“He liked to mix it up. That’s the beauty of the game, or one of them. You can do whatever you want, depending on your mood.”
“Which ones did the two of you tend to play out?”
“Jeez, we’ve been at this for months now. A lot of them. Old West, Ancient Rome, Alternate Universe, Quests, Rescues, Gangsters, Wars. Name it, we probably played it at some point.”
“Who won?”
He laughed. “It was hard to beat Bart, but I got my share of points.” The laughter died. “It’s going to be weird, not having him in the holo. Not having him when we launch Fantastical.”
“I’m sure it will. Do you ever play with droids?”
“Droids?” Var blinked himself back. “Sure. We use them for testing, at different stages of development. Nobody keeps a secret like a droid. But in the final stages, it’s got to be human competition. We’re not selling to droids.”
“Sorry.” Cill stood in the doorway. “I saw you in here, Lieutenant. Is there anything . . . Is there news?”
“No, I’m sorry. Just a routine follow-up. It helps me get a clearer sense. I appreciate the time,” she said to Var, then turned back to Cill. “Why don’t we go to your office? I’ll try not to take up too much of your time.”
“That’s okay. You can take as much as you need. Var, when the lieutenant’s finished with me, I think I’m going home. I’m useless here today. I’ve screwed up everything I’ve worked on, and had to back out. I’m just making a mess of things.”
“Do you want one of us to go with you?”
“No. No. I think I just need to be alone. I just need more time. You can let Benny know if you see him before I do. I’ll come in tomorrow. I’ll be better tomorrow.”
“I’ll tag you later and make sure you’re okay.” He went to her, gave her a hug that seemed both sincere and awkward to Eve. “Try to get some rest, okay?”
“Yeah. You, too.” Her bold, bright eyes watered up before she turned away. “My space is down this way, Lieutenant.”
Along the way, Eve glanced back to see Var standing behind the glass, watching them go, looking miserable.
“Do you want something?” Cill asked. “I’ve got power drinks, soft drinks, fizzies, diet and regular.”
“No, but go ahead.”
“I haven’t got a taste for anything.” Cill shoved her hands in her pockets, pulled them out again, twisted her fingers together. “You do this all the time. I mean, you talk to people who lost somebody. I was wondering if you know how long it takes before you stop forgetting you lost somebody, stop expecting to see them.”
“It’s hard,” was all Eve said.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be worse to stop forgetting, stop expecting. If it’s going to be worse when I remember all the time. It’s like . . . You look down at your hand, you don’t really think about it being there. It just is. And if you lost it, wouldn’t you keep expecting to see it there?”
“I guess you would. Grief counseling can help. I can give you a couple of names of people you could talk to, who might be able to help.”
“Maybe.” She shoved her mass of dark hair behind her shoulders. “I’ve never done therapy or counseling or any of that. But maybe.”
“You knew Bart a long time. The two of you must’ve worked on a lot of programming, a lot of games together.”
“Tons. We brainstorm. Sit around, get some pizza or whatever and just make stuff up. Then we get down to it. How do we translate that into a program? Benny’s point man on research. You dupe somebody’s game, you’ve wasted time and money and resources.”
“So you pitched ideas.”
“I guess you could say. We knock them off each other, spring-board them.”
“Who came up with Fantastical?”
“Ah . . . gosh.” She sat, brow knitted. “I’m not really sure. A lot of the concepts evolve through the brainstorming. I think . . . maybe Var had this idea for a fantasy game that offered user-controlled scenarios. Then I think . . . yeah, I think I said something about there being plenty of those already. What’s the next level? How about we take it holo, refine, seriously refine the imagery, the lag time.”
She looked away from Eve, stared through the glass wall of the office, where people zipped by. “Then, if I’ve got it right, Benny piped up with there were holo-games and programs along the lines already, and how Roarke’s company had the juiciest imagery out there. So what’s the next, next level?”
“Didn’t Bart have anything to say?”