Chapter 3

Dean

"Hi sweetie. You're home tonight?" Mom asked.

"I am. Thought I'd take it easy. Westin Force is on the way and I'm going to have to meet with Patrick and his team in the morning."

"I'm surprised you aren't going to be there to welcome them."

"Me too, but Ryan insists that it isn't necessary. So I'm going to get a good night's sleep and be ready to work bright and early."

"Where are they staying while here?"

"I have no idea. I assume at the motel, but that's a Ryan problem, above my paygrade."

She shook her head, but she was smiling.

"I'll have a tray brought up to you. Your father and I already ate."

"That would be great, Mom."

Ryan and Elias had never been able to get away with things the way I could, or reap the benefits of things like this. We all knew I was Mom's favorite. There had to be some benefits to being the baby of the family.

Kissing Mom's cheek, I ran upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.

I was supposed to be with Tracey tonight, but I'd bailed when I heard about Westin Force coming in. Besides, the newest upgrade to Chaos had just launched, and I'd been dying to dive into it.

First, I changed out of my work clothes and into plaid pajama pants and no shirt. If Mom wasn't sending up a tray, I'd already be stripped down to my boxers.

Firing up my gaming system, I settled into my special chair and rocked back. I was ready to play.

Starting a new game, I sat in the holding room waiting for others to join. I'd been off my game for a while and wasn't sure who was who anymore. It was sad and something I definitely needed to rectify soon.

I needed a six-man team. First foxyhook signed in, and next came mitch8 and tybee38.

We chatted for a bit, waiting for our final two to join. It felt like forever before JH37069 and wolfhunter247 popped into our room.

"Great. We're all here. Let's talk strategy."

"Just play the game already," Mitch complained.

"I've already beaten this game three times," Tybee insisted.

"No, you haven't," JH challenged.

"What? Did too."

"No one has beat it yet," JH insisted.

"He would know," Wolfhunter said with a laugh.

"This is ridiculous. Are we playing or not?" Foxy said.

I couldn't agree with her more.

"Let's start," I said.

"Who made you team leader?" Mitch argued.

"It's my room. My rules. Don't like it, leave, but we're starting now."

For the next twenty minutes, we played, argued, and died. Over and over again.

"This is lame. I'm out," Tybee said. "Check you losers later."

"Yeah, I'm out too," Mitch said. "My mom's calling me up for dinner."

I snorted. "Freaking kids. Why do I always get stuck with the children?"

But at the mention of food, I looked around and saw my tray of food Mom had sent up had been delivered at some point and was already growing cold.

While we waited for their replacements to join, I scarfed down my food.

"Hate to say it, but I've got to bail, too. My date's here and he's not much of a gamer," Foxy said. "It's been. . .well, something."

With that, she was gone.

I sighed. "Looks like a pretty slow night, guys. Are you two also bailing on me?"

"Do you even enjoy playing?" JH asked.

"Are you kidding? I love it! I even went to college to learn graphic design and gaming creation with big plans to work in the industry. This used to be my entire life."

"What happened?" Wolfhunter asked.

"Life. I guess I grew up. Or maybe I'm still growing up. I ended up in cyber security instead and well. . .life."

"Totally understand, man. Why don't we just keep it to the three of us tonight?" JH suggested.

"Not for this campaign. It requires six and I'm afraid I don't have the connections to pull in solid players anymore, just a bunch of snot-nosed kids."

"Bet you were one not that long ago," Wolfhunter teased.

"But at least I was good. Those guys sucked."

They both laughed.

"You really think you're that good?" JH asked.

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay, prove it. Let's go."

"Still need three more," I reminded him.

"Not when I have the cloning code," he said slyly.

"The what?"

"Cloning code," Wolfhunter said.

"Is that even legal?"

They both laughed.

"Let me guess. You two have played together before."

"You could say that," Wolfhunter said.

Suddenly, my screen dinged, letting me know it was okay to proceed, even though there were only three of us in the room.

"Now this becomes a bit trickier and we haven't exactly done well with a full team. Could be a total flop, but you're now playing as two people," JH explained.

"How does that work?"

"Duck," he yelled.

So I did. And the lag between me and my clone saved me while killing him.

"Now what?"

"Now your clone will respawn back at base in a safe zone so you can play out the game," he said.

"But that's like three on six then."

"Right. So if you're as good as you think you are, we can still take them," he said in the most cocky tone I'd ever heard.

"That's insinuating you two don't suck."

"We don't," Wolfhunter chimed in confidently.

True to their word, they stuck by me and we defeated that level, and then the next, and the next.

"You're pretty good," Wolfhunter finally conceded.

"Thanks. You guys aren't so bad yourselves."

"Well, we should be. I mean, we did create the game," she said.

"Tobi!"

"What? Oh right. We don't know this kid. Forget I said anything."

"Y'all are just playing me anyway," I said. There was no way I was playing with the creators of Chaos.

Jackson Holt had created this game. He was famous in the gaming world and, as far as I knew, he didn't work with a partner.

"You caught us," JH admitted. "Want to keep going?"

