by thalasso

For the first time she had some unique material, proof she was on the right track. But checking the author of that book led to disappointment. A kid that hasn't used his account for month. Obviously the mole had been hacking into accounts of people being offline or had quit the game. That made Harry's task even more complicated.

"Now, it can be anybody," she told Ferraday. "And we will not be able to find him!"

Director Ferraday wasn't pleased at all.

"I know, Harry. It is not your fault. We just can't help it. Maybe we should change our approach."

"How? Infiltrating the company again, searching servers?" Harry was getting impatient.

"No, you can of course go on searching, but that may not lead to results anymore. Maybe we need a new bait. What if you openly admit, that you are looking for a spy and get some of these kids to help you?"

"First, there are not only kids in there. Our story has to be very convincing to make that work. Second, that will definitely blow my cover!"

Ferraday nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm aware of that. You will be safe with your false identity. We need to tell a story, that is close enough to the truth without giving it away."

"Have you ever been online to see how this 3D-environment works, Sir?"

"Oh, no," answered Ferraday. "That is not definitely not in my line of work. Ray," he paused, "he showed me some prints with people flying through the air on something that looked like a rubber dinghy, so called buggies driving in race tracks and these avatars standing in semicircles talking and so. That is all I know."

"Hm, they have these events in there." Harry was thinking very hard. "I could run a quest or adventure and tell people to look for places and books, to solve a bad case of let's say industrial spying. That would not blow my cover, but I get help and I may attracted the attention of our man."

"Excellent!" Ferraday was pleased. "I knew you would come up with something useful!"

Harry left the office and started to get her event going. She called it "Harry's Games". She set up some easy tasks to find secret rooms and placed some suspicious looking books with faked content there, just to train the alertness of the participators. Then her information got more vague, so the players had to look around a lot. To keep her cover she told everybody she was a private eye in real life.

Now that a lot more people were aware of secret rooms, she could chat openly about the subject and got a lot of hints, where to look. Crowds of player were looking all over the place, even in locations she had never thought of like private houses. That spared her to look up all the 48 funzones on Cangrejo.

The whole thing even made her a bit famous. She had a lot of buddies asking her for details all the time and wanted to hear stories from the life of a real private detective. She started to tell stories. Her work with the agency provided enough material for a lifetime. She just changed time and places, never mentioned any names. She could even report some of these stories Boris could not help but keep telling over and over again.

She soon had some dedicated followers and a close friend, Tarrant. He was nice, very helpful and a good locking avatar. She checked him out by all possible means. In real life he was an old, fat, ugly and unemployed engineer having enough time to kill. But he was nice. She tested his honesty by asking things she already knew.

"Is Tarrant your real name?"

"Yes, John Tarrant, actually, " he answered. "But the avatar name John was long gone, when I registered. I don't like having numbers with names, that sounds a bit strange to me. Instead of John123 or something I simply used my last name."

"Good idea, Tarrant doesn't sound very common!" Harry smiled virtually.

"It is in fact Italian in origin. I was born in Italy but raised in England. I'm a London man. I came to America in the late 60ths, when NASA needed engineers very badly. But after the last man had left the moon, they fired me along with thousands others with the same qualification. As I could not find a job as an engineer again, I became a traveling salesman for cosmetics and stuff. But the times have changed. Most of these things are nowadays sold over the internet or home shopping channels."

"So you're ready for retirement now?"

"Not at all. I could live from my savings right away but I'm applying for new jobs frequently, just to be on the safe side, as my old mother used to say!"

Harry carefully changed the subject.

"What about the secret room, you have discovered?"

"Oh, yes." Tarrant beamed. "It is hidden inside of one of these pools. I'll show you!"

"Lead the way."

Tarrant summoned her to the Dune Pool near the Buggy Arena.

"There is a door on the backside. Just click to get in."

"OK." Harry said. "By the way, where in Russia you were born?"

"On, no. Not Russia", Tarrant replied. "I'm frrrom Milano in Italy!"

Harry entered the Secret Pool. Surprisingly it contained just another pool, but no books at all.

"No problem," Tarrant said. "I know a better place."

He knew quite a lot of places, but they had no success. After two hours he had to go. Harry stay behind at the Artandi Cafe. When she walked to have a look down the plateau, she found a book well hidden behind some big rocks …

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