by Isaac Stone
“Cute, Rhonda, this is the book they left for me in the cache. I’m going to put it back as I don’t need any funny looks from the men.” I dropped the palm leaves back into the box and closed the lid.
“I’ll never tell.”
“I’ll bet.” I closed the connection to the VR team and placed my revolver back into its holster.
Ok then, the VR team and game designers wanted to set me up with another version of Chamita. Was this some kind of fetish on their part? The previous company told me they’d watched Chamita and me the night we consummated our marriage. I didn’t like the fact that some perverts watched me get it on, even if the VR game world. But I wasn’t in any position to complain. At least anything uploaded for their viewing pleasure would show my Wolf Mountain character in his hunk form and not the awkward one I had in real life.
I shoved the cache back under the altar where I’d found it and left the temple.
I could hear a commotion outside. It wasn’t the men yelling or shouting, but they were excited over something. I walked to the source of the sound.
They’d found the last camp of Major Farnsworth Buttersnipe.
It was right next to another building I couldn’t identify. Given the nature of all these structures, it was my guess he’d made camp right outside a small shrine. There was a rope between two statues of local deities where he’d flung his tent across. A small fire lay burnt-out on the stone floor, the only sign of dirt in the entire foyer. Someone had to clean this place up, there was no way it could remain this unsoiled in the middle of a rain forest.
“He’s been here, sir,” Grom said to me as he held up the tan helmet the major left behind. “There are some books and notes inside the tent. Should we take possession of them? He could be around here someplace.”
I turned and saw Chamistra stand on the edge of the foyer and look at the mess left behind by the major with disgust. It wasn’t until I noted what the three statues he’d tied one end of the rope to were doing that her look made sense to me. Grom followed my lead and saw the same dancing statues with a royal personage in the middle. He grinned and looked away.
“Happy people, these ancients,” was all Tommy could say. I saw Howard stare at a scene on a wall, count the number of people engaged, and then shake his head.
“I don’t think this place will make the Encyclopedia,” he said to me.
Chamistra walked over the rope and untied it. The tent collapsed and she walked over to untie the other end of the rope. She turned and glared at the rest of us.
“You Europeans have no respect for anything you don’t own,” she snapped at us. “Do you know how holy this place is? The man you are trying to find has angered so many divas that we many never leave here alive.”
“I don’t think he meant any harm,” Howard commented
“It doesn’t matter what he did or did not mean to do,” Chamistra snapped at us. Her gazed drilled a hole through Howard. “What matters is whether or not there is any way to make a puja that will please them.” She pushed the remains of the camp away from the statues as we watched in amazement.
In seconds, she’d grabbed a plate from Buttersnipe’s kit. She assembled a candle and some fruit from his supplies, and walked to the nearest statue. At least this one was alone and not busy with any other images. She dropped to her knees, lit the candle, and bowed to the statue. I watched as she said a few phrases in Sanskrit, and then placed the lit offering under the statue.
“It may save us,” she said to the rest of my team, “but I can’t be sure.”
None of the other men said a word.
“How do you know if it worked?” I asked Chamistra. We stood there and stared at her handiwork.
“Easy,” she responded. “We’ll still be alive this time tomorrow.”
The sun began to set soon afterward and I decided to make a camp. It didn’t seem to be a bad idea to make one in the same location that the major used when he entered the city, so I ordered the men to unpack everything and prepare for the night. Chamistra didn’t seem to have anything with her, but she sat down in front of the statue and watched the glow of the lamp in front of it. She was outlined in the light of the fire and shaded in the ancient city.
“So what do you think of her?” I asked Howard as we opened some ration cans and watched her meditate in front of the shrine. “She does look like Chamita quite a bit, don’t you think?”
“I think she could be her double,” Howard responded. “Whole different attitude, though. It’s as your wolf girl grew up here instead of on a mountain in the USA. Too much of a coincidence, if you ask me. It means something.”
