13 WITH BOTH HANDS
MAYBE YOU CAN RUN that one by me again, Bobby said, around a mouthful of rice and eggs I thought you already said its not a religion.
Beauvoir removed his eyeglass frames and sighted down one of the earpieces. That wasnt what I said. I said you didnt have to worry about it, is all, whether its a religion or not Its Just a structure. Lets you an me discuss some things that are happening, otherwise we might not have words for it, concepts
But you talk like these, whatchacallem, lows, are
Loa, Beauvoir corrected, tossing his glasses down on the table He sighed, dug one of the Chinese cigarettes from Two-a-Days pack, and lit it with the pewter skull. Plurals same as the singular. He inhaled deeply, blew out twin streams of smoke through arched nostrils. You think religion, what are you thinking about, exactly?
Well, my mothers sister, shes a Scientologist, real orthodox, you know? And theres this woman across the hall, shes Catholic. My old lady he paused, the food gone tasteless in his mouth - shed put these holograms up in my room sometimes, Jesus or Hubbard or some shit. I guess I think about that.
Vodou isnt like that, Beauvoir said. It isnt concerned with notions of salvation and transcendence. What its about is getting things done. You follow me? In our system, there are many gods, spirits. Part of one big family, with all the virtues, all the vices. Theres a ritual tradition of communal manifestation, understand? Vodou says, theres God, sure, Gran Met, but Hes big, too big and too far away to worry Himself if your ass is poor, or you cant get laid. Come on, man, you know how this works, its street religion, came out of a dirt-poor place a million years ago. Vodous like the street. Some duster chops out your sister, you dont go camp on the Yakuzas doorstep, do you? No way. You go to somebody, though, who can get the thing done. Right? Bobby nodded, chewing thoughtfully. Another derm and two glasses of the red wine had helped a lot, and the big man had taken Two-a-Day for a walk through the trees and the fluorescent jackstraws, leaving Bobby with Beauvoir. Then Jackie had shown up all cheerful, with a big bowl of this eggs-and-rice stuff, which wasnt bad at all, and as shed put it down on the table in front of him, shed pressed one of her tits against his shoulder.
So, Beauvoir said, we are concerned with getting things done. If you want, were concerned with systems. And so are you, or at least you want to be, or else you wouldnt be a cowboy and you wouldnt have a handle, right? He dunked what was left of the cigarette in a fingerprinted glass half full of red wine. Looks like Two-a-Day was about to get down to serious partying, about the time the shit hit the fan.
What shits that? Bobby asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
You, Beauvoir said, frowning. Not that any of it is your fault. As much as Two-a-Day wants to make out thats the case.
He does? He seems pretty tense now Real bitchy, too.
Exactly. You got it Tense Scared shitless is more like it.
So how come?
Well, you see, things arent exactly what they seem, with Two-a-Day. I mean, yeah, he actually does the kind of shit youve known him to; hustles hot software to the caspers, pardon me he grinned down in Barrytown, but his main shot, I mean the mans real ambitions, you understand, lie elsewhere. Beauvoir picked up a wilted canap, regarded it with evident suspicion, and flicked it over the table, into the trees. His thing, you understand, is dicking around for a couple of bigtime Sprawl oungans.
Bobby nodded blankly.
Dudes who serve with both hands
You lost me there.
Were talking a professional priesthood here, you want to call it that. Otherwise, just imagine a couple of major dudes console cowboys, among other things who make it their business to get things done for people. To serve with both hands is an expression we have, sort of means they work both ends. White and black, got me?
Bobby swallowed, then shook his head.
Sorcerers, Beauvoir said Never mind. Bad dudes, big money, thats all you need to know Two-a-Day, he acts like an up-line joeboy for these people. Sometimes he finds some thing they might be interested in, he downloads it on em, collects a few favors later. Maybe he collects a dozen too many favors, they download something on him. Not quite the same proposition, you follow me? Say they get something they think has potential, but it scares them. These characters tend to a certain conservatism, you see? No? Well, youll learn.
Bobby nodded.
The kind of software someone like you would rent from Two-a-Day, thats nothin. I mean, itll work, but its nothing anybody heavy would ever bother with. Youve seen a lot of cowboy kinos, right? Well, the stuff they make up for those things isnt much, compared with the kind of shit a real heavy operator can front. Particularly when it comes to icebreakers Heavy icebreakers are kind of funny to deal in, even for the big boys You know why? Because ice, all the really hard stuff, the walls around every major store of data in the matrix, is always the produce of an Al, an artificial intelligence. Nothing else is fast enough to weave good ice and constantly alter and upgrade it. So when a really powerful icebreaker shows up on the black market, there are already a couple of very dicey factors in play. Like, for starts, where did the product come from? Nine times out of ten, it came from an Al, and Als are constantly screened, mainly by the Turing people, to make sure they dont get too smart. So maybe youll get the Turing machine after your ass, because maybe an Al somewhere wants to augment its private cash flow Some Als have citizenship, right? Another thing you have to watch out for, maybe its a military icebreaker, and thats bad heat, too, or maybe its taken a walk out of some zaibatsus industrial espionage arm, and you dont want that either You takin this shit in, Bobby?
Bobby nodded. He felt like hed been waiting all his life to hear Beauvoir explain the workings of a world whose existence hed only guessed at before.
Still, an icebreaker thatll really cut is worth mega, I mean beaucoup. So maybe youre Mr. Big in the market, someone offers you this thing, and you dont want to just tell em to take a walk So you buy it. You buy it, real quiet, but you dont slot it, no. What do you do with it? You take it home, have your tech fix it up so that it looks real average. Like you have it set up in a format like this and he tapped a stack of software in front of him -and you take it to your joeboy, who owes you some favors, as usual.
Wait a sec, Bobby said. I dont think I like -
Good. That means youre getting smart, or anyway smarter. Because thats what they did. They brought it out here to your friendly wareman, Mr. Two-a-Day, and they told him their problem. Ace, they say, we want to check this shit out, test-drive it, but no way we gonna do it ourselves Its down to you, boy. So, in the way of things, whats Two-a-Day gonna do with it? Is he gonna slot it? No way at all. He just does the same damn thing the big boys did to him, cept he isnt even going to bother telling the guy hes going to do it to. What he does, he picks a base out in the Midwest thats full of tax-dodge programs and yen-laundry flowcharts for some whorehouse in Kansas City, and everybody who didnt just fall off a tree knows that the motherfucker is eyeball-deep in ice, black ice, totally lethal feedback programs. There isnt a cowboy in the Sprawl or out whod mess with that base first, because its dripping with defenses; second, because the stuff inside isnt worth anything to anybody but the IRS, and theyre probably already on the owners take
Hey, Bobby said, lemme get this straight
Im giving it to you straight, white boy! He picked out that base, then he ran down his list of hotdoggers, ambitious punks from over in Barrytown, wilsons dumb enough to run a program theyd never seen before against a base that some joker like Two-a-Day fingered for them and told them was an easy make. And whos he pick? He picks somebody new to the game, natch, somebody who doesnt even know where he lives, doesnt even have his number, and he says, here, my man, you take this home and make yourself some money. You get anything good, Ill fence it for you! Beauvoirs eyes were wide, he wasnt smiling. Sound like anybody you know, man, or maybe you try not to hang out with losers?