Name and number said the mountain, or were gone.
Rydell, Stephen Berry and then the string of digits. Hed barely gotten the last one out when the dinosaur said Former policeman, I see.
Oh dear said the mountain, who kept reminding Rydell of something.
Well said the dinosaur, pretty permanently former, by the look of it. Worked for IntenSecure after that.
A sting said the mountain, and brought a hand up to point at Rydell, except it was this giant granite lobster-claw, crusted with lichen. It seemed to fill half the sky, like the side of a space ship. The narrow end of the wedge?
They dont come much narrower, if you ask me the storm of television said. You seem to have gotten our Lowells undivided attention, Rydell. And he wouldnt even tell us what your name was.
Doesnt know it Rydell said.
Dont know his ass from a hole in the ground, hee haw said the mountain, lowering the claw, its voice a sampled parody of Rydells. Rydell tried to get a good look at its eyes; got a flash of still blue pools, waving ferns, some kind of tan rodent hopping away, before the focus slipped. People like Lowell imagine we need them more than they need us.
State your business, Stephen Berry said the dinosaur.
There was something happened, up Benedict Canyon
Yes, yes said the dinosaur, you were the driver. What does it have to do with us?
That was when it dawned on Rydell that the dinosaur, or all of them, could probably see all the records there were on him, right then, anywhere. It gave him a funny feeling. Youre looking at all my stuff he said.
And its not very interesting said the dinosaur. Benedict Canyon?
You did that Rydell said.
The mountain raised its eyebrows. Windblown scrub shifting, rocks tumbling down. But just on the edge of Rydells vision. For what its worth, that was not us, not exactly. We wouldve gone a more elegant route.
But why did YOU do it?
Well said the dinosaur, to the extent that anyone did it, or caused it to be done, I imagine you might look to the ladys husband, who I see has since filed for divorce. On very solid grounds, it seems.
Like he set her up? With the gardener and everything?
Lowell has some serious explaining to do, I think the mountain said.
You havent told us what it is you want, Mr. Rydell. This from the television-thing.
A job like that. Done. I need you to do one of those. For me.
Lowell the mountain said, and shook its dreadlocked head. Cascades of shale in Rydells peripheral vision. Dust rising on a distant slope.
That sort of thing is dangerous the dinosaur said. Dangerous things are very expensive. You dont have any money, Rydell.
How about if Lowell pays you for it?
Lowell from that vast blank face twisting with images, owes us.
Okay Rydell said, I hear you. And I think I know somebody else might pay you. He wasnt even sure if that was bullshit or not. But youre going to have to listen to me. Hear the story.
No the mountain said, and Rydell remembered who it was he figured the thing was supposed to look like, that guy you saw on the history shows sometimes, the one whod invented eyephones or something, and if Lowell thinks hes the only pimp out there, he might have to think again.
And then they were fading, breaking up into those paisley fractal things, and Rydell knew he was losing them.
Wait he said. Any of you live in San Francisco?
The dinosaur came flickering back. What if we did?
Well Rydell said, do you like it?
Why do you ask?
Because its all going to change. Theyre going to do it like theyre doing Tokyo.
Tokyo? The television-storm, coming back now as this big ball, like that hologram in Cognitive Dissidents. Who told you that?
Now the mountain was back, too. Theres not a lot of slack, for us, in Tokyo, now
Tell us the dinosaur said.
So Rydell did.
She had the hat back on, when he took the helmet off, but she was holding those sunglasses in her hand. Just looking at him.
I dont think I made sense of much of that she said. Shed only been able to hear his side of it, but it had been mostly him talking, there at the end. But I think youre flat fucking crazy.
I probably am he said.
Then he got the time and charges on the call. It came to just about all the money he had left.
I dont see why they had to put the damn thing through Paris he said.
She just put those glasses back on and slowly shook her head.
36. Notebook (z)
The city in sunlight, from the roof of this box atop the tower. The hatch open. Sound of Skinner sorting and resorting his belongings. A cardboard box, slowly filling with objects I will take below, to the sellers of things, their goods spread on blankets, on greasy squares of ancient canvas. Osaka far away. The wind brings sounds of hammering, song. Skinner, this morning, asking if I had seen the pike in the Steiner Aquarium.
No.
He doesnt move, Scooter.
Sure thats all Fontaine said? But hed found her bike? Thats no good. Wouldnt go this long without that. Cost an arm and a fucking leg, that thing. Made of paper, inside. Japanese construction-paper, whats it called? Useless, Scooter. Shit, its your language. Forgetting it faster than we are Tube of that paper, then they wrap it with aramyd or something. No, she wouldnt leave that. Day she brought it home, three hours down there spraying this fake rust on it, believe that? Fake rust, Scooter. And wrapping it with old rags, innertubes, anything. So it wouldnt look new. Well, it makes more sense than just locking it, it really does. Know how you break a Kryptonite lock, Scooter? With a Volvo jack. Volvo jack fits right in there, like it was made for it. Give it a shove or two, zingo. But they never use em anymore, those locks. Some people still carry em, though. One of those up side the head, youll notice it I just found her one day. They wanted to cart her down to the end, let the city have her. Said shed be dead before they got her off anyway. Told em they could fuck off into the air. Got her up here. I could still do that. Why? Hell. Because. See people dying, you just walk by like it was television?
37. Century city
Chevette didnt know what to think about Los Angeles.
She thought those palm trees were weird, though. On the way in, Subletts electric car had pulled up behind this big white trailer-rig with A-LIFE INSTALLATIONS, NANOTRONIC VEGETATION across the back of it, and the heads of these fake palm trees sticking out, all wrapped in plastic.
Shed seen it all on tv once, with Skinner, how they were putting in these trees to replace the ones the virus had killed, some Mexican virus. They were kind of like the Bay maglev, or like what Rydell and Sublett said that that Sunflower company was going to do in San Francisco; these things that kind of grew, but only because they were made up of all these little tiny machines. One show shed seen with Skinner, theyd talked about how these new trees were designed so that all kinds of birds and rats and things could nest in them, just like the ones that had died. Skinner told her that hed run a Jeep into a real palm tree, in L.A., once, and about ten rats had fallen out, landed on the hood and just sort of stood there, until they got scared and ran away.
It sure didnt feel like San Francisco. She felt kind of two ways about it. Like it was just this bunch of stuff, all spread out pretty much at random, and then like it was this really big place, with mountains somewhere back there, and all this energy flowing around in it, lighting things up. Maybe that was because theyd got there at night.
Sublett had this little white Eurocar called a Montxo. She knew that because shed had to look at the logo on the dash all the way from Paradise. Sublett said it rhymed with poncho. It was built in Barcelona and you just plugged it into the house-current and left it until it was charged. It wouldnt do much more than forty on a highway, but Sublett didnt like to drive anything else because of his allergies. She said he was lucky they had electric cars; hed told her all about how he was worried about the electromagnetic fields and cancer and stuff.