Jay attempted another three times to enter the game. Each time he was rebuffed by the game server, which no longer allowed him to get beyond the character screen. He could see the avatar of his Monster Hunter but could go no further.
The hour was late, so he could not give Mr. Georges a real piece of his mind. There was no way the lawyer was at the office so late in the evening. At least Jay couldn’t count on it. Instead, he worked on composing a strongly worded email to the lawyer about wanting to meet in the morning. He spent thirty minutes writing it, enough time to avoid swearing within the message body.
Exhausted, frustrated, and more than a little aggravated, Jay forced himself to lie down to sleep. Fitful, restless sleep finally found him.
***
The differences between Jay’s previous visits to Tumult and where he found himself were quite stark. Instead of being led directly to Mr. Georges, Jay sat in the waiting area. Waiting. A completely unrecognizable woman from the front desk offered to get him water, which he refused. He wasn’t in a very good mood.
Opening his phone, he saw several text messages from Taylor Lynn sent the previous night. She’d sent him a few messages about where he went before she realized something was wrong. The most recent texts only asked him to update her on what was happening. With a sigh, he did so.
Jay’s message was short but explained the situation of being locked out of the game. After sending the text, he placed his phone into silent mode and put it out of sight, out of mind.
Jay planned to check with Mr. Georges on what was going on with his account. There was a high chance the action was intentional. They could have banned him from the game. Given their plans to reverse engineer Monster Hunter code, it could mean they were close. Still, part of him hoped the situation wasn’t as dire as it seemed.
The people working for Tumult Corporation moved around their glass house with reckless abandon. None of them seemed to know or care whatever he might be dealing with. The busy bees flew around the building. He seldom saw the same person twice.
The woman from the front desk approached, though her face didn’t suggest good news. “Hey there, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It turns out Mr. Georges is blocked in meetings for the next three hours. Rescheduling them isn’t really possible. Will you be waiting?”
Jay’s imagination immediately conjured Mr. Georges in his sparsely decorated office, laughing with coworkers at the situation. The conjured lawyer joked about how funny leaving Jay out in the cold was. The faceless employees laughed with Mr. Georges, suggesting other ways to mess around.
“It’s kind of important,” Jay suggested. “There’s really nothing you can do? I’ve never had trouble meeting with him before. I’m on the Monster Hunter project, a contractor, Jay Miller. He’ll definitely want to meet with me.”
The woman already had all his information from when he checked in. Still, his exasperation was causing some desperation to surface. His mind swirled with all the possibilities. It taunted him with the potential that he had pushed too hard and far. There were millions on the line, but worst of all, Sarah’s care was hanging on by a thread. If he couldn’t complete his work, it was anyone’s guess how long they would keep her admitted to the specialized clinic.
“I’m sorry,” the woman stated, though her tone wasn’t sorry at all. Jay suppressed the desire to call her disingenuousness out on the spot. “He’s aware you’re waiting, but that’s the best he can do. I could maybe arrange for a tour while you’re waiting?”
He grumbled his distaste at the state of affairs.
“What was that?” the woman asked. “Would you like me to arrange for that tour?”
“No,” Jay growled, surprising himself. He pulled back the bite in his voice, still fuming. “I don’t want a tour. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.”
The employee seemed quite taken aback that he would sit around and wait. Maybe Mr. Georges had been hoping he would give up if getting to the lawyer was difficult. Jay, however, wasn’t going to be stopped. He had quit his previous job, leaving his contract work the only thing he really needed to do. Without being able to log on, there wasn’t much for him to do.
Jay could distract himself by asking Claire out. She was likely to be available since she didn’t have a job. The woman was living life, and as convenient as it would be for him to see her, she needed time to work on sorting things out. He did send her a text, although he left his phone on silent; the message wished her well and told her to call him later when she was free.
Jay sat on his phone, scrolling through various social media and news sites. Over the course of three hours, his battery burned up as he viewed everything from more cat videos to detailed breakdowns of the current Tumult legal cases. Despite trying to distract himself, his attention was still on the woman sitting at the front desk. He watched her so closely that he noticed when she took her lunch. It was early, though he wasn’t her boss, so that shouldn’t matter. She was also gone for an hour and three minutes.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“He’s ready to see you,” the woman said. Jay had still never learned her name throughout their entire communication. He didn’t really want to know her name. Replacement Claire was no Claire.
“He is, is he?” Jay asked sarcastically. The woman didn’t miss a step, even against the transparent hostility.
“Yes. I’ll lead you up that way. A conference room has been prepared. You’ll be comfortable there.”
Jay read the subtext in her statements, even if it wasn’t there. She sounded like she was telling him what funeral arrangements had been prepared. He would be comfortable when he received all the bad news.
