This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

explained patiently, “the companies with assets in Jakarta are all overcommitted right now.”
    Figures, Dagmar thought. She wandered to the window, parted the heavy curtains, and looked down at the street below. There was very little traffic, and none on foot. And no police.
    “We’ll have someone on the ground there in a few days,” Zan said.
    He seemed very confident of this.
    “Okay,” she said.
    “You’re not with anyone?” Zan asked.
    “No. I’m alone.”
    “Okay. I want you to change your schedule every day. Eat meals at different times, and in different restaurants in the hotel, if that’s possible.”
    “Why?”
    “It takes three days to set up a kidnapping. If you keep changing your schedule, that makes an abduction more difficult.”
    Dagmar began to say, But why would they kidnap me ? then clacked her teeth shut on the words because they sounded just like the sort of thing a stupid tourist would say.
    “Okay,” she said. “I’ll do that.”
    “The power supply may be erratic, so keep your cell phone and your computer charged. Buy extra batteries if you can—or make sure your miniturbines have extra fuel.”
    “My phone doesn’t have miniturbines.”
    “Then charge it every chance you can, and buy extra batteries if you can find them in the hotel. And don’t use the phone for anything except absolutely necessary calls.”
    “All right.”
    “If there’s a store in the hotel where you can buy food, buy all you can. Even if it’s junk food. The average city has only a three-day supply of food, and calories may get scarce.”
    “What do I buy the food with? Do I use my dollars?”
    There was a long moment’s silence.
    “Save the dollars,” Zan said.
    He then went on to tell Dagmar that he wanted her to find six different ways to escape the hotel from her room. And another six exits from every other place she regularly visited within the building.
    “What do I do if I have to leave the hotel?”
    “Find a place of temporary safety, and call me.”
    He went on to tell her not to wear any expensive jewelry or be seen carrying her computer, because that might mark her out as someone worth robbing.
    “Another thing,” he said. “I need you to be on the roof of the hotel at sixteen hundred hours Jakarta time.”
    “This afternoon?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “So the satellite can get a look at you. I need you facing east and looking up.”
    Dagmar wondered how much it was costing Charlie to retask someone’s satellite, and decided it was better not to know.
    “You can use my picture on the Great Big Idea Web page,” she said.
    “We’re getting pictures of the roof anyway,” Zan said, “in case we want to extract you from there. So we might as well find out what you look like now. ”
    Extract, Dagmar thought.
    “All right,” she said.
    She was placing herself in the hands of experts. Not that it had worked so far.
    Tomer Zan advised her to keep her passport and money on her, preferably in a money belt, or in a pocket that could be buttoned or zipped.
    “I have a pouch I can wear around my neck,” she said. Which she rarely used, because it wasn’t designed for people with tits.
    “That’s good,” Zan said. “Would you like me to repeat any of my instructions?”
    “Change my schedule,” Dagmar said. “Six exits, no jewelry or computer in public, on the roof at sixteen hundred.”
    “You forgot to buy batteries,” Zan said. His voice betrayed absolutely no sense of humor.
    “Buy batteries,” Dagmar said. “Check.”
    “Don’t lose this number. I’ll send you email in a few minutes repeating everything I’ve said.”
    “Okay.”
    Zan said good-bye and hung up. Dagmar located his number in her phone’s memory and shifted it into the directory under the name Charlies Friend.
    Ten minutes later, Zan’s email turned up on her computer.
    Dagmar decided she might as well go find batteries.
     
    A woman in a hotel room, Dagmar thought a few hours later. That