by Baron Sord
It was definitely Emily.
She wore some kind of a… muzzle.
She looked miserable, her wet hair glued to her face in ragged ropes.
Without warning, an overwhelming sense of fear froze me in place, and my every sense screamed danger. Something terrible was on its way.
Escape, escape, escape!
I crouched, ready to spring into action, but I was frozen in place.
The rain suddenly stopped, hanging in midair.
Evil.
Evil was coming.
I knew it on an instinctual level.
ESCAPE! ESCAPE! ESCAPE!
I couldn’t move.
My little bird heart was drumming in my ears like machine gun fire. Almost 1000 beats per minute. I was convinced I was about to have a heart attack.
Overhead, a dead gray dragon swam down from the storm clouds and landed near Emily and the two men. A rider in hooded robes got off the decaying beast and floated toward them.
The hooded rider lifted a sword and black energy spewed out. One of the dead black trees picked itself up out of the ground and walked toward Emily like a burly knotted-wood gorilla with no head.
I was forced to watch as the dead tree wrapped numerous black arms around Emily and pulled her inside the trunk, closing around her until she disappeared inside.
I tried to scream but I couldn’t do anything.
The burly black oak returned to where it had been rooted in the muck and replanted itself with Emily still trapped inside.
When the robed rider and dead dragon returned to the storm clouds, my heart rate settled back down to a mere panic and that sense of incredible danger and infinite evil faded to mild terror. I exploded into the air and took wing, flapping furiously as I put distance between myself and the terrifying things in that dead black forest.
The next thing I knew, I was looking at the collection of DreamStream video windows I’d started with. I Xed out and looked at Jason. I exhaled, trying to release the fear I still felt. Watching that video had been like being there.
“Was that Emily?” I asked.
“Sure looks like her.”
“Where is she?”
“My guess? Somewhere in the Deadlands.”
“Where’s that?”
“The Dark Kingdom. Where we found that abandoned castle.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
“Low, the Dark Kingdom is vast. The size of Asia. It could take weeks to figure out exactly where she is. We need a plan.”
“Right.” I had the same problem in Bangkok. “What about whoever filmed the video? Was it one of your DreamStreamer buddies?”
“Nobody I know. I sent a chat message to whoever it is, but I haven’t heard back yet.”
Still sitting, I cradled my face in my hands. “Why does this have to be so damn hard?”
“I don’t know, bro.”
“Has Dad seen this video?”
“Yeah. He freaked.”
“Good freak or bad freak? Where is he, anyway?”
“He’s IRL trying to scrounge up the rest of the $55K.”
“That’s where I should be. I need to find that dude Ryder and coordinate our search efforts. Assuming he’s still in Bangkok like he said. Anything else before I logout?”
“I talked to the Oracle.”
“The who?”
“The Oracle of the Light? You know, the people who’re taking care of your girlfriend?”
“Who?” I was totally confused.
“Layna?”
I shook my head, “She’s not my girlfriend, Jay. She’s just a…” I didn’t want to say ape. Maybe she wasn’t an AIPC. Maybe she was human. Either way, I was never going to meet her in the real world. After this was all over, I was done with RO for good.
“Forget about that,” he said dismissively, “I brought rune dude to the Oracle and she woke him up.”
“Nice. What did you find out?” I felt faint hope for the first time in what seemed like weeks, but was probably only hours.
“Well, how do I put this? He doesn’t seem to know who he is.”
“Is he crazy? Like, insane? Can insane people play RO?”
“If they can figure out how to set up an account, I don’t see why not. But I’m thinking more along the lines of amnesia, like he forgot who he is.”
A stab of panic cut me across the chest. “That’s not good. Does that mean Emily won’t know who she is once we break her out of that tree thing? I mean, assuming that’s actually her and not an imposter?”
“I wish I knew, bro,” Jason swallowed hard, struggling with the same doubt that weighed me down.
Disgust and anger tightened all my muscles. “This whole situation is fucked, Jay.” I shook my head and took a moment to try and calm myself so I could think clearly. “What do you mean rune dude doesn’t know who he is? Did he logout yet? Was he kidnapped like Emily?”
“He couldn’t logout.”
“What? I thought anybody who was mind-locked could after you woke them up.”
“He tried. Nothing happened.”
“Is he dead? I mean, in the real world?”
Jason shrugged noncommittally.
“Is that a yes?”
“Maybe,” Jason said, grimacing.
“Wait. So his real body is dead and what, his avatar in RO has amnesia?”
Jason nodded.
I felt like I was going to explode. “Awww, man! What the hell? Does that mean Emily’s body is dead and she’s brain dead here in RO? Does that mean we wasted 75 grand paying those kidnappers?”
“I’m hoping not,” he said. “I’m hoping Emily’s still alive. Remember I told you about that Korean dude who’s been logged on for over 120 days straight? He still knows who he is and he still runs his real world businesses. Emily’s only been mind-locked, what, a week? Maybe she’ll be fine once we find her and log her out.”
