“A hit and run?” I said, instantly thinking of Kincaid.
“He was leaving work. The police said it was a van or something,” she explained. Then I saw her eyes tear up. “Oh, Sam, I wish you weren’t here in this terrible place. I wish you were home. Your father needs you right now.”
“Mom,” I said, my heart breaking to hear what I already knew. “I can’t talk to you there. But I can talk to dad in game. Next time bring him along and tell him I said to get well.”
“Ok,” she whispered and reached for me. Her translucent hand went through my cheek as though I were a ghost. She pulled it back, eyes shimmering.
“I love you,” I told her.
“Love you too,” she said all choked up, and then turned and nodded to the doctor.
He closed his palm, and her hologram disappeared.
“Dr. Marks, what the hell happened to my dad? Was it Arthur Gains?”
“Arthur? What do you mean?” he asked.
“Come on, Doc. You must know that Kincaid is Arthur Gains’s Avatar.”
“I knew, but it is against company policy to divulge the real names of players.”
“Then you must know how dangerous he is. You must have heard the rumors.”
The doctor shook his head. “No, we haven’t gotten any complaints against Arthur. Except yours of course, but what happened to Anna happens all the time in game. It all gets sorted out eventually.”
“He must be stopping complaints from getting to the admins,” said Trinity.
“There’s a rumor that Kincaid tortured someone so badly in game that the person died in real life,” I said. “Do you know anything about that?”
“We are aware of the rumors,” he said.
“Look doc, Kincaid...Arthur Gains has it in for me and my guild. And now my father is in a hit and run. Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?”
“Sam, these are pretty serious allegations,” said the doctor. He crossed his arms beneath his brilliant white priest robes and his brow furled in thought.
“Yeah, well, your programmers might want to start looking into him before more people get hurt. People say that he can hack into any system, change anything in game that he wants. He is basically becoming a god, and if that happens, he’s going to ruin it all for everyone...including the shareholders.”
“I’ll look into it,” said the doctor.
“That’s it?” Ember said as she shook her chains. “He killed someone, and all you’re going to do is look into it?”
“If you really want to help, get us the hell out of here,” said Trinity.
“Please,” Kit added.
“I can’t do that. If developers like me start playing favorites in game, it is going to piss a lot of players off,” Dr. Marks insisted.
“If that pisses them off, imagine how they are going to feel when they find out that you did nothing to stop a murderer?” Trinity asked haughtily.
“Look,” said the doctor. “A lot of people get a little carried away in game. The environment is so realistic, so immersive that it can play tricks—”
“No, don’t even say it,” said Ember. “We aren’t all imagining things. This shit is really happening.”
“I said that I would look into it, and I will,” said Dr. Marks.
“Thanks,” said Kit with a feline grin.
“I want my body out of that corporate building,” I said. “I’m a sitting duck in the real world. If Arthur wanted to, he could get rid of me in a heartbeat.”
“Sam…” said the doctor, looking at me like I was a little bonkers. “No one is going to try to kill you.”
“Have you been listening?” Trinity asked.
“I believe that he has,” said Kit.
“Will you stop being so goddamn pleasant!” Trinity told her.
“Sorry,” Kit said. She bit her lip and forced a scowl directed in the doctor’s direction. “Answer the question, dirtbag! Is that better, Trin?”
Trinity shook her head and let out a long sigh.
“Look,” the doctor interrupted. “I’ve heard you all loud and clear, and I promise that I’ll get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, please do try and enjoy the game.”
With that he vanished, but so too did our chains.
Chapter 16
A portal opened where the Doctor had been standing, and the girls and I wasted no time to wonder. We rushed through the portal and stepped out onto a brightly patterned throw rug. I glanced around and smiled; we were in Ember’s hideout in the mountains.
“Ok, that was cool,” said Kit.
“Looks like the Doctor knows how to break the rules after all,” said Ember. She plopped down on one of the many plush chairs and let out a sigh. “Now what?”
