She glanced up the length of the bus, glad to see the twins had already gone. They’d make cutting remarks when they saw her. Not too many, though. Not in public.
“Right.” Vonda blinked at her, then turned back to the door. “I’ll just lock this.”
When Spark exited the bus, the crowd cheered. Vid cams slewed around to get footage of her. Holding her chin high, she waved and smiled, then let Vonda lead her to the employees’ entrance. She hoped none of the duct tape showed from behind.
Burt waited just outside the door, ready to bounce anybody that tried to sneak in. He nodded at her and didn’t seem to notice she was oddly dressed. Of course, the gamer costumes were varying degrees of strange and flashy. She could pull this off, as long as she acted confident. The trick was not to let the twins rattle her.
Burt pulled open the door, and she and Vonda stepped into a drab room holding a couple of couches, a table with a coffeemaker, and a hand-lettered sign that read Welcome, VirtuMax gamers!
The Terabins looked up from where they sat on one of the gray couches, paper cups of coffee in their hands. Roc laughed. A second later Cora did, too, but the look on her face wasn’t amusement. That, more than anything, let Spark know her suit mash-up actually worked. The knowledge warmed her. So much for their little plan.
“Sparky!”
A boy dressed in bright orange and red sprang up to wrap his wiry arms around her middle.
“Niteesh.” She returned his hug. “Good to see you. And you’re the only one allowed to call me that, remember?”
He grinned at her, his dark eyes sparkling in his brown face, and stepped back. “Oh, sure. How was SimCon?”
“Good.” For a second, Aran’s face hovered in her mind. “Nothing extra-prime, though. Glad you’re joining the tour.”
“I’d have come to the con, too, except for the underage work laws.” Niteesh snorted. “Man, they should see how the kids work in India.”
“You’re in the civilized world now,” Cora said. “I know it’s hard. Get used to it.”
Niteesh ignored the comment, like the smart kid he was.
“What do you think of Feyland?” Spark asked him.
“Good.” Niteesh gave a single, sharp nod. “A little predictable, but what can you do?”
Spark let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. The Feyland that connected to the Realm of Faerie was highly unpredictable, which meant that, so far, Niteesh was safe.
“Maybe you should get into game design.” She smiled at him.
It wouldn’t surprise her if at some point he invented a radically new game concept. One of the things that made Niteesh a top simmer—in addition to light-speed reflexes—was his ability to come up with weirdly creative approaches to in-game problems.#p#分页标题#e#
“Doors are opening,” Vonda announced. “You all ready?”
Roc and Cora got up from the couch, and Niteesh nodded, his curly black hair bouncing. As the four gamers entered the main room of the gaming center, the crowd applauded and yelled. Lights rigged for the event strobed wildly, overpowering the daylight filtering through the tinted glass windows.
Spark followed Niteesh to where the FullD systems stood. Four of them were arranged behind velvet ropes, each one hooked to the overhead monitor display.
“Our special guests need no introduction,” the game center manager announced with a bleached-bright smile.
He then proceeded to introduce them, and Niteesh rolled his eyes at Spark. After a rambling introduction, followed by an explanation of how customers should pick up their pre-ordered FullD systems, the manager waved his hand.
“Let’s get to the fun!” he cried.
Vonda nodded confirmation, and the VirtuMax gamers pulled on helmets and gloves, then slipped into their sim chairs. Spark’s was the same system she’d played on at SimCon—polished up and custom painted to match her hair. Niteesh had flames scribed on the side of his, and Roc and Cora’s setups were blue-black, decorated with white bursts of light.
Spark gave the command to enter game, and the outside world disappeared. She stood in the usual clearing surrounded by tall trees. The moss felt soft as a plush carpet beneath her feet, and a faerie ring enclosed her; the mushrooms a mix of pale, moon-colored ones and bright red ones spotted with white. She let herself relax into the chair a little more. The faerie ring was usually the first indicator that things were getting tweaked. So far, so normal.
The other avatars materialized around her. She wasn’t surprised to see Roc geared up as an Assassin, and Cora in the robes of a Spellcaster. Niteesh wore full Warrior armor, and carried a huge sword that was probably bigger than he was in real life.