Fantasy in Death

13

She spent a great deal of time picking through data on the lives of three people, analyzing it, scraping away at tiny details of family background, education, finances, and communication.

She played each one against Mira’s profile, and the computer matched each one of them with a reasonably high probability to the general outline.

Organized, detail-oriented, competitive, wide e-skills, known and trusted by victim.

But the violence-that face-to-face, blood-on-the-hands cruelty bottomed them out again.

Still, nowhere could she find any hint, much less any evidence, that any had bought a hit.

Money wasn’t the only currency, she mused. A favor, sex, information-all those could stand in for dollars and cents and never show on any balance sheet. But that didn’t account for the fact Bart had known his killer. There was simply no reason to believe he’d allowed a stranger into his apartment, into his holo-room, into his game.

One more time, she told herself, and rose to study and circle her board.

Vic comes home happy, whistling a tune. And comes in alone according to both the doorman and the security cameras. EDD verifies by all that’s holy there’d been no tampering with the locks, and no entry before the vic’s in any access into the apartment.

Still, she considered, we have three very skilled, very clever e-geeks. If there was a way to bypass without it showing, they’d find it.

Or, more realistically, one of them, or another party met the vic outside and entered with him.

Only the droid says otherwise-and once again EDD remained firm that no one tampered with or reprogrammed the Leia droid.

Eve shut her eyes.

“Maybe he doesn’t secure the door immediately. He’s excited, happy. The droid brings him a fizzy, he tells her to go ahead and shut down. The killer may have entered at that time, after the droid shut down, before the door was secured. It’s possible.”

The friendly face shows up, Eve thought, tells the vic, I could-n’t resist. I want in on the game, or want to observe. One of the partners, she thought again. You play, I’ll document and observe.

Also possible, she concluded. Why wait until after-hours? It’s almost ready. Let’s run it. The killer could’ve brought the disc, which explains why the vic didn’t log it out, as was his routine. Or, the killer told the vic he or she would log it for him.

The weapon might have already been on the premises, or brought in by the killer.

And the game begins. System reads solo. Bart plays, killer observes-it’s logical, it’s efficient.

But at some point, the killer stops observing. Bruising, wrenched shoulder indicate a scuffle.

And that, Eve thought, was where it just didn’t fit for her.

The weapon’s there, the plan’s in place, so why the scuffle? Bart’s in good shape-superior shape for a geek-and he’s studied combat moves. Why risk a fight, why risk him getting some licks in?

An argument? Passion of the moment? No, no, dammit, it wasn’t impulse. Too many safeguards in place.

Ego? She studied the three faces on the board.

Yes, ego. I’m better than you are. It’s about time you found out how much better. Tired of playing sidekick and loyal friend and partner. Have a taste of this.

She studied the autopsy photos, the data, rocked back and forth on her heels.

Considering, she opened the panel for the elevator and ordered Roarke’s weapons room. She used the palm plate, keyed in her code, and stepped into a museum of combat. Display after display held what man had used again man, or beast, over centuries. To kill, to defend, for land, for money, for love, for country, for gods. It seemed people could always find some new way to end each other, and some handy excuse for the blood.

From ancient sharpened points, to silver swords with jeweled hilts, from crude and clumsy muskets that used powder and ball to rip steel into flesh, to the sleek, balanced automatics that could wage a storm of steel with a twitch of a finger. Lances, maces that looked like iron balls studded with dragon’s teeth, the long-ranged blasters of the Urban Wars, the razor-thin stiletto and the two-headed axe all spoke of the violent history of her species, and very likely its future.

She found studying them, seeing so many killing tools in one space, both fascinating and disturbing.

She opened a case, selected a broadsword. Good weight, she decided, good grip. Satisfied, she stepped out and reengaged the security.

“Is there a problem?” Summerset demanded as he seemed to eke out of the shadows.

Eve gave herself points for not jolting, smiled instead as she leaned on the sword. “Why do you ask?”

“The weapons aren’t to leave the display.”

“Gee, maybe you should call a cop.”

The long, cool stare he gave her was as derisive as a sniff. “What you have there is very valuable.”

“Which is why I’m not poking you with it. I might hit the stick up your ass and break the tip. Don’t worry. Roarke’s the one who’s going to be using it.”