Trinity and I joined her in the sitting room, but Kit walked over to the bar and popped the top on one of the dozens of bottles of elderberry wine.
“Oh, god, I needed that,” she said as she came and sat down with bottle in hand.
“Alright,” said Trinity. She accepted the bottle from Kit and took a swig. “I’ve got an idea. It’s a crazy idea, but I think it is the best option, given the danger to Sam.”
“Let’s hear it,” I said.
She offered me the bottle with a meek smile. “I think that we need to go and get you out of the corporate building…in the real world.”
“What?” I said, nearly spitting out the wine.
“I live in San Francisco, and I know where the corporate building is.” she told the other two girls. “Where do you two live?”
“San Diego,” said Ember, “But I’m...I don’t think I could make it there.”
“I can!” Kit said with delight. “I live in Tokyo. I could make the flight in 8 hours I think.”
“Wait a minute, this is crazy,” I said. “Aside from the danger to you three if Arthur Gains catches you, I’m kinda hard wired into the network. If my body leaves that facility, I leave the game.”
“Yeah, but you’d be safe,” said Trinity.
“And it would give the doctor time to investigate,” said Kit.
“No,” I said. “I’m helpless in the real world, and... I don’t want you to see me like that. Besides, in here at least I can do something. In here I can fight back.”
“Sam,” said Ember softly. She placed a dark hand on mine. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed about how you look in the real world.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said, and pulled my hand out from under hers. “I need to do this. That fucker went after my dad, I just know it, and I plan on getting my revenge. Kidnapping my woman in game was one thing, stealing my gold was another, but going after people I love in the real world...he’s crossed a line.”
“You’re sooo sexy when you’re angry,” said Kit, but I ignored her.
“I’m taking Kincaid down once and for all. No more screwing around. But I can’t do it alone. I need my badass bitches. I need my guild.”
“I’m with you!” Kit exclaimed with a delightful little purr-laugh and leapt to her feet.
“You’re the guild leader,” said Trinity as she too stood before me.
“You had me at ‘I need my badass bitches’,” Ember said, standing as well.
I got out of my chair and opened my arms wide and brought them all in for a group hug.
“Thank you,” I said as I held them tight.
“Don’t worry, Big Daddy,” Kit said as she kneaded my chest softly with her claws partially extended. “We’ll get Anna back.”
“Big Daddy?” I glanced down at her.
She smiled up at me and winked.
Trinity and Ember laughed, and the three of them pulled me down onto the nearest couch in a fit of giggles. Kit began kissing me, while Trinity and Ember both bit a side of my robe and began to pull it open. I would have loved to just forget my worries and spend a lazy afternoon having sex with my three badass bitches, but we wouldn’t level because of it until the cooldown wore off, and right then we needed to focus on the proble
m at hand.
“Sorry ladies,” I said as I gently extracted them from my nether regions. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Alright, Daddio,” said Ember as she tied her blouse back up. “What’s the game plan?”
I stood and straightened my robes, wondering exactly what it was that we should do now. The girls thought that Cecilia was suspicious, and I might be a dumbass, and maybe sleeping with her had made me jaded, but I just didn’t think that she would stab me in the back. As far as her butler trying to keep us there, well, he was just doing his job, and we had been safe there.
That is, unless Cecilia did plan on selling us out, in which case, my babes might have saved my life.
I still thought that it was possible that Cecilia had dealings with Kincaid. It fit her MO as a social butterfly who dealt in secrets. But I felt that I could bring her to my side. Something about her told me that when push came to shove, she would back me instead of Kincaid, because she knew deep down that he wasn’t good for the game.
He wasn’t good for anybody.
One thing I was sure about, however, was that it had been Kincaid who had my father run over, and I was going to put the sonofabitch down.
“Sam?” said Kit.
