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DOC :ch12.txt

rue jules verne was a circumferential avenue looping the
spindles midpoint while desiderata ran its length terminating
at either end in the supports of the ladoacheson light pumps 
if you turned right off desiderata and followed jules verne
far enough youd find yourself approaching desiderata from
the left
 case watched bruces trike until it was out of sight then
turned and walked past a vast brilliantly lit newsstand the
covers of dozens of glossy japanese magazines presenting the
faces of the months newest simstim stars
 directly overhead along the nighted axis the hologram sky
glittered with fanciful constellations suggesting playing cards
the faces of dice a top hat a martini glass the intersection
of desiderata and jules verne formed a kind of gulch the
balconied terraces of freeside cliff dwellers rising gradually to
the grassy tablelands of another casino complex case watched
a drone microlight bank gracefully in an updraft at the green
verge of an artificial mesa lit for seconds by the soft glow of
the invisible casino the thing was a kind of pilotless biplane
of gossamer polymer its wings silkscreened to resemble a giant
butterfly then it was gone beyond the mesas edge hed
seen a wink of reflected neon off glass either lenses or the
turrets of lasers the drones were part of the spindles security
system controlled by some central computer
 in straylight he walked on past bars named the hilo
the paradise le monde cricketeer shozoku smiths emer
gency he chose emergency because it was the smallest and
most crowded but it took only seconds for him to realize that
it was a tourist place no hum of biz here only a glazed sexual
tension he thought briefly of the nameless club above mollys
rented cubicle but the image of her mirrored eyes fixed on the
little screen dissuaded him what was wintermute revealing
there now the ground plans of the villa straylight the history
of the tessierashpools
 he bought a mug of carlsberg and found a place against
the wall closing his eyes he felt for the knot of rage the pure
small coal of his anger it was there still where had it come
from he remembered feeling only a kind of bafflement at his
maiming in memphis nothing at all when hed killed to defend
his dealing interests in night city and a slack sickness and
loathing after lindas death under the inflated dome but no
anger small and far away on the minds screen a semblance
of deane struck a semblance of an office wall in an explosion
of brains and blood he knew then the rage had come in the
arcade when wintermute rescinded the simstim ghost of linda
lee yanking away the simple animal promise of food warmth
a place to sleep but he hadnt become aware of it until his
exchange with the holoconstruct of lonny zone
 it was a strange thing he couldnt take its measure
 numb he said hed been numb a long time years all
his nights down ninsei his nights with linda numb in bed
and numb at the cold sweating center of every drug deal but
now hed found this warm thing this chip of murder meat
some part of him said its the meat talking ignore it
 gangster
 he opened his eyes cath stood beside him in a black shift
her hair still wild from the ride in the honda
 thought you went home he said and covered his con
fusion with a sip of carlsberg
 i got him to drop me off at this shop bought this she
ran her palm across the fabric curve of the pelvic girdle he
saw the blue derm on her wrist like it
 sure he automatically scanned the faces around them
then looked back at her what do you think youre up to
honey
 you like the beta you got off us lupus she was very
close now radiating heat and tension eyes slitted over enor
mous pupils and a tendon in her neck tense as a bowstring 
she was quivering vibrating invisibly with the fresh buzz 
you get off
 yeah but the comedowns a bitch
 then you need another one
 and whats that supposed to lead to
 i got a key up the hill behind the paradise just the cream
iest crib people down the well on business tonight if you
follow me
 if i follow you
 she took his hand between hers her palms hot and dry 
youre yak arent you lupus gaijin soldierman for the
yakuza
 you got an eye huh he withdrew his hand and fumbled
for a cigarette
 how come you got all your fingers then i thought you
had to chop one off every time you screwed up
 i never screw up he lit his cigarette
 i saw that girl youre with day i met you walks like
hideo scares me she smiled too widely i like that she
like it with girls
 never said whos hideo
 3janes what she calls it retainer family retainer
 case forced himself to stare dully at the emergency crowd
while he spoke deejane
 lady 3jane shes triff rich her father owns all this
 this bar
 freeside
 no shit you keepin some class company huh he raised
an eyebrow put his arm around her his hand on her hip so
how you meet these aristos cathy you some kinda closet
deb you an bruce secret heirs to some ripe old credit huh 
he spread his fingers kneading the flesh beneath the thin black
cloth she squirmed against him laughed
