Devastator

by Jason Cordova

  “There’s some guy over near Taruna who is pulling a bunch of crap,” he complained slightly as he shifted his massive shoulders. “I don’t know what, but he’s doing something illegal. I can tell.”

  “Oh?” she asked, surprised. Was the glitch here and in the form of a gamer? Or was it Gargoyle, returned from the dead once again? Or just a typical gamer paranoid about cheating? With the tournament, and the money involved, one could never be too certain. “Tell me more. Oh, and seriously... dressing up like a troll? How is that not cheating?”

  “Hey, the game let me, so who’s to say? Oh, that other guy, he’s bending the rules whenever it suits him,” he said with a shrug. “He’s doing stuff I’ve only seen Moderators do, and for some reason the game is allowing him. I don’t normally care, except...” he left the rest unsaid.

  She knew what the troll was talking about, though. There were some things in the game only a Moderator, or a very high reputation en finite, could pull off. And if the guy isn’t recognizable as a Moderator to gamers, then there was the distinct possibility it was someone I really need to see.

  And eliminate. Quickly.

  “Can you show me where he is?” she asked, trying to keep the eagerness out of her tone. He thought for a moment before he nodded.

  “Sure,” the troll agreed. He motioned at the trail behind them. “I was supposed to ambush any gamers who came along, but considering it’s only been you since yesterday, I don’t think they’d mind.”

  “Thanks,” she said in a grateful tone. She paused and looked at the gamer suddenly, wary. “Um, hey, another point of interest.”

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  “No reputation points will be earned if you eliminate a ref,” she told him. He snorted and laughed.

  “Actually, that never occurred to me,” the troll replied.

  “Of course it didn’t,” she murmured as the two of them walked down the path. She grew comfortable in the forest at long last, and she smiled at the sudden realization.

  Not many creatures, evil or not, messed with a troll in the forest. Not even an annoyed vampire lord. Chaos code or not.

  * * *

  Tori looked around at the old, rundown foundry behind the mill and scowled. It was more exposed than she recalled and not an ideal location for a large group to gather in the early morning sun. In the dark, she could see the possibilities. She could only hope nobody decided the group was an easy and tempting target.

  She shot a glance at Rich, who was still disguised as a troll, and winced. The poor guy, she decided, was probably at a loss for words. The giant group of Moderators was an intimidating group for anyone to have to be in close proximity to.

  The two of them had made excellent time through the night, managing to avoid any gamer activity as they made their way to the city of Taruna. Rich, while still a relatively new gamer to The Warp, was an excellent strategist, and she found herself listening to the advice of the younger man more often than not. Against her better judgment, she’d related the story of the Ganymede attack, and the subsequent fight for survival there. She didn’t go into detail as to why the Moderators were there, letting the assumption they were referees remain.

  Rich’s group, the Alpha Legion, was currently running in second place in the overall team event, close behind Team MOAB from the North American region. She was surprised to learn the gamers were able to constantly refer back to their own boards within the Nexus for place and standing updates. His team’s solo gamers had already been wiped out in three of the four realms, Rich had informed her, and the last realm they were active in was in Kadashter. It was part of the reason he looked like a troll. While second place was still the first loser, the prize money was a cool half million dollars. Split eight ways, it was nothing for a typical sixteen-year-old to sneeze at.

  For the most part, though, Rich and Tori had been simply hanging out with each other during the trip to Taruna. She was glad she’d introduced herself to the other teen back at the airport. He was insightful and driven, rare qualities in others her age, she’d come to realize. She wondered if that was how she was back in high school. She hoped that’s how she’d been.

  Now that they’d arrived and met up with the other Moderators, though, she was forced to listen as Shane and Gloom argued vehemently about their next move. It was definitely not going well, and it was getting on her last nerve.

  “If we find the glitch, it’ll be here in this area,” Shane argued angrily, his face flushed red as the argument had grown more heated. His lips were pulled back in a snarl. “The more we spread out, the faster we’ll find it and be done!”

