Dream Park

the water, grinned with hollow bravery, and took the plunge.

Soon the entire group was splashing and playing. Griffin stood on the bank alone, chewing his lip. Acacia swam over to him.

'Hey there, big fella. Come on in and play.' She splashed at him with deadly accurate aim.

Griffin caught himself peering through the water for a better view of her. 'Aren't the cameras still on?' Bobbick and Millie must be having a wonderful time.

Acacia gave him a raspberry. 'Don't be silly. We're on break now. The Game is suspended for half an hour. Are you coming in, or am I coming out to get you?'

'Not that that's a bad idea, but...' Griffin balanced one-legged to pull off his shoes. He sat down to pull his pants off.

Acacia's appreciative whistle echoed across the lake. 'My my. Just look at those legs.' She swallowed water and coughed it out, laughing.

'Inherited ‘em from my mother,' he growled. From now on he'd spend more time on his sun deck. He seemed to be wearing flesh-colored briefs. 'All right. Here I come.' He jumped in with a resounding splash.

The water was cold and sweet, and varied from two to four me­ters deep. Griffin forgot his embarrassment and let his whole body wriggle with pleasure. He dove down to the lake's sculpted stone bed, running his hands along it, watching air bubbles leak from his mouth and wobble up to the surface.

How long had it been since he last dipped in a pool? The only possible answer was: too long. He spent fifteen hours a week ex­ercising, but it was all work-related. At this moment Dream Park and Alex Griffin's work seemed worlds away.

He arced back up to the surface, barely avoiding Owen Brad-don, who was backstroking across the pond. Not swimming as fast as (for instance) Bowan the Black, nor looking as pretty-he was easily thirty years older than Bowan, and the small pot belly ruined his streamlining-Braddon clove the water with a clumsy enthusiasm that made him a joy to watch.

Griffin sank beneath the water as a weight landed on his shoul­ders from behind. He came up sputtering.

'Guess who?' Acacia yelled, and pulled him back under. This time he grabbed one of her legs and wrestled her down. Her gig­gles sent a stream of bubbles frothing from her mouth as she kicked out and caught him firmly in the chest, breaking his grip.

She swam quickly away, and Griffin followed. He watched the sun play on the muscles of her long, light brown legs as she tried to outrace him. Acacia glanced back over her shoulder, eeked to see

him so close behind her, and dove under water again. Griffin gulped a lunglul of air and followed.

Turbulence clawed at him, water and bubbles forced their way into his nose and buffeted his face. Then the water was calm again, and he realised that they'd swum through the waterfall. There was eight meters of space between the rock wall and the cascading tons of water, and Acacia waited for him there. He swam to her, taking her into his arms playfully. Her body was slippery in his hands as she jumped up and licked the tip of his nose. 'Very kinky,' he said, glancing through the waterfall to the Garners beyond. Nobody was paying any attention.

'Only mildly so, hombre.' She locked her arms around his neck. 'Hey, mister.' She arced her eyebrows conspiratorially. 'Ya wanna fool around?'

'I'm not sure I believe you,' Griffin said, nuzzling her. 'Believe this, then.' She kissed him fiercely, lifting her body to him, and Griffin found that one part of him believed her totally. They rolled in the water, blinded by mist and roar and water, aware only of each other. Mouths locked and bodies pressed tightly together; they were a tiny, tangled pocket of heat in the roiling cold.

When they broke, she pulled a few inches away, eyes glowing, huge, breathing a little shallow. 'Now that was communication, mister.'

'Yesss... I thought I heard something there. What was it saying?'

She hoisted herself tantalizingly high enough to look him squarely in the face. 'Me want.'

Griffin's hands steadied her hips, adjusting, and they both took a sharp inhalation- 'Well. Is this a private party, or what?'

Griffin and Acacia broke away from each other. Tony McWhirter was treading water about three meters away. A grin was frozen, lifeless, on his face.

Acacia flushed guiltily. 'Tony! I, uh... thought you were

• . well, I-'

'It's pretty clear that you weren't thinking about me, so save it, Cas.'

The dark haired girl shook her head disbelievingly, her hair spraying droplets in all directions. 'Tony, don't be mad. You said it was all right if we each had our fun-' She turned pleading eyes

to Griffin for an instant, and he backed away from her. Acacia swam over to Tony and tried to link her arms around his neck. He shook her loose.

'Yeah, well that's true, and it's certainly worked out well for you, hasn't it? I mean, with every available woman sewn up, and four or five loose men running around, you've had plenty of op­portunities to bat those lashes and wiggle your hips. Then, if things didn't work out, well, old Tony's always available, right?'

'Tony, it isn't like that-' Again she tried to hug him, and he pushed her gently away.

'No, Cas. It's all right. I just don't think it's fair that every time you do this to me, everyone ends up thinking I'm the villain.' He turned and dived and was gone beneath the waterfall.

Griffin swam over to her, although he didn't try to touch her. She watched Tony go, and some of the vibrancy had gone out of her.

'I'm sorry,' Griffin said, not knowing what else to say.

She didn't look at him. 'I'm sorry too.' Her voice was painfully flat. 'I think maybe we had better get back to the others.'

Through the rippling vertical sheet of water, the retreating figure of Tony was indistinct and growing smaller with each stroke. Acacia started to speak but the words wouldn't come at all.

Griffin followed her out through the thundering turbulence. He had let his mind stray from business. He wasn't here for fun. And the more he thought about it, the less it seemed that anybody else was, either.

Chapter Eighteen

SNAKEBITE CURE

Griffin was pulling his boots on when Mary-em slapped him on the shoulder... gently. That startled him. 'Hey, Gary. Did you know this Rice guy? The guard?'

Griffin didn't let himself react. 'Rice? I dunno. Does he work in Dream Park?'

'He did. Owen and Margie were telling us about it. Seems he got killed in the Research building a couple of days ago. The whole place was buzzing with it when they were being prepared for inser­tion this morning.'

Griffin kept his eyes on his boots. 'Hmnim. Maybe I did hear something about it. I'm sorry. Last week was really hectic.' He pulled the laces tight and tied them. 'I wasn't paying much at­tention to gossip.'

'Well, I just thought maybe you knew him. Maybe he ate at your restaurant now and then?'

'It's likely enough. What happened to him?'

She jabbed him with the tip of a short strong finger. 'I thought maybe you could clear that up, handsome. Ah well, get your pack on. Playtime's over.' She waddled away whistling tunelessly to herself.

Well, that solves one problem, Griffin thought. He had consid­ered dropping a comment about Rice's death into a group discus­sion, just to see if anyone flinched. For the role of the thief he had too many