Enemy of the Inferno (Disgardium Book #8): LitRPG Series
Page 7
“We were all rooting for you! You gave a good show. Even the non-citizens that haven’t talked to you before think of you almost like a son or a brother now! There are around fifteen hundred of your fans here now, buddy!”
Ugh, that part was rough. I didn’t want to ignore anyone, so I shook hands, nodded, smiled and reciprocated all the workers’ hugs. The security officers didn’t bat an eyelid, and nor did my bodyguards, although an enemy could easily blend in with the crowd. Either they were certain of everyone, or… they knew these people wouldn’t harm me.
I thought the crowd would clear, but boy was I wrong! Bottles popped open, music started playing, they started singing songs – it was like I’d teleported to a carnival!
“And now we leave,” Hairo shouted.
I could barely hear him in the growing rumble of celebration. He took me by the arm on one side while Willy stood to my other side. Roj and Maria covered us from behind. We slowly moved toward the stairs and elevators. Tomoshi-Hiros trailed behind us, exchanging words with Yoshi.
“To your place?” Hairo asked in the elevator.
“You hungry?” Maria inquired.
“Clan council?” Hung and Ed suggested in unison.
“…” Hiros said, his eyes burning into me. I met his gaze and he lowered his head.
“How about we all head back to my place?” I asked. “Officers’ meeting at mine. We can have a bite to eat while we’re at it…”
It was decided. When we walked out of the elevator, Tommy-Hiros asked Ed to hang back and quietly asked him something. He answered, then walked toward us, letting the elevator close and carry the Japanese man off to his own apartment.
“Let’s discuss things without him,” Rodriguez said. “Nothing’s decided with him yet, anyway.”
“You’re gonna freak out over your apartment,” Hung whispered conspiratorially. “Ed and I have ones just like it…”
While I was gone, they’d brought in furniture and finished off the fixtures and fittings. Now my apartment looked like an office, especially in the lounge. A map of Disgardium shone on a big wall opposite the entrance, with a counter of kitchen utensils by the right-hand wall. A cleaner droid was parked in the corner, but I was greeted by…
“AT!” I shouted. My catdog leaped up in Alsatian form, putting his paws on my shoulders and licking my face. “Good boy! Where’d you come from?”
“Hairo brought him,” Maria said, smiling happily.
“You told Renato about him at the start of the Demonic Games, remember?” Hairo said. “Well, I contacted your parents, got access to your folks’ apartment and picked up the catdog.”
My bedroom was a lot cozier. A white wardrobe had appeared on one side of the bed, a cabinet on the other.
When I entered, the dim gloom gave way to warm daylight. A landscape scene appeared on the walls, making it look as if I was at the top of a mountain. Was that a gust of fresh air, or did I just imagine it?
Five minutes to shower and get changed, and I went back to the lounge.
They were all already sitting at the elongated oval table made of a material that perfectly imitated wood. Or was it real? I dropped into the armchair at the head of the table and it immediately molded to the shape of my body. There were massage buttons on the arms.
Maria pulled out six different choices of pizza, from Pepperoni to spicy Volcanic. We each ate a slice, then got down to business.
We decided to discuss all matters of real life as a top priority, and then head into Dis and continue the meeting there with Patrick, Irita and our guardian clanmates.
“Thanks to the new workers, we’re getting plenty out of Mengoza now,” Ed remarked. “Clan revenues are up by 741%. Our expenses have increased too, naturally, but the income covers the outgoings.”
“We have a hundred Wild Ones equipped. We split them into three squadrons – they patrol the building and the whole region. Their family and friends have joined the clan and are working as crafters,” Hairo reported. “The news didn’t mention it, but we broke up the remainder of Diego Aranzabal’s gang. Cali Bottom is entirely ours…”
For the cartel and the rest of the world, this was an ordinary shift in the balance of power in the region. The chief of our Wild Ones was one Ivan, a friend of Hairo’s, and he was who we put forward as the face of the new criminal ‘racket,’ as Willy put it, in Cali Bottom. Ivan even met with the Cartel’s people and came to an agreement to be neutral. The Wild Ones got their blessing to ‘hold the district.’ I didn’t like that, of course, but Hairo explained:
“Nature abhors a vacuum. If Ivan hadn’t declared himself, all hell would have broken loose. Plenty of vultures in the other non-citizenship districts want new territory. Instead, now everyone knows: Cali is controlled. They’ll be wary of getting involved.”
The news was mostly good. The clan was growing, improving its capabilities and steadily turning into not only a flourishing company, but also a powerful fighting force.
“By the way,” Ed said. “Sorry we didn’t wait for you, but we had occasion to celebrate. It was Manny’s birthday, so we threw a party for him and gave him a thousand gold from the clan.”
“And since all the workers saw it, we announced that every Awoken who works for at least six months will get the same reward,” Hung added.
