Chapter 21: A Tribe Built on Lies

  Peace meant crushing mankind’s barbaric instincts. From there, it was a short leap to committees deciding where you lived, worked, and who you loved.

  The major breakthrough was the implants.

  Once everyone had one, there were no more problems.

  No more choice, either.

  ***

  I awoke after a few fitful hours of slumber. Cool green light had banished the night’s red glow, and bled through crude wooden shutters. For a moment I just lay there. My black-veined arm, still armoured in Gosporian Chitin, lay still as death—or sleep. No hint of the writhing, uncontrollable thing that had kept me awake into the early hours.

  For the first time since arriving in this raw-meat-reeking, blood-soaked world, I had space to think. To take stock. The realisation came quick and ugly: I'd already cast aside my old notions of right and wrong. And in their place was growing something sharper—a hunger to become stronger. Strong enough that no one would ever control me again.

  This system, these numbers, skills and classes meant I could become something more than human.

  I brought up my stat sheet, but the numbers still meant bugger all to me. I had no idea what was normal. I’d have to run it past Ariel, or Paddy, if they still wanted to stay in my party.

  The others were close, just the other side of the wall. I could feel them with my storm-sense, their electrical signals as unique as any fingerprint. I wondered what they were talking about, what they thought of me fleeing their company and locking the door after the confrontation with Victor.

  The WARGAME! Vault location was marked on my minimap with a bronze star. I’d tried to find out more information, coaxing the glitchy overlays of my human implant to work with the alien system—but had so far I’d been frustrated. My old antivirus had appeared several times, searching for network. Its AI trying to run updates, but each time it fizzed away after mere heartbeats.

  Faint electrical signals told me people were filling the streets on the other side of the wall. Exploring. Growing stronger. The time for action had come.

  I heaved myself to my feet, expecting weariness and pain but I felt light, strong and spry. More than that, I felt powerful, ready to face whatever would come.

  There were too many unanswered questions, too many secrets in the group that had grown around me. I was the leader and I reckon it was time for me to demand answers.

  I had to duck through the doorway, my shoulders brushing the frame on either side as I squeezed through. Everything in this damn castle-town was too small for me. Back in school I’d explored a holo of a medieval castle in Germany, built hundreds of years ago. The proportions felt the same.

  My party sat around a table, the remnants of a scarce breakfast before them. They fell silent at my approach. Tyler gnawed at a heel of bread, his eyes dark and glittering. A fireplace filled with roaring flames blasted me with heat as I passed and I thought I felt my arm twitch. Every fireplace in the town seemed to burn constantly, despite this world being hot and humid. We couldn’t put them out.

  “Morning lad,” called Paddy, setting down a pewter tankard. “Reckon we need to talk.” He gestured to an empty seat.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “Reckon we do.” I met each eye in turn before sitting. “There’s fuck all trust in this tribe. Too many secrets. If we’re going to be heading into this Vault together, that has to change.”

  Paddy had spoken first, so he was my first target.

  “How do you know that Linh Phan lady?”

  Paddy froze.

  “What makes you think I know her, lad?” His tone was light, but I could taste the tension.

  The Wallace twins turned to look at him. They hadn’t realised.

  I remained silent.

  Paddy flicked a glance to Ariel. Interesting.

  “Think we’ve got bigger questions, more pressing concerns eh, don’t you?” Paddy said, too lightly.

  “Nope.” I replied, staring a hole through his forehead. I needed to force this. I’d let Paddy and Ariel get away with too much already.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  The silence between us stretched. Only the crackling roar of the fire filling the room.

  “What are you coming at me for eh?” Paddy snapped.

  A bundle of electrical signals had gathered, stopping outside the building’s front door. Two, three people? Where they here for us?

  “She and her friend tried to stick a knife in me, mate.” I said. “And she spoke like she knew you. Reckon I’ve not known you for even one whole day, and I need an explanation before I’m happy having you at my back. Keep your secrets if you like. But keep them somewhere far the fuck away from me.”

  His eyes flickered to Ariel again. Yeah I had a soft spot for the kid, but she grew dodgier by the day.

  Paddy seemed to deflate. “I don’t really know her per se. I guess. I mean, I know her in the same way Ariel does, that we all do. I mean.” Paddy cleared his throat and threw up his hands. “I mean, how do you not know her?”

  He looked at the others for support.

  Tammy looked to Tyler, then shook her head. “Nah, I get the feeling we fish in different ponds, Red.”

  I was watching Ariel. Her blue eyes barely resembled Elena’s as they flashed. She was diving through her menus.

  She pursed her lips, a little crease forming between her brows.

  Paddy was staring at her. “You know her right?”

  “Tu penses que j’en ai rien à branler de tes putains de secrets?” She spat.

  “I, what? What secrets?” Asked Paddy.

  She leaned back, planting her boots on the table.

  “What are you gonna do about it?” She spat the words like broken glass.

  I was at a bloody loss at this exchange—but kept my trap shut. Sometimes the best thing you can do is listen.

