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DOC :ch15.txt

you tryin to break my record son the flatline asked 
you were braindead again five seconds
 sit tight case said and hit the simstim switch
 she crouched in darkness her palms against rough concrete
 case case case case the digital display pulsed his
name in alphanumerics wintermute informing her of the link
 cute she said she rocked back on her heels and rubbed
her palms together cracked her knuckles what kept you
 time molly time now
 she pressed her tongue hard against her lower front teeth 
one moved slightly activating her microchannel amps the
random bounce of photons through the darkness was converted
to a pulse of electrons the concrete around her coming up
ghostpale and grainy okay honey now we go out to play
 her hiding place proved to be a service tunnel of some kind 
she crawled out through a hinged ornate grill of tarnished
brass he saw enough of her arms and hands to know that she
wore the polycarbon suit again under the plastic he felt the
familiar tension of thin tight leather there was something slung
under her arm in a harness or holster she stood up unzipped
the suit and touched the checkered plastic of a pistolgrip
 hey case she said barely voicing the words you lis
tening tell you a story had me this boy once you kinda
remind me she turned and surveyed the corridor johnny
his name was
 the low vaulted hallway was lined with dozens of museum
cases archaiclooking glassfronted boxes made of brown wood 
they looked awkward there against the organic curves of the
hallways walls as though theyd been brought in and set up
in a line for some forgotten purpose dull brass fixtures held
globes of white light at tenmeter intervals the floor was
uneven and as she set off along the corridor case realized
that hundreds of small rugs and carpets had been put down at
random in some places they were six deep the floor a soft
patchwork of handwoven wool
 molly paid little attention to the cabinets and their contents
which irritated him he had to satisfy himself with her disin
terested glances which gave him fragments of pottery antique
weapons a thing so densely studded with rusted nails that it
was unrecognizable frayed sections of tapestry
 my johnny see he was smart real flash boy started out
as a stash on memory lane chips in his head and people paid
to hide data there had the yak after him night i met him
and i did for their assassin more luck than anything else but
i did for him and after that it was tight and sweet case 
her lips barely moved he felt her form the words he didnt
need to hear them spoken aloud we had a setup with a squid
so we could read the traces of everything hed ever stored ran
it all out on tape and started twisting selected clients exclients 
i was bagman muscle watchdog i was real happy you ever
been happy case he was my boy we worked together 
partners i was maybe eight weeks out of the puppet house
when i met him she paused edged around a sharp turn
and continued more of the glossy wooden cases their sides
a color that reminded him of cockroach wings
 tight sweet just ticking along we were like nobody
could ever touch us i wasnt going to let them yakuza i
guess they still wanted johnnys ass cause id killed their
man cause johnnyd burned them and the yak they can
afford to move so fucking slow man theyll wait years and
years give you a whole life just so youll have more to lose
when they come and take it away patient like a spider zen
spiders
 i didnt know that then or if i did i figured it didnt
apply to us like when youre young you figure youre
unique i was young then they came when we were thinking
we maybe had enough to be able to quit pack it in go to
europe maybe not that either of us knew what wed do there
with nothing to do but we were living fat swiss orbital ac
counts and a crib full of toys and furniture takes the edge off
your game
 so that first one theyd sent hed been hot reflexes like
you never saw implants enough style for ten ordinary hoods 
but the second one he was i dunno like a monk cloned 
stone killer from the cells on up had it in him death this
silence he gave it off in a cloud her voice trailed off as
the corridor split identical stairwells descending she took the
left
 one time i was a little kid we were squatting it was
down by the hudson and those rats man they were big its
the chemicals get into them big as i was and all night one
had been scrabbling under the floor of the squat round dawn
somebody brought this old man in seams down his cheeks and
his eyes all red had a roll of greasy leather like youd keep
steel tools in to keep the rust off spread it out had this old
revolver and three shells old man he puts one bullet in there
then he starts walking up and down the squat were hanging
back by the walls
 back and forth got his arms crossed head down like
hes forgotten the gun listening for the rat we got real quiet 
old man takes a step rat moves rat moves he takes another
step an hour of that then he seems to remember his gun 
points it at the floor grins and pulls the trigger rolled it back
up and left
 i crawled under there later rat had a hole between its
eyes she was watching the sealed doorways that opened at
intervals along the corridor the second one the one who
came for johnny he was like that old man not old but he
was like that he killed that way the corridor widened the
sea of rich carpets undulated gently beneath an enormous can
delabrum whose lowest crystal pendant reached nearly to the
floor crystal tinkled as molly entered the hall third door
left blinked the readout
 she turned left avoiding the inverted tree of crystal i just
saw him once on my way into our place he was coming out 
we lived in a converted factory space lots of young comers
