“Same from my source,” Nick said. “Maybe it’s an old fling? Or possibly his parents?”

“Nah. The only way that’d work is if his dad were his identical twin,” Bonnie countered with a shrug. “But it’s a game. They may have gotten lazy when generating the models.”

“Lazy? That’s not possible.” Lucas knew the answer this time. He might not have known much about the fighting and the game mechanics, but after seeing Xun Guan’s face, he had looked up exactly how faces were generated. They were made by the developers, each one custom created using a DNA simulator that had been taken from either the game’s original creators or generated from a random string of code. If two NPCs in a game had a kid, the game would generate a random potential DNA sequence from the pairing and use that to predict the kid’s face and features. This method essentially prevented any two people from having identical features or looking like copy-pasted versions of each other like the characters in many of the earlier MMOs.

“Well, whatever,” Bonnie said, going up to the painting and pulling out a knife. “I’ll just jack this frame and make myself some money.”

“No!” Lucas roared. He surged forward and grabbed the arm that she had raised to accost the artwork before he even realized what he was doing. Then, catching himself, he backpedaled verbally without actually moving. “I mean, we can’t disturb the area until we accomplish our goal. We’ll be back here again, so don’t be in a rush.” All he could do was make up a lame reason which he hoped was believable enough to both excuse his outburst and prevent her from taking down the painting.

Bonnie looked taken aback after his initial outburst but nodded anyway along with shooting him an apprehensive glance. “Gotta make it look like no one was here, or else the plan won’t work, is it? Okay. I got it. I’ll be careful, boss.”

“Sorry,” Lucas said, realizing that he had scared her. “Anyway, we need to look around here for an accounting book. Find something that looks like it has a bunch of notes on cash flows for the region.”

Lucas had no luck in finding the accounting book, but he did find a strange journal from Kegan. He knew he probably should have left it where it was, but he felt compelled to take it from the shelf for some strange reason. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that neither Nick nor Bonnie was paying attention, so he figured there wasn’t any harm.

“I found it!” Nick declared, startling Lucas in the middle of his attempt to stealthily pocket Kegan’s journal. He pulled a book from one of the shelves and tossed it toward Lucas.