Larry Niven: The California Voodoo Game

Selected Dramatis Personae

Dream Park and Cowles Industries

ALEX GRIFFIN: Chief of Security

MILLICENT SUMMERS: Financial operations officer

THADDEUS HARMONY: Chief of Operations, Dream Park

TONY McWHIRTER: Data operations, IFGS liaison

SHARON CRAYNE: Cowles Industries security executive

MITCH HASEGAWA: Dream Park Security

DOCTOR NORMAN VAIL: Dream Park psychologist

International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS):

ELMO WHITMAN: Game Master

DORIS WHITMAN: Game Master

RICHARD LOPEZ: Game Master of international reputation

MITSUKO "CHI–CHI" LOPEZ: Game Master of equal renown

ARLAN MEYERS: IFGS arbiter

Gamers:

The University of California "Manhunters":

ACACIA 'PANTHESILEA' GARCIA: Loremaster, Warrior

CORBY 'CAPTAIN CIPHER' CAULDWELL: Magic User

MATI 'TOP NUN' COHEN: Cleric

STEFFIE 'ACES' WILDE: Engineer/Scout

TERRANCE 'PREZ' COOLIDGE: Warrior

CORRINDA HARDING: Thief

Texas Instruments-Mitsubishi "Cyberjocks":

ALPHONSE NAKAGAWA: Loremaster, Warrior

CRYSTAL COFAX: Engineer/Scout

MARY-MARTHA 'MARY-EM' CORBETT: Warrior

PEGGY 'THE HOOK' HOOKHAM: Engineer

FRIAR DUCK: Cleric/Magic User

OSWALD 'OZZIE THE PIKE' MURPHY: Warrior

Apple Computer "Troglodykes":

TWAN TSING: Loremaster, Magic User

TAMMI ROMATI: Loremaster' Magic User

MOUSER ROMATI: Thief

APPELION: Warrior, Magic User

GORDON REESE: Scout

GEORGE 'INDIANA' HOWARDS: Warrior

Army:

MAJOR TERRY CLAVELL: Loremaster, Magic User

CORPORAL S. J. WATERS: Scout/Thief

LIEUTENANT MADONNA PHILLIPS: Warrior

LAWRENCE BLACK ELK: Cleric, Magic User

GENERAL HARRY EVIL POULE: Warrior/Scout

CHAIM COHEN: Cleric

General Dynamics:

NIGEL BISHOP: Loremaster, Magic User

HOLLY FROST: Warrior, Thief

TREVOR STONE: Magic User

TAMASAN: Cleric

ILSA RADICHEV: Warrior

MIKHAIL RADICHEV: Warrior

Glossary:

THE BARSOOM PROJECT: the ongoing attempt to transform Mars into a habitat suitable for human life. Named after the Martian locale in novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

CHARACTER: a role played by a Gamer, in broad categories such as Magic User, Scout, Engineer, Cleric, and Warrior. Characters are often continued from one Game to the next. During Games, Gamers accumulate points, talismans, and treasures, which strengthen their characters. Gamers can also "split" accumulated points to create a character with abilities in two different areas: for instance, a Scout/Warrior.

COWLES INDUSTRIES: Dream Park's parent corporation. Driving force behind the Barsoom Project.

GAME MASTER: one of those responsible for designing and guiding Dream Park "Gaming" scenarios.

LOREMASTER: one of those who plays within a scenario, recruiting and guiding a team of Gamers.

MIMIC: Meacham Incorporated Mojave Industrial Community.

NPC (NON-PLAYER CHARACTER): an actor who performs within a Dream Park scenario. Often, but not always, in opposition to Gamers.

PALO MAYOMBE: Congolese variant of voodoo. Generally thought to be violent and death-oriented.

SANTARIA: a Latin American variant of voodoo.

SCANNET: MIMIC's security system.

VOODOO: a belief system, or system of magic, incorporating African and European cosmologies.

Tuesday, July 19, 2059 — 3:00 P.M.

