Walter Williams - This Is Not a Game

Suddenly “Harlem Nocturne” rang out over the throb of the engine. Dagmar saw “Charlies Friend” on the display, laughed, and answered.

“Hello, darling,” said Tomer Zan. “How are you?”

“I’m in a boat,” Dagmar said, “heading for Singapore.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“Good,” Zan said finally. “The helicopter was crap anyway.”

“Well,” said Dagmar, “I’m sure you tried your best.”

No points to you, she thought.

No world domination, no donut.

FROM: LadyDayFan

It has been pointed out to me that this image has appeared briefly on flat-screen billboards in major cities.

The image is a sem@code, a type of bar code that leads to Web content and, once decoded with the proper software, leads us to this Web page, where we find still photographs of a young woman in what appears to be an ordinary motel room. We also have an inventory of her possessions.

Looks like a rabbit hole to me.

I have started the usual series of topics under the name Motel Room Blues, which will serve until something better comes along. This announcement will be copied to the Introduction.

Anyone want to play?

FROM: Corporal Carrot

I’m in!

FROM: HexenHase

Me too. And hey, the lady is armed and dangerous. I think that pistol is a Firestar, probably the 9mm M-43 variation.

The Firestar is a Spanish pistol. I wonder if it is a clue to her place of origin.

FROM: Desi

Her driver’s license is from California and gives her name as Briana Hall. But she’s checked into the motel under the name of Iris Fitzgerald.

FROM: Hippolyte

Hey, cool! I’m in!

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

If you download the picture of the driver’s license and enlarge it, you find tiny numbers inserted just below the photo: 01100011011101010110110001101100011001010110111000100111011100110010000001100100011001010110000101100100 (if I have that transcribed correctly).

Which is binary, and which converted to decimal is 6518124.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

6518124? Is that a phone number?

FROM: Hippolyte

But which area code?

FROM: Corporal Carrot

I’ll call them all!

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

I’ll have to get on my other computer before I’m able to convert the binary to roman numerals. That could be important, too.

FROM: Hippolyte

File the 6518124 until later. I’m sure we’ll need it.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

File along with the fact that 216 plus 6518124 is 6518340, which could be a whole = other = phone number. I = never = think numbers are coincidence.

FROM: LadyDayFan

I’ve just converted that binary string into ASCII, and it says “cullen’s dead.” Which is probably the clue that you’re really after.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

‹glyph of slapping forehead›

FROM: Consuelo

Hey, guys! Among the contents of Briana’s bag is an invitation to Planet Nine, which is an online RPG. They’re offering free membership for the next eight weeks, which suggests the length of the ARG.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

Hi, Consuelo! Have we met?

FROM: Consuelo

I’ve just subscribed to this forum, though I’ve been lurking for a while. I was waiting for an ARG to start at a convenient time for me, and this is it.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

You’re not a puppetmaster, are you?

FROM: Consuelo

A lady never tells. But notice that the Planet Nine invitation has a

serial number on it.

FROM: Desi

Has anyone noticed that there’s a DVD sitting atop the TV set? I bet

we can get a video if we solve the right puzzle.

Of course we have to find the puzzle first.

FROM: Consuelo

6518124 doesn’t get much when typed into the YouTube search

engine.

FROM: Desi

But the binary string works when you look on Video Us!

Here’s the URL.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

Binary after all! PSYCH!

FROM: LadyDayFan

Nice work, Desi.

BTW, I observe a high gloss to this production that suggests the

house style of Great Big Idea. Not to mention the woman-in-the

hotel motif that might be viewed as autobiographical in view of the

recent history of a certain friend of this bulletin board.

So hi there, Dagmar, if it’s you! We’re on Briana’s trail!

Dagmar stood in the lobby of Burger Angeleno and watched the hostess chat on the phone. The hostess was very young, maybe just out of high school, and was talking about somebody named Vincent, who was involved in some soap opera issues with another person named Janis. As she talked, the hostess stood behind the cash register and watched Dagmar with an indifference that was perfectly without affect. It was as if Dagmar wasn’t there at all.

Dagmar wondered if she should just grab a menu and seat herself. She peered around the divider between the dining room and the lobby to see if Austin was waiting for her, but she didn’t see him.

She decided she could wait.

After several minutes the hostess wound up her phone call. She hung up the phone and looked at Dagmar for a long moment, again with that affectless expression, as if she saw nothing worthy of interest.

Dagmar looked back at her. Two could play at this game.

Eventually the hostess was stirred to action. She looked up and to the left, as if she were trying to remember something.

“Can I like help you or anything?” she asked, having at last recalled an approximation of the correct line.

“Table for two,” said Dagmar.

The hostess took two menus out of the rack and led Dagmar to a booth.

“I didn’t know if you wanted anything or not,” she said.

“I wanted to sit down,” said Dagmar.

“You might have wanted to pay,” said the hostess.

“I didn’t have a check,” Dagmar pointed out.

“You don’t have to be so rude about it,” the hostess muttered as she returned to her station.

Dagmar stared after her for a long moment, then reached into her pocketbook for a pen.

A few minutes later, Austin arrived and found her writing on the back of her paper place mat.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“A flow chart,” Dagmar said.

Austin dropped his canvas shoulder bag onto the table and sat. “For the game?” he asked.

“No. For our hostess.”

She finished the chart and took it with her to the lobby. The hostess was back on the phone, talking about someone named Tashi. Dagmar walked up to the hostess and held out the flow chart and tapped it with her pen. The hostess looked annoyed.

“I’m talking,” she said.

Dagmar reached out and pressed down the telephone toggle, disconnecting it.

“Tashi can wait,” Dagmar said. “I want to show you something that can help you keep your job. This is a flow chart.”

“A what?”

Dagmar ignored the question. “There’s a box at the top, see. You’ll notice it says Customer stands in lobby. And then there’s an arrow from this to the next box, which says Does the customer have a check?”

The hostess stared at her.

“You’ll see,” Dagmar continued, “that the second box has two arrows, marked Yes and No. If the answer is Yes, you follow another arrow to the box marked Take his money. And if the answer is No, you follow that arrow to the box that says Ask the customer if you can help him. And there’s an arrow leading from that box to the next, which says Does the customer want to be seated?

“If the answer is Yes, the arrow goes to the box that says Seat him. And if the answer is Customer is looking for someone, the arrow takes you to Help customer find his friend, and then to Seat him.”