The Game Master Pt. 03

He thought that finding the cure to the disease that took his father would be the hard part...

Colwyn Smalley never questioned the role he was meant to play. The labels which would define him were assigned before he left primary school: genius; aloof; innovator; driven. After his father was handed a fatal diagnosis, Colwyn swore to find a cure... to save his hero.

He failed.

Haunted by his father's death, he dedicated the next quarter century to fulfilling his vow with barely a passing thought to his own happiness outside of his love for the role-playing games which gave birth to his nickname.

In place of the expected acclaim and jubilation upon revealing that he has miraculously succeeded, he encounters suspicion and corporate politics more interested in riches than saving lives. When he refuses to let his work be hoarded by the wealthy, his employers decide there's only one way to silence him. Framed, imprisoned, and left for dead, Colwyn faces a brutal reality--until an enigmatic being offers him a new path.

Gifted with the unnatural power to force those bent on doing him harm to his will, Colwyn emerges from the ashes of his former life as something far more dangerous than the unassuming, forgettable nerd his foes perceive. Just as Colwyn begins to experiment with his newfound powers, his world is again upended when the woman of his dreams appears at his doorstep. Now Colwyn must choose between getting revenge against those who wronged him, finding a way to bring his long-sought discovery to the world, or, for the first time in his life, pursuing his own happiness - a task which is soon complicated when he discovers that his biggest challenge may be in restraining his new powers, rather than unleashing them.

Packed with sensuality, sharp wit, and a provocative look at power and morality, The Game Master is a contemporary erotic fantasy about a man who sacrificed everything for his quest--only to discover that love was the prize he never knew he was searching for.

Author's note:

I've split this novel into three sections for publication here.

Make no mistake, this novel delves into some weighty subject matter. Trigger warnings for on-page violence and depression.

All sensuality (on page or otherwise) takes place between characters who are eighteen or older.

100100

"Ok, there he is," Heidi whispered conspiratorially. "Is he a red?"

Colwyn focused for a moment before shaking his head despondently.

"Ok, then its plan B. You ready?"

"Yes. Are you sure this is necessary?"

"No time to debate it now. Wish me luck."

"Good luck," he muttered as she rose and hurried over to a nearby alcove.

She waited for a few moments before he gave her a reluctant nod, whereupon she strutted in the direction of the front door. Her attention was focused on her phone, but Colwyn doubted anyone else in the lobby could possibly have had their eyes anywhere else but on her breathtaking body. She was wearing a dark blue dress which hugged her curves like a second skin. Her purposeful steps caused her spectacular breasts to bounce libidinously and her flawless ass to move in a way which made his cock twitch, despite the anxiety coursing through him.

She approached their first target, acting as though she was completely mindless of her surroundings. As she neared, she glanced up and yelped in surprise before dropping her handbag. The man's eyes widened alarmingly as she knelt to retrieve the items which had burst from her bag. Colwyn growled as he watched the man's eyes widen as he stared down the deep valley of Heidi's admittedly staggering cleavage.

"Well...that checks 'might be gay' off the list of things to worry about," Colwyn muttered to himself.

He watched while the exec continued to help Heidi. He could see her chatting with him casually before she rose and, after thanking him profusely, walked out the front door. He waited to a count of one hundred before rising and exiting through a different door. He rendezvoused with her in the parking lot, her having already entered her car.

"So far, so good. He'll be here through tomorrow. Said he's got a full day ahead, so chances are good he'll be at the reception tonight."

"How did you find him? He looked rather lecherous from my perspective."

"So did you, the first time we met. And you turned out pretty fantastic. Besides, you can hardly blame him for checking out my girls, that was kind of the point. He seems like a decent guy, nothing spectacular. But he certainly didn't give off an evil rich guy vibe. Like I said: so far, so good."

"Where's the reception tonight?"

"Here at the hotel. We could guess as to the exact location, but certainly someone on staff is a red and could just, you know, tell us. I won't even have to flash my boobs at them."

"Good."

