Chapter Thirty Seven: It All Keeps Adding Up

November 6, 2010

Salt Lake City, UT

“Yes, party name. I thought that was a thing?” Jessica seemed surprised.

Marc looked around at the rest of the party, who seemed as confused as he was.

“I didn’t know we needed to-“

“Ah! I see. No, I don’t think there is anything official. It’s just that some of the teams have been organizing online. They like to follow the whole online guild thing.”

Ryan responded excitedly.

“Really? Where are they organizing? I haven’t seen anything on the forums. I used to be clanned up on CoD, but they booted me for going inactive once Pl@y3r… I mean, Awakening started up. Good guys, though. I mean the clan I was in.”

“Ah, So you guys are sticking to the official forum, huh? You haven’t been active on Pl@yM@te?”

Marc was clueless. What was that?

“Hell no!” Selina roared. “Those Chads?”

“Huh? You knew about it?” Ryan said accusingly. “Why didn’t you let us in on it?”

“It’s just a bunch of dudebros going all LARPy with the game. I hear they actually dress up to go hunting. And it’s like, all dudes. When a female shows up on their forum…” She hugged herself and shivered.

Jessica burst out into laughter.

“Yeah, that’s them. It’s a pretty big group, though. I’ll be honest, I snuck in wearing a diguise.”

Marc looked at her questioningly.

“If anyone asks, you never heard of Sherminator_420.”

At hearing that handle name, Ryan ad Leeroy broke out laughing at the reference.

“That said, the party name thing is catching on. You might want to give it some thought if you’re planning to make a run for the tournament.”

“We never said-“

“Yeah, I know. Thought I would mention it, just in case,” she said, giving Marc an exaggerated wink.

“So, have you done anything interesting? Do you even get any raids out in the middle of the desert?”

“Sure! We were one of the first groups to take on a raid. Way back in July, right after the launch of the beta.” Ryan boasted.

“Yeah. They even had us on that video. That was us fighting the Orc in the parking lot.” Leeroy added.

“Really? That was you? So you guys are pretty tied in then? Care to share your levels?”

“Heh, yeah…” Ryan looked down at the table with an embarrassed look.

“We’re still at level 40. All of us,” Leeroy admitted.

“We were going pretty hot at the start, but then…”

Marc picked up after Ryan lost his words.

“We got kind of busy. With other stuff. Life, you know. We couldn’t go out as much as we wanted to as a group.”

No one looked at Selina. It was so obvious that they were avoiding looking at her that Jessie immediately picked up on it.

“Yeah, it happens. But level 40 isn’t bad. I’ve heard the top rankers only hit 50 a few days ago.”

“The Germans?” Ryan piped up.

“Yup. I think they are here, somewhere. The network guys probably mobbed them. Sorry, I know most of you betas are probably hoping for some paid interviews or potential sponsors. I’m afraid BenchNews doesn’t have that kind of budget.”

Marc noticed that Ryan couldn’t disguise a hint of disappointment, but he didn’t mind skipping the media circus. Honestly, his thoughts were still divided between what was happening now and what had just happened in the presentation room.

“Tell you what. Give me a bit of your time, and I can promise to feature your team in the write-up. I can guarantee that after today’s announcement, interest in this game is going to go through the roof! Speaking of which, do you guys mind If I make a quick phone call? I need to call my editor and give him a quick status update. It looks like he’s been… yup. 32 missed calls.” She showed them the notifications on her phone.

“I’ll be right back.”

As soon as Jessie stepped away, Ryan and Leeroy hit the food spread, promising to get enough for everyone.

Marc and Selina sat in silence. It had been a bit awkward between them for months. Ever since the birthday party. She had been pretty stressed since then. Marc assumed that the reason she often missed their gatherings was something to do with what she had seen that night. What she had watched him do. He wasn’t exactly sure what the issue was, but arguably, understanding people, particularly young women, was never a strength of his.

Kira could have helped-

The rogue thought threw his mind back into turmoil. He should go and find that Ann person and ask to see Kira or Sandra or whatever she had called herself. Or see if he could reach Mary somehow. He was about to stand up when the guys came back, loaded up with plates.

“Maybe you should take it easy on the food, considering your bad reaction to breakfast.” Ryan quipped.

“Funny,” Marc growled as he grabbed an egg salad sandwich.

A minute later, Jessica returned.

“Hey, good news! I just got the OK from my editor to run the story. That Scrooge even agreed to throw in some budget for coverage of the launch, if you guys are interested.”

She looked around with a hopeful smile.

“$250 apiece. For full access. Interview, pictures, this weekend, and maybe a follow-up after the launch on Monday.”

They all looked at each other, not sure what they should do.

“Why don’t I go grab a coffee while you all-“

“Non-exclusive, right?” Selina shocked everyone by speaking up.

“Uhh. Yeah. No problem…”

“Deal! I’m in. You guys?”

Marc wasn’t sure how to respond. He looked at Ryan, then Leeroy. They both seemed as shocked as he was. He met their eyes, then let out a big sigh.

“Sure, I’m in.”

“Me too.”

