by Sydnie MacElroy
[the high school]
Castle Rock High School was located just outside the town, on a hill, surrounded on three sides by a cattle ranch. A few of the cows were grazing happily near the fence next to the bus stop, a few more gathered under a stand of trees seemed to be watching the parking lot.
Getting out of the car, Vanessa paused and looked at them for a moment. "You can't get away from them around here, can you?"
"Apparently not," Zenya said, frowning and looking at the cows.
"Take a look at this," Jordan called. He had wandered to the other side of the parking lot. As Zenya and Vanessa came up to him, they saw an eighteen-wheeler with a cattle carrier parked in the middle of the pasture behind the school, a couple hundred yards away. A group of men in matching gray-green coveralls were herding a few dozen cows into the truck. There were no markings on the cab or the trailer. There appeared to be something written on the back of the coveralls, but they were too far away to read it.
"I suppose they could be rounding them up to take them to the slaughterhouse."
"Except those are dairy cows," Jordan said.
Zenya considered asking what the difference was, but it didn't seem to matter anyway.
"I'm going to see if I can get a closer look at what's written on those uniforms," Vanessa said. She started down the hill toward the cows. Jordan and Zenya headed for the school building. Jordan glanced back once, but didn't say anything.
"She's fine," Zenya said. "Whatever influence the cows had on her seems to be over."
Jordan nodded. "So the assumption we're making right now is that the appearance of the cows is the trigger and this game plants a hypnotic suggestion. Any ideas how that would work?"
"Leo and Martin asked me the same question," Zenya replied with a laugh. "I don't think it's the appearance of the cows, but something about them." They went into the school building and followed the sign on the wall pointing to the office. "The sounds they make or the smell. I don't know."
The smell, Zenya thought. Leo hadn't noticed the smell of the cows in that parking lot, even though it was overpowering. He and Martin had seemed annoyed when she interrupted them while they were working with the game. She thought she ought to call and check on them, warn them, but then they were at the office.
The school office was down a short corridor off the lobby. Jordan opened the door and they went inside. ID in hand they approached the desk. The secretary looked up, saw the ID and smiled.
"You're early this month," she said before either Jordan or Zenya could say anything. "I'll get the records for you." She got up and turned to the bank of file cabinets on the back wall of the office. "Where're the two guys that usually come in," she asked while she dug in the cabinets.
Jordan and Zenya exchanged a look and shrugged. "Back in Washington," Jordan ventured. It seemed a safe enough thing to say.
The secretary nodded and pulled out a thick file. "It's all up to date, of course. You can use the empty office at the end of the hall. And you'll probably want to take a look at the computer lab."
"Of course," Jordan said.
Zenya took the file. The tag on it said "DOD Project - RPG Universe." While the secretary showed Jordan to the computer lab, Zenya took the file back to the empty office and began to look through it. There was a list of all the students in the school, with the number of hours spent using RPG Universe carefully recorded. There were sheets tracking each student's grades and progress, and records of weekly 'comprehension' tests, whatever that was. There was also a record of monthly fitness tests.
Zenya looked up Jessie Colquitt, Chris Laughton and the others. Their entries were comparable to the others. Nothing really stood out, although they had scored slightly higher on the comprehension and fitness tests than the average. The difference didn't seem significant, but then, Zenya wasn't aware of what the tests were, or how they were scored. Even that slight difference might be quite important.
The sounds of an argument drifted in from the outer office. Zenya got up and opened the door. She saw a man standing by the secretary's desk.
"And you didn't think to call the head of the project and check it out," he was yelling. "If this is a mistake, it's all on your head. I'm not taking the blame. Where are they now."
The secretary muttered something inaudible and pointed toward the office. Zenya shut the door and wondered what she was going to say. Before she had a chance to figure it out, the fire alarm sounded. Looking out the door again, it was clear that both the man and the secretary had forgotten their argument and were rushing out of the office to oversee the evacuation of the premises.
Back in the parking lot, Zenya located Jordan just as Vanessa came running up, too. "What happened," they asked at the same instant.
"Fire started in the computer lab," he said. "Some kid threw a gas can and a burning rag through the door. I didn't get a good look at him, but I think he was at the strip mall helping with the cows."
"Can I suggest we get out of here and let the school officials handle the fire," Zenya said. She pulled the file out from under her jacket. "I didn't want to take a chance on this burning up."
"Good thinking," Jordan said.
Jordan's phone rang as they were getting into the car. He tossed the keys to Zenya and she passed them to Vanessa and got in the back seat.
"Stern," Jordan said into his phone. "What've you got? .. They going to be all right? .. Yeah, keep in touch." He put his phone away as they pulled out of the school lot. "That was Reaper," he said. "Reed and Jones have been shot."
Zenya gripped the edge of the seat. "What? How?"
"Under the influence of the cows. Reed's injury was a flesh wound. Agent Jones has been taken to the hospital."
Zenya noticed that he seemed to be directing that statement at her, but her awareness of the fact was peripheral. She forced aside concern that would border on panic if she indulged it, and guilt over not calling Leo the moment she figured out the connection. "It's the smell of the cows," she said. "That's the trigger."
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NRPG:
Well, now we have some tangible evidence. I wonder how long we can hold on to it. ;)