And here we have the next chapter. Thanks again for all the support you guys have given, and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 8
Glocken is big.
Let me say that again because it bears repeating.
Glocken. Is. Big.
Out of all the VRMMO's out there on the market, GGO has to rank in the top three when it comes to the sheer size of its main hub. It's not hard to see why, either. SBC Glocken was the grounded remnants of an enormous warship. Its length measured in the kilometers, big enough to give even the largest floors in Aincrad a run for their money, and that's not even counting the numerous decks of the ship from the surface level all the way down to the Deep Works. Between the ship's length, depth, and its often twisty walkways and footpaths, it could take a couple hours to get from the Observation Deck on top of the Upper Quarter down to the darkest point in Lower Glocken. It used to be a bit of a problem until the devs added a couple things to make traveling easier. Teleportation Plazas spread liberally throughout the city helped mitigate the walk so that it never took more than fifteen minutes to get somewhere. That was the most preferred method of moving around.
Then there were the roadways.
It's said that the roadways beneath the surface level of Glocken used to be a sort of tunnel system for the ship's automated repair and maintenance drones — a quick way for them to move from place to place, like veins and arteries in a human body. The drones were gone. Now the driveways were for players who preferred a more traditional method of transportation. Cars of various makes could be rented out at kiosks, and for all intents and purposes, they handled just like the real thing. You could even rent three-wheeled buggies to drive, though Sinon once told me they were so difficult to control hardly anyone ever bothered using them.
We came to a stop at the top of a long flight of stairs. The coordinates Argo left in her message led us here, to the sidewalk of a large six lane street. I could hear foot traffic and the general chatter of hundreds of people a few dozen feet above our heads, but down here no one else was around.
"Where are you, Noya?" I said to myself, looking up and down the street. Sleek cars of the future zoomed past us at speeds that would be illegal in the real world, and the stink of engine oil and burnt rubber they left behind was thick enough to taste.
Two honks drew our attention to a black SUV rolling towards us, and I could barely make out Noya's pale face from the other side of the darkened windshield. He came to a smooth stop in front of us, and I threw open the passenger side door while Sinon, Rei, and Philia piled into the backseats.
"Argo catch you up on everything?" I asked.
"Cedric is suspicious and Argo is holding him down long enough for us to reach him in the city below," Noya said. He pulled us back into the road. "The people who attacked the auction are on the move as well and might try to stop us."
"Yeah, they're called Blacklight. Ring any bells?"
"Player guild. Spend most of their time exploring the unmapped areas of the Deep Works, but they've done merc work before. Have a reputation for being skilled and having the price tag to go with it," Noya gave a surreptitious glance at the rear view mirror. "Philia is suspected of working with them."
"She's not. They suckered her."
"That would be difficult to prove given the circumstances."
"That's why we're going after Cedric. If we bag him, we get closer to shining a light on this whole business," I said. "But I can tell you with full confidence that Philia is innocent."
Noya's mouth set itself in a firm line and he nodded. "Understood." His gray eyes looked up at the rear view mirror again, addressing Philia. "If Masai vouches for you, then you have nothing to fear from Argo, ma'am. Please do not give her a reason to change that."
"Um…sure okay," Philia said.
I turned in my seat with a quick smile. "Don't worry about him. He gets real serious about protecting Argo."
"It's my job. Yours as well," Noya said with no real offense in his tone. He cut the steering wheel, weaving in and out of traffic, braking to swing around behind a sports car, then speeding up to beat another SUV going down an adjoining street I double checked to make sure my seatbelt was in place.
"Look at it this way, we drag the true culprits out and Argo's going to look pretty good in front of the other brokers," I said.
"I assume you have a plan? I doubt Blacklight will come to the Network headquarters willingly."
"...Working on it."
Noya grunted and turned to the right, cutting off another car to pull down a ramp going deeper into Glocken. All told, it took about ten minutes before the smooth asphalt of Glocken's driveways gave way to a cracked, pothole-ridden road. The tunnel grew steadily darker and less maintained, with discolored walls and things too big to be called rats scurrying about. Then with a final bump in the road, I got the distinct sense we were somewhere else entirely.
I looked outside the window. The walls of the tunnel were gone and I saw the dilapidated buildings and collapsed ruins of a civilization now dead and gone. No neon lights to brighten the darkness. No stainless steel skyscrapers to ogle. I looked up, expecting to see the night sky, but it was gone, blocked away by SBC Glocken's massive hull high above us. It was a stark reminder. We weren't home anymore. We were amongst the bones buried beneath it.
"Is Argo close by?" I asked.
"Almost," Noya said.
"No sign of Blacklight," Sinon said from the back seat.
"Let's hope that's a good sign," I said, opening a menu to create a party. "Okay everyone, same deal. We want to take this guy alive. He dies and he'll respawn back in the safe zone with more than enough time to disappear."
I sent out party invites to everyone and their health bars appeared at the corner of my vision. I made a quick little motion with my hand and an earpiece materialized in between my fingers.
"Cedric has friends with him. It's likely they're not a huge threat, but it would be wise to keep your guard up," Noya said. He turned the truck down a side street. "We're here. Alley on the left twenty meters down. They should be there."
"Alright, let's do this as quickly as possible," I put on the earpiece and got out into the abandoned street. I immediately wished I'd brought a flashlight. The surrounding darkness of the ancient city was almost smothering, and the hazy moonlight reflecting off Glocken's hull only left a faint impression of the buildings around us. Something far off in the distance let out a screeching cry, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. We were here to find another player, but there were still plenty of monsters lurking about. Ones who were more than eager to rip the spines from our backs and use them as toothpicks.
"This place looks nothing like the brochures," I said.
Sinon came to my side, readying her Fiber Gun. "I'll keep watch from above. Stay safe, okay?"
"Got it. You too."
She flashed me a confident smile then fired the gun at the rooftop of a nearby building. It pulled her up and out of sight with hardly a sound.
Philia was the next to join me, eyes directed towards the direction Sinon disappeared to. "Wow. Where'd she get that thing? I've never seen anything like it."
"Long story, and there's tons of shooting and explosions in it. I'll tell you later," I said. Philia lifted an eyebrow, but didn't say anything else.
