Flawed (Eternal Combat Book 0)

by Kitty Cox

  Dez shoved a thumb drive into her machine and copied it all. There was no way she'd trust anyone in this building – unless they were from the core team, that is. Everyone else had just become a suspect. Any one of these idiots could be out to destroy Deviant Games. She only wished she knew why. What the hell had any of them done to deserve this? Why would it matter so much? All of this was just a game for most people – a paycheck for others.

  As soon as the file blinked its completion, she jerked the drive out, clicked to print her initial discovery, and pushed away from her desk. Across the room, Braden looked up, but she just waved him back down. There was too much to do, and only three days left to do it. Dez really could manage to walk across the building on her own. Besides, she wasn't really in the mood to be social. Someone was trying to fuck up not just her life, but her friends' lives as well.

  Reaching through the open door, she grabbed her printout from the tray, still warm. Then she headed to the door beside it. From the voices inside, things were getting a little tense, but she didn't care. They needed to know this. They had to understand what she'd found. Dez didn't bother knocking, she just pushed open the door.

  "I know how they got in." She dropped the papers in the middle of the table.

  All three of the men flinched. Chance recovered first, chuckling as he gestured for her to come closer. It was the man right across from him that made Dez hold her ground. His eyes held hers but there was nothing on the other side. Never in her life had she understood what people meant when they talked about a hollow gaze, but she did now. Whoever this agent was, he looked like his soul had been ripped out and torn apart. He looked the same way she'd felt for so long.

  "Gentlemen," Chance said, pushing his chair back. "I'd like to introduce you to my partner, Destiny Pierce. That's Agent Jason Raige across from you, and this is Agent Bradley Matthews."

  "Pleasure," Bradley said, offering his hand.

  The man with the cold eyes almost smiled. Almost. "She doesn't touch people." His eyes looked like someone had managed to freeze the color green.

  She couldn't look away. "How do you know that?"

  "It's online."

  "Jason," the man beside him hissed.

  Agent Raige blinked, tearing his eyes away. "Sorry, sir." Then he looked back, but his expression became softer, less intense. "It's an honor to meet you, Ms. Pierce. Mr. Hunter has been filling us in on the recent problems. You say you know how they got in?"

  For three years, Dez had been terrified. Anyone who looked at her too long could be the next person planning to destroy her. They were everywhere, just waiting for their chance, and she'd learned that the hard way. Interestingly, the strange man before her evoked none of those fears. She stood there, trying to understand why, unable to move, trapped by his grey-green eyes.

  "Dez?" Chance asked, reaching up to lightly touch her hand.

  She gasped and jerked around to look at him. "Sorry! Fuck. Sorry."

  "You ok?"

  Her eyes flicked back to Agent Raige. "Yeah." Oddly enough, she was. "One of the bug report guys approved all of them."

  Chance shifted to catch her eyes, not daring to touch her again. "What? How?"

  "Chris Newman. About half of the spammers were approved by him. Of the others, they keep coming back to him. I didn't check them all, but from what I can see, it's one hundred percent. Somehow, he seems to be tied to all of them."

  Across the table, Agent Raige leaned closer. "Variance between that and the rest of your beta testing population? Is it a statistical anomaly?"

  "Yes." Dez took a long breath, then sank into a chair – the one beside Chance. "If you remove this group from the sample, then he's interacted with approximately two percent of the player base. To have so many tied to him – "

  "Thought you said one hundred percent?" The agent lifted a brow and reached for the papers.

  Dez pushed them closer. "Of the ones I checked. So, probably around sixty to seventy percent of what's there. I thought you'd prefer to know this rather than wait for me to check them all since you'll do that for me."

  The agent finally cracked his cold facade and chuckled at her. "I will. Nice tattoos."

