Lost Boys

by Orson Scott Card

  "Lord in heaven above, it's Step Fletcher himself!"

  The blast of Neddy Cranes's voice at such close range almost made Step cringe, but he managed to control himself, because that was hardly the way you responded when Neddy Cranes recognized you right in front of the Agamemnon booth.

  "Hi," said Step.

  Cranes turned to some guy inside the Agamemnon booth. "What you need is to put somebody like Step Fletcher here onto software for the PC. Get him to adapt that game of his-Hacker Snack-great game, played it for longer than I'll ever admit- get that game of his onto the PC, and it'll look shitty because everything looks shitty on the PC, but those poor bastards who have to use that machine every day are gonna be so grateful to have something on there that's actually not hellish to use that they'll make a line five miles long just to lick your butt."

  Step wondered if his own forays into crudeness made DeAnne feel as uncomfortable as Cranes's even cruder talk was making him feel. Not for the first time he resolved to stop tormenting her by using language that Mormons weren't supposed to use.

  The guy from Agamemnon finally got a word in. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Fletcher."

  "Step," said Step.

  "Oh, haven't you met each other?" said Cranes.

  "I actually haven't met anybody," said Step. "Not even you, Mr. Cranes."

  Cranes threw his head back and laughed-a sound that attracted attention like the sudden cawing of a crow.

  Step could feel the general movement of the surrounding crowd as they turned to look, for a moment, to find the source of that incredible sound. And for that moment, inside the circle of space immediately surround ing Cranes, Step felt how all that attention had a kind of energy in it. It made Step feel shy, burdened by it, but Cranes seemed to draw strength from it. "Well it's nice to meet you, Step! I spent so much time with your goddam game that I felt like you were my ugly brother- in- law!" And to Step's astonishment, Cranes threw an arm around him and hugged him. It was an impossible moment-what was Step supposed to do, hug him back?

  He didn't have to do anything. Cranes still gripped him around the shoulders as he turned back to the guy from Agamemnon. Step read the name tag. It was Dan Arkasian. Arkasian himself, Agamemnon's founder and president. And a nice guy, it seemed, handling this invasion from Neddy Cranes with grace and patience. This was exactly the man he wanted to meet, the man who could get his games published with the best distribution in America, in the best packaging, and it had to be with Neddy Cranes hugging him.

  As Cranes rattled on, Arkasian was looking Step in the eye -- no, looking him over -- and all Step could do was smile wanly.

  "You've hitched yourself to all these toy computers with no more than 48K of usable RAM, and it's gonna kill you," said Cranes. "But you get somebody like Step Fletcher to design you some real software-I mean, this guy isn't just a computer nerd, he's got a Ph.D. in history! He knows something!"

  Step couldn't believe that Cranes knew that about him. And then he remembered- Eight Bits Inc. had put out a press release about hiring him, and that included the fact that he had just got his doctorate. Step had assumed that nobody read that stuff.

  "I'll bet that standing right here, Step has more ideas about what you can do with the PC than just about anybody here. Come on, Fletcher, tell him one, he needs a new idea, all that Arkasian has going for him is that his product is slick, he needs a new idea!"

  This was awful, this was impossible. He had to come up with something or he'd look like a fool. Something that would work with the pathetic graphics of the IBM PC. Something that needed more RAM. And all that popped into his mind was that wonderful old atlas he had spent two days practically memorizing at the Salt Lake City library, the one that had maps showing the electoral and popular votes in every U.S. election since

  1788.

  "An atlas," said Step.

  "We've thought of that," said Arkasian. "They can buy the book for less than the software would cost, and we can't match the graphics."

  "No, you do what only the computer can do with it. Like ... elections. Next year Reagan's up for reelection and what with the recession it might be a tight race."

  "Recession's over," scoffed Cranes. "Reagan's in with a land slide."

  The recession isn't over for me, thought Step bitterly. But what he said was, "Why not an atlas that shows every election since 1788, the states colored in by party? You can animate it by screen flipping, move through Democratic Party electoral votes through history, backward or forward, or flip through all the third-party candidacies that actually got electoral votes. People love maps, they love maps that change. The computer can do it, and the book can't."

