For Shirleen, I tried to put on a pleasant expression. But I didn’t try too hard. “Can I help you?”
“Imogen Taylor?” Black Suit Guy asked. His dark hair was cut close and conservative, same as the suit. Boring. He had swarthy skin like the lone olive in an overpriced martini and cold, gray eyes under thick black eyebrows. Yup, looked like an asshole. Maybe a British asshole, judging by the accent? Possibly Australian or South African.
Wiping my hands on my apron to hide their shaking, I said, “Yeah?”
“I’d like to speak to you about a video made by you two nights ago while playing an online game.”
“Huh?” It was disorienting to have my two lives intersect again.
“There is an unsubstantiated report that your virtual reality gloves seemed to have malfunctioned, and I’m here to investigate what happened.”
Unsubstantiated? Seemed to have malfunctioned?Seemed?
“It wasn’t fake. Did you even see it?”
That frozen-solid-at-the-bottom-of-the-ice-bin gaze flicked over me. “I saw all of…it.”
Oh no, he didnotjust imply he’d seen all ofme… Never mind the ice, my whole body broiled with humiliation. I sputtered. “It wasn’t fake.”
Another of those flickering icy glances, but his expression didn’t change. “That’s what I’m here to determine.”
Wait. “You’re from the glove company, right?”
Because, wow, that was fast.
“Why don’t you step outside so we can talk?” Without waiting for my response, he pivoted on one black wing-tip heel and stalked out of the Desert Freeze.
Maybe the glove company wanted to avoid a lawsuit. Because as bad as that video had looked for me, it looked worse for them.
Aw yeah. Ka-ching.
“Rique, I’m taking a break,” I called, my mind racing. How to play this?
Last night, my search on defective rechargeable batteries had taken me to a site on how to sue a company, but I got lost in the million results of law offices promising to get me big returns. I went to the glove company’s website and started to fill out an email form, but I hadn’t hit SEND. I’d been planning to go over it with Swann before I did. The whole thing seemed complicated, and I had no idea which lawyers were any good. Getting screwed by insurance companies after Mom’s injury hadn’t given me any confidence that I’d get this right either.
Out front, Black Suit Guy paced restlessly, checking his watch. It was one of those matte black smart watch things.
I stomped up behind him. “Just so you know, I’m going to make a complaint to the company.”
Shooting his cuffs to hide the watch, he turned to face me. He’d donned a pair of sunglasses, the same flat black as the watch. “I’ll take your account of events right now. It would speed things up for all of us. Tell me what happened with the gloves.”
“If you saw the video, then you know that I was playing and the gloves—well, just the left one—went haywire and basically exploded on me. The blast hit my bedroom wall. Almost killed my cat too.”
“Had you made any alterations to the gloves?” No emotions, this guy. He wasn’t that much older than me, but more stiff and boring than any non-player character in Legendelirium.
“No. I’m not techie enough to alter hardware.”
“Do you know anyone who is…techie enough?”
“No.”
“At the moment of malfunction, you were interacting with another player—Brayden Price,” he said. “How long have you known him?”
I blinked at him in shock. He knew SunSummoner’s real name. Black Suit Guy had done his homework. Was probably covering all the bases to avoid a lawsuit.
“I dunno. A month maybe?”
“What did he leave here at the Desert Freeze?”
