Exodus: The Assassin's Path 17 Watching and Waiting

The old professor sat on the same couch his daughter had been on earlier. He was wearing a helmet with a half dozen attached wires coming out of it. The wires lead back to a box that Quinn had hooked up to his keyboard. He was manually entering information.

Tal smirked as she looked over Quinn's shoulder, "knew it!"

Ben Joki looked up from the couch, "what did you know?"

Quinn shrugged, "the sensors are saying she's a bit smarter then you. Sorry Pops." Quinn barely tried to keep from grinning.

"Of course, she had me to teach her everything. You can't replace the benefits of being carefully nurtured by a genius," he was as shameless an old man as there was.

"So, you are taking the credit?" Unfortunately, the normally wise Tal went ahead and stepped right into his trap.

"Behind every great student," the old man sighed contently as he leaned back.

Tal grimaced and looked like she ate a bug, "can we shock him with that?"

"How would I know? You're the engineer!" Quinn arched his back, he felt like he'd been sitting in this chair all night. A moment later he felt a pair of hands kneading his shoulders...

Tal shrugged, "I owe you one remember?" She smiled as she massaged his shoulders.

"All done here anyways, you should both be able to log into the game." Quinn leaned back enjoying the attention.

"You don't have to scan Pops?" Tal asked as she pushed her thumbs into the muscles of his neck.

"I did that first this time around." He continued typing as they spoke.

"Although why I needed to stand on the balcony in my underwear just to get a body scan is beyond me," the old man glared at Quinn.

"Oh god..." She tried to hold it in, but when her whole body started shaking, Quinn lost control also. The two laughed hysterically as the old professor watched.

"Why are you two laughing?" The old man stood up and started removing the helmet. His daughter was barely able to stand she was laughing so hard. Quinn was doing only slightly better. "Oh I see. You tricky little bastard!" Ben put it together fairly quickly once they started laughing, he was after all a genius also.

Tal sat down on Quinn's lap hugging his neck. "You are beyond awesome little Q!"

Quinn reached around her and hit the keyboard. "Let's see what we have then." A moment later his hud flashed.

Pops

Level 1

Strength 12

Endurance 11

Intelligence 49

Agility 6

Luck 25

Charisma 8

"Still pretty smart, I'm only in the 20s." Quinn finally stopped laughing long enough to glance back at the old man.

"Damn Pops, how can your luck be so high? That's crazy right?" She got off Quinn, messing up his hair as she stood.

"Well, I do have you and Renri. Who could be luckier than this old man?" The old man pursed his lips while nodding to himself.

"Dad..." Tal's normally serious face softened.

"You aren't really going to fall for that right Tal?" Quinn watched the interaction, a smile playing on his lips. "We were just laughing at him a moment ago, shouldn't you be a bit more suspicious?"

Tal stared at him, then back at the old man. "Oh shit, you almost got me you old bastard!"

The old man cackled and stood up, "damn you Quinn!" He glared at the young man as he quickly started walking toward the kitchen.

"Where do you think you are going Pops?" Tal moved to cut him off but wasn't quick enough as the old man put the table between them.

Quinn chuckled to himself. Smart people. "Ten minutes, my apartment."

Quin had just enough time to change clothes and wash his face before there was a knock on the door. He handed each of them a headset as they walked in. "Pops you take the recliner, Tal you're on the couch."

Pops nodded and headed toward the recliner.

Tal stood there with the headset in her hand. "Where will you be?"

"In the bedroom." Quinn walked towards his room, stopping when he heard Tal following him. "Couch Tal, remember?"

Tal shook her head, "I'm a bit nervous, so.. let's go together. That way you can watch over me."

"Really? Once we jump, it won't matter will it? It's not like I'll be able to watch…" Quinn stopped speaking suddenly, his face turning pale.

"Quinn? Hey .." Tal grabbed his face with her hands, her blue eyes filled with worry."

