Jeffery Deaver - Roadside Crosses

"Those're battles," Jason said. "Look pretty epic." He sounded as if he regretted missing the chance to lop off some heads.

A minute later they arrived at a seashore-the ocean was bright green-and slowly eased in for a landing on a rolling hillside overlooking the turbulent water.

Dance remembered Caitlin saying that Travis liked the shoreline because it reminded him of some place in a game he played.

Jason showed her how to dismount the horse. And, under her own controls, she navigated Greenleaf toward where Jason pointed, a cottage.

"That's the house. We all built it together."

Like a barn raising in the 1800s, Dance reflected.

"But Travis earned all the money and the supplies. He paid for it. We hired trolls to do the heavy work," he added without a bit of irony.

When her avatar was at the door, Jason gave her a verbal password. She spoke it into the computer's microphone and the door opened. They walked inside.

Dance was shocked. It was a beautiful, spacious house, filled with bizarre but cozy furniture, out of a Dr. Seuss book. There were walkways and stairs that led to various rooms, windows of odd shapes, a huge, burning fireplace, a fountain and a large pool.

A couple of pets-some goofy hybrid of a goat and salamander-walked around croaking.

"It's nice, Jason. Very nice."

"Yeah, well, we make cool homes in Aetheria 'cause where we live, I mean, in the real world, our places aren't so nice, you know. Okay, like, here's what I wanted to show you. Go there." He directed her past a small pond populated with shimmery green fish. Her avatar stopped at a large metal door. It was barred with several locks. Jason gave her another pass code and the door slowly opened-accompanied by creaking sound effects. She sent Greenleaf through the doorway, down a flight of stairs and into what looked like a drugstore combined with an emergency room.

Jason looked at Dance and noticed she was frowning.

He said, "Understand?"

"Not exactly."

"That's what I meant about knowing Travis. He's not about weapons and battle strategy or any of that. He's about this. It's his healing room."

"Healing room?" Dance asked.

The boy explained, "Travis hated fighting. He created Stryker as a warrior when he first started playing, but he didn't like that. That's why he sold him to me. He's a healer, not a fighter. And I mean a healer at the forty-ninth level. You know how good that makes him? He's the best. He's awesome."

"A healer?"

"That's his avatar's name. Medicus-it's some foreign language for 'doctor.' "

"Latin," Boling said.

"Ancient Rome?" Jason asked.

"Right."

"Sweet. Anyway, Travis's other professions are herb growing and potion making. This is where people come to be treated. It's like a doctor's office."

"Doctor?" Dance mused. She rose from her desk, found the stack of papers they'd taken from Travis's room and flipped through them. Rey Carraneo had been right-the pictures were of cut-up bodies. But they weren't the victims of crimes; they were of patients during surgery. They were very well done, technically accurate.

Jason continued, "Characters from all over Aetheria would come to see him. Even the game designers know about him. They asked him for advice in creating NPCs. He's a total legend. He's made thousands of dollars by making these healing potions, buffers, life regenerators and power spells."

"In real money?"

"Oh, yeah. He sells them on eBay. Like how I bought Stryker."

Dance recalled the strongbox they'd found under the boy's bed. So this was how he'd made the cash.

Jason tapped the screen. "Oh, and there?" He was indicating a glass case in which rested a crystal ball on the end of a gold stick. "That's the scepter of healing. It took him, like, fifty quests to earn it. Nobody ever got one before, in the whole history of DQ. " Jason winced. "He almost lost it once…" An awestruck expression washed over his face. That was one messed-up night."

The boy sounded as if the event were a tragedy in real life.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Medicus and me and some of us in the family were on this quest in the Southern Mountains, which're like three miles high and really dangerous places. We were looking for this magical tree. The Tree of Seeing, it's called. And, this was sweet, we found the home of Ianna, the Elvish queen, who everybody's heard of but never seen. She's way famous."

"She's an NPC, right?" Boling asked.

"Yeah."

He reminded Dance, "A nonplayer character. One that's created by the game itself."

Jason seemed offended at the characterization. "But the algorithm is awesome! She's beyond any bot you've ever seen."

The professor nodded an apologetic concession.

"So we're there and just hanging and talking and she's telling us about the Tree of Seeing and how we can find it, and all of a sudden we're attacked by this raiding party from the Northern Forces. And everybody's fighting, and this asshole shoots the queen with a special arrow. She's going to die. Trav tries to save her but his healing isn't working. So he decides to Shift. We're like, no, man, don't do it! But he did anyway."

The boy was speaking with such reverence that Dance found herself leaning forward, her leg bobbing with tension. Boling too was staring at him.

"What's that, Jason? Go on."

"Okay, what it is, sometimes, if somebody's dying, you can submit your life to the Entities in the High Realm. It's called Shifting. And the Entities start taking your life force and giving it to the person who's dying. Maybe the person will come back before your life force is gone. But it might take all your life force and you'll die, and they'll die too. Only when you die because you've Shifted, you lose everything. I mean everything you've done and earned, all your points, all your Resources, all your Reputation, for as long as you've been playing the game. They all, like, just go away. If Travis'd died, he would've lost the scepter, his house, his gold, his flying horses… He would have to start over like a newbie."

"He did that?"

Jason nodded. "It was, like, way close. He was almost out of life force, but the queen revived. She kissed him. That was, like, epic! And then the elves and us got together and kicked some Northern Force ass. Man, that night rocked. It was epic win. Everybody who plays the game still talks about it."

Dance was nodding. "Okay, Jason, thanks. You can log off."

"Like, you don't want to play anymore? You were kind of getting a feel for how to move."

"Maybe later."

The boy tapped the keys and the game closed.

Dance glanced at her watch. "Jon, could you take Jason back home? There's somebody I need to talk to."

A to B to X…

I'd like to see Caitlin, please."

"You're…?" asked Virginia Gardner, the mother of the girl who'd survived the June 9 car crash.

Dance identified herself. "I spoke to your daughter the other day at summer school."

"Oh, you're the policewoman. You arranged for the guard for Cait at the hospital the other day, and out in front of our house."

"That's right."

"Have you found Travis?"

"No, I-"

"Is he nearby?" the woman asked breathlessly, looking around.

"No, he's not. I'd just like to ask your daughter a few more questions."

The woman invited Dance into the entryway of the huge contemporary house in Carmel. Dance recalled that Caitlin was headed for some nice undergrad and medical schools. Whatever Dad or Mom did, it seemed they could afford the tuition.

Dance surveyed the massive living room. There were stark abstracts on the walls-two huge, spiky black-and-yellow paintings and one with bloody red splotches. She found them troubling to look at. She thought how different this was from the cozy feel of Travis's and Jason's house in the DimensionQuest game.