Rei and Noya came around the truck, the latter dressed in his standard gear — tactical vest, kevlar helmet, balaclava, mirrored goggles, all of them dark enough to make him look like a moving shadow in the feeble light we had.
We went towards the alley Noya pointed out. It was next to an old, rundown movie theater with its doors boarded up. The giant sign listing what films were showing was blank save for a few hanging letters. We reached the mouth of the alley and headed in.
It stretched on for a couple dozen feet before turning the corner, where the vague glow of firelight flickered on the ground and walls. I could hear voices as well, too indistinct to make out until we were more than halfway down the alley.
"It's not about the money," one of them said. I recognized it. It was Cedric, and he didn't sound like he was in a patient mood.
"I'm just curious is all," came Argo's voice. "Ya usually jumped when I had a job to offer. Ain't gettin' too good for me, are ya? You'd break this ol' girl's heart."
"No offense Argo, but the last one was all trouble. I signed up to serve drinks and smuggle your stuff, not be in a shootout."
"That wasn't in the agreement, yeah, but nobody could've seen that one comin'."
"How could you not? The stuff the Network does is messy and it steps on people's toes. It was obvious things were going to go wrong. I don't want to stick around for more of that."
"C'mon, Cedric. Ya know how I work. I ain't gonna put ya in harm's way. Besides, all that stuff at the auction is someone else's problem, not mine."
Sinon's voice came through my earpiece. "I have them in my sights. Four of them, including Cedric. They don't have their guns out. I don't think they're looking for a fight yet."
I stopped just short of rounding the corner and leaned out to take a peek. Cedric and his pals were standing on one side of a fire burning away in an oil drum. Argo stood on the other, at the very edge of its light, her back to me. None of them had their hands hovering over their guns, but they still looked wary. Cedric, especially.
"Sorry, Argo. I'm not interested. Call it a gut feeling or whatever. What happened at the auction is going to blow up in people's faces and I don't want to be one of them."
And that was my cue.
I came around the corner, Rei, Philia, and Noya beside me, and in the darkness we must have looked like we'd simply bled into existence because Cedric and his pals all wore startled faces as we entered the fire's light. I gave them each a devil-may-care smile, my voice full of pleasant cheer. "Well gee, Cedric, why would you be worried about something like that?"
Cedric stared at me and swallowed. His body twitched like he was one sudden move away from running. I half-expected him to do it, but to my surprise he held his ground.
"B-Because I smuggled stuff in for Argo. For you. After what happened, the brokers are going to go over every inch of that place. They'll find out what I did."
"And what exactly did you do?" I asked him. "You gave me the means to drive out the attackers. The brokers are cutthroat, but they aren't stupid. If anything, they'd give you a gold star for that," I took a step forward. "Unless there's something else you don't want them to find out."
The muscles along his jaw clenched. He knew exactly what I was getting at. While making him squirm some more appealed to a certain part of me, we were short on time. Blacklight could be on us at any second.
However, before I could put the pressure on, Rei beat me to it, pointing a finger at him like she was a feisty gumshoe in a crime drama. "There's no use prevaricating about the bush, suspect!" she declared. "We got you red handed! Dead to rights!"
Philia stepped up beside her, and her expression was a mix of betrayal and contempt. "We know you helped them escape," she said. "We found that secret passage and you were one of the only people who could unlock it."
"I didn't do anything!" Cedric snapped.
My smile dropped along with all pretense of friendliness. "Who hired you? We know it was someone in Blacklight. Give us a name."
Cedric's nostrils flared. He took a small step back, his hands turning restless at his sides. The rest of his pals shifted in place, throwing hostile glares at us. One of them, a narrow-faced man with a sharp nose and a mop of green hair, reached for the small submachine gun strapped to his hip.
"Hey now, don't start getting drastic," I said. "This doesn't have to get ugly. All we're asking for is a name. Give us that and we walk away."
"I'm not answering anything because I had nothing to do with what happened," Cedric insisted. "God, it's just like you fucking brokers. You keep thinking there's some big secret to find out about everybody. Screw off and leave people alone."
Argo lifted her hands, palms forward. "Ya ain't makin' a good move here, Cedric."
"Taking your job wasn't a good move."
Invisible, cutting tension curled itself around my thrumming heart. I moved my hand imperceptibly towards Charon while everyone eyed everyone else. I drew in a slow, deep breath, focusing my senses. The fire crackled. The wind brushed past us with a low sigh. My fingers twitched. A heartbeat passed. Then another. A third.
Then the green-haired boy went for his gun.
He was quicker than I thought he'd be. By the time I got my fingers around Charon's grip, he already had his gun up and was starting to aim down its sights. He had me beat.
But he didn't need to be faster than me.
He needed to be faster than Sinon.
Three guesses who won that race.
Hecate fired with a booming roar that shook the narrow walls of the alley, and the boy's head was atomized into a shower of pixelated gore. I freed Charon from its holster before his body finished dropping and put a well-placed shot through the neck of an androgynous looking man aiming for Argo. The third and final man managed a burst of fire that pelted the wall beside Rei before she and Philia peppered him with about a dozen rounds each in the space of a heartbeat.
All told, the entire exchange didn't last much longer than two seconds. Cedric stood alone. His shocked expression warped into one of resentment as he took a couple steps back, clenching his teeth. Then he reached for the desert eagle strapped to his hip and pointed it at his head.
A gunshot rang out, and his big, mean handgun was quite literally shot out of his hand in an small explosion of metal pieces.
Next to me, Argo grinned, lowering her own smoking pistol and wagging a finger. "Ain't gettin' away that easy."
Cedric let out a snarl of frustration and ran deeper into the alley.
I didn't think twice. I gunned it after him, legs pumping, feet pounding the ground. The stalker in Shibuya got away from me, and so did the Blacklight merc in the Deep Works. No way was I going three for three on this.
"C'mon Cedric, do me a solid and surrender, I've done enough chasing today," I shouted after him. "Or at least do a silly run to make it interesting."
No response. I tell you, some people just aren't accommodating.
Cedric knocked over a pair of trash cans, but I've seen enough chase scenes in movies to sort of expect something like that. I jumped clear over them and kept on running with hardly a break in my stride. Just as I did, Cedric hopped over a railing and dropped several feet, sprinting into a small tunnel ahead. There wasn't anywhere for me to head him off on the other side; I had to keep on him.
