“My appearance is all part of my plan,” I said. “You aren’t, so you have to go.”
“But ...”
I interrupted him. “Falcon, do you remember that you wanted me to play the Founder Player, Venus, in our Battle Arena event? Do you remember how I said I wanted to play a combat role instead? Do you remember how you twirled a sword around, said that girls were useless in fights, and I lost my temper?”
Falcon was looking wary now. “Yah, Jex.”
“Do you want me to lose my temper now?”
“No, Jex.”
I smiled. “Then you’ll do what you’re told, and leave quietly at the next transport stop. Please give my best wishes to everyone, particularly Gina. Tell them that I’m sorry I vanished a year ago, but I was in trouble and I didn’t want to get them in trouble too. I hope it will be safe for me to get in touch with them soon.”
A couple of minutes later, Falcon carried his equipment cases out of the door. “Now don’t forget to send me the replays, Jex.”
“I won’t,” I said.
Hawk waited until the carriage was moving at express speed again, and then gave a heartfelt groan.
“We should have told Falcon the truth about us trying to catch the Avalon bomber. If he knew I was Hawk the Unvanquished, then maybe he’d have believed me when I said no sensible fighter makes fancy flourishes with a knife when cutting someone’s throat.”
My neck was itching unmercifully again. I gripped the arms of my seat to keep my hands safely still. “Whatever you told Falcon, it wouldn’t have made the slightest difference. He has tunnel vision when it comes to public performances. We don’t exist as people. We are mere actors carrying out his orders.”
“Are you sure we can trust Falcon’s drug arrangement? I keep remembering that your instructor nearly gave someone an overdose.”
I sighed. “I hate to say this, but Falcon’s right when he says he never makes mistakes. He wasn’t just top of our class in medical training; he won a major medical scholarship, and was a far better doctor than our instructor. The maddening thing about it was that he never seemed to do any work.”
“I wish I could cut his throat instead of yours. What did you do to him when you lost your temper?”
I grinned. “Falcon was holding a sword while he was sneering at me, so I grabbed another sword, attacked him, defeated him in a duel, and threatened to cut his ears off unless he gave me a combat role. That’s why we ended up re-enacting both your semi-final and final fights in the Battle Arena.”
Hawk laughed. “How could you be friends with someone that dreadful?”
“Falcon was always a bit single minded, but things didn’t get really out of hand until he went along to a glitz crowd party when he was thirteen. He discovered their Game re-enactment events, and dragged a group of us into helping him stage an event himself. I’ve always pictured Falcon having a great future organizing festivals and events in Game.”
“If he does, then I’ll make sure to avoid everything he organizes.”
Hawk tapped at the screen on the wall next to him, and the image of a Unilaw droid appeared. The face of the adult controlling it was a woman with startlingly bright blue eyebrows.
“Surveillance, as before I’ll try to plant some spy eyes when we get to our destination,” said Hawk. “I’m sure the Reaper won’t just call us this time. He’ll come to meet us using a controlled droid. If we go through with acting out the staged murder, I’ll hopefully leave with the Reaper’s controlled droid, while Jex remains as the unconscious corpse.”
“Understood,” said the woman.
Hawk turned to look at me. “Jex, the Reaper may be watching the meeting point even after his droid leaves, so everything has to happen just as it would if you were really dead.”
He paused for a second. “Which would be what exactly?”
“The medical chip in my arm would send an alarm signal saying I’d been killed,” I said. “Medical would report my death, and then Unilaw controlled droids would respond and collect the body.”
Hawk nodded. “So Unilaw droids have to come and collect your body, after which they can ship you to the same facility as Nathan. They’d better have a medical team waiting there in case you need treating for after effects of the drug.”
“Michael would obviously be a suspect for his girlfriend’s murder,” I said. “Unilaw would be chasing after him, tracking his medical chip. I can see you’ve got a bar code on your left arm. Do you have a medical chip as well?”
