The moment I was done, I called Casey and told him it was a definite go and I’d cover the cost. Also, I wanted the full 200.

  That’s when he told me he’d been up all night running it and was just heading home for a nap. His assistant would finish everything without him. He’d be done by around sixish. I didn’t expect him to have done all that, but I was happy he did.

  Casey said he figured I’d be good for it if they weren’t needed. I told him to make it 9:30 tonight and plan to stick around for an hour. I’d make sure they got to the right person for distribution and his payment.

  “If this is what I think it is,” he said, “I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”

  With that settled, I checked my coffee. Still warm, and enough left that I didn’t need a refill yet. Using Game Chat, I contacted the reporter.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Thank you for agreeing to be our designated reporter tonight and tomorrow.]

  A couple minutes later, her reply popped up. You couldn’t shout through Game Chat, but her words still carried a weight, like she was shouting them.

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [What the hell is going on? I get grilled by the FBI and then they offer me an exclusive story that I can’t tell anyone about? They wouldn’t even tell me what’s going on except you asked for me to cover it.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Sorry about some of that. No, they can’t and I can’t. I can say it’s System or Game related and you get the exclusive for not broadcasting it before they let you. That will be tomorrow sometime. Most likely morning.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [The only thing they told me is they wanted someone to cover some monster fights.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Absolutely true. One tonight, so you and Airmann need to be ready to film in the dark and some early runs out in the woods early tomorrow morning. At least that’s the current plan. I think there’ll be something else after that as well for you to cover.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [And you can’t tell me what?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Nope.]

  Her question made me chuckle. I remembered what she’d pulled a few days ago to land a story.

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Has anyone ever told you how infuriating you can be?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Yep. Many times.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [What else can you tell me?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Be in town by 7 pm and on call to go someplace by 9:30. If you want background material that you can reference or broadcast later, talk to Harry at city hall. He doesn’t know what’s happening. Nobody you can talk to knows, or will tell you. So don’t ask them about it.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [So we have to sit on everything we get tonight until tomorrow?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Both of you do. Yeah.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [If we don’t?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Hope it’s only the nice people from the FBI, like Blaze, that come looking for you. I know you wouldn’t want it to be Shadow, or someone worse.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Uh, yeah. I don’t want her after me. There’s someone worse than her?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Neither do I. She can now be invisible to cameras. She’s very protective of her friends.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Right. I remember that. There’s someone worse than Shadow?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Yes, there is. No, I can’t tell you who they are.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Do I get to interview you too? Or Shadow?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [If you follow the rules, you can have one with me. I can’t speak for anyone else.]

  It took her a few more minutes to reply. While I waited, I knocked out another couple of paragraphs of dense academic jargon, untangling them into something that might actually keep a reader awake.

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Did you know you pissed off the biggest anchor in the state?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [That was Deering, or something like that? Yeah. It was fun doing it to him.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Dierling. Phillip Dierling. NBC 16.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [OK. He kept pounding on my door. It pissed me off. It took the police and FBI showing up to get him to leave. What’s he been up to?]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Not much good. You shut down his big scoop. Did you really refuse to visit the President?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [That much is true. Turned her down flat. I’m not leaving the area.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [I believe that from you. It’s already old news, and he’s trying to use that against you.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [But you’re helping the FBI?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Sure. They’ve helped me through Blaze and they’ve been polite. And they don’t want her to leave town. She’s one of the founding members of our guild.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [I’ll have to ask you more about that later.]

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [You mean once you can get it on camera?]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Yeah. You may be a lot of things, but you aren’t stupid.]

  That one made me laugh out loud. Maybe I’d have laughed harder if we’d been talking face to face. Good reporters aren’t stupid either…the pretty-face newsreaders maybe, but not the ones who dig up their own stories.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Thanks. I think. Have you done a story on the System Store yet?]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Not yet. Why?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [You should. They’re interesting inside, especially the tavern. If you have any game money, the good beer is very good. Come in early and do it while you’re waiting.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [We can do that. Thanks. I haven’t been going after the monsters. Should I?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Yeah, you should. Find people who’ll let you join their parties and guild and run one or two a day every day. Or more. You’ll build up faster and we need more casters right now with the Goblin Shaman.]

  [Vaneski:] [William of Brinsford] [Goblin Shaman? I’ll ask some people I know about that. See if they’ll let me join them. Got to go get ready. Talk to you tonight.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Vaneski] [Right. Bye.]

  A long talk, but worth it, I decided. “We’ll see tomorrow when this all gets revealed.”

  With nothing else pressing, I went back to editing until almost four, when Blaze came home. Sunlight was still strong through the west-facing windows, turning the late-spring leaves on the tree I could see through the window a vivid green.

  I’d gotten more done than I expected, which felt good given everything else going on.

  “Hey, Will,” she called as she came in, her voice carrying down the hall. “How are things going? What’s the status with tonight?”

  “All good so far. I talked to Vaneski, the reporter. She’ll be here tonight. Apparently, the reporter I pissed off is saying not-so-nice things about me. I’ll live.”

  “I’m sure you will,” she said, stepping into the office and dropping into the other chair. “How’s the editing going?”

  “Going. Quicker than I thought. How was your day?” I asked, as I swiveled my chair to face her.

  “Not enough action. I wanted to go out and burn something. We only got two spawns in before they called me back to the office.”

  “Why’d they do that?” I asked.

