Read A Game of Universe for Free Online Page B

a tourist in the casino, out of my element in a rigged game, hoping to get lucky and hit the big jackpot. They were right. The only way I’d walk out of here alive was as one of Erybus’s champions.
    Looking over the contract one last time and finding no hidden or misleading clauses, I drove the quill’s point into my hand, and released my well-guarded life fluid.
    The quill’s reservoir filled and I signed.
    My stomach twisted into a knot, and a fever flashed across my skin, then a chill turned it cold and clammy—dead man’s flesh. The ink congealed in an instant. My name froze upon the contract, permanently proclaiming my foolishness, and it was a done deal.

3
    I had not been challenged when I turned in the contract. Erybus had to know I was not invited, not one of his thirteen chosen. Why had he let me sign?
    I regretted it. I should have snuck out. All night I studied his Grail database. Jam-packed on a disposable computer was more information than I could read in a year.
    My spray-on timepiece was in countdown mode, flashing the deadline into my eyes whenever I looked at it. Three hundred sixty-four days and four hours remained. And after twenty hours and scanning ten thousand alphabetized entries in the database, I had no clue where the Grail was. There had to be a better way, some way to cheat.
    Omar had tried to contact me three times, twice by messenger and once personally at my door. I ignored him and I had seen to it that Umbra Corp was brought up to date on his freelancing activities, and E’kerta’s, too. Maybe they would eliminate them for me. I had also informed the Corporation of my plans to pursue them. That gave me a cover for my own ventures.
    My venture—where to start? A random investigation of the legends in the database was useless. There was a common theme in the stories: a Grail quest and a Grail King. The King was a symbol of the land, and if he was healthy, then the land was, too. All standard stuff. But how did Erybus fit in? The Grail King? And what was I? A knight in shining armor? Or a court jester?
    I shifted the suite’s display to scenic, and gazed at the Melbourne cluster. It looked like so many pearls scattered upon black silk. There were several hundred thousand million stars in the Milky Way, and basking in their light are millions of democracies, corporations, monarchies, dictatorships, bureaucracies, colonies, and free trade ports where the Grail could be. So many diverse societies trading, making alliances and war. They evolved with exponential ferocity.
    Change fluxed through the galaxy: technological and psychological advancements, revolutions, nanoplagues, wars, corporate takeovers, natural disasters, and the fall of empires. It made the galaxy nothing less than enigmatic. Irreparably fragmented.
    The alien civilizations were no less ferocious. We were xenophobes all, and those that were not conquered were enslaved or eradicated.
    The psychologist interrupted my thoughts. I believe I know why your former Master possessed you last evening.
    The psychologist always had a theory for everything. OK, let’s hear it.
    He was a subconscious representation of your guilt. Identification of the Grail triggered a cascade emotional response: your Master, his murder, your guilt. Your feelings remain unresolved. Until you face them and —
    —Thanks for the free analysis. Why don’t you get lost?
    The psychologist sighed, then said, If you are unable to take my expert advice, then listen to a suggestion to enhance your search. Necatane.
    Out of the question.
    The man who trained me is a master-psychologist. He can see into the future or the past as easily as you see across this room. If anyone can divine the location of the Grail, it is he.
    I know who he is, and I know what he can do, but there are two minor snags. First, he lives on his own world. Getting there may prove difficult. And second, he vowed if our paths ever crossed, he’d kill me. I’ll stick with Erybus’s data