"I got a 35-year-old white male, pushed or jumped off the south side of this building 90 minutes ago." "Dead on impact." " Any witnesses?" " No." "But they ID'd him." "He's the Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Weyburn from the Tenth Circuit, in Kansas." "That's a long way to come to commit suicide." "I'd say, for an unmarried civil servant in the tax department, perfectly clean record." "His family, his office, has no idea what he was doing in California." "See if we can find out why he was here, if anyone had grudges." "Where's Liz?" "Thought she was filling in for David." "Yeah, in-service training." " I can't talk right now." "I'll call you back." " Hi." "My publicist wants me to do interviews, you know." "And I told her, I said, I can't start the book tour until next week." "Oh, that's because The Attraction Equation is blowing up." "I checked." "It's on the top 100 on Amazon." " It made the top 100?" " Can I leave this stuff here?" "Because I don't wanna take it to class, and I'm running really late." "Don't want your students wondering why you bring fancy underwear to work?" "No, thank you." "I would prefer they stay focused on the combinatorial matrix theory." "Your dad is gonna be gone tonight, right?" "So we have the house to ourselves." "I've been thinking, why don't you move in with me already?" "You mean, with both of you?" "Well, my father won't mind." "We can work that out." "Is it something you'd wanna do?" "Yeah, I just..." "You know, Charlie, this is not just a romantic question." "I mean, this is something we need to talk about when our heads are clear, and we're calm." "And I am not calm right now because I'm running really, really late to class." " All right." " Okay." " Hey." " Hi, welcome back." "So I'll see you at lunch?" "Bye." " Right, bye." " Bye." " Bye." " Hey." "Charles, you look like someone stole your chalk." "Welcome back." "One stride at a time." "Come on, more conscious walking." "You know, a visiting Vietnamese monk led us on a conscious walk." "It took us three hours just to cross the garden." "Three hours?" "Well, deliberating upon each single step." "It slows the metabolism, deepens the focus." "More mundanely, it helps you sidestep dog excrement." "It's a most worthy exercise." "Sometimes I think you're better off taking a leap." " Oh, I've dreaded this..." " Okay, here it is." " Okay." " Just like you left it." "Oh, my." "I cannot take one more step." " Well, what's the matter?" " I'm overwhelmed." "I'm literally overwhelmed." "Oh, the memories." "For five months, I've needed nothing that I couldn't carry on my own back." "This is obscene." "Who is this person that belongs to this mess?" "Don, I got something." "What do you got?" "Oh, looks like a bunch of kid stuff." "Guessing someone who lives in the building put it here." "Well, log it in anyway, you know." "I'm within my rights according to California statutes..." " Yeah?" " Whoa, hold on there." " What's going on?" " Anthony Braxton." "He was sneaking up here from the next building over." "Sneaking is not accurate." " I'm in pursuit of The Primal Key." " The what?" "You found the GPS cache." "Do you know if Weyburn got to it?" " Wait, you know who Weyburn is?" " Yes." " He's the head of our alliance." " What alliance?" "The Midwestern Axe-Butchers." ""Primacy."" "The MMO?" "It's a PVP RPG with an integrated ARG in its last 72 hours." "What are you talking about, video-game stuff?" "Yeah, a video game." "We're competing in an ARG endgame for a million-dollar prize..." "Get off of me, man." "Where's Peter?" "Mr. Weyburn's dead." "What?" "Wait, is this real?" "You mean, dead, like his physical body is...?" "Yeah, like in real life." "I've never seen an actual dead person before." "I've killed thousands online, but..." "So you didn't like the idea of splitting the prize money with him." " Is that it, Anthony?" " What?" " Where were you the last two hours?" " I'm on his team." " I wouldn't do..." " Anthony, what is this?" "That's just my handheld electronic reader." "Aim it around." "Aim it at the bottom-right corner of that graphic across the street." "Whoa, what is that?" "Alternate reality." "Charlie, I am, like, halfway through your book, and your stuff on relationships is just great." "Thanks." " Amita, thanks for coming." " Sure." "Just eyeballing it, I can tell you, unless this guy got a running