For sure, I thought. The people who ran this game scenario knew what they were up to this very minute. They’d dropped a duplicate of the woman I’d married in the VR of a competitor on the mountain into this world. How they’d done this and obtained the information on both of them I couldn’t know. Perhaps Ruby Realizations had an industrial spy inside Sandstone Gems and they passed the character data along. There was no way they could claim “coincidence” if Howard remembered me from the previous game. I’d asked him things about our encounter on the mountain and he remembered every one of them. No, they had some conduit to the creation of the previous game and the logs of my beta-test adventure.
This led me to wonder if the two companies were colluding together. I doubted it, because why would Heath want me to test out his new game if he could just ring up his buddies and Ruby and get whatever information he needed? The big reason they wanted me for this game test was due to my involvement with the one for Sandstone.
And there was the interest Chamistra showed in me earlier. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d try it again.
I decided to find out what else she would reveal.
“You know a lot about this city,” I told her. “Do you visit it a lot? You convent is located very close, I assume you come here a lot.”
She opened her eyes very slow and then rotated her head to face me. The fire set strange patterns on her flesh and I could see her fixate the pupils in my direction.
“This is the first time I have ever been in this place,” she told me. “It is forbidden for any of us to come here. The city is holy and no mortal may visit it.”
This was a surprise.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Then why are you here” I asked her.
“To make sure your team does no further damage,” she told him. “I decided it was much too dangerous to send any of the younger sisters into it and I came by myself.”
“Then how did you know the way to placate the gods who rule here?” I asked her. She continued to stare at me.
“I know many things, captain,” Chamistra told me. “I know when this universe began and will end. I know about the man who died and left you the box. I know what happened in the caves below the insane asylum. And I know you will sleep with me tonight.”
There wasn’t much I could say after that announcement. So I stood up and walked over to one of the side temples near the square. I had a lantern with me and didn’t worry about being lost. I’d told Grom to take the first watch and he stood on the northern end of our encampment with his gun. I was certain it was a role to which he was accustomed. He nodded as I walked past.
“Try not to get lost, sir,” he told me. “You friend Howard will take the one after me and Tommy the final watch. We’ll have you up and ready in the morning.”
“I won’t go far,” I told him as the lantern swung from side to side while I walked past him.
I held the light up and looked at the carvings in the stone. There were thousands of individual figures that lined this side of the temple. It was easy to tell the king, he was always the central figure in whatever orgy was in progress. This was a little bit different from the archaeology I’d studied in school where you’d catalogue and sketch out scenes of religious scenes or battles. Most of the powerful and influential men of the past wanted scenes to show their conquests and influence in the af
fairs of men. The kings depicted on these temples wanted the world to know how many women he’d been with, what he did and how many times he did it. If ever an entire city section was Not Safe For Work, this was it.
I thought about Chamistra and what she’d told me. She knew about the previous game too. Was I supposed to accept her as my wife as well? All I had to do was find her and the answer would be there. I looked up and watched the moonrise over the jungle in the distance. Usually, the forest was noisy with countless monkeys, birds and insects that made their presence known in the evening. But it was very quiet around here. I hadn’t seen any animals or any swarms of bugs inside the city. I’d thought Chamistra’s women kept it clean, but she’d told me how they avoided it.
“Told you I’d be back,” I said to Grom as I walked past his alert form. Did that man ever sleep?
“Sir,” he stopped me as I went past. “You have company in your tent. I tried to stop her, but she said you gave permission. I felt it best to say something, sir.”
I stopped and turned to him. “Thank you, sergeant,” I said. “It was arranged. Don’t be concerned.” I couldn’t tell in the low light if he was disgusted or simply bored.
He nodded at me and returned his attention to the perimeter. I continued walking to the tent and pulled the flap back when I reached it.
Chamistra was inside. She’d removed her wrap and hung laid it down by my kit. I could see her form underneath the blanket on the ground. There was a small lamp next to her, which cast shadows on the wall of the tent.