  She hadn't noticed his eyes settle on anything but hers, but he'd checked out her tattoos? Granted, they were kinda hard to miss, but his words made her look him over. His hair wasn't naturally blonde. The dark roots gave that away. His eyes, however, looked like the real thing, not colored contacts. It was the weirdest color she'd ever seen. The rest of him was pretty forgettable. He wasn't tall, but not short, probably about five foot ten. He wasn't fat, but didn't have the defined muscles of Chance or Braden, either. The only thing that made this man stand out was the haunted look in his eyes.

  And that's when she realized why he didn't truly scare her. He looked like the kind of person who could understand, like he'd seen more than anyone should. He looked like he was trying real hard to go through the motions, but they weren't something he was used to. He was broken, just like her.

  Dez tilted her arm, offering a better view. "I can recommend a good artist. She has a flair for games, too."

  He smiled but shook his head. "Too distinct, but thanks." Then he gestured to her chest. "One of those things is not like the others."

  She was wearing a scoop neck tee. It wasn't at all revealing, but half of her Flawed tattoo was visible. Dez didn't even need to look to know exactly what he was talking about. "Not really, it's just not a game you know about... yet."

  "Flawed?" He leaned a bit, looking intently at her ink.

  Chance tapped the table, breaking into their moment. "Game logo, so yeah. She's also on the cover, so you can stare at her all you want later."

  Jason smirked but nodded. "Sorry, not used to being around celebrities. No offense, Mr. Hunter."

  "Plenty taken. I want to know what you two are going to do to keep my employees safe. Don't care if you think my girlfriend's amazing, I just want to know how you're going to keep her safe."

  Bradley sighed, sounding frustrated. "First, we'll need to – "

  Jason interrupted him. "I'm going to catch the bad guys." His eyes were locked on Chance, and his face was completely serious. "I'll need access to your entire system, complete authorization, and then I'll figure out just where these bastards are getting in."

  "They aren't," Dez said. "Already checked. Only way they get in is if someone lets them." She tapped the papers she'd brought earlier. "Like that. My network is secure."

  "Nothing is secure."

  "Mine is. I made damned sure of it." She cocked her head, daring him to deny it. "But check all you want. You see, Agent Raige, this is my internet. If those assholes want to fuck with me, they're going to have to come at me offline, because online? Yeah, I'm god."

  This time, it was Bradley who broke the tension. Laughing, he leaned back in his chair and slapped Agent Raige's back. "She sounds just like you, Jason. Check the network, do what you need to, but don't cause any problems?"

  "No, sir," Jason agreed, his voice sounding a lot more submissive.

  Dez pushed her chair back. "Chance, give him access. I have a feeling this guy actually knows what he's talking about."

  Chance huffed under his breath. "Yeah, Sugar. If that's what you want."

  "I just want to catch these guys. I don't care how, but I'm tired of being the victim."

  Chance nodded, then leaned across the table, looking between both men. "Let me make this real clear. Dez is my business partner. She's the best developer in the industry and also my girlfriend. She has no interest in you." His eyes landed on Jason Raige, then he turned to Bradley. "And I don't care if you like her. She's been through more than enough, and I am not going to stop until she's safe. If that means I turn her loose on these assholes..."

  "I understand," Bradley assured him. "Agent Raige will be completely professional." He looked at his assistant. "Won't you?"

  The younger agent closed his eyes and sighed. "Sir..."

  "Won't
you?" Bradley demanded.

  "Yeah, I'll keep my shit clean," Jason snapped. "I'm not trying to get in her damned pants, Brad. Do you even realize who she is? Destiny Pierce? Does that name ring any bells to you?"

  "Should it?"

  Jason shoved a hand into his overly bleached forelock. "She's the first victim. Destiny Pierce, age seventeen. She's the first person we can directly tie to the Kings of Gaming. This whole thing? It sounds like it's part of the case I'm already working." Then he grabbed the papers. "Baconator, Sizzlestx, and screwl00se? Sound familiar?"

  "Wait," Chance begged. "What do you mean?"

  Agent Raige snatched a pen from his suit pocket and circled a name on the list, then another, then yet another. "All of these are known aliases for people I've been tracking. Some are newer, some aren't. This one -" and he scribbled a heavy line "- has been avoiding me for almost three years."

