Chapter Fifty One: People Say Believe Half Of What You See
April 15, 2010
Branson, MO
Marc gripped the wheel of the Jeep as the jaws of the giant reptile barely missed crashing into the vehicle. Both Selina and Leeroy were screaming in the back, while Ryan seemed to have lost his mind and was now laughing hysterically.
Cursing that he couldn’t do anything to get them out of this predicament, Marc just shut his eyes and let things play out. Just as the dinosaur came in for another bite, the Jeep swerved directly into a large bush. They smashed through, and he felt the branches scratch at his shoulder and head.
He let go of the wheel, raising his arm to protect his face. It’s not like he had any control over the vehicle anyway.
Emerging from the brush, they landed in a creek. Fortunately, the water was shallow and didn’t rise above the wheel wells, but now the Jeep looked more like a boat, slowly navigating the middle of the creek like a canoe.
At least the dinosaur-like monster had stopped its pursuit. Marc scanned the terrain, looking for a place to drive the jeep back onto dry land, when he realized that the creek was turning into a river, and they appeared to be speeding up.
“Guys, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Quickly looking into the back, Selina was in tears, and Leeroy was just staring forward with his mouth open and eyes bulging out like golf balls.
Ryan, on the other hand, was grinning ear to ear and had clearly lost all reason. The looks of madness on his face said everything he needed to know. His friend was a lunatic.
He turned to look out the front windshield of the jeep. He could now clearly see the quickly approaching horizon, and the river abruptly disappeared into open space, less than thirty feet ahead. They would be there in seconds.
“Of course,” Marc spat, completely letting go of the wheel to grab the shoulder harness with both hands.
As the jeep went over the waterfall, the screams could have been heard for miles.
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They pulled up to what looked like an old abandoned railway station in the middle of a field.
The Jeep slowly approached the platform, then, just as it reached the end, it abruptly stopped.
Marc hung his head in a mix of exhaustion, frustration, and self-recrimination. This was his own fault. Why had he ever agreed with that madwoman’s plots?
They sat there in silence for half a minute before they heard the sound of another vehicle, slowly coming to a stop, directly behind them.
A door behind him opened, and Selina and Leeroy scrambled out. Ryan punched him in the shoulder and shouted at him at high volume before stepping out of the vehicle on his side. It appeared he had lost control of his internal volume control.
“Come on! Let’s go!”
The last one in the Jeep, Marc looked up at the small black box positioned directly above his face. Scowling, he undid the harness and opened the door, stepping out to see the rest of the party and crew waiting for him.
“OMG! THAT WAS SO GREAT! Can we go again?” Selina, with no sign of tears on her face, was hopping back on forth from one foot to the other.
Leeroy, on the other hand, looked as though he might be about to lose his lunch.
Jess was there, patting him on the back. Meanwhile, Chad was busy removing all the camera equipment for the Jeep they had been riding in.
“Are we done? That’s the last one for today, right?” Marc asked, sounding a bit more surly than he intended.
“Ooo, someone’s grumpy,” Jess taunted.
“I’m just thinking about the raids we are missing by doing this ‘little detour’ of yours,” he said testily.
“Marc doesn’t like amusement park rides? That’s a bit off-brand, right? Don’t you hunt wolves and bears in the desert?” Selina quipped.
“I’m not a hunter. I’m a security consultant. I only kill animals as a last resort, never for sport.”
“Ooh! Say that again. Wait, let me get the camera going.”
“Jess! Can you give it a break already? We should have more than enough for the sponsors by now, right?”
They had been stopped in Branson, the live entertainment capital of the country, for two days now. This was a special stop, set up by one of their sponsors, a large theme park, just outside the city. This was a brand-new ride that was designed in concert with I.S.K. to promote the Awakening game. In truth, it appeared to be a nothing more than a reskinned attraction based on that dinosaur movie franchise.
Still, there was little Marc could do to avoid the side trip. The sponsor was underwriting a large amount of their expenses, and had thrown in additional bonuses for helping promote the ride. In exchange, they had even shut down the park for the entire day, just for them. As the property encompassed nearly three entire raid zones, not only would they get paid for the stop, but they would also get exclusive access to enough raids to keep them on schedule.
