Death Match - Diane Duane [61]
“And Karen thought they wanted her to do something like that.”
“That, or something similar.” George breathed out, went around to his king’s knight and picked it up, walked out onto the board and set it down. The notation window flickered and said K-KB3. “The guy named a figure…said Karen could start any time.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she’d think about it. She told me yesterday that she was still thinking about it. She works in a convenience store, Catie. The figure was about three times her year’s salary. And she’s by herself, don’t forget, and she has a little girl to support.”
“I don’t suppose he left her a Net address,” Catie said.
“He said he’d come back in a few days and see what she had to say.” George looked at his move as if he was most dissatisfied with it. “He told her not to mention it to anyone, or there could be trouble. She told me…and now she’s scared. But she would have been scared even if she hadn’t told me, she said. And she’s scared for her little girl, too, for Carmen. Karen’s not stupid. She knows trouble when she sees it. She temporized…out of shock, I think. She was never in any doubt that she wanted nothing to do with the offer. But now she’s afraid of what the guy might say if she tells him no.”
Catie swallowed. This was something that James Winters was definitely going to need to hear about. As long as no one notices them contacting her… But naturally Net Force would have ways to do that discreetly.
She swallowed again. “I don’t suppose that anyone else on the team’s had anyone approach them that way,” Catie said.
George shook his head. “If they have, I haven’t heard about it. Got another move?” he said.
“I’m thinking about it.” But strategizing her next move was actually buried behind four or five other, more immediate concerns at the moment.
When she looked up, she found George looking at her again. It was another of those distressed expressions, though this time he was at least trying to hide it. To Catie, the effect was simply as if he now had NOT REALLY UPSET painted on his forehead…and suddenly she knew what the problem was, or thought she did.
“Look, I—”
“George,” Catie said, sounding extremely severe and for the moment not caring, “it’s not like that. You think you have a monopoly on ‘not married, not dating, not gay, and no plans’?”
He just kept looking at her. Then he sagged. “Uh,” he said, “maybe I’m doing you an injustice. It’s just that it’s rare…and seems to be getting rarer…to find friendship, in my situation. Just plain friendship. Sorry.”
“Well,” Catie said, and let it sink in for a moment. “All right. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Tomorrow morning is the draw. The play-offs will start on Thursday at the soonest, maybe Friday. Karen’s going to have to do something. I’ve got to find a way to protect my team….”
“If there’s anything I can do to help,” Catie said after a moment, “let me know.”
George got up slowly, looking down at the chessboard again.
“Call me when you have a move,” he said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
And he went through the door that had been standing waiting for him off to one side, in the air, and it closed behind him.
Catie sat very still for some while, considering possible moves in two very different games.
6
She took the predictable amount of teasing about being late for dinner, and Hal punished her for this slight on her father’s cooking by the most straightforward means possible—eating most of the lasagna and leaving Catie just enough for one serving, and nothing at all for seconds.
When she complained, her father threw his hands up. “It’s all I could do to get him to leave the pattern on the plates,” he said. “At least there’s some sauce left. Make some pasta.”
Normally a turn of events like this would have left Catie furious. Tonight, though, she simply made pasta, completely confusing