Rez clapped the bodyguards shoulder, releasing him. Stressed. I know. Rez smiled. Kuwayama? The platform?
Had his own team there,
And our crashers?
Thats a bit odd, Blackwell said, Kombinat, Rez. Say weve stolen something of theirs. Or at least thats all the one I questioned knew.
Rez looked puzzled, but seemed to put whatever it was out of his mind. Take me back to the hotel, he said.
Blackwell checked his huge steel watch. Were still sweeping, there. Another twenty minutes and Ill check with them.
Laney took this as his opportunity, standing up and stepping past Blackwell to the door. Im going to take a hot shower, he said. Cracked my ribs up there. No one said anything. Call if you need me. Then he opened the door, stepped out, closed it behind him, and limped in what he hoped was the direction of the elevator.
It was. In it, he leaned against the mirrored wall and touched the button for his floor.
It said something in a soothing tone, Japanese.
The door closed. He shut his eyes.
He opened his eyes as the door opened. Stepped out, turned the wrong way, then the right way. Fishing for his wallet, where hed put his key. Still there. Bath, hot shower, these concepts more theoretical as he approached his room. Sleep. That was it. Undress and lie down and not be conscious.
He swiped the key down the slot. Nothing. Again. Click.
Kathy Torrance, sitting on the edge of his bed. She smiled at him. Pointed at the moving figures on the screen. One of whom was Laney, naked, with a larger erection than he recalled ever having had.
The girl vaguely familiar, but whoever she was, he didnt remember doing that with her.
Dont just stand there, Kathy said. You have to see this.
Thats not me, Laney said.
I know, she said, delighted. Hes waytoo big. And Id loveto see you try to prove it.
30. The Etruscan
Chia worked the tips back on, regoggled, let Masahiko take her to his room. That same instant transition, the virtual Venice icon strobing Gomi Boy was there, and someone else, though at first she couldnt see him. Just this glass tumbler on the work-surface that hadnt been there before, mapped to a higher resolution than the rest of the room: filthy, chipped at the rim, something crusted at the bottom.
That woman, Gomi Boy began, but someone coughed. A strange dry rattle.
You arean interesting young woman, said a voice unlike any Chia had heard, a weird, attenuated rasp that might have been compiled from a library of faint, dry, random sounds. So that a words long vowel might be wires in the wind, or the click of a consonant the rattle of a dead leaf against a window. Youngwoman, it said again, and then there was something indescribable, which she guessed was meant as laughter.
This is the Etruscan, Masahiko said. The Etruscan accessed your fathers expense account for us. He is most skilled.
Something there for a second. Skull-like. Above the dirty glass. The mouth drawn and petulant. It was nothing, really
She told herself it was all presentation. Like when Zona presented, you could never quite focus on her. This was like that, but more extreme. And a lot of work put into the audio. But she didnt like it.
You brought me here to meet him? she asked Masahiko.
Oh, no, said the Etruscan, the Oha polyphonic chorale, I just wanted a look, dear. The thing like laughter.
The woman, Gomi Boy said. Did you arrange for her to meet you, at Hotel Di?
No, Chia said. She checked the taxi cabs, so you arent as smart as you think.
Well put. The putthe sound of a single pebble falling into a dry marble fountain. Chia focused on the glass. A huge centipede lay curled at its bottom, a thing the color of dead cuticle. She saw that it had tiny, pink hands
The glass was gone.
Sorry, Masahiko said. He wished only to meet you.
Who is the woman in Hotel Di? Gomi Boys anime eyes were bright and eager, but his tone was hard.
Maryalice, Chia said. Her boyfriends with those Russians. The thing theyre afters in my bag there.
What thing?
Maryalice says its a nano-assembler.
Unlikely, Gomi Boy said,
Tell it to the Russians.
But you have contraband? In the room?
Ive got something they want.
Gomi Boy grimaced, vanished.
Whered he go?
This changes the situation, Masahiko said. You did not tell us you have contraband.
You didnt ask! You didnt ask why they were looking for me
Masahiko shrugged, calm as ever. We were not certain that it was you they were interested in. The Kombinat would be very eager for the skills of someone like the Etruscan, for instance. Many people know of Hak Nam, but few know how to enter. We reacted to protect the integrity of the city.
But your computers in the hotel room. They can just come there and get it.
It no longer matters, he said. I am no longer engaged in processing. My duties are assumed by others. Gomi Boy is concerned now for his safety outside, you understand? Penalties for possession of contraband are harsh. He is particularly vulnerable, because he deals in second-hand equipment.
I dont think its the police you want to worry about, right now. I think we want to callthe police. Maryalice says those Russiansll kill us, if they find us.
The police would not be a good idea. The Etruscan has accessed your fathers account in Singapore. That is a crime.
I think Id rather get arrested than killed.
Masahiko considered that. Come with me, he said. Your visitor is waiting.
Not the centipede, Chia said. Forget it.
No, he said, not the Etruscan. Come.
And they were out of his room, fast-forward through the maze of Hak Nam, up twisted stairwells and through corridors, the strange, compacted world flickering past What isthis place? A communal site, right? But what are you so worried about? Whys it all a secret?
Walled City is of the net, but not on it. There are no laws here, only agreements.
You cant be on the net and notbe on the net, Chia said, as they shot up a final flight of stairs.
Distributed processing, he said. Interstitial. It began with a shared killfile
Zona! There across this uneven roofscape, overgrown with strangeness.
Touch nothing. Some are traps. I come to you. Zona, presenting in that quick, fragmentary way, moved forward.
To Chias right, a kind of ancient car lay tilted in a drift of random textures, something like a Christmas tree growing from its unbroken windshield. Beyond that
She guessed that the rooftops of the Walled City were its dumping ground, but the things abandoned there were like objects out of a dream, bit-mapped fantasies discarded by their creators, their jumbled shapes and textures baffling the eye, the attempt to sort and decipher them inducing a kind of vertigo. Some were moving.
Then a movement high in the gasoline sky caught her eye. Zonas bird-things?
I went to your site, Chia said. You werent there, something
I know. Did you see it? As Zona passed the Christmas tree, its round, silver ornaments displayed black eye-holes, each pair turning to follow her.
No. I thought I heard it.
I do not know what it is. Zonas presentation was even quicker and more jumpy than usual. I came here for advice. They told me that you had been to my site, and that now you were here .
You know this place?
Someone here helped me establish my site. It is impossible to come here without an invitation, you understand? My name is on a list. Although I cannot go below, into the city itself, unaccompanied.
Zona, Im in so much trouble now! Were hiding in this horrible hotel, and Maryalice is there
This bitch who made you her mule, yes? She is where?