Dot raised an eyebrow. "Scrubs Champion, you say?"

  "Three times national champion," Luke countered.

  Curtis gave him a look that conveyed just what he thought of Luke's theatrics, but he didn't have time to say anything before the woman who owned the place, who'd been standing by the kitchen counter, let out a loud, demonstrative sigh and spoke in a life-weary voice. "Check out is in 30 minutes."

  That got them going, and all five shoveled oatmeal into their mouths, cleaning out their bowls and finishing up their coffee in a matter of minutes. Not long after, they were packed and out on the front lawn, Luke having paid for their stay. It was the least he could do.

  "Don't you have a bag either, Luke?" Dot asked. She was wearing the same clothes as the day before, but had managed to barter for one of the proprietor's unopened toothbrushes, at least.

  "I do," he said.

  She looked around. "Where?"

  "In my inventory."

  "How?" Hiroki asked, shouldering the bulk of his military-style bag.

  Luke shrugged. "Bought an upgrade."

  All the others checked the Integrated shop, frowned, then glared at him.

  "30k credits?" Hannah asked. "That is just ludicrous."

  "It is?" Luke asked, a teasing, wide grin on his face. "Seemed pretty worth it to me."

  Curtis, Hannah, and Hiroki threw their bags at Luke, and after some brief arguments, he'd been designated the group's pack mule.

  "Undignified," he muttered, as they headed over to the car.

  "Can you still sense the intruder?" Hiroki asked Curtis.

  Curtis pointed east, down a narrow street running parallel to the main street. "I can. Down there somewhere."

  It didn't take them long to squeeze themselves back into Hiroki's small car, and soon they were off, heading to what looked like the centre of Knox, Illinois.

  "Hey, there's actually another place to stay!" Dot said, pointing at a sign saying Super Value Inn. A moment later, when she'd looked at her phone, she let out a small groan. "Maybe the sign saying that woman's bed-and-breakfast was the best in town wasn't wrong, judging by the reviews of this place."

  "Doesn't matter. We're not staying here another night," Curtis said, slowing the car down to a crawl as they drove past what looked like a Burger King combined with a gas station.

  "Hungry?" Luke asked.

  Curtis turned left and drove into the parking lot. "The intruder is inside."

  "Inside the restaurant?" Hiroki asked, getting out.

  They all followed, and Curtis slammed the driver's side door. "Yep. Feels like that." He turned to Luke. "You still not getting anything?"

  "Nothing," Luke said. "I want the skill too."

  As they crossed the small parking lot, Luke focused for all he was worth, trying to expand his consciousness into the underlying threads of the system permeating everything. Ignoring the slight pull of Relian's presence in his mind proved difficult, but when they entered the restaurant, he thought there might be something else there, beneath. Before he had the chance to isolate that sensation, though, Curtis stepped up to an old man sitting in a booth near the registers, towering over the pale, short, and hunched-over man just finishing up his burger.

  "Who are you?" Curtis asked, towering over the old man.

  "Well, hello there," the old man said, shuffling to get out of his seat. He stood and extended a hand. "Name's Burt. I'm the owner of the muffler shop just down the street. Lived here all my life, but can't say I've seen you youngsters around these parts before."

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  "Friends of yours, Burt?" a heavy-set woman in a Burger King uniform asked, standing behind the register. She gave the group a bored glance. "You going to order, or what?"

  Burt gave a weak smile and dropped his hand, which Curtis had ignored. "Friends in the making, maybe, Agnes. Thank you for breakfast. Delicious as always. Don't know how you do it."

  "See you, Burt," Agnes said.

  "Drop the act, intruder," Curtis said, narrowing his eyes.

  The old man sighed and gave Luke and the others a beseeching look. "Is your tall friend here all right? Perhaps you ought to get him some breakfast. What do you say?"

  He made as if to leave, but Curtis extended a hand to block him. "We're not done here, intruder."

  Dot put a hand on Curtis's arm. "Maybe you are mistaken, Curtis. Perhaps we ought to go."

  "No," Curtis said.

  He was about to say something else, but didn't have the time. Without seeing what'd happened, Curtis hurtled through the air, crashing into tables and scattering fries everywhere. Only when he hit a wooden couch bolted to the floor in the middle of the restaurant did he come to a painful stop.

  "What the?" Luke asked, looking around.

