Gameprey

“Who are they?”

“I can’t tell you. Not now.”

“I can scream,” Maj pointed out. “When security shuts the area down, you might escape, but there’s a good chance you’d get tagged with a trace virus.”

Gaspar shook his head. “No. They’ve invaded the system. I can get out as easily as I got in.”

“So you say.”

“It’s true.” Angry and frustrated, Gaspar hardened his voice. “Do you want to help Peter Griffen or not? Because if you don’t, they’re going to kill him.”

“How am I supposed to help him?”

“I don’t know that yet,” Gaspar answered. “I haven’t gotten that worked out.”

“Do you know where he is?”

Gaspar considered lying for only a moment, thinking he could improve his own worth, then didn’t because he was sure she would know that he was lying. “No. I’ll try to find out.”

“Who are you?”

“Someone who needs your help,” Gaspar replied. “I met your friend Mark earlier. I arranged for you to get the invitations tonight so I could meet you.”

“You’re in charge of surveillance over the banquet?”

“Yes.”

“Then shut it down and let’s talk.”

Gaspar glanced across the room, picking out the two men he knew Heavener had assigned to cover the banquet inside the room. Neither of them paid any attention to him. “I can’t. There’s someone in charge of me.”

“It’s going to be hard to help you if I don’t know who you are or what’s going on.”

“I can only hope that it’s enough that you know I exist, and that you’re right in thinking that Peter Griffen didn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping. They set him up, used him, and it’s only going to get worse.”

Anxious frustration showed on Maj’s face. “Where do I start looking?”

Gaspar shook his head. “I don’t know. This whole thing is so tangled and I’m so close to the middle of it that anything I say could get Peter and me both killed. We are acceptable losses. There’s too much at risk.”

“What?”

“I don’t know for sure. But I do know these people don’t do anything without millions or billions of dollars on the line.”

“So it is about money,” Maj said.

Gaspar shrugged and felt bad because she sounded so disappointed, which was strange because he was the one who was risking his neck. “Most things are. But this is about a lot of money. I just don’t know how. Yet.” He wanted to say more, but he was afraid to. Anything he said that could lead them back to him was the wrong thing. They need to be led through their own resources to Peter Griffen.

Maj looked at him, studying him. “Where do we—”

Before she could finish her question, Gaspar spotted Heavener approaching the banquet room. The woman wore a deep jade cocktail dress but walked purposefully. Even though the dress clung to the curves, Gaspar knew she could have a dozen deadly weapons concealed on her body.

“What’s wrong?” Maj asked.

Heavener checked in through the banquet security easily, using the ID that Gaspar had generated for her. She paused in the doorway and glanced over the crowd. Her lips barely moved as she spoke. Only someone watching her closely would have noticed.

“Latke.” Her voice came through the aud-connect Gaspar had set up in his veeyar.

“Yes,” he answered, turning to Maj and closing down the aud-send loop so Heavener wouldn’t hear him. “I’ve got to go.”

“Is it because of that woman?” Maj clutched at the sleeve of the tuxedo jacket he wore.

Gaspar hesitated, not wanting to leave the safety Maj Green represented but knowing he should log off now.

“Close your net over this room,” Heavener ordered. “Execute now. I’ve got someone in here with a mask program passing himself off as Matt Hunter.”

Cold hard fear filled Gaspar, and he couldn’t help looking at Heavener across the room. How did she know?

“Latke, close the net.”

Automatically Gaspar closed the net, securing holo traces in a minefield over the immediate area. That had been only one of the safeguards Heavener had insisted on. Now if he tried to leave the room along the Net, he’d be tagged with a trace virus, and Heavener would know he’d made contact with Maj Green.

And he didn’t even know where to tell Maj to find his own body.

Heavener circled the room, talking to the two men inside the room over the audlink running through Gaspar’s veeyar system.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Gaspar said to Maj, taking her by the arm and pulling her. He scanned the room. There were three other exits. He glanced over his shoulder. Heavener and the two men had spread out, going slowly and steadily through the crowd, closing in like pincers. They easily covered three of the exits. The exit on the other side of the room was his only hope.

“What’s wrong?” Maj asked, resisting his urge to move.

“They’re on to me.”

“The woman?” Maj still wasn’t moving, and Heavener was getting closer.

“Yes. But she doesn’t know it’s me. She sees your friend Matt, the same as you do.”

Maj got into motion, following at his side. “What happens if she finds out it’s you?”

“Then I’m dead, and your friend Peter is probably dead, too.” Gaspar struggled not to run for the exit. They were ahead, but it was going to be close.

“Latke,” Heavener called over the audlink. “Do you see him? The guy with Madeline Green?”

Gaspar had to restrain himself from correcting Heavener and telling her it was Maj, not Madeline. “I see him. Are you sure that isn’t Matt Hunter?”

“Matt Hunter left the room where he was a few minutes ago,” Heavener responded. “He’s another problem I’m having to take care of at the moment.”

“I missed that,” Gaspar said. Panic flooded his senses, and he knew his heart rate was accelerating beyond control again. He tried to control it, knowing the tranquilizers would definitely affect his ability to do everything he needed to do.

“We’ll talk about it when I see you again,” Heavener said.

Gaspar felt like an animal with a leg in the iron jaws of a bear trap. He hurried toward the glass doors of the exit. “I need you to open the door,” he told Maj. “It’s not programmed for holo interaction. There are holoprojectors out in the hall for the hotel guests, so I won’t be immediately tossed out of the hotel, but if I just walk through the door, Heavener’s going to know I’m a holo instead of a person in a mask program.”

“Heavener’s the woman?”

“Forget you heard that name.” Gaspar couldn’t believe he’d let it slip. “The door. Get the door.” He held her arm, the sensation almost feeling normal thanks to the holoprojector feedbacks.

Maj hit the door release lever, and they walked briskly out into the hallway. Gaspar trotted alongside her, listening to his heart thunder back in his physical body. He expected to feel the hot burn of the tranquilizers rushing through his system at any second.

“Stop!” Heavener’s voice barked behind them.

Maj broke into a run, yanking Gaspar after her. He stumbled and almost fell, prey to the realistic approach of the holoprojectors. The hallways were safe, he knew from his research on the hotel, and so were most of the rooms. He glanced over his shoulder, watched in escalating terror as Heavener started closing the distance. Maybe Maj would have been able to outrun her on her own, but he couldn’t keep the pace.

“She’s catching up,” he gasped.

Abruptly Maj turn and shoved him ahead. “Keep going!”

Gaspar hesitated just a moment, watching as Heavener pounded down the hallway. The two men followed