Larry Niven - The California Voodoo Game

Panthesilea collapsed into herself in slow motion. Her body began to steam.

"You bastard!" Tammi said, wheeling on Alphonse.

"Stop!" He called, "I can pull this out. Cipher, you can't break it in time, can you?"

Captain Cipher, sweating, shook his head. "I don't know. I really don't."

"Warning, you now have one minute to initiate emergency shutdown…"

"My way, we win for sure."

Tammi and Mary-em looked at each other. What did they have to lose? Their shields were cracking.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Give Bishop the Oggun talisman," he said. "Enhanced physical strength. Stand still, Bishop!"

Bishop's eyes flamed hatred as the beads were slipped around his neck. "Now," Al the B said with naked malice. "Walk into the corridor, Bishop, and pull the fucking emergency switches."

If looks could cut, Al would have pulled First Soprano in the Vienna Boys Choir. Bishop ground his teeth, almost vibrating with hatred.

"Now," Al said gently.

Then Bishop relaxed, a reluctant grin of admiration halfhidden as he turned. Showtime!

Bishop the Possessed lurched convincingly down the corridor, blistered by killing waves of radiation. On monitors the Adventurers watched his cheeks begin to bubble and run, the skin to blister and peel. He staggered, but the strength in the Oggun Necklace kept him erect.

In seconds he stood before the open shields, bathed in unholy light. He fell against the wall, hands with no flesh remaining digging into them, tearing away metal restraints, grasping for control rods, yanking And then he collapsed to the ground, disintegrating as they watched.

The shields slid shut. The control-panel lights dimmed. The lights m the room dimmed.

"Attention. Emergency shutdown has been activated. Have a nice day.''

The demons circled them in a howling mass. They slowed, and faded, then vanished altogether.

The shrieking alarm siren slowed, and then lowered its pitch and died.

Griffin spared a brief, pitying glance at Acacia. A double black border surrounded her. She looked melted, but her skeletal shoulders heaved almost imperceptibly.

Mary-em, Top Nun, Tammi, Al Nakagawa, and Captain Cipher were all that remained of the party.

Their magical shields failed. The magic was worn out. What next? They had nothing, and A glowing form appeared in the air before them. It was the image of a Nommo, the majestically hideous flat-catfish form balanced on its tail.

"It is over," it said. "And you have won.''

Friday, July 22, 2059 10:00 P.M.

Griffin reached Gaming Central in time to see the Game Masters packing and preparing to leave. "I heard," he said softly to Richard Lopez, "that this was your final Game."

"It is what the doctors tell me." The dark rings beneath his eyes lightened, as if his reply pleased him.

"He's cheated them before." Mitsuko held his arm tightly. In affection? Or to help him remain erect? Alex wasn't sure. All he could be sure of was that they wanted no pity. They were the best. They had presented their masterpiece to the world. If it was their final work, there were worse exit lines.

He squeezed Richard's hand warmly, and they left.

El and Doris had already dismissed most of their mimes and were busily gathering their props and character sheets.

Then Alex was alone with Vail, Thaddeus Harmony, Millicent Summers, and a handful of noisy workmen dismantling the Virtual theater platform.

Alex took a tiny metal collar out of a foil wrapper, gazed at it, and held it up to the light. "McWhirter found this?"

"Affirmative," Millicent said.

"Wish I could claim prescience, say I wanted to get him out of the control room and into the field, but the truth is that I'm so tired I can hardly think. I just blew my top. "

She nodded without speaking.

On a viewscreen between them was a shot of a celebration party whipped up for the Gamers in one of MIMIC's apartment suites. All the Gamers were there, and only two or three seemed aware that they were detained against will. Security had politely informed them that transportation would take a couple of hours. and requested the honor of their company at a special party.

You're not leaving MIMIC yet.

A little grumbling, a couple of protests. Al Nakagawa called his wife; Clavell and Poule had to alert their superiors and subordinates.

Then the party began.

Alex had yet to change out of his grubby costume as he scanned the information before him. Vail, quiet for once, watched him with professional curiosity. Millicent and Harmony, still in partial makeup, sat in uneasy silence. Millicent spoke first.

"What are we going to do, chief?"

"Use the hours that party buys us," he said. "Time to think."

"He was trying to force a win," Harmony said. "Or cheat."

Alex finished scanning Vail's report.

Harmony leaned forward. "Whatever it was, we stopped him. And ScanNet stopped him."

Griffin sat back in his chair.

ScanNet may have stopped him. He hadn't acted like it! But Bishop was all poker face and if Dream Park didn't know he'd been stopped, they'd have to act as if he'd won.

He might have been after some piece of the Barsoom Project, hired by an Ecuador concern to get it. He might have a map of MIMIC's defences. He'd tapped the security cameras. There was little in MIMIC for him to steal. ScanNet was only forty percent operable, but even so, it had probably stopped him.

Unless…

Alex Griffin's eyes flew wide open.

"Griff?" Harmony asked, alarmed. "What is it?"

A light dew of perspiration had appeared on his brow. "Oh my God. Wheelbarrows. It's been under our noses the entire time."

"Wheelbarrows?" Vail asked, genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

Alex stood up, shaking. "Get Tony McWhirter in here. He's earned it." His voice cracked, and he smashed his fist down on the control panel. The picture of the partying Gamers fizzled out. "Can't you see it? Bishop is stealing goddamned wheelbarrows!"

Mitch Hasegawa was very polite to the Gamers as he conveyed the news of another unfortunate delay.

"It's going to take a little more time. There are some things to work out."

Tammi and Twan. huddled by the artificial fireplace with Mouser, grinned up at him. "Just keep the champagne flowing, bud," Tammi said. "We can party all night!"

Twan corrected her: "And grape juice for the Sprout." Mouser glared.

All thirty Gamers were mingling with the NPCs from the previous day and a half.

Thaddeus Harmony kept popping in and out. He cheerfully admitted that they were being held at his orders; but somehow it wasn't easy to whine complaints at Thaddeus Dark.

Mary-em, Top Nun, and SJ sat together in a triangle, scarfing down canapes. "So…" SJ said, a huge grin splitting his freckled features. "How does it feel to be a permanent mommy?"

She patted her tummy. "M'power just went through the roof, sonnyboy. As far as I'm concerned, I won this Game. Know what this means? I've got more than enough points to go for Loremaster now! Got my eye on the Terminator Game coming up next year. Heh heh. Me and Junior are gonna kick robot butt! "

She was glowing. Texas Instruments-Mitsubishi had come in first, due to a last-minute maneuver by Al the Barbarian. The only Loremaster to emerge with a surviving team member-Mary-em-he had simultaneously saved the day and destroyed two opposing Loremasters. Mary-em's perpetual divine pregnancy hadn't hurt things at all.

In second place had been the Troglodykes. Then Acacia's UC team, then Army, and last, Bishop's General Dynamics team.

Who weren't talking to Nigel Bishop.

Bishop himself stood next to a video window currently displaying an alpine scene. He seemed lost in thought, for once without an epigram or a joke on his lips.