Phaze Doubt

He faced the stage. “I address the daughter,” he said, and the actress faced him, as lovely as before. “She had motive to kill the king, and to frame her friend’s fiancé getting rid of two bad men. She had intent. She had the courage to do it. But something happened at the critical time.” He paused for effect, and the play paused with him.

“As it has been established, she was a most attractive figure of a woman, but she had a grudge against men. That did not mean that she had no romantic life. She cared very much about her gender. So she went to her friend, and told her of the perfidy of men, especially what she knew about both the king and the fiancée. Her friend was not really surprised; she had tried to blind herself to the infidelities of her fiancé, had known he was no good. She had no better opinion of the king. The two women agreed that no man was to be trusted. Their dialogue became more animated and intimate, as they discovered in each other a deep current of compatibility. This became physical, and in the end they loved each other. Because this was their first such experience, it was slow, with many hesitations. As a result, their encounter lasted several hours—the very time that the poisoning of the dates occurred.”

“Objection!” Tan cried. “The exact time can not be specified. Any of the suspects could have done it.”

“Sustained.”

“The time the poisoning was believed to have occurred,” Purple said. “The reason the two women did not perfectly alibi each other was that they did not want to admit openly what they had been doing. So they allowed themselves to be considered suspects. But it seems likely that they had no care for poisoning, on that night.”

“But women don’t—“ Tan said. Then he looked at Brown, and knew that his Hectare’s case was lost. The only truly viable remaining suspect was the fiancé.

The Hectare spoke, through the translator. “I yield the contest. No fault of my second.” Then it departed.

Tan stared at Brown, scowling. Then he shrugged, realizing that it was better to leave well enough alone. The Hectare knew that Tan had tried his best, but their team had been outplayed. He would suffer no consequence if he kept his mouth shut. He followed the Hectare out.

Brown felt weak with relief. Tan wasn’t going to blow the whistle on her! He knew that there was nothing to be gained by it, as she was already cooperating, however reluctantly.

“Well, you came through,” Purple said. “I’m off the hook, and so are you. I don’t think we need that talk. I’ll take you back to your hideout now.”

Brown looked around. “But Tsetse—she got bored and went out. I can’t leave her here.”

Purple was magnanimous in the flush of victory. “She’ll be at the commons, relaxing. I’ll authorize passes out for you and her, and you can have a golem carry you back when you find her.” He raised his voice, addressing the command net. “By order of Purple: release Brown and Tsetse on their request, this day.” Then to her. “Okay?”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“I don’t like you, you don’t like me. But you treated us fairly when you were on top, and I’m treating you fairly now. Just you honor our deal, and maybe we’ll never meet again.”

She nodded again. He left the room, which had reverted to the contemporary type.

“It was a very nice set,” she said aloud.

“Thank you,” the Game Computer replied.

“I wish this were Crete.”

“So do I.”

She left the chamber, wondering about that. The Game Computer was acting more and more like a living thing. It was of course a self-willed machine, but highly programmed; self-will did not mean freedom. Did it now have consciousness and personal desire? What was it trying to do, with its subversion of the normal game grid that had served so well for so long? She hesitated to guess.

She walked lo the commons, looking for Tsetse. She had hoped the figure would be back by the time the game concluded, and had been relieved when Purple had not concerned himself with the matter. Now she just wanted to find the figure and get it home before the real Tsetse returned. If she did not, they could all be in a great deal of trouble. If Purple caught on that she had used him to gain admittance for an enemy of the Hectare...

10 - Seed