by Jason Segel
Kat nudges me with her elbow. “Did you see that?” she whispers. “The guest protected a Child. Do you think we should speak to him? We could probably use some backup.” She sounds so hopeful that it almost breaks my heart. Kat probably thinks she’s just witnessed proof that humanity isn’t complete shit after all. I’m still not so sure. And one thing’s for certain—we’re not here to make friends.
“We can’t trust him,” I tell her. I don’t know why the gray man is in Otherworld. But I do know that he’s not like us. He’s one of the two thousand. He’s one of them.
* * *
—
The hours we spent trudging through the swamp should have been some of the most miserable of my life, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was nice to spend time alone with Kat. She was keen to avoid killing anything on our way to Nemi, but the beasts of Otherworld were determined to test her resolve. They came at us with teeth, claws, beaks and stingers. Despite Kat’s best intentions, we left a trail of carnage behind us. Now we’ve finally reached the edge of the morass, only to find ourselves standing on the shores of what appears to be an inland sea. Deadly beasts are one thing. But I wasn’t prepared to face this kind of obstacle.
“How are we going to get across that?” I ask Kat.
“We aren’t,” she says. “This is Nemi.”
No sooner has the name left her lips than a massive pleasure barge appears on the horizon, moving swiftly our way. As it draws closer, I can see there’s a garden planted on its deck and two luxurious Roman-style structures positioned at either end. The boat crosses the water in mere seconds, without fluttering a frond on the palm trees in its gardens. It stops in front of us and a gangway is lowered to the shore a few feet from where we’re standing.
“You didn’t mention we’d be heading out to sea. Are you sure this is safe?” I ask Kat.
“Safe? This is Otherworld, remember?” she replies. “But I’m pretty sure we’ll be the only guests.”
An NPC appears at the top of the gangway. He’s wearing a navy blue uniform that’s identical to the one worn by the Child we saw in the swamp. He’s holding an empty wooden box.
“Your weapons, please,” he drones as Kat and I approach.
Kat hands over her bow and arrows, but there’s no way I’m giving the guy my dagger.
“Yeah, right.” I try to slip around him, but I can’t. Some invisible barrier keeps me from stepping onto the ship.
“Your weapons, please,” the NPC repeats.
“What’s going on?” I ask Kat. “Why do they want our weapons?”
“That’s the rule here,” she responds. “Nemi is the only realm I passed through where weapons aren’t allowed. That’s why I chose it for the meeting.”
“Are you crazy?” I demand under my breath. “Have you forgotten the two thousand psychopaths who’ve turned Otherworld into their personal slaughterhouse?”
“Of course not,” she replies. “The weapons rule is one of the reasons Nemi stays empty. You’re not supposed to kill anything here.”
I reluctantly toss my dagger into the box. I feel naked without it. But it turns out Kat’s right. Though the boat is lousy with NPCs—all dressed in the same distinctive navy blue uniform—there don’t seem to be any other guests.
The weather couldn’t be more perfect. The sky is cloudless and the sun golden. A gentle breeze washes over me, and I realize the boat has left the shore. I step over to the starboard railing and peer over the side. The water below is clear and blue, and there’s a school of shimmering silver fish swimming past. I doubt they’re the only creatures that live in this sea. It makes me nervous to realize that we’ll soon be out in the middle of the water, at the mercy of the barge’s crew, with no way to get to shore on our own.
“Welcome to Nemi.” Another uniformed NPC interrupts my worries. He’s one of the blandest beings I’ve encountered in Otherworld, with a face I’ll forget the second he’s gone. “Would you care for a tour of the ship or shall I guide you directly to your table?”
“Table?” I’m confused again.
“Nemi is known for its food, sir,” the NPC explains. There’s the second reason no other guests come here, I guess. If you’re wearing a disk, Otherworld food is irresistible, but headset players can’t taste a thing.
“We’re expecting a visitor,” Kat notifies our host.
The NPC nods. “Yes, madam, he’s already on board. He’s waiting for you both at the table.”
