Lord of innis torr, p.28
Lord of Innis Torr, page 28
part #3 of Bridge Quest Series
“So you admit that you are not Felix Hubach?” Karl said with a satisfied grin. “That was his last name, the name you couldn’t remember.”
“Yes,” Kevin replied, his shoulders slumping. “I am not Felix.”
“Your real name?” Rodney ordered.
“Kevin J. Bristow.”
Rodney addressed the group. “Let the record show that the accused admits that he is Kevin J. Bristow and not Felix Hubach.”
Karl produced a small data stick and waved it in the air. “Your Honor, I have in my hand the videos of the accused and his murderous act of unplugging Caryn Allen’s life support system, given to me by the folks at ITL.” He walked over and handed the data stick to Rodney who inserted it into the drive port of the computer below the desk.
Turning the volume off, Rodney focused on the screen on his desk for several minutes before shifting a stern glare at Kevin.
“The court has seen the evidence,” he said to the group before narrowing his gaze at Kevin. “The evidence is irrefutable. You unplugged the cryogenic support to Caryn Allen, effectively terminating any possible future return to her own body. Additionally, evidence provided by individuals familiar with the situation in Winnipeg and the individual called Gerard reveal Gerard was shot execution style. Do you have anything to say in your defense? Before you do, let me remind you that it will go well with the court if you tell the truth.”
Kevin slowly shook his head, heaving a resigned heavy sigh. “No. I have nothing to say.”
“Do you admit to the evidence presented?”
Kevin paused for several heartbeats. “What does it matter? You’ve already condemned me in this kangaroo court.”
“Do you further admit to the murder of Gerard?”
Kevin rolled his eyes and his lip curled into a sneer. “The man was an insufferable ass. I couldn’t take him anymore. But this?” He turned to Karl. “You’ve outdone yourself this time and once again with a packed jury. I get it. You hate me.”
He twisted his head back to gaze at Rodney. “You used me. You used me to do your work and now you want to play like you’re some judge? Since it’s obvious you’re not going to let me stay, the least you can do is let me get back in my car and drive away, and we’ll forget this whole episode ever happened.”
Ignoring him, Rodney nodded then addressed the group. “Ladies and gentlemen, you have heard the accused admit his guilt to the death of two individuals, one called Caryn Allen and the other called Gerard, last name at the moment unknown.”
“Harris,” Kevin said. “His last name was Harris.”
“Let the record so state,” Rodney said. “Ladies and gentlemen. Your verdict?”
Maggie stepped forward. “Your Honor, the man is a murderer. He murdered one individual because he got tired of him. While I don’t know why he murdered Caryn, his actions and behavior can’t be condoned by any stretch of the imagination. The problem is that we can’t simply refuse to allow him to stay as his presence here has compromised us. He’s already shown that he can’t be trusted. What’s to say, in a fit of pique he won’t reveal our presence here? We can’t allow him to stay, nor can we allow him to leave. There is only one verdict… death.”
Kevin’s head jerked up and he glared at her.
The supportive murmuring began and quickly became unanimous. Death.
“You can’t do this,” Kevin shouted. His wild eyes searched for an escape route as the men closed in on him. As he lunged at one man, another whacked him in the head with a metal pipe, knocking him to the ground.
“Sentence to be carried out immediately,” Rodney announced when Kevin was finally subdued.
His hands tied behind him, Kevin stood on the tailgate of a pickup parked below the traffic light pole over Unicoi Turnpike in the middle of downtown, a block away from the courthouse. Burly male Pioneers stood on either side of him, clutching him by the elbows and arms, helping him stand. The hangman’s noose was around his neck with the end looped and tightened over the traffic light pole, then secured at the base.
Karl, Caryn, and Rodney and the rest of the Pioneers stood to the side, waiting. Once the preparations were finished, the man at the base of the pole nodded. Karl walked over to stand in front of Kevin and gazed up at him.
“Any last words?”
“You’re a bastard,” Kevin seethed. “I’ll see you in hell.”
