[ No.]
[ Boring.]
[Any word from Harry yet?]
[ That wanker. I don’t know why you haven’t told him to fuck off.]
[ We need him to scout for us. Now, be serious. Any messages?]
[ None. Want me to ping him? I can bring your weavespace up, subvert a local weave connection, bounce round a few servers. We’ll be untraceable.] Fist yawned theatrically. [And it’ll pass a couple of nanoseconds. If I’m lucky.]
It was nighttime in Jack’s weavespace. A wax-pale moon hung over the empty gardens, bringing white stone, green leaves and vivid petals to soft and gentle life, and scattering a shimmer of white across the little pool at their heart. The moon was too bright to allow stars near it, but further away scores dappled the clear night. A gentle breeze rustled through the tree tops. An owl called, its down-soft cry promising life to its young, death to its prey. Andrea’s statue glowed with soft beauty. Ifor’s image stood just by it. Even his nanogel body seemed to have something of the sylvan to it.
‘Fucking hell,’ grumbled Fist. ‘Should be afternoon. Timing’s out of whack.’
‘Let it be, Fist. I always loved it at night.’
There was a shadow up at the door of Grey’s temple. It could have just been a ghost that the moonlight made.
‘Fancy a chat with his nibs?’
‘No, Fist, I do not. Where did you hide the link to Harry?’
‘By that tree. As far away from Andrea as I could.’
Jack walked over to the tree, crossing from paving flags to turf. The ground here was so much softer. Jack left deep, dark footprints in the dewy grass. Fist sat on a stone in the middle of the pond. A fishing rod appeared in his hand, and a little pointy little hat on his head.
‘Maybe I should go into the gnome business, Jack?’
‘For gods’ sake. Now, where is he?’
‘Under the grass, where that root ends.’
‘Shit. You know, it used to seem entirely normal to summon the dead from under the ground.’
Jack found the spot, hooked his fingers under the sward and lifted up a square of turf. Harry’s stone face peered up from beneath it. An earwig scuttled across it. Jack brushed it away then touched Harry’s cheek. The statue rose smoothly out of the grass. Colour spread across it, a soft contagion of presence that quickly created a living man from stone. A few seconds, and Harry was completely real. There was a little splash as Fist fell off his rock, then swearing as he pulled himself out.
‘Hello, Jack,’ smiled Harry. He looked around. ‘Nice place you’ve got here.’
‘Cheers,’ replied Jack. ‘But we’ve got business. How’s Yamata?’
‘Isolate Fist. I don’t want him to hear.’
[ Fuck’s sake Jack. Without me, he wouldn’t have even found her.]
‘There’s really no need, Harry.’
‘Do it. Then I’ll talk.’
[ Why’s he being so paranoid?] said Fist.
[ Tit for tat. I wish you two’d stop playing games with each other.]
[Don’t trust him, Jack. Remember, he’s different.]
[ I know.] Jack switched to open speech. ‘Fist – stand away. Now.’
Fist grumbled his way out of earshot. Harry waited until he’d disappeared.
‘He’s gone?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good. So – it’s a small office block. Company’s called TrueShield. Yamata’s in there now.’
‘Anyone else?’
‘Receptionist, office staff. Maybe twenty or thirty in total.’
‘Quite the little operation. Anything else?’
‘Substantial data flowing in and out, but it’s heavily encoded. Their defence software’s Pantheon grade. Normally I’d be able to nudge in – but not here. It’s like we thought, you need to get into their server room physically. Then we can dig all the dirt on Yamata and follow it right back to her patron.’
‘Fist’ll sort that out.’
‘Once you’re in, I’ll manifest through him. Bit of extra muscle.’
‘No.’
‘What?’
‘I told Fist I wouldn’t give you that kind of access.’
‘Shit, Jack, you were serious?’
‘I made a promise.’
‘Gods. Last time I let you two out alone, he lost it and fucked everything. You need me there. I’ll help keep him under control. And when he brings gods know what down on you, I’ll use his weapons to fight it off.’
‘Fist can fight his own battles. And they don’t want to hurt him. We’ll use that against them.’
‘These are serious people you’re fucking with, Jack. Not just squishies.’
‘Fist understands exactly what they can do to him. He didn’t back at Access station. He won’t get in the way this time. I’m sure of it.’
‘There’s a lot of corruption in this world, Jack. You can’t trust anyone, these days. And he was never a friend you chose to make.’
‘I’ve made my mind up.’
‘Fine, fine, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’ll need me once you’re in there, I guarantee it. In the meantime, there are practicalities. You need to get over to TrueShield without triggering any alarms.’
‘That won’t be a problem. We’ll be there in a couple of hours.’
‘I’ll expect you.’
Harry returned to stone and fell back into the dark earth. Jack covered his cold, grey face with turf.
‘Fist,’ he shouted, ‘we’re done.’
The moon vanished from the sky, which then disappeared too. Suddenly there was no stone path, or silvered grass, or softly hissing fountain – just the tawdry cheapness of an unwoven Violin Gardens.
‘Right, Fist. I need you to build me a datasprite, and then make a sweathead of me.’
‘After you’ve sent me off to the bottom of the garden so I don’t offend your dodgy mate? Not sure why I should bother.’
‘Just do it, Fist.’
Chapter 32
They waited until the end of the afternoon before disappearing offweave. They left a datasprite – skinned as Jack – moving through Violin Gardens, following Ifor’s search pattern. As evening wore on it would take refuge in a nearby bar, where they’d reintegrate with it at their leisure.
Fist was still grumbling as they set off for TrueShield.
[ You wasted my time back there, Jack. You could have just charmed someone, I’d have skinned him, swapped you both around, and anyone watching onweave would have thought you were him and he was you.]
[ I don’t like doing that to people.]
[Oh! But you don’t mind working me till my subroutines pop, do you? And now we’re offweave, and I’m draining myself with camouflage software that – if you please – it took me a good mega-hour of poly-processor work to pull together. And to cap it all, we’ve got to walk! If you’d charmed someone we could have just got the train over.]
[And we’d have been much more likely to get caught. We’ll soon be there, it’s only another half-hour or so.]
[And I bet you’re going to make me open a portal for him too.]
[ He asked me to. I said no.]
[ Hmmph.]
As they neared TrueShield it started to get dark. Pale white lights guided commuters away from offices and laboratories. Tastefully arranged spotlights danced shadows across them, highlighting fashionable clothing and up-to-the-minute hairstyles. There were designer sigils everywhere.
Fist dismissed them with a single word.
[ Wankers.]
They reached TrueShield’s address and looked around for Harry. He emerged from a shadowy service doorway with the suddenness of a flaring match.
[ Fetches shouldn’t be able to do that,] said Fist. [ You shouldn’t have let him come along.]
[ He’s rebuilt himself, Fist. He’s much more than just a fetch. And he’s only doing the scouting. The heavy lifting’s down to us. Now don’t be so petty.]
[ You feel so guilty about fucking his wife you’re letting him get away with murder.]
[Stop whinging.]
Harry beckoned to Jack, then disappeared back into the darkness. Jack joined him in cover. ‘Yamata’s in there?’ he asked.