from sensenet like that pretty good security to start with
and id put in some really heavy stuff to make it really tight 
i knew johnny was up there but this little guy he caught my
eye as he was coming out didnt say a word we just looked
at each other and i knew plain little guy plain clothes no
pride in him humble he looked at me and got into a pedicab 
i knew went upstairs and johnny was sitting in a chair by the
window with his mouth a little open like hed just thought of
something to say
 the door in front of her was old a carved slab of thai teak
that seemed to have been sawn in half to fit the low doorway 
a primitive mechanical lock with a stainless face had been
inset beneath a swirling dragon she knelt drew a tight little
roll of black chamois from an inside pocket and selected a
needlethin pick never much found anybody i gave a damn
about after that
 she inserted the pick and worked in silence nibbling at her
lower lip she seemed to rely on touch alone her eyes unfo
cused and the door was a blur of blond wood case listened
to the silence of the hall punctuated by the soft clink of the
candelabrum candles straylight was all wrong he remem
bered caths story of a castle with pools and lilies and 3janes
mannered words recited musically by the head a place grown
in upon itself straylight smelled faintly musty faintly per
fumed like a church where were the tessierashpools hed
expected some clean hive of disciplined activity but molly
had seen no one her monologue made him uneasy shed never
told him that much about herself before aside from her story
in the cubicle shed seldom said anything that had even in
dicated that she had a past
 she closed her eyes and there was a click that case felt
rather than heard it made him remember the magnetic locks
on the door of her cubicle in the puppet place the door had
opened for him even though hed had the wrong chip that
was wintermute manipulating the lock the way it had manip
ulated the drone micro and the robot gardener the lock system
in the puppet place had been a subunit of freesides security
system the simple mechanical lock here would pose a real
problem for the ai requiring either a drone of some kind or
a human agent
 she opened her eyes put the pick back into the chamois
carefully rerolled it and tucked it back into its pocket guess
youre kinda like he was she said think youre born to run 
figure what you were into back in chiba that was a stripped
down version of what youd be doing anywhere bad luck itll
do that sometimes get you down to basics she stood stretched
shook herself you know i figure the one tessierashpool
sent after that jimmy the boy who stole the head he must be
pretty much the same as the one the yak sent to kill johnny 
she drew the fletcher from its holster and dialed the barrel to
full auto
 the ugliness of the door struck case as she reached for it 
not the door itself which was beautiful or had once been part
of some more beautiful whole but the way it had been sawn
down to fit a particular entrance even the shape was wrong
a rectangle amid smooth curves of polished concrete theyd
imported these things he thought and then forced it all to fit 
but none of it fit the door was like the awkward cabinets
the huge crystal tree then he remembered 3janes essay and
imagined that the fittings had been hauled up the well to flesh
out some master plan a dream long lost in the compulsive
effort to fill space to replicate some family image of self he
remembered the shattered nest the eyeless things writhing
 molly grasped one of the carved dragons forelegs and the
door swung open easily
 the room behind was small cramped little more than a
closet gray steel tool cabinets were backed against a curving
wall a light fixture had come on automatically she closed
the door behind her and went to the ranged lockers
 third left pulsed the optic chip wintermute overriding
her time display five down but she opened the top drawer
first it was no more than a shallow tray empty the second
was empty as well the third which was deeper contained
dull beads of solder and a small brown thing that looked like
a human fingerbone the fourth drawer held a dampswollen
copy of an obsolete technical manual in french and japanese 
in the fifth behind the armored gauntlet of a heavy vacuum
suit she found the key it was like a dull brass coin with a
short hollow tube braised against one edge she turned it slowly
in her hand and case saw that the interior of the tube was lined
with studs and flanges the letters chubb were molded across
one face of the coin the other was blank
 he told me she whispered wintermute how he played
a waiting game for years didnt have any real power then
but he could use the villas security and custodial systems to
keep track of where everything was how things moved where
they went he saw somebody lose this key twenty years ago
and he managed to get somebody else to leave it here then
he killed him the boy whod brought it here kid was eight 
she closed her white fingers over the key so nobody would
find it she took a length of black nylon cord from the suits
kangaroo pocket and threaded it through the round hole above
chubb knotting it she hung it around her neck they were
always fucking him over with how oldfashioned they were
he said all their nineteenthcentury stuff he looked just like
the finn on the screen in that meat puppet hole almost thought
he was the finn if i wasnt careful her readout flared the
time alphanumerics superimposed over the gray steel chests 
he said if theyd turned into what theyd wanted to he
couldve gotten out a long time ago but they didnt screwed
up freaks like 3jane thats what he called her but he talked
like he liked her
 she turned opened the door and stepped out her hand
brushing the checkered grip of the holstered fletcher
 case flipped

