But they had underestimated Nika and her father’s safeguards and software protection. This job wasn’t nearly so simple as plugging a computer into the mainframe and downloading the program. No, due to the massive protection in place, they had been required to hard key copy every last line of code. Literally, every single word and symbol had to be hand keyed from the original program into their own.
And it was taking forever. This isn’t what she had signed up for. Beyond the fact that they would easily be here another two weeks—and the beta test of the game was only scheduled to last for that—there was also the issue of Blake.
He was starting to get on her nerves. No, scratch that. He had gotten on her nerves from day one. Now he was bordering on becoming unbearable. The bad thing was that there were too many loyal employees still around to do him in quite yet.
As far as those loyal diehards were concerned, he was still a loving and caring husband to their dear Nika. If only they knew. And if Blake kept pushing things and making the mistakes he had been making, they would soon enough.
Virtech and she couldn’t afford that. If he didn’t rein himself in soon, he’d find out his real place in the company’s plans sooner rather than later.
And they weren’t nearly as pleasant as he’d been led to believe.
Cora smiled thinking about that moment when he found out just what he really meant to the company. He had been a means to an end and nothing more. Really, it had been rather pathetic how easily they had gotten him on board. He hadn’t even taken any safeguards at all.
With Virtech, safeguards were an absolute must. She should know. She had them in spades. The people here in-house with her were her employees, not Virtech’s. And they were loyal to her, not the company. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Once the program was completely copied, she and her employees would simply vanish. Then, once the money hit her offshore account, she would deliver the end result to Virtech. She at least could be trusted—by her employees at any rate. They would each get the cut they’d been promised, making them each rich in their own right, and she would get a luxurious early retirement on a nice Fiji beach.
There were only two problems to overcome before reaping the rewards. One was keeping Nika and her party from getting through the game too quickly. That should have been handled by her recent changes.
Blood elves didn’t die easily. Especially when they were level twenty—the max level in the virtual game, as it had been designed to have a play-through time of ten days or less—and Nika’s party couldn’t be over level four.
If they wanted to beat them and gain access to Riser’s Creek, they would need to do a lot of grinding with coyotes and spiders before taking this path again. She only wished Blake hadn’t driven his wife to turn off the cameras.
It would have been fun to watch.
The other problem was proving more difficult. That was keeping Blake under control until that wonderful moment when he was no longer needed. It was getting harder and harder each day.
His new thing was thinking that it was okay to lay hands on her here at work. Heaven only knew what would happen if one of Nika’s employees saw that. She wouldn’t put it past them to start a lot of trouble. And trouble wasn’t what they needed right now.
If only she could think of a way to get him out of the way. The voices in the hall finally made it through her concentration.
Good heavens, couldn’t the man leave her be for an hour? They’d had lunch together just thirty minutes ago.
“Oh, she’ll see me,” Blake was telling her secretary who had strict orders to keep everyone out until further notice. But he simply brushed her to one side and opened her office door.
It was all she could do not to take out the old fashioned revolver she kept in her desk drawer and just shoot the jerk. At least the thought brought a smile to her lips.
Of course, Blake thought it was for him.
“Hey, Puddin’,” he said. That was another annoying trait of his. He’d been trying to come up with a nickname for her. Not a single one of them had endeared her to him. Quite the opposite, actually.
She forced the smile to remain in place. “Afraid you have to keep trying.” She paused, looking him in the eye and letting the smile finally drop. “Unless you are trying to tell me that I’m fatty and unattractive.” She put just enough wine in her voice to do the trick. He was so easy.
His face fell. “Oh, no. Hell, you’re the hottest woman I’ve ever…”
She cleared her throat loudly and gestured her head toward the still open door. Granted, as she had taken over the conference room as her office, there should be no one else besides them on the floor, but she had to get him to realize that this wasn’t the place for freedoms.
He glanced behind him, but there was only Vicki, her receptionist and a woman firmly loyal to her. Just how loyal, Blake would never know.
“It’s safe,” he said. “We’re alone up here.” He reached out like he was going to take her in his arms. “In fact, I was thinking…”
“Well, you’d better unthink whatever it is,” she said dryly. “You know how serious this project is, and fraternizing with the boss’s husband,” she stressed the word boss’s, “would be strictly frowned upon by all the higher ups.”
She lowered her voice though it took every ounce of acting talent she had to go on. And she was one hell of an actress. “That’s for later. At home.”
Blake didn’t look too happy, but finally, he shrugged as if it was no big deal. Then he looked over to the now empty plasmas and frowned.
“They still haven’t found a way to get the cameras reactivated?”
She took a deep breath before answering. She wasn’t that good. “No,” she said slowly. “Nika took the feed offline. We are blind now. You shouldn’t have pressed her so hard.”
He waved that to one side like it didn’t matter. Her people were all supposed to work miracles around his stupid actions.
“Couldn’t we put a spy into the game to track them?”
