by Hugo Huesca
It was too late, though. As if sensing they were discovered, the cloaking devices fell and we were suddenly in the targeting systems of six silver fighters and one mean-looking light carrier as big as Beard’s freighter.
Since we were in their sights, Rune registered us as inside a combat instance. If we logged out, our avatar’s bodies would be left to the mercy of our attacker’s. They had us trapped. And they knew it. Instead of opening fire and blowing us to all space-hell, the fighters slowly drifted toward us, careful to never let us out of their sights. The light carrier stood guard, like the queen ant placidly watching her workers get their hands dirty.
The fighters were near enough that we could see the blazons on their hulls. Those weren’t the Posse of Iron’s black and red colors. I had seen one of those fighters in Janus Station, broken and half-eaten, but I recognized the basic design here. It was the Paladin Defense Force.
I reacted with the cold-blood the situation demanded.
“What in the fuck?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Paladin Defense Force
One fighter for each of us and another one to escort them. The PDF was efficient and moved with a precision that left Posse of Iron looking like amateurs. They were at the top of Rune’s food chain and were big enough to rival the Terran Federation in military prowess.
They liked to dwell near the frontier of the Galaxy in their own quadrant of space, which they patrolled with iron-will while their mining ships sucked planet after planet dry to feed their own spaceyards and forges.
And now I was inside one of their fighters as it entered the small hangar of the light carrier. I couldn’t even reach the pilot to try and take control of the ship, since the cabin was separated from the cramped cell where I was held. It had been custom-built, I realized.
This hadn’t been an attack of opportunity. It had been well thought-out beforehand.
Out in the real world, I could hear the faint voice of Darren as he struggled with the list of names Rylena had instructed him to say.
We don’t have time for this shit, I thought. I hit my virtual forehead against the wall of the cell, hard enough to trigger my helmet’s shields (it went down a mere 1% and that was quickly regenerated).
I wasn’t left with enough time to dwell in my misery, though, because the holding cell opened without ceremony and my feet were suddenly missing the support of the floor. I was flushed out of the fighter like the cargo of a smuggler ship that needed the extra speed.
The fall lasted less than a second and the hit barely dented my shields. I looked up to several pairs of legs and boots standing in front of me.
I made an effort not to groan as I stood up. Several Paladin Defense Force officers clad in end-game gear stepped forward. A few meters to my left and right the scene was repeated with Walpurgis and Rylena. Walpurgis, I noted with a twinge of jealousy, had almost twice as many soldiers surrounding her than Rylena or I did.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys?” I blared over every open channel near my comm’s reach. “You just blew up our ship! I thought you didn’t engage in PvP unless provoked!”
It was the best I could come up with given the circumstances: feign confusion and indignation—we’re just friendly players, we have nothing to do with any Keygen, no sir…
“We’re in more important business than respecting the rules of a videogame, Cole Dorsett,” the officer told me, with a neutral voice that reminded me of the police drones in Lower Cañitas. By that I mean, this man was much colder. “Come with me. You’re in deep trouble, but you can still get out of this if you cooperate.”
“That’s what she said,” I joked over the comms, long enough for all to hear. I only got back groans from Walpurgis and Rylena’s channels and silence from everyone else.
Hey, if you can’t fake ignorance, at least fake being an idiot as your last resource. You’ll be either right or wrong soon anyway, so you have nothing to lose.
We reached the carrier’s cabin surrounded by all our escorts and I caught a glimpse of a blond woman sitting in the captain’s chair. She was smirking at me without any malice, like a predator that caught her prey with no trouble at all, but still respects the bunny for trying.
That was quick, I thought, when I realized my plan to act like an idiot backfired in the obvious way.
“Cole Dorsett. I must say, I didn’t expect to meet with you again after our last encounter. You were very helpful, I’ll grant you that. Let’s talk business, shall we?”
“Caputi,” I grunted. “I didn’t know our taxes were spent so you could get in here and play videogames.”
