MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (25 page)

“Working on it,” Andy replied. “I’m busy charming the secretary of the faculty. You know how irresistible I am.”

They shared a laugh at that, and Andy signed off to have dinner with his fraternity, explaining that this was their weekly drinking eve but that he would stay sober.

From that moment on, they entered a routine of complete madness. To purchase the gear he needed, Gunslinger would have to fight in countless battlegrounds to earn honor points, which could be exchanged for gear. Rebecca had made an estimate of the number of battlegrounds that Gunslinger would have to compete in. According to this estimate, he was going to be in battle for nearly three days in a row.

Battlegrounds were places where armies of the Horde and the Alliance met each other in open combat. There were six of them, right on the brink between different servers. This meant that players from different servers joined together for battle. Robert suddenly found himself fighting shoulder to shoulder with players whom he would never meet outside the battleground.

Rebecca guided him through his first steps in the different battlegrounds, that each had their own objectives. In Warsong Gulch the opposition’s flag had to be captured, in Arathi Basin resource nodes had to be captured and defended, the Eye of the Storm was a combination of those two, while in Alterac Valley the objectives were a lot more complex. The Isle of Conquest soon became Robert’s favorite, while he quickly learned to hate the Strand of the Ancients.

The Player versus Player combat in those battlegrounds was incomparable to ‘normal’ gameplay, with its own challenges and demands. It was incredibly fast paced, and real players were much more versatile than computer-controlled opponents. It required another mindset, lightning reflexes, and some different skills.

Her introduction was certainly useful, and she spent four full hours sitting next to him and supplying him with tips and advice. After that, he was stiff and tired. Rebecca took over and suggested that he‘d go out to buy some food.

They ate pizzas behind the computer. When they finished their dinner, they heard Khalid return to his room. Five minutes later, Andy entered. He had two six-packs of beer with him. He shared the beers out and sat on the ground with crossed legs. At that time, Robert had taken over Gunslinger again. He was playing and joining the conversation at the same time. Andy and Rebecca were sitting against the wall with cans of beer in their hands, chatting and laughing. The mood in the room was improving by the minute.

When Robert felt he couldn’t lift another finger, Andy insisted on doing his part. Even though he had no experience at all, Rebecca started to give him basic instructions on how to play Gunslinger in Player versus Player combat. Andy was eager, and soon he was whooping and cursing as he was killing and being killed. Rebecca was next to him, cheering him on.

Robert sat on his bed and watched them for awhile, but he was getting drowsy, and soon he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. He tried to fight it, but the fatigue couldn’t be denied.

He woke up in the middle of the night, finding that someone had covered him. The lights were out, but the room was illuminated by the harsh glow of the computer screen. He didn’t move, watching how the ever changing brightness and colors played on Rebecca’s face. She was wearing one of his white T-shirts and her legs were bare. The only thing that moved were her fingers that raced over the keyboard as if she was playing a piano. She was so beautiful, strong, and girl-like at the same time that he felt his body suddenly ache for her.

When the battleground ended, she looked over at him. Seeing he was awake, she came over and knelt at the bed. She put her hand out and gently stroked his hair.

“Sleep now,” she whispered. “I’ll finish one more battleground, then it’s done for today. We have many sleepless nights in front of us, so we need all the sleep we can get.”

“Are you sure? Do you need help?” His voice croaked, the result of too much beer and the time of night it was.

She smiled down at him. “No. Sleep now.”

