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computer and expected to finish her play with a small number of credits was now favoured to come out of this play ranked number one. 
      Everyone was excited to be a part of it, and Brandon was pleased to keep them all on board. Only he knew what would really happen when she finished her play — that the Game would end and every child still inside the Game at that time would die. When that happened, life on Tygon would change catastrophically and Brandon knew that everything he had built for the past thirty years would crumble in an instant. He wasn’t about to just stand by and let that happen. Time was running out, but he was going to do his best until the very end. That meant keeping this incredible team together to help Danielle live as long as she possibly could inside the Game.
      Brandon entered the corner office and nodded to the people assembled. Michelle, Nadine, and Lilith were sitting at the round desk in the room. Brandon sat down and got right to business.
      “ Michelle, what news on Zack?”
      Michelle shook her head sadly. “Nothing, Brandon. He’s still on life support with no sign of brain function or activity. It’s been four days since he came out; no change.”
      Brandon nodded. He was spending all his free time at Zack’s side, but he never had much free time. “Nadine, tell us about Danni. What’s she up to now?”
      Nadine tapped some commands into her tablet and the screen behind her displayed the current information on Danielle. 
      “She’s 46 years old at the moment, and for the past few years she has been hunting for Carl.”  Nadine stopped talking and looked patiently at Brandon.
      “ What else?” Brandon asked.
      “ Nothing else,” Nadine said. “You heard her speech when Raphael told her how Trew died. The girl is true to her word. She’s doing nothing else until she puts that Sever Spike into Carl.”
      “ And her ratings? Have they suffered?” he asked.
      “ Not at all, likely because there are so many entertaining distractions while she tries to focus on finding Carl.” Nadine brought up another chart titled Distractions and began to list them off. “First, there are her eyes. Fans believe she is suddenly an Eternal, and they are watching closely to see what kind of things she can do because of it.”
      “Okay,”   Brandon said.
      “ Then there are the millions of people still believing in the movement Danni and Trew formed. She has repeatedly tried to get them to move on and disband, but the Gamers continue to believe in their movement.”
      “ What are they doing?” Brandon asked.
      “ Looking for a real leader,” Nadine said. “Danielle refuses to lead them, and the major religions of the world have taken notice of their numbers and have banded together to destroy this young faith.”
      “ Without a true leader, the movement will fail,” Brandon said. “We’ve seen it happen many times. This one seems to be hanging on longer than most.”
      “That’s because there were over 40 million of them when Trew died. They are numerous, and they are devout. Most of the local leaders have encouraged their groups to go underground. This was what Danielle instructed them to do not long after Trew died, and the majority feel that Danielle will be stepping forward very soon to call them all together and lead them.”
      Brandon nodded. “I think she just might.”
      “ What makes you think that?” Lilith asked.
      “ Because she wants to find Carl. I’m surprised she hasn’t realized it will be easier to do that by putting millions of loyal followers on the hunt.”
      “ Oh, I think she did realize that some time ago,” Lilith said. “I also think she’s afraid Carl will mow through large numbers of people that come after him. She doesn’t want that kind of blood on her hands.”
      “ Perhaps,” Brandon said. “But sooner or later she will call them to help. So what plans do we have for helping her move along