The employee led the way through the facility, leading him to a conference room. He paid little attention to the differences between this room and the ones he visited previously. Something impossible not to notice, however, was the size of the conference room. It was intentionally smaller than the previous rooms. He obviously didn’t deserve a full-size room anymore.
Wasting no time, Mr. Georges slid an envelope over. He didn’t offer any sort of explanation for the item. The envelope was blank, giving nothing away. There was a small black dot sticker sealing it closed.
“What’s this?” Jay asked, sparking no reaction from Mr. Georges. He proceeded to open the envelope’s seal. Inside was one small check, which was made out to Jay. The sum on the check was a five-figure sum. It was the amount he anticipated upon delivering his next report. The one he hadn’t started.
“Why this?” Jay tried again, altering his earlier question slightly based on the new information. The contract was particular about the details of services rendered. He shouldn’t be paid without completing another report.
“This is the balance of what you are owed,” Mr. Georges said plainly. “Based on your situation, I assumed that this was the reason for all the urgency in meeting with me.”
Jay’s eyebrow creased as his heart railed against the smug way the lawyer looked down on his life. He was doing fine when it came to expenses. Most of the first chunk he had received was remaining, other than what he had paid for rent—and what he had given to his mother.
Swallowing his anger, Jay replied, “No, not exactly. I came to see you because my account lost access to the game. Since I’ve never heard of anything like that, I figured it might be related to Monster Hunter issues. Is there anything you can do to restore my access?”
Mr. Georges considered the question, smoothing the non-existent creases in his suit. “There are many things I could do to restore your access. But I’m not going to.”
Jay’s hopes fell as it was confirmed that the company no longer had an interest in his role within the game. He still didn’t understand why—what had changed to render his help unnecessary. They could have figured out reverse engineering, but that wasn’t his impression. After all, it was only a few days ago that Ichibad had managed to restore his access to the Synthesization abilities.
If the complete Monster Hunter system had been reverse-engineered, there was no way Ichbiad could still be manipulating the game engine. Besides, Jay was convinced that Angela was challenging to replicate if replicating the AI was even possible.
“So that’s how it’s going to be now?” Jay asked, raising his eyebrows. “After all this work, all this time, you’re simply giving up on me reaching level one hundred? Not only that, you’re actively preventing me from the game.”
“Well, I’m not a game designer,” Mr. Georges allowed. “But there are many of them that work here. I’ve been told that your character was indefinitely disabled since the Monster Hunter codebase has been particularly unstable. You keep disappearing from our radar. Somehow, your access to a filtered system was restored. I didn’t make the decision, but your gameplay is putting the game at severe risk.”
There were several pertinent pieces to extract from that. Not only was Angela blocking them from seeing him, but his suspension from the game was indefinite. Considering the circumstances, indefinite might as well be permanent. Trying to convince Mr. Georges to change his mind would be an exercise in futility. Jay had the impression that the lawyer never particularly liked him.
They were having trouble keeping him under lock and key. It was difficult for them to control what they couldn’t see. The Monster Hunter server was still obviously outside their reach.
No, pushing Mr. Georges for help was definitely an exercise in futility. Still, Jay could get an answer to a few burning questions. Then he could reach out to Ichibad or Lucille and see if they could help restore his game access. There was only one Angerine trial left. He just had to find it.
“What’s going to happen to Sarah?” Jay asked. She was his primary concern since the agreement seemed to be coming to an end. If he was never going to hit level one hundred, his contract would never be fulfilled. The stress of the situation caused the details to elude him, but he remembered much of the agreement had been made with Sarah separately.
“I couldn’t answer that due to patient confidentiality,” Mr. Georges pointed out. It was clear on his face that his patience was already wearing thin. “For similar reasons, I can tell you honestly that I don’t know. You’d have to get a release and talk to her doctor.”
Jay needed to get one more question answered before Mr. Georges pushed him out. Sarah was still his primary concern whenever he could reach her. Feeling as guilty as Jay did about shooting her down, he couldn’t help but consider Taylor Lynn, too. He didn’t want his fracturing bargaining position to reflect poorly on her job. No one had yet spoken about reclaiming the full dive pods they used, so he could only hope they would remain a gift.
“What about Taylor Lynn?” Jay asked as the lawyer repetitively checked his watch. The lawyer would excuse himself to run off to another meeting any minute now. He’d already set the precedent of a packed schedule.
“What about Taylor Lynn?” the lawyer countered, standing up from his chair. “Her job is safe. She’s still providing a useful service to the company. Actually, she’s ranked top five in discoveries. The developers should thank you for introducing her to our company. You, on the other hand, have become a liability. As you know, it’s my job to manage liability. If you’ll excuse me, I have another meeting.”
There it was.