“Fortunately, yes,” said Hawk. “We didn’t have either of those things four hundred years ago, but the doctors gave me a bar code and injected a medical chip into my arm when I defrosted. Unilaw controlled droids should start hunting me just the way they would a real murderer.”
“Understood,” repeated the woman.
“But what if they catch you?” I asked anxiously.
“I’m assuming the Reaper will have a way to prevent Unilaw from tracking my medical chip,” said Hawk. “After all, he’s been prepared for everything else so far.”
I hated the idea of Hawk heading off on his own under the orders of the Reaper, but I had to accept it. If I was supposed to be dead, then I couldn’t go with him. “You must be careful.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t be playing this part for long. The next thing the Reaper asks me to do will probably be far more drastic than just killing one girl, and then my act will fall apart. If we’re lucky, we’ll have the clues we need to catch him by then.”
I hoped we’d be lucky and catch the Reaper, but if we did then the hunt would be over, Hawk would go back into Game and I’d go back to my job in the body stacks. I felt a sharp stab of regret at the thought. Now Hawk had cleared my record, I’d enter Game myself a year from now. He’d suggested we could meet up then and ...
I stopped and gave myself a mental slap. I’d made my decision, and told Hawk that I couldn’t get involved with him. That was the right thing to do, the rational thing to do, and I mustn’t start wavering about it now. For a few short hours, Hawk had been Michael, just another kid like me. We’d briefly been on equal terms, with no age gap and no power differential, but once we were in Game there’d be a huge gulf between us again. I’d be a clueless newcomer, while Hawk was a living legend.
Hawk had finished talking to surveillance, and turned off the screen. Now he swivelled round in his chair to face me again.
“It’s strange really. The Game Techs keep watch over the players, and know everything about us. They create our worlds, police our behaviour, and record our triumphs and misdemeanours. Every Game Tech must know all about me, including every hideously embarrassing moment that I’d like to forget myself, but I know nothing about how they live. Game Techs appear to perform tasks with perfect, anonymous, professionalism, then vanish back to their own secret areas of Game.”
Hawk frowned. “Whatever goes on in their closed society, the original Game designers are likely to be hero worshipped and virtually untouchable. It won’t be enough for us to identify the Reaper. We’ll need to give the Game Techs absolute proof of his guilt.”
“Game Techs have bronze, silver, or gold insignia on their faces, depending on their status,” I said. “Players have bracelets. Bronze for newcomers, silver for those still on annual subscriptions, gold for those who’ve paid lifetime subscriptions, and diamond for Founder Players.”
“You’re thinking the original Game Techs might have diamond insignia?”
I nodded.
“I’ve never heard of anyone seeing a Game Tech with diamond insignia, but one of the original Game designers wouldn’t be sent to run trivial errands for players.”
Hawk took out his phone and dumped it on an empty seat. “We’d better leave our phones here. If the Reaper’s droid checked them, our whole background story would fall apart.”
I abandoned my phone too, and we sat in silence for the next couple of minutes. We’d be stopping soon, moving into an ordinary pod, and then meet
ing the Reaper and faking my death. These were the last few minutes of us being alone as two kids.
“Michael,” I said.
He looked up, startled by the tense sound of my voice, and brushed the tangled black hair out of his eyes.
I was probably burning bright red with embarrassment, especially with the fairer skin of my blonde disguise, but if I chickened out now then I’d always regret it. “We can’t have a relationship in Game, it would never work, but I would like a kiss.”
He looked uncertain. “This isn’t just charitable kindness to poor, unattractive Michael?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t offer kisses unless I genuinely want to kiss someone. Of course, you have to want it too.”
He grinned and his dark eyes seemed to light up with excitement. “I do,” he said. “I really do.”
We both stood up and moved towards each other. It was a clumsy kiss, but that somehow made it even more special. It told me that Michael wasn’t hiding behind his Hawk persona, but kissing me as his real self.
