18 Death Match (aka Own Goal) by Diane Duane

Author:Diane Duane [Duane, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Elsewhere, in a virtual bar far away, it was no longer afternoon, but night; and two shadowy forms sat on either side of a marble table, under the blue-tinged mood lighting, and eyed one another coolly.

“Lucky for you they drew,” Darjan said.

Heming kept himself still, and didn’t gulp…though he felt like it. Chicago’s draw had been entirely too tight a thing. “I can’t understand why they didn’t win,” he said.

Darjan gave him a dry look. “Maybe our principals’ enthusiasm is misplaced,” he said. “The team was given the equivalent of nearly half an hour’s worth of free goals. They weren’t able to make any decent use of the time. Whatever that may suggest to us, it’s suggesting other things to the people who’re most interested in what they do next. We’re going to have to look at more robust forms of intervention.”

“Still, they got into the play-off pool anyway,” said Heming after a moment. “The draw is Tuesday. The odds of them being matched off against South Florida again are minuscule.”

“Forty-four to one is not minuscule,” Darjan said quietly. “Two point six billion to one, like a respectable lottery, the same chance you have to be hit by a meteorite, now that’s minuscule. Forty-four to one is too damn good. And no matter who South Florida plays, their odds are still too damn good. This has got to be sorted out, Heming. Fast. What are you doing about it?”

Heming didn’t quite squirm, though he wanted to. “Some people are going to go have a look at the South Florida team members’ Net machines,” he said. “‘Routine maintenance.’”

Darjan sat quiet for a moment. “That sounds like a thought,” he said finally. “As long as you’re not planning anything so infantile as having the machines fail in the middle of a game.”

Heming looked briefly horrified. “Uh, of course not. Little changes, though, in the programming of each. Installation of conditionals.”

Darjan was silent for a moment. “That might work,” he said. “As long as deinstallation procedures are included as well. Be a shame if someone went looking at their Net machines’ routines, after the fact, and found something out of the ordinary there.”

“Of course deinstalls will be put in at the same time,” Heming said. “There are ways to do such things that won’t alarm the usual antiviral and system-scan diagnostics. It’s all taken care of.”

“Then get on with it,” Darjan growled. “The first game is Thursday…and it had better go the way our principals want, if South Florida is involved…or they’re going to start taking your intervention, or lack of it, personally.”

This time Heming did gulp, whether he wanted to or not.

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