“He didn’t have the right. I’m just as much a part of U-Play as he was. Just as important. But if Bart said no, everybody went along.”
“That’s a pisser. But if Bart’s not around, you go up a level. You have more control, more power, more say.”
“Like you said, wanting him gone’s not a crime.”
“And you had a way, where you wouldn’t be responsible, and he’d be gone. It’s brilliant.”
“It’s what I do. I build the scenario, create the tech, and the player decides. Win some, lose some.”
“He loses, you win.” Eve studied his smug, satisfied face as she rocked slowly back and forth on her heels. “And you’ve tied our hands on it. You always knew we couldn’t come at you for murder, even if we figured it out.”
“I have to say, I didn’t think you’d figure it out. Not for a while, not at least until I had the program on the market. Going military and security with that, by the way. It’s not for the kiddies. You can see right in my logs and notes that I never intended the tech for the open market. You just can’t come at me on this.”
“You gave them the discs, and didn’t tell them about the augmentation.”
“Yeah, I gave them the discs. So what? And Bart should’ve figured out the augmentation after five minutes if he was paying attention. It’s not like I forced him to play the game.”
“Cill didn’t know about the new tech. She knew nothing about it.”
He shrugged. “Okay, so what? She should’ve figured it, too. She’s so freaking smart. Benny’s already making noises about having her take Bart’s meetings, the interviews.”
“Pushing her in front of you.” Eve nodded. “Too bad she fell, instead of getting a knife in the heart.”
“The program shuts down if the player’s unconscious. I didn’t realize that until it happened. That’s the problem with droids. Now, I know, so I can adjust. Oh, and I wanted to say, you held up good out there. You and Roarke really showed some skill. But you can’t bring in alternate weapons-that’s not play. And, like I said, I was trying to shut it down, but hit some glitch. These things happen.” He smiled again. “I saw Roarke took a hard one. I hope he’s okay.”
She leaned in. “Fuck you.”
“There’s no need to get steamed.” He smiled broadly. “You happened to come in, and I was in the middle of an experimental game-and that’s not against the law either. Listen, you can get me on the unregistered. I’ll pay the fine, do the community service, whatever. I won’t even sue you for zapping me-in my own place. Now I should really get to the hospital and see Cill. I can’t even imagine how scrambled her brain is after what she went through. So, can I go now?”
“Yeah. Yeah, Var, you can go. To hell, via a cage. You’re under arrest.”
“Arrest?” He rolled his eyes. “Come on, come on, we’ve been through this.”
“That’s right, and you’ve admitted to creating the program, to giving both Bart and Cilla the discs without informing them of the augmentation or the risks.”
“I didn’t make them play. I didn’t-”
“You keep going down that road,” Eve advised. “It’s going to dead-end on you. The PA’s going to have a field day on charges. We’ll say Murder One on Bart, then the Assault with Intent on a police officer and a duly authorized expert consultant, civilian, Attempted Murder on Cilla, various and sundry cyber crimes.”
“I didn’t kill anybody!” he shouted. “They lost the game.”
“Your game,” Eve said. “Your rules. Your play. You’re going to be a very, very old man if and when you get out of that cage, Var-a cage where you’ll be banned from the use of any electronics. No more games for you, you fucker.”
“This is whack.” He looked at Peabody. “You know this is whack. You get it.”
“Yeah, I get it. So let me put it this way, just to play the same theme as my partner. Game over, fucker. You lose.”
Face cold, eyes flat, Peabody got to her feet. “I’ll take him through, Dallas. McNab and I will take him through.”
“Okay.” She sat now, suddenly and completely exhausted. “Okay. Peabody? Good work.”
“This isn’t fair,” Var protested. “It’s just another cheat. You can’t put me away for this,” he continued as Peabody hauled him up. “I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t there. It’s their own fault.”
Eve closed her eyes as his voice, and the tears in it, faded away.
He believed it, she thought, at least in some small part of his mind. He’d done nothing more than provide, so couldn’t be held responsible for the results. And maybe his lawyers, when he got them, would play that one, but she had faith in Reo, and the system.
She had to.
She opened her eyes when Roarke came in and closed the door. He sat across from her, kept those wild blue eyes on hers.
“Been a while since I’ve been in the box with a cop.”
“Do you want me to read you your rights?”
“I’ll waive that. You let Peabody lead him along. She did well.”
“He believes some of that bullshit, enough of it to convince himself it’s Bart’s own fault he’s dead, Cill’s problem she’s in a coma.” Her heart squeezed, hard, before she finished the thought. “If that knife had gone into you a couple inches over, it’d be your own fault.”
“Going by that logic, it would be my own agility and skill that has me sitting here now, looking at you. You’re tired, Lieutenant, and you’re sad, and a bit beaten up as well.”
“I want to be pissed, and satisfied. I’ll get around to it. They thought he was their friend, and they were his. He used them, sucked what he wanted from them, and gave back only what he wanted to spare, that was-in turn-useful to him. They never really meant anything to him, in all those years they worked together, spent together.”
She drew a breath, let it out. “No, worse, they were just a means to an end, just levels to get through to the win. It made me think about what’s involved in friendships and partnerships. Relationships. I could try to be a better friend, a better partner, but I’ll probably forget.”
“From where I sit you do quite well enough, but I’m happy to remind you if you like.”
“Roarke.” She reached over the table, took his hands. “I thought I understood, when Coltraine went down, I thought I understood what you deal with because of what I do. What I am. But I was wrong. And tonight… It was so fast. Blasting that damn room to pieces trying to find the controls. And I did. I did, but seconds too late. In seconds I saw that knife go into you, and the world just stopped. It just ended.”
“But it didn’t.” He squeezed her hands. “And here we are.”
“I did okay before you-without you. I was doing just fine. Christ knows you were doing just fine before me.”
“I don’t want just fine. Do you?”
She shook her head. “I mean, it was okay. When you don’t know what you can have, you do okay with what you’ve got. But now I know, and I don’t think I can get through without you. I wouldn’t be just fine, or okay, or anywhere close to it. I don’t know how people get through. All the people left behind, the ones I have to look in the eye and say he’s gone or she’s gone. I don’t know how they take the next breath.”
“Isn’t that why, in a very real sense, you do what you do? You are what you are?”
“Maybe. You can’t think about it or it makes you crazy. Or sad and tired.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them to look straight into his. “When we were in there, and it looked like we wouldn’t walk out again, I could deal with it. Because… I know it’s stupid.”
“We’d die together,” he finished.
She let out a half-laugh at the beauty, and the oddity, of being understood so well. “Which is probably sick and selfish, and a bunch of other neurotic shit Mira could pick at. But, yeah. Going down together’s one thing. Taking the next breath without you? That’s not possible. But you have that… possibility to cope with every day. Roarke, I wish-”