“Huh? Oh, right. The plan. We go ahead with Cecilia’s plan. I’ve got the GoPwn, I know how to use it. Now we need to get a hold of that dude—”
“Tweak!” said Kit.
“Yes, Tweak, thanks Kit. We get ahold of him and we get him to hack into the system and bring Kincaid’s confession to the world.”
“Sounds legit,” said Ember. “But how do we find Kincaid’s hideout?”
“We don’t,” I said, and tapped the ruby pendant. “We get him to come to us.”
“Ahhh,” said Kit.
“So, first things first,” I said clapping my hands together. “We need to find Tweak. Anyone know where the dude lives?”
The girls exchanged blank glances.
“Shit.”
“If Cecilia knows him, then he must frequent Aeorock,” said Trinity.
“She seems like she knows a lot of players, in and out of the city,” Ember countered.
“It’s a start,” I said.
Kit twirled her staff and struck a fighting pose. “And if we run into Kincaid and his goons. What then?”
“She’s got a point,” said Trinity. “He did blow up a friggin pub to make a point. I don’t think he cares that the dwarf city is supposed to be neutral ground.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I told them all and withdrew my heartstone from my robe pockets. “Let’s get buffed up and find tweak. I’m done running from Kincaid. Someone has to stand up to that prick. And if one does, then maybe they all will.”
We stepped through our portals into Aeorock ten minutes later and found ourselves near the front doors that were still under repair from the mountain troll attack. I led the girls to the wand shop that the minotaur had brought me to the day before, and enquired with the owner, a real-world player, about Tweak.
“I’ve never heard of him,” said the goblin, and we moved on down the street.
We stopped at an eatery and asked around there as well, but no one seemed to know the guy. A lot of them had begun to give me strange glances, and I felt a tingle stalk its way up my spine. Any one of them could have been communicating our location to Kincaid just then, and everyone knew it. They knew who we were, somehow, and they knew that Kincaid was after us.
I grew tired of the looks and their disregard of our questions and climbed up onto a table.
“Hey! Sorry to bother you all, but does anyone here know a dude named Tweak?”
Half the crowd turned their backs to me like quivering little bitches, and another quarter of the establishment seemed shocked that I would make a scene in public. They glanced around as if waiting for Kincaid to swoop down on a puff of smoke and smite them all.
“Fine, you bunch of cowards,” I said to the room. “If you see Kincaid, tell him I’m coming for him.”
“You there!” came a voice out on the street.
I turned around and found five NPC guards from Riverton with two dwarven guards from Aeorock.
“That’s our cue bitches!” said Ember. “Run!”
She threw something to the floor, and a moment later the entire establishment filled with thick fog. I felt a hand grab my wrist, and Ember pulled me along through the place and out into the street. When we emerged from the fog I noticed that everyone was accounted for and urged them all to follow me deeper into the city.
But as I turned to hightail it out of there, I ran right into a level 20 dwarven guard.
“Halt there laddie,” he said as he pointed a long halberd at my unarmored chest. “Ye be wanted in Riverton, and ye been spotted by their men. Ye just stay right where ye—”
Trinity’s armored fist suddenly came out of nowhere and took the dwarf right in the jaw. He staggered back and Kit leapt on his chest, cast a spell that sent writhing vines shooting out of her hands, and then leapt off of him in a backflip as the vines wound around his body.
He hit the floor and began to tear the vines apart, and Ember yelled at us to go.
“Halt!” yelled the Riverton guards from less than thirty feet away.
I led the girls into a blacksmith’s shop, between the big anvils, past the heavily stoked fires, and back out into the street. We filed back into the crowd and crossed the street, then hopped into another shop and reversed direction when we came out.
I thought we were home free as we turned the corner into an alley, and that’s when I came face to face with Kincaid.
“Long time no see,” he said from behind the low drawn hood.
