Fifteen minutes later, I was in my comfy chair with the TV murmuring in the background, a hot cup of coffee in hand, and a microwave-warmed plastic tub of leftovers from three days ago on the table next to me.

  I scrolled through Guild messages and a few personal ones. Multiple monster spawn sites had popped up around town, but none were close together. Just dumb luck that one had appeared across the street from me. I messaged Chief Brown to start plotting them on a map. I had a hunch they followed a grid. A grid that was the intersections of the Ley Lines.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Just had a monster spawn across the street from me. It’s on a Ley Line intersection. Have the feds plot all the spawn locations. I think they form a grid pattern. If they do, we can find any we miss as they spawn.]

  A minute later, Blaze responded.

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Just got out of the shower. I’ll be in the office by 8. I’ll email them before I leave. Want to dry off first.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Thanks. Good luck.]

  There was no way I wanted this whole mess dropped on me. I hoped I could hand it off soon…ideally to people who weren’t using me to boost their own egos. I started mass-deleting texts, emails, and missed calls from names I didn’t recognize. I didn’t have time to sort through people I didn’t know.

  Before dressing, I cleaned, oiled, and touched up the edge on my rapier, even though it barely needed it. Did the same for my belt knife. Then I made a new batch of twenty MANA BATTERIES, plus ten rechargeables.

  It was just shy of 9:00 a.m. when I got to City Hall and the meeting room we’d used the day before. A few officers were still basking in the glow of dropping Kobolds and Goblins with shotguns and patrol rifles. One had even hit Level 2. I congratulated them but warned that the monsters were going to get tougher. A lot tougher.

  “Will! I’ve got something for you. Come take a look,” Chief Brown called out.

  He gestured toward a rolling bulletin board with pinned-up maps of the city and Chandler County. There were a lot more pins on the city map than the county one. “You were right,” he said. “How the hell did you know where they’d show up?”

  A deputy was placing a new pin in the map as he spoke.

  Chuckling, I told him, “I’m the Mana Mage, remember? I can see MANA. And the Ley Lines. That old Speedy Pizza place? It’s sitting on an intersection. I figured if we mapped the lines like latitude and longitude, we’d start seeing what we’d missed.”

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Morning. The bureau is mapping the points like you said. It’s making a grid. You weren’t the only one who noticed. Tell people to send GPS coordinates to . They’re handling the data and government maps.] (Note: Not a real address)

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Will do. One spawned across the street. Tell people not to tank in a t-shirt and shorts. I killed a Goblin with my sword. Finally got to use it.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [LOL. Good for you. The governor wants to talk to you about what the state should do. I think he also wants a photo op.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [If he wants to talk, he can come here.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [If he wants me to coordinate the state, not gonna happen.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Told them that. I’ve got a long day of saying the same shit to new brass. Associate Deputy Director from D.C. is flying in this afternoon. My boss says he wants to talk to both of us. Said to tell you he understands. More later.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Thanks for the warning.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Welcome.]

  Passing on the USGS message to Chief Brown, I told him to keep our own local copy of the map going.

  The rest of the morning didn’t go downhill…but it was a controlled slide. The Irregulars split up, pairing with members of the new Eddington Blue Guild to handle the scattered spawns. Blue was a mix of city police, sheriff’s deputies, and civilian staff, or spouses. Meanwhile, the university crowd that had been under the CHARMed effect were finally awake and diving into class selection. A few guilds had already formed.

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  “Hi, Will—be with you in a sec,” said Harry…Srihari Sakraney…when I tracked him down.

  He was behind a desk in a shared office space with four desks. It had the institutional cream-colored walls, cheap desks and hard chairs. A woman I didn’t recognize was on the phone at another desk.

  Harry was now the head of the Eddington System Response Department, or ESR. They’d changed the name from Game Response because Harry thought it sounded more adult. I agreed. He’d already built something impressive to coordinate between city and county. It was the job I’d dodged yesterday. His guitar case was propped against the wall behind him.

  “I’m trying to contact all the new guilds. I know about almost two dozen already, and more are popping up every few minutes. Joan Avers, he pointed at the other woman in the room, is my Assistant for Guilds and most other things. Get her contact info and pass along any new ones. She’s keeping the list and collecting reports.”

  “What’s up?” he asked, finally looking up.

  “Just checking in. Looks like you’ve got this under control.”

