Where There's A Will

Chapter Fifteen

Unlike his partner, Stone found it hard to sit and wait patiently; instead he paced up and down the lobby of Griffin Games, looking at the magazines, posters and other displays that made it clear Owen Keating's company was a leader in the European computer games market.

After an interminable wait, a young woman approached from the lifts. "Inspector Stone?" she queried.

Stone nodded after turning away from a poster, which showed the company's newest franchise – Luke Kane: Treasure Hunter.

"If you'll follow me, inspector." She turned on her heel and strode briskly back to the lifts.

"You are?" Stone asked as he, Burke and the mystery lady ascended.

"Sally Bryant, Mr Keating's assistant."

Stone filed the name away in case it should be important, and then followed Sally Bryant along the corridor after leaving the lift on the top floor. They entered a spacious outer office, where they were acknowledged by a middle-aged woman seated at a desk to one side of the double doors that led, Stone assumed, to Owen Keating's office. "Mr Keating will see you momentarily," she said the moment she saw them; her demeanour was professional, but there was a look in her eyes that made it all too plain she did not approve of her employer's day being disrupted, especially by the police.

Stone only had time to look around quickly before a buzz sounded from the phone on the secretary's desk.

The secretary listened for a moment, said, "Yes, sir," and then hung up the phone." Mr Keating will see you now," she told the two detectives.

The first thing Stone noticed when he entered Owen Keating's office was the gigantic screen on the wall – he estimated it was about one hundred and fifty inches, far bigger than anything he had seen before. As he watched, a man, vaguely reminiscent of Indiana Jones in appearance, leaped across a crevasse, scrambled up a wall and dropped down to hide while an armed thug searched the darkness with a torch. The scene shifted then to show the ground collapse under the Indiana Jones figure, leaving him to fall a significant distance before hitting the ground. When he got to his feet and looked around, he was in a dimly lit chamber whose walls were decorated with intricate carvings.

"It's going to be a huge hit."

The statement drew Stone's attention away from the screen. "It certainly looks good," he remarked, though he wasn't sure looking good was enough to make the game a success.

"I'll be getting a copy," Burke said, his eyes still on the screen, where he watched Luke Kane – presumably – burst into the middle of a group of thugs to rescue a young woman tied to an altar, over which loomed a multi-armed idol. "I've enjoyed everything you've produced so far, even Undead Evil 4, and it took me forever to figure out how to kill Carter Weyland."

Owen Keating's mouth lifted at the corners. "There's a trick to it; if you shoot the environment instead of Carter, you bring it down on him, injuring him; killing him's a lot easier then. Plus, there's a few little bonuses to be found."

Burke nodded. "I figured that out, but not until my fourth run through, when I already had all the achievements."

"Wait till you play Legacy; if you think Undead Evil 4 is tough, you're going to find 5 a nightmare," Keating told him; he seemed amused by the idea of people struggling with his game. Pressing a button on the remote control on his desk he changed the images on the screen – they now showed a female, dressed in military style clothing, fighting a group of undead monsters.

"Is that Jasmine MacNally?" Burke asked as he watched the woman chop off an arm and then cave in the head of another monster. "I thought she died in UE2."