“Hal, hurry up,” Mona said from behind him. “Who knows how long Cari has been in there.”
Hal tapped at the old mechanical keyboard, attempting to force the game program “Fantasma” to restart.
“I’m trying Mona, the program isn’t responding and now the OS is hung,” Hal responded. “I’m going as fast as this old hardware can handle.”
Hal had lovingly restored his old computer with Cari 10 years ago as a fun “father-daughter” activity. He had a soft spot for this machine and often complained about newer technologies to his wife, Mona, but he definitely didn’t miss the slow load times and crashes that came with the old hardware.
Mona paced behind him. She had already changed into her old hunting outfit, including black leather pants, knee-high boots, a black silk blouse and forest green woolen coat. She had her repeating crossbow slung across her back and what he liked to call her utility belt, with its myriad of pouches, wrapped around her waist. The whole ensemble still fit her very well even after fourteen years.
“Mona, it’s going as fast as it can. The system has to reboot. There appears to have been some sort of forced update to the game.”
“Update? I thought that archaic machine was too old to connect to the net anymore.”
“It shouldn’t be able to download anything, but an update was loaded somehow. A new Fantasma game file with additional DLC packs are now installed. I didn’t put them there. I have no idea where they came from. No one except me should have access to anything on this particular computer.”
“That means the update came from the other side,” Mona said. “It must be Tildi or another mage accessing the system. When I get my hands on who did this, I’ll make sure they never interfere in our lives again.”
“If it had been Tildi, she would have sent word to me directly, not activated the system this way. It’s as if the whole thing was automated somehow to update at some future time and place.”
“Did you call Colin? Maybe he knows what’s going on. You know he still checks in on things via that store of his.”
“I tried him first of all. I got his holomail outgoing message. It says he’s out of town until next week. I don’t know why it didn’t forward to his personal comm, but I left a message anyway. Hopefully, he gets it. I haven’t talked to him in years, but I hoped he’d know who’d run the update sequence from the other side.”
Mona stopped her pacing and stared at the old flat screen monitor. It went black and then a prompt appeared. Hal entered his password and hit enter. The startup sequence began.
“How much longer?” Mona asked. “You know the time differential is chaotic. We’ve been gone all weekend here. If she’s been there the whole time, she could have been there weeks or even months. Anything could have happened to her by now.”
“I checked her closet; her favorite sword and dagger are missing. I think she must have been geared up for the Ren Faire when it caught her.”
Hal had long ago upgraded the program to allow portal travelers to Fantasma carry clothes and items back and forth. He remembered his first time there when he’d showed up in peasant rags and nothing else.
“Watch the screen, Mona. Call me when Fantasma boots up. I need to get geared up, too.”
His wife nodded and resumed her pacing in front of the desk. Hal left the office and rushed to his bedroom. The antique wooden chest at the foot of their bed was open. Mona had scattered a lot of his stuff around it while digging for the things she needed.
Hal put on a black leather jerkin and pants. Pulled on polished leather boots and wrapped the black cape across his shoulders, attaching the clasps to hold it in place. He pulled his two daggers from the bottom of the chest and slid them into their scabbards on his belt. He attached the double four-pack of throwing knives to the leather baldric hanging diagonally across his chest.
He stood and twisted from side to side then took a few steps. The pants were a little tighter than he remembered and the jerkin had been hard to slip on, but his gear still fit pretty well, considering how long it had been. Hal knew he could buy new clothes and equipment once he got to Fantasma. He made a final check of the contents of the chest but didn’t see anything he’d need beyond what he already had.
Joining Mona in the office again, he watched as the computer finished loading Fantasma. Mona reached out and tapped several times, cycling through the initial prompts so she could get to the final load screen.
Are you sure you wish to enter Fantasma?
Press enter to continue.
“Yes, dammit,” Mona hissed at the inanimate object. “You stole my daughter.”
She stabbed her index finger down on the enter key before Hal could stop her. He’d wanted to have a plan in place before they left. Now it was too late.
The familiar flashes of color on the screen drew his eyes until he couldn’t look away. Hal didn’t resist, he let the colors pull him in. Soon, he felt the sensation of falling backward into the blackness. The wave of darkness washed over him. The world around him disappeared. Hal’s final thought as he lost consciousness was of his daughter.
“Hang on Cari. We’re coming for you.”
