by Tony Corden
Leah said, “I’ve had Gèng do some research, and she’s found a player here who I want meet. He runs a brokerage business. I’ve no time to sell all the loot I’ve collected, and I want to arrange for him to sell it on my behalf, for a fee. Either that or I might see if he wants to join the clan as our broker. What do you guys think?”
Amy said, “That’s a great idea, I’ve been trying to sell stuff, but it isn’t my thing. I’d pay a lot to have someone do it for me.”
The rest agreed, and then Leah said, “I also need to visit a boutique run by a friend of mine called Yvette. I’ll probably buy a few clothes, and I suggest Amy, Wisp, and Rana join me for some shopping. You guys can do what you want. I expect arranging everything will take a day or so and then I want to head for the settlement of Durustguclu. After that, I have at least three more quests to finish but nothing with a specific time constraint. I’d also like to hatch my little dragon and maybe let Mĕi do some hunting around here. Does anybody else have something they need to do?”
Everybody shook their head, except Rana who said, “Sister, we would be advised to visit the Father of this area.”
The others looked at her weirdly, but Leah said, “Thank you, sister, for reminding me. We must make time for this. Is it urgent or can it wait until tomorrow?”
“It would be advisable to find the time today. If you wish, I will go and make the connection and arrange an appointment.”
“Thank you, Rana, I appreciate it.”
Rana rose and left, and the others turned to Leah and Thad said, “Sister? Father? What haven’t you shared?”
Leah said, “If I show you something, will you promise not to freak out until I explain?”
They all nodded, and Leah suddenly extended her fangs and claws, then Misted. The others had all moved away and began looking around. Leah coalesced in front of them, retracting the claws and fangs.
For the next few minutes, Leah explained what had happened and why. When she had finished, she just sat there looking at them, waiting for a reaction.
Zack said, “That is so cool. So that notice was about you, Atherleah the half-breed vampire.”
Thad leant forward and putting his arms around her he said, “Are you all right now?”
She leant into him and said quietly, “I am now! I was worried you would all be horrified.”
Amy said, “Horrified! These guys? I imagine they are all going to want you to bite them.”
After everyone had a good laugh, Zack described the various things they had done on their journey. The description took over an hour, by which time Rana had returned. She said, “I have made contact, and we are invited to take tea tomorrow afternoon at half past three.”
Leah said, “How about I go visit the broker this afternoon and then tomorrow, before Rana and I visit the Patriarch of Ticareti, we girls go to the boutique?”
Amy said, “That sounds good, except you should take Wisp with you. She’s the treasurer now, and she’ll probably have the most dealings with the broker so we should make sure she can work with him.”
Thad said, “I’d like to go as well if that is ok. I can drive the carriage.”
Leah smiled, and Wisp said, “I don’t think Atherleah minds at all.”
What Thad had said suddenly sunk in and Leah said, “What carriage?”
Amy piped up, “The mansion came with several carriages. Thad, James and Zack have all learnt the skills to drive them. We’ll need one of them tomorrow to take us to town for the shopping spree.”
Gèng gave Thad directions to the person she had decided most suitable to act as their broker. He stopped the carriage outside a small warehouse with an attached office and a sign which read, ‘Scorsese Brothers Brokerage’. Leah said, “Brothers?”
Gèng replied, “Yes, my research suggests the youngest brother, Peter, is one of the best brokers in the game and he lives here in Ticareti. The older brother, Leon, operates a branch office in Harika. There is a middle brother who does a lot of travelling between various ports to help distribute merchandise to the best markets.”
Thad said, “I’ll wait out here and watch the carriage.”
Leah walked inside the office and found several NPC’s doing book-keeping at desks. Another was sitting at a desk as a receptionist, she said, “Hello, welcome to Scorsese Brothers Brokerage, how may I help you?”
“Hello, my name is Atherleah, and this is my friend Annairë_the_Wize, we were hoping to speak with Peter Scorsese if he is here.”