“If she’s not dead,” I growled. “And if I find her. The second I do, I’m pulling that headset off her head and busting it into a million pieces. I gotta go, Jay.”
“Just remember, if we find her here in RO, we can break her out of that tree and lift any curses on her. Then she can log herself out, gather some intel about where she is, log back in, and tell us. Once we’re at that point, we can probably get the police involved and they can pull her out from wherever they have her.”
“Unless I find her first,” I said, trying to sound optimistic but barely feeling it.
“You may want to talk to the Bangkok police now. You’ll probably need their help once we know where she is. They’re supposed to have a pretty good SWAT team.”
“Great idea. Text me when you find anything new.”
—: o o o :—
Friday, March 20th, 2037
11:27am
The Real World
Bangkok, Thailand
“G’day, mate,” Ryder said as he walked up outside the hotel.
“I said 11:00am,” I growled. “It’s almost 11:30.”
“Sorry, mate. Heaps of traffic on the way here.” He looked the same as on Skype3D, only taller. The first thing I wanted to do was knock his ass out for getting my sister kidnapped.
We shook hands.
“Good to meet ya, mate.”
I glared at him dubiously.
“Right,” he said uncertainly.
“Yeah,” I grumbled, hating the guy. He was the last person I wanted to tour around Thailand with, but I didn’t have a choice. He knew more than anybody else and he was trying to help. Now that I was here in a country I didn’t know shit about and didn’t speak the language, I realized I needed all the help I could get. “Hey, uh, they got a lunch buffet inside. I need some food. Wanna eat?”
“Sweet as. I’m starving.”
Inside the hotel, we loaded up plates of food at the crowded buffet and sat ourselves at a table amongst all the other guests, none of whom were American. Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Cambodian, Malaysian, plenty of Th
ai, and one or two Russians.
“So,” I said to Ryder, “you stayed here with Emily?”
“Nah, mate. Had my own hotel.”
I gave him a look. The big brother look.
“It wasn’t like that, mate. We weren’t having a naughty or nothing like that. Your sister’s great. The kind of Sheila a bloke like me reckons to marry proper one day, right?”
I was starting to like this guy. I chewed and swallowed a hunk of pineapple. “Did you find anything since I talked to you last?”
He ran a tan hand through his blond surfer curls. “I’m stonkered, mate. It’s like she disappeared off the face of the earth.”
After we finished stuffing our faces, we walked to the Makasan police station, which was 5 minutes away from the hotel. It was a little two story local police precinct with flags outside. The detective we spoke to looked about 60 and had decent English. He also had the longest last name I’d ever seen, which I’d never be able to remember, so I took one of his business cards from the holder on his desk. I couldn’t read the squiggly Thai characters, but at least it had his phone number.
While sitting in his small office, Ryder and I explained everything we could about Emily and her disappearance. I emailed him photos of her to put in their database.
He opened my email on his clunky old PC. Emily’s face appeared on his screen. “Pretty girl,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said. “So, can you like put her picture in your system and run facial recognition and see if she shows up in any security camera footage from around the city in the past two weeks?”
He blinked several times. “Please say again?”
I repeated myself more slowly.
“Oh.” He shook his head. “We don’ have dat.”
“But you have cameras around the city. I saw them. You must have video of my sister.”
“If day work.”
“Huh?”
“If da camera work.”
“Oh. Can you check? Please?”
He nodded. “What day she here?”
Ryder walked the detective through the days and locations he remembered. He was surprisingly thorough and precise. The detective wrote everything down on paper with a pencil. He had to get an IT kid from the other side of the building to help. Kid had a black hair helmet, wore glasses and looked about 22. He and the detective muttered to each other in Thai, plugging the dates and times into the system and opening up windows. Despite the age of the computer system, the kid easily pulled up 4 video screens on the one aging flatscreen monitor and set them all playing at 4x speed.
The kid gave me a look that seemed to say, Is this what you want?
“Thanks.” I nodded and smiled.
The kid bowed his head before walking out.
Me, Ryder, and the detective sat there for 15 minutes watching all the videos play. The detective enjoyed a cigarette here in the office, which he watched more closely than the videos. Thousands of people and faces flashed by at four busy city intersections filled with pedestrians. There was no way we’d sort through them all, and the videos were still playing. There was no telling whether or not Emily ever had or would walk through any of them. I gave Ryder a look.
He shrugged.
I glanced at the detective, who took a long drag from his cigarette, and I sighed, “Don’t you guys have facial recognition software? You know, to track faces?” I pointed at my face with both hands.
“Soddy. We don’ have dat.” He stubbed out his cigarette in a loaded ash tray.
Frustrated, Ryder and I left after the detective promised he would look into it and told us to check back in a few days.
I’d check tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.
Then Ryder gave me the tour of places he’d been with Emily, starting with Pooters on Patpong Road. They had a knockoff Hooters logo but instead of an owl, there was a pink cat behind the OOs. Since it was afternoon and between the lunch and dinner rush, we were able to talk to the manager in his office. I only had to pay him 1000 Baht for the privilege. It was worth the 30 bucks. He didn’t speak much English, but one of his waitresses did. She was busting out of her skimpy white and pink Pooters attire and acted as our interpreter. With her help, we were able to view camera footage of the night Emily disappeared.
