Stay on the Wing

by Michael Atamanov

  "Timothy, you shouldn't be apologizing, I should. I feel very guilty. I'm actually the one who bought the sleeping medicine for Valeria. They'd never sell such a dangerous medicine to an underage person. It's just that your sister told me a secret, saying that in the last few months, her breasts have been growing a lot. And her left faster than the right. And that the process was very painful, so much that she couldn't even touch them. And your sister said she was unable to lie down, either on her stomach or side. And I couldn't imagine that Valeria would use the sleeping pills for other purposes..."

  * * *

  It was my shortest, and at the same time saddest video. I honestly admitted to the viewers of my clips that the wood nymph Valerianna Quickfoot, who had accompanied my big-eared goblin in Boundless Realm from day one, had been none other than my very own little sister. And that something bad had happened to my sister in real life, so she was now unconscious in intensive care, attached to an artificial breathing device. I told them I simply was physically unable to have fun in a virtual game, because my thoughts were now occupied only with my sister's wellbeing.

  So, I honestly told them the coordinates of my Goblin Herbalist. I offered anyone who wanted the Royal Forest Wyvern to come to that place and wait for me there. Sooner or later, I'd enter Boundless Realm and even allow myself to be killed unanswered, because I had volunteered to take part in this massive hunt as the runaway victim.

  I made the video the day after the incident near midday, when it finally became clear that Val's treatment might take time, and that the doctors couldn't give a one-hundred-percent guarantee of a successful outcome. The girl's heart had stopped two times in the night, and only the swift intervention of the brigade on duty each time had saved my sister. Valeria was still unconscious as before, hooked up to the medical device.

  As soon as the video was published online, all my friends got in touch with me. Max Sochnier was very worried for Valeria and expressed a readiness to help with money for her treatment. But I assured my friend that I wasn't having any financial problems. And in fact, I did have money. What was more, I'd received yet another huge transfer from the Boundless Realm corporation — this time, it was for a whole three hundred forty thousand credits as "my percentage for amulet sales." But today, the mountains of cash brought me no joy...

  Leon called as well. He also expressed words of support and wished my sister a speedy recovery. The former construction worker told me he had returned to his family, where he was accepted very warmly both by his wife and three daughters. His crisis of family relations had ended smoothly. What was more, my friend gave me some transparent hints that he and his wife were already thinking about a fourth child.

  My new boss, as could be predicted, also called. Jane wished my sister a speedy recovery and inquired about when I'd be back at work. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell her a precise date, because I didn't know myself. Jane was clearly upset, but still said that she understood me, was in no rush and would try to smooth the issue over with the stalled event on her own. Perhaps, she'd organize a pause in the great hunt, or think up something else.

  I also got one call that I wasn't expecting at all, from Veronica, although it was surprisingly warm. The girl was sincerely worried for my sister and wished me patience and strength. She also offered to forget all our past disagreements and to make peace. Veronica also said that her Dryad Dancer managed to take advantage of an opportunity when the drekar captain wanted to look at his take, and escaped from her imprisonment in the barrel. And now, she was the fully-fledged master of the drekar Drake of the Morning Star, and her three hundred crew members were willing to go through fire and water for her.

  I dozed off sitting on a little sofa in the hospital hallway embracing Kira, who had crashed from fatigue. But suddenly, I was awoken by an employee of the medical facility, who told me the ailing girl had regained consciousness. A doctor had already looked her over, talked with her and allowed her to be transferred to the general-care ward. What was more, relatives were now allowed to speak with her without any limitations. Kira and I instantly shot up and, throwing on our white hospital gowns and rubberized slippers, hurried after the nurse.

  Val was lying on a hospital bed with black circles around her sunken eyes. There were plastic tubes protruding from my sister's nostrils, leading to a strange metallic apparatus. There was a glucose drip in the girl's left arm. As soon as I appeared, my sister lit up and started speaking completely distinctly, although in a very quiet voice:

  "Forgive me, Tim... I was wrong. I'm such a fool! I understand how badly I scared you."

