“What kind of shape are they in?” Holmes asked. “I can’t get radio contact.”
“They’ve been darted.” Maj kneeled beside one of the men and put her fingers on his neck. She felt the pulse beating sluggishly. “They’re still alive.” She pushed up and ran to the lobby doors, stepping over two more people who’d been darted.
The doorman was dropping at the same time she reached the red carpet under the canopy. The doorman fell limply halfway out into the street. Traffic screeched to a halt in front of him, missing him by inches.
“There’s the girl,” one of the men said. He aimed his pistol and fired.
Maj ducked back around the door. Glass broke near her right ear, shattering with a double-clap of impact. Pulling away, she spotted the two yellow-feathered darts that had stabbed through the glass pane she’d hidden behind. Hairline cracks spread out from the darts.
Horns honked indignantly out on the street.
Maj watched through the fractured glass as a gleaming, light blue Dodge van barreled down the four-lane street. The driver laid on the horn, pulling out into the oncoming traffic lane, then cutting back in to pull to a rubber-eating stop twenty feet down from the hotel entrance.
The black-suited men, with Peter in tow, rushed toward the Dodge van as the rear door opened. They threw Peter inside, then climbed in. The van took off before they could shut the door. Traffic ground to a halt in both directions, but the van roared down the middle of the street, careening occasionally from the stalled cars with a scream of tortured metal.
Maj dashed after it, trying to spot its license plate. No luck — it was missing. She lifted the foilpack and gave the best description she could of the vehicle as it sped away. It turned right at the corner and disappeared.
14
“We lost them,” Detective John Holmes announced as he strode into the conference room.
Maj had taken advantage of one of the implant chairs in the room and jumped into her own veeyar. She didn’t have access to all the investigation’s progress through the LAPD’s systems, but the local HoloNet servers were doing a good job.
Logged into her own veeyar and taking advantage of the room’s holoprojector systems, she was able to be on hand and access the Net at the same time. She had nine windows opened up to different media servers at present. Several of the stations covering the gaming convention were already doing back-story pieces on Peter Griffen, and she copied those immediately, archiving them as files.
Catie and Megan sat in one corner, engaged in their own conversation. Matt, Mark, and Leif, although actually still in-flight, occupied chairs at the main table with Captain Winters, who was really still back in his office as well. Andy had returned to the game room as the various services came back online.
Holmes glanced at his watch. “Uniforms found the vehicle less than two miles from here. It had been abandoned at a bar.”
“What about Peter?” Maj asked.
“He wasn’t there.”
“He was injured,” Maj said.
Holmes shrugged. “The investigating officers reported there was blood in the back of the van, but said it wasn’t enough to cause any real concern.”
“Other than the fact that Peter was forcibly kidnapped in front of thousands of witnesses.”
“We’re investigating, Miss Green. But we’re also checking into the possibility that this is a publicity stunt.”
“They wouldn’t have to do that,” Catie put in. “Did you see that dragon? That alone would sell millions of copies. And the presentation Peter did had the whole audience wanting more.”
“That would seem a little extreme, don’t you think?” Winters asked. “If this was a staged event, Eisenhower Productions could be convicted of criminal charges.”
“Look, Captain Winters,” Holmes said with a trace of fatigue in his voice, “this city is one wild ride after another. We’re home to Hollywood, a major portion of the gaming industry, and every vice you can name. With millions of people living here, working here, and visiting, you have to stand out from the crowd if you want to get noticed.”
“Peter was already doing that,” Maj said.
Holmes was quiet for a moment. “We’re following up on a lead that the kidnapping was staged.”
“Who has given you that information?” Winters asked.
“Sir,” Holmes said, “with all due respect, you’re out of your jurisdiction at the moment. The only reason I mention this at all is because your people got caught up in some nasty business last night, and I felt I owed that to you. But for now, we believe that the two events are unrelated.”
“I hope you’re not forgetting they could be,” Winters said dryly.
A nerve twitched at the corner of Holmes’s jaw. “No, sir. Not for a minute. But my CO is taking the stance that they’re not. I have to follow that line. For now.”
“Understood, Detective. I appreciate your honesty.”
Holmes turned to Maj. “Look, I know you’re worried about this guy. I am, too.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m getting subpoenas delivered now to different media branches to access their vid files as well as processing witnesses and accounting for people who were physically here as well as in holoform. That’s going to take time.”
“I know,” Maj replied.
“And if this is some kind of publicity stunt,” Holmes said grimly, “Griffen and Eisenhower Productions are going to need a battalion of lawyers to get out of this.”
“Even then,” Megan said, “fines and court costs are going to be a drop in the bucket against the profits the game makes.”
Holmes nodded and glanced around the room. “I don’t figure you people are much on listening when someone tells you to keep your nose out of things, but consider this that speech just the same. Because if you step too heavily around this investigation, you’re going to find out how downright unfriendly I can be. I hope we’re clear on that.”
Maj nodded. Even as Net Force Explorers they didn’t have any official sanction.
Holmes turned and headed for the door, stopping just short of exiting and looking back at the group. “If you do happen to find out something I should know, make sure I do. You’ve got the number.” He stepped back out into the hallway into a stream of people waiting to be processed through the police cordon.
Maj closed the media feeds and logged off the Net. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the implant chair in the conference room. She sat up and looked at Winters. “Is Net Force going to get involved?”
“Not at this point,” Winters told her. “The LAPD is convinced what they’re dealing with here is a publicity stunt aimed at increasing game sales. Net Force is in agreement. Personally, I think it wouldn’t hurt to take a look and run a few things down. However, there’s some political pressure to keep Net Force out. When we get involved, media coverage gets even more pronounced.”
“But why keep Net Force out?” Maj asked. “Isn’t media exposure a bonus?”
“Except that the gaming community doesn’t like the idea of Net Force acting like Big Brother. The gaming world taps into a lot of various conspiracy theories, and throwing Net Force into the mix would only be adding fuel to the fire.”
“The other gaming corporations are also talking about suing Peter Griffen and Eisenhower Productions for infringing on their own game advertisements,” Leif said. “Apparently that dragon put in an appearance in nearly every game at the convention.”
“And you know this how?” Catie asked.
Leif gave a small smile. “I took a peek at my dad’s information research agency’s reports over what happened out here. Part of the potential profits being set up here involve stock portfolios. Potential liability in the form of civil suits against a corporation are big news in business.”