Chapter 15

“You know that Grog I stole from you? It saved my life. With my cracked ribs I would never have outrun those three.” Looking better, Heather sat up in my bed the next day while speaking to me.

“Then it was a worthwhile theft. How were you able to kill that third Orc?”

“Eh? I only killed the one. I thought you killed her.”

“Odd, I thought we needed to kill everyone to clear the dungeon.”

“Maybe the Boss is the clear condition. He might be only part of the clear condition too. Like, maybe we need 90% or more dead and the Boss.”

“Might be. It could be other things, like gather all the magic and kill the Boss. It might even be as long as you say hi to the brute, we can go.”

The medic had left an hour after Heather awoke. My guest patient was still confined to bed rest until Kate returned tomorrow. I was also given a diet for her to follow. They would deliver the groceries in an hour or two.

Our discussion was part of our post run debrief. I made a secondary account on my laptop and let her use it to log into work before she fell asleep again.

The medic had dosed her with meds before leaving. Heather protested, but even I thought she needed more sleep.

Later that night I received a call and encountered three unhappy and demanding young women on the phone, who insisted in delivering their the third degree upon me.

My attempts of redirection to their graduation date, finals preparation and GPA, were failures.

Giving in, I told them as much as I thought I would be allowed to. Leaving anything related to the PRA completely out of the conversation. That they were not taken along on my Green run incited the Trio. Taking Heather for an inexplicable reason made it worse.

When I hinted that she paid me a lot of money to do so, their ire vanished, and moaning began. They would have done the same in my place. Money was too large of a weak spot and a motivation tool that could be used against the girls. I tried to keep that card underplayed or saved for emergencies such as this.

When they discovered that I found another necklace, even before I told them what it did, they were ready to string me up. They gnashed their teeth, and vowed vengeance!

The plus 750 experience bonus silenced them.

“How much?” Jude eeked out.

“750.”

“No way,” Nat breathed.

“I was stunned too. I bet it’s a rare drop even for magic items. Like Jude’s strength Marble.” That I greedily wished I had back, for a moment or two.

I just knew that the two sets of brown eyes swiveled in accusation to her. Jude was holding the phone while all three were on speaker talking to me.

“Bitch,” Kate and Nat chorused.

“And you, don’t think you are forgiven.” Kate reiterated.

“I asked to see if you three can come with me in my next Green run, but that will not happen for a while. Probably a month or more, so keep training.”

That cheered them up. Tensions and accusations lowered, the girls recounted their nonstop after-school training, for close to two hours, until my ears bled enough from the overlapping chatter for me to hang up.

That they missed me was in little doubt. That they had each other to rely on was even less in doubt. They might have complained endlessly about their training, but I never received the feeling that they would give it up.

Kate was learning EMT medicine, Jude was learning scouting and gaining experience in her dual wield daggers, and Nat was learning how to shoot and how to fight with her staff. Plus all three were getting a hefty dose of exercise, proper eating and general small squad tactics provided by UE, their new employer.

All three complained, at one time or another, that they were gaining weight. They also complained about the group that they were forced to zombie hunt with. Apparently the three rented newcomers were all close combat types and assholes. No reason was given for the girls’ dislike, but they didn’t like their latest temporary teammates at all.

Tuesday morning, Kate returned with her two watchers and gave me a shot of healing before emptying the rest of her Mana into Heather.

My forced-upon guest drove to work after her troops left, reminding me to stop by the office to drop off the rest of the machetes and write up my report. I had let Paula know I would be taking this week off too and that I was fine from my latest dungeon run. She was worried over the time missed. I even explained beforehand that the Gate I was going in was a five-day trip. Not that it made her less concerned.

Throwing on my suit, the required outfit of the Alphabet soup of American governmental agencies everywhere (white shirt, tie and dress pants being the other), I discovered that I had an office with a door and a phone that did not receive calls from the outside world.

A staffer led me to a secured room to deposit the extra Orc weapons, before showing me to my appointment with the branch manager.

The man’s attitude screamed, ‘Bean Counter’, even before he introduced himself.

I sat through the meeting nodding and agreeing when appropriate, while he spoke at length, mostly in regards of how important the rules were which always needed to be followed.

“I will do my best, Mr. White. I was told that you would provide me with a code that would let me check on the status of the available rifts?”

Pursing his broad face, “I don’t know what good it will do, but yes, I have the code assigned to you. Make sure you complete your follow up report for any Portal you do enter.”

“I shall. Ms. Oranisk made that part of my job crystal clear.” I had only discovered Heather’s last name last night.

“See that you do,” were his parting, overly-formal, words.

Seeing how often I was summoned to the PRA main office, I didn’t know how long they planned on keeping my association with them a secret. Maybe they didn’t. Or maybe they wanted to hide me amongst the rest of the alphabet soup agencies. The thirty-story office building, shared its floors amongst countless other police-like agencies. Everything from the US Marshalls, the FBI, CIA, PTA, Federal Courts and who knew who else.

Maybe her intent was to let anyone that was interested believe I contracted out my programming expertise, as my cover suggested. I doubted that would hold water though. Heather’s follow-through with her promises to me, I felt was quite lacking.

Checking my code to see if it worked, I started reserving five of the scattered unexplored Violet Gates for tomorrow.