  I walked up to my beloved sister, took a seat next to her on a chair and held her cold, child-like hand in mine. I mostly stayed silent. Valeria wouldn't quiet down for a second though, trying to say her fill and share her fears:

  "Next time I get this notion, Timothy, remind me that digitization doesn't exist! I’ve tested it on myself... There was no 'splitting of the mind,' as some authors describe. There was no digitization. In fact, I lost control of my character... If only you knew how scared I was when I realized my error... I tried to immediately exit the game, but I was too weak. And you forgive me too, Kira! I changed my decision, and now I want to get biotic legs. Plus, seeing how I'm already in the hospital, I want to start the procedures right away to implant all the electrodes and other wires."

  Kira and I exchanged glances, surprised at the sharp change in Valeria's bearing. My redheaded girlfriend answered that she was very glad at the girl's desire to get legs, but in any case, that decision would have to be made by the doctor. And only after Valeria got her strength back.

  When we were already out in the corridor, after speaking with the attendant physician, Kira stopped me and said:

  "Timothy, I say we should split the cost of Valeria's recovery and biotic legs down the middle. And don't even try to argue — I won’t accept any other way! To me, Valeria is not just some mere stranger, and I sincerely want to help. But now, excuse me, I've got to leave on urgent business."

  * * *

  I'd completely forgotten about this arrangement. And, I'll admit, I didn't even immediately realize what Jane wanted from me. I supposed my new boss might try to chew me out for not coming into work for the third day in a row now. But Jane was calling about something else:

  "Timothy, what are you talking about? Remember! My housewarming party... All of my direct employees are invited... And you promised to come to the party!"

  "Yes, that's true. It must have slipped my mind. When should I show up?"

  "Today at six PM! A gift won't be necessary, just make sure not to be late!"

  Jane hung up, leaving me in a pensive state. At six PM? That was fine, I still had a boatload of time. But as for "a gift won't be necessary..." If I'd heard those words from any old person, they'd have meant: "a housewarming party is simply a pretext to get everyone together. We're expecting a wild time, all the workers will get to know each other, there'll be a bit of alcohol and dancing." But in Jane's mouth, those very same words had a slightly different meaning: "I won't kick you out without a gift, of course, but I will definitely start thinking of you as cheap." Well, I guess this meant I'd get her a gift for the housewarming party.

  The clock was showing one thirty PM. I was in my apartment waiting for the movers, who were coming to haul the virtual reality capsule to the clinic for my sister. Her doctor was surprisingly lenient and allowed Val to spend four hours each day in the virtual reality capsule. What was more, the doctor even approved of her spending time that way, saying it stimulated the muscles and nerve endings in her damaged legs, so it should have a positive effect later on the process of her growing accustomed to the biotic legs.

  Installing and connecting the virtual reality capsule went off without a hitch, but Valeria unexpectedly refused to enter Boundless Realm without me. So, my sister and I had agreed to enter at nine tonight, when night was falling over the Great Desert, and my big-eared goblin would no longer be threatened by imminent
death from the rays of the sun. I tried not to think about the other problems — hunger, thirst for both water and blood, how there would probably be a ton of people near the place I'd appear, and that my first game session after a three-day break would almost certainly be vanishingly short.

  It was hard to believe, but over the whole time since Val's suicide attempt, I had not once played nor even opened the forums of Boundless Realm, so I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the game now. I even astonished myself — as soon as I even thought about the game, I started feeling a sense of revulsion. Clearly, I was sick and tired of Boundless Realm after so many days of playing actively without a single break. So, I spent my time talking to my sister and doing a bunch of interesting things in real life.

  For example, I fixed the door and changed out a leaky faucet in the apartment. I fully replaced my wardrobe, having bought up high-quality and stylish items. I signed up for driving classes, and had even attended two of them. And for the first time in a long time, I made it to the gym — I worked actively on pullups and parallel bars, then played soccer with the guys and got back to pullups.