“Not for a long long time,” Karl replied with a half grin then stepped away and nodded to Rodney who in turn nodded to the driver.
The two men supporting Kevin let go of his arms and jumped over the side while the driver revved the engine and popped the clutch causing it to leap forward and sending Kevin off the tailgate. Kevin twitched and jerked spasmodically, his feet mere inches from the ground.
Karl waited until the twitching stopped before muttering, “Justice… finally.”
“Go ahead and cut him down,” Rodney ordered.
“Wait a moment,” Karl said, pulling out his phone and turning it back on. “I need a pic to show them. Everyone move out of the way.”
There, in the shadowed light of the street lamps, Karl took several shots of the dead Kevin, momentarily wondering if Felix was gonna be pissed when he found out that he no longer had a body to come back to. Shoulda thought of that when he brought Gerard back.
Rodney came up to stand next to him, slipping the data stick into Karl’s hand, quietly adding, “No one else needs to know there’s nothing on this.”
“Agreed.” Karl continued staring at his dead antagonist as he placed the data stick in his pocket. “What are you going to do with him?”
“Part of me wants to leave him hanging, as a warning. But I suppose that’s rather medieval and it’s not like we get a lot of through traffic. Guess I’ll get a backhoe and find a place to dump him.” He looked over to those waiting to take the body down. “Go ahead.” He then turned to Karl. “How long you plan on staying?”
“We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Don’t see much sense in hanging around, jeopardizing your presence here.”
“You could both stay,” Rodney suggested. “We’ve a good life here.”
Karl smiled at him. “While I appreciate the offer, truth is, I like where I was.”
“In a game?” Rodney sniffed in disdain.
“I know it sounds contrived, but I’ve had more fun than I ever did in real life. And the bonus is that long after you and all your Pioneers are gone, I’ll still be having adventures.”
“But we’ll have lived a natural life, one without artificial construct. We’ll establish a new order for mankind.”
“As long as you can continue to hide,” Karl wryly pointed out. “What kind of life is it when you have to constantly be on your guard, praying that you won’t be discovered so that you have to pick up everything and move and start all over?”
“It’s better than being stuck in some game where someone else defines the rules and parameters and you have no choice of your own.”
Karl wanted to explain that it was more than that, that free choice was still an option, even within the game, that the game wasn’t all that different from real life. Instead, he gave Rodney a sympathetic smile.
“I won’t argue with you, my friend. We both have made choices. You are happiest here and I wish you well, truly.”
Rodney nodded in acknowledgement. “You’re right.”
As the men dumped Kevin/Felix into the bed of the pick-up, Karl and Rodney headed back to the courthouse, Caryn a step behind.
“You’ll need to be extra careful for a while,” Karl said. “We’ll point them off in a different direction. Any place you want them to waste time?”
Rodney thought a moment then chuckled. “Yeah. Send them off to D.C. if you can. That would be irony.”
Chapter 10
Rita was not happy when Karl and Caryn showed up.
“What are you doing here?” she fussed, her robotic face looking almost human with a frown.
“Here,” Karl said, holding up his phone and showing her the pictures of Kevin hanging from the streetlamp post. “Kevin’s accounted for as is Gerard. Our job is done.”
“But…but you were supposed to find out where Red and the rest of his holdouts were.”
“I told you before, that’s not our job. You can find someone else to do that. But we did find out some info for you.”
“Like what?” Rita coldly asked, choosing not to argue.
“He’s headed for D.C.,” Caryn said.
“How do you know that?”
“Because he was beginning to get instructions by phone.”
“By phone?” Rita’s synthetic jaw dropped open. “How is that possible?”
“We wondered the same thing,” Karl said, “then we remembered Red talking about the code. And so, instead of wasting time trying to figure it out ourselves, we managed to… um coerce the info out of Kevin.”
“It was the cities either Red mentioned or sent him to,” Caryn explained. “It started off in Kansas City then Longmont then Denver. Using the first letter of each city gave him the area code 553. Using the rest of the cities gave him the rest of the numbers.”