A bolt of nervous energy shoots down my spine. “Is he alone?” I ask.
“You three are our only guests at the moment,” the NPC confirms.
Kat catches my eye. She looks like she’d rather trudge back through the swamp than sit down with our visitor. “Let’s get this over with,” she says.
“Very well. This way.” The NPC guides us toward the larger of the two buildings on board. Supporting the roof are eight marble columns, and the walls are decorated with naughty murals of Roman-style gods at play. Sheltered from the sun is a square table surrounded on three sides by plush banquettes.
Seated against the far wall is Wayne Gibson. He looks exactly as he does in the real world, right down to his chinos and button-up shirt.
“Well, hello there.” Wayne glances down at his watch. “You two are late. I was starting to think I might have misinterpreted your message.”
“We had to travel through a swamp to get here,” I tell him. “It took longer than we thought.”
“I sympathize,” he says, as though that were something he was capable of doing. “But you chose the time and place. I’ve never visited Otherworld, and it took me a while to get here myself. But I managed to be on time. Please.” Wayne gestures to the banquette to his right. “Have a seat. I see the food has arrived.”
Before we can take our places, the NPC sets a platter down on the table in front of us. Piled on top are hundreds of small beasts that don’t resemble anything I’ve ever seen. Their bodies have been roasted whole and stuffed so full that they’re perfectly round. In the real world, the white stuffing that’s escaping from their mouths would probably be cheese. In Otherworld, there’s no telling what it might be. Yet despite the revolting appearance, the smell wafting off the dish is intoxicating.
Wayne reaches over and picks up one of the stuffed creatures and bites into it like an apple. I hear his teeth break through the skin and then the bones crunching between them. “Boy, I bet this tastes delicious,” Wayne says. “You two want to try one? I can’t even imagine how amazing it must be with a disk.”
The temptation is almost overpowering, but I know better than to fall for the trap. Once you start eating in Otherworld, it can be impossible to stop.
“What’s the problem?” Wayne asks with a grin. “You think I got here early just to have the food poisoned?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.” Kat fakes a toothy smile. “But I’d be a little more cautious if I were you. If anything happens to us, Milo Yolkin’s going to kick the bucket in a truly spectacular way. The Company managed to pull its stock price out of the toilet with that OtherEarth trailer. But if Milo commits suicide on camera, a new game is not going to save you.”
“So you’ll have poor Milo jump off a roof, will you?” Wayne asks, popping the final bit of the beast into his mouth. “What will people say when they see there’s no body splattered on the sidewalk below?”
“If Milo jumps off a bridge, there won’t be a body to find,” Kat informs him.
Wayne chuckles warmly. “Clever!” he admits. “I always knew you were a smart girl. Maybe if you’d been a little less intelligent you wouldn’t be in all this trouble.”
Kat smiles again and winks at me. “I had no idea we were in such big trouble. Did you know, Simon?”
“Nope.” I play along. “In fact, if anyone’s in trouble, I’d say it’s Wayne here. When the Compa
ny goes belly-up, he’ll be out of a job.”
Nothing seems able to wipe the smile off this jerk’s face. “So what is it exactly that you two want?” Wayne asks.
“We want you, the engineers and the doctors who’ve worked on the disk project to turn yourselves in to the authorities and confess to your crimes,” I say.
Wayne nearly busts a gut laughing. “Nice try, kids.”
I knew it wasn’t going to happen, but I figured it was worth a shot.
“Fine,” I say. “But our next offer is our last offer. We want the Company to destroy all Otherworld disks and kick all the headset players out of the game. And we want you to release Marlow Holm, James Ogubu, and Declan Andrews, otherwise known as Gorog.”
“James Ogubu?” Wayne looks genuinely surprised. “Now there’s someone I haven’t seen in ages. I can’t exactly hand a man over to you if I have no idea where he is. Last I heard, he walked off the job months ago. In fact, if you find him, tell James he’s fired.”
I’m not sure why, but for once I think Wayne might be telling the truth. Though if no one at the Company knows where James Ogubu is, what the hell did Milo do with him?
