"Well, we gotta check for each one of you, so we're talking maybe three to four weeks if we can hustle."
"We don't have that kind of time," Van said. "We're trying to get these alts into the big tournament."
Bramif looked at Sulif and they both nodded at the same time. "I'm sorry, but we don't do rush orders," Bramif said. "So, you can take it or leave it. You'll be looking at a thousand bucks per person."
"A thousand?" Sahara gasped.
"It's fine," Sang mumbled. "We'll pay you double if we can get the characters immediately."
"Double? Oh, wow," Sulif said, clapping his hands against his face in a mock expression of surprise. "We've never been offered that kind of money!"
"Sorry, but we don't deviate from the plan. One mistake and we're banned from this game for life. I mean, if we get caught, Draco will take us to court and we'll have to pay them back everything we've earned and more. No temporary gain is worth losing everything in the long run," Sulif said.
"Triple?" Sang asked.
"That ain't gonna work," Kylian said. "These men seem very well versed in their methods and have been running this business for quite some time. I doubt we'll sway them."
"Good man," Bramif said. "Now, how many characters can we put you down for?"
Sang glanced at Van. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "It'll be faster to track these guys down in the real world and make our request in person."
Van shrugged. "How are we going to find them?" he whispered back.
Sang grinned. Very carefully, she raised her hands and activated her user interface. The CIA had been working on figuring out some work-arounds against Draco's security systems and had made some significant progress. Sang's ability to hack had been severely stunted due to the new protocols that Draco had unrolled, but thanks to the increased amount of manpower and funding that the CIA had obtained from the government, she had a few tricks up her sleeve.
Select Target > Bramif LVL 58 Rogue the display said as Sang began to ever so cautiously break a few dozen rules of the game. She ran a quick IP trace and, after a few minutes, was able to determine the player's exact location in New York City. She scanned Sulif and found that he was in the same spot. She ran a few more checks to determine if they were using any kind of spoofing software, but it was clear they weren't. Modifying a haptic system to that degree would mean some advanced computer engineering, and it was doubtful these guys had those skills.
Sang grinned. Now armed with their location, all she and Van would have to do was give Neil a call and… a sharp pain rose up through her stomach. Neil was still in ICU, in critical condition. She gritted her teeth. Of all the people she could trust, she knew that Neil was the guy who'd have gone and roughed up these two without a moment's hesitation. Now he was lying in a hospital bed, comatose. Guilt and fear began to rise up through her stomach. Flashes of the scene from two days ago began to play through her head.
"You okay?" Sahara asked as she put a hand on Sang's shoulder. "You're starting to hyperventilate."
"What?" Sang asked, snapping out of the memory. "No, yeah, I’m fine. I'm fine." She took a deep breath and tried to push the memories away. That whole affair had been a nightmare, but as long as she didn't think about it, she wouldn't have to deal with it. And if she started to freak out, Van would ask what was going on. With the pressure the man was under, he would absolutely snap if he found out that Neil was close to death and that an MP – one of their own – had shot himself in front of her. Van couldn't know.
"if you're going to try and cry to convince us to do business, please save your tears," Bramif said. "I've heard every sob story there is."
"Waaah, little Billy has cancer and will die and he just wants to be an arch-mage," Sulif said as he raised his hands to his face and made a sobbing gesture.
"Oh, my dad's birthday is tomorrow and we can't afford any presents!" Bramif said, imitating his brother.
"Alright, alright," Van said. "We get it."
"We're good here," Sang whispered. Van nodded at her and turned to walk out of the room.
"Come on, team, let's move out."
"Have a nice day," Bramif said.
"Hope you get a better girlfriend next time!" Sulif shouted at Fredlin as the team slowly left the room.
"Well, that was a huge waste of time and energy," Kylian said. "What's next?"
"Take the team back to the base," Sang said. "I don't think we're going to have to worry about waiting too long to get those new characters." And with that, she and Van logged out of the game.
Van sat quietly in the back of the car as it sped along the highway. New York City wasn't too far off now. Sang had originally wanted to go alone, but he knew she didn't have a chance of understanding what these guys would try to give her. He needed to make sure that each character the Iron Dragons acquired would be perfect for the fight. There was no point in bothering to get new characters at all if Sang selected some subpar characters because these brothers thought they could pull a fast one over on her.
O'Hara was driving, and Sang was in the passenger's seat. No one said a word. Perhaps the strangest thing about this trip was the fact that Neil wasn't coming. Van would have figured that Neil would relish the chance to loudly threaten nerds and forcibly deprive them of their property, but Sang had said that he had something else going on. O'Hara was different today, too. Her normally violent, angry demeanor had been replaced with a quiet, contemplative silence. Something had to be wrong, but no one would open up about it.
"There," Sang said quietly after twenty minutes of driving through traffic. "That shop over there." She was pointing to a small computer store that read "Gregory Brothers Computer Solutions."
"That's the place?" O'Hara grunted. "Where's the parking?"
"I don't believe you can actually park in New York City," Van said.
"I've heard rumors about it being possible," Sang joked back. Even though she was joking and smiling, though, Van could still hear a sadness in her voice.
"Well, you guys go in and scope it out, and I'll be right there," O'Hara said.
"What?" Van asked. "What are we possibly going to do to convince these guys without… uh, your help, O'Hara?"
"They're nerds – you'll be fine. Just show them your badges and I'm sure they'll cooperate," O'Hara replied. "I'll find a place to park and join you."
"I wish Neil were here," Van mumbled as he climbed out of the car. He paused then to take a moment to absorb the sheer business of the city. People were all over the place, buskers were loudly singing on one of the street corners, and the smells were overwhelming. Van imagined the sheer chaos that the city would devolve into if there was some kind of serious attack, and swallowed hard and turned to face the computer shop.
"You ready?" Sang asked.
"I guess," Van said as he put his hand on the door. "What should we do?"
"They don't really know who we are, so let's just play it like Neil and O'Hara would," Sang said. "Be tough and aloof. They don't know that we're not really the enforcer types."
"Sure, sure," Van said as he wrapped his fingers around the handle. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The little bell to the shop jingled as he entered.
"Hi there," said a young twenty-something sitting behind the counter of the computer shop. Wires and circuits were all over the counter and he was busy welding two wires together. "What can I help you with?"
"I'm looking for Bramif and Sulif," Sang said as she walked up and slammed her hands on the table. The abrupt action was enough to startle the man into dropping his tools.
"Whoa, take it easy!" he said. "I'm Bramif… I mean, in the game, I am. Who are you?"
"Name's Agent Sang, and this is Agent Van," Sang said as she pulled out her CIA badge and flipped it open. "We're with the CIA."