KILLER GAMERS

by D Gemcats Purcell

  They left the office separately in two groups just as they’d come so as not to arouse unnecessary suspicions. The drive back was silent for the Lieutenants and Superintendent Boggin, but full of discussion among Six. They must have seemed supremely quiet to their mates from Threeme. Just as they were about to pull into the headquarters of their Securinet headquarters, the information sought by the Lieutenant came through. Their target Cayle was just seen leaving his new workplace heading to his usual pub presumably for drinks and dinner with a friend. So they swung the autos around and headed there. The Lieutenant warned that the destination was one that gays and lesbians frequented. So the next question was from Dillion, “Can we find out all about Robert Fuschon and his social habits, like does he go to gay bars too?” The Lieutenant made the call and a review of Robert’s trail based on vidphone tracing showed that maybe once every two weeks he went to that same bar Luigi’s. He seemed to frequent other similar establishments too.

  Jonah and the Lieutenant made the one block walk to Luigi’s and entered the darkened hall, making out a less than half empty place with lots of empty seats. It seemed quite informal and so they sauntered over to a cubicle close to two men who were engaged in earnest conversation. Jonah started to hone in. A server headed in their direction. Jonah immediately put a brake on that. He mentally directed the fellow to visit the restroom with an urgent bladder situation. Boggin sat quietly hoping Jonah would give some direction, which he did by abruptly getting up and walking over to a little nook with two men casually relaxing over a beer. Jonah and Boggin towered over the two and Jonah said, “Cayle, can we take a moment of your time for a few questions?” Jonah said, “Superintendent Boggin and I are investigating a murder and we know you’re not a suspect, but you may be able to give us a lead.” Cayle screwed his eyes to slits and said, “I do recognize you from the news Superintendent and I’ll be glad to help. Excuse me Taylor, I’ll be right back.” He looked at Jonah, “This isn’t going to take long, is it?” Jonah said, “Ten questions maybe and full disclosure, we are recording everything.” He said, “I haven’t killed anyone, so nothing to fear here, so record away. If I say no, you’d have ways of making me talk anyway right.” The Superintendent nodded affirmatively.

  They walked back to a vacant four seat cubicle and with Cayle facing the two of them, Jonah asked, “Did you work for Satvid a few years ago?” He answered, “Yes, for a little over one year.”

  “How did you get that job?” he said, “This bloke Robert Fuschon who owns it, met me at one of these bars and I knew of him from mutual acquaintances. He knew that I was trying to break into the programming business and he got me on board for a pittance. He was an odd bird I discovered though. He was a new startup, but was very viciously trying to break into the video development market with mediocre offerings. He seemed inclined to break the knees of his competition if he could. “Did you date Amy at Truereal?” He answered, “Yes, only at the request of Robert. I have always wondered what he was up to. I never told her. She was such a nice girl. He had me date her and slip a memory stick into their finishing terminal for one minute. I assumed he was trying to steal some of their ideas. Then I had to break up with Amy and quit. He did pay me quite handsomely though and got me another job that turned out to be more legit. I don’t hang out with him, even though I may see him occasionally in the distance. Bitter dude!”

  Jonah asked, “Do you have the disc?” He said, “No of course, I had to give it back to him the next day.” Jonah heard him in his head, so said, “Where is the copy you made for your protection?” Cayle’s face went through a few different expressions, like coy smile, then puzzlement, then hardened denial, “What makes you think that I would have a copy eh?” Jonah cocked his head to the side, looked at him long and hard peering into his eyes until Cayle blinked at the obvious invasion. Jonah said, “Please hand it to the Superintendent now. It is the least you can do.” Cayle sat there staring intently through the glass window behind his questioner’s head deciding. Finally he reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his wallet and fishing between some of its contents gently placed a tiny disc on the table. Jonah said as the superintendent reached for it with a napkin to scoop it up, “Believe it or not, this is going to be helpful to unravel some issues and we thank you for your help. Be available if we call you to testify. Do not call or in any way contact Robert or anyone else.” He said, “I understand.” Cayle got up and walked back to his friend Taylor who was waiting for him at their table.