kuang grade mark eleven was growing
 dixie you think this thingll work
 does a bear shit in the woods the flatline punched them
up through shifting rainbow strata
 something dark was forming at the core of the chinese
program the density of information overwhelmed the fabric
of the matrix triggering hypnagogic images faint kaleidoscop
ic angles centered in to a silverblack focal point case watched
childhood symbols of evil and bad luck tumble out along trans
lucent planes swastikas skulls and crossbones dice flashing
snake eyes if he looked directly at that null point no outline
would form it took a dozen quick peripheral takes before he
had it a shark thing gleaming like obsidian the black mirrors
of its flanks reflecting faint distant lights that bore no relation
ship to the matrix around it
 thats the sting the construct said when kuangs good
and bellytight with the tessierashpool core were ridin that
through
 you were right dix theres some kind of manual override
on the hardwiring that keeps wintermute under control how
ever much he is under control he added
 he the construct said he watch that it i keep telling
you
 its a code a word he said somebody has to speak it
into a fancy terminal in a certain room while we take care of
whatevers waiting for us behind that ice
 well you got time to kill kid the flatline said ol
kuangs slow but steady
 case jacked out

into maelcums stare
 you dead awhile there mon
 it happens he said im getting used to it
 you dealin wi th darkness mon
 only game in town it looks like
 jah love case maelcum said and turned back to his
radio module case stared at the matted dreadlocks the ropes
of muscle around the mans dark arms
 he jacked back in
 and flipped