She raised her eyebrows at him. Seriously? “Don’t you think there are a couple of problems with that idea?” Like keeping the spy from being rebooted every few minutes and keeping Nika’s party from seeing them.
“Yeah, I guess it would be pretty hard to keep them hidden with all the monsters,” he said. “I’d just wanted to see her face when she got the message at Riser’s Creek.”
All pretense slipped from her face and she glared at him.
“What the hell have you done now?”
Chapter Fifteen: Escape to Riser’s Creek
It didn't take long to realize there was no way in hell they were going to win this battle. The one, two punch of fire spell and arrows didn't even make the health bar on a single elf move. Not one tiny bit. And they weren't going to stay blinded for long.
"What the hell?" Dean yelled. "We aren't even scratching them."
"Their defense is greater than our attack," Nika yelled back. "We can't win. We need to run."
"But what about Louella?"
"I'm with you guys. We gotta book, and now." The pixie hovered in the air behind them, keeping them between her and the elves. "My spell barely moved the bar at all, and I had to use the rest of my mana to blind them to get away."
The three elves were starting to re-focus. "Can you blind them again to give us time to run?"
"My mana is drained." Then her little face lit up as Ash and Nika both tossed her a mana potion and her mana bar maxed out again. "Awesome!" she said. "Get ready to run! And turn and cover your eyes."
They did, and the forest went blazingly bright once more. And then they were running.
"How often can you do that?" Ash asked as she started pacing the pixie.
"Three more times before I need more mana. Do you have any more of those wonderful potions?"
"Oh, yeah," Ash said. "You keep them blinded and off our tails and I'll keep you in mana."
"Deal."
"Run now, talk l
ater," Nika said, running past them. "The two of you keep in the rear and try to keep us warned if she's going to blast the light spell again. We want it to hit them, not us."
"Got it." Ash grinned over at Louella and the two of them picked up speed. Surprisingly, they were able to stay within sight of Nika, Dean and the tiger, and those three were really booking it.
Of course, there was no way Ash could run this fast in the real world. She was thankful that her Mage class gave her a decent amount of agility and speed. Obviously not as much as the Amazon, Ranger, and Tiger class, but still enough to put some distance between them and the elves behind them. They might not even need another spell. Riser's Creek couldn't be that far away.
Then she heard Dean yell and saw the others coming back toward them.
"Two more elves, to the left and right by the blackened pine tree," Nika yelled. "Louella in front and do your thing."
The two elves were coming fast and the pixie barely had time to get in front of the others and blast her Sun Ray spell before they were on them. They were much too close, and the party had to deter through the trees to get around them.
Crashing noises from behind told them that the original three elves were looking to rejoin the party. Nika looked worried, and that in turn worried Ash.
"It's okay," Louella said. "These elves are warriors, not archers. As long as I stay above them, they shouldn't be able to hurt me. Get to the town. I'll be right behind you."
And pray there aren't more elves yet to come, Ash thought. Nika must have had the same thought. "No, we stick together. Follow the original plan. When they get close enough, warn us and then light 'em up. We should be well past the clearing, so let's veer back to the path. If nothing else, we'll move a little faster that way."
Of course, the elves would too, Ash thought but kept her mouth shut. Nika had enough on her plate without adding insubordination into the mix.
The party hadn't stopped moving during the brief conversation, and when they broke out onto the path, the clearing was well behind them.
Ash and Louella hesitated just long enough to let the elves come into sight and then, as Nika had told them, the pixie yelled a warning and lit them up. Ash had been worried that maybe they would learn to take the warning to heed as well, but so far that hadn't been an issue. She really hoped they reached the town before it happened. NPCs in the game could learn. She'd seen it in the tavern.
Once their pursuers were blinded again, the two of them took off after the others, who were running much slower, waiting for them to catch up. As a precaution, Ash tossed another potion over to Louella. She didn't want her to be down to only one spell if things got interesting.
She saw the next clearing, and wonder of wonders, she could see the telltale signs of a town in the distance. Unfortunately, the clearing between them and the town was filled with wolves.
"Don't engage them," Nika yelled. "Just keep running!"
And run they did. Actually, the wolves turned out to be a blessing as they managed to pass them before they gathered for their attack, but the blood elves did not. The wolves wouldn't last long against the max-level elves, but any combat at all would give them a few more precious yards before they had to turn and blast them again.
The town came even closer, but the wolves hadn't been enough of a delay. The tiger came to stand with Ash and Louella as they prepared another blast. This time, the elves looked away before the blast. It didn't work. They were learning after all and still coming.
Louella lifted off the ground. "Get as far away as you can," she said. "I'm not going to warn next time."
Ash motioned for the others to move out, and she sped up to catch them. "No warning, guys," she said. From their nods, she knew they understood what that meant.
Even with the flare coming from behind them, it was enough to make Ash see stars. It blurred her vision but didn't totally blind her. Then she tripped over a tree root and thought she was done for as the others sped away, not knowing she was down. Then a small pixie hand reached for hers, and they were running again.