Chapter Sixteen
The meeting point turned out to be a dusty, featureless room. Someone had lived here once, you could see the marks where the bed had been, and there was a scattering of beads in one corner from a broken necklace. Everything else was gone now. All the furnishings had been ripped out from the rooms in this corridor, ready for a refurbishment in a few months’ time. Even the doors had been wrenched from some rooms. Ours still had one, but it was open, waiting for our visitor.
I stood inside the room, arms hugging myself for reassurance, using the body language of a frightened girl. I wasn’t acting; I was truly petrified at the idea of Falcon’s drug knocking me out. I hated the idea of being unconscious in this situation, totally helpless, unable to defend myself or even run, but Falcon was right that it would make me seem far more authentically dead. If the Reaper decided to test me with a kick or an extra prod with the knife, there’d be no betraying cry or movement.
Hawk was wandering restlessly round the room. “No instructions here. We wait.”
I knew that Hawk hadn’t just been searching for instructions from the Reaper, but also planting some of the spy eyes he’d brought with him. The surveillance team would be watching us now, but if anything went wrong then they had no one in range to help us. It was too big a risk to have Unilaw controlled droids lurking around what should be a deserted area.
“Michael,” I appealed hesitantly. “I don’t like this.”
He grabbed my arm, pulling me close, holding me his prisoner.
“We wait! Understand me, Emma?”
I gave a shaky nod. It shouldn’t be long now, I thought. Travelling in the express long-distance carriage had gained us a lot of time, but we’d had to divert off our route to collect Falcon, so we’d arrived with barely five minutes to spare.
There was a movement in the doorway. A droid was standing there, its markings showing it belonged to Game, but its bronze head had no facial display to show who was controlling it.
I instinctively tried to back away, but Hawk tightened his hold on my arm, yanking me back and forcing me to stand still. He’d said how unfit his body had been when it was frozen, complained about his lack of muscles, but his grip was still bruising me.
The droid approached us. I didn’t dare to speak, and Hawk just bowed his head respectfully.
“I am the Reaper,” said the droid. Its voice wasn’t computer generated, but it was being enhanced with deep, echoing tones that removed any hint of humanity.
The droid began to circle us, like a hunter circling his prey. Hawk turned on the spot to keep facing it, dragging me round with him, and I gave a terrified squeak of protest. He covered my mouth with one hand to silence me, while the other kept hold of my arm.
I had my eyes fixed on the droid. I couldn’t see any weapons, but I was sure it would have at least one. A gun, or more likely a bomb, to dispose of us if we were judged useless. The Reaper was only controlling the droid, he wasn’t physically present. He could blow up the droid and the two of us with it, and not be harmed himself.
“Are you ready to pay the price for your apprenticeship?” asked the droid.
“I’m ready, master,” said Hawk.
The droid was still circling us, and Hawk kept spinning me round to face it. I was feeling giddy from the motion when the droid finally stopped moving and Hawk stopped too.
“It is time,” said the droid.
Hawk laughed, loosening his grip on me for a moment, and I caught a glimpse of a terrifying smile on his face. I shivered, wondering if he was copying the smile of the Founder Player, Marcus. Hawk’s act was so convincing, that part of me wondered if this was genuine, if his mind had been stretched too thin by four hundred years of immortal glory and finally shattered.
Hawk drew his knife. I started shaking, and broke my mouth free from his hand. “Please. Michael. Don’t you love me? Don’t ...”
His hand smothered me again, and he forced me down to my knees. He was behind me now. I couldn’t see him, only the anonymous droid standing watching me.
“Of course I love you,” said Hawk. “That’s why I’m giving you this great honour, Emma. The honour of buying my apprenticeship to the Reaper.”
He pulled my head back against him, and his mouth came down to kiss my forehead gently. “I love you. Always.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the knife in his right hand as it flashed down to cut my throat.
