just be able to find that child of incest and rage. And offer Sharon Crayne her salvation.'
Dr. Vail studied his fingernails for a moment before continuing. 'Sharon Crayne stole something from Dream Park's files? Something of great value?'
'Great, but limited,' McWhirter said. 'A partial map of MIMIC's defense system. It will be obsolete in a month.'
'And this rapid obsolescence implies it was needed in connection with California Voodoo?'
Harmony was aghast. 'Cold-blooded murder over a game!'
Vail smiled coldly. 'How much money is at stake, Thaddeus?'
McWhirter said, 'Six hundred thousand gets someone four million dollars.'
'Which team?'
'Army.'
'That makes sense… perhaps.' Vail closed his eyes. 'Let me think. Sharon was prepared to exchange her stolen data for… something. My first guess would be information that the child was all right. But that just isn't enough. She could probably have gotten that through Embryadopt.'
'Millicent and I have looked at her finances,' Harmony said cautiously. 'Sharon Crayne owned a house in Salt Lake which she rented out most of the time. She had nearly half a million in equity in that house. Another eighty thousand in the bank, a hundred and fifty thousand in various investments. At first we just thought this interesting, and considered it more evidence of her invulnerability to bribery.'
'You see something else?'
Millicent said, 'She didn't use the house. She's got orate fur coat and a four-year-old Chrysler. She's got stocks, but she didn't play with them.'
'She's not spending it,' Vail said. 'So let's stop looking at the house as a house, and look at it as a savings account. In that case she has a total of three-quarters of a million dollars in savings, and an emotional hunger to be reunited with the child she gave up. If money wouldn't get it for her directly, but she met someone who could give her information she needed, then that money could be used to, say, purchase a new life with her child.'
'And a good life, too,' Millicent mused. 'But she would have to destroy the child's current family in order to do it.'
Harmony seemed shocked. 'Could she do something like that?'
'I have an idea,' Millicent said quietly. 'Instead of 'the child,' why don't we substitute 'the girl,' and see what happens.'
McWhirter looked stricken. 'Ah.'
'Very good,' Vail said. 'A girl, who Sharon feared might be subjected to the same sexual degradation. Who is presently almost twelve years old. Perhaps the age the abuse began? Now then, I ask you: if three-quarters of a million dollars couldn't find the girl for Sharon, what might?'
'Nonmonetary pressure. Political favors maybe. Someone with military connections? Government connections…'
'Army. And who is the head of their team?' Vail pulled Clavell's file up and began to scan it with interest.
'You know,' Tony said carefully. 'One really strange thing has happened. Nigel Bishop placed himself in danger to prevent Clavell from being killed out.'
'Nigel Bishop.' Vail tapped out the name on his desktop console, and a slew of information began to rise. 'Half the planet thinks he's unbeatable. Tony? Is he?'
'Bishop just lost his entire team.'
Harmony looked shocked. 'What? Wasn't Bishop supposed to have the biggest balls in Gaming?'
'Yes, but it was his second-in-command's fault. Disobeyed Bishop's direct orders. Bishop might have anticipated it would happen, but that's truly bizarre. But Bishop likes truly bizarre.'
Vail said, 'All right. We'll look at Army. We'll look at this Nigel Bishop. We'll find out whether Sharon could have met Nigel Bishop or some Army strategist, for that matter. Then we go the other way, try to find someone with a connection to Embryadopt. Anything else?'
Nothing.
Tony McWhirter walked Millicent and Harmony to the elevator. All three were tired, but Tony pulled Millicent aside for a moment. She came without question, saying good-night to Harmony.
'Yes, Tony?' She looked at him, feeling mixed emotions. Tony was a victim, too, in a very special way that even he didn't understand.
'It's not Army. I've got tape Clavell moaning when he first saw MIMIC. Christ, he didn't have any damned map.'
'Could that have been for the cameras?'
'It's Bishop. I've got a bad feeling we'll never be able to prove a damned thing. He's got his tracks covered nine ways to hell, but I know. Trust me, I'm a Game Master.' He stopped and frowned. 'There's another problem- it's got to be Bishop, but I can't believe he placed that six-hundred-thousand-dollar bet.'
'What do you mean?'
'You've got five teams in there. Bishop can't ride shotgun over Army the whole time, even if he wanted to. Be too suspicious, and besides, he's not even trying to control Army.'
'Not trying?'
'He's nowhere near tracking the Army team. He's led two of the teams out of the Gaming area. Made us look like fools, of course. Also saved them a deal of trouble. You know, I can't even see his ego letting him throw a Game.'
Millicent was leaning back against the wall, thoughtful. 'Maybe he wouldn't be losing the Game. Maybe he'd be winning a bigger Game. It's all a matter of perspective.'
'Yeah. I can see him thinking like that. Never let the enemy know what your true intentions are… But I can't see him believing he could pull it off.'
Acacia, he thought suddenly. 'He's got help. Acacia Garcia is in the Game with him. I mean, they're sleeping together, but Loremasters for opposing teams.'
'So if she was in on it?'
Christ. There'd have to be a lot of money in it and there was, damn it. 'They'd have to kill out the Troglodykes and Tex-Mits, throw the Game, and leave everything to Army. Any idea how delicate and dangerous a backstabbing like that would be? One misstep, and complete scandal. IFGS invalidates the Game, Vegas doesn't pay off. Civil suits. Bishop loses six hundred gees. Nobody ever plays with Acacia again. Millie, Gaming is her life!'
'Everybody grows up, Tony. People have bet a lot more for a lot less.'
'Maybe. She likes danger. Excitement. Maybe. I don't believe Bishop could pull it off, but maybe he believes he can. He's egotistical enough. And I hate to say it, but he might have Acacia hypnotised enough to believe he can do it.'
'You just don't buy it.'
Tony rubbed his eyes. 'Everything I know says he can't pull it off. I'll ask the Lopezes, too, but… he can't. Influence the odds, yes. He could have another player paid off. He might be in the computers. But Millie, the safer it is, the more complex it is. The more complex it is, the more dangerous it is.' He rubbed his temples. 'Ouch.'
'I'm trying to think like Alex here,' Millicent said slowly. 'Couple of different choices, assuming you're right about his aims-that he's involved in the gambling, that he involved another Loremaster in his plans. One, he's better than you think he is, Tony. He can pull it off. Two, he's overrated himself, and he can't pull it off.'
Tony rubbed his eye and yawned. 'My brain feels like scrambled eggs. When I close my eyes I see sheep screaming and running in circles. Call me if you get anything, would you?'
'Sure.' And then she thought to herself, You're jealous of Bishop, Tony. He's sleeping with the woman you loved. You'd hate Griffin for having done the same thing, but you owe him too much. Transference.
But does that make Bishop more or less of a suspect? Was Tony trying to frame him, or to convince them that Bishop wasn't clever enough to be guilty, or what?
At that instant, she knew that despite massive medical evidence to the contrary, headaches were communicable.
Get some sleep.