With most virtual games, and Gaia was no exception, the towns and cities of the game were safe havens. So when they finally managed to cross into the larger town's limits, with the elves close on their heels, they were safe. Of course, knowing you should be safe and actually feeling safe were two different things.
They kept right on running until they reached the save point and each quickly touched the colorful ball at the center of the ornate fountain. They hadn't even made it to level four as they had been unable to fight for the last half of the trip.
Ash had hoped to ask for a night hunt if they reached the town with enough time to spare for a rest prior to darkfall. But with the blood elves out there, she knew that wasn't going to happen. There was no need to enter into a battle they knew they couldn't win. No leveling to be had there.
She really hoped the elves were contained on that side of town, otherwise, this game could grow pretty boring, pretty quickly. With the saving done, they stopped for a minute to catch their bearings on the set up of the town.
This one was much larger than the first. Probably because it had started out as a commune of sorts and was designed to blend with nature rather than destroy it. Because of this, most of its buildings had been left intact, and their technology seemed to still be functioning.
"What's that noise?" Dean asked, having to raise his voice to be heard.
He was right, there was a prevailing noise filling the city streets. Ash couldn't place it either.
Nika pointed to a tall standing object with what looked like a large propeller blade attached very high up. The blade was constantly turning. Glancing around the town, Ash could see many of the objects, all with whirling blades.
"Windmills," Nika answered. "The way the town makes its energy."
Dean grinned. "Does that mean hot showers instead of luke warm?"
Nika laughed and nodded. "It should, yes, and other luxuries as well." She looked around, obviously searching for something. "Like a communication station hopefully."
Ash was the first to spot it and led the way. It sure would have been nice to have that map capability to find their way around. Maybe they could concentrate tomorrow on simply leveling up enough to get it. If the elves would let them be, of course. Can't really level when you are full out running. No experience points for retreat.
The station was on a corner two blocks down from the save fountain. The building itself resembled most of the town's structures. Simple and plain logs made up the walls and the roof was some kind of treated wood slats. It gave the town an antique and rustic look that Ash quite liked. Not enough to spend the rest of her game time here, but it would be fun enough to explore for the evening.
Another good thing about the towns of virtual games was that they were pretty much fully open twenty-four hours a day. So whenever you needed to visit a shop or talk to the locals to look for quests, they were available to do so.
Good thing they were NPCs, huh?
"Well, at least it appears to be open," Nika said, walking through the door. "Now let's see if it's functioning."
She walked up to a desk marked information. "Is it possible to get a message home?" she asked.
The young man behind the desk smiled at her and nodded. "Of course," he said. "Would you like to use one of our portable computers? There are tables in the next room for your convenience."
Nika looked at the rest of the group. Surely they had people to send messages to as well. "Do you have four computers available?" If not, they would simply have to take turns. Luckily, the clerk said that wasn't a problem.
When each of them was armed with a completely logged on computer, they made their way into the next room, which was filled with tables as the young man had described. There was a long six person table along each wall and four two person tables at the center of the room.
They settled down at one of the long tables, the tiger choosing to sit at Nika's feet. The young man
gave one last fearful glance at the tiger before leaving them to their work.
Yeah, Ash thought, bet you don't see one of those every day. In fact, she'd played Gaia a lot and she couldn't ever recall seeing a tiger with their companion's coloring. Of course, as he seemed to be a player, he had most likely chosen his own colors. Not for the first time, she wished he could communicate with them. She would love to know his story.
She looked at her computer for a minute, wondering if there was anyone back home worth messaging. First, she pulled up her email account, but it was, as always, filled with worthless emails trying to sell her things. As if she had any money. No messages from friends or co-workers, just junk.
Since she really didn't have anything else to do online, she logged in to her favorite Gaia forum. If she had friends in the outside world at all, they were there.
She hadn't even had a chance to catch up on forum posts before Nika jumped up, her chair flying backward. "That dirty, low-life, son of a..." she stopped herself and walked across the room and into the small restroom the clerk had pointed out before leaving them, slamming the door behind her.
The door, and the walls for that matter, probably weren't quite as thick as Nika thought they were. They could hear her cussing quite plainly through the door.
Dean looked impressed. "I've always prided myself on my ability to cuss a blue streak when called for, but she's really inventive. I would never have thought of that phrase."
Ash could tell he was trying to commit it to memory. Probably wanted to impress his friends back home. She guessed that wouldn't be too hard to accomplish.
Personally, she was more interested in what the message had said. She looked at the computer uncertainly. On the one hand, she hated to invade Nika's privacy, but on the other hand, the chances were good that the news involved the entire group. That made it need to know information, right? She hoped so because Nika wasn't showing any signs of slowing down.
Louella was intently keying on her computer and Dean appeared to still be taking mental notes. Neither of them even noticed when she went to stand behind Nika's overturned chair.
Gaia's Rebirth Box Set Page 12