At the same time I spoke Caputi’s name, Rylena was saying:
“Admiral Crestienne. We meet again—”
Then we turned to each other at the same time. “What did you call her?”
“She’s Crestienne, leader of the Paladin Defense Force,” Rylena explained, “I almost joined them as their dedicated Battlemind last year, but they went with Roy—”
“Hey there!” said a smug guy with a shaved head. Roy, I presume.
“She’s Stefania Caputi, the woman who set me up and sent me to jail. She caused all this mess,” I explained in a rush.
Stefania raised her hands demanding silence, but she kept her own smug smile. “I’m both, actually. As you already know by now, Rune Universe is more than a videogame. Why are you so surprised the States are interested in keeping an eye on it? After all, their investment has paid off right now, with your presence on this ship.”
Walpurgis walked a few steps away from us and our escorts and ignored the dozens of rifles pointed in her direction. “So, everyone here is a soldier, right? A real one, I mean, not like my class. That explains why you do so well in every war.”
“Most of the Alliance is military, yes,” said Stefania —Crestienne—,” except for myself and Roy. Roy is a civilian just like you.”
“Ain’t it cool?” said Roy. He quickly shut up when he realized no one was paying him any mind.
“Listen, Stefania, we don’t have time for this. What do you want?” I said, a tad louder than I’d liked.
“The Keygen, Cole, we want the Keygen,” she said, “that must be obvious by now. But also, I want you to hang on to something, we are about to go into hyperspace.”
Then we went into hyperspace and I barely managed to stay vertical, mostly thanks to the magnetic boots of my spacesuit. The soldiers around me somehow remained perfectly still, even if they couldn’t grasp onto anything either. When the dizzying feeling of entering hyperspace subsided, Stefania began talking again:
“You made a hot mess back in the real world, you know, Cole? I’m watching the news right now in my visor, and let me tell you, it’s looking very grim for you. Go on, take a look. Your mother is on TV.”
I was reluctant to do anything that woman told me to do, but the mention of Mom was enough to make me open a window with my Internet browser and a local news stream. Stefania was right, my Mom was in front of the building, surrounded by cops and reporters. She looked distraught and had the lost gaze of someone stuck in a nightmare wondering when she could wake up.
The same reporter from before was interrogating her:
“Grace Dorsett, the mother of the presumed terrorist leader Cole Dorsett, is here at the scene and has agreed to make a statement regarding her son. Grace, according to the report you gave to Capitan Del Rio, you were long suspicious of your son’s criminal background, but were unable to act thanks to the neglect and abuse you suffered at his hands in your household. Is there anything you’d like to add?”
I could see how the police officer next to her, Capitan Del Rio, was holding her shoulder in a compassionate gesture that didn’t fool me for a second. My heart broke into a million pieces. Mom was terrified. They were coercing her into saying I was a terrorist. What would Van be going through?
“Oh boy,” said Caputi merrily, “must be a nasty shock to find out your mother thinks you’re a terrorist ringle
ader.”
“Don’t listen to her,” said Rylena over our comm’s private channel, “she’s going to tell you she can make all the charges go away if you give her the Keygen.”
“I know,” I told her without taking my eyes off the screen. Mom appeared too scared to talk. Her face was all sweaty like it had been a couple times before, during rehab. “You think she’s telling the truth?”
“No idea,” said Rylena, “she’s an excellent liar. She never even bothers to hide her vitals with a jammer or something… I guess this explains why. She has training—”
“Whatever we’re going to do,” Walpurgis said, entering the private channel, “we better do it fast, while they’re distracted. I can take the ten on the right, but I need you two to handle the thirty on your left…”
Then Mom began talking.
