On the second floor, he began going from room to room. There were many guest bedrooms and sitting rooms and all sorts of other rooms. Then he reached a different wing and saw that there were guards at the entrances.
As quickly and quietly as he could, he slipped right between the two guards and began searching the rooms. He immediately realized that these must be the royal quarters, judging by the sheer opulence of the rooms.
Then he ran into a problem. There was a wide hallway that led to three sets of double doors. There were doors on either side of the hallway, about halfway down. The final set of double doors was at the end of the hallway. And there were two guards in front of the doors.
The problem was the doors were all shut. If he opened any of them, the guards would be able to see. Even in a world of magic, a door opening seemingly by itself would get the guards attention and they’d come to investigate.
He looked at the three doors again. As he looked harder, he could make out crowns above each door. These were the royal bedrooms. They had to be. And that would explain the guards. The room they guarded was probably the king’s bedroom.
He backtracked and looked to see if there was access to a balcony he could use to try and climb over to any of the rooms. Unfortunately, there was nothing accessible from any of the rooms he found.
If he wanted access to those bedrooms, he’d need to think of some way to distract the guards so he could peek into the rooms. And Jace would need to do it soon. Damian could already be at WorldCog, trying to move the Help Desk.
But how could he distract the guards without giving himself away or causing an alarm. He’d been very lucky so far, but he wouldn’t want to test his luck. The last thing he needed was for someone to raise an alarm and have the place swarming with guards.
He looked through his equipment, but he’d left most of it back at the manor. He didn’t have much that could cause a distraction. Then Luna shifted in his arms and he looked down at the cat hidden under his cloak.
Luna might be able to create a diversion. But how? What was the best way to use her? As he thought about it, a plan began to emerge. And it just might work.
Chapter 58
Jace strode around the corner and into the hallway containing the royal bedchambers. As he did, the two guards stood up straighter and eyed him. Making sure he looked extremely obvious, he looked up and down the hallway.
Jace took a moment to examine both of them in his HUD to get their names. Then, he called out to the guards. “Zachary. Braiden. Have you seen an orange tabby cat?”
The two guards looked at him in confusion. So far, his plan was working. He’d used the hat to disguise himself in the same uniform he’d seen on the other guards. At the moment, he looked like a nondescript royal guardsman. And by using their names, he had created a false sense of familiarity.
“A cat?” asked the taller of the two guards, the one named Zachary.
Jace let out a sigh of frustration. “Yeah, some Duke or Earl or something gave the princess a cat for her birthday. She went crazy over it. But the thing ran off and now she’s downstairs in the ballroom bailing her eyes out. Captain said he’d give whoever finds it a week of paid leave.”
Just as he hoped, both guards perked up. The shorter one, Braiden, looked skeptical. “The captain’s going to give a week of leave. That doesn’t sound like him.”
“I know,” Jace shrugged. “But the queen is upset because the princess is crying at her birthday and you know how the king gets when the queen’s upset.”
The two guards gave him knowing nods. It had been a guess, a gamble based on how the king had acted when they’d met. Jace figured that he was the type of many who would get anxious or upset when his wife was upset. The guards seemed to have just confirmed it.
“Well,” Jace said. “I’m going to keep looking. I want that week of leave!”
With that, he turned and went back down the hall and turned the corner. As soon as he did, he put the cloak back on and went into Stealth. He looked down at Luna, who had been waiting for him just around the corner.
“Remember,” he told her mentally. “Wait until I give you the signal. Then casually walk down the hall until they chase you. I need you to lead them into a few rooms and stay away from them as long as you can. If they catch you, let me know and I’ll dismiss you.”
Luna looked up at him and cocked her head. “Yes.”
“Wait for my signal,” he told her and then slipped back around the corner, concealed by his cloak. He walked to the first set of double doors and got as close to the wall as possible. Then he gave Luna the signal. A few moments later, she walked around the corner and began coming down the hallway.
It seemed to take the guards a few seconds to register what they were seeing, but then the taller guard elbowed the other one. “Hey Braiden, is that the orange cat? The one the princess is looking for?”
The other guard’s eyes went. “How many orange cats do you think there are in the palace?”
“Come on,” Zachary said. “Let’s get it.”
“We’re not supposed to leave our post. You know that,” Braiden argued, though Jace could see the conflict on his face.
“You stay then,” Zachary smiled. “I’ll get the week of leave.”
“Oh no you won’t,” the other guard said and they both started towards Luna. “Here kitty, kitty.”
Luna played her part perfectly. She sat down and looked at them approach. Just as they came within a few feet of her, she bounded off down the hallway and the guards ran past Jace as they gave chase.
“Come here kitty!” he heard one of them yell as they turned the corner.
Wasting no time, Jace opened the closest door, the one on the right, and ducked into the room. He scanned the room but saw no secret doors. He did see that this room had several other rooms attached to it and he quickly searched them as well.
Judging by the decorations and the paintings, Jace guessed this was the queen’s room. That meant the room across the hall was the princess’ bedroom. He cracked the door open and made sure the hallway was still clear and then moved across to the princess’ room.