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m all right on my own from here,” I said.
The Unilaw officer guiding me through the maze-like corridors of the United Law facility stopped, took a wary look at my face, and hastily hurried off rather than trying arguing with me.
It was just as well. My respect for adults in general, and the forces of the law in particular, had worn thin since the Avalon world crash, and I was barely controlling my anger. I’d just recovered consciousness on the medical table to find half a dozen Unilaw officers gathered round me, all busily removing the remains of the blood and fake skin. My clothes appeared to be undisturbed, but I still felt my privacy had been violated. They could have waited the extra few minutes until I was properly awake before messing around with me!
I continued down the corridor and pressed the doorbell at the side of Nathan’s apartment door. When he opened it, he gestured at my bloodstained clothes.
“Hawk does an impressive murder. When he cut your throat, there was blood spurting everywhere.”
I wasn’t interested in his spectator’s view of my death. I walked forward, and Nathan dodged aside to let me in.
“You were a good victim too,” he added. “You looked totally terrified.”
“That’s because I was totally terrified,” I said. “I was sure the Reaper’s droid was carrying a bomb. I thought that if we did anything to make the Reaper suspicious then he’d blow us up.”
The apartment living area looked very different to the last time I’d seen it. Most of the furniture had been shoved aside to leave a central space clear for a holo worldscape that included creepy stone buildings adorned with gargoyles, and ramshackle thatched cottages. I guessed it was Game world Gothic, and it confirmed my opinion that I’d never want to live there.
Three of the room walls were dotted with pieces of paper, several showing mysterious diagrams, but most just covered with notes in Nathan’s obsessively neat handwriting. I turned to the fourth wall, with its mosaic of screens, and my attention was caught by a screen showing an image of me and Michael in the dormitory. At this moment, when I was acutely aware of Hawk as a physically vulnerable human being rather than the glittering immortal Gamer, I could only think of him as Michael.
Nathan noticed me looking at the screen. “Would you like me to replay the murder for you?”
“No, I wouldn’t!” I snapped. “What’s happening? Where’s Michael?”
Nathan looked evasive. “Bit of a problem there. We don’t know.”
I turned to glar
e at him. “Why not? Unilaw should be tracking him by now.”
“Unilaw were ready to track his medical chip but ...”
“But?” I spat out the word.
“After Michael sacrificed you, the Reaper ordered him to cut the chip out of his arm.”
I stared at him. “Michael really did that?”
Nathan nodded. “I couldn’t watch. The murder was fake, your blood was fake, but Hawk cutting into his arm was real.”
I couldn’t help picturing Michael digging into his own flesh with a knife. Medical chips were injected deep into the muscle of your arm. Getting one in there was easy but cutting one out ... “Has Michael activated any of the spy eyes he’s carrying?”
“Not yet,” said Nathan. “He probably doesn’t think it’s safe.”
There was a long silence.
“Try not to worry,” said Nathan awkwardly. “I’m sure Hawk will be fine. Think of all the things he’s done in Game.”
“This isn’t Hawk!” I screamed at him. “This is Michael!” I found myself echoing Hawk’s favourite centuries old swear word. “This isn’t the bleeping Game, this is real life!”
Nathan cowered.
“I should have known this would happen,” I ranted. “I warned Michael that Unilaw would track his medical chip. He said the Reaper would have a plan to deal with that. I assumed the Reaper would have a way to disable the medical chip, not order Michael to ...”
I broke off, ran into the bedroom, blundered through it to the shower, and locked myself in.
“Your contraceptive treatment is still active,” the shower told me in a comforting female voice. “You should attend the medical centre for your hormone boost in preparation for egg harvesting and fertilization.”
I threw up. Fortunately showers are equipped to deal with that problem, especially showers designed to care for pregnant women.
I must have been in the shower for about a quarter of an hour, when I heard Nathan’s tentative voice calling from outside. “Are you all right in there, Jex?”
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