“I expect it to be returned to the display in the exact condition it was in when you removed it.”

“Yeah, yeah, blah blah.” She stepped back on the elevator, and couldn’t resist tapping the flat of the blade to her forehead in a quick, sarcastic salute before the doors closed.

“I’d better not be stitching someone up tonight,” Summerset muttered.

Eve stepped out in her office, walked over to Roarke’s. “Hey.”

He made a humming sound, and continued to work his comp.

“Can you come in here a minute?”

“In five,” he said.

While she waited she went to her own comp, ran a reenactment of the murder using a figure representing each of the partners in height, weight, reach.

“What do you need?” Roarke asked her. “And why do you have that sword?”

“I’m trying to figure how it went down. So…” She stepped into the center of the room, and imagining Summerset’s horror, tossed the sword to Roarke. “Come at me.”

“You want me to attack you with a broadsword?”

“We’ll start with that version.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not going to go at you with a bloody sword.”

“Well, for God’s sake, I don’t want you to whack me with it. I don’t want it to be a bloody sword. Demonstration purposes only. You’re the killer.” She pointed at him. “I’m the vic.” And tapped her chest. “Now you’ve got that big, sharp, shiny sword, and I’ve got some useless holoweapon, so wouldn’t you just-”

She broke off as he took one quick step forward, and had the flat of the blade an inch from her throat.

“Yeah, like that. And see, my instinctive reaction to that move would be to bring my useless weapon up like this.” She moved slow, to block, shoving the sword aside. “The thing is, the gash was on his other arm. Vic’s right-handed, so logic says he’d have the useless holo-weapon in his dominant hand. The wrenched shoulder’s on that side, but Morris said it’s the kind of injury you’d get from over-rotating.”

“Maybe, in surprised defense, he brought his other arm up.”

“Yeah, but, see, if he did, the gash is just wrong.” She demonstrated again. “Logic again says the wound should go across, not up and down. Besides, if you had a big, long sword, and I didn’t, wouldn’t you just ram it into me? You’ve got the advantage of reach.”

“I would, yes. Get it done.”

“But it didn’t just get done. Bruises on the arms and legs. See, if we’re fighting. Put it down a minute.” When he had she gave him a finger curl. “Come at me.”

She blocked, pivoted. He blocked her side kick.

“See, we’re fairly even here, and if we meant it, I’m going to get some bruises where I either land a blow or block, or you block me. But you’re not going to block me with your arm when you’ve got that big sword.”

She held up a hand for peace. “I ran some reenactment. They just don’t play out logically.”

“We argue, it gets physical,” he suggested. “I lose my head, grab the sword, and take yours.”

“If it went down that way, why is the sword there in the first place?” She paced away, frowned at her murder board again. “If it went down that way, why isn’t the disc logged out? Why was it timed so the killer arrived after the droid shut down? And why did the killer evade building security on the way in?”

“Might be coincidence.”

“One might be a coincidence.” Hands on her hips, she turned back. “Put them together it’s a pattern.”

“Well, I’m forced to agree with you. So we’ve had our fight. What do you do when I pick up the sword?”

“I say, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Or words to that effect,” Roarke agreed. “And when I come at you?”

“I run, or at least try to get the hell out of the way of the really sharp point.”

“And, you’d run, one would think, for the door.”

“If the game’s still up, he might’ve been disoriented.”

“True enough.” As she did, Roarke tried to see it, to put himself into it. “Then wouldn’t you do one of two things-use the game, the holo-features for cover? Attempt to hide. Or call for the game to end, then try for the door.”

“Yeah. But the body was well inside the room, nearly center, and facing-so to speak-away from the door.” She huffed out a breath. “It skirts all around the edges of logical. I can’t make it work in my head.

I can’t see the steps. Maybe there were two people. Mira believes there might’ve been.”

She tilted her head at the reconstruction she’d paused on-screen. Maybe she needed to add another figure. “The killer and the planner. If so, he still had to know and trust both of them to let them into that room during game play. The game was too important for him to let anyone he didn’t know, anyone who wasn’t involved get a sneak peek.”

“It depresses me to say it, but maybe it was the lot of them. All three.”

“Possible.” She’d circled around that herself. “I can’t figure why all three of them would want him dead, but possible. Two to do the job, one to stay back and cover for the other two.”

