It had required 36 bars of enchanted silversteel. Amethyst, golden crystal and ruby gems were fitted to a set of clockwork gears, controls and arcane mechanisms. Its power source was a permanent elemental lightning spell set to course through its insides. Its body, wings and head were all shaped in such a way as to conduct energy to its eyes and talons.
It was the Silversteel Raptor. First in a series of semi-autonomous pets machinery specialists could construct starting at level 18, which was the level Saro had reached as a result of the gathering quests he had completed before beginning work on his new masterpiece. He had already eclipsed his old character, and accomplished his task in even less time.
In the game, the mechanical creature’s wingspan was greater than that of its owner’s shoulder-width. Its bright white faceted eyes and silver-blue coloring gave it an ethereal appearance. Its armor was equivalent to a full suit of studded mail. Its attack speed was nearly twice that of its owner, despite the fact Saro had invested considerable skill points in increasing his attack speed. It could also fly, hover and attack from the air. It could reach nearly any altitude relevant to gameplay. It had its own quests and was capable of both leveling and acquiring new skills.
But its in-game abilities were not what Saro was after. The Silversteel Raptor was eligible for Saro’s treasure station. It had cost him a significant percentage of the money he had been fronted by Len Griffin and his Fairly Unusual acquisition project, but it was worth it. Jay wasn’t going to tell anyone. He wasn’t going to show off his new toy on Videowall or Blibber. He was going to manufacture it. In the real world. Jay knew better than most what the treasure station’s potential was. He knew what was about to happen. He had been planning it since he had been contacted by Griffin about his master plan.
With the in-game version finished, and his new skill tree fully unlocked and active, Jay had reached the apex of the basic series of machine skill crafting accomplishments. He earned a world-first achievement for being the only player in KNC history to build a Silversteel Raptor. He earned 200,000 experience points for earning the achievement. That put him almost 60% of the way to level 19, which was only one level behind the player that had formerly led the entire game as the most powerful and most advanced character.
Granted, he was listed near the top of the player rankings, but only a half-dozen people in the world knew who Saro was, and even they might mistake the listing as a typo or a troll. Who could possibly have rebounded from losing a level 16 character with a level 18 character only a short time later?
The answer to that question would put those players on high alert in the game. If you know there is a high level assassin after you, it tends to clarify priorities in ways other things largely didn’t. But that was not by any stretch the limit of the threat they faced from Saro and the first of his beloved animal companions.
Highwayman didn’t know there was another high-level assassin targeting him. Because of his level and skills, Saro would be able to conceal his identity in-game. He could even masquerade as an admirer of Highwayman. Or an unexpected ally.
In the real world, there would be no need for any of that. Jay was about to use his own treasure station to manufacture a Silversteel Raptor in the real world. He planned to modify it with a highly accurate bank of anti-personnel kinetic weapons and a powerful, highly accurate local area radio jammer. A semi-autonomous programmable solar-powered drone with a six mile range that looked like a movie prop would be just cool enough to get most people to let their guard down. Its built-in cameras would record his revenge in high definition and in full color.
All he would need to do is find out where Jordan was when he connected to the game. He could bide his time until Highwayman was in a situation not unlike the one that led to Rednar’s demise. Once Jordan’s connection to the game was jammed, Saro would end Highwayman’s journey through Kings and Conquests and take the Fairly Unusual shares for himself.
Perfectly within the rules, and nobody would believe the witnesses either.
***
Now that a full regiment of Daean soldiers had arrived at Highwayman’s keep and driven off the Niner mercenaries, Shon Cloud was safe, at least for the moment. Jordan and Alyssa had rapidly packed away all their gear and were standing by the Condor V across the street getting gas. Both were dressed in Lone Star Diner t-shirts and hats, earned after spending nearly $150 on drinks, fries, three rounds of food and putting $200 in the tip fund for the entire wait staff and the cooks.
Once they were back on the road, Jordan punched up the hands-free and dialed Robb.
“Victory, Doncem.”
“Two to beam up.”
“I’m sorry, captain. Main power is off line.”
“Did you get the crew on board?”
“Dude, these guys are pros. They know the design of this ship backwards and forwards and had us underway in like twenty minutes. Our captain showed me things about the bridge controls I never would have guessed on my own. You can’t believe what this thing can do.”
“Alright, you’ve got the course for a southern run to Central American waters. We’ll maintain communication via SMS as long as we can. We’re coming out of Albuquerque and heading east. I expect we’ll cross the border into Texas in about three hours and hit Amarillo around 11PM. Soon as we find the house, we’ll send a heads up. We also got you all Lone Star Diner shirts. How’s the castle doing?”
“We’re keeping at least one of us logged in at all times to make sure the Niners don’t come back. If you can, pull off someplace in an hour so Ciera can log in and refresh the assignments on her regiment and vault guards. We need to keep these guys patrolling this place so we don’t get caught with the window open or something.”