  The superintendent and Jonah were just walking out when the server came running up behind them. He said, “Is there anything I can get you blokes?” Jonah turned and said, “Thank you but we spoke to our buddy over there already. That’s all we needed.” The poor fellow watched as his hoped for tip walked away. Back at the auto, they popped back inside and Boggin asked for an evidence bag from the Lieutenant dropping the disc into it. He was obviously bursting with questions. Jonah had already filled in the others in Six with the details already. Jonah threw him a bone. “That disc is likely to contain the damaging codes that infected five different video games that went out throughout all three planets and led to all of these murders. Cayle was paid to plant it into Truereal’s system by Robert. We will now need to see if we can get Robert red handed with evidence. Tomorrow we must visit Michael in prison early in the morning so that we can personally rule him out as playing any part in this.”

  20. SUPERINTENDENT BOGGIN MATURES

  The Superintendent was coming around, he was making the connections and Six would guide him gently so that he could take full ownership, “So we need to find evidence that Robert did have the know how by doing research on how to do this type of destructive coding, and that he worked with it to weaponize it and that he arranged to have it planted. Then he cloned that fellows vidphone to pretend to be him. We need to find him researching the poisons used and coding for it to be planted into the video games. We need to find evidence that he has practiced cloning fingerprints of others and could have planted Michael’s over at the dead bloke’s apartment. We will be working all night on that. Plus we must now focus on keeping Robert’s whereabouts on our radar constantly in case he gets spooked or tries to hurt Cayle.” Jonah simply shook his head and nodding to the Lieutenant at the wheel said, “Your heard your boss, there’s a lot to be done. We of Team Six need food, showers and rest. We will let you guys know if there is any other angle and if you think we can help in anyway, let us know okay.”

  The Lieutenant Shoneburger driving said, “We can get you into Millcreek Penitentiary by 0630am tomorrow by special dispensation from the warden since the superintendent’s office requested. I will go with you to record the conversation.” Jonah said, “I will carry the recording device but there isn’t going to be anything he’ll say that he hasn’t said before. It’s all about us getting the real culprit tied up and your Superintendent Boggin has a plan for that. Before you and your Superintendent spring the trap on little angry Robert man though, we of Six would like to speak to him face to face, likely the day after tomorrow. We are very likely to be able to help you pin down certain details. It may even be tomorrow afternoon, if you gentlemen or ‘blokes’ as you seem to like to say over here make great progress tonight and into the midday period tomorrow.” The Lieutenant part way turned around with an expression of disbelief at that. They had been thinking of how much progress had been made in just hours already. The Superintendent also turned around from the front seat to look at Jonah, Cherese and Jessi. He said, “You all really do work fast, I am amazed. How can you be so cocksure though? Like this afternoon at the bar, how did you know that that bloke Cayle would have the goods on him?” He asked a bit challengingly. Jonah looked unsmilingly at him and said, “How bad do you really want to know? Full disclosure, you will regret it!” Boggin shook his head, “I’ll take my risks, it’s important for me to be sure.” Jonah said, “You were walking out the door this morning and you turned around and said to your wife Cecily ‘do you know
who I met yesterday - Milo from our High School, do you remember him? He was the kid who nobody liked, but he turned out really well, working over on Trat, quite well to do now as manager of a mining company there.’ At the time you were also thinking that he was such an effeminate loser but you did not say that out loud to your wife who you met in 12th grade by the corridor on the 3rd floor of the school building when you were walking with Jeremy. You have an aunt Sia over in Houchens Blvd who is having struggles with cancer for the last 2 days but you don’t know it yet . Not even her kids know it yet. You have a grandson on the way, but Charlotte only did the test yesterday evening and she is on holiday over at Lake Miratee now with her husband.”