He drifted off again with the feeling of her hand on his head.

~~~

Chapter XXII

Over
the course of the next two days, Gunslinger’s performance in battlegrounds improved. Once Robert mastered the basic skills, he gradually became an adequate fighter, though not yet ready to face the members of the Hammer of Grimstone after the launch of the new expansion.

The three of them managed to keep Gunslinger busy almost twenty-four hours a day, turning over the keyboard after several hours. In this way they completed as many battlegrounds and instances as possible, collecting a mass of emblems of Triumph and emblems of Frost, that could be used to buy superior gear later. Mostly it was Robert who was in charge, because he was, as Rebecca called it, ‘the one who had to do it in the new expansion’.

Meanwhile Hunterino wasn’t sleeping; Robert kept playing with Khalid now and then. He had introduced Rebecca to him, explaining that Rebecca was his long-time girlfriend. He told him she was over from Scotland for a visit, so he didn’t have as much time to play with Hunterino as he would have liked. He expressed his regret at not being able to play more often with Khalid, as the Egyptian was to leave for a few days soon.

Khalid seemed to think nothing of it. He was busy playing WoW as well. Together with four members of his guild, he played the instance of the Blood Furnace over and over again. This in itself was strange behavior as it wasn’t even a level eighty instance, but designed for players of level sixty-four. The so-called heroic version was tuned for players of level seventy. Rebecca knew that place intimately, and she racked her brain for a possible reason for them to do that. The grounds of Raynewood Retreat and the ship at the Cape of Stranglethorn had been clear training objectives. The purpose of raiding the Blood Furnace over and over again eluded them.

Khalid kept to his room most of the time. He did go out several times, trailed by Andy, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. The day of his announced departure approached with nothing out of the ordinary happening.

On the afternoon of December second, several things happened at the same time. At the moment Rebecca returned from the bathroom, Khalid exited his room. He was dressed in a heavy dark colored winter coat and was carrying a big canvas bag.

“Hi, are you going somewhere?” Rebecca asked innocently.

It was obvious that Khalid wasn’t in the mood for idle chatter. He murmured an affirmative, without meeting her eye, and turned away from her. With long strides he walked away.

“Well, have fun!” she called to his retreating back. Right after that, she sent a text message to the already waiting Andy, saying that Khalid was on the move. Robert, who had heard their voices through the door, rushed over and handed her jacket and bag to her. She hurriedly shot on the jacket and put on a cap before running down the corridor. Just before she reached the stairs, she turned around and blew him a kiss. A second later, she was gone.

Since they knew in advance that Khalid would be leaving on this day, they were fully prepared. Andy had borrowed his mother’s car and had it waiting around the corner. As soon as Rebecca was close enough behind to follow Khalid herself, Andy rushed to the car and drove to the mini ring around the inner city center. He quickly reached a point where he could choose from several directions and parked to wait for further instructions.

Rebecca trailed a fair distance behind Khalid. The weather was typical for this time of year. At a temperature of about forty-three degrees Fahrenheit, a grey cloud cover sprayed a continuous faint drizzle on the world below. At one point she saw him looking over his shoulder, and she moved quickly behind an elderly couple with a white oversized umbrella.

When she saw he was headed to the train station, she quickened her pace. Still, she nearly lost him in the hall of the station. It was only by luck that she spotted him stepping away from one of the big yellow automated ticket dispensers. She hid behind one of the machines herself, while she watched him study a timetable. Her eyes followed him to the stairs to track nine.

She speed dialed Andy. “He’s taking the Intercity in the direction of The Hague.”

“That’s the international train,” the Dutchman replied. “It runs all the way to Brussels in Belgium.”

Without hesitation, Rebecca started punching the buttons of the ticket machine. She groaned when she saw the amount for a ticket to Brussels. She paid with her debit card and went up to the tracks. She spotted Khalid leaning against a metal pillar near the end of the platform.

Stepping back between a cluster of other passengers, she called Robert to update him on the situation. Meanwhile, Andy had reached the motorway. He pointed his mother’s car, a compact VW Golf, in the direction of The Hague. He estimated that he’d be hard pressed to keep up with the train as it followed its course from The Hague to Delft, Rotterdam and Bergen op Zoom at the Belgian border, but that it wasn’t impossible.

