“It must be serious if it’s affecting the quantum algorithms,” Spence said, finally understanding how important this was. “You have any idea who this player is?”
“Not yet,” Sanjara lied. She couldn’t be sure but she had her suspicions. The organization involved and the way they covered their tracks suggested it was John Taggart, the rogue operative the Bureau were trying to track down. They had suspected that he would be in need of funds to finance a new life, and raising cash through an online game like EWO would be ideal and reduce the risk of him having to move about in the real world. Online he could move like a ghost, and the kind of planning needed to get all the criminal factions to work together had his hallmark all over it. That was why he had been so good at his job. He planned, organized and directed things from the shadows without getting caught.
Unfortunately for him, this strange anomaly in the game had attracted the attention of Bureau investigators. And now, after eight years since she had been recruited, she had been activated to find out whether John was active on EWO. As someone on the inside of the organization, she had a better chance of chasing up the lead without alerting other hostile parties to John’s possible location. They had pulled strings from above to ensure she was now placed to take things further.
Spence gazed at the information for a little while longer and then an expression of abject boredom spread over his face. Spence lost interest in things very quickly; it was a character trait Sanjara found useful.
“Well that’s very interesting, but who really cares,” he said offhandedly. “We either have psycho gamers or sleazy business people on here. This player is just one of many.”
“The people upstairs care,” Sanjara said. “They want me to go into the game and do some digging on this mystery player.”
“What? You’re going in-game?”
“Sure. There is a group of Holy Seal players who are going to try and hunt down one of these salvage gangs as part of one of these new side quests. They’re looking for players to join them, so I’m going to team up with them and see if I can get closer to the heart of the operation. I might be away for a couple of weeks while I conduct my investigation. I’m going to have to ask you to cover my work while I’m gone.”
“That’s no fair!” Spence said. “Can’t I go too?”
Sanjara shook her head and smiled at him. “Sorry. Upstairs just want me in there. We don’t want to spook this player if too many people start running around in EWO asking questions.”
Spence folded his arms and huffed. “It’s still not fair.”
“Sorry buddy,” Sanjara said. “I’ll take you out for a meal today to make up for it.”
“Nah, it doesn’t matter,” Spence sighed. “I’ll take it like a man. I am the greatest admin that ever lived after all.”
“And the most modest,” laughed Sanjara. “You’re not too cut up about being left behind, are you?”
“I’ll learn to live with the injustice,” Spence said. “Wait a minute, you can’t go in anyway. I just thought of something.”
“What’s that?”
“You can’t log in and just go straight into a quest. Your stats won’t be high enough,” Spence said with a certain amount of smugness. “You wouldn’t last five minutes outside the training zones, and you’ll be no use to the Holy Seal players. You can’t go.”
“That would be true if I was starting at level one, Spence, but I already have a character active in EWO,” Sanjara replied.
Spence looked at her in surprise. “You do? I didn’t know that.”
“Sure. I set it up a little while before I joined Lionheart,” she said. She didn’t add that it had been part of her infiltration training to scope out EWO before joining the company. “I got into it for quite a while actually before I got bored. I haven’t been in the game for ages.”
“What did you play out?” asked Spence.
“I was a Holy Priest,” Sanjara replied. “If I remember correctly, I got to about level eighty five. That should be enough to let me hold my own in there, and that group I mentioned will welcome a healer into their ranks, I’m sure of it.”
Spence looked a little disappointed, but nodded. “Okay, looks like you’re going to get a free vacation. You don’t know how lucky you are.”
“No,” Sanjara said as she thought about what she might have to do if she did find John. “I don’t.”
* * *
Later that evening, when Sanjara was at home in her apartment, she accessed her special Bureau issued SyLVR collar and logged into EWO. It felt strange to be accessing the site as a player rather than overseeing things in the role of admin, and she felt a sense of trepidation mixed with excitement. She remembered those first heady days of fighting and adventuring as a Holy Seal Priest, and how she enjoyed the fact that she could heal players as well as cause them damage and support her team mates in some of the epic clashes that occurred on the battlefield. She had also played a large part in settling disputes between the Enlightened and Seven Paths factions and negotiating trade deals within the Holy Seal faction itself. It elevated the game above the simple hack and slash element, and she began to feel that she was part of something bigger, a force for right and justice. As her avatar entered the game and she spawned at her last save point, that sense of purpose came rushing back to her.
She appeared in a little farmstead just outside Tumult Gate, a smaller Holy Seal city on the frontier to the Eternal Battlefield. She looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing a grey robe and stout leather boots and had a traveling bag slung over one shoulder. Memories slowly began to resurface of what gear she’d had when she was last on here and what her stats were, and she touched the back of her neck to call up her character screen.
