I spent all the next day with Arjun and Allison going over the videos of the exploit fragment conquest, wondering as I watched myself do things I had no memory of doing.

Hester was right. The soldiers could not break with their ingrained training habits. They did fine in a couple of pitched battles against sewer monsters, but every time we came up against something with a game mechanic, they froze, throwing off our timing. It turned out that building jump puzzle was a lot harder with 20 people going through it. Rules came into play about how many people could be on a rooftop at any given time. Arjun and Allison had worked it out and been providing detailed instructions, but they kept messing it up, especially if Arjun called out a new order while they were in midair. Half the squad seemed to be unable to understand anything unless they had their feet on solid ground.

We'd co-opted Mama Grace's back room again. I was becoming aware of just how inadequate the space was. I turned to Juana.

"We need an actual command center. No. We need more than that. We need a training facility, like the base we had at the end of Phase Three. As soon as we're done here, I'm going to go talk to Kronos about what we need.

"I can hear you," Kronos's voice said.

All of us stared around. I looked up at the ceiling. "I know you can hear me, but I still like talking to you face to face. I want a zone to ourselves. Something that you'll focus on and keep stabilized. Somewhere for us to run our missions out of and train our people."

"Step through the closest portal," Kronos said. "We will design what you need. You will, of course, pay for it with the ethereum I have granted you."

"Sure," I said. I turned to Juana. "Can you come up with a list of what you think we'll need? I’ve got my own but I don’t want to forget anything.”

"I'll work on it during this meeting," she promised. Juana was way better than me at multitasking. She sat down, pulled out her clipboard, and started to scribble. I turned back to Arjun and Allison.

“Back to our post-mission analysis. I've been thinking about what Hester said." I frowned. I'd invited Hester and Will to this meeting. They hadn't responded to my invite. I hoped that meant they had gotten smashed out of their minds and were sleeping it off. Or maybe too busy with each other to bother reading my note. Not that they were working on their resignation letters. "We need more gamers. Real gamers."

"I can help with that.”

I turned. Colonel Ames stood in the doorway, a Mama Grace sandwich in his hand. He had taken a bite of the sandwich and now stared at it with that expression so many of her customers had of, "What did I just eat and where has it been all of my life?" He shook himself and turned his attention back toward us. "Can I come in?"

"You're always welcome, Colonel," Juana said.

Ames came into the room. He sat down. I studied him, trying to decide how to ask if Waters' accusations were right.

Arjun blinked at him. "Are you really CIA?"

Ames laughed. "You sure know how to get to the heart of it." He took another bite of the sandwich, chewed, swallowed, and said, "Yes, I am. Or I was before I got abducted. Now I'm..." He waved around. "Shall we say liaison between Earth and Kronos? Kind of like you, Shad, except on a more official basis. Arjun, I do not want this going into your database, but when I was integrated into the Reality Engine, Kronos himself made me a special offer. He offered me a class, Champion of Reality Engine. It has some abilities similar to Juana's, to make contracts binding on this Reality Engine itself. But also with more insight into its inner workings. That's how I was able to find people like the Mongeese and, well, you all. Yes, my background is with the CIA, after a long career as military intelligence. I will not dignify the rest of what Waters says. You know as well as I do that that man speaks poison with a forked tongue.”

I cleared my throat. "Alright, Colonel, you said you can help with our gamer problem?”

“You need people capable of taking on these fragments. Your best bet is to recruit top notch gamers. As you probably know, the militaries of the earth have been running their volunteers through a series of gaming tournaments to filter for the best.”

“I heard all about that. I don’t think the results are good enough.”

“They’ve been continuously improving the process.”

“I think Grandpa said something about that,” I muttered. I hadn’t really been listening at the time, but now I recalled times Grandpa had discussed being on calls with Earth on just that subject. I shook my head. “That all sounds great… but I don’t think it’s enough. I need the hardcore, obsessed kind. The ones who haven't seen the world outside their parents' basement in years. I want the kind of obsessive, compulsive kinds who have to max out their score in every level to get every achievement in the game, even if it takes thousands of hours."

Ames put his fingers together. "You’ll be getting them. The Joint Task Force has, for the last couple of months, been running potential recruits through a series of tests to determine their skill at various games. Only they've been testing the wrong sorts of things. Kill-death averages, number of headshots, percentage of solo caps in various objectives. Things that make a good gamer, but not, I think, the sort you're looking for. Your grandfather and I persuaded them to throw these competitions open to a wider field. We're in the process right now of bringing in batches of potential recruits who have more varied skill sets. Some Starcraft pros, for example. Whole teams of League of Legends players. We are getting entrants from all over the e-sports and streaming industries. I think the upcoming batches of recruits will be more to your liking.”

