ARC of the IMMORTALS/Book 1

Pursuit: 9.3/ Games/Behind the Scenes

Recap: Jac wins game four in record time and nearly erases his previous losses. Yon from the Luc-Bhantu tribe, joins Touzdae as an expert interpreter of the Game. One of the Harrys duplicates escapes the hospital leaving his double in life-threatening trouble, a heart attack. Harry enters Jac’s privacy booth. He furiously writes formulas on scratch paper.

Game Five

“How can that game be a tie?” Touzdae asked Yon.

“Both Jac and Karham died seconds before the timer ran out within a 90-second window. Most unfortunately it nullified any point gain.”

Game Six

“As we begin the sixth game round we present a desert plain, no props. Temperature variable at choice,” the pronouncement came.

The program translated Adjeal down first. He squinted against the harsh stark light. Jac translated in next as Adjeal thrust a double-edged blade right in Jac’s face.

A buzzer sounded and both players were frozen before Adjeal’s blade cut through Jac’s eye.

“Personal Foul against the Bendel player Adjeal, advantage Kristos. One thousand points subtracted from Adjeal’s score to Kristos’s score. Protests noted. The game resumes in three minutes.”

“I bet Adjeal is getting great much pressure from Bendel to win,” Yon began to Touzdae and continued: “If the call was missed and he did a kill blow in the first 30 seconds of play he may have won the match, game over. I suspect Mouloco, the off-world Big Boss of Gaming has accessed a large portion of Gata-Cortexorgana for close calls like that one.”

Touzdae nodded.

Adjeal fired his blaster toward Jac’s crotch. Jac leapt in the air crouched and suspended the local time around his body. The laser turned the sand to glass and ran a feedback loop into the barrel of Adjeal’s blaster and shattered it. In Jac’s descent, he kicked a surprised Adjeal in the jaw. Karham careened backward, flipping one time in a 45-degree arc.

Jac fired a three-pronged electrical current and missed the target but singed his hair and left it smoldering. Jac charged and was stabbed in the arm and sliced deeply on the other arm. He flipped away and squirted goop into the wound and cauterized it.

He landed surrounded by iron rods that transformed into snakes and pulled him to the ground. He released a liquid alloy from his pack and transformed one of the very long snakes into a razor-sharp rod of flexing metal as the other snakes wrapped around his torso and began to squeeze.

He released the flex-metal snake. It quivered into the air flashed and cut a deep gash through the center of Adjeal’s forehead. Blood dripped down into both his eyes, but more on the right than the left. The flex metal whipped back and shredded the snakes and Jac’s clothing into tatters. Jac sustained micro-cuts along the naked areas of his skin with some bleeding.

Jac sent a falcon with a titanium talon graft toward Adjeal. It attempted to pull an eye out but was sliced neatly into two moments before he arrived. He fired a slingshot of an eagle’s claw into Adjeal’s left eye and it gorged it deeply. Adjeal staggered forward and hurled a lance. Jac ducked and rose as the second lance pierced his chest. He staggered forward and fell onto it and it broke.

Adjeal approached with his broad sword. Jac stood, up ran forward, and pierced Adjeal’s collarbone with the end of the broken lance.

“How did you break it? That metal is unbreakable.” Adjeal rasped.

Jac slid under him snapping one of his lances, as Adjeal’s body convulsed. The broken lance bent flinging Adjeal upwards into the air before it shattered his collarbone and tore open his chest. Adjeal’s artificial heart beat irregularly as it unfurled blood over his body. Blood sprayed out like the fan of the peacock feathers into Jac’s face. Jac crumpled to the desert floor paralyzed by Adjeal’s blood. The amount of blood was poisonous to Jac’s musculature. A few seconds later Adjeal expired.

Jac popped out of the game.

The judges called a recess. The surrounding crowds were cheering and booing simultaneously.

“We will take ten minutes to evaluate and call Game Six,” the announcement blared.

Touzdae removed the helmet. Jac smiled. “You did good,” she said.

“I did, didn’t I?”

“Pursuer is close. I can feel him. He looks completely like you. I feel him in my mind,” Touzdae seemed resigned.

“Try not to be afraid,” Jac told her.

“I don’t feel afraid. Destiny seems to be approaching…”

“I need the refreshers.”

“Game Six to Kristos. Advantage Kristos by two thousand points,” the announcement filled the casino floor.