Character Information
Character Stats
Currently Equipped
Inventory: 17/60 Items
Faction: Holy Seal
Class: Holy Priest
Guild: The Fellowship of the Dove
Primary Profession: Healer
Passive 20% Increase in Healing Done When Only 25% of Allies Remain
Chance of 10% Increase in Mana Regeneration After Every Fifth Heal Cast
Current LVL: 85
Health: 5080/5080
Mana: 2990/2990
Speed: 1200/1200
Attack: 4469/4469
Defense: 3455/3455
Charisma: 1568/1568
Weapon Skills: 4079/4079
Buff: 87%
Chest: Healers Robe (offers constant 8% health boost when worn)
Bracers: NONE
Legs: LVL 40 Wool leggings
Boots: LVL 65 Leather Walking Boots
Cloak: NONE
Neck: NONE
Main-Hand Weapon: NONE
Off-Hand Weapon: NONE
Ale x 8
Health Potion x 4
Mutton x 3
Scroll of Holy Fire
Potion of Divine Healing
She scanned through her stats, familiarizing herself with the details. When she knew she was not going to be able to play as much as she had in the past after going full time as an admin, she had given away most of her equipment to her other guild mates and sold other random bits and pieces for platinum. She hadn’t thought she would ever need to come on again, so she would have to restock on gear before she could begin her investigations. It was a clumsy oversight on her part, but it was something she could easily handle. There were a number of good vendors in the city of Tumult Gate. After that, she would source the group of players already gathering in the city that were planning to go on the quest to take down the salvagers operating nearby and offer her services. If they declined her offer, she would latch on to another group, or if it became necessary she would travel alone, though she preferred to have company. There would be a lot of battles and fighting as other factions clashed in the battlefield, and if there were others to do the grunt work she’d
be able to focus on her mission.
As she emerged from the farm house and stepped into the bright sunshine, she gazed out at the rolling hills and rugged mountains, recalling how magnificent the scenery was in this game. In the distance, she could see the sprawling wastelands of the Eternal Battlefield and its environs. Somewhere out there could be the rogue Bureau agent whose name had become a legend in the agency. He was a dangerous man and utterly ruthless. If she did come face to face with him, he could kill her and not just in the game world, but that was the risk she chose to accept when she was recruited into the Bureau. Besides, she could look after herself and she was just as ruthless. If she received the order, she would kill Spence or her brother in a heartbeat. Though their deaths would tear her up inside, she would know it was for the greater good. She loved her country and the Bureau had given her the means to defend it without question.
A chill went through her and she kidded herself that it was just a drop in temperature in the artificial environment where fighting and killing were second nature. Turning away from the battlefield, she began walking towards the high walls of the medieval city. This could all be a wild goose chase, she told herself. There was no concrete proof that John was here behind this disturbance, but an uncomfortable feeling in her gut told her otherwise and her intuition was always one hundred percent right. It just remained to be seen whether she would have to one day put her skills to the test with the enigmatic John Taggart.
Chapter 11
John and Kate watched from inside the old fort as the large group of Enlightened players entered the courtyard. The players belonged to the Wheeljacker Guild, a powerful sub-faction of gunslingers, mechanists and bounty hunters who John was eager to do business with. If all went well at today’s meeting, it would mean a nice little boost to his ever growing profits.
“This is not going to work, John. The Wheeljackers are Grade-A ass-hatters,” Kate advised him as she looked down on the assembled rabble with an expression of extreme distaste on her face.
John shot her a baffled look. “Grade-A what?”
“You know what I mean. Fuckwits premier division.”
“You kiss your mother with that mouth,” chuckled John.
Kate frowned at him. “I’m being serious here. This deal is a bad idea. We should beat it before things turn ugly.”
John rubbed at his chin, considering what she had said. In the weeks after meeting her again on the road back to Steamgrad, Kate had taken an interest in John. She had figured out it was him who had masterminded the wages robbery and she and Mark had come to his workshop to buy the salvaged gear he had available. She had also offered her services to act as a go between in any negotiations and deals John engaged in, pointing out that her increased charisma would make all the difference in talks with other players and NPCs. Now painfully aware at how close the Bureau and the Chinese might be to tracking him down, John had found her support invaluable, and a few cash injections from her had been more than welcome in exchange for her getting first look at the best of the gear he had obtained off the battlefield.
“I won’t argue with you,” John said, giving her a smile. “If you say it’s a bad idea, it’s a bad idea, but I’m still going through with it. If we can come to an arrangement with these guys to salvage their lost items for platinum, it’ll turn into a very lucrative contract for us.”
“They won’t agree with whatever you tell them,” Kate said. “I know the girl who runs Wheeljackers. She’s an arrogant bitch. This is a waste of time.”
“I’m sure your natural charm will go a long way to make these negotiations a lot easier,” John said.
Kate shook her head. “Sweet talking me isn’t going to help. This deal is doomed before it even starts. I don’t know why you even want to talk to them. We’re making good money with what we’ve already got. Surely that’s enough?”
It was true. Now that the tunnel network built by the Tong stretched under a good deal of the Eternal Battlefield, salvaging items and weapons left behind after the various clashes and battles was much easier. He had set up an efficient way to resell and sell on the gear he had, providing a steady income. The problem was it just wasn’t enough to get him the new identity and facial surgery he needed to make his escape. He needed to save up more money before he could approach someone on the black market to carry out the procedure, and time was running out.
