Daemon

Better our cartoon skins than our real ones.’
    ‘Who says we need to get inside to find out what it’s for? What if we put the place under surveillance? Watch comings and goings?’
    ‘Great. So if a dragon and a fairy show up at the castle,what the hell am I supposed to do with that information? Put out a warrant for their arrest?’
    ‘No, but we might get some idea of how to get inside. With a little luck, we won’t be observed from this distance, and—’ Ross stopped mid-sentence.
    Sebeck saw it, too. A huge shadow had cast over them from behind. It had a vaguely humanoid outline.
    ‘Control-Down-Arrow turns you around, Pete. Do it now.’
    ‘Control-who-what?’
    ‘Control-Down-Arrow.’
    ‘Hold it. Control … where’s the Down key?’
    ‘Pete! For the love of Christ, the Down arrow is a single key. Hold it down and simultaneously hold down the C-T-R-L key.’
    Sebeck did. His character pirouetted.
    A jet-black figure, about twelve feet tall, towered over them. The figure held an obsidian rod and wore a black crown. Piercing, demonic red eyes glowed from deep sockets. No mouth was visible as it raised its arm, pointing at Sebeck. A deep, gravelly wav file played, ‘Detective Sebeck. You don’t belong here!’
    Before Sebeck could do anything, a lightning bolt arced hotly from the rod, blasting his avatar to dust. His screen went black, and his entire machine crashed – never to reboot.
    Sebeck grabbed the headset mouthpiece. ‘Jesus! It said my name, Jon. And it just fried my computer. What’s it doing now?’
    Only Ross’s cursing came over the phone line.
    After the demon wasted Sebeck’s knight, Ross went into defensive mode, ducking and retreating. There wasn’t time to invoke another portal; the demon turned upon him. It raised its rod and spoke again. ‘You guided him here. Are you NSA or a Fed?’ A pause. ‘Or neither? We shall see …’
    The hard drive on Ross’s laptop started clattering.
    ‘Shit!’ He ripped the network cable from the socket. The game was still running, so he pulled the AC power cord and the battery, too. His laptop was now inert, the screen black.
    He slumped back into his hotel desk chair and took a deep breath.
    Sebeck’s voice barked over the phone. ‘Jon! What the hell is going on?’
    ‘I just disconnected, Pete. It was trying to find out who I was. I only had the game and a video capture program on this laptop, but I didn’t want to lose the video images.’ He frowned to himself as he reinserted the laptop battery and placed the computer on the desk. His mind was turning over the possibilities. Ross stopped short. ‘Pete. I need you to come and get me out of jail.’
    ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘Just come to Woodland Hills and get me out of jail, please.’ He ignored Sebeck’s questions and pulled off the phone headset, bolting through his hotel room door.
    Ross sprinted down the exterior walkway toward the lobby. He brushed past two regional sales reps unloading luggage from a rental car and hauled ass on the final straightaway, banging through the lobby push doors.
    The desk clerk was a fresh-faced, conspicuously Caucasian kid. He shot a stern glance up at Ross. ‘Watch the doors, please, sir.’
    Ross slammed into the counter, breathing hard. ‘I need access to your billing system. It’s an emergency.’
    ‘Perhaps I can assist you, sir.’ He manned a keyboard, prairie-dog-like with his paws poised.
    ‘Do you track Internet use on guest accounts?’
    ‘Your Internet viewing habits won’t appear on your bill.’
    ‘That’s not what I meant. Do you connect guest billing information to an internal IP address?’
    ‘Sir, we are required by law to maintain—’
    ‘Goddamnit.’ Ross swung his leg up and started clawinghis way over the counter, sending brochures and phones flying. ‘This isn’t about pornography.’
    ‘You can’t—’
    Ross slipped on a PBX phone and tumbled to the floor behind the front desk.
    The night clerk locked his workstation, then pressed a button under the counter. ‘The police are on their way!’ He raced for the back office just as Ross got to his feet.
    ‘Wait!’ Ross lunged for the office door, but the kid slammed it in his face, ramming a heavy bolt home. Ross pounded on it with his open hand. It was a security door.
    The kid’s voice came through muffled. ‘You’re not the first idiot to look at porn on a hotel account, sir. But you just made it a whole lot worse.’
    ‘This