Walter Williams - This Is Not a Game

“Tapping the Source has a couple of hundred thousand of them in the warehouse and is selling them for cost, in hopes they can get as many out into the world as possible. They cost something like forty bucks, including postage and handling.”

“Forty dollars! That’s more than the encryption software!”

“Stop bouncing,” Charlie said. “You’re going to spill my jus.” He moved his meal tray from the couch to the hassock, balancing it atop his computer.

“You’re going to wreck Great Big Idea!” Dagmar said. “You’re giving us a job that we flat can’t do, and that will destroy our credibility with the players.”

Charlie regarded her coldly. “No, I’m not.”

“But-”

“Money,” said Charlie, “will get you through times of inadequate staffing better than inadequate staffing will get you through times of no money.”

“Which means what, exactly? ”

“I’m giving you the keys to the kingdom,” Charlie said. “I’m going to set up a bank account with an adequate budget for you to get this thing done. You’ll be able to hire the go-to guys in fifty cities. You’ll hire more technical staff.” He reached out and tapped her knee. “And you’ll hire more writers. Okay? ”

“It’s far too late for any of this,” Dagmar said.

“No, it’s not,” Charlie said. His look was level and very serious and very intense. “You’re going to do this, Dagmar. Because you owe me, and you know it.”

An argument followed, but Dagmar lost it, which was what happened when you were fighting someone who had all the power and all the money. Her only option was to quit her job, and-aside from the fact that she liked her job, at least usually-she couldn’t afford to stop taking Charlie’s money.

In fury, she gulped the remains of her Tres Generaciones and stomped out, blinking in the bright sun and the reflection off the pool. She felt ridiculous because she had an armful of the Tapping the Source units in their white boxes, a visible reminder of her failure.

By the pool, people were still under their umbrellas, talking on their cell phones.

Being seen and doing business. Being seen while doing business.

Kimba Leigh stood behind the poolside bar, giving orders to the Guatemalan bartender. Maybe she actually was the food and beverage manager. Dagmar walked past her and didn’t receive a glance. She wasn’t important enough to rate Kimba Leigh’s attention.

Dagmar decided she was too drunk to drive, so she went to the hotel lounge and, conscious of a degree of irony, ordered coffee.

She sat behind her square wooden table with its colorful inset Mexican tile, sipped her coffee, and looked down at the white boxes scattered before her.

What the hell…? What in God’s name was Charlie up to?

Players would wander all over fifty major cities, testing every water source they could find: tap water, public fountains, creeks and rivers. Data would flow into Tapping the Source. Which, apparently, wasn’t nonprofit: it was building the database in order to sell it.

So Tapping the Source would have a much bigger database to sell. Which meant Tapping the Source would be worth more money.

At least it was a company that had a more sensible business plan than Portcullis. And they were about improving water supplies, so that was a good thing.

Still, it looked like another Maffya-style pump-and-dump stock scheme, buying a company’s stock while it was cheap and then inflating its value.

Though she had to admit that it was difficult to picture the Russian Maffya getting interested in a company with such a green profile. Helping the earth was not one of their usual priorities.

She decided, in alcohol-ridden despair, that she should assume that Charlie was in thrall to the Maffya. He must owe them money, or owe them something other than money. Probably the latter, because if he owed them money, he’d just give it to them.

She paid for her coffee and took the 101 past the exit for the Hollywood Bowl and up over the hills to the Valley. She parked in the AvN Soft parking lot in view of all the new security cameras, then got out of the car. Afternoon heat shimmered: it was hotter here than in Los Angeles proper. She walked past the uniformed guard at his security station and into the building.

Even though it was after business hours, the building still hummed with activity. People still sat amid the ferns of the atrium, connected to their jobs with Wi-Fi; the coffee shop was still open, selling drinks, salads, and sandwiches.

Dagmar went to her office and looked through her database.

Over the years she’d hired freelance writers to help her on various projects. Sometimes she’d hire a television writer, but usually she drew her writing staff from science fiction writers scattered throughout North America. They were usually happy to oblige her and earn real money, and all too readily put aside their regular work, which on average paid a word rate that hadn’t changed since the Great Depression.

She called them all. None were available on short notice. Everyone was on deadline, or on vacation, or had just been hired to script a new drama on TNT.

Damn it, she thought. There was no way she had the time to train someone new.

Unless.

Unless.

Unless, she thought, it was someone who knew games inside out, and who really needed the money, and who had no job worthy of the name. Someone who had devised the most diabolically complex and treacherous games she had ever played, or even heard of.

Charlie will really be pissed, she thought.

Not that she gave a damn about that, not any longer. And besides, a writer didn’t have to work from an office, and since Charlie was never in the building anyway, there wasn’t much of a chance of their paths crossing.

Oh yeah.

She picked up the phone and called BJ.

FROM: LadyDayFan

We are sorry that so many players were unable to log on yesterday.

Our servers have been overwhelmed by the hundreds of

thousands of new players that have recently joined Motel Room

Blues.

As always, we urge new players to check the FAQ List and Player

Tutorial before asking questions in this forum.

Thank you.

“I haven’t been here since Charlie had me thrown out,” BJ said. He had contributed his thumbprint to the database at the new security station and now stood in the AvN Soft atrium, looking past potted palm trees to the upper reaches of the office tower.

“I had one security guy on each arm,” he said. “Two guys came behind with cardboard boxes of stuff from my office.” He pointed upward, at the eighth-floor balcony. “And Charlie was up there, watching. He didn’t say a damn word. He just watched.”

He stood there, scowling defiantly up at the place Charlie had occupied on that day. He wore Levi’s worn smooth and pale, and a polyester knit shirt strained by his broad shoulders.

“Is there going to be a problem? ” Dagmar asked.

He looked at her with his blue eyes.

“Nope,” he said. “Not at all.”

“Oh, Dagmar!” the receptionist, Luci, called from her desk. “I forgot to tell you! Someone sent you a present.”

She reached behind her chair and lifted up a vase filled with at least three dozen white roses. She put the vase on her desk and fanned out the flowers, producing a brief rose-scented breeze.

“My God,” said Dagmar.

“Someone sure loves you,” Luci said.

Maybe it’s Charlie, Dagmar thought. Maybe he’s trying to make up for what he did to me yesterday.

She reached for the envelope attached to the display, opened it, and read it.

I’m so very sorry that you were unable to join me for dinner yesterday evening, she read. Perhaps tonight? Your very own, Siyed.