The Army and National Guard MPs were responsible for guarding Illinois Gates. Seen in pairs of two nearby each, they were widely reported standing four-hour shifts before swapping to a new Gate in which they had time to eat lunch then moving to their next location for their second shift.

As much as it felt strange to me, I was required to approach the MP check point, present my ID and then enter the Gate, all masked. I felt like a burglar mocking the cops before I went inside to rob the house they were guarding. I wasn’t even required to say anything. My ID was just a serial number with a phone number if anyone got too inquisitive.

Mr. White was good at his job, the MPs knew I was coming and didn’t ask any questions.

I cleared out five Violets that day. Most of my time was spent driving between the Gates, showing my ID and driving to the next one.

Ants in warrens, Giant spiders in wilderness and Giant centipedes in a light wooded area. Three of my first Dungeons were populated by the giant ants. Those, I liked the least, they were the shortest and most annoying to kill. Both the spiders and centipedes were almost three feet tall and squishy compared to the ants, who were two feet at the shoulder. The forty experience for each dungeon was annoying, but multiples could add up quickly, until I reached higher Levels.

I returned to the office in the government’s car, wrote up my five reports and headed home at three, beating most of the traffic. I decided that the green line was good enough to get to and from work when all I needed to do was check into work or for junk Gate searching.

When I finally got around to talking to Carl and Kyle, I told him that my team had been disbanded. I let him know that I would keep him in mind if anything else reared its ugly head, but I had nothing right then.

“No problem and thanks for giving us a go. Lucretia will keep looking. I just go to keep her from being too crazy.” We shook hands

He had confirmed my thoughts on their behavior.

I gave Kyle the four full hours and even sparred with him for an hour straight. He was still better than I was with staff or longsword. I kept to my Axe. I didn’t feel good enough to branch out to other weapons, even if he tried to get me to.

Maybe machetes next time. I had a hunch I would be fighting Orcs for a long time coming. (One that was as accurate as most of my other hunches through the years... Not.)

I repeated the tagging of unexplored Gates on that Friday until the third one. It was locked, meaning that someone had used it in the last ten days. I filled out the report and sent it in, via text on my second, government issued, phone. I waited for ninety-seven minutes, while someone else decided my next course of action.

There were still kinks in the system.

I was to go on to my next appointment, a higher-up in the PRA would liaise with the MPs. Traffic prevented me from getting to the fourth in time, so I returned to the office and checked out.

Hopefully others would get the same ability. Too many Gates worldwide had not been entered even once, and it had been eight months. A great many people with Weapons never, ever, wanted to enter a Gate, leaving a void in the explorations of them.

Honestly, I admitted that I missed football and this was a fun replacement. I enjoyed the rush, the danger, that playing around in the dungeons brought to me. Fighting Orcs was fun. So too were the zombies and Ghouls. The ants, spiders and centipedes were boring and annoying. There was no danger and little excitement for me. Maybe if I went into deeper levels, some enjoyment could be had, but that’s not what Heather wanted from me in those with my unique ability. In and out for the unexplored Violets and that was it.

On the way home on the Green Line, I received a call from Heather, “good news, bad news or the other good news?”

“Dealers choice.”

“I traded your Green Portal,” she had a hard time calling it a Gate, even if she did see my title’s description, “for a Blue.”

“That doesn’t sound like a fair trade.”

“You get two months on theirs and they get one on yours.” The PRA’s in all actuality now, Heather had registered it as soon as she returned to the office on Wednesday. She told me the reasons and I couldn’t really argue. Even if I still felt that it was stolen from out from under me.

Another strike against her, and her so-called promises.

“It’s in my basement,” I complained about having intruders in my house.

“You are getting an enlarged garage and a nuke shelter that happens to lead to your basement. Of cuourse, we will make sure it will be separate from the rest of your house.”

“Why don’t I just sell you my house.” Damn, that would be too much. The constant construction and people in and out would endlessly annoy me.

“I have a check on my desk for six hundred thousand for your house if you are out in twenty days,” she had my refusal planned out already.

“Sold.” My house might have been worth three-fifty, on a good day. A Very good day.

“What is the other good news?”

“That was the other good news.”

“Oh. I can see that.” I paid 265k for it a year and a half ago.

“I want to do a second run if you are up to it in the same Indigo.”

“With who and when?”

“You, me, Edna and your harem.”

“I thought they were not ready for that.”

“They are all Level 2 with their Weapons; didn’t they tell you?”

“No. It seems that they were keeping secrets.”

“Next Thursday. Their last day of school is Tuesday and Saturday is their graduation.”

“I can do that. Hold on, my stop.”

“Call me back tonight.” *Click.

Fuck it. I called my realtor who found me my house and asked for an appointment, she was on the other side of Chicago, idling in her car while waiting for her showing.

“I need a new place to live, four bedrooms, two to three baths a good-sized master suite, full basement or large storage area.”

“How much do you have to spend?”

“No more than 550,000. Oh, I have to be out of my current house in 17 days. 18 at the latest. Even if I have to live in an apartment for a few months with most everything else in storage.”

“Where?”

“Don’t care, I work occasionally downtown and the rest of the time out of my home. As long as I am within an hour of Chicago and Michigan Ave, I’m okay.”