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I HAD TO ADMIT, talking with the higher-ups left me with more questions than answers. All the measures they discussed looked more like moves of desperation than well-thought-out actions. Putting a bounty on Thumor-Anhu La-Fin and his daughter, spontaneously deciding to sell platinum for millions of crystals through an unvetted Geckho captain, refusing to study the Dark Faction vehicle in favor of more advanced alien designs and betting on buying weaponry rather than producing it ourselves — it just didn’t come together as a coherent plan.
I was forming the impression that the leadership was just bewildered and didn’t know how to get our faction back on track. Still though, they understood that changes were vitally necessary. The recent battle with the Dark Faction showed just how shaky our positions were and underlined our lack of resources and manpower. Sure, the faction got lucky, and we managed to keep the Eastern Swamp node but, without oil production, its swampy infertile land had no real use. As far as I understood, it was not going to be easy to get our oil extraction and refining facilities back online. After all, the faction had already spent a good chunk of our limited funds on replacement parts. And they were talking about having that transported via Geckho ferry, so there probably wasn’t enough gas for the Peresvets to do it. Maybe our vehicles were even seriously damaged and needed repair.
Overall, I was in a state of deep contemplation, even though my particular mission didn’t seem all that challenging. Captain Uraz Tukhsh would clearly be interested in reselling the platinum, I had no doubt about that. And starships came through the forcefield tunnel in the pirate station all the time, so getting data on a couple of them on my Prospector Scanner would be easy-peasy. I would just have to warn the Shiamiru crew to turn off our electronics first.
I was in such a deep state of thought I didn’t even notice it had grown dark under the Dome. Only the night lighting was still on. A street sweeper drove down an empty park path in the distance. First, my friends led me to the hospital building, where Anya took the brackets off my nose with a pair of tweezers and disinfected the remaining lacerations. The whole operation took two minutes at most, leaving nothing to remind me that, just three days ago, someone broke my nose.
After that, my friends and new bodyguards led me to a separate residential building concealed behind the tennis court and a thicket of trees. There were two buff guardsmen at the entrance, but our group was let inside without question. The pretty night receptionist smiled at me, displaying a row of flawless pearlescent teeth, and pointed at the elevator:
“Ah, Gerd Gnat, go up to the second floor and take the hallway to the right. Your room is the only one there. You won’t get lost.”
I thanked her for the information, then my friends took me under the arms and led me into the elevator. On the second floor, there was one short hallway to the left and another to the right, both with identical doors. I had no idea who I shared this floor with. Possibly, the other room was just empty.
My brand-new Dome debit card also opened the front door of my apartment. The light automatically turned on as soon as we entered, and I couldn’t hold back a whistle of surprise. This was a far cry from the spartan chamber I was originally stuck in with three other expelled students. Ornate furniture, expensive rugs, crystal chandeliers and stucco ceilings... everything around simply screamed luxury. What was more, there was an electric wheelchair and crutches at the door. That level of attention to detail deserved its own thanks!
“Breakfast lunch and dinner can be ordered directly to your room,” said the receptionist, who had come up the stairs instead of going up the elevator with the rest. And now, she was showing me around.
What a cool bathroom. The main room had a touch-screen on the wall where I could order whatever I wanted. The bar was stocked with all kinds of alcohol. The in-wall fridge next to it was pretty well filled, too. The bedroom had a bed big enough for ten. There were lots of electronics from a media center and gaming setup to a huge television that took up nearly a whole wall. Overall, I liked my new digs a lot.
The night receptionist drew my attention again and said:
“My name is Yana, by the way. The lady who works day shift is also named Yana, so it’s easy to remember. Gerd Gnat, we need your friends list by tomorrow morning to give to the guards. This is a secure building and we won’t let in anyone if they’re not on it. You can open and close the window blinds with this remote. You’ll find new sheets in that cabinet, and you can throw your dirty clothes in that basket. If you need anything else, call any time from the touch-screen.”
As soon as the door closed behind Yana, my friends also said goodbye. But why? I was hoping we could sit all together and talk about the game and stuff, maybe even take a peek at the bar and celebrate my housewarming...
Imran just threw up his arms at all my attempts to dissuade him:
“Sorry, Gnat. I don’t drink. And I’d love to sit and hang out, but it’s already two AM, and Anya and I have second shift in the Yellow Mountains, which is in four hours. Maybe we can celebrate tomorrow? Masha and the other guys could come too then.”
I thought Anya was hesitating and even thinking of staying but, in the end, she followed Imran with the excuse that it was late, and she had to work early.
“Gnat, I’m gonna sleep too,” Dmitry Zheltov apologized. “I haven’t slept for a day and a half because I spent all my downtime talking with the leadership. Tomorrow evening, I’ll come to your party if you’re ok with that.”
