Chapter 36: Chapter 36

It took somewhere between two and three hours to truly confirm that Magnus had indeed fled Zenken. Jerik had people scour every inch of the city just to make sure, and no reports of contact came back at all. But it was only when the very last scout returned that Jerik allowed himself to relax, confident at last that the idiot was gone.

“Quite the showing if he was just going to run again,” Morgan said. Shed stayed beside Jerik while the scouts searched for Magnus, as did Nicholas and a few of the more stubborn platoon members. They didn’t want to risk the chance of Magnus killing Jerik in a sneak attack. “Where do you think he’s gone now?”

“I assume he’s going to another city,” Jerik answered, scratching his chin as he studied the ruined sections of the city. “He has to find a terminal if he wants to hit a million points, and you can’t find those in the wilderness.”

“There is one at the outpost we made,” Nick said slowly. “Do you think he’d use that?”

“I doubt it,” This time it was Morgan who answered. “He’ll know by now that we could reach it in an hour. Even faster if Athena’s involved. We’d be able to stop him if he were sighted there.”

The three of them glanced at Athena now, who was lying in the bright sunlight. It didn’t reflect off her body at all. If anything, she seemed to absorb the light into her dark body. Her eyes were open, however, switching between the residents of Zenken that were brave enough to come close and study her. They gave mutters of surprise and admiration as she sat there, not attacking anyone. The same watchers cast awestruck looks in Jerik’s direction, impressed that he’d managed to tame such a fierce-looking monster.

“Seems she has a lot of new fans,” Jerik said with a smirk. “That reminds me. We left before I could give her the vaccine. Have someone fetch a vial of Monster’s Bane and put it in a syringe. Preferably before nightfall.”

“Good point,” Nicholas said suddenly. “I’ll take care of that. I have to get one for Stalker too.”

“You named it Stalker?” Jerik asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “That’s edgier than I expected.”

“I fight with a sword,” Nick grinned back. “What else did you expect?”

“Fair point.” Nick ran off towards their barracks, soon becoming lost to view. Jerik returned his attention to the city, humming thoughtfully. Morgan looked questioningly at him, wondering what was on his mind. He didn’t leave her without an answer for long.

“Do you think we should stick behind a bit longer?” He asked. “Just to help clean up, you know.”

She looked surprised at the thoughtfulness of the question. After a decent delay, in which she took a chance to scan the city again, she sniffed quietly. “I don’t think there’s any need. We’re not really sworn to protect the place, and we’re not the ones that caused the damage in the first place.”

“You’re right, of course. I just thought it might be a nice thing to do.”

Now she laughed. “I didn’t think that would be a priority for you.”

“It’s not,” he admitted. “I just wondered what you thought. You’re a nicer person, after all.”

Another long pause. Then, “I want to help them, but we don’t have the time. Besides, if this works, they won’t have to worry about it. They’ll get to go home.”

“And if it fails, then they’re stuck anyway, so they might as well have something to occupy their time.”

“I’d put it in nicer terms, but essentially, yes.”

“Alright,” he said, making up his mind. “How much longer until we’re fully restocked?”

“I’d give it another hour. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to check the feeds.”

That surprised Morgan, he could see. It wasn’t an unexpected reaction though, as he’d upfront on how he felt about the feeds before. He only cared for the basic information. Anything extra wasn’t worth his time. People like Morgan existed for that. They could read the longer, more complex feeds, and translate any pertinent information for him.

“What are you looking for?” She asked, her eyes narrowed slightly. “The feeds won’t give you Magnus’ current location.”

“I know that already, but that’s not what I’m after,” he replied. Then, after she continued to look expectant, he reluctantly added, a bit embarrassed, “I’m trying to figure out what happened to Averin.”

“Averin?” For a moment, she seemed lost. Then comprehension dawned in her eyes. “Magnus’ old enforcer. What do you care if he’s not with Magnus anymore?”

“Because he’s probably one of the best snipers I’ve ever met,” Jerik said. There was no point in keeping his thoughts on the matter to himself. “To tell the truth, something didn’t feel right about the time that he took a shot at me.”

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“He obviously wanted to kill you because you had his rifle.”

“Then why didn’t he?”

She blinked at him, clearly thrown by the question. “Doesn’t that just mean that you’re a better sniper?”

“That doesn’t matter,” he said shortly, his tone firm. “He’s shot people in moving vehicles before. I was running on foot. If he wanted to kill me, he would have. There’s no way he would have missed that first shot.”

