Multiplayer Read Free Page B

leading up to them. He bolted for cover when he heard another gunshot and he fell in the grass. “Refractive camouflage,” came the voice again, slow and precise, “only works when you’re not moving. Didn’t you know?”
    It was two to zero, but Hector refused to panic. He had a knack for grasping terrain and identifying strategic locations – something his father had helped him learn.
    The next time Izaak materialized, he was inside a small, domed room made entirely of rough, brown stone. The walls were cracked and broken so that he could see outside. Crosses were etched in the remaining walls, telling Izaak it had once been a church. He had seen just such ruins on their family vacation to Turkey last summer. Unusual to have this much detail inside a game ruin, he thought. Someone had spent a lot of time upgrading the terrain. He crouched and looked out the window, trying to get his bearings. Something about the place seemed familiar and it was throwing him off. The ramps, too, leading up to some of the towers, seemed overly-modern and out of place with the crumbling masonry. He managed to stay alive for a few minutes until an incoming rocket sent him to respawn again.
    It was soon five-nil. Mal-X was farther ahead than Izaak wanted and it was becoming harder to control the anxiety eating at Hector’s confidence. He spawned at the base of the wall, and glanced about. He was outside the courtyard this time and could see that he was not on an island at all but a peninsula. The ground dropped away in a steep hill that led to a small harbor about a virtual-mile away. The wall followed the contours of the hill until it ended at a tall, red tower with octagonal sides. Déjà vu tingled through Hector. That’s why it felt familiar! That’s why the ramps didn’t fit! He’d been here before. Alanya castle on the Alanya Peninsula in southern Turkey. Time to even the score.
    He turned with purpose and ran along the wall, then bolted up a set of stairs, ducked through a low opening, hurtled down a ramp, and raced down a corridor with evenly spaced windows overlooking the courtyard below. After some twists and turns, he came to a small window that had originally been meant for an archer. Whoever had done the upgrade work had nailed the place exactly. Every detail was rendered faithfully, right down to the handicapped access ramps. It was exactly as he remembered from his vacation the previous summer. Well concealed by the shadows, he waited for Mal-X to appear.
    His family had spent two weeks in Alanya. While his sister had been sunning on the beach and flirting with boys from Germany and Switzerland, Hector and his dad had explored every inch of the original Greek outpost which had been turned into a Roman fort, expanded to a Byzantine castle, doubled in size by the Seljuks, and finally converted to Ottoman Turk fortress. His father had explained the strategic points of the castle to him and what made them important. It was the last time he’d seen his father alive. Now, he was back in a digitally-rendered version of Alanya in Omega Wars . And he was here to avenge his father. But why –
    A hint of movement on the far side of the courtyard caught his eye, and Vera made the score five to one. His confidence suddenly restored, Hector knew he was unstoppable now that he knew his way around. Just as in the game before, the kills mounted quickly, soon tipping in Izaak’s favor. “Didn’t expect me to know the place, did you, noob?” growled Izaak, as the score went to six - five in Izaak’s favor, with an impossible head-shot that dropped Mal-X in mid-leap.
    “Always from the shadows,” growled Mal-X condescendingly, “Americans are cowards. Will you not face me? Like a man?”
    To address the challenge, Izaak waited in an alcove of a corridor until Mal-X crept by. All it took was a single swipe with the heavy sword-like blade that swung from the butt of his sniper rifle. “Close enough for you?”
    “Still afraid to