by Dante Doom
"What?" Van asked. That story was markedly different from what Jet had told him.
"Lies!" Jet winced as the Emperor reached his claws into Jet's mouth and began to pry his jaws further open.
"Lies! Lies!" the Emperor bellowed. "I would have been proud to call you a foe if you had been able to resist me with force and violence of your own, but you hide in the shadows and beg other races to save you! You are not fit for this existence, and I will remove you from it! Now go to hell, where cowards belong!" And with that, he tore Jet's jaws wide enough to utterly rip his head in half.
"Holy crap!" Van shouted as blood rained down on him. The Emperor laughed heartily.
"Now, that was pleasure. Pure pleasure. You have earned your right to stand beside me, Van. You have earned it because you chose to look me in the eye as you tried to kill me. You didn't trick others into doing your dirty work."
Van wasn't sure if the Emperor was trying to lie to him or not now. On one hand, it was possible that the Emperor was trying to sew seeds of distrust, but on the other, the Emperor's character was consistent enough that it was conceivable he'd despise people for any sign of cowardice.
"There, now that the deed is done, it is time for you to come to my ship," the Emperor said.
"Your ship?" Van asked. "I get to go up in your ship?"
The Emperor shook his head. "Not your body. The ship exists within the game, as well. That is where I normally operate out of. We shall go there and begin to prepare. You will need to move your corporeal body to one of our facilities. Tell your government of the plan we have concocted and order them to stand down from their actions."
"Yeah…" Van said. "Sure."
"You sound uncertain," the Emperor said. "Are you backing out now? Shall I give my team the order to activate the system and obliterate the world?"
"No, no, I just don't know what to tell them. The government, I mean."
"Bah, tell them whatever you'd like," the Emperor snorted as he stretched his wings out. His health immediately returned to 200 as he laughed. "You all thought you had a chance. Admirable." And with that, Van felt himself ejected from the game.
Chapter Fifteen
Sang opened her eyes as the pod opened. "Oh, I thought we were so dead!" she shouted. "Van, you brilliant bastard! How did you do that?"
"I have no idea!" Van said as he climbed out of the pod. "I have no idea how that worked."
"What's going on?" Neil asked. "We've been locked out of the monitoring systems – did you guys win? Is earth safe?"
Neil and O'Hara were both leaning against a spare pod, and were passing a bottle of brandy back and forth. Sang recognized it as her brandy, of course.
"We're close," Sang said. "Van figured a way to get us a stay of execution."
"Explain," O'Hara said as she crossed her arms.
And so the two explained everything. They talked about how the battle had gone down, how the Emperor had been playing games with them, and how Van had figured out a way to get aboard the ship. By the end of it, Neil was shaking with rage.
"I knew you'd figure out some way to screw us over!" Neil shouted. "I knew it!"
"Screw us over? I bought us a crap-ton of time so we can figure out how to save this planet and the rest of the universe," Van replied.
"Sure, you did. And this solution conveniently involves you relocating to a secret Draco facility where we don't have the ability to beat you senseless for your inevitable betrayal," Neil replied.
"No, you don't understand," Sang said. "This Emperor is like a god in the game. He can do whatever he wants. He has ultimate power. We gave killing him our best shot, but we didn't stand a chance! There was no victory for us, but we managed to get a bargain."
"So what? We just ease off then and let Van go run off and frolic with a god while the rest of us wait around for armageddon?" O'Hara asked. "What's the plan here?"
"I don't know," Van said. "There's something about this Emperor, though. He's different from his race. He hates his own species. He's never had to deal with another person challenging him. I think I can manipulate him… I'm just not sure yet."
"Well, great," Neil said. "Just great. So we get to tell our superiors that the mission was a success then, and then hope that this Emperor doesn't decide to push the button just for fun."
"I've got a plan," Sang said.
Van turned to look at her. "Please, I am all ears. What do you have for me?"