For seventy minutes now, the murmur of five thousand throats had built steadily into a cacophony. The lobby well of the Dream Park Hyatt was filled from mezzanine to rafters with cheering, stomping, hooting fans. Banners streamed and flickered in the wind like the tails of small dragons. Faces from a dozen countries were animated, eager, expectant.

At the lobby floor was a multileveled crystal dome with a narrow, tapering top. Beneath that dome lay a miniature city that sparkled as if riven from diamonds or carved from ice. Within its walls, lights crawled like glowing snakes, panels slid like ships through oiled seas, and braziers pulsed with scented smoke. Any lurking minotaurs would have felt right at home.

This was the Crystal Maze. It was covered by one-way transparent plastic, allowing observers on the mezzanine and upper levels of the Hyatt to witness the duel to come. Vid cameras would broadcast everything to thousands of room monitors and hundreds of thousands of homes and gaming venues worldwide.

A whistle split the air, stilling voices. A door opened at the western edge of the lobby. Four combatants advanced to the mark.

Tammi Romati's ash-blond hair was tied back by the band of her slimline Virtual goggles. She was beautiful, a vision in white leather. Tammi had the physique of a semipro bodybuilder. Her energy and intensity intimidated most men even before they learned her sexual preference.

Beside her, enfolded in a red cloak and an emerald sheet of flames, was Twan Tsing, Magician. Twan's black hair was chopped short and hidden under the emerald skullcap that incorporated her Virtual apparatus. The green-tinted liquid crystal lenses of the Virtual gear leached the color from Twan's Cantonese eyes but couldn't disguise their intensity. She was half a head shorter than Tammi, and more smoothly muscled. She gestured mystically, fingers intertwining in arcane, angular configurations. Her aura flared until it matched and then surpassed the radiance of all the Hyatt's lights, then silently subsided.

To her left stood Tammi's son, Mouser. He was clad in grey leather, a silver saber weighting his belt at the left hip. He was a Thief, if not a reaver or slayer. Two months shy of his fourteenth birthday, he combined an adolescent's narrow-eyed insolence with an adult's cold-blooded self-assurance. His thumb tested the edge of his blade.

Beside Mouser was the Warrior Appelion. He was everything Mouser was not: tall, sinewy, black-bearded, and ferocious in countenance. He balanced a single-headed battle-ax easily in his massive left hand.

Both wore their own versions of the Virtual gear, video equipment that would enable them to see specialised overlays on the holographic and mechanical illusions to come.

All four raised their hands to the assembled multitude, graciously receiving a deafening ovation.

And then, the eastern portal swung open.

Again, the first through was a woman, Acacia Garcia. She was dressed in the leather body armor and chaps of a nomadic warrior. Not as muscular as Tammi Romati, Acacia was a lithe, athletic blend of Pueblo Indian and Spanish with a dash of Moor. She was sloe-eyed and wide-mouthed, quick to laughter or anger. Her long black hair gave her an air of sensuality that quieted the room and evoked a clearly audible "Jeeeesus Christ" from somewhere above her. She scanned the room almost absently. She relaxed, shoulders slumping

… then in a flash her sword appeared in her hand, with only the hint of a blur to suggest a draw. She stood perfectly balanced, as alert as a hungry leopard.

Behind Acacia came a short figure in a nun's habit, with a tranquil, sun-bronzed face. The roar "Top Nun!" rose from the crowd. The Cleric inclined her head solemnly, her fingers tracing a Star of David on her chest. A small, pale, chunky man followed her: Captain Cipher, Magician. And beside Cipher was a man with the height, color, and weaponry of a Zulu warrior. His name was Terrance Coolidge.

All wore slimline goggles or costuming incorporating the Virtual lenses.

The Crystal Maze shuddered before them, groaning and weeping as if it were a living thing.

"In two days we're going head-to-head with the Troglodykes in the California Voodoo Game. They're used to winning. We've got to shake them now. Establish dominance, or at least gain respect or they'll motor over us. I've got a strategy," Acacia had told her team. "It may seem crazy, but you have to trust me…"