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DOC :ch20.txt

hed lost his anger again he missed it
 the little cart was crowded maelcum the remington across
his knees and case deck and construct against his chest the
cart was operating at speeds it hadnt been designed for it was
top heavy cornering and maelcum had taken to leaning out
in the direction of the turns this presented no problem when
the thing took lefts because case sat on the right but in the
right turns the zionite had to lean across case and his gear
crushing him against the seat
 he had no idea where they were everything was familiar
but he couldnt be sure hed seen any particular stretch before 
a curving hallway lined with wooden showcases displayed
collections he was certain hed never seen the skulls of large
birds coins masks of beaten silver the service carts six tires
were silent on the layered carpets there was only the whine
of the electric motor and an occasional faint burst of zion dub
from the foam beads in maelcums ears as he lunged past case
to counter a sharp right the deck and the construct kept press
ing the shuriken in his jacket pocket into his hip
 you got a watch he asked maelcum
 the zionite shook his locks time be time
 jesus case said and closed his eyes

the braun scuttled over mounded carpets and tapped one
of its padded claws against an oversized rectangular door of
dark battered wood behind them the cart sizzled and shot
blue sparks from a louvered panel the sparks struck the carpet
beneath the cart and case smelled scorched wool
 this th way mon maelcum eyed the door and snapped
the shotguns safety
 hey case said more to himself than to maelcum you
think i know the braun rotated its spherical body and the
led strobed
 it wan you open door maelcum said nodding
 case stepped forward and tried the ornate brass knob there
was a brass plate mounted on the door at eye level so old that
the lettering that had once been engraved there had been re
duced to a spidery unreadable code the name of some long
dead function or functionary polished into oblivion he won
dered vaguely if tessierashpool had selected each piece of
straylight individually or if theyd purchased it in bulk from
some vast european equivalent of metro holografix the doors
hinges creaked plaintively as he edged it open maelcum step
ping past him with the remington thrust forward from his hip
 books maelcum said
 the library the white steel shelves with their labels
 i know where we are case said he looked back at the
service cart a curl of smoke was rising from the carpet so
come on he said cart cart it remained stationary the
braun was plucking at the leg of his jeans nipping at his ankle 
he resisted a strong urge to kick it yeah
 it ticked its way around the door he followed it
 the monitor in the library was another sony as old as the
first one the braun paused beneath it and executed a sort of
jig
 wintermute
 the familiar features filled the screen the finn smiled
 time to check in case the finn said his eyes screwed
up against the smoke of a cigarette cmon jack
 the braun threw itself against his ankle and began to climb
his leg its manipulators pinching his flesh through the thin
black cloth shit he slapped it aside and it struck the wall 
two of its limbs began to piston repeatedly uselessly pumping
the air whats wrong with the goddam thing
 burned out the finn said forget it no problem jack
in now
 there were four sockets beneath the screen but only one
would accept the hitachi adaptor
 he jacked in

nothing gray void
 no matrix no grid no cyberspace
 the deck was gone his fingers were
 and on the far rim of consciousness a scurrying a fleeting
impression of something rushing toward him across leagues
of black mirror
 he tried to scream

there seemed to be a city beyond the curve of beach but
it was far away
 he crouched on his haunches on the damp sand his arms
wrapped tight across his knees and shook
 he stayed that way for what seemed a very long time even
after the shaking stopped the city if it was a city was low
and gray at times it was obscured by banks of mist that came
rolling in over the lapping surf at one point he decided that
it wasnt a city at all but some single building perhaps a ruin
he had no way of judging its distance the sand was the shade
of tarnished silver that hadnt gone entirely black the beach
was made of sand the beach was very long the sand was
damp the bottoms of his jeans were wet from the sand he
held himself and rocked singing a song without words or tune
 the sky was a different silver chiba like the chiba sky 
tokyo bay he turned his head and stared out to sea longing
for the hologram logo of fuji electric for the drone of a
helicopter anything at all
 behind him a gull cried he shivered
 a wind was rising sand stung his cheek he put his face
against his knees and wept the sound of his sobbing as distant
and alien as the cry of the searching gull hot urine soaked his
jeans dribbled on the sand and quickly cooled in the wind off
the water when his tears were gone his throat ached
 wintermute he mumbled to his knees wintermute
 it was growing dark now and when he shivered it was
with a cold that finally forced him to stand
 his knees and elbows ached his nose was running he wiped
it on the cuff of his jacket then searched one empty pocket
after another jesus he said shoulders hunched tucking his
fingers beneath his arms for warmth jesus his teeth began
to chatter
 the tide had left the beach combed with patterns more subtle
than any a tokyo gardener produced when hed taken a dozen
steps in the direction of the now invisible city he turned and
looked back through the gathering dark his footprints stretched
to the point of his arrival there were no other marks to disturb
the tarnished sand
 he estimated that hed covered at least a kilometer before
he noticed the light he was talking with ratz and it was ratz
who first pointed it out an orangered glow to his right away
from the surf he knew that ratz wasnt there that the bartender
was a figment of his own imagination not of the thing he was
trapped in but that didnt matter hed called the man up for
comfort of some kind but ratz had had his own ideas about
case and his predicament
 really my artiste you amaze me the lengths you will
go to in order to accomplish your own destruction the re
dundancy of it in night city you had it in the palm of your
hand the speed to eat your sense away drink to keep it all
so fluid linda for a sweeter sorrow and the street to hold the
axe how far youve come to do it now and what grotesque
props playgrounds hung in space castles hermetically sealed
the rarest rots of old europa dead men sealed in little boxes
magic out of china ratz laughed trudging along beside
him his pink manipulator swinging jauntily at his side in spite
of the dark case could see the baroque steel that laced the
bartenders blackened teeth but i suppose that is the way of
an artiste no you needed this world built for you this beach
this place to die
 case halted swayed turned toward the sound of surf and
the sting of blown sand yeah he said shit i guess 
he walked toward the sound
 artiste he heard ratz call the light you saw a light 
here this way
 he stopped again staggered fell to his knees in a few
millimeters of icy seawater ratz light ratz
 but the dark was total now and there was only the sound
of the surf he struggled to his feet and tried to retrace his
steps
 time passed he walked on
 and then it was there a glow defining itself with his every
step a rectangle a door
 fire in there he said his words torn away by the wind
 it was a bunker stone or concrete buried in drifts of the
dark sand the doorway was low narrow doorless and deep
set into a wall at least a meter thick hey case said softly
hey his fingers brushed the cold wall there was a fire
in there shifting shadows on the sides of the entrance
 he ducked low and was through inside in three steps
 a girl was crouched beside rusted steel a sort of fireplace
where driftwood burned the wind sucking smoke up a dented
chimney the fire was the only light and as his gaze met the
wide startled eyes he recognized her headband a rolled scarf
printed with a pattern like magnified circuitry