Thanks to the support team, Team Rocinante has been making excellent progress. While each raid only reset four times a day, By constantly moving, and staying away from competitive hunting grounds, the team had been able to clear an average of 12 raids each day for the last two weeks.
The leaderboard was only updated once a day, but they had managed to stay in the top 100, ten of the last fifteen days and four of the last five. This success had come with a few drawbacks, however.
First was that they were now being watched. The fact that they were also constantly broadcasting their location via social media channels, left them open to interference.
Because of this, they had started to put delays in all outgoing updates by at least twelve hours. They also made sure that anything that could be used to predict their future path was stripped out from any posts.
This was handled by the production team. A group based in Phoenix, that was now responsible for editing and posting videos and updates, 24-hours a day.
They kept that group fed, and to ensure that they did not get sniped by the competition, Jess had been curating a punishing schedule of raids and movement. They were constantly in motion, zigzagging across the country so that their path couldn’t be predicted.
Along the way, the production team would work with sponsors who wanted to advertise on the stream. They visited restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, and public events, although their participation and schedule wouldn’t even be shared with the sponsors until after they were already on the road to their next raid location.
It was a cruel and backbreaking schedule. Still, they were being extremely well compensated for it.
Between the I.S.K. Beta user stipend and the stipend from the consortium of sponsors that Jess had pulled together, they started the month with $10,000 in cash.
Add to that the bonuses that they were making each day they stayed in the top 100, and the percentage of advertising revenue that Sheila had negotiated, and they would clear six figures each, for one month of work.
It was a staggering amount of money, and that was likely the biggest reason that they had not broken down yet.
Marc, couldn’t care less about the money, and he was growing more and more concerned about the welfare of his friends. Even Jess, who seemed to survive entirely on coffee and antacid tablets, was starting to show the strain, and they still had two more weeks to go.
At first, this arrangement had seemed like a perfect chance to unwind. Marc had envisioned some roller coaster rides, maybe a Ferris wheel, and some carnival games.
Instead, they had driven him off a waterfall.
“OMG, you guys have to see this,” Jess said as she waved them over.
They had moved to a reception room for holding large parties and events. Today, it contained a large buffet table full of a gorgeous spread of high-quality food.
Besides the food and drink, there was another table full of swag from the amusement park. T-shirts, hoodies, baseball caps, and stuffed toys.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Jess had said they were welcome to take as much as they liked but that if they wore any of the merch on camera, it would be an uncompensated advertisement.
Before they had even started eating, Marc noted that Leeroy and Selina had filled up two duffle bags worth of stuff from the table. He made a note to ask them to pass him one of the stuffed monsters for Torren. He hoped that the sponsors would not take offense at what the ultimate fate of that poor doll would face.
Everyone had gathered around Jess, who was screening some of the footage on her laptop.
“What is with that expression?”
“Oh, you haven’t seen that one yet. That’s what he looks like when he is pee-your-pants scared,” Ryan offered in a helpful voice.
Marc stared at his own face on the screen. His teeth gritted, and his eyes shut so tightly that the skin must have been pulling his scalp forward from the nape of his neck.
“Enough of me. Why not check out Selina?” Marc offered.
“I hereby use my discretionary block on everything from the ride,” Selina demanded immediately.
“The entire ride? That will be your whole allotment for the day,” Jess warned.
“Don’t care. In fact, I want you to nuke that camera right now.”
“I have to at least look at-“
“NOW!”
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It was after midnight when they finally stopped by the resort hotel. They were all exhausted, so as soon as they set the departure time, they all went up to their rooms. Despite having free use of the facilities, and unlimited room service, Marc was sure they would be asleep in minutes.
When they stayed at a hotel, Marc would usually sleep in the beast along with Torren and Jon. Torren preferred to stay somewhere more familiar, so it was better for him just to use a bunk.
After taking Torren around for a late-night walk, he came back and noticed the lights were still on in Jess’s RV.
He knocked on the door, and an exhausted Jess immediately opened the door.
“Figured it was you. Taking Torren out for a walk?” She asked, the fatigue palpable in her voice.
“Yeah, just got back. You still working?”
“Yeah… Hey, got a minute?”
Marc nodded, then stepped inside the RV.
