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DOC :ch16.txt

got your boss on hold the flatline said hes coming
through on the twin hosaka in that boat upstairs the one thats
riding us piggyback called the haniwa
 i know case said absently i saw it
 a lozenge of white light clicked into place in front of him
hiding the tessierashpool ice it showed him the calm per
fectly focused utterly crazy face of armitage his eyes blank
as buttons armitage blinked stared
 guess wintermute took care of your turings too huh 
like he took care of mine case said
 armitage stared case resisted the sudden urge to look away
drop his gaze you okay armitage
 case and for an instant something seemed to move
behind the blue stare youve seen wintermute havent you 
in the matrix
 case nodded a camera on the face of his hosaka in marcus
garvey would relay the gesture to the haniwa monitor he
imagined maelcum listening to his tranced half conversations
unable to hear the voices of the construct or armitage
 case and the eyes grew larger armitage leaning toward
his computer what is he when you see him
 a highrez simstim construct
 but who
 finn last time before that this pimp i
 not general girling
 general who
 the lozenge went blank
 run that back and get the hosaka to look it up he told
the construct
 he flipped

the perspective startled him molly was crouching between
steel girders twenty meters above a broad stained floor of
polished concrete the room was a hangar or service bay he
could see three spacecraft none larger than garvey and all in
various stages of repair japanese voices a figure in an orange
jumpsuit stepped from a gap in the hull of a bulbous construc
tion vehicle and stood beside one of the things pistondriven
weirdly anthropomorphic arms the man punched something
into a portable console and scratched his ribs a cartlike red
drone rolled into sight on gray balloon tires
 case flashed her chip
 hey she said waiting for a guide
 she settled back on her haunches the arms and knees of
her modern suit the color of the bluegray paint on the girders
her leg hurt a sharp steady pain now i shoulda gone back
to chin she muttered
 something came ticking quietly out of the shadows on a
level with her left shoulder it paused swayed its spherical body
from side to side on higharched spider legs fired a micro
second burst of diffuse laserlight and froze it was a braun
microdrone and case had once owned the same model a
pointless accessory hed obtained as part of a package deal with
a cleveland hardware fence it looked like a stylized matte
black daddy longlegs a red led began to pulse at the spheres
equator its body was no larger than a baseball okay she
said i hear you she stood up favoring her left leg and
watched the little drone reverse it picked its methodical way
back across its girder and into darkness she turned and looked
back at the service area the man in the orange jumpsuit was
sealing the front of a white vacuum rig she watched him ring
and seal the helmet pick up his console and step back through
the gap in the construction boats hull there was a rising whine
of motors and the thing slid smoothly out of sight on a ten
meter circle of flooring that sank away into a harsh glare of
arc lamps the red drone waited patiently at the edge of the
hole left by the elevator panel
 then she was off after the braun threading her way between
a forest of welded steel struts the braun winked its led
steadily beckoning her on
 how you doin case you back in garvey with maelcum 
sure and jacked into this i like it you know like ive always
talked to myself in my head when ive been in tight spots 
pretend i got some friend somebody i can trust and ill tell
em what i really think what i feel like and then ill pretend
theyre telling me what they think about that and ill just go
along that way having you in is kinda like that that scene
with ashpool she gnawed at her lower lip swinging around
a strut keeping the drone in sight i was expecting something
maybe a little less gone you know i mean these guys are all
batshit in here like they got luminous messages scrawled across
the inside of their foreheads or something i dont like the way
it looks i dont like the way it smells
 the drone was hoisting itself up a nearly invisible ladder
of ushaped steel rungs toward a narrow dark opening and
while im feeling confessional baby i gotta admit maybe i
never much expected to make it out of this one anyway been
on this bad roll for a while and youre the only good change
come down since i signed on with armitage she looked up
at the black circle the drones led winked climbing not
that youre all that shit hot she smiled but it was gone too
quickly and she gritted her teeth at the stabbing pain in her
leg as she began to climb the ladder continued up through a
metal tube barely wide enough for her shoulders
 she was climbing up out of gravity toward the weightless
axis
 her chip pulsed the time
 042304
 it had been a long day the clarity of her sensorium cut the
bite of the betaphenethylamine but case could still feel it he
preferred the pain in her leg

c a s e 0 0 0 0
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
 guess its for you she said climbing mechanically the
zeros strobed again and a message stuttered there in the corner
of her vision chopped up by the display circuit

g e n e r a l g
 i r l i n g 
 t r a i n e d
 c o r t o f o r
 s c r e a m i n g
 f i s t a n d
 s o l d h i s
 a s s t o
 t h e p e n t
 a g o n 
 w m u t e s
 p r i m a r y
 g r i p o n
 a r m i t a g
 e i s a
 c o n s t r u
 c t o f g
 i r l i n g 
 w m u t e
 s e z a s
 m e n t i o n
 o f g
 m e a n s
 h e s
 c r a c k
 i n g 
 w a t c h
 y o u r
 a s s 
 d i x i e