I frowned, trying to think. “That’s not quite what I have in mind,” I said, trying to think how to phrase this. "I remember one time I was really bored and on night duty at my post and scrolling through YouTube videos on my phone."

Ames nodded. "Yes, I recall you were a sergeant once." He raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“Actually, I was still a private," I admitted. "Anyway, I used to watch videos of people who run games as fast as they possibly can, trying to get the shortest completion time. They would skip entire levels, cutting from the start of a game almost to the end, and then figuring out a way to defeat the final boss, even though they were ten levels too low and didn't have any gear. That's the sort of gamer I'm looking for."

Ames nodded. "I‘m not sure most of the people I'm bringing in will be that sort. We’re still looking for top performers.”

I shook my head. “That isn’t enough. Those are the best as playing within the rules. I need people who understand there are no rules, except to win.”

Arjun spoke up. “You want exploiters, speed runners and game breakers.”

I nodded. “Exactly. I don’t want people that think outside the box. I want people that don’t believe there is a box.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Ames considered this. “I think I understand." He turned to Arjun. "I can get you access to any database you want from Earth. We've installed a quantum tunneling device that'll let you ping Earth's infosphere and get results back just as fast as you were actually on Earth. It'll be one-way communications. You can send queries, but nothing will actually enter Earth's infosphere. That should let you present Shad with a list of bios.

“Shad, you have six hours to get me a list of ten names. I'll see that they're put into this next recruit pool. Depending on how they perform, we'll see about another round in the next pool six weeks from now."

I let out a deep sigh. "Ten is not nearly enough."

"That's ten in the pool," Ames continued. "They'll have to compete against the rest. We have about a one in six acceptance rate. But if these are actually the gamers you want, they'll be able to make it through."

It was a whole lot better than nothing. “Agreed."

Ames finished his sandwich and rose. "Thanks for lunch," he said to Juana.

"It's my mom's place, not mine," she said. "Don't thank me."

"I'll let you get back to it," he said.

I gave him a lazy salute as he left the room. If he noticed, he didn't respond. I tried to collect my thoughts.

"Where were we? Alright, Arjun, new top priority. Get me a list of candidates in the next eight hours so I have time to sort through it. Juana, we need to go talk to Kronos again about getting a proper headquarters.”

We entered the zone into a perfect replica of our phase three outpost. I gazed around at the recreation of a western town surrounded by a circular stockade in three rings.

The turrets and towers atop the stockade were silent. We had been moved from an eastern European mountain valley to a flat, hot desert. The sun beat down, and a vulture soared overhead.

From the building which had been our headquarters in phase three, a man emerged: Kronos, wearing out-of-place white linen robes. "Good day, my friends. Shad Williams, you have done well so far. The fragments you have helped me recapture have strengthened me considerably."

"How many more fragments remain out there?" I asked.

"I am not entirely clear on the exact number. I am providing all details as I learn them to your friend Arjun. I believe that I have recovered approximately 8.37% of my missing power."

"So, plenty more work to do.”

Kronos nodded. "In addition, my fragments have noticed what we are up to. They will be preparing. I expect the difficulty of these challenges to increase."

"Maybe we don't need to do any more," Juana said. "The Galactics are finally ready to come to the table."

"You know that their offers are mere ploys," Kronos said. "If they wished to make fair deals, they would have abided by the rates we have already negotiated. Instead, they're trying to find a way to injure both you and me by taking hundreds of thousands of humans away from your home and forcing me to spend resources converting them into pawns for their games."

"How many slots did they buy?" I asked Juana, realizing I hadn’t checked that.

She didn't meet my eyes. "A hundred and twenty thousand, with an option for another fifty thousand at the same price," she said quietly.

"A hundred and twenty thousand? That's gonna seriously eat into our own ability to initiate.”

“They're limited to ten thousand per day, and they have to offload the people as fast as they bring them in," Juana said.

"What about moles? This seems like the perfect way to infiltrate more people back into Threshold Society. Just have your undercover agents blend in with our own new recruits and claim to be fresh up from Earth."

"The Galactic Conglomerates all have agents here as it is," Kronos said. "You know this. We may have identified a few of their more high-profile people like Major Waters, but he is hardly the only one in the pay of Proxima or Alabaster Sky. Now, you came here to tell me of your needs, did you not?"

I took a deep breath and looked around. "Yeah, so, much as I love this place, I think it's all gonna have to go. You're able to hold a zone stable, aren't you?"

"He's already doing that with the school and training facilities,” Juana said.

Kronos nodded. "It does take more ethereum than allowing the zones to shift naturally as they wish, but it is possible."