While tiny compared to the Beast, Jess’s RV was actually quite luxurious. The was a small bedroom in the back, a full bathroom with a hot water shower and a flushing toilet, a kitchen, and a living room/lounge area with enough space for the whole party to sit around a table.
The RV was a another rental paid for by the consortium, so while it served as Jess’s living space and mobile office, it technically was a team resource. They would often have meetings here as they usually left the Beast behind during the day while they did raids as roads and parking for the large bus could be tricky.
Torren curled up in his favorite spot under the table while Jess refilled a kettle and placed it on the stove to heat up.
“What’s up.”
“We have a problem.”
Marc let out a slow breath.
“When do we not have a problem? Jess, you need to learn to turn it down sometimes. You’re going to put yourself in the hospital-“
“We’ve got a mole.”
“Huh?” Marc was tired and missed the reference for a moment, trying to remember what monster that was.
“Someone has been selling off our movement information.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“… Not entirely. Mostly.”
“Who…”
“…”
“It’s not someone on the team. Is it?”
“Oh, no. You guys are solid. No, I’m afraid this is my fault.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think it’s someone on the production team.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“It’s bad. They could be leaking anything. Our strategies, location, everything.”
Marc thought about it. It was certainly not a good thing, but what’s the worst that could happen? They might end up competing for a few raids, or they could have some strategies exposed, but it’s not like they had come up with anything revolutionary. If anything, they were simply using variations of things already posted to the forums.
“Okay, but what can we do? I don’t like the idea of a spy, but do we know who it is? I assume that if you did, they would be off the team immediately, right?”
“Yeah. We have narrowed it down. But no, we aren’t sure who it is.”
“What do you want to do about it? I can’t imagine it would help our push if we have to stop for some inquisition halfway through the month.”
“No, we don’t have time. We are bare bones as it is. Start throwing around accusations, and we’ll lose more than the spy.”
“So… What can we do?”
Marc felt bad for the woman. She was obviously pushing herself beyond the brink. She fought alongside them every day, pulling her share in every battle. Then, while the rest of the team rested, she would set up in her RV and keep working. She had lots of help from the production team, but she still needed to do the coordination.
The look on her face was heartbreaking. She was pushed beyond her limit, and it showed. Marc had seen this before. Young party leaders without enough experience, who froze up in the field when blood started to pour onto the ground.
“Hey, are you okay?” He asked, then took the kettle off the stove, finding a couple of clean mugs, and a few teabags.
“Why don’t you tell me what you know, and maybe I can help.”
Jess looked like she wanted to cry as Marc placed the cup of tea in front of her.
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The plan was a classic of counter-intelligence. From what Jess had told him, the spy didn’t appear to be sophisticated. But the leaks were hard to track as there was too little slack. Too many people shared too much information, and they all had plenty of autonomy.
Marc’s idea was straightforward, and based on the belief that since their activities of the previous day had been protected by the closure of the resort, that there would be increased pressure to interfere with them the following day.
They instituted a simple feint operation. Rather than following through with their original plan, they would come up with three new plans. One would be sent to the marketing team in Phoenix that handled the video editing, promotions and sponsor relations, the next would be sent to the logistics team. This group was fully remote and consisted of three employees working out of their homes in different locations around the country. They handled all the planning needed to move their caravan around the country. Hotel reservations, filming permits, local law enforcement relations. It was because of them that they had been able to move so smoothly and capture so many raids.
Both remote teams would be sent different itineraries. Neither of those plans would be followed however. Instead, the team would do this old school. They would plot their own route, make their own reservations, and handle everything by themselves. Then, they would track the results. Communications between the teams would be cut off under the auspices of a computer problem with the chat accounts that everyone used to keep coordinated, leaving Jess the central hub for everything.
Jess had a trusted partner send someone to monitor the hunting schedules forwarded to the other two teams while they would have to watch their own backs.
Then, if anything suspicious did occur, at least they could narrow the group of suspects to a handful on each team.
For the caravan, the risk was low. There were only two potential leaks. Jon and Chad. Marc had little reason to suspect either of them, but if it was true, they were both in the position to cause a lot of problems for the team. He didn’t like doing this, but for the sake of everyone in involved, then needed to quickly identify any risks.
The day started out poorly, and by lunchtime, things were getting frustrating. The tension was growing as their capture rate slowed to a crawl.
