Lie to Me (Pearl Island Trilogy #4)(25)

One click and the portal enlarged with a whoosh, as if he’d been sucked through it. He landed inside the tavern on Skull Island, where all adventures in the pirate world began. Using the hand controls, he turned his alter ego, Captain Blade, in a full circle to take in the crowded room filled with drunken sailors and tavern wenches.

Vortal had been one of the first games to perfect a full three-hundred–and-sixty-degree experience when they’d gone from Version Two to Version Three. The effect tricked the senses, making players feel as if they were in that world. The surround-sound audio of voices and laughter, dishes clattering, dogs growling over a bone, even a chicken squawking in the distance, made the experience that much more real.

Unfortunately, they’d created a problem with the three-sixty version. Taking the players from seeing their characters from an omniscient viewpoint to seeing the world as if the player was the character, meant players no longer saw their alter egos. Luc had loved the result. Reaction from players, however, had split down the middle. Some shared Luc’s enthusiasm for the realistic effect, but others argued vehemently that they put a lot of effort into creating their character, and they wanted to see themselves—their pretend selves—kicking ass on the screen.

With the battle heating up to epic warfare in the Vortal forum, Luc hit on the perfect solution. He challenged the team to take the three-sixty effect one step further and add reflective surfaces.

As he turned his character on the screen, the mirror behind the bar came into view. Rather than a static, fuzzed out scene, he saw Captain Blade. The blue hole that used to hover over the face area had vanished, replaced now with Blade’s face.

“Holy shit,” he whispered. His eyes widened as he saw and heard Blade say the same words. Yes! They’d succeeded in getting the computer’s camera to read the player’s facial expressions. They’d mastered the voice sync with Version Three, but this took the experience to new heights. “Too freakin’ cool!”

He turned his head from side to side, his gaze fixed on the eyes staring back at him. He tried lifting his brows, and grinned as Blade did the same. It felt like looking in a real mirror, seeing a face that matched his own, but with a bit more edge. Some players created characters that bore no resemblance to themselves, while others, like himself, simply created a better version of who they were in the real world. Blade had sharper cheeks and a stronger jaw that sported a shadow of dark blond stubble. As Captain Blade in the pirate world, his hair hung past broad shoulders, while a billowing white shirt fell open to his waist, revealing the six-pack abs Luc had been working toward the last few years.

Before he could enter the code that would let him move through the world without actually playing a game, a movement in the mirror caught his eye. He saw a snarl-faced pirate charging Captain Blade from behind.

On reflex, Luc worked the controls. Blade spun and raised his sword just in time to stop the pirate from decapitating him. Adrenaline surged as other savage cut-throats swarmed into the tavern, joining the fight, which quickly spilled out into the streets. To heck with not playing, he decided, as Blade ran through the town toward the docks. Luc barely had time to cheer when he caught his reflection in a grimy window or rain puddle in the cobblestone streets. He was charging toward the wharf, defeating opponents, leaping onto the deck of his ship, swinging from the halyard as he shouted commands to his crew.

A hair’s breadth away from achieving success in step one of his quest—escape Skull Island—something bumped into his chair, yanking him out of the gaming world, back to reality. Ripping off his headset, he jerked around to find the kid who’d nearly drowned yesterday looking over his shoulder at the screen.

Shit. He glanced toward the doorway, afraid he’d see Chloe, but no one else had entered the room. Relief flooded him despite the dirge of defeat coming from the computer. He turned back in time to see the ship’s crew staring down at him, looking forlorn. The screen faded slowly to black as his eyes closed in death.

Game over.

He scowled as a pathetically low score for someone at his skill level appeared beneath an animated pirate flag.

“Whoa!” AJ exclaimed, moving beside Luc to get his face closer to the screen. “That is sick! Can I play?”

Before Luc could answer, footsteps sounded on the grand stairs out in the lobby.

“AJ?” a woman called before the kid’s mother appeared in the doorway. Even casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a laundry basket propped on one hip, she presented an inspiring sight with her statuesque figure and tumbling curls of reddish gold hair. Seeing Luc, she drew up short. “Oh, hello. Again,” she added the last as she recognized him.

“Hi.” Luc smiled as he casually closed the laptop partway to hide the screen without putting the computer to sleep. Even knowing the game score filled the full screen, blocking the logo on his desktop, he felt uneasy. “I’m waiting for Chloe. She said I could hang in here.”

“Absolutely.” The blonde, Aurora, he remembered, beamed at him. “Make yourself at home. You, however,” she added to her son, “need to stick with me while I do laundry.”

“Laundry, ugh.” AJ’s shoulders sagged. “I was about to play a game. A really cool game. You should see it.”

“I’m sure it’s very cool, but you know better than to bother guests.”

“He’s not a guest. He’s Chloe’s friend.” AJ looked up at him. “Right?”