well she said pausing taking all of her weight on her
right leg guess you got problems too she looked down 
there was a faint circle of light no larger than the brass round
of the chubb key that dangled between her breasts she looked
up nothing at all she tongued her amps and the tube rose
into vanishing perspective the braun picking its way up the
rungs nobody told me about this part she said
 case jacked out

maelcum
 mon you bossman gone ver strange the zionite was
wearing a blue sanyo vacuum suit twenty years older than the
one case had rented in freeside its helmet under his arm and
his dreadlocks bagged in a net cap crocheted from purple
cotton yarn his eyes were slitted with ganja and tension keep
callin down here wi orders mon but be some babylon war 
maelcum shook his head aerol an i talkin an aerol talkin
wi zion founders seh cut an run he ran the back of a large
brown hand across his mouth
 armitage case winced as the betaphenethylamine hang
over hit him with its full intensity unscreened by the matrix
or simstim brains got no nerves in it he told himself it cant
really feel this bad what do you mean man hes giving
you orders what
 mon armitage he tellin me set course for finland ya
know he tellin me there be hope ya know come on my
screen wi his shirt all blood mon an be crazy as some dog
talkin screamin fists an russian an th blood of th betrayers
shall be on our hands he shook his head again the dreadcap
swaying and bobbing in zerog his lips narrowed founders
seh the mute voice be false prophet surely an aerol an i
mus bandon marcus garvey and return
 armitage he was wounded blood
 cant seh ya know but blood an stone crazy case
 okay case said so what about me youre going home 
what about me maelcum
 mon maelcum said you comin wi me i an i come
zion wi aerol babylon rocker leave mr armitage t talk
wi ghost cassette one ghost t nother
 case glanced over his shoulder his rented suit swung against
the hammock where hed snapped it swaying in the air current
from the old russian scrubber he closed his eyes he saw the
sacs of toxin dissolving in his arteries he saw molly hauling
herself up the endless steel rungs he opened his eyes
 i dunno man he said a strange taste in his mouth he
looked down at his desk at his hands i dont know he
looked back up the brown face was calm now intent mael
cums chin was hidden by the high helmet ring of his old blue
suit shes inside he said mollys inside in straylight
its called if theres any babylon man thats it we leave on
her she aint comin out steppin razor or not
 maelcum nodded the dreadbag bobbing behind him like a
captive balloon of crocheted cotton she you woman case
 i dunno nobodys woman maybe he shrugged and
found his anger again real as a shard of hot rock beneath his
ribs fuck this he said fuck armitage fuck wintermute
and fuck you im stayin right here
 maelcums smile spread across his face like light breaking 
maelcum a rude boy case garvey maelcum boat his gloved
hand slapped a panel and the bassheavy rocksteady of zion
dub came pulsing from the tugs speakers maelcum not run
nin no i talk wi aerol he certain t see it in similar light
 case stared i dont understand you guys at all he said
 don stan you mon the zionite said nodding to the
beat but we mus move by jah love each one
 case jacked in and flipped for the matrix

get my wire
 yeah he saw that the chinese program had grown del
icate arches of shifting polychrome were nearing the ta ice
 well its gettin stickier the flatline said your boss
wiped the bank on that other hosaka and damn near took ours
with it but your pal wintermute put me on to somethin there
before it went black the reason straylights not exactly hop
pin with tessierashpools is that theyre mostly in cold sleep 
theres a law firm in london keeps track of their powers of
attorney has to know whos awake and exactly when ar
mitage was routing the transmissions from london to straylight
through the hosaka on the yacht incidently they know the
old mans dead
 who knows
 the law firm and ta he had a medical remote planted
in his sternum not that your girls dart wouldve left a res
urrection crew with much to work with shellfish toxin but
the only ta awake in straylight right now is lady 3jane
mariefrance theres a male couple years older in australia
on business you ask me i bet wintermute found a way to
cause that business to need this 8jeans personal attention but
hes on his way home or near as matters the london lawyers
give his straylight eta as 090000 tonight we slotted kuang
virus at 023203 its 044520 best estimate for kuang pen
etration of the ta core is 083000 or a hair on either side 
i figure wintermutes got somethin goin with this 3jane or
else shes just as crazy as her old man was but the boy up
from melbournell know the score the straylight security sys
tems keep trying to go full alert but wintermute blocks em
dont ask me how couldnt override the basic gate program
to get molly in though armitage had a record of all that on
his hosaka riviera mustve talked 3jane into doing it shes
been able to fiddle entrances and exits for years looks to me
like one of tas main problems is that every family bigwig
has riddled the banks with all kinds of private scams and ex
ceptions kinda like your immune system falling apart on you 
ripe for virus looks good for us once were past that ice
 okay but wintermute said that arm 
 a white lozenge snapped into position filled with a close
up of mad blue eyes case could only stare colonel willie
corto special forces strikeforce screaming fist had found
his way back the image was dim jerky badly focused corto
was using the haniwas navigation deck to link with the hosaka
in marcus garvey
 case i need the damage reports on omaha thunder
 say i colonel
 hang in there boy remember your training
 but where have you been man he silently asked the an
guished eyes wintermute had built something called armitage
into a catatonic fortress named corto had convinced corto
that armitage was the real thing and armitage had walked
talked schemed bartered data for capital fronted for win
termute in that room in the chiba hilton and now arm
itage was gone blown away by the winds of cortos madness 
but where had corto been those years
 falling burned and blinded out of a siberian sky
 case this will be difficult for you to accept i know that 
youre an officer the training i understand but case as
god is my witness we have been betrayed
 tears started from the blue eyes
 colonel ah who whos betrayed us
 general girling case you may know him by a code name 
you do know the man of whom i speak
 yeah case said as the tears continued to flow i guess
i do sir he added on impulse but sir colonel what
exactly should we do now i mean
 our duty at this point case lies in flight escape evasion 
we can make the finnish border nightfall tomorrow treetop
flying on manual seat of the pants boy but that will only
be the beginning the blue eyes slitted above tanned cheek
bones slick with tears only the beginning betrayal from
above from above he stepped back from the camera
dark stains on his torn twill shirt armitages face had been
masklike impassive but cortos was the true schizoid mask
illness etched deep in involuntary muscle distorting the ex
pensive surgery
 colonel i hear you man listen colonel okay i want
you to open the ah shit whats it called dix
 the midbay lock the flatline said
 open the midbay lock just tell your central console there
to open it right well be up there with you fast colonel 
then we can talk about getting out of here
 the lozenge vanished
 boy i think you just lost me there the flatline said
 the toxins case said the fucking toxins and jacked
out