In discussing all this good news, we were delaying the hard decisions.
“Alright, let’s talk about Malik,” I said. “What do you know?”
“We heard that recording of his convo with Tissa,” Ed answered. “Malik told us the same thing, only for some reason he started lying about the daggers – claimed he didn’t steal them, just took them for safekeeping.”
“How did it even happen?”
“The clan manager has permission to hand out whatever items the officers want, no questions asked. Infect took advantage, and we still don’t know how much he took ‘for safekeeping’ while he was digging through the endless loot we picked up after you.”
“What’s there to think about, boys?” Maria asked hotly. “Once a snake, always a snake. Kick him the hell out!”
“He knows too much,” Hairo said, shaking his head.
“Let’s vote,” I suggested. My heart was beating fast; the storm seeded in my soul by Malik and Tissa hadn’t yet subsided. “Just the three of us; he’s our friend. I’m in favor of kicking Infect from the clan and the followers of the Sleepers.”
To properly make a decision like that without getting it wrong required that I put aside my anger, try to be as objective as possible, but that wasn’t happening. Once my outrage settled down, an even more odious feeling toward Malik came to replace it – disgusted disappointment.
“Can’t kick him from the followers,” Ed said, staring in concentration at his interlaced fingers. “He has Behemoth’s block on him.”
“Then take his priest rank!”
“Agreed,” Hung said, munching on his fifth slice of pizza and raising his other arm. “I vote to kick him.”
Ed was in no hurry to answer, weighing all the fors and againsts, frowning. I could almost hear the cogs working in his brain. Malik was almost a brother to him, after all.
“I’m in favor too,” he finally said. “But first, he can return all the gear. All of it!”
“What if he leaves through the depths while returning the items?” I asked.
“He won’t be going anywhere through the Veil of Distortion,” Hung muttered, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “We set it to only let officers through.”
“Alright. Then the decision is made,” I said, ending the voting by bringing my fist down on the table.
Disappointment spread through my soul like an inky black cloud. Oh, Malik, Malik, why are you such an idiot? What’s wrong with you? I understood just fine why he did it – he was building a safety net, just in case something happened to Scyth. And that would have been that, but…
“Well, that’s in Dis,” Willy said, coughing. “What about real life?”
“Alright, we leave him in isolation,” I said. “And let’s make a blocking cell in the basement of the castle. Infect can stay there.”
“We can let Trixie out. There’s nobody to look after the garden,” Ed said.
“Sure. His grandpa is getting on everyone’s nerves anyway,” Hairo nodded. “Trixie’s been given a prohibition. He can’t leave the building.”
“He won’t get off the island in Dis either,” Hung added.
“Let’s vote…”
Trixie was given amnesty and we moved on to Hiros. Hairo brought up a holosheet and read:
“Tomoshi Kurokawa, Hiros the level 349 ninja. Class-E Threat, current level M. Ability: thirty-second Astral Fury with a one-hour cooldown. Weapon skills: Daggers and Crossbows at rank three.”
As I listened to the chief security officer, my jaw dropped lower and lower.
“That idiot told you all this himself?”
“The information was received by senior officer Crawler in his capacity as full-fledged deputy clan leader,” Hairo answered impassively.
“Oh yeah, that was crazy, I didn’t expect it myself!” Ed said excitedly. “Basically, when you went to the Cursed Chasm, the system showed you as outside of Dis, and control of the clan switched to me. And I saw all Hiros’s info!”
“I can imagine what you got up to…” I smiled.
“He’s building a Magic Tower!” Hung said, grinning sidelong at Ed.
“Hey, Scyth and I already agreed on that!” Ed said defensively. “I just thought, why wait?”
“And? How far have you gotten?”
“We’re building the second floor, Kusie hooked us up with a work crew,” Ed answered. As for Hiros… Tommy passed all the security procedures. He’s a rank-and-file clan member for now, we aren’t letting him off the island. A mental block from the Sleepers, just like an adept, a mental contract…”
“Which we’ve improved, by the way,” Willy interjected. “To make sure what happened with Trixie won’t happen again…”
“Yeah,” Ed nodded. “What are we going to do with Hiros? He’s getting bored of sitting around. Spends all day watching holocasts, grinding in the sea in Dis – seriously, he just goes in for half a minute, kills some mobs, then logs out while he waits for the ability to cool down.”
“Leave it as it is for now,” I said. “We’ll take him with us, see what kind of person he is. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s a little sketchy. Some kind of sociophobe!”
“Remember yourself,” Hung chuckled. “You were just like him before we discovered you. Always hiding somewhere, running off… I took him out for a beer, got him talking… He seems fine.”
“We’ll see. Alright, time to head into Dis.”
“One more question…” Ed said, exchanging an awkward glance with Hung. “Tissa.”
“What about her?”
“You missed something. Tissa got level 33!”