“Come to me, husband,” she said to me. “Your wolf girl waits for you.” I closed the flap and went inside. Whoever came up with the phrase 'when in Rome' never had to deal with this heap of VR PTSD and sexy wife wolf women who seemed to jump gaming platforms like it was nothing. If the illusion seems real then to me it is real, or something like that, Conan the Barbarian said it and I think I know how he'd handle this situation.
As I took off my uniform, I pulled out the logbook to see if there were any updates. From what I could tell, a new cache was to be found in one of the temples close to us. I made a mental note and decided to check it out in the morning. As far as I could tell, there were no further character sheets inside the logbook. Of course things did pop up in there from time to time.
“Who are you?” I asked Chamistra as I slid next to her naked form. “You’re the same woman I was with on the mountain, but you’ve lost that youthful innocence. I saw you in real life at the park and you ran from me. What is going on in this place?”
She was on top of me in seconds. At least the blanket was pulled over the both of us and I didn’t have to worry about the VR team recording this one in vivid color. Though I suppose they'd see my boner back in the real world. Whatever, their fault for making a game about Nazi fighting and a temple of porn.
“Don’t worry,” she told me as her knees pinned my thighs on each side. “I’ll take care of you tonight.”
She did.
As I expected, Chamistra was gone when I woke up the next morning. I cleaned myself as best as I could inside the tent put my uniform on and went outside. Private Tommy was on sentry duty and stood next to the fire, which he’d allowed to go out in the evening. Next to him was a journal of some kind. It couldn’t be my logbook as I kept it in my shirt.
“Major Buttersnipe’s travel book,” Tommy informed me as I looked at it. “I’ve glanced at it this evening while I was on duty. The major had a very lively opinion of the local women. I thought you should have a look at it. Not sure I’d want his family to know about the book, but I’ll leave that up to you.”
I picked it up and looked at the entries and drawings he’d made inside it. Although the major wasn’t an accomplished artist, he was a busy man who liked to sketch all the women he’d known in graphic detail. Yes, this book should vanish rather than cause a scandal. I looked at it and wondered why the game designers had sexualized this game to such an extent. Most of the players would want action and adventure, not captured by amazons. Perhaps they were after a different market than the other company.
“Your lady left about an hour ago,” he told me. “She went down the stairs and back into the jungle. I assumed you sent her away and didn’t say anything to her.” At least he didn’t smirk, but I expected the designers did their best to keep the whole “stiff upper lip” tradition as part of the game.
“I expected she would be gone,” I told him. “Thank you just the same, Tommy. I am a bit surprised to hear she went into the jungle, but little surprises me about this location.” I rubbed my ears and pulled out the logbook to find the location of the latest plot cache.
This one was much larger than the others were when I located it. It was hidden underneath a stone panel in the floor. I lifted the panel and found a very long metal box. This one had some weight to it and gave me a little bit of trouble when I pulled it out of its hiding place. I unsnapped and opened the hinged lid to see what was hidden inside.
Inside were two Lanchester submachine guns. I picked each one up and looked at them. The guns were packed in grease and had several boxes of ammunition inside. Built for guard duty, these guns were copies of a German submachine gun and saw plenty of use in the Royal Navy. They might not have the best accuracy, but each would be valuable out here in the jungle. Our combat effectiveness rating suddenly jumped several points when I checked the logbook. I replaced the cache box under the panel and took the guns out with me to where Tommy sat on guard duty.
“Look what I found,” I said to the young man as I showed him the two submachine guns. “I don’t know how they got here, but these will come in handy.” I handed him one by the wooden handle.
“Heavy and hard to load,” he pronounced. “I would prefer a Sten gun, but I’ll take whatever we can get.” Tommy picked it up and sighted on some object in the distance.
“I’d love to try it out,” he told me, but I don’t want to give our position away.”
