The God's Game System

Chapter 12

The elevator doors slid open onto the parking level under Vane & Co., and Dominic was standing right in front of them.

He had obviously been waiting a while, because he was halfway through another lap of pacing when the doors opened, and he turned around so fast that his jacket swung open. Behind him, the garage stretched away in long rows of concrete pillars and parked cars. Half the ceiling bulbs had burned out, and somewhere near the exit ramp a pipe was dripping onto the floor in a rhythm that never settled.

"There he is," Dominic said, spreading his arms with a grin that showed up a second too late to look natural. "The man of the hour."

Leo stepped out and let the doors close behind him. The fitting had taken forty minutes, and at the end of it the tailor's assistant had announced, a little too proudly, that the Grand Palace's car was waiting for Mr. Leo on the lower level. Dominic must have been within earshot.

"Where's Elena?" Leo asked.

"Up in the car. I told her I had to sort something out with the tailor." Dominic glanced toward the ramp and dropped his voice. "Look, I think you and I got off on the wrong foot back there. Things got heated, people said stuff they didn't mean, and you know how Elena gets when she's in a mood. So how about we start over, just the two of us?"

"An hour ago you told the tailor to call security on me," Leo said. "I'm not sure which part you want to start over."

Dominic laughed as though they were old friends sharing a joke, and he stepped in close enough that his cologne reached Leo before he did. "Fair. That's fair, I was out of line." He rested a hand on Leo's shoulder. "But that thing you whispered to me on your way to the mirror, about the bag. I'd love to know where you got an idea like that."

"From the bag," Leo said.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed once, hard, and then fell away.

Leo turned his full attention on him, and the Eye of Truth opened its little column of text beside Dominic's face.

[Subject: Dominic.]

[Emotional state: Fear, disguised as amusement.]

[Outstanding debt: $340,000.]

[Creditor: Hidden by a higher authority.]

Leo's attention snagged on that last line. Every other piece of information the skill had shown him so far, it had shown him plainly, and this was the first time it had been told to keep something back. As far as Leo knew, the only higher authorities in this city spoke through red screens inside people's heads.

Dominic was still talking, and somewhere in the last few seconds his friendly tone had worn through.

"Here's the thing, Leo. Say you go running to Elena with some story about her bag. Who's she going to believe? The man she's been seeing for a year, or the guy who used to wash her car?" He smiled, but his eyes kept flicking to the elevator, as if he expected someone to step out of it. "And then I'd have to tell her family that their ex-son-in-law suddenly has thirty grand to throw around after living off them for four years. The Leroys have very good lawyers. They'd want to know where that money came from, and they'd find a way to make it theirs."

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a thick envelope.

"Or," he said, "we keep this friendly. There's ten thousand in here. Cash. Take it, forget whatever you think you know about that bag, and we never have this conversation again."

Leo looked at the money, and then at Dominic, who was holding it out with the confidence of a man who had never once been turned down for anything he could pay for.

"You just watched me spend thirty thousand on a suit," Leo said.

Dominic's smile wavered. "So call it a tip."

Red light spilled across the edge of Leo's vision.

[Optional Mission Issued: Kneel, Liar]

[Objective: Make Dominic grovel at your feet.]

[Reward: 200 System Points.]

[Time Remaining: 60 seconds.]

"Look at him," the Sovereign said, and he sounded almost giddy. "He stinks of fear. He is one sentence from the floor, boy. Tell him what you saw. Say the number out loud, and watch his knees give out."

The countdown ticked to fifty-five.

Leo could see exactly how it would go. He would say three hundred and forty thousand, Dominic's face would fall apart, and within seconds the man would be on the oily concrete begging him to keep quiet. It would feel good, and it would put two hundred points in his pocket.

It would also teach him nothing. Dominic would crawl back upstairs to Elena with his secret exposed, and whoever was sitting behind that hidden creditor line would simply cut him loose and find someone new to use. Leo would win a small fight and lose sight of the real one.

No, he told the Sovereign.

The number in the corner dropped to forty-eight. "No?" the Sovereign repeated, as though the word were foreign to him. "I am offering you two hundred points for one sentence, and you say no?"

A scared man runs to whoever's protecting him, Leo said. I want to see who that is.

The Sovereign said nothing for a while. The seconds kept falling away, and the chat began to fill along the bottom of the screen.

[Constellation 'Shadow Hunter' says: Did the Sovereign's avatar just turn down a free kneel?]

[Constellation 'Crimson Warlord' says: Your human is broken, old man. Ask for a refund.]

[Constellation 'Silver Knight' says: Or he's playing for something bigger. Look at his face.]

"If this costs me," the Sovereign said at last, in a low voice that made the hair on Leo's arms stand up, "I will take it out of your hide."

The timer hit zero, and the window folded away.

Leo took the envelope out of Dominic's hand, and for a second Dominic looked so relieved that his shoulders actually dropped. Then Leo tucked it back into the inside pocket of Dominic's jacket and gave it two light pats.

"Keep it," he said. "Buy her a real one."

He walked away before Dominic could answer.

A black sedan with the Grand Palace crest on its door was idling near the far wall, and the driver started to climb out when he saw Leo coming. Leo waved him back down and held up one finger, then turned and slipped between two parked SUVs into the next row.

Dominic had already started toward the exit ramp. He walked fast, with his head down and his phone in his hand, and he only stopped once he'd reached the shadow of a delivery van parked at the bottom of the ramp, where Elena couldn't see him from the car above. Leo moved from pillar to pillar behind him, keeping the concrete between them, until he was near enough to hear the dripping pipe on one side and Dominic's breathing on the other.

Dominic dialed, pressed the phone to his ear, and turned his back to the garage.

"It's me," he said.

Leo let the Eye of Truth settle on the glowing screen beside Dominic's cheek.

[Call Recipient: Hidden by a higher authority.]

It was the same line, word for word. Whoever Dominic owed three hundred and forty thousand dollars, he was calling them right now.

A voice murmured on the other end, too low for Leo to make out any words. Dominic wiped his forehead with the back of his wrist.

"I don't know how. He paid thirty thousand for a suit like it was lunch money, and he looked at me like he knew everything, not just the bag." He listened, and his free hand curled into a fist against the side of the van. "No, you listen to me. If he walks into that auction, he's going to..."

He stopped. The voice on the line kept talking for a long time, and when Dominic answered, the bluster had drained out of him completely.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. I'll keep Elena busy."

He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the cold metal of the van.

"He knows," Dominic said, and his voice shook. "Move it up."