Do you ever get that feeling when you know something is a bad idea, but you’re going to do it, anyway? Yeah, that’s the feeling I had.

  I left the hospital as quickly as I could, driving back toward the NeedLess Commune. A few miles from it, I felt something. Something bad. Something evil. My stomach knotted. I spun the car around and retraced my path until the feeling faded. When it did, I pulled off, checked my map, and made a note of the spot.

  Heading further south, I curved back toward the area. When the pressure returned, sharp and cold at the back of my skull, I stopped again, marked it, and turned around. I kept circling, slow and careful, dropping points where the sensation pulled at me…wanting me to fetch the book, wanting me to give myself over to whatever waited there.

  Only then did I notice my gas needle hugging empty. I pulled up my phone and searched for the nearest station. A few minutes later, I stopped for gas. While the pump clicked, I sent a chat message to Hal Schmitz, the county surveyor. Could he take my coordinates and find a common center? He said yes. When I asked him to stay long enough for me to bring the information, he agreed. Relief eased some of the pressure between my shoulders. Then I grabbed some snacks and a cold soda for the drive back to Eddington.

  The more I touched that feeling, the more it reminded me of Iago’s book and knife. It became easier to recognize. It bothered me so much that I didn’t finish the full circle. I turned away from the area completely, drove twenty miles off course, then angled back toward Eddington. My phone held seven solid data points. That would have to do.

  Exactly how Hal worked his magic with maps was still a mystery to me. But he did it well. We compared my data to the circles he’d drawn earlier.

  “If we assume it’s stationary, or didn’t move more than a hundred meters during that time, it was in this area,” he said, sketching another circle in a new color. This one overlapped part of the old quarry, about a half mile across.

  Hal leaned back in his chair. “I’ll pass this on to Sheriff Harper and the game people. Does he need to get folks out there?”

  “I think that’s a bad idea. Very bad. If it takes them, it’ll have human shields and more people to fight with. We’d have another Battle of Eddington all over again. I don’t want any of his men being part of that.”

  Hal studied me. “How are you going to fight it if you can’t get close?”

  “I don’t know. If PSYCHIC SHIELD works against it…or maybe a HOLY SHIELD…that might do it. We’ll figure something out. The one thing in our favor, if it works, we’ll have the army. One of their sergeants overheard us in the TAVERN and offered help. They’ve got heavy machine guns and mortars.”

  Hal gave me a look. “Will. You know the local National Guard is an artillery unit, don’t you?”

  My jaw actually dropped. “I’d forgotten that. Thank you. They could stay way out of its reach and still hit it. Guess I’ll be talking to them, too. That may be the biggest help you’ve given me yet.”

  “I don’t know about that. You telling me about the Ley Lines…that was big. Apparently, I was the first one to pass along that they were real. I’ve had calls, people wanting to write it up in professional journals. I’m not as big a star as you, but now I get what you’re going through.”

  “It isn’t as bad as it could be. I scared a lot of people off early on, and I just block the rest. Most give up after a while. You enjoy it while you can.”

  He smiled. “Before you go, I got a cousin whose daughter’s husband is in the guard unit. I’ll have him pass the word. And if you give me your email, I’ll send a screenshot of the map.”

  “Thanks, Hal. Really. Your help means a lot. If we’re right, you just located the biggest threat Eddington’s faced yet.”

  We shook hands, and I headed back to the convention center. There were people I needed to see.

  This time I went straight for the military side. I caught the eye of a sergeant I’d talked to before…Jones, James, something like that. When I got close enough to read his name tag, I said, “Sergeant Jans, can I ask for some help?”

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  “What kind of help?”

  “We’ve got something big and nasty out near Needmore Ridge. Can you get satellite shots? Current and maybe historical, the last week or since this started.”

  “We’ve heard rumors about that. How big and bad?” Jans asked.

  “My guess…level 25 at least. Maybe more.”

  “Twenty-five!? Shit!” His face tightened. “Now I see why you want the army.” He waved me over to a computer station. “Specialist Henderson, we need eyes on a local area.” Looking back at me, he asked, “What do you have for us?”

  Holding Hal's printout to them, I asked. “How about this from the county surveyor?”

  Henderson scanned the coordinates, nodded, and zoomed in. “This is recorded, not current. I’ll check for the latest satellite pass, then for anything overhead.”

  He was quick, pulling up the map and layering in feeds. “Do you want infrared or just visible?” He opened another window and searched for something.