I vaulted over the railing after him, hit the ground in a roll, and kept the pursuit. His agility stat must not have been as high as mine. With every step, I was gaining on him until eventually I got close enough to hear him cursing to himself.
The end of the tunnel came closer, thirty meters at the most, and he picked up his pace like his life literally depended on it.
Then Sinon suddenly dropped down at the other end of the tunnel. She glared at Cedric and lifted Hecate straight at him. She didn't even bother saying anything to him. She didn't have to. Staring down the barrel of that gun was as close to a "Stop, please and thank you" as she needed. If it came down to it, she could shoot one of his legs off and that would be that.
The threat worked. Cedric skidded to a halt, clearly caught off guard, and that moment of surprise and hesitation was all I needed to close in on him.
I came in fast and hit the small of his back with a vicious shoulder tackle that took him clear off his feet. We both collided with the ground and Cedric's forehead bounced off the ground with a dull thump. His entire body went limp, leaving him dazed long enough for me to drop a knee onto his spine and twist his arm behind his back.
"Get off me!" He slurred, struggling against the hold.
"Hold on now, buddy. You might sprain something," I bent his arm for emphasis. He yelped and thrashed harder, trying to buck me off of him.
"Fuck you, get the fuck off me!"
"One more bad word out of you, sir, and I'll report you for foul language."
Sinon strode over to us, stowing Hecate for her Glock. She kept it trained on his head. "Do you have him?"
I nodded. "He's not going anywhere."
More footsteps came from behind me and Noya soon came around carrying a handgun. Without so much as a pause, he aimed at Cedric's head and pulled the trigger. I expected a bang, but instead his gun made a ker-chunk sound and a burst of electricity exploded from the muzzle. Cedric's entire body instantly went rigid with a strangled cry. Tiny shudders assaulted his avatar, arcs of electricity jumping all over his body. Some of the residual shocks raced up my arms and I jerked away, jumping to my feet in reflex.
A tiny prick of light no bigger than a cigarette butt was stuck in Cedric's neck. I glanced up at Noya.
"Stun bullets?" I asked, flicking my arms to shake off the residual electricity running down them.
"Better than wrestling him all the way back to the truck," Noya said, staring down at Cedric's immobilized form.
"Maybe. Not a huge fan of them, though," I said. Which was true. I'd been the victim of stun bullets before. Sinon, too. Neither of us had good memories with them. Taking away someone's autonomy didn't sit right with me, and I knew better than most what it felt like to be taken prisoner. To be forced into something against your will.
Noya looked up at me. With his mirrored goggles all I saw back was a blurry and crooked reflection of myself, but even still, I couldn't help but feel a sense of sympathy coming from him. "Understandable," he said. He reached down and slapped a pair of handcuffs on Cedric's wrists. "It would be ideal to move him as soon as possible."
I grunted. "Help me lift him up."
Between the two of us, we managed to carry Cedric all the way back to the SUV while he ranted and cursed at us in more colorful ways than someone really ought to know. When we got there, Argo popped open the rear hatch and we dumped him into the open floor in the back. She climbed in after him. There was enough space for her to sit cross legged across from his prone form.
"Don't mind me. I got a few questions to ask our friend here," she said.
Noya nodded. He gave her the handgun he used earlier and shut the door.
"Went better than I expected," he said.
"Sometimes we get an easy win," I pointed a finger at Sinon. "Nice moves, cutting him off like that."
"Thank you," she said with a grin. "You didn't do so bad yourself, the way you jumped over those trash cans. Very skillful."
"I do squats," I replied modestly.
Sinon opened her mouth in a silent 'ah'. "Of course you do." She turned to get back inside the car. "Are you trying to impress someone?"
I smiled a bit wider, ready to throw a flirty line her way. At least until I noticed Philia stealing curious glances at the both of us. I could all but see the gears turning in her head. I cleared my throat instead and hopped back into the passenger seat. Once everyone was piled back in, Noya quickly got into the driver's seat, turned around, and headed back towards Glocken.
A minute later, I heard Argo clapping her hands together. "Alright Cedric, can ya please tell me what happened? Because I gotta admit, there's only so many people who could've been involved with what happened yesterday."
"I didn't do anything," Cedric said.
She sighed. "The folks who attacked us last night didn't go through the front door. They didn't leave through the back way either. Then my Operators tell me there's a hidden passage inside a room only a handful of people had access to, and you're one of 'em. Even you gotta admit it looks pretty shifty."
"Rosalia could get them in."
"Why would she do somethin' like that? She ain't lookin' too hot in front of the rest of the Network right now. You want to tell me she orchestrated the entire robbery to put her own reputation and influence in jeopardy?"
"She's a snake. You know she is."
A long pause took hold. My attention drifted to the rearview mirror. I couldn't get a clear look at Argo's face, especially since it was shrouded underneath the hood of her cloak, but I heard the tone of her voice change, turning into something more pensive.
"Yeah. I don't doubt it," she said. "She likes playin' her games. But if ya got somethin' on her, then I'm all ears."
Cedric fell silent, then a moment later he said, "You can't hold me forever."
"'Course not. But ya can't run forever either," Argo replied. "You've been good to me, Cedric. Never had a problem with ya. The least you could do is help me out."
"I can't."
"Cedric, no matter what happens right now, this isn't anywhere close to over. I ain't the only one figurin' out what happened yesterday. There's gonna to be a lot more brokers lookin' into this, ya said it yourself. Even the other treasure hunters are lookin' for answers." She leaned forward and her voice turned softer. "Ya know I got pull. I can shield ya from the worst of it, but I need to know what exactly happened if I'm gonna be any use to ya."
"But I can't tell you anything," Cedric repeated with frustration.
"Of course ya can. Ya have that choice. I know what kinda persona ya are, Cedric. You're a good guy. Always willin' to help me out. If you're in some kinda trouble, just say the word and I can do somethin' about it, but ya have to let me in the loop first."
Cedric fell silent, then his voice carried an undertone of hard granite, "I'm only going to say this once. Back off, Argo. For your own good. There's things out there worse than the brokers."
"Like?" she asked.
