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DOC :ch18.txt

she missed it by a fraction she nearly cut it but not quite 
she went in just right case thought the right attitude it was
something he could sense something he could have seen in
the posture of another cowboy leaning into a deck fingers
flying across the board she had it the thing the moves and
shed pulled it all together for her entrance pulled it together
around the pain in her leg and marched down 3janes stairs
like she owned the place elbow of her gun arm at her hip
forearm up wrist relaxed swaying the muzzle of the fletcher
with the studied nonchalance of a regency duelist
 it was a performance it was like the culmination of a life
times observation of martial arts tapes cheap ones the kind
case had grown up on for a few seconds he knew she was
every badass hero sony mao in the old shaw videos mickey
chiba the whole lineage back to lee and eastwood she was
walking it the way she talked it
 lady 3jane mariefrance tessierashpool had carved her
self a low country flush with the inner surface of straylights
hull chopping away the maze of walls that was her legacy 
she lived in a single room so broad and deep that its far reaches
were lost to an inverse horizon the floor hidden by the cur
vature of the spindle the ceiling was low and irregular done
in the same imitation stone that walled the corridor here and
there across the floor were jagged sections of wall waisthigh
reminders of the labyrinth there was a rectangular turquoise
pool centered ten meters from the foot of the stairway its
underwater floods the apartments only source of light or it
seemed that way to case as molly took her final step the
pool threw shifting blobs of light across the ceiling above it
 they were waiting by the pool
 hed known that her reflexes were souped up jazzed by
the neurosurgeons for combat but he hadnt experienced them
on the simstim link the effect was like tape run at half speed
a slow deliberate dance choreographed to the killer instinct
and years of training she seemed to take the three of them in
at a glance the boy poised on the pools high board the girl
grinning over her wineglass and the corpse of ashpool his
left socket gaping black and corrupt above his welcoming smile 
he wore his maroon robe his teeth were very white
 the boy dove slender brown his form perfect the gre
nade left her hand before his hands could cut the water case
knew the thing for what it was as it broke the surface a core
of high explosive wrapped with ten meters of fine brittle steel
wire
 her fletcher whined as she sent a storm of explosive darts
into ashpools face and chest and he was gone smoke curling
from the pocked back of the empty whiteenameled pool chair
 the muzzle swung for 3jane as the grenade detonated a
symmetrical wedding cake of water rising breaking falling
back but the mistake had been made
 hideo didnt even touch her then her leg collapsed
 in garvey case screamed

it took you long enough riviera said as he searched her
pockets her hands vanished at the wrists in a matte black
sphere the size of a bowling ball i saw a multiple assassination
in ankara he said his fingers plucking things from her jacket
a grenade job in a pool it seemed a very weak explosion
but they all died instantly of hydrostatic shock case felt her
move her fingers experimentally the material of the ball seemed
to offer no more resistance than temperfoam the pain in her
leg was excruciating impossible a red moire shifted in her
vision i wouldnt move them if i were you the interior
of the ball seemed to tighten slightly its a sex toy jane bought
in berlin wiggle them long enough and it crushes them to a
pulp variant of the material they make this flooring from 
something to do with the molecules i suppose are you in
pain
 she groaned
 you seem to have injured your leg his fingers found the
flat packet of drugs in the left back pocket of her jeans well 
my last taste from ali and just in time
 the shifting mesh of blood began to whirl
 hideo said another voice a womans shes losing con
sciousness give her something for that and for the pain shes
very striking dont you think peter these glasses are they
a fashion where she comes from
 cool hands unhurried with a surgeons certainty the sting
of a needle
 i wouldnt know riviera was saying ive never seen
her native habitat they came and took me from turkey
 the sprawl yes we have interests there and once we
sent hideo my fault really id let someone in a burglar he
took the family terminal she laughed i made it easy for
him to annoy the others he was a pretty boy my burglar 
is she waking hideo shouldnt she have more
 more and she would die said a third voice
 the blood mesh slid into black
 the music returned horns and piano dance music

