System

32. The Game

Gastis looked at them with cold eyes

'Is this the point at which I'm supposed to say it wasn't me?' he said as he looked around the room. 'There doesn't seem to be any point though, does there?'

'I could ask why?' Certaine said bluntly.

'And I would be inclined not to answer,' the older mind said with little sign of emotion. 'I did what was necessary for our survival.'

He stood up and glared at them.

'You don't need to know what Crittis was planning,' he continued. 'In fact, I would really rather you didn't. It would be no bad thing if his idea died with him.'

'We're not dead yet,' said Ebba Martiss pointedly.

Gastis only laughed.

'That is only a matter of time,' he said without humour. 'We are sealed in the upper levels of the castle and there are only a few ways out. Those doors won't stop a viper once it has got wind of its prey - and I think we may all be on the menu tonight!'

'Surely you can stop it?' said Restriss-Bo, looking worried. The sound of shouting had now stopped but they could hear shuffling noises from behind the door. There was definitely something coming up the stairs.

'Do you think I would be stupid enough to provide an off switch,' he said angrily. 'I didn't want to be traced and I also wanted to make sure Crittis was completely annihilated - along with anyone who was with him at the kill.'

He returned to the table and took another plate of food.

'Personally, I'm not that bothered whether I see the dawn or not,' he said lightly. 'I've lived a very long time and I remember the war. It's better we all die tonight, if it stops something worse from happening.'

Esther took her bag from her shoulder and opened it.

'You may not care,' she said with a note of hope in her voice. 'But I think someone else may have given us a better option.'

She reached inside and took out the chess set.

'Travis Petros had time to come up with his own plan,' she continued. 'He used himself as a decoy to smuggle the core personality of Arden Crittis back into the city. I think he knew we would finish here - and I also think he has provided us with a key.'

She held up the chess set.

'Sometimes, we forget that this isn't the real world,' she said. 'We think that the things we see and touch are just physical objects - but they're really just simulations, and every object - from the cells in our bodies to the air we breathe - is really just a knot of data and sequences of code.'

She pointed to the door, behind which the hunter was beginning to make scratching noises as it attempted to break in.

'That thing,' she said. 'Is just another mass of interconnected information and operating processes - just like the rest of us - it can walk around like a human being, wield a sword, or kill with its bare hands. It can also create clones of itself, appear invisible to the unaided eye, or do any number of things that its creators designed it to do - or that the protocols of the system will allow.'

She tapped the chess set with her finger.

'I don't think this is just a chess set,' she said firmly. 'I think Travis Petros gave us a way out.'

'What are you suggesting,' said the Restris-Bo. 'Do you want us to play a game while an assassin tears us to pieces?'

'No,' she said, shaking her head. 'I think there are only two players who can decide this, and I think the game will let them.'