Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card Page A

old southern family.”
    â€œSorry. I wasn’t trying to pry or anything,” said Step.
    Gallowglass laughed. “I haven’t seen a grown man blush in a long time,” he said.
    This poor kid, thought Step. A sweet, brilliant, nice kid, and not only does his dad hate him, not only did his mom blow smoke in his face as a baby, but also he’s getting seriously ripped off by the very people that he trusts most in all the world. None of my business, 1 know, but this kid ought to at least know that something else is possible. “Let me tell you something,” said Step. “The difference between royalties and bonuses is that a royalty is yours by right, by law , even after you leave the company, while a bonus is a gift and if Ray ever feels like not giving it to you, then that’s just too bad for you.”
    Gallowglass looked at him steadily through those bottle-bottom lenses.
    â€œI just thought you ought to know that,” said Step. “In case you ever want to write another piece of software. Maybe on the next one, they’ll mention your name somewhere in the manual. It’s something we programmers don’t get much of—credit for what we do.”
    â€œYou had your name on Hacker Snack,” observed Gallowglass.
    â€œI turned down two software publishers because they wouldn’t write that into the contract,” said Step. “That’s why you folks here at Eight Bits knew my name. But until this very moment, no one here ever mentioned your name. In fact, I kind of got the impression that Ray wrote Scribe 64 himself.”
    â€œYou did?” asked Gallowglass.
    â€œNot that he ever said so,” said Step.
    â€œRay can’t program a computer to print his name on the screen,” said Gallowglass.
    â€œYeah, well, I didn’t know that,” said Step. “He never told me. Hey, not his fault if I got the wrong impression. The main thing is that I think it’s important for programmers to get credit for what we do. Like an author getting his name on his own book.”
    â€œYou weren’t the first to get your name above the title, you know,” said Gallowglass. “Doug Duncan got his name on Russian Front even before you.”
    â€œYeah,” said Step. “I already had my contract signed before Russian Front came out, but he was the first to get his game out that way.”
    â€œI met him at CES last year,” said Gallowglass.
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œI did him like I did you—told him it was a great game but then I laid into one of the flaws in the game.”
    â€œOh, is this something you do to everybody?” asked Step.
    â€œSure.”
    â€œWhere’d you team that technique, from How to Win Friends and Influence People? ”
    Gallowglass giggled. “I just like to see how people react to it. You took it just fine. In fact, best ever. You actually listened to a kid with glasses and a pocket protector and you didn’t know me from shit on the sidewalk.”
    â€œWhat did Duncan do?”
    â€œWell, let’s just say that Doug Duncan is the kind of guy who never, ever forgives anybody who dares to suggest that anything he ever did was somewhat less than perfect. He actually got me kicked off a panel at a conference six months later. Said he’d leave and not do his thing there if I was given a microphone at the conference. He never forgives and he never forgets.”
    â€œMaybe that would have taught you not to criticize strangers.”
    â€œHey, it’s my flaming-asshole test, and Duncan leaves a trail of ashes wherever he goes.”
    Step had to laugh. He liked this kid. Maybe a lot. Though if Dicky had overheard their conversation about royalties and credit for programmers, both of them would probably be in trouble. “Hey, uh, how soundproof is this office?” asked Step.
    â€œHow the hell should I know?” asked Gallowglass. “But with all these games