Windsor leaned back in his office chair behind his desk, steepling his fingers. “So, what have we learned today?”
Data and I sat in his office chairs facing him, our focus contrasting his relaxed posture. Behind us, our teams filled the room, some of them looking annoyed that they didn’t have seats despite the necessity of a long conversation after what had happened.
I was sensitive to their plight, and so I attempted to sum up what he thought they had learned and what they were going to have to do. “Essentially—and I want everyone to repeat this lesson later on in this meeting, because it’s the conclusion you’re all going to come to sooner or later—you’re going to have to spend money to make money.”
Windsor frowned, but it seemed to say he was considering that I had a point. It wasn’t until he turned this expression on everyone else in the room that I realized it might have been sarcastic.
I guess I’m going to have to elaborate a bit.
I rolled my eyes. “Think about it; what’s the main problem your customers are having?”
The question had an obvious answer, but I let the silence rest to see if anyone would take the bait.
“Uh, the Screamers?” Lisa asked, but her voice sounded more sarcastic than Windsor’s expression had looked.
“But we already knew—” Shawn began, but I continued my train of thought.
“Why?”
Windsor seemed to be enjoying my little pantomime.
However, Chloe’s patience had finally worn out. “Stop it, Noah.”
I shrugged. “So, if we want to stop players from being affected by the Screamers, you’re going to have to do a recall and give out thousands of free Dream Engines. To put it simply, that’s how you solve that problem. But that’s obvious, and I’m feeling generous, so I’ll add another solution for a more pressing problem for free.”
I turned to see the rest of them looking at me with angry expressions, but I didn’t know if this was because I was keeping them standing, or if they had no idea how there could be a more pressing problem.
“You guys were there!” I raised my hands, but then suddenly realized they had no idea Malcolm had possessed Siena.
Only Data looked like he knew what I was talking about. “I don’t know how, but when we appeared to fight the Screamers, I noticed Siena’s user code had changed. I looked it up and saw that it was Malcolm’s.”
Windsor sat upright, placing his hands on the table. “Wait, Malcolm took over Siena’s account? How?”
“Siena told me that Malcolm gave her the Future Predicting Software. He used that as a shortcut for a copy of his A.I. to take over.”
“Crap. I was afraid of that. If he wanted to, he could create thousands of copies that could possess any player he summons to his Debug Room.” Windsor rubbed his face. “The fact that he hasn’t done it already just to spite me is the real mystery. If he did it to Siena, he could do it to anyone.”
Chloe shook her head. “I just thought she was still angry at you, though I did think it was strange that she didn’t stop when the Screamers showed up.”
Windsor continued to focus his gaze on me. “So Malcolm can now possess other character avatars by giving them the software. But I locked him in his Debug Room. How did Siena meet with him?”
I shook my head. “I figured Malcolm was following her actions, saw what happened in the Coliseum, and decided to invite her in and offer it to her so she could get back at me. It was a good plan—after all, it worked. Hundreds of players were logged out and are pissed that they lost their equipment, which, by the way, should tell you that not all of Heaven’s Coliseum should be a Tertiatier dungeon, considering they were all spectators.”
“And what’s your great solution to stopping Malcolm this time?” Data asked, as though thinking I had argued myself into a corner.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Simple. The only way to get in and out of his Debug Room is through Chaos Engines, right?” Saying this, I leaned back in my chair, imitating the relaxed posture Windsor had been in at the start of the meeting. “So just remove all the Chaos Engines. It would stop the Screamers from getting into the Dream State and causing trouble, and it would stop players from going into the Debug Room so that Malcolm can’t give them the ability he needs to possess them.”
Data’s smug expression faded as I spoke until he was looking at Windsor with raised brows himself, as though wondering why this solution hadn’t been thought of before.
“You might have to hire a few men, but it would hit two birds with one stone. You could even replace them with other monster generators.”
Windsor raised his arms. “Mass recalls and hiring new programmers? Being a multi-million-dollar company doesn’t mean I can just spend multimillions at the drop of a hat.”
I grinned back at my fellow teammates. “I hope everyone remembered my original answer to his question, because now’s the time to repeat it. And a one, and a two, and a three: you have to spend . . .” I trailed off after realizing they all had remained completely silent.
