O Verus, you have fought forty contests and have
Been offered the wooden Rudis of freedom
Three times and yet declined the chance to retire.
Soon we will gather to see the sword
In your hand pierce the heart of your foes.
Praise to you, who has chosen not to walk through
The Gates of Life but to give us
What we desire most, what we live for:
The blood of all.
He’d worked on the game off and on for years. If it became a hit, of course, he’d have to be careful to remain anonymous. A game designer would get some publicity and he supposed it wasn’t good for someone who spent his days doing, well, what he did, to be too much in the public eye. But then he figured that the project wouldn’t draw attention to him – not like a famous author. He’d never have four hundred people at a book signing, like I’m-a-Coward Richard Stanton Keller had had tonight.
Tomorrow Is the New Today. He smiled, thinking: Well, it sure wasn’t for some of the people in attendance at the Bay View.
Another glance at the house. A light was on. But— Just then his phone hummed with a text.
He squinted and picked up the unit.
What the hell’s this? he thought. No. Oh, no …
The plans for the evening had changed.
CHAPTER 35
‘How bad?’ Jon Boling asked.
‘I don’t want to talk about my day. Let’s talk about yours.’
Boling smiled. ‘I’m not sure how captivating an article on flaws in Boolean search logic will be. How about we play roast beef sandwich?’
She smiled, too, and kissed him. ‘I’m starved. Thanks.’
He whipped up plates and brought them onto the Deck, set out a glowing candle. Dance couldn’t help but think: lighting it for the dead at Bay View Center.
He opened a bottle of Jack London Cabernet. The wine wasn’t bad but she really liked the wolf on the label.
‘What’ve the munchkins been up to?’ she asked, as they sipped wine and ate the sandwiches and potato salad.
‘Mags was still moody.’
Dance shook her head. ‘I’ll sit down with her again. See if I can pry it out of her.’
‘But she seems to like her club. She was Skyping with them for an hour or so.’
‘Oh, what’s it called? The Secrets Club.’
‘That’s it. Bethany and Cara. Lucie too, I think. Pretty exclusive, it sounds like.’
‘You kept an eye on it?’
‘I did.’
Dance’s rule was that the children could Skype or go online only if an adult was nearby and checking in occasionally.
‘An official club?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure Pacific Heights Grade School requires much in the way of charter for a club to be official.’
‘Good point … Secrets Club,’ she mused. ‘And what do they do? Gossip about their American Girl dolls?’
‘I asked her and she said it was a secret.’
They both laughed.
Boling waved off another pour of wine. Since the children were here, he was present only until bedtime, then would drive back home. Just like he never drank when he was chauffeuring them anywhere.
‘And Wes?’
‘Donnie came over for a while. I like him. Really smart. I was teaching them how to code. He picked it up fast.’
‘What do you think about that game they’re playing now – Defend and Respond Expedition? What is it again?’
‘Service.’
‘Right.’
‘I have no idea what it’s about but what I’m fascinated with is that they’re rejecting the computer model. Writing out their battle plans, or whatever they do, sort of like football plays. Or like the old Battleships game. Remember?’
‘Sure.’
‘It’s a return to traditional game practices. I think there’s even an aspect where they do a scavenger hunt or something outside, find clues in the park or down by the shore. They’re out in the real world, ride their bikes, get some exercise.’
‘Like I used to play when I was a girl.’
‘Have to say I was pretty box-oriented, even that age.’
Boxes. Computers.
She said, ‘I heard people’re going back to paper books, away from e-books.’
‘True,’ he said. ‘I prefer the paper ones. And, besides, given my typical reading material, you’re probably not going to find Vector Modeling and Cosine Similarity as Applied to Search Engine Algorithms on Kindle.’
Dance nodded. ‘They’re making a movie of that, aren’t they?’
‘Pixar.’
Patsy and Dylan wandered out onto the Deck. Molecules of roast beef aroma carry far on nights like that. They plopped down and Boling furtively, but not too, slipped them bits. He asked Dance, ‘Okay, how bad was it?’
She lowered her head, sipped wine again.
He said, ‘You didn’t want to talk about it. But maybe you do.’
‘It’s bad, Jon. This guy, we don’t have a clue what he’s up to. Tonight— Did you hear the news?’
‘Gunman, but he wasn’t actually shooting people. Just making them panic. They jumped into the water. Four or five dead.’
Dance fell silent, looked out over the tiny amber lights in the backyard. As she leaned back, a bone somewhere in her shoulder popped. Didn’t used to happen. She stared up through the pines at the stars. This was the Peninsula of Fog but there were moments where the temperature and moisture partnered to turn the air into glass and, with little ambient illumination here, you sometimes could peer up through a tunnel between the pines and see the start of the universe.
‘Stay,’ she said.
Boling looked down at the dogs. They were asleep.
He glanced at her.
A smile. ‘You. Not them.’
‘Stay?’
‘The night.’
He didn’t need to say, ‘But the children.’ Kathryn Dance was not somebody you needed to remind when it came to the obvious.
And he didn’t need to hesitate. He leaned over and kissed her hard. Her hand went around his neck and she pulled him to her.
Neither asked about finishing dinner. They picked up their half-empty plates and carried them inside to the sink. Then Dance ushered the dogs in, and locked the doors.
Boling took her hand and led her up the stairs.
FLASH MOB
SATURDAY, APRIL 8