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Then Colm smiled, and there wassomething about that smile that said he had something else planned. Somethinghe hadn’t told her yet. He drew out the moment, and the longer he did so, themore uneasy Amber became.
“One little extra tweak,” Colmsaid. He picked up the white queen. “It seems only fair that if Simon there isthe king, you should be his queen, yes? Lose it, and I’ll kill you.”
“And Simon?” Amber asked.
“You won’t be there to win or losethe game. I will simply leave.”
“Leaving Simon to die of thirst orhunger,” Amber said.
Colm shrugged. “Not my problem.”
His terms were cruel, and they alsofilled Amber with fear. Fear for herself, fear for Simon, and fear over whethershe could actually win this. The queen was the most powerful piece on theboard, but it could also be vulnerable, and in close games it was usual totrade the queens for one another to transition into an endgame, trying to grindthings down for every small advantage. Amber didn’t have that option here.
“I don’t know why you’re thinking,Amber,” Colm said. He nodded to the gun he still held. “It isn’t as if you havea choice.”
“All right,” Amber said. “But if Iwin, what’s to stop you from simply killing us both anyway?”
“I play games,” Colm said. “If youwin… well, it’s more interesting to leave you alive to play again, isn’t it?”
Amber nodded. “It seems I have nochoice.”
Colm smiled again, the smile of apredator that had his prey firmly in his sights. “You don’t. Now play, or die.”
Amber made her move, choosing anaggressive setup because she had no real choice in the matter. She couldn’tafford to play something safe and hope for a small edge in the endgame, notwhen she couldn’t afford to lose her queen.
Colm knew that, though, and fromthe start, he pressured Amber with moves that insisted that she should tradequeens, and that forced her to concede weaknesses in her position to avoid itbeing trapped.
Amber was breathing harder now,trying to focus, trying to calculate a path through all of this. Colm wastaunting Amber now, putting pieces on squares where Amber could capture them,but only if she was prepared to trade queens to win the material. It was anunfair advantage and a dangerous one.
Amber had had enough. She needed tostop playing what was objectively best and start playing her opponent. Sheneeded to think about the kind of player Colm was. He clearly liked tricks andtraps, liked trying to lure Amber into things, rather than building up steady,positional pressure. He liked to be the one setting the problems.
So Amber went on the attack. Shegave away one pawn, then a second, opening up lines she could use to attack.She threw her pieces forward, crafting an assault on Colm’s position that wasalmost unstoppable in its ferocity. He was thinking longer and longer betweenmoves now, but every time he lingered too long, Amber smiled mockingly at him.
“Having trouble?” she asked. Sheneeded to goad him into playing his moves quickly, because she knew that withthe most precise defense her attack would probably fail. She needed Colm toreact.
He did. He snapped out moves, andAmber had to do the same to keep the tempo up, keep him reacting instinctivelyrather than truly thinking. The difference was that she had already calculateda path through all of this…
Then Colm made a defensive moveAmber didn’t expect. One that didn’t save his position, not in a normal game.Amber saw the way to checkmate, saw the whole combination, forced frombeginning to end. There was only one problem with it:
It started with a queen sacrifice.
Amber could checkmate Colm now, butshe had to give up her queen to do it. Amber looked at the position. Was thereanother way? No, she realized that she couldn’t back out now, because the timethat it took to do that would let Colm get his own attack going, and Amberwasn’t sure that she would be able to stop it.
She had to do this, but if she did…if she did, Colm was going to kill her. Emotions flooded through Amber then,from anger to disbelief, fear to the desire simply to run.
Somewhere in it, though, Amberstarted to think about Simon. He had her pocketknife. He would eventually getfree of his bonds. If Amber did this, she at least bought him a chance. Hecould survive. He could live through this, even if Amber didn’t.
A strange kind of calm settled onAmber then as she looked at the possibilities. She didn’t have any choice, notreally. Everything in this game had been leading to this moment.
“Play it through,” Amber said, andmade the move.
Colm could have shot her rightthen, but he didn’t. The instinct to play, to finish the game, was too strongin him. Amber had been hoping it would be. He made the next move, and the next,until finally…
“Checkmate,” Amber said.
She could see the anger on Colm’sface, the fury at having lost.
“It doesn’t change anything,” hesnarled, lifting the gun. “You still die, Amber Young.”
