Free The Wiz Biz II: Cursed & Consulted by Rick Cook Page A

manually and hope they had everything correct.
    They didn't have much in the way of tools. Judith had started work on a cross-compiler for the magic language that would run on an MS-DOS computer, but it was only a skeleton. She had written a sort of a syntax checker for the magic language that worked something like lint for C. But like lint it flagged all possible errors. Since there was no way of running a test compile, they had to be "more Catholic than the fucking Pope," as Mikey put it, and correct everything that the checker flagged.
    Mikey ended up picking the basic approaches and doing the broad outlines while Craig did the detail work and coding. Partially this was because Craig wasn't very good at the big-picture stuff and partially because that was just the way it worked out, somehow. That meant that while Craig spent hours sweating over the grunt work, Mikey lounged around the apartment drinking beer and playing computer games.
    Since both of them were system breakers they worked essentially around the clock, catching naps when they felt like it and ordering in from fast-food joints when they got hungry. Thus it was nearly three o'clock in the morning when Craig came in to tell Mikey they were finished.
    "I'll get some sleep and then we can go over the whole thing one more time," he said to Mikey's back. "What are you playing anyway?"
    "Empire."
    Craig nodded. He was familiar with the game. You explored an unmapped world, captured cities and built armies and fleets while the computer did the same thing. Eventually you met the computer's forces in a climactic battle for control of the planet.
    "Looks like you've got him on the run," Craig said, surveying the map on the screen. "One or two more turns and he'll surrender."
    "He surrendered a while ago," Mikey said, maneuvering about thirty aircraft to attack the sprinkling of enemy armies in the upper left corner of the screen.
    "So why are you still playing?"
    "Because I want to crush the motherfucker," Mikey said as his legions of aircraft tore into the opposing forces. Most of the armies went down under the onslaught, but one beat off five separate attacks.
    "Die, you cocksucker!" Mikey snarled as he used the mouse to mass even more air forces against the remaining red marker on the screen.
    "I always quit when the computer surrenders," Craig told him as he watched over his friend's shoulder.
    "I don't want surrender. I want him wiped out," Mikey said without taking his eyes off the confrontation.
    Craig took a swig of soda. "Takes too long that way."
    "Yeah, but when it's over I'm the only one left standing."
    The computer beeped as its final army vanished under the combined attack of nearly twenty aircraft.
    * * *
    This is extremely undignified, Glandurg thought as he watched the green forest sail by beneath him. Warriors should ride into battle, not be carried along like a sack of meal. 
    Behind him came eleven more griffins, each carrying a dwarf dangling from its talons.
    Still, there are advantages, he admitted. It would be hard to hold on riding griffin-back. 
    * * *
    Craig looked at the stuff laid out on the coffee table dubiously. Some of it, like the sheets of typing paper with the spell written on them, was perfectly ordinary. Others, like the hibachi full of glowing coals, were ordinary but out of place. Still others, like the roots and powders he and Mikey had scoured Chinatown to find, were just plain odd. The table had been shoved to the center of the room and a circle drawn around it in blue marking chalk.
    Mikey had just finished placing the black, white and red candles at the points of an invisible star outside the circle. He used the tape measure to check the distances between them and then did a quick calculation on his HP calculator.
    "That should do it," he said, carefully stepping over the chalk mark to join Craig at the coffee table.
    "Give me your hand."
    "What do you want that for?"
    Mikey picked up the Exacto knife lying next to the