Sleepless

Senior cocked his head to the side.

“You’re going to arrest my son because he?”

“Charges of possession and sale of a restricted substance. But I have evidence that could lead to racketeering charges. Money laundering. Tax evasion. And charges relating to the murders of a man named Hydo Chang and several of his associates.”

“You think my son killed someone.”

“I believe that several young men found shot in gangland style were his Dreamer retailers and that they were killed over matters relating to the sale of Dreamer. I believe that it is likely Parsifal K. Afronzo Junior was involved in those killings.”

Senior drew his brows together.

“Then it is my son who you suspect as the mastermind behind the Dreamer black market?”

“I think it is possible. Although I think you are a more likely suspect.”

Senior pulled his brows apart.

“You are direct. You are direct. Well.”

He placed his hand on the snifter he’d set down earlier.

“In the interest of directness, I’d like to say a few words that might shed considerable light on these suspicions of yours. If you don’t mind?”

Park looked at the door. He was aware that a performance was taking place. He was aware that he was being manipulated. He knew that if he let it draw to its conclusion, he might never leave the cottage. He’d been trying to apply the principles he’d learned from the Hurtin’ Man. That there was danger in the room was not at all in doubt, but whether that danger was best dealt with by attacking its source or by ru

But he also needed to stay to the end of the show so he could know what happened.

He lifted a hand from his knee and turned it palm up.

“I would like to hear anything you have to say that might clarify this matter.”

Senior picked up the snifter, swirled the contents, and swallowed them.

“Good. Good.”

He kept hold of the empty glass.

“To start, you are correct; there is a black market trade in Dreamer. You are also correct that A-ND is involved in that trade. But frankly, that is the price of doing business today. Distribution, Officer, is not an easy matter. Beyond the fuel costs, security contractors to escort the shipments, cross-state inspections, Homeland Security checkpoints, and occasional corrupt officials, there are also the Teamsters. In order to bring our product to market in a timely and efficient ma

Park thought about Cager.

“He strikes me as a very intelligent person.”

Senior frowned into his empty glass.

“And he is, he is. Very intelligent. Off-the-scale intelligent if IQ tests matter a good goddamn. But unfocused. And not what you’d call a people person. Incapable of wrangling something on this scale. He couldn’t bring his full abilities to bear on a problem like this because the human relations would make him too uncomfortable. That boy, I tell you, more natural ability, pure talent, than a father could hope to see in a son, and just, just, he ca

Senior floated one hand through the air.

“Drifted from it. Lost focus, lost interest. All that energy. That ability. And the only thing he has ever stuck with are the damn games. That one damn game. He. He builds his life around that game now. So I, well, I’m his father, so I want to understand, be a part of what he loves, show him support, take him seriously. And I was, frankly, proud when he showed up and he’d, on his own, just through observation of the market, the implications of peak oil, credit collapse, infrastructure erosion, the outright impotence of the federal government, he saw that A-ND must have an outlet for off-market Dreamer. We were just getting it started, but that kid, smart as hell, he knew it was happening just because he could put it together. And he wanted a franchise. For himself.”

He raised and dropped his shoulders.

“I have backed him in so many ventures. But he had a plan, a model that made a kind of sense. In this world. He showed me the numbers on sleepless players in Chasm Tide, showed me the online markets where in-game valuables were trading, the currency exchanges between virtual and real. That was an eye-opener. And I thought, well, maybe this is it, a business tied directly to his real passion, maybe this will be the thing that he locks into. So I supplied him with a couple pallets. Made sure the pricing was in line with the rest of the off-market trade. We don’t gouge these people, Officer.”

He leaned forward.

“That should be very clear. We set the price. And if we hear that one of our franchisers starts to spread the margin and pocket the difference, we take action. And I do not mean that in any metaphorical sense.”

He leaned back.

“I’m in the pharmaceuticals trade, not the human misery trade.”

He shook his head.

“Not the human misery trade.”

He pointed vaguely east.

“Those people. In Washington. That homunculus in the White House. When I think about who our president could have been, who it should have been. Know the man who shot him had his NRA membership card on him? Bought his weapon at a gun show. Barely had to flash his driver’s license. That day, I burned my own card. Hardly matters anymore. Person wants a gun, they can find a gun. Well, those people in Washington, they turned out to be about as useless as everybody knew they’d be when it really hit the fan. A plague of sleeplessness. Democrats and Republicans trying to deal with a plague of sleeplessness. If it wasn’t for the tears, you’d laugh yourself to death. A plague of sleeplessness. Any wonder all the zealots are going even crazier than before? Like it should come after locusts and frogs and the deaths of the firstborn.”