Authors: Julie Ortolon
After another look over his shoulder to be sure Chloe hadn’t returned, he moved the cursor over the blue sapphire to select the world he wanted to test first, Pirates of the High Seas. He found it faintly amusing that his favorite world in Vortal involved one more link between his life and Chloe’s, since many of Galveston’s pirates had moved to the island after getting kicked out of New Orleans.
One click and the portal enlarged with a whoosh, as if he’d been sucked through it. He landed inside the tavern on Skull Island, where all adventures in the pirate world began. Using the hand controls, he turned his alter ego, Captain Blade, in a full circle to take in the crowded room filled with drunken sailors and tavern wenches.
Vortal had been one of the first games to perfect a full three-hundred–and-sixty-degree experience when they’d gone from Version Two to Version Three. The effect tricked the senses, making players feel as if they were in that world. The surround-sound audio of voices and laughter, dishes clattering, dogs growling over a bone, even a chicken squawking in the distance, made the experience that much more real.
Unfortunately, they’d created a problem with the three-sixty version. Taking the players from seeing their characters from an omniscient viewpoint to seeing the world as if the player
was
the character, meant players no longer saw their alter egos. Luc had loved the result. Reaction from players, however, had split down the middle. Some shared Luc’s enthusiasm for the realistic effect, but others argued vehemently that they put a lot of effort into creating their character, and they wanted to see themselves—their pretend selves—kicking ass on the screen.
With the battle heating up to epic warfare in the Vortal forum, Luc hit on the perfect solution. He challenged the team to take the three-sixty effect one step further and add reflective surfaces.
As he turned his character on the screen, the mirror behind the bar came into view. Rather than a static, fuzzed out scene, he saw Captain Blade. The blue hole that used to hover over the face area had vanished, replaced now with Blade’s face.
“Holy shit,” he whispered. His eyes widened as he saw and heard Blade say the same words. Yes! They’d succeeded in getting the computer’s camera to read the player’s facial expressions. They’d mastered the voice sync with Version Three, but this took the experience to new heights. “Too freakin’ cool!”
He turned his head from side to side, his gaze fixed on the eyes staring back at him. He tried lifting his brows, and grinned as Blade did the same. It felt like looking in a real mirror, seeing a face that matched his own, but with a bit more edge. Some players created characters that bore no resemblance to themselves, while others, like himself, simply created a better version of who they were in the real world. Blade had sharper cheeks and a stronger jaw that sported a shadow of dark blond stubble. As Captain Blade in the pirate world, his hair hung past broad shoulders, while a billowing white shirt fell open to his waist, revealing the six-pack abs Luc had been working toward the last few years.
Before he could enter the code that would let him move through the world without actually playing a game, a movement in the mirror caught his eye. He saw a snarl-faced pirate charging Captain Blade from behind.
On reflex, Luc worked the controls. Blade spun and raised his sword just in time to stop the pirate from decapitating him. Adrenaline surged as other savage cut-throats swarmed into the tavern, joining the fight, which quickly spilled out into the streets. To heck with not playing, he decided, as Blade ran through the town toward the docks. Luc barely had time to cheer when he caught his reflection in a grimy window or rain puddle in the cobblestone streets. He was charging toward the wharf, defeating opponents, leaping onto the deck of his ship, swinging from the halyard as he shouted commands to his crew.
A hair’s breadth away from achieving success in step one of his quest—escape Skull Island—something bumped into his chair, yanking him out of the gaming world, back to reality. Ripping off his headset, he jerked around to find the kid who’d nearly drowned yesterday looking over his shoulder at the screen.
Shit. He glanced toward the doorway, afraid he’d see Chloe, but no one else had entered the room. Relief flooded him despite the dirge of defeat coming from the computer. He turned back in time to see the ship’s crew staring down at him, looking forlorn. The screen faded slowly to black as his eyes closed in death.
Game over.
He scowled as a pathetically low score for someone at his skill level appeared beneath an animated pirate flag.