“Alright with me. Count me in too.”

Beaming, Jessie sat back down.

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“That’s fabulous. Let’s just do this then. First, let me get your contact details. Then we can just talk about the game a bit. I’d like to hear about your experiences, what you like, and what you find challenging. Things that a new player might find interesting. I think we only get about half an hour, so if possible, I’d like to schedule some time with our photographer. Maybe grab a few shots outside during one of your breaks. I’ll be here until Sunday night, so anytime works for me. Chad is local, so I’ll just bring him along.”

“Chad?” Selina asked.

“Yup. Totally,” Jessie replied while rolling her eyes.

“I’ll email you the basic release contract. Once we get that signed, I’ll have the office send over the money however you like. They can do PayPal, or Venmo, or bank transfer. Cash might be tricky. I’d also like to do some follow-up next week, so if we can Skype call, that would be awesome. You guys have Twitter?”

For the next half hour, she bombarded them with questions. Most of the questions she directed to the group, but Marc and Ryan ended up taking the brunt of it. Eventually, she started directing some questions to Selina and Leeroy to even things out.

Marc looked around to see the same thing happening at other tables around the room, but also, some groups of only betas seemed to have formed as well. There was some networking going on, he could tell. He also noticed quite a few betas appeared to be on their own, sitting quietly with a drink or a plate of food. Some looking rather lonely, while others seemed to be terrified that someone might come up and talk to them. Marc wondered what they were like in the game.

“Jessie! So glad you could make it!”

A female voice rang out from behind Marc. He turned around to see the white-clad, platinum-blond woman from before.

“Ansa, thanks for the invite. How have you been?” Jessie responded with a smile that almost belied the chill hiding in the edge of her voice.

“Of course! Now that you are a big shot blogger at, that was that webpage you wrote for again? BenchPress? I’m so lucky to have friends like you. It makes my job so much easier. But I do hate to cut things off. The press availability session is wrapping up, and we’ll be asking the guests to leave in a moment. I trust you got everything you need?”

“Everything, Ansa. Thanks for asking.”

“Wonderful! If you need anything else, just call my office anytime. I’ll make sure you get top access.”

“You’re the best, Ansa.”

Ann had turned to leave when Marc jumped from his chair.

“Umm. Ms. Neime…”

Crap! Marc was struggling to remember her name.

“Just call me Ann. All my friends do.”

“Uh, thanks. Ann. I had a question about the schedule.”

Ann stopped and faced Marc with a questioning look.

“Will we be seeing the CEO or any of the other people who worked on the game this weekend? In person?”

He was nervous. He hadn’t felt so unsure about things in years. Now, he was awaiting her response with a desperation so full of intensity that he felt like he was somebody else.

“Well, I understand how much you would all like to see Ms. Lopez. After all, she’s the one responsible for all of this. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, things are pretty crazy at the HQ with the global launch in two days.”

Ann gave him a pitying look.

“I know Ms. Lopez… Mary, She wanted to meet you all in person, of course. But I’m not sure it will be possible. She does have another presentation on the schedule tomorrow. If things are going well, maybe she can find her way here, but I can’t promise anything.”

Marc was expecting this, so it wasn’t much of a letdown, honestly.

“Of course. I understand completely. What about the others? Like the game designers? Will we have a chance to meet any of them?”

“Oh, yes. We’ll have quite a few key people here tomorrow. We have some Q&A panels with the artists, programmers, and development teams. You can look forward to that.”

“Will she be here? The head developer? Sandra?”

Ann got a weird look on her face, then smiled again and nodded.

“Yes, I think Sandra is on the schedul to be here. Now, if you could excuse me, I need to go chase out those reporters so we can get back on schedule.”

“Oh, yes, of course. Thank you for your time, Ann.”

Marc sat back down, and the group, including Jessie, stared at him.

“Nothing, just asked about the schedule. They had some Q&A panels with the designers and artists, it seems.”

“Brrr. Hope you didn’t catch a cold from the Wicked Witch of the North.”

Now, they all turned to gawk at Jessie. That was a surprising statement.

“Oh, we go way back.”

She motioned for them to huddle in, and they all pulled to the center of the table so she could whisper.

“Good ol’ Ansa was my roommate back at Smith. She may look all professional and friendly now, but back then, she was a total B-“

“Attention! I’m sorry, but we really must move on with the schedule. If the guests could please move to the press room, we have power and wifi set up so you can file your stories. We also have staff members from press relations on standby in case you need anything.”

Ann was back at the microphone, and the staff was already escorting the press out of the room.

Jessie was motioning a handset with her thumb and fingers extended to indicate that she would call them later as she hurried out with the rest of the press.

“Sorry for pushing like that, guys.”

They all turned to Selina.

“I know I’ve been kinda out of it lately. I haven’t really been pulling my weight.”

No one said anything. Marc gave a pointed look to Ryan, but luckily, he seemed to understand that this was the time to keep his mouth shut.

“It’s just… I really could use the money. Mom’s sick, and I had to put in extra shifts at the hotel. Honestly, I’ve been considering quitting for a while. I even looked up those offers from people looking to buy beta accounts. If I wasn’t such a gallina, I might have gone through with it.”

