“Graybeard to Haus, go private.”
“Afraid your crew is gonna hear you snivel then beg for your life?”
Graybeard tapped down his anger and his frustration, he knew his Outfit was listening and he didn’t care.
“What I’m gonna tell you my crew already knows,” Graybeard lied before continuing, “It’s in your financial interest to talk with me.”
“What if I’m not interested in finances, just in taking what’s mine—and yours?”
The Crewmen sitting on the curb safely behind the Humvees cheered, hearing Haus paraphrasing the Crewmen Motto of “what’s yours is mine” over the Day Breaker’s radios guarding them. Their guards shuffled around their surroundings, unsure of what to make of the new development while also realizing they would all be much richer now that there were fewer of them.
Ricky, sitting in his buttoned-up rig wondered what this was all about and texted Andy that the two were talking. The message came back as unsent. Andy and his team were too far in and deep underground. If the information he just heard over the radio was accurate, it was evident to Ricky that this Graybeard was down to just the five crew out here, two of whom guarded the Crewmen prisoners. Plus, the four with Andy. Ricky figured those four Day Breaker’s would never be coming out.
How easy it would be to take out the rag-tag remnants of the Outfit. He sighed. It was Andy’s show, and orders were orders. He was here to watch Andy’s six, not kill Outfitters unless they did something stupid.
“Believe me, Haus, you are gonna want to hear what I’m going to tell you.”
Haus grew curious. No doubt Graybeard would try to strike a deal or thought he had some tidbit that was going to help him, or maybe he would offer up the gold for his life.
“Haus going private.” Haus took the radio and selected Graybeard’s radio identifier, the last radio that transmitted. He pushed “ENCRPT,” to place his radio and Graybeard’s in a shared encryption mode. Doing so reduced the distance by about a third and took additional battery power. But no one could easily eavesdrop on their conversation.
Graybeard waited for the “ENCRPT” light to go on. When he did, he keyed the mic.
“Haus, you there?”
“I’m here, but save your sniveling. It’s not becoming of you and yes, I’m going to kill you regardless.”
“Sorry, but you need me around.”
“Why?”
“Because you and your helper, Les Bowen, took Crawley’s girlfriend hostage IRL.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?
“I’m waging a multi-dimensional war. There’s the fight here in the zone; then there is the fight in the real world. Separate dimensions but all related and fair game.”
“What’s it got to do with me and Crawley’s girlfriend?”
“Everything; he thinks that you and Bowen in the real world have taken her hostage while I am threatening to do him or her harm separately. What he doesn’t know and now you do is that I orchestrated her kidnapping and am framing you for it.”
“Have you gone bonkers? You’ll never get away with this. I can easily prove where I am.”
“I only need Crawley to believe it for right now, when I get the gold I’ll take it out, convert it to M-Dollars and crypto-currency will do the rest.”
“Then why do you need me? How bout I just hunt you down and kill you right now, or notify the authorities. Either way, your little delusional game is up.”
“Currently I’m under the protection of the Voracious Soldiers. I don’t think you will find that their up-armored vehicles with the heavy machine guns and explosive rounds and grenade launchers will be as easy to take down as a couple of pickup trucks. But here’s the other thing, if I don’t get the gold the girlfriend dies IRL and you get blamed, not just the digital you but the real one, at least for a time.”
“And I care why?”
“Because you will have to show yourself to clear your name or be hunted down until you are found, in the meantime the sim gets shut down. If she dies you will look complicit, no doubt Bowen will turn on you, he thinks I’m you out in the real world. You would eventually prevail but not before you are arrested and spend who knows how much time in jail, plus remember the girlfriend dies, for real. Don’t forget you had already conspired with Christopher Harvey AKA Keith to defraud Digital Adventures with inside information, did you get the news link I sent you about his unfortunate demise?”
Haus’s head was spinning. None of this made sense. Was it possible that Graybeard had this woman IRL? He had little proof but why else would Crawley of all people be helping Graybeard, a rogue adventurer, get the gold. Then there was the article about Harvey’s death, at the time he didn’t think anything of it beyond that it had a Digital Adventure’s angle, failing to realize that it was the same person who he did have an agreement with to get the gold.
Graybeard took advantage of Haus’s silence.
“Oh yes, not one death but two connected to you. And not the least of your worries was that you conspired with Harvey then he ends up dead. I know that you think none of this is provable and you are correct, but that will be after you are arrested, named and have to spend who knows how long in jail and untold amounts on legal representation.”
“What do you want. I’m not helping you with any of this.”
“I’m not asking you to. Don’t worry. I’ll take all the gold or let Crawley have his half, thinking he is delivering it to you but in fact me. What I need is for you to stay out of the scene, go away.”
Haus could not believe what he was hearing from this man who must be delusional. It was one thing when he went in with Keith to use insider information to get a significant payoff. It was quite another to kill someone in the real world. This Graybeard, whoever he was in real life had gone quite mad. The best thing he could do was get away from the whole sim but now felt paralyzed and fearful not just for himself but an innocent person. The adventure, one that he was quite accomplished at was no longer fun.