c a s e 
 j a c k
 o u t

afterimages of the flashed words danced across maelcums
eyes and creased forehead as case removed the trodes
 you scream mon while ago
 molly he said his throat dry got hurt he took a white
plastic squeeze bottle from the edge of the gweb and sucked
out a mouthful of flat water i dont like how any of this shit
is going
 the little cray monitor lit the finn against a background
of twisted impacted junk neither do i we gotta problem
 maelcum pulled himself up over cases head twisted and
peered over his shoulder now who is that mon case
 thats just a picture maelcum case said wearily guy
i know in the sprawl its wintermute talking pictures sup
posed to make us feel at home
 bullshit the finn said like i told molly these arent
masks i need em to talk to you cause i dont have what
youd think of as a personality much but all thats just pissing
in the wind case cause like i just said we gotta problem
 so express thyself mute maelcum said
 mollys legs falling off for starts cant walk how it
was supposed to go down shed walk in get peter out of the
way talk the magic word outa 3jane get up to the head and
say it now shes blown it so i want you two to go in after
her
 case stared at the face on the screen us
 so who else
 aerol case said the guy on babylon rocker mael
cums pal
 no gotta be you gotta be somebody who understands
molly who understands riviera maelcum for muscle
 you maybe forget that im in the middle of a little run
here remember what you hauled my ass out here for
 case listen up times tight very tight listen the real
link between your deck and straylight is a sideband broadcast
over garveys navigation system youll take garvey into a
very private dock ill show you the chinese virus has com
pletely penetrated the fabric of the hosaka theres nothing in
the hosaka but virus now when you dock the virus will be
interfaced with the straylight custodial system and well cut
the sideband youll take your deck the flatline and maelcum 
youll find 3jane get the word out of her kill riviera get
the key from molly you can keep track of the program by
jacking your deck into the straylight system ill handle it for
you theres a standard jack in the back of the head behind
a panel with five zircons
 kill riviera
 kill him
 case blinked at the representation of the finn he felt mael
cum put his hand on his shoulder hey you forget some
thing he felt the rage rising and a kind of glee you fucked
up you blew the controls on the grapples when you blew
armitage haniwas got us good and tight armitage fried the
other hosaka and the mainframes went with the bridge right
 the finn nodded
 so were stuck out here and that means youre fucked
man he wanted to laugh but it caught in his throat
 case mon maelcum said softly garvey a tug
 thats right said the finn and smiled

you havin fun in the big world outside the construct
asked when case jacked back in figured that was winter
mute requestin the pleasure
 yeah you bet kuang okay
 bang on killer virus
 okay got some snags but were working on it
 you wanna tell me maybe
 dont have time
 well boy never mind me im just dead anyway
 fuck off case said and flipped cutting off the torn 
fingernail edge of the flatlines laughter