“Quit? Are you crazy?”

“Mami, she’s got cancer. You guys, you don’t know. It’s so expensive. All the bills. We don’t have any insurance. We’re not…”

“Hey, you’re not… you know.”

“Screw you! Of course not. I’m legal. Born here, you piece of crap! Just… well, Mami…”

Marc glared down at Ryan, who quickly shut his mouth.

“Anyway, when they said we can get paid. I mean. No way I can quit now. So… I’m sorry. Please don’t kick me out now. I mean. We have a chance, you know? We could maybe even win…”

“Damn. I mean. Sorry bout your Mom.” Leeroy offered.

Marc could see her fighting back tears. Suddenly, she looked like the young girl that she was. Hard to believe she had almost blown his head off a few months ago.

“Shut up! Forget it. Just… I wanted to apologize. I’ve been kinda thinking I would give it all up after this trip, so I just… I didn’t want to say anything. But now… I mean. Five grand a month? And a chance at millions?”

“Is five thousand going to be enough?” Marc asked cautiously.

“Ha! Are you kidding? Have you ever paid a hospital bill before?”

“I have,” Ryan said, a grave expression on his face.

“I mean, Uncle Sam picks up the bills eventually. Most of them, anyway. But I’ve seen the charges. Man, the numbers on those bills are insane. I could never in a million years… I can imagine… Hey, we have your back.”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to Peter, maybe-“

“You don’t need to bother your girlfriend with this. I don’t even know what I would say to Mami. She’s like super Catholic, you know.”

Leeroy scowled, so Marc stepped in.

“Anyway, we just have to win the tournament, right? There will be plenty for all of us.”

They looked at each other, and then smiles spread around the table.

“Hell yeah! We’re gonna win! Damn. Five million dollars… I mean, they will probably take most of that away in taxes, but…”

“Shut up!” Everyone yelled at Ryan in unison.

Then, they all laughed loud enough that other groups were staring at them.

“Okay, so what about the party name?”

----------------------------------------

Just outside of the city, at a brand new office building in a sprawling secure campus, Sandra Olsen was reclining back in her chair, when a knock came from her office door.

“Shit! I was just resting my eyes. I’m awake!”

“Calm down, Sandy. It’s just me.”

Standing in the doorway was the CEO of I.S.K. Holdings.

“Come on, Mary. It’s been a long day. Hell, it’s been a long… How many years have we been working on this thing? I forget.”

“Oh, like a thousand years or so?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. What is it? Do you want to redesign the whole thing again? I’m sure my guys will be able to do that in, what, the forty-odd hours left before launch. You know, I think three more of them dropped dead on their desks this morning.”

“Tell that to my feet and see if I care.”

“Slave driver! Monster!”

“Been called worse. Like fifty times in the last hour. The server teams are painting a ward of protection on the floor of the primary data room to keep me from entering.”

“What is it? Seriously, if you do want any changes, there actually will be dead bodies down in the core.”

“Of course not. But I did want to ask for a tiny little favor.”

“Forget it.”

“I mean, super tiny. Infinitesimal, hardly even worth mentioning.”

“Then don’t.”

Mary walked over and leaned on the desk. Behind her was a huge glass window, and beyond that was a giant room that looked like a NASA control center. Huge screens were placed on the walls, and rows of desks were full of people working in front of workstations with desks covered by monitors.

“You know, technically I am supposed to have some form of authority around here.”

Sandra sighed in resignation.

“What is it, oh fearless leader? What do you ask of this humble servant.”

“Hah. Humble? Since when?”

“Whatever. I only halfway through my 30 seconds of daily sleep. What do you want?”

Mary coughed.

“Yes. The request. You are planning to sit on the development team Q&A panel tomorrow at the Salt Palace, right?”

“Huh? Yeah. Umm. I think that’s scheduled for tomorrow at 11, right? Wait, how come you don’t have to go down there?”

“CEO prerogative, anyway, don’t worry about that.”

Mary turned around to look out the window, turning her back to the head of game development.

“So, when you are there tomorrow. I’m going to need you to do something for me.”

“Huh? What is it? Why don’t you get Ann to do it? She’s running the show down there, isn’t she? Come to think of it, shouldn’t she be here, managing the launch?”

“She’s where she needs to be. I can take care of the launch. Besides, that’s part of the problem. The reason I can’t be there.”

“Mary, what’s really going on? We’ve been pushing the schedule all over the place, weird investments, those creepy guys in dark suits wandering the halls. I love that we now have the money to do all of this, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it all makes me a bit uneasy.”

“I know, and I appreciate everything you have done, as well as your discretion. I promise it will all be worth it. We are almost there.”

“It’s fine. I knew what I was getting myself into. I don’t even remember what I was doing before I came here. This was what I was born to do.”

“And we wouldn’t be here today without you.”

“So what is it that you want me to do?”

“Well, it’s not so much something that you need to do.”

Sandra waited patiently as Mary paused dramatically.

“It’s someone there that I want you to stay away from.”