Death Dream by Ben Bova Page A

cherrywood desk.
    Dan sat as Muncrief said suavely into the phone, "That's right. The Pine Lake Middle School. It's the only one in the country . . . Sure, we could arrange a visit for you. I think you'll be very impressed. And the teachers love it! They don't need any special training, either. A day's orientation at the beginning of the school year is all it takes."
    Dan's eyes wandered to the architect's rendering on the wall behind Muncrief: a low, windowless building of pure white with a tall slender tower by its entrance, almost like a minaret. Over the front door was emblazoned CYBER WORLD in computer-style letters.
    Muncrief smiled at Dan as he continued, "That's fine. Great. I'll have my assistant set up a visit for you. Her name's Victoria Kessel. Hang on, I'll transfer you . . ."
    He punched buttons on the phone console like a man whacking at mosquitoes. "Vickie? Got the superintendent of schools from St Louis on the phone. She wants to visit Pine Lake. Set it up, okay?"
    He banged the phone back into its cradle. "Those school people! They're so unbelievably slow to move you could starve to death before they start to say hello."
    Dan wanted to talk about buying more hardware, not the shortcomings of school administrators.
    "We've got the best thing to hit education since lead pencils and all they do is pussyfoot around and come to visit and tell me how tight their blasted budgets are."
    "Well maybe—"
    "You know how much that school is costing me? A good-sized fortune, every month. But I keep it going because one of these days VR is going to be the only way those people will build their schools. The only way."
    "We've got a problem," Dan blurted.
    Muncrief raised his eyebrows. Dan began to explain that they needed more hardware to make the baseball simulation completely realistic. Muncrief's usually smiling face got tauter and tauter as Dan talked, and he realized that Jace had sent him in here because he didn't want to face the boss's ire.
    "Another Toshiba!" Muncrief exploded. "Do you know what they cost?"
    "We'll only need one—"
    "The hell you do! You listen to me, Dan. I hired you to keep Jace happy, not to come running to me asking for money. If Jace can solve his problems with more hardware, what do we need you for? He's already got a Toshiba and two Crays and God knows what else. That's it! The piggy bank is busted! Now get back there and tell that big genius to get his brain in gear and make that baseball game work!"
    Dan clenched his teeth so hard his jaw hurt. He pushed himself up from the chair and headed for the door.
    "Hey, Dan, wait a minute," Muncrief called.
    Dan turned back toward him.
    The suave smile was back in place. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I know you're doing your best. It's just that we're running tight, financially. You know, I don't have the capital for major new equipment buys. Jace told me he had enough hardware when he asked me to hire you. There just isn't enough money in the company to buy anything big. Our cash flow is negative."
    Dan nodded, tightlipped, not trusting himself to say anything.
    "And besides," Muncrief added, pointing to his blank computer screen, "every additional dollar we spend on computer power for the simulation increases the ticket price we'll have to charge the customers. The accountants tell me we're already up against the limit that we can reasonably charge. We've got to be competitive with Disney and the other amusement parks, especially at the beginning."
    Dan nodded. "I understand."
    "You guys have to solve your problems without more hardware."
    "I'll see what we can do."
    Dan got as far as the door.
    "Another thing," Muncrief said.
    Turning, Dan saw that Muncrief was standing behind his desk, his face deadly serious.
    "The media's gotten wind of what we're doing. We've been getting calls; reporters are starting to sniff around."
    "So?"
    "All media contacts must be handled by the front office. Understand that? I don't want any of the staff talking to