“At least we destroyed the shipment,” Sang said. “And no one died?”
“Capello died. He respawned somewhere in those rat tunnels,” Van said. “For some reason, that area counts as some kind of a home. So, he’ll be joining us once he finds his way out.”
The rest of the team didn’t say much. They were all sitting around a fire now and were trying to get warm. Kylian looked pissed off, Bidane was just staring forward, and Dolly was whittling a block of wood with her knife.
“The, uh, team doesn’t look so great,” Sang whispered as she pulled Van aside.
“Yeah, they don’t feel like our victory was actually a victory,” Van replied. “I’ve tried to convince them that we won, but they feel that it doesn’t count since we got our asses kicked.”
“That sucks,” Sang said. While she didn’t particularly care about morale, she knew that it would be important for Van to continually motivate them. “What do we do about Kenwar?”
Van shrugged. “He can go anywhere he wants in this game, but he’ll still be at the CIA headquarters. Nothing to do but find out what he was up to outside of the game.”
Sang nodded. “What’s the plan?”
“Well, Sleep Time is right around the corner. Let’s report back to the captain and finish out this quest,” Van suggested with a heavy sigh. He slowly turned around and began to instruct his team to pack up and move back to their new home base. Sang could see just how weary Van had become. She had been pushing him insanely hard, and it was beginning to show. She felt a pang of guilt, but then remembered what was at stake. This wasn’t about some petulant demand to move things along; this was about the safety of the human race. She couldn’t afford to get emotional about the cost.
They returned to the camp to find Captain Edwardson in the process of packing up his entire force.
“Ah! They return!” Edwardson said as he turned to face Van and the team. “That was quick. Was it a success?”
“We destroyed the shipment,” Van said. “The ambush went down well, but we were outgunned, so we just did what we had to do to destroy the supplies and win the day.”
“Smart thinking! It’s a wise man who focuses on mission completion instead of superiority,” Edwardson said, clapping Van on the back. “I shall award you appropriately! Just one second…”
Edwardson fiddled with the air for a moment, and suddenly an experience point screen appeared before Sang.
Sang frowned at the amount of experience. That was hardly a drop in the bucket, considering what she needed to get to the next level. Such a small amount of points for what had amounted to being a total disaster? Now she was the one who was starting to feel demoralized.
“This seems a little low,” she whispered to Van.
“Don’t worry about it. See that wartime bonus? It increases each time we do a war-related quest. So as long as we keep doing quests, no matter how small the initial amount of experience we get is, the wartime bonus will just keep getting fatter and fatter. This is why people love wars in this game. It’s a veritable goldmine of experience!” Van whispered back.
“Now then, we’re moving out. Sleep Time is in ten minutes, so that’s pretty much it for the night. Tomorrow, we’re going to be going on a serious expedition. You are all expected to be there. Have a good one!” Edwardson said. He turned to face his troops and saluted them before logging out.
“Alright, that was a waste of time,” Kylian said. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Later,” Bidane said with a yawn. “Man, you guys are way too hardcore. I’ve never played a game this much before.”
“Bye!” Dolly said.
Sang took a deep breath as she brought up the logout option. Her fingers hovered over the button. She felt a temptation to keep playing, to use a hack to bypass Sleep Time, but she knew it was a bad idea. The official rule was that there should be no hacking unless it was a dire emergency. Draco had changed some security measures, and hacking was far harder to do now. Not only that, but it was far more traceable—meaning that, if she made a mistake, Draco would be aware of her presence. For some reason, they were still unable or unwilling to target her directly, but that could change.
With a sigh, she pressed logout and felt the familiar sensation of real air rushing into her lungs. She blinked for a few moments, realizing that she was back in the pod. It hissed as it slowly opened up, allowing her to get out.
“Ugh, I feel sick!” Van said as he leaned up from his own pod. “My stomach is killing me!”
“You’re fine,” Sang said. “You were probably in there a little too long.”
“No, no, I gotta, I gotta go…” Van said as he scrambled to his feet and hobbled out of the room. That was odd. Sang had never seen him adversely affected by pods like this before. Normally, she was the one who suffered from motion sickness.
She glanced over at Kenwar’s pod. It was still closed, and she could see that all of the vitals were functioning just fine. He was resting quietly within his pod.
“How was the game?” asked a familiar voice. Sang turned around to see the red-haired O’Hara waiting for her. The middle-aged woman’s arms were crossed and she wore a large frown on her face.
“It was okay,” Sang said. “We made some real progress today.”
“And our new friend?” O’Hara asked as she walked over to Kenwar’s pod and banged on it.
“He’s… useful in some ways. He got us into the army we need to be a part of if we’re going to beat Draco. At the same time, he just kind of ran off during a battle. The fact that he hasn’t been kicked out due to Sleep Time is curious, as well.”
“Just to be clear,” O’Hara said. “This whole thing was Neil’s idea. He thought it would be a great idea to send a known enemy into this game with you.”
“I’m still not sure what to think,” Sang said. “We’re getting desperate. Any word on this senator’s actions?”
O’Hara shrugged. “Not really. We’ve got about six days until the hearing. Sang, if you don’t bring us anything by that time, this program will be cut. We’ll probably be fired.”
“I don’t need that kind of pressure, O’Hara,” Sang said as she pressed her hands to her face. “Why can’t you just tell me something encouraging?”
“How’s this for encouragement?” the red-haired woman asked as she pulled out a flask.
Normally, Sang didn’t drink on the job, but she made an exception now. “Give it here,” she said as she grabbed it and took a swig. “Ugh, what is this crap?”
“Only the best rotgut whisky you can find,” the other agent replied as she grabbed the flask back and took a drink.
“Thanks, O’Hara,” Sang said as she slid down to the floor and leaned against the pod. “I think I’m going to hang out and wait for Kenwar to wake up.”
“I’ll join you,” the agent replied as she sat down next to Sang. They spent a few minutes in silence, passing the flask back and forth. The whiskey truly was foul, but Sang didn’t mind the distraction of booze. Things had grown way out of hand lately, and she needed the brief respite.
“I’m getting worried,” O’Hara said.
“About this job?”
“Nah, I hate this job and every minute of it,” she replied. “Getting fired would be a relief. What I’m worried about is Van.”
“He’s been doing great. You should see him in the field,” Sang said. “This guy is able to motivate people like I have never seen before. I’m honestly very impressed with him.”
“He was puking his guts out in the restroom when I came in here,” O’Hara said. “His heart rate has been extremely high these last few days. Nightmares, too, apparently. Neil heard him screaming something about the pressure a few days ago.”