by Magus Tor
On their way back through the harbor, Drew saw a sign for boat rentals; he had an idea.
“Why don’t we rent one of these smaller boats for a day or two.”
“Drew, we don’t have time for fun right now.”
“No, hear me out. We can bring our computers and work on the boat. I want to try heading out and see if we can find the yacht.”
“Do you think we can? Lake Michigan is huge with a good number of boats.”
“It can’t hurt trying.”
They decided to bring Sr. along with them, as well as another agent just in case. They rented a rather large boat. Not as large as the yacht they were looking for, but large enough for four people to be comfortable. They packed up a few things and headed out to pick up Sr. and the agent. The van dropped them off at the harbor and they made their way to the boat they would be renting. They had no choice but to rent it for the week, although they really hoped they wouldn’t need it that long.
Once aboard, they all got settled. They had called ahead and had the boat stocked with the basics and ordered a special lunch they could share before heading out. Sr. was truly excited to be captaining this boat. It wasn’t much bigger than the one he was used to, but to him it was much nicer. It had all of the latest technology and would be a pleasure for him to captain.
After lunch they headed out into the open water. Drew and Max knew that Lake Michigan was large, but they never realized just how big it was until they were making their way further from the shore. To them, it looked like they were in the ocean. Behind the boat they could see the city skyline, and in front of the boat they saw nothing but open water.
Drew examined the shoreline and spotted the area that was pointing towards his house. He knew that from there he could see the light in the water. He pointed in the direction he wanted Sr. to go and then sat back and enjoyed the ride.
The water was fairly calm and the big boat almost seemed to glide across the lake. Before long, the city grew smaller and smaller and Drew wondered if they were out as far as the light they saw. He asked Sr. to stop the boat and throw anchor. They would have to sit here until the sun set and they could watch for the light. Once the boat was stopped and Sr. came down on deck, they went about doing their own things for a while.
Drew and Max made some phone calls and looked up a few things online. They received an email with a listing of all the yachts on Lake Michigan. They couldn’t believe how many large boats were on the lake. They sat on the deck with the list they printed out on their portable printer and went through the names of the owners for each of the yachts. The list was long because it contained the boats for Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
They had made their way through almost the entire list when they came to a name that seemed familiar to them: Cami Lane. They couldn’t figure out why that name looked so familiar, so they contacted the office and had them do a search on it to see what they could dig up. The boat was registered in Michigan, which was all the information they had right now, and they didn’t have their piles of research with them, so they would have to wait to hear back from the office.
The boat they rented had an electric grill on deck, so they decided to cook up some burgers and hotdogs. While they ate, they enjoyed watching the sun set behind the city skyline. It was a beautiful sight that none of them had ever gotten to see firsthand.
As the sky grew slowly darker, Drew and Max grew more and more impatient. They were dying to see if they could find the light from where they were. They knew that if they found the light, they couldn’t act on it right away. They just needed to confirm whether it was in fact a boat and hopefully get the name of the boat and it’s numbers. With that information they would be able to move forward.
It seemed to take forever for the sun to fully set, but once it did they were in for a treat. Not only did the city look beautiful from the water, but they were able to see the light on the water that they had seen from the roof of Drew’s house. They were nowhere near where they thought it would be, but they were definitely closer.
Sr. was able to plot where he needed to go and they decided that it would be best to leave in the morning to head that way. Showing up at night would be way too obvious. If they went during the light of day, they could slowly move right by it and use their binoculars to get the boats identification. They would just look like another boat out on a day cruise.
Once the decision had been made, they decided to enjoy the cool evening air. After changing into some warmer clothes, they all sat on deck. Even the other agent sat with them. He was keeping a mental note of everything that stuck out to him and would relay it to Drew and Max later. As the breeze picked up, the boat began to rock a bit more, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying the night.
Sr. talked about what Adam was like as a child. He admitted that he wished he had been around for Adam more while he was growing up but that work had taken up so much of his time. He talked about how they would bond on their fishing trips but that Adam had his own life on land. While Sr. would work, Adam would ride his skateboard all over town and if he wasn’t outside, he was in his room playing his video games.
They talked about the chips and technology. Sr. felt like if it was really Adam doing this he had to have help because the programming was so advanced. He was convinced that he couldn’t do it on his own. Drew told Sr. about the online computer games he was a part of hoping to show Sr. that Adam did have some computer knowledge, but Sr. still wasn’t convinced.
“Those games are already programmed. They’re easy. All you have to do is play along. The most you do is create the character, the rest is you just guiding it through the game.” Sr. had a point.
Drew asked Sr. about Adams friends growing up.
“Adam didn’t have any really good friends, at least none he brought home. He had the guys he skateboarded with, but he never even talked about them by name. He never had friends over after school or for sleepovers. Even in high school he was pretty much a loner. By the time he was a sophomore he had all but given up on boarding and went strictly to gaming.”
