One False Move

by Robert Goddard

  ‘But that’s all gridforest thinks about, Rog. The long term. The whole board. How everything’s going to turn out.’

  ‘How do you combat that?’

  ‘It computes the best route to victory from every position as it arises. Best meaning most efficient, most certain. But there’s never only one route, is there? There are short cuts and work-arounds. Computers are never quite so hot when it comes to those. And besides …’ Joe’s voice tails off.

  ‘Besides what?’ Roger prompts.

  ‘Sometimes you can just see more clearly than anyone else. Than anything else.’

  ‘You mean you can.’

  ‘It’s like I’m … above the board … looking down. Like I’m watching the stones moving through all the possible variations. Through all the alternative futures flowing from that moment.’

  ‘All of them?’

  ‘All of them that matter.’

  ‘You’re jawing away a lot of time, Joe,’ puts in Bruno.

  Joe leans against the back of his chair and looks down at the board. ‘How would you play from here, Rog?’

  ‘Damage limitation. And hope my opponent slips up.’

  ‘Which isn’t much of a hope, with this opponent.’

  ‘You don’t have to carry on if you don’t want to, Joe,’ I say, feeling suddenly sorry for him.

  ‘What?’ Carl glares at me.

  ‘Well, he doesn’t.’

  ‘As per our agreement, he damn well does.’

  ‘And he’s going to.’ Joe smiles at Carl. ‘Relax. Just sit back and watch the fun.’ He slides into his chair and pushes his hair back.

  He places a white stone on the board almost immediately and then, for the next half an hour or more, he and gridforest both keep up a fast pace, the moves following each other in a rhythm of clock presses and stone placements.

  Then both sides slow down. Joe thinks more. So does gridforest – apparently. During one of gridforest’s thinking periods, Roger says to Joe, quietly, almost reflectively, ‘I don’t understand quite how you’ve done it, Joe, but you’ve created some possibilities I’ve only just noticed. I thought you’d have to attack at the bottom to compensate for your weakness in the centre, but you stuck with the centre and move one twenty-six now looks … inspired.’

  ‘Just neat, Rog. Very neat, maybe. I’d have lost the option if I’d waited any longer.’

  ‘But how did you—’

  ‘Move,’ Bruno cuts in.

  ‘Sorry.’

  They continue in silence. The stones are arrayed across the board in clumps and lines and zigzags now. I get the feeling we’re at the crisis of the game, though I couldn’t tell you how or why or even where on the board the vital manoeuvre is likely to occur.

  Move 204. Joe makes it, positioning his white stone on the board with his long, slender fingers. Then he smiles and stands up. ‘That’ll do it,’ he says, as if stating the blindingly obvious.

  ‘Double sente,’ murmurs Roger appreciatively. ‘And you’re not going to take the ko, are you?’

  ‘Why should I?’

  Roger smiles. ‘Why indeed?’

  ‘I need some air.’

  I’m not sure whether Joe actually means he’s going outside, but that turns out to be just what he has in mind. He leaves the room without a backward glance.

  Carl stares after him. ‘Where the hell is he going?’

  ‘You heard him,’ says Roger. ‘He needs some air.’

  ‘Is he coming back?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘What’s going on? Has he conceded the game?’

  ‘Technically, maybe. But actually …’

  ‘Yeah? Actually what?’

  ‘Gridforest can’t catch him. He’s closed off the upper right. The score’s about even on the board, but there’s no way Black can pay the komi.’

  ‘What the fuck does that mean?’

  ‘It means Joe’s got the better of your computer.’

  ‘Looks like his friend’s right according to our provisional analysis,’ puts in Bruno.

  ‘He could have stayed and forced a resignation,’ says Roger wonderingly. ‘Why didn’t he?’

  ‘How big a deal is this?’ asks Carl, though surely he must realize it’s as big as it gets. Maybe he’s just in shock. I know I am.

  ‘We didn’t hold gridforest back, Carl,’ says Bruno. ‘The machine gave it everything.’

  ‘Then …’

  ‘What we’ve seen shouldn’t be possible.’

  ‘But it is.’ The words come slowly out of my mouth.