“Don’t worry about it, Kate,” he said. “Whatever happens, they’ll agree to let us salvage for them. I got this all planned out.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I forgot you are the master strategist. You’re always two steps ahead of everyone else, aren’t you? What is it that you do in the real world anyhow? You never did tell me. Some kind of special agent? That would explain everything.”
Before John could come up with a response to deflect her curiosity, a very harassed-looking Mark hurried into the room. “You better get down there, John,” he said. “They’re not liking having to wait.”
John nodded, relieved at the interruption. “Okay Mark. We’re just coming.” He smiled at Kate. “Our audience awaits.”
Kate shook her head and followed him down the steps of the old Enlightened stronghold and out into the bright sunshine. On the hard packed earth that formed the courtyard, the Wheeljackers were getting restless.
“Why we wasting our time here?” moaned a gunslinger in a long duster coat and a black bowler hat. “There’s a big fight going on near Gargoyle Rock.”
“Yeah, I want to go!” added a surly mechanist dressed in oil stained overalls. “C’mon Jodie, let’s quit this dump!”
The request was aimed at a tall female player with long dark hair dressed in an immaculately white cowboy outfit with a scarlet neck scarf tied around her throat. Her eyes narrowed beneath the brim of her Stetson hat when she spotted John, Kate and Mark, and she played with the pearl handle of her revolver.
“Quiet down, boys,” she said to the grumbling players. “Here’s the man who wanted to see us.”
“Jodie,” John said brightly, forcing a friendly grin onto his face. “Thanks for coming over to see me. I know you want to be off to the battlefield, but I have a proposition for you to consider before you go.”
Jodie’s nostrils flared a little as she looked John up and down. Her gaze flicked over to Kate. “Yeah, your lapdog sent me a message.”
Kate glared at the other player in fury. “What the hell did you just call me?”
“Yes, I wanted to talk business with you,” John said quickly, before the situation could escalate. “As you might have heard, I run a little salvaging business out of Steamgrad. We’re doing quite well, and a lot of players make use of my services.”
“You mean you steal gear from dead players and blackmail them into buying it back, and if that doesn’t work you put it on the open market,” replied Jodie in a scathing tone. “No wonder you’re doing quite well, you shark.”
John gave her a disarming shrug. “I’m just looking to make a few bucks, is all. Nothing wrong with that.”
Jodie gave him a disdainful look. “Not everyone would agree with you, but I don’t have time to discuss that with you. We have a game to play, so hurry up and tell me what you want.”
“It’s simple. I’m offering you the same service as I have other players. I’ll return all dropped soul bound items and other gear that belong to the Wheeljackers after every battle as quickly as possible for an agreed retrieval fee. That way you are guaranteed to get, if not all, at least most of your equipment back quickly and efficiently. What do you say?”
Jodie let out a sharp laugh. “Are you kidding me?”
“What’s wrong with John’s offer?” Kate said. “You’ll get your soul bound items back without having to wait the full six hours and most of your consumable inventory too. You know that players take stuff from the dead all the time. It can be a real problem. John can help with that.”
“I don’t need help from the likes of
you and neither does my guild,” Jodie snapped. “I’m not paying anyone to get my own stuff back! It’s robbery!”
“It’s common sense,” John said patiently. “I know how valuable soul bound items are, and losing can make a real impact on your fighting ability. Players advancing fast can end up hamstrung when they lose certain gear. The service I’m offering gives you peace of mind that, if you are killed and your favorite weapon or soul bound item isn’t in Void Storage, then you don’t have to waste time searching the battlefield for them again. It’s a very good service, in my humble opinion.”
“You know, that don’t sound like a bad idea, Jodie,” said the mechanist who had been listening intently to the conversation.
“Shut up Kyle, you moron!” Jodie said. “This guy is trying to scam us. Don’t you see that?”
“I’m not trying to scam anyone,” said John. “I’m just offering to help you.”
Jodie pulled her gun. “I don’t need help and you need to get lost. Let’s show these jerks how we do things, Wheeljackers.”
A cheer went up and they all drew their weapons. John, Kate and Mark backed away. “This does not look good,” Mark said.
“Come on Jodie, let’s talk like adults,” John said. He slipped his hand into one of the deep pockets of his traveling cloak and wrapped his fingers around the flashbomb concealed in there.
Jodie pointed her revolver at John’s head. “No more talking. I’m going to waste you.”
The rest of the Wheeljackers were watching the exchange with glee and ready to pounce like wild animals. Before Jodie could fire the trigger though, John pulled out the flashbomb and hurled it onto the ground.
“Run!” he yelled to Kate and Mark as the flashbomb exploded when it hit the floor of the courtyard. He bolted away to the fortress with his two companions as a babble of shouts came up from the Wheeljackers.
Merchant of Death Page 19
