Read Online Gamers Con: The First Zak Steepleman Novel by Dave Bakers - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Dave Bakers
Tags: Fiction
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us.
I only realised that, right then, me and Kate were both staring right at James.
Probably both of us staring out of disbelief, though I guess different shades of it.
It was then that James cracked a smile.
And then, all of a sudden, he was laughing.
A heavy laugh—the kind that seems to come right from the very bottoms of the lungs.
We joined in.
I mostly faked it.
When we got ourselves together again, I looked about then said, “Well, guess that Chung and the ginger kid aren’t coming.”
James looked about, as if he might be able to change the fact just by looking . “Guess not,” he said, and then looked back at Kate. “What do you really think might be the explanation, then? I mean,” he continued, “don’t you think that it’s a bit of a coincidence all this stuff that’s gone on with Alive Action Games, you know, with the tickets, and then all three of us getting those disks through the post a couple of days before Gamers Con?”
Kate chewed on her lower lip. From the dried skin she had there, I could tell it was a habit of hers. She looked at the two of us then said, “Yeah, it does seem weird.”
There was something on my mind, though I wasn’t sure whether or not I should share it. I was still reeling just a little bit from that close shave we’d had with the whole transportation-inside-of-a-video-game thing and didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself.
I’m not a good liar after all.
I decided to speak up then, though. “Have either of you seen that guy—Mr Yorbleson —drifting about at all?”
Kate squinted at me as if I was giving off a very bright light. “You mean that old guy in the suit at breakfast this morning?”
“Yeah,” I said.
The two of them hunched their shoulders, looked fairly clueless, so I guessed that I was going to have to fill them in.
I told them about the night before, when he’d come to see me following the Ignition Tournament, and how he’d known my name, that he’d mainly come across as quite creepy .
When I’d finished up the potted explanation, I looked between the two of them then said, “You think there might be anything to it?”
“Dunno,” James said. “Maybe.”
“Thing is,” Kate said, her gaze drifting away from us, and back over the crowds, “we don’t really know enough about this whole thing—well, all three of us, those other two kids too, we were all working with Alive Action Games, and they were sponsoring our All-Access Passes here. They were the ones who decided to pull the passes too. That’s about all we have.”
“Yeah,” James said, “it seems to me that Mr Yorbleson was just trying to help us out—you know, trying to give us a way back into the tournament, back into the convention, that’s all.”
Though I still had a few reservations about that, I didn’t think to put in anything else.
I guessed that I’d told these two enough.
They were my competitors, after all.
And one thing was for certain, that me doing the best I could in the tournament—maybe even winning —had to take precedence over solving some dumb mystery about a strange, out-of-place, red-haired kid in some unmarked video game that’d popped through my door.
It seemed that Kate and James were thinking along the same lines, because we broke apart soon after, and I headed back up to the hotel room since I had another hour to kill before going down to take part in the Second Round.
When I got back into the hotel room, I found that there was nobody there at all.
That Dad had gone out.
I checked around for a note—something like that . . . yeah, and then I remembered that we weren’t living in the nineteenth century, and I checked my mobile.
Sure enough, there was a message from Dad waiting for me:
Meet you 15mins before the show, ok?
I fired back a classic reply:
Ok.
And then I decided to put my future at the tournament on the line.
I powered up my Sirocco and slipped the DVDR of Halls of Hallow into
I only realised that, right then, me and Kate were both staring right at James.
Probably both of us staring out of disbelief, though I guess different shades of it.
It was then that James cracked a smile.
And then, all of a sudden, he was laughing.
A heavy laugh—the kind that seems to come right from the very bottoms of the lungs.
We joined in.
I mostly faked it.
When we got ourselves together again, I looked about then said, “Well, guess that Chung and the ginger kid aren’t coming.”
James looked about, as if he might be able to change the fact just by looking . “Guess not,” he said, and then looked back at Kate. “What do you really think might be the explanation, then? I mean,” he continued, “don’t you think that it’s a bit of a coincidence all this stuff that’s gone on with Alive Action Games, you know, with the tickets, and then all three of us getting those disks through the post a couple of days before Gamers Con?”
Kate chewed on her lower lip. From the dried skin she had there, I could tell it was a habit of hers. She looked at the two of us then said, “Yeah, it does seem weird.”
There was something on my mind, though I wasn’t sure whether or not I should share it. I was still reeling just a little bit from that close shave we’d had with the whole transportation-inside-of-a-video-game thing and didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself.
I’m not a good liar after all.
I decided to speak up then, though. “Have either of you seen that guy—Mr Yorbleson —drifting about at all?”
Kate squinted at me as if I was giving off a very bright light. “You mean that old guy in the suit at breakfast this morning?”
“Yeah,” I said.
The two of them hunched their shoulders, looked fairly clueless, so I guessed that I was going to have to fill them in.
I told them about the night before, when he’d come to see me following the Ignition Tournament, and how he’d known my name, that he’d mainly come across as quite creepy .
When I’d finished up the potted explanation, I looked between the two of them then said, “You think there might be anything to it?”
“Dunno,” James said. “Maybe.”
“Thing is,” Kate said, her gaze drifting away from us, and back over the crowds, “we don’t really know enough about this whole thing—well, all three of us, those other two kids too, we were all working with Alive Action Games, and they were sponsoring our All-Access Passes here. They were the ones who decided to pull the passes too. That’s about all we have.”
“Yeah,” James said, “it seems to me that Mr Yorbleson was just trying to help us out—you know, trying to give us a way back into the tournament, back into the convention, that’s all.”
Though I still had a few reservations about that, I didn’t think to put in anything else.
I guessed that I’d told these two enough.
They were my competitors, after all.
And one thing was for certain, that me doing the best I could in the tournament—maybe even winning —had to take precedence over solving some dumb mystery about a strange, out-of-place, red-haired kid in some unmarked video game that’d popped through my door.
It seemed that Kate and James were thinking along the same lines, because we broke apart soon after, and I headed back up to the hotel room since I had another hour to kill before going down to take part in the Second Round.
When I got back into the hotel room, I found that there was nobody there at all.
That Dad had gone out.
I checked around for a note—something like that . . . yeah, and then I remembered that we weren’t living in the nineteenth century, and I checked my mobile.
Sure enough, there was a message from Dad waiting for me:
Meet you 15mins before the show, ok?
I fired back a classic reply:
Ok.
And then I decided to put my future at the tournament on the line.
I powered up my Sirocco and slipped the DVDR of Halls of Hallow into
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