“Didn’t you say that you were warned of the target lock?”

That was a fair point, Jerik thought, his frown deepening. It was a well-known fact that snipers who relied on target lock were subpar. Averin was definitely good enough not to need it. Of course, remote sniper rifles needed the target lock anyway. But if he was good enough not to need the target lock, why would he also use a remote rifle? Maybe he was more coward than cautious. Though that didn’t track with his history. He’d been one of the top snipers from the moment they’d all been summoned to Menora.

“He wouldn’t need target lock,” he finally said, confident in the statement. “That much I know. And since he used it, he meant for me to escape. I just don’t think he intended for me to kill him.”

Morgan raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on that assertion. “Well, if you’re going to check the feeds, be my guest. I’ll be in my lab if you need me.”

He gave her a small wave, both farewell, and dismissal, and she left him alone, disappearing into their base as Nick had done. Jerik crossed over to where Athena was sitting, still deep in thought. She raised her head as he approached. Are we going somewhere?

“No, I just need some quiet time to think. Keep resting.”

He sat cross-legged and leaned his back against her side. She seemed to have no complaints with that and promptly rested her head again. He retrieved the tablet from his belt pouch and turned to the feeds. It was the same basic information that he’d always seen. There were special perks and licenses required to receive any more information. He searched for them, spending about fifty-thousand points, then refreshed his feed. A veritable flood of information was scrolling across his screen now. Too much for his purpose, he thought.

He quickly filtered the information down to just player versus player information and searched for the date that he’d killed Averin. The kill was listed there, mixed in with the others that he’d taken on in his escape after buying Maker’s Mark. For the rest of the day, there were only two deaths mentioned in the feeds. Curious, he clicked on them for more information, but they were random names with no significance.

“What did you do after you respawned?” Jerik asked. Typically, there was no reply. “Something’s not right…”

He pulled up Averin’s information. This page showed an impressive kill-death score of 193-4. Better than his own. It all didn’t add up, he thought. In the section set aside for affiliations, Averin was listed as Unaffiliated, meaning that he didn’t belong to any platoon. But what was even stranger was the ‘last seen’ time. This indicated the last time that a player entered within a mile of a terminal. Averin’s last sighting was nearly two days after Jerik had killed Magnus.

“He hasn’t been seen in months,” Jerik muttered. “I don’t see how that’s possible. I expected him to keep taking on work, at least.”

Perhaps he’s staying out of town. Athena shifted her body slightly, stretching her front legs out, then relaxed again with a huge yawn. You can live outside of them.

“Yes,” Jerik agreed, “But to get more work, he’d have to visit a notice board. And those are all near a terminal. It’s not possible to disappear completely. Not unless-”

He cut off mid-sentence, and straightened up, cursing. Athena caught the change in his demeanor at once and lifted her head, curious. Unless what?

“Unless he was disguised,” Jerik said. He thought it through for a few seconds, nodding as he confirmed it to himself. “Yes. That’s the only way. He’s been disguised this entire time.”

So. One of the best snipers in Menora had decided, for reasons known only to him, to disguise himself and come up with a new name. Why would he do that, unless he wanted to kill someone? He scrolled through the kill feed on Averin’s page. His last three kills were clustered within a minute. When he tapped on the individual names, he found that they were all members of The Iron Order. This supported the idea that he and Magnus had parted ways in bad blood.

He definitely seemed to have a grudge to settle with Magnus, that was sure. So if he was disguised, which seemed almost a certainty at this point, then it had to be in an attempt to find and kill Magnus. But Magnus had been hidden from the public eye for months until he’d retaken Zenken. Maybe he’d been in the city, waiting for a chance to shoot, but Jerik had gotten there too fast.

“He wants Magnus dead…” Jerik said slowly, working it through. “The Smoke Brigade is the only group that’s known to be Magnus’ public enemy…”

Suddenly, it became clear. He swore quietly, cursing himself for not seeing it sooner. Of course, the quickest way to find and kill Magnus was to track his enemies. It was even more efficient to join his enemies, to ensure a chance for the kill shot. And there was one practically unknown member of his platoon that fit the bill perfectly. He checked the feed just in case and saw enough there to support his theory. He turned his tablet off and stood up, already pressing his earpiece.

“Someone find Jack and bring him to me,” he said briskly. “Now!”

 

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