 oh you know she said lids half lowered in what must
have been intended as a look of modesty she likes to party 
bruce and i we make the party circuit it gets real boring
for her in there her old man lets her out sometimes as long
as she brings hideo to take care of her
 wheres it get boring
 straylight they call it she told me oh its pretty all the
pools and lilies its a castle a real castle all stone and sunsets 
she snuggled in against him hey lupus man you need a
derm so we can be together
 she wore a tiny leather purse on a slender neckthong her
nails were bright pink against her boosted tan bitten to the
quick she opened the purse and withdrew a paperbacked bub
ble with a blue derm inside something white tumbled to the
floor case stooped and picked it up an origami crane
 hideo gave it to me she said he tried to show me how
but i cant ever get it right the necks come out backwards 
she tucked the folded paper back into her purse case watched
as she tore the bubble away peeled the derm from its backing
and smoothed it across his inner wrist
 3jane shes got a pointy face nose like a bird he watched
his hands fumble an outline dark hair young
 i guess but shes triff you know like all that money
 the drug hit him like an express train a whitehot column
of light mounting his spine from the region of his prostate
illuminating the sutures of his skull with xrays of shortcir
cuited sexual energy his teeth sang in their individual sockets
like tuning forks each one pitchperfect and clear as ethanol 
his bones beneath the hazy envelope of flesh were chromed
and polished the joints lubricated with a film of silicone sand
storms raged across the scoured floor of his skull generating
waves of high thin static that broke behind his eyes spheres
of purest crystal expanding
 come on she said taking his hand you got it now 
we got it up the hill well have it all night
 the anger was expanding relentless exponential riding
out behind the betaphenethylamine rush like a carrier wave a
seismic fluid rich and corrosive his erection was a bar of
lead the faces around them in emergency were painted doll
things the pink and white of mouth parts moving moving
words emerging like discrete balloons of sound he looked at
cath and saw each pore in the tanned skin eyes flat as dumb
glass a tint of dead metal a faint bloating the most minute
asymmetries of breast and collarbone the something flared
white behind his eyes
 he dropped her hand and stumbled for the door shoving
someone out of the way
 fuck you she screamed behind him you ripoff shit
 he couldnt feel his legs he used them like stilts swaying
crazily across the flagstone pavement of jules verne a distant
rumbling in his ears his own blood razored sheets of light
bisecting his skull at a dozen angles
 and then he was frozen erect fists tight against his thighs
head back his lips curled shaking while he watched the
losers zodiac of freeside the nightclub constellations of the
hologram sky shift sliding fluid down the axis of darkness
to swarm like live things at the dead center of reality until
they had arranged themselves individually and in their hundreds
to form a vast simple portrait stippled the ultimate mono
chrome stars against night sky face of miss linda lee
 when he was able to look away to lower his eyes he found
every other face in the street upraised the strolling tourists
becalmed with wonder and when the lights in the sky went
out a ragged cheer went up from jules verne to echo off the
terraces and ranked balconies of lunar concrete
 somewhere a clock began to chime some ancient bell out
of europe
 midnight

he walked till morning
 the high wore away the chromed skeleton corroding hourly
flesh growing solid the drugflesh replaced with the meat of
his life he couldnt think he liked that very much to be
conscious and unable to think he seemed to become each
thing he saw a park bench a cloud of white moths around an
antique streetlight a robot gardener striped diagonally with
black and yellow
 a recorded dawn crept along the ladoacheson system
pink and lurid he forced himself to eat an omelette in a de
siderata cafe to drink water to smoke the last of his cigarettes 
the rooftop meadow of the intercontinental was stirring as he
crossed it an early breakfast crowd intent on coffee and crois
sants beneath the striped umbrellas
 he still had his anger that was like being rolled in some
alley and waking to discover your wallet still in your pocket
untouched he warmed himself with it unable to give it a name
or an object
 he rode the elevator down to his level fumbling in his
pocket for the freeside credit chip that served as his key sleep
was becoming real was something he might do to lie down
on the sandcolored temperfoam and find the blankness again
 they were waiting there the three of them their perfect
white sportsclothes and stenciled tans setting off the handwoven
organic chic of the furniture the girl sat on a wicker sofa an
automatic pistol beside her on the leafpatterned print of the
cushion
 turing she said you are under arrest

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