Russ screamed at the game. It looked like his character had died by a shuriken to the forehead from a ninja. Russ slapped the woman and kicked the man, releasing his rage. He had always seemed like such a nice person.
I had the feeling I should take a risk with Russ and expose all my cards. The boom was on and so was the Pinlighter up my sleeve to record our exchange. I should have been thinking about what to ask, but the cinematographer’s instincts in me thought of dramatic angles, light reflecting off his face, the woman and the man chained to either side of him as contrast.
“You told security Larry sent you. But I know Larry didn’t send you,” Russ said.
“You’re right. He couldn’t have sent me because he’s dead.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you think that impostor could fool me? I was Larry’s best friend.”
Russ stopped playing his arcade game and turned to me, grim. “What was it that gave it away?”
Inside, a part of me collapsed. Larry really was dead. It took all my mental discipline not to break down.
“Everything,” I answered.
“Who have you told?” he demanded.
“Tell me why and I’ll tell you who I’ve told.”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The whole company would fall apart without Larry. He used to disappear all the time so we hired someone to impersonate him whenever he was away.”
“That’s who’s taken Larry’s spot?”
“You’re the only person who could tell the difference.”
I fiddled with the camera in my sleeve, wanting to switch angles. “What about Larry’s killer? Or was it you that killed him?”
Laughter bellowed out of him. “I’d have nothing to gain by killing him. Besides, this new Larry is turning out to be a monster.”
“A monster?”
Russ turned back to his arcade machine. “What do you want?”
“I want to find out what happened to Larry.”
“He had a lot of enemies.”
“You have no interest in catching them?” I asked.
“If I tried to catch them, I’d have to acknowledge he was dead. Do you know what would happen to the company if word of that got out?”
“What?”
“We’re in the middle of some very important negotiations,” Russ said. “I’m securing the future of Chao Toufa. Maybe after we reach an agreement, we can look into what happened.”
“Garbage rights?” I threw out there, remembering something Larry had said.
Russ stopped playing again. “How did you know?”
“Larry mentioned it.”
“We have a lot of land out in Greenland and Antarctica that the US government is interested in.”
“I don’t see why they would care if Larry were alive or not.”
“That’s why you’re not a businessman.”
“You’re right. I’m not. I don’t get why garbage is more important than Larry’s life. At least you could have given him a proper burial. Where’s his body?”
I heard a loud boom, felt something punch me in my leg. I felt another blast to my shoulder that caused me to gyrate and stumble into one of the arcade booths. My leg became too weak to support me and I fell to the ground. It took a second to gather they were gunshots. I’d never been shot before. Shot at, yes, but even that was far off the mark. Fortunately, my armor had protected me, but it hurt like hell. There were probably deep contusions and I wondered what would have happened without the plating. I put it out of mind and stayed down, pretending it was worse than it seemed. I had no idea who had fired. Was it Russ? Or guards on the periphery? Or was there a security gun on the ceiling? If the latter, I had no way of getting out as I didn’t have anything to take out a computer-controlled gun. Russ hovered above me with a gloating smile. Coming up next to him was his butler with his huge glasses holding a pistol.
“Should I kill him, sir?”
“No. I need him alive,” Russ said.
The woman who resembled Beauvoir made a rustling sound and when the butler turned his head, I got out my gun and fired at him. The paralysis dart made contact, but bounced off his suit. He too had some armor underneath. I scrambled to hide behind another arcade stall and the bullet that was intended for my back blew the screen.
“Be careful where you fire!” Russ shouted. “Those things are worth a million SC each!”
“You should get out of here, sir,” the butler told Russ.
“I need him alive,” Russ reminded him, then bolted for the exit.
I thought of using a light bomb, but I’d seen his glasses and they would most likely protect him against that kind of measure. The room was slowly spinning. The music and sound effects from the arcade games made it difficult to extrapolate his location. My leg was throbbing and even kneeling against the booth made it sting. I peeked over to the side and did not see him. I knew he wouldn’t aim for the head and this armor would hold against most shots which gave me a bit of an advantage. At the same time, my only option was to paralyze him in the face as that was the only area he had no protection, making things infinitely more challenging.
I swerved around a booth that read Golden Axe on the side, heard a gunshot, only to see it was from a game called The Terminator. For a moment, the screen turned black and I saw the reflection of the butler. I ducked quickly and a bullet blasted off the joystick. I turned around to fire, but he was gone. I sprinted for the outer circle and looked inwards. I saw Beauvoir and the other male, but the butler wasn’t there. Was he hiding? Was he kneeling in wait? Was he getting closer or was he just stalking me until I fell right into his hands?
The arcade games looked like cartoons and were limited in motion, being stuck on a flat plane. I was stuck with only my two eyes and they weren’t seeing anything. I had an idea. I placed my Pinlighter on top of one of the arcade machines and pointed it towards the middle. Then I took out the lens I’d gotten earlier, hooked the feed from the camera into the lens, and positioned it onto both my eyes. I’d gained another line of sight as a small visual screen popped up in the upper left corner of my view.
I dashed towards the middle of the room, hopeful that my motion would elicit a response. There was movement in the corner. Before I could respond, there were two loud blasts. One bullet barely missed my body and the other blew up the arcade booth next to me. I ducked under a stall, the woman and the guy cowering behind Bad Dudes.
I checked the Pinlighter feed. The butler was creeping up on me a row away. I got ready for him to get closer. When he was in proximity, I’d jump out and shoot him in his neck. I couldn’t hear his steps as the games were making their bubbly sounds and their simulated MIDI tracks were too loud. I had to trust the camera. Half a minute later, the butler was right where I needed him and I rushed to the side, hoping to catch him off guard. But as I thrust forward, the pain in my legs caused me to buckle, and when I fired, the bullet was far left. The butler wasn’t bothered by the shot and launched straight at me with a kick to my chest. It hit me right between the ribs and my breath heaved, my head feeling light. I couldn’t tell if any ribs had cracked, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it as he came with another roundhouse kick that hit my chin. I spun in the air and my gun flew out of my hand. He’d have an open shot if he took it right now. Even if it wouldn’t penetrate the armor, the force of the blow would most likely leave me too debilitated to fight back. Fortunately, I channeled the cricket in me and scrambled away as quickly as I could.