“You don’t understand us at all if you think we’ll miss a chance to raid Warden HQ. That asteroid’s been taunting us forever. A PVP zone but one no one has raided it before? It’s long past time we changed that.”
“And also the part where you help bring down a tyrannical regime and build a better world,” Zelda added.
“Yeah, yeah. That part too. Whatever.”
“If we’re... doing this, they’ll want to know,” Nando said to Playa, who nodded.
“Sure, sure.”
Nando’s eyes went distant a moment. Navigating some menu, no doubt.
“What’s he doing?” Zelda asked, stepping forward, then turned to face Nando directly. “What are you doing?”
“It’s all cool,” PlayaSlaya said. “Hey, so, uh, this has been fun, but I gotta run.” He nodded over his shoulder, down to the arena where three or four players were gathering, swinging their weapons and checking armor as if readying for a fight. “Gotta keep my skills sharp, you know?” PlayaSlaya said, then walked to the end of skybox.
“Nando, handle the specifics,” he said, the leaned backwards and fell out of sight.
“What the—?” Kaiden rushed to the edge of the skybox in time to see PlayaSlaya using some sort of ability to negate the fall damage. He crashed down into the arena like a meteor, then rose and strode into the center of the players waiting for him.
“That was, uh, quite an exit,” Kaiden said.
“That’s Playa for ya,” Nando said, drawing Kaiden’s attention back to the skybox. The second in command inhaled a deep breath, then shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How many different VPNs could I possibly run my connection through before logging into Nova?” he asked, mainly to himself, it seemed.
“I understand this is a lot,” Kaiden said, trying to be sympathetic. Sometimes he forgot that not everyone had spent the last few months as a sworn enemy of the Party. For many, the Party appeared to be doing a fine job, though the increasing severity of the crackdown had to be straining that goodwill.
“It’s no easy thing to turn against a group as powerful as the Party. But it’s the right thing,” Kaiden said. “Sometimes, that means it’s even harder to do.”
Nando turned his eyes to Kaiden.
“I don’t know your situation, Kaiden, but not everyone has so little to lose as you apparently do. I have a family to consider. Children to raise. If I get involved in this and it goes south, the Party could turn up at my front door.” He scowled at the thought. “I’ve seen that story before. Already lived what it’s like to lose a father for his political involvement.” There was a sadness in his voice as he spoke. A sadness that struck Kaiden as utterly, painfully honest.
“Playa’s only here because he has too much money and not enough responsibility in the real world. And I’m only here because he pays well for me to handle the details of running this place. But this plan you’ve proposed? It’s more than a game. There are real risks. Real consequences.”
“I understand that,” Kaiden said, not fighting the somberness in his tone. And why should he? It was true. “A friend of ours, Bernstein, was killed for opposing the Party. Zelda’s parents were arrested. And a good man, Merrick, gave his life to save ours. He detonated charges to cover our escape. Buried himself under hundreds of tons of concrete and rubble so we could live to fight another day. Could live to have a shot at making a difference.” Kaiden looked Nando straight in the eyes. “There are real consequences here. Real stakes. But they’re worth it. If we succeed, no one else is going to be killed for believing something different than their government. No one else is going to lose a father because of his political beliefs.”
Where did all that come from? Kaiden wondered as he finished speaking. He hadn’t planned to say it, but it’d just… happened. Had just spilled out. And yet, looking back at it, he knew it was true. Knew it was honest. It was what they were fighting for.
Nando seemed to recognize that as well. His stare lingered on Kaiden a long moment, too much going on in those eyes of his for Kaiden to figure out. Whatever the man was thinking, though, a moment later he nodded sharply.
“Maybe you do understand the stakes.”
Chapter Forty-Two
They hadn’t been on the Veritas II for long – couldn’t have been more than an hour – when the call rang in.
“Nando? What’s up?” Kaiden answered it and an image of the man materialized in the air in front him. Zelda looked up from where she’d been reading, then waved over Thorne and Titus.
“PlayaSlaya already committed us. You know we’re in,” Nando said. This time, there was less dread in his voice. Maybe even a bit of hope? “He’s confident we can do this alone, but if we’re going to do this, I say we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Well, finally someone’s speaking sense.
“What did you have in mind?” Kaiden asked, liking what he was hearing.
“Some… friends of mine have a message for you. I’m passing it along now.”
Message from [anonymous sender] received. Open?
Kaiden felt his brow furrow.
“What is this, Nando?”
“Just open it. I’ll meet you there,” he said, then ended the call.
“Okay, that was weird, right?” Kaiden said, looking around to the others. “Anyone else think that was weird?”
“Open the message,” Zelda said, leaning forward in her seat.
Kaiden selected ‘open’ and several lines of text appeared in his vision. He projected them in front of him so everyone could read them.
Message from [anonymous sender]
Kaiden, Zelda, Titus, and Thorne,
I’ve heard you four are an ambitious bunch. The organization I represent is very interested in ambitious players. Especially those clever enough to achieve a world first and daring enough to attempt the impossible. We’d like to meet. Tomorrow.
Attached to the bottom of the message was a link with some coordinates.
“Okay, now