  “You’re an idiot,” Gloom snarled back as he jabbed a finger into Shane’s chest. “If we consolidate our position and focus on one area as a team, we can do a more detailed search of any given location and find it faster.”

  “What makes either of you so certain it’s even here?” she asked quietly, her soft voice carrying over the argument. Both men, as well as the rest of the teams, stared at her in confusion. She shook her head and looked at Shane. “Chill, you. Gloom, relax.”

  “So if you don’t think it’s here, then why are we?” Gloom probed, turning his anger toward her. She shifted her steady gaze toward the man and after a moment Gloom looked away, embarrassed.

  “I don’t know what is here,” she corrected. “But something is changing the rules of the game. Rich, care to explain?”

  The gamer, suddenly aware almost every person of their large group was eyeing him, swallowed nervously before he stepped forward. He looked at the ground apprehensively as he began to explain.

  “There’s someone within Taruna that’s changing the rules of the game to suit their needs,” Rich murmured, repeating what he’d earlier told her. Her team shifted slightly as they listened. “A few of the teams were eliminated by someone who could bend the rules of the game. Not change, I guess. Sorry. But bend the rules to fit their own needs.”

  He looked pleadingly at Tori, who nodded and silently encouraged him on.

  “Whoever it is, he’s good,” Rich continued timidly. “He can bend the detection codes some of us use so they ignore him. Some of the other teams have reported it, but no referees have been around until you guys.”

  She watched the faces of the other Moderators carefully as Rich spun his tale. A few of the faces were a mixture of shock and hope. Gloom’s group, sans Gloom himself, looked eager. She idly wondered why Gloom looked at Rich in annoyance before she turned her attention back to the friendly teen.

  “Thanks Rich,” Tori said and offered him a smile. She turned back to face her teams. “We have two choices. We can track this person, who might be the second target, Gargoyle. Or we can ignore this and continue on with the primary mission.”

  “Wait,” Rich interjected, confused. “Target? Gargoyle? What’s going on?”

  She sighed and looked back at him. “Don’t sweat it. Nothing to do with you.”

  “Uh, okay?” the teen shrugged. He pointed back to the forests. “I need to get back. The other teams are supposed to be coming back down the trails sometime today. I have to whittle them down if we’re going to keep second.”

  “Hold up,” Gloom called out in a nasty tone, his hand resting on the hilt of the massive, two handed broadsword hanging from his belt. Rich’s red eyes glanced from the sword back to the Moderator’s face, his face as resigned as a troll’s perpetual scowl would allow. “What makes you think we’re going to let you go?”

  “Because I said so,” she looked at the Moderator angrily. “We’re not here to hunt gamers. You’re hired to do one thing, and one thing only. Don’t make me withdraw your contract and boot your butt back to Atlanta.”

  “What if he was just leading us on?” Gloom countered hotly. “Leading us into a trap so he can earn some reputation points if his team manages to kill us all?”

  “You’re an idiot,” Shane interjected. “No reputation points can be earned during the tournament.”

  “Then he�
��s also a psychic,” she replied and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. The last thing she wanted, or was willing to deal with, was a fight between her teams. She’d chosen them for their skills and not their personalities. Now, she began to wonder if that was such a brilliant idea after all. Team chemistry was possibly the most important thing she remembered from her conversations with Lieutenant Massa. “I chose the meeting location, remember? Not him.”

  “Still,” Stacey spoke for the first time, her tone sarcastic as her eyes glanced over at the troll standing slightly in front of Tori. “It’s not like I ever trusted a gamer in disguise, much less one masquerading as a troll, before.”

  “There’s a first for everything,” Tori said forcefully, her tone brooking no argument. Whoops, she thought as she replayed Stacey’s comment in her head. The other woman had been sarcastic. She glanced toward the others who had lined up behind Shane and Gloom, each representing their separate team. She realized she hadn’t told Gloom about Andre yet, and reminded herself she’d have to before too long. While the notification would’ve come via the server, he deserved to know the details.

