He wasn’t aware of Jeff approaching, until his brother stood almost over him, smiling wearily.
‘Okay.’ He fumbled to his feet, recovered himself. ‘At last.’
‘Yeah, sorry. Whole boat-load of wash-ups came in from Wenzhou a couple of days ago, it’s going to put us way over budget for the quarter. Been negotiating with the legislature all fucking day.’ He nodded at the still seated woman. ‘I see you’ve met Sharleen.’
‘Uh, yeah.’
‘Lovely, isn’t she. You know sometimes I’ll come out here and talk to her just for the fun of it.’
Norton looked at the ’face. She smiled up at the two of them, head lifted, expression gone very slightly vacant, as if what they were saying was birdsong, or a played segment of some symphony she liked.
‘Need to talk to you,’ he said uncomfortably.
‘Sure.’ Jeff Norton gestured. ‘Come on through. Bye, Sharleen.’
‘Goodbye.’
She smiled over her shoulder as they left, then swivelled and sat immobile and silent as they passed out of trigger range. Jeff led him past the reception island and down a truncated corridor with a water cooler at the end. A half-dozen steps along, the passageway greyed out around them and became Jeff’s office. It was pretty much as Norton remembered the actual suite from a visit a couple of years back, a few décor differences in the pastel shades of the walls and fittings, maybe one or two ornaments on shelves that he didn’t recall. A photo of Megan on the desk. He drew a compressed breath and seated himself on the right-angle sofa facing the window and the skyline view of Golden Gate park. His brother leaned across the desk and punched something out on the deck.
‘So?’
‘I need some more advice. You heard about Ortiz?’
‘No.’ Jeff leaned against the side of his desk. ‘What’s he up to, more UN hand-holding tours?’
‘He’s been shot, Jeff.’
‘Shot?’
‘Yeah. It’s all over the feeds. Where have you been? I thought you’d know. I gave a COLIN press conference all about it yesterday afternoon.’
Jeff sighed. Shook his head as if it wasn’t working properly. He crossed to the adjacent angle of the sofa and collapsed into it.
‘Christ, I’m tired,’ he muttered. ‘Been on this Wenzhou thing for the last day and a half solid. I didn’t even go home from the office last night. Been in virtual most of this morning. Is he still alive?’
‘Yeah, holding up. They’ve got him wired into intensive-care life support over at Weill Cornell. Medical n-djinn says he’s going to be okay.’
‘Can he talk?’
‘Not yet. They’re going to patch him into a v-format once he regains consciousness, but that might be a while.’
‘Jesus fucking Christ.’ Jeff gave him a haggard look. ‘So what’s this got to do with me? What do you need?’
‘For Ortiz, nothing. I don’t think you could help right now anyway. Like I said, he’s not even conscious. They’ve got family and close friends at the hospital but—’
His brother gave him the corner of a smile. ‘Yeah, I know. Not my world any more. Blew my chance at the Union power game, didn’t I.’
‘That’s not what I—’
‘Ran west and ended up a bleeding-heart charity chump.’
Norton gestured impatiently. ‘That’s not what this is about. I want to talk to you about Marsalis. You know, the thirteen we levered out of South Florida State?’
‘Oh. Right.’ Jeff rubbed at his face. ‘So how’s that working out?’
Norton hesitated. ‘I don’t know.’
‘You got problems with him?’
‘I don’t…’ He lifted his hands. ‘Look, the guy signed up okay. You were right about that much.’
‘What, that he’d bite your hand off for the chance to get out of a Jesusland jail?’ Jeff shrugged. ‘Who wouldn’t?’
‘Yeah, well. I guess I owe you for the suggestion. And I’ve got to say, he lives up to the hype. He was there when they tried to hit Ortiz, and it looks like this guy’s the only reason Ortiz is still breathing. He took out two of the three shooters and chased the third one off. Unarmed. You believe that?’
‘Yes,’ said Jeff shortly. ‘I do believe that. I told you, these guys are fucking terrifying. So what’s the problem?’
Norton looked at his hands. He hesitated again, then shook his head irritably and raised his eyes to meet his brother’s curious gaze.
‘You remember I told you I’ve got a partner now? Ex-NYPD detective, a woman?’
‘Who you want to get horizontal with, but won’t admit it. Yeah, I remember.’
‘Yeah, well there’s something I didn’t tell you about her. She had a relationship with a renegade thirteen a few years back. Didn’t work out, and there were some, uh, complications.’
Jeff raised his brows. ‘Uh-oh.’
‘Yeah. I didn’t give it much thought, even when we hired this guy.’
‘Bullshit.’
Norton sighed. ‘Okay, I gave it some thought. But you know, I figured, she’s tough, she’s smart, she’s got a handle on the situation. Nothing to worry about.’
‘Sure.’ Jeff leaned forward. ‘So what are you worrying about?’
Norton stared around the office miserably. ‘I don’t know.’ He threw up his arms. ‘I don’t know, I don’t fucking know.’
His brother smiled, sighed.
‘You ever chew coca leaves, Tom?’
Norton blinked. ‘Coca leaves?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What has that got—’
‘I’m trying to help here. Just answer the question. You ever chew coca leaves?’
‘Of course I have. Every time we have to go down to the prep camps for a Marstech swoop, they give us a big bag at the airport and recommend it for the altitude. Tastes like shit. So what has that got to do with—’
‘Do you get high when you chew coca?’
‘Oh, come on—’
‘Answer the question.’
Norton set his jaw. ‘No. I don’t get high. Sometimes, your mouth goes numb, but that’s it. It’s just to give you energy, stop you feeling tired.’
‘Right. Now listen. That energising effect is part of an evolved working relationship between humans and the coca plant. Coca gives humans medicinal benefits, humans ensure that there’s plenty of coca being cultivated. Everybody wins. And human physiology copes very comfortably with the effects the leaf provides. It’s a benefit that doesn’t interfere with any of your other necessary survival dynamics. You’re not going to do anything stupid just because you’re chewing those leaves.’
‘Why is it,’ Norton asked heavily, ‘that every time I come to you for help, you have to lecture me?’
Jeff grinned at him. ‘Because I’m your older brother, stupid. Now pay attention. If you extract the alkaloid from the coca leaf, if you take it through the artificial chemical processes that give you cocaine, and then you slam that stuff into the human brain, well then you’re going to see a whole different story. You do a couple of lines of that shit, and you surely will get high. You also probably do some stupid things, things that might get you killed in a more unforgiving evolutionary environment than New York. You won’t pay attention to the social and emotional cues of the people around you, or you’ll misread them. Fail to remember useful personal detail. You’ll maybe hit on the wrong woman, pick a fight with the wrong guy. Misjudge speeds, angles and distances. And long term, of course, you’ll put your heart under too much strain as well. All good ways to get yourself killed. What it comes down to is that we’re not evolved to deal with the substance at the level our technology can give it to us. Age old story, same thing with sugar, salt, synadrive, you name it.’