By midday the party had reached the Crypts on the outskirts of Redwood. Talon had elected to join them... and Fluffy was still tagging along as well.

Misty tried a mental scan on the wolf, but found him to be a blank spot, like any other data construct. She asked Bev to see if she could pick up anything with her cyber empathy... but she had no better luck than Misty.

Fluffy seemed to be just another animal produced by the game... but he sure didn't act like it.

Talon, on the other hand, was controlled by an intelligence that was most definitely human... and amazingly complex. He was fully wired, like them... but she just couldn't navigate all the twists and turns of his psyche.

As they approached the Crypts, both Yim and Jess doubled over and cried out. Fluffy looked nervous for a minute and then started to howl.

Talon knelt by them, but he could neither identify the source of their distress nor do anything about it. Then he saw it... gliding in between the trees.

It was a wraith or spectre of sorts, but not like he had seen before. This one had some kind of black tattered garment with a hood. All that could be seen inside the cowl were two points of malevolent red light. It screamed with a noise that chilled Talon to his soul, and rushed in their direction. Talon drew his sword and ran to meet it.

As soon as the sword was drawn, the mental assault Misty had been experiencing abated. She looked up and saw Talon engage the creature. She was astonished at the grace, fluidity and speed of his movements. Even with her abilities she just wasn't that... smooth.

Each time Talon struck the creature, there was a flash of white light and it was knocked back a few feet... but each time it came back with renewed violence, intent on destroying him.

She took a reading of his health and saw that he was down to about half. It also showed that he been poisoned.

"An Nox!" shouted Jess, and the poison was purged from his system, "In Vas Mani"!

He was at full health again. Yim drew her silver knives and ran to help him. She used the Wing Chun style that was her namesake. Repeated flashes of light made it difficult for Jess to see the creature.

"In Vas Mani," she called, when she finally got a clear view. A little known fact was that if you heal something undead... it does horrible things to them.¹

The beast howled in pain and it's black hood shredded, revealing the decaying corpse underneath. The name Slick Willie appeared above it

Pain... Fear... Anger... Revenge... Get them! ... Kill them all! ... Make them pay!

Misty gasped as the jumble of emotions and thoughts overwhelmed her.

With a final swing, and flash of light like sodium in water, Talon struck the abomination's head from it's partially exposed spine. He supressed a shudder as he realized that is what he would've become, had the girls not rescued him. He knew that right now, alarms were sounding on a cryogenics tube as the life of it's elderly occupant drained away.

"That... that was a player," stammered Yim.

"Was... is the operative term," said Talon, "but don't mourn for him. He was as evil in life as here in the game".

"Did you know him?" asked Jessica.

"No... but I know his kind. He was a greedy, twisted old man in a cryo-tube, who would gladly destroy a hundred lives, just to turn a profit".

"How do you know that"?

"Because that's the only way to get there... in a cryo-tube. You claw your way up the corporate ladder and destroy anything and anyone that gets in your way... and then when you're old and weak, you sell your soul for a chance at a second life".

"But... how do you know that"?

"Because that's how I got there".

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