  It’s all getting better and better, she thought. She continued, “He can go, unmolested, and return to the tournament with our thanks for pointing out the rules violator. Anybody else have a problem with my decision?” A few murmured quietly and looked away, but none were willing to meet her piercing look. She wasn’t completely satisfied with their response, but it’d have to do. For now.

  “Good. Now let’s do our job, people. The clock is ticking.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 12

  WarpSoft Headquarters, based in Chicago, was the business center of the largest software developer in the world. The true central hub, though, was actually in Bluffdale, a small town in Utah. It was housed in an old building that had once been occupied by the NSA, and it ran the majority of the servers which hosted the many realms of The Warp.

  The facility had the space for enough servers to run the entire internet by itself, yet WarpSoft didn’t use all of it; most of the facility was sublet to other companies as the realm servers of WarpSoft barely took up a quarter of the warehouse. The cold-storage unit was specifically designed to dissipate the high heat which came from running the servers nonstop for weeks on end, and it had little difficulty with managing the power demands required. It was the ideal solution to a problem which had vexed other companies in the past.

  Today, though, everything was silent as the banks of servers were down and being run through diagnostics. With almost every single person who played The Warp watching the tournament, one or two servers alone were more than enough to continue to run the games without interruption. This allowed a team of technicians to quickly make their way through the servers, update their directories, and ensure the latest patch updates weren’t affected by the game as a whole.

  They’d expected to find something. A clue, perhaps, or even some sign of tampering within the machines. The fact they found nothing at all puzzled them. Nothing was running, nor were there any signs of a rogue server. Security scoured the building to ensure nobody had built a small hidey hole similar to what the terrorists had built in Germany. A few phone calls ensured even the power had been cut off to the building.

  More calls were made, and Leo handled them all, his patience worn thin at the idea he was incorrect. He was perturbed there seemed to be no cause for the issue. A man who was usually three steps ahead of his competition, it was galling to be wrong. He’d been fairly certain his people would discover a small hiding space with a server running the Nexus buried within the large building.

  It angered him. He hated calling on other people to fix his problems when he’d always been able to figure them out without assistance. Of course, Leo wouldn’t have been a good CEO if he didn’t listen to his subordinates. Even if that advice hadn’t always been correct.

  “Rodney, I have some questions for you, mate,” Leo said as soon as Tori’s father answered his cell. “I’m sorry to bother you while you’re on holiday, but…”

  “Duty calls,” Rodney replied from a little under four thousand miles away. He rolled away from his new wife and sat up in the bed. Though it was well after noon in London, he was taking advantage of his first real vacation in years. “What can I do for you?”

  “A few things,” Leo said without preamble. “First off, I need you to reach out to our friends at Interpol and check out one Laszlo Zalan. He’s a computer whiz kid from the Balkans. Serbia or Montenegro region, born around twenty or so years ago.”

  “Isn’t he the guy behind Rathe Solutions?” Rodney asked and grabbed the pad of paper and pen from the nightstand next to his bed. He began to write everything down.

  “Yes,” Leo confirmed. “Just put some feelers out. I have an odd feeling about him and just want to see if anything turns up.”

  “Why not just go through CJIS?” Rodney asked, referring to the system used by most federal agencies to complete background checks through the FBI. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”

  Leo paused to consider, then said, “They’re too slow. I don’t have twelve to fourteen weeks right now. I have twenty-four hours, maybe.”

  “Okay, I’ll contact Mike Kabongo and have him contact Interpol,” Rodney said. “He knows the region better and has more contacts.”

  “The region was a mess back then, so this is a bit of a long shot…” Leo warned him.

  “I understand,” Rodney said. “What else do you need?”

  “No luck at the server farm in Utah,” Leo informed him.