"It's not gonna be an easy one, but I'm thinking that if you're going to have physical access to one of their facilities, they might have some tech that we don't have access to. I mean, Draco created these regular pods for non-professionals to buy, right? What do they use?"
"True," Van said, "he did mention to me that he has a kind of pod available that I can stay in 24/7."
"So if you can access one of those pods…" Sang said as she rubbed her hands together, "you could probably find some way to access its schematics."
"Oh, I get it!" Neil said.
"What?" Van asked. "I'm not following."
"If we can understand how the Draco pods work, we might be able to develop some kind of virus that would just kill them," Sang said. "It won't be easy, but it's possible. I’m going to need to figure out how to get into that facility, though."
"Oh, so you were invited, too?" O'Hara asked.
Sang shook her head. "Hell, no! I'm going to have to sneak in."
"That's risky," Van said. "But worth it. I still have one of those lethal biofeedback programs that you made."
"Maybe I can tweak it so it will unleash the virus in the game…" Sang said, trailing off for a minute. Her mind was working overtime to figure out a solution to the problem in front of her. "Yeah, because if the virus can spread from the game code into their pods, it can kill them that way. But we'd need schematics."
"What if I figured some way to send them to you from the game?" Van asked. "That way, you don't have to sneak into a heavily guarded Draco facility."
"I don't want to leave you alone," Sang said. "You could end up in trouble."
"Sang, I'm already in deep, deep trouble." Van replied. "We all are. I say you stick around here – go visit those brothers and get new characters for the team. Then send me an item with a spammy message attached to it. It'll throw off the Emperor if he thinks I'm just getting some kind of scam sent to me. Include the phrase 'Your Best Gold Now' so I'll know it's from you."
"Hey, that's some real spy stuff there," Neil said. "Wonder who you learned it from."
"Okay," Sang said, ignoring Neil. "So we just hand you over to them and hope for the best. Got it."
"It's not ideal," Van said, "but I think, at this point, it's gonna be a real stretch to see if we can pull this off. Who knows – I might end up having to actually work for them."
"Hey, as long as the rest of this planet is safe, go crazy," Neil said. "But until Draco is purged from this planet and that game is destroyed, we're still going to be working."
"Just take it easy," Van replied. "We don't want to tip them off to our master plan."
"Excuse me?" said a voice from behind everyone. They all turned to see that there was an MP standing there, rifle in hand. "We've received a call from someone claiming to be a representative from Draco. They have requested to meet with Van outside of the base."
"Yup," Neil said to the man, "that's fine. Get out of here, Van."
"Wait!" Sang said as she reached out to grab him. She pulled him away from the group for a moment. "I just wanted to say thank you, for caring enough to keep me alive."
Van winced. "Oh man, this is the absolute worst… but… if I'd been more concerned about the greater good, I would have tried to kill him while he was distracted with killing you. My philosophy wins, Sang. We're all still alive because of it."
"You're honestly going to use this as an opportunity for saying I told you so?" Sang snapped.
"Maybe it's because I want you to understand how important it is to never sacrifice others," Van repl
ied. "I'm not trying to start a fight… I just want to end a really long one. Especially before I leave you."
Sang sighed. "Fine, you're right. Okay? When I was completely frozen, unable to do anything, I really thought I was going to die. I know that I would have understood your choice to try and kill him, sacrificing me in the process, but at the same time… I really didn't want you to make that choice. I really wanted to live."
"That's how it works, Sang," Van said as he put a hand on her shoulder. "I can't make that choice for anyone else, and I hope that you don't make those choices anymore, either. I've got to get going now. We'll see each other again, I promise."
"I really hope we do," Sang said. "As much time as we've been spending together, I'm willing to admit that it's strange to imagine what life would be like without you."
"Are you hitting on me?" Van asked. "I knew you couldn't resist my roguish charm."
"Unfortunately not – I made that saving throw a while back," Sang said. "Now, get out of here! You've got an organization to infiltrate!"