"I don't know exactly," Cedric said. "But they… these people knew things about me. Things nobody should know in GGO. How was I supposed to say no to them?"
What?
I turned in my seat, unable to be a passive listener to the conversation. "Blacklight knew things about you?"
Cedric couldn't see me from his prone position, but he raised his voice enough for me to hear. "Hell no. Not those guys. Blacklight's just a convenient tool for them."
The SUV jostled slightly as it climbed back up into the driveways of Glocken. I chewed on my lip, looking over to Sinon, and judging from the way her eyes narrowed, she was onboard the same train of thought I was. Someone had information on Cedric — the kind that shouldn't have been attainable here in the VR world — and they used it to pressure him into helping Blacklight attack the auction.
It sounded way too similar to what happened with Ikuchi. Somebody did the same to him — dangling precious info in front of him like it was a carrot on a stick in order to get him to go after Sinon. The setup wasn't exactly the same, but it was similar enough to make me think there was a connection.
"Who then?" I asked. "Who's holding Blacklight's reins?"
"Did you not hear me? I said back off."
I clenched my jaw, frustration welling up inside me. By chance, I looked through the rear window to collect my thoughts…and spotted a figure dressed in black riding a motorcycle about thirty or forty feet behind us. I couldn't see his face underneath the hood he wore.
But the two glowing red eyes told me enough.
"Noya!" I shouted.
In the space of a heartbeat, Noya looked up at the rear view mirror and slammed hard on the brakes. The tires screeched to a halt, and my entire body was thrown forward only for the seatbelt to yank me back hard against my seat. The motorcycle's rider swung to the right, narrowly avoiding pancaking himself into the back of the car, and drew a machine pistol from his belt as he sped past us. The little gun opened fire in a chattering staccato and I ducked down to escape the worst of it.
Noya must have sprung for a military model. Instead of safety glass breaking and metal being punched through, there was a series of sharp metallic thunks as the bullets hit what had to be thick plated armor. Even the window next to me survived with only a few pockmarks.
"What's happening?" Philia half-shouted.
Noya slammed on the accelerator, turning the wheel to ram the motorcyclist from behind, but the bike was smaller and more nimble than the hulking mass of steel and bulletproof glass. It kept its distance, swerving from left to right, never staying directly in front of us for long.
"Looks like Blacklight caught up to us," I said.
"There's more coming behind us, Master," Rei said.
I checked and counted at least ten more motorcycles weaving through traffic behind us — and they were catching up fast. If we didn't act soonest, they'd swarm us like a school of hungry piranhas.
The rider ahead of us turned to unleash another volley of gunfire. The windshield cracked in several places, tiny chips of reinforced glass flying off into the street.
"Noya, how safe of a driver are you?" I asked.
"I received perfect marks on my driving test," he said.
I drew my MP7, extending its shoulder stock. The passenger side window shuddered and made crunching sounds when I rolled it down. "Great. Because I'm going to need you to be a very safe driver."
It's pretty hard to hit a moving target. GGO gives a slight nudge to accuracy with bullet circles, but the bulk of the work still fell on a player's shoulders. If your target is small and fast, it can be a pain to get a good shot on it, doubly so if you're moving around seventy miles an hour yourself. Which was why my MP7 was so handy. Accuracy by pure volume of fire.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned halfway out, bracing the stock against my shoulder, aiming down the sights, and loosed a burst of automatic fire at the Blacklight merc ahead of us. Sparks flew from the bike. A few red spots shone on the merc's back, but he didn't so much as flinch.
"Masai!" Sinon shouted.
The roar of a motorcycle's engine came up behind me and I realized what they were doing a split second later. The guy in front was staying ahead, harassing and baiting us into sticking our heads out to shoot him. A perfect target for his friends.
I ducked down and a torrent of bullets tore through the air less than an inch above my head and ripped into the car's interior. The entire truck swerved to the left and I nearly flopped out the window entirely, the bottom of the window sill digging into my stomach as I got a good hard look at the pavement rushing by. I started scrambling my way back up when the merc who just shot at me came racing alongside the SUV, raising his pistol again to plug me between the eyes.
My body was wholly in fight or flight mode. It moved without consulting the rest of me. I lunged forward and coiled both my arms around his gun arm. Then I dug my knees against the inside of the SUV's door and pulled with all my might, bringing myself back inside while dragging the merc and his motorcycle right up against the side of the truck, trapping his gun between me and the door. He twisted and pulled against my grasp, the motorcycle's engine roaring as he tried to use his free arm to drive away and haul me back out of the truck. My hold on him buckled. I wasn't exactly lacking in the strength department, but when up against fifty or sixty horsepower, I was basically a child trying to pull several fully grown adults at the same time.
I didn't bother trying to directly contend against that kind of power. Instead, I just held on, refusing to let go even as more gunfire erupted all around me, both from my friends and our pursuers.
The merc let out a distorted growl of frustration. He threw his head forward and his metal mask bashed me right in the nose. A flash of pain shot through my face, along with the ugly feeling of bone crunching. Stars swam in my vision and it took the last few dregs of my willpower not to lose my grip on him.
Then the rear passenger window rolled down and Sinon leaned out, eyes cold and hard. She pressed her Glock against the back of the merc's head as casually as one aims a camera, and didn't hesitate for an instant.
There was a sharp clap, a splash of pixelated blood, and the merc's head snapped forward like someone brained him with a baseball bat. He died in an instant, and without him steering, the bike lost control and tumbled with a raucous crash and a flurry of sparks. I ducked back in before I could catch a stray bullet. Sinon followed after.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
I massaged my nose and winced as jolts of stinging pain rushed over it. "I dunno. Should I make a road rage joke or would that be too on the nose?"
"Is this actually happening?!" Philia shouted, shoving a fresh magazine into her assault rifle.
"Noya, how we doin'?" Argo said from the back. The gunfire hadn't stopped. It sounded like a hailstorm was hitting us from every angle.
"It won't be long until Blacklight breaks through the armor," Noya reported. I had to give him credit, he was still driving with smooth precision despite the literal gunfight going on. He weaved around other cars, putting them between us and them, forcing the mercs to stop shooting in order to keep us in their sights.