  Arkasian shrugged and nodded. "OK, that's something."

  "And Congress," said Step, warming to it. "A map showing every congressional district in every state. You can do a closeup on the state and show how the districts have changed with every census, and what party held the district. Animate an entire state's history and watch it change over time. Same thing with population, county by county."

  "You'd need a hard disk for all that information," said Arkasian.

  "Not if you use vectors and fills. Like you said, if they want a road atlas they'll buy the triple-A and put it in the car. So we don't have to get the borders exactly right, we can store everything as coordinates and numbers and draw it in realtime."

  "But who'd buy it?" asked Arkasian.

  "Every parent who wants his kids to succeed in school. Everybody who's interested in politics during an election year. And you could even sell it as a tool for business planners- you include projected population growth, maybe include a media- markets map with all the TV stations marked."

  Arkasian laughed. "This is a program that'll need 512K just to run."

  "And so what about that!" demanded Cranes. "I tell you that in five years they won't dare offer a PC for sale that doesn't have a megabyte of RAM in it!"

  "Neddy, you're off your rocker and you know it," said Arkasia n.

  "I'm off my rocker but that doesn't mean I'm not right! You'll see! And when your company is in receivership because you kept on doing games for the Commodore 64 and ignored the PC, you'll remember that I told you back in 1983!"

  Finally Cranes let go of Step and moved on, not even saying good-bye. The man gave off self-importance in great crashing waves, and Step had been caught in the undertow. He watched Cranes go for a moment, then turned back to Arkasian and smiled ruefully, offering his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Arkasian."

  "My pleasure," said Arkasian. "Why do I feel like I'm just coming up for air?"

  Step laughed. "He's got a lot of ... presence."

  "I actually liked your idea for that atlas program," said Arkasian.

  "Oh, really?"

  "You were winging it, weren't you?"

  Step shrugged. "He kind of put me on the spot."

  "That's what Neddy does. But you performed, Mr. Fletcher."

  "Please call me Step, Mr. Arkasian."

  "Step. Everybody calls me Arkasian. Without the mister. Of course, even if Neddy's right, it'll still be a couple of years before it'll be practical to do that atlas program."

  "Yeah, well, it would actually take that long just to do the research for it, if you're going to do it right."

  "That was really something, you know," said Arkasian. "Coming up with all that right out of your head, out of the air, complete with the marketing strategy. No wonder Eight Bits Inc. hired your„

  And there it was. Arkasian thought that Eight Bits Inc. owned him, and if Step just said outright, I want to quit them and I'm looking for something better, he'd be tagged in Arkasian's eyes as disloyal. Any offer that was going to be worthwhile had to come from Arkasian, without Step asking.

  "They just have me writing manuals," said Step.

  "Are you kidding?" asked Arkasian.

  "I'm not there as a programmer."

  "What were they thinking of?"

  "Internal politics, I think," said Step. "Do
esn't matter, I enjoy the work."

  "So you're through with programming?"

  Here was the moment.

  "I still have the rights to Hacker Snack," said Step. "And I can write programs on any machine that Eight Bits Inc. isn't developing for."

  "They aren't developing for the PC?"

  "Ray hasn't decided."

  "Come here," said Arkasian. He beckoned Step to come around inside the Agamemnon booth.

  Unlike the Eight Bits Inc. display, the Agamemnon area -- which was twice as large to begin with, an end-of-the-row double- had something like a private room in it, a three-sided vertical display unit with a lockable door. Arkasian led him inside, into a small roofless space cluttered with empty boxes and packing materials. Arkasian closed the door behind them, and then said, firmly, "Ray Keene is the worst lying son-of-a-bitch in this business.'

  Now was not the time for Step to badmouth his boss, not to someone who might later want to be able to rely on Step's loyalty. "I've only been at Eight Bits Inc. since the first of March, and I don't see much of Ray."