Robert was still on the phone with Rebecca when the second thing happened. He heard the telltale beep which meant that he had another call waiting. He looked for the number and saw the caller was anonymous. He ended their conversation and answered the call.

“Ernest Fitzgerald,” a man introduced himself with an unmistakably English accent. “Is this Robert Barnes?”

“Speaking. How can I help you?”

“I’m working with the AIVD, the Dutch equivalent of MI6. We’ve been given some information on a possible line on the terrorists that call themselves The Hammer of Righteous Justice. This information originated with you, correct?”

Robert felt his heart make a jump in his chest.
Finally!
Suddenly, his throat felt as dry as barn paper. His affirmative came out as a croak.

“When can we meet?” Fitzgerald asked without any further preamble.

He thought furiously. There was no telling when Andy and Rebecca would return. Their trip could take them all the way to Belgium and maybe even farther. Making a decision, he answered that he was available immediately.

This obviously pleased the man. “We’ll be at your place in an hour.”

At the end of this hour, the train carrying Rebecca and Khalid was traveling through the endless flat pastures of the province of Noord Brabant. Andy was slightly ahead of the train and nearing the Belgian border. Rebecca was seated in the compartment next to Khalid’s and was keeping them updated by text messages. So far, their quarry hadn’t moved. He was reading a book and seemed totally unaware of his surroundings.

When the buzzer rang, Robert had just finished tidying his room. It was a small place, and now they were living there with the two of them it kept turning into a mess, no matter how hard Robert tried to maintain order. Rebecca didn’t seem to mind as she was only occupied with getting the Hammer of Grimstone.

Half a minute after he pressed the automatic door opener, he met two men halfway down the stairs. They both wore suits, complete with tie, which was uncharacteristic for the Dutch. Robert had noted that even many Dutch politicians had abolished their ties.

They shook hands in the corridor. Ernest Fitzgerald was younger than expected, probably in his mid thirties. He judged the other, a Dutchman by the name of Sjoerd Broersma, to be closer to fifty. Robert invited them in and indicated where they could sit. Suddenly, the room seemed even smaller than before. Nobody said a word while he prepared coffee. He was interrupted by the familiar beep of an incoming text message. Robert reached for his phone. It was an update from Rebecca, telling they just crossed the border and were in Belgium now. He couldn’t suppress his excitement any longer.

“You must send people to Belgium at once!” he said urgently. “Khalid is on his way there and we’re following him!”

Fitzgerald didn’t answer but held his hand out to receive his cup. He stirred some sugar through his coffee and fixed Robert with a stare.

“Very good that we could meet on such a short notice,” he said as if he hadn’t heard Robert at all. “Let me first explain something about the confidentiality statement you’ll have to sign before going any further.”

This caught Robert off guard. “What do you mean?” he asked.

The man coughed. “Well, we’re keeping our investigation into this Hammer of Righteous Justice strictly confidential. No word to the press about our progress, no matter how they hammer us for an update.” Fitzgerald produced a faint smile at his own choice of words, before continuing seriously: “This is an international investigation, with multiple foreign services involved. We want to nail those bastards.”

“Forgive me for saying so,” Robert said cautiously, “but I have the feeling that you’re not close to them yet.”

Again, Fitzgerald stared at him. “Who knows,” he said after a few seconds. “Still, the question remains, can we trust you?”

“You can trust me.”

“Hm. I suppose we’ll have to, don’t you think? Now, will you promise not to disclose anything we discuss today? To anyone?”

Robert hesitated before answering. “That depends,” he said slowly, “on whether ‘anybody’ includes Rebecca and Andy too. We’re in this together.”

Now it was Sjoerd Broersma who answered. His English was heavy with the characteristic Dutch accent. “You may share this conversation with them.”

“In that case, I promise not to disclose anything to anyone, except for Rebecca and Andy.”

“All right. Let me start by saying that we don’t discount the possibility of World of Warcraft, or any other online game for that matter, being used as a possible communication channel for criminal organizations. As you already clearly stated in your briefing document, it’s perfectly suited for the purpose. It’s anonymous, accessible from anywhere, and totally secure.”