Chapter 82: Cheese Thief

Chapter 82: Cheese Thief

After the revelation that their 'secret code' wasn't so secret, Onyx and Nina spent over an hour facing the back walls of their cages and communicating by sign language. It was slow and cumbersome as they tried to use only their fingers and hold their backs and arms perfectly still.

O: Smart enough to figure out our code? Or was he somehow trained in it before coming here? A trained spy?The roots of this story extend from novell bìn origin.

N: Not the latter. What spy could know one of our secret ways to talk and then simply give away the advantage?

O: Someone playing a longer game? Looking to gain our trust?

N: Ha! Good luck with that. A more paranoid and untrusting group than our little family you will not find. We were betrayed, abused, and hunted for far too long.

O: One of us? Bork playing one of his stupid pranks?

N: There you go hoping again. Even Bork wouldn't play a joke that got himself captured.

O: Would anyone? But consider how tired and broken he looks? He just came from a fight with a world-boss. He was probably injured and low on mana. A perfect time for our captor to strike and carry him away without a fight.

N: Cheese addict. It's killing him, you can see it. He's going through withdrawal and hurting. The wizard has a new toy to play with.

O: We may be boring him at this point. Our refusal to talk with him set up the rat to play the role of a fawning sycophant.

N: Disgusting.

O: Or clever? We gained a clue. And I have another. Watch how the rat watches the door. He sees something about it. He studies it too much.

N: Studies what? Hinges, lock? Only a mechanic.

O: Watch rat watch door. Maybe learn.

N: Later. Tired. Sleeping more, depression. Rat sleeps, I sleeping. Maybe...

O: No.

N: Yes. Maybe just not waking back up is better?

Sidney debated, and then finally sent a message to get Wally's attention. The AI appeared on her desktop screen as if she had set up a video conference. "Yes? How can I help."

"I lost my rat, and it's bugging me.” She went to take a sip of coffee, but her cup was empty, as were several others on her desk. It was a testimony to her state of mind that she was more worried about Milo than her coffee cup.

Wally waited a full three seconds, but when she didn't continue, asked, "Lost, how?"

Sidney brought up a screen that she knew he would immediately see, with log-in and log-off time stamps. She couldn't back-track to where Milo was logging in from, but she did know when he came into the game, and when he left. She hadn't really monitored him since they had made their deal. She left him alone.

"But what the hell do you want? I can pay you! I can get you into the game. I have a lot of money in the game! It's all yours."

The Eye of Wonder Brian.>

Milo was straining and pushing. He almost had the collar off and it hurt to think. Probably because he was squeezing his own brain. He had ordered his little friend to concentrate on the bones in his head. Dangerous, but so was staying here with a sadistic wizard and the two people he had already broken with psychological torture and preying on their addictions.

With a last push, the collar popped off, and he could think again. Before he could start to do anything, there was a small pop of displaced air behind him, and a small basket appeared with a red bow and a card. Curiosity won. He grabbed the card.

Best wishes to you, sir, and welcome to the Imperial Cheese of the Month Club.

Your friend, Sidney sends her thanks for saving countless people in the City of Shadowport.

Each month for the next year you will receive a small basket of the finest fromage the emperor has to offer, straight from his own cheese vault in the caverns beneath the palace.

This month we send you:

Four ounces of a 10-year-old, cave-aged cheddar from the Mountains of Mourn.

Four ounces of gouda, aged for 20 years.

And a creamy smoked sedge cheese that has a delightful, if unique, flavor.

As always, we include just enough tasty crackers, a tube of 'I can't believe it's not Cheese-Whiz', a small but very sharp cheese knife, and a lovely oak and steel cheese slicer for precise cuts. ENJOY!

Enjoy!

Cheese!

From the door, he felt the strange machine code moving and heard the sound of wings.

No Cheese!

He put the basket upside down in the corner so it showed its straw construction and coloring, quickly covering it with his bedding. Then grabbing the collar, he forced it painfully down over his head. Very, very painfully.

When the door opened, Philistron saw that one of his captives was in distress. The rat was curled on the ground in a fetal position, holding his head and moaning. The wizard smiled. The late stages of cheese addiction were amazingly horrible. He'd have to keep them going with a few small slivers while he engaged in conversation with Tall-Squeak.

His time with his captives was much more fun. The three-way dynamic was confusing Onyx, and driving Nina insane. He would dangle tea and mice just in front of them again today, while the rat got treated better.

Sidney screamed to the room. “I got him, he appeared on the system. And he just took delivery of the Cheese Basket. HA! We lured him out with cheese!”

Her screen informed her that no WereRat Scout was in the system. Milo was gone again.

Sidney pounded the table as people ran over. “How the hell does he know! He popped up, stole the cheese, and left. How!”