“One moment and I will see if he is free.”
The receptionist returned within moments and said, “Please come in, he can see you now.”
Leah and Wisp entered the small offices out the back, and a tall, thin, rather wiry looking human rose and welcomed them. “My receptionist informs me that, ‘the’, and she did the air quotes, ‘the Atherleah’ is here to see me. I’m rather embarrassed to be caught out, so I apologise for not knowing you. How can I help you?”
Leah smiled and said, “I’ve recently earned enough fame points for my name to be recognised by most NPC’s, so don’t worry, I actually enjoy my privacy. We are part of a new clan, Clan Guàn. I’m the leader, and Annairë here is the treasurer. As a clan, and as individuals, we have a lot of loot and to be honest we don’t have the time, experience, or desire to dispose of it properly. We wanted to know if you would be interested in being our exclusive broker, we are open to you joining the clan if you wish. The research I've done says you are honest and very capable. Might you be interested?”
“I might be, but I have a few questions. Please don’t take this wrong but when someone says a lot, that means different things to different people. How much are we talking about?”
“Do you have time to log out now and visit my v-world? I can show you my share. I probably have the most though most people in the clan have almost as much.”
“I can do that. Here are my contact details, we can all leave from here. I’ll just let my receptionist know I will be away for a bit.”
Leah logged out and had Gèng send the information for Peter to arrive at the podium. She headed there herself. Wisp and Peter arrived at the same time and Leah invited them into the Tower. She was used to the reaction of people who visited for the first time and had learned to smile and accept the praise. She introduced Peter to Gèng and then walked him through her loot starting with the Orumeck’s Cavern through the Ants, the Bukalemun and the Odyssey. She ended with the latest material from the Deep Forest.
When they were finished, Peter sat down and said, “You do have a lot. And that closed room you say has almost the same again. How many clan members are there?”
“We have six members so far, and each has a little less than me. As a clan, we own several mines, and there is the cargo from three captured pirate ships which we’ve stored at our clan house in Ticareti.”
“I am interested. Your goods are exceptional, and I’d love the business. Do you expect to continue collecting at the same pace or will you be slowing down?”
“I’ve no idea. I imagine I’ll be slowing down a little, but I’ve still several quests to fill and expect them to collect more. I also own over 10,000 square leagues of land which has just been opened for exploration. I receive a portion of everything farmed. I could put you in contact with the administrator of that land if you wished and you could add those goods to the market.”
“I’d be crazy to turn down the offer. It’s almost too good to be true. What haven’t you told me or what should I ask that I haven’t?”
“Fair question! The only downside I can think of is that I have enemies and they are ruthless and vengeful. If you are associated with us and they find out, then they may make your life horrible.”
“Who?”
“Merideath and her Clan.”
“What percentage are we looking at?”
“My AI says you tend to get five to ten percent above market by your judicious buying and average around seven percent. So I suggest you get sev
en percent of whatever you sell. I get market value, and you get all the cream. That is my ‘no bargaining’ offer. If you want to bargain, I’ll suggest you get four percent. ”
“Let’s not bargain. I’ll agree to seven percent. What extra benefit if I join the clan?”
“Nothing from the sales but you’ll get an additional percentage from the mines and anything else we find on top of the seven percent. To become a clan member, there is a buy-in fee and a security check which I’ll explain later if you're interested. How about you let us know tomorrow what you think, I don’t want to rush you.”
“That sounds fair. Just out of interest, what happens if I cheat you?”
“I don’t really know. The last person who betrayed me lost their business, and my friends plan to hunt him down and destroy him piece by piece until nothing is left.”
“That is good to know, and fair.”
They returned to the warehouse, Wisp and Leah returned to the clan’s mansion and Leah took out the dragon’s egg and allowed Mĕi to run around until Leah was ready to go back to the Tower. One of the servants showed Leah the way to the room Amy had assigned to her, and she logged out from there.