She paced away again. “I can’t find anything in the business that indicates there was any trouble, anything that makes me think he might’ve been throwing his weight around or threatening to walk away, or anything else that relates specifically to the partnership that comes up motive.”

“So it was personal.”

“I think it was, yeah.” That, she mused, was the one element that kept repeating for her. “Personal could’ve come out of the partnership, the business. They practically lived together in that place. Worked together, played together. The only one in a semi-serious outside relationship was Bart. Need to talk to her again. The girlfriend,” Eve added.

She turned back to Roarke. “Are you up for a game?”

“Will I need my sword?”

“Ha.” She gestured toward the broadsword. “Bring that one, too.”

“Ha,” he echoed.

“I want to run the two scenarios you culled out.” She retrieved the disc. “From the level he started.” They moved into the elevator. “Solo play,” she decided when Roarke ordered the holo-room. “Let’s replay as close as possible to what he might’ve done.”

“Question. Why does what he was playing matter?”

“Because I can’t see it.” And that, she had to admit, was a pisser. “I can’t make it work no matter how many ways I play it out. The injuries, the timing, the entry and exit by the killer. Every time I get one part of it solid, another part goes to goo in my fingers. Something’s missing. I could bring the three of them in,” she said as they stepped out again. “Pressure them some, try playing one against the other. Maybe I’d crack it. Or maybe I’d shore up whoever did it-because something’s missing and I don’t have it to use. Whoever did it would know that. Right now they think they’re clear, and maybe, just maybe, the killer relaxes and makes a mistake. If I push when I can’t see it, a mistake’s more likely.

“You play the first one, Bart’s character menu.”

“All right.”

“They could do it again.”

He paused, looked back at her. “Why? If it was specific toward Bart, why again?”

“Because it worked. Gaming can be a kind of addiction. It’s what they do-what the killer does-all day, one way or the other. It’s what feeds them, what excites them, what gives them purpose and pleasure. Higher stakes once you’ve killed. A new level. Some gamers start skipping the lower levels-like Bart did-once they nail them. It’s a little boring, right?”

“Yes. Yes, you’re right.”

“It’s hard to go back to the simple stuff once you’ve proven yourself. Not just the kill, like we were talking about before. But the challenge. More, if it is one of them-say just one of them-they’re close, they’re tight. Day in and day out. One little slip, something said or done that makes the others wonder. Good excuse to do it again. You’re just protecting yourself.”

“The murder of another partner would increase your focus on the two remaining,” Roarke pointed out.

“True gamers juice on the risk, the challenge. Right? They want the buzz. Maybe need that buzz.”

“You believe the killer’s playing against you now.”

“Yeah, at least on one level. And the ego’s saying hey, I’m better than she is.”

“The ego would be wrong,” Roarke commented.

She tucked her thumbs in her front pockets as he inserted the copy of the game into the holo-unit. “Since I feel like I’m spinning my wheels, I’ll take the confidence booster.”

“You’re not spinning anything. A day ago, I wouldn’t have believed one or more of his friends would plot his death. But you’ve picked it all apart and laid it back out so that there’s simply no other answer. To my mind, that puts you well ahead in this game.”

“I wish I was wrong.”

“For my sake, or Bart’s?”

“Both.”

“Don’t wish it,” he told her. “Just win.”

He programmed Quest-1, level four, and requested the last run by Bart on the copy.

“I’ll take the sword,” Eve said, and kept it by her side as the room shimmered into a forest glade where silver beams of sunlight streamed through tall trees in full leaf.

Roarke wore a brown tunic, rough trousers, knee boots. His sword was sheathed at his side, and on his back was a quiver of silver-tipped arrows and a golden bow.

She couldn’t have said why the costume suited him, but understood he looked both heroic and dangerous.

Out of the shadows and into the gilded stream of light came a white buck. “What’s the play?” she asked him. “This world is under the enchantment of a wicked sorceress who’s imprisoned the king and his beautiful and tempestuous daughter.” As he spoke, he sidestepped into the cover of trees, but didn’t approach the buck.

“I’m the apprentice of the wizard she killed to cast her evil spell. Before he died, he told me I must complete seven tasks of valor, collect seven treasures. Only then would I be ready to face the sorceress and free the king and his daughter.”