Van saluted her and turned to leave. She felt a strange sense of anguish as she watched him walk out, though. His choice to bravely throw himself into the very heart of danger was quiet heroic, she couldn't deny, but it was hard to acknowledge even that much as he made his way to the door and she had to wonder if she would ever see him again.
Van shifted uncomfortably in the car. He had been blindfolded for the ride, but knew that they had to have been travelling for several hours. There'd been a few people waiting for him in a Humvee outside of the CIA's base of operations; they had been the ones to give him a blindfold and tell him to stay quiet for the trip. For all he knew, he was being driven out to the desert to be shot, but then again, that didn't seem much different from any time when he got into a car with Neil.
Eventually, the car came to a full stop and the engine was cut.
"Get out," instructed a woman. She was blonde and was wearing military fatigues. At first, Van had thought she was someone from the base, but she had been the one to instruct him to keep his mouth shut.
"Can I take my blindfold off?" Van asked.
"You may," the woman replied.
Van pulled the blindfold off and squinted as the sunlight hit his eyes. He quickly realized that he was indeed in a desert. Right off the bat, he scanned the area for a large hole, but saw none. That was a relief.
"There," the woman said, pointing west. "Do you see that tree?"
There was a solitary tree standing some half a mile away, and Van squinted to see what made it so special.
"Yes," Van said. "I see it."
Three other goons were walking toward the tree. They stopped abruptly and then vanished.
"Where'd they go?" Van asked.
"The Masters use special technology to keep their base safe. Remember this tree, so you don't get lost. Just walk towards it and you will enter the base."
"Oh… they can cloak things?" Van gasped.
"Yes, they can," the woman said. "The Masters can do anything they wish. You made a good choice by coming to join us. And as I have been told, I am to be your bride."
"Whoa, what?" Van asked as he spun to look at her. She shrugged.
"It is no complaint of mine. Truthfully, I was afraid that I wouldn't ever have a husband when I came to join Draco. So this is the Masters' way of rewarding me. We are to bear children soon."
"Oh, right, uh… well, here's the thing," Van said as he took a few steps away from her. This was just too creepy. The hollowness of her voice, the emptiness of her expression, and the casualness of the way she talked about a life changing event was all terrifying. "I'm not really looking for that special somebody right now; I've got a career to think about. Intergalactic brain-slaving is hard work and I wouldn't want to be the guy who's working late hours."
"The Masters informed me that you would take some time to get used to me. That is fine. I am able to wait," she replied.
"What's your name?" Van asked.
She shrugged. "We give up our names when we come into the fold. My number is 88 and my function is Courier."
Van felt his skin crawl at that. This place was getting weirder and weirder. He didn't know what else to say to this strange, brainwashed woman, though, so he chose to walk forward instead. As he walked, he became acutely aware that the ground beneath him was not made of sand, but was instead concrete or maybe even steel. His footsteps clunked and thunked with each step.
Everything in front of Van was the desert, too – until he blinked and he was indoors.
"Whoa!" Van shouted. He had been expecting some kind of trickery, but this was almost like magic. He was inside some kind of a lobby where there was a receptionist sitting at a desk. He looked up to see Draco's logo hovering above the desk, flickering with holographic lighting. Next to the desk were two men holding AK-47s. They were motionless, staring straight forward.
"Welcome to Draco," said the receptionist. She looked different from all of the other Draco stooges who Van had met. She was chewing gum and rocking back and forth in her chair. She seemed more alive than the others.
"Uh, hi," Van said as he walked up to the desk. His eyes were transfixed by the two men with guns.
"Don't worry about them – they're harmless as long as you don't try to leave," the woman said. "I'm Cindy. My guess is that your name is Van?"
"Yeah, I’m Van," he said as he leaned up against the desk and looked over at the journal that Cindy had been writing in. It turned out that she had been sketching a picture of a cat biting down on a bunch of flowers.
