Jace woke in his chair, knowing that only seconds had passed for him, but all his people had gotten a full night’s rest in his stronghold. In global time, it was still a couple of hours before nightfall. The meeting with King Neptudah was tonight if the informants Allison had found were correct. That was still several hours away, and Jace hoped it would be enough time to track down the pirates and the youngest brother.

His illusion necklace had expired, and he didn’t bother recasting it, pushing his massive orc frame out of his chair and moving through the room. When he disguised himself as a human, the spell took care of his clothes, but as an orc, he dressed in proper attire. He chose pants, a tunic, and chainmail, more befitting a fighter than a shaman, and then moved out into his stronghold’s central cavern.

He heard noise from the dining room and found the rest of his crew eating breakfast. Taking a seat at the table, he surveyed the spread and began nibbling on sausages. He didn’t need food, but in this virtual reality, it still tasted good, as the gnomes were excellent cooks.

“Who are we rescuing today?” Esther asked between mouthfuls of waffles. The woman had an appetite that continually shocked Jace.

“Tami,” he replied.

“Is that the mermaid?” Psycho asked. He preferred the venison sausages and eggs to the sugar-coated carbo-loading breakfast Esther ate.

“It is,” Jace said. “I think we will have to split up for this one. We need to be in two places at once. I will need you to lead the second group.”

Psycho looked to his left at Draya, sipping a glass of fruit juice and stirring a bowl of steaming oatmeal. To his right, Esther had syrup dripping from her chin, threatening to stain her recently cleaned clothes. Gromphy wasn’t in the room. He tended not to eat with the group. Jace assumed it was because goblin food would disgust the rest of his companions.

“Let me guess . . .” Psycho started.

“You and Esther will meet up with another player in Safe Haven. He will take you on a mission to track down a pirate lord named Captain Cloudspark.”

“Cloudspark?” Psycho asked. “Seriously? What’s his ship called? Lightning Bolt? What is he, some type of storm mage?”

“Not everyone can be named Nal Saikol Gladekin,” Esther said with her mouth full, butchering the pronunciation of the elf’s name. Not that it would have been much better without the waffles. “Some of us prefer names others can pronounce.” She swallowed and turned to Jace. “And why do I have to go on the ship? I hate ships. Where are you and Draya going?”

Jace sighed. He didn’t want to argue. “Draya, Snowy, and I will stake out a pirate brothel to prevent Tami from sleeping with a merking before you show up with her future husband.”

“A brothel!” Esther screamed. “Do you know how much time I spent at the Gilded Swan?”

“I’m well aware of your experience,” Jace said.

“It would be like a second home to me. Send Draya with Psycho. She’s spent way more time on a ship than I have.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” Draya said, rolling her eyes at her tactless friend as she ate a spoonful of oatmeal. Jace knew Draya had been smuggled as a slave on a ship to arrive at this contentment.

“We need to keep a low profile,” Jace said. “You plus a brothel does not equal a low profile.”

“But I’m worthless on a ship. I can’t shoot a bow. And I hate squids.”

Jace sighed again. “I promise there won’t be any . . .”

[Alert! Sir Wallace Wilhelm is requesting access to your stronghold. Accept. Decline.]

The game alert interrupted Jace’s train of thought. Not now, Wallace, he thought. “Gracie, can you see what she wants?”

{Sure thing, boss.}

Jace turned back to Esther, but the woman was ready first. “And taking Draya to a brothel? What are you thinking? Who in their right mind would take her anywhere near a place like that?”

Jace noticed Psycho shrink a little in his seat at that comment, and the shaman made a note to ask him about it later. “We will be in disguise, and she will stay close by my side.”

“I don’t want to go the pirate brothel,” Draya said. “I didn’t like, uh, I mean, I don’t think I would like it. I’d probably be better on the ship.”

Jace glared at Psycho, but the elf wouldn’t meet his eyes. What had they been doing when he was logged out? He would worry about that later. “Whatever happened to me being the leader?” he asked. “Draya burns things. We want to capture the pirate ship, not sink it. And once you board the ship, it will all be close combat at night, which Esther is better at. Besides, I’m not going to the brothel alone.”

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“I’m coming with you.”

Everyone turned to see Wallace standing in the doorway, striking a confident pose in her full paladin armor. Thursa stood behind her, wearing only knee-length pants. At the sight of the attractive druid, Esther wiped her chin with a napkin and sat up a little straighter.

“Gracie, I didn’t mean for you to invite her in,” Jace muttered.

{Hear her out,} the operator replied.

“If you are going after Tami, I’m coming with you,” Wallace said, moving into the room fully so Thursa could enter too. He saw the food on the table, took an empty seat, and started piling sausages on his plate. Esther scooted closer to him, shoved her half-eaten serving of waffles to the side for now, and decided she liked venison too.

Wallace and Jace ignored them. “I promised her I would provide aid if she ever fell into trouble,” the knight continued. “Vithium was supposed to tell me as soon as he found her. Where did you get your information?”

Jace looked at his rogue, whose body froze at the monk's name. “Esther,” Jace said. “Who is Vithium?”

The woman thought about answering but eventually shook her head. It didn’t matter. Jace was sure she would lie anyway, and he was pretty sure he understood the connection. Instead, he turned back to Wallace.

