The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks Read Free Book Online Page A

it'd be notified on your daily communication statement we were listening.' 'Never mind all that.' Gurgeh smiled, oddly relieved the Orbital's Mind had been eavesdropping. 'Just tell me how far away that ROU is.' 'On the word "is", it was a minute and forty-nine seconds away; a light month distant, already clear of the system, and well out of our jurisdiction, we're very glad to say. Hightailing it in a direction a little up-spin of Galactic Core. Looks like it's heading for the GSV Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence , unless one of them's trying to fool somebody.' 'Thank you, Hub. Goodnight.' 'To you too. And you're on your own this time, we promise.' 'Thank you, Hub. Chamlis?' 'You might just have missed the chance of a lifetime, Gurgeh… but it was more likely a narrow escape. I'm sorry for suggesting Contact. They came too fast and too hard to be casual.' 'Don't worry so much, Chamlis,' he told the drone. He looked back at the stars again, and sat back, swinging his foot up on to the table. 'I handled it. We managed. Will I see you at Tronze tomorrow?' 'Maybe. I don't know. I'll think about it. Good luck - I mean against this wonderchild, at Stricken - if I don't see you tomorrow.' He grinned ruefully into the darkness. 'Thanks. Goodnight, Chamlis.' 'Goodnight, Gurgeh.'
The train emerged from the tunnel into bright sunlight. It banked round the remainder of the curve, then set out across the slender bridge. Gurgeh looked over the handrail and saw the lush green pastures and brightly winding river half a kilometre below on the valley floor. Shadows of mountains lay across the narrow meadows; shadows of clouds freckled the tree-covered hills themselves. The wind of the train's slipstream ruffled his hair as he drank in the sweet, scented mountain air and waited for his opponent to return. Birds circled in the distance over the valley, almost level with the bridge. Their cries sounded through the still air, just audible over the windrush sound of the train's passing. Normally he'd have waited until he was due in Tronze that evening and go there underground, but that morning he'd felt like getting away from Ikroh. He'd put on boots, a pair of conservatively styled pants and a short open jacket, then taken to the hill paths, hiking over the mountain and down the other side. He'd sat by the side of the old railway line, glanding a mild buzz and amusing himself by chucking little bits of lodestone into the track's magnetic field and watching them bounce out again. He'd thought about Yay's floating islands. He'd also thought about the mysterious visitation from the Contact drone, on the previous evening, but somehow that just would not come clear; it was as though it had been a dream. He had checked the house communication and systems statement: as far as the house was concerned, there had been no visit; but his conversation with Chiark Hub was logged, timed and witnessed by other subsections of the Hub, and by the Hub Entire for a short while. So it had happened all right. He'd flagged down the antique train when it appeared, and even as he'd climbed on had been recognised by a middle-aged man called Dreltram, also making his way to Tronze. Mr Dreltram would treasure a defeat at the hands of the great Jernau Gurgeh more than victory over anybody else; would he play? Gurgeh was well used to such flattery - it usually masked an unrealistic but slightly feral ambition - but had suggested they play Possession. It shared enough rule-concepts with Stricken to make it a decent limbering-up exercise. They'd found a Possession set in one of the bars and taken it out on to the roof-deck, sitting behind a windbreak so that the cards wouldn't blow away. They ought to have enough time to complete the game; the train would take most of the day to get to Tronze, a journey an underground car could accomplish in ten minutes. The train left the bridge and entered a deep, narrow ravine, its slipstream producing an eerie, echoing noise off the natched