn’t have, but the voice calmed him.

  “Where is Lucy?”

  Lucy: snapping out orders to Kitty. Lucy: stuck in the grass. Lucy: in the blue room. Lucy—

  “What codes?” the wizard dug his fingers into William’s shoulder. “Recall the codes to me.”

  And he did. He could see Lucy’s mouth move as every syllable of the two codes he’d given Kitty were repeated in a high-definition, pixel perfect recording in his mind.

  The wizard snapped his fingers again, striding away from William and tapping a long fingernail against the two-way mirror.

  “You see… what I see?” the wizard demanded in a soft hiss. There was no response from what William could hear, but the wizard gave his head a violent nod, the tip of his pointy hat knocking against the glass. “I know you didn’t think… it was possible.”

  The wizard raised an admonitory finger. “But I told you, didn’t I? I told you… that, that I could—” he fell silent, his arm sinking to the side. “Yes, we must tell them. Yes… I know.”

  The guy turned to face William again. He stared at him until William began shifting in the chair, and then he smiled. Widely, warmly. His eyes crinkled up at the edges as he slid his hands behind his back and took two slow steps toward William.

  “Do you know… what you’ve done, player?”

  Had the wizard frozen him again? Because he was suddenly just as immobile as before.

  “You’ve delivered him right to us.” The wizard lifted a hand and curled his fingers into a fist. “He’s ours now. Mine.”

  The guy stopped, bending down in front of William and laying his hands on William’s knees. It seemed impossible, but his smile lifted higher until his eyes gleamed with manic fervour.

  “Your stats… they are commendable, player. If not for our zero-tolerance policy on… pirates.” The wizard shrugged. “You could have been an asset.” The man’s eyes focused on something past William’s shoulder, his face slackening. “Perhaps you still are. Surely… your partner will search for you. But will this Lucy? A too-perfect trap—” the wizard rose to his feet, eyes snapping away to the mirror.

  “Fitzpatrick must know.” The wizard left the room, the door closing softly behind him.

  William stared after the wizard. A coldness seeped into him that made his teeth want to chatter. Seconds later, a soft coughing noise filtered through the doorway. Random bursts of gunfire, perhaps no more than a few metres away, made him shoot to his feet. He ran to the door and jerked at the handle a few times, but it was obviously access controlled.

  “Hey!” He went up to the mirror, trying to peer through it. “What’s going on?”

  More bursts of gunfire filled the air. War had spilled into the building. Muffled shouts reached him. William pressed his ear to the door, feeling idiotic for the gesture, but unable to stop himself.

  There was a moment of deep silence.

  An explosion threw William off his feet.

  He landed on his side, his avatar unresponsive: vision blurred and sounds damped down. He was just starting to regain control when the door to his room was thrown open.

  A soldier swung inside, hand still gripping the door handle. William reared back in shock, his eyes latching on the seared flesh where the guy’s left half of his body used to be.

  Smoke and dust piled into the room and with it an uneasy quiet.

  “What the fuck?” William said.

  “It’s okay, sir.” The soldier groaned.

  William recognised the voice as one of the kids Kitty had brought with them into Bang-Bang: Brad. The player released the handle, splatting down into a puddle of his own blood. He made a valiant attempt to reach William, but collapsed halfway.

  William dragged himself closer and turned the kid over. Brad’s eyes fluttered.

  “Hang in there, kid. Do you have a med-pack—”

  “It’s okay, sir,” the kid repeated hoarsely. Wheezing a few times, Brad shook his head, struggling to keep his eyes open.

  “I still… I still got two lives, sir,” the kid said, and died.

  William slammed his way out of the room, skidding to a halt in the devastation of the corridor outside. Across the hall, his eyes latched onto two soldiers. Kitty and Lucy, their names superimposed on top of each other.

  Which made it impossible to tell which of them was busy cradling the other’s dying avatar in their lap.

  . . .

  Serious Sam went to crouch against the wall, staring into his hands while Lucy glared at him. Kitty’s hands tightened around her rifle.

  She could take Lucy out.

