The Great Game
D. R. Bell
Author Bio
D. R. Bell is a pen name. I grew up in the former Soviet Union, now live in the US with my family and an old beagle. I have graduate degrees in business and engineering and spent many years writing boring technical, business, and legal papers. This is my first attempt at writing fiction and I loved every minute of it.
The Great Game was intended as more than a pure entertainment read. It is based on one possible result of our collective course of action – or inaction. You won’t find apocalyptic visions, zombies, vampires, people with super-human abilities or even unconventional sex here. I tried to make it into a fast-paced “who done it” suspense, layered with a love story and a tale of two average people courageously rising to a great challenge. It is also a bit of a philosophical meditation: on human nature, on meaning of compassion, on conflict of individual vs. the state, and on seduction of power.
Description
The Great Game is an international intrigue and thriller piece set against the backdrop of 2019, a future world in which China and Russia have staged a financial coup against the U.S. dollar to replace it as the world’s reserve currency. Its primary protagonist David is a timid computer engineer who finds himself on the run after a chance airport encounter with a friendly stranger immerses him in one of the biggest gambits of his times. In trying to evade his pursuers, David accidentally implicates Maggie, a transplant from Ukraine and a descendant of Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of “The Master and Margarita.” Now the two of them, ordinary individuals not well versed in either politics or espionage, become involved in a game they never asked for or thought about. Their search for answers leads them, and everyone they come in touch with, on a dangerous path.
To save themselves, they have to uncover the conspiracy behind a financial crisis and political upheaval that followed. Pursued by powerful organizations, David and Maggie survive only thanks to help from a few brave souls they encounter. As their helpers either get killed or have to disappear leaving only two of them, David and Maggie race against time to confront their opponents. The quest forces them to decide what to do with the information they uncover, whether to profit from keeping it secret or to make it public and face the consequences. The Bulgakov’s novel serves as a backdrop for the ethical and personal questions David and Maggie struggle with. They have to look inside themselves to figure out what is truly important to each of them and what price they are willing to pay in order to get it.
Book excerpt
“Any idiot can face a crisis.
It is day-to-day living that wears you out.”
— attributed to Anton Chekhov
Mount Rainier came into view. Whenever David flew to Seattle, he tried to get a seat on the right side of the plane going north and on the left side coming back, so he could see the mountain. The view reminded him of Maui, his favorite vacation spot, with Rainier rising from the clouds the way Haleakala volcano rose from the ocean.
It was early afternoon on Friday and the flight was not busy. An Asian man across the aisle was arguing with a flight attendant over changing seats without permission, and David wondered why it was such a big deal. No one occupied the seat next to him. A woman David’s age in the aisle seat tried striking up a conversation. He politely mumbled a response but did not reciprocate and avoided eye contact. David wasn’t good at casual small talk, and the woman’s loud manner and even louder dress turned him off. The woman gave up, put on video glasses, and became engrossed in some show. David thought that he should look into getting a pair of video glasses too. The first generation of glasses-based video devices did not do well, but the devices were making a comeback. The new generation’s electronics were built into optical frames and hard to detect.
David thought it was a pattern: first generation devices, be it personal digital assistants, video glasses, or home delivery drones, would fail due to unintended consequences. Then the next generation would fix these errors, but eventually bring on their own repercussions. He reclined his seat and picked up the Economist magazine that a friendly stranger had given him in SeaTac airport. It felt strange holding a print version, most periodicals went digital only. The magazine’s headline read “Ides of March: Et tu, California?” The editors must have been fairly confident in their readers knowing the history of Ancient Rome. Although, the picture below was quite descriptive: dark-blue-colored states from Minnesota to Virginia cut off diagonally from red-colored states in the south and center of the country, and another dividing line separated the light blue-colored Pacific Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington.
David stuffed the magazine into the pocket of the seat in front of him; he didn’t feel like reading it. He did keep the green manila folder that the magazine was in, figuring he could use it if he ever got his cluttered home office organized. He wished that he and Thomas Mann, the man who’d given him the magazine, had exchanged e-mails or phone numbers. It was nice to experience a bit of unexpected travel camaraderie.
David looked at his watch, which annoyingly made him view his pulse and blood pressure in addition to displaying the time. They got delayed by a few minutes because a couple of passengers were late for the flight, but he was still going to land at LAX before 3:00 p.m. There was no point in going to the office today. Nothing was urgent enough that it couldn’t wait until Monday.