Yeah, perfect, he thought: he was on some kind of an IRL quest.
He hastily grabbed the medical clothes and began to change, not even caring that there were people still around him. He wanted to get into that pod so badly that he could almost feel his body aching for it. As he finished dressing, he heard a loud “ahem” from behind him.
He spun around to see a rather short Asian woman standing in front of him, her arms crossed and a frown on her face. With a frown that deep, Van wondered, was it even possible for her to smile at all?
“Are you Van?” she asked.
“Yes, I am,” he said as he finished buttoning up his gown.
“I’m Agent Sang Ngo,” she said, not bothering to uncross her arms. “And I’m going to be the one you are escorting.”
Great, he thought, another completely hostile person. Doesn’t the CIA employ any nice people? “Great,” he said through gritted teeth as he went to extend his hand to her. She didn’t move to shake it. She just glared at him. He coughed a little.
“I want you to get things straight, Van. I’m here to investigate Draco. I’m not here to have fun, play around, or have a good time. Furthermore, just because I am a girl doesn’t mean you have any right to make crude, sexist, or piggish remarks about me—is that understood?”
“Oh, ma’am, I’d never... uh, make any remarks about you,” Van squeaked. She seemed exceptionally more hostile than the other two agents. Neil and O’Hara had been mean, and somewhat scary, as well, but that had all seemed at least somewhat professional, if only to keep up an act. With Sang, it seemed as if she were personally angry with Van, even though he had just met her.
“I see you’ve met our field operative, Agent Sang,” Neil said as he slid up to the two of them, causing Van to give a sigh of relief. “Van, I can assure you that Sang is our top hacker in her division, incredible at handling cyberterrorism and exceptionally adaptive in the field.”
“Great, great,” Van said. Sang’s face never changed away from her angry, stern expression.
“And Van here is the top guide in all of the realm, one of the very best and loyal. Right, Van?”
“Sure, sure, very loyal. And a good guide. Um, I’m a good guide,” he stammered, exceptionally uncomfortable as Sang continued to glare. What was going to make her stop?
“So, Van here is going to be making your character for you, Sang. He’s played this game for a long time and knows how to craft the perfect class. You’ll have the best stats. Right, Van?” offered Neil.
“Oh yeah, I’ll make you a great character, for sure!” Van said, smiling a little at Sang. She shrugged a little.
“Anyway, let’s get you guys examined by the doc and then we’ll throw you in the tube so we can get this show on the road,” Neil said. Sang grabbed the clothes on the table and abruptly spun around, storming off.
“Oh man, that was... she’s very intense,” Van said once she was out of earshot.
“Yeah, she hates games, gamers, and everything about them,” Neil replied.
“What? Then why in the hell is she doing this job?” Van demanded.
“Well, sport, it’s because she’s really damn good. But look, between you and me, this woman might be a tiny bit hard to motivate. So, it’s up to you to help her out. I’m gonna be relying on you here, for success. If you pull this off,” Neil said, pointing over to the tube closest to them, “I’m gonna get a truck, get two guys to load that thing up, and drive it straight to your crappy-ass little apartment so that you can happily die in there. If you don’t, I’ll send whatever information we got straight to the FBI. Deal?”
“You’re just gonna give me that pod?” Van asked, well aware of the price-point of such a piece of technology.
“Well, let’s just say this deal is off the record. Stuff gets lost in moves all the time, right? You’d be doing me a solid by making sure Sang stays involved and invested, and I’m doing you a favor right back? Got it?”
Van considered the deal. He wasn’t particularly sure if he could trust Neil, but out of the two agents, he seemed to be the nicer one. When compared with Agent Sang, Neil was like an angel. “Alright, fine. I’ll make sure she stays on point, and in return, you give me that.”
“Good man, good man,” Neil replied as a doctor came up to the both of them.
Van went through the motions of the medical exam while considering the situation. He felt a little bit of tightness in his chest; after all, this was pretty outrageous—that not only was he being forced into this situation, but he was being forced to work alongside a woman who absolutely despised gaming and gamers. That was probably the worst of it. So, more than anything, he was angry, but it was the anger that came from being trapped inside of a very unpleasant situation. It was inert rage, because he could do nothing for it. He was almost positive that Neil was just screwing around with him, too, promising him that pod, but still… it would be the best possible outcome from the scenario. The worst outcome was that they’d drag him out in the back of the woods and shoot him in the head after forcing him to dig his own grave. Maybe, he thought, he should just stick to thinking about the best possible outcome.
“Well, looking at your vitals, I’d wager to say that you are an extremely unhealthy man,” the doctor said as he looked at a few charts. “In fact, I’d wager to say that lying around motionless in a tube is pretty much the only thing you’re healthy enough to actually do without having a heart attack.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Van groaned.
“You should cut back on the Cwake, son; that stuff will kill you.”
“I don’t do it anymore,” Van lied. He had stopped selling Cwake a long time ago, but he wasn’t particularly inclined to stop using it to keep him going on those days where a buddy would find a backdoor into Sleep Time for a while. He wanted to cut back, but it was helpful to his gaming endeavors.
“Well, whatever. I’ll make sure we get some meds in your IV that will counteract the inevitable withdrawal that you’re going to experience,” the doctor said. “Try not to die in there, will you?”
“I’ll try not to,” Van said as he walked away from the doc. Sang was waiting for him by the pods, her arms crossed.
“So, did the doc find your heart?” Van joked as he approached her.
“No. Did he find your brain?” she replied harshly.
“You know, that was legitimately a good comeback, so I’m going to count that as an attempt at comradery,” Van replied.
“Alright, jokesters, enough,” Neil said as he approached. The nursing staff was busy preparing the pods for activation. “Here’s the deaclass="underline" Sang’s character is going to need escorting as she investigates and pokes around various areas in the world, okay? Your goal is to investigate specific bugs that have been potentially linked to locating Draco’s servers. We aren’t sure where they are but we’ll report them as we find reports about them. O’Hara is going to be the one staying in contact with you guys over the communication feed we’ve got going on. And don’t say anything stupid over our feed, okay? That means no references to the CIA, no talking about the investigation, and certainly no talking to anyone else about our goals.”
“Fine, so what’s the cover story?” Van asked.
“You’re players playing a game. That’s your cover story,” O’Hara said as she walked up and handed them both pills.
“Yeah, but why would Sivlander be with a total scrub? Am I escorting her for pay? We cousins? I mean, my friends are gonna ask a lot of questions,” Van pressed.
“Your friends don’t know you’re playing the game right now. As far as they know, you went AWOL when your Cwake habit finally landed you in the hospital. You’re fine, but gotta take a break for a while.”