I blinked. By proposing we watch each other, I had been thinking in terms of a mutually beneficial business arrangement, but Arthur seemed to be taking it as an overture of friendship. “I…if you say so,” I got out.
“I do.” He gave my shoulder a final squeeze and then stood. “Talk soon, right?”
A sort of tight feeling was growing through my chest and throat, the same type of squeezing discomfort I got in certain death situations. Except it was kind of a good feeling, which made no sense at all. “Yeah, okay,” I said.
“Give you a buzz tomorrow,” said Arthur, and let himself out.
I stayed sitting on the couch, staring at the floor and feeling very strange.
I wasn’t used to having friends. Friends meant obligations, and complications, and effort—
And people who checked in on me, another part of my brain pointed out. And had my back. And could watch for signs of psychic brainwashing.
Huh.
My phone beeped.
It was a text message from Checker, newly arrived back in LA. The strange, fizzy feeling in my chest intensified.
DRINKING CONTEST 2NITE ITS ON BE @ HOLE 8PM SHARP CHECKER
And then, an instant later, a second one:
WEAR SUMTHING SLINKI
I stared at the messages. The invitation felt surreal, as if I were watching someone else’s life: somebody who lived in society, somebody who did the whole “human interaction” thing, somebody who got text messages that weren’t either about work or death threats.
Somebody who made friends and went out drinking with them.
Was I even capable of being someone like that?
I thought about Arthur’s visit. I looked down at Checker’s texts again. Maybe people weren’t all bad, I thought. At least not all the time.
Maybe…maybe it wouldn’t be such an awful thing not to drink alone tonight.
I hit reply.
As long as my new Colt 1911 counts. See you at 8. Cas.
THE END
Cas Russell will return in *HALF LIFE* (coming 2015)
Thank You For Reading
If you’d like updates on the series, including release announcements for sequels, you can sign up for the Russell’s Attic mailing list at http://www.slhuang.com/ (This list is used only for publication news and occasional discount offers.) If you’d like to read my day-to-day madness, feel free to visit my blog at http://www.slhuang.com/blog/ or follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sl_huang.
If it’s not too much trouble, please consider leaving a frank review of this book wherever you purchased it (or on a review website). I’d greatly appreciate it!
And if you didn’t purchase this book, no problem. I’m a strong believer in piracy always being helpful to an author, which is why I’ve licensed this text so sharing isn’t illegal. If you read this book for free, enjoyed it, and have the means to do so, you can support this series by buying a copy of the book through a retailer. If you feel enthusiastic about the book but don’t have any spare finances, you can still help me out as an author by recommending it to people, sending a copy to a friend, leaving a review online, or seeding it on your favorite torrent site. As noted on the copyright page, this book is licensed under a http://creativecommons.org/ BY-NC-SA-4.0 license, which means you are welcome to share the text of Zero Sum Game as much as you like as long as you aren’t doing it for money and you leave my author name intact (though please do not share the cover, which is copyright Najla Qamber, all rights reserved). For more information on the license the text of this book is under, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.
No matter what, I hope you had a good time reading. Thank you for joining me on my mad romp with a dysfunctional superpowered mathematician!
Acknowledgments
This book would not exist without a number of very important people.
First, to my critique partner and sister: This series owes its soul to you. For the late-night phone calls when I was stuck on a plot point, for the brainstorming suggestions, for your reactions and recommendations as you read every word—for the encouragement in the face of my self-doubt and your faith in the story—thank you. To try to write without you in my life…I can’t even think about it.
Second, to my incredible, unparalleled beta readers, Bu Zhidao, Kevan O’Meara, Jesse Sutanto, and Layla Lawlor: Your brilliance and honesty brought this novel to another level. Your enthusiasm for helping me make this happen has been a support I don’t know how I deserve. You’re all amazing writers yourselves, and you floor me with the genius wordsmithing and creativity in your own works—I hope that everyone reading this takes a moment to look you up and become as much a fan as I am.
Third, to David Wilson, the expert linguist who copyedited Arthur’s dialect for me: Thank you for sharing your stunning level of knowledge and skill with me so I could make sure I got things right. Your intelligence and generosity awe me. I am extraordinarily, undeservedly lucky you chose to share your talents with me.
To my cover designer, Najla Qamber: You were an sheer joy to work with, and I’m deliriously happy with how you brought my book to life. To my editor, Anna Genoese: I wish words could express how thrilled I am with the polish and shine you gave to my little novel. The level of professionalism you both brought to the publication of my book is irreplaceable, and I will walk through fire to work with you both again, as many times as you’ll let me hire you.
To my proofreaders: Thank you for putting up with my obsessive levels of perfectionism. Thank you for helping me ensure the product I was releasing would show utmost respect for my entire breadth of readers, across all possible devices.
To the entire community and all my friends at Absolute Write: I cannot imagine going through the publishing process without your accumulated wisdom and generosity of knowledge at my back. I shudder to think about continuing to write without your lively humor, your constant support, and your mind-blowing critiques. For any aspiring writers out there, I strongly recommend you stop by the boards at www.absolutewrite.com/forums.
And to my delightfully madcap writer’s group: thank you for your encouragement, for your opinions, and most of all, for putting up with my various neuroses as I ramped into publication. Puppy, Lusty, Hippo, Dragonface, Bats, Bunneh, Donkey, Snake, and kk, I owe you all cake. And Mr. Hippo for the British help, and Margaret for your constant ridiculous levels of support and for answering all my questions. You guys are outrageous and fantastic and I’m the luckiest writer alive to know you.
Finally, to everyone in my life who has inspired and supported me along the way, to those who laughed at my math jokes or geeked out with me or embraced my nerddom as a feature, not a bug—thank you. This book never would have happened without you.