It all sounded too convenient. And he hadn’t forgotten the warning Aedric’s alien friend had given him.
He watched a skirmish break out in the line at the food truck. On the back of the truck, a faded poster showed the president frowning with determination or disapproval—Reef couldn’t say which. “How do I know you won’t screw me over?”
“You talking to me or him?” Aedric joked, nodding at the poster.
“He’s already done his share,” Reef said. “Moved to Canada and closed the gate behind him. But I guess that’s how it goes when you’ve got the strongest vorpal. Right?”
Aedric smiled so that Reef could see the breakfast still lodged in his teeth. He looked at the poster. “Tough choice to make, wasn’t it? On the one hand, you can let the guy with a strong vorpal take over, call the shots. Or you can sit on your hands, afraid, and wait until some outsider takes over.”
Reef snorted. “You’re saying you want me to choose whether to be screwed over by you or by Breck? Or are we still talking about Mega America and Great China?”
“I’m saying I rather prefer our own genetically created tyrant. I’m saying it wasn’t such a bad choice to make.”
Reef shook his head. But what else could he do? He needed a visa and Aedric was right—the easiest way to get one was from a guy they knew already had one.
He still couldn’t stifle the unease spreading through him with the chill of the fog. “I’ll bring my friend Olly along. We’ll need more than just the three of us.”
“Four of us. You met my contact from the Other Place.”
The alien, Reef thought, and his unease grew. “If this guy Breck lives on the Floating Isle, how did Cadence even meet him?”
“I introduced them,” Aedric said. But if he was upset about it, Reef couldn’t tell. He only pulled his goggles back over his eyes and turned down the side street. “Georgetown, nine o’clock.”
The Georgetown steam plant was a boxy concrete building whose long skinny windows and razor wire blockade lent it the look of a prison. Huge black funnels protruding from the top were sentinels. Reef and Olly shivered in the fog while they waited outside a doorway someone had cut in the nest of wire.
“You’re shaking,” Olly said.
“I’m just cold.” Reef doubled over and tried to resist the urge to puke. He’d been stupid to let himself move up to two doses a day. There was no way he could hold out until after they ran the instance. And while getting high made Alt more immersive, it also seriously messed with his focus.
“I’m not going in there with you like this,” Olly said. “I’m not saying I don’t really need to grab some items I can sell, but . . .”
Reef fidgeted with his goggles. “Yeah, sorry I haven’t been around to—”
Olly cut him off. “If my character gets killed here, I have to run all the way to the metro station and back before I’ll be allowed to resurrect.”
“A little exercise wouldn’t kill you.”
“You’re right. Maybe I can talk Seattle into installing a few more hills under its streets.”
“Give me a second.” Reef moved off into the dark by himself and opened his tin. He promised himself that he wouldn’t let his focus drift.
A figure emerged into the light from the goggles around Reef’s neck. “Level Three Hundred,” Aedric said in greeting.
“Three oh one,” Reef corrected.
“Ready to swap?” Aedric nodded to another guy who was trudging through the tall grass of the empty lot. “This is Breck.”
Breck’s wide grin was friendly enough, but his chemically bleached skin and blue contact lenses lent him a spectral look. “Hey there.” His vorpal was like an envelope of air holding him apart from the rest of them. Reef thought it was making the grass at Breck’s feet ripple, but he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t imagining it. It was the strongest vorpal Reef had ever encountered, and this was the guy he was supposed to fleece.
It doesn’t matter, he told himself. As long as he doesn’t suspect anything, it’s not a problem.
Breck reached to shake Reef’s hand like they were old friends. Reef yanked his goggles off his neck instead and handed them over.
“Oh, right. We’re getting started?” Breck tugged at a zipper on his form-fitting raincoat and produced his own pair of goggles. “Careful now. New model.”
Reef pulled the goggles over his head and gave Aedric a quick glance. Aedric’s usually blank face was full of loathing for Breck. He turned to say something to his alien friend on his other side.
“Olly will be the tank.” Reef pointed back to where Olly was loading himself up with imaginary armor. “Breck, you hang back and do far-ranged attacks. If anything zeroes in on you, get close to Olly so he can take the damage.”