My car bounded through the potholes and puddles behind the condemned casino. My windshield wipers jerked back and forth flinging sprays of rain to the sides. I looked into the hollow eyes of a young man sitting on the curb with his feet in the gutter. He never even blinked as I rolled past. An old woman sat on the broken-down porch of a boarded-up house sifting through cigarette butts on her lap. The glare of the LED advertising billboard lit up the rain on the blacktop just ahead. An image of a goblin sitting on a high throne with his leg tossed over the arm of the chair flashed across the screen. He was wearing a fur-lined velvet robe and a thick gold chain around his neck with a diamond the size of a cue ball. Rings adorned all of his fingers, bags of gold were busted open all around his throne. The screen switched to the company logo a red and blue V in the center of an eye. I pulled the car down the parking garage ramp and pressed the button to open the iron gate.

Once I parked I removed my badge from my wallet then placed it in the glove box. I grabbed the suitcase out of the passenger seat and made my way to the elevator. Moments later I was in the waiting room filling out the forms. I was only half attentive as I picked my Character traits and filled out my medical history. I was instead clenching my teeth as the receptionist scrolled obsessively on her phone. Her eyes never looked up when I walked off the elevator. She didn’t look at me when she handed me the data pad to fill out the questionnaires. I tried to get a subtle head start on my investigation, just fishing for tidbits of a lead. I could have laid my gun on the counter, I doubt she would have noticed. Not that I brought it in. That would have been a dead giveaway. I wished I had at this point.

Perhaps I could have been a less cynical person in life. Maybe if my parents had lived past my tenth birthday, or if I hadn’t been raised by my drunk uncle and his hateful wife. Certainly, if my high school sweetheart hadn’t left me for the thirty-year-old drug dealer our senior year. If my classmates hadn’t laughed when the bully depantsed me the next day at graduation. It was cold!

Life experience had taught me one thing. Most people are jerks. I just don’t have a group of buddies to laugh with me when I destroy someone. I’ve got my beagle though. Cooper can make the worst days better. Doesn’t matter how bad of a day I’ve had he is happy to welcome me home. He at least had the decency to acknowledge when I walk into a room. He doesn’t care if I’m ugly or overweight. When I am angry he doesn’t judge me. He takes my side and lets out his long booing barks.

My leg bounced up and down and I found myself clawing the arm of the chair. It wasn’t the constant flicker of the numerous screens in the room advertising all the creatures you could be in the game. It wasn’t even the fact that the room reminded me of a doctor office waiting room complete with a magazine rack filled only with gamer mags.

It was the twenty-something-year-old two seats from me. He looked like the drug dealer boyfriend my ex left me for. Complete with the earrings and nose ring. That drug dealer was the whole reason I never got my piercings. Now I hated them. The whole time I scowled through memory lane this guy was rambling on beside me.

He could hardly sit still in his chair. He wore jeans with holes in them, not because he couldn’t afford new ones like the unfortunate people lining the streets outside, just because it was cool. He carried on and on about the elf character he would be playing this time around. I found myself imagining plucking him out of his chair by his spiked hair and yanking out the lip and nose ring as I smiled and nodded pretending I was also thrilled to play this video game.

I nodded enthusiastically with a big goofy grin on my face. “How many lawns did you have to mow to get here kid?”

He stopped his description of the elf he was creating his face went red. “I’m twenty four, I am a programmer. How about you? Spending the kids college fund?” He moved over a seat. I felt immediately guilty but at the same time, my headache faded some.

I patted the digital money wallet in my pocket. Easily the most money I had ever held in my life. I was given a years wage from my sergeant to get into this room and play a two week campaign. This kid who didn’t look like he was old enough to buy cigarettes was playing for at least his second time. Programmer huh? I hated him even more now. I had hoped he was a thief or a slinger. My eye twitched.

I ended up just picking an orc because they looked big and angry and that was how I felt in the moment. I know that wasn’t my orders. I was supposed remain subtle. That was the reason they chose me. I looked young enough to be one of these kids. This was my first under cover operation and I intended to make it a slam dunk. I wished I could just sit back and enjoy a game for a while but that was not the hand I was dealt. There was no time for fun and games in my life. Maybe when I make colonel.

I stood up and walked across to drop the data pad on the counter and the girl scooped it up, dropped it in a drawer in the wall and pointed to a door at the end of the room. I walked toward the door looking back in disbelief as she continued swiping and tapping away on her device still unaware of what I even looked like. Well, I thought, at least if everyone is as self absorbed as these two, it may be an easy case to crack.

The door swung open before I even reached for the handle and I ran right into a man in a white overcoat. “Bren-” The rest of my name he spoke into the chest of my shirt.

“Excuse me.” I jumped back steadying the man. He was grey and balding on top. His face was flush and he pushed back his glasses on his nose.

“Follow me sir.” He lifted up my data pad and looked it over as he turned and walked down the hallway not bothering to hold the door open for me.

I caught the door before it closed and followed after him. There must have been a hundred solid wood doors in the hallway. It would take me days to search this building. I observed a man behind a desk looking at screens but I could not see what was on them. I figured him to be a guard and flicked my eyes up and down the hall looking for cameras, none that I could see. At least I would be able to sneak out into the hall. There were a set of double glass doors at the end of the hall.

We stopped before one of the wooden doors and the man in the white overcoat opened it and gestured for me to step inside. I walked around a brown swiveling stool and stood before a hospital bed. What am I doing in a hospital room? I looked at the stand with a saline bag beside the bed. “What is this?”

“Your room.” The man obviously some type of Doctor, said.

“I’m here to play Visceral.” I turned back toward the door. “There must be some mistake.”

“Have a seat Mr. Baker. You are in the right room.” He walked over to the foot of the bed and sat my data pad down.

I debated leaving right then. The fact that I just handed over seventy five thousand dollars of the precincts money and that I would likely be fired made the decision for me that I should stay. I should like to say that the missing snitches, thugs, and hookers were why I allowed the “Doctor.” to put an I.V. in my arm but its just another case. You do what you have to do to get your foot in the door.