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DOC :ch10.txt

he was numb as they went through customs and molly
did most of the talking maelcum remained on board garvey 
customs for freeside consisted mainly of proving your credit 
the first thing he saw when they gained the inner surface of
the spindle was a branch of the beautiful girl coffee franchise
 welcome to the rue jules verne molly said if you
have trouble walking just look at your feet the perspectives
a bitch if youre not used to it
 they were standing in a broad street that seemed to be the
floor of a deep slot or canyon its either end concealed by subtle
angles in the shops and buildings that formed its walls the
light here was filtered through fresh green masses of vege
tation tumbling from overhanging tiers and balconies that rose
above them the sun
 there was a brilliant slash of white somewhere above them
too bright and the recorded blue of a cannes sky he knew
that sunlight was pumped in with a ladoacheson system whose
twomillimeter armature ran the length of the spindle that they
generated a rotating library of sky effects around it that if the
sky were turned off hed stare up past the armature of light
to the curves of lakes rooftops of casinos other streets 
but it made no sense to his body
 jesus he said i like this less than sas
 get used to it i was a gamblers bodyguard here for a
month
 wanna go somewhere lie down
 okay i got our keys she touched his shoulder what
happened to you back there man you flatlined
 he shook his head i dunno yet wait
 okay we get a cab or something she took his hand and
led him across jules verne past a window displaying the sea
sons paris furs
 unreal he said looking up again
 nah she responded assuming he meant the furs grow
it on a collagen base but its mink dna whats it matter

its just a big tube and they pour things through it molly
said tourists hustlers anything and theres fine mesh money
screens working every minute make sure the money stays here
when the people fall back down the well
 armitage had booked them into a place called the inter
continental a sloping glassfronted cliff face that slid down
into cold mist and the sound of rapids case went out onto
their balcony and watched a trio of tanned french teenagers
ride simple hang gliders a few meters above the spray triangles
of nylon in bright primary colors one of them swung banked
and case caught a flash of cropped dark hair brown breasts
white teeth in a wide smile the air here smelled of running
water and flowers yeah he said lotta money
 she leaned beside him against the railing her hands loose
and relaxed yeah we were gonna come here once either
here or some place in europe
 we who
 nobody she said giving her shoulders an involuntary
toss you said you wanted to hit the bed sleep i could use
some sleep
 yeah case said rubbing his palms across his cheek
bones yeah this is some place
 the narrow band of the ladoacheson system smoldered
in abstract imitation of some bermudan sunset striped by shreds
of recorded cloud yeah he said sleep
 sleep wouldnt come when it did it brought dreams that
were like neatly edited segments of memory he woke re
peatedly molly curled beside him and heard the water voices
drifting in through the open glass panels of the balcony a
womans laughter from the stepped condos on the opposite
slope deanes death kept turning up like a bad card no matter
if he told himself that it hadnt been deane that it hadnt in
fact happened at all someone had once told him that the
amount of blood in the average human body was roughly equiv
alent to a case of beer
 each time the image of deanes shattered head struck the
rear wall of the office case was aware of another thought
something darker hidden that rolled away diving like a fish
just beyond his reach
 linda
 deane blood on the wall of the importers office
 linda smell of burnt flesh in the shadows of the chiba
dome molly holding out a bag of ginger the plastic filmed
with blood deane had had her killed
 wintermute he imagined a little micro whispering to the
wreck of a man named corto the words flowing like a river
the flat personalitysubstitute called armitage accreting slowly
in some darkened ward the deane analog had said it
worked with givens took advantage of existing situations
 but what if deane the real deane had ordered linda killed
on wintermutes orders case groped in the dark for a cigarette
and mollys lighter there was no reason to suspect deane he
told himself lighting up no reason
 wintermute could build a kind of personality into a shell 
how subtle a form could manipulation take he stubbed the
yeheyuan out in a bedside ashtray after his third puff rolled
away from molly and tried to sleep
 the dream the memory unreeled with the monotony of an
unedited simstim tape hed spent a month his fifteenth sum
mer in a weekly rates hotel fifth floor with a girl called
marlene the elevator hadnt worked in a decade roaches
boiled across grayish porcelain in the drainplugged kitchenette
when you flicked a lightswitch he slept with marlene on a
striped mattress with no sheets
 hed missed the first wasp when it built its paperfine gray
house on the blistered paint of the windowframe but soon the
nest was a fistsized lump of fiber insects hurtling out to hunt
the alley below like miniature copters buzzing the rotting con
tents of the dumpsters
 theyd each had a dozen beers the afternoon a wasp stung
marlene kill the fuckers she said her eyes dull with rage
and the still heat of the room burn em drunk case rum
maged in the sour closet for rollos dragon rollo was mar
lenes previous and case suspected at the time still
occasional boyfriend an enormous frisco biker with a blond
lightning bolt bleached into his dark crewcut the dragon was
a frisco flamethrower a thing like a fat anglehead flashlight 
case checked the batteries shook it to make sure he had enough
fuel and went to the open window the hive began to buzz
 the air in the sprawl was dead immobile a wasp shot
from the nest and circled cases head case pressed the ignition
switch counted three and pulled the trigger the fuel pumped
up to 100 psi sprayed out past the whitehot coil a fivemeter
tongue of pale fire the nest charring tumbling across the
alley someone cheered
 shit marlene behind him swaying stupid you didnt
burn em you just knocked it off theyll come up here and
kill us her voice sawing at his nerves he imagined her en
gulfed in flame her bleached hair sizzling a special green
 in the alley the dragon in hand he approached the black
ened nest it had broken open singed wasps wrenched and
flipped on the asphalt
 he saw the thing the shell of gray paper had concealed
 horror the spiral birth factory stepped terraces of the
hatching cells blind jaws of the unborn moving ceaselessly
the staged progress from egg to larva nearwasp wasp in his
minds eye a kind of timelapse photography took place re
vealing the thing as the biological equivalent of a machine gun
hideous in its perfection alien he pulled the trigger forgetting
to press the ignition and fuel hissed over the bulging writhing
life at his feet
 when he did hit the ignition it exploded with a thump
taking an eyebrow with it five floors above him from the
open window he heard marlene laughing
 he woke with the impression of light fading but the room
was dark afterimages retinal flares the sky outside hinted
at the start of a recorded dawn there were no voices now
only the rush of water far down the face of the intercontinental
 in the dream just before hed drenched the nest with fuel
hed seen the ta logo of tessierashpool neatly embossed
into its side as though the wasps themselves had worked it
there