“I… I want to say… My son—a terrorist…” then her eyes turned to look directly to the camera and I realized she wasn’t terrified. She was getting ready for a fight. I’d seen the exact same look in Van. “That’s absolute bullshit. This asshole-of-a-cop threatened to send my daughter and me to jail if we didn’t cooperate, so I told him what he wanted to hear. It’s all bullshit, you hear?” Capitan Del Rio and two other officers tried to drag her away from the reporter, but she fought back like a maddened animal. “It’s all bullshit! Cole is a good kid, I know that! He would never do anything you’re accusing him off, you monsters! Whoever is watching this, your kids could be next! Your kids could be next! Don’t let them take him away, don’t let—”
Her voice came muffled as the officers slowly dragged her away and into the nearest police drone. The reporter had managed to avoid the attention of the police and at the same time caught everything on camera. She turned towards her audience:
“As we can see, Grace Dorsett just suffered a nervous breakdown after the shock of these events took a toll on her. As we all know, Cole Dorsett and his associates recently made a phone call threatening to kill hostages if the Egyptian government didn’t release a group of presumed rebels from their prisons—”
“What a brave woman,” conceded Stefania. She earned a blistering gaze from me that she proceeded to ignore. “I’m sorry she’s going to go to jail for aiding a terrorist group.”
I told her she could go do something nasty to her mother.
“I do wonder,” she went on, “where you got the names of those rebels? They’re not in our databases.”
“Eh,” shrugged Rylena, “I just made them up. Hoped it would get us a minute or two until your guys figured it out.”
“It probably did,” Stefania conceded. “Perhaps we still have a place for you in the Paladin Defense Force. But first, we have a more important offer to make you three.”
Rylena and I exchanged an “is this woman for real?” look.
“Give us the Keygen and work with us —I mean with the States— to enter Validore. We’ll make all charges against you go away. Your names may need to be changed, like in witness protection, but I’m sure that’s better than a lifetime in jail. Your mother certainly needs some help, Cole, as does your sister.”
“Last time, you also offered to make me rich,” I pointed out. I wasn’t paying much attention to Stefania’s offer, as I already knew the answer. I was studying the control panel next to her Captain chair, trying to find something that could save our asses.
“Last time, you weren’t a presumed terrorist,” Caputi said dryly, “so our terms have changed. Pray we don’t change them further.”
“That’s not how the quote goes,” Rylena pointed out.
This time I caught Stefania rolling her eyes for an instant before she caught herself. “You may want to strap on again,” she said, “we’re leaving hyperspace.”
Once again, she left us no time to react before the normal laws of physics —for Rune, that is— reestablished themselves in a single second. The stars appeared all around the screens as I fought to remain standing and the unmistakable sound of hyperspace-traveling was replaced by the silence of real space.
“Welcome to the Zodia System,” Caputi announced, “as you can see, we’re all ready for the party. You guys are the only detail missing.”
Out there, the Zodia System waited for us, just like Caputi had said. I recognized Zodia 3 and 4 like two bright blue and red dots in the distance, among the stars. But close to us, in the portion of space that had been empty the last time I’d visited the System…
Validore was a golden planet, one that managed to shine brightly with its own light, like a hand-crafted version of the Sun. It was smaller than Earth, but it had oceans. They were the color of molten gold and I thought I could see their currents move like a single entity even at this distance.
It was peppered with black dots all across its surface. They seemed out of place and made the planet look old and spent.
But they are moving, I realized. Those aren’t smudges in the planet, those are spaceships.
I’d recognize those black and red designs anywhere.
“What’s Posse of Iron doing here?” I asked.
“You missed the party, didn’t you?” Stefania Caputi appeared anxious to have this conversation done and over, but I recognized she was also good enough to not pressure her prey before she was ready to sink her fangs into them. “Thirty minutes can be a long time in Rune if the entire community discovers that the legendary Validore has suddenly reappeared. The forums crashed from the activity, you know? Everyone thinks this is some sort of endgame quest. All the Alliances are either here or trying to get to the Zodia System, and every lone player out there is working to bypass the blockades of the PDF.”
