A call? Who?
Some white guy with a bleach job. Mean-looking.
Beauvoir looked at Bobby, looked at the door, looked back. Legba says sit tight and watch. This is getting random enough already, the Sons of the Neon Chrysanthemum aside.
Beauvoir, Bobby said, keeping his voice down, that girl, shes the one, the one in the matrix, when I tried to run that -
He nodded, his plastic frames sliding down his nose. The Virgin.
But whats happening? I mean
Bobby, my advice to you is just take it like it comes. Shes one thing to me, maybe something different to Jackie. To you, shes just a scared kid. Go easy. Dont upset her. Shes a long way from home, and were still a long way from getting out of here
Okay...
Bobby looked at the floor. Im sorry about Lucas, man. He was he was a dude.
Go talk to Jackie and the girl. Beauvoir said, Im watching the door.
Okay.
He crossed the nightclub carpet to where Jackie sat with the girl. She didnt look like much, and there was only a small part of him that said she was the one. She didnt look up, and he could see that shed been crying.
I got grabbed, he said to Jackie You were flat gone.
So were you, the dancer said. Then Legba came to me...
Newmark, the man called Turner said, from the door to Jammers office, we want to talk to you.
Gotta go, he said, wishing the girl would look up, see the big dude asking for him. They want me.
Jackie squeezed his wrist.
Forget the Yakuza, Jammer said. This is more complicated. Youre going into the L.A grid and locking into a top jocks desk. When Slide grabbed you, she didnt know my desk sussed her number.
She said your deck oughta be in a museum.
Shit she knows, Jammer said I know where she lives, dont I? He took a hit from his inhaler and put it back on the deck. Your problem is, shes written you off. She doesnt wanna hear from you. You gotta get into her and tell her what she wants to know.
Whats that?
That it was a man named Conroy got her boyfriend offed, the tall man said, sprawled back in one of Jammers office chairs with the huge pistol on his lap. Conroy Tell her it was Conroy. Conroy hired those bighairs outside.
Id rather try the Yak, Bobby said.
No, Jammer said, this Slide, shell be on his ass first. The Yakll measure my favor, check the whole thing out first.
Besides, I thought you were all hot to learn deck.
Ill go with him, Jackie said, from the door.
They jacked.
She died almost immediately, in the first eight seconds.
He felt it, rode it out to the edge and almost knew it for what it was. He was screaming, spinning, sucked up through the glacial white funnel that had been waiting for them...
The scale of the thing was impossible, too vast, as though the kind of cybernetic megastructure that represented the whole of a multinational had brought its entire weight to bear on Bobby Newmark and a dancer called Jackie. Impossible.
But somewhere, on the fringe of consciousness, Just as he lost it, there was something... Something plucking at his sleeve...
He lay on his face on something rough. Opened his eyes. A walk made of round stones, wet with rain. He scrambled up, reeling, and saw the hazy panorama of a strange city, with the sea beyond it. Spires there, a sort of church, mad ribs and spirals of dressed stone... He turned and saw a huge lizard slithering down an incline, toward him, its jaws wide. He blinked. The lizards teeth were green-stained ceramic, a slow drool of water lapping over its blue mosaic china lip. The thing was a fountain, its flanks plastered with thousands of fragments of shattered china. He spun around, crazy with the nearness of her death. Ice, ice, and a part of him knew then exactly how close hed really come, in his mothers living room.
There were weird curving benches, covered with the same giddy patchwork of broken china, and trees, grass. A park.
Extraordinary. someone said. A man, rising from his seat on one of the serpentine benches. He had a neat brush of gray hair, a tanned face, and round, rimless glasses that magnified his blue eyes. You came straight through, didnt you?
What is this? Where am I?
Gell Park. After a fashion. Barcelona, if you like You killed Jackie.
The man frowned. I see. I think I see Still, you shouldnt be here. An accident.
Accident? You killed Jackie!
My systems are overextended today, the man said, his hands in the pockets of a loose tan overcoat. This is really quite extraordinary.
You cant do that shit, Bobby said, his vision swimming in tears. You cant. You cant kill somebody who was just there...
Just where? The man took off his glasses and began to polish them with a spotless white handkerchief he took from the pocket of his coat.
Just alive, Bobby said, taking a step forward The man put his glasses back on. This has never happened before.
You cant. Closer now.
This is becoming tedious, Paco!
Seor.
Bobby turned at the sound of the childs voice and saw a little boy in a strange stiff suit, with black leather boots that fastened with buttons.
Remove him.
Seor, the boy said, and bowed stiffly, taking a tiny blue Browning automatic from his dark suit coat. Bobby looked into the dark eyes beneath the glossy forelock and saw a look no child had ever worn. The boy extended the gun, aiming it at Bobby.
Who are you? Bobby ignored the gun, but didnt try to get any closer to the man in the overcoat.
The man peered at him. Virek. Josef Virek. Most people, I gather, are familiar with my face.
Are you on People of Importance or something? The man blinked, frowning. I dont know what youre talking about. Paco, what is this person doing here?
An accidental spillover, the child said, his voice light and beautiful. Weve engaged the bulk of our system via New York, in an attempt to prevent Angela Mitchells escape. This one tried to enter the matrix, along with another operator, and encountered our system. Were still attempting to determine how he breached our defenses. You are in no danger. The muzzle of the little Browning was absolutely steady.
And then the sensation of something plucking at his sleeve.
Not his sleeve, exactly, but part of his mind, something -
Seor, the child said, we are experiencing anomalous phenomena in the matrix, possibly as a result of our own current overextension. We strongly suggest that you allow us to sever your links with the construct until we are able to determine the nature of the anomaly.
The sensation was stronger now. A scratching, at the back of his mind...
What? Virek said. And return to the tanks? It hardly seems to warrant that...
There is the possibility of real danger, the boy said, and now there was an edge in his voice. He moved the barrel of the Browning slightly. You, he said to Bobby, lie down upon the cobbles and spread your arms and legs.
But Bobby was looking past him, to a bed of flowers, watching as they withered and died, the grass going gray and powdery as he watched, the air above the bed writhing and twisting. The sense of the thing scratching in his head was stronger still, more urgent.
Virek had turned to stare at the dying flowers. What is -
Bobby closed his eyes and thought of Jackie. There was a sound, and he knew that he was making it. He reached down into himself, the sound still coming, and touched Jammers deck. Come! He screamed, inside himself, neither knowing nor caring what it was that he addressed Come now! He felt something give, a barrier of some kind, and the scratching sensation was gone.
When he opened his eyes, there was something in the bed of dead flowers. He blinked. It seemed to be a cross of plain, white-painted wood; someone had fitted the sleeves of an ancient naval tunic over the horizontal arms, a kind of mold-spotted tailcoat with heavy, fringed epaulets of tarnished gold braid, rusting buttons, more braid at the cuffs... A rusted cutlass was propped, hilt up, against the white upright, and beside it was a bottle half filled with clear fluid.