“Aye, it wouldn’t surprise me, either.”
I frowned a little at Corbin. “So, you’re saying we have to keep playing the game in order to not let on to him that we know he’s behind it all?”
“I think it would be best,” Corbin said. Holder nodded his agreement. “Paul will know sooner or later that we’re savvy to his plans, but I’d prefer it be later than sooner. Besides, he may well have a scenario running.”
Holder groaned.
“A scenario?” I asked. “What’s that?”
“A series of events that have to happen in order for the storyline to advance.
Our game scenarios are all reward-based, which means if you succeed at a task or event, or even level of experience, you are rewarded by some means. The act of you succeeding pushes the scenario along. We’re working on tutorial scenarios now, but Paul was hard at work on advanced game-play ones when he left.” Corbin looked very serious, driving home just how helpless we were.
“Then we have to do this scenario thing that Paul set up in order to… do what?”
“Get to whatever point he has set as the goal of the scenario. And knowing him”—Corbin shot a significant glance at Holder—“I assume that has him triumphing over us in some way. If we haven’t found him by that time, I’m almost a hundred percent certain he’ll take that opportunity to reveal himself.”
I made a face. I didn’t like the sound of that. “Man alive. So we go on playing the game and talking to everyone in hopes we find him before that time?”
“Unless someone has a better plan?” He looked at me and Holder. We both shook our heads. “Then that’s the game plan. Ha. No pun intended. Are you ready to leave?”
“Oh, yes, please.”
Corbin gave his men the order to put in to shore, and without further ado, carried me to shore in the waist-high water so I wouldn’t get wet.
I melted a bit at that gesture, I don’t mind admitting.
“If you follow that path through the trees, you’ll come to the high point of the island,” he said after setting me down on a small crescent of white sandy beach enclosed by a thick stand of trees. Although the moonlight was bright, he handed both me and Bas oil lanterns.
“Do you know the path, lad?” he asked Bas.
The boy looked almost cheerful as he considered the dark, uninhabited side of the island. “Aye. I’ve come this way afore, lookin‘ for owls.”
“Owls?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Aye. They be right bad omens. To see an owl is to see yer own death,” he said with a ghoulish glint in his eye.
I looked at Corbin.
“What?” he asked. “I can’t help it if the kid has a fascination with death.”
“You programmed him! You’d just better program up a child psychologist when we get out of the game,” I warned, then waved at where Holder and the rest of Corbin’s crew stood clustered at the rail of his ship.
“Don’t forget to kiss her!” Holder bellowed, cupping his hands around his mouth.
“Oh, for God’s sake…shut up!” Corbin yelled back.
I giggled. Bas rolled his eyes and stared up the dirt path, Bran the raven squawking as he ducked low beneath a branch.
“I apologize for Holder,” Corbin said, looking embarrassed. “If he wasn’t my oldest and closest friend, I’d kill him.”
I laughed and leaned forward, brushing my lips against his. “I don’t remember the last time I saw a man blush by moonlight. It’s very romantic. Almost romantic enough to turn my financial analyst’s soul to thoughts of a more carnal nature. Thank you, Corbin.”
It was his eyebrows’ turn to look surprised. “For what? Creating the vehicle that would leave you helpless in a world you want to escape?”
I rubbed the tip of my nose against his. “For making me play. I think you and Tara may be on to something. Let me know if you find your ex-partner.”
His jaw went tight. “I will.”