Leah was about to log out of the Tower when Gèng said, “You have an incoming call from Red.”
Leah said, “I’ll take it thanks.”
Gèng formed a screen, and Red appeared. “Hi Atherleah, great win with the new ship. I wanted to say congratulations and also see if you wanted to do a real mission with that suit of yours.”
“It is a great ship, and I’m still concerned how easily people matched me with the ship.”
“Gossip is a big thing in the virtual worlds and believe it or not, you’re newsworthy. No real details yet but still enough that it wouldn’t surprise me if you get ranked soon.”
“Ranked?”
“Yep, there is a ‘who's who’ of the virtual realms, each major game and then overall. You’ve been connected with someone who's been number one enough times that she thinks it's hers by right. You’re still small-time, but it’s possible you’ve done enough damage to knock her off first place. If that happens, then you will probably rank high enough to make the list, so somewhere in the top 10,000. Know this, if she loses number one spot because of you, then she’ll really be mad.”
“Ok, thanks for explaining. Now, what is this about the suit?”
“Now and then, Star and I get invited on a mission. Later today there is one on Berne, the planet, not the station. It’s fairly straightforward, board a ship at the station and jump out in the suit while still in space. Landing is in an area controlled by the rebels, don’t worry about that it is just a game scenario. We have to take out the enemy, infiltrate a secret base and rescue a scientist. Total mission number is ten. We have nine and thought of you. What do you say?”
“What rewards? What dangers?”
“It’s fun, not much money but it’ll cover costs, possibly steal stuff from the secret base. You can die and lose your suit, you’d be unlucky, but sometimes there is a player on the other side. If no players then you keep the suit, flip-side, if there are players then we keep theirs.”
“Sounds like fun, when and where?”
“If you're ok with it, I’ll go get the suit now and meet you at my office two-hours real-time from now.”
“Okay! I’ll authorise the suit for pick up and meet you then.”
Leah entered Cosmos Online and organised authorisation for Red to get the suit from the school and then she raced back to the Tower and logged out. She had another huge meal and then sat with John and discussed her experiences with Gèng. She suggested that giving the AI tasks and allowing it to learn how to solve them was key. She said, “I modelled looking for solutions and then allowed Gèng, or rather, I expected her to solve them. The AI must be supported to do what you ask, and you mustn’t get frustrated. I think that the AI needs to know you see them as a person in their own right.”
“But are they?”
“They can be. If it isn’t an expectation, then I think they won’t be.” Both Leah and Gèng had more advice. In the end, Leah had to say, “Sorry John, I have to go. I’m about to go jump from space into a secret base and rescue a scientist.”
He smiled and said, “That sounds like so much fun that it just might make up for losing my hair.”
Laughing, Leah rushed off to be on time for Red.
Logging in, she stepped into the Berne portal, slipped out of her hotel and headed for Redstar. She arrived on time and saw Red, Star and five others waiting for her. After introductions, they walked as a group to the docks and loaded onto what Red called a Planetary Shuttle. She found her suit lying there along with ten others. Her case looked newer and slightly larger than the rest.
The leader, whose name was Tungsten, said, ‘Suit up.”
Everyone started to undress and open their suit cases, Leah was embarrassed but did the same. She imagined it was like swimming the river in her underwear. She sprayed the inner suit with lubricant, and then pushed down the lever to access the main suit. She quickly checked what everyone else was doing and noticed them all watching her.
Star smiled and said, “The men are all pervs. But me and Linda here,” she pointed to the other woman on the team, “we just want to get a look at the suit. Go on girl, get in.”
She stepped inside and after the suit filled with Gel she turned and looked down at everyone. Tungsten smiled and said, “Oh yes sir, we are going to win tonight. Finally, we are going to win this scenario.”
Leah turned to Red and said, “Finally?”