“He called Red when he was in Murphy,” Karl added, “and just as Red told him to meet him at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., Kevin managed to let Red know we were there. Well, naturally the line went dead and we figured that since Kevin was now persona non grata with us and with Red, there wasn’t any reason to keep him alive.”
“So we took care of business,” Caryn affirmed. “Now. We’ve done our part of the task. It’s time to put us back in the game.”
“And how about leaving us there from now on?” Karl snarled.
“I can’t promise that,” Rita bristled.
“You ready?” Caryn said to Karl.
“Yup.”
They headed out the door before Rita had a chance to stop them. Ten minutes later they stood in the chill air outside ITL, waiting to be admitted. When the doors didn’t open, Karl took a step back and stared up at the cameras.
“You got 10 seconds to open these damn doors before Caryn and I walk away… never to return. You get my drift?”
There was a buzz and the doors unlocked.
“Let’s hope you haven’t pissed them off enough to send us to some other game,” Caryn muttered.
“I guess we’ll see,” he said, storming it.
They crossed the foyer and headed straight to the elevators to take them to the immersion room. R-237 intercepted them on the way.
“So good to have you back. Sorry for the delay. RITA-4 was getting approval for your immersion. I’m pleased to say that you have been approved for re-immersion”
Karl felt Caryn’s jab in his side just as he was about to add come caustic remark.
Back in the immersion room, Caryn flopped down on the immersion bed and waited for the electrodes to attach. “Now Elsa can have her body back. Still, I rather like this one, so the next time you jerk me out of Bridge Quest, I’ll take this body again.”
“Suppose Elsa has returned,” Karl asked, the electrodes wrapping around is fingers.
“They better find an equally good body, someone with great boobs like her.”
Karl snorted a laugh just as the darkness grew, beginning from the edges of his eyes then converging to the center until everything was black.
As the darkness began to fade, the first thing Karl was aware of was sound, like people talking. It was when light penetrated his senses, and colors and shapes assembled that the noise abruptly stopped. Then in one sudden burst, everything crystalized and he found himself standing in the throne room in the citadel in Avnoch.
Glancing around, he noticed the stunned faces, faces he didn’t recognize. To his side, Caryn had taken shape and was warily regarding the surrounding people who returned her gaze with a mixture of awe and wonder.
Frowning Karl turned around. The frown initially deepened when he saw two thrones, one draped in a rich crimson tapestry. Raquel occupied the throne to the right. He noted Raquel’s look said she wasn’t necessarily happy to see him.
“You’re back,” she said, stating the obvious. “For how long this time?”
“Good to see you too,” Karl replied. “Everything OK?”
“Everything is fine,” she answered, remaining seated.
Karl again glanced around the room. An awkward silence had settled as if those in attendance were caught in some indiscretion. Their eyes shifted between Karl and Raquel.
“Why the long faces?” Caryn said, breaking the spell. “Someone die?”
“No,” Raquel answered. “Somebody came back to life.”
Karl started to move towards the throne when Raquel held up a hand.
“It’s not your throne anymore.”
“Says who?” Karl retorted, surprised at her aloof coldness.
“Says the people who you deserted to go play in real life.”
“Like we had a choice,” Caryn snapped. “What’s got into you? Karl’s back. He’s the rightful king, no matter what’s happened. And anyway, you know damned well that we had no control in us going away.”
Raquel leveled a hard stare at her. “Whether you had control or not is immaterial. You’ve been gone for almost a year –”
“No we haven’t,” Caryn interrupted. “It’s been a couple of months at most... maybe six or so.”
“Like I said,” Raquel continued, ignoring her, “you’ve been gone almost a year and now you come back and expect to resume as if nothing has happened in the interim. And for how long will you stay this time?” She held up a regal hand and addressed the men and women behind the new arrivals. “Please leave us. I will summon you when I am ready.”
Though disappointed, they dipped their heads and filed out.