start, he was pushed." "Who was he?" "Assistant U.S. District Attorney Peter Weyburn." "He's from Kansas, and we'd really like to rule out a suicide, if possible." " Well, we'll take a look at it." " Okay." "He was here playing some kind of an alternate-reality game." "It's called "Privacy"?" " "Primacy"?" " You know it?" " Yeah, I play it." " You do?" " Yeah, since I was an undergraduate." " What can you tell me about it?" "The alternate-reality game is temporary." "It's used to promote the MMORPG, which goes on for years." "The MMO what?" "The massively multi-player online role-playing game." "You know, basically, you're a character, and you fight in battles and go on quests, stuff like that." "I think you're gonna be better at decoding this crime scene than I." "You guys wanna head up?" "I'll let them know." " Sure." " Hey." "How do I not know this about you?" "Oh, because we only play a few hours a week." "Who's we?" "We who?" "Me and my alliance." "So an alliance." "Well, what?" "You never told me you had an alliance." "What is an alliance?" "Just old friends, you know." "We've been playing the video part of "Primacy"" "since we were undergrads." "It helps us keep in touch." "Well, how come you never asked me to be part of your alliance?" "Honestly, I thought you would make fun of me." "It's kind of whimsical." "Well, I can be extremely whimsical." "I do lots of things on a whim." " Hey, you guys." " Hey." "I have no idea what I'm looking at here." " She does." " What's the deal?" "An alternate-reality game, ARG, is a treasure hunt played out in the real world using actual media." "Give me a good old-fashioned foot chase any day." "Now, what is this thing?" "This device is an optical scanner with software downloaded from the game company." "You see, a lot of gamers just use cell-phone cameras, but..." "The numbers are a clue, and if it were a website, it would log on automatically, letting the game mainframe know where I'm located and giving me points." "But it's not doing that, so it could be GPS." "Or quite possibly a simple hexadecimal alphabet code that translates to "the beach."" "Maybe you should be part of my alliance." "I'm gonna start my own alliance." "And you just did that in your head like that?" "I wouldn't be as fast in a foot chase." "What do we think this shape means?" "Argentina?" "I'm thinking it's the map of some ZIP code area that includes a beach." "See, alliances follow clues online and in the real world to locate the Primal Key." "The Primal Key?" "Yeah, a hidden object." "It's the Holy Grail of the game." "It's worth a million bucks." "How many people you think are competing for it?" "I don't know." "I would guess several thousand." "That's a lot of suspects." "Well, correct me if I'm incorrect, but we could develop an evolutionary algorithm that searches the game's history for abnormally aggressive activity." "Aggression's part of the game." " But killing real people isn't, right?" " Yeah, that's true." "People aggress in video games in similar ways." "Killing monsters, going on raids..." "Yeah, see, and this algorithm would recognise any typical activity, ignore it." "It would seek out the abnormal actions." "Think of a pond." "A pond is a healthy ecosystem where predator and prey are in balance." "However, if an outside predator is introduced, well, then the ecosystem changes." "An evolutionary algorithm highlights abnormal alterations." "It discerns subtle patterns and locates the source of a problem." "Well, then, give me an example of abnormal aggression within the game." "Well, I'm not sure." "Players who would attack for sport rather than points." "Griefers, or somebody who stays up for days straight playing is called a camper." "Listen, if I could get access to "Primacy's" server, well, then, I can analyse patterns and identify players who are most likely to cross from virtual to actual killings." "I'll get us a warrant for the server." "Yeah, hey, what do you think these are?" "Signature trinkets, a record of the people who've been up here." "Your fingerprints are all over this, so you were up on that roof before." " Why did you lie?" " You're the man." "I was quaking in my boots, I'm ashamed to say." "What happened?" "You met Weyburn, and you got in an argument?" "Things got physical?" "Is that it?" "And then he fell off the roof?" "No, I never met Peter in