molly insisted on coating him with bronzer saying his sprawl
pallor would attract too much attention
 christ he said standing naked in front of the mirror
you think that looks real she was using the last of the tube
on his left ankle kneeling beside him
 nah but it looks like you care enough to fake it there 
there isnt enough to do your foot she stood tossing the
empty tube into a large wicker basket nothing in the room
looked as though it had been machinemade or produced from
synthetics expensive case knew but it was a style that had
always irritated him the temperfoam of the huge bed was
tinted to resemble sand there was a lot of pale wood and
handwoven fabric
 what about you he said you gonna dye yourself brown 
dont exactly look like you spend all your time sunbathing
 she wore loose black silks and black espadrilles im an
exotic i got a big straw hat for this too you you just wanna
look like a cheapass hood whos up for what he can get so
the instant tans okay
 case regarded his pallid foot morosely then looked at him
self in the mirror christ you mind if i get dressed now 
he went to the bed and began to pull his jeans on you sleep
okay you notice any lights
 you were dreaming she said
 they had breakfast on the roof of the hotel a kind of meadow
studded with striped umbrellas and what seemed to case an
unnatural number of trees he told her about his attempt to
buzz the berne ai the whole question of bugging seemed to
have become academic if armitage were tapping them hed
be doing it through wintermute
 and it was like real she asked her mouth full of cheese
croissant like simstim
 he said it was real as this he added looking around 
maybe more
 the trees were small gnarled impossibly old the result of
genetic engineering and chemical manipulation case would
have been hard pressed to distinguish a pine from an oak but
a street boys sense of style told him that these were too cute
too entirely and definitively treelike between the trees on
gentle and too cleverly irregular slopes of sweet green grass
the bright umbrellas shaded the hotels guests from the unfal
tering radiance of the ladoacheson sun a burst of french
from a nearby table caught his attention the golden children
hed seen gliding above river mist the evening before now he
saw that their tans were uneven a stencil effect produced by
selective melanin boosting multiple shades overlapping in rec
tilinear patterns outlining and highlighting musculature the
girls small hard breasts one boys wrist resting on the white
enamel of the table they looked to case like machines built
for racing they deserved decals for their hairdressers the de
signers of their white cotton ducks for the artisans whod
crafted their leather sandals and simple jewelry beyond them
at another table three japanese wives in hiroshima sackcloth
awaited sarariman husbands their oval faces covered with ar
tificial bruises it was he knew an extremely conservative
style one hed seldom seen in chiba
 whats that smell he asked molly wrinkling his nose
 the grass smells that way after they cut it
 armitage and riviera arrived as they were finishing their
coffee armitage in tailored khakis that made him look as
though his regimental patches had just been stripped riviera
in a loose gray seersucker outfit that perversely suggested prison
 molly love riviera said almost before he was settled
on his chair youll have to dole me out more of the medicine 
im out
 peter she said and what if i wont she smiled without
showing her teeth
 you will riviera said his eyes cutting to armitage and
back
 give it to him armitage said
 pig for it arent you she took a flat foilwrapped packet
from an inside pocket and flipped it across the table riviera
caught it in midair he could off himself she said to ar
mitage
 i have an audition this afternoon riviera said ill need
to be at my best he cupped the foil packet in his upturned
palm and smiled small glittering insects swarmed out of it
vanished he dropped it into the pocket of his seersucker blouse
 youve got an audition yourself case this afternoon
armitage said on that tug i want you to get over to the pro
shop and get yourself fitted for a vac suit get checked out on
it and get out to the boat youve got about three hours
 how come we get shipped over in a shitcan and you two
hire a jal taxi case asked deliberately avoiding the mans
eyes
 zion suggested we use it good cover when we move i
do have a larger boat standing by but the tug is a nice touch
 how about me molly asked i got chores today
 i want you to hike up the far end to the axis work out in
zerog tomorrow maybe you can hike in the opposite di
rection straylight case thought
 how soon case asked meeting the pale stare
 soon armitage said get going case