With the handgun Noya gave her in hand, Argo flipped open the tailgate just enough to bend down and aim at the nearest biker. The pistol made another ker-chunking sound and the stun bullet hit him dead on in the chest. The merc's body spasmed, then he fell limply off his bike, tumbling end over end at breakneck speed on the concrete. His motorcycle went crashing after him.
Argo shut the tailgate and less than a second later it was peppered with return fire. Then she whipped around aimed down at where I presumed Cedric would be. "Ah, ah, ah, no movin'."
Philia ducked back inside from presumably a shoot out of her own, flinching as a bullet grazed the door less than a few inches from her face. "Uh guys, is there no way out of this?"
I glanced at Sinon, "Any ideas?"
She shook her head, grimacing. "Hecate won't be of any use here. They're too fast and too maneuverable. They'll see me coming. Not to mention I don't have any good sightlines in a cramped space like this."
"And if you try to shoot out a window, you'll be a sitting duck for them," I said.
"Assuming I don't get thrown out into the street when I shoot. Hecate has a real kick behind her. I'm better off just using this," she said, raising her Glock.
Noya cleared his throat, utterly unconcerned as a fresh wave of gunfire from the merc in front of us struck the reinforced windshield. "I have an idea. Please hold on and get ready to fire on your left. On my signal."
Before I could even begin to ask why, Noya cut the wheel and my stomach roiled as he jumped the median into the opposite lane, nearly T-boning another car in the process. Tires squealed. Somebody screamed. Noya turned the SUV in a complete 180 and started driving back the way we came, and I realized belatedly that our pursuers were still on the other lane. For a few seconds, admittedly, but it was time enough.
"Now!" Noya shouted.
Sinon crawled out of her window, sitting on the door with her chest to the car's roof. At the same time, Rei and a shaking Philia pointed their guns out their own window. All three of them fired at once, hitting the Blacklight mercs with a salvo of lead worthy of a barrage from the broadside of a battleship. Two of the mercs were riddled with bullets in an instant, dropping in a crashing wreck. A third followed soon after, and his motorcycle skidded in the way of a fourth. He couldn't get clear in time. His bike crashed into it and sent him flying tail over teakettle at a speed of about Way Too Fast.
The rest of the mercs scattered, evading bullet lines and gunfire. All except for one.
The biker furthest away from his group saw what was happening, accelerated, and veered at an angle straight towards us. He jumped the median the same way we did, and then tucked his feet in and launched himself off the motorcycle's seat, drawing a freaking sword from his hip. He came down right on the hood of the SUV and stabbed the gleaming black blade through the engine block. Metal grinded with an ear-piercing intensity, and smoke puffed out from underneath the hood in shades of gray.
"You gotta be kidding me," I said.
Noya jerked the steering wheel from left to right, trying to shake the merc off, but he held fast, using his sword as a center of support while he pulled a plasma grenade from his combat harness. My eyes went wide. If he held it when it detonated, he'd go up too, but it was probably worth it to him if it meant stopping us cold.
I only had seconds to act.
"Brake!" I shouted.
Noya slammed on the brakes again and simple inertia shoved the merc backwards. His hold on the sword didn't falter and he didn't fall off the hood either — but he did lose his footing. Which meant that as soon as Noya hit the gas again, his whole body was thrown in the opposite direction, right smack dab into the windshield.
My photon sword came into my hand and I pressed the emitter against the other side of the glass. The blue beam of energy burned through it with a low crackling sound and ended about six inches out of the merc's back.
He twitched several times, then finally went still. His body disappeared in a shower of pixels, the grenade rolling harmlessly off into the street, and I withdrew the sword, molten glass dribbling onto the dashboard.
"Didn't think that would work," Noya said.
I smirked, if only to keep from saying, Yeah, me too.
"Masai," Sinon called. I looked back. The rest of the mercs had bounded over to our lane while I'd been distracted and were on our tail again, but this time they were keeping their distance, their guns at their sides rather than aimed at us. Not too much of a surprise there. Out of the ten or so goons they started with, they were now down to only a few. They'd been spooked, forced to back off and regroup to come at us another way.
Philia and Sinon both leaned out of their respective windows to press our advantage, encouraging them to stay back by way of gunfire. She may not have been using her pride and joy, but Sinon's accuracy with her Glock wasn't anything to sneeze at. One of her bursts of gunfire struck a merc from his collarbone all the way up to his face, and he went down in a rolling crash.
We had them on the backfoot. They gave it their best shot, but we were holding them off. We were going to get away.
Then the universe pulled a fast one on us. As it liked to do.
The engine started sputtering. The gray smoke coughing out from underneath the hood turned into a charcoal black. Worse, we were slowing down. Noya slammed the pedal all the way down to compensate, and all he got in return was a weird clicking noise.
I looked back, trying to gauge how much time we had left before the mercs swooped down on us again, and my stomach dropped.
A big black Humvee roared down the street, joining the few mercs left. Our SUV was tough enough to eat a bombardment of small arms fire but this newcomer looked like it could do more than that and ask for seconds. Solid, heavy armor covered every inch of it, and the tires looked like they'd been lifted from a heavy duty semi-truck. The windows were heavily tinted, and I'd be willing to bet they were thick enough to stop anything short of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
"Crap," I said.
"This is rather precarious," Noya agreed.
"What do we do?" Philia asked.
I chewed on my lip, mind racing. We weren't in any condition to have a drawn out fight. If the car didn't give out on us in the next few seconds, another round of gunfire would certainly do the trick, and that's not even counting the behemoth of a truck barreling our way. We needed to hit it first, fast and hard.
My eyes met Sinon's. They were as unyielding and as implacable as the oldest, most enduring glacier. Neither of us said a word, but we both knew what the other was thinking. It was the only way we were going to have a fighting chance of getting out of this.
"It's not ideal…" I said.
She lifted her chin and nodded. "I'll make it work."
I nodded back to her and watched as she turned around in her seat, sitting on her knees, her front pressed against the seat's backrest. With a practiced motion, Hecate, as large and as imposing as it ever was, appeared in her hands. Usually, Sinon would lay down in a prone position to fire or barring that, a balanced crouch to spread the effects of the rifle's recoil out over the whole of her body — but there was no room for any of that in the tight space we were in. She had to compensate.
