Duel Identity (2000) by Clancy Tom - Net Force Explorers 12

Author:Clancy, Tom - Net Force Explorers 12 [12, Clancy, Tom - Net Force Explorers]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-03-17T20:24:17+00:00

Chapter 10

"Ouch!" Megan O'Malley yelped as her opponent's blade whacked her right in the midriff. She stepped back, lowering her own saber as her free hand rubbed at her "wound." That hurt, even through several layers of padded fencing jacket.

"Reverse moulinet." Her opponent remained on guard. And Megan wasn't sure, but she suspected he was grinning behind his fencing mask.

What made things worse, this was the balding, out- of-shape guy who usually couldn't touch her. But then, that was the way the whole evening's practice had gone. People had criticized her during the exercises, then picked on her during the free bouting section. And she wasn't holding her own, so she could hardly blame them for it.

Taking a deep breath, Megan brought her sword up, assumed the en garde position, and said, "Let's go."

She did all right for a couple of minutes, and then, humiliatingly, the guy nailed her again!

"Megan!" Alan Slaney called. "Could I see you, please."

She went through the after-bout ritual-saluting, removing her mask, and shaking hands with her opponent-even though what she really wanted to do was punch in his face. Then she walked over to where Alan stood observing the room with his back to a wall.

"What's wrong?" Alan asked.

"Nothing," Megan answered. "Absolutely nothing."

"Megan, I've been watching you tonight. Maybe you think you're trying, but you're just going through the motions. And when that happens, you get results like Ed there trouncing you. Alan shook his head. "Whether you want to admit it or not, there's some sort of distraction coming between you and your fencing. And until you deal with whatever is bothering you, you might as well hang a big sign on your chest that says, 'Please beat me up!' Because that's what every fencing partner you face will do."

"There is something wrong," Megan confessed. "Something about Latvinia. But you said we're not supposed to talk about it in the salle."

"That's just to keep people from getting distracted. But if it's making you fence like you're sleepwalking, maybe we'd better talk about it," Alan said. "I know your character has more duties than you might have expected. Is this about being virtmailed so early this morning?"

Megan shook her head. "It's about what happened after. That girl, Roberta Whatsername. Leif knows her. He says she's not going to take being thrown out of the sim lying down."

Alan grinned. "That's about all she could do, after being struck by lightning."

"That's not all she can do out here in real life," Megan explained. "Her Mumsy and Pater aren't your ordinary set of parents. They've got endless resources. They also know everybody, and that apparently includes some of the muckety-mucks at AHSO."

"I'm well within my rights to boot her out. The responsible authority for any SIG or sim-which in this case is yours truly-is allowed to eject anyone whose activities demonstrably disrupt the basic concept agreed upon for simulation. Which is what Roberta was trying to do, starting the Russian Revolution about twenty years too early. It's in

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