Max was getting tired so she decided to go down and get some sleep, making sure to set her alarm. Drew sat with Sr. and finished his soda. After about half an hour they, too, went down to get some sleep. Once Sr. was in his cabin, the agent pulled Drew aside and reported that he hadn’t really heard anything that stuck out.
Drew went in by Max and she was still awake. They talked for a few minutes about the day’s events and then they turned out the lights. Before long, all on board were sleeping deeply.
*****
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
When Drew woke up he was surprised to see that he was still in the cabin of the boat they rented. When he rolled over to wake Max, she wasn’t there. He quickly dressed and made his way topside. There he found Max, Sr., and the agent just about to start breakfast. He walked past Max and kissed her on the head before sitting down next to her.
The day was starting out beautifully. The sun had just poked up over the horizon and it made for quite a spectacular sunrise. There were clouds in the sky, but only enough to make the colors of the sun appear like a painting. They reveled in the perfection as they ate their breakfast.
When all were done eating, they stowed all of the dishes and prepared to move closer to the area where the light was coming from. After about an hour they could see the shape of a yacht taking form in the distance. At first they decided to pass by at the required distance so the people on the other boat wouldn’t think anything of it.
As they passed by the yacht, they got a good look and were not surprised to see that it looked exactly like the one in the dream. There was nobody topside, so they decided to go a little further and then allow themselves to drift for a short time before turning back. While drifting, Drew pulled Max aside.
“Did you play the game last night?” Drew’s question struck Max as odd.
“Yeah, I was going to ask you about it at breakfast, but though I sh
ould wait. Where were you? I looked everywhere for you. The game wasn’t paused anymore.”
“I forgot to set my alarm. I can’t believe I did that. I never forget to set it.”
“Well, the game was back in full force, but I got my shots in before being taken out. It definitely wasn’t the same without you though.”
“I assume the light was in place in the water?”
“Yeah, and what surprised me was that there were two lights. I could see our boat!”
Thinking that was odd, but not making too big a deal about it, Drew prepared for the trip back. He made sure that the binoculars were in reach and they were ready to get the name and number on the boat. After getting the boat turned around, they headed back in, only they passed on the yachts far side. As they passed the yacht, they were able to get the number off of the boat. They saw somebody move, but by the time the binoculars were trained on the person, they had already moved inside.
They passed by and the agent went to the back of the boat and was able to get the name of the yacht.
“You’re not gonna believe this, boss,” the agent proclaimed.
“What is it? Were you able to get the name?” Drew asked quickly.
“Yeah. I got it alright. It’s ‘Just A Game’.”
“No, this is not just a game.”
“No, Sir, that is the name of the yacht.” Then the agent repeated the name of the yacht in air quotes so that Drew would understand.
Drew ran down and got the print out of all the boats registered for Lake Michigan and for some reason wasn’t surprised to find that the person who owned ‘Just A Game’ was in fact Cami Lane, the name that seemed familiar to them.
“I may be reaching, Drew, but could Cami Lane be Lana Camille?” Max asked in a voice that was way more confident than even she expected.
“Yes, of course.” The answer didn’t come from Drew, but from Sr. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it yesterday when you were going over the list. She loved the ocean just as much as we did.”
“How would she afford something like that?” Drew asked.
“She got a rather large settlement in the divorce.”
“May I ask how much?”
“Forty million dollars.”
Drew and Max gasped at the number. That was an outrageous sum to them. They quickly called the office and had them do a comparison on Lana’s full name and Cami Lane to see if they could be linked. Within minutes they were notified that the names did indeed belong to the same person. It seems that her and her current husband purchased the boat for when they wanted to vacation in the states.
“She always was partial to the Midwest. I never understood it.” Sr. said sounding almost annoyed.
Now that they had the information they were looking for, they decided to head in to the harbor. Once the boat was neatly back in its slip, they decided to get a few more things from Drew’s place and stay on the boat until their rental time was over. They felt it would work out better in case the light moved at night. They also noticed that the yacht had a skiff, so they wanted to watch and see if anyone would come ashore.
***
The second agent also came aboard so that there would always be someone awake on the boat. They didn’t want to take any chances. Once everybody was ready, they were once again under way. This time they didn’t go out quite as far. They wanted to make sure they had a clear view of the harbor and could see the light at night.
Once they dropped anchor, Drew brought out their laptops and they went to work. Drew had gotten an update from the office. Letting them know that they should check the news. He said to focus on Kentucky.
Quickly, Drew, Max and Sr. all pulled up different news sites on their computers. Kentucky was now experiencing mysterious deaths. They knew they had to put an end to the madness, but also knew that if they acted too fast many more people could die. They had to figure out how he was controlling the game, how he programmed the chips and how to end the game without more people dying.
They put Sr. to work trying to figure out how his technology was put to use. That kept him busy for hours. While Sr. worked on that, Drew and Max tried to come up with a plan. It wasn’t until about three hours later that one of the agents approached Drew.