The door shut behind my friends and, much to my surprise, I was left alone. It was a strange feeling. Life had been bubbling up around me for the last few days. Things were happening everywhere I looked. But now, I had some time all to myself, I just didn’t know what to do with it.
I tested out the electric wheelchair. I studied the rooms and sampled the hastily made canapes. I turned on some background music just to keep me company. I started to draw a bath but looked at my leg cast and decided against it, limiting myself to a quick wash-up and change of underwear. I didn’t even have a moderate desire to sleep, despite the late hour. But what to do?
And then, as if answering my unasked question, a knock came at the door. Who had the deep night brought me? Well, no matter who it was, it would be a welcome distraction. I rolled up perkily to the front door, nearly overturning my wheelchair in a sharp pivot, and undid the lock. There was an unfamiliar lady standing in the doorway. She had a pleasant face, mascaraed eyes, slightly wavy chestnut hair that came to midway down her back, and a lithe figure. The woman was very tall, more than six foot two, and her legs were damn long. Based on her clothing, she’d just come from the tennis court. She was wearing a visor on her head, an athletic bag over her shoulder, a sleeveless vest with number 1555, short shorts, knee high socks and tennis shoes.
“Seeing those glowing blue eyes, I’m guessing I found the right door. You must be Gnat. I mean Kirill,” the stranger said instead of greeting me and, without asking permission, she walked around my wheelchair and into the room. “Well, well! I guess high-profile players live pretty well in our faction. Pretty damn well! When I become a Gerd, I’ll have to insist on a room no worse than this. By the way, in case you didn’t know, I’m Lydia Vertyachikh, the official faction Journalist.”
I had already guessed as much, but her introduction finally removed my last shreds of doubt. Lydia tossed off her shoes, fell back exhausted in an armchair and stretched her legs.
“I just got back from our recently-started fort in Karelia. Ten miles on foot each way, because there’s no vehicle transport to Karelia right now. And though I got some awesome material, you can’t even imagine how sick and tired I am! Today was endless! And as soon as I got out of the virt pod, I was called by leadership with an urgent mission to interview Gerd Gnat! Sure, if I was still in the game and leveling my Journalist skill or leveling my character, but in the real world... I’ll admit, I wanted to tell them to go to hell and just get some shut-eye. And if it was anyone other than you, I would’ve done just that. But you’re impossible to pin down. You can’t be found in the game, and it’s hard to catch you under the Dome as well...”
Lydia finished her exasperated speech, crossed her legs and scanned the room. The journalist’s eyes stopped on the mini-bar and refrigerator.
“A vermouth with ice and orange juice, plus a snack like a fruit or pastry and I’ll come to...” the lady said, sharply going silent and looking skeptically at my wheelchair and leg cast. “Alright, I’ll get it myself. And I can pour you something too, Gnat. What do you say? But before we start, I’d like to take a shower. I was urgently forced into the game today from the tennis court, and I can smell the sweat on me.”
So, I guess I wasn’t wrong about her sport of choice. I pointed Lydia to the bathroom door and promised to pour the wine and cut the fruit while she cleaned up. She kept me waiting a long time, forty minutes. If not for the sound of falling water and the occasional bout of singing from the bathroom, I’d have thought Lydia fell asleep in there. Finally, the door opened, and my new acquaintance came out wearing a pair of warm slippers, a bathrobe and a towel around her head like a turban.
“Wow, I feel amazing! It’s like I was born again! On the way to your door, I could barely crawl. Every muscle was aching.”
“I know the feeling,” I chuckled. “After my first day in the game, I was practically walking on all fours.”
“Oh! You already set the table! Then I suggest we hold the interview over a late dinner. And first let me give a toast — to new friends!”
We had a drink, then Lydia took a notepad, pen and voice recorder out of her bag. She opened the pad, wrote the date then started thinking and... set the pen aside.
“Gnat, I have to admit, I really don’t have any incentive to ask questions here in the real world. I don’t get anything out of it and, if it weren’t for a direct order from above, I’d have set all these questions aside until we met in the game. But you, on the other hand, need this to publicize your achievements and improve your reputation... So, I propose we play a little game. We’ll flip a coin. If it’s heads, I ask a question and you answer. If it’s tails... tails... what can I think up to keep you hooked? Hm, let’s say I remove one article of clothing!”
What?! My brows shot up in surprise. I’d been interviewed a few times before, but never under such unusual and intriguing circumstances. Then, before I managed to agree or refuse, Lydia clarified:
“We’ll flip the coin ten times, no more. I’m wearing five pieces of clothing now including this towel on my head, so I could easily run out of clothes before we’re out of tosses. Well, we’re both adults, so I think we’ll have an easy time figuring out what to do if it comes to that. Everything seems fair to me. I might get an interesting ten-question interview out of this, but we might also find a way to pass the time more pleasantly.”
* * *
BY SIX IN THE morning, our second bottle of vermouth was finished. All the juice and even a large box of liquor-filled chocolate candies, which I’d ordered from my touchscreen at three in the morning for urgent delivery, were also gone. The coin tosses stood four to four, and Lydia was blushing and giggling, sitting on my lap in just a pair of thin lacy underwear. The voice recorder and notebook had already been back in her bag for a while, however, the interview was surprisingly still ongoing. She was just asking me about Gnat’s adventures and carefully listening. The half-naked woman was not drunk at all and was in complete control of her faculties, even though she was consuming just as much as me. Clearly, she had plenty of experience partying in college. Also, she wasn’t exactly diminutive, so it probably took more to get her drunk than me.
“Hey now, don’t be naughty! Otherwise I’ll go back and sit on the couch! Win another coin toss or two, maybe then you can feel me up!” Lydia said, slapping my wandering hands as they reached for her breasts, which were heaving at eye level. “Don’t get it wrong. I’m a free spirit, not a slut!”
This was Lydia’s favorite topic, and she had already enlightened me on the difference more than once. According to her, being a free spirit was very useful for a journalist. It allowed her to feel comfortable in any environment. And so, the fact that she was sitting in a man’s room half-naked on his lap in the middle of the night didn’t seem the least bit shameful, because she wanted me to open up and speak my heart. But she still wasn’t going to let me cross a certain line.
All that was interesting and even looked authentic... but a few hours ago, after yet another toast to friendship, I accidentally met gazes with Lydia and read her thoughts, so I knew she was not against getting more intimate. It was actually why she’d come to my room. I also found out that this clever lady had two identical-looking trick coins in her bag, gifted to her by Antipov. One of them always fell tails up, and the other heads.
Naturally, this did not seem like a love story, just pure naked calculation. While carrying out a mission from faction leadership, the Journalist was also making a play for the vacant position of a freshly minted Gerd’s girlfriend. She figured that would boost her Fame in the video game and have significant material benefit in the real world. In return then, Gnat would get a whole series of glowing reports about his achievements and a fully loyal Journalist, who could help smooth over the faction’s negative opinion of him. Also the leadership, and more specifically Aleksandr Antipov, wanted us to date. He figured it would cement Gnat’s connection to the H3 Faction.
I had to admit, that made me very sad. After all, it was one thing to like a woman, try and find ways of spending time with her, pore over every little thing after dates... and another thing entirely to know her thoughts in advance. Totally different emotions. Also, I didn’t sense Lydia having any warm feelings toward me and didn’t see her as having the right qualities to make a steady girlfriend. But of course, I wasn’t going to tell her to leave, either. In any case, I was not some monk upholding a vow of celibacy, and I had never before refused good sex with a pretty woman. So for now, my goals and those of my faction aligned, and I was willing to play along.
“Let’s toss the coin again!” the journalist suggested, throwing the small coin into an empty shot glass, shaking it and turning it over on the table.
I didn’t even have to look to know the result. I had foreseen it. For the Journalist to bring her “big interview” to its logical conclusion and get us together once and for all, both of the next two flips would be coming up tails. And in fact, Lydia filled the room with a joyous cry:
“Tails! You’re lucky, Gnat! You wanna take off my underwear, or should I do it myself?”
Lydia, flushed red with alcohol, smiled at me with a cunning squint and looked me right in the eyes. \She really should not have done that... Now, the feeling of my hands started pulling the last piece of clothing off her seemingly endless legs was relegated to the back of my mind. I was concentrating on something else:
“Alright, the long runup is almost over, and this idiot still hasn’t guessed what I’m up to. It all actually came together brilliantly. I shouldn’t have worried. I guess I was wrong about him. He’s not a psychopath. I almost scared him off. I changed tactics just in time. I’m very lucky things didn’t go south. Although, if it really is true that Gnat hasn’t been with anyone for ten days, he’ll never tell me to leave now. Hell, he’d probably get aroused by a plastic doll! I can even feel how excited he is through his pants. We probably won’t be needing a tenth coin toss. I should make my move right now. What if he makes a wish and it’s something dumb like ‘dance naked on the table.’ He’s enough of a simpleton to do pull like that. No, I should take the bull by the horns and show Gnat how good I am in bed. Actually, should I even bother dragging him to bed? After all, his leg is broken. Might it be better right here in the wheelchair? The most important thing is that, during sex, I need to get him to agree to let me sleep over. Gnat definitely won’t say no. And in the next few days, I should build on my success a few times, then I can move in here for good. After that, I can tell the whole faction that I am Gerd Gnat’s girlfriend. My fame is sure to grow...”