The princess’ room was nearly identical in setup to the queen’s room, but it definitely had a younger motif to it. There were horses, unicorns, and other creatures a teenager might like. There was also a flyer of Dwarven Thunder next to her dressing table. He’d have to tell Thedrir - if he ever saw the dwarf again.
Unfortunately, he saw no secret doors in her room either. He checked the bath chamber, a sitting room and finally, he checked her walk in closet. That’s when he saw it. The far wall of the walk-in closet was glowing. Could that be it?
Excitedly, Jace went to the back wall and began searching for a way to open the secret door. It took him a moment, but he found a stud that clicked when he pushed it. The secret door opened up into a small room round with only one furnishing.
In the middle of the room was a small, oak desk with a stack of parchment and a quill. He’d done it. Jace had found the Help Desk.
Rushing over to the desk, Jace sat down and picked up the quill. He grabbed one of the pieces of parchment and began writing.
“I need to speak to someone in support.”
He waited. And waited. Several minutes went by and Jace began to think that perhaps the Help Desk had finally been decommissioned permanently. Then, letters appeared underneath his.
“This is Paige with VEIL support.” The writing stopped momentarily and then resumed. “How are you accessing this chat?”
Impatiently, Jace replied. “I found the Help Desk in the Royal Palace in Whitecliff. I need your help. This is urgent.”
There was a long pause.
“One moment. I am getting a supervisor.”
Jace tapped his fingers on the desk as he waited several more minutes.
“This is Ethan. I am a supervisor here at VEIL support. You said you have an urgent issue. Can you please describe the problem you are having? But please be aware,
we no longer support this channel so any further communications will have to be done on the support site.”
“There is a man named Damian Morfran who works for WorldCog. He has modified the insertion routine so that people with money are being inserted into the game as monster AIs while he gets all of their assets. He’s on his way to the office right now to move this Help Desk.”
There was a pregnant pause before Ethan responded.
“Is this some sort of joke?”
“No, the dragon that is headed to Whitecliff is being controlled by a player. That’s why no one has been able to stop it. They’re not bound by the normal rules. They don’t have to use special abilities and special attacks at certain intervals.”
There was a long pause.
“Who is this and how do you know this?”
“This is J….” Jace started to write but realized he’d almost told them his real name. He remembered just in time that he needed to be Jace’s twin brother. He tried to come up with a name that began with J and wrote the first thing that came to his mind.
“This is Jynx Burton,” he wrote. “I am Jace Burton’s twin brother. Damian tried to kill Jace and he’s in a coma. He worked with Damian on a WorldCog troubleshooting team and found out about the code. That’s when Damian tried to kill him.”
Jace paused and thought about what else he could write. “There are lots of people trapped in monster bodies. Every time they die, they get put into a new random body. And they’re set at 100% sensory feedback. It’s hell for them. I think it’s driven some of them crazy.”
“How do you know this?” came the response.
Thinking only briefly, he decided to go all in with his lie. “My brother was trying to get evidence against Damian before he was put in a coma. I was helping him. He explained it all to me.”
“And you said Jace Burton works for WorldCog?”
“Yes, he works or worked for them,” Jace wrote back. “As a junior programmer on one of the troubleshooting teams. It’s the same team as Damian Morfran. Damian has stolen millions of dollars - including the money from an author named Anika Holden who writes romance novels under the pen name Diana Stewart.”
There was another long pause. Then something started to happen. The room started to stretch, and he felt a wrenching sensation. He managed to keep hold of the quill. “Help. Something is wrong with the room.”
“Someone is trying to move the Help Desk,” Ethan wrote back. “We’re trying to lock it into place. If we get disconnected, we’ll look into this. You’re inserted?”
“Yes.”
“Can you make it back to this Help Desk or another?”
“I don’t know.”
“We’ll try to have someone contact you in-game….”
And then suddenly Jace felt a wrenching sensation and he was flying out of the room. Things seemed to whirl around him for a moment. Then he blinked and found himself on the floor of the walk-in closet, lying on his back. Painfully, he pushed himself up and looking around, he found his glasses.
He put the glasses back on and wasn’t surprised to see that the back of the closet no longer glowed. The secret door was gone. The Help Desk had been moved.
Damian must have gotten into the WorldCog building and managed to move the Help Desk, just as he said he’d do. But Jace had actually gotten to it first. He’d talked with support. He’d told them about the people and about Damian’s thefts. Jace grinned. Damian had been too late.
But would support believe him? Would they look into Damian? Hopefully, they’d at least look into the insertion routine. Once they found the obfuscated code, they’d have to do a full investigation.
How long would that take? And how did Jace avoid Damian until they figure out what was going on? He was contemplating those questions when he heard voices outside the princess’ room.
“Where are Zach and Braiden?” a gruff voice demanded. “Why did they leave their posts? You two, search the queen’s chambers and the princess’.”