"Okay, so what we need is a big headquarters space. I want to be able to expand our team again. We lost some valuable people, and I don't know if or when they'll be back, so I'm gonna have to do more recruiting. The good news is, the US Armed Forces are really good at logistics. I'm gonna requisition a couple of logistics specialists from the Joint Task Force. I mean, I'm gonna have Ames put in the request for me," I said hastily. "People to help supplement Arjun and Allison and make it so Juana's not trying to do three jobs at a time here. I'm worried about the council calling it a conflict of interest anyway," I told my wife. "Having you running our operation and also serving on the council."

She rolled her eyes, looking unflappable as usual. "Then they can ask me to resign my seat on the council, at which time I'll tell them exactly where to put their conflict of interest."

I snorted. She held her face steady for a minute before breaking down into laughter and shaking her head. "Seriously, Shad, I think you're a bad influence on me."

I tipped my hat to her. "Thank you, love, that's the nicest thing you've said all day."

“That’s not what you said first thing this morning."

I felt myself turn red and cleared my throat. "Anyway, yes, crafting space. We've lost a lot of our crafters, but I want to get that back up and running. I don't like having to rely solely on abilities."

Based on my review of the footage from that last mission, there were a couple times where if we'd had auto-retracting paracord or single-use energy shields, we could have kept someone alive and saved ourselves hours of time. I don't know who around still has recipes for those things, but we had them back during phase three. Maybe we can find someone who knows how to build them.

"Juana, have you sent messengers to our crafting team?"

"I have, but no response just yet. I know Dwight was on an actual contract. He may not be able to get back anytime soon."

"Well, keep me posted.” I hesitated. "In addition to this zone that you keep stable, I want us to have a practice area. Something we can change on a whim. Alter the rules. Basically, a giant simulator."

Kronos looked amused. "Have I not already been adjusting zones as you request for your training?"

"I mean something that's fast and on the fly, so we're in the middle of a scenario and I think of a screwball I want to throw out, we can do it right there."

"That will take more of my attention."

"I'll pay for it," I said. "Uh, once we've agreed on what it costs."

"I will not charge you more than the ethereum it requires," Kronos said. "You personally, Shad Williams, have done as much for me as anyone could ever ask."

"Now you're just making me embarrassed. Now, Juana and I both have a list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and would like if they're cheap and easy. Let's go over it all one piece at a time."

Kronos nodded. "I am at your disposal, my friend."

We spent four hours working with Kronos, and when we emerged, we had a training zone that I thought would serve our needs nicely, if I could just get some people who knew how to use it properly.

I checked the time. It was still early afternoon, hours before the deadline I'd given Arjun to have the dossiers over to me. As soon as he did, I was gonna brew up some extra-strength coffee and spend all night pouring over them if I needed to.

I looked at Juana. "I think I'm gonna be pulling a late night. Wanna go back and crash for a while?"

"You should," she said, "but I have to meet Councilor Chen and Fletcher."

"Oh, what now?" I asked, alarm bells going off in my head at Chen and Fletcher's names. Aside from the Council meeting I'd sat in on, they featured very heavily in Juana's gripes about her day.

"Just more complaints about living conditions. They're not wrong," she said with a sigh, "but at the same time we're all working with less than we'd like right now. I'll catch you tonight."

She kissed me and then set off for the Council house. I watched her forlornly before heading home.

She got in around midnight. I was sitting at our kitchen table, poring over the files Arjun had sent me. I looked up as she came in. Juana came over and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"What's all that?"

"Candidate files."

"He found you some?"

"He found me 400 candidates,” I said. "They all have good potential. I've sorted them into definitely, maybe, and yes but not now."

"How many are in the definitely pile?" she asked.

"About 73. For ten slots. Yeah, it's gonna be a late night," I sighed.

Juana leaned over my half-empty cup of coffee, sniffed it, blinked, shook her head. "You're not joking. Want me to make you some fresh?"

"Sure," I said.

She dumped my cup and started brewing a new one with our fancy single-use coffee maker. She used the same sequence of buttons and levers as me, I would swear it, but hers came out way better than mine ever did.

I went back to studying profiles. This guy looked good but he was in his late 40s. Not a definite down check. I mean, look at Grandpa, but still. Enough to make me worry about his flexibility of mind.

Another was 14. Just too young. Again, kind of rich for me to say considering I'd had my kid sister fighting beside me for the last two years. But I wasn't gonna rip a kid away from home for no good reason.

I was about to veto the next candidate for the same reason when I noted something interesting about his profile and paused. I studied the kid's background, pulled up a couple of videos of his most recent exploits and excerpts of his Twitch stream, and then nodded to myself before moving him into the "you get a call" pile.

One down, nine to go.