mon you doin jus fine maelcum said helping case
out of the red sanyo vacuum suit aerol say you doin jus
fine aerol had been waiting at one of the sporting docks at
the end of the spindle near the weightless axis to reach it
case had taken an elevator down to the hull and ridden a
miniature induction train as the diameter of the spindle nar
rowed gravity decreased somewhere above him hed decided
would be the mountains molly climbed the bicycle loop
launching gear for the hang gliders and miniature microlights
 aerol had ferried him out to marcus garvey in a skeletal
scooter frame with a chemical engine
 two hour ago maelcum said i take delivery of babylon
goods for you nice japanboy inna yacht mos pretty yacht
 free of the suit case pulled himself gingerly over the ho
saka and fumbled into the straps of the web well he said
lets see it
 maelcum produced a white lump of foam slightly smaller
than cases head fished a pearlhandled switchblade on a green
nylon lanyard out of the hip pocket of his tattered shorts and
carefully slit the plastic he extracted a rectangular object and
passed it to case thas part some gun mon
 no case said turning it over but its a weapon its
virus
 not on this boy tug mon maelcum said firmly reaching
for the steel cassette
 a program virus program cant get into you cant even
get into your software ive got to interface it through the deck
before it can work on anything
 well japanmon he says hosaka herell tell you every
what an wherefore you wanna know
 okay well you leave me to it okay
 maelcum kicked off and drifted past the pilot console bus
ying himself with a caulk gun case hastily looked away from
the waving fronds of transparent caulk he wasnt sure why
but something about them brought back the nausea of sas
 what is this thing he asked the hosaka parcel for me
 data transfer from bockris systems gmbh frankfurt ad
vises under coded transmission that content of shipment is
kuang grade mark eleven penetration program bockris fur
ther advises that interface with onosendai cyberspace 7 is
entirely compatible and yields optimal penetration capabilities
particularly with regard to existing military systems
 how about an ai
 existing military systems and artificial intelligences
 jesus christ what did you call it
 kuang grade mark eleven
 its chinese
 yes
 off case fastened the virus cassette to the side of the
hosaka with a length of silver tape remembering mollys story
of her day in macao armitage had crossed the border into
zhongshan on he said changing his mind question who
owns bockris the people in frankfurt
 delay for interorbital transmission said the hosaka
 code it standard commercial code
 done
 he drummed his hands on the onosendai
 reinhold scientific ag berne
 do it again who owns reinhold
 it took three more jumps up the ladder before he reached
tessierashpool
 dixie he said jacking in what do you know about
chinese virus programs
 not a whole hell of a lot
 ever hear of a grading system like kuang mark eleven
 no
 case sighed well i got a userfriendly chinese icebreaker
here a one shot cassette some people in frankfurt say itll
cut an ai
 possible sure if its military
 looks like it listen dix and gimme the benefit of your
background okay armitage seems to be setting up a run on
an ai that belongs to tessierashpool the mainframes in
berne but its linked with another one in rio the one in rio
is the one that flatlined you that first time so it looks like
they link via straylight the ta home base down the end of
the spindle and were supposed to cut our way in with the
chinese icebreaker so if wintermutes backing the whole show
its paying us to burn it its burning itself and something that
calls itself wintermute is trying to get on my good side get
me to maybe shaft armitage what goes
 motive the construct said real motive problem with
an ai not human see
 well yeah obviously
 nope i mean its not human and you cant get a handle
on it me im not human either but i respond like one see
 wait a sec case said are you sentient or not
 well it feels like i am kid but im really just a bunch of
rom its one of them ah philosophical questions i guess 
the ugly laughter sensation rattled down cases spine but i
aint likely to write you no poem if you follow me your ai
it just might but it aint no way human
 so you figure we cant get on to its motive
 it own itself
 swiss citizen but ta own the basic software and the
mainframe
 thats a good one the construct said like i own your
brain and what you know but your thoughts have swiss citi
zenship sure lotsa luck ai
 so its getting ready to burn itself case began to punch
the deck nervously at random the matrix blurred resolved
and he saw the complex of pink spheres representing a sikkim
steel combine
 autonomy thats the bugaboo where your ais are con
cerned my guess case youre going in there to cut the hard
wired shackles that keep this baby from getting any smarter 
and i cant see how youd distinguish say between a move
the parent company makes and some move the ai makes on
its own so thats maybe where the confusion comes in again
the nonlaugh see those things they can work real hard buy
themselves time to write cookbooks or whatever but the min
ute i mean the nanosecond that one starts figuring out ways
to make itself smarter turingll wipe it nobody trusts those
fuckers you know that every ai ever built has an electro
magnetic shotgun wired to its forehead
 case glared at the pink spheres of sikkim
 okay he said finally im slotting this virus i want you
to scan its instruction face and tell me what you think
 the half sense of someone reading over his shoulder was
gone for a few seconds then returned hot shit case its a
slow virus take six hours estimated to crack a military target
 or an ai he sighed can we run it
 sure the construct said unless you got a morbid fear
of dying
 sometimes you repeat yourself man
 its my nature