“Forget Ogubu, then,” Kat says. “The rest is nonnegotiable.”
Wayne sits back with his arms crossed. “So you really want us to destroy all the disks—just when we’re so close to completely debugging them? It could be a matter of days at this point. People died for that technology. One of them was a friend of Mr. Eaton’s, as I recall. Don’t you want to respect Carole Elliot’s sacrifice?”
The name sends a jolt of rage through my system. Along with Gorog, Carole was one of my companions on my first trip to Otherworld. Without her, I wouldn’t be alive. “Carole was murdered.” I have to shove my hands under my thighs to avoid strangling him.
“All in the name of progress,” Wayne says.
“You must mean profits,” I correct him.
“More often than not, the two go hand in hand.”
I stare at him across the table. The guy looks like a Boy Scout troop leader or a Little League coach. You’d never guess he was evil incarnate. “You’re a sick bastard, you know that?”
Wayne smirks and picks up another stuffed creature and pops it in his mouth.
“You guys not gonna have any of this?” he asks once he’s finished chewing. “I’m sure you’re really missing out on something special,” he says when neither of us responds. He lifts a finger and calls a waiter over. Three identical NPCs arrive at our table.
“Are you finished with the dish, sir?” one of the NPCs asks.
“I sure am,” Wayne confirms. “You can take it away. In fact, while you’re at it, why don’t you go ahead and take these two as well.”
I’m still not certain I heard right, when one of the NPCs grabs Kat by the shoulders and drags her out of her seat. Before I can do anything, the other two have my arms pinned behind me. I start to struggle. Then I see a dozen NPC reinforcements arrive.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Kat growls at Wayne. “Didn’t you hear? If anything happens to us, our friends will shove Milo Yolkin off a cliff.”
“Your friends,” Wayne repeats. “You mean Busara Ogubu and Elvis Karaszkewycz?” He stops and smirks at what must be the look of pure horror on my face. “Oh, yes, we know who they are. It won’t be long before we know where they are, too.”
I’d ask how he got Elvis’s name, but I’d rather not give him the satisfaction. “If you kill us, Elvis and Busara will make sure you’re out of a job by the time you get back to the real world,” I sneer. “And in jail soon after that.”
“Katherine’s life isn’t in danger,” Wayne says, referring to Kat by the full name she’s never used. “Her poor crazy mother’s suffered enough already. I figure we’ll find a way for the two of them to spend more time together. I’m on friendly terms with the man who runs the mental hospital where Linda’s staying. He’s already agreed to set aside a room for Katherine.”
“What about Simon?” Kat asks.
Wayne shrugs. “Well, my dear, what happens to him will depend on you. First we’re going to give him a good ass-whupping to punish him for shooting me the night you two escaped from the facility. I figure that’s only fair. As soon as his whole body feels as bad as my arm, I’m going to ask you to tell me where you and your friends are hiding out in New York. If you’re forthcoming, I’ll let Mr. Eaton live. If not, he’ll die and I’ll find your friends anyway.”
Wayne claps his hands and two NPCs open up a trapdoor in the barge’s deck. Then they disappear into the darkness below. “I bet you two aren’t planning to stay in Otherworld forever. Someone back in New York’s gonna be taking your disks off soon. So what do you say? Should we get this show on the road?”
The NPCs reemerge with a creature in chains trailing behind them. There’s no doubt it’s a Child, but I’ve never seen one this large before. He stands at least seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and giant hands. His thick gray skin sags around his joints, and two tusks lift his upper lip into a permanent snarl. He has elephant DNA, no doubt. But there’s something else mixed in as well—something unusual.
“I know you depend on your dagger,” Wayne tells me. “But as you’ve learned, weapons of all sorts are banned in Nemi, so I hope you won’t mind a little hand-to-hand combat.”
Now I know what this is all about. Wayne Gibson didn’t come here to save the Company. I made a mistake thinking he’d ever set aside his desire for revenge. His only goal right now is to make me suffer. “You’re saying you want me to fight this guy?” I ask. “Forget it. I refuse.”