I turned back and crossed my arms. “Alright, fine, you’re all fired.”
Windsor ignored my joke and again stroked his beardless jaw. “It would solve the problem of having a repetitive job for my Overseers.” He turned his gaze to Data. “Do it.”
“I want a raise,” Data replied.
“Done. Now get out of my office.”
Data grinned and moved out of the office, his team rising to follow him. Lisa looked confused, wondering if she should follow or stay with us. After a brief internal debate, she opted to leave with Data. I assumed it was because he would now get paid more than me. I turned to my own team and watched them eye each other to see who would get Data’s chair. Luckily for Chloe, Vega and Dice were chivalrous enough to let her take it.
Windsor eyed me. “You do realize that with the Chaos Engines gone, you will have to be able to create them in order to get into the Debug Rooms?”
I nodded. “We won’t be doing anything with the Debug Room for a while. We’re set on going after the betas as soon as we get our destinations. I don’t know where these places will be, but I never really had a set destination for my trip to begin with.” I grinned at Chloe. “Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and one of those pictures will be in Scandinavia.”
“Looks like this will be the end of Cipher for a time then . . . and you just came up with a name for your team, too.” Windsor shook his head. “A pity.”
I thought about correcting him and saying that it was actually Wanda who came up with the name, but decided to keep my mouth shut. Windsor’s gaze wandered to Dice and Vega. “I guess I’ll have to distribute your services to other places. Dice, you’re to join Data’s team and work on getting rid of the Chaos Engines. Vega, you’re on leave until I have a use for you.”
Vega’s usual smile slipped from his face. “What?”
“You said yourself when you first started working here that you don’t like to spend too much time on a single game. Well, now you’ll have the time to play all the games you want until these two get back. It might then have a new challenge for you.”
“Oh, but I was really starting to enjoy it!”
“That’s the problem. Your malleability for learning different games is what makes you so valuable. I can’t have you losing that.” Windsor yawned and turned to look out the window. “There are going to be a few changes for the Wona Company soon. A new game to be made, new people to employ, new ideas to explore. After the work we put into the drones, we’re thinking about maybe getting into dream Augmented Reality next.” His gaze drifted to the window, the outside world he intended to utilize for his next project. “I’ll be sure to rehire you when we have something of note to test. Honestly, you couldn’t have picked a better time to disband.”
Disbanding . . . Is that what this is?
“Will I still have a job when I get back?” I asked.
Windsor smiled. “Get your friend Brock to accept my job proposal, and I’ll think about it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your trip to . . . Where are you going?”
“I’m still waiting on that.”
Windsor nodded. “Then tell me when you know.”
Taking this as a signal to leave, Chloe and I rose from our chairs and left the room with Dice and Vega in tow.
The elevator opened and we descended. Although Dice looked like he was heading back down to the GC, I was eager to hit my bed. Being back in my own skin again, I still felt a bit of jet lag that I wanted to sleep off.
“I hope Data doesn’t work you too hard,” I said in farewell as we came to my room.
Dice shrugged. “Considering coding is my specialty, I honestly don’t know why I was on your team to begin with.”
I made a sour face and was about to reply, but then the elevator door opened and he admitted stubbornly, “But it was fun . . . some of the time.”
The door closed. I was tempted to press the button again just so the doors would reopen and he wouldn’t have such a coy exit. But Chloe caught my eye before I could, grinned, and shook her head. I rolled my eyes and we both turned and made our way down the hall to our rooms.
Before I reached my door, I realized she was angling off toward mine. As I reached for the door, she put her hand on mine.
“I don’t want our next trip to turn out like our last one, okay?” she said.
I smiled and opened the door, stepping aside to allow her in first. “Trust me, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time, we’ll start with the micro-drones. But first we have to wait for Siena to contact us. Come on.”
What Malcolm had said was right, and I didn’t want to put it off any longer.
She smiled back and sauntered in. I followed in after her. All I had to do from then on was wait for Siena and anyone who recognized the locations we found on the laboratory monitors to post them on her forum. We didn’t have to wait long.