“Acknowledged. This thing is equipped with a hotspot and so is my phone. We’ll find someplace to pull off soon. Condor Five out.”
Jordan’s black hot rod roared along Interstate 40. There wasn’t another car in sight. The stars overhead made everything seem unusually peaceful. Within fifteen minutes, Alyssa was asleep and Jordan was listening to the latest streaming episode of the Questing Heart videocast with Kacey Gossamer.
Her topic, naturally, was the shake-up at the top of the level board for Kings and Conquests.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jordan glanced at the clock on the dash.
1:36 AM.
He hadn’t remembered to account for the time zone changes, but his car did. He nudged Alyssa’s shoulder. She awakened and made a drowsy sound.
“We’re a decimal point off the GPS coordinates. Wherever it is, it’s somewhere in this residential neighborhood.”
Alyssa sat up and looked around. “This is Amarillo?”
“In all it’s glory,” Jordan whispered. He had programmed the center console display with a GPS overlay on a map of Texas. He zoomed in until the relative distances decreased from a thousand miles to two. “Get your phone and open the KNC app.”
While Alyssa noodled around on her mobile, Jordan let the Condor Five roll along, engine throbbing. He was a little concerned they sounded like a rolling funny car race. At this hour it was likely to provoke one or two calls to the local police, but there was little that could be done unless they chose to walk, which would only make them look more suspicious. Images of what Texans could muster as a neighborhood watch flashed through his mind, which only made the sound of his car that much more stress-inducing.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Start looking around with it. If you see anything that lights up as being relevant to the game, that’s probably our location.”
“What are we looking for?”
“I have no idea. I just hope it isn’t inside someone’s house or buried in the ground a hundred feet deep. Whatever we do here we’ll have to get in and out quickly.”
Lub-lub-lub-lub-lub-lub-lub. Jordan’s car slowly turned from one street to the next. He had his lights off, but the interior of the car was fully illuminated with center conso
le screens, dash lights and mobile devices. He was certain they were going to be lit up by the cops any second.
“We look like burglars casing the neighborhood.”
“Maybe we are. We don’t even know what we’re here for,” Alyssa replied, scanning from side to side with her phone’s camera lens.
“Now we’re a decimal point off in both directions.” Jordan carefully turned into a driveway. Pickup truck. The entire back window was an American flag. Naturally. This was Texas, after all. He turned back and drove to the stop sign at the end of the street.
“Okay, that fixed one of the directions. It’s got to be that way, but not very far from this street.” He turned and drove a little faster to the next intersection.
“There’s something on the other side of that wall. It’s got that frame around it, but I can’t read the writing.”
“We turn here, then.” Jordan made his turn and stopped the car at the curb.
“This is it. It’s labeled ‘Gateway.’ 1980 Empire Street.”
Jordan got out of the car and looked at the residence. It was a white house with an unremarkable yard. The front door was boarded up.
“I don’t believe this. I do not believe this!”
“What?” Alyssa was still inside the car, so Jordan climbed back in and closed the door before cutting the engine.
“It’s a white house. It’s a white house with a boarded up front door!”
Alyssa shook her head. “What does that mean?”
“It means that Wyland is a magnificent sonofabitch! He planned all of this! Down to the last degree! Everything he put in this game and put into the real world to point at this game was planned down to the color of the ink on the brochure. The man is an absolute genius. He’s been using our unique knowledge of gaming to communicate with us while hiding everything he does in plain sight! Now he’s using knowledge only the most astute geeks could possibly know.”
“I still don’t understand. What does a white house with a boarded up front door mean?”
“It’s the opening location in a game called Zork that was written a long time ago on an ancient computer system called a PDP-10 by some really brilliant guys at MIT. Zork was one of the first interactive fiction games that presented everything in a text interface. The reason it was so popular is because of the way the parser made you feel like you could ask it to do just about anything. The puzzles in Zork are still among the favorites of fantasy fans. It was the first sandbox game. It was a story told in the second person. It inspired decades of progress in games. Wyland just brought the whole thing to life, and if he’s done what I think he’s done, we are in for the adventure of all time right here in the real– Wait a second!”
Jordan hurriedly got back out of the car. “There’s a mailbox here! Bring your phone!”
Alyssa emerged from the passenger side in time to see Jordan pounce on the small mailbox. He opened it eagerly and found–
–nothing.
“Shit!”
“Shh!” Alyssa whispered loudly. “Weren’t you the one worried about the cops?! It’s 2AM!”
“There’s supposed to be a message in here!” Jordan whispered back.
“Well, maybe Wyland wasn’t as thorough about this as you are!”
“Let me see your phone.” Jordan verified the KNC app was still running, then pointed the camera lens at the mailbox. Sure enough, the real-world-empty mailbox had a virtual scrap of paper in it visible through the augmented reality viewscreen.