  “Both. It might only come out at night.”

  “Right. Coming up, sir.” He was fast, but it still took time.

  While we waited, I noticed others drifting closer, even GRA agents from across the room. Another soldier seated in the chair next to him, pulled up the same coordinates on her screen.

  “I’ve got the history,” she said. “Taking it back a week plus one. Make that plus two weeks. Extra time before the event happened.”

  Shifting sideways until I was standing between them, I looked back and forth between the two screens. Hal’s pictures were good. These were better. They were from military spy satellites. I wasn’t sure I should look at them, but it wasn’t a sensitive area, and they were doing what I think they’d do in a combat situation.

  “I’ll have real time in six minutes, twenty-five,” Henderson said to the people grouped near him.

  “I have time lapse overlay ready when you’re ready, sir,” the second soldier told me.

  “Show us the time lapse,” Jans said. She did. The soldiers’ voices were crisp and without extra words.

  She blew up the target circle and ran the time lapse. Sheep flickered in and out of view. The quarry stayed empty…until the third night after the Game started. A sudden heat flare bloomed. Three frames, then gone.

  “Marked!” she said. She slowed the feed. The next night, it appeared again. And the night after that. The day James told me he’d spoken to someone, the thing stayed almost ten minutes, then popped back again hours later.

  By the time she finished, we had days’ worth of night sightings. Henderson leaned back. “Live feed in 2 minutes.”

  When it came online, he pushed it to a big screen. Soldiers, GRA, even bored guards turned to watch. Nothing moved but sheep grazing above the quarry mouth.

  We replayed it twice in slow motion. Still nothing but sheep. The heat flashes we’d seen earlier had come from just inside the quarry and to the side where the opening was.

  “What are the chances there’s a connection between that shape and the opening?” I asked. The two soldiers exchanged a look, then both nodded.

  “That’s the first place we’d check,” Henderson said.

  “Looks like it only comes out at night,” the female soldier added. “Size estimate…four to seven meters. That’s 13 to 23 feet. But it seems to shift. Might crouch on all fours sometimes, stand at others. Temp’s weird too…about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Colder than ambient.”

  They passed the frames to analysts. Dr. Peters slipped in behind me, asking for copies. By then, the whole room was watching.

  “Time to let people know.”

  [William of Brinsford:] [MattBledsoe] [Matt. We may have a World Boss outside Eddington. Army’s running satellite images. Only comes out at night so far, but it’s been turning people into MINIONs.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MattBledsoe] [Looks like min level 25. We’re asking for Army help.]

  [MattBledsoe:] [William of Brinsford] [Thanks for the heads up. Heard you found something but not the details. Keep me posted. If you need help, I’ll try.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MattBledsoe] [National Guard here is artillery. If it’s a World Boss, I want overkill. Can you help with both?]

  [MattBledsoe:] [William of Brinsford] [Let you know. Don’t do anything too stupid.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MattBledsoe] [That under the heading of don’t do anything you wouldn’t do?]

  He didn’t answer my question.

  After thanking everyone, Sargent Jans promised to message me if they found more. I headed home.

  “There’s no way I’m going back there without an army,” I muttered to myself. The way things were going, I might just get one.

  I resisted the urge to check the seal on the lead box. No one could see me sneaking off in that direction. At home, I stripped down to game clothes, swapped boots for sandals, and finally felt comfortable.

  Out of things to do, I sat and studied Enchanting and MANA rules. If I leveled Enchanting again, I could boost my gear +3 attack, +3 defense, and add +3 to both primary and secondary stats.

  “Will I need it for a Boss fight? Does it even matter against the level gap? The only real thing I can do is shield others.”

  So far, I’d been lucky. But this wasn’t fantasy roleplay anymore. This was Call of Duty with magic layered on top.

  I pulled up artillery specs. Measured the distance from the armory to the quarry. With their howitzers, they could reach almost halfway without leaving base. Just turn the guns around, call in fire. One shell could erase the entire sheep flock. What would it do to a World Boss?

  But the dread in my gut said it wouldn’t be enough. A World Boss wouldn’t die to a single round. Massed magic, fire support, then heavy melee. Otherwise, they’d risk hitting us too.

  The other problem…those of us who had been near the sealed things I stashed underground might be easier to control. Which meant I shouldn’t be within a mile of the battle. Maybe ten.

  The Caisson Song (Original US Army Song) Artillery

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