  Superintendent Boggin turned from one shade of grey to red then back to grey and then he voice commanded a call to his daughter who answered promptly. She had a beautiful lilt to her voice and said immediately, “Daddy I’m so glad you called, I knew you would be at work and I was waiting until a little later to call you and Mom with the good news. We are pregnant!” He said, “I’m over the moon honey, who have you told?” She giggled, “Not a soul Dad, no one knows, but the two of us and now you too!” He said, “I will call you a little later ok, but congrats on your first baby and my first grand too!” He looked back at the three with a look of exasperation and a little panic too at the thought of how could they know not just things from his mind, but also about distant folks connected to him that they had never met. When I spoke to my wife this morning, these folks were not even burning a hole in the atmosphere on their way down here yet he thought. It was with a feeling of dread that he dialed his Aunty Sia’s number and said, “Aunty Sia something is telling me that I need to call you. Is everything all right?” She proceeded to tell him about coming from the Doctor’s office the day before yesterday with a diagnosis of breast cancer and that she has been paralyzed with fear and hasn’t had the guts to call anybody to tell them yet, not even her own children. After giving her some comforting words and closing the call, he looked back at Jonah and each of the young ladies faces intently. He said, “Serves me damn right, sorry for even doubting you for a moment, I apologize and thank you. What you do, I understand cannot be divulged, but I now understand that you can find details that others have no way of detecting and thank you so much for coming to help us. My compatriots over on Baclet did warn me not to underestimate you blokes, oh dear. I can see clearly now how we must work with you to get court admissible hard evidence. Tell me what you find out at the jail.” Jonah said, “Yeah, my best guess is that he is innocent completely! It’s just a formality to go visit him and provide him with a little hope. Maybe we will get some extra tidbit from him that turns out to be helpful though. We feel for him.”

  The Lieutenant Shoneburger too who was at the wheel seemed appropriately chastened and said simply, “I will pick you up at 5am at the lobby of your hotel. Then we take a rotorcopter out there- forty minutes.” Shortly thereafter, they pulled in through the gated entrance of a tall and grand hotel under its own tall glass dome and stopped. The three of them got out and found their companions also disembarking too from the other auto. Together they collected the government issued credit tokens from the two Lieutenants with which to get into their rooms and pay for meals and anything else. Waving good bye to their charges, the Lieutenants along with Superintendent Boggin pulled away and they turned and went in. It really was a sumptuous lobby and everything spoke of quality. The clerk checking them in assured them that their luggage was already upstairs in their rooms and gave them a quick virtual tour of the facility.

  Six went up the stairs to the fourth floor where they had a bank of five rooms. Jessi and Jonah had one with a king bed and the others had queen beds. Gravity, showers and regular toilets all go hand in hand was what Six was joking about as they raced up the stairs eschewing elevators. After shower and a change of clothes it was time for an early dinner. Then they gathered in Dillion’s room for a chit chat while reviewing the elements of their investigation. Charlie called in the midst of that to say that ‘they’ meaning he, Sonia and the other two technicians too had had dinner and were in their rooms on the third floor. At the early hour of 830pm local time their body was telling them that it was time to hit the sack and they did. A long day for Six, and finally getting some well deserved rest. They of course, made arrangements among themselves to rotate mental security sweeps periodically even though they felt that they weren’t in any real danger.

  Jonah was at the foyer waiting by 0500am with three layers of clothing on when Lieutenant Shoneburger drove up and they efficiently made their way to the aerodrome outside the canopy through the usual underground tunnel. Jonah noticed that the air did smell differently out here away from the canopied areas. There they boarded the terrestrial craft that would take them on their trip out into the boonies where the penitentiary in Millcreek was located. Jonah popped his head into the cockpit to say hello to the pilot and to touch the controls and check out the craft in his own way before popping back into the cabin and belting in. Ten minutes later after a good warm up, they were off and winging out over wispy vegetation with bright sunshine despite the early hours. In these parts, sunshine was beamed down 24/7 by the solar reflectors. However they were flying away from enclosing bubbles which darkened automatically to simulate nighttime and thus keep sensible circadian rhythms intact. Once they landed at Millcreek and went under the bubble, the lighting again seemed congruent with the time of day. The pilot waited in the lobby and the Lieutenant and Jonah went through the checkpoints together. He had to explain every time that Jonah was from Toigan and therefore would not have biometrics in the system. There was even a call to the warden’s office at the first checkpoint. However they were finally through and in a large waiting area with one officer observing and the two of them with Michael still behind a glass panel. Jonah was able to read his mind easily and thoroughly with their proximity.

