Death Match - Diane Duane [65]
She looked over the chessboard, taking a moment to more closely examine George’s last move, and the state of the board in general. It was getting crowded toward the center of the chessboard as the beginning of the “mid-game” settled in. A lot of pieces were set to attack a lot of other pieces…but neither of them had started the shin-kicking yet. It was as if George was waiting to see what Catie would do, whether she was going to become the “aggressor” in this game. Though he’s already getting pretty aggressive himself, Catie thought, eyeing the way George had set his bishops up to control the diagonals. Still…why wait to let him start the carnage? I’m sure in a mood to start a little myself at the moment.
George was presently using one of his knights to threaten a couple of Catie’s pawns in a “knight fork,” but one of her own pawns was advanced far enough to be a threat to the knight in turn. Her attention until now had been on developing other pieces of her own. Now she let out a long annoyed breath, thinking Why not? She moved the pawn over one square diagonally, taking George’s knight, and picked it up and carried it off the board to set it down on one side. “Space?”
“The final f—”
“Don’t say it,” Catie said, grim. “Just don’t…I’m not in the mood. Send him that move, and make it snappy.”
“Uh, yes, ma’am, right away, ma’am.”
Catie sat down in the Comfy Chair again and contemplated the chessboard…but she wasn’t really seeing it, for having made her move, her mind had now immediately reverted to the earlier problem. All that code. But I have to find a way to look at it and see if I can turn something up. I can’t get rid of the idea that the imaging calls are being manipulated in some way that we’re not anticipating.
And what human minds can devise…
Yawning, she got up again, went offline, and got up out of the implant chair to go make herself some more pasta.
Catie was up at about six the next morning. Her father was asleep, but she actually caught her mother in the kitchen, making one last cup of coffee before heading to work. “Got a project in the works, honey?” her mom said, stirring the coffee in her big British Museum mug as she made her way to the kitchen table, where the usual pile of books was waiting to be taken back to work.
“Yup,” Catie said.
“The one I’m thinking of?”
“Yup,” Catie said. She started making tea for herself, not unaware of her mother’s eyes on her.
“Well,” her mom said, “be careful.” And she didn’t say anything else, possibly perceiving that Catie wasn’t worth much until she got some breakfast in her, and was going to be careful anyway. She finished her coffee in silence, taking just a few minutes to stand in front of the fridge and read the headlines from the Washington Post that were scrolling down the LivePad, then she picked up her books and her shoulderbag, kissed Catie, and headed out the door.
Catie was still sitting there about half an hour later, finishing her tea, now cold, and thinking about what George had said to her after “I shouldn’t be telling you this.” Not “Don’t tell anyone else,” not “I can trust you not to mention this to anyone,” but simply “I trust you.” Her conscience had been troubling her a little about the prospect of passing the information on, even though it had been freely volunteered. The feeling of discomfort had kept her from sending off the message to Winters last night, after she had gone online again and composed it. But once again Catie got the feeling that George was asking for help without actually saying so in the clear. Maybe he’s just being supercautious about the possibility he’s being eavesdropped on. It’s possible, I guess.
She decided to set her concerns aside and send the message to Winters when she got back online. Meanwhile she had to get back to that horrible pile of code and finish looking over the imagery issues, no matter how she wished she could avoid it. She had slept badly, her dreams buzzing and writhing with lines of light that tripped and choked her, spheres and oblate spheres and ellipsoids