Oishii wasn’t really in the direction Jadwiga had pointed, but he was at the bar and he was talking to a couple of other deComs, only one of whom I recognised as being on his crew. He welcomed me with a grin and a lifted glass. Voice pitched over the noise.
‘Get a grilling, did you?’
‘Something like that.’ I lifted my hand to get attention behind the bar. ‘I get the impression Sylvie’s Slipins have been pushing the line for a while now. You want a refill?’
Oishii looked judiciously at the level of his drink. ‘No, I’m okay. Pushing the line, you could say that. Not the most community-minded crew around, for sure. Still, they top the boards a lot of the time. You can live on that for a while, even with a guy like Kurumaya.’
‘Nice to have a reputation.’
‘Yeah, which reminds me. There’s someone looking for you.’
‘Oh?’ He was looking into my eyes as he told me. I quelled reaction and raised an eyebrow to go with the elaborately casual interest in my voice. Ordered a Millsport single malt from the barman and turned back to Oishii. ‘You get a name?’
‘Wasn’t me that spoke to him.’ The command head nodded at his non-crew companion. ‘This is Simi, lead wince for the Interruptors. Simi, that guy was asking around about Sylvie and her new recruit, you get a name?’
Simi squinted sideways for a moment, frowning. Then his face cleared and he snapped his fingers.
‘Yeah, got it. Kovacs. Said his name was Kovacs.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
Everything seemed to stop.
It was as if all the noise in the bar had abruptly frozen to arctic sludge in my ears. The smoke stopped moving, the pressure of the people behind me at the bar seemed to recede. It was a shock reaction I hadn’t had from the Eishundo sleeve, even when locked in combat with the mimints. Across the dreamy quiet of the moment, I saw Oishii watching me intently, and I lifted the glass to my lips on autopilot. The single malt went down, burning, and as the warmth hit the pit of my stomach the world started up again just as suddenly as it had stopped. Music, noise, the shifting crush of people around me.
‘Kovacs,’ I said. ‘Really?’
‘You know him?’ asked Simi.
‘Heard of him.’ There wasn’t much point in going for the deep lie. Not with the way Oishii was watching my face. I sipped at my drink again. ‘Did he say what he wanted?’
‘Nah,’ Simi shook his head, clearly not that interested. ‘He was just asking where you were, if you’d gone out with the Slipins. Was a couple of days back, so I told him, yeah, you were all out in the Uncleared. He—’
‘Did he—’ I stopped myself. ‘Sorry, you were saying?’
‘He seemed pretty concerned to talk to you. Persuaded someone, think it was Anton and the Skull Gang, to take him out into the Uncleared for a look. So you know this guy, right? He a problem for you?’
‘Of course,’ said Oishii quietly, ‘might not be the same Kovacs you know. It’s a common enough name.’
‘There’s that,’ I admitted.
‘But you don’t think so?’
I manufactured a shrug. ‘Seems unlikely. He’s looking for me, I’ve heard of him. Most probable thing is, we’ve got some shared history.’
Oishii’s crew colleague and Simi both nodded dismissive, boozed-up assent. Oishii himself seemed more closely intrigued.
‘And what have you heard about him, this Kovacs?’
This time the shrug was easier. ‘Nothing good.’
‘Yeah,’ Simi agreed sweepingly. ‘That’s right. Seemed like a real hard-assed psycho motherfucker to me.’
‘Did he come alone?’ I asked.
‘Nah, whole squad of enforcer types with him. ’Bout four, five of them. Millsport accents.’
Oh good. So this wasn’t a local matter any more. Tanaseda was living up to his promise. A global writ for your capture. And from somewhere they’d dug up—
You don’t know that. Not yet.
Oh, come on. It has to be. Why use the name? Whose sense of humour does that sound like to you?
Unless—
‘Simi, listen. He didn’t ask for me by name, did he?’
Simi blinked at me. ‘Dunno, what is your name?’
‘Okay. Never mind.’
‘Guy was asking after Sylvie,’ explained Oishii. ‘Her name, he knew. Knew the Slipins, seems like. But he really seemed interested in some new recruit Sylvie might have had in her team. And that name, he didn’t know. Right, Simi?’
‘ ’s about it, yeah.’ Simi peered into his empty glass. I signalled the barman and got refills all round.
‘So. These Millsport types. Any of them still around, you reckon?’
Simi pursed his lips. ‘Could be. Don’t know, I didn’t see the Skull Gang go out, don’t know how much extra weight they were carrying.’
‘But it’d make sense,’ said Oishii softly. ‘If this Kovacs did his research, he’ll know how hard it is to track movement in the Uncleared. It’d make sense to leave a couple of guys behind in case you came back.’ He paused, watching my face. ‘And to needlecast the news if you did.’
‘Yeah.’ I drained my glass and shivered slightly. Got up. ‘Think I need to talk to my crew-mates. If you gentlemen will excuse me.’
I shouldered my way back through the crowd until I reached Jadwiga and Kiyoka’s corner again. They’d wrapped each other up in a passionate mouth-to-mouth embrace, oblivious to their surroundings. I slid into the seat next to them and tapped Jadwiga on the shoulder.
‘Stop that, you two. We’ve got problems.’
‘Well,’ rumbled Orr. ‘I think you’re full of shit.’
‘Really?’ I kept a grip on my temper with an effort, and wished I’d just gone for full Envoy-effect persuasion, instead of trusting my deCom colleagues with the use of their own decision-making faculties. ‘This is the yakuza we’re talking about.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘Do the math. Six weeks ago we were collectively responsible for the death of a high-ranking yakuza’s son and his two enforcers. And now there’s someone looking for us.’
‘No. There’s someone looking for you. Whether he’s looking for the rest of us remains to be seen.’
‘Listen. All of you.’ Inclusive glance around the windowless billet they’d found for Sylvie. Spartan single berth, integral storage lockers in the walls, a chair in one corner. With the command head curled up on the bunk and her crew stood around, it was a tense, cramped space. ‘They know Sylvie, they’ve tied her to me. Oishii’s pal said as much.’
‘Man, we wiped that room cleaner than—’
‘I know, Jad, but it wasn’t enough. They got witnesses who saw the two of us, peripheral video maybe, maybe something else. The point is I know this Kovacs, and believe me, if we wait around for him to catch up with us, you’re going to find out that it doesn’t much matter whether he’s looking for me, or Sylvie, or both of us. The man is an ex-Envoy. He’ll take down everybody in this room, just to keep it simple.’
That old Envoy terror – Sylvie was asleep, out on recuperative chemicals and sheer exhaustion, and Orr was too fired up with confrontation, but the rest of them flinched. Beneath the armoured deCom cool, they’d grown up on the horror stories from Adoracion and Sharya, just like everybody else. The Envoys came and they tore your world apart. It wasn’t that simple, of course; the truth was far more complex, and ultimately far more scary. But who in this universe wants the truth?