CHAPTER ONE—VR ASSASSINATION

Seven hours earlier…

John peeked out of his place of hiding, his rifle held firmly in his hands. He saw the figure in black move across the space toward his objective—the CEO of Livoc. If he captured that man, the virus would be in enemy hands.

“Hold,” John said. “He just passed the second door. He’s in the office now.”

“I’m going,” May said.

“No, don’t! He’s turning. He knows it’s too quiet. Give it a second. Yep—he’s just placed a proximity charge. If you come around that corner, you’re dead.”

“Shit.”

“Hold.”

“Holding.”

Kyle, obviously now feeling safe, closed the office door, his pistol held high at the CEO’s head. If he died, their team would lose.

The game consisted of three teams—the terrorists, the counter terrorists and the hostages. Even the hostages could break out of their situation, if they played their cards right, but that was often the rarer outcome to these matches.

“Okay!” John said. He’s cuffing the CEO. Make your move!”

Because the skyscraper windows were bullet proof, even against high ordinance like John’s sniper rifle, he couldn’t pick Kyle off from his position, which was across the way in another building entirely.

Kyle and his team had secured the building, but John was careful to avoid all combat, hiding in place, waiting for the other team to clear the building.

May did much the same in the adjacent building, waiting for Kyle and his team to make their move. What was good for the Counter Terrorists now—John and May’s team—was that most of the Terrorists were dead.

But May would have trouble pulling this through if they left the result up to her fighting it out with Kyle. He was a wily unpredictable risk taker, but a crack shot as well. On top of that, he was paranoid.

John chuckled.

“What is it?” May asked.

“Nothing.

As May opened the door, two of Kyle’s teammates revealed themselves from the halls on the other side.

“Wait!” John said.

He saw her stop in the doorway, her black leather outfit shimmering from the light. “Two of Kyle’s guys just came into the office.”

“Shit. Give me eyes, Jackhammer.”

“They’re coming your way now—twenty meters.”

“Dammit!” she hissed quietly.

She turned, revealing the rocket launcher sling on her back and went down the stairwell, disappearing from John’s view entirely as Kyle’s two guys found the door open. They went into the stairwell and looked around, but upon seeing nothing, they came back out and fanned out inside the office space.

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Dammit, John thought.

“All right,” he said. “This is what we’re going to do. “I’m going to distract them.”

“Yeah?” May asked, her handle coming up in John’s peripheral view as Babe_n_Leather.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m going to put some shots down on the windows.”

“All right.”

May was highly capable on ops and a capable VR player too. He had no need to tell her what her play would be. Killing Kyle had already been planned out.

But his two guys in the office space were a complication to that—nothing more. They would get over it. John skirted around the support he was hiding behind as he went to the windows and opened them, the outside air breezing into the space. Then he leaned his rifle out and fired two shots at Kyle’s guys.

The rifle kicked, butting up against his shoulder hard enough to cause him some shoulder pain. Of course, in VR there was no shoulder pain at all.

As the rounds hit the glass on the other side, bullet cracks erupted visibly even to John. The two men jerked to attention and ran to the windows to see what noob was shooting at the bulletproof glass.

“You distracting them?”

They started dancing, flipping John off and performing all manner of other obscene gestures that gamers love doing.

“Yeah…” John said with a subtle smile. “They are distracted, all right.”

May said nothing.

John fired two more shots, but of course the glass on the other end didn’t break. As he watched what was happening, he saw Kyle on the CEO’s computer systems. Once he got all the information he needed, he would need to make his exfiltration, but if that happened, he was going to win this.

May—or Babe_n_Leader rather—came up out of the stairwell and fired her silenced pistol, taking down both of Kyle’s guys.

“Got ‘em,” she said.

“Nice.”

“How’s Kyle?”

“He’s got his hand on his hear. He knows they’re down.”

“Not to worry,” May said over their intercoms. She flipped her launcher over that was slung onto her back, aimed, and fired.

There was a plume of fire and smoke that came out of the back end as the rocket hit the corner of the room where the glass and the wall met, blowing a hole through the wall and shattering the glass.

Kyle reacted, lifting his pistol instantly as he skirted to toward the wall so he could shoot May in the side of the head as she entered the room.

He tossed light box grenade, a shimmer of light surrounding his person which would prevent flash devices from affecting him if she used one.

“All right,” May said. “My turn.”

She started firing her pistol at the wall, causing Kyle the glance about. He moved, grabbing a charge out of his pack.

John scoped in.

“He’s setting a charge on the wall to blow you sky high if you come close.”

May laughed. “Well, are you gonna take your shot? Timer’s getting low!”

Glancing in his peripherals, John saw that the timer had forty-six seconds left. With Kyle in the office, if that timer hit zero, the terrorist team would automatically win the game—so long as he held the information package—which he currently was.

“On it,” John said.

John held his proverbial VR breath, lined up the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. Kyle’s body exploded into a pool of red goo.

“He’s down.”

“Nice!”

As Kyle died an image floated up into John’s view, showing the three images of representing each team. The thumbnail for the terrorists was blinked out with a red X while the Hostage team and the Counter Terrorist team received green check marks.

Scrolling across John’s vision revealed a further breakdown of states, mostly kills, assists and deaths. Without response those who died only died once, obviously.

“Time to log out,” May said. “Don’t want ‘Max A Million’ to find out we’re ragging on him. “

“Yeah.”

“Good work, Jackhammer.”

John chuckled. “You didn’t do bad yourself, Babe.”

May logged out without another word, and so did John. He stepped out of the VR booth in the corner of his room and shut it down.

“SONOFABITCH!” Kyle screamed from his room above.

John laughed.

“Kyle?” Lexa asked from inside the living room.

John stepped out of his bedroom and came into the living room. “Is Kyle all right?” he asked.

“I think he lost at his game,” she said.

“Oh,” John said, feigning ignorance.

But Lexa smiled. “I know what you’re doing to him. The poor thing.”

John smiled. “He can handle it. Now get ready to go. We have a shopping trip to do.”

Lexa smiled broadly, her excitedly frenetic and palpable. She lunged at John and gave him a hug. He embraced her, but of course, they couldn’t touch each other.

Not yet at least.