Authors: Terry Schott
CHAPTER FORTY
Azrael
I look at the group and smile. It’s so good to see Raph after all these years. The sisters are the same as always; I should tell them their parents say hi and are happy that they’re doing so well. Unfortunately this isn’t the time for that conversation; maybe later. Stephanie looks great as well, although she was never a big Brandon fan.
“I was hoping Carl would be with you,” I say.
Raphael smiles and nods, “He’s not far from us. You’ll come back with us and see the others, right?”
I shake my head. “Soon I will see them all,” I assure him, “but at the moment there are more important matters.” I look at them and shake my finger like a parent. “You all forget to scramble signals. The entire planet could have been watching this little meeting.”
“Oh, damn,” Stephanie says.
“Wait a minute…” Raphael cocks his head to one side. “Does that mean the feeds are back up? Do we have power again?”
“Who said the feeds ever went down?” I fight back a smile as faces flush with embarrassment. I’m not gonna tell them the feeds did go down when the power went out; they should be more cautious. I look around the camp and shake my head. “I mean, how much effort does it take to scramble the freaking signal? Even if there is no signal, you should be going through the procedure anyway.”
Everyone looks properly chastised as they nod in agreement. I wonder if any of them will bother to check the power sources to see that everything’s back on. I look at Danni and I know she’s aware of the truth, but for some reason she isn’t sharing the news. Oh, well, I’ll let her play whatever game she’s got going on.
“Now listen up,” I say. “We don’t have much time. I’ve been helping Melissa fine tune her abilities over the past few days and I think she’s ready.”
“Ready for what?” Danni asks.
“Ready to show you something, Danielle,” I say. “Melissa taught you to fly, right?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Okay,” I say. “She has an even bigger lesson for you to master. Over the next few days the three of us will work together to learn a new skill, and I cannot stress how important it is that you master it as quickly as possible. It’s what you were born to do, what you’ve been working towards your entire life.”
“What is it?” Danni asks.
I grin. “If I told you, I doubt you’d believe me. I think the best thing to do is show you.”
Danni nods slowly, and my grin widens.
This is going to be exciting!
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Trew
Trew sat down at the small table near the couch. Cooper sat on the small bed directly beside Trew; the room was small.
“I can’t stay long,” the old man said, “and I’m not entirely certain if I’m here too soon or not.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I think we’re close enough that it doesn’t matter if the timing is off by a little bit; it’s not an exact science, anyway.”
“What isn’t?” Trew asked.
“The whole game,” the old man answered, “but I’m rambling, and it doesn’t really matter.”
“I’ve seen you before,” Trew said.
“Really?” the old man’s bushy white eyebrows shot up curiously. “I don’t remember that. When did we meet?”
“We didn’t meet. I watched the video history of Brandon’s life.”
The old man frowns and he looks towards the ceiling, lost in thought for a moment. Then he nods and snaps his fingers. He points at Trew with the memory solidly in his mind. “When he was an owl, right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“That seems like so long ago.” He nodded at the memory. “The kid has been busy since then, hasn’t he?”
“Yes, he has.”
“Okay,” the old man slapped his knee and his gloves chimed with a distinct sing-song sound. “Let’s get this show on the road. I have places to be. Wish I could spend more time with you, Trew, but that will have to wait for later. I have two messages to relay to you, then I must be off.”
“What are they?” Trew asked.
“Number one,” the old man held up a finger. “I am confirming that you are absolutely, ninety-five percent, on the right track.”
“Why only ninety-five percent?”
The old man chuckled. “Because nothing is one hundred percent guaranteed,” he said. “Ask the General or Thorn about that. They both made extensive plans and played the long game, only to have everything they’d worked so hard for turn to failure in the final hours. There’s a good lesson to be learned from their experiences, Trew. You can do everything right and still lose the game.”
“You can also learn from your losses and try to do better in the next play,” Trew said.