  “Some bright idea that they had to know everyone who might meet you-know-who, so they’d know who needed vetting in advance. That included any military who might be near her tomorrow.”

  “I get why. Where’d you tell them to put that idea?” I gave her my cheesiest grin, which got her laughing and eased some of the tension from her shoulders.

  “Where I told them to put it, or where I wanted to?”

  “Let’s go with wanted to. I’m sure what you said was very polite.”

  That pulled another laugh from her. “Thanks. I needed that. Uncle Dave could do that too…He could make people laugh no matter what.”

  “Have you told him about your promotion?”

  “Yeah. After the shock wore off, he said I deserved it.”

  “You do.”

  She shook her head. “Doesn’t feel like it. Not all the time. Ralph, my senior agent, still has to help me with almost everything. He’s been with the agency nearly three times as long as I have. I don’t feel ready.”

  “Imposter syndrome. That’s what you’re going through.”

  “I’ve heard of that, but I wasn’t ready. A Residency is something they give to fifteen, or twenty-year agents like Ralph, not someone with a little over seven years. The only reason I got it is because of you…my connection to you.” Her voice thinned, and her eyes started watering as she turned her chair to fully face me. Blaze looked like she was ready to cry

  I reached out, taking her hands gently in mine. “Maybe that’s part of it. Was it Matt’s idea?”

  “He said he suggested it. He’s been on the phone with his boss in D.C. a lot. Wants to change a bunch of things because of this. I think he’s heading back there tomorrow night.”

  “I think you’re one of the new things he wants to try?”

  “Promoting people who aren’t ready, or trained for the job?”

  “Promoting people who know the System and the Game, how to fight spawns and survive.”

  I squeezed her hands. “If you’re not the highest-level agent who can do that, you’re close. If you’re running the office, you can make sure everyone there’s leveling. Otherwise, they’ll get out-magicked by civilians.”

  She thought about that for a long moment before nodding. “You’re probably right. He’s been saying that to anyone who’d listen, and some who didn’t want to.””

  I let go of her hands to hand her a tissue, and waited while she wiped her eyes.

  “You’ve got two agents under you?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “They’ve been agents longer than you have?”

  “Eight and fifteen years. Why?”

  “Do they do what you tell them or ask them to do?”

  “Mostly. Sometimes they’ve got better ways to do things.”

  “Because they respect you, or because they’re supposed to train you?”

  “Train me? They tell me some things I haven’t learned yet, but that happened in my previous offices. We help each other and everyone, well, almost everyone, helps the new guys.”

  “Exactly. You’re new to this job, but you’re learning fast.”

  She smiled faintly. “Will, how do you figure this stuff out?”

  “I read a lot?” I said, which got us both laughing. Finally, she was smiling again.

  “I do, and I’ve lived longer than you and known a lot of people. Also, I read more books than just the ones I edit. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of days. I think there’s more to it than that.”

  “More? I’m sure all of that’s true, but what else?”

  “Seriously, I think it’s INTELLIGENCE and WISDOM. I boosted them when I leveled. Plus, EGO. That helps too.” The game keeps boosting them with every level. The free points for leveling.

  She raised a brow. “So, you think this works outside the Game too?”

  I stopped for another moment to decide how to phrase it before continuing. “I’ve got a Master’s degree in Fine Arts. I must not have been too stupid if I could get it.”

  “Also, to put it in computer terms, I had the right dataset to put the pieces together. Finally, I’ve noticed that when I’m editing, I seem to work faster and better. I noticed that a day or two ago.”

  “Does that mean this will work for everyone?” she asked me, her voice seemed hesitant to ask the question.

  “If I’m right, yeah. Might explain some of the problems we’ve had with Mentalists. EGO is their secondary stat after CHARISMA.”

  She leaned back. “But you took Mentalist too. You added to your EGO.”

  “Sure, but I boosted INTELLIGENCE and WISDOM more. Maybe WISDOM keeps EGO in check. We’ve only been at this a few days there’s still a lot we don’t know.”

  She tilted her head. “So, if a scientist plays a mage and fights monsters, he gets better at science?”

  “Could be. Even a small boost adds up over time.”

  “To make something up, if every ten points of INTELLIGENCE raised your IQ by a point, it wouldn’t be much, but it would add up.” I said, searching for an example.

  “You think it’s one for ten?” Blaze asked.

  She had the look I’ve seen on people trying to solve a problem.

  “I don’t know what it is. But I’ll bet the university guys at the convention center could come up with some numbers. And it would get them out in the field fighting the spawns.

  Her expressions showed she was still thinking about it. I waited for her to finish. “What now?” She finally asked.

  “Laundry, if you want clean clothes for meeting the President…and remember, you might have to fight if something goes wrong.” I continued holding her hands so she couldn’t swat me.

  “If you’ve got something for the washer, put it on top. I need to swap pants.”

  She darted from the office, and I got up slower, heading to my room to grab what else I could find to add to the laundry.

  We are on Rising Stars, Contemporary List. As long as we stay on it, chapters will be released daily. Please Follow, Favorite, and Rate how much you like it. And tell your friends about Mana Mage. That will keep it on the list and new chapters coming to you sooner. With your help, we can make the main list too.

  We are on Rising Stars, Contemporary List. As long as we stay on it, chapters will be released daily. Please Follow, Favorite, and Rate how much you like it. And tell your friends about Mana Mage. That will keep it on the list and new chapters coming to you sooner. With your help, we can make the main list too.

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