Caryn noted the ‘I will summon you when I am ready.’ “Like I said, what does that matter how long we’ve been gone?”
“It matters because there is a kingdom to rule and you can’t rule a kingdom when you’re not here.”
“Well we’re here now,” Caryn asserted.
“We?” Raquel repeated, giving Caryn a searing glare.
“Yes, ‘we.’” Caryn retorted. “What’s got into you? You can’t be jealous that I’ve had him to myself all this time.”
“Jealousy has nothing to do with it,” Raquel responded, a little too quickly. “It’s called governing a people. You left and I remained and assumed the throne.”
“As queen,” Caryn evenly replied, “and you’ve grown comfortable in that position and aren’t happy about giving it up.”
When Raquel didn’t respond, Karl frowned, noting that the room seemed off balanced and said, “Where’s my sword?”
Raquel pointed to the throne next to her. “When you left, your sword stayed behind on the cushion of the throne. Since no one could move it and I didn’t like sitting on it, I had another throne made... the one I now occupy.”
As Karl strode across the room to retrieve his sword, Caryn focused her attention on Raquel. “Though we had a good time together in real life, we’re glad to be back.” She noted with satisfaction Raquel’s not so subtle bristling.
“What was it like,” Raquel asked, regaining her composure.
“There’s nothing left,” Caryn honestly admitted. “There’s nothing to go back to. The world is run by AI and the few humans who chose to remain behind spend their lives hiding to avoid capture and forced immersion. It’s like a time warp at the end of the world, except there’s no apocalypse, just ghost towns and cities left to fall apart.”
“Sounds horrible,” Raquel commiserated. “What was the reason this time?”
“Take out Gerard and Kevin.”
Raquel’s eyes blinked wide in surprise. “So that’s where they went. Why would they pull them out of the game?”
“They pulled Gerard out and he pulled Kevin out,” Caryn explained.
“Caryn,” a voice exclaimed causing her to turn to see Annabeth weaving through the crowd. “You’re back.”
Annabeth’s bright excitement was a stark contrast to Raquel’s dour reception. The beautiful sorceress sauntered up and hugged her, planting a deep kiss while simultaneously squeezing a butt cheek.
“We’ve missed you,” she smirked, flicking her eyebrows. “Where’s that hunk of a Viking?”
“Retrieving his sword,” Caryn replied, suddenly feeling at a disadvantage. Casting a quick glance at Raquel whose seemed resigned that things were about to change, she said, “Thank you for the warmer welcome.”
“Oh don’t mind Raquel,” Annabeth breezily replied, flipping a hand. “She gets like that when things don’t go like she expected. But to be fair, she’s been an awesome queen. The people absolutely adore her.”
Her accolades for her friend ceased when Karl emerged from under the tapestry, Orc’s Bane at his side. “Karl,” she cried out and ran over and flung herself into his arms, kissing him fully.
“Good to see you too,” he laughed, catching his breath.
“Boss,” a deep voice boomed.
“Dieter, my friend,” Karl responded, extracting himself from Annabeth’s embrace. The giant grasped his hand then drew his close and bear hugged him.
“Glad you’re back. We’ve missed you.” He turned to Caryn and spread his arms. “Well? C’mon. You get a hug too.”
Caryn smirked then let herself be swallowed up in his arms. “Where’s Elena?”
“She’ll be along in a minute. Just getting the kids settled.”
Caryn’s jaw dropped. “You got kids?”
Dieter laughed and shook his head. “Not that kind. We got a couple of pooches, strays that we picked up from an abandoned litter.”
Caryn glanced around the room. “Where’s Sakura?”
“She comes and goes,” Annabeth replied. “Sometimes she’ll stay and hang out for a couple of days then we won’t see her for weeks. Then she comes back and tells us she’s been over in Krug killing orcs, stays for a couple of days then disappears again. Who knows when she’ll be back.”
“Now that most of us are all here,” Karl said, turning back to Raquel. “So… what’s been going on since we left?”