“Sir, may I make a suggestion?”
“Absolutely. We are stumped.”
“Well, Sir, I have scuba training. I could swim to the yacht when the occupant leaves on the skiff. Once inside I could copy his computer hard drive. That would give Mr. Howard, Sr. the actual program to try and figure out.”
“That’s a brilliant idea. Nice work. We will let you know when everything is in place.”
The next step they had to take was to go back to the harbor and rent the scuba equipment. They knew that eventually he would have to come in to get supplies, they were just hoping it would be in the next few days.
Once they had the scuba gear onboard, they headed back out, once again, to the open water. This time they moved in a little closer to the yacht. They went within eyesight of the craft, but far enough away to look like any other boat that set anchor off shore.
Luckily they had packed enough warmer clothes because they hit a cool snap. The temperature dropped to the fifties during the day and even cooler at night. Even still, they were willing to go through whatever they had to in order to catch this monster.
The sun was beginning to set as they sat down for a quick meal of sandwiches. They wanted to be ready at a moment’s notice should Adam decide to leave the yacht. As they got ready for a long night of nothing but watching for movement in the water, they heard a motor.
They all rushed over to the side of the boat and Drew looked through his binoculars. It took a moment to zero in on the skiff, but when he did he was absolutely shocked. It wasn’t Adam. It was Charles Thompson, the CEO of Center-Tech.
“Sr. quick, get down below. He can’t see us and he definitely cannot see you!” Drew was almost frantic as he ushered Sr. and Max down below. The agents stayed topside and watched as the skiff drew closer and closer. As the skiff passed by their boat, Mr. Thompson waved at the agents and kept on going toward the harbor.
“It’s time, sir.” One agent called down to Drew.
Within minutes, Sr. had the boat moving closer to the yacht. When they were closer, but still far enough back to still not be a concern, the agent slipped into the water, double air tanks on his back and an external hard drive tucked neatly into a waterproof dive bag. It wasn’t long before they lost sight of him. Max watched through the binoculars until the agent appeared alongside the yacht.
“He made it. He is slowly stepping up the ladder. He is now on the ski deck. He’s moving toward the sliding doors. He’s inside.” Max was done with her job…for now.
“Lewis, do you read me?” Drew spoke into his ear mic.
“I read you, boss. I’m inside. I’m making my way to the stairs to the lower cabins.”
Drew sighed, but Max wasn’t sure if it was a sigh of relief or of fear. Agent Lewis would come over Drew’s earpiece periodically in a soft voice to keep him updated. As far as he could tell, he was the only man aboard.
“I’ve found the control room. It’s exactly as you described from the game. Plugging in now. It shouldn’t take long.”
Now all they could do was wait. Max watched for the skiff to return while Drew paced the deck. Sr. stayed below at Drew’s request just in case something went wrong. Drew was thoroughly confused as to why Mr. Thompson was on the boat and not Adam. To a certain degree it all made sense. If one had the technology and the other wanted it, why not work together.
“How we doing, Lewis?”
“It took some doing, but the drive is copying now. Should be another five minutes.”
“As soon as it’s done, get the hell out of there. Leave no trace.”
“Yes, Sir, Boss.”
The next five minutes were really dragging. Drew was as stressed out as he had ever been. About three minutes in Max ran to Drew and
in a panic said, “He’s on his way back. I spotted him with the binoculars.”
“Lewis, you read me?”
“Yes, boss, go ahead.”
“You’ve got to get out of there. He’s heading back. Two minutes to our boat.”
“Almost done. One more minute.”
“Now, Lewis, now!”
Just then the computer beeped and the files were done transferring. As Agent Lewis made his way back through the boat he was careful to make sure not a thing was out of place. He dipped back into the water just as Mr. Thompson was passing the rental boat.
Luckily, Drew and Max had gone down below just in time. Mr. Thompson gave another wave to the boat and continued on toward the yacht. Agent Lewis felt the skiff fly through the water just above him.
Once Lewis was back on deck, they celebrated their small victory. After Lewis changed into dry clothes, he came back up to the deck and briefed Drew and Max on what he had seen on the yacht. Other than the control room, everything else seemed normal. The only thing out of place was the fact that there were two state rooms being used and there were two wet suits on the ski deck.
Drew and Max wondered who the second person was. Where was the second person? Was the second person Adam? Was he on the skiff but staying low? Was he on the yacht and didn’t know Lewis had boarded? The questions were piling up. Hopefully the hard drive would have some much needed answers.
All were in agreement that they had seen enough action for the night. Agent Lewis took the first sleep shift while the other agent stayed on deck. Everybody else went down below and went to their cabins. Drew chuckled at the thought that the three sleeping quarters on this boat could all easily fit in the one room with the monitors on the yacht. Still, they were comfortable.
Drew and Max decided to let another night of the game go on without them. They had to get some sleep if they were to figure out what everything on the hard drive meant.