person." "Yesterday was gonna be the first time." "I only knew him online as our alliance leader, Tycon-Z." " And when were you up there?" " Yesterday." "I was gathering recon data in case I could aid Tycon-Z in his first foray into the L.A. epicentre." " Where were you this morning?" " At my job." " Paco's Tacos on Pico." " Yeah?" "Who set up the meet, you or Weyburn?" "Well, it wasn't actually set up." "He told me to stay away, but I had to see him." "Tycon-Z is awesome." "What do you mean he told you to stay away?" "We suspected Shadowhound Brigade of cheating." " He went there to confront them." " The what?" "Shadowhound Brigade." "They're vicious immoral dogs, capable of entrapping and destroying noble warriors using devious and unfair methods." "You understand we're talking about a real person here, okay, who's really dead." "I know." "The game is my coping mechanism." "We think your company's game is involved in Weyburn's death." "We're in the last 72 hours before somebody wins a million dollars, and we can't afford bad publicity." "So are you sure this Weyburn dude didn't just slip and fall off the roof?" "That'd be far preferable." "Mr. Moore..." "Binky." "Your name is Binky?" " Like the pacifier." " Right, Binky." "The Weyburn dude works for the Department of Justice, so we're gonna have to investigate his death whether it's convenient for you or not." " Got it." " How many players on "Primacy"?" "Worldwide, five-and-a-half million." "At any given moment, we might have a couple hundred thousand players logged in for the "Primacy" MMORPG, the online part of the game." "And most of them don't know about the ARG, the alternate-reality aspect of "Primacy,"" "which essentially works like a scavenger hunt in the real world, for a money prize." "We've got five or 6,000 players competing in that, mostly local." "Okay, I'm gonna need access to your server." "My information is protected by privacy laws." " Trade secrets." " Search warrant." "I'd like to start with the ID's for the Weyburn group as well as the "Shadowhound Brigade."" "And I'm gonna need names to go with these." "So is this trinket your signature in the "Primacy" game?" "And when were you on the roof?" "Yesterday afternoon, before my grandkids got off school." "Did you know Peter Weyburn?" " Never heard of him." " Never heard of him." "Can you verify your whereabouts this morning?" "I was at work till noon." "Here, ask my supervisor." "Is the game still on?" "Me and my partner really need this million bucks." "The money is incidental." "I get satisfaction from reading signs invisible to the rest of society." "And where were you this morning between 8 and 10?" "I'm in my office by 6 a.m. every day for the opening of the East Coast markets." "So alibis checked out." "Yeah, I don't think the killer left his signature trinket up on the roof." "Yeah." "What about the Weyburn alliance?" "All good, including the Braxton kid." "So Megan's trying to ID the Shadowhound Brigade now." "Hey, so, what's going on with Liz?" "Oh, I don't know." "You know how it is." "Not really." "I haven't had a serious date in, like, two years." "What?" "Two years?" "Well, L.A.'s tough, man, even when you're not working undercover with the Chinese." " Hey." " Pharaoh 861." "One of the ten members of the Shadowhound Brigade." " Colby, will you call that number?" " Yep." "What about the others?" "I've tried three of them so far, and none of them have pictures on their profile page, which is unusual, and none are answering their phones." "Let's see if anybody answers here." "I feel such shame about my own office." "I can kind of understand that." "Yeah, I sense a big hairy "but" coming." "Oh, pardon my terrible pun." "What do you wanna do with your life, Larry?" "Seriously, do you wanna take the same three-hour walks across the same gardens?" " Hey, don't look askance." " Admit it, Larry." "I mean, you're more interested in the world than that." "Well, I have received a rather tantalizing offer to join the D-Zero team searching for the Higgs boson." "Well, all right, the God particle." "Which would be a continuation of your spiritual seeking as well as your quest for a unified theory." "Well, faith in science is still faith, is it not?" "Now, that's very cool, Larry." "I think you should continue with your search for supersymmetric particles." "Can you imagine?" "Smashing protons at 