ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine April 2015 | Page 46

“Well, you remember Wolf?”
I did remember Wolf. His real name was Derek
Mackenzie and Wolf had been his gamer tag. Again I
nodded slowly, my uncertainty growing. Our brief
conversation was turning in a whole new direction,
one that was even more puzzling. I didn’t understand
why he wanted to discuss his old online gaming
friends. I tried to draw some connections between the
bizarre conversation and the contents of the flash
drive in my hand. Curiosity and confusion had the
better of me so I listened intently.
“I didn’t know you’d kept in touch with those guys.
How’re they doing?” I asked, trying to keep the
conversation light in an effort suppress my growing
agitation.
John raised his eyebrows and let a long sigh escape
from his lips. I took that moment to really look at
how much he’d changed physically. He’d put on a bit
of weight and his hair was beginning to grey and
recede. The lines of his face were also showing the
progress of the years since our divorce. Altogether,
he looked like he’d been doing well for himself and I
was pleased that life had given us both a second
chance. Aside from the mysterious contents of the
flash drive, he looked content.
“I hadn’t really kept in touch with any of them. We
did manage to find each other on Facebook about a
year ago. At the time, they were living on a base in
Japan. I haven’t heard anything from him at all in the
last four months. His wife said he’d been deployed
again.”
“Iraq?” I asked. “Afghanistan?”
“No,” his response came slowly. “She didn’t even
know where he was going. She hasn’t heard from him
during the entire deployment. As far as she knows,
he’s still out there but no one really knows where he
is. No one really knows where his entire unit is. It’s a
highly classified special ops mission and because of
that, there’s no contact aside from reporting to some
sort of command.”
“Okay, interesting but confusing. Just tell me what
this is all about and how it involves me and Marcus.”
My agitation was beginning to show despite my best
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efforts to keep it hidden. “In other words, get to the
point.”
John seemed to be using his masterful skills of
manipulat