"Larry Niven & Steve Barnes - Dreampark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

All four nodded. Tony said, "Any idea how many of us there'll be?"
Acacia nudged him. "Won't know till this evening. You and I are reserved, and I guess Gwen and
Ollie are, and there must have been six more people on the tram with us . . . I'd guess better
than twenty of us, about half of them invited. Della, how many were there in your group?"
Della did some quick figuring. "Fourteen? Fifteen. I waited a year to get in, too. You?"
"Eighteen months."
Tony was really interested now. "What if Dream Park doesn't like the Game enough to buy rights to
it? No movie money, no book. . . what happens then?"
Everyone shrugged, but Ollie spoke, willing to take a guess. "The Game Master'd be in trouble if
he was running on a big deficit. Unless Dream Park took up the slack. But a good Game Master has
got maybe two-three movies behind him, and maybe half a dozen books, and if he's really good he's
got a Game running here four months out of the year, and there are royalties on that."
Gwen turned to look at him. "Ollie. . . ?"
"Well?" He shrugged again. "Heck, I've thought about trying to get a Game together. Heck, why
not?"
Gwen opened her mouth to answer him, but Acacia cut her off. "Announcing that it is five minutes
after five. We've just got time to finish our sandwiches before Chester's preliminary briefing."

Acacia and Tony were the last to join the conclave. There must have been thirty people jammed into
the small mezzanine conference room. The Dream Park Sheraton was decorated in Twenty-First Century
Mundane; it had no fantasy motif at all. Acadia was tickled to find Chester staying here. Still,
it fit. Starting a few hours from now, the Lore Master was going to get all the fantasy he could
handle.
The Gamers were all shapes and sizes and ages, in all forms of dress from western modern to
PseudNude to medieval and neolithic. Some were barely adolescent and some had detectable face
lifts, and they were all paying respectful attention to the musings-aloud of a tall, almost
birdlike young man.
He was sprawled across a couch, taking three men's elbow room. A quite lovely redhead leaned into
the curve of one arm. As he spoke he gestured lazily with his free hand. "I wish I knew more about
the Game Lopez has set up. I do know that he said I won't need a parka, and a little bird tells me
that the gaming area was used by the military to simulate an assault on Brazil. And of course
we've got the title: South Seas Treasure. If I'm right...well, I did some research."
Gwen Ryder raised her hand as if in a classroom. "What do you think it means, Chester?"
"Magic of a kind we're not used to. We'll have to watch that.
Light clothing. . . good boots. . . bug spray. With anyone else the bugs would be holograms, but
Lopez-"
Tony whispered, "That's your Lore Master? With the gorgeous redhead?"
"A little respect, please," Acacia murmured, jabbing him with an elbow. "Chester Henderson is king
at this Game. You listen, or you'll get killed early."
The blond girl had the jitters, Tony thought. It didn't seem Gwen was going to Dream Park for the
fun of it.
Tony himself was feeling decidedly twitchy. The rules, the players, Dream Park itself, it was all
more complex than anything he had anticipated. The players were all too serious. Even Acacia was
behaving as if death in a Game were real. Tony wondered if he had made a mistake, letting himself


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be talked into this.