  “Oui, I do.” She crossed her arms. “Allan saved my life. Fought beside me.”

  Her eyes flashed again, rapid fire. I frowned. I could just barely feel something there. Something nestled within the familiar storm of activity that was her brain. Something the others didn’t have.

  No. Fucking. Way.

  An implant. Active and alive.

  I blinked, my mouth dropping open. Suddenly, all the jabbering in French, the muttering to herself, the impossible insights—it all made sense. This was a gameshow and the universe was watching. She wasn’t talking to herself. She was talking to someone, an unseen watcher, who was feeding her information in return. The dodgy little bugger was cheating.

  Her eyes caught mine and she must have seen something, some glint of understanding in mine. She nodded slightly and I wondered if she had intended me to figure it out.

  “So who is she then?” I turned back to Paddy, drawing attention away from Ariel. That was a secret worth keeping. An advantage. My mind raced as I tried to remember all the things she had said.

  “Linh Phan is… She’s the queen of the bloody boogeymen, lad. Knows everything, goes anywhere. Secrets ain't safe around her. Didn't you see the holo? The Honduras uprising? Only a week and she had the rebel leader’s head on a silver platter."

  I looked at him blankly. “There was an uprising in Honduras?”

  He just stared.

  Ariel made a slashing gesture with her hand. “It doesn’t matter right now. Oui, she has it out for you, but Victor is in charge and she will follow his orders. I think that scuffle last night was orchestrated to make you feel in debt to him.”

  Yeah, that’d made sense, if you were an arsehole politician.

  Now that I knew Ariel’s secret, I was worried what Priorita would do if she found out. But I still wanted answers. I couldn’t let Ariel get away with everything. If we were going to be a team, I couldn’t play favourites.

  I leaned over the table, meeting Ariel’s eyes. “Her man mentioned Jaq Du Bouchard, right before he tried to knife me. You’re pointing the finger at Victor, but it sounds like he’s the one who ordered me dead. He a relative of yours?”

  Ariel winced. “Oui… Papa.”

  “Yeah I thought as much.”

  “Papa, can be, protective.” She said weakly.

  We all stared at her.

  “Protective?” Tammy drawled. “Shit kid, if yer da treats someone trying to keep you alive like that, I’d hate to see what he does to someone who threatened you.”

  Tyler guffawed.

  I decided to draw attention away. I could interrogate her later and not risk Priorita finding about her cheating.

  “And you two. I pinned the siblings with a stare. “I’ve got enemies coming out of my arse, what do you get out of running with us?”

  They looked at me like I was an idiot. Their eyes flickering from my face to the name and numbers above my head. Tammy spoke for the two. “Ain’t no mystery there. Reckon I’m too young and pretty to die. You look to be the biggest badass on this here planet and my daddy always said the man with the biggest stick is the one who runs the ranch.” She shrugged. “Reckon you got the biggest stick.”

  Paddy and Tyler both snickered. Ariel and Tammy shared a glance that needed no translation.

  I had a feeling that they weren’t telling the whole truth, but we all had secrets and I had more than most. I needed them.

  “Your lack of performance yesterday makes me wonder about that.” She continued.

  Everyone turned to look at me. I knew I owed them an explanation. Or a part of one at least. If they knew the whole truth, then they’d know better than to trust me.

  I scratched at my arm, picking the edges of chitin. “Yeah, reckon I do. I got this perk, see. A reward for killing one of those Gosporian bugs less than a minute after I landed on the planet. It makes me stronger, faster, makes it so I don’t get tired or feel pain.”

  Tyler whistled.

  “Yeah, but it comes at a price. I go a bit mad, ya know. Like a bit berserk while it’s active.” I said, playing the bloodlust down. “And when the end does come, and I turn off the perk, all the pain and fatigue that I ignored hits me in one go.”

  They shared a look and I knew they were remembering me tearing sizzling chunks from the Wuu-Tang that had mauled Tyler.

  “And to make things worse, that announcer lady, Priorita or whatever. She keeps pu—”

  Stop

  The voice slammed into my skull so hard I almost fell off my chair.

  “She what Allan?” Asked Ariel.

  My heart thumped. What the hell didn’t she want me to say?

  “Uhhh she, um seemed excited… when I got it.”

  I could hear the alien’s heavy breathing.

  My party didn’t look to believe the explanation, but my stormsense prickled as a new figure approached our door. It rattled as whoever had been waiting outside ran out of patience.I stood up, wiped my sweaty palms on my pants, and grinned like an idiot.

  "Alright, who's ready to stick their heads in the monster’s mouth and hope it’s feeling full?"

  Paddy snorted. Tyler looked like he regretted everything. Tammy cracked a beer. Ariel just smiled like she already knew how it would all end.

  The door boomed as someone slammed a fist against it. I was pretty damn sure I knew who.

  I shrugged.

  "No guts, no glory. No brains either, apparently."

  I grabbed the handle and yanked the door wide open.

  “G’day Victor.”