“How do you know we are going after Tami?“ Jace asked, worried the whole game might anticipate their moves. The first two missions were relatively low profile, as Leah’s quest was private in her own MIM, and this one would only involve interacting with the Somali PCs. The third one would involve several influential players in the game, and Jace wanted to do them in this order so as not to alert everyone to what they were doing. If the whole game already knew, he would lose the element of surprise.

“Relax,” Wallace said, apparently reading the concern in Jace’s face. “I had an appointment with Rock Bender for a piece of artwork,” she explained.

“A stone sculpture of Thursa?” Esther asked eagerly.

Wallace ignored her. “When he died, I got an alert my deal was canceled. I came to his studio to discover why and found Leah in charge. She refused to talk, but I had my suspicions. I reached out to Vithium, but he was on radio silence. I knew he was looking for a way to free the other Lieutenants, and I had my suspicions about . . .” she glanced at Esther, who wouldn’t return the paladin’s gaze, “other arrangements he might have. When I went to the basement of the Artist’s Alcove and saw Rooter proudly brandishing the phenomenal new crafting tools he claimed to have made himself, I knew Gromphy was involved. I figured you’d want to rescue all three women in close succession before the rest of the game figured out what was happening.”

Jace nodded at the sound reasoning.

“I promised Tami I would help her, and I keep my word.”

“You are a Pragmatic Undead Hunter,” Jace replied. “Any promise you made to Tami isn’t binding on your character. We aren’t going after ghost pirates.”

“I don’t care about the pirates,” Wallace said.

“Wait,” Draya muttered from the end of the table. “There are ghost pirates?”

“And I’m not doing this for the experience,” Wallace continued. “I’m doing this as a friend.”

Jace smiled. He remembered the conversation with Gregory last night to get approval for these missions. The agent wanted to kill Tami and didn’t understand how anyone could have a problem with that since she was only a computer character. He had no idea.

“I’m going to follow you no matter what you say,” Wallace said. “So you might as well clue me in so I don’t ruin your plan.”

“Fine,” Jace said. He could use the help since he would be short-handed as Gromphy didn’t really fit in this mission.

“And I’m going wherever Thursa goes,” Esther said, mimicking the paladin’s confident tone.

“And I shall accompany the elf and mage on the high seas.”

Everyone turned to the open door to see the goblin crafter enter the room.

“Do I get to make any decisions?” Jace asked. “Gromphy, I appreciate your willingness to help, but it will be chaos on the ships. Without Adam to help you . . .” Jace winced as he realized it was still too soon to bring up the lost golem.

“I possess numerous beneficial spells for fighting sea-going brigands,” the goblin argued. “Chemicals to eat the sails, protections against arrows, and explosives the realms hath never seen.”

Jace sighed for the third time. “Fine. Esther, Wallace, and Thursa will come with me and Snowy.” He looked across the table at the hulking druid. “We’re going to a brothel; you might want to put a shirt on.”

Esther gasped. “Jace! How dare you!”

He ignored her. “Draya, Psycho, and Gromphy will go hunt pirates.”

“Ghost pirates?” Draya squeaked, a tremor in her voice.

“No! There are no ghost pirates. There are no squids. You need to rescue a merman named Shilah. You know, it is probably good that Esther isn’t going with you. She’d probably sleep with him before you brought him back to us and ruin everything.”

Esther chuckled and looked at Thursa. “He’s right; I probably would.”

“And your disguise?” Wallace asked. “You don’t expect Jace Thorne can walk anywhere in this game and not be instantly recognized, do you?”

“I have my necklace,” Jace said.

“And more people know you as a human than an orc.”

Jace shook his head and smiled, happy that at least part of his plan was good enough not to change. “I can use it to disguise myself as a half-orc. I am an Honest character, and deception spells don’t usually work, but since I actually am an orc and a human, I get more bonuses to the spell than when it turns me into just a man. No one will detect it.”

“And Snowy?” Wallace asked.

Jace looked at his wolf lying on the floor and shrugged.

“Do you know how many players have a full-grown winter wolf as a familiar?” the paladin asked.

“We will take Snowy,” Psycho said, understanding the problem.

“And Esther?” Wallace asked.

Jace planned to take Draya, who was becoming a master illusionist. She could disguise herself and Snowy with little fear of detection. Esther, however, was more famous than Jace.

“She can wear some of my clothes,” Draya said. “I have a school uniform that will fit her. With a pair of glasses and a little work on her hair, she will look like a respectable librarian.”

“Great,” Esther said, rolling her eyes.

“I like books,” Thursa said, putting his fork down.

“I do too,” Esther replied suddenly. “I read so many of them.”

“What about you?” Jace asked, directing the question at Wallace. “Our friendship is known. People might recognize you.”

The paladin laughed. “You’re special, Jace, but not that special. I’ve been known to adventure with a dozen other players. If someone sees me with a half-orc fighter and his librarian companion, no one will automatically assume it is you. Plus, I’ll throw a shirt on Thursa, and nobody will give us a second glance.”

Esther harumphed. “This mission is getting worse all the time.”

“Okay,” Jace said, putting his hands on the table and standing. “Any more last-minute changes to the plan?”

“Other than a general outline,” Psycho said, “you haven’t really told us what the plan is.”

“Right,” the orc smiled. He told them.