"Well, it's nice to meet you. Honestly, it's nice to meet anyone who isn't some kind of emotionless freak," Cindy said as she went back to doodling.
"What's the deal with that?" Van asked. "Everyone here's so lifeless. I had one girl tell me that she was gonna be my wife and there wasn't a hint of emotion in her voice."
"It's those tubes," Cindy replied. "You get stuffed into those things and you come out a little less than you. They run a simulation that's designed to teach you how to be like them, I guess. Reduces your ability to emote, express desires or whatever. It's interesting stuff."
"Why are you so different?" Van asked.
Cindy shrugged. "I'm a PR gal. We're tasked with helping new recruits figure stuff out and also with handling any non-Draco members who end up in this facility. We get the occasional reporter or snoop in here. I'm in charge of smoothing things over so Draco doesn't have to kill them. Dead bodies usually lead to larger investigations."
"Oh," Van said. "So you're pretty sold-out for Draco, aren't you?"
"Apparently," she said with a sigh as she worked on her drawing. "Five years ago, it was a big deal to me, but now I'm getting impatient. We all just found out the entire plan has been changed. The collective has decided that humanity will not get their comeuppance. So now what? You know what I mean? I've been waiting for a long time and the rules completely change on me. It's stupid."
"Right…" Van said. He had no idea how to communicate with a woman who was dead-set on the utter destruction of mankind. She seemed nice, but really, how nice could someone who wanted mankind dead be? "So, what am I supposed to be doing here?"
"I guess I'll give you the tour," she said as she stood from her desk and walked over to a large steel door on the righthand side of the room. "This is the entryway to the compound. You're allowed to leave and wander around the desert for 1 hour every 14 days. This is because Draco recognizes that some humans claim they need natural sunlight, and so they have allowed for one hour per two weeks, if you so choose.”
"Okay," Van said.
"So once you're done running around or whatever, you come back in here and you press your hand against the door. It will read your DNA and recognize you. Only Draco members are allowed in here – if it doesn't recognize your DNA, it will burn your fingers."
"Good to know," Van said as he watched Cindy place her hand against the door. It made a chittering noise and slid open, allowing the
m to enter.
Cindy led him down the hallway and into a large room that was full of haptic pods. There were hundreds of them. Van whistled as he walked up to one of the pods. This one was far more complex than any he had ever seen before. They were slick silver pods with no visible buttons on the outside. He couldn't even see the seam where the pod sealed itself shut.
Cindy waved a hand over the pod and it beeped at her loudly. Displays appeared on the pod itself, as if the pod were a screen made for viewing the vitals and statistics of the person on the inside. Van glanced at one of the vitals and gasped.
"It's saying the current session is 7 weeks long. Has this player been in there that long?"
Cindy nodded. "Indeed. You've been using consumer pods, so you're used to having to leave in order to get food and water every few days. These things are entirely self-contained. A Draco Vitals Sustenance Pod is designed to allow unlimited time inside of the pods. You will be living there. Of course, we only give these to the very best players, the ones who are at the top of the hierarchy. You are very important, and thus you qualify for one."
"Yeah, I'm very important," Van joked back to her. She didn't seem amused by his words.
"Let me be honest with you, Van," Cindy said. "I know why you're here. You're here because Draco decided to change the rules on us. It's a little out of character, I must admit. For the longest time, we’ve had one singular goal, and with less than an hour from the event… everything changes."
"Life's crazy that way," Van replied. He could see there was real tension in Cindy's voice. Her dissatisfaction did make some level of sense, too – after all, Draco had promised that they would be kings and rulers. Now she was stuck doing the same thing until further notice. This was a real crack in the Emperor's armor here, Van realized. Cindy couldn't be the only one feeling this frustrated, right? But then again, the brainwashing that took place might strip away the individuality from all of the players, meaning that they wouldn't much care what Draco decided.
