Chapter 2

Having played "Rescue from Barbey's Island" to a sexual conclusion with Cassie, Andy's girlfriend, Mr. Marcus is beset with self-anger at his actions. And what about Andy, Cassie and the insidious Keiko? They're all still at large.

Andy left messages on my machine but I never called him back. I was totally embarrassed that I'd had sex with his girlfriend. More then once. All night, in fact. With and without the Save Barbey video game. Cassie had been insatiable with an infinite appetite. I had been consumed.But the weekend was over, we'd put Andy's apartment back the way we found it, aired it out as best we could and went our separate ways. For a change on Monday, I put my brain to work. I was trying to get my mind around the massive software conversion necessitated by our company's licensing of a workflow package. Every one of our systems, commercial or homebrew, had to interface with the beast.

A mental light bulb went on, how to make the process easier. The rash ring of my phone popped the fragile image in my mind. Shit! The caller ID said "Cellular Number". The quicker I dealt with this intruder, the faster I could get back to work. "Hello?"

"Mr. Marcus?"

There was some dialect in play. "That's me. Who's this?"

"Keiko Nakamora."

The infamous Keiko. Boyfriend stealer. "Yes?"

"We need to talk."

"About what?" How she pulled the rug out from Cassie and seduced Andy? "I'm kind of busy right now."

"We have unfinished business."

"We've never started business. Nice talking with you." I pulled the receiver from my ear. Keiko stammered. "I know you and Cassie played the Barbey game."

I played dumb. "Never heard of it."

"I have proof. The cartridge captured your character, named Harvey."

So much for privacy. I thought the console held the characters, not the game carts. Andy's Wii would have a character named Harvey, damn it. One thing we didn't clean up. "Yeah, we played it. So what?"

"I need you sign a non disclosure."

"Fine. Fax it to me." And let me get back to work.

"In person only. You're trying to avoid me. Are you scared?"

Me? "Nope." What harm could it do? Agreeing will get her off my back. "Okay, I'll meet you. Starbucks on Main?" Or the one a block south. Or the one a block east.

"Meet me at Buff Toner's Workout Emporium tonight. Seven P. M..."

Evidently she was used to getting her way. "I'll be there." To sign the damn paperwork.

The call ended. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, simplified system interfaces. I began a sketch of a generic protocol. I hadn't finished two boxes and a connecting arrow when another phone call came in, this one with no caller id. Tashun with another project involving his niece, Reese? "Hello, Marcus speaking."

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were avoiding me." It was Andy.

Shit! "No, of course not. So how's work?"

"Great! Way cool customers with radical projects that push my limits. Remember those concepts and techniques we used to discuss over dinner? Well, I'm using them on a daily basis. I should probably be sharing some of my salary with you. Not!"

I'd shared his girl friend, why not his source of income? "Glad it's come in handy."

"Is Harriett still gunning to be Queen of the Air Miles? You free tonight?"

No way could I sit across a table from him, not after what I did. Besides, I had a date with Keiko. "Afraid not. I up to my neck in conversions-" which was true "- and I'm doing more with photography-" which had nothing to do with my availability for dinner.

"Really? You set up an online portfolio yet?"

The idea of posting nude pix of Vonna and the others was an erotic jolt but never to be. "Nah. My stuff's not that good." And borderline illegal.

"You'll have to show me, then. Hey, do you remember Cassie?"

"Sure. Why?" Did she tell you I fucked her into unconsciousness? Twice.

"We broke up. She dumped me and I haven't the faintest idea why. I thought we had a future. It was probably the old in and out."Cassie and I had done 'the old in and out' all night after the video game. We abandoned Save Barbey after we'd achieved the game's climax. We brainstormed other scenarios to play: Alien Meets Schoolgirl, where Cassie got probed by an extraterrestrial, Mystery Customer at the Diner where Cassie the waitress got a big tip, and even Father/Daughter where Cassie put her pretend dad in his place, or rather her place. In between we played simple games like Ride 'Em Cowgirl and Hide The Sausage. We laughed and fucked all night. By daybreak, my penis was pooped. So we cuddled, the most erotic time we'd spent together and of course, my erection sprang up and Cassie pounced. She slid on top and humped herself to orgasm. I was literally drained of energy and semen.