he refused her arms that night refused the food she offered
him the place beside her in the nest of blankets and shredded
foam he crouched beside the door finally and watched her
sleep listening to the wind scour the structures walls every
hour or so he rose and crossed to the makeshift stove adding
fresh driftwood from the pile beside it none of this was real
but cold was cold
 she wasnt real curled there on her side in the firelight he
watched her mouth the lips parted slightly she was the girl
he remembered from their trip across the bay and that was
cruel
 mean motherfucker he whispered to the wind dont
take a chance do you wouldnt give me any junkie huh i
know what this is he tried to keep the desperation from
his voice i know see i know who you are youre the other
one 3jane told molly burning bush that wasnt wintermute
it was you he tried to warn me off with the braun now you
got me flatlined you got me here nowhere with a ghost 
like i remember her before
 she stirred in her sleep called something out drawing a
scrap of blanket across her shoulder and cheek
 you arent anything he said to the sleeping girl youre
dead and you meant fuckall to me anyway hear that buddy 
i know what youre doing im flatlined this has all taken
about twenty seconds right im out on my ass in that library
and my brains dead and pretty soon itll be dead if you got
any sense you dont want wintermute to pull his scam off
is all so you can just hang me up here dixiell run kuang
but his ass is dead and you can second guess his moves sure 
this linda shit yeah thats all been you hasnt it wintermute
tried to use her when he sucked me into the chiba construct
but he couldnt said it was too tricky that was you moved
the stars around in freeside wasnt it that was you put her
face on the dead puppet in ashpools room molly never saw
that you just edited her simstim signal cause you think you
can hurt me cause you think i gave a shit well fuck you
whatever youre called you won you win but none of it
means anything to me now right think i care so whyd you
do it to me this way he was shaking again his voice shrill
 honey she said twisting up from the rags of blankets
you come here and sleep ill sit up you want you gotta
sleep okay her soft accent was exaggerated with sleep you
just sleep okay

when he woke she was gone the fire was dead but it
was warm in the bunker sunlight slanting through the doorway
to throw a crooked rectangle of gold on the ripped side of a
fat fiber canister the thing was a shipping container he
remembered them from the chiba docks through the rent in
its side he could see half a dozen bright yellow packets in
the sunlight they looked like giant pats of butter his stomach
tightened with hunger rolling out of the nest he went to the
canister and fished one of the things out blinking at small print
in a dozen languages the english was on the bottom emerg
ration hipro beef type ag8 a listing of nutri
tive content he fumbled a second one out eggs if youre
making this shit up he said you could lay on some real
food okay with a packet in either hand he made his way
through the structures four rooms two were empty aside
from drifts of sand and the fourth held three more of the ration
canisters sure he said touching the seals stay here a long
time i get the idea sure
 he searched the room with the fireplace finding a plastic
canister filled with what he assumed was rainwater beside the
nest of blankets against the wall lay a cheap red lighter a
seamans knife with a cracked green handle and her scarf it
was still knotted and stiff with sweat and dirt he used the
knife to open the yellow packets dumping their contents into
a rusted can that he found beside the stove he dipped water
from the canister mixed the resulting mush with his fingers
and ate it tasted vaguely like beef when it was gone he
tossed the can into the fireplace and went out
 late afternoon by the feel of the sun its angle he kicked
off his damp nylon shoes and was startled by the warmth of
the sand in daylight the beach was silvergray the sky was
cloudless blue he rounded the corner of the bunker and walked
toward the surf dropping his jacket on the sand dunno whose
memories youre using for this one he said when he reached
the water he peeled off his jeans and kicked them into the
shallow surf following them with tshirt and underwear
 what you doin case
 he turned and found her ten meters down the beach the
white foam sliding past her ankles
 i pissed myself last night he said
 well you dont wanna wear those saltwater give you
sores ill show you this pool back in the rocks she gestured
vaguely behind her its fresh the faded french fatigues
had been hacked away above the knee the skin below was
smooth and brown a breeze caught at her hair
 listen he said scooping his clothes up and walking to
ward her i got a question for you i wont ask you what
youre doing here but what exactly do you think im doing
here he stopped a wet black jeansleg slapping against his
bare thigh
 you came last night she said she smiled at him
 and thats enough for you i just came
 he said you would she said wrinkling her nose she
shrugged he knows stuff like that i guess she lifted her
left foot and rubbed salt from the other ankle awkward child
like she smiled at him again more tentatively now you
answer me one okay
 he nodded
 how come youre painted brown like that all except your
foot

