She found us, Chia said. She said she knew somebody at the cab company.
No, said the Russian, weknow somebody at cab company. Is too much incident.
Weve got it, okay? Eddie said. Why do you want to complicate things?
The Russian rubbed his cheek, as though the birthmark might come off on his hand. Please consider, he said. We are giving you isotope. You want to know is isotope, you can test. You are giving us this. He poked the sharp toe of his cowboy boot into the side of Chias bag. How are we sure?
Yevgeni, Eddie said, very calmly, you must know that deals like this require a certain basis of trust.
The Russian considered that. No, he said, basis not good. Our people trace this girl to big rocker band. What is she working for, Eddie? Tonight we send people to talk to them, they fall on us like fucking wolfs. One man I am still losing.
I dont work for Lo/Rez! Chia said. Im just in the club! Maryalice put that thing in my bag when I was asleep on the plane!
Masahiko groaned, sighed, and seemed to go back under. Eddie still had the stungun in his hand. You ready for another jolt? he asked Masahiko, super-tense and angry.
Eddie, Maryalice said from the bed, you ungrateful piece of shit Sitting up on the edge of the bed with her cigarette lighter held in both hands, pointing it straight at Eddie.
Eddie stiffened. You could see something run through him, freezing him there.
Some basis, said the Russian.
Jesus, Maryalice, Eddie said. Whered you get that? You got any idea how illegal that is, here?
Off a Russian boy, she said. Exit-holes the size of grapefruit Maryalice didnt sound drunk, exactly, but something about the look in her reddened eyes told Chia she was. Some very scary kind of drunk. You think you can just use people up, Eddie? Use em up and throw em away? She used the toe of one shoe to get the other off, then used her toe to get the first shoe off. She stood up in her stocking feet, swaying just a little bit, but the gun-shaped lighter stayed straight out from her shoulders, the way cops did it on television.
Eddie still had the stungun in his hand. Make him throw that black thing away, Maryalice! Chia urged.
Drop it, Maryalice said, and it seemed to give her pleasure to say it, something shed been hearing people say on shows all her life, and now she was getting to say it herself, and mean it. Eddie dropped it. Now kick it away.
Thats the other half of the line, Chia thought.
The stungun wound up a few feet from Chias knee, beside her goggles, which were upside down on the carpet, still cabled to her Sandbenders. She could see the twin flat rectangles on the opaque lens-faces, simple video units; if Zona went to Chias systems software and activated those, now, shed get a bugs-eye view of Maryalices stocking feet, Eddies shoes, the Russians cowboy boots, and maybe the side of Masahikos head.
Ungrateful, Maryalice said. Ungrateful shit. Get in that bathroom. She came around so the lighter was pointing at Eddie and the Russian, but with the open bathroom door behind them.
I know youre upset
Shit. Shit goes in the toilet, Eddie Get in the bathroom.
Eddie took a step backward, his palms up in what he probably thought looked like an appeal to reasonableness and understanding. The Russian took a step back too.
Seven fucking years, Maryalice said. Seven. You werent shit when I met you. God. You and that uppity-mobile talk. You make me sick. Who paid the fucking rent? Who bought the meals? Who bought you your fucking clothes, you vain piece of shit? You and your uppity-mobile and your image and you gotta have a smallerfucking phone than the next guy because Im telling you, honey, you sure as fuckdont have a bigger dick! Maryalices hands were shaking now, but really just enough to make the lighter look even more dangerous.
Maryalice, Eddie said, you know I know everything youve done for me, everything youve contributed to my career. It doesnt leave my mind for a minute, baby, believe me, it never does, and all of this is a misunderstanding, baby, just a rough patch on the highway of life, and if you will only just put down that fucking gun and have a nice drink like a civilized person
Shut the fuck up! Maryalice screamed, at the top of her lungs, the words all run together.
Eddies mouth snapped shut like a puppets.
Seven fucking years, Maryalice said, making it sound like some childrens charm, seven fucking years and two of em here, Eddie, two of em here, and flying back and fucking forth for you, Eddie, and coming back. And its always light, here Tears came, streaking Maryalices makeup. Everywhere. Couldnt sleep for all the light, like a fog over the city Get in the bathroom. Maryalice taking a step forward, Eddie and the Russian taking one back.
Chia reached over and picked up the stungun, she wasnt sure why. It had a pair of blunt chrome fangs on one end, a red, ridged stud on one edge. She was surprised at how little it weighed. She remembered the ones the boys at her school had made from those disposable flash-cameras.
And it always finds me, that light, Maryalice said. Always. No matter what I drink, what I take on top of that, It finds me and it wakes me up. Its like powder, blows in under the door. Nothing to do about it. Gets in your eyes. And all that brightness, falling
Eddie was half back through the doorway now, the Russian behind him, actually in the bathroom, and Chia didnt like that because she couldnt see the Russians hands. She heard the ambient birdsong start as the bathroom sensed the Russian, And you put me there, Eddie. That Shinjuku. You put me where that light could get me, and I could never get away.
And then Maryalice pulled the trigger.
Eddie screamed, a weird shrill sound bouncing off the black and white tiles. That mustve covered the click of the lighter, which hadnt even produced a flame.
Maryalice didnt panic.
She held her aim and calmly pulled the trigger again.
She got a light, that time, but Eddie, with a howl of rage, swatted the lighter aside, grabbed Maryalice by the throat, and started pounding her in the face with his fist, the howl resolving into Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! in sync with each blow.
And that was when Chia, without really thinking about it, came up from where shed been sitting for so long that, she found, her legs were asleep, and didnt work, so that she had to turn her lunge into a roll, and roll again, before she could jam the chrome tips of the stun-gun against Eddies ankle and push the red stud.
She wasnt sure it would work on an ankle, or through his sock. But it did. Maybe because Eddie wore those really thin socks.
But it got Maryalice, too, so that they seemed to jerk together, toppling into each others arms.
And the dark blur that flew past Chia then was Masahiko, who pulled the door shut on the Russian, grabbed the knob with both hands and jumped up, jamming one paper-slippered foot against the wall, the other against the door, and hung there. Run, he said, his arms and legs straining. Then his hands slipped off the round chrome knob and he landed on his ass.
Chia saw the knob start to turn.
She put the fangs of the stungun against the doorknob and pushed the stud. And kept pushing it.
37. Work Experience
Laney sat in the vans front passenger seat again, the phones on his lap, waiting for Arleigh to connect Kuwayamas gray module, He looked through the windshield at the concrete wall. His side didnt hurt quite as much now, but the meeting with Kuwayama and the idoru, and then his huddle in the van with Yamazaki, had left him more confused than ever. If Rez and Rei Toei were making decisions in tandem, and if Yamazaki had decided to go along with them, where did that leave him? He couldnt see that Blackwell was going to wake up to find some innate wonderfulness in the idea of Rez and Rei together. As far as Blackwell was concerned, Rez was still just trying to marry a software agentwhatever that might turn out to mean.