Jace began to panic. If there were guards out there, he may not have a way out. He needed to think of something quickly. And then, like a thunderbolt hitting him, he came up with the perfect idea.
Thinking back to what Damian’s dark elf had looked like, Jace willed himself to look as close to him as possible - all the way down to the clothes. He heard the door open and he stepped out of the closet and startled two guards who were just coming in. He reached over to the princess’ dressing table and grabbed a pearl necklace that was laying out.
“A souvenir of the evening,” he said. “Something to take back to Shiedrigish.”
Then he rushed forward and darted between the two guards, doing a somersault between them, and coming up in the hallway. He looked down the hallway and saw Captain Avolin at the door to the king’s bedroom. Just as the captain looked his way, Jace used his Vanish skill and disappeared.
He ran down the hall and around the corner. As he rounded the corner, Jace equipped the cloak and dropped into Stealth. He disappeared and threw himself against the wall as the captain and two guards rushed past him.
“Was that the ambassador?” the captain was saying.
“Yeah,” said one of the guards. “I think it was. He said something about Shiedrigish.”
“Where did he go?” the other guard asked.
“Sound the alarm,” the captain yelled. “We have an intruder!”
Jace let them go around the next corner and then slipped into a side room. It was a guest bedroom and Jace remembered it had a small balcony. He went out to the balcony and, after making sure there were no guards below, he jumped down to the ground.
The moment he hit the ground, he entered Stealth again and started to make his way back around the garden. As he crept along, he remembered to dismiss Luna. Apparently, she was still leading the guards on a merry chase.
As he saw the message, letting him know that she had been dismissed, alarm bells began ringing around the courtyard.
Chapter 59
Willing the visage of the dark elf to vanish, Jace reverted back to his normal appearance. He entered Stealth and moved out to the wall which surrounded the palace. He followed the wall around to the gardens. When he reached them, he halted.
Ducking behind some large shrubs, he removed his cloak and stowed it back into his inventory. He started to leave the cover of the foliage when he had a thought. If he was questioned and they had that high-level truth detecting priest, Jace needed some plausible version of the truth he could tell them.
He removed the hat and stuffed that into his inventory as well. His hair no longer looked slicked back, but he was fine with that. Jace had done what he’d needed to do. He’d contacted support and told them about the insertion routine and Damian’s illegal activities. Now, he just needed to get out of here.
Damian would be coming after him. He was sure of it. Whether to cover his tracks or just out of revenge, the older programmer would want to find him and eliminate him. Jace didn’t know exactly how Damian might do that, but considering what he’d done to the insertion routine, Jace had to assume Damian would have something nasty in the game.
He and the girls needed to disappear. And they needed to do it tonight. Damian knew his character name now. With that information, he could easily trace Jace and possibly the girls as well. They’d need to change their names and they’d need to do it now.
Taking a deep breath, Jace emerged from behind the shrubs. He’d barely taken two steps when a gruff voice called out. “You there. What are you doing?”
Jace turned to see a guard who had been standing on the other side of a tree. He’d missed spotting the guard and now he needed to think quickly. Luckily, an idea came to him quickly.
“I’m looking for my familiar,” he told the guard and made a show of looking around. “It’s an orange tabby cat and I can’t find it anywhere.”
“An orange tabby, you say?” the guard said suspiciously. “Come with me.”
Jace sighed and f
ollowed the guard. He realized that using Luna as his excuse had been a bad idea considering he’d used her as the distraction in the palace. He was undoubtedly being taken to be questioned. Mentally, he went over his story and began to formulate the most truthful version of events he could tell, without actually telling the entire truth.
The guard took him back the way he’d come and around to a different side entrance where a group of guards waited. They approached and the guards suddenly became more alert.
“Wyatt, who’s that?” said one of the group, a sort skinny fellow.
“He was in the garden, Sergeant” the guard accompanying him, who Jace now knew was named Wyatt, replied. “Said he’s looking for an orange tabby cat?”
The guards exchanged grim glances. The sergeant motioned for one of the other guards. “Parker, go fetch the captain.”
The sergeant stepped closer to Jace and looked him up and down. “And who are you, sir?”
“Sir Jace Burton, Baronet,” Jace replied. There was no use in lying since the captain would know him. Plus, if they brought one of those truth priests, he wouldn’t get away with any lies anyway.
“And what were you doing in the garden? Away from the other guests?” the sergeant asked.
“I was looking for my familiar,” he told them. “I noticed she was missing. Earlier she had attacked one of the fish illusions in the fountains and I thought she might be trying to go after another one.”
“I see,” the sergeant said. The man seemed about to ask another question when the door behind them opened and the captain and two more guards appeared.
Captain Avolin looked at Jace and rolled his eyes. “Why do you always seem to be in the middle of some sort of trouble?”
Jace smiled at the captain and shrugged. “I didn’t realize I was in the middle of any trouble this time. I was just looking for Luna, my familiar.”
“An orange tabby cat?” the captain said.
“Yes,” Jace nodded. “I haven’t seen her for some time.”
Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 37
