Travis had created the avatar years ago, but he'd sold it online to Jason, along with "like, a shitload of Reputation, Life Points and Resources."
Whatever those were.
Dance recalled that Boling had told her that players could sell their avatars and other accoutrements of the game.
The professor explained about his finding a reference in Travis's data to the Lighthouse Arcade's hours of operation.
Dance was grateful for the man's brilliant detective work. (Though she was absolutely going to dress him down later for not calling 911 immediately upon learning that the boy was at the arcade and for going after him alone.) On her desk behind them, in an evidence envelope, was the kitchen knife that Jason had used to threaten Boling. It was a deadly weapon and he was technically guilty of assault and battery. Still, since Boling hadn't actually been injured and the boy had voluntarily handed over the blade to the professor, she was probably going to be satisfied with giving the kid a stern warning.
Boling now explained what had happened: he himself had been the victim of a sting, orchestrated by the young teen who sat before them now. "Tell her what you told me."
"What it is, I was worried about Travis," Jason told them wide-eyed. "You don't know what it's like seeing somebody who's in your family getting attacked like he was, in the blog."
"Your family?"
"Yeah. In the game, in DQ, we're brothers. I mean, we've never met or anything, but I know him real good."
"Never met?"
"Well, sure, but not in the real world, only in Aetheria. I wanted to help him. But I had to find him first. I tried calling and IM'ing and I couldn't get through. All I could think of was hanging out at the arcade. Maybe I could talk him into turning himself in."
"With a knife?" Dance asked.
His shoulders lifted, then sagged. "I figured it couldn't hurt."
The boy was skinny and unhealthily pale. Here it was summer vacation and, ironically, he probably got outside now far less often than in the fall and winter, when he'd have to go to school.
Boling took over the narrative. "Jason was in the Lighthouse Arcade when I got there. The manager was a friend of his and when I asked about Stryker he pretended to go check out something but instead he told Jason about me."
"Hey, I'm sorry, man. I wasn't going to stab you or anything. I just wanted to find out who you were and if you had any idea where Travis was. I didn't know you were with this Bureau of Investigation thing."
Boling gave a sheepish smile at the impersonation-of-an-officer part. He added that he knew she'd want to talk to Jason but he thought it best to take him directly to her, rather than wait for the city police to show up.
"We just jumped in the car and called TJ. He told us where you were."
It was a good decision, and only marginally illegal.
Dance now said, "Jason, we don't want Travis to get hurt either. And we don't want him to hurt anybody else. What can you tell us about where he might go?"
"He could be anywhere. He's really smart, you know. He knows how to live outside in the woods. He's an expert." The boy noted their confusion and said, "See, DQ's a game, but it's also real. I mean, you're in the Southern Mountains, it gets like fifty below zero, and you have to learn how to stay warm and if you don't you'll freeze to death. And you have to get food and water and everything. You learn what plants're safe and what animals you can eat. And how to cook and store food. I mean, they have real recipes. You have to cook them right in the game or they don't work." He laughed. "There've been newbies who've tried to play and they're like, 'All we want to do is fight trolls and demons,' and they end up starving to death because they couldn't take care of themselves."
"You play with other people, don't you? Could any of them know where Travis might be?"
"Like, I asked everybody in the family and nobody knows where he is."
"How many are in your family?"
"About twelve of us. But him and me are the only ones in California."
Dance was fascinated. "And you all live together? In Aetheria?"
"Yeah. I know them better than I know my real brothers." He gave a grim laugh. "And in Aetheria, they don't beat me up and steal money from me."
Dance was curious. "You have parents?"
"In the real world?" He shrugged, a gesture Dance interpreted as meaning "Sort of."
She said, "No, in the game."