Megan’s face filled the vidscreen. “Trouble,” she said breathlessly. “Maj just ran out of the banquet room with a couple guys that looked as if they match the descriptions of the men who invaded her room last night. Leif went after them, too.”
“I’m on my way.” Matt stood up and headed for the door at a trot.
“Something wrong?” Oscar asked.
“A friend needs me.” Matt opened the door. “Download a copy of Peter’s e-mails and get it to me over at the Bessel Midtown front counter. I’ll meet you there.”
“If it will help find Pete, I’ll be there with bells on.”
“I think it will.” Then Matt was through the door, running for the stairwell that would take him down to the third floor where the above-street enclosed walkway was. He ran to the other hotel, not really noticing the shadows at the other end till one of them stepped out at him. Instinctively he tried to turn to defend himself.
Something crashed into the side of his face, detonating what felt like a small nuclear device on his right temple. His legs turned to jelly, and he went down. Falling over onto his back, he glanced up with double vision and saw the hard-lined shadow lean down over him.
“Stay out of this, kid,” a raspy voice advised. “You’re in way over your head.” The shadow raised its arm again, the blackjack showing this time.
When it landed, Matt lost consciousness, and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to help Maj.
18
“Go away, little girl, before you get hurt.”
Doubling her fists, Maj stared at the woman in front of her.
A cruel grin curved the woman’s mouth. Anticipation danced in the predatory amber eyes. “You’re making a mistake, Madeline Green.”
Maj knew the woman was using her name to try to shake her up. “Where’s Peter Griffen?”
Heavener, if that was the woman’s name, took a step forward, keeping her weight balanced and giving a clear indication of familiarity with martial arts. “Is that what he told you? That I know someone named Peter Griffen?”
“You’re at a game convention and you’re not going to know?” Maj countered. “Especially after today?” She glanced past Heavener to the two men in the hallway behind her. Farther back, Leif was just getting through the door, followed by three men who looked like hotel security officers in tuxedos.
The woman launched a front snap-kick without warning and a stiletto heel punched toward Maj’s face. There wasn’t any time to block the kick, so Maj slipped to one side, acutely aware that she was handicapped by heels and a cocktail dress herself.
Still in motion, Maj dropped down to the floor on her side and attempted a leg sweep, intending to knock the woman’s feet from under her. Instead, the woman performed a full somersault in the air. When she landed on her feet, managing to keep the high heels intact, her grin was even wider.
“You know how to play,” Heavener said, lifting her own hands and curling them into fists.
“Company,” one of the men called behind her.
“Cancel it,” Heavener snarled.
Both men flanking her pulled out oversized pistols and fired almost pointblank at Leif and the three security men. The glass door shattered as Leif and the security team went down.
The shrill scream of a security alarm knifed through the hotel lobby.
Holding her position, Heavener tilted her head and regarded Maj. “Your friends, no doubt. You are beginning to get annoying.”
“Wait till you really get to know us,” Maj said, wishing her voice hadn’t cracked so much when she’d said it.
“I guess we’ll forego this little pleasure.” Heavener dropped her fists and waved to the two men. One of them pointed his weapon at Maj.
Maj stepped back, knowing the guy who’d talked to her in the banquet room was gone. Heavener wouldn’t be able to catch him.
“Another time,” Heavener said. She strode purposefully down the hall, putting a hand to one ear as if she was listening. The two men followed.
Another minute and they were gone around the corner. On the ground floor the way they were, Maj knew Heavener and her people would have a choice of escapes. And there was nothing she could do about it.
Maj ran back to the doors where Leif was getting to his feet. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Missed me,” Leif said in surprise, running his hands over his body in disbelief.
Megan stepped through the shattered door, her foilpack in her hand. “I called the front desk and notified them, but they say the security cams aren’t picking up anything. They set the alarm off manually.” She stared at the fallen guards. “I also called Matt. He’s on his way.”
Two of the guards were unconscious from the effects of the tranquilizer darts that had hit them. The other man was delirious from the drug.
Running footsteps caught Maj’s attention. She turned around just as a young, slim man in a bronze turtleneck and khaki slacks sprinted up with a 9mm Beretta naked in his fist. Wheat-colored hair stuck up in spikes and wraparound dark sunglasses hid his eyes. He swept the hallway with his gaze as hotel security guards in regular suits fell in behind him.
“Madeline Green?” the man asked in a polite voice.
“Yes.”
“I’m Special Agent Jon Roarke,” the man said, flipping open an ID case. “Net Force. Captain Winters sent me.”
Maj faced him and took out her foilpack. “You don’t mind if I check on that, do you?”
“No. But maybe you want to bring me up to speed really quick.”
“You’re looking for a blond woman,” Maj said to Agent Roarke as well as the security team behind him, then gave a quick description of Heavener. The men moved out at once, but Maj knew they weren’t going to find her.
“Can you penetrate the masking utility he wore?”
Gaspar Latke sat in his cluttered workspace and replayed the vid captures of his meeting with Maj Green. He hadn’t planned on becoming one of the star interests in Heavener’s investigation, but then Matt Hunter was supposed to have been a safe bet. Heavener’s people hadn’t been able to put buttoncams in the Net Force Explorers’ room because Mark Gridley had beefed up security. With Matt logged on to the Net, it made sense that he might have visited Maj briefly.
“Not without more time,” he answered. The masking utility he used was proof against anything D’Arnot Industries had on-site at the moment. He’d designed it himself.
“We don’t have more time,” Heavener called over the com-link connection. Irritation reached an all-time high in her voice. “The time is now.”
“All we have to do is get through Friday and we’re home free.”
“No, we’re not,” she said coldly. “That got blown out of the water when Peter Griffen’s game bled over into that girl’s veeyar.”
“I told you that the revision he had wasn’t stable,” Gaspar said desperately. “The game engine is too huge and complex. And if I plugged up too much of the coding, it wouldn’t have performed.” It wasn’t his fault. But he knew that didn’t matter. If Heavener wanted to blame him for it, she could. And she would. “Peter’s not a fool. That’s why he opened one of the release packs at the booth instead of using the rev he’d been playing with. All of those should have been the modified rev he’s been working with the last couple months.”
“Shut up,” Heavener ordered.
Gaspar fell silent. He hoped what he’d given Maj Green would keep her active and on Peter Griffen’s trail.
“We have another problem,” Heavener said. “Matt Hunter found Oscar Raitt. I’m sending a team over to his hotel now. I want you to make sure they get in and out without being seen or heard.”
So they’d found Raitt. Excitement flared through Gaspar as he realized the Explorer team was closer to the truth than he’d thought. Then the feeling quickly dimmed when he realized he was being ordered to take that lead away. He hesitated only a moment, knowing he had no choice.