“I knew it!”
Jordan tapped the piece of paper and the phone screen went black. Alyssa sidled up to Jordan to look. A video began playing. Once again, there was the face of Garrett Wyland, apparently in the same location he had recorded the first video presenting the NNG group their invitation to join KNC.
“I don’t believe it,” Alyssa said. “It’s him!”
“Hello Jordan. Once again I have to apologize for all the mystery, but I’m pretty sure you recognize there are only a few people in the world with the background and the knowledge to accomplish what you’ve accomplished so far.”
Jordan and Alyssa looked at each other.
“If you surmised Safekeep was only the beginning, you are correct. What you don’t know yet but must now be told is that you have barely scratched the surface of Kings and Conquests. The quest for the ingots and the Fairly Unusual shares served its purpose because it allowed me to tantalize people with the prospect of a real hidden treasure. But a controlling share of my company isn’t going to be enough to satisfy your curiosity. I know this because I’ve watched you overcome every obstacle, and I’ve watched you avoid the kind of greed that defeated some of your adversaries.”
“I once told you my purpose was to create the greatest entertainment experience of all time. I’ve done that. Now I have much bigger plans, and you are going to be a part of them. You are going to remake the world I have created, and you are going to realize the promise of the technologies I have invented. Together, you and I are going to change the video game industry from the toxic wasteland it has become back into a joyous place where people like us, you and I, can just play.”
“Think about it, Jordan. Think about the last time you actually played. You weren’t trying to level up. You weren’t running to the Internet every few minutes to bitch because you didn’t get your way. You weren’t griping and whining and crying about downloadable content, or graphics or the lack of a proper options screen or the fact the industry wasn’t providing you with an endless supply of free entertainment. You were just playing. You tried new things. You learned as you explored. You experienced the thrill of matching wits with the computer. You didn’t allow your warped expectations to poison you to the point where you couldn’t enjoy anything without obsessing over its flaws. You were like all of us the first time we climbed through the window of the boarded up white house.”
“I don’t have to instruct you on what you need to do next. You’re smart enough to figure it out. One thing I will tell you is every advanced quest in my game interlocks with a companion quest in the real world. Keep your augmented reality app close. Remember your enemies are never far. If they succeed, any chance either of us have to accomplish our goals will be lost. When you reach the next milestone, we’ll speak again.”
“Don’t eat the lunch.”
The video ended.
“He sounds like my dad when he encourages me to go to college,” Alyssa said.
“The ultimate quest giver,” Jordan said. “This guy has led us halfway across the country and recreated a place that has only existed in our imaginations for almost 40 years. It’s incredible. He just might have built the whole dungeon right under our feet!”
“What dungeon?”
“In the game of Zork, the house serves as an entrance to an underground series of tunnels and caverns. If you find all the treasures, you win. Maybe that’s how we’re going to achieve Wyland’s goal. Maybe we’re restoring video games by gathering up all the treasures again!”
“It would be nice if we knew what they were.”
“The clues are likely inside.”
Jordan took Alyssa by the hand and crossed the front yard. He climbed the porch steps and pulled up the compass app on Alyssa’s phone.
“Unreal.”
“What?”
“The mailbox is west of the house.” Jordan shook his head. “The man is a genius.” He started walking again, following the compass direction north. Alyssa followed.
“North of the house.” Jordan muttered. “And there’s the path.” He indicated a decorative stone path leading across the neighboring lot to a common area not far from the house. He turned and walked towards the back. There were no fences separating the front yard from the back. It suddenly became rather dark, as the structure blocked the light from the streetlamps. Jordan reached the back yard, such as it was.
“And there’s the open window.”
Two thousand feet overhead, a Silversteel Raptor hovered, virtually
silent. It recorded Jordan and Alyssa’s movements through night vision cameras. Had Jordan known, he could have pointed his camera into the sky and targeted it. It would have registered as a level 18 combat pet ironically belonging to a character with no name.
Three miles away, Jay Zhang stood at an unremarkable bus stop, watching events unfold on Empire Street. They were being beamed in high definition directly to his phone.
It was almost time.
Claim Your Free Book!
Join Shane Lochlann Black’s Mailing List!
New Book Announcements! Free Books! Special Offers! Exclusive Stories! Sneak Previews!
Join Today!
Stunlocked
Shane Lochlann Black
10.2 Copyright © 2017
Palace in the Sky Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
Manuscript designed and compiled on the Jericho™ Interactive Electronic Book Publishing Platform and the Battlefire Adventures™ Interactive Electronic Book Game Engine developed by Heavy Cat Studios
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher:
Palace in the Sky Productions LLC
Cover design and illustrations by
Heavy Cat Studios
Stunlocked Page 14