“And the girlfriend? She is not going to be harmed?”
“Bowen will follow my instructions; there is no reason to injure her, only create the illusion that she might be.”
“Was the kid that we knew as Keith an illusion?”
“That was different; he was double-crossing me, and you.”
“Yeah well, it’s all a fucking game, mate. You need to realize that.”
“No, it’s a war, it just takes place in different dimensions.”
“Just leave me out of it. I’m done playing.”
“That’s all I’m asking, Haus. Go quiet, go away, make sure your alibi is solid. For your troubles, I will see to it that you and your guys get a share, say 10% of the haul. That’s a number that should still be significant.”
“I’m not interested in blood money. I told you to leave me out of it. Working with Keith was just in the game, he offered up information, and I partook. Now that you’ve gone bloody mad I want nothing to do with any of it. I’m leaving the sim. When the authorities come calling I’ll cooperate in every way I can.”
“Have it your way, just don’t do anything stupid. If I don’t get the gold, then the girl dies.”
“Piss-off.”
Haus switched the radio off. He stared at it for a moment or two then set it down on a piece of rubble. After driving close to Heritage Square, the Crewmen leader had dismounted and moved in and around the buildings until he spotted Graybeard’s rig and the two Humvees on the main road from the Galleria parked in front of a pile of rubble from another battle.
While he was genuinely angry about the Day Breaker’s coming in and taking down his crew and taking over his turf, that was in his role as “Haus.” As much as it felt personal, what Graybeard and the Day Breakers did was fair game; they spotted an opportunity and ran with it, just as he was in hunting them down. Now he didn’t know what to feel except he wanted as much distance between himself and this sim and Graybeard as possible.
Haus had
no idea what Crawley’s chances were of getting that gold. While Nathan Lutkin, AKA “Haus,” did coordinate with “Keith,” Crawley was going after that huge trophy legitimately, for him the information that he received was all through the storyline and because of what was happening out in the real world. Part of the adventurer in him wanted Crawly to succeed and even maybe help him.
He got up from his position intending to go back to the safe house and then exit the sim. Walking around a pile of rubble, he froze at the sight of an Asian man in a dark suit materializing directly in front of him.
Chapter Forty-Six
“This is crazy. It’s nuts. I can’t take it anymore I need to get out of here!”
“Shut up; you’ll wake the DEVO’s!” One of the other Day Breaker’s hissed at the unglued man.
“He’s right; the stench is gonna make me pass out. I’m feeling dizzy and light-headed as it is. Is the boss even paying us a bonus for going with this crazy INFIL-man?” A second Day Breaker whispered while Andy and Logan scouted a path down. Occasionally they gently moved a piece of debris or some animal carcass out of the way to avoid it being stepped on or knocked down the stairs and making noise that would wake the things. With the DEVO’s packed so thick in the stairways, plus garbage and discarded meal containers pushed between them in the middle, there was no clear way down. They had no choice but to step over and around hundreds of the slumbering creatures.
The group had just, in a slow, painstaking fashion descended to the midway landing. They were halfway down the large spiraling staircase to the bottom floor of the three floors that made up the “Galleria Shops at Heritage Square.” An upscale shopping mall now filled with putrid odors and thousands upon thousands of comatose DEVO’s. The things sprawled everywhere, both in the common areas and inside the shops filled with luxury clothing, jewelry, art, and other items including several showrooms for exotic cars. The contents on display in a single window of one store might be worth thousands of M-dollars or more.
“Why don’t we just grab some jewelry for ourselves and go back up, we can say we got separated from the INFIL-rats.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna start puking my guts out soon, this ain’t safe, man.”
“Mr. Crawley, the Outfitters are getting a little crazed, they want to turn back,” Hicks said over the private team net.
“That’s normal Hicks, the chemo-signals that the DEVO’s put out is activating the fear portion of their brains, tiny as they are.”
“I dunno. Just looking at these things is making me pretty frightened myself.”
Hicks stared at a snoozing pale shirtless figure at his feet through the greenish hue of his night vision. The thing trembled with a rhythmic cadence. Most of the features remained intact leading Hicks to assume that it was taken by the virus and not converted; missing were the scars that would indicate it had been feasted on as a human. It had been some time since the virus stuck. This thing, had existed like this since then. The creature looked like he may have been anywhere from mid-thirties to mid-forties. The probationary team member couldn’t help wondering what it had been, where its family was now and what would eventually become of it.
The voice of his team leader brought him back to the present. “That’s a reasonable thought process. You’re breathing filtered air, but the Outfitters are taking it in unfiltered. It’s going to get worse, they don’t know it yet, but they are on the way to becoming DEVO’s.”
“Sir, we’re going to let that happen to them?”
“Listen to me Hicks, and you too Anderson. Coming down here like this is called DEVO’s-cide for a reason. It’s not just the danger of being taken. They exhale a gas not just through their mouths but even through their skin. In an enclosed space with so many of them, it’s quite strong and will get stronger as we go down and away from the fresher air near the surface. That outgassing produces an aroma that affects rational thinking and induces a person into a heightened level of anxiety. We need to get to the mechanical corridor before it becomes problematic. At some point, they will be overtaken by panic and try to run away; they won’t act rationally or safely, kind of like the DEVO’s.”
