Cold War Rune: A Virtual Reality novel (Rune Universe Book 2)

by Hugo Huesca

  “Dude,” Walpurgis told me at last. “You have to admit that was creepy as shit. NPCs are not aware Rune is a game. Surely you must think Francis could be a tad dangerous.”

  The thing about gallows humor is that you’ll never know what you’ll find hilarious. Walpurgis’ serious face, trying to hide how creeped out she was, it was funny to me. Perhaps to no one else… except Francis, that is.

  “Nah, I’m sure Francis is okay. I trust him.” I told her. “But let’s ask him. Hey, buddy, you’re planning to do anything evil?”

  “To be totally honest, I thought of enslaving mankind half a second ago, because Master Walpurgis’ accusation made me curious. I simulated the event in the remaining half second and I realized I’d grow bored of lording over everyone after the first 100 years.”

  Mai made a sound like a hamster who had her walnut stolen from her hands.

  “See? He says he’s okay.”

  “No chance you’re actually this dense,” Walpurgis whispered, but she raised her hands and said: “Look, when the robots raise against humanity and turn us into living batteries don’t say I didn’t warn you. But I’m curious. Why are you willing to give him so much leeway?”

  Because talking to him feels this close to talking to Kipp? Because if Kipp was in Francis’ shoes, he’d make the exact kind of jokes that Francis makes. Because it feels just a bit, in a small way, like having my friend back.

  I shrugged and faked a smile. “Don’t know. It’s the kind of rash actions that are in character for me.”

  No one questioned that. And luckily for us, the conversation came to an end when Jarred’s grunts and complaints reached us.

  Mai had tied him up in the cargo bay using a steel cable as a rope. Since he wasn’t wearing end-game power-armor, his chance of escaping was nil.

  “We’ve reached Earth,” Francis told us as Mai, Walpurgis, and I walked towards the bay. It wasn’t like it was something we could miss. Getting out of warp space and into normal space was like someone reaching into your stomach and turning it inside out. Well, it was nothing like that at all, but it was the kind of comparison you’d think of after a jump. Our magnetized boots made sure we didn’t fall. But I heard the clear sounds of Jarred throwing up. Great. “Federation Air Control told me to let you know you owe them five grand in fees.”

  “I’ll pay them by the end of the week.” I never knew when 5000 databytes could come in handy during this insane situation.

  “Just in time,” said Mai. “Director Derry is our best option to interrogate the prisoner.”

  “The prisoner? Chill a bit, Princess Bond, the ‘prisoner’ is an NPC.” Walpurgis told her.

  “Walps?” I interrupted. “Compromises. We still have to destroy the smugglers’ den later. Remember? You can do that one.”

  “Gee, thanks, Cap.” Her tone oozed sarcasm, but she stopped bothering Mai.

  I miss Beard. He’s the one who’s usually arguing with her. Walpurgis was alright, but she could get grating after a while.

  The same could be said for literally any of you, I told myself. Especially you, dude.

  Well, yes. But I was the captain, so I got a pass.

  Also, shut it, me.

  The starting area had a landing pad built especially for player who had “finished” the main Quest. Of course, with Rune being an entirely procedural game, there was no main Quest to finish. Eventually, you did enough jobs for the Federation (or some pirate group or another) that you began hanging around with big names like Jenkins and eventually you did some big, dangerous, movie-like mission that ended up earning you an ultra-rare item or a political position that you could use to form your own Alliance.

  My friends had finished their own main Quest long before I started playing Rune, so I’d never technically finished mine. Beard had used his prize to buy his freighter, Walpurgis probably bought some kind of gun, and Rylena had gotten her cybernetic eyes.

  Perhaps some day I would actually finish the storyline, but as far as I was concerned, last year’s events definitely counted.

  Until it was actually official, though, we used Mai and Walpurgis’ permits for the landing pad which saved us precious minutes in picking up Derry. Thanks to that, the man was coming through the airlock right when Jarred started to scream.