she dreamed of a state involving very little in the way of
individual consciousness 3jane was saying she cupped a
large cameo in her hand extending it toward molly the carved
profile was very much like her own animal bliss i think she
viewed the evolution of the forebrain as a sort of sidestep 
she withdrew the brooch and studied it tilting it to catch the
light at different angles only in certain heightened modes
would an individual a clan member suffer the more pain
ful aspects of selfawareness
 molly nodded case remembered the injection what had
they given her the pain was still there but it came through
as a tight focus of scrambled impressions neon worms writhing
in her thigh the touch of burlap smell of frying krill his
mind recoiled from it if he avoided focusing on it the impres
sions overlapped became a sensory equivalent of white noise 
if it could do that to her nervous system what would her frame
of mind be
 her vision was abnormally clear and bright even sharper
than usual things seemed to vibrate each person or object
tuned to a minutely different frequency her hands still locked
in the black ball were on her lap she sat in one of the pool
chairs her broken leg propped straight in front of her on a
camelskin hassock 3jane sat opposite on another hassock
huddled in an oversized djellaba of unbleached wool she was
very young
 whered he go molly asked to take his shot
 3jane shrugged beneath the folds of the pale heavy robe and
tossed a strand of dark hair away from her eyes he told me
when to let you in she said he wouldnt tell me why 
everything has to be a mystery would you have hurt us
 case felt molly hesitate i wouldve killed him idve tried
to kill the ninja then i was supposed to talk with you
 why 3jane asked tucking the cameo back into one of
the djellabas inner pockets and why and what about
 molly seemed to be studying the high delicate bones the
wide mouth the narrow hawk nose 3janes eyes were dark
curiously opaque because i hate him she said at last and
the why of thats just the way im wired what he is and what
i am
 and the show 3jane said i saw the show
 molly nodded
 but hideo
 because theyre the best because one of them killed a
partner of mine once
 3jane became very grave she raised her eyebrows
 because i had to see molly said
 and then we would have talked you and i like this 
her dark hair was very straight centerparted drawn back into
a knot of dull sterling shall we talk now
 take this off molly said raising her captive hands
 you killed my father 3jane said no change whatever in
her tone i was watching on the monitors my mothers eyes
he called them
 he killed the puppet it looked like you
 he was fond of broad gestures she said and then riviera
was beside her radiant with drugs in the seersucker convict
outfit hed worn in the roof garden of their hotel
 getting acquainted shes an interesting girl isnt she i
thought so when i first saw her he stepped past 3jane it
isnt going to work you know
 isnt it peter molly managed a grin
 wintermute wont be the first to have made the same mis
take underestimating me he crossed the tiled pool border
to a white enamel table and splashed mineral water into a heavy
crystal highball glass he talked with me molly i suppose
he talked to all of us you and case whatever there is of
armitage to talk to he cant really understand us you know 
he has his profiles but those are only statistics you may be
the statistical animal darling and case is nothing but but i
possess a quality unquantifiable by its very nature he drank
 and what exactly is that peter molly asked her voice
flat
 riviera beamed perversity he walked back to the two
women swirling the water that remained in the dense deeply
carved cylinder of rock crystal as though he enjoyed the weight
of the thing an enjoyment of the gratuitous act and i have
made a decision molly a wholly gratuitous decision
 she waited looking up at him
 oh peter 3jane said with the sort of gentle exasperation
ordinarily reserved for children
 no word for you molly he told me about that you see 
3jane knows the code of course but you wont have it neither
will wintermute my janes an ambitious girl in her perverse
way he smiled again she has designs on the family empire
and a pair of insane artificial intelligences kinky as the concept
may be would only get in our way so comes her riviera to
help her out you see and peter says sit tight play daddys
favorite swing records and let peter call you up a band to match
a floor of dancers a wake for dead king ashpool he drank
off the last of the mineral water no you wouldnt do daddy
you would not do now that peters come home and then
his face pink with the pleasure of cocaine and meperidine he
swung the glass hard into her left lens implant smashing vision
into blood and light

maelcum was prone against the cabin ceiling when case
removed the trodes a nylon sling around his waist was fastened
to the panels on either side with shock cords and gray rubber
suction pads he had his shirt off and was working on a central
panel with a clumsylooking zerog wrench the things fat
countersprings twanging as he removed another hexhead mar
cus garvey was groaning and ticking with gstress
 the mute takin i an i dock the zionite said popping
the hexhead into a mesh pouch at his waist maelcum pilot
th landin meantime need we tool f th job
 you keep tools back there case craned his neck and
watched cords of muscle bunching in the brown back
 this one maelcum said sliding a long bundle wrapped
in black poly from the space behind the panel he replaced the
panel along with a single hexhead to hold it in place the
black package had drifted aft before hed finished he thumbed
open the vacuum valves on the workbelts gray pads and freed
himself retrieving the thing hed removed
 he kicked back gliding over his instruments a green
docking diagram pulsed on his central screen and snagged
the frame of cases gweb he pulled himself down and picked
at the tape of his package with a thick chipped thumbnail 
some man in china say th truth comes out this he said
unwrapping an ancient oilslick remington automatic shotgun
its barrel chopped off a few millimeters in front of the battered
forestock the shoulderstock had been removed entirely re
placed with a wooden pistolgrip wound with dull black tape 
he smelled of sweat and ganja
 that the only one you got
 sure mon he said wiping oil from the black barrel with
a red cloth the black poly wrapping bunched around the pis
tolgrip in his other hand i an i th rastafarian navy believe
it
 case pulled the trodes down across his forehead hed never
bothered to put the texas catheter back on at least he could
take a real piss in the villa straylight even if it was his last
 he jacked in

hey the construct said ol peters totally apeshit huh
 they seemed to be part of the tessierashpool ice now the
emerald arches had widened grown together become a solid
mass green predominated in the planes of the chinese program
that surrounded them gettin close dixie
 real close need you soon
 listen dix wintermute says kuangs set itself up solid
in our hosaka im going to have to jack you and my deck out
of the circuit haul you into straylight and plug you back in
into the custodial program there wintermute says says the
kuang virus will be all through there then we run from inside
through the straylight net
 wonderful the flatline said i never did like to do any
thing simple when i could do it assbackwards
 case flipped