“They’ll endanger us then sir!”
“Yes, they will, that’s why we need to get to the shaft then cut them loose, we’ll barricade in there and climb the shaft with the gold to the third floor.”
“Why didn’t we just go from the third floor, to begin with?”
“Because this will take longer and we will get out later, and that will increase Graybeard’s problems, not the least that he will be another four Outfitters light. Plus, you two needed the experience.”
Hicks and Anderson just looked at each other and shook their heads.
“Come on let’s move,” Logan said, after coming back up the steps over the inner team net while motioning the four Outfitters to follow him down.
The eight went through the nearly cleared path. Every step had at least two DEVO’s, one laying against the right wall and another opposite laying against the left side of the four-foot high partition. It wasn’t lost on any of them that one of the creatures could suddenly awake and then latch onto them. After that, the rest would wake, and the group would have no opportunity to take cover or form a perimeter.
Anderson and Hicks wondered if the Outfitters with their street sweeper shotguns would even fall back into a defensive circle or take an everyman for themselves tactic and be disorganized. Not that it mattered, they didn’t have enough ammo to shoot themselves to safety; their only chance was to light the place up with flares. The Outfitters had even less ammo and no flares. Both Probies wondered if they could even get to their grenades if the DEVO’s grabbed onto them.
They pushed the thoughts from their minds. For the four in front of them in their limited night vision inhaling the DEVO’s gas mixed with the decaying garbage and other waste, it was the opposite situation. Every minute spent down there was affecting them in ways they could already feel. If they were on the upper floor and the exit stairs to the sidewalk were close every one of them would have made a run for it, such was their angst. The practical and self-preservation sides of their thought processes kept them from doing that, at least for now. With every minute in that environment, those thought processes slowly eroded, and the anxiety if not outright fear and panic grew.
Andy consulted his HUD as they moved through the lower level. The moving map showed that he was close to the stairs that led to the sub-basement and the location of all the mechanical spaces for the mall and the 140-story skyscraper rising above it. The DEVO’s were just as thick down here, maybe thicker.
Finally, he found the hallway that would take them to the steps. The group came to a stop after seeing what was before them. The steel door they needed to move through had a creature leaning against it. Andy and Logan looked at each other.
“We have to get through that door.”
“We can’t just move him, can we?”
“Noise and light are the two stimulants. The things sleep erratically as it is. We can prop it up while we go through. Anderson, Hicks get up here,” Andy commanded.
The two FNG’s crowded in next to Logan while Andy reached in and tried the knob, it turned, but the deadbolt above it was locked. That was both good and bad news.
Good because it meant that on the other side would not be any DEVO’s, not that they couldn’t break through it. They would if aroused. The downside was that now he had to cut the deadbolt. The torch that he drew would be quiet enough, but the bright cutting flame would wake the creatures lining the hallway.
“Get the draping out of my pack.”
Logan reached into a side pocket as Andy pushed the hand-held thermite torch against the space where the deadbolt was visible. Logan draped the black cover over Andy’s hands. The magnetic strips in the material at the edges holding it flush against the door and the frame.
“Ready?”
Logan nodded back and took a deep breath. Andy pressed the button, and the torch sho
t out a mix of vaporized metal and particulate matter through its narrow tip that focused the cutting flame onto the bolt at temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, twice the temperature required to melt steel or just about any other metal. Andy felt the door move under his left hand. He killed the torch and nodded to Logan, who just glared. The curtain had done its job in containing the light. Logan removed the draping as Andy returned the torch to a cargo pocket.
“Anderson, Hicks, grab it by the shoulders and hold him while we move through.”
“Sir?”
“You heard him, Newbie. One on each side.”
The two crouched down on either side and grabbed the thing by its shoulders and moved him gently forward as Andy pushed the door open. The DEVO’s lips trembled; a foamy drool ran from the corner of one side of its horribly scarred mouth. The whole body was vibrating as if it had the chills.
Logan moved through followed by the four Outfitters; all careful to go between the creature and the wall as they stepped sideways into the doorway.
“Let me show you a trick.” Andy crouched down and grabbed the DEVO’s by both of his shoulders.
“Let go.”
The two newbies let go and then were amazed when Andy let go as well, and the creature remained sitting upright.
“These things have a muscular stiffness that is something like rigor mortis but not as rigid. That’s why they constantly tremble and have difficulty running except in short spurts when they are crazed, or more crazed than usual.”
Andy stood up. “Let’s go.”
After the two troopers moved through the doorway, Andy followed closing the door behind him. Looking ahead he was comforted to see that there were no creatures; the floors were devoid of any of the rubbish, slime, and debris that would signify a lair.
Andy noticed something else. The four Outfitters were shaking and looking around moving this way and that like they had excess energy but didn’t know where to direct it.
METAVERSE GAMES: OMNIBUS Page 31