  Dez leaned over and sucked in a breath. It was spelled differently, but that was a name she knew all too well – and she was starting to dread seeing it. "S0ulR34p3r."

  "He likes his VPNs, pinging his connection off anything and everything, and – "

  Bradley smacked the table. "Confidential, Agent Raige."

  Clenching his jaw, Jason looked over to Dez. She met his gaze and slowly nodded. He didn't need to say it. From the frustration painted across his face, she knew where he was going. He couldn't catch the guy because he didn't have the necessary equipment.

  "Chance?" Her voice was perfectly calm.

  "Yeah, Sugar?"

  "The FBI has been trying to do this low-tech. I'm guessing working off last decade’s software and machines?"

  Jason turned, looking pointedly at his partner.

  Bradley just shook his head. "I can't discuss that case."

  "Not talking about the case," Chance almost purred. "I'm talking about your agent sitting in the middle of a game development company, with unlimited access to every single thing we have." Then he looked over to Jason. "You as bad-ass as you think you are?"

  It was Bradley who answered. "More. The only thing holding him back is our budget. He understands technology in a way I can't even comprehend. That's why I brought him, Chance. You said this is online, and Agent Raige is the best person to find anything online."

  Dez giggled and pushed herself to her feet. "Then welcome to the Defiance, Agent Raige. After I fire this dick, you can even have his desk. Just try and keep up, ok?"

  "Sure. Right after your boyfriend pounds my ass into the ground. Don't worry, Chance, I won't fight back. I really am here to find the assholes trolling my web."

  Chapter 37

  "Chris?" Dez gestured for the man.

  "Just a sec," he called back.

  "Right now," she insisted, pointing to the only other conference room, where Braden waited.

  With Chance and his FBI friends taking up the other, this was the only place she had to fire the guy without making a seriously public scene. Not that she really cared about his feelings. It appeared that he'd been doing everything in his power – and beyond – to destroy their entire company. She just didn't want him to feel like he couldn't beg because that was the best way for her to get information.

  And they always begged. They always had some excuse for why they hadn't been trying hard enough, some sob story about how they could do better. Most of the time it was complete crap. They'd been hired to do a job. In exchange, they got money. It seemed fairly straightforward, but firing someone would make her the bad guy. When she'd worked with FoxFlight, she'd seen it enough to know how this would go. It seemed they actually took it better if she became a complete bitch.

  Maybe that's how she'd ended up such a mess. The less they thought she cared, the less they tried to whine about it. For a moment, Dez debated playing the sympathy card so this guy would spill his guts, but she decided against it. Considering his idea of "just a second" was to take his sweet time, she had a funny feeling he already hated her.

  "Now, Chris!" she yelled across the warehouse.

  He slammed his keyboard drawer back under the desk and stood. "Five minutes ago you wanted us all to get the game working." He stormed over with his jaw clenched, but she heard him mutter under his breath, "Dumb cunt."

  She just pushed open the door and stepped back. "After you."

  He walked in but froze in the doorway. Evidently, seeing Braden sitting there wasn't at all what he expected. Taking a deep, frustrated breath, he made his way to the other side and claimed a chair.

  "How do you know these people?" Dez asked, pointing to a stack of papers in the middle of the table.

  He barely glanced at it. "I don't."

  "Look again." She didn't bother to sit. That would put him too close. Instead, she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "Because they're all tied right to you."

  Slowly, the guy reached over and flipped through the pages. His eyes scanned the list. His face grew a half shade lighter but remained stoic. "Looks like a list of gamers."

  "Spammers," she corrected. "I was hoping you'd have a very good reason for why you approved all of them."

  From the way his shoulders dropped, the man knew he was busted. "I didn't."

  "Oh, I checked." She paused to let that sink in. "Chris, I told you that I would find out what happened. I would figure out how those spammers got access to our forums, and I did. It all comes right back to you. Now, unless you have a real good story, this is looking pretty bad."

  "What makes you think I did this? I didn't approve all of them!"