99.99 percent of the speed of light, all to locate a single fragment which would move us one step closer to unifying all physics, explaining how the Old One created the universe." "What could be more spiritual?" "Not a trivial activity." "No, and neither is conscious walking, Charles." "Okay, the normal behaviour parameters for the game are set." "All right, great." "Let's run this programme." "See if we can't locate any players that are acting abnormally." " Okay, I'll be back after my seminar." " Bye-bye." "Bye, Larry." "Okay, how is it she knows so much about this game?" "She's been playing "Primacy"" "with an online group of people for years." "Really?" "Did you know this?" "What was that sound?" "What was that?" "I wonder if she might be in the midst of one of those online friendships." "Unconsummated, but emotionally intimate." "Hello, Ruby." "I've said that I would prefer not to." "Okay, okay, ten minutes, but this has got to be the only one, right?" "Thank you." "Morning TV interview." "I have the willpower of a field mouse." "But within that field, you're a very popular mouse." "No answer there, either." "All right, now let's go to Bulldog 472." ""Max Barnes, 347 Trilson Street in Culver City."" "And there's no photo of him, either." "Okay, I got him right here." "Max Barnes." "Age 93, deceased, November '06." "Oh, that's six fake screen names for the Shadowhound Brigade." "Yeah, this alliance doesn't really exist." "This was posted to the "Primacy" website three hours ago." "Wolftrax says it was hacked in, uploaded from an outside server." "The "Primacy" bloggers think it's some kind of a hoax, that it has an embedded clue for the ARG endgame." " Does it?" " Not according to Binky Moore." "Binky?" "I'm gonna let my algorithm search the server history for embedded clues and patterns and see what shows up." "Where's my brother?" "He had a lunch meeting." "I don't know, I mean..." "It's not really Liz." "I mean, look, she's a great girl, right?" "You know, it's just..." "It's the whole thing, keeping work and our relationship separate, I think." "You know, your mother and I met while working together." "It's a little different in my case, don't you think?" "No." "People always fall for each other at work." "It's where you spend most of your time." "If your heart's not in it, you can't stay." "It wouldn't be fair to either of you." "And if you feel like ending it, then I doubt it's because of the job." "Eppes." "All right." "Hey, Dad, I gotta take this, okay, so..." "I'll talk to you later." "Thanks for lunch." "Donnie, she works with you." "You have to straighten it out." "I know." ""Primacy," the ARG, has been underway for a month." "The vertical lines behind me represent alliances." "The horizontal lines are the alliances' attacks." "Two weeks ago, there were seven alliances running neck and neck for the million-dollar prize." "Till that point, "Primacy" operated like any good game, with leaders surging and ebbing in expected patterns." "Ten days ago, a whole different story emerges." "Anytime an alliance holds the lead for more than 36 hours, it suddenly drops out, never recovering." "So someone forced them to quit." "Well, the players don't know who's in the lead, so either it's someone inside the company or a high-end hacker." "Four of the seven frontrunners are out," "Weyburn's group dropped away with his death, leaving two alliances, the Readymades and the Shadowhound Brigade, as potential winners of this thing." "And potential suspects." "Now, this Shadowhound is the phoney alliance." "Six out of the ten are deceased." "We have four more to account for." "I mean, they can't all be fake." "I mean, someone's playing these avatars." "Yeah, and someone would have to show up to claim the prize money." "I can play the game, you know, and try to interact with the avatars." "Yeah, you know?" "And if she gets a hit," " I'll track the providers for a location." " Great." "How hard would it be for someone who works for "Primacy" to set this all up?" "Well, there are powerful firewalls to prevent inside cheating." "Unless it's the creator himself." "Where were you yesterday morning, Mr. Moore?" "Networking breakfast at the Biltmore." "About 300 witnesses." "And you sold Wolftrax to Kuma Games 18 months ago." "Built Wolftrax up from freeware to a sale for a nice chunk of change." " I'm president in name