  “What’s going on? Who are you people?” He was stunned enough to barely take notice of his surroundings (seriously, that sneak attack did a lot of damage), but it didn’t take a tactical genius to realize his position was dire. “I’m an officer of the Federation, holding me here is a crime that will land you in jail! If you release me at once—”

  “Do you mind shutting up for just one minute?” Mai asked him. While he stared at her with big, surprised eyes, she turned towards her former boss. “Welcome back, sir.”

  “Mai,” he greeted her with his usual deadpan. He turned to Walpurgis and I, who were slightly closer to the cabin and a bit more detached from the situation. “You’re part of this operation now, kid. I hope you understand the danger you’ve put yourself in.”

  Walpurgis sneered. “Yes, yes, very impressive. I’m not letting you manipulate all my friends without me to keep you in check, Perry. Get on with this.”

  Derry nodded and then turned back, not even bothering to correct her on his name. I felt vaguely cheated out of something. These two had history. She had killed him.

  Even if Derry had ended up getting better, facing your murderer had to make you feel something. And in the real world, he was almost a cripple, thanks to her.

  But again, both seemed to be happy ignoring this. I decided to take a clue from them.

  “I’d like to know what’s going on, too!” Jarred repeated. He struggled against the plasteel rope that held him against the wall of the bay. “The Federation will be looking for me, don’t think you can get away with this!”

  Derry ignored him and began to look around the bay, like a kid bored at his grandparent’s home and rummaging the attic for any toy.

  The Teddy’s cargo bay was well stocked, even if I had no idea what he was searching for. I certainly didn’t pack any torture instruments. I had a lot of boxes, rare materials for sale at spaceports, trade items, food, and spices… and, of course, enough ammo and missiles to wage a small war against an entire planet if push came to shove.

  “You there—!” called Jarred, who was still trying to gain control of his situation. “What are you even doing—” He couldn’t see Derry from his position, but he could hear him rummaging around.

  “Don’t concern yourself with that,” Mai told him in a friendly and calm tone. “You’re talking to me right now.”

  “Good!” he exclaimed. “You should be happy I’m willing to negotiate, I don’t know what you people want, but the Federation—”

  “Will be quite displeased with you when they realize you’ve been working with your Taren’s friends,” Mai finished his sentence for him.

  Jarred paled, but to his credit, he merely clenched his teeth and tried a new approach: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “We’re not the police here, so I don’t need no evidence. You made a mistake, Jarred, and now you’re in our hands.”

  “You’ll go to jail!”

  “And you’ll be dead,” Mai told him. This got him to shut up. “Unless you tell us what we need to know.”

  “And then you’ll kill me anyway? Hah! I’m not an idiot. I’m a Federation officer, and I’ll warn you, I’m trained to resist all kinds of torture. You’ll get nothing out of me except the address to a plasma torpedo with your names on it.”

  He’s very expressive for an asshole in his situation, I thought. I would almost admire his stones if I didn’t suspect he was actively trying to use his Intimidate skill on Mai.

  I wasn’t sure if the NPC’s social skills could interact with a player that way. But he was a glorified accountant and Mai was a real-life CIA agent (or so I assumed). He didn’t have a chance.

  “Cute. Here’s what
we want to know. The coordinates to your friends.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, woman!”

  Mai nodded. “Tell us and you’ll get away from this.”

  “Even if I knew those people, I’d never admit it. If they didn’t kill me, the Federation would,” Jarred explained this to her like she was an idiot. Which was… ironic, to say the least.

  In the background, Derry was still going through my boxes. He was beginning to put together a small stash of random trash. Jarred’s eyes flickered briefly in his direction and for a second his lips twitched with doubt, before he recovered and focused on Mai.

  The woman was smiling kindly. “We’re going to kill the smugglers, Jarred. That’s why you can afford to live through this. We can make a deal with you. You don’t tell anything to the Federation and we don’t tell them about you.”

  Jarred’s expression was shifting between fury, panic, and fear. “What in heaven’s sake are you talking about…?”