He glanced back where she stood in the observation circle. “The white hind is classic quest symbolism, and in this case how my master, the wizard is able to guide me.”

“Okay then.” The hind leaped, began to race through the trees. Roarke followed. She watched, and the sunlight died into dark and storm. The rain that pelted down was red as fire, and sizzled like flames on the ground.

And watched as the yellow eyes that peered out of the torrent became skulking black forms, and as the forms became a pack of huge wolves that circled him.

The sword hissed as he pulled it from its sheath, and whistled as he swung and struck. He battled fang and claw, spilled blood and shed it. And to her surprise, shot flames from his hand. “Fairly frosty,” she murmured, when the wolves lay smoking on the ground. “Every level you win awards you with a bit more magic,” he explained. An arrow whistled by his head. He said, “Bugger it,” and dove for cover. At the end of forty minutes, he’d completed the level and was well into the next where he was currently tasked with crossing a chasm to a cave guarded by a dragon.

“Okay, that’s time.”

“I’m just getting started.”

“You can slay the dragon next time. You’re past Bart’s game time.”

He gave the cave a glance of regret before ordering game end.

“No sword fights,” she commented.

“What do you call that bit with the wolves?”

“Man against dog. The fireballs were interesting. Fire burns. He had burns, but… I’ll take the second one. Usurper, right? What’s the story?”

“You’re the right-wise king-make that queen in your case-of Juno. When you were only a child your family was slaughtered by the machinations of your uncle, who desired the throne, and by the hand of his henchman, Lord Manx. Only you survived, and were secreted away by loyalists. You’ve been at war all your life, trained in that art. You fight to avenge your family, to regain your throne from the man who ordered their deaths and has for two decades raped the land, oppressed your people. At this level, you’ve taken back the castle, but the uncle, being a coward, of course, escaped. The castle is now under siege, and the man you love is defending it. To get to him, and bring your reinforcements, you must fight your way through, and at last meet Manx in battle.”

“I bet we’re outnumbered.”

“Naturally, you’d have already given your St. Crispin’s Day speech.”

“My what?”

“We’ll discuss Henry V later. You’d like it. Ready?”

“You bet.”

She wore light battle armor and sturdy boots. And God help her, she was on a horse.

“Shouldn’t I know how to ride this thing before I… ride this thing?”

Roarke grinned at her from the observation circle. “It’ll come to you.”

“Easy for you to say. Jesus, it’s big. Okay, avenging warrior queen.”

There were hills and valleys, forests and streams. She tried to see them as Bart would have. He’d think in character, she imagined, and noted the men she led were battle scarred and weary. Some carried fresh wounds. But she was the hero, the leader.

He liked playing the hero, liked being the leader. The good guy, always the good guy, fighting for a cause, searching for the answers.

The going was rough and rocky. She heard the creak of the saddle under her, the ring of the horse’s hooves on the hard ground. She saw storm clouds gathering in the west.

And heard the sounds of battle.

The castle bore scars of its own, and people stood on its parapets shooting arrows that flashed and flamed. Others fought viciously with sword and axe on the burned and barren ground around it.

He would probably think of home, and about his lover, Eve decided. About vengeance.

She thought: Shit, shit, I hope I don’t fall off this thing. And charged.

She drew the sword, instinctively squeezing her knees and thighs to keep her seat. Wind rushed through her hair, over her face, and the speed, the sheer power of motion lit a fire of excitement in her.

Then she stopped thinking, and fought.

Bloody and bitter, the battle raged. She felt her sword slice through flesh, hit bone. She smelled blood and smoke, felt the mild jolt from a glancing blow as the horse danced and pivoted under her.

She saw him, his armor black and stained with blood, sitting on a huge black horse with the castle-her castle-at his back. The sounds of the battle receded as she rode forward to face him.

“So, we meet at last. A pity for you, our acquaintance will be short.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she responded. “Let’s go.”

“This day my sword will wear your blood, and the blood of your lover.”

“Yawn.”

“You rush death? Then come meet it.”

The programmers, she noted and quickly, had made Manx very big and very strong. Blocking his blows sent shocking aches up her arm, into her shoulder.

Wrenched shoulder.

Sweat ran down her back, down her face, into her eyes to sting. She’d never beat him on these terms, she realized. She had neither the skill nor the strength.