  The old man was gone. Dot stood there, her hand still where Curtis's arm had been a second earlier, her eyes wide in surprise.

  "There!" Hiroki shouted before he was off, chasing after Burt, who ran through the staff door leading into the back, disappearing at incredible speed.

  Curtis scrambled off the wooden bench and ran through the seating area, shouldering people out of the way to reach the staff door by the side of the registers, where Burt, the old man, had disappeared.

  Once the initial shock wore off, Luke followed. By then, Agnes from behind the register had placed herself in the way, blocking the door. Shouts of alarm sounded from within, and several guests were halfway out the door by then. Rather than argue with Agnes, Luke shoved her aside with as much gentleness as he could muster, using Threads of Mana. The yelp from her as she tumbled over the counter was more out of surprise than pain, he hoped.

  With that out of the way, he opened the door and held it just long enough for Hannah to catch up.

  "I'll make sure Agnes isn't hurt!" Dot shouted after them.

  The staff area was a mess, with half-cooked fries on the floor, along with a bucketload of sliced tomatoes. Other than Agnes, only two other people were working that morning, and both of them hid near the ice cream machine. Luke scoffed at the 'broken' note stuck to it as he rushed past, heading toward the back door that stood ajar. Hannah followed on his heels, and together they made it through and outside, where Curtis and Hiroki on the lawn of someone's backyard.

  "Where did the old man go?" Luke asked, panting.

  Scratching the back of his head, Curtis kept his eyes closed, frowning. After a second or two, he sighed. "He's gone. Can't sense anything."

  "Why not?" Hannah asked.

  "Don't know."

  "I've heard of old man strength, but that was extraordinary," Luke said, but the fine joke only earned him a glare from Curtis.

  "That was no ordinary Burt," Hiroki said.

  Dot came jogging up from around the outside of the building. "Agnes is OK, but all of them are pissed. I think they called the cops."

  "We should probably go," Hannah said.

  "Let's," Luke agreed.

  On their way back to the car, Dot shared another tidbit from Agnes. "Apparently, Burt has lived here his whole life, like he said."

  "And he owns the muffler shop?"

  "Yup."

  "Should we go there and check it out?" Luke asked.

  Curtis just let out a low grunt in answer, but they took that as a yes. Unfortunately, the place was closed and, judging by the state of it, had been for quite a while. A few windows were cracked, and the roof, a thin sheet of metal, had rusted. The lights were off inside, but with the sun shining in, they saw a thin layer of dust covering almost everything in there.

  Hannah brought out her phone and dialed, nodding to a sign in the window with the number printed on it. After a few rings, she hung up, shaking her head. "Nothing."

  "Is this The Invasion of the Body Snatchers?" Hiroki asked.

  "What?" Dot asked, her voice wavering a little.

  "It's a movie," Luke said, pursing his lips. "I liked The Faculty."

  "You think it's aliens?" Hannah asked.

  Curtis, who'd been silent for a while, answered, "That old man being called an intruder means, I think, that it was someone or something else that either took over the old man's body."

  "Like The Faculty," Luke said.

  "Or," Curtis continued. "It was something that probably killed the old man and made itself look like him."

  "...They Live," Hiroki mumbled, and he and Luke shared a nod of acknowledgement over their apparent overlap in love of alien horror movies.

  Curtis sighed. "This is not a movie. Something not from Earth is here. Maybe there are more of them. We should keep our eyes open."

  "I don't like horror movies," Dot said.

  "Let's just get the hell away from Knox," Curtis said, his voice full of exasperation.

  As they got into the car again, raindrops began falling from the darkening sky. By the time they'd left Knox going north on Road 35, heading back toward I-95, it was pouring down. They rode in silence, and the smattering of rain on the car's roof had a soothing effect as Luke attempted to gain the Sense Intruder skill by sheer force of will. After an hour, he gave up and returned to working on extending Threads of Mana.

  "Luke?" Dot asked from the other side of the backseat.

  He dropped the thread and turned, leaning forward a little to see past Hannah, who sat in the middle, head tilted back as she snored. "Yeah?"

  "That painkiller thing you did back in the tent?"

  "You'll need level 5 for that, at least."

  "Yeah," Dot said with a smile, "I understand that, but could you do it to me?"

  Luke frowned. "Are you in pain?"