“Is the pod affecting him? I thought we worked hard to make sure that they were safer to use.”
“Not the pod, Sang. It’s the stress. Tell me—how stressed are you by this whole affair?”
Sang paused to sip from the flask, trying her best to not convulse as she swallowed the foul liquid. “I have to admit that this definitely is one of the more stressful jobs I’ve had in this department. I mean, beforehand, I was fighting cyberterrorists, but this is kind of a bigger deal.”
“Yeah, it is a bigger deal. And yeah, you are stressed. But you aren’t nearly as stressed out as him. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because this isn’t your first time to the rodeo. Yes, the stakes are way higher than you’ve had to deal with before, but you’ve dealt with high pressure scenarios. You’ve had to handle hacking into terrorist cells, you’ve monitored drug deals gone bad, and you’ve dealt with the stress of being a CIA operative.”
“On the other hand,” Sang mused, “Van hasn’t dealt with anything remotely close to what I deal with on a weekly basis. So, while I’m stressed—”
“It’s nowhere near the same as what Van’s feeling,” O’Hara finished. “And this is gonna be a real problem. He’ll crack, before the end of this.”
“I doubt that, he’s been such a strong leader.”
“What makes a leader strong? The ability to present a good image? The ability to hide your doubts and fears, pressing forward endlessly and leading others to greatness? Internal strength is what makes a leader strong. Anything else is just a sign of a poser.”
“Van isn’t a poser!” Sang practically shouted. She quickly lowered her voice. “The guy really knows what he’s doing.”
“He might know what he’s doing,” O’Hara said, “but he doesn’t have the strength to keep leading. The weight of what we’ve asked him to do will crush him.”
Sang frowned. She wanted to argue that Van was tough enough to handle it, but at the same time, she had seen the weary look on his face. She had heard the tone of near exhaustion in his voice. “So… what? What are we supposed to do? He doesn’t really have time for therapy.”
“You’ve got to be the one to keep him going,” O’Hara said as she stood up. “I don’t know how, but I just want you to know that he’s going to crack soon. And when he does, who knows what’ll happen?”
With that, O’Hara wandered off, leaving Sang to her thoughts. How was she supposed to help Van? The guy was a very canny leader and he seemed to be strong enough to keep the team going, so what was she supposed to say? Would he even listen to her? In the gaming world, he was the rock star, not her.
As Sang pondered what her options were, the hissing of the pod behind her caught her attention.
“Urgh,” Kenwar mumbled as he leaned up and stretched his arms out.
“There you are,” Sang said as she leapt to her feet. The booze had thrown off her coordination a little, but she was able to stop herself from stumbling over.
“Oh, um, hi there,” Kenneth said. “I would have figured everyone would be sleeping by now.”
“I’m onto you, you know!” Sang said. She felt incredibly forceful and strong at the moment, and she didn’t know why. It was probably the liquor. “I’m going to figure out your game and I’m gonna see to it that the rest of your life is a living hell.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kenneth said with a grin as he pushed up his glasses. “I’m on your side.”
“Are you? Because you just vanished during a critical fight.”
“Since when is robbing a wagon of healing potions a critical fight? If you must know what I was doing, I was going to try and retrieve those damnable tears we had been fighting so hard for.”
“Sure you were.”
“I can prove it to you. Tomorrow, when we’re in the game, I’ll have them,” Kenneth said, his expression never changing.
Sang frowned. He was clearly up to no good. And besides—if Draco was supporting him, they’d have no problem handing him any item he needed, just to help him keep up his cover. She briefly considered using physical violence against the guy, but realized that she wasn’t the strong, skillful warrior that her character was.
“Look, Sang, I’m just trying to get out of this whole thing alive,” Kenneth said. “That’s all.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. Cowards will do whatever it takes to survive,” Sang hissed. “I’m going to watch you like a hawk. If you leave again, I’m gonna give the go-ahead to Neil. He’ll make sure that your disappearance will be permanent.”
Kenneth chuckled a little as he stepped back. The chuckle seemed to be far more nervous than amused. “Come now, let’s not be rash.”
“Oh, you’re going to find that we are nothing but rash,” Sang whispered as she pressed her face right into his. He winced and tried to back away, but was pressed up against the pod. “You are a dead man if you try anything, you got it?”
“Fine, fine, okay. I’ll tell you the truth!” he squeaked. “I was trying to meet one of my contacts at Draco. We couldn’t make contact, however. I don’t know what happened. My plan was to get some information on the lethal biofeedback, but nothing came of it.”
Sang frowned again. She had no idea if this was true or not. She decided to press a little more. “Why? Why do you think your contact didn’t show up?”
“I have no idea. We were in talks via the private messaging system that I’d rigged. It was unmonitorable for Draco.”
“How? I thought they could access everything except for VOIP chat?”
“Well, they technically can access everything, but they don’t bother to check everything. The sheer amount of information that is constantly being traded online is ridiculous. So, we had a system. We’d trade items that we gave custom names. It was simple enough; I’d use the postmaster option to mail a sentence or two every few hours.”
“Who was your contact?” Sang asked. The way that Kenneth rattled off the information so easily indicated that he might not be lying. She wasn’t sure.
“Her name was Sioal. Sweet girl—joined Draco and freaked out when she was told the truth. She decided to resist internally, however. I thought we were getting somewhere, but she just vanished,” Kenneth explained. He was breathing heavily now, and Sang could see the fear in his eyes.
“Damn… alright, fine,” Sang said as she pulled away from him. “You’re off the hook for now. But don’t think for a second that I’m okay with you slinking off. Keep us informed, alright?”
“Yeah, of course. Sorry,” Kenneth stammered. “I’ve just never worked for a team before…” he trailed off. “Sang, please tell me something.”
“What?”
“Are they going to kill me after this job is done? Even if I help?” he asked. She could hear the desperation in his voice and see that there were tears forming in his eyes. The man looked downright terrified.
“Believe it or not,” Sang said with a sigh, “it’s not at all like what you see in the movies. We don’t just drag people out into the desert and kill them for no reason. If you cooperate, you’ll be safe.”
“I have no guarantee—all I have is your word,” Kenneth said. “I’m not here to make trouble, but I need to get out of this thing alive. Between you and Draco… I don’t know who’s better for me.”
Sang could see that there indeed was real fear in the man’s heart. He was going to do whatever it would take to survive, even if it meant playing both sides until he got what he wanted. She made a mental note to inform Neil of the trait. It would be good to play on. As long as he was legitimately afraid of dying, there would be little chance of him actively working to screw Sang and Van over.
“Here’s the deal, okay? We’re in this for six days, and then we’ve got some big meeting. If you can give me your everything for six days, I’ll make certain they let you go.,” she said. Of course, Sang had no intention of following up on the promise, but if it would make him cooperate for just a few more days, then it would be worth the lie. If things went well with the meeting and they were allowed to continue investigating, she’d be able to figure out some other way to motivate him.