poison maelcum watched over the scratched blue shoul
der of his old sanyo as case struggled out of the gweb
 and get this goddam thing off me tugging at the
texas catheter like a slow poison and that asshole upstairs
knows how to counter it and now hes crazier than a shithouse
rat he fumbled with the front of the red sanyo forgetting
how to work the seals
 bossman he poison you maelcum scratched his cheek 
got a medical kit ya know
 maelcum christ help me with this goddam suit
 the zionite kicked off from the pink pilot module easy
mon measure twice cut once wise man put it we get up
there

there was air in the corrugated gangway that led from mar
cus garveys aft lock to the midbay lock of the yacht called
haniwa but they kept their suits sealed maelcum executed
the passage with balletic grace only pausing to help case
whod gone into an awkward tumble as hed stepped out of
garvey the white plastic sides of the tube filtered the raw
sunlight there were no shadows
 garveys airlock hatch was patched and pitted decorated
with a lasercarved lion of zion haniwas midbay hatch was
creamy gray blank and pristine maelcum inserted his gloved
hand in a narrow recess case saw his fingers move red leds
came to life in the recess counting down from fifty maelcum
withdrew his hand case with one glove braced against the
hatch felt the vibration of the lock mechanism through his suit
and bones the round segment of gray hull began to withdraw
into the side of haniwa maelcum grabbed the recess with one
hand and case with the other the lock took them with it

haniwa was a product of the dornierfujitsu yards her
interior informed by a design philosophy similar to the one that
had produced the mercedes that had chauffeured them through
istanbul the narrow midbay was walled in imitation ebony
veneer and floored with gray italian tiles case felt as though
he were invading some rich mans private spa by way of the
shower the yacht which had been assembled in orbit had
never been intended for reentry her smooth wasplike line
was simply styling and everything about her interior was cal
culated to add to the overall impression of speed
 when maelcum removed his battered helmet case followed
his lead they hung there in the lock breathing air that smelled
faintly of pine under it a disturbing edge of burning insula
tion
 maelcum sniffed trouble here mon any boat you smell
that
 a door padded with dark gray ultrasuede slid smoothly
back into its housing maelcum kicked off the ebony wall and
sailed neatly through the narrow opening twisting his broad
shoulders at the last possible instant for clearance case fol
lowed him clumsily hand over hand along a waisthigh padded
rail bridge maelcum said pointing down a seamless cream
walled corridor be there he launched himself with another
effortless kick from somewhere ahead case made out the
familiar chatter of a printer turning out hard copy it grew
louder as he followed maelcum through another doorway into
a swirling mass of tangled printout case snatched a length of
twisted paper and glanced at it

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

systems crash the zionite flicked a gloved finger at the
column of zeros
 no case said grabbing for his drifting helmet the flat
line said armitage wiped the hosaka he had in there
 smell like he wipe em wi laser ya know the zionite
braced his foot against the white cage of a swiss exercise
machine and shot through the floating maze of paper batting
it away from his face
 case mon
 the man was small japanese his throat bound to the back
of the narrow articulated chair with a length of some sort of
fine steel wire the wire was invisible where it crossed the
black temperfoam of the headrest and it had cut as deeply into
his larynx a single sphere of dark blood had congealed there
like some strange precious stone a redblack pearl case saw
the crude wooden handles that drifted at either end of the
garrotte like worn sections of broom handle
 wonder how long he had that on him case said re
membering cortos postwar pilgrimage
 he know how pilot boat case bossman
 maybe he was special forces
 well this japanboy he not be pilotin doubt i pilot her
easy myself ver new boat
 so find us the bridge
 maelcum frowned rolled backward and kicked
 case followed him into a larger space a kind of lounge
shredding and crumpