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I WAS SEEING the strong severe man in a military uniform who answered me for the first time. He had no apparent rank but I immediately guessed the mustached officer was in command of the soldiers surrounding the building.
“This so-called ‘embassy worker was detained two hours ago in Moscow in a rented apartment. The biography in his personal file didn’t add up: he has never lived in Bangladesh, never received Canadian citizenship, his documents are all fraudulent. Mr. Ahsanuddin Hussein Rahman was also nowhere to be found in the official Canadian embassy worker list, so he has no diplomatic immunity. How this guy got to Moscow, managed to legalize his migration status and enter a secure diplomatic mission unimpeded is a huge mystery. We’re working with the Canadians now to figure it all out.”
Woah! This really was a serious case if the Canadians wanted to work with us. The threat of using a biological weapon in the Russian capital was a critical situation for the whole planet and I imagined that helped them find the right words.
“We tracked him for a few days, listened to all his conversations and know for certain that when exiting the diplomatic mission, he had two capsules of the biological agent on his person. At the same time, a search of his apartment found nothing dangerous. Upon detention, Mr. Ahsanuddin Hussein Rahman resisted and somehow killed two of our men without so much as touching them. Then while in the vehicle he threatened that he could wipe out Moscow, New York, Beijing, Tokyo and several other large cities and would do so if he wasn’t released at once. I have no idea how much what he said lines up with reality. He may be bluffing. Nevertheless, considering the biohazard capsules he has hidden in an unknown location, leadership decided not to risk it and bring him right under the Dome. First of all, no wireless devices work here. Second, assuming we’ve been properly informed, you speak with people like him here under the Dome and have a better understanding of the nature of this false diplomat.”
Yes, that really was true. I and all the other players under the Dome understood perfectly what ash gray skin and glowing blue eyes meant for this “Bangladeshi-Canadian.” Obviously the man before us was a representative of the Dark Faction with magical abilities. And he was clearly not a small fry, because he could control peoples’ minds and get through guard posts with such ease.
My heart gave a painful prick and I knew exactly what it meant. The handcuffed arrestee had just tried to kill me with magic. What a bastard! And if a normal person without wizarding abilities and magical resilience were in my place? Actually, I needed to make sure the others were safe.
“Get away, he’s dangerous! Leave us alone!” I walked into the room over to the frightening arrestee and, scooting across a chair, sat opposite the enemy mage.
“Black sssunglasses, eh? Ssscared?!” asked false Ahsanuddin. And although he was speaking Russian he had a very strange accent, drawing out every hissing or shushing sound. And that was not, by the way, the usual accent of the language of the magocratic world. I suspected the arrestee could speak just fine, he was just trying to throw me off or scare me.
At any rate, his attempt to frighten the head of one of the three strongest dynasties of the magocratic world amused me.
“You La-Shin or La-Varrez?” I asked point blank in Dark Faction language, which clearly caught him off guard.
The captive mage stopped chuckling spitefully and gave me an in-depth explanation, now without any put-on accent:
“I don’t know where and when you learned our language, but you’re a dead man! I am Imeer-Toh La-Gorr from the ancient La-Gorr dynasty of mage-rulers! We are first-order vassals of Coruler Onuri-Unta La-Varrez!”
A felt another prick in my chest, telling me the enemy mage had attempted to stop my heart again. And based on the surprised and sour looked on Imeer-Toh La-Gorr’s face, this time he had put a bit more effort into it and was counting on success. Naïve... I already knew I was the much stronger mage, and his fruitless attempts couldn’t hurt me. I could easily kill him with a psionic attack, but I of course did not do so.
“I don’t care what your real name is, because you’re a dead man now no matter what you do...”
“Ha!” Imeer-Toh didn’t believe me. “When I tell you the location of the spores, you will not only release me but also apologize and pay me very handsomely! I have all your governments wrapped around my finger! And you will do everything I say!”
Come on... Despite the fact this parallel-world mage was in handcuffs, he was being flagrantly rude and even threatening. Well, I would have to take a totally different tactic with a snot-nose like him. I’d have to change to a language he was more used to, force.
“Do you think I care a whit for the governments of this world? No, you’re a dead man for a different reason, not because of the capsule of dangerous spores and not because you killed my people,” I removed my dark glasses with exaggerated ease and set them on the table. “No, you must die now because you dared to attack me — Coruler Gnat La-Fin, leader of the La-Fin Dynasty and ruler of the First Directory! Such things are not forgiven!!!”
Boy did that ever do the trick! No matter how psychologically prepared and resistant to torture the enemy agent was, centuries of obsequiousness before the heads of the great dynasties worked their magic. All the piss and vinegar instantly drained out of him. Before me now was a frightened man, whimpering in fear and with a stinking dark spot spreading out on his light-colored pants.
“Listen to me very closely, worm! You have just one hour left to live. There’s a clock on that wall, so you can see how long you’ve got left. Now I’m gonna ask you some questions. And you’re gonna answer them honestly. When you do, I will tell your master Coruler Onuri-Unta La-Varrez that Imeer-Toh La-Gorr died honorably, as a proud mage of an ancient dynasty should. But if you try to lie or hide the truth from me even one time, you’ll also die, but your master will be hearing that the La-Gorr mage shit himself in fear, betrayed him and is now working for the La-Fin dynasty. And you wouldn’t be the only one hurt by that. I know exactly how Coruler Onuri-Unta La-Varrez’s mind works. I’m sure that an hour later, there would be nothing left of House La-Gorr. Do you understand?”
Imeer-Toh his face black, looked away from the wall clock and gave a downcast nod. I turned the table on the microphone on and the interrogation began.
* * *
FORTY MINUTES LATER, I stood up, tired and headed for the exit. I’d run out of questions much earlier, and I wanted insanely to sleep. In the end, I didn’t cast any death spells. First of all, I didn’t know any. Second, there was no need. Imeer-Toh La-Gorr was so convinced he would be dying soon that he would be dying in twenty minutes without any help from me.
“You can take it from here,” I told a beefy mustached officer in the hallway. “Imeer-Toh is broken and answering questions honestly. Have you found the spore spreaders already?”
“Yes, both bombs have been found exactly where the arrestee said, and both have been disarmed.”
The mage was not bluffing. There really were bombs. And if the signal from their master didn’t come in time, a mechanism would trigger and the deadly spores would have spread through the ventilation of the Moscow metro. Potentially, that would have directly killed thousands and started the uncontrolled spread of a deadly infection.
But there were no bombs in other cities. For now. They were only in the planning phase, because the biohazard payload had not yet arrived from the game. By the way, the La-Varrez Faction had found and tested an interesting method for transporting items between the worlds. First you implant the item (hermetically sealed packets of spores in this case) into a player’s clothes. Then change faction and, when the person left a virt pod a few days later in a different world, they carried the “contraband” with them.
Chaos, death, charges of using biological weapons and harsh wars between the countries of our usual world almost inevitably using our deadliest weaponry. Why did the La-Varrez Faction want that? An explanation was teased out of the captive’s answers. As it turned out, head of the La-Varrez dynasty, great mage Onuri-Unta was firmly convinced that one of the two worlds was fated to disappear soon. I couldn’t say what foundation he was operating on, but at every speech he gave, the great mage mentioned the idea that the factions of the magically imbued world needed to control more than half of the game hexagons of the virtual planet before the end of the tong of safety. To achieve that goal, Coruler Onuri-Unta was prepared not only to invest all possible resources in developing his own game faction and dozens of vassals. But also to poison his enemies against each other, and ideally destroy the world as we knew it. There was no peaceful way of negotiating with a fanatic like that.
There was also confirmed information that six high-profile La-Fin Faction mages, and another eighty normal players with magical abilities had already declared for La-Varrez and joined their new faction. That was bad, and not only because it made the enemy much stronger. The six Gerds who once occupied the inner circle of Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin were responsible for espionage and managing spy networks. Those deserter mages knew exactly which of the Human-3 players was working for the enemy! They knew how to get in touch with them, manipulate them and lots of other secrets as well. Now that dangerous knowledge was in the hands of the La-Varrez factions, and the recent story of Anya from First Med and the spores spread under the Dome showed how serious it all was.
I turned to leave, but the officer called out to me:
“Boy, I don’t know who you are or what you said to Hussein Rahman, but it looked gruesome. I’ve never seen a person so afraid. But most importantly you managed to prevent a terror attack in the capital! As soon as that reaches my superiors, you can count on gratitude from the leadership of the country.”
“As for me, I really hope that what Kirill said was not true,” Ivan Lozovsky said, the only one there who understood Dark Faction language. “Both when he implied he didn’t care about our world, and when he said Imeer-Toh La-Gorr would die soon. Anyhow, we’ll find out int twenty minutes. In any case, Leng Gnat, I expect... no, I invite you to a meeting today at eleven in the morning. We need to decide what to do now with the Human-8 Faction now that it’s been enslaved by the enemy. As for now, they’re an uncontrollable hole into our world and a security risk for our planet.”
I left the building and, accompanied by an escort of six armed guards, headed into the residential building. Despite the abundance of new information, which required the most serious thought, I could only bring myself to think about getting some rest. However... my room was not empty! I realized that back in the corridor because the guard and loyal assistant to the leader of the Second Legion Roman Pavlovich was sitting on his stool in front of my door reading something again. Perimeter Defense. Sector Eight. I caught a glimpse of the name on the cover before he put it away. Clearly, something about securing computer networks or maybe classified facilities.
Tamara greeted her adoptive father. I wanted to simply get through, but the gloomy military man stood up and blocked my path:
“Wait, Kirill. We’ve gotta have a chat.”
And of course, I stopped. But Roman Pavlovich, pointing at the far end of the corridor, suggested I walk away from the door where Tamara could hear us. We walked over to the stairs, where he took a heavy sigh and told me:
“Last night, Tamara resigned leadership of the Second Legion. There will be elections for a new commander tomorrow. Most likely Rupor will get voted in. Although he isn’t the highest-level player, he is talented and importantly has enough authority for the guys to follow him.”
“What about you? You have higher authority than Rupor, and your level is just under a hundred.”
The heavyset man shook his head:
“No, I’m also leaving the legion. I’ll go wherever my daughter goes. Tamara is in a very bad way now. And she can’t rest. As soon as she falls asleep, she wakes up screaming. Nightmares torment her. Talk to her. Try and calm her down.”
I promised to try to help. I opened the door and entered my room. Tamara was wearing a white fluffy robe, sitting Indian style on a big soft armchair and watching a nightly news report. When I entered, she immediately turned her television off.
“You were the one who signed the peace with the Dark Faction.” Instead of a greeting she met me with reproach.
“Yes, I did. We must move forward, prepare our planet to defend against invasion, and that unnecessary war has eaten through our forces and resources.”
I sat next to her and tried to give her a hug, but Tamara twisted out of my embrace and sat further from me on the couch. Clearly, she wasn’t in the mood. Then I noticed a pile of dirty dishes on the table next to the refrigerator. Yesterday in the morning it wasn’t this messy. There was a maid who cleaned up all the rooms. Seemingly, Tamara hadn’t even gone anywhere in the last day, spending all day and night here in the room. She saw me notice the dirty dishes and said:
“I would clean up after myself, but there’s no dishwasher, or even sponge and dish soap. And Kirill, I brought all my things over here. There wasn’t a lot, not even enough to fill one bag, so it won’t get too crowded. I won’t even go into my room anymore. It’s empty and lonely there. My memories immediately shift to unpleasant things. Deathly sorrow and voices swallow me up. But the worst thing is the ghastly dreams sap all my strength. After one of those, all I want is to hang myself! So I’m staying at your place. Don’t worry, I don’t have much time left. I can sense it.”
The former leader of the Second Legion trotted out the old song and dance about her being useless after peace with the mages. She said that to her peace was equivalent to death because her own soldiers would kill her. I’d already heard this a number of times but, just like yesterday morning, I was surprised she was so certain of her own death.
“Believe me, there will be enough war with the mages to last a century, and a Paladin will always be in demand,” I tried coming at it from a different angle. “Tomorrow, or more like today, there’s a meeting in Lozovsky’s office. I was also invited, even though I’m not technically part of the Human-3 Faction anymore. I can tell you the topic already: they’re planning to attack the two nodes of the Human-8 Faction, which has been subjugated by the Dark Faction. We expect strong magical resistance, so a Paladin will come quite in handy.”