  "Why didn't you talk to me before you went to work as a manual writer for Ray Keene?"

  "I sent my resume to Agamemnon, but I got a form letter back saying you weren't hiring."

  "Damn," said Arkasian cheerfully. "We're so big now that we've got a personnel director. Of course we weren't hiring, but we would have hired you."

  This was the chance Step had been hoping for- it would never get better than this. Might as well ask for the moon. "I don't want to work for anybody, Arkasian. Not even Agamemnon. If I leave Eight Bits Inc., it'll be because I have a development deal with somebody, and I can work on my own, at home, with an advance large enough to live on while I write code. And I have a one-year noncompetition clause with Eight Bits Inc. Hacker Snack is excluded, though, and also programs for machines that Eight Bits isn't developing for."

  "And how much would you need?"

  "Depends on how long the program would take to develop," said Step. "That atlas would take a long time."

  "What about Hacker Snack for the 64?"

  "Two months," said Step.

  "And what about Hacker Snack for the PC?"

  "I don't know 8088 machine code."

  "So include the learning curve."

  "Six months at the outside," said Step. "But it won't look as good in IBM's lousy three-color graphic screen."

  "I want it monochrome first, anyway."

  "Why not do both versions and put them in the same package? That way if they upgrade their machine, they already have the game."

  "Why not sell it to them twice?"

  "Because they'll feel robbed," said Step, "and if they're thinking about upgrading you don't want them to put off buying Hacker Snack until after they've decided about the upgrade. Heck, they might upgrade just because they already own the colo r version of the game."

  "Let me think about this," said Arkasian. "I can tell you right now, I want Hacker Snack for the 64. But different. Upgraded. So we can say, Better than the Atari version. New improved, all that bullshit."

  "I'll think of stuff," said Step.

  "We haven't decided about the PC, either. Nor would I have any idea how much to advance you on PC

  projects, because we still don't know what the entertainment software market is going to be like on what is essentially a business machine."

  "A crippled business machine."

  "With an inflated, monopolistic price," said Arkasian. "I don't like IBM either. But I think Neddy's right. I think IBM will make the PC go. I think it'll be ten times the CP/M market, and I think people will want color on it. And do you know why I think they'll want color on it?"

  "So they can play games," said Step.

  "Dead right."

  Step laughed. "That's the only reason computers exist, isn't it? To play games."

  "No joke," said Arkasian. "And the more game- like the serious software is, the better it'll sell. Step Fletcher, I'll give you a development deal on Hacker Snack for the 64, just to start with. But it won't be enough money for you to quit your job."

  "I understand."

  "But if Ray Keene is as cheap and stupid a son-of-a-bitch as I think he is, he's going to decide not to develop for the PC. If that happens, you tell me, and we'll do a deal for the PC. A serious deal, maybe even including that atlas idea. You do want to do that, don't you? I mean, I know you were just making it up as you went along, and maybe-"

  "I'd give my teeth to do it."

  "So tell me when Ray Keene decides."

  Step took a deep breath. "I can't do that," he said.

  "What?"

  "Mr. Arkasian, I work for Eight Bits Inc. I can't tell a competitor things that I find out about Ray Keene's plans."

  Arkasian looked at him, perplexed. "Well, I'll be damned."

  "The second I quit," said Step, "then I will be able to tell you whether my noncompetition agreement will allow me to develop for the PC or not, and then you can conclude what you like. But until I quit, I can't tell you what Ray decides about anything. I shouldn't even have told you that he hasn't decided yet, and I feel bad enough about that, I'm not going to make it worse."

  "Well, then, if he decides not to go for the PC, quit your job and call me."

  "I can't quit my job unless I already know I've got something lined up." What Step couldn't say was, There's a chance that you're only offering me work in order to get a spy inside Eight Bits Inc., and I won't do that. "I've got three kids and a fourth due in July."

  Step almost held his breath, waiting to see what Arkasian would say.

  "OK," said Arkasian. "I'll send you a contract for Hacker Snack for the 64. There'll be an option clause in it.

