Marcus Pelegrimas - Blood Blade

“Aw, damn it. Are you sure?” Jason moaned.

“Yeah. If you want, I can sign into the system from here and—”

“We’re too far along now to start sending stuff out of our own system. All we need is one asshole kid to get hold of one of those screen shots or some of those character models and it’ll be all over the Internet.”

“Free publicity,” Cole pointed out. “It’s never a bad thing.”

“Sorry, Cole. You’ve earned the time off, but this is a hell of a bad time to take so much of it.”

“Yeah, I know. I wouldn’t even ask if it wasn’t something really big.”

“Big enough to maybe give you some ideas for the next pitch meeting?”

Cole chuckled and let out a breath. “Hell yes.”

“Then do what you gotta do. I know you wouldn’t put me in this spot unless you had a good reason.”

“Thanks, Jason.”

“Can you at least e-mail me those bugs from Hammer Strike tomorrow?”

Cole nodded, then reminded himself yet again that he was alone and said, “No problem.”

“How long are you gonna be gone?” Jason asked.

That was the question he’d been dreading since he dialed Jason’s number. “Honestly, I don’t know. It may be a while.”

A heavy sigh drifted through the earpiece. “As your boss, I’ve got to tell you this may cause some bigger problems than just Hammer Strike .”

“I know,” Cole replied.

“As your friend, I just want to make sure there’s nothing else I should be worried about.”

Anything he should be worried about.

That one made Cole smile.

Once again resisting the urge to drop the bomb that vampires and flesh-eating monsters actually existed, he said, “No. I’ll check in before too long.”

“I’m going to get back to sleep now, since some of us need to go to work in the morning.”

“All right, Jason. Take care.”

The connection was cut after a short beep and a snap of static. Cole looked at the screen, but didn’t know what he expected to see. After putting the phone in his pocket, he dug out Gerald’s satellite model. He went through the motions of choosing one of the few numbers in the phone’s memory and hit the button to get the call rolling. It was answered after one ring.

“MEG Branch 40.”

“Stu?”

“Yeah,” the voice on the other end replied. “Is this Cole?”

“Yes it is. Doesn’t anyone else answer that phone?”

There was a tired chuckle and the familiar clack of fingers on a keyboard. “I practically live here. Besides, this place has one hell of a computer setup.”

“Really?” Cole asked. “What’ve you got?”

“More than enough to keep tabs on lunatics like you. Also, I can play in three different Sniper Ranger 2 matches at the same time.”

“ Sniper Ranger 2 ? What about Sniper Ranger 3 ?”

That question caused Stu’s voice to slip into a more relaxed tone that hovered somewhere between a whine and a yawn. “ Three ’s not bad, but it’s got a crappy single player component. Two ’s got a lot more variety in multiplayer. Do you play?”

“Yeah. I worked on the teams that developed both of those games.”

Cole couldn’t be certain, but he thought he heard the sound of a desk being rattled as Stu sat up at attention. “What? You work at Digital Dreamers?”

“Yeah. At least, I hope I’ll still be able to work there when I decide to go back.”

“Why would you ever leave a job like that?” Stu asked with genuine bewilderment.

“Things just sort of happen, you know?”

“Oh…yeah. I suppose I do know. Still…awesome job! What did you do over at Dreamers?”

Chuckling while looking up at the clear night sky, Cole replied, “I worked on the single player campaign for Sniper Ranger 3. ”

“Of…course you did,” Stu groaned. “I’m such a tool.”

“But you’ve got good taste in games. Besides, you’ll forget all about Tw o and Three once you get your hands on Four .”

“There’s a Sniper Ranger 4 coming out? When ?”

“That’s classified…but it might come out sooner if I decide to go home and get back to work. You think I should do that, Stu?”

There was a heavy pause as Stu caught his breath and truly thought about the question. It wasn’t long before he said, “That’s your call, dude. Sounds like you’ve got one hell of a job waiting for you, but me and everyone else over here at MEG are always wishing we could work our way into partnering up with one of you guys.”

“What do you know about…about these guys?” Cole asked.

“We’re not told a lot, but we are given the occasional lead every now and then.”

“What sort of lead?”

“Every so often we’ll get a reliable tip about where we can find someplace that’s crawling with spectral activity. There were a few demon hauntings that still give one of our founders nightmares, and we wouldn’t have known about those if not for you guys. Personally, I got to study a real Chubacabra that one of Paige’s buddies across the border ran into.”

“A what?”

“Chubacabra,” Stu repeated. “You know. A Goat Sucker. They’re in all the tabloids, but they’re real enough. I saw it myself. None of the zoologists believe me, but that doesn’t matter. None of us are here to get published in a scientific journal. I’d bet the magazine we put out on the Web gets read more than those Ivy League rags anyway.”

Cole shook his head and laughed. “There’s a lot going on that I never knew about.”

“Yeah,” Stu sighed. “Ain’t it great?”

“Sort of.”

“Whether anyone knows about it or not, you guys do a hell of a lot of good. Especially now with all that’s been going on.”

“What’s been going on?”

Stu clammed up so hard that Cole could almost hear his lips slapping together over the satellite connection. In a guarded voice he eventually said, “Let’s just say one of our guys down at Branch 25 called in about some bunch of messed-up animals in a hole somewhere. Far as I know, you guys were already told about it, so I probably shouldn’t say anything else. I’m sure Paige will fill you in. If I step out of line, she might just pull me through this phone and slap the hell out of me. She sounds cute, but…”

“Don’t worry,” Cole said as Stu fought for his next words. “I know what you mean, and you’re right.”

“I got some more calls coming in,” Stu said. “All I can tell you is to take a look around and think about what you might be able to accomplish with Paige and whoever else is there. I knew Gerald and Brad. They were great guys who helped a lot of people. You could do a lot worse for yourself than by joining up with the likes of them. Hope that helps.”

“Actually, it does.”

“Cool. Don’t be a stranger. Maybe we can run through a few rounds of Sniper Ranger sometime. I’d love to school another guy from Digital Dreamers.”

“Another one, huh? Fine. I’ll defend the company honor later.”

“Talk to ya.” With that, Stu broke the connection.

Cole held the satellite phone in his hand and ran his thumb along the chipped plastic casing. He wondered where that phone had been and what sort of impossible things it had seen. As he let his thoughts wander, he reminded himself about Gerald’s face and the urgency that had been in his voice.

A cold breeze got him moving back to the restaurant. He walked in through the door and found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

“Holy shit,” he gasped.

Paige glanced at him over the shotgun and then lowered it. She held her phone up to her ear with her free hand and nodded casually to Cole before getting back to her conversation. “Yeah, go on,” she said into the phone. “What did the MEG guys find?”