WetWeb by Robert Haney Read Free Book Online

working together at the brush factory, Tommy Chin had been appointed to a job with minor responsibilit ies as an Assistant Shift Manager.  There was a pretty girl he harassed.  Her name was Angie.
    Tommy Chin harassed her at the brush factory and eventually he was reprimanded by the management.  Now Angie was working at Wild West Alive like all of the young brush factory employees.  Angie had the role of a saloon girl named “Sadie , ” and Marshal Redburn had extracted rev enge upon her many times over.
    Like many of the other young women from the village that worked in Wild West Alive as hosts, they were never “Off”.  They never left the game.   It was never openly discussed among the hosts and certainly not dealt with by RSI Gaming Company.  The female hosts at Squabash felt ashamed of the roles they played in the simulated western town.  While the role of outlaw afforded Yang some admiration in the village, for a girl like Angie, playing the role of Saloon girl had the opposite effect on her reputation.
    While the young men returned to their villages and proudly boasted about gun fights and bank robberies, the young women were not proud of the activities the players made them do when the players were in control of their bodies.  Instead of taking time off from the game and facing their friend and families back in the village, they preferred to stay in Squabash and forward their paychecks to their families.  The simulated Wild West world built by RSI Gaming Company had become their only reality.
    When RSI recruited them they said it would be like play-acting. 
    “Put on a good show,” the recruiter said, “You will make good money and have fun at the same time.”
    The bullets were rubber, the hosts were trained to fight like stunt-men in the movies , and the romance was supposed to be simulated.  It was possible to make good money, this was true, but for a young girl like Sadie, working as a Saloon girl was not fun. 
    Tommy Chin was one host who consistently took it too far.  Once the game went online, it was clear to all the hosts that the players had a keen interest in real violence.  The more real the better.   Tommy Chin had become the Marshal by gaining a consistently high popularity with the players.   Tommy’s natural mean streak made him popular among the players.  His abuse of the Saloon girls and the other weaker hosts inside the town of Squabash was legendary among the players.
    The horses were running now.  The stagecoach driver had spotted them and whipped the team of horses into a run.  The guard sitting next to the driver started to fire his repeating rif l e.  At this range, the rubber bullets were completely ineffective.  Yang knew it, but the player controlling his guard was having a good time firing shot after shot.
    Yang could feel his own player start to join in.  The player used Yang’s legs to spur the big horse to a faster pace.  He tossed the cigarillo to the ground and signaled to Sam and Gus to increase their speed.  The outlaws fanned out on either side of the stagecoach.  They drew their six-guns and started shooting.
    Yang’s player directed the horse directly behind the stagecoach.  It was safe from bullets , but they were being pelted by pebbles tossed up by the stagecoach wheels and the dust was unbearable.  Luckily for Yang, the horse would have none of it and they emerged from the dust cloud and rode up alongside the Stagecoach on the driver’s side.  
    Yang felt the player draw his gun and then aim directly at the driver.  Yang felt the tell-tale pressure on his index finger and he fired.  They missed.  Yang knew they would miss.   Rubber bullets are lighter than lead and more easily influenced by wind. 
    At this speed, the player would need to shoot in front of the driver in order to score a hit.  Yang realized he had an inexperienced player controlling him and this made him nervous about the upcoming jump he would need to make onto the