A little spark of interest was lit in Tamara’s eyes, but it went out in a second:
“They’ll manage without me... And I don’t have combat armor anymore...”
“You’re wrong about the armor!” I latched in there, because I thought it could perk her up at least a bit. “I spoke with Eduard Boyko yesterday... Well, not even that. He came to me right after the end of the negotiations with General Ui-Taka. The Space Marine offered his hard-earned exoskeleton armor for the now unprotected leader of the Second Legion. He said he’d buy himself a new one with his own money as soon as he gets to any space station with moderately acceptable prices. I am aware you are no longer leading the Second Legion, but know that you do have armor. And it’s the same model you used to have even though the options are somewhat different.”
Tamara, without answering one way or the other stood up from the sofa and walked over to the window to lower the blinds because day lighting had come on under the dome. And she spent some time standing in thought, looking at the empty space where the park had been torn up through the not fully closed blinds. Finally, she broke the silence:
“But that’s a onetime reprieve. What about after that?”
I realized she meant the forthcoming attack and use of her specific character abilities. Now I was shaking Tamara out of her many-day malaise. She was starting to talk. I tried to build on my success:
“After all, we only signed a peace with La-Fin. Just one of the three biggest forces in the Dark Faction. There’s also La-Varrez. They were behind the bio-attack here under the Dome and they were the ones who snuck a saboteur into our world. There’s also La-Shin. Little is known of them, but that enemy faction is at the Geckho spaceport now preparing their very own starship for launch.”
Tamara was listening carefully, and I was doing my best to keep her attention with all kinds of different options:
“Other than that, as leader of the Relict Faction, I have a great need for helpers that are resistant to mental control, and especially those who can protect others as well. And given you’re no longer tied to the Second Legion, I invite you to Rocky Island! Sure, you can no longer interact peacefully with the Naiads in the sea, but as a Paladin you’ll be priceless. There will be players from different factions and worlds. We’re expecting a ton of difficult questions and your ability to protect other peoples’ minds will come in very handy.”
That was seemingly not the right idea, because Tamara cringed in dismay:
“I’m a combat character, not some administrator! I need battles and danger!”
“You want more action and danger? Then talk with Princess Minn-O La-Fin! She’s the one who really needs defense against magic! Gerd Minn-O is the new head of the La-Fin Faction, but she’s a very inexperienced and weak mage. In her world, it’s not hard to find bloodsuckers a hundred times more dangerous than she is! Or I could take you with me into space. I’m gonna have a meeting with the Meleyephatians, who are known in space to be extremely powerful psionics.”
Tamara suddenly turned around sharply:
“Kirill, what did you just say? Repeat that!”
“Meleyephatians are known in...”
“No, before that,” the very agitated girl interrupted me impatiently. “Before. About your wife!”
Not understanding what had her so worked up, I repeated that Minn-O La-Fin really needed a companion who could defend her physically and against magical attacks. And that I didn’t see anyone other than Tamara for that role.
“Exactly! That’s the solution! The one I saw in my dreams! That is my path! Your wayedda will be under mortal danger in the next few days, but I can stave it off! To hell with the new armor, to hell with all the rest. That can wait. I need to enter the game right now and meet with Minn-O La-Fin! Tell me, where can I find your wayedda? It’s important!”
“Minn-O is in the spaceport now and I suspect sleeping in her cabin on the frigate, still in the game. Her legs haven’t come back since the terror attack, so Minn-O is trying to use the healing properties of the game to maximum effect and go into the real world as infrequently as possible.”
“Great! Then I’ve gotta run!” Without even changing out of her housecoat and slippers into something more appropriate, Tamara dashed for the front door. But in the doorway she stopped, turned and said: “I am definitely not planning to miss the attack on the Human-8 Faction, so I’ll see you in the game soon. But whether we’ll see each other again in the real world... I’m not sure. In any case Kirill, I want you to know that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
What was happening to Tamara? I decided I’d have to catch up to her and ask. I quickly threw my t-shirt back on, pulled on my sneakers without even tying them but... in the entryway I ran into Ivan Lozovsky, who had come into my room with a big group of people. With him was the fed Alexander Antipov, and leader of the First Legion Igor Tarasov, even that mustached outside officer with a few of his own soldiers. And the looks on all their faces were decisive and unkind.