only." " Well, why didn't you just walk away?" " I'm not interested in the money." " Really?" "We're creating the future and people are sleepwalking, but it is the new literacy." "Knowledge isn't in books anymore." "It's in electronic media." "And Joe Blow in Idaho doesn't know how to access it." "But when he plays an ARG, we're teaching him the Dewey decimal system of the digital age, yes, and advancing our business." "Which is why I put up the million-dollar prize myself, to motivate people." "Well, you certainly did that, huh?" "I knew we had a rogue alliance." "Groups in the lead were getting intimidated." "Physically?" "No." "Spamming, jamming, online raids." "We had complaints." "I fully thought the game would self-regulate." "I can't believe this is happening to my game." "Oh, my God, that's Binky Moore." " You're a god." " It's late, let's go." "Can I get his autograph?" "You're gonna have to adore him from afar." "The nerds love me." "I can't get anyone from the Shadowhound Brigade to play me." "Kali, goddess of destruction." "I picked it when I was 19, okay?" "She's remarkably hot." "Well, sexy avatars get treated nicer." "Yeah?" "Okay, this guy's not online." "Who's next?" "Let's see." "We've got Spectre." "No." "My publicist wants me to show up early for a TV interview so they can put makeup all over my face." " I think you'd look cute with eyeliner." " Yeah, thanks." "Hey, so you gonna move in or not?" "Spectre's online." "He's battling for control of a transport station." "Let's see if we can get a track on the IP, get a real-world location." "Finally, a real live member of the Shadowhound Brigade." "Spectre?" "All right, I got him." "Yeah, Frank Riegert." "All right, you keep him playing." "We're on our way." "Frank Riegert, FBI!" "Open up!" "Let's go, Frank, open the door." "Clear." "Damn." "Megan, he's dead." "Smells like he was electrocuted." "Clear." "Colby?" "Yeah." "It's operating itself." " Frank Riegert's dead." " What?" "His computer's running the game without him." "A zombie?" "No, Riegert's not Spectre." "Whoever Spectre is is controlling this computer from somewhere." "Are you tracing his Internet location?" "He's using dynamic IP's." "He's routing through dozens of servers." "You know, it's sort of like changing stolen cars every few blocks." " You know, when a car is in a..." " I got it." "I got it." "I stole his mojo bag." "I have to get out of here." "She stole his mojo." "Okay." "Now, I get to see what he's hiding." "Is that GPS?" "Yeah, 0600, 6 a.m." "Hey, Megan, we've got a game clue for another location." "Northgate Dam." "We'll check it out." "You'll need us to figure out clues at the location." " We can call you." " You couldn't decode the roof clues." "You could be at the site for hours and not see anything." "Point taken." "Guys, do me a favour." "Stay behind me." "So listen, with that GPS you got there, you've got 15 feet of uncertainty at every location." "Right." "Amita, you see anything with that x-ray vision of yours?" "No, but with my naked eye, I see a misaligned arrow which is a classic ARG clue." " It's 6:00 now." " What about those rocks?" " Way they're arranged." "That a clue?" " Oh, yeah." " No, there's something down here." " Wait, hold on." " Hold on." " What?" " What are you doing?" " There's something down here." " Be careful, okay?" " Okay." "It's a symbol." "This is definitely part of the game." " What is that?" " I don't know." "Get back up the ladder." " Guys, get up, quick!" " Charlie." "Colby!" "Colby!" "Colby!" " Call Don!" " Oh, God, oh, God." " Colby!" " We need help." "Colby was swept away in the Northgate Dam." " Grab my hand, Colby." "Come on." " Charlie, be careful." "Hang on." " Come on." " Careful, please." "Come on." "Reach." "Come on, just reach." "I got you." "Just reach." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on, man." "You all right?" "You okay?" " Yeah." " Jesus." " We gotta get you to a hospital." " No, I'm okay." " Spectre tried to kill us." " Yeah." "Yeah, he did." "What's up with you in the water?" " Hey." " Yeah, I'm fine." "Thanks for asking, Megan." " It was a setup." " Yeah, definitely." "I mean, that dam releases overflow every morning." "How are you doing?" "You really okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine." " So Spectre set up a false clue." " Yeah." "I mean, whoever gets ahead of him gets intimidated or they get killed." "Did Spectre kill Riegert?" "Do we know?" "We got e-mails on his computer." "They were accomplices, trying to steal the million bucks." "But after Weyburn was murdered..." "Riegert got cold feet." "Yeah, Riegert wanted the money." "It was Spectre that had other plans." "He was intending to open some kind of a new game called "Chain Factor" with his prize money." "All right, so Spectre and Riegert were the only two real people in the Shadowhound Brigade." "And now it's just Spectre, right?" "Yeah, who kills people by faking accidents." "And I don't think this is the guy with a previous criminal record." "I think that this is his first foray." "I just think he's a fanatic in the midst of a manic obsession." "And if that's the case, it's only gonna intensify as he gets closer to the prize." "All right, we gotta shut down the game." "Yeah, we do that, he's got no reason to show up." "Yeah, but if we leave it going, he's gonna mow down anyone that gets in his way." "Hey, I know how to trap this guy." "Yeah, does it involve your deceptive upper-body strength?" "That was pure adrenaline." "Listen, to win, Spectre has to play the game, right?" "We control the game, we control Spectre." "We hack the hacker." "Shut it down, make him think it's still on?" "No, we don't have to shut it down." "Look, it's like a train yard." "Every player in this game is a train coming into our station, and we send them all through." "But when we see Spectre's train approaching, we sidetrack it without affecting the rest of the players." "How do we trick him into thinking he's playing the real game?" "Mirror site." "Okay, it's like one those fake bank pages that scammers put up to steal personal data." "Look, I'm gonna call the game company." "I'm gonna get them to work with me, and set up the mirror site here." "That sounds good." "Go for it." "And, you know, Amita can play him online, but no more fieldwork for her." " Where do you want them?" " End of the daisy chain." " Translation?" " That would be right there." "All right, you guys, so just hit a bunch of random keys, all right?" "That will make the site look alive." "Make it look like hundreds of people are accessing it." "As we lead Spectre to the final clue for the Primal Key, fewer people would be around." " We can't let him win too easily." " Don't worry about that." "I'm gonna get a few shots into this guy myself." "And then we're gonna let him win." "Yeah, we will be the swarming multitudes." "You are to fight Spectre and then..." "He wins, the final clue taking him to MacArthur Park for the Primal Key." "And then we arrest him." "Okay, so everybody's ready, right?" "Here we go." "Come on, where is this guy?" "Spectre won't attack until we take the lead." "Braxton, grab that axe." "Chop down that wall." " There's something behind it." " All right." "On it." "Good eye, oh, captain, my captain." "Okay, he doesn't want me in here." "That's him." "That's Spectre." "That's an ugly avatar." "Oh, he's talking to me in game chat." "I can voice it." "Kali." "Surprised to see you." "Were you unable to decipher the clue you stole from me?" "I'm working on it." "I want my mojo back." "Come and get it." "Can you trace in-game chat?" "All right, just let him kill you so we can get the clue and head over to the park." " No, the fight's gotta look real." " Heal me." "Heal me, I need my arm." "I'm healing you as fast as I can." "Kali, you're finished." " Let him win." " Easy now." "He's behind you." " You killed him." " Oh, my God." "Damn it." "Amita." "I'm so sorry." "It was reflexive." "I can't believe I did that." "All right, what now?" "Well, I can IM him and get him to meet me." "My suggestion, we do nothing." "You know, losing one battle is not going to deter him, not if he's a zealot." "Kali is the focus of his rage and the obstacle to his goal." "He'll get in touch with you." "Oh, so, what now?" "We just wait?" "Can he even talk to you in-game when his avatar's dead?" "Yeah, I mean, that's the only way he can talk to Kali is in-game chat." "I'm sorry, that's me." "I have to go do that ridiculous TV interview." "All right, so, what's the plan if Spectre makes contact?" "We set up a meeting." "No." "No more meeting her in the real world." " Please." " No, no, no, not me." "Kali." "And he doesn't know what she looks like in person." "It could be me." "Or