and thats the last thing you remember he watched her
scrape the last of the freezedried hash from the rectangular
steel box cover that was their only plate
 she nodded her eyes huge in the firelight im sorry case
honest to god it was just the shit i guess an it was she
hunched forward forearms across her knees her face twisted
for a few seconds with pain or its memory i just needed the
money to get home i guess or hell she said you
wouldnt hardly talk to me
 theres no cigarettes
 goddam case you asked me that ten times today whats
wrong with you she twisted a strand of hair into her mouth
and chewed at it
 but the food was here it was already here
 i told you man it was washed up on the damn beach
 okay sure its seamless
 she started to cry again a dry sobbing well damn you
anyway case she managed finally i was doin just fine
here by myself
 he got up taking his jacket and ducked through the door
way scraping his wrist on rough concrete there was no moon
no wind sea sound all around him in the darkness his jeans
were tight and clammy okay he said to the night i buy
it i guess i buy it but tomorrow some cigarettes better wash
up his own laughter startled him a case of beer wouldnt
hurt while youre at it he turned and reentered the bunker
 she was stirring the embers with a length of silvered wood 
who was that case up in your coffin in cheap hotel flash
samurai with those silver shades black leather scared me
and after i figured maybe she was your new girl cept she
looked like more money than you had she glanced back
at him im real sorry i stole your ram
 never mind he said doesnt mean anything so you
just took it over to this guy and had him access it for you
 tony she said id been seein him kinda he had a
habit an we anyway yeah i remember him running it by
on this monitor and it was this real amazing graphics stuff
and i remember wonderin how you 
 there wasnt any graphics in there he interrupted
 sure was i just couldnt figure how youd have all those
pictures of when i was little case how my daddy looked
before he left gimme this duck one time painted wood and
you had a picture of that
 tony see it
 i dont remember next thing i was on the beach real
early sunrise those birds all yellin so lonely scared cause
i didnt have a shot on me nothin an i knew id be gettin
sick an i walked an walked til it was dark an found
this place an next day the food washed in all tangled in the
green sea stuff like leaves of hard jelly she slid her stick into
the embers and left it there never did get sick she said as
embers crawled missed cigarettes more how bout you
case you still wired firelight dancing under her cheek
bones remembered flash of wizards castle and tank war
europa
 no he said and then it no longer mattered what he knew
tasting the salt of her mouth where tears had dried there was
a strength that ran in her something hed known in night city
and held there been held by it held for a while away from
time and death from the relentless street that hunted them all 
it was a place hed known before not everyone could take him
there and somehow he always managed to forget it something
hed found and lost so many times it belonged he knew 
he remembered as she pulled him down to the meat the
flesh the cowboys mocked it was a vast thing beyond know
ing a sea of information coded in spiral and pheromone infinite
intricacy that only the body in its strong blind way could ever
read
 the zipper hung caught as he opened the french fatigues
the coils of toothed nylon clotted with salt he broke it some
tiny metal part shooting off against the wall as saltrotten cloth
gave and then he was in her effecting the transmission of the
old message here even here in a place he knew for what it
was a coded model of some strangers memory the drive held
 she shuddered against him as the stick caught fire a leaping
flare that threw their locked shadows across the bunker wall
 later as they lay together his hand between her thighs he
remembered her on the beach the white foam pulling at her
ankles and he remembered what she had said
 he told you i was coming he said
 but she only rolled against him buttocks against his thighs
and put her hand over his and muttered something out of
dream

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

	(12%)	sand dead walked wind fire sea fresh silver jacket wasnt ...
	(8%)	beach city remembered food surf bunker knees foam steps beads ...
	(8%)	hand youre looked hands back time wall place small whats ...
	(8%)	case molly thing back left im head asked didnt began ...
	(7%)	eyes man hed black face dark past good open back ...
	(5%)	told wintermute time mouth sleep id guess shoulder faint hard ...

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