"You look so much like him," Val's father whispered. "Just like Val only a handful of years ago."
Val closed his eyes and chuckled. "You don't know how many times I've been told that since I woke up."
Val's father shook his head sadly. "If only you were my son, nothing would make me happier."
Val swallowed. "I feel the same. Can I sit down, dad? I've been running in craptastic shoes for hours, I'm exhausted, and god only knows how it is that my feet aren't blistered all to hell. All-In-One energy drinks can only take a guy so far, and all the store, had was lime, my least favorite flavor."
His father gazed curiously at Val. "What is your favorite flavor?"
"Grape flavor, without a doubt, and I'd mix it with cola fifty-fifty just like I did since I was ten, no matter how you would flinch. And boy did I like to make you cringe." Val chuckled softly. "To be honest, though, I outgrew that combo by the time I hit high school, but it had become sort of a thing so I just stuck with it. I only realized what bullshit worrying about other people's opinions was when things got serious in my life, and you'll remember that I never made that stupid combination again when I had leave or finally I came back home."
Val's father blinked, giving a slow nod. "True."
Val smiled. "Mom didn't much like soda at all, but she always loved white lilies, and never cared that they were associated with passing on, and she loved you most of all. She even told you once that you were the one destined to catch her heart, when no man ever could before. After that, you were inseparable, and everyone was taking bets on when you two would get married."
His father's eyes widened, gun clicking against the counter as he pulled his hand free of it, gazing at Val with awed disbelief. "How do you know that?"
Val shrugged. "She told me the story more than once when I was small. Ever since she had been a little girl, she had dreamed of meeting a handsome prince who would take her away to a wonderful life, and she would have three kids in a far-away land, someplace exotic and beautiful. And I guess, well, it all came true." Val smiled. "Even after we lost everyone, dad, I could still feel them smiling down at me from a beautiful place. Or at least I thought I could, for a time."
Val's father lowered his head, wiping away a quiet tear. "Yes. God, yes. I'm surprised you even remember."
Val sighed. "As clearly as anything. The dimples when she smiled, how she fell in love with you when your eyes had met, her first day working in R&D under an A1 visa on base. Your shy kiss after your very first date, how she demanded so much more of you by the second, winning your heart by the third. And when your whirlwind romance turned into morning sickness and a marriage proposal, the star-crossed romance everyone in our family gossiped about turned into the strongest marriage of all, until, well, heaven took her early."
His father's gaze hardened. "There is no way you could know that. Not my son, not anyone."
Val chuckled ruefully. "Sorry, sometimes my tongue just gets carried away when I'm exhausted, and life's story seems to just flow right through me." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "You were just telling me that you and mother used to find my intuition scary sometimes, didn't you? But wait, it wasn't recent, was it? We were going to someone's house, a family friend, and I was in so much pain." He shuddered, looking down at his legs in wonder. "And save for fatigue and slightly sore feet already feeling better, I've never felt stronger in my life."
Haunted eyes locked with his own. "That's right. I did. And that you had pieced together so much, based on almost nothing... I can't tell you how much I'd love to believe it's you, Val."
Val flashed a tired smile. "I can't tell you how much I want to be me, either."
His father headed to the fridge, his pistol disappearing in a blink, returning with two longnecks from the freezer. Wordlessly they clinked bottles and drank. "Better not let anyone with school board affiliations catch you downing that, young as you now look, Val."
Val chuckled, relieved beyond words to hear a softening in his father's tone. "Good thing I like to keep sharp. I hated being drugged to the gills when my legs were on constant fire, and there's no better place to be than alert and aware, neither jittery nor drunk, and if you're really lucky, happy just embracing the moment, preferably with someone you love." Val blinked, getting the strangest flash of an incredibly beautiful girl gazing at him with soft blue eyes, chestnut curls flowing through his fingers like silk as he held her close, her pale skin tinged a shade of gray.
His father nodded. "What do you remember, Val?"
Val grimaced. "So little, dad. So little. I remember playing Elerium Online with my closest gaming buddies, and then something happened. Something serious. More than just getting screwed over by a fifth wheel... Julia." Val felt a sudden tightening in his chest, struck by a vision of auburn curls, emerald green eyes, and the sweetest smile that he always sensed when they'd be laughing together over their headsets, but he had never seen her face in the flesh even once. Or had he?
"Julia Petrovsky. She went missing, didn't she? And it turns out you and her dad go way back, and she lives close by." Val swallowed his suddenly parched throat, taking another sip from his bottle. He locked gazes with his father. "It was a search and rescue. Somehow, you, me, her father, we were hunting for her."
His father nodded. "What else do you remember?"
Val sighed. "That's it, I'm afraid. I remember a feeling, an icy sense of resolve. A certain satisfaction in finally being useful for something, for someone. And a hell of a lot of pain. I remember that too."
His father gazed down at Val's legs. "May I see?"
Swallowing, feeling almost as if it were some test, Val nodded, solemnly slipping out of his much-abused shoes, pants cinched as tight as the belt would allow sliding off next to reveal well-defined legs free of all blemish. No trace of the awful burns that had made his legs an agonizing mess of scarred muscle and flesh, in some places having been seared to the bone. It was amazing that he could walk at all, after coming back home. Even world-renowned surgeons had only been able to do so much.