it could be me." "I'm just saying it could." "I'd be honoured if you'd consider joining our alliance or at the very least, giving me your e-mail address." "Anthony, you've been really helpful." "I'll be back as soon as possible." "I think I'm gotta get you a ride home." "Bye, Anthony." "Thanks." "Bye, Charlie, have fun." "I'll be watching." "You didn't have to do this." "I really appreciate it." "Charlie, this is a treat for me." "Besides, I can't help it." "I'm proud of you." "Getting up all early and all, you're always there for me and Don." "I should buy you one of those plastic "World's Best Dad" statues." "You're buttering me up." " I'd like to broach a certain topic." " Go ahead." "I would like Amita to move in with us." "You're getting married?" "No, I'm just kidding." "I'm just kidding." "I know how things go these days." "Yeah, sure, she should move in." "Besides, I've been thinking about those condos." "Really, I mean, it's a good time to buy." "The prices are coming down." "You wouldn't even have to move out." "Not yet." "Well, what does Amita say?" "We're in discussions." "Oh, that's good." "That's great." "What if he doesn't make contact?" "Well, should Kali send him a message?" "No, he expected to win." "Now he has to rethink his plan." "He's got no other play but to be in touch with Kali." "Well, we've got no other play here if he's not." "Oh, it's me." "It must be Charlie." " Hello?" " I want the key." "Spectre, how'd you get my phone number?" "I know who you are, Amita." "I need a trace on his cell phone." "Why should I talk to you?" "I mean, I know is where the Primal Key is." "I have a proposal." "Believe me, you'll come out better." "Maybe, or maybe not." "Regardless, I'm not talking about this on the phone." "You at your computer?" " Why?" " Triple click on your avatar." "How did you do that?" "I want the key." "Okay, meet me at MacArthur Park at 7 a.m." "What do you look like?" " He knows everything about me." " Well, not everything." "He seems to think you're a regular player." " What if he's just setting me up?" " We can pull this off without you." "What if you don't get him?" "He knows my address, my social security number." "I mean, I think Spectre will only show if I go." "We'd have undercover agents and snipers, and you'd wear a two-way earpiece so we could talk." "What if he knows I'm working with you and he just?" " You'd have a bullet-proof vest." " A bullet-proof..." "You know, I really think we should consider the alternatives here." "With the sting, we made her Spectre's only rival." "She's our best chance, Larry." "But is she not allowed to decline?" "I'll do it." " I think we need to talk to Charles." " No." "Let him finish his interview in peace, and this whole thing will be over before he even hears about it." "With us this morning is Dr. Charles Eppes from CalSci." "He's written the first math book you're gonna wanna read." "The Attraction Equation." "Can you tell us how to find a mate using math, Dr. Eppes?" "You can call me Charlie." "Oh, I've developed a new kind of math." "It's sort of a calculus of human relationships." "It's based in decision theory." "And it can help people choose a better partner by mathematically predicting which couplings have the best chance at success." "Can you tell me why I keep picking the wrong guy?" "Oh, well, you might need to put a little logic into your romantic equations, I guess." "Oh, maybe you can help me with that." " Are you spoken for, Charlie?" " I am, I am." "I am dating a very beautiful woman, and I hope she's watching right now because she really is an incredible inspiration to me." "Okay, Amita, there's a lamppost that you can see right up ahead on your right." "I want you to just casually stop there." "Don't look at the cameras." "Megan?" "Clear in all directions." "Colby?" "Nothing suspicious, Don." "Okay, go ahead and answer the phone." "We got you on your Bluetooth." "Get a trace on it." "Take it easy, just answer it." "Go through the tunnel." "No, meet me by the water." "Feisty." "And as pretty as your pictures." "I like the way those jeans fit you." "Okay, great." "So you can see me." "And I see you're not moving." "Who's got a visual?" "Anyone got a visual?" " Negative." " All right." "North side of the park, guys." "Everyone, take it easy." "Amita, I want you to turn around and just head right into the tunnel." "Hey, thanks