"Larry Niven & Steve Barnes - The California Voodoo Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

unless thirty Gamers and four hundred Non-Player Characters, under the
supervisionof Tony McWhirter and four senior Game Masters, tore the
building apart during the
California Voodoo Game.

Something buzzed at the edge of his attention.

Tony ignored itтАФnot a computer sound, not an alert, nor yet the sound of
data disappearing in randomized bubbles as unimportant. A notion had
come to him. Fingers and thumbs tapped as inspiration took hold. Pictures
jumped around
him on the white half-dome of MIMIC Security: windows into all the corners
of the huge building, windows projected onto windows.

Conversation behind him, a woman speaking. "...Voodoo Game is ready?"

A man's. Deep and musical. "Yeah. McWhirter wanted to tear the building
apart. Travis said no."
"So the Boss finally did something right. Aside from being born into the
right family."

Tony recognised voices: Alex Griffin, and that woman from Cowles Security
in Tacoma. He couldn't resist a comment. "Buildings are hardware. Software
is as cheap as dreams."

"Tony?"

"We did our work in DreamTime. You'll think we spent a billion dollars. I'm
finished here in a minute, Griff."

Out of the corner of his eye he watched Griffin, Dream Park's security chief,
a tall man who carried his seventy-five inches and two hundred pounds with
animal assurance. His hair was shaded a burnt strawberry, dark enough to
make
Tony look almost blond. When Griffin answered "Fine," his voice exuded
enough casual confidence to make Tony wince.

The woman at Alex's side was a stunning brunette. Sharon something ...
Court? Griffin's left hand lightly touched her arm, while the other gestured
with the relaxed authority of a plenipotentiary. "Sharon, there's working
room for sixty people here. MIMICтАФ"

"You like that name?"

"Seems appropriate."

"I like 'Meacham's Folly,' " she said. "That's what the locals call it."

"All right, Folly. ScanNet breaks it into overlapping quadrants, with variable
scan depth. The entire building gets a standard four-stage coverage, but