Yet now his legs were utterly free of blemish or scar, not even the nicks one would expect to find on any youth's legs after an active childhood.
His father whistled, shaking his head. "Beyond impressive."
Val flashed a bitter smile, slipping on his pants once more, not bothering with the shoes. "Trust me, dad, my memories have been a hell of a lot sharper since I woke up." He frowned. "In fact, I seem to be remembering things with a clarity I don't recall ever having before, not unless I really, really enjoyed a subject. Or maybe that's just the natural result of coming to while someone is trying to strangle you."
His father stilled, hawklike gaze boring into his own. "Explain, Val."
And he did. the terrible final flashes of dream screaming at him to wake up, coming around to find himself suffocating in the grip of a contract killer who, if it weren't for his poison syringe having been knocked askew when Val had thrashed, would have already killed him. It was only panicked hands untrained in strangulation that had given Val even a ghost of a chance. And how furiously he had fought for his life in those moments; panic, disorientation, terror-induced rage quenched only when he had stomped his enemy's ribs to a pulp, killing him with the most brutal of blows.
And the former colonel's gaze grew more and more outraged with every word. "You were in critical care, Val, monitors everywhere. There should have been security, there should have been an alarm! Not one of those fools at the hospital even bothered to call me!"
Val sighed. "For all his flaws, that killer was a professional. Now I think the power must have been cut after the alarms were pulled. Everyone was in a tizzy, the few I saw, the halls blackened save for emergency lights even when the false alarm finally cut off. With all that, it's not surprising that no one took notice of a scuffle taking place in darkness, both parties instinctively going for quiet, not screaming as I perhaps should have done." Val smirked, shaking his head. "Old habits die hard, I guess."
&
nbsp; His father rubbed his eyes. "Wrapping up the body, unscrewing the window bolts and sliding him through? A stroke of madness or genius. But since I've heard no reports on bodies turning up, I'm inclined to say the latter."
Val nodded. "I have no idea where I stand, who I can trust. If my kill would be considered justified, or if whoever wants me dead has deep state tendrils, and I'd find myself locked tight and a sitting duck for the 'convenient suicide' with a belt I'd never worn before just waiting for me."
His father's lips pressed into a thin, hard line. "If anyone dared..."
"Neither here nor there, dad. Point is I made it, and made a contact in the unlikeliest of places."
The older man nodded. "Papa Dominic is not entirely unknown to me. Let's just consider him the least of multiple evils in Chicago, who never hesitates to avail his services when certain parties need to keep their hands clean."
Val smiled. "He seemed genuinely alarmed when he found out I'd been the target. I get the feeling he normally deals with taking out backstabbing trash that is just as ugly and hard-bitten as the words imply."
"And you didn't kill any more of his men, leaving with hands shaken and word given, when you could have popped him at any time during your limo ride. I'd like to think that means something. I'll have to do a little digging, make sure he's still playing for the right team. Damn if I'm not glad to see you safe and sound after all that, Val."
Val nodded, gaze strangely intent. "Please fill me in, dad. What happened to me? What's happened since I've been gone?" What happened to Julia?"
His father sighed and took another pull. "It was bad, son. Real bad." He caught Val's eye in a gaze so intense Val suddenly found it hard to breathe.
"Dad?"
"What you did was beyond brave, Val. When Andrey showed me the clip, I can't say how proud I was of you."
Val swallowed. "Clip?"
His father nodded. "You had managed to infiltrate an ESI beta testing group that had been unlawfully kidnapping hapless souls to rope into contracts little better than indentured servitude, and were not above drugging and performing semi lobotomies on their victims, for purposes we still don't understand, hiring foreign mercenaries armed with military grade hardware. And those are just the most blatant of their transgressions. In that office alone."
Val squeezed his hands tightly shut. "Please tell me those bastards are all in jail."
His father gazed at him quietly for a long moment. "No, Val. Save for the ones you shot dead, we've found no trace of them."
Val blinked. "But you just said there was a tape."
Val's dad flashed the bleakest of smiles. "When we saw which way the wind was really blowing when we touched base with some old friends, we knew our only option was to square the tape away as a final safety precaution. A deterrent, in case someone sought retribution against our families."
Val frowned. "What the hell?"
"ESI is just a subsidiary of a massive shadow organization that's been trying to gain footholds in governments the world over. They already have significant pull in Russia, China, and yes, the US as well. They're headquartered in several countries vehemently opposed to any sort of extradition treaties, and over half our elected senators have received extensive contributions from one or another of their subsidiaries. In fact, a number of officials working behind the scenes in quite a few government agencies have been privately bankrolled by them."
Val hissed. "Bloody hell."
"Indeed. Point is, no one knows exactly what we were up to there, and Andrey, his wife and I are the only ones who have ever seen that tape, and the only ones who ever will."
"Then what good does it even do?"
Knuckles rapped the hardwood table they now sat at, his father getting them fresh beers before making them both roast beef sandwiches which Val ate ravenously, despite being on the edge of his seat. He nodded his thanks as his father spoke on.