molly was trotting along a length of corridor that might
have been the one shed traveled before the glassfronted cases
were gone now and case decided they were moving toward
the tip of the spindle gravity was growing weaker soon she
was bounding smoothly over rolling hillocks of carpets faint
twinges in her leg
 the corridor narrowed suddenly curved split
 she turned right and started up a freakishly steep flight of
stairs her leg beginning to ache overhead strapped and bun
dled cables hugged the stairwells ceiling like colorcoded gan
glia the walls were splotched with damp
 she arrived at a triangular landing and stood rubbing her
leg more corridors narrow their walls hung with rugs they
branched away in three directions
 left
 she shrugged lemme look around okay
 left
 relax theres time she started down the corridor that
led off to her right
 stop
 go back
 danger
 she hesitated from the halfopen oak door at the far end
of the passage came a voice loud and slurred like the voice
of a drunk case thought the language might be french but it
was too indistinct molly took a step another her hand sliding
into the suit to touch the butt of her fletcher when she stepped
into the neural disruptors field her ears rang a tiny rising
tone that made case think of the sound of her fletcher she
pitched forward her striated muscles slack and struck the door
with her forehead she twisted and lay on her back her eyes
unfocused breath gone
 whats this said the slurred voice fancy dress a trem
bling hand entered the front of her suit and found the fletcher
tugging it out come visit child now
 she got up slowly her eyes fixed on the muzzle of a black
automatic pistol the mans hand was steady enough now the
guns barrel seemed to be attached to her throat with a taut
invisible string
 he was old very tall and his features reminded case of
the girl he had glimpsed in the vingtime sicle he wore a
heavy robe of maroon silk quilted around the long cuffs and
shawl collar one foot was bare the other in a black velvet
slipper with an embroidered gold foxhead over the instep he
motioned her into the room slow darling the room was
very large cluttered with an assortment of things that made no
sense to case he saw a gray steel rack of oldfashioned sony
monitors a wide brass bed heaped with sheepskins with pil
lows that seemed to have been made from the kind of rug used
to pave the corridors mollys eyes darted from a huge tele
funken entertainment console to shelves of antique disk re
cordings their crumbling spines cased in clear plastic to a
wide worktable littered with slabs of silicon case registered
the cyberspace deck and the trodes but her glance slid over it
without pausing
 it would be customary the old man said for me to kill
you now case felt her tense ready for a move but tonight
i indulge myself what is your name
 molly
 molly mine is ashpool he sank back into the creased
softness of a huge leather armchair with square chrome legs
but the gun never wavered he put her fletcher on a brass table
beside the chair knocking over a plastic vial of red pills the
table was thick with vials bottles of liquor soft plastic en
velopes spilling white powders case noticed an oldfashioned
glass hypodermic and a plain steel spoon
 how do you cry molly i see your eyes are walled away 
im curious his eyes were redrimmed his forehead gleaming
with sweat he was very pale sick case decided or drugs
 i dont cry much
 but how would you cry if someone made you cry
 i spit she said the ducts are routed back into my mouth
 then youve already learned an important lesson for one
so young he rested the hand with the pistol on his knee and
took a bottle from the table beside him without bothering to
choose from the halfdozen different liquors he drank brandy 
a trickle of the stuff ran from the corner of his mouth that
is the way to handle tears he drank again im busy tonight
molly i built all this and now im busy dying
 i could go out the way i came she said
 he laughed a harsh high sound you intrude on my suicide
and then ask to simply walk out really you amaze me a
thief
 its my ass boss and its all i got i just wanna get it out
of here in one piece
 you are a very rude girl suicides here are conducted with
a degree of decorum thats what im doing you understand 
but perhaps ill take you with me tonight down to hell it
would be very egyptian of me he drank again come here
then he held out the bottle his hand shaking drink
 she shook her head
 it isnt poisoned he said but returned the brandy to the
table sit sit on the floor well talk
 what about she sat case felt the blades move very
slightly beneath her nails
 whatever comes to mind my mind its my party the
cores woke me twenty hours ago something was afoot they
said and i was needed were you the something molly surely
they didnt need me to handle you no something else but
id been dreaming you see for thirty years you werent born
when last i lay me down to sleep they told us we wouldnt
dream in that cold they told us wed never feel cold either 
madness molly lies of course i dreamed the cold let the
outside in that was it the outside all the night i built this
to hide us from just a drop at first one grain of night seeping
in drawn by the cold others following it filling my head
the way rain fills an empty pool calla lilies i remember the
pools were terracotta nursemaids all of chrome how the limbs
went winking through the gardens at sunset im old molly 
over two hundred years if you count the cold the cold the
barrel of the pistol snapped up suddenly quivering the ten
dons in her thighs were drawn tight as wires now
 you can get freezerburn she said carefully
 nothing burns there he said impatiently lowering the
gun his few movements were increasingly sclerotic his head
nodded it cost him an effort to stop it nothing burns i
remember now the cores told me our intelligences are mad 
and all the billions we paid so long ago when artificial
intelligences were rather a racy concept i told the cores id
deal with it bad timing really with 8jean down in melbourne
and only our sweet 3jane minding the store or very good
timing perhaps would you know molly the gun rose again 
there are some odd things afoot now in the villa straylight
 boss she asked him you know wintermute
 a name yes to conjure with perhaps a lord of hell
surely in my time dear molly i have known many lords 
and not a few ladies why a queen of spain once in that
very bed but i wander he coughed wetly the muzzle of
the pistol jerking as he convulsed he spat on the carpet near
his one bare foot how i do wander through the cold but
soon no more id ordered a jane thawed when i woke strange
to lie every few decades with what legally amounts to ones
own daughter his gaze swept past her to the rack of blank
monitors he seemed to shiver mariefrances eyes he said
faintly and smiled we cause the brain to become allergic to
certain of its own neurotransmitters resulting in a peculiarly
pliable imitation of autism his head swayed sideways re
covered i understand that the effect is now more easily ob
tained with an embedded microchip
 the pistol slid from his fingers bounced on the carpet
 the dreams grow like slow ice he said his face was
tinged with blue his head sank back into the waiting leather
and he began to snore
 up she snatched the gun she stalked the room ashpools
automatic in her hand
 a vast quilt or comforter was heaped beside the bed in a
broad puddle of congealed blood thick and shiny on the pat
terned rugs twitching a corner of the quilt back she found
the body of a girl white shoulder blades slick with blood her
throat had been slit the triangular blade of some sort of scraper
glinted in the dark pool beside her molly knelt careful to
avoid the blood and turned the dead girls face to the light 
the face case had seen in the restaurant
 there was a click deep at the very center of things and
the world was frozen mollys simstim broadcast had become
a still frame her fingers on the girls cheek the freeze held
for three seconds and then the dead face was altered became
the face of linda lee
 another click and the room blurred molly was standing
looking down at a golden laser disk beside a small console on
the marble top of a bedside table a length of fiberoptic ribbon
ran like a leash from the console to a socket at the base of the
slender neck
 i got your number fucker case said feeling his own lips
moving somewhere far away he knew that wintermute had
altered the broadcast molly hadnt seen the dead girls face
swirl like smoke to take on the outline of lindas deathmask
 molly turned she crossed the room to ashpools chair the
mans breathing was slow and ragged she peered at the litter
of drugs and alcohol she put his pistol down picked up her
fletcher dialed the barrel over to single shot and very carefully
put a toxin dart through the center of his closed left eyelid he
jerked once breath halting in midintake his other eye brown
and fathomless opened slowly
 it was still open when she turned and left the room

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

	(9%)	case molly thing back left im head asked didnt began ...
	(8%)	eyes man hed black face dark past good open back ...
	(7%)	hand youre looked hands back time wall place small whats ...
	(6%)	opened touch flatline takes johnny wrong story plain pick fit ...
	(5%)	told wintermute time mouth sleep id guess shoulder faint hard ...

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