Quinn stared through her.. his eyes unfocused as his lips moved. "Watch…"

"Dad!!.. Dad come in here now!" Tal's voice had the smallest tinge of panic.

Pops showed up a moment later in the doorway, his daughter hardly every called him dad. It was a bad sign. "What's the matter?"

Quinn shook off her hands and walked to the desk, reaching under the drawer he pulled out the flashdrive.

"What's that Quinn?" Pop's put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's a VRP… not a video file. That's why it's so big." Quinn brought up his hud and took a seat on his bed.

"You're going in?" Pops had an old fishing VRP that he constantly used, it was how he relaxed.

"Quinn. I've never seen you look so spooked. What's on that?" Tal grabbed his hand, it was ice cold.

"It will just be a few minutes, wait here." Quinn routed a standard VR platform and plugged the flashdrive into his headset.

Tal put her headset on. "No way Quinn.. I'm going with you."

Pops nodded. "Me too."

VR Platform detected. Awaiting data input.

"Use external flashdrive for data input." Quinn leaned back on his pillow.

Two additional Neural Overlays detected.

"Group all three Overlays together."

The bedroom disappeared, and Quinn found himself in a rather large hospital room. "Freeze Program."

Quinn immediately took a look around the room, Pops and Tal were staring at him.

"Make an external audio recording please, use the external flashdrive for storage. " Quinn moved toward the closest person.

"Quinn? What is this place?" Tal knew a hospital ward when she saw it, after her injury she avoided them at all costs.

"No doctors in the room, just patients." Pops was walking carefully, trying to take everything in.

Quinn looked at the first patients' chart on the end of his bed. "He read it out loud."

Malcom Jordan

Age 43

Occupation: Social VR programmer.

Quinn moved to the next patient and continued.

Joseph Sanchez

Age 32

Occupation: Virtual Real Estate Sales

Tal moved in behind him, taking one of his hands in hers. He moved to the next bed.

Michael Carson

Age 23

Occupation: Professional Virtual Soccer Player

Quinn moved slowly to the last patient, taking a seat on the bed. Slowly he faced her, staring at the dark-haired woman. She was smiling, Quinn had forgotten how pretty she had been.

Tal bent down and read the last chart.

Ella Riley

Age 30

Occupation: Professional VR Gamer

Tal gasped in shock. "I.. I read it before I realized." She looked at Quinn, who hadn't taken his eyes off the woman's face.

"What is going on here Quinn?" Pops had been searching the room thoroughly.

In VR you could see or interact with anything that was exposed. If an open book was sitting on a table, you could read those pages. If you turned the page however, it would be blank.

"It's easier to show you then tell you." Quinn looked out the only window in the room. "This is Vegas.. I can see the casinos from here, that makes this Mercy Hospital."

Tal nodded, "the hospital name and number is on the chart."

"Continue program."

"my son is eight, his name is Quinn. I hope this doesn't last longer than they promised. I really miss him."

"Lies.. you're lying!" Quinn shouted at her as the scene faded into an operating room.

"Freeze program." It was Pops who spoke, he immediately started investigating the room.

"Shh.. hey. It's okay Quinn." Tal stood behind him, hugging him tight. Since she had met him more than a decade ago, she had never seen him cry. His face was a mask of pain.

Pops was walking around reading aloud the name tags on the doctors and nurses in the room. He finally approached the woman operating the Robotic Arm. "Dr. Nora Salo. Neurology."

The three of them watched the monitor as the electrode was inserted fully. Then the room faded, and the interview started. Quinn busied himself with the details of the room, he didn't want to see her like this again. This was the mom he remembered, gaunt and emotionally unbalanced.

"Freeze program." Tal stopped it, she couldn't bear to listen to the words. She felt like her heart was breaking.

"This was 6 months after the surgery, says right on her pad." Pops was looking over Dr. Nora Salo's shoulder. "It also says that all four patients are showing the same symptoms."