"It wasn't east for me either, leaving and then coming back for brief visits," said Andy.

Oh, in and out of town. "Yeah, long distance relationships always struggle."

"Times like this, you search your emotions. I thought about our relationship and I came up with the weirdest feeling, like we should have ended it a long time ago."

"Really?" I got goose bumps. In the few times we'd been a threesome, neither of them had every acted any other way but devoted. "You seemed so right together."

"Yeah, but thinking about how I felt, she was so clingy and insecure. Like having sex every night would keep me happy and us together. She always thought I was cheating on her. Funny how it worked out. Now I'm dating her ex-sorority sister."

"Ex?"

"Yeah, Cassie quit the sorority right after she broke up with me. She freaked out or something. I don't know if she's still in school, even. Anyway, Keiko was there to help me cope."

Cassie had been correct in her speculation that Keiko wanted Andy for herself. Keiko had gotten her way, one way or another, with or without the Barbey video game. I shifted my concern from myself to Cassie. Was our sexual marathon the reason she 'freaked out'? Andy needed a warning about Keiko. "You know what they say about relationships on the rebound-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I've got it under control. Keiko isn't a stranger. She and I had hung out before. Like one Friday night when I was supposed to hang out with the guys, they bailed on me. Funny how they thought I'd cancelled out on them. Miscommunication, I guess."

Or Keiko calculating. I wouldn't put it past her. I'd have to be alert tonight.

Andy continued, "I went looking for Cassie at her fave bookstore but she wasn't there. But I ran into Keiko. We started talking and I found out she was big into Wii. You ever play?"

"Once." With your former girlfriend. In a horizontal position.

"We should go head to head sometime. You'll like it, and its good exercise."

"If you insist." Just not the Barbey game. "So?"

"Oh yeah, so Keiko and I went back to my place and spent all night playing sports games. Boy, is she athletic. I could barely keep up. Afterwards, she told me she knew some game developers that she modeled for them or something. She does have a nice body. Anyway, she has access to some of their prerelease stuff that would knock my socks off."

The Barbey game blew all of our clothes off. Cassie was certain Andy and Keiko had messed around that night. "Sounds intriguing. So did you and Keiko get friendly? 'Cause maybe Cassie found out, and that's the reason-"

"Oh no! I'm smarter than that. All we did was play competitive sports games. All of which she won, by the way. And I was trying. She was friendly and stuff, but I kept hands off. I mean, Cassie and I were a couple, and they were sorority sisters, so being a gentleman was the only choice. Not that I didn't notice Keiko's body while she played. Especially her tits. God they're huge."

"So you and Keiko are together now?"

"Uh huh. When Cassie blew me off, Keiko was right there to console me. It all worked out for the best cause I'm getting the hottest sex ever. She brought over this video game she promised would take my mind off Cassie. She was right! You've never seen anything like it. And it'll make a fortune when it's released."

"Maybe you shouldn't tell me the details-"

"Oh no, its fine. You and me, we've shared personal stuff before. I have to tell you how it started. The game is called Barbey Island, or something like that."

I withheld my opinion of the Rescue Barbey game. Andy droned on, giving me the details of a game with which I was intimately familiar. His former girlfriend and I had become masters.

Andy kept talking. "And there's all these crazy puzzles you have to solve-"

I tried to sound interested but it was difficult. A pattern of 'uh huh's' and 'oh wow's' hopefully kept Andy from figuring out that I was ahead of him.

"The quicksand was the toughest hazard. We finally solved it by-"

Yes, putting the oars down as a bridge.

"-shaking the trees and filling the sand with cocoanuts, then tiptoeing across."

That was a solution we hadn't found. Perhaps there were more secrets still buried in the code.

"Anyway, we played for hours until we won. And then there's this whole other game. A sex game, can you believe it?

I asked a question to feign interest. "Animated sex?"

"Not like those cheesy Japanese sex cartoons. We started playing it straight, just guiding the avatars. But the characters only did what we did. So if they were going to have sex-" Andy paused.

I was obligated to finish his sentence. "Then you had to be having sex."

"Right. We both got so hot and bothered that we, well, we did it so they'd consummate. And there was a scale for the intensity of the orgasms. Like anybody measures that stuff."