  The exercise was surprisingly easy. I set, and immediately broke personal records for pushups, pullups, cartwheels, and other workouts. The active, adventuresome life of my Goblin Herbalist in Boundless Realm must have been having a very positive effect on my health. My biceps were bigger and noticeably stronger. On my stomach, you could distinctly make out abs. My excess fat had totally disappeared. It was unusual and fun to sense the interested and evaluating gazes of completely unknown girls on my body. Seeing a young strong man in stylish athletic clothes clearly drew their gazes. It was pleasant, devil take me!

  * * *

  At five minutes to six, I was standing outside Jane's door with a big box tied shut with a bright ribbon in my hands. I wasn't sure that my gift would be to her liking. But still, I hoped that my boss would appreciate the living flower. Created in a lab by geneticists, it was capable of recognizing its owner from among hundreds of other people. It would then modulate the color of its petals, as well as the character and intensity of its aroma to suit the owner’s mood. From behind the door, I could hear loud music and voices. I pressed the doorbell, but discovered that the door was unlocked, and entered.

  I immediately stopped sharply, finding myself nearly face to face with a group of unfamiliar people covered head to toe in gang tattoos. I jumped back, but the exit was already blocked by two guys of a similar, obviously criminal appearance.

  "Come in, Timothy, I've been expecting you!" came Jane's voice from the neighboring room, and soon, my boss appeared in my field of view in a shockingly short dress with a compact audio player in her hands. She pressed the pause button, then the music and happy voices I'd heard from behind the door disappeared.

  I didn't manage to come to my senses from all the events before the gift was taken from me, along with my mobile phone and all the coins from my pockets. They then slammed a fist into my stomach a few times and tossed me in a deep chair. Another minute later, my arms were tied tight to the armrests of the chair, and my legs were tied to its legs.

  A hulking skinhead with a Nazi swastika tattooed on his neck punched me hard in the cheekbone, which made my head fly back and nearly tear clean off.

  "That's for my sister, bucko. She's the one you hit in the clinic! And that's just the beginning!" the gangster hissed, sputtering with rage. Hatred was flickering in his eyes.

  He gave me another box to the ear, then tried to kick me in the groin, but his friend pulled me away from the off-the-rails psycho just in time.

  "Don't overdo it. I need him conscious," Jane said in an even tone, calmly observing the goons. "Timothy, do you understand why they're here?"

  I nodded slowly, at that watching somewhat distantly as the blood from my broken nose trickled onto my new white shirt.

  "What, don't you like it?" Jane asked with warm-hearted mockery. "Now just imagine how much I liked it when these thugs broke into the apartment at night, demanding I pay them back five thousand credits right away, or they'd break my arms and legs!"

  "But we quickly realized our mistake..." came one of the cutthroats, carefully listening to our conversation and playing with a butterfly knife as he did so.

  "They realized it but, all the same, those unpleasant minutes were enough for me to realize I never want to be treated like that again. They almost raped me. I'm still covering up the bruises on my face with concealer. And to my mind, the person responsible for that was you, Timothy! You blatantly set me up by giving this address to the social center and setting the Grave Worms gangsters on me! Then you fled to another apartment, without even warning me about the danger!"

  Well, shit... So that's how this whole story got started — Val had taken the papers with the survey, but the lady from the center must have already managed to enter some of the data into her computer and passed that information along to the gangsters. Bad news... Having lived a few years in the criminal outskirts of the megalopolis, I had all too good an understanding of the harsh character of this gang, and knew what Jane had to go through that night.

  "Timothy, they practically left me paralyzed! And I had to pay for the 'false alarm,' even though I had nothing to do with all your problems. To my eye, it seems that you are at fault in all my sorrows. So, listen to me very carefully, because your life will depend how you react. Timothy, you transfer all the money you got from the corporation over the last two days to my account. Trying to wheedle or deny is useless here — all the payment orders came from accounting through my computer, so I know the exact total of all your payments: six hundred twenty thousand credits. And that is more than enough for me to share with my new friends," said Jane , nodding at the gangsters in the room. "As soon as you pay, we'll untie you and set you free as a bird, alive and well. The broken nose doesn't count. That's minor. As you see, it's all simple."