  ‘Amazing.’ Roger shakes his head in disbelief. ‘That is just … quite simply … unbelievable.’ He stands up and steps back from the table. Then he pulls out his phone and takes a photograph of the board.

  ‘How did this happen, Bruno?’ Carl asks, clearly bewildered. We hoped Joe would win, of course. We might even have expected him to. But, now he has, we can’t absorb the reality of it.

  ‘Gridforest’s algorithm is solid gold, Carl. Its predictive powers are way beyond human reach. It could play the Go world champion a hundred times and win one hundred to zero.’

  ‘But we just saw it lose.’

  ‘So we did.’

  ‘How do you explain that?’

  ‘I don’t. I mean, we’ll check for glitches, but there’s no way it’s down to a technical problem this end.’

  ‘Then what is it down to?’

  ‘Some kind of billion to one quirk in the way Joe’s brain works would be my guess.’

  ‘How much has the gridforest program cost to develop?’ Roger cuts in.

  ‘That’s confidential,’ Bruno replies.

  ‘North of twenty million dollars?’

  ‘Like I—’

  ‘Never mind. A lot, I assume we can agree. One hell of a lot. And all that algorithmic power you bought couldn’t win this one game against Joe Roberts sitting in his mother’s guesthouse in Falmouth.’

  ‘Well, it kinda … looks that way.’

  ‘So, it all changes here, doesn’t it?’

  ‘What d’you mean?’ asks Carl. But I think I know what Roger means.

  ‘Joe’s life. It’s about to be turned upside down.’

  ‘Kind of, I suppose. But in a good way. He’s going to be famous. And extremely rich.’

  ‘Famous. And extremely rich. I suppose that says it all.’ Roger starts clearing the board, loading the stones back into their pots.

  ‘Shouldn’t you go after Joe, Carl?’ asks Bruno. ‘He’s just become a very precious commodity. We don’t need to see any more from this end.’

  ‘Yeah. Of course.’ Carl looks at me in sudden panic. ‘We need to find him.’

  Carl is almost running as he leaves the room. Roger smiles sympathetically at me as I hurry after him.

  Carl reaches the street way ahead of me and, glancing to his right, evidently catches sight of Joe, because he heads off at a jog.

  When I make it out through the front gate, I can see Joe ambling in the distance, with Carl closing on him.

  ‘Not exactly playing it cool, is he?’ says Roger, walking out from the house behind me, briefcase in hand.

  ‘There’s a lot riding on this.’

  ‘You can say that again. Though whether for Venstrom Computers …’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Shall we go after them?’

  ‘Yeah.’ We start walking, fast but not as fast as Carl’s moving. He’s at Joe’s shoulder now. Joe stops and turns to face him.

  ‘Joe’s ability marks him out from the rest of humanity, Nicole. I doubt Venstrom will be allowed to cordon him off as some kind of corporate commodity.’

  ‘Won’t that be up to Joe?’

  ‘I’m not sure very much about Joe’s future will be up to Joe.’

  ‘That sounds awful.’

  ‘Maybe he should have thrown the game.’

  ‘But he didn’t.’

  ‘No. And now he has to live with the consequences. He’ll ne
ed help. Are you going to give it to him?’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  ‘Well, that’s more than Carl will, I’m sure.’

  ‘I’m sorry about him.’

  ‘He is a prick, isn’t he?’

  I smile. ‘I’m afraid so.’

  We draw level with Carl and Joe. Carl’s talking rapidly, gabbling through some encomium to the wonders of Venstrom’s Palo Alto campus and the facilities Joe will have the run of. Joe’s smoking one of his roll-ups and gazing in puzzlement at Carl, as if he can’t quite understand the words he’s hearing.

  ‘That was a wonderful thing you did back there, Joe,’ Roger cuts in.

  ‘Go’s just a game, Rog,’ Joe replies with a self-deprecating shrug.

  ‘It’s a game that’s going to open up a world of opportunities for you.’

  ‘So Carl’s just been telling me – I think.’

  ‘We should get some kind of preliminary engagement agreement hammered out for you as soon as we can, Joe,’ says Carl.

  ‘I thought you had to speak to Con first.’

  ‘We’ll square him tonight. Then there’ll be nothing to hold us up.’