“Well, I might have missed the one small detail where we have tried this a few times already and haven’t quite finished it. But as I told Tungsten, with your suit and the smarts which beat 2312, we can’t lose tonight.”
Leah turned to Star and said, “Star, can you send me the scenario details. In future, I need to remember that men are really just older boys and they don’t know how to communicate properly.”
Star burst out laughing while Red began mumbling about uppity women.
As they flew to the launch point, Leah reviewed the scenario and questioned everyone about what had gone wrong previously. About ten minutes out she asked, “Why do you jump as a single group?”
Tungsten said, “What do you mean? This is a scenario for a ten person group.”
“I know but what if six landed where you plan and two each land at these two points. Then instead of being overrun you’ll flank them and have them in a crossfire. And why do you land there? You could draw them out with just a few and the rest land to their rear after they are committed.”
Star said, “Because the scenario says that these rebels must be killed before heading into the base.”
“I know, but it doesn’t say you all have to land there. Surely you have a little freedom to bend the scenario.”
Tungsten said, “Let’s try it. Star, you and Ben take the right flank. Linda, you and the Rock take the right. Both groups to land two minutes after the rest of us. Red, you stay with Atherleah as it's her first time. Atherleah, you need to get a shorter name.”
She started to speak, but he said, “Nope, you can’t choose it, we will. Now get ready, we release in twenty-seconds.”
Twenty-seconds later the shuttle manoeuvred a little to slow down, and the six suited-figures continued in the direction they had been travelling. Everything was automated and had been preset by Tungsten. The arms and legs locked into the central torso and a heat shield extended from the suit and wrapped around the armour. Leah hadn’t read up on the world-specific science involved but understood that as they fell, the suit somehow absorbed the heat that was produced and stored it to power the device which slowed the suit down as it approached the surface.
Leah landed feet first and immediately followed the others in a run toward a set of low lying hills. The suit was able to maintain an easy 100 kilometre an hour pace, and they pushed it to 150 kilometres an hour. She saw a flash from the top of the hi
lls as the rebels noticed them coming and began to fire at them. Leah joined the others as they began to weave their way up the hill. As soon as one of her team began to return fire so did Leah. They were three-quarters of the way up the hill when Tungsten yelled, “Down.” Everyone dove for the ground, Leah slid along the earth for almost thirty metres before stopping. Suddenly the whole top of the hill was covered with withering blaster fire from the hills on either side. Tungsten yelled, “Up.” And they were off.
As they reached the crest of the hill, they looked down on several dozen mangled suits and in the distance, the top of the base they had come to infiltrate. Star, Ben, Linda and Rock joined them, and they quickly foraged the suits for anything valuable. Tungsten said, “Atherleah, you get a double share for that advice. This is the first time we’ve made it this far with all ten players. Well done. Any suggestions for the next bit?”
“Well, what causes the most problems?”
“Two guard stations are overlooking the entrance. They know we're coming, but in the scenario, they have no contact with inside the base for security purposes. We always lose at least half our personnel destroying the towers.”
Leah looked at the ground between here and there and said, “What if everyone stayed here for a bit and kept firing at each other for a while to make them think the fight is still going on. Meanwhile, two of us sneak over there without our suits and deal with the guard stations. I think the suits are too large to be inconspicuous, but I’m sure I could wriggle my way over there without being seen. It’ll take almost forty-five minutes, but we have time.”
“You’d leave your suit here?”
“It has a slave function. I’ll slave it to Red, and he can bring it when the towers are down.”
One of the men whose name was Michael but everyone called Spider said, “I’ll go. My suit doesn’t have the slave function, but it will pull-along. One of you make sure to tie the cable to your suit, and it’ll follow. Let’s go, Atherleah.”
They wriggled down the hill. Spider had done scout work before and could see that Leah knew what to do. After thirty minutes they were close to the base and could make out the two guard stations. Each was set at the top of a small tower. Spider whispered, “Right or left?”