  Hacker Snack for the PC, and a development deal for the PC. If I decide, as I probably will, to take Agamemnon into PC development, then I'll exercise the option on Hacker Snack for the PC. At that point, you come to the conclusion that your noncompetition agreement with Eight Bits Inc. would allow you to develop for the PC, then you can exercise the option on the PC development deal. And I'll make sure the bucks are big enough. What do you make now?"

  "Thirty thousand a year, only that isn't enough to live on."

  "I know how it is," said Arkasian. "A two-year deal, a hundred thousand dollars. You can't exercise your option unless I've already exercised mine, for the PC version of Hacker Snack, but after that, it's up to you."

  "Up to Ray Keene, you mean."

  "I'm betting on Ray Keene making the wrong move. Maybe only for six months before he changes his mind back, but if everything works out, your work is going to be coming out with the Agamemnon logo on it."

  Step cocked his head. "You aren't just using me to stick it to Ray Keene, are you?"

  "I don't invest money to stick it to anybody," said Arkasian. "I invest money where I think I'm going to make a shitload more." Then he grinned. "But if it also makes Ray Keene piss green, so much the better."

  "You need my address," said Step.

  "Give me your card."

  "I don't have a card. I just moved and, well, I don't have a card."

  "Write it on the back of mine. And keep one of these for your self." Step pocketed one card, put the Chinqua Penn address and phone number on the back of the other, and returned it to Arkasian. Arkasian took it, put it in his pocket, and held out his hand. Step took it. Arkasian's grip was large and firm and it made Step feel ... safe.

  Like he was in good hands now.

  Arkasian didn't let go of his ha nd. "What I've said to you about my plans ...," he said.

  "I don't spy for anybody," said Step. "And Ray Keene knows better than to ask me to." Though of course Ray could ask him to sneak around and run the programming behind Dicky's back, and Step would do that. I pretend to be so clean, but I'm really not.

  That was what Step thought as he left the Agamemnon booth. I'm only somewhat clean. I only have some standards that won't bend. And if Arkasian had offered me enough money maybe I would have
folded on all of them. He probably thinks I'm a good man who can be trusted, but I know that I can only be trusted until I think that being trustworthy won't get me what I want. Even as it is, I'm a sneak and a cheat, coming here to talk to one of Eight Bits Inc.'s most powerful competitors when it was Eight Bits that paid for me to come to this convention in the first place. I tricked them into paying for me to fly to a job interview with a rival. I'm even getting paid for the time that I spent here.

  By rights I should share the idea for the atlas with Eight Bits Inc. My employment agreement says so, that any ideas I come up with while I work for them belong to them.

  Then he thought: That's easy. All I have to do is propose the atlas to Dicky, and make him think that I really want to do it. He'll shoot it down. He'll kill it, just to spite me. If I get him to do it in writing, I'm home free. I'll have proof that I offered it to them and that clears me.

  Sneaky. I'm so sneaky.

  That night, Glass tried to get him to join him and the marketing guys and some young programmers at Apple who were working on software for the Lisa. They were going to drink their way through San Francisco, and Step begged off. "But we need a designated driver," said Glass.

  "Take a cab," said Step.

  "Oh, yeah," said Glass. "I forgot. This is a real city. Cabs."

  So Step had the hotel room to himself when he called DeAnne and told her everything that had happened with Neddy Cranes and Dan Arkasian. He loved hearing the relief, the excitement in her voice. "It's not a sure thing," he said. "But the money for the 64 adaptation is."

  Then she thought of something that could go wrong. DeAnne was good at thinking of things that could go wrong. "Only if you can get Eight Bits Inc. to stop working on their own 64 adaptation."

  "I'll just tell them to stop."

  "Right, you'll walk in and say, I sold it to Agamemnon."

  "No, I'll just tell them that I won't sell it to them."

  "And they'll ask why, since you work for them, and especially because they've got so much invested in it now."

  "Not my fault."

  "Not your fault, but then they fire you anyway because you're not a team player."