  ‘Why the rush?’ Roger enquires disingenuously. We all know why, of course.

  Carl rounds on him. ‘What’s it to you?’

  ‘Look, I’m just wondering if Joe shouldn’t take advice before getting into bed with you guys.’

  ‘It’s OK, Rog,’ says Joe emolliently. ‘We can get together tomorrow if that’s what you want, Carl.’

  Carl beams. ‘That’d be great.’

  ‘Want to come to my flat?’ says Roger. Carl’s beam fades.

  ‘Yeah,’ says Joe. ‘That’d be cool. You can make sure I don’t sign anything I shouldn’t then. Zip’s not working tomorrow, so she could be there too. And maybe … Well, we’ll see.’ Does he have it in mind to invite someone else? I’m not sure. But, if so, I wonder who that might be. ‘How about eleven o’clock?’

  Carl nods in instant agreement. He’s obviously decided objecting to Roger’s presence may antagonize Joe. And he wants to avoid that at all costs. ‘Eleven will be fine.’

  ‘Fifty-two Wood Lane,’ says Roger. ‘Apartment two.’

  I smile at Roger, wanting to make it clear I’m more than happy for him to host the meeting – and look out for Joe’s interests. ‘We’ll be there.’

  ‘OK,’ says Roger. He takes a deep breath, as if still shocked by what he’s seen his young friend is capable of. ‘Well, any chance I can buy you a drink, Joe? I certainly need one. And you deserve one.’

  ‘Only if we go via Bean Feast.’

  ‘No problem.’

  They head off down the hill into the centre of town then, leaving Carl and me to walk back to Tideways and collect his laptop. He’s much less talkative now, perhaps sensing I don’t necessarily approve of the hard sell he’s given Joe.

  ‘Maybe we should give him more time to think his priorities through,’ I venture.

  ‘And maybe you should join the Samaritans or something.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘We need to sign Joe up, Nicole. Without delay. And certainly without agonizing over his state of mind. All that matters is what that mind of his can do for us. For the future of our company. You saw what I saw. He’s a fucking phenomenon. And he has to be our fucking phenomenon.’

  ‘We won’t be driving a hard bargain with Vogler, then?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  And that’s all the answer I get.

  Until, an hour later, we’re sitting on the King Harry ferry, rumbling across the Fal on our way back to St Mawes and our dinner date with the Voglers.

  ‘Change of plan, Nicole,’ Carl says suddenly, breaking a lengthy silence. ‘I’ll see the Voglers on my own. You can sit this out.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t want you bringing a negative attitude to the discussion.’

  ‘Negative attitude? I don’t know what—’

  ‘I can’t trust you to toe the party line, Nicole. It’s as simple as that.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous.’

  ‘This has to be handled right. And you’ve mishandled Vogler every step of the way. So, I don’t want you there. Got it?’

  ‘Vogler will be expecting me.’

  ‘All he cares about is the bottom line. Venting about Joe’s delicate sensibilities will just get in the way.’

  ‘I have no intention of venting about anything.’

  ‘Good. But you’re still not coming. And Vogler will get over your absence in double quick time when I start offering him serious money. I promise you that.’

  ‘Listen, Carl, I—’

  ‘No, you listen. I’m here to do a job. And I’ll do it a whole lot better without you around. Got it?’

  Carl’s a fully paid up shit. He wants all of this for himself now he realizes just how big it’s going to be. I know exactly how his tiny mind is working.

  He doesn’t know how my mind’s working, though. Being told I don’t have to sit down to dinner with the Voglers isn’t exactly catastrophic news from my point of view. I was worried about how I was going to handle Conrad Vogler. And how he was going to handle me. I have no idea what Ursula got from the bug I planted on him or whether he found it. I haven’t given Carl the slightest inkling of what Ursula told me about Vogler’s organized crime connections, which means I know – but Carl doesn’t – that Vogler has more to lose by letting Joe go than Carl can possibly imagine.

  In the end, though, Vogler surely can’t stop Joe’s talents being exploited by the wider world. They’re just too extraordinary for some kind of accommodation not to be reached. In many ways, Venstrom Computers isn’t so very different from the Clearing House. They’re both in business to solve problems.

