Natasha entered Ellen’s room. Nigel was seated on the floor working on his computer. Milo and Cassidy were doing something on their phones. John sat in a chair next to Ellen.

“Pack your bags Nigel, we are going to Tage Manor now,” Natasha said.

“I want to be there when my mother wakes up,” Nigel demanded.

“I think you’ll want to hear what Mr. Tage has to say. I think we will find out who our mystery hacker is. Besides, John is with your mother. It will be okay, Nigel,” Natasha said.

“Great! My phone doesn’t have a signal,” Nigel bellowed.

“My phone works fine,” Cassidy said. “I have a signal,” Milo interjected.

“I will make sure that Milo and Cassidy get home,” John said.

“Milo, keep your phone on, in case we need some radio help,” Nigel said.

Thirty minutes later Natasha and Nigel were driving to Tage Manor. Natasha commanded her vehicle with precision. Snow was plummeting, covering the road. Nigel thought back to when he first met Natasha and Mr. Tage; it had only been six weeks ago, but it felt like a lifetime.

About twenty minutes later, Natasha pulled up to Tage Manor. Natasha put a hand on Nigel’s. He stared into her sapphire eyes for a long moment. They were radiant, almost seeming to glow in the dimming light. Nigel felt a little strange. His heart was racing, and he was sweating.

What’s the matter with me? he wondered.

“Come, let’s join the others. I believe the meeting is about to start,” Natasha said.

Nigel hesitated for another moment—he heard a tap on the car’s window, but it might as well have been a bang. Nigel jumped.

“What was that?”

Natasha opened the door. It was Alexei.

“Alexei, it is good to see you,” Natasha said.

“Come on inside. Mr. Tage has prepared dinner for us.”

Alexei extended a hand to Nigel as he got out of the car.

“Hello, Nigel. I hope you are feeling better,” Alexei said.

“Beterz now,” Nigel said in his robotic voice.

Alexei looked troubled. He pointed at Nigel’s homemade voice box.

“From the accident?” he asked.

“Dane, Mr. Henry’s son, made it for Nigel,” Natasha explained.

Alexei nodded, and then pointed at the manor. “Shall we?”

After entering the building, Nigel rubbed his hands together and stamped his feet; standing in the cold snow, even for a short time, had gotten to him.

“My boy, it is good to see you again,” a familiar voice said.

Nigel looked up, and Mr. Tage was approaching; he seemed to have aged two years since Nigel had last seen him. It was a bit unsettling.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Hello, Mr. Tagze,” Nigel said.

Mr. Tage’s demeanor seemed to change. It was subtle, but noticeable. “I heard about the attack. I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Nigel nodded.

“Come, you must be famished. My chef, Oscar, has prepared something delicious for us all,” Mr. Tage said as he walked toward the dining room.

Nigel hadn’t been to Mr. Tage’s formal dining room before. When he was last here, all his meals had been in other areas of the manor.

Several people Nigel didn’t know were at the dining table. Mr. Tage introduced each person in turn, Melissa last. The other guests included Viktor, Sasha, and Julius.

“Hello, Nigel,” Viktor said.

“Hey, kid, remember me?” Julius said.

“Thanks for helping us win the case,” Nigel said.

“No problem kid, glad it worked out.”

Nigel nodded as he took his place at the table.

They ate dinner in silence.

“We will have our dessert in the sitting room,” Mr. Tage announced when they were all finished.

The group followed Mr. Tage into a room as large as Nigel’s house. Several antique pieces of furniture and expensive-looking sculptures and artwork were visible.

An elderly butler cut several pieces of cake, poured cups of coffee, then left the room in a hurry. Mr. Tage drank coffee as he let everyone settle in with their dessert and coffee.

“Let’s get right to the point. Our guest has some news that all of you will want to hear,” Mr. Tage said.

Melissa described the events of her father’s plans to turn her daughter into Delta.

“Living up to my father’s expectations was never easy. I left because April needs our help,” Melissa said.

“Help? Why should we help you?” Viktor said.

“Youz weren’t listening to Melisza. Isn’t it obvioz?” Nigel said. He seemed aggravated that his voice modulator was having problems.

Alexei pointed to Nigel’s neck. “I can help you with that, if you would like.”

Nigel nodded and smiled in return.

“The boy has a point. If even a fraction of this is true, it’s in our best interest to help April,” Mr. Tage said.

“We believe that they coordinated the attack on the lab with the holidays. A lot of good people died, and nobody saw it coming,” Alexei said.

Melissa looked uncomfortable, like she was about to cry. “My father hired this elite hacker guy to start a war between the Collective and Black Iris,” she said.

“Don’t think this is a coincidence. We are seeing strange traffic patterns around DDOS providers such as CloudShield. I’ve seen a lot of coordinated DDOS attack activity for several known Colossal Machine IP addresses. I’m sure there’s been some customer complaints,” Nigel said.

“There have been a lot of complaints—something about the world server,” Alexei said.

“That makes sense, since the role of the world server in any MMORPG is to have it maintain an active link to all other regional servers,” Nigel said.

“Melissa, do you know the name of the hacker your father hired?” Alexei asked.

“I think it was Greg or something, but he didn’t sound American. He had an accent,” Melissa said.

“Gregor?” Alexei asked.

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Nigel couldn’t catch his breath. His mouth went dry, and his heart was pounding so hard that he could hear it beating in his ears.

“What’s wrong, my boy?” Mr. Tage said.

The entire room stared at Nigel, which did nothing for his nerves. Natasha put a hand on his shoulder. He caught his breath. Since the accident, even thinking about Gregor’s name was enough to put him in a panic.

“It will be all right, dear,” Natasha said.

“Gregor tried to have Nigel assassinated last fall,” Alexei said.

Melissa gave Nigel a sympathetic look.

“If Gregor is with Jeremiah, then we may have a more serious problem than previously thought,” Alexei said.

“I think that both the Collective and Black Iris are being played against each other. Perhaps another parley hosted by the Shadow Dealers might be in order,” Melissa said.

“We tried that. Those bastards wouldn’t even listen to us when these attacks first started almost two weeks ago,” Alexei said.

“I think we should hold any meeting here. I don’t trust the Shadow Dealers anymore,” Alexei said.

“Agreed. How do we contact Black Iris?” Mr. Tage asked.

“I have two contacts—”

Alexei cut Melissa off. “Under no circumstances should Hunter Garrison be anywhere near this meeting,” Alexei said.

“Why?” Melissa asked.

“He is the person responsible for Nigel’s condition.”

Melissa looked at Nigel’s neck, then back at Alexei.

“Long story, but the short answer is that Gregor placed a bounty on the Black Iris bounty board, and Hunter attempted to collect. Things got messy,” Alexei said.

“Well, we seem to be in a bit of a messy situation, alright,” Mr. Tage said.

The room fell silent for a moment.

“Boss, can I have a word with you?” Julius asked.

Alexei nodded at Julius.

“Excuse us for a moment,” Alexei said as they both left the room.