into her darkness a churning synaesthesia where her pain
was the taste of old iron scent of melon wings of a moth
brushing her cheek she was unconscious and he was barred
from her dreams when the optic chip flared the alphanumerics
were haloed each one ringed with a faint pink aura
 072940
 im very unhappy with this peter 3janes voice seemed
to arrive from a hollow distance molly could hear he realized
then corrected himself the simstim unit was intact and still
in place he could feel it digging against her ribs her ears
registered the vibrations of the girls voice riviera said some
thing brief and indistinct but i dont she said and it isnt
fun hideo will bring a medical unit down from intensive care
but this needs a surgeon
 there was a silence very distinctly case heard the water
lap against the side of the pool
 what was that you were telling her when i came back 
riviera was very close now
 about my mother she asked me to i think she was in
shock aside from hideos injection why did you do that to
her
 i wanted to see if they would break
 one did when she comes around if she comes around 
well see what color her eyes are
 shes extremely dangerous too dangerous if i hadnt
been here to distract her to throw up ashpool to distract her
and my own hideo to draw her little bomb where would you
be in her power
 no 3jane said there was hideo i dont think you quite
understand about hideo she does evidently
 like a drink
 wine the white
 case jacked out

maelcum was hunched over garveys controls tapping out
commands for a docking sequence the modules central screen
displayed a fixed red square that represented the straylight
dock garvey was a larger square green that shrank slowly
wavering from side to side with maelcums commands to the
left a smaller screen displayed a skeletal graphic of garvey
and haniwa as they approached the curvature of the spindle
 we got an hour man case said pulling the ribbon of
fiberoptics from the hosaka his decks backup batteries were
good for ninety minutes but the flatlines construct would be
an additional drain he worked quickly mechanically fasten
ing the construct to the bottom of the onosendai with micro
pore tape maelcums workbelt drifted past he snagged it
unclipped the two lengths of shock cord with their gray rec
tangular suction pads and hooked the jaws of one clip through
the other he held the pads against the sides of his deck and
worked the thumb lever that created suction with the deck
construct and improvised shoulder strap suspended in front of
him he struggled into his leather jacket checking the contents
of his pockets the passport armitage had given him the bank
chip in the same name the credit chip hed been issued when
hed entered freeside two derms of the betaphenethylamine
hed bought from bruce a roll of new yen half a pack of
yeheyuans and the shuriken he tossed the freeside chip over
his shoulders heard it click off the russian scrubber he was
about to do the same with the steel star but the rebounding
credit chip clipped the back of his skull spun off struck the
ceiling and tumbled past maelcums left shoulder the zionite
interrupted his piloting to glare back at him case looked at
the shuriken then tucked it into his jacket pocket hearing the
lining tear
 you missin th mute mon maelcum said mute say
he messin th security for garvey garvey dockin as nother
boat boat they spectin out of babylon mute broadcastin
codes for us
 we gonna wear the suits
 too heavy maelcum shrugged stay in web til i tell
you he tapped a final sequence into the module and grabbed
the worn pink handholds on either side of the navigation board 
case saw the green square shrink a final few millimeters to
overlap the red square on the smaller screen haniwa lowered
her bow to miss the curve of the spindle and was snared garvey
was still slung beneath her like a captive grub the tug rang
shuddered two stylized arms sprang out to grip the slender
wasp shape straylight extruded a tentative yellow rectangle
that curved groping past haniwa for garvey
 there was a scraping sound from the bow beyond the trem
bling fronds of caulk
 mon maelcum said mind we got gravity a dozen
small objects struck the floor of the cabin simultaneously as
though drawn there by a magnet case gasped as his internal
organs were pulled into a different configuration the deck and
construct had fallen painfully to his lap
 they were attached to the spindle now rotating with it
 maelcum spread his arms flexed tension from his shoulders
and removed his purple dreadbag shaking out his locks come
now mon if you seh time be mos precious

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Top topics in this doc (% words in doc assigned to this topic)

	(13%)	case molly thing back left im head asked didnt began ...
	(7%)	jane hideo riviera ball shock pain mineral muzzle intended straight ...
	(7%)	eyes man hed black face dark past good open back ...
	(6%)	maelcum mon garvey straylight zionite mute helmet theyre yeah monitor ...

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