A/N Game Theory is something that's highly interesting, if you've seen the wonderful Dr. Stiles in Princess Bride, you've seen Game Theory in action (the poison scene) and if you've seen A Beautiful Mind you know quite a bit about the Nash Equilibrium. If you want to learn more about Game Theory, check out which is a very comprehensive resource to Game Theory. I have to thank Garretelliot for giving me the idea to not make it Garret/Jordan, which had stalled in my brain, but to try different characters, and thus, this. I don't own the characters, but I do own the crazy psychopath (I love writing psychos, if you couldn't tell from White Knight).
The whole neighborhood had a sterile feel to it, as if had not been inhabited in many years, and the streets were empty as the man walked through them. He stopped before one building and knocked on a rotted wood door that looked as if it was going to collapse when he knocked. Surprisingly it stayed put, but the man didn't like what he got when it was answered.
He found himself staring down the barrel of a gun, held by a man cloaked in the shadow of the door. "Ah, Mr. Townsend, I've been expecting you, the last one to join the party as it were." The owner of the gun drawled, pushing the gun against his back, forcing him into the house, and into a small living room area, where he found Jordan and Woody sitting, Woody sprawled out on what was once a very comfortable looking couch, but years of not being in use had rotted it away, Jordan was tied to an armchair in the middle of the room, and in the far corner, a man who had quite obviously camped out there to avoid the weather lay sound asleep, oblivious to what was going on around him.
"Now, gentlemen, have either of you heard of the Game Theory?" Both of them shook their heads. "No? never took basic Political Science?" That seemed to spark something in Nigel, but he kept his mouth shut.
"Well then gentlemen, I'm going to save you the whole lecture and get right down to the bare bones of it. We are all players in a game, and the game is life. And we all have the same objective: to win. What makes us win? Well, succeeding in life. Having the good job, the good car, the beautiful woman, good friends, the great house, the white picket fence and 2.5 kids. And of course, living to a nice ripe old age. How do we get there? By playing against everyone else."
The man was unnerving, to Nigel, to Woody and to Jordan. He was so calm, cool and collected. And a serial killer. Unafraid of his own death, unafraid of killing others. "So you are going to both be playing. Against each other. In a very very serious game. And you have your choice of outcome." The gunman gestured at the two doors that led off from the living room.
"Dear Detective Hoyt here will be going through the door to the left, and you, Townsend, will be going through the door to the right to ponder what your fates will be, I will be in separately to tell you of your options." This guy was good, insane, the man who had crossed the line between genius and insanity, as so many are wont to do. "The goal is to find the Nash Equilibrium. I hope you have heard of John Nash, correct? They only made a movie about him." At least this got a nod.
"Now, do you remember what the Nash Equilibrium is, or did you sleep through that part of the movie?" Both men tried to remember what exactly it was and found themselves failing. "The Nash equilibrium is the point in which you all come up with a strategy that if you were to change that strategy, both of you would wind up in a worse position. But the problem with that is that it does rely quite a bit on trust. But I think I might be giving too much away with that, now into your rooms."
Both men got up and walked into the rooms at gun point, and he quickly locked one door before walking into the other. He gave both men the same exact lecture, leaving them to decide their own fates.
"You, are in this room, with no way of communicating with the other. You have one of two options, you either choose to die, or you do not. What you choose and what your outcome is depends on what your opponent chooses as well. If you choose to die, and Hoyt chooses to live, well, then, goodbye cruel world for you, and if you choose to live and your opponent chooses to die, well then, one less person in the world that is competition for you, isn't it? Now if you both choose to live, then it is poor Dr. Cavanaugh that winds up being the victim. And if you both choose to die, that's so terribly noble that I have to kill that poor random stranger instead, a victim of cruel fate. So you have a choice, do you choose to live, or do you choose to die? What is your strategy? I'll give you each a good hour to decide, better make it a good choice, or you may wind up ending your life here."
The door locked as he walked out of the one room and into the other to give the same speech before he walked back out into the main room and took a seat opposite of Jordan. "Well, Dr. Cavanaugh, how much do you trust these two men?"
"With my life." She said, and the man gave a cold, cruel laugh.
"That's very good then, because someone's life is going to end. Yours, theirs, or that poor man in the corner who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." The gunman got up and pulled out a small bit of chloroform, to ensure that the poor stranger would stay sound asleep.
"Why?" She asked, and the gunman shrugged as he sat back down on the couch, making himself quite comfortable.
"Why? Because this is fun, it is a study of the human mind at work. Do they trust their fellow human with their own life? What if I put two perfect strangers in there, the results would be predictable, they would both turn against you, not trusting the other. The question is do they trust each other enough to risk death, or risk you? I'm sure they don't care about that poor sap over there, but it's interesting to see what would happen. You know, I almost let you all walk away scott free with that last outcome, but I felt I had to raise the stakes just a bit. I almost decided on another person from your office, that receptionist of yours, Emma I believe her name was, she would be a quite perfect other victim."
Jordan's blood ran cold at the easy way that the man spoke of killing people, he had done this before, had done twisted, demented games, all, as he claimed, in studying the way that the human mind worked in conjunction with emotion. "You know, I debated on who it was that I would bring here. I wanted the two that would make the best decision. I almost picked Dr. Macy, but he would choose to keep quiet, I think, being the noble sort and trying to think his opponent would step forward and be shot rather than you or an innocent man. Of course for that reason he might step forward and choose to die instead of anyone else. Dr. Vijay would definitely keep quiet, being a self-preservationist, and that grief counselor of yours would choose to die before the game even began she'd be so upset if there was any blood on her hands at all."
The way that he had each one of the staff figured out was dead on. "Townsend and Hoyt were the two biggest wild cards, short of Macy. But I think Townsend and Hoyt are more predictable, because they both wouldn't want to see you hurt, or the innocent man hurt, yet I don't think they quite want to risk sacrificing themselves while the other walks free, it's the most interesting mix of them all. Although if I couldn't get one of them, Macy would definitely be my alternate. I think that if this works, I should have to try one with him as well. But, come, Dr. Cavanaugh, I'm going on and on, and we have an hour, anything you would like to contribute to this conversation?"
"You're a psychopath." She said, and he laughed.
"Am I? Really? Don't you find this the least bit interesting?" She had to concede that. It was interesting. "Ah, I was right, a curious mind as your own, you certainly find it to be highly intriguing."
"It's all nice to think about, but not when there are lives at stake." He grinned, and she fought back a shudder.
"But you see, Dr. Cavanaugh, that's what makes this game so much fun, if it was some useless thing, don't you think it would loose some of its fun? This actually requires real thought, real deliberation and real emotion, it's not some game on paper like the Prisoner's Dilemma, it is serious, and they have to pick, and pick wisely, otherwise they will wind up dead."