flickering.
Acacia called Cipher to the front. There didn't seem to be any direct threat here… 'What do you think?'
'Don't know,' Cipher said. 'Mamissa said something about demons that feed on power. Here's electrical power. I'd be careful if I were you.'
'Talk to Tammi,' she said. The Troglodykes had taken the rooftop surfer as their guide. 'Where's, uh, Bobo?' She cast around for him. 'Bobo?'
Top Nun said, 'He was here just a minute ago. Stepped over against the wall. Oh, here he… is?'
And Bobo stepped back out of the shadows. For a moment Acacia's mind didn't work fast enough. Bobo had changed size. He'd gained two inches (he stooped to hide it) and some breadth across the shoulders, and lost some belly And the face: bronze shades, peeling pink nose, short whiteblond beard and Holy shit.
She fought to keep her composure. 'Bobo,' she said to Alex Griffin.
He looked at her without betraying anything, with that neutral NPC attitude. 'Yes, ma'am,' he said.
She scanned him. Definitely Bobo: she got the same clear identification code. This wasn't a trick, it was a simple substitution, fully allowed by IFGS rules.
Even as they spoke, computers would be editing earlier Game records, implanting Alex Griffin's image over the old Bobo. There was nothing to do but accept the change.
'Does the electricity always work in here?'
'As far as I know.'
'All right, then.' Memory tickled at her. Every game she could recognize was a combat game, a war game of some kind. A clue? Electricity? Or maybe metal?
She drew her sword and moved into the video parlor.
First she poked her sword's tip, then her head, through the truck-sized hole into the jewelry store. Here were elegant dust-colored chairs, and glass-and-wood jewelry cases, all broken, all empty. Rubble was strewn across a case and two chairs; one chair bore broken human bone.
And that was all. Acacia judged it safe and turned back to the video arcade. Dust lay thick on the floor and revealed no recent footprints.
Acacia hissed for Captain Cipher to come to her. 'What do you make of this?'
Tammi and Twan circled around to the other side, careful and alert.
Captain Cipher's answer was a rapid mumble and a waving of hands: Reveal magic. One of the machines lit with a pale green glow. 'Bingo, milady.'
Tammi and Twan continued their prowl, seeking other dangers. Captain Cipher examined the machine. ''Fairly advanced,' he said finally, 'given it's an antique. Circa 1995 video arcade game with full Virtual-reality helmet. Took dollar bills. Visual and auditory, of course, and pressure feedback for the hands, but no taste or smell. Anybody got a dollar bill?'
Nobody answered. 'Shame. All the voodoo gods were greedy. Okay…' Cipher sat down in a pneumatic seat made of black metal and plastic.
It wrapped around his body and cinched him in until his face went red. Only his arms were free. He gulped. 'Hope this was a good idea.'
'Shall we get you out?'
'Wait one on that, milady.' He was swathed in a black cocoon, facing the screen.
As his hands touched the fingerboard, the holostage flickered to life. Air churned into black liquid and fluxed into an inhuman, metallic face that was all planes and angles. It examined Cipher like a serpent contemplating a robin's egg.
'I am… Oggzuz,' it said. The voice was totally synthesised and bore no trace of human origins.
'God of war,' Cipher said without hesitation. 'God of metal.'
'Do you dare to challenge me?'
Cipher smiled sickly. 'I come not to challenge-'
Tammi had described a cautious spiral, zeroing in close enough to touch the floating head before it turned to face her.
'You,' Oggun said. 'You are a Warrior. Is this one of yours?'
'Cipher is under my protection.'
'You will stand by it?'
Instant of hesitation. 'Yes, I will.'
'Good. Good. Then, let the Game begin.'
Acacia heard a low pulse tone in her ear. The 'activate visor' tone. She made sure her Virtual equipment was in place, and backed up until her hips and shoulders were against a wall.
Oggun's head was twisting, pulling, ripping itself free from the video game.
Living tendrils of light boiled out of the game's shell. Blinding, sterilizing light. It tugged and stretched and twisted, bulging out, dark lines and colors threading through the brightness, an entire world of two-dimensional computer graphics now expanding and rotating out into three dimensions.
Bobo was close behind Acacia. She burned to talk to him.
That security woman died, and now Alex Griffin is here. Why? If he wanted Nigel, he'd just pull Nigel out of the Game, wouldn't he? Does he want me? To watch me? To talk?
Split attention would get her killed. Concentrate!
Light diminished in the video junkyard until she could barely see. If claustrophobia had been one of her problems, she would have been near panic.
Tammi and Twan were handling it better than she was. As if directed by a single mind, they had formed a back-to-back defensive posture and were waiting calmly.
'I am Oggun,' a voice behind her said. She twisted her head in time to see the screen of an ancient video game extrude a giant yellow happy-face. Its teeth were shark-sized, and it made constant, famished gobbling motions.
'And I eat flesh.'
Here it comes…
The happy-face Oggun laughed. 'Not your flesh. I prefer other meat, and it pleases me to be witnessed.'
Under the shattered wall, the sparking of a not-quite-dead machine cast a moving shadow. A miserable black mongrel dog crawled out. It might have been a mix of collie and spaniel, head too large and body a little too small. It limped toward them, whining, shuffling.
And then a second happy-face, this one with red lipstick and improbably long eyelashes, tore free from a game opposite. In a single smooth motion it scooped the mutt up in its teeth and bore it, howling and screaming, to the opposite wall. The two happy-faces kissed obscenely, passing the pup from one to another. There was a hideous chewing sound.
'Observe,' Twan said steadily. 'Our collective life energy just dropped.'
General principle, Acacia said to herself. Protect the living from the unliving.
'All right,' Tammi yelled. 'Let's rock!'
Another black dog wriggled from a jagged inch-wide crack along a wall. A third video machine popped open, disgorging four masked, green, slightly anthropomorphic turtles. They brandished assorted martial-arts hardware. Acacia steeled herself for action.
Behind her, lights flashed and power bolts flew as Twan plied her trade against an endlessly multiplying centipede. For Acacia, steel would have to suffice.
Her blade glowed, and the dog scampered behind her, whining. A turtle approached, samurai sword levered. It champed grinning teeth at her, canted its head sideways, and spoke. 'Puppy pizza time. Back off, beautiful.'
Acacia screamed and swung her sword, aiming at the junction of shoulder and neck. Her aim was true. As the turtle's head flew from its shoulders, it screamed, 'Radical!' It bounced once. Its beak opened and closed, and opened and hissed, 'Pizzaaaaa…' and it died.
And…
'Cowabunga!' a second reptile screamed, leaping at her, slashing with a pair of sai. On the defensive again, Acacia fought furiously, the mongrel dog shadowing her the entire time, whining, its tail tucked between its legs.