Sinon propped Hecate on top of the backrest, tucking her free arm underneath it as a stabilizing point. The barrel extended out into the storage compartment where Argo and Cedric were hunkered down, its muzzle pointed towards the back window, right at the Humvee coming ever closer behind us.
At that very moment, I found out the car chasing us had a roof hatch.
The man in the Hannya mask, the leader of the Blacklight mercs, rose out of it, and in his hands he held a second Hecate rifle — the one that had been stolen from the auction, I realized. He rested its bipod with almost casual indifference on the car's roof, and pointed it right at us.
I don't know why, but out of all the things I could have been thinking at that moment, the one thought that stood out was how comical this turned out to be.
Hecate couldn't do much against speeding motorcycles.
But against a limping SUV billowing black smoke it'd do just fine.
Sinon hissed through clenched teeth and I could only imagine what was going through her head. She never claimed to have a monopoly on the rifle, but Hecate meant a lot to her. To see someone else using it against her must have felt like a grave insult.
Rei and Philia leaned out to gun Hannya down, but the remaining bikers roared in, forcing them back with suppressive fire. I tried to help, leveling Charon at the nearest merc, and got a pair of gunshots to my shoulder and chest for the trouble. Another bullet whizzed past my head, and I ducked back in, turning to see if Sinon had lined up her shot.
She took a deep breath. I saw her bullet line reach out through the back window and touch the Humvee's engine. Her entire body went into absolute relaxation, and then she pulled the trigger.
There was a full boom the likes of which I rarely experienced in a confined space. It felt like having a front row seat to a thunderstorm — a wave of sound so absolute it was practically a physical force all on its own. It hit me in the chest down to my virtual bones and left my ears ringing.
The back window shattered into hundreds of pieces. Noya actually had to correct his steering because the sheer power of the shot sent the car into a small swerve. But if it meant hampering our enemies, it was worth it.
Or so I thought.
At the last second, Hannya's Humvee swept to the side, and the bullet meant to disable their engine instead cut a shallow furrow down the side of the vehicle. It didn't so much as rock the herculean beast of a car.
Hannya peered down the scope of his own Hecate, and his bullet line went low. Right for our back tires.
"Hold onto something!" I shouted, hurrying to snap my seatbelt on.
I heard the distinct sound of a Hecate rifle firing, and for the first time in a long while I didn't like what happened next.
The entire back of the SUV rocked like we'd been rear-ended by a locomotive. There was a sound like a thousand balloons popping all at once — then came an awful crunching noise and the floor beneath my feet buckled.
The car fell into a tailspin. Noya tried his best to straighten it out, but he was working against too much mass and velocity. The car slid, spinning on destroyed wheels, and then there was a sudden and violent force that pulled me hard against my seatbelt.
The car flipped, and it turned into a roll.
Words can't do justice to what it felt like, being in a car crash like that. Everything turned into a terrifying blur of motion, screams, fear, and helplessness. Bits of glass and metal left burning cuts on my exposed skin as I was flipped and tossed about like a toy over and over and over again, left powerless to do anything except be a victim of forces greater than I.
Then the SUV abruptly came to a final, groaning stop. I blinked several times, trying to fight off the disorientation and the frantic beating of my heart. It took me a moment or two to realize I was hanging upside down. The seatbelt had kept me in one place, more or less. The windshield was blanketed with thick cracks. Half of it had simply popped off its frame. My window was gone though, reduced to tiny pieces scattered about. The truck's engine had finally died. I could hear and smell the steady drizzle of gas leaking onto the ground.
I closed my eyes and shook my head in an attempt to clear out the remaining wooziness and get my bearings. I was still in the green, health-wise, but I felt sore all over and my temples throbbed like someone was performing a drumroll on them with a pair of hammers. I must have hit my head on something at some point during the crash, but for the life of me I couldn't remember when.
'Guys?" I said. It came out in a hollow whisper. I licked my lips and tried again. "Hey, guys?"
Somebody behind me groaned. I couldn't tell who. I tried to turn around, but only got far enough to see Noya hanging beside me. He was alive, but I couldn't even tell if he was conscious thanks to all that gear he wore.
"Sinon…?" I said. No answer.
I craned my neck to the right, and the thudding of my heart started all over again.
The war machine of an Humvee rolled steadily towards us, and the mercs on their motorcycles followed close behind.
"Son of a…" I tried to unbuckle my seatbelt, but it didn't come off. It probably broke in the crash. I pulled some more, trying to rip it out by main force, but got nowhere fast. A frustrated growl rose in my throat, and I dug inside of my jacket.
It probably wasn't the smartest idea to ignite a two foot long energy sword inside a confined space whilst also upside down, but I wasn't exactly drowning in time or choices at the moment.
The blade sprang to life and almost half of it gouged itself into the car's roof beneath me. I kept it angled as far away from my face as I could, then pulled on what little slack the seatbelt had to give me. It took a few tries, but I managed to bring the seatbelt close enough to start slicing away at it until the entire thing abruptly loosened and I dropped to the ground to enjoy a fresh wave of pseudo-pain.
But hey, silver linings. At least I didn't gore myself on my own sword by accident.
I heard the throaty purr of an engine and looked out into the street again. The merc's Humvee came to a stop about ten feet away, along with the remaining bikers. Doors were thrown open and half a dozen more Blacklight mercs came filing out, all of them carrying assault weapons.
I started crawling out from the shattered passenger side window, putting my sword aside to grab either Charon or my submachine gun. Hell, I'd even take my chances with a grenade at this point. Anything to get us out of this.
"Ah, ah, ah, don't start getting reckless now," said a slightly distorted, synthesized voice. "Near as I can tell you lost the game, buddy. Better to lose it with grace."
I froze and looked up. The man in the Hannya mask walked towards me, carrying his Hecate over one shoulder. He raised two fingers, making a beckoning motion with them, and on his cue, the other mercs spread out to cover the SUV with their guns raised.
'So you're the guy. Masai, right? Saw your fight in the Squad Jam. Big fan of your work." He said. He looked up and down the street, as if surveying the mess we created. "You killed some of my boys back there."
"They were hogging the lane," I said.
His shoulders shook and a low, warbling sound came out of his mask's voice filter. He was laughing.