  Right here, right now.

  He was so fixated on Serious Sam that he wouldn’t even know it until the bullet was in his avatar’s brain. But then what? Then she would have alerted the entire HQ to their presence, and whether or not she liked to admit it, Lucy had a point: she was a pirate. They weren’t going to welcome her with open arms. Not even if she…

  Not even if she handed over a hacker?

  Her rifle slid down. She could give them Lucy. Then they would have to let her and William leave, right? She’d be a hero, not a thief. Whatever he’d been going to do, whatever damage he’d been about to cause, she would have prevented it. She would save General Gaming millions or billions or however much money and time and so they’d have to—

  “You got her in, didn’t you?” Lucy asked.

  Sam lifted his head, blinking in surprise. “What?”

  “I made it crystal clear that she wasn’t going to be a part of this, but you got her in anyway.”

  The player hunched against the wall, lifting a hand toward Lucy.

  “Jason, I—”

  “Were you screwing her?”

  “You can’t—”

  “I knew she was seeing someone from the Party, but she wouldn’t tell me who. Was it you? She came to you, asked for your help, and you suggested a trade, didn’t you?”

  Kitty watched the exchange with growing unease. Lucy’s avatar was rigged, his hands in fists around the grip of his gun. Sam, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to dissolve into the wall.

  “It was her idea.” Sam shook his head. “I-I didn’t want to help, but she was… your sister can be pretty damned persuasive when she wants.”

  Lucy lifted his chin, but his shoulders sagged as he stared down at Sam. The man ducked his head and gave it another unsteady shake.

  “I told her, man. I told her this could be a one-way ticket kind of deal, but she didn’t care. She said she wanted to be here. She wanted to be part of it. It was history, she said. History in the making or some shit. Why the hell would I stop her, if she was being so fucking persistent?”

  “So that’s why you bullshitted your way in here. So you could get her in as your secondary.” Lucy stepped closer. “She’s sixteen, Sam. You know that? Are you even fucking aware how young she is?”

  Sam gave a deformed shrug, his eyes shying away from Lucy’s the instant they met.

  “Hey, Lucy?” Kitty said. “Keep it down.”

  Lucy showed her his palm without taking his eyes away from Sam.

  “You realise you got a sixteen year old girl into a game that was going to be compromised from the inside?” He wasn’t even pretending to whisper anymore. Lucy tapped a finger against his temple, dropping into a crouch in front of Sam. “You must be some kind of fucked up. Look at me, you piece of shit.”

  Sam lifted his head, but it wobbled on an unsteady neck.

  “Quiet,” Kitty said.

  “Shut it.” Lucy snapped the words out over his shoulder, a livid gleam in his black eyes.

  “I knew, man,” Sam said. “But she’s her own person. She lives he
r own life, you know? So why you got to go and control her all the time like that?”

  “Control her?” Lucy dipped his head trying to catch Sam’s eye but the man stared at his hands without looking up. “I’m protecting her. She’d have been arrested more times than I can count if it wasn’t for me. She can get herself into trouble by stepping out of the house on a Sunday morning to go buy smokes. And yet you still thought it was a good idea to nominate her. To nominate her and make sure she gets in.”

  Sam shrugged again, but his stance wasn’t as rigid as it had been. He was relaxing against the wall now, his hands flopping over his knees. Kitty tightened her grip on the rifle and shot Brad a quick look. The kid’s eyes were wide. He had his rifle raised to his chest, his wheezing louder than before.

  “I said I’d get her in, man. And I keep my promises.”

  “You could have said no.”

  Sam looked up. “She was too good a fuck for me to say no.”

  Kitty was already surging forward when Lucy pulled back his arm. She grabbed his elbow, but all that did was draw her forward when Lucy punched Sam in the face. Brad was beside her a second later, both of them heaving back a struggling Lucy.

  Sam chuckled, pushing himself up from the wall. Outside, a door was flung open. Two pairs of footsteps hurried past their closed door. Lucy tore his arms free from Kitty’s grip, pushing at Brad until the kid released him.

