The wind from the propellers swayed the grass around our ankles as the large Wona helicopter landed on the open patch of grass in the center of Pousada Lautem. We waited at the back of the reception room, having dropped off Barky with Riccardo as soon as we arrived. None of the military or Sonics personnel showed up to intercept us, but after everything we had been through, I thought it was about time we had some good luck.
The pilot didn’t speak a word to any of us, only gestured for us to get in as soon as he had landed. He must have been told to only pick up five young people, for as soon as we jumped in, he took off again. As Brock got in behind Keri and slammed the door closed, I caught the grin on David’s face.
“What a smooth exit,” he said, but then gripped the seat in panic as we ascended.
Chloe rolled her eyes at him and shifted to rest her carry bag on her knees. With all five of us in there, it was a tight squeeze.
I looked to the others. Keri was still being silent but didn’t look as solemn as she had been, clearly having gotten out what she needed to say. For all I knew, she was more annoyed by having to throw away the majority of the clothes she had packed than the discussion we’d had last night. The helicopter could only carry so much weight. Chloe seemed unbothered by having to leave her bag behind and looked eager to be on her way as well. We had our next clue and nothing was going to stop her from following up on it.
How though? Is there some way we could copy the pictures in the footage we took and find their locations online? How far would they even get us?
We touched down at the airport and booked the earliest flight back home that we could get. While waiting for our boarding at the terminal gate, I brought up my concerns to Chloe.
“This is going to be hard to admit, but I think we should rip this Band-Aid off now rather than later. The photos we found on those servers might end up being a dead end.”
She gripped her seat, suddenly on edge. “What are you talking about? The server said ‘we are here,’ and the clues we found . . . Well, what else could that mean?”
I rubbed my face. “No, Chloe, what I mean is that, even with those photos, we don’t actually have the locations we need to find the Screamers. We’ll need addresses. Heck, we don’t even know what countries the pictures were taken in.”
Her jaw tightened and she shook her head. “No. I won’t believe we went through all of that for nothing. We’ll just have to pool our resources when we get back. Surely someone would recognize the areas in those pictures!”
“Who do you suggest?”
“I don’t know!” she burst out. “Someone who works with databases, maps, or forums. Someone like Data or Dice—heck, Siena might be able to help us!”
“Siena?” I asked skeptically.
“She knows gamers from all over the place, plus she can hack, so . . .”
Chloe sounded like she was grasping at straws, but the reverence with which she had said Siena’s name brought back the many times she had surprised me in the past. Siena was a very resourceful girl.
If I was told to list off the people I thought most likely to find the locations of some random photos, Siena would be at the top of that list.
Then I remembered our upcoming match. As had been my intention when we fought last time, my goal was to lose to Siena. Having been so engrossed in finding the betas, last time my emotions had gotten the best of me. This time, however, Brock’s argument that she might need to win to prevent her insomnia had given me more of a reason to follow through. Even what Keri had said about the strain of supporting Chloe made me feel a little guilty about trying to put that on her.
Not everyone can share my priorities, no matter how desperate I think they are, especially when they have immediate problems of their own.
Our flight home was long, and this time we could only get economy seats, so the five of us spent the day in the Dream State. However, as we arrived in Heaven, we automatically noticed something was different.
“The place almost looks deserted,” Keri said.
“Full-on ghost town,” Brock agreed, then smiled and leaned over to her. “What do you think? Zombies?”
Chloe peered around. “Unlikely. Look, there are players around, just not as many of them.”
Suspicion pulsing through me at the sight of only several dozen or so avatars moving around the usually popular area of the steampunk setting, I summoned my Bird’s Eye to get a better view. From on high, I saw that the back of the floating city was a lot more crowded in comparison to the mostly vacant bridges leading to the dungeon Gateways. At first the sight didn’t make sense, but then I saw another island at the back of the city, an addition to the place I had mapped out from back to front before its grand opening.
Chloe followed me up on her own Bird’s Eye and glanced in the same direction that I was looking in. “What’s going on?”
“It seems Windsor took my advice seriously.” I pointed off in the distance. “Look, he’s already added a new Coliseum to the back of the city on a new floating island. I’m guessing that’s where everyone is.”
She grinned. “Looks popular. You might have quite a crowd for your rematch with Siena.”
I lowered my Bird’s Eye and told them what we saw. The five of us made our way over the bridges toward the new arena. Unlike the one in Galrinth, it appeared that this Coliseum didn’t need a surrounding city to buy last-minute gear and items, as the path that led to it was the same road where most of the items and equipment shops were located.
Coming to the end of the district, we looked up in amazement, seeing that not only was the Coliseum about the same size as the island that held it up, but that there was no bridge, no rope, nothing linking it the main islands. Instead, at the end of the road was a glowing Gateway that radiated a bright red.
“It’s a Tertiatier dungeon?” David exclaimed in horror. “He made Heaven’s Coliseum a Tertiatier dungeon? Is he mad?”
Brock shook his head. “More like a genius.”
I nodded in agreement. “It’s no wonder this place is more popular. Windsor just introduced an aspect of gambling to his game, where players risk losing their most valuable items but also afford to gain their opponent’s stronger items as well.”
Chloe didn’t comment. She simply stepped up to the Gateway and walked through. We followed after her, appearing in a lobby designed to look like the surrounding amphitheater of a steampunk racing track. I moved over to the screens above the desk, squinting to see either Siena’s name or mine. Neither of us were on there. I walked over to one of the interactive screens and flicked through the records but found nothing.
“They must have started clean for this one,” Chloe said, looking at it over my shoulder. “It makes sense. It wouldn’t have been fair if they just transferred over your Survival Records to here considering you didn’t risk your items the same way the people on here did.”
“It’s not just that,” I said. “If Siena isn’t on this list, it means she hasn’t competed since our match.”
Keri smiled at me from across the screen, her first smile for a long time. “She’s been waiting for you, then.”
We made our way up to the stands and watched as a Battle Royal took place. Another difference, it seemed, was that guns could be used in this Coliseum. Several of the Range fighters were pelting their enemies with bullets from across the pit.
I guess Shardik did make a good point for how pointless it was to keep such an era-specific consistency considering how fast an archer like him could fire his arrows. Then again, guns are allowed in steampunk era.
As one of the Warriors in the pit fell, I noticed how the items he dropped after he exploded weren’t picked up by any of the other players. At first I thought that the items would just be drawn toward whoever had killed them, but then I saw that there were other items on the dust from the players that had fallen previously.
“So the last one standing gets all the items from the fallen,” Brock said, sounding grim. “Really adds meaning to the saying ‘to the victor go the spoils.’”
“You can say that again,” David said, eyeing up the items. “There are a few down there that I wouldn’t mind myself.”
Keri eyed me. “Considering you’re going to lose on purpose, it would probably be smarter to fight Siena with only disposable equipment.”
“It’s not so easy as that,” I countered. “After all, I have to put on a realistic enough performance that she thinks she won fairly.”
David eyed me in amusement. “Honestly, that sounds harder than winning normally.”
Chloe winked at me. “And on top of all that, you have to recruit her to help us find the locations of the photos, remember?”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
She grinned evilly. “You didn’t have to.”