PRESS START: A Ready Player One Story

[6]

Riley and Anitia wound their way through the London streets, searching for the cafe Thaimes had given the address to. "There," Anita whispered, pointing across the street to a cafe with single patron, a young man in reflective aviator sunglasses facing to their left. The pair crossed the street, and Riley sat down opposite him. "Thaimes?"

The man grinned, pushing his sunglasses up onto his head. He looked similar to his avatar. The same eyes and facial features, a mop of mousy hair replacing his trademark silver. "Nineteen," he sipped on a cup of coffee, looking up at Anitia with a grin, "GingerSnap?"

"Yes," she said almost defensively, sitting down beside Riley.

Thaimes held his hands up, "Meant nothin' by it," he spoke with a slight cockney accent, "Just not what I was expecting."

"Yes well unlike you two, I have a sense of creativity, and a sense of privacy."

"I would say who would bother to look for us, but right now, it could be half the OASIS." Riley sighed, leaning back in the uncomfortable metal chair. He extended a hand to Thaimes, "Riley."

The man shook it, "Nick." He glanced at Anita, who introduced herself as well.

"So," Riley asked after a while, "What's the plan of attack?"

"We don't attack anything, at least not yet," Nick smirked. He glanced up at the skyline, the top of the sun finally disappearing behind the London skyline, "At nine o'clock the police guarding the perimeter of the bombing site change shifts. At that point in time, there's no guards around a hole in the temporary fence they set up. If we can get inside there, we can check it out without any problems.

"Sounds like you've planned this all out," Anita raised an eyebrow.

"I tried to get in the night after the investigation ended," Nick explained, "I was... Unsuccessful." He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Riley tapped his fingers on the side of his duffel bag, currently containing everything he owned. They hadn't managed to bring any of their weaponry back from West Virginia, and without them, he didn't much like the idea of sneaking into a guarded area without some kind of protection. As if reading his mind, Nick pulled a small handgun and slid it across the table towards them. "It's pretty cheap, just from a Defense-Dispenser. I expected you'd need something like it when you came across."

"You don't seriously think we'll need it do you?" Anita asked, glancing around to make sure no one was looking.

"Hopefully not," Nick sighed, "But you never know. I'm surprised you didn't get mugged by crack addicts or street urchins on your way here. They would have picked you out easily."

"How can you tell?" Anita asked, looking herself over.

"I grew up out there," Nick smirked, standing up and leaving a few dollars pinned under his coffee cup, "Come on, we'll miss our window of opportunity." The others stood up and followed him away from the cafe towards an inconspicuous, slightly beaten up car. Nick clambered inside, gesturing for the others to do so too, and they set off towards the destroyed server house.

Sure enough, just as Nick had predicted, the police guards changed at exactly nine. Moving quietly out from behind a nearby tree, the three young adults snuck their way across to a small hole in the bottom of the wire fence the police had erected around the site. Once inside, it didn't take them long to find the epicentre of the blast. Charred earth and chunks of metal slag were scattered around a large crater, Hellscape's signature H logo spray painted in red in the centre of the recessed earth.

"Do you really think we'll find anything?" Anita asked, "The police have been searching this place for at least three days."

"It's worth a try," Riley whispered, inspecting the ground by the light of his phone, "This is our only lead so far."