"Yes, but I have a ridiculously early meeting, so I shouldn't."

"Told ya he really wasn't a kid," Wolfhunter said.

"I'll give you your reward later tonight."

"Oh, you better, big boy."

I was starting to get a little weirded out imagining these two having video sex or something later. Lord knew I'd crossed paths with a whole lot worse than that on some of these games.

"Uh, have fun with that. I'll maybe catch you guys again sometime."

As I was ending my game, I could have sworn I heard her say, "Jackson. I can't believe you just ran off our new friend. And stop cheating in your own game."

Jackson? JH. Could it really be Jackson Holt?

Nah! They were just messing with me.

I yawned and stretched. Then I cleaned up, set my tray out into the hallway, and then made my way to bed. When I noted the late hour, I knew I was going to regret staying up with those two so late.

*****

Sure enough, morning came much too quickly.

I groaned when the alarm went off and rolled back over.

Less than five minutes later, my phone rang. I wanted to throw it across the room.

"What?"

"Just making sure you're up. We have a lot to do today," Ryan said.

"I hate you."

"Good morning to you, too. Now get your ass moving. You're meeting with Patrick in one hour. Do not be late."

"If you could see me now, you'd know I was flicking you my middle finger."

"Well, fly on over here little birdie and show me."

"I hate you," I said again.

"Love you, too. Don't be late."

He hung up the phone just as I finally opened my eyes. I already had a headache, but knew there was no way I was getting out of this.

Reluctantly, I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. That at least woke me up some.

I dressed, made my way downstairs, grabbed a quick breakfast sandwich and coffee that was waiting for me in the kitchen, and left the house to drive over to the office.

By the time I arrived there, Ryan was already starting to pace, but I had seen Patrick pull up as I walked into the building.

"Relax. I beat him here."

"Too close. You should have been here already."

"Believe it or not, you aren't my boss, Ry."

"Well, I should be."

"But you're not."

I grinned and even winked out, but when I walked into my office suite, I closed the door behind him, right in his face.

"Good morning, Dean."

"Good morning, beautiful."

She scowled and shook her head at me.

"Do you need breakfast this morning?"

"Nope. Ate on the way."

"Coffee?"

"Not for me, but make sure we have a fresh pot ready for our guests. They just arrived. I'm sure Ryan is kissing their asses by now."

The knock on the outer door told me they were here and wasting no time with small talk.

Bernice rushed to answer it.

"Welcome back, Mr. O'Connell."

"Thank you, Bernice. This is Jude and Luka. They're shadowing me on this trip."

"Welcome," she told them. "You can head into the conference room. Dean will be right with you. Can I get you some coffee or anything at all while you wait?"

"Yes, please. Coffee would be wonderful."

"Same."

"Me, too," the boys echoed.

Bernice returned to me and shoved a fresh cup of coffee in my face.

"Drink. You look like shit."

I grimaced, but did as she said while she straightened my tie then smoothed out my sports coat.

"Now you're ready."

I chuckled. "With that confidence, how can I possibly fail?"

"That tongue of yours is going to get you in big trouble one of these days."

I didn't bother arguing with her. It was the same conversation we had on an almost daily basis.

Feeling much more confident, I strode into the small conference room that was part of my office suite.

"Patrick. It's good to see you again."

"I wish I came on better terms for once. Dean, this is Jude and Luka. They are interning with Westin Force this semester, along with several others. I have two more here in Ravenden who are already checking areas of your borders as we speak."

"This sounds concerning."

"It is. Why don't you take a seat?"

"That's usually my line," I said with a chuckle. "Why don't you give it to me straight, Patrick? What is going on?"

"We're not yet sure why, but the Collectors as a whole have upped their game. Currently only in Australia, but we can't be sure they won't move on to others."

"What are they doing in Australia?"

"They held an auction there where they announced a high price on several dingo shifters."

"You mean witches?"

"No. As far as I know, none of them have extra powers. They are simply shifters."

"Why would anyone pay a premium for that?"

"Because they are advertising them as the last dingo shifters alive."

"Are they?"

"No. There are several Tribes of dingo throughout Australia. But after this was announced, they began a mass scale roundup of all the remaining dingoes."

"They have the manpower for something like that?"

"Apparently, they do now. Like I said, we're still investigating things. All of my top teams are down there trying to sort this out."

"You're worried they'll come here."

He nodded. "It's well known throughout the shifter world that all ravens are witches. We've already seen evidence that the Collectors know this too. If they have the capability to annihilate an entire species, what do you think they could do to you?"

"I see. What can we do to stop it?"

"For starters, we're going to lock down security. Archie is here with us, and already working on perimeter surveillance. You'll need to meet with him to go over his findings this afternoon."

"Of course. And while I appreciate the assistance, I would very much like to be kept in the loop and have final approval for any changes you suggest we make to our current system and processes."

"That's not a problem. Archie can be, well, difficult at times. Pig-headed. Stubborn. Really quite obstinate."

"I get the picture," I said, cutting him off.

"But I promise he's going to try."

Something told me I was not going to like this one single bit.