“They may impact profits,” Matt said, “but sales of the game are still going to skyrocket, and that will impact profits, too.”
Maj knew it was true. Even as the police had closed down the gaming area, there had been hundreds of people lined up, demanding to by the online package that would let them enter Realm of the Bright Waters when it went up on the Net.
“If the profit is big enough,” Leif agreed, “lawsuits and litigation are written off as the price of doing business. The kidnapping has sent a tremor through the stock market. Eisenhower shares are presently down, but speculators are snapping them up.”
“Is Eisenhower Productions publicly owned?” Winters asked.
Leif closed his eyes for a moment. “Forty-three percent.”
“Hold up,” Catie said. “Publicly owned doesn’t ring any bells for me.”
“There are two kinds of stock,” Leif explained. “Actually, there are all kinds of stock options, but I’m going to hold it to two for a thumbnail overview. Public stock is shares that are sold to Joe Consumer, anyone who goes online and buys into corporations. Then there’s private stock, stock held back from public trading for special investors. Usually other friendly corporations or entrepreneurs.”
“Keeping private stock private prevents hostile takeovers,” Megan said. “I remember that from the research my dad did on one of his mystery novels.”
“True,” Leif said, “but you’d be amazed at how many buyouts still happen and no one knows who the players are until the last moment.”
“How financially secure is Eisenhower Productions?” Winters asked.
Leif shrugged. “I can look into it.”
Winters nodded. “That might be a place to start. It would help to know—if they were involved in faking this kidnapping — if they were desperate or just plain greedy.”
“Yes, sir.”
Winters called the meeting to an end and excused himself, his holoform winking out of existence a heartbeat later. Mark, Matt, and Leif said their good-byes as well.
“We missed lunch,” Catie announced, standing up and stretching tiredly. “There’s supposed to be a great Chinese place around the corner. Want to find out?”
Maj nodded distractedly. Her mind whirled, trying to make sense of the events that had happened. She didn’t doubt for a minute that last night’s raid on her hotel room and Peter Griffen’s kidnapping were connected. She just didn’t know how. But her intuition pinged the connection dead center, and it was something she’d learned to trust over the years.
“—at the Bessel Mid-Town Hotel, where computer game design wizard Peter Griffen was believed kidnapped earlier today. Veronica, what can you tell us?”
Standing at the arrival gate lobby in LAX, Maj watched the HoloNet on units hanging from the ceiling. The view cut from the anchor to the blond reporter she recognized from the news reports that morning. She stood out in front of the Bessel Midtown Hotel in front of a nearby crowd that watched her. Her name, Veronica Rivers, was tagged under the time/date stamp in the lower right corner.
“Things here are still confusing, Frank,” Veronica said. “As you can tell from the crowd behind me, there’s a lot of interest in the whereabouts of Peter Griffen after today’s excitement.”
The holo split, picking up the image of the granite-jawed anchor sitting at his desk and placing it beside the street scene of the reporter. “Have police made any headway in the kidnapping investigation?”
“If they have, they aren’t letting us know.” Veronica waved at the hotel. “In fact, there’s a lot of speculation going on now that this kidnapping might not have been a kidnapping at all, but a publicity stunt created by Griffen and his software publishers to generate sales of his new game.”
“Those are serious charges,” the anchor said.
Maj shook her head. After all the advances in technology, the media still relied on melodrama to capture viewers. She wanted to stop watching, but she found she couldn’t.
“Wow,” Catie said as she joined her. “They got that out quick.”
“No news spreads like bad news,” Maj replied. She glanced around the lobby, carefully avoiding the press of dozens of passengers who’d just off-loaded. Megan stood by the gate window, peering up at the sky as they waited for Leif, Matt, and Andy’s flight to arrive.
“After the rumors about the faked kidnapping started circulating,” Veronica continued on HoloNet, “I asked the lead detective on the case about it.”
The view cut away suddenly to a gray-haired man with a hound-dog face and gravelly voice. A tag appeared briefly beneath him: BRUCE TOLLIVER, CAPTAIN OF DETECTIVES, LAPD. “Yes, we’re aware of the rumors, and we’re looking into them. Since this might be a kidnapping, we have to assume a life may be in jeopardy.”
“Have any ransom demands been made yet, Captain Tolliver?” Veronica asked.
“Not yet.”
“Isn’t that unusual?” the reporter asked.
“Actually, that’s not exceptional,” Tolliver replied.
“Do you believe there was a kidnapping today?” Veronica asked.
“I can’t comment on that.”
The scene cut back to the split view of anchor and reporter. “We’ve had other reactions to today’s bizarre events,” Veronica went on. A series of sound and vid bytes followed.
“He looked sad,” a young woman said. The shot had evidently been taken inside the convention room right after the kidnapping. “Really sad. But I don’t think he kidnapped himself. I mean, who would do that? You’d have to be kind of sick, right?”
“This business is all about attention,” a guy in his thirties said. A tag under him read, MIKE SIMON, GAME DESIGNER.
“I just want to play that game,” a teenage boy said enthusiastically. “It’s going to be so cool.”
“Now, there’s sympathy for you,” Catie commented.
Maj nodded.
“We also interviewed Griffen’s lawyers,” Veronica went on. The scene cut to an older man in an Italian suit.
“The whole idea that Eisenhower Productions or Peter had a hand in engineering something like this is totally ludicrous,” Brett Harper, attorney-at-law, said. “First off, a fiasco like this is highly irresponsible. The law enforcement agencies involved are not going to be amused, and Peter would never think of potentially alienating his fans in this manner.”
The scene cut back to the reporter. “What we have so far, Frank, is a mystery that only Peter Griffen or the people responsible for his disappearance can solve.”
“Hey, they’re here,” Megan called from the gate.
Maj and Catie joined her as the first passengers came through. Surprisingly, Matt, Andy, and Leif were among them.
“First class,” Catie teased. “Somebody’s moving up in the world.”
“It was the only way to get three seats together,” Leif said. He looked at Maj with concern as they walked through the terminal. “You look like you could use some rest.”
“Thanks. That does my confidence a world of good.”
Leif glanced around the lobby. “Okay, it’s been awhile since I was in LAX. Where are the baggage claim areas?”
Maj pointed to the signs. As she did, her attention was caught by the HoloNet presentation again. A holo image of Peter from the convention occupied center stage with images of the great dragon hanging high overhead. Her mind flashed on the image of Peter when she’d first seen him, dressed in armor and on Sahfrell’s back. Then she noticed the rest of the group was waiting on her.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “I’m a little preoccupied.”
“Hey,” Leif said softly, “it’s okay.”
Maj shook her head. “I don’t think so. According to the police, there hasn’t been a ransom demand yet.”