I didn’t even have time to think of a spell before he hit me with one of his own. It wasn’t a fireball, and it wasn’t arcane lightning, it was something much, much worse. Red hot chains erupted from his palms. The ends were like spearheads, and they punched their way right through my chest, instantly dropping me to 20% health. I tried to think of a counter, but Kincaid laughed and yanked on the chains, pulling me into the wall beside him before I could react.
Then I released a Magic Bolt that caught him in the chest and knocked him back, but a web of magical energy bloomed from the impact, signaling that his armor had absorbed most of the blow. Kit suddenly leapt on his back and stabbed him with a dagger, but the blade only bent against his armor. Trinity swung her sword in a blur of motion, striking him in the hip, but it glanced off his robes as well and did little damage. I blasted Kincaid with a fireball that erupted right in his face and received another crash into the wall for my efforts. I saw Kit go flying down the alley, then Trinity cried out and fell beside me. Lastly Ember appeared directly behind Kincaid, screamed, and thrust a dagger into his armor, through his body, and out of his chest.
This time Kincaid cried out in pain, and Ember staggered. She looked to have used all her mana, and I tried to warn her as Kincaid cocked back and bitch slapped her. The blow took her off her feet and spun her through the air.
Anger surged in me like a tempest as Kincaid yanked the dagger from his back. I summoned magic bolt with the last of my strength, and ignoring the warning flashing on my interface, I released the spell right into the hole in his chest.
A low woof sounded in his body cavity, his eyes lit up with electric light, and he offered me a look that suggested he had eaten bad shellfish as he staggered back. A crowd had gathered by then, and they watched in awe as I pulled myself to my feet and downed a healing potion, then chased it with a mana potion and smashed both empty bottles on the floor. I hit Kincaid with a fireball that exploded against his wounded chest, then my arcane lightning shattered the healing potion that he’d brought to his lips.
He tried to summon a spell in his right hand, but I bum rushed him and drove him to the ground. I laid into him with hammer fists that cracked his nose and bloodied his teeth, then I pulled my short sword from its sheath and raised it high over my head.
“Kincaid isn’
t invincible!” I roared loud for all to hear.
Before I could strike, Kincaid suddenly became opaque and disappeared, and I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I realized that I had been fighting a body double.
A heartbeat later I was tackled by five Riverton guards.
The guards pounded on me until my health was down to 5%, and then hauled me to my feet. The crowd murmured as the guards paraded me past, and I searched through swollen, black and blue eyes for my girls.
Then I saw them in the alley, and they were encapsulated in a crackling energy dome. Kincaid stood behind them and grinned at me.
“He’s right there!” I yelled and tried to point despite my shackled wrists. “Kincaid is over there!”
“Shut up!” said one of the guards and backhanded me.
As I reeled from the blow I saw the girls just kind of shrink and disappear into an amulet around Kincaid’s neck, and a heartbeat later he was gone.
Chapter 17
“You’ve got the wrong guy,” I told the guards, but the stupid NPCs just ignored me.
They had dragged me through a portal that led right to the Riverton jailhouse. I tried to fight the two men as they pulled me down the hall, but in my weakened state I could hardly stand, let alone escape. To my dismay, I was thrown into the cell that I had escaped from less than a week earlier.
“I want to talk to a goddamned real human!” I demanded, but they ignored me. Then I got an idea. “Hey! I need my doctor. I have a medical condition, and you cannot deny me an emergency lifeline!”
The guards had been walking away, but my true proclamation was like a plea for a parlay to the NPCs.
“Your doctor has been informed,” said one of them, and they both returned to the jailhouse proper.
I paced the cell waiting for the doctor. The guards had taken everything and replaced my robes with jailhouse burlap with a click of the interface, and I had hardly noticed. Five minutes went by, and still no doctor.
“Hey, I’m dying in here!” I yelled through the buzzing bars, but no answer came.
My mind was racing with terrible possibilities. What was Kincaid doing with the girls? Where had he taken them? Were they in pain? Were they in danger?
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