"Aw...are you jealous about some people catching the faintest glimpse of what you have complete access to at all times?" She reached over and took his hand, placing it on her breast as she grinned at him wickedly. "Need I remind you that you came on my tits, just this morning?"

"No," he replied sullenly, although he did not remove his hand. "Sorry. I'm trying to be mature about this. But it's...challenging."

"I know, babe. I'm sure I'd be climbing the walls if you were going out of the way to get girls to ogle Vesuvius."

"Is that what you settled on?" he asked with a chuckle at her ongoing crusade to name his penis.

"Yes, because it's as big around as a city and massive amounts of molten awesomeness shoot from its summit."

"Hopefully without the massive loss of life."

"That just means its my job to make sure its always pointed in a safe direction when it goes off. With great power..."

He smiled and said, "Indeed."

***

Late that evening, Colwyn entered the side door of the hotel. He had spent the afternoon doing recon, occasionally cornering a susceptible member of the hotel staff and probing them for information. He knew where the reception was taking place. He had even toured the room with the somewhat willing help of a busboy. In addition to gaining a lay of the land, he had also identified several different people who would be both responsive to his ability and in a position to grant him access to the room.

He approached the room in question an hour after dinner was to have been served. He had worried about missing their target, but Heidi had insisted that it would be impossible for him to get their man alone if he was still in the middle of eating dinner. He spotted a waitress he had previously identified as having a magenta aura and said, "Good evening. You will answer my questions to the best of your ability. After I depart, you will forget this conversation ever occurred. Understand?"

"Yes," the young woman answered quietly.

"Has anyone left the dinner yet?"

"No. We just served dessert."

"Good. I need to know where Quincy Meadows is seated."

"I'm not sure, I don't really pay attention to names."

"Can you get me inside without either of us being spotted?"

She thought briefly before saying, "No. But I can take you to the AV room. I can't guarantee no one will see you there, but it's fairly inconspicuous."

"Let's go."

Peering out from the elevated AV room, Colwyn had a good view of the conference room where the heads of most of the country's biggest pharmaceutical firms had gathered to discuss strategies for minimizing government meddling and maximizing profits. Strictly speaking, such a gathering was tantamount to collusion. But, since the gathering also contained many of the country's top members of the establishment responsible for regulating the industry, it was unlikely that anyone would raise a fuss.

Colwyn quickly spotted his target, seated near the back and making little effort to hide how bored he was with the endlessly chattering person seated to his left.

Colwyn turned to the waitress and said, "Go tell him he has a phone call. I suspect he'll be relieved for the interruption. Bring him up here. Then you can return to your duties."

She departed, returning shortly with Mr. Meadows who looked around before demanding, "What's this about?"

"I apologize for the subterfuge, but I wanted to speak with you away from all those jackals down there."

The man regarded Colwyn for a moment before saying, "I'm quite busy," and taking a step toward the door.

Colwyn raised his voice a bit and said, "I have come up with a formula which will cure several forms of heart disease."

The man's stopped walking but did not go so far as to turn back in Colwyn's direction.

Colwyn continued, "I developed it while working for one of your competitors."

"Then it's of no use to me, or do you not understand how patents work?"

"They refused it. And I developed it without their knowledge, hence the termination of our relationship. And they don't hold the patent on it, I do."

The man turned to face Colwyn and said, "So? Why tell me about it?"

"You know the answer to that. A man cannot bring a new medication to market. But your company could."

"Why me? You could walk into that room and sell it to the highest bidder."

"I'm not interested in profiting off this formula."

"Bullshit."

Colwyn shrugged and said, "Believe what you will, but it's the truth. My only interest is in this medicine getting into the hands of the people that desperately need it."

"What's the catch? The way I was brought up, if something sounds too good to be true, then it is."

"You must sell it as cheaply as possible. I will not begrudge you a modest profit, but my aim is for this medicine to save thousands of lives, not make a handful of people ridiculously wealthy."

"I see. What about trials and government oversight?"

"I can guarantee that this medicine will clear those hurdles. My former employer lured me from academia with an eye on getting me to use my research to reduce their failure rate. Not a single medicine which was evaluated, and in most cases improved, by my software failed to go to market."