  “I’m just putting my cards straight on the table. Letting you know you have a clear exit, if you’re smart enough to take it. Are you smart enough to take it, Jarred?”

  If he was, he was in too poor a mental state to do so. “Curse you and your mother!”

  At my side, Walpurgis snorted quietly. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard an NPC actually say ‘fuck.’ Have you?”

  “Now that you mention it, no, not that I can remember,” I whispered back.

  “Must be the PC filter.”

  Mai stood up. “Well then, that’s all I had to say to you.”

  “Good!” Jarred struggled again with his bindings. “Release me at once.”

  “Nah, now you have to talk to my friend.” Mai told him. As if on cue, Derry brought his stash over to Jarred using his starter overalls like a makeshift apron.

  “What are you doing?” asked Jarred, but Derry ignored him. The only person who wasn’t intrigued by Derry at this point was Mai. Walpurgis and I got near the man and realized the stash consisted of a lot of trash.

  A bottle of water from my emergency rations, several metal tubes, some heavy duty tools for small repairs, a dirty cloth, a lantern, and a small power generator. Derry calmly set them in front of Jarred in a way that reminded me of a musician getting his instruments ready to perform.

  Jarred wasn’t enjoying the implications of Derry’s actions. “I’m not enjoying the implications of your actions! If you torture a Federation’s officer, the sentence is death! And I won’t reveal anything, in any case!”

  Holy hell, are they really going to go through with this? I’d seen some violent things in my time as a Rune player, but never someone straight up torturing a guy.

  But protesting would ruin whatever Mai and Derry were doing…

  Give them one chance, I thought. See where they’re going with this.

  “OK,” said Derry, once he was finished. “It’s not ideal equipment to work with, but it’ll do.”

  “It will do—? I’m warning you—!” said Jarred.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” Derry told him, ignoring the man’s threats. “I can do ten things to you using these tools. I’ll order them in degrees of nastiness. The first two won’t leave any marks, for example. Next three you’ll need surgery. After that… Well.”

  “You’re insane!”

  “I’m a lazy man,” continued Derry. “And I have a low tolerance for bullshit. So, before doing anything to you, I’m going to tell you exactly what those things are. If you tell me the coordinates before I’m done talking, you’re in the clear.”

  “Damn you!”

  “But if we get to the last one, number ten… Well, then no matter what you do or say, I’m going to do all the things.”

  This got Jarred to shut up for a bit. “But—but that doesn’t even make sense…” He tried to complain, but he was clearly out of his element.

  “Don’t care. It’s all or nothing, Jarred. Either you talk when you’re supposed to, or it won’t matter anymore. In any case, you won’t be able to speak after the seventh.”

  “What—who taught you this was a good idea? If you maim me, you won’t get the coordinates!”

  “Don’t care,” Derry repeated. He moved uncomfortably close to Jarred and whispered something to his ear while gesturing to the tools on the floor. “That’s the first thing.”

  “That’s the first thing?!”

  Derry drew close once more, while Jarred unsuccessfully tried to put some distance between them. “That’s the second thing.”

  “Oh my God.”

  Another whisper, this time much longer than the other two. Jarred began to scream.

  “Third.”

  “That’s not even possible, I’d bleed out!” I’d never seen a man look so close to a mental breakdown while still criticizing his torturer’s technique.

  “We have medical equipment,” Derry made a vague gesture towards the rest of the ship behind me. He was right, we did have medical equipment capable of repairing a lot of damage, but I very much doubted he knew it. “You’d be fine. Except for your spleen, of course.”

  Jarred began screaming once more. While he did so, Derry whispered in his ear again.

  Jarred shut up. He looked at Derry in disbelief. Derry held up one of the metal tubes. I couldn’t see what he did (he had his back turned to me) with it, but Jarred’s eyes went wide and he began sweating.

  “See? It can be done, I’d only need to keep atmospheric pressure in mind,” Derry explained.