“Whoa!” AJ exclaimed, moving beside Luc to get his face closer to the screen. “That is sick! Can I play?”
Before Luc could answer, footsteps sounded on the grand stairs out in the lobby.
“AJ?” a woman called before the kid’s mother appeared in the doorway. Even casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a laundry basket propped on one hip, she presented an inspiring sight with her statuesque figure and tumbling curls of reddish gold hair. Seeing Luc, she drew up short. “Oh, hello. Again,” she added the last as she recognized him.
“Hi.” Luc smiled as he casually closed the laptop partway to hide the screen without putting the computer to sleep. Even knowing the game score filled the full screen, blocking the logo on his desktop, he felt uneasy. “I’m waiting for Chloe. She said I could hang in here.”
“Absolutely.” The blonde, Aurora, he remembered, beamed at him. “Make yourself at home. You, however,” she added to her son, “need to stick with me while I do laundry.”
“Laundry, ugh.” AJ’s shoulders sagged. “I was about to play a game. A really cool game. You should see it.”
“I’m sure it’s very cool, but you know better than to bother guests.”
“He’s not a guest. He’s Chloe’s friend.” AJ looked up at him. “Right?”
Feeling instant empathy for any kid trying to escape laundry duty, he nodded. “Right.”
“That doesn’t matter,” the mother said with gentle authority. “I have chores to do, and after what you did yesterday, I want you in my sights today.”
“Oh, Mom.” Dragging his feet, the kid joined his mother in the doorway. “I really want to play.”
“AJ.” She gave an embarrassed laugh before looking at Luc. “I’m sorry. We’ll get out of your way.”
“Actually…” Luc debated the risk of letting the kid play, and potentially recognizing the portal. Since it only showed at the start of a game, he decided he could control that. “I don’t mind.”
“I can play the game?” AJ bounced on the balls of his feet.
“On one condition.” Luc held up his hand to stop the kid from running back to him. “You have to wait there while I set it up.”
“Cool!” The kid cheered while Luc moved the computer to his lap and shifted so they couldn’t see the screen.
“Hang on,” the mother said. “It’s not one of those games with graphic violence, is it?”
“It has a no-gore parental control,” Luc assured her. They’d installed the option when Luc realized the sight of spewing blood might not be appropriate for younger players.
“Okay, then,” the mother relented. “But AJ, I want you to come straight to the kitchen when you’re done.”
“I will,” AJ promised, looking practically angelic. The minute his mother left, he rubbed his hands with diabolical glee. “All right, let’s do this thing.”
“Wait.” Luc held his hand up again. “I have to set it up first.”
“I wanna see.” AJ practically danced in place.
“That’s my condition. Have you played other games?” Luc asked, to get a feel for the kid’s skill level.
“A few,” AJ said. “Nothing like that.”
“Okay, then, we’ll start you off easy.”
“Na-ah, you can give it to me.”
Luc stifled a chuckle as he hurried through setting up a new game to play at level one with no gore, then entered a programming code to freeze the action the minute the tavern scene appeared with Blade standing before the mirror. “Okay, ready.”
“All right!” AJ raced over.
“You’ll need to stand in front of me.” Unplugging the head set so they could both hear, he moved back to make room and adjusted the laptop so the camera would read AJ’s face. That wouldn’t affect Blade’s appearance, since the computer controlled that. Normally, brand new players had to develop their character before they could begin, but that could take hours. “I’m gonna trust you with my life here and let you be Captain Blade.”
“I wanna be Captain Jack.” AJ insisted.
“All right, we can call me—I mean my character—Captain Jack.”
“He doesn’t look like Captain Jack.” AJ wrinkled his nose. “Captain Jack has a black ponytail like my Uncle Adrian. He’s really cool.”
“Your uncle?”
“No, Captain Jack,” AJ corrected him. “’Cause he can walk through walls and stuff.”
“You mean the ghost?” Luc raised a brow, intrigued. “You’ve seen him?”