  “Like hell I do,” he grinned. “You stuck me with a shit job and I have to build it from scratch while the sky keeps falling. But I love it!”

  “You being a Professor of Organizational Management wouldn’t have anything to do with that?”

  “Nope, nada, nothing at all,” he said with mock innocence.

  “How are the local politicians handling this?”

  “Half are helping. The other half are hiding or working their day jobs. I can get to them if I need to.”

  “Who’s mapping the spawn sites?”

  “Hal Schmitz. County Surveyor. You know where his office is?”

  “I think I can find it. Thanks. Message me if you need me.”

  He nodded and took another call as I left.

  ***

  The Surveyor’s office was easy to find. Hal looked the same as I remembered him from a year or two ago. Mid-sixties, lean, with gray streaks in his dark hair, and the kind of tan that comes from working outdoors year-round.

  “You were right,” he said as he pulled up a map on his computer. “Mapped the sites countywide, and the patterns obvious. Look here…” He gestured to a second monitor. “I extended the lines to the edge of the county.”

  “They look like latitude and longitude lines to me. How close are they?”

  “They do, but they’re not. Scale’s off. Neither metric nor imperial. USGS jumped on it the moment I sent them the link. Now they’re chasing every other county office for more data.” He clicked to another screen. “This one’s theirs. It was almost blank an hour ago, but they’re already matching some of our points. Give it a few hours and they’ll fill it in. The two colors are red for confirmed and white for possible”

  “Thanks, Hal. That confirms it. I needed to know I wasn’t off in the woods somewhere.”

  “You weren’t. Survey’s already recommending unclassed GS employees choose Mana spells. You won’t be the only Mana Mage much longer.”

  “Good. I don’t want to be. Send that link to Blaze, Agent Pozarkova.” I gave him her email. “She’s briefing her bosses today.”

  We shook hands, and I moved on.

  As reports rolled in, we handled what we could. But we still lost a few. Some spawns got away. Three people died when monsters appeared inside homes or buildings. Before heading out again, I sent a message to PokerRun.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Morning. Have you had any spawns near you?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Yah. Gotcher message. Nothing near me I know of.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [We’ve got a list out in the county. Feel like some morning hunting?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Don’t mind if I do. Where are they?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Call the county surveyor. Give him your location. He can get you GPS coordinates. You good with that?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Roger that. Can do.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Figured. Grab anyone who wants to help. Make sure every party has at least two people and include any Healers. Party up to share experience. Loot the bodies. Some have System items or coins. Keep them or pass it along. The more eyes we have out there, the better we contain it.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Got it. I’ll round up the crew. When are you coming out?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Not today. This one’s yours. FYI…their bodies vanish in a few minutes, so loot fast. And check in with Sheriff Harper. Let him know where you’re hunting.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [HAHAHA Got it. So no stuffing ‘em and mounting their heads on the wall, huh? Damn.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [If anyone can do it, it’s you. Send pics if you manage it.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Will do. Later, man.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Later.]

  Before I left City Hall, Chief Brown shared one last surprise. Apparently, a few of the jail inmates had stepped up to help. They hadn’t escaped…some incarcerated gamers convinced them to pitch in. Now there were E-Con 1 and E-Con 2 guilds, with corrections officers among the members. Brown didn’t say what happened to the holdouts, and I didn’t ask.

  A patrol officer drove me around as we hunted loose spawns. We bagged a few more, picked up some loot, and the officer hit Level 3. I finally got dropped off near my van a little past one.

  I’d barely made it to my front door when Ryan came hurrying toward me.

  “Will! Got good news for ya. We talked to the neighbors. Some of them are on board!”

  “That’s great, Ryan. Good work.”

  “Thanks. Mostly it was Meg. We showed ‘em what we got. You should’ve seen their faces when I pulled that sword outta nowhere!” He laughed, a big hearty laugh. “Haven’t had that much fun in years.”

  “I believe it. I’m starving. It’s been a long morning. Come with me and fill me in while I grab some food.”

  I’d just opened my door, when Ryan’s face went blank. I recognized the look. He was sending a message to someone.

  “Meg says if you come over, she’s got food for you.”

  “Coffee?”

  “That too,” he said with a grin. “It’s almost one. She figured you’d be back about now. Baked a cake too. She loves cooking and has only had me to cook for since Aaron and Sally moved off after college.”

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aYVbt5ZwTc

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