“Spoken like a true player!” the old man exclaimed. “I love your way of looking at things. What if this is your last play, though?”
“I can’t play any differently,” Trew said. “To become suddenly cautious would be to ignore everything I’ve ever learned and reduce my chances of winning when it was most important to do so.”
The old man closed his eyes and smiled. “You’re like a refreshing glass of cold water after walking in the dessert for a week without a drop to drink,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter what I think or do,” Trew said. “I’m just an NPC.”
The old man’s smile faded and his eyes shot open quickly. “So what?” he asked.
“I’m nothing more than a computer generated life form, and so is everything and everyone on this planet.”
The old man shook his head from side to side and made a face as if he’d just eaten a bowl of lemons. “Of course you’re an NPC; you live in a computer simulation, boy. What does that have to do with anything? You make it sound as if you don’t exist simply because you’re made from energy and code.”
“That’s exactly what it means.”
“Perhaps I came here to talk to you about this, then,” he looked at Cooper and smiled. “Cooper? Where you come from, are you made from code and energy?”
Cooper started to shake his head negatively but he stopped and considered the question fully. Finally he nodded. “Yeah, I guess when you put it that way, I am made from code and energy.”
“No, he’s not,” Trew said. “He’s made from living, organic cells.”
“Which are built from code contained in the protein strands that exist in his cells,” the old man said. “If he has n
o
energy,
then he dies. I don’t see any difference between Cooper and you, Trew. Reality is subjective. The truth is that Cooper might even be digital but the programmers that built his world made the code look more organic than yours.”
“We look organic,” Trew corrected him. “There’s no way for us to tell that we aren’t anything except real living creatures.”
“There you go, then,” the old man nodded. “You are real, living creatures.”
“But...”
“No.” The old man made a chopping motion with his hand.
“There must be...” Trew tried to object.
“Stop it.” The old man shook his head. “You’re as real as any life form on any planet in any simulation in any universe. If you don’t see that, then look at it a different way until you do.” He fixed Trew with an intense stare as if daring him to disagree.
Trew thought about it and then nodded slowly. “Okay,” he admitted. “You do make a convincing argument.”
“Good.” The old man held up his hands again. “Back to my messages, then. Number one: You’re on the right track.”
“Ninety-five percent certain,” Trew said.
“Exactly,” the old man winked. “And number two: Tune in to Melissa’s channel and do not take your eyes off of her until it’s time to.”
“How will I know when it’s time to take my eyes off of her?”
The old man’s eyes sparkled. “You will know, Trew. Until that moment, keep your focus solely on her.”
“And after that?”
“After that, you get good and ready for all hell to break loose.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Carl
I hear her enter the room and almost move. It’s been a while since anyone has crept in, but I remember her threat, and regain control of myself to avoid giving away that I know she’s here.
I breathe evenly, as if I’m still asleep; it’s an old habit and takes no real effort. Instead, my mind focuses on listening to her for any signs that she’ll attack.
Minutes pass and my gut tells me she won’t make a move. Pity.
“I thought after all these years apart you might try to put me down,” I growl without moving. I hear a slight shift in her breathing, indicating that I’ve startled her slightly. Good; she thought I was sleeping.
“How long have you known I was here?” she asks.
“Since you stepped near my room,” I roll over and look at her.
“I’ve stood in this exact spot many times over the years,” Danni says.
I nod. “Twenty-one times, to be exact.”
Her mouth twitches slightly as she struggles not to smile. “Twenty-two, actually,” she says. “There was one time I could have surprised you, then.”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Don’t play with me when it comes to my craft, girl. There have only been twenty-one times. You’re not good enough to get past me in my own bed.”
She looks at me for a moment, then nods. “You’re right,” she admits. “There were only twenty-one.”
“If it makes you feel any better, even I wouldn’t be able to sneak in here undetected. I’ve set alarms and wards which are impossible to deactivate. If it was a normal kill, I’m sure you could have gotten in without being noticed.”
