copies. And the presentation Peter did had the whole audience wanting more.”
“That would seem a little extreme, don’t you think?” Winters asked. “If this was a staged event, Eisenhower Productions could be convicted of criminal charges.”
“Look, Captain Winters,” Holmes said with a trace of fatigue in his voice, “this city is one wild ride after another. We’re home to Hollywood, a major portion of the gaming industry, and every vice you can name. With millions of people living here, working here, and visiting, you have to stand out from the crowd if you want to get noticed.”
“Peter was already doing that,” Maj said.
Holmes was quiet for a moment. “We’re following up on a lead that the kidnapping was staged.”
“Who has given you that information?” Winters asked.
“Sir,” Holmes said, “with all due respect, you’re out of your jurisdiction at the moment. The only reason I mention this at all is because your people got caught up in some nasty business last night, and I felt I owed that to you. But for now, we believe that the two events are unrelated.”
“I hope you’re not forgetting they could be,” Winters said dryly.
A nerve twitched at the corner of Holmes’s jaw. “No, sir. Not for a minute. But my CO is taking the stance that they’re not. I have to follow that line. For now.”
“Understood, Detective. I appreciate your honesty.”
Holmes turned to Maj. “Look, I know you’re worried about this guy. I am, too.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m getting subpoenas delivered now to different media branches to access their vid files as well as processing witnesses and accounting for people who were physically here as well as in holoform. That’s going to take time.”
“I know,” Maj replied.
“And if this is some kind of publicity stunt,” Holmes said grimly, “Griffen and Eisenhower Productions are going to need a battalion of lawyers to get out of this.”
“Even then,” Megan said, “fines and court costs are going to be a drop in the bucket against the profits the game makes.”
Holmes nodded and glanced around the room. “I don’t figure you people are much on listening when someone tells you to keep your nose out of things, but consider this that speech just the same. Because if you step too heavily around this investigation, you’re going to find out how downright unfriendly I can be. I hope we’re clear on that.”
Maj nodded. Even as Net Force Explorers they didn’t have any official sanction.
Holmes turned and headed for the door, stopping just short of exiting and looking back at the group. “If you do happen to find out something I should know, make sure I do. You’ve got the number.” He stepped back out into the hallway into a stream of people waiting to be processed through the police cordon.
Maj closed the media feeds and logged off the Net. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the implant chair in the conference room. She sat up and looked at Winters. “Is Net Force going to get involved?”
“Not at this point,” Winters told her. “The LAPD is convinced what they’re dealing with here is a publicity stunt aimed at increasing game sales. Net Force is in agreement. Personally, I think it wouldn’t hurt to take a look and run a few things down. However, there’s some political pressure to keep Net Force out. When we get involved, media coverage gets even more pronounced.”
“But why keep Net Force out?” Maj asked. “Isn’t media exposure a bonus?”
“Except that the gaming community doesn’t like the idea of Net Force acting like Big Brother. The gaming world taps into a lot of various conspiracy theories, and throwing Net Force into the mix would only be adding fuel to the fire.”
“The other gaming corporations are also talking about suing Peter Griffen and Eisenhower Productions for infringing on their own game advertisements,” Leif said. “Apparently that dragon put in an appearance in nearly every game at the convention.”
“And you know this how?” Catie asked.
Leif gave a small smile. “I took a peek at my dad’s information research agency’s reports over what happened out here. Part of the potential profits being set up here involve stock portfolios. Potential liability in the form of civil suits against a corporation are big news in business.”
“They may impact profits,” Matt said, “but sales of the game are still going to skyrocket, and that will impact profits, too.”
Maj knew it was true. Even as the police had closed down the gaming area, there had been hundreds of people lined up, demanding to by the online package that would let them enter Realm of the Bright Waters when it went up on the Net.
“If the profit is big enough,” Leif agreed, “lawsuits and litigation are written off as the price of doing business. The kidnapping has sent a tremor through the stock market. Eisenhower shares are presently down, but speculators are snapping them up.”
“Is Eisenhower Productions publicly owned?” Winters asked.
Leif closed his eyes for a moment. “Forty-three percent.”
“Hold up,” Catie said. “Publicly owned doesn’t ring any bells for me.”
“There are two kinds of stock,” Leif explained. “Actually, there are all kinds of stock options, but I’m going to hold it to two for a thumbnail overview. Public stock is shares that are sold to Joe Consumer, anyone who goes online and buys into corporations. Then there’s private stock, stock held back from public trading for special investors. Usually other friendly corporations or entrepreneurs.”
“Keeping private stock private prevents hostile takeovers,” Megan said. “I remember that from the research my dad did on one of his mystery novels.”
“True,” Leif said, “but you’d be amazed at how many buyouts still happen and no one knows who the players are until the last moment.”
“How financially secure is Eisenhower Productions?” Winters asked.
Leif shrugged. “I can look into it.”
Winters nodded. “That might be a place to start. It would help to know—
“Yes, sir.”
Winters called the meeting to an end and excused himself, his holoform winking out of existence a heartbeat later. Mark, Matt, and Leif said their good-byes as well.
“We missed lunch,” Catie announced, standing up and stretching tiredly. “There’s supposed to be a great Chinese place around the corner. Want to find out?”
Maj nodded distractedly. Her mind whirled, trying to make sense of the events that had happened. She didn’t doubt for a minute that last night’s raid on her hotel room and Peter Griffen’s kidnapping were connected. She just didn’t know how. But her intuition pinged the connection dead center, and it was something she’d learned to trust over the years.
“—at the Bessel Mid-Town Hotel, where computer game design wizard Peter Griffen was believed kidnapped earlier today. Veronica, what can you tell us?”
Standing at the arrival gate lobby in LAX, Maj watched the HoloNet on units hanging from the ceiling. The view cut from the anchor to the blond reporter she recognized from the news reports that morning. She stood out in front of the Bessel Midtown Hotel in front of a nearby crowd that watched her. Her name, Veronica Rivers, was tagged under the time/date stamp in the lower right corner.
“Things here are still confusing, Frank,” Veronica said. “As you can tell from the crowd behind me, there’s a lot of interest in the whereabouts of Peter Griffen after today’s excitement.”
The holo split, picking up the image of the granite-jawed anchor sitting at his desk and placing it beside the street scene of the reporter. “Have police made any headway in the kidnapping investigation?”
“If they have, they aren’t letting us know.” Veronica waved at the hotel. “In fact, there’s a lot of speculation going on now that this kidnapping might not have been a kidnapping at all, but a publicity stunt created by Griffen and his software publishers to generate sales of his new game.”
“Those are serious charges,” the anchor said.
Maj shook her head. After all the advances in technology, the media still relied on melodrama to capture viewers. She wanted to stop watching, but she found she couldn’t.