What did they need from me? Did Imeer-Toh La-Gorr die in prison? The faction leader’s first words confirmed that:
“Kirill, hurrying somewhere? I’m afraid we’re gonna have to detain you and ask a couple questions. First of all about the sudden death of a key witness.”
I was still hoping to get rid of the badly time interrogation and catch up to Tamara, so I tried to limit myself:
“You had a whole hour to squeeze evidence out of him. Imeer-Tohh answered plausibly even to the most complicated and painful questions. But once his time was up, he killed himself. Was one hour really not enough for you? Who was stopping you from joining the interrogation earlier and asking your questions faster? And now you come complaining to me?!”
“But didn’t you kill him?!” Lozovsky shot out in a rage. “After all, you threatened the detainee with murder in exactly one hour! And you killed Lydia Vertyachikh the exact same way in the game yesterday! Kirill, you’re only a Leng in the game. You can only get away with anything there. This is the real world and you’ll have to answer for what you’ve done.”
They all looked at me and I couldn’t hold back. Giving the mountainous faction head a condescending pat on the shoulder, I said reproachfully:
“Ah, Ivan, Ivan... How long have you been in contact with the Dark Faction? Five months? Have you really not noticed yet that mages can’t kill someone they can’t see? Even the great and terrible Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin couldn’t do that, even though he was the strongest psionic of the magocratic world. By the time Imeer-Toh La-Gorr decided to shuffle off this mortal coil, I had already been in my room for ten or fifteen minutes and simply physically could not have killed him.”
“But...” the faction leader tried to object but I stopped him:
“Don’t interrupt! I hadn’t finished my thought. Did you ever think about the fact that I tried very hard not to touch him even with a finger? Imeer-Toh is a vassal of the La-Varrez dynasty, a subject of the lord of Fourth Directory Coruler Onuri-Unta La-Varrez. I am lord of the First Directory, and war with the Fourth does not enter into my plans! Especially given that now there are so many bloodsuckers coming after Thumor-Anhu’s estate! After all, all they need is the slightest excuse and they’ll fly in en masse and tear me to shreds! So I could frighten Imeer-Toh, deceive him, pressure him with my authority, but never kill him!”
I admit, that wasn’t even close to what I was thinking while I was talking to the prisoner. I thought up that explanation on the spot. But despite that, it sounded very plausible and did the trick! I could sense that based on how everyone’s face changed. Or to be more accurate, the mustached officer and his soldiers seemingly didn’t understand one bit of what was happening and were only more confused after what I said. But Alexander Antipov, Igor Tarasov and even faction head Ivan Lozovsky himself had heard everything perfectly and were now seemingly mad at themselves for accusing me. I had just a bit more to add:
“And now, if you don’t have any more questions, I need to get some rest before a very hard gaming session. My Naiads haven’t been fed yet. My starship is in repair. My wife is without magical protection. The island has to be brought up to level two and before that we need to evacuate the Germans still stranded there. My business partner is marrying the viceroy of Earth, and I need to somehow come up with seven million crystals for her dowry and fast. The prelates of Tailax are playing their own clever game and putting me forward for ruler of Earth. Then we’ve got the big construction of the planetary shield. I’ve got some tough negotiations with the Geckho coming up. Hopefully we can use their ferry to send a landing party to the nodes of the H8 Faction. And, as if I didn’t have enough other problems, there’s footage going around on galactic news channels of me performing a mating dance with a commander of the Miyelonian fleet, so the Geckho are picking on me!!!”
I had never seen such amazement on their faces before. The players of the Human-3 Faction knew so little about what I’d been up to that just running through my day-to-day tasks put them into shock! The uninvited guests, trying not to breathe unless strictly necessary, apologized for bothering me and went out into the corridor, quietly closing the door behind them.
