“Umm, not yet, kiddo.” Kavan threw an arm around him. “We got a bit of a drive ahead of us.”
Nighthawk’s adult face somehow managed to convey the awed relief of a young boy. “Ooh, yeah. We don’t have to hide anymore.”
“Right.” Fawkes leaned into Rallek and muttered, “And that’s why I sold out.”
Non-Disclosure
37
Dakota lay spread eagle in her own bed, one leg under the sheet, in her usual sleeping outfit: nothing. Not smelling stink or being in contact with fabric that hadn’t seen detergent in time measurable in years left her content, with no desire to move.
William and Shawn had opted to take a train back to Philly, but not before exchanging contact information with Christina. Eric drove again, and they road-tripped her back to Hartford. Dakota had spent Monday in and out of sleep at Eric’s place, wearing one of his shirts after running the clothing she’d been in for three days through the laundry twice.
She’d called Hal not really caring if she got fired, but she didn’t try to get canned. He asked more questions about how she was doing and coping rather than when she’d be in again, but she asked about returning Tuesday, which he agreed to. Neither she nor Eric had touched Axillon99 at all Monday.
The alarm started beeping at 5:30 a.m., nine minutes after her eyes opened.
Dakota rolled over and silenced it, then crawled out of bed and headed to the shower. By 5:51, she’d exited her building and walked the few blocks to the Amazon Café. She went in, but left the doors locked since it didn’t open until 6:00 a.m. Going about the normal routine of morning setup anchored her back to reality. Disappointingly enough, by the time she unlocked the front doors, the past few days no longer even seemed real, as though she’d never left work to live like a post-apocalyptic rebel.
Blake rushed in at 6:01 and grabbed her in a hug. “Oh my God, are you okay? What happened? Hal said you were abducted?”
“I was… it’s dealt with.” She thought over what to tell him, considering the NDA… but the company wasn’t flying her out to San Fran until the end of the week, and she hadn’t signed anything yet. “I stumbled into a network by accident. They thought I saw some confidential stuff, but I didn’t… just got into the folder. As soon as I realized what happened, I backed out. They didn’t believe me about not seeing anything, hence the thugs grabbing me, but we came to an arrangement.”
He nodded. “Oh, good. When Hal said abducted, I thought…”
“No… thankfully.” She sighed. “No bad touching… well, I mean not in a sexual sense. They slapped me around a bit.”
Hal arrived and rushed over. He began to reach for her, but froze. “Hug okay?”
“Yeah.” She accepted his embrace, which felt a bit like having a second father.
“If there’s anything you need to talk about, I’m here.” Hal nodded once.
She gave him the same explanation as Blake about corporate espionage. She still had a hint of red on her wrists, which she showed them, as well as the photos she took of her earlier condition since some part of her still felt the need to provide proof for calling out.
“Oh, Hal?” asked Dakota, as he wandered toward the office.
“Yes?” He turned around to smile at her.
“I hate to have to ask, but would it be okay if I took Friday and Monday? I have to go to San Francisco.”
“San Fran?” He blinked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah… you know that game I play? The contest they ran?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“We won it.” She grinned.
“No shit?” asked Hal.
Blake gasped.
She poked Hal in the stomach. “Language.”
He leaned back with a deep, baritone laugh. “So, our girl is a millionaire now?”
“Not technically yet. That’s why I’ve gotta go to SF. Sign documents, pose for some publicity stills, then lube up and bend over for the IRS.”
Blake blushed.
“You plannin’ on coming back?” asked Hal.
She folded her arms and looked around. “You know, most people probably wouldn’t, but I think I’m gonna stay, at least for a while. I love coffee and I hate change. And… I’d miss you guys.”
Her trip to San Francisco went by in a blur of media attention, limousines, and publicity photos. The whole crew got to meet some of the voice actors for the NPCs, as well as a few of the programmers, digital artists, and mission designers.
Vinod Prakash wound up being a bit shorter than she expected in real life. Their meeting, although pleasant, held an undertone of tension. Shawn became a minor celebrity within the CSI office, as most of the programming team gushed over the in-game recording of their run on the Reckoning. They’d posted the video on the company website, and it had clocked over eighteen million hits. As soon as their marketing people got a good look at him, they fawned. The kid might wind up making serious money if William let him do commercials.
Gerald Barker released a video congratulating them on the win and announcing that the quest remained active, but instead of a financial reward, any crew that completed it would win an exclusive corvette available only from that mission. They named it the Stormbringer class in honor of her crew, and also upgraded their ship to the new model. The overall shape remained the same, though slightly larger with more room for weapons and cargo, a sleeker design with silver edges and black interior, and increased stats that bumped it up two tiers. Other ships of similar tier were twice the size, but flew like bricks. The new design had hull and shield points to match its bigger tier-mates, but a narrower profile with almost fighter-like handling.
Shawn went over the moon.
Dakota felt a knot of shame at herself when she signed the forms agreeing not to disclose any proprietary information she may or may not have been exposed to during the course of the mission. The documents didn’t outright state she’d invaded the network; everything had been phrased in maybes and conjecture.
Gerald pulled her aside and thanked her for not destroying the company he’d spent the past twenty years building. He assured her he would do everything in his power to shut that stuff down. She bristled at the voter manipulation most of all, but Eric seemed to think that with Steyr being an independent without the support of either major party, plus a known scumbag, he wouldn’t last long before some old scandal bit him in the ass and forced him out of office.
After enjoying the Hollywood treatment for a weekend, they returned home. Watching William and Christina get cute at the airport while Shawn grinned at them got her feeling all sorts of clingy with Eric. Eventually, they boarded a flight to New York, and a normal life.