  "Mhm, that's what I thought. There'll be a search for you," I chuckled with broken lips.

  "Timothy, with three hundred thousand credits, I could just disappear in the megalopolis, making myself a new appearance and documents. It wouldn’t even be hard. Or I could just leave this city once and for all and travel for the rest of my life to the best resorts on the planet."

  "I see. And what if I don't agree?" I asked, though I understood the answer wouldn't be to my liking.

  "There’s no 'if' about it, punk!" said a gray-haired gangster with an evil gap-toothed grin. "Your choice now is this: either you pay voluntarily, or my guys will make you pay. I've got a group of specialists here with me, so sooner or later, you'll give up the money just to make the torture stop!"

  "But if you will not work with us, no one can guarantee your safety," Jane added, admiring her well-cared-for nails. "You see, Timothy, these guys and I have a certain understanding. I found you for them, and will get my share somehow. But if you don't agree voluntarily, my share will be quite small. Then, I won't have enough to pay a cosmetic surgeon, or get new documents. So, you must understand, I simply cannot leave you alive, because you'll give me up right away."

  "You won’t be able to leave in that case either — the corporation will be searching for me, and it won't take them long to look your direction!"

  Jane laughed, took a seat opposite me in the chair, crossed her legs and took out a cigarette.

  "No one will be searching for you, Timothy. As your direct boss, I'll simply fire you for missing work. By the way, I have the complete authority to do that. And the event with the hunt can then continue just fine without your participation — someone who owns a silver dragonfly agreed to take your place and serve as the new victim of the great hunt. For the last two days, our advertising clips have been showing not your green wyvern, but a tireless, handsome dragonfly, and none of the players even came out against the change. By the way, for my handling of the crisis after you bowed out of the event, the board of directors officially appointed me the new director of special projects. You might even cong
ratulate me on the promotion, Timothy! So then, I'll repeat once again. No one will be looking for you, and in two or three days, everyone will just forget you ever existed..."

  Jane spoke coherently and convincingly. She really did manage to force me to feel all the weight and danger of the situation. What could I say? Maybe I should just agree to part with the money — at the end of the day, life is too precious. But I was then stopped by the lack of any guarantee that I would be set free after that. In fact, from what I knew of the ways of the Grave Worms, they would stop at nothing to rid themselves of a witness as dangerous as me. They wouldn't let Jane go either, especially with all that cash in the girl's account. They'd clear her account out, then keep withdrawing until they hit the overdraft limit, leaving her far in the red. It was too bad that Jane didn't understand that herself...

  Time passed, I stayed stubborn, and the gangsters got angry until they lost their patience.

  But then, a very bright spark blinded me and a horrible scraping sound cut into my ears. I nearly lost consciousness, having completely lost my sense of orientation. But when my vision and hearing came back, I saw that the situation in the apartment had changed radically. All the bandits were lying snout-down in the floor with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Jane found herself in the same position. There were armed soldiers moving about the room in futuristic-looking armored suits and helmets with opaque face guards. The armored chestpieces all of them were wearing shone out with the emblem of the Boundless Realm corporation. There was also a logo in white, winding its way over the black air tanks on their backs: "Security Service."

  One of the fearsome assault soldiers approached me. An electric knife appeared in his hands. With a couple quick, nearly indistinguishable motions, the ropes binding me fell to the floor. The soldier put his weapon away and lifted the mask of his helmet, showing his face. Well, I'll be! I knew this man very well. It was the head of Kira's bodyguard team. Talk about the last person I expected to see here! This meant the guards of my redheaded girlfriend were also employed by the Boundless Realm corporation!