The original sex research of Masters and Johnson was not from video game sessions but experiments with volunteers, fucking with probes stuck all over their bodies. I would have been distracted. At least, a little. "If it's measurable, someone has measured it."

"But fucking Keiko, I discovered her secret."

Now he had my attention. "What's that?" She's a cheat and a thief?

"She's borderline violent during sex. At a couple of points, I was afraid she was going to beat the daylights out of me. Literally."

"Really?"

"When I refused to get physical back - even playful slaps and pinches - she got really pissed. She wanted a spanking, but I wanted an orgasm from our genitals."

Wow! "And you think you can have a long term relationship with this woman?"

"Hell, no. Nothing like what I'd planned with Cassie. But the sex can't be beat. With Cassie, she was very interested, but let me do all the work, you know? It was like she wanted sex but was embarrassed to have sexual feelings."

Cassie had told me she enjoyed having sex every night. And with me, she'd been a tiger, active and involved. Each time. Every time. Maybe sex with me was better than sex with Andy. "Some women are like that. I guess."

"I'll take advantage of Keiko, as long as it doesn't threaten my health. Besides, I'm only here a couple of days at a time before I have to back to Raleigh. Plenty of time to rest up and recuperate for another round. I'd love to show you the game but Keiko had me sign a non-disclosure. The developer doesn't want to get ripped off."

There had been no non-disclosure when Keiko left the game for Andy in the first place. "That's all right. You gave me a good idea how it works." Andy should have known that telling me the details violated the NDA. Details I already knew from experience.

I felt sorry for getting between Andy and Cassie. Who knows if they would have made it given Andy's traveling? But they deserved a chance. How did Keiko get the game back, anyway? Did Cassie leave it when we departed Andy's apartment, after cleaning up our bodily fluids?

"So I'm leaving tomorrow, and Keiko is busy training tonight. Want to get a bite?"

Should I tell him I had an appointment to see Keiko? I hope she doesn't bite or at least had her rabies shots. "I've got plans."

"Too bad. Catch you next time?"

"Sure thing." Why would Keiko abandon Andy on his last night in town to see me?

I promised myself to steer clear of any physical confrontations with Keiko. She sounded dangerous if not fatal.

I arrived at Buff Toner's Workout Emporium on time in jeans and a golf shirt. No need to make a bad impression. I'd wanted to see the inside of the place without paying the exorbitant membership fee. One of the staff, a blonde in spandex with good muscle tone wired up with an earpiece called for Keiko's location. "The sparring room."

Blondie swiped a plastic card to unlock the door. Inside a woman was beating the shit out of a full-length punching bag. With her foot. I half expected the inanimate piece of equipment to holler for mercy. A full-sized ring occupied the far end of the room. Either it was a slow time or Keiko had an exclusive on the space.

Without missing a beat she whirled around and assumed an attack stance, arms raised. Given her demeanor, it wasn't a defensive position. She relaxed her arms and smiled. "Mr. Marcus. Nice to meet you. May I call you Harvey?"

My eyes dropped to her chest. God she had quite a pair evident under two layers of sweaty cotton.

"You have the papers?" This woman was capable of significant violence. I wanted that locked door between us.

"I have them in my locker safe and sound. First I wanted to thank you for your help. If you hadn't had sex with Cassie, she never would have felt guilty, which caused her to leave Andy. And now he's mine."

"Who said we had sex?" She had no proof.

"Nothing else would explain the biological readings the game captured. Values that high were impossible from any simulation."

Time to change the subject. "Look who's talking about values. Sending Andy that provocative game, to seduce him. And then sinking your hooks into him when his girlfriend get distraught."

"Okay, have it your way. You didn't do the nasty. Let's just say the developers are curious."

"About what?"

"How you won the game. They designed the beta so it couldn't be beaten, but you and Cassie did it."

"One word. Practice. Andy told me you two won, so it isn't impossible after all."

"Except I cheated. Inside information from the developers. You played it enough times to get better. The one they can't figure out was that game near the end. Not the last one where you had good scores. They're interested in the game where you blew the lid off the readings. The log showed that you skipped all of the hazards and directly entered the bonus round."