“Fine by me,” Wayne says. “It’ll be less entertaining for the rest of us if you don’t fight back, but I figure I’ll be the winner either way.”
As the Child’s chains are removed, the ship’s NPCs form a circle around us. I could probably break through, but there’s nowhere to go. I glance at the railing that rings the deck. I wonder if I could reach shore if I managed to jump over the side.
“I wouldn’t even consider that if I were you,” Wayne warns me with a yawn. “There are some pretty big beasts down there in the water. All things considered, getting eaten by one seems like a pretty shitty way to go.”
“You don’t have to fight!” Kat calls out to the Child, who doesn’t exactly look thrilled by the situation either.
“Kick his ass, and you’ll earn your freedom,” Wayne tells the Child. “If you kill him, I’ll set your friends free too.”
“He’s lying!” Kat cries as one of the creature’s fists streaks through the air. Guess we just found out where his priorities lie. I barely have a chance to dodge the blow. I’m not quick enough to evade the next one. It hits me square in the stomach and sends me flying across the deck until my back hits the railing. While I do my best to suck air into my lungs, I see the Child moving in my direction. He grabs the front of my cloak and lifts me up, only to slam me back down a split second later.
“Katherine, dear,” I hear Wayne call out. “Are you ready to tell us where you and your friends are hiding?”
“Don’t,” I manage to croak. I struggle to my feet and face the Child. I can already taste blood in my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be able to withstand another punch. When he comes at me, I make the only move I can. I step to the side. He’s too big and moving too quickly to reverse course. As he charges past, I jump onto his back and climb toward his neck. Soon I have the Child in a choke hold. He’s flailing about, but he can’t reach me with his arms and he can’t shake me off. I squeeze until I lose all sensation in my right arm. Finally, he crashes to his knees and then hits the floor, unconscious.
The deck is so silent I can hear the water lapping against the sides of the boat.
“Do it,” Wayne orders me. “Finish the Child off.”
“Simon’s hurt!” Kat shouts. “You got your revenge
! What else do you want?”
But Wayne isn’t swayed. In fact, he seems almost pleased by this turn of events. He sees the chance to do far more harm to me than a beating could ever deliver. “Kill the Child, Mr. Eaton, or I’ll have the men here kill you.”
“No.” I let go of the Child and rise to my feet. I walk toward Wayne and position myself with my back to the creature. He’s awake now. I can hear him moving. He could easily attack, but he doesn’t.
“Throw them both over the side,” Wayne tells the NPCs.
The men take a step forward and a gunshot rings out. Everyone on the boat looks startled by the sound. There shouldn’t be any weapons in Nemi. Something hits the deck with a thud. I’m still breathing, so I assume the Child must be dead. But then I see he’s risen to his knees from the deck. One of the NPCs lies on the ground instead, blood spilling out of his body. The form vanishes just as the Child from the swamp appears on deck.
He’s almost handsome up close. His skin’s still a bit chalky, and his wide-set eyes are pure black, but he has all the right features and they’re right where you’d expect them to be. I might even have mistaken him for a guest if the tail hadn’t given his origins away. Avatars in Otherworld can be large or small, but they must assume a human form. He seems like he might be around my age, but I don’t doubt for a moment that this creature’s seen far more than I have.
I expect the other NPCs to attack the moment he appears, but instead they line up as if awaiting new orders. The ones holding Kat have set her free, and she hurries over to join me. We stand shoulder to shoulder, waiting for the shit to hit the fan.
“Go down to the hold,” the Child orders the elephantine creature I was just fighting. His voice is calm and firm. “Release your companions and bring them up to the deck.”
“What the hell is going on? Why does this freak have a weapon?” I hear Wayne cry out in rage, but the NPCs don’t answer. It seems they have a new master now.
“All of you—swim to shore,” the Child orders the NPCs. One by one, the men dive over the side and into the shimmering blue water. The loud splashing that follows tells me either the NPCs couldn’t swim—or something was waiting down there to greet them.
