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Harbinger (Nova Online #3) - A LitRPG Series
Harbinger (Nova Online #3) - A LitRPG Series Read online
Harbinger
Nova Online #3
Alex Knight
Editor: Brook Aspden-Li
Copyeditor: Laura Hughes
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Epilogue
Afterword
More LitRPG from Portal Books
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Join the Group
Chapter One
“So, let’s talk.”
Thorne spoke the words but Kaiden still didn’t believe they weren’t some sort of trick. How could they not be when they came from the very woman who’d hounded them all this time? The Party agent who’d hunted them in Nova and in the real world. Who’d gone after their families. Who’d nearly caught them in that fateful raid on the resistance bunker. She’d been their greatest enemy from day one. A direct manifestation of everything that was wrong with the Party.
Kaiden looked over to Zelda. She was frowning, still angry, but something else too. Confusion, maybe? Or suspicion?
Titus’ feelings were clear. Fists balled and eyes wide, he looked like he was about to step into a boxing ring, about to fight for his life. Which, considering the circumstances, he probably was. They all were, seeing as they were trapped in a van with Captain Ava Thorne herself.
This is a trick. It has to be.
“You expect us to believe you’re here to switch sides? Just like that?” He shook his head. “No way.”
Thorne sighed.
“This looks crazy to you. Believe me, I know. But if I weren't genuine, why haven't I arrested you already? Why play games?” She nodded to the database behind Zelda. “The Party’s willing to kill for that. Do you really think you’d still be holding it if I'd come with them?”
“She... has a point?” Kaiden said, none too happy to admit it.
“I don’t care if she has a point. She’s with the Party,” Titus growled. “There’s nothing complicated about this. Either she has police waiting outside to take us in or she’s bluffing to buy time until they get here.”
“Time. Right,” Thorne said as if she’d just remembered something. “This van is barely shielded. My handheld console picked up your signature as soon as I was within a mile. The police have much better equipment. We need to turn off those VR headsets, disconnect from the internet, and get moving. We need to get somewhere safe and somewhere rural.”
‘We’? What ‘we’?
“There’s no ‘we’ about this,” Kaiden said. “There’s us and there’s you.”
“We don’t have time for this.” A hint of anger crept into Thorne’s voice. “A friend tipped me off that you were here but information like that doesn’t stay quiet for long. The police are likely already on their way. It’d be best not to be here when they arrive.”
Kaiden peered out one of the front windows, but saw nothing out of place.
This doesn’t make any sense.
“What are you playing at?”
Thorne let out an exasperated groan, then started talking rapidly.
“While hunting you three, I’ve seen a side of the Party that I didn’t know existed – wouldn’t have believed existed had I not seen it for myself. Commander Moran, Agent Werner, and I don’t know how many others, are running things behind the scenes. A shadow government, a secret oligarchy – call it what you will, but they’re in control and I’m worried there’s no line they won’t cross to keep things that way. We already saw what they’re capable of when they took your parents,” she said with a quick nod toward Zelda. “And that’s hardly the worst of it. That’s why we have to move. You three can’t get caught. That database can’t fall into Party hands. There’s so much more at stake than I ever realized.”
“My parents?” Zelda said, speaking up for the first time. Her expression was pained, suspicious.
“They’re dead,” Titus growled. “Because of the Party.”
“No,” Thorne cut him off. “They were taken into custody just before the bombing. They’re in prison, but I don’t know which one.”
Hold up – what? Kaiden recoiled at the news. Zelda visibly balked.
“Playing games with my emotions isn’t helping your case,” she said, her words dripping with venom.
“You don’t trust me. I get it, and I don’t blame you. But we do not have time for this.” Thorne reached for her pistol.
This was a trick! She’s attacking!
Kaiden made to lunge forward, but the weapon was already drawn. Except she wasn’t pointing it at him, nor at Titus or Zelda. Instead, it was pointed down at the floor. As Kaiden watched in disbelief, she reversed her hold on it, then held it out toward him, grip first.
Titus lunged forward and snatched it up. He flicked the safety off and the pistol came to life with a high-pitched whine as he turned it on Thorne.
She held up her now-empty hands. “You have the database. Now you have my weapon too. I have no leverage over you anymore. I won’t ask that you trust me right now, but I will ask that you listen. For your sake as well as mine, we need to move.”
A knock on the van’s back door made Kaiden near jump out of his skin.
