by Mark C. Wade
The shopkeep said, “What can I do you for?”
Jesus. They need to fix that wording.
Henry didn’t have enough money on this new character to buy anything, but he noticed a little gold coin icon near the price.
Henry clicked on it and was taken to a screen he’d never seen before. He could purchase in-game currency with real money. Even worse, he could purchase the items with his linked credit card without going through the in-game currency first.
Nausea boiled up in Henry’s stomach.
This was so ridiculously big. He understood everything now. Eburnean Passage, literally the whole game, was all a front to launder the drug money.
Nausea turned to pain, and Henry’s head pounded. The game world came back into view and swirled around him like it had been made of wet paint being stirred around a canister.
The shop music slowed and droned out. Something horrible was happening. The pain burned at Henry’s skin, and he tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
The world melted as Henry’s brain fried.
He couldn’t believe he didn’t check his VR gear, and now he would die before he could tell anyone what he’d found out.
∞∞∞
Henry came to in Quillen’s arms.
“What?” Henry mustered.
Quillen smiled and said, “I saved you. I followed you here because I didn’t trust whatever you were about to do. Good thing, too.”
“But how did you know how to diffuse the VR gear?”
Quillen laughed. “The whole police force has been trained to do it now. We weren’t taking any chances after what happened in the tournament.”
Henry said, “I can explain it all now. The Restin Corporation makes the drug and gives it to people like Zane to sell. The way Zane pays the Restin corporation back is to take the cash they get from selling the drug and using it to buy a bunch of in-game items.”
Quillen’s jaw dropped. He said, “It’s perfect. The items cost nothing to make. It’s just a bunch of bits stored on a server. But it looks like a legitimate business because real players are making the same types of purchases.”
Henry added, “Yes! There’s no reason for the IRS to suspect anything, but I bet Zane’s credit card history shows an exorbitant amount of money spent on Eburnean Passage. And if we find who has spent the most money on the game, we’ll probably have a good list of the drug dealers.”
Quillen kissed Henry. “I love you. Now let’s go take them down.”
Henry sat there stunned for a moment. No one had told him they loved him since Marie had left.
Quillen grabbed Henry’s hand and jerked him up. Henry tried to stammer the words back, but he sounded like an idiot.
“I…you, too.”
Quillen squinted at him. “What?”
“Never mind.”
They went out to the curb and took Quillen’s trooper car back to the station. Henry didn’t need to say it. They’d solved the case together, and they’d have many more.
There was no rush.
Epilogue
Zane’s credit card records came back and confirmed Henry’s suspicion. The court subpoenaed the Restin Corporation’s records, and one by one, each suspected drug dealer was brought in for questioning.
The case was open and shut once it got underway. The dealers talked, and they traced the corruption all the way to the top. The president of the Restin Corporation was sentenced to life in prison for more charges than Henry could even count.
Most other people got lighter sentences or fines, depending on the crimes and level of cooperation.
When it looked like the entire company would go under from the weight of the damages, a public outcry emerged, headed by Lukas and his army of podcast listeners.
The judge took this into consideration, a longtime Eburnean Passage player herself, and went easy on the company.
They had to pay the expenses to replace everyone’s VR gear with ones that did not drain people’s energy, a malicious technology they concocted in their internal labs.
Henry still didn’t understand how it worked, even though he listened to hours of expert testimony on the subject.
But it had to do with adjusting the framerate frequencies to directly act on the brain. He still shuddered when he thought about the damage they had done.
The original technique had been developed to reverse Alzheimer’s, so Henry couldn’t imagine how someone could turn that around for such evil purposes.
The stock for the Restin Corporation plummeted, but somehow, through it all, Eburnean Passage remained open. The game would be fine.
Needless to say, no one got the prize money. All the top players had violated the rules by taking drugs, and the Restin Corporation didn’t have that type of money after the settlements, anyway.
Henry ripped up his check from Nyissa.
He’d gotten something better than money; he’d gotten his life back.
∞∞∞
Henry wandered the conference room of the police department. He sipped at the bubbly champagne and nibbled on a piece of cake. All Henry wanted to do was go home and avoid this awkward small talk.
Only a few people had shown up to his party, and Henry didn’t blame them. He’d burned a lot of bridges when he left the last time. He blamed the ugly situation and breakup but also knew that couldn’t explain it all.
Henry looked at the blue frosting strung out along the cake in curvy letters:
Congratulations Henry Gallagher!
Quillen created a whole new department and made Henry the head of it. Henry couldn’t even remember the bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo of his title: Head Investigator of Cyber Crimes and Online Games Laundering…or something like that.
Quillen walked over and said, “I’m glad to have you on the team. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Henry smiled and said, “It’s good to be back.”
The small TV in the corner of the room had the news on quietly. Something drew Henry’s attention to it, and he walked over.
The two news anchors spoke about the Eburnean Passage case. Henry watched a replay of footage of the old president being escorted out of the courtroom, handcuffed, with his head hung low.
Then something new flashed on the screen.
Henry stopped breathing.
A man he knew well from his earlier days came onto the screen. He appeared to be at some large gathering and spoke into a microphone.
The man’s name was Romulus La Morte.
It was the man Henry suspected of kidnapping Marie, though he could never prove it.
There he stood, cleaned up in a fancy suit.
He announced his acceptance of becoming the new president of the Restin Corporation. This man would now oversee Eburnean Passage. Henry had a feeling he’d have to keep a close eye on the game for a long, long time.
Quillen had joined Henry at the screen and asked, “What’s wrong? You’re doing that thing where you furrow your brow.”
Henry said, “Nothing.”
He’d catch that monster doing something wrong and finally put him away for good. A fire lit in Henry’s stomach.
Henry repeated, “Nothing. I think we’re going to have some interesting cases together.”
Quillen took Henry’s hand and squeezed it.
“That might be your idea of fun, but I had something else in mind.”
Henry looked at Quillen’s dancing eyes. He was already in uniform.
Henry managed to get it out this time. “I love you, too.”
Quillen smiled, and they went home.
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About the Author
Mark has always been the oddball. He openly read romance novels in high school, and somehow never got mocked for it. His parents once told him to go to more parties, because all that reading couldn't be healthy for his social life.
Well, they were right. But he still found his HEA with his husband and Old English Sheepdog. They like to go on long walks in the Connecticut countryside or just hang out by the pond with a glass of wine.
Now he has his dream job, and he couldn't be happier to bring all of you the strange fantasies floating in his head.
For more information, visit:
www.MarkCWade.com