  Rodney snorted, amused. “Told you so.”

  “You and Dr. Lee have the same idea,” Leo admitted after a moment. “This quantum entanglement theory is gaining popularity among some of my upper management employees. The guys from Huntsville are split between that and the Chaos code creating its own environment within The Warp itself somehow.”

  “Cool theory, but implausible.” Rodney frowned as he stood up and began to pace around the suite. “That’s not how the Chaos code works.”

  “It’s been tampered with before,” Leo reminded him.

  “No, it was cloned,” Rodney corrected. “Then it was locked out of Crisis. We were dealing with its younger, dumber cousin.”

  “Touché,” Leo said. He wasn’t pleased by the reminder it’d been his employees who had copied the code in the first place. “I need some advice, someone on the ground here in Chicago who can corral the R&D team, and I’ll pay you to come in early from your honeymoon.”

  “No can do, sir,” Rodney replied. “With all due respect, I fear my wife more than you.”

  “I’ll pay her as well,” Leo added. “Call it a consultant’s fee or something. I don’t care. I’m running out of ideas, and I need a fresh set of eyes I can trust. And I trust you.”

  “Ummm…” Rodney’s eyes found Chelsea’s sleeping form. “I’ll ask her.”

  “I’ll also reimburse you the cost of the hotel you’re staying at,” Leo said, throwing more honey into the pot. “Travel expenses, the works. I’ll even throw in some Bears tickets. You can use my luxury box.”

  “Okay, put me down as a ‘yes’ and Chelsea as a ‘maybe,’” Rodney acquiesced and sat back down on the foot of the bed. “I’ll be out there tonight.”

  “Excellent!” Leo exclaimed. “I’ll make hotel arrangements for you.”

  “You know, with the amount of money you’re paying me and my daughter, not to mention my wife, you should just start giving us shares of the company,” Rodney laughed.

  “Ha. No,” Leo answered. “Business class from London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare, four in the afternoon, your time. I bought two tickets. Hoo roo.”

  “Hey, wait, I said ‘maybe’ about her,” Rodney protested but Leo had already killed the connection. Rodney stared at the cell for a minute before he began to curse his boss under his breath. “How do you always do this, and I’m only a little mad? Every. Single. Time.”

  “Hon?�
�

  Rodney half-turned and saw Chelsea had woken up. She rubbed her eyes and stared blearily at him, her hair mussed from staying up way too late while attending a show at the Hope Mill Theatre. While he wasn’t a huge fan of the show Betty Scandalous, his new wife had been dying to see it since it premiered on the Lower West End the previous March. The three-hour musical production had kept them out until the wee hours of the morning.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” Rodney said as he shifted over to her. He offered a slight grin. “So, I our plans have changed a bit. Nothing too drastic, but we need to fly out to Chicago today…”

  “WHAT?!”

  * * *

  Loneliness.

  It wasn’t the first time Gargoyle had felt this way. In his many years of wandering the Path, it’d felt like he was alone in the universe many times. It was a product of his mission, however, and he’d come to accept the pain as just another facet in the line of duty. He’d bear down and ride it out.

  This time felt…different, however. He’d never met someone who was as tuned in to the Path as he, yet he saw a blinding ignorance in her that terrified and awed him. It was unconceivable to him that someone could be so far along yet be such a distance away. She’d shown no interest in joining him in the past, and he had no reason to think she would now. Besides which, she was a guardian first and foremost. She was a protector. She’d defend herself and her own with every ounce of her strength.

  In her he saw a true, if reluctant, leader.

  The ‘net pinged and he looked up, perturbed. The notification came through, and he scanned it. A frown formed as he saw another piece of the puzzle slid out of position and away from his control. He hadn’t expected this, not so soon. Parts were moving too fast, and the Path wasn’t yet prepared. He’d have to delay things, but how? The new player in the game was most decidedly a threat to his plans.