“Thanks,” her smile widens. “That does make me feel better.”
I sit up in bed and point to a chair in the corner. She nods and moves to take a seat.
“What have you been up to these past few years?” Danni asks.
“Nothing exciting,” I shrug. “Helped Stephanie take the spot from Daniel, then eliminated some of her stronger opposition. After that she didn’t need much assistance, so I’ve been rusting in a corner for the past few years.”
“I seriously doubt you’re rusty,” Danni says.
“Maybe not rusty,” I admit, “but if you rest a blade in the corner for long enough it’ll lose its edge, even if you clean it and keep the rust away.”
“Do you wish you’d remained an Infernal instead?” she asks.
I think about it for a few moments and then shake my head. “I don’t think so,” I say.
“Why not?”
“Because I would have stopped many of your plans from succeeding, which would have resulted in the world ending much sooner.”
Danni laughs lightly. “You’re confident in your abilities, Carl, I’ll give you that. The world is ending anyway; perhaps it wouldn’t matter what side you’re on.”
“Maybe,” I shrug. “I think that this reality no longer depends on the actions of the Timeless.”
“What makes you say that?” she asks.
I tap my heart and say nothing. She nods.
Danni looks at me and her features soften. I ignore it, and after a few moments she speaks. “I don’t know much about you, Carl, and I find myself wishing from time to time that I did.”
“There’s not much to know,” I say.
Her expression says that she doesn’t believe me, but she says nothing. “What do you think happens now?” she asks.
“I think things end… or they don’t.”
“You don’t sound too concerned either way.”
“I’m not,” I say. “I’ve had my fill of living. I would have died long ago, except I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not a quitter.”
Danni looks at me and nods her head. “No, you are definitely not a quitter.” She reaches behind her back and pulls out the sever spike that I used to kill her husband. Her thumb presses a switch and it hums like a hungry nest of bees responding to danger. “I could end it for you now, if you’d like?”
“Darlin’,” I grin, “letting you sink that into me would be like committing suicide. There’s no way you have the skills to take me out of the Game. There were times when I wish you did, and you’ve come a very long way in the skilled combat department, but you can’t best me.”
She turns the sever spike off and puts it away. With a sigh, she leans back and rests her feet on the edge of my bed. “Any idea how this all ends?” she asks.
“There are a number of ways it can end. Some of them I know about.”
“Any that will make me feel positive?”
“Not a single one.”
“Really? Not one single good ending?”
“They only prepare us for the worst,” I tell her. “No one worries too much about the happy endings. They tend to take care of themselves if they occur.”
“I guess that’s true.” She stands up and comes close. “I hate what you did to Trew, but you’ve spent many years doing your best to do right by me, Carl. I would still like to kill you horribly for stealing him away from me, but I owe you a thank you for saving my life; likely more times than I will know.”
She surprises me by leaning in and giving me a gentle kiss on the cheek. I don’t respond, but I can feel the electricity travel from her lips and into the very centre of my chest, spreading a warmth throughout my body that I haven’t felt in years.
Danni leans away and looks at me, scrutinizing my face for any type of reaction; I keep it cold as stone.
She giggles and pats my cheek. Seeing her smile makes me wish this moment would never end. “That’s okay, tough guy,” she says. “You can pretend it means nothing, but I know you liked it.”
She walks towards the door and stops to look at me over her shoulder. “If I don’t see you again, you take care of yourself, Carl. You’re a better man than you know. It would be good to see that man make an appearance from time to time.” She pauses and then smiles. “If a happy ending should happen to occur.”
The door closes and I continue to watch the space she just occupied. Slowly my hand touches the spot on my cheek where she kissed me. I smile slightly, and out loud I say, “Twenty-one times, Danni. Each time I saved your life, you came to my room to decide if you would kill me or not.”
Both of us knew the number.