filled an entire wall. “Mitch-have you seen this? Is this for real or what?”
His partner laughed. “I say it’s a hoax. A game within a game within a game, man.”
“Yeah, well, put me down for twenty.”
On Earth and around the solar system, the game was racking up unbelievable ratings, rapidly threatening to become the most watched event in human history.
All day Kendra had faced an office full of angry voices and floating faces, and by now she was near exhaustion. “I’m completely hamstrung!” She threw her hands into the air, frustrated. “There are so many overlapping jurisdictions that no one knows anything at all.”
Chris Foxworthy’s long face looked glum. “This is completely unprecedented.”
Piering was just as large and solid as he had been four years before, when he had helped dig Scotty out of a deep, dark premature grave. But he seemed more brittle now, and at the moment very close to his edge. “We’re paralyzed. Who in the hell has the authority to let me go forward? My men can’t act if we don’t know what to do.”
Then… the message-balloon blossomed. A priority executive message, available only for corporate accounts at a very high level. Kendra’s receptionist cleared her throat.
“Ms. Griffin? I have one here you might want to take.”
“Which is?”
“An Adriana Vokker. She has information about your husband.”
“Vokker? I don’t know the name.”
“She says she was one of your husband’s clients.”
Kendra shrugged and pushed the button. “This is Kendra Griffin. What can I do for you, Ms. Vokker?”
The woman appearing before her was very young, blond, pretty in a waifish way. She sat at a dark-stained wooden desk with still-life pencil sketches hanging on the wall behind her. She seemed very worried. “Do you know who I am?”
“I believe a few months ago you caused my husband considerable trouble.”
The girl inclined her head. “I thought he was your ex — husband.”
That took Kendra by surprise. Had she really been referring to Scotty as her husband all day? Fascinating. She wondered what a stress tech would make of that. “How can I help you?”
“The news is everywhere,” Adriana Vokker said. “No one’s talking about anything else.”
“Ms. Vokker, time is at a premium. I need you to tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Yes, yes, yes.” The girl folded her hands on the desktop. “When I heard what had happened, I thought that this might be a chance for me to make up for what happened in Switzerland.”
Kendra sighed. Charming. Scotty had a groupie. This was a waste of time. “And how exactly did you hope to help?”
“Mrs. Griffin, I have access to all of my father’s business interests. It’s part of my education and legacy. And this morning, there were alerts from our cocoa plantations in Central Africa.”
Kendra’s eyes widened. “Central Africa?” This conversation had suddenly become ten times more interesting.
“Yes. The Republic of Kikaya. We buy a million pounds of their cocoa every month, so any internal unrest is a matter of great interest.”
Kendra motioned to Piering to come join them. “And what exactly did you learn in this process?”
Adriana said, “There’s been a news blackout from Kikaya, but through some of our sources we see that the capital is under attack. At the same time, the heir of the throne has been…”
“Kidnapped.” Kendra turned to Foxworthy. “This is strong. If this is right, then we’re talking about a kidnap operation that had to be coordinated months in advance. There will be money, resources… Who on our rolls has connections to Kikaya?”
“On it.”
Kendra hunched forward toward Adriana’s floating image. “What else do you know?”
“I know that Mbuto airport is only one hundred miles from the plantation. Modifications are being made and workers hired. The rumor is that preparations are for the arrival of a space vehicle.”
And those words made Kendra’s stomach clench.
Kendra and her assistants sat in the center, surrounded by technicians who seemed too stunned to speak.
“I think that we can make some guesses about this now,” she said.
“We know their escape route,” Foxworthy said.
“Yes,” she replied. “There is a coup in Kikaya. The Prince is being kidnapped, and their plan is to get off the Moon-”
“Not as difficult as you might think. Nobody wants to touch this one.”
Kendra ticked off possibilities on her fingers. “What are you thinking? That we’ll be ordered to let them go. And they’ll have a safe place to land, from which they will simply disappear.”
“And?” Foxworthy asked.
“It’s not going to happen. Kidnap, destruction of property, assault. Somebody died. One of their men died, and when people die in the commission of a crime, his coconspirators can be charged with murder. I can believe that wasn’t a part of the plan. But it happened, and I’m not just rolling over.”
“So…?” Piering asked.
“So no direct actions. We follow those instructions. But we investigate.”
“Good. Damned good,” he said. “Coordination of communication, resources…”
“Such as?” Kendra asked.
“Weaponry. Personnel. Information. Money has changed hands, you can count on it.”
“We backdoor this,” Kendra said. “We don’t use ordinary investigative channels. Too many politics, and too many potential conspirators. We trust no one except who’s right here in this room.”
Foxworthy hailed her attention. “Ms. Griffin? I have your call.”
The worried face of Alex Griffin bobbled in the air. “Kendra! I’d been watching, but wanted to stay out of your way. Is there anything, anything at all I can do?”
Kendra gave a long exhalation, only at that moment realizing the depths of her shock and distress. Alex’s smile, even one as worried and wan as this, was like a warm, fatherly hug.
“Dad, I need to brainstorm, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather talk to. You know about the kidnap situation. Hostages. But what we just learned is that there may be a connection between that, and the coup currently underway in the Republic of Kikaya.”
“A coup?”
“You tell me,” Kendra said. “There’s been a news blackout on the lunar stream. Are you getting anything on your end?”
“I guess I’d seen a banner, but hadn’t clicked through to read about it. Dammit, what was I thinking?”
“Don’t beat yourself up… who could have known?”
“So Scotty’s Prince has been snatched on Luna.” A quarter-million miles away, Alex Griffin’s brows furrowed. “This was to put pressure on the King?”
“We can only guess at this point, but it would make sense. The kidnappers may have been paid by the insurgents, or people sympathetic to their cause.”
“That could answer their exit strategy. I’d wondered where they could get the nerve to think they’ll get away with this. But they can only do that if there’s a place to land, and if they can get off the Moon. Exactly who has jurisdiction?”
“The United Nations. Cowles Industries. Heinlein Explorations Limited. The lawyers are fighting over it, and as long as no one else is killed, we’ve been told to stand down.”
Inside the dome, the gamers sat in a circle, struggling to understand what had happened to them, and what their options might be.
“We’re not gettin’ any help from outside. Bet on that,” Darla said.
