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"Yeah, he was an interesting guy," Nomi says. "Not, uh, a good guy. Right-wing crank, UFOlogist, drifted into Q stuff toward the end and started harassing the rest of the family. Made me look good in comparison. But he loved these old games, and he got me into them."

"Where is he now?" you ask.

"Gone," Nomi says. "Probably dead? He disappeared investigating…do you know about Biosphere Zero?"

"Never heard of it," you say.

"It was an experiment the US government ran in the late '60s, early '70s with V.D.G.-Constantilos (now Chemikon) and the PenteX Group (now defunct)," Nomi says. "They knew about global warming back then and wanted to experiment with human populations in a controlled environment. Plans for future domed cities or maybe space colonization. Apparently, like, hundreds of people died, most of them migrants who were promised work and instead ended up working dead fields until they ran out of water."

You file all this away.

Nomi starts telling you more about Demo88Con, but then they brake. You're outside the Hotel Northampton, a huge slab of Federalist-style red brick and white trim close to the center of town, and there's some kind of shindig going on.

"Great Graham's ghost!" Nomi cries, skidding to a halt. "It's a Smengie wedding!"

Sport coats and flashy dresses, lots of bright red faces and big loud back-slapping laughs. Shitfaced partygoers have spilled onto the sidewalk, where they're annoying pedestrians and disrupting traffic.

"Old Man Smengie has five sons, and he's been trying to marry them off for years to prominent families, really cement his position in town," Nomi says. "But no one wants them because they're lazy and stupid and Smengie has to split the inheritance five ways. He managed to farm one out to the Goultiers, do you know them?"

"My landlord," you say.

"Oh damn that's worse than a cop landlord," Nomi says. "But the Goultiers are a big step down and I think this one is marrying a Sullivan!"

Sullivan like Michael Sullivan at Everlite? It's a stretch—Sullivan is one of the most common names in the state—but could this connect to your work?

"Let's go!" Nomi says, racing into an alley to park their bike.

"But what about the video games?" My date is fast turning into some kind of caper or even hijink.

"Do you think we can score some free food?"

"Are you sure this is safe? For you?"

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