“This is it!” I gasped as I watched Emily and Ryder walk into frame in one of the 8 windows.
“Too right,” Ryder said, excited.
I wanted to punch him for not thinking of this before, but it didn’t matter now.
On screen, a Pooters waitress sat Ryder and Emily at a table and took their order. Ryder immediately left to use the restroom, like he’d said. Seeing my sister alive and well made me want to jump into the screen so I could save her. My heart raced with hope. A minute later, something off camera caught Emily’s attention. She started talking to someone out of frame. There was no sound, so I couldn’t tell what was said. She got up and walked out of frame a moment later.
“No!” I shouted, trying to stop video Emily from leaving the safety of Pooters.
“Oh!” Surprised by my shout, our waitress interpreter jumped and giggled demurely.
“Where’d Emily go!” I demanded.
“There!” Ryder pointed at another screen.
Video Emily walked outside and circled around the fenced in outdoor Pooters deck before disappearing.
“There she is,” Ryder pointed at yet another screen.
Video Emily approached an old woman. The woman was bent with age and leaned on a cane. A large straw sun hat hid her face. At her feet laid something small and black. The woman motioned at it like she couldn’t bend over to reach it.
“What’s she pointing at?” Ryder asked.
“A wallet?” I suggested.
Video Emily squatted down to pick it up.
A man strode into frame between Emily and the camera.
“Move, dude!” I growled.
What happened next happened incredibly fast.
The man pulled a NeuraLink out of a large shopping bag dangling from his arm.
Video Emily stood up holding the wallet.
The man placed the headset on Emily from behind.
He thumbed the familiar Reternity Online red JUMP button on the screen of a smart phone.
Video Emily went limp.
The old woman, who was no longer bent with age and stood as tall as the man, grabbed Emily by the arms and stood her up.
Then the impossible happened.
The man pulled something out of his shopping bag and whipped his arms like he was whipping a sheet in the wind, but there was nothing there. Then he draped it around Emily.
Video Emily disappeared from the screen.
“What happened?” I barked.
The Pooters waitress gasped and leaned forward, staring at the monitor, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The manager did too. It wasn’t just me who’d seen it. Still, I thought I was losing my mind.
The man and old woman huddled together like they were leaning into something, but they remained about a shoulder’s width apart, nothing but empty air between them.
“Oi! She’s gone, mate!” Ryder said. “Disappeared into thin air!”
“No, wait!” I said. “I can see her feet! Look!”
Sure enough, from the shins down, video Emily’s flip-flop covered feet dangled down from thin air.
“Some kind of light bending cloak,” Ryder marveled. “I heard about those things, but I thought they didn’t really work.”
The man and old woman walked forward as video Emily’s feet dragged across the asphalt. The man spared a glance back, showing his face to the camera.
“Wait!” I reached for the keyboard but stopped myself. “Pause it! I wanna see that guy’s face!”
The manager backed up the video until the man’s face was in perfect view. Unlike the clunky old computer at the police station, this one was fairly new and the monitor was high resolution. The face of the kidnapper was small, but you could
see it plain as day.
“Crikey, mate. Bloke has a face like a smashed crab. What’s that on his nose?”
“It’s… what are they called,” I said, looking at what were clearly novelty glasses perched on the man’s face. Big fake nose, fake bushy black eyebrows and mustache. “They’re Groucho glasses.” I shook my head. “Fucking genius.”
“How’s that, mate?”
I scowled, “The guy’s wearing a 99 cent disguise that’ll fool the best facial recognition software in the world from a distance. And that old woman’s hat is so big, you’d have to stick a camera under the brim to see her face. Can you start the video again?”
The waitress translated and the manager let the video roll.
The man and fake old woman led Emily out of frame, looking like nothing more than a stumbling old couple. Considering the video was shot at night, if you were passing them in the street, you’d never notice something was wrong unless you thought to look between their feet.
“Jesus,” I muttered.
I got the manager to let me take photos of several frames of the video that best showed Emily, the kidnappers, and the disappearance. But, swiping through them on my phone, it didn’t translate. The man had thrown the cloak over Emily too fast. One frame she was there, the next she was gone.
“Shoot a video of the video, mate,” Ryder suggested.
“Great idea.”
The video I captured was flickery, but it was good enough to get the idea across. I tipped the waitress 500 Baht for acting as interpreter. The manager frowned at me, so I tipped him another 500. They’d earned it.
Outside, Ryder and I hailed a cab and we went straight to the Makasan police station. Traffic was insane. I considered getting out and walking, but it was 5 miles, so I sat in the taxi, resisting the urge to jump out and jog every time traffic stopped.
Once we got to Makasan, it took about 15 minutes of waiting around at the front desk to find out our cigarette detective was out on official police business and might not be back until later that night or possibly on Monday, after the weekend was over.
“Great,” I groaned.
“What now?” Ryder asked.
“We can wait here or keep looking around.”
