Free The Desperate Game by Jayne Castle Page B

to do business with savages. When I heard you left the firm, I wasn't surprised. I figured you were getting your fill of that kind of consulting too. A little excitement goes a long way. That scene in Tallah was only one of many for you, wasn't it?"
    Zac didn't like to think about Tallah. "About Hampton Starr..."
    "Yeah?"
    "Tell him I can meet with him tomorrow. I assume he wants the meeting to take place somewhere other than StarrTech offices."
    "Oh, sure. I think he's getting off on the idea of playing boss of an undercover agent." Russ Elfstrom chuckled in rare amusement. "He gets a kick out of slipping around. Usually he has to make do with what he thinks are secret rendezvous with his little female conquests. This game is a nice diversion for him, I imagine. More like the big time."
     
    Guinevere sat in front of the terminal in the StarrTech computer department and stared unseeingly at the screen. She made no pretense of trying to continue with her input work. She had a far more worrisome problem on her mind than Elfstrom breathing down her neck. As of this afternoon there would be no one available to cover the offices of Camelot Services. Any potential client who called would get only the answering service. People didn't like answering services when they were in a hurry.
    Guinevere had been quietly panicking since last night when she'd learned that Marilyn, her temporary assistant, would be unable to work longer than another half day. Damn Zachariah Justis and his strong-arm employment methods! She hadn't seen him since the night before last. That was the evening he'd fed her cheap chowder and made her a partner in crime. She shuddered.
    There was no alternative. She would have to phone his office and inform him that she had to handle her own business affairs first. That meant leaving StarrTech at noon and not returning until she could figure out another way to install someone in the offices of Camelot Services. The nagging fear she felt as she thought about her deserted office was more than sufficient to keep her from doing Russ Elfstrom's stupid inputting.
    "Hey, Gwen! How's it going?"
    With a small shake of her head she pulled herself back to her current situation and turned to smile absently at Larry Hixon. He was sauntering into the office fifteen minutes late, but he was still way ahead of Jackson. Liz was down the hall meeting with a department secretary who wanted to schedule some work. Until Larry's arrival Guinevere had been alone in the office, free to panic in solitude.
    "Hi, Larry. Get a chance to look at that disk?"
    "I took it home with me last night and started checking it out. I owe you, Gwen. I was going buggy wondering what Cal had been doing to the game. I'm still going buggy wondering where Cal is, but at least I've got his work."
    "Had he made great strides forward?" she asked teasingly.
    Larry frowned. "No, but from what I've been able to tell so far, he's made some changes in the basic strategy of the game. I don't know why he messed around with that end of things. He was supposed to be working on the graphics. Tonight I'm going to load the thing and play it from scratch just to see what he's been up to. I can't believe you just went out to his place and picked up the game disk," he added admiringly.
    "I was curious to see if he was home but just not answering his phone." The lie came easily, more easily than it probably should have, Guinevere realized. She was a little better at it than she felt she ought to have been. "When I found the back door open, I just walked in and looked around. The disk was labeled and lying near the computer. I couldn't resist picking it up for you. But don't tell anyone, okay?"
    "Who am I going to tell? No one except you and Jackson and Liz knows I'm working on Elf Hunt. And I don't see any need to tell Jackson and Liz about your light-fingered tendencies!" Larry grinned malevolently as he dropped into his chair and switched on the terminal.
    "Larry, don't you dare