"Marc Laidlaw - The Vicar of R'lyeh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laidlaw Marc)

He could no longer see the gated entrance. Ahead of the car, held in its headlights, was a doorway.
Calamaro stepped into the beams, his shadow staggering out across the hard-packed floor and then the
wall. He supported himself on his walking stick, hugging the golden cylinder close to his chest with the
other arm. Warren hurried to open the door. Beyond was an elevator and a flight of stairs. The elevator
waited, but when Geoff tried to enter, Warren held him back. тАЬWhy donтАЩt you take the stairs, Geoff?
WeтАЩve got some business to discuss. WeтАЩll catch up with you upstairs. Give you time to get the demo
ready.тАЭ
тАЬUhтАжsure.тАЭ Geoff held back and watched the doors shut. CalamaroтАЩs eyes glittered like obsidian lenses
in the mask of a sarcophagus, refracting the overhead lights into a vision of endless night full of fractured
stars.

He wasnтАЩt sure how long heтАЩd stood there before he remembered to look for stairs.

#

By the time Geoff reached the office, everyone was buzzing determinedly through the halls as if they had
some other purpose than to catch a glimpse of the man who had set them all in motion. Lars Magnusson,
one of the programmers, intercepted Geoff en route to his cubby: тАЬGuess whoтАЩs making the rounds this
morning?тАЭ

тАЬI know,тАЭ Geoff said. тАЬCalamaro. I rode in his limo with Warren.тАЭ

тАЬCalamaro?тАЭ said Lars. тАЬReally? No, IтАЩm talking about Petey Sandersen!тАЭ

If this news was meant to lift his spirits, it barely raised an eyebrow. More evidence (as if any were
needed) that he did not fit in on the Simulator project; that in fact his loyalty to the whole Aeon
Entertainment enterprise was suspect.

Petey Sandersen was a legendary figure тАУ an idol to those who had grown up suckling on the thousand
media paps of the Black Goat of the Woods. He had formulated (or packaged) the original rules and
invocations, the diagrams and tokens that everyone had once taken for the arcane paraphernalia of an
elaborate role playing game. But while Petey had become revered as the Opener of the Way, the Wedge
by Which They Widened the Weft, Geoff had spent his adolescence trying to put as much distance as he
possibly could between himself and the massively overhyped eldritch invaders.

With Sandersen and Calamaro on the premises, this was shaping up to be a day for high-powered
executive reviews. Careers were made or casually ended on days like this. Nice of them to warn the
peons in advance.

Geoff slung his backpack under his desk and fired up ABDUL, their proprietary level editor. It was hard
not to panic, considering that Warren had volunteered him to show off work that was by no means ready
for a demo. About all he had time to do now was check for obvious errors and send the map for a full
compile. That, and pray that during the night no one had checked in changes that would break the work
heтАЩd done the previous day. Reviewing the morningтАЩs round of check-in notices, he didnтАЩt spot any
midnight code changes that would affect his map, but that didnтАЩt mean he was in the clear. Artists were
notorious for quietly making an ill-advised change to one inconspicuous model, thereby wreaking havoc
on the entire world. Most of them were contractors, prone to exceedingly short lifespans at Aeon, rarely
in place long enough to be trained in the brutal realities of their resource management software, dubbed