molly was sleeping when he returned to the intercontinental 
he sat on the balcony and watched a microlight with rainbow
polymer wings as it soared up the curve of freeside its tri
angular shadow tracking across meadows and rooftops until
it vanished behind the band of the ladoacheson system
 i wanna buzz he said to the blue artifice of the sky i
truly do wanna get high you know trick pancreas plugs in
my liver little bags of shit melting fuck it all i wanna buzz
 he left without waking molly he thought he was never
sure with the glasses he shrugged tension from his shoulders
and got into the elevator he rode up with an italian girl in
spotless whites cheekbones and nose daubed with something
black and nonreflective her white nylon shoes had steel cleats
the expensivelooking thing in her hand resembled a cross be
tween a miniature oar and an orthopedic brace she was off
for a fast game of something but case had no idea what
 on the roof meadow he made his way through the grove
of trees and umbrellas until he found a pool naked bodies
gleaming against turquoise tiles he edged into the shadow of
an awning and pressed his chip against a dark glass plate 
sushi he said whatever you got ten minutes later an
enthusiastic chinese waiter arrived with his food he munched
raw tuna and rice and watched people tan christ he said
to his tuna id go nuts
 dont tell me someone said i know it already youre
a gangster right
 he squinted up at her against the band of sun a long young
body and a melaninboosted tan but not one of the paris jobs
 she squatted beside his chair dripping water on the tiles 
cath she said
 lupus after a pause
 what kind of name is that
 greek he said
 are you really a gangster the melanin boost hadnt pre
vented the formation of freckles
 im a drug addict cath
 what kind
 stimulants central nervous system stimulants extremely
powerful central nervous system stimulants
 well do you have any she leaned closer drops of
chlorinated water fell on the leg of his pants
 no thats my problem cath do you know where we
can get some
 cath rocked back on her tanned heels and licked at a strand
of brownish hair that had pasted itself beside her mouth whats
your taste
 no coke no amphetamines but up gotta be up and so
much for that he thought glumly holding his smile for her
 betaphenethylamine she said no sweat but its on your
chip

youre kidding said caths partner and roommate when
case explained the peculiar properties of his chiba pancreas 
i mean cant you sue them or something malpractice his
name was bruce he looked like a gender switch version of
cath right down to the freckles
 well case said its just one of those things you know 
like tissue matching and all that but bruces eyes had already
gone numb with boredom got the attention span of a gnat
case thought watching the boys brown eyes
 their room was smaller than the one case shared with molly
and on another level closer to the surface five huge ciba
chromes of tally isham were taped across the glass of the
balcony suggesting an extended residency
 theyre def triff huh cath asked seeing him eye the
transparencies mine shot em at the sn pyramid last time
we went down the well she was that close and she just smiled
so natural and it was bad there lupus day after these christ
the king terrs put angel in the water you know
 yeah case said suddenly uneasy terrible thing
 well bruce cut in about this beta you want to buy
 thing is can i metabolize it case raised his eyebrows
 tell you what the boy said you do a taste if you
pancreas passes on it its on the house first times fre...

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	(8%)	case molly thing back left im head asked didnt began ...
	(6%)	eyes man hed black face dark past good open back ...
	(6%)	trees ladoacheson meadow recorded numb deane killed tan owns nest ...
	(5%)	military yeah pancreas bag shot christ burn reach afternoon named ...

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