"You're the guy I heard about last year. The super genius who wrote thinking programs. What's your name, Smallville?"

"Smalley. And my programs don't think, they just appear to think in the eyes of people who aren't so good at thinking themselves."

"Tell me something? Was this a once in a lifetime thing with the heart disease breakthrough?"

"I have my own reasons for choosing to work on this particular form of heart disease. But there is no reason that I couldn't adapt my methods to apply to other maladies."

He took several steps and stuck out his hand. "You drive an intriguing bargain, Mr. Smalley. Would you be willing to meet with my research team?"

Colwyn retrieved his hand from the man's strong grip and said, "Bring four of your top people. I will pick one of the group who will have one hour to ask me anything they want. I'll even let them evaluate my work. As I said, I am uninterested in making money. I only want to help people."

***

As agreed upon the prior evening, Quincy Meadows arrived at a local diner early the next morning in the company of four of his employees. Colwyn scanned each of them before sending a silent command to his waitress to step outside and inform Meadows which of his employees could enter. Colwyn ensured that the other three departed before turning his attention to Meadows and a surprisingly young man with a wispy goatee and an ill-fitting sport coat. The pair sat down, and Meadows introduced his companion as Felix Taylor.

"Good morning," Meadows began. "Have you eaten?"

"I waited for you, as we agreed."

"Felix, Mr. Smalley asked me to offer no details until we arrived. I know this is an extremely tall order, but you're one of our best and I have faith in you. Mr. Smalley tells me he's come up with a cure for several forms of heart disease. He's not a doctor, or even a chemist. What he is, is perhaps one of the smartest people alive when it comes to AI. He claims he wrote programs which came up with this formula. I need you to figure out if he's full of shit. No offense," this last comment he directed at Colwyn.

Colwyn nodded and said, "Actually, I write programs which write programs. You have to go five dimensions deep to get to where the actual formula creation happens."

Felix made a sour face and looked pointedly at his boss. "I don't know computers, Mr. Meadows."

"I know," Meadows replied reassuringly. "That doesn't matter. I need you to figure out if the formula is legit. Don't worry about how he came up with it. I merely gave you background so you didn't' think this was some kind of...I don't know..."

"Russian spy shit?" Felix offered.

"Sure. Let's go with that. Why don't I order for us while you two get into the heart of the matter?"

Colwyn was unsurprised by the quality of Felix's questions, but he was caught off guard by the ferocity with which the questions were fired at him. It was as if Felix had stayed up all night preparing for this exact conversation. His questions were pointed in a way that showed deep familiarity with both the maladies the formula aimed to cure, and the types of medicines currently used to cure them.

Colwyn held nothing back in answering the questions, even making use of his laptop to demonstrate some of the models he had created. As they neared the end of the hour, Felix finally slowed down and began to eat his now cold food.

Meadows said, "So...what do you think?"

"I can't promise it'll work, but he's almost certainly not full of shit. Some of his theories are pretty groundbreaking, but I can see the potential. Kind of thinking about taking the day and just seeing where we might be able to adapt this approach to some of our work in progress."

"Well," Colwyn interjected. "Are you convinced?"

"So how does this work, in your mind?" Meadows evaded. "Do you come to work for us?"

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea. Strictly speaking, I have a non-compete in place which precludes me from working in the industry. I have, however, consulted an attorney and there is nothing in the non-compete which prevents me from entering into an agreement which would allow you to manufacture the formula. I'm only prevented from actually working for you."

"I see. So, how much would you charge for the formula?"

Colwyn sat back and said, "It isn't for sale. But I will grant you a license to manufacture it, immediately revocable by me if you do anything I don't like."

"How much will the license be, then?"

Colwyn smiled broadly and said, "One dollar."

100101

"You've got that freaked out look in your eye again, babe," Heidi observed from her spot in the passenger seat.

"What?" Colwyn exclaimed theatrically. "No I don't?"

"You're about ten seconds from steering us into an embankment. It's going to be fine. Dad will adore you. I'm certain of it. You already met my sister and that went fine."