A Bell Chimed thrice.

“That means the last round will begin in 90 minutes unless there are major challenges,” Yon said as Touzdae lifted Jac from the chair.

They helped Jac into the privacy booth.

The Harry in hospital was aging rapidly. Bendel was informed. He asked the doctors and tech to look at mixed genetic markers and inform. Bendel transported a bio-fluid file down to the private wing with instructions.

“What are we looking for, sir? Please be exact as possible.” One of the doctors queried.

“The file will help you determine if Harry has a duplicate host within or is a singular being. Inform me of the results as soon as you determine them. Clear?”

“Clear, sir,” the doctor said.

The other Harry, had left Jac’s privacy booth moments before Jac entered. He used what was left of his hyper-attenuated time flux to move imperceptibly through throngs of people, past security personnel, and down nine stories. He passed invisibly and without detection to the organic cortex of Gata-Cortexorgana.

The organic brain-computer was millenniums old. The self-renewing brain governed the light-sourced cloud surrounding the rogue planetoid, the Carbon Dioxide/Oxygen mix in the atmosphere, and the micro-organisms that balanced the air supply surrounding the enclave town of Minnow and all of the hotel and casino.

Harry deposited himself inside the corridors surrounding the massive cortex. It was a highly secured area with no internal sensors. He quickly donned a spacesuit with tubal oxygen and became present in the maze of passageways surrounding and intersecting the cortex. He solidified in present time.

Bendel heard the decision in his earpiece inside the stretch booth. He took inhaled a deep draft of air and quelled his rage:

“Game six — advantage Kristos,” he sat opposite of an exhausted Adjeal. “I’m taking you out of the game. I had thought to kill you, Karham. But you have value above and beyond the games. And you are the closest thing I’ve got next to a friend. Maybe I should have played Jac from the start. Go to my private spa and get three treatments from Pallas and one from Inanna and we’ll talk later.”

The thought to kill him was better saved for the play against Jac. ‘At the very least to keep Jac occupied while Pursuer gets here and kills Jac once and for all.’

A minute later the Announcer proclaimed the entry of Bendel into the seventh game. “A three-thousand-point handicap conceded to Jac,” the announcer added.

Touzdae opened the private booth. She was about to open her mouth.

“Bendel’s in for game seven,” Jac stated matter-of-factly. “What point spread did he give?”

“Three thousand.”

“Stingy.” Jac smiled and added, “Shows he’s fearful enough.”

Touzdae helped him out of the booth. Jac, bejeweled by a burst of gold sparkles around his head, found spring in his step.

“Do I think he’ll use a multidimensional playing field with interdimensional inserts? Yes, definitely, this is Bendel my old best friend. Out for blood, win at any cost.”

Jac suppressed the thought that Bendel had lost his soul… And he had buried it deep in himself and erased it.

“Yon has ordered a variety of energy protein foods from the Kitchen,” Touzdae said, adding, “Are you hungry?”

“Ravenous” Jac said.

As the food arrived so did security forces from the Gaming Rules Group. Jac grabbed two pieces of dried meat and was escorted to the Gaming Conference Room two floors up.

“I am Mouloco,” the giant hulk of a man bade Jac sit. “Bendel will be joining us shortly.”

“Bendel here, is that you Doc?”

“Yes, the host Harry is not in Harry Kristos’s body. Security is in the process of doing an analysis and will inform you of the results shortly,” the doctor said hurriedly.

“Thanks, doc,” Bendel clicked off.

Two security guards entered with Bendel.

“Bendel sit,” Mouloco commanded. “There is evidence that there has been some very subtle cheating that has come to light from a very reliable source. The team has done an initial analysis. If you come clean — Bendel, there could be a compromise forged instead of ending the match with Jac as the winner.”

the previous chapter:

Thank you for joining me in the adventures that span lifetimes and worlds. (If you do NOT wish to be tagged, let me know, and I’ll tag you not):

K. Pearson Bradley | May More 💜 Tales | Dougfrombk | Rebecca Romanelli | Joseph Lieungh | Adam Mackay | Dr. Preeti Singh | Pene Hodge | Ravyne Hawke | Dr Mehmet Yildiz | Kris Bedenian | Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀 | Blaine Coleman | madmess’s thoughts | Lee David Tyrrell | DL Nemeril | David Price | Rip Parker | Annelise Lords | Libby Shively McAvoy