#anywhere

"Good point, very odd that whole thing."

"Mm. Might want to get someone out to secure this machine." He points out.

"Well, it was listed out of order.. hopefully" A worried look fills her

Frank nods. "Still." He speaks on the phone for a while, then hangs up. "Ok, Lut and Tig are going to come out and keep an eye on it, figure out how to remove or neutralize it."

She bites her lip, "Da. I hate to bring this up. But, we may need to steal that for it's own good so we can help the people we saw."

Frank looks puzzled. "They weren't just... I don't know... a construct of the game?"

"The..the gray room? I don't know, but they were dressed differnt like weren't they? Not so...copy paste Is that the right term?"

"Dad, what if they're the players who failed?"

Frank exhales heavily. "Damn."

"Sorry, it's just their clothes and the way they got on us about still having lives... what if they're mortals who got enchanted by the game, sucked in, and either failed the first drop off, or tried to do the next and..well?"

Frank nods. "Yes. You're right. Ok." He looks again at the mall, then back. "Ok. You stay here. I'll have one of the boys drive you back. I'm going back to the arcade and keep an eye on the machine. Whoever doesn't drive you back will work with me. Tell your mom."

"I..." then a nod, "Okay, father...but, on one condition?" bad choice of words "Request? Plea?"

"What is it?" Not without humor.

"Please, don't play that game without me, or at least someone else."

BIG eyes

He laughs, a low rumble. "Not a problem, Siv."

Relived look, "Good. Gave me a fright you getting into trouble without telling us about it until it was too la..." A sour look, "I'm going to stop there as this line of talk is forcing an epiphany on me I don't much care for."

"Yep." With satisfaction.

Mumble grumble, but she stays where she is for one of the boys to drive her back

Frank nods, kisses her forehead, and makes sure she keeps pressure on that cut before heading back to the machines.

((And yes, he will leave her alone in the car.))

The bleeding stopped, and perhaps to her own surprise, she behaves. For Frank, it's a boring watch, but no one goes near Post Apocalyptic Trucker

He waits.

Tig and Lut show up and being of the younger generation, they have some ideas... a battery pack should keep it alive long enough for it to plug in again.... they just have to move quick.

"I can veil you. Who's taking Siv home?"

"Got her," Lut says

Frank nods. "Ok, so... wait till after closing?"

Tig nods, "That's my advice, and.. you're going to need some other games, otherwise folks will remember you as the guy who stared at this right before it went missing, either that or keep that veil up and make sure no cameras in here are on you"

"Right. Wait, play more games now or take more games later?"

"Play more now" He sighs

Frank nods.... and offers a fistful of bills to the boys. "Not doing this alone."

Well, one of them, Lut is driving Siv in. "I've had worse jobs" and frank has a strange day of guard duty. Vali comes in later to help, and...

well, that nmight, some whackos rob an out of order machine!

(End Scene)

Oh, one more thing....

On the news that night, it turns out that over 15 thousand text books were delivered and donated anonymously some of the schools in the area, particularly those most in need. Current editions, approved for the courses, the whole thing! Folks are grateful, but baffled! no one even saw sign or tail of them being dropped off. Just a lot of boxes that have P.A.T. written on them in blocky Comic Sans.

This will save the budget of many a school for the year

or at least help.

(I will assume Others will have their reactions to that news based on what they learn from Siv and Frank, so End Scene)