"More important, do you think that your friend Alan knows what he's doing?" Leif asked. "He can try humiliating and shutting her up here in Latvinia, but Roberta has serious juice out in the real world. Her parents know half the movers and shakers in Washington, and that includes plenty of bigwigs at AHSO. If she lodges a complaint-"
"What?" Megan demanded. "They can't pull the plug on the sim."
"But they could change the rules for all the Special Interest Group members," Leif replied. "They could declare Latvinia off-limits for AHSO members. That would be one easy way to end the beta-test. Alan would have no customers. He'd have no way of getting a payoff for all the time he's put in."
"Look-I don't know what's going on here." Megan was definitely getting upset. "But I'm sure, whatever it is, it's going on to further the plot."
"Yeah," Leif said, "Sure." Considering Megan's worried mood, he didn't add what he wanted to say.
The question is, he thought, whose plot are we talking about?
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 the AHSO bylaws, to prevent participants from imposing their particular view of history-you know, the folks who expect to find hidden Viking colonies in America, or who demand to see alien gods from space building the pyramids. They're free to develop their own alternative sims, but they aren't allowed to ruin the party for everybody else in one that's up and running according to a given set of rules."
"I know that," Megan said. "But there were anarchists in the period you're dealing with."
"And I arranged for Roberta to be treated much better than most governments of the day treated accused anarchists," Alan replied. "Would it have been better to stick her in a dungeon for the rest of the beta-test? Or have her hung or shot? Any of those actions would have been historically accurate."
"I don't know," Megan admitted. "But I do know this. Rules don't matter much to the rich and powerful. And Leif says that Roberta has the juice to turn AHSO against you at the national level. You've obviously worked so hard on Latvinia-I don't want to see it fail before it becomes a moneymaking proposition for you."
Alan shook his head. "I never went into the Latvinia project to make a profit," he said gently. "You might call it a labor of love."
"But it will be an empty labor if AHSO makes all its members pull out," Megan insisted. "And it seems Roberta might be able to make that happen."
"I think I can keep most of the adventurers." Alan sounded confident, but a little worried wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. "All I need is a little time to work it through. But thanks for the warning, Megan. Thank Leif as well."
Leif cautiously checked out his virtmail, expecting to find some sort of flame job from Roberta Hendry. When he saw nothing, he was surprised… and somewhat curious. It was out of character for her.
"Computer," he ordered, "research function. Scan for mentions in the media regarding the Hendry family- specifically, Alexander Hendry, Susan Hendry, or Roberta Hendry."
That specified Roberta, her dad, and her mom, but was a bit too broad. He'd get blasted with information.
"Focus on society news," he added, "for the last four months. Execute."
"Searching," the computer's silver-toned voice responded.
Moments later the computer's holographic display began to fill with various references to the Hendry clan. Leif quickly weeded out stories about Roberta's attempts to bring back radical chic, or about Mrs. Hendry's home and garden tours. There were fewer references to the balls and parties the family would usually be gracing, then Leif saw why.
Alexander and Susan Hendry were apparently spending the summer at some count's villa in Monaco. It would make a nice vacation, but they wouldn't get the press among the international jet set that they would in their hometown papers.
"Too bad Roberta didn't choose to visit that little principality instead of Latvinia," Leif muttered as he looked through the rest of the clips. "Although they'd probably take much more practical action there if she tried to chain herself to the casino doors."
He told the computer to delete the references and plumped down on the living room couch. It looked like a dead night-nothing worth watching on the holo-or rather, if there was, it was just too much effort to search out. After his early morning, Leif didn't have the energy to find himself a party or hook up with anybody who wanted to go dancing. And with both Megan and Alan Slaney off at fencing practice, he was ready to bet that nothing exciting would be going on in Latvinia.
Right now the biggest danger threatening the kingdom was out here in real life. Would Roberta make good on her threats?
Leif turned to the living room computer console, ordering it into telephonic mode. Then he hesitated. His first choice to talk things over would be David-Leif valued his friend's calm, analytical approach to problems. But David might see Roberta as the solution to a problem. He was obviously not in love with Latvinia. Although it had been a clever idea to make David an Abyssinian prince, that plot device had also made him a fish out of water in the Zenda-like setting.