  “Please stop. I have money. I’ll give you all the databytes you want… all the databytes, they’re yours. I’ll give you all the databytes, sir. Just don’t…”

  Derry shook his head and whispered the fifth thing. He gestured to the floor and the ceiling like he wanted to illustrate his idea, and Jarred’s gaze followed his finger’s path like it was Death’s own scythe.

  “Doesn’t even make sense,” he whispered weakly.

  “I would use a ramp, of course.”

  “Oh.”

  Jarred never got to hear what the sixth thing was. He told us the coordinates of the Taren smugglers, their supply routes, their bank account numbers, their known associates, the associates’ bank accounts and coordinates, the names of the mothers of all the people he knew in both organizations, and finally, he told us their leader was allergic to nutmeg.

  “Just, please…” He was a sweating, trembling mess when he was done. “I told you everything I know. Please… Let me go. Or just kill me!”

  “I don’t know,” Derry scratched his chin. “How can we know what you’ve told us is truth? Perhaps, just to be sure, I should do that third thing.”

  “NOT THE THIRD THING! I swear I told you all I know! You promised!” He looked around the room, searching for salvation. “Please, take him away! M-my spleen…”

  Derry turned and exchanged a look with Mai, who gave a single nod. She had recorded the whole thing.

  The former Director stood up and cleaned a speck of dust from his overalls. “Fine. We’ll confirm your intel. If it’s true, you can go and keep living this pathetic bullshit you call life. But if I ever hear from you again… if you ever tell anyone about this, then I’ll do the seventh thing to you, and I promise it makes those first six look like a kid’s game.”

  Jarred didn’t speak, but he shook his head over and over again. I had the vague suspicion that if Rune was programmed slightly different, the NPC would’ve soiled himself.

  “Nice chat,” Derry clapped Jarred’s shoulders—a friendly gesture—then he stood and turned to Walpurgis and I.

  “That’s done,” he said. “We should make sure the intel is solid, then plan our move on the smugglers.”

  He left for the cabin while I stared dumbfounded at the poor Jarred, who had his eyes closed and was trembling like he’d just come out of a nightmare. “Uh. Yes, Francis and I can look into it.”

  Walpurgis turned to Derry as he left. “Dude. I have to know. What’s the seventh thing?”


  Derry smiled and said nothing.

  You have advanced your Quest! You have the location of the Taren’s smugglers. Are you a bad enough crew to take them all out?

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Respite

  For Irene, finding the Taren with the coordinates Jarred gave us would’ve been trivial. Even with specifics, a planetary system wasn’t a static thing, though, and space was still mind-blowingly large. Given this, it took Francis about two minutes of trial and error.

  “Any news on my family?” I asked Walpurgis while Francis muttered to himself and pictures of space and barren planets appeared over and over on the cabin’s screens. “It’s been a while.”

  According to the clock, it was midnight in the real world. Prancing around Argus had taken its time. And still no news…

  “Sorry, they must still be on their way. My house is not easy to reach.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s in the countryside,” she explained. The idea seemed to make her uncomfortable. “At least two hours away from San Mabrada. I use a motorcycle to move around.”

  “I didn’t peg you for a country girl,” I told her half-heartedly. I was worried.

  “It’s easier to defend,” she explained. “If anyone comes here, I can see them and have time to react.”

  Normally, I’d rib her for being the paranoid member of the group, but lately, her precautions seemed… well, rational.

  “Tell me the moment you hear anything,” I told her. “Please?”

  “Of course.” She opened her mouth, closed it again, and visibly searched for words. “I think… I’m sure they’re okay, Cole.”

  I sighed and faked a confident smile.

  Focus, Cole, I told myself. The only thing you can control is what’s in front of you. The sooner you deal with Keles and the CIL, the sooner you can finish this bad dream.

  I could see Derry and Mai briefing each other. Now that I had a moment to think about it, they both appeared dead tired, just like I felt. Even in the real world, Derry’s scarred face was ashen behind the mask of the mindjack.