Whether or not Tony Knight was in some way behind the kidnappings, Shaw had to give him credit for the public service. As a professor of politics, Ashton Shaw believed it was a travesty that the U.S. didn’t have mandatory voting like many other countries.
And, finally, the logo for the game Prime Mission appeared.
“Watch,” Maddie said, nodding as type scrolled onto the screen.
YOU ARE THE PILOT OF A UNITED TERRITORIES XR5 FIGHTER SHIP. YOU HAVE CRASH-LANDED ON THE PLANET PRIME 4, WHERE UT FORCES HAVE BEEN BATTLING THE OTHERS. YOU HAVE LIMITED AIR AND FOOD AND WATER. YOU MUST REACH SAFE STATION ZULU, TWO HUNDRED KILOMETERS TO THE WEST.
The rest of the crawl revealed, in effect, that the character must take three items from the spaceship to use to survive on the trek. It ended with the admonition:
You’re on your own. Choose wisely. Your life depends upon it.
“It’s The Whispering Man in space,” Shaw said. “Even those lines at the end are similar. In The Whispering Man, it’s ‘You’ve been abandoned. Escape if you can. Or die with dignity.’ I want to see more about Knight.”
He logged out of the game and called up more articles about the CEO and the company.
Shaw learned that Knight Time fell into the mold of several big tech companies — cofounded by two men in a garage. Like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Knight’s partner was Jimmy Foyle, both from Portland, Oregon. Knight handled the business side of the company; Foyle designed the games.
The press accounts of the company revealed details that echoed what Maddie had told him about Knight’s nature.
The stories pointed to Jimmy Foyle as the model of a professional tech industry expert, who’d spend eighty-hour weeks perfecting the code for the company’s gaming engines. He was described as a “gaming guru.”
This was in sharp contrast to Tony Knight. The handsome, dark-haired CEO had a legendary temper. He was paranoid, petty. Twice, police were called to the company headquarters in Palo Alto when employees claimed Knight had physically hurt them — shoving one to the floor and flinging a keyboard into the face of another. No charges were filed and “generous” settlements were offered. Knight would sue for what he thought was a breach of a nondisclosure or noncompete, even if there was little reason to do so. He had also been arrested outside of the company for incidents like a pushing match over a parking space and a lawn worker whom he believed had stolen a shovel from his garage.
The industry was always anticipating a breakup between the partners because of their differing personalities. One inspired profile writer described the two as the “Black Knight” and the “White Knight” because Foyle had once been a well-known white hat hacker — someone hired by companies and the government to try to break into their IT systems and expose vulnerabilities.
Knight’s lawsuit against Destiny had been dismissed and both parties moved to have the records sealed, claiming that the court documents connected to the case contained trade secrets. A Freedom of Information Act request could be made, but that would take months. Shaw would proceed on the assumption that Destiny Entertainment had in fact stolen Knight’s code. And he’d make the assumption that Knight was egotistical and vindictive enough to exact revenge.
He said to Maddie, “Still, it’s a big risk for a man who’s already rich.”
She replied, “There’s another piece. Knight Time’s flagship game is Conundrum. It’s an alternative reality game. Spectacular to watch. Too brainy for me, I’m not fast enough. The new installment is six months late. That’s a no-no in the gaming world.”
Shaw added, “And Knight waited until tens of thousands of gamers descend into the Valley. He hired somebody to be a psychotic player. Police wouldn’t look past that. Great smoke screen.”
“You going to tell the police?”
“The detective wasn’t impressed with my idea in the first place. When I suggest a famous CEO might be the perp, it’ll make her even more skeptical. I need facts.”
Maddie was looking over his face. She said, “I’d go hunting with my father sometimes, remember?”
He did, an interest they shared — though it was a sport for her while something else entirely for him.
“And there was this look he’d get. He wasn’t really himself. He was in a different place. All that mattered was getting that deer or goose or whatever. That’s what you’re looking like now.”
Shaw knew what she was talking about — he’d seen the same expression in her face while she was stabbing him to death yesterday.
“Knight Time Gaming would have a booth at the C3 Conference?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. One of the biggest.”
Shaw started assembling the printouts. “I’m going to go pay a visit.”
“You want some company? Always more fun to hunt with somebody else.”
Shaw couldn’t argue with that, thinking of the times he’d go out with his father or his brother into the forests and fields of the Compound. His mother too, who was the best shot in the family.
This, however, was different.
Most crime’s simple. This’s complicated...
“Think it’s better for me to go on my own.” Shaw took one last hit of coffee and headed out the door, pulling out his phone to make a call.
34
Truth is a curious thing.
Often helpful, sometimes not.
Colter Shaw had learned in pursuing rewards that there usually was nothing to be gained by lying. It might get you a few quick answers, but if you were found out, as often happened, sources would dry up.
Which didn’t mean that there weren’t times when it was helpful to let the impression settle that you were someone other than who you were.
Shaw was once again strolling the chaotic aisles of the C3 Conference, wandering through the mostly young, mostly male audience.
He passed Nintendo, Microsoft, Bethesda, Sony and Sega. The same carnage as before yet also bloodless games, like soccer, football, race cars, dance, puzzle solving and, well, the just plain bizarre. One featured green squirrels wearing toreador outfits and armed with nets as they chased worried bananas.
Shaw thought, People actually spent their time this way?
Then: Was obsessively cruising the country in a battered camper any worthier?
You disregard others’ passions at your peril.
The Knight Time booth was larger but more austere and somber than the others. The walls and curtains were black, the music eerie, not thumping in your chest. No flashing lights or spots. Of course, the booth boasted ten-foot-long high-def screens — those seemed to be requisite at C3. The displays showed trailers for the delayed installment Conundrum VI. The text promised Coming Soon!
Shaw watched the action on the big screen for a while. Planets, rockets, lasers, explosions. In the booth fifty or so young people sat at stations and tried their hand at Knight Time games. In front of him a young woman wearing stylish red glasses, her hair in a ponytail, was intently playing Prime Mission.
“Well, that sucks.” A teenager was talking to his friend. Waiting for a Knight Time game to start, he was gazing at the ad and news broadcast window Shaw remembered. On-screen was a pair of anchors, two young, geeky men. They were reporting on the fact that a congressman had supported a proposal to tax users’ internet traffic over a certain number of gigabytes per day.