for coming down, man." " Went pretty well, I thought." " Yeah, Charlie..." "I screwed up a little bit, but she was very nice." "We need to talk to you." "Yeah, it's about Amita." "Is she all right?" "What's going on?" "She's fine." "She's with Don." " She's gone to meet Spectre." " Where is she right now?" "We can't interfere." "Would be too dangerous." "Where is she right now, Larry?" "I have a proposal that will change your life." "Let's hear it." "I need a partner to realise a vision unparalleled in contemporary gaming." "Paradigm shift." "Go toward that building at the back of the park." "All right, listen up, everybody." "It's the old community centre to the northeast corner." "We had a chance with "Primacy," but Binko-assbite cashed in." "You work at Wolftrax Games?" "Not anymore." "You're a smart girl." "Read the signs from here." "Come on, just talk to me." "Great reward requires great risk." "Kali faces fear." "How about Amita?" "Don't go into the building till I tell you, all right, sweetheart?" "Do not go into that building until I tell you." "Megan, you're in front." "Colby, you stay with her." "Consider an emergent game economy built around an abstract combinatorial system, played across worldwide media, embedded virally into websites," "TV, text messages, billboards, even radio, beyond the control of corporations." "Yeah, but for what purpose?" "Step through the door." ""Chain Factor."" "What does that mean?" "What's up with the trace?" "He's inside the building." "Guys, he's inside the building." "He's inside the building." "Colby, you stay with her." " I got her, Don." " Megan?" "We're in the building, Don." "Amita, go ahead." "Don't worry, don't worry." "Just go ahead in." "Colby, stay right with her." "All right, I'm going." "Ready to make a deal?" "What's "Chain Factor"?" "The game I'll launch with a million dollars." "But I have the Primal Key location." "Wanna join my alliance?" "I get it." "You're playing with emergence, where the game takes on a life of its own." " Right?" " Yeah." "It's all real life and death now." " Freeze." " Let her go." "Gary, let her go." " Let her go." " You cheated." "Get down on your hands and knees." "Hey, you okay?" "You all right?" "Okay." "I got you." "I got you." "I got you." " Sure you okay?" " All right." " What are you thinking?" " I know, I know." " I'm sorry." " How could you...?" "It wasn't his fault." "It was my decision." " You all right?" " I'm fine." " Come here." " Okay." "So Gary Meyers worked at Wolftrax." "Yeah." "He was fired a few months ago." "You know, I actually liked his ideas about an emergent game economy." "Are you serious?" "His obsession with control is the opposite of emergence." "Emergence requires allowing natural and unexpected changes to emerge." "So..." "You know, speaking of emergence, how are we gonna let our little economy emerge to the next phase?" "I've been thinking about that." "Been giving it some thought." "I could sell the house back to my dad and we could just get our own place." "Or we could get an apartment and you keep the house as an investment and Alan could stay put." "Or option three, my favourite option, is my dad buys the condo he's been talking about forever, and we live in the house together." "I mean, we could all three live in the house together." "Well, let's just take the advice of that popular new author Charlie Eppes in his sizzling, scorching, hot new book, and apply game theory to our problem." "Think of the possibilities, assign values, then prioritize." " Hi." " Hey." " How's it going?" " Hi." "Larry's donating all his books to the library." "Are you?" "Well, that means you've reentered your office, I guess." "You know, Larry, you don't have to carry them by hand." " The library will come pick them up." " Actually, I do." "I'm taking my office apart object by object, releasing all attachments to my former self." "So you're going through each and every book to say goodbye." "It's true." "By the way, Larry, you do realise that by emptying your office, you're simply making it possible to collect more things." "Well, if the cycle repeats, perhaps I'll start collecting with consciousness." "Okay." "I think I see a condo in my future." "Not necessarily." "No, we have a plan." "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of." "You could move in with me, but I don't live anywhere."