  Braden chuckled. "You sound awfully sure for someone who doesn't know these people."

  "But I didn't!" The words flew from his mouth, then he twitched as if wishing he could take them back. "I couldn't have," he tried instead.

  "Every last one," Dez assured him. "That's why we have developer codes listed with their beta approvals. Makes it easy for us to track guys like you trying to get their friends in for free."

  "There's like a thousand names here!"

  "One thousand, one hundred and twelve. You're a very popular guy."

  "Yeah? So show me the authorization codes. I didn't approve them all." Lifting his chin, he glared at her.

  Dez chuckled. "You sound so sure. Thought you didn't know them?"

  "I don't, but I know I didn't do it. So if you're going to fire me, then you'd better make sure you have your facts straight, or I'll sue for wrongful termination."

  "Is that your plan?" she asked. "Try to catch us on both sides? Either you drive away the players by ruining the community, or you get even by suing us? Besides, what makes you think I'm doing anything more than just asking questions?"

  "You said you'd fire us. Yesterday." He glared, looking more angry with every second. "I dare you to try it."

  "Fine. You're fired. Braden will escort you to your desk, allow you to get only your personal belongings, and then your access to the building, the network, and every game Deviant has any interest in will be revoked." She looked at the clock on the wall. "You have three minutes to get out of my building."

  It took a few seconds before he realized exactly what she'd just said. "You can't do that." He turned to Braden. "She's not the owner. Only Chance can fire me."

  Braden shrugged. "She owns half. Little hint here, bud. Sucking up works pretty good with Dez. It's how I kept my job."

  "But you can't fire me," he insisted, looking back to her. "I need this job."

  "Shoulda thought about that before you decided to let your friends come play."

  "They said I wouldn't get caught!" He slapped the table as he pushed to his feet. "I didn't authorize them all, and they said they wouldn't get caught!"

  "They," Dez assured him, "have no idea what I can find. You authorized, checked, or altered every one of their accounts. Your access code is all over each and every one. Sue me, Chris, but you fucked this up. You and your little hater friends aren't half as smart as you think you are."

  "But you can't fire me," he insisted. It was alm
ost a beg, and she had a funny feeling it was as close as she was going to get.

  "I can. I am. Chris, you're fired. I don't know what the hell you were thinking, but you broke at least three contracts and risked the company's reputation. I can't do anything else but fire you. Well, that's not true. I could always sue you." She looked right into his eyes. "That hasn't been taken off the table."

  "But how I am going to pay my bills? I've got a wife and kid to support. You can't do this!"

  "Not my problem."

  Like a broken record, he repeated himself. "You can't do this."

  Dez just closed her eyes. "Braden? Could you escort Chris off the property?"

  "Let's go, bud." His chair squealed on the floor as he pushed it back.

  But Chris wasn't ready to go so easily. "Fuck you," he snapped, shoving at the table. "This is what's wrong with the industry. Real developers like me are getting canned so guys like Chance can have some piece of ass around on command. You're not a damned dev. You're just some slut trying to impress the real gamers. Fuck you."

  "Shut up," Braden growled, grabbing the guy's arm. "Think whatever you want if it saves your damned pride, but you're still out a job, and she's still a better coder."

  That's when Chris snapped. He shoved, breaking out of Braden's grip, and twisted. Dez retreated. Her hip collided with the table in the corner, sending the lamp to the floor, but Chris was charging. In her mind, it all happened in slow motion. The rage on the guy's face was too much, too real. With each crash of her heart, she knew what he was going to do. This had all happened before.

  He grabbed her arm and pulled, slinging her to the floor. Dez screamed. His hands were like ice, leaching through her skin like a knife. It hurt. The only way she could make it hurt less was to run, to hide. Without thinking, she scrambled away, using both her arms and legs to get as far from the psychopath as she could. Something hard and solid prevented her from truly escaping. She barely had the presence of mind to realize it was the wall.

  "I need this job!" the man was screaming. "I have to have a job!"