"Let's get going. End Program." The room faded again, and Quinn found himself back on his bed, he pulled the flashdrive from the headset and walked back over to his desk.

"You know what this is, right Quinn?" Pops watched as Quinn taped the flashdrive back in its place.

"It's evidence.. a smoking gun." Quinn walked into the bathroom and rinsed his face with cold water.

"I know some people, let's get them to start investigating thi.."

"No." Quinn interrupted him before he could finish. "You know what kind of power HYLO has? We could all just disappear and who'd say a word?"

"Make it public.. post it on a forum for the world to see." Tal had followed him into the bathroom.

Pops nodded. "With nothing pointing at us, that does seem like the best way."

"I agree. We've a lot of other things to do first." Quinn walked back into this bedroom and lay down on his bed.

"What are you doing?" Tal stood by the bathroom door, her eyes red with emotion.

"Jumping in like we planned. You coming?" Quinn slipped his headset on, by the time he finished Tal was laying next to him on the bed.

Pops was already in the recliner, he raised his voice from the living room. "No one mentions this… not a single word."

"Understood." Quinn replied.

"Not a word." Tal said.

Q appeared in his room at the Shady Horizon. "Damn, I should have logged off in the square."

He hurriedly made his way down the stairs and exited the inn. It was early morning, none of the businesses were open yet. He trotted toward market square, his long strides eating up the cobblestone street.

Quinn noticed Tal right away. A strikingly attractive Blonde woman, with a metal leg. It looked nothing like Tal's real prosthetic. It resembled a metallic skeleton limb from the knee down, complete with a fibula, tibia and metal skeletal toes. Her face seemed a bit flushed as she wiggled the toes on her prosthetic.

"Tal!" He called her name, Quinn could tell she was caught up in the moment. "TAL!!" This time several people from the marketplace looked up, including his target.

"Quinn? " She smiled at him, it was quite radiant. Several people in the marketplace had noticed her.

"Just call me Q here. How did I do?" He had reminded her before they left, but he could tell she was very excited.

"Okay Little Q!." She strummed her metallic toes on the cobblestone beneath her feet, making a loud clicking noise. "See that? That's amazing!" She laughed loudly as she looked around the square. Even without the prosthetic, she would stick out hopelessly.

"Wow, a goddess!"

"A beautiful laugh."

Quinn spotted Pops walking toward the gate. "Where is that old man going?"

Tal shrugged and put her hands together in front of her mouth. "Hey Pops!"

Quinn cringed a bit, Tal liked to shout. It was a holdover from her army days.

"Hey Quinn! Oh sorry, I mean Q." The old man had a huge grin on his face. "Damn kid, this is the first time in years my legs haven't hurt!"

"Where the hell you going?" Tal loved to give her dad a hard time, but she loved him dearly.

"Just stretching my legs," Pops face broke into a crooked grin. "I was going to come back."

"You could run around the market if you wanted, I wouldn't recommend it though." Q waited until he rejoined them.

Together they walked to the stables. Tal had been holding his hand the entire time, despite Q trying to shake her off. "I'm fine Tal."

"I know you are." Tal turned her pretty blue eyes on him, "but I'm not. Just a bit longer kay?"

Q arranged for a wagon and in a few short minutes the trio were headed out of town. "Ready for this meeting guys?"

"I've analyzed the different economic trends, the influences on the market and am tracking the raids of the top twenty guilds." Pops had actually did a whole lot more than that, but he also knew that Quinn would be more happy with the abbreviated version.

Tal looked around the countryside as the wagon rolled away from Talon. "Yep, all ready little Q."

"Great… don't hold my hand when we get there." Quinn leaned back against the side of the wagon. "I wouldn't want the Apple Princess to think I'm taken."

Tal gave him a big smile, she felt relieved that old Quinn was back. "Does Little Q have a girlfriend?"

Q shrugged noncommittally.

Chapter end