“Hey, neighbor, just what is going on here?!”
A dismayed voice rang out right over my ear, tearing me rudely from my concentrated mindreading. I shuddered in fear and lost concentration. Together with that, I dropped the thin white underwear I had been pulling off my guest and gracefully twirling with the first finger of my right hand. Gerd Tamara?! What was she doing in my room?! How’d she get in? Had Lydia and I forgotten to close the door after the courier brought that chocolates?
Following Murphy’s law, the pair of underwear flew right at Tamara’s face, and the leader of the Second Legion peeled them off her shoulder using two fingers with a look of extreme disgust, then threw them right at Lydia’s face.
“You have fifteen seconds to get dressed and leave this room!” the severe paladin said with her famed bone-shaking voice. After that, she turned to her soldiers in the doorway: “Boys, this Journalist is lost, help her back to her room. If she doesn’t get dressed fast enough, just take her as she is, naked!”
Lydia Vertyachikh didn’t tempt fate and taunt the fearsome paladin. She wrapped herself in the bathrobe and somehow threw her things in her bag, then ran out barefoot. I had to admit, for some time I lost the gift of speech, so I didn’t intervene. It was just all too surreal.
But after the door closed behind Lydia and the Second Legion soldiers, and only Tamara was left in the room, I threw myself at her with reproach. Why the hell was she giving orders in my apartment?! I was an adult man, and I had the right to bring around whoever I liked whenever I wanted! And really, what was she doing here uninvited?!
I was expecting arguments, shouting and a big scene. But what came next left me completely astonished. The stern Gerd Tamara, a source of so much horror in the enemy ranks... covered her face with her hands and started bawling!
“I... don’t know what came over me! I’m sorry, Gnat, you’re right... I shouldn’t have done that... I lost control. My nerves got to me. I just got back from my night shift in Karelia, and it was hard going! There’s no fuel, no vehicles, and not enough people. Also, a giant man-eating constrictor has been attacking at night, abducting and devouring our sentries... The soldiers are losing their minds. I have to constantly be there to smooth over problems. My authority as a leader is splitting at the seams... And then, after I leave the game to relax, I notice that someone has moved into the apartment next to mine and they left the door cracked open. I couldn’t hold back and peeked in... And then I saw that vulgarity and it was like a fog came over me... A Gerd isn’t supposed to act that way! A Gerd should serve as an example to the players of his faction, envied by all... But you... you...”
Tamara started weeping even harder, wiping the abundant tears off both her cheeks. I slightly cooled my jets. I no longer wanted to strangle Tamara, but I was still very annoyed, so I had no tact:
“This looks more like the hysterics of a jealous underage idiot than genuine concern for a Gerd’s reputation. I feel like there’s a lot you aren’t saying. You ruined my night. I’m very mad at you and have the right to know why you did it! Come closer and look me in the eyes!”
The girl turned her head in fear and refused. But when I raised my voice in anger and even, unable to hold back, shouted rudely, Tamara turned and ran out of my room. What a bad kid! Angry as a devil, I rolled over to my front door and, standing up, picked up the crutches leaning next to it.
Oh, fu...! The sharp pain nearly made me fall when I put too much weight on my right leg. Colorful circles started dancing before my eyes. My mouth filled with the salty taste of blood from my bit-through lower lip. I readjusted the crutches, went out into the corridor and saw the two Second Legion soldiers Tamara had given me as bodyguards. Both of them looked plainly bewildered and stared inquisitively at me in hopes of getting some kind of explanation of what just happened. Clearly, the panicked exits of the Journalist, then the leader of their legion had the soldiers confused.
“I’ve had it up to here with those girls. They were catfighting in my room now... Help me get to my virt pod, I won’t be able to get to the fourteenth floor with a broken leg otherwise. I’m not gonna fall asleep right now anyway, so let me at least get some work done...”
The walk to corncob number fifteen and subsequent climb up it somehow passed by my conscious mind. I was still full of feelings, turning over the recent events in my head again and again and cursing my poorly behaved floormate. Also, my broken leg was in ferocious pain. I could barely hold back a howl. Finally, my kernel!
I thanked the Second Legion soldiers for their help, left the crutches on the floor, then got into my virt pod and closed the lid. I needed to get into the game right away! To the calm and predictable Geckho, to the starships and voyages to the distant cosmos. The real world and its people were driving me crazy!
But this was not my lucky day. I loaded up the game and immediately recognized the room I’d recently exited from. The hangar was a huge dim space. The only light was the dull pulsing forcefield at the far wall dividing this bay from the vertical shaft of the space station. I took a closer look. I was soon left with no doubt that this was that very same hangar I had been in before, watching starships through the forcefield. But the Shiamiru was nowhere to be found! The Geckho had flown off without me!