The original plan had them leaving Branson first thing in the morning, then heading North toward Springfield. Instead, they spent the morning hunting in the suburbs around Branson, then they headed East to Eureka Springs.
Right off the bat, they lost the first raid they targeted to another team. Things picked up and they managed to catch three more raids, but after losing a second, they decided that it was time to move on.
That’s when things started to go downhill. As soon as they left Branson, every raid was snatched in front of them.
Marc split off on his bike to try and hit the raid as soon as the zone refreshed, but even then, there was someone there ahead of them. He also noticed that the some of the parties claiming the raids seemed to consist of only one or two people.
He continued ahead, and the situation seemed to continue all the way to Eureka Springs. The mole had been located.
He sent a text to Jess, and they switched to the next phase of the plan.
Stopping in Berryville, just short of Eureka Springs, they parked the vehicles. Jon would keep watch over them all at a truck stop parking lot, while Everyone else would hop into Jess’s RV. Without explaining to anyone where they were going, Jess drove North, across the Table Rock Lake until the reached the first zone on the other side.
By now, everyone was bombarding Jess with questions. Chad, in particular, was upset about leaving the equipment van behind.
The only hiccup in the plan was that the first raid that they found was quite a distance off the main road.
I.S.K. Had stated that GPS data was used to determine raid spawn locations. Areas such as private property, government land, and military bases were excluded, as were any areas that did not have cellular coverage or activity.
This raid appeared to be on a hiking trail, a good five kilometers from the road. Ordinarily, they would skip these raids since they were usually not worth the time to hike in and out, not to mention the extra work, but having missed so many raids already, no one was willing to give this one up. Within minutes of parking the RV, they were on the trail.
As they walked, Marc moved next to Chad, who had pulled out his cell phone.
“Are you okay with all that equipment?” He asked abruptly.
Chad yelped in surprise and almost dropped his phone.
Marc sprang and snatched the phone out of the man’s hand before he could react.
“Oho! Watch out! You almost dropped your phone…”
He looked down at the screen and the half completed message that the cameraman had been typing.
Marc stopped. He stared coldly at Chad, who was now frozen in panic.
Jess came over to see what had happened and immediately put it all together.
“Chad?”
He quickly turned to Jess, ready to come up with an explanation, but one look at her face told him everything he needed to know. This was a trap, and he had walked right into it.
Marc tossed the phone to Jess, who quickly scrolled through his messages. Nodding a few times, she pulled out her own phone and took a few snapshots of the screen on Chad’s. Then she moved as though she was going to give his phone back.
Chad moved forward to take the phone when she dropped it onto the ground. A moment later, her boot came down on the glass screen, crushing the device. Then she kicked it deep into the trees.
“Oops! How clumsy of me.”
“What’s going on? We’re going to miss the window!” Selina complained.
“Nothing. We’ll deal with this back at the RV.”
Marc stepped forward, putting his hand on the back of Chad’s backpack and pushing firmly.
Within a few minutes, they finally arrived at the raid location. While Marc and Jess kept an eye on Chad, who simply stood there as if in shock, the rest of the team pulled out their phones to locate the raid and lock in the reservation.
“Something’s wrong!” Selina yelled.
Marc immediately looked at Chad, who didn’t react at all. He just stared stupidly forward.
“I got no signal. What’s wrong?”
“Me neither. No bars.”
“All the raids are supposed to be in cellular range. That’s not fair!” Selina seemed to be taking things particularly hard. She stared accusingly at Jess.
“Why did we even come all the way out here if there’s no-“
“WATCH OUT!” Leeroy screamed.
Everyone turned to look at the man, whose hand was outstretched, pointing to a large brown rock next to the tree line.
It took a second for the image to register for Marc. He quickly recognized that there were no other brown rocks anywhere else that he could see.
Then, he glanced down at his phone. Why was he seeing the game without using the camera interface?
Finally, it clicked, and his blood ran cold. The beast in front of him was not a virtual monster from the game. Exactly where they had expected to see a raid monster, was a very large, very angry looking, King Orc.
It was the size and weight of an elephant, but was far more dangerous. It was also, very real, and it was staring at the party as though it had finally found food after starving in the forest for weeks.