“Sure.” AJ shrugged. “He comes to my room a lot. Like the other night, when I got grounded for climbing up the side of the house.”
“You climbed the side of the house?” Luc’s eyes widened.
“Only partway.” The kid’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. “I woulda made it to the balcony, but Marguerite went and got Mom. She’s always tattle-telling on me when I do stuff she thinks I shouldn’t.”
“You don’t say,” Luc prompted, straightfaced.
“Well, not actually tattle-telling, ’cause most grownups can’t hear her or see her like we kids can. They just sorta feel her or something. Mom came runnin’ and made me climb back down. She was really mad and sent me to my room. I hate it when I’m grounded. It’s so boring! Except when Captain Jack comes to hang out with me.”
“That would certainly be less boring.”
“He tells the best stories.” Excitement shone in AJ’s blue eyes. “About being a ship cap’n. And sea battles. And fighting off pirates. Real pirates.”
“I see.” Luc wondered if Chloe found the kid as amusing as he did.
“So, I wanna be Captain Jack.”
“Okay, we’ll pretend Blade is Jack for this game.”
“But he doesn’t look like Jack,” AJ complained.
“Use your imagination,” Luc suggested, since the kid obviously had a good one.
“Okay.” AJ sighed, then took up the hand controls. “Let’s do this!”
Chapter 8
Male screams greeted Chloe as she left the gift shop. Allison had just finished helping her put the dolls on display and headed for the kitchen to see if Aurora needed help, leaving Chloe free for the rest of the day. Hoping Luc hadn’t grown bored while waiting, she’d checked her makeup, then hurried from the gift shop only to draw up short at the metallic clashing sound of an epic battle.
What on earth?
Alarmed, she hurried toward the music room, then stopped at the sight of AJ playing a game on Luc’s laptop. Both of them seemed completely wrapped up in the game, muttering under their breath as their bodies jerked and swayed along with the action on the screen.
Vortal, she realized, instantly curious. They had to be playing Vortal.
Not wanting to interrupt, she moved quietly closer so she could watch the battle being waged. The scene looked like a movie. No, like being the star of a movie, seeing everything through the actor’s eyes. The visual trick made her feel as if her arms were holding the sword, parrying and thrusting against a vicious pirate. Dark, dirty hair hung down the sides of his ugly, scarred face. Rips in the tattered shirt revealed thin red scratches, letting her know that she—well, AJ—had already scored some hits.
With a frightening growl, the pirate lunged. She flinched as the cutlass came straight toward her stomach. AJ’s fingers worked the hand control to block and thrust, scoring a hit on the opponent’s arm.
Even though the sword left no more than a scratch, the pirate stumbled back, breathing hard as he faced her. The break in action let her take in the rest of the scene: a cave, with water dripping down the walls. A shaft of light pierced the darkness behind the pirate to illuminate a pile of jewelry, gems, and gold doubloons heaped on a rock surrounded by lapping water. A battered sea chest rested on top of the pile, strapped shut with massive black chains.
Her attention went back to the pirate as AJ circled the sword tauntingly before his chest.
“Ah-ha, I have you now, you scum,” AJ growled. To her surprise, the computer amplified his voice, giving it deadly menace.
“Go ahead, Captain Blade,” the pirate sneered back as if he’d heard. “Do yer worst. The treasure’ll do ye no good if you can’t break the Curse of the Black Chains.”
Leaning closer to Luc, AJ whispered just loudly enough for her to hear, “What do I say?”
Luc cupped a hand and spoke in AJ’s ear.
“I have the secret to break the curse,” AJ said, his voice coming from the computer in stereo. “The treasure is as good as mine.”
“No!” With a cry, the pirate attacked, sword swinging. AJ as Captain Blade blocked again, then plunged his sword deep into the pirate’s chest. With enough drama to thrill a Hollywood director, the pirate staggered back, clutching his chest. Making ghastly sounds, he tumbled over, landing half in, half out of the water. After one impressive gasp for air, he deflated and went still.