A normal life plus a few million dollars.
Eric swooped into the Amazon Café on Wednesday. Dakota clocked off for her thirty minute break, snagged a turkey-gouda wrap from the cooler along with a sugar free iced tea, and joined him at the table.
“So how’s it feel to be famous?” asked Eric.
She shrugged. “We’re famous in a universe that doesn’t really exist. Here, we’re just some game nerds who got a prize.”
“You didn’t see that Japan thing did you?”
She tilted her head. “What Japan thing?”
“Our faces are everywhere over there. There’s even Fawkes-themed tampons.”
Dakota’s cheeks flashed hot with blush. “You are making that up.”
“’Fraid not. But they made you an anime girl.”
“Ugh. At least tell me the character looks like an adult?”
“Yeah, but there’s other sites―”
She put a finger over his mouth. “I’m going to stop you right there.”
He took a box of chicken nuggets and fries out of a white paper bag.
Dakota chuckled. “Seriously?”
“What? I had an urge to eat like a kid.” He winked. “I used to eat this stuff all the damn time at his age.”
“But you’re not his age anymore. That stuff’ll kill ya
.”
“Old maid.” He stuck out his tongue.
Lettuce bits sprayed from her mouth as she laughed.
They ate and chatted about whether or not they should log in tonight or do the date thing. Neither option gained ground, leading Eric to suggest flipping a coin. Dakota started to laugh, but froze at the sight of a familiar greasy-haired creep on the television over the counter. His eyes still had red around them from the Habanero Hammer spray. Text along the bottom read ‘Man attacks Steyr campaign.’
“Blake,” said Dakota, “turn that up a bit?”
“… has come forward claiming to have information that alleges Governor Steyr manipulated the election, and also that an as-yet-unnamed technology company has the ability to affect how people think.”
Eric gawked at the TV before whipping around and whispering, “Holy shit! You broke the NDA?”
“Nope.” She nibbled at her wrap.
“That’s the dude you maced…”
“Yep.” Dakota sipped her tea.
“But you gave him the info? Wow.” He grinned. “I thought you really did sell out there for a while.”
She offered a nonchalant shrug. “Who says I gave that creep anything? Johnathan Miles Parker, age twenty-nine. Employed at Amazon Whole Foods.” Dakota rambled off his driver’s license number, social security number, home address, parents’ home address, bank account number, telephone number, and the names of his two dogs.
Eric stared at her.
She gave him a sly wink. “We promised none of us would go public or give the information to anyone. Nothing about anyone else oh, just happening to find Tom Urban’s back door and going poking around in there on their own, into a specific set of folders that a particular company never managed to delete.”
“You magnificent bastard,” he whispered before chuckling.
She stole a French fry and pointed it at him. “I’m a girl. I can’t be a bastard. Besides. Took him long enough to find it.”
Eric stuffed a nugget and a mass of fries in his mouth at the same time, hurrying to chew it enough to speak, and wound up coughing on it.
“Don’t kill yourself.”
“Dayum girl. I bet them CSI mother―” He glanced at the small door to Hal’s office. “Idiots from CSI are probably going to have a chat with him. Besides, you shot that Habanero crap straight up his nose. Dude probably just got out the hospital yesterday…”
Dakota shrugged and tossed the fry in her mouth. “Oops. He shouldn’t have grabbed me.”
He grasped her hand and squeezed. “Bad girl, I love it.”
She leaned forward over the table, flashing Fawkes’ grin. “I can be quite dangerous when provoked… now come here.”
Dakota grasped a fistful of Eric’s shirt, and pulled him over the table into a kiss.
Fin
Acknowledgements
Thank you for reading Axillon99!
Additional thanks to:
J.R. Rain for suggesting I write this book.
Alisha at www.damonza.com for the beautiful cover.
Merethe Najjar for a wonderful job proofreading.
About the Author
Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place. Along with being an editor at Curiosity Quills press, he has worked in IT and technical support.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom RPG systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Visit me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mscox
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/matthewcox10420/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
Email: [email protected]
Other books by Matthew S. Cox
Adult
· Division Zero series
· The Awakened series
· Daughter of Mars series
· Virtual Immortality
· The Harmony Paradox
· Divergent Fates Anthology
· The Roadhouse Chronicles Series (post nuclear apoc/zombie)
· Faded Skies series (post-ww3 / sci fi)
· Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle (vampire)
· Temporal Armistice Series (urban fantasy)
· Wayfarer: AV494 (sci fi horror)
· Operation: Chimera (sci fi – with Tony Healey)
· The Dysfunctional Conspiracy (nonfiction memoir – with Christopher Veltmann)
· Winter Solstice series (urban fantasy – with J.R. Rain)
· Alexis Silver series (urban fantasy – with J.R. Rain)
· Samantha Moon Origins series (urban fantasy – with J.R. Rain)
· Maddy Wimsey series (detective / witchcraft – with J.R. Rain)
· The Far Side of Promise (anthology)
Young Adult
§ Caller 107 (contemporary paranormal – Note: strong language)
§ The Summer the World Ended (nuclear apocalyptic/family drama/contemporary)
§ Nine Candles of Deepest Black (witchcraft horror)
§ The Eldritch Heart (fantasy / LGBT)
§ The Forest Beyond the Earth (nuclear post apocalyptic)
Middle Grade
§ Tales of Widowswood series (fantasy)
§ Citadel: The Concordant Sequence (post-apocalyptic)
§ The Cursed Codex (LitRPG – Fantasy/contemporary)
§ The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey (contemporary fantasy)
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