  Besides, if Ursula can nail Vogler, I’ll have the last laugh on Carl by sparing Venstrom the expense of any deal he strikes. Then I’ll be the one smelling of roses.

  Maybe it’s all going to turn out well for me after all.

  I keep hoping for news from Ursula, but she doesn’t call. The afternoon fades into evening. I stay out of the way when seven o’clock comes round and see nothing of Carl’s departure with the Voglers. I’m left to guess how they’ll react to news of my absence.

  But a phone call to my room about half an hour after Carl was due to be collected sheds a different light on what’s happened. Marianne Vogler is on the line.

  ‘Con spoke to Carl earlier and heard you wouldn’t be joining us this evening, Nicole. He decided in that case it should just be two boys together. I think he was afraid I might cramp their style. And that would never do, would it? Anyhow, I’m here at Admiral’s Reach with the ingredients for a tasty supper and the run of the wine cellar, so … why don’t you join me?’

  This I certainly didn’t expect. And for the moment I’ve no idea how to respond.

  ‘Actually,’ Marianne continues, ‘I’m glad we’ve got the chance to meet. Y’know, just the two of us. I know you understand the difficulties losing Joe will cause us and I have a proposition I want to try out on you before I put it to Con. Or to Carl, come to that. Sometimes women just see through problems more clearly than men, don’t they? Well, that’s my experience. So, why don’t we get together? Plus we can drink some seriously good wine. What d’you say?’

  What I find myself saying is yes. I know it’s safer to stay well away from Marianne Vogler. But something about her proposition is just too tempting to resist. Outflanking Carl would be seriously satisfying. Maybe Marianne and I really can come to a better arrangement than anything he and her husband can cook up. I’ve got to find out what she has in mind.

  I’m at Admiral’s Reach half an hour later. There’s soft music playing. The rooms are delicately lit. Marianne is quite plainly but elegantly dressed in a black top and trousers. She obviously doesn’t think anything tight or revealing is worth bothering with for female company.

  She seemed half drunk when I last saw her, but though she’s
wafting about with a glass of white wine in her hand she comes across now as sober and focused. We go into the kitchen. There’s a puzzling lack of any obvious sign of a meal being prepared, but I suppose there’ll be something to eat in due course. I join her in a glass of wine and we sit down at a large table, where there’s a laptop open with papers scattered around it. The papers look like invoices and balance sheets, but I can’t be seen paying them much attention.

  ‘When Con said you were opting out this evening,’ Marianne says after we’ve clinked glasses, ‘I was afraid you were ill. But you look fine.’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘Sidelined by Carl, then? I mean, I’ve never met the guy, but I bet he wants to take all the credit for whatever deal we do with Venstrom.’

  I smile. ‘Something like that.’

  ‘Yeah. That’s men for you.’

  ‘Your husband excepted, presumably.’

  ‘Oh, no. If Con had his way, I’d do nothing but cook his meals and pander to his sexual whims. Just a pity I have a better head for money than he does.’

  ‘Is that what your proposition’s about, Marianne? Money?’

  ‘Every proposition in this world is about money, Nicole. Or sex. Or both. But, yes, this one is just about money.’

  ‘Venstrom are willing to compensate you very generously.’

  ‘I’m sure they are. But how much do you know about what exactly you’d be compensating us for?’

  ‘Well, the loss of Joe’s services as a stocks analyst.’

  ‘Just that? It sounds so ordinary.’

  ‘I’m sure he’s very good at it.’

  ‘Oh, he is. And we need him to be. As I think you’re well aware.’

  ‘I don’t quite know what you mean.’

  ‘Come on, Nicole. Let’s be honest. You decided to play dirty, didn’t you? By planting a bug on Con yesterday morning you took this to a whole new level.’

  Shit. This isn’t how I saw this going. She knows. They know. I frown as genuinely as I can manage. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, Marianne. A bug?’

  ‘It means you – or whoever was listening in – knows what was said in the meeting Con was on his way to when you met him. I suppose that makes you think you can blackmail us into letting you have Joe for free. Definitely a good deal for Venstrom. But a bad deal for us. Very bad.’

  ‘This is all …’