"It keeps your cousins safe, for one thing, Val. Your aunts don't deserve to be put through this nightmare, and these bastards play for keeps. For that reason Andrey and I kept things discreet. Very discreet, and our contact has always been a close ally. It's only thanks to him that we had a heads up at all."
Val blinked. "Heads up?"
His father nodded. "Warrant served in the middle of the night, after the door was opened, multiple men in full SWAT gear confronting me. I immediately fell to the floor, hands behind my head and said very clearly, very loudly, that everything happening in my property was being video recorded, fifteen second segments being sent online to multiple secure sites, and in the event something unlawful or fatal occurred to me, that information would immediately be sent to all of my lawyers, among others." He flashed a mirthless smile. "I'm not saying it did any good, but at least I had time to hide the discs and the copies Andrey and I had made. I had been interrogated rather extensively, but I stuck to my prepared statements, and a certain sealed bag filled with white powder an officer smiling a bit too broadly happily plunked on the interrogation table disappeared without comment as fast as it had appeared, the moment my lawyers arrived.
"Andrey and I put two and two together fast enough, figuring he was next, and when we let our contacts know that certain things they sought to contain would be blasted to the world with our deaths... well, the warrant was dropped, charges were never filed, and it was made very clear that if certain things go out, everyone in my extended family would regret that decision, even if my immediate family was already gone. Andrey was spared the interrogation, at least, but his wife had been warned that those tapes were never to see the light of day."
Val said nothing, a hot storm of howling rage roaring through him.
His father nodded. "I feel the same. But their safety matters more than my pride, more than my sense of outrage."
Val flashed the hand sign for safety. His father smiled.
"Yes, Val. Your cousins and their children are safe. And far from here."
Val closed his eyes, filled with heartfelt relief. "Thank god."
His father nodded. "As furious as I was, I harnessed it in far more productive directions. Don't worry, Val. Justice will be served in the end."
Val frowned. "In the meantime, those bastards are still kidnapping and doing god knows what with people."
His father flashed a genuine smile. "Actually, they are not. That operation halted even as their flagship entry into the virtual gaming market collapsed, out of nowhere."
Val smirked. "That's bloody fortuitous."
"Isn't it, though? There was an explosion in the heart of the city, a high-end warehouse is pouring smoke from every exit, and the fire chief at the scene is credited with pulling out over 200 survivors wearing fabrics alien to modern manufacturing techniques, most of them suffering from severe withdrawal, many of them minors. The first guesses were that it was a brothel or a cult, until people realized that their profiles were matching scores of missing persons cases, nearly 200 in all."
Val blinked. "Wow. 200 saved. All suffering from withdrawal? Are they being treated? What were they on?"
Val's father sighed. "We're not really sure. None show the physical characteristics of methamphetamine or IV drug abuse, but all of them have had cybernetic ports drilled into their skulls. Many of them show signs of mild brain trauma, though as far as we can tell, their cognitive faculties are within typical population guidelines, and in some cases, their MRI scans show additional ridges and folds at port interface points. What this means, we are not precisely certain, only that many of the victims are showing signs of constant withdrawal, even months after forced abstinence."
Val blinked and frowned, knowing all too well the hard road some injured soldiers took after severe injuries. The fortunate ones got better. The unfortunate ones never did. "Even the most severe addictions don't normally torment users for that long, not from what I recall. It is those first ten days or so that are hardest... tapering almost never works, unless in a controlled environment. The danger is sudden onset cravings, often s
urrendered to due to stress or lack of support or personal drive. After a few months, it's mostly about continuing therapy, counseling, twelve steps, keeping hope alive that it will get better as one picks up the pieces of one's former life, hopefully forging themselves into someone better. Happier."
Val's father nodded sympathetically. "It sparked something of a local outcry, and strange how quickly it was all hushed. But still, considerable funds have been dedicated to providing symptomatic relief, therapy, counseling, helping them to get their lives back together." He shook his head. "Constant low-grade discomfort, pronounced difficulty experiencing any sort of joy, frequent ideations of suicide, symptoms of major depression, all of that, abating only by the most incremental degrees over a period of months. Most of them were young adults in the prime of their lives, over half of them with strong family support once the situation was explained to them. We are thankful that only a minority have succumbed to street drugs in search of relief, but of those that did, over half have fatally overdosed already."
Val clenched his fist. "Whoever did this..."
"Will pay. One day, Val. I promise you."
Val swallowed and nodded. "Good."
Val's father gazed sadly at him. "You were there too, you know."
Val blinked. "I was? But I have no recollection of that and no cravings at all, as far as I can tell."
His father slowly shook his head. "There was one other there, close to equipment that looked as if it had been melted to slag. A body, Val. Burnt to a husk."
Val shuddered and looked away.
"It was the most horrific thing I've seen in years, the day Andrey showed me the poor body hooked up to ICU, that burnt husk still, somehow, breathing. Somehow alive." He chuckled softly. "And the uproar this caused, so many doctors insisting on being part of the rounds as a human body formed a protective cocoon and proceeded to regenerate itself over a span of weeks, for the first time in recorded history."
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 6
