Larry Niven - The Moon Maze Game

“And further,” Kendra said, “in the last year, there has been an acceleration of contacts between them and certain persons of interest to Interpol. They did a very good job of disguising the communications, but once we started looking for them, we found them.” She turned to Piering. “I have to take care of something. Can you handle things here?”

“Absolutely.”

After the door closed behind her, McCauley said, “This is incredible. What can I do to help?” He managed to ooze sincerity.

“We have reason to believe that they gained access to your shop again, more recently. Possibly other shops as well, and fabricated weapons and tools used in the assault.”

McCauley leaped for the offered lifeline. “You’re saying that if he has my codes, they might have others.”

“Yes. There is no limit to how far into our security they may have penetrated. We need your help. Is there anything you can tell us, anything that might help?”

He stared at his fingers. For a moment it seemed he was about to speak. Then…

Thomas Frost sat quietly, staring at the beige walls of a nine-by-nine cell. Then, the door opened, and Kendra entered.

He managed to affect indignation. “What the hell is going on?”

“Where’s your brother, Thomas? Where is Doug?”

He didn’t flinch. “I don’t know. We’re not Siamese twins.”

“No,” Kendra admitted. “You’re not. But we have reason to believe that he is currently in the gaming dome, and that he has been assisting the kidnappers. We have messages sent to persons of intense interest associated with radical groups in Kikaya, as well as expats. And we have evidence that the two of you colluded to practice industrial espionage against the interests of Cowles Industries.”

He frowned. “What kind of evidence?”

“Piering?” she said. Her voice was clear and low and strong.

The security man pressed buttons on his PDA. Toby McCauley appeared on the wall monitor, face five times its normal size. Kendra appeared across the table from him.

“So…,” the onscreen Piering said. “Can you help us understand how the Frost brothers might have gained access to your security systems?”

“They had contacts,” McCauley said. “Kikayan contacts. The boy’s father invested in the game, and some of the people negotiating the deal had the chance to insinuate themselves.”

“You have direct knowledge of this?”

“No,” Toby said. Was that a tic at the corner of his mouth? A bit of a squint? McCauley was nervous. “No, but we played squash together, Thomas and I, and several times he implied that the government of Kikaya was riddled with revolutionary forces, and that some of them were close to the King.”

“And?”

“They implied that Kikayan loyalists had fingers everywhere, and knowledge that would one day be applied to the freeing of-”

Thomas slapped his hand on the table. “He is lying. I have no such contacts. But Mr. McCauley has debts. It is known that, for a price, his shop has made contraband items that have made their way into Luna’s black market.”

Kendra pushed a piece of paper across to him.

“I want to know what you know, and from whom you learned it. And I want to know now.”

Thomas hesitated, and then began to write.

Piering met Kendra outside the cell. They walked together in silence for a while, and then found an elevator.

“Did you get it?” Piering asked.

“Enough,” Kendra said. “He was easier than McCauley. I think he figured that the ball is in play now, and that after the situation is resolved, he will have sufficient leverage to force us to release him to Earth. While McCauley is making noises as if he’s still staying here, still running for election… but I think that’s bullshit. I think he’s planning to take off with the others.”

“Should we take a look at his residence? See if he’s preparing to leave?”

“Yes, send someone over to do that, I think,” Kendra said. “What the hell happened? The man used to have ambitions.”

“Maybe he still does. Maybe someone made him a better offer.”

They opened the next room, and Xavier greeted them. “Now, that was fun. I was afraid that you wouldn’t give me enough to work with.”

On the screens were wireframes of Frost and McCauley, partially filled in. “We are thinking that if they had more help outside, they wouldn’t have sent one of the brothers in.”

Wu Lin came closer. “Which means?”

“Which means that if we can control the visual feeds, and seal off the dome from outside communications, they might be blind.” Kendra said.

“But,” Xavier said, “they mustn’t know that they are blind.”

“No, they mustn’t.”

“It seems, Wu Lin, that we have a game after all. One with considerably higher stakes. Please, Ms. Griffin. Dazzle me.”

Xavier and his people watched on a game monitor as the Moresnot men broke into the Mars room.

“We have no direct contact with the gamers, as you know. Most of the time. But we do have some system backup sensors. We received a notification that someone was attempting to hook several of them up in series.”

“Why?” Kendra asked.

“I think they want to activate the animatics and preprogrammed holograms.”

“Where are the pirates right now?” Kendra asked.

“Entering Mars,” Xavier said after a glance at the screen.

“Would Scotty have known they were coming?”

“Very possible.”

Kendra sighed. “Show me the thermals.”

A gauzy map blossomed. A clutch of red silhouettes arrived through a connecting door. Their scans revealed two people hidden in the room.

Suddenly, Kendra understood. “Scotty’s going for an ambush. We have to help him.”

The little Game Master perked up. “What did you have in mind?”

“What exactly are your capabilities at this point?” she asked.

“In terms of communicating or controlling the illusions?”

Xavier closed his eyes and considered. Then he began ticking off points on his fingers. “I cannot control the illusions directly. I can’t add data to the computers in the gaming dome. I cannot send outside power to any of the illusions, nor can I use the main camera feeds to observe.”

“That’s the bad news,” Kendra said. “And…?”

“And… our attackers were smart, but not brilliant. We can do a small amount of imaging, using a subsystem. We can route power from one part of the dome to another.”

“How so?”

“The backups. In case of power failure, we wanted to be able to keep going until major power was restored. We have some backdoor controls there. Let’s see… as you already know, in certain situations we can communicate with the gamers a bit, using Morse code.”

“If Scotty is planning to ambush Moresnot,” she said, “we want to help him. What can we do?”

A pause, then Wu Lin spoke. “There is little we can do directly. But there is one factor that must be taken into consideration.”

“Which is?”

Wu Lin’s eyes glittered. “Mr. Griffin is accustomed to our illusions. The kidnappers are not.”

“True,” Xavier said. “More to the point, the more complex and disorienting we make the situation, the greater advantage should accrue to the good guys, such as they are.”

“What can you do?” Kendra asked.

“Well,” Xavier said. “You have to understand that a game is controlled by both the technological constraints and the commercial considerations. That means that, as with any good story, there is a rhythm to the flow of the game. Smaller illusions give way to larger, more impressive ones until you reach the end, and use the most impressive ones of all.”

Kendra nodded. “And so you suggest…?”