Dangerous Games

shook.

Jere held up a hand to shield his eyes. It’s exploded, it’s all over, it’s done, I’m done.

But then the cheering of the crowd roused him. He looked at them in disbelief. What were they cheering for? Were they crazy? Did they actually want to see blood?

Then his father pointed and shouted, “Look!”

The pillar was rising into the sky.

Slowly at first, then faster. It was a hundred feet up. Two hundred. Then as tall as a skyscraper, balancing on a long white tail of flame. The wind battered the grandstand and beat at the throngs, standing hundreds deep. The smell of burnt mud and concrete worked its way into the shelter. Sand and dust and grit pattered against the Plexiglas.

My God, Jere thought, as Mars Enterprise rose higher. Its flame no longer touched the Earth. It gathered speed like a jet, shrinking smaller and faster as it rose up and arced out.

Eventually, the roar reduced itself to a shout, then a mild grumbling. Mars Enterprise was a bright speck in the sky.

They had done it.

“Congratulations,” Ron said.

“For what?” Jere said.

His dad allowed himself a thin grin. “You’ve done something that no government has ever been able to do.”

“But… it wasn’t… it was just a…”

Ron held up a hand. “Shh,” he said.

HONEYMOON

“Come on!” Alena said. “Come on come on come on!”

The Can had been embargoing the status of the teams for an hour, but Glenn knew they were close. They’d made it from dead last to nearly tied with the Paul guy before the Can shut up.

“What can I do?” he asked.

“I don’t know! I was talking to the Kite, not you!”

“I’ll think positive thoughts.”

“Good for you!”

Glenn smiled. And what could he do, other than stay lashed up under the belly of the Kite for minimum aerodynamic drag? Nothing.

The next one they should make more manual, he thought. Human- powered Kites and Wheels. None of this motor crap.

“Look!” Alena pointed.

Glenn strained his eyes. Very far in the distance, he could just catch the glint of metal. “Is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s it! Come on come on come on come on!”

Alena looked at him, and he saw the girl who he’d fallen in love with, the woman he’d proposed to. She was smiling, her color high and eyes flashing. It was impossible not to love her when she was winning.

Where was Paul? If the race was as close as he thought, he should be able to see his Kite, bright white against the pale sky. He scanned from left to right, but saw nothing.

Whoever makes it to the Returns, wins. They were automatic. There was no way to race to orbit.

Another look. No Kite. Was it possible that Paul had run into trouble? Could they really be first?

Karma will get you all the time, he thought.

From ahead of them, a bright flare. The Kite rocked as Alena started violently.

“No!” she said. “No no no no no!”

“Paul,” Glenn said.

“How much longer?” Alena asked.

“A couple of minutes. But it’s…”

“Go faster!”

“It only takes three minutes to orbit!”

“I don’t care!” Her face was twisted into a mask of anguish.

Glenn fell silent and let the only sound be that of the rushing wind and roaring motor. The Return field grew ahead of them, big enough so they could see the remains of Paul’s Kite. He had had a hard landing.

When they landed, Alena scrambled to the nearest Return pod and began the launch prep. But when the prep was still less than halfway done, the voices from the Can came back. This time it was the female PA. She sounded tired.

“We have a winner,” she said. “Keith Paul is now back on board the Mars Enterprise. To our other teams, thank you for a great competition. Please travel safely on your way back. There’s no need to hurry now.”

“No!” Alena wailed. She beat on the low bench of the Return pod. Glenn tried to gather her in his arms, but she pushed him away violently. He tumbled out onto the cold sand and lay for a moment, stunned, staring up at the alien sky.

“Glenn?” Glenn shook his head, but said nothing.

“Glenn?” Frightened.

She came out of the pod and knelt atop him, her eyes red from crying. “Glenn!” she said, shaking him.

“What?” he said.

“Glenn, I can’t hear you! Are you okay?”

“What?” He reached behind him and felt the suit’s radio. It seemed okay. Of course, he could have hit something in his fall… He shrugged and gave her the thumb-and-forefinger “OK” sign.

“I heard you hit and a big hiss and I thought you’d broken your header.” She was crying even more now, big tears hitting the inside of her header and running down toward her chest.

He pushed his header to hers. “I’m okay,” he said.

“I can hear you now.”

“Yeah, old trick.”

She helped him up. The Return pod gaped open like a mouth.

“Let’s go,” she said.

“Wait a minute.” Glenn looked from the Return pods-all four of them-to the sky, and then toward the east, where the Ruiz team was stranded.

Could they? Would it be possible to fly over to the Ruiz team and pick them up? Would they have enough fuel? Could they refuel?

“Alena,” he said. “Do you want to be a real winner?”

She got it. Her eyes got big, and she nodded. She stayed helmet-to-helmet with him as she called the Can.

“Frank,” she said. “Let’s talk about the Ruiz team.”

SHOW

Evan, again with his presentations. In the darkness of Jere’s office, animated charts showed realtime Viewing Audience, feedback Ratings, inferred Attentiveness, inferred Buyer Motivation, plotted against Neteno’s historicals and an average of other Linear, Free-Access networks.

“We broke the ’Near downtrend,” Jere said. “Broke it hard.”

“We should have charged more for the advertising,” Evan said. “VA times BM is a record for ’Near networks, maybe even interactives.”

“We’re swimming in money.”