"That was via video chat. This is in person. Not only that, but we're staying at his house. In the same bedroom, no less."

"I'm not a teenager anymore, Colwyn," she retorted in irritation. "I stayed with my dad for two years. During that time, I was, as near as makes no difference, his caretaker. He's cool, but even if he wasn't, we're way past me needing to pretend I'm not an adult around him. He knows we're having sex."

"He does?" Colwyn gulped.

"He as much as said so when he asked if we'd need two rooms prepared. And then I confirmed it when I told him that even though we don't live together, we sleep together more often than we don't. We're an adult couple in a committed, deeply serious relationship. Honestly, he should be worried if we aren't having sex. Relax. It's fine."

"If you say so," he responded, sounding decidedly unconvinced.

"If, dare I say when, we go visit your mother, will we share a bedroom?"

"That is different."

"Why?"

He took her hand, brushing his lips across her knuckles. "Because I am not trying to impress her."

"You don't need to impress me, babe. I already know that you're the best."

"But your father does not. This isn't about some archaic nonsense where your father's opinion matters more than yours. But that doesn't mean I don't intend to do everything possible to hide from him just how undeserving of you I am."

"I should scream at you for continuing to carry this torch," she groaned.

"But you kind of like it, don't you?"

"It inspires me to also bend over backwards to treat you like you deserve. Relationships have been built on worse foundations than two people constantly moving heaven and earth to demonstrate how much they care for their partner."

"Indeed. But this conversation has caused me to realize that I have allowed a truth to exist in your head which I feel compelled to correct. I have not yet told my mother about our relationship, or indeed about you at all. I..." At this point, he turned to face her and saw the devastated expression on her face. He hastened to add, "Oh, baby. It's not like that. I mean, I guess it's not going to sound great, but I haven't omitted mentioning you to her. I literally have not spoken with her since our relationship began."

Heidi's expression changed, but not necessarily for the better. "But...why?"

He shrugged and said, "I call her on her birthday and on holidays. She will sometimes call and remind me that it has been months since we spoke. But that has been our way for as long as I can remember. I am not avoiding her. It's just that since she moved, our lives have almost no overlap."

"I don't understand. I thought you two were close."

"We are. We have no arguments. The fact that I don't often feel the urge to call her does not mean I dislike her."

"I just don't get it babe. Help me understand. I have a close relationship with my family. By that, I mean I talk to them on the phone at least weekly and I visit them at least a couple times a year. I'd go crazy if I went for months without talking to them."

He considered this for a moment before spending a few seconds manipulating the steering-wheel mounted controls. Shortly, the unmistakable sound of a dial-tone came over the coupe's speakers.

"What are you doing?" Heidi asked worriedly.

"Righting a wrong."

"God dammit," she muttered as the line picked up.

"Colwyn!" his mother's voice said exuberantly over the car's speakers. "What a wonderful surprise. Is everything ok?"

He glanced at Heidi as though to drive home the point that him not having called his mother recently was not cause for comment, but she was staring daggers at him. So, he quickly shifted his eyes back to the road.

"Everything is wonderful, Mother."

"Well, that's a welcome change."

"Prudence dictates that I make you aware that I am in a vehicle in motion, and that I have a companion who can hear your every word. Her name is Heidi Boyd, and I am very proud to call her my girlfriend. Assuming that is, that my decision to call you in her presence, and without her permission, has not jeopardized our relationship status. I should also point out that she is the most beautiful woman in the world and the best woman I have ever known. Well, one of the best two."

The silence that descended, both over the phone and in the car, was like a weighted blanket made of neutron stars. Colwyn felt the breath being literally dragged from his lungs while he waited for someone, anyone, to speak.

"Mother? Are you unwell?"

"Oh honey, I'm not sick. I'm just so fucking happy."

"Pardon?"

"I know," she gushed. "That's not very ladylike, but I've waited so long for this day. Please don't judge Colwyn too harshly, Heidi. I hope you know by this point that he approaches some problems a bit differently than the rest of us."