  Then his rifle was in his hands and he was pointing it at Sam’s head. Sam laughed again, louder this time.

  “Can’t shoot me, Lucy. Else you’ll have to deploy that payload yourself. Remember?”

  Lucy jerked his gun to the side, his chest rising and falling as he stared at Sam. Then he shoved Brad aside and stepped out of the interrogation room.

  “Get your fucking William.” Lucy spun around and stabbed a finger at Kitty. “We’re leaving.”

  Kitty scuttled out of the room. She glanced around, giving Lucy a last look before turning back to interrogation room five. Just in time to see Sam charge out of the room with a chair held above his head.

  “Lucy!” Kitty’s voice rebounded from the walls, sounding too shrill and way too loud in the empty chamber.

  Lucy turned, his hands lifting to catch the chair before it brained him. He went down and his grip on the chair dragged Sam with him.

  A distant doorway slammed open.

  The sound of boots tramping on concrete rushed closer.

  “Reinforcements incoming, sir,” Brad called out.

  The kid appeared beside Kitty, moving forward in a half-crouch with his rifle at his shoulder and his eyes trained through the site. A soldier materialised from around the corner. His body jerked as a bullet tore through his head.

  Kitty slapped a hand over her mouth, stilling what would have been another girlish scream.

  More shouts echoed down the hallway.

  A thunder of footsteps drummed their way closer.

  Lucy had Sam by the throat and was slamming his fist into the man’s face, oblivious to the approaching horde of soldiers. Kitty lifted her rifle, pressed her lips into a line, and followed Brad with forced determination. She spared the two wrestling men a scornful glare as she passed.

  Another solider appeared around the corner. She pulled the trigger. Her bullet took him in the stomach. The player folded over, body tumbling away as two soldiers shoved past him.

  Brad’s next bullets tore into the men with a short rat-a-tat that she could feel in her bones. She went into a crouch, breathing out an unsteady breath as she moved her crosshair to what she guessed was head height. Another two soldiers appeared from around the corner, a third arriving an instant later, also crouched.

  The kid took out all three before Kitty could pull the trigger.

  “Shit,” she hissed.

  Her heart was thundering in her chest, an uncomfortable stinging worming its way across her skin. Was it The Game, or something else? She didn’t have time to consider the possibilities: more soldiers jostled each other aside in their race to be murdered by Brad’s bullets.

  “Uh Lucy, sir?” Brad called out. “Ammo running low, sir.”

  Kitty tore her eyes away from the corner, hissing when she saw the two men were still rolling around in the hallway behind them.

  “Here!” Kitty called out, chucking her gun at Brad. The kid’s eyes opened in surprise and he fumbled with her rifle, barely catching it before it struck the ground. “Sorry.”

  Brad spun around and managed to take down two of the four soldiers that cannoned around the corner next. But the two he’d missed surged forward, rifles raised and taking aim, before he could turn his attention on them.

  Kitty dove to her belly, grabbing Brad’s gun where he’d dropped it.

  She lifted it and fired, remaining on her stomach as bullets tore through the air above her. Brad grunted and his shoulder jerked back as one of the soldiers scored a hit.

  “Lucy, you fucking piece of shit excuse for a hacker,” Kitty yelled. “We’re going to die if you don’t—”

  “If I don’t what?” Lucy asked, dropping down beside her.

  Kitty shot a glance over her shoulder, tearing her gaze away from Sam’s wrecked face. He'd been propped against the wall with his head lolling to his chest.

  “You killed him?”

  “Nope.” Lucy took aim through his rifle’s scope. “Can’t do that. But he ain’t getting up for at least five minutes. Long enough for us to deal with this ruckus you caused.”

  “Me? I didn’t—”

  Lucy’s rifle interrupted her. Soldiers began dropping before they could fully emerge, the massacre stopping up the hallway ahead with a pile of corpses.

  “Ammo almost gone, sir,” Brad called out in a strained wheeze.

  “Fall back,” Lucy said.

  “Containing the threat, sir.”

  “I said fall back, kid!”