“And a Great Achievement!” Hung muttered. “She became the top player in all the history of the sandboxes!”
“Well… Congrats to her, I guess. So what?”
The boys all opened their mouths at once, but Ed nudged Hung in the shoulder and said:
“Let me?” Nodding, he turned to me. “Get this – she got the Second Chance perk. It’s a passive ability that automatically resurrects allies in battle!”
I remembered Inchito raising the fallen and turning the tide of battle. This was even more awesome!
“Shame the cooldown is an hour long,” Hung said. “But only for people who already got revived!” he added, apparently unable to resist clarifying.
“Lucky White Amazons, what can I say…”
“You don’t get it, Alex! She left the Amazons! She’s already back home, with her dad! And she’s asking to come here to Cali…”
“No way,” I said firmly, raising my hands before me. The emotional wounds were too fresh. “She’s not rejoining the Awoken. What would she even do anyway?”
“Level up,” Ed muttered. “What else? The top player in the sandbox can’t stay in the sandbox! She got kicked out of Tristad. Tissa is on Kharinza.”
Chapter 2. Moongrove
THE REASONS FOR MELISSA SCHAFER’S DEPARTURE from the White Amazons were so ordinary that I didn’t even know what to think about them. After falling afoul of Mogwai and his Subjugate Mind, the girl decided to break up with her boyfriend, explaining that, apart from everything else, Liam was cheating on her.
“And how did she figure that out?” I asked.
“Apparently, the Amazons’ island is a total snakepit,” Ed answered.
“Such beautiful snakes though,” Hung chuckled. “Basically, rumors of Liam’s affairs reached Tissa even before the Games, and after that she confirmed it with the ones he slept with. Girls will take any chance to gossip.”
“They didn’t much like Tissa there anyway, because the Amazons were competing for Liam’s attention, and then he went and chose our friend,” Ed added.
“Only it turned out he wasn’t the one that made the choice. The other Amazons told Tissa that it was an assignment from Elizabeth, Liam’s aunt. Alex, this was Hinterleaf looking for a way to get to you. While Liam was playing the young buck in love, he kept, uhm…” Hung glanced sidelong at Maria. “He kept on hanging out with the other Amazon girls. As soon as Tissa found out, she packed her things and got gone. I don’t know how she squared it with Elizabeth, but it looks like she’s going to have to pay a penalty for breaking her contract early…”
“Where did Melissa hear that we’d forgive her anyway?” I asked. “Or does she know about the recording?”
“She knows…” Ed murmured. “I met with her and told her…”
“I oversaw their meeting,” Hairo interrupted, catching my angry glance. “Edward flew to your district with me.”
“I was in on it too, Alex,” Willy said. “Right after Quetzal saved you with the Aegis and Behemoth’s prophecy came true, I let the boys listen to the recording. I couldn’t keep it to myself.”
“And I advised Ed to speak to Melissa,” Maria said, delivering the final blow. “It was important that she knew it wasn’t all over for her. Otherwise she might have done something stupid.”
“There was this one time back when we were in the army,” Roj began, “when one new recruit learned that his…”
“Roj!” Maria interrupted, and he shut his mouth. “How about we leave that for later?”
Saying nothing to any of them, I tried to understand what I was feeling. Some part of me was angry at them for acting without me. They’d done all this behind my back and were only telling me about it now? I wanted to shout at them, demand…
Demand what, Alex? another part of me asked. Total subordination? No initiative? What gives you the right? You got involved with these people because you were sure they know some things better than you, have more experience than you!
Both those parts of me fought for influence and power. The first, rational and focused on success, was the same one that had demanded that I get rid of the raid at the Games and defeat Abaddon myself. I knew that part of myself well; it commanded me almost all my life. Bigheaded, egotistical, it believed that only Alex Sheppard knows what to do, so it always chose the solo path.
The second part showed up back when I met Dargo. Maybe it existed before too, but its voice was so quiet that I almost never heard it. It woke up for good when I came back with my trophies for getting Crusher, and the Dementors protected me from Crag, Vista and Rashidos at the walls of Tristad. If Crag had killed me, my Threat status would have gone public that very night, and even I wouldn’t have bet on Scyth getting out of the sandbox then. Since that day, that second part had grown louder and louder, and it was the part that sent me to negotiate with Big Po.
Deep in thou
ght, I stared glassy-eyed at the map of Disgardium on the wall. I came round, realized we were sitting in silence, all eyes on me.
Hung coughed to draw attention, nodded questioningly at me:
“What are we going to do with Tissa?”
“Bring her back in and let her move here!” Ed exclaimed. “What’s there to think about?”
“We can have her sign a mental contract too,” Hairo said, nodding.
“She’ll be where we can keep an eye on her,” Willy shrugged. “Right now, Melissa Schafer is the weakest link in our security. And judging by what I’ve heard of Mogwai’s attack on our island, that ain’t just in real life.”