"Yeah. Assholes, right?"
I stared up at him, frowning. "You're Blacklight's leader."
He tilted his head to me in a shallow nod. "That'd be me. Name's Daegon."
"You tricked Philia."
Daegon lifted a hand in a so-so gesture. "Eh, not completely true. We were on her side for a good long while. She paid us good money, after all. It's just that someone else paid us more to turn on her."
Anger began to simmer deep inside me and my tone turned a shade harder. "That's it? You betrayed her for money?"
"What? You think these guys hang around me because of my puckish charms?" he said, more laughter bubbling up in his voice. "Nah, man. Money makes everything easier. That's just as true in GGO as it is out in the real world."
There was a sharp wrenching sound from the back of the SUV. I turned my head enough to see what was going on while keeping Daegon in my sight. One of his men dug the end of a heavy-duty crowbar into the side of the SUV's rear hatch. He pushed against it with his whole weight, trying to pry it open.
"I hope you don't hold a grudge against Cedric," Blacklight's leader told me. "Guy got put in a rough spot from what I hear."
I glared at him. "Both of you are responsible for what Philia's going through right now. I'm not about to let that slide."
He shrugged one shoulder. "Gonna have to, buddy. Honestly, this whole business is way above folks like us. It's in your best interest to just let it play out."
"Like hell. And folks like us? What's that supposed to mean?"
"People are making moves. Important people. Powerful people. Me and the rest of my gang are already swept up in it, but hey, you still got the chance to bow out. I'd take it if I were you. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches."
I narrowed my eyes. Maybe it's because I've dealt with my fair share of antagonistic thugs with a bad gloating habit, but I hadn't expected him to be so…amicable. Hell, if we weren't sitting amidst a car crash he caused, this could have been any regular conversation in GGO.
Damned peculiar, but Daegon's words made me realize something. This entire situation wasn't being done out of malicious intent. Betraying Philia and putting her on the hook for what happened at the auction was merely business in his eyes. No more, no less. Daegon wasn't evil. He was a proxy. A tool, just like Cedric said. And if that much was true, then everything else he said couldn't be immediately dismissed as a lie.
Someone else was directing Blacklight, and paying them a lot of money for the trouble.
I scowled at him. "I'm not backing down. You can tell your boss I don't care who they are, I'm going to trample all over their little scheme if it means protecting Philia."
Daegon fell silent. He crouched down in front of me, and the two red dots in the center of his empty eye sockets fixed themselves on my face. He'd gotten close enough for me to grab, but from my prone position I wouldn't be able to do much before he reacted. If I tried to pull a gun or any other kind of weapon, he'd see it. Then he'd kill me, probably without much effort too.
So it begged the question: why hasn't he?
"You're going to be a problem. I can already tell," he said with a sigh.
"So why haven't you killed me already?" I asked.
Daegon shrugged one shoulder. "Professional courtesy. You're doing your job, I'm doing mine. No need to make it hostile."
I felt motion inside the car and checked behind me. Noya had apparently woken up, but one of the Blacklight mercs had their rifle pointed straight at his head. He stared at them and raised his hands in surrender.
A dull crack came from the rear of the SUV, and a few seconds later Cedric came walking around the car with his wrists still handcuffed. There were a few cuts spread over his body, but other than that, he looked no worse for wear.
"Took you guys long enough," he said. He didn't so much as look at me.
"Bad traffic," Daegon replied as he rose. He produced a ring of small keys from his tac-vest and inserted one into the cuffs' lock. They unlocked and slipped off, clattering to the floor.
Cedric rubbed his wrists, and when he finally looked down at me, his expression became inscrutable. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then closed it again, shaking his head. He turned and headed for Daegon's car. "Get me out of here."
"That's what I'm here for," Daegon said. He spared me one last glance, seemingly pondering something for a moment. Then he leaned in and spoke in a very calm and precise tone. "Let me give you some advice, from one working stiff to another. Don't make me work for my money."
He followed after Cedric, and the two of them piled back into the car along with the rest of the Daegon's goons. A few got back on their bikes, engines roaring back to life. I couldn't do anything except watch as Blacklight drove past us with our only suspect to rejoin the flow of traffic. A few seconds later, the sounds of their engines disappeared too, lost amidst the din of several others.
"Great. Way to go, Masai. You really did go zero for three on catching people today," I said. I crawled forward out of the wreckage, ignoring the scrapes and cuts burning on my arms, until I could get up to my feet. Noya was already up and coming around to meet me.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'll be better once we get the others out," I said.
He nodded and we went to check on the girls. Philia and Rei had gotten their seatbelts on in time and were hanging upside just like we had been. They were both in a bit of a daze, Philia especially, but aside from a handful of cuts and minor wounds, they looked no worse for wear.
But they weren't what made me anxious.
Sinon lay on her side, her back to me, in a crumpled heap beneath them. She wasn't moving.
She never had the chance to get strapped in. During that whole crash she'd been tossed around inside the passenger cabin like a broken toy. I couldn't even imagine what she'd gone through.
"Sinon. Hey, Sinon, " I said, kneeling down. I got one arm under hers, pulling her up enough to get my other arm around her waist, and dragged her out into the street. About halfway through, she stirred and started to help me by using her legs to push herself out. She was still conscious.
We were in a virtual world. Sinon had never been in any real danger. I sighed with relief anyway; being trapped in a VR deathgame for two years will do that to you. "It's okay, I got you."
I got her up to her feet. She was shaking and a little pale, but her voice maintained its usual composure. "What happened? Where's Cedric?"
"Gone. Blacklight took him," I said.
Sinon grimaced and her balance faltered. I caught her before she could fall.
"Woah, hey, easy," I said, gently lowering her to the ground. "You were bouncing around a lot in there. Just…sit down for a bit, okay? I'll grab the others while you rest."
Sinon looked up at me, swallowing, then she reached back into the overturned car and pulled her Hecate rifle out from inside it. The scope's glass was cracked and the barrel was ever so slightly bent. Sinon pressed her lips together as if suppressing a scowl and nodded.
I got to work helping everyone out of the car. It took a few minutes and a couple of careful cuts with my photon sword to get Philia and Rei out. In the meantime, Noya retrieved Argo from the cargo compartment. She didn't fare much better than Sinon did. She'd been tossed around the same way, and a nasty looking cut along her hairline bled virtual blood.