“Howard and the sergeant still asleep?” I asked them as I placed the spare gun down on the ground.
“Howard is up; the sergeant is still in his tent. I’ll get him up if you want me to do so.” He returned to his examination of the Lanchester gun.
I went back to my tent and pulled out my canteen. I took a swig of water and tried not to think of Chamita or Chamistra. She was the same woman last night in the tent, just a bit more experienced and mature. What happened between the time I left her on the mountain and when she reappeared as the abbess of the Hindu convent? If the story line here tied into the one on the mountain, many years elapsed. Howard acted as if they did and told me plenty of things that happened from now until he last saw me. I scratched my head and placed my officer’s hat on while I tried to piece this game together. Once I found that courier box, I intended to have word with the VR team inside Ruby and find out what the purpose of these weird plot points were. They had plenty of explaining to do to me.
As I adjusted the strap across my shirt, I turned and froze as the trees shook at the part of the jungle nearest to where we were camped on the platform next to the temples. I could see movement out there and it had a human origin. This could only mean one thing if we suddenly had visitors.
“Tommy,” I called out to him in a low voice. “Wake the sergeant. I think the Jerries are back.”
I looked down as Tommy crept over to Grom’s tent and said a few words to the sergeant. The submachine gun was right where I’d left it at the entrance to the tent. I didn’t know how effective it would be at this range, but it was the only gun I could reach. My pistol was still strapped to my side, but I didn’t want to use it unless necessary. It only carried six shots and I had no desire to reload if we were attacked by a large group of commandos. Damn, we were so close to that box, I was sure of it. If they had to pull me out of the game now, I’d never find out how I was supposed to save Wolf Mountain from erasure.
The location of Howard was revealed two minutes later when he appeared from behind one of the t
emples. He strolled into our camp and looked at the burnt-out offering in front of the shrine that Chamistra left behind.
“Appears the fruit is still there,” he announced to me. “I guess Shiva isn’t hungry as he didn’t eat it. Aren’t we supposed to be able to do that if….”
Howard’s observation was cut short when he took a round to the chest. A shot rang out from the trees where I’d seen the movement. He fell to the floor of the city. I ran to him, but he’d already bled out from the wound. It was right to the heart. Someone had rolled the dice, racked up a nice set of points, as Howard was struck clean through the chest and died instantly. Goddamn. It was just a game, but I felt a twist deep in my guts. This mattered, and I was pissed.
I dropped to the ground and grabbed his carbine with one hand. I held onto my submachine gun with the other. I couldn’t see Grom and Tommy, but I prayed they were down and out of sight too because I didn’t have a clue as to what was on the other side of that bare perimeter.
Seconds later the guns from the commando position opened up and bullets raked across the stone buildings around me. I felt myself scattered with stone chips and dust. I watched as the tent was torn apart by the combined arms fire from the Germans. I crawled in the direction of a temple, which would give me protection if I could get inside it.
I decided to try the submachine gun and see if I could earn Howard a little payback. I brought it up in the direction of the forms that moved slowly across the bare perimeter. They didn’t seem to know where I was at the moment, but they were about to find out.
The magazine, cumbersome as it was, slapped into the side of the gun. I held the wooden stock and grip tightly. I took aim down the barrel and lined it up with the forms that moved in my direction. I counted twelve of them. I didn’t think I could get them all, but I had to try.
I squeezed the trigger and fired a burst in their direction, that turned into several more bursts as my temper got the best of me. I might be playing a Brit, but I'm an American, so it was time to full auto. The smell of the gunpowder nearly choked me as I realized how close I was to the barrel. I let up from the trigger and looked in the distance. There were two less Germans and the rest were in retreat back to the forest. They didn’t expect any return fire once they reached the perimeter. To cross it could spell death. I fired off a few more bursts, but couldn’t get any more at this range. Damn, what was the rating of this gun and how many points did I have for accuracy? I needed to check that logbook again.