  21. CLEARING MICHAEL

  Finally the door was opened and Michael allowed to walk in. Jonah stood and bowed slightly and politely. He said, “I met both Kicha and Tumi at their office yesterday and all of your staff were interviewed.” Jonah then gave him a summary of what was found out about Cayle planting bad code into their system after what had already been done to him and Sri. Michael had come up negative for any subterfuge. Jonah asked him if he knew the Satvid guy Robert across the street. He vaguely remembered a person called Robert pushing himself on him to be hired, but he did not have the minimum experience requirements and he had hired others instead. He indicated to Jonah how to have Kicha look up that kind of information as it would be on file somewhere. Michael’s brow was furrowed with concentration as he asked, “Was this Robert a gay person?” Jonah said, “He could be. Our initial research seems to show that he does go to gay bars.” Robert said, “I do remember him now. He actually tried everything to get that job with our company to the point of trying to pick up Sri who does not go that way.” Jonah said, “Well that may go with everything we have been able to develop so far. That would provide two motives for him to be angry at you and Sri and we can interrogate him more effectively now. I’m so glad we came to talk with you. I’m so so sorry that you were framed; we are working on finding enough evidence to pin it on the true criminal so that you would stand a chance of being exonerated. Do not give even your closest friend in here any inkling of what is happening. We have special permission here to give you a call and update you, but we won’t say details since the prison listens in anyway. We came here from Toigan because there have been these deaths by mostly poisoning on all three planets and the first one that fits the ‘type’ was Sri’s. We feel that Robert did it and framed you for it. Then he paid someone to slip some evil programming code into five of your then new vid games that your company unwittingly broadcast to gamers who went on to do these other killings. Robert is still out there aching to see the demise of your company. He had expected Truereal to collapse; it did not go the way he had hoped. He is a very dangerous man. We do nee
d to do due diligence with him though and meet him face to face for an interrogation.” Michael looked shell shocked from all those revelations, but after almost three horrible years, he now had a little hope. It may be a year, but he hoped these strangers would somehow effect their investigative magic and get him out before too long. This was the brightest day he had spent in his life other than marrying Kicha he thought. All he could say was, “Thank you, God-speed, and it is so nice to be given some hope. Tell Kicha I love her.”

  Michael was escorted back behind the glass partition and Jonah and Lt. Shoneburger were escorted out, joined by the pilot back out to the rotorcopter pad. One hour later they were on the ground after fighting headwinds. Another half hour and Jonah was back in the hotel, joining the other sleepy heads at breakfast on the ground floor. It was quite a delicious looking spread and they all dug in. Charlie, Sonia and the other two technicians were in the buffet line too. Jonah made sure that they got seats right adjacent to Six. “So how did it go with you all yesterday?” Jonah asked.

  Charlie responded, ”Splendid overall. After the set up process was complete, with challenges such as getting voltage conditioners in place that we had not brought, as well as better cooling, we got to reprogram the first batch of twelve tormented prisoners. The immediate results were very gratifying. They themselves couldn’t believe how differently they felt. Those poor folks had had to deal with the demons in their heads telling them to do awful things plus the stress of being confined to prison and or medical mental health wards for months. So apparently they brought their worse cases yesterday. They don’t get to just pick up and go home though. The medical professionals working with them will have to put each of them through batches of tests to compare them to their pre-intervention results and then be interviewed. It could still be weeks before they get to rejoin the real world, some of them.” Sonia piped up, “Won’t it be just about the same process on all the planets though?” Jessi said, “I should think so!” There was a free-for-all discussion after that. It was nice to see Charlie in their new surroundings behaving as one of the crew just as if this was his destiny. Jonah was just so proud of his friend.