“You set a blockade in only thirty minutes?” asked Rylena.
“You three didn’t make things easy. But we are professionals, Irene, we can manage a crisis or two. Posse of Iron still managed to reach Validore’s orbit, since they didn’t bother setting up a blockade. So far, they are more interested in trying to make us pay them for the privilege of making landfall first.”
I realized the Posse of Iron’s presence in the System didn’t change a thing. We were still in Caputi’s hands and she would begin to squeeze soon. We needed a way out, even if we risked the Keygen doing so.
I knew Rylena had it hidden somewhere in her inventory or her suit, we had taken it out of the bank when the Diplomatic Immunity was almost finished. If we gave her enough time, Stefania Caputi would find it.
“My offer has a limited expiration date,” she went on. “This is not a game, guys. You’re not negotiating with the end-boss of some quest, you’re about to go to jail. If you don’t cooperate, I can have you hung for treason. Yes, hung, Walpurgis. We still do that, for traitors to the country. I need an answer now. Are you really what the newsfeeds are saying you are, or you are just kids caught in something more dangerous than you thought?”
Just give her the damn Keygen and be done with it, said a part of my mind that I’d heard less and less in the past month. The part of me that had its ass kicked by life one too many times and knew how little I mattered in the whole scheme of things.
I was absolutely terrified. I could hear Darren’s nervous pacing all over the room in the real world as he checked the doors and the windows. It was like time slowed down for me, a mixture of adrenaline and… Hell, for all I knew, it was Rune itself doing it. Wasn’t that why Caputi wanted to handle the secret layers of Rune’s signal herself? Because they could be dangerous? For all I knew, I was a puppet no matter how I thought of it.
Either a puppet of the woman in front of me or of a mysterious alien entity. The choice was obvious, wasn’t it?
For all I cared, they could both go fuck themselves.
“We have the Keygen,” I said aloud. I walked towards Stefania Caputi with my hands extended. Her eyes shone with triumph.
I may have been a puppet my entire life. But in this single, brief instant of time, I was the most important person in Stefania Caputi’s life. I was the one with the Key.
Would you shoot the most important person in your life?
Instead of materializing the Keygen like she was expecting, I waited until I was close enough to her and then closed my hand around her upper arm. Before she could even process what was about to happen, I turned my waist hard to the left, grabbed her with my free arm by the belly, and fucking judo-threw her into the screaming mass of angry soldier and blasters.
Hand to Hand combat skill level 50, bitch. It may not be half as high as Walpurgis’ shooting, but it was enough. No one bothers with Hand to Hand in Rune, because skill points are hard to get and there are better options. But, since I can’t shoot in a straight line to save my life…
“I HAVE THE KEYGEN, CAPUTI!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, as a series of blaster shots struck my shields over and over.
“Don’t shoot, you idiots! DON’T SHOOT!”
After all, shoot and you might lose your precious Keygen. Even if it’s not really in my inventory.
Let’s hope you don’t have enough time to figure that out, Caputi, I thought as I doubled over the command console.
“You’re killing yourself, Cole!” Stefania sounded neither calm nor collected now. She was shrieking at the top of her lungs. “You just killed yourself and your friends!”
“Yeah, well, fuck you lady,” spat Walpurgis, who had managed to use the confusion to kill the avatars of seven PDF soldiers.
I echoed the sentiment. My fingers danced briefly over the command console for exactly three seconds. Every coordinate input I randomized, except for the three that mattered:
First, turn off the ship’s shields.
Second, lower the hangar’s doors and flush everyone into outer space.
Third, jump into god-knows-where in exactly ten seconds.
I materialized my blaster and pressed it against my helmet as I turned off the shields of my own suit. “Touch me and I blow your Keygen to smithereens, Stefania.”
“What are you doing?” She realized what had just happened when the computer announced a Jump was imminent, but by that time I was already out of the cabin, unharmed. Rylena ran at full speed behind me and soon passed me.
