The Desperate Game: (InterMix) by Jayne Castle Read Free Book Online

from the machine that sat in the corner, smiled at Guinevere, and took a seat in front of some printouts on her desk. “For crying out loud, you act like he’s a missing brother, Larry. What do you think happened to him?” An attractive woman in her late twenties, Liz was still carrying some weight left over from her pregnancy. She stuck scrupulously to diet colas and coffee. She’d even limited herself to half a doughnut earlier.
    “Maybe he ran off to California to join a commune,” said Jackson. “He used to talk about how it was too bad he was born too late to be a hippie. I can just see him starting a whole new trend—computerized communes, complete with inventory control and automated donation-gathering procedures.”
    Jackson, an energetic programmer fresh out of college and still wearing signs of acne, had traipsed in through the door. He was unpeeling the wrapper on a Twinkie.
    He was dressed, as Larry was, in a pair of jeans that were too short, white socks, sneakers, and a polyester shirt. He also had a pair of classic nerd glasses and the familiar nerd pack of pens and pencils in his left shirt pocket. He offered Guinevere a bite of the Twinkie as he passed by her desk.
    “No, thanks.” She smiled. “Had a big lunch.”
    “Cal hasn’t run off to some commune, and you know it.” Larry glared at his screen.
    “Yeah? Then where is he? Visiting his mother?” Jackson dropped into his chair and stabbed at the keyboard in front of him.
    “He hasn’t got a mother,” Larry muttered, hunching over his own keyboard.
    “That’s an interesting notion.” Guinevere grinned across the room at Liz. “Are they hatching programmers directly out of computers these days?”
    Larry glared at her. “You know what I mean. His folks are dead. He hasn’t got any close relatives.”
    Liz made a notation on the printout she was studying. “Unless you count the rather unnatural relationship he has with his home computer.”
    “For Christ’s sake, Liz, will you stop making a joke out of it?”
    Liz tossed Guinevere a meaningful glance.
    Jackson made a valiant effort to change the topic. “Looks like the snow in the mountains is going to be late this year. Here I am sitting on a new pair of skis, and the resorts are saying they won’t be able to open until December.”
    Everyone took the hint and stopped discussing Cal Bender.
    It was difficult to concentrate on the detailed work of data entry while mulling over her own problems, and Guinevere didn’t make much progress on the latter. The shock of finding herself blackmailed back into StarrTech had faded, and with her customary forthrightness she was facing reality.
    Several major problems loomed on the horizon. The first was her concern over whether the Frog would keep his end of the deal. He had promised her absolute silence on the matter of her computer tampering. For some odd reason she was inclined to think he’d stick by the bargain. Her short acquaintance with Zachariah Justis had left her with a strange conviction that he would keep his word. There was something about the man that seemed solid and dependable.
    But what about Russ Elfstrom? What sort of relationship did the Elf have with Zachariah Justis? Apparently Zac was sure enough of the friendship to guarantee his friend’s silence in addition to his own. And Elfstrom had said nothing about the ten thousand dollar drain on the benefits program this morning when she’d reported to work. That had surprised Guinevere. It made her realize that there must be an unusually strong bond between Elfstrom and Zac. She wondered what lay at the bottom of the association.
    For some reason she didn’t quite see the Frog and the Elf as lifelong friends.
    The other factor that had her really worried was the problem of what would happen when Zac learned that Guinevere was probably going to be useless as a spy. She was certain that even if there was something highly illegal going on in this department, she wasn’t