“Police! Open up!”
Titus cursed and jerked the gun toward the door. “That’ll be her backup.”
“No, no!” Thorne whispered, then waved for everyone to stay quiet. “I got this.”
“I’ll get us out of here,” Kaiden said, then crept toward the driver’s seat. How many police were outside? How long could Titus hold them off? Could he hold them off? And what about the database? They had to hide it before—
The groan of the rear door opening echoed through the van. Light flooded in, but only a crack as Thorne kept the door mostly closed. She pressed her face to the gap.
“Metro police, ma’am. I need to search this vehicle.”
“No, you don’t.” Thorne reached into a pocket and withdrew a badge. “This is an ongoing operation, offi
cer. You need to leave before you blow our cover.”
Kaiden eased into the driver’s seat. The windows were still in opaque mode, so no one could see in, but he could see out.
“With all due respect, Agent, this vehicle showed up on my scanner. I have to take a look.”
Kaiden raised a hand to the ignition switch but didn’t press it yet. He looked back to Titus and Zelda.
“Buckle up,” he whispered.
“Of course we came up on your scanner,” Thorne said, getting angry now. “What use would a stakeout be without surveillance equipment?”
“Agent, I need you to step out of the vehic—” The voice cut off as Thorne threw a punch. Even from up at the front of the van, Kaiden heard the officer’s nose break.
“Stun him!” Thorne shouted, then swung the door wide open and ducked for cover.
Titus hesitated, blinded by the sudden bright light, maybe, or unsure what to do. The police officer was bent over, hand to his bleeding nose. He looked up, saw the three of them inside, then went for his gun.
Titus flicked Thorne’s pistol into non-lethal and pulled the trigger. There was an electric pop and a knockout round caught the officer in the chest. Electricity ripped through him, then he collapsed to the pavement with a thud.
“Now can we leave?” Thorne asked, pulling the door shut and turning back toward them. “Before—”
There was a second electric pop as Titus fired another knockout round, this one into Thorne’s chest. She spasmed, then collapsed to the floor.
“Move over, Kai,” Titus said, tucking the pistol into his belt. “I’ll drive.”
Chapter Two
“All right, this is officially bad news,” Titus said, easing the van to a stop, then flinching and nearly kicking it back into motion as another wave of police cruisers zipped by just overhead. They were everywhere around the city, moving in numbers as if a manhunt was on. But was it a manhunt for them, or for Thorne? Kaiden wasn’t sure anymore. He didn’t trust her, not by a long shot, but now he was wondering what had happened with her. What had changed that she’d go so far as assaulting a police officer to help them escape?
“Is this hidden enough?” Zelda asked. Titus had landed them somewhere in the suburbs, in the parking lot of a busy mall.
“Hiding in plain sight,” Titus said. “It worked last time.”
“Until Thorne found us.”
“I don’t know where else to go. King Street won’t take us, we can’t go home, and if we park in an alley or something that’ll be even more suspicious. Here, at least, we blend in.”
“As long as we keep the headsets offline,” Kaiden said, nodding to the pile of them on the back seat. After Thorne had gone down and Titus had started driving, he and Zelda had switched the headsets off, disconnected from the internet, and essentially ensured the entire van went dark. They’d also cut seat belts from the back seats and tied up Thorne. She was still unconscious from the knockout round, but she would wake up eventually, and it was a safe bet she wasn’t going to be happy when she did.
“So, what’s our next move?” Kaiden asked. “As if we weren’t wanted enough, we shot a police officer and kidnapped an agent. Though, she might be a fugitive now too? I honestly don’t know what to believe right now.”
“She did try to send that cop away,” Titus said, thinking aloud. “But it could still be a trick. Even if it isn’t, that doesn’t make up for everything else she’s done. She had Bernstein’s database in the first place.”
“Bernstein’s database!” Zelda exclaimed suddenly. “It still has that video file Bernstein left. Maybe it can help us.”
Right! In all the chaos Kaiden had forgotten about it.
“Video file?” Titus asked.
“‘You’re probably wondering why I made you do all that,’” Zelda said, reading the name of the file as she accessed the database via her handheld console. “It looks like a video message Bernstein left for us. Or, well, for whoever managed to open the database. I need to play it. Was just about to before she showed up.” She frowned at Thorne.
“Do it,” Titus said, leaning in close.