And when he slid past her guard, she felt the jolt as his sword drew blood.

Arm wound.

He lifted his sword, the dark light of death in his eyes; she ducked and plunged her sword into his horse.

It screamed. She had a moment to think the sound was eerily human before it stumbled. As it fell, she swung out, caught her opponent in the side. Not a death blow, she decided. Time to finish it off.

“Pause game. Save, and stop.”

Breathing hard, she turned, looked at Roarke across the empty holoroom. “I don’t get to kill the bad guy?”

“You’re past Bart’s time, by a minute or so. Interesting strategy, killing the horse.”

“It worked. They built that bastard strong. He was going for the…” She swiped her finger across her throat.

“He certainly was. And if he’d landed the blow, game over. You’d have to repeat the level until you defeated him to move on to the next.”

“This is the game he was playing when he died. It all fits. Bruises from fighting, the shoulder, the arm wound, and the loss with the decapitation. K2BK. King To Black Knight.”

“Yes, I got that when he came into play.”

“Obviously there weren’t real horses and a bunch of dead guys littering the ground, but the killer reconstructed the game, using a real weapon. If he got in, programmed himself as the Black Knight, and used a real weapon. The right steps, the right angle.”

“I’d agree, but it doesn’t explain how he got in, and how he managed to delete a two-man competition from the unit without leaving a single shadow or echo anywhere in the system.”

Screw logic, she thought. Sometimes facts weren’t logical. “He figured it out because the Black Knight killed the king. Bart played that exact scenario before, that’s why it’s on this disc. But he didn’t stab the horse, and he lost. He’d have been more prepared this time, may have avoided the loss, or that exact loss, but-”

“When his opponent’s sword actually cut him-the pain, the shock, the blood-all real, he was too stunned to react.”

“And the game ended for real the same way it ended in play before. This works. I need to fast-talk my way into search warrants. By their own statements only the three partners knew all the details of the game, only the three partners ever participated in play. Those three knew this program, this level, and the results of previous play, so they’re the only ones who could have used it to kill him.”

“While I hate knowing you’re right, I don’t see how it could be anything or anyone else. And shifting that to me, I’m considerably pissed off I could have made such an error in judgment. I’d never have believed any of them capable of this.”

“Neither did he, and he knew them all a hell of a lot better than you. People can hide and hoard and stroke all kinds of nasty stuff no one else sees. You saved that play, right?”

“I did.” He smiled now. “You were fairly magnificent. We’ll have to go riding in real life sometime.”

“I don’t think so.” But she remembered that sensation of speed, of power. “Maybe. Anyway, I want to view it, then do an analysis. He’d have saved the play, too, so he could study it, see his mistakes.”

“Absolutely.”

“The one he used the day he died is toast.”

“We’re getting some of it. A little some at this point.”

She nodded as she called for the elevator. “And maybe that was his disc, where he’d saved his play, his levels. Or maybe, since it wasn’t logged out, the killer gave it to him. You know, Hey, Bart, I did some tweaking-or whatever words you geeks use. You need to try it out.”

“If so, there’d be another copy, Bart’s copy. Which, if the killer has any sense, has been destroyed.”

“Maybe. But people keep the damnedest things.”

That night she dreamed of blood and battle, of castles and kings. She stood, observer now, her feet planted while the wind whipped the stench of death around her. Men, their wounds mortal, moaned and begged as they scattered the ground.

Those who turned their faces toward her she knew. Victims, so many victims, so many dead who lived inside her head whose ends she’d studied, evaluated, reconstructed to find the one who’d ended them.

Some who fought, who sliced with sword and axe, she knew as well. She’d helped lock the cage doors behind them. But here, in dreams, they’d found freedom. In dreams, in the games the mind played, they could and would kill again.

Only in dreams, she reminded herself. And if she shuddered as she saw her father, her eyes met his manic ones coolly.

Only in dreams.

She watched with pity and resignation as Bart fought a war he’d never win. Swords and sorcery, games and dreams. Life and death.

She watched his end. Studied and evaluated even as his head, eyes still wide in shock, rolled to her feet.

And the Black Knight wheeled his horse and grinned at her, fiercely. When he charged, she reached for her weapon, but all she had was a small knife, one already stained with her father’s blood.

Only in dreams, she told herself, but knew a terrible fear as he came for her.