  “Still got—” Brad paused to draw a whistling breath “—three lives, sir.”

  “I don’t care if you have fifty fucking lives. You fall back when I say you fall back!”

  “Sir, yes sir,” Brad wheezed, but he didn’t move.

  “Fuck it, Brad!” Lucy scrambled up, jostling her arm as she tried to take aim at a soldier before he got shot down. She still had three bullets left, but maybe conserving them was wise. Especially if she’d just be putting more lead into a corpse. That was wastage.

  Lucy grabbed hold of Brad’s sleeve and began dragging the player back, his rifle over the kid’s shoulder as he gunned down soldiers ahead. Brad withdrew reluctantly, but gave Lucy a quick grin over his shoulder and stuck out his left hand, letting a key card dangle from his fingers.

  “Got a… passkey… from one of them… sir.”

  “Good job,” Lucy said. He gave Brad a sharp tug, forcing the kid behind him as he flattened himself against the wall. “Pull yourself together and then go get William out of that room while we clean up out here, will you? I think they’ve run out of NPC’s to send our way.”

  Indeed there had been a very brief lull in the masses turning themselves in for computer-generated death. Brad sank down opposite them, gripping his legs as he tried to control his wheezing. Lucy glanced at her, face fixed with grim concentration.

  “Ammo?” he asked.

  “Three,” she said.

  “Three magazines?” Lucy gave her a frown. “Then why the fuck aren’t you shooting at them?”

  “No, man. Three bullets.”

  Lucy’s eyes flicked up to the ceiling. “Then you say three rounds, not—” his attention diverted away from her as two new soldiers arrived. These were different. They had rocket launchers, for one. Brad scrambled up, but Lucy threw him a glare, and the kid gave a lopsided salute before staggering away down the hall to fetch William.

  A grenade replaced Lucy’s rifle.

  “Get down!”

  Lucy rose to his full height and ran forward, grenade held at his side ready for an underhand throw in the direction of the soldie
rs taking aim with their business-sized rocket launchers.

  Kitty heard a noise beside her, too close to be the retreating Brad. She twisted around, mouth opening for a shout that never came. Sam, bloodied avatar on his knees, slammed his fist into her face. Her avatar spun away from the force of the blow, coming to a halt against the wall. She watched, avatar unresponsive as it recovered, while Sam lifted her rifle and took aim.

  His shot took Lucy in the neck.

  Lucy swung back a step, his free hand reaching up to his throat. Something squeezed at Kitty’s heart, wrapping her chest in bands of iron. Lucy took another step back and sank to one knee, the hand holding the grenade dangling at his side. There was another resounding crack of gunfire, and one of the soldiers toppled over backward.

  He turned to her, one hand clutching his throat, the other still clinging to the grenade, eyes blinking emphatically as he sagged back on his heels.

  “Lucy!” Kitty reached him. She grabbed hold of him before he could topple to the floor. “Your med-packs. You need to—” A sob cut off her words.

  A last crack of gunfire rang out. She heard the sound of a body slumping down behind her.

  Lucy’s hand fell away from his throat. The blood that poured over his neck stained his uniform. He went limp in her arms. Kitty bent over him and held him against her as she clutched at his avatar. Lucy’s eyelids fluttered, but didn’t open.

  “I’ll respawn,” he whispered. “Don’t tell anyone that—”

  Lucy’s hand flopped down, and something clinked to the floor, the sound of its metal case rattling against the concrete clearly audible over the sudden silence.

  Kitty stared at the small container with frozen horror. Then her gaze lifted to Sam, metres away, his eyes wide. Kitty growled and vaulted herself over Lucy’s avatar, her foot flashing out to kick the grenade before it could come to rest.

  She spun around, scooped up Lucy, and slammed her shoulder into the first interrogation room’s door.

  An explosion rang out.

  The ground disappeared beneath her, returning seconds later with a vengeance that snapped both her avatar’s legs. She lost her grip on Lucy, ears singing as his body was ripped away from her. A deep, all-encompassing terror tore free inside her as she tried to stand and couldn’t.