“Wait, are we sure she’s fully unconscious?” Kaiden asked, looking at Thorne. “I don’t trust her. Anyone know how long that knockout round is supposed to last?”
“I can hit her again,” Titus suggested, reaching for the pistol.
“Is that safe?”
“Do we care?”
“Don’t," Zelda said, holding a hand out to stop Titus. “She’s unconscious.” And with that, she pressed play on the video file.
Her handheld console flashed to life, then spewed a rain of brightly-colored pixels into the air. They swirled and spun like so many motes of glowing dust, then, all at once, resolved themselves into the shape of a man.
Bernstein.
He stood there, a fully realized projection, if not looking a bit odd considering he’d materialized in the back of a dingy old van.
He looks like he always did. Just like the last time I saw him. Before... before the Party killed him.
What remained of his thin white hair had been brushed back, but rose in a poofy, rebellious mess as always. His blue eyes were bright and seemed to shine with that look he’d get when on the verge of solving some new puzzle. Even his clothing looked real; a faded old polo tucked into khaki shorts, and a case on his belt holding pens and the assorted tools he’d never been caught without.
For a moment, Kaiden wanted to reach out and touch him as if he were there in the flesh. But that’d be ridiculous. They hadn’t been as close as that. It was just the terrible thought of how the man had spent his last moments that made Kaiden want to reach out, as if he could perhaps still save the eccentric old man. But this wasn’t Bernstein; just a recording of him. Just a recording of a man that had been dead for so long now.
Except it hadn’t been that long. It just felt like it, what with going to prison, breaking out of the warden program, being a captive of the rebels, hiding with the King Street gang, not to mention the mad scavenger hunt they’d gone on just to unlock the database. It hadn’t been forever – but man had it felt like it.
The projection flickered once, then jumped into motion. And just like that, Kaiden could almost, if just for a moment, convince himself that Bernstein was still alive.
“Well, uh, if you’re watching this, that sucks,” Bernstein said, a slight frown pulling at his features. “I mean, you solved my clues and found the database, so good on ya! But also, I’m likely dead, so, well, I guess I should have been more careful? I wonder what I got wrong? What tripped me up?” He waved the thought away. “Bah, no reason to get caught up in what-ifs. It’s just as likely no one will ever watch this. I’ve made it this far, haven’t I? But, on the off chance someone is watching this, I suppose I owe you an explanation.”
“Yeah, I’d say so,” Titus said with a disbelieving laugh.
“You, uh, have the database now, so obviously you already know what’s in it: the sum of my decade’s worth of research into the Party’s egregious abuses of power, complete with evidence enough to prosecute most of their leadership. I would say I hope you use this wisely, but, you see, I designed that scavenger hunt to ensure I wouldn’t have to hope. In order to solve all of those riddles, to unlock all of those passwords, you needed to know me. And I don’t mean ‘know me’ like old man Gerald two doors down. I mean really know me. Like that kid, Kaiden. I let him get closer than I should have, but you can’t beat a decent gaming buddy. Nothing like a good puzzle to give you insight into a man’s mind, eh? Yes, if I were to keel over tomorrow, he’d have a decent chance of finding this. Great lad. Lot of potential.”
Kaiden’s mouth fell open at that.
I didn’t know he thought that highly of me. Though, considering I did help get this database and open it, I guess he was right. Maybe I don’t think highly enough of myself?
“Actually,” Bernstein said, stroking his mustache. “Zelda would probably find and unlock this t
hing first. She’s a clever one.”
Hey!
Bernstein faced where the camera must have been, as his eyes turned right toward them. “Zelda? That you watching this?”
Kaiden looked over at her. Her jaw was clenched but there was no visible expression on her face to betray what she was feeling. Was that a tear creeping into the corner of her eye, though, or was he just seeing things?
“Anyway, whoever you are watching this, you must have been someone I knew and trusted. But why the lengthy scavenger hunt to unlock it? I know it probably felt random, but let me assure you it was anything but. In fact, I specifically designed that hunt so that it could only be completed once you were at a sufficient level. And if you weren’t, then you’d be forced to power level before being able to open the cipher and access the database. Ooh, did you have a good time against the grachnids? That part was one of my favorites. I love those big creepy crawlers.” He had a childish grin on his face as he said the last bit.
“But the hunt, right.” He cleared his throat. “It was designed to power level you so that when you hear the rest of my plan you won’t say it’s impossible.” He laughed. “Just mostly impossible.”