Noya and I got the girls to sit down and we passed around a few medical syringes. I glanced at the ruined car we'd crawled out of, shaking my head.
"So much for easy wins, huh?" I said.
Noya stood beside me and crossed his arms. "Blacklight were talented enough to rob the auction with hardly a hitch in their plan. We shouldn't be surprised they moved just as competently today."
"I suppose not," I said, staring at the growing pool of gasoline underneath the wreck. "How good's your insurance, by the way?"
Noya considered the question for a moment. "I'm financially ruined."
I cracked a faint grin and patted him on the shoulder. "Next time we'll take the bus."
Philia tossed a used syringe aside and looked up at me. "So…what do we do now? I mean, Cedric was our only lead, right?"
I put my hands on my hips and bowed my head. She definitely wasn't wrong. Our options were pretty limited to begin with. Now that Cedric slipped through our fingers, we were down to pretty much nothing, except for maybe begging for info from the next person we came across. Or divine intervention. "We've had a bit of a setback," I admitted. "But we're not out of the fight yet."
"Yeah. This wasn't exactly the kind of fight I was expecting. That was really intense," Philia said. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, her tone turning into one of slight exasperation. "I guess no matter how much time has passed, you always find some way to surprise me."
"Yeah, well, I like to keep people on their toes," I said. My eyes drifted over to Sinon and I frowned. She was holding her damaged rifle in her arms with a clouded expression. "Guess now where we know where the other one went, huh?"
Sinon made an annoyed grunting noise, never taking her eyes off her rifle. Then she rose to her feet again and planted the heavy wooden stock on the ground, barrel up, leaning against it like it was the only thing keeping her upright. "Honestly? I'm a little pissed off."
"You want to be the only one using Hecate?" I asked.
She shook her head. "It's not that. Someone beat me by using her. I'm not going to take that lying down."
That shouldn't have come as a surprise to me. Sinon had pride in spades, and it wasn't because she was full of herself. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Sinon was a tough girl, and more determined than anyone else I knew, myself included. She'd toiled for months, making herself stronger by taking down some of the best gunners GGO had, until her reputation was almost as fierce as she was. When people thought of the Hecate rifle, they thought of her. She'd earned her right to be proud of herself.
To have someone else come along and slap her down, with her own weapon no less, it had to have stung.
"We'll have plenty of chances for you to settle the score," I promised her.
Sinon met my gaze. "Good."
I turned to Argo. "Where do we go from here?"
Before she could answer, Philia shyly raised her hand. "Hey, um, Masai? You don't have to go through all this trouble for me. I can take care of it on my own."
I lifted an eyebrow. "What brought this up?"
Philia tucked her knees in and wrapped her arms around them, her clear blue eyes dropping to the space in front of her feet. "I just don't want you stressing out over me."
I crouched down in front of her, smiling. "Hey, it's no sweat. I'm doing this because I want to help, Philia. Trust me, it's not the least bit of trouble."
She glanced up at me, and though she didn't look entirely convinced, she nodded anyway. "Ok.
I nodded back to her and said, "Argo?"
Argo pursed her lips, her hand twisting at the wrist in a slow, lazy circle. "Well, we know for sure Blacklight's involved in this. That's somethin'. I can try 'n snoop around, see if I can find where they like to hole themselves up, but if they got even a lick of sense, they'll be makin' themselves scarce."
I crossed my arms, tapping an idle finger against my bicep. "Yeah. Plus, they're wearing masks. They can just take them off and walk around the surface and we'd be none the wiser. Daegon gave me his name, but I doubt that's what his actual username is." I glanced at Philia. "Did they ever take you to their home base or anything?
She shook her head. "We always met up in public, like in bars and stores. Or at the Treasure Guilds headquarters."
No chance of following their trail back to their hideout then. No names we could put faces to either. For all intents and purposes, Blacklight disappeared without a trace. Again.
I hated to admit it, but these guys were turning out to be some major league customers. They were savvy, careful, methodical, and willing to do whatever it took to win. We couldn't gun them down and call it a day, like a lot of other troublemakers. Daegon and his mooks weren't even interested in a fight or beating us fair and square. They were playing a different game altogether, one they were really good at.
How do you catch someone in the virtual world who doesn't want to be found?
"Heads up, behind us," Noya said.
I turned around and had to do a double take. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't a black limo cruising to a stop right next to us, its windows tinted and chrome shining. The driver stepped out and headed towards the door in front of me, dressed in an impeccable suit with a scarlet tie. I caught sight of a red crown embroidered on his breast pocket as he opened the passenger door. I'd seen the symbol before. He was a member of Majestic, the merc group in charge of security at the auction yesterday. If they were here, I could already make a pretty good guess who was inside.
The driver opened the door, and Rosalia sat on the far side of the passenger cabin. Gone was the fancy evening gown she wore last night. In its place she'd donned a dark red blazer with a matching pencil skirt, along with a pair of pumps that were probably as expensive as the jeweled necklace she wore around her neck. Her red hair had been done up in a tousled but fashionable bun — held in place with a pair of obsidian chopsticks.
The coy smile on her lips turned a shade more amused when she saw us. "My, what have we here? Got yourself in a bit of an accident, hm?"
"What do you want, Rosalia?" I said, not even bothering to hide my displeasure. It had been a rough day so far, and she was pretty low on the list of people I wanted to see.
She gave a diffident shrug of her shoulder. "I heard there was a commotion down in the driveways. I had to come down to see what all the fuss was about. You are in my territory after all."
"Underneath your territory," Argo corrected her. "Far as I remember, that's fair game."
"Regardless, I'm perfectly within my rights to see what was going on. And you should be grateful I decided to do so," Rosalia said, peering past us at the wreck we'd just crawled out of it. "Why don't I give you a ride? You are my colleague after all. I'd hate to leave you here stranded."
I avoided growling at the mockery dripping off of her every word. Rosalia wasn't here to help, and it was pretty damn suspicious that she showed up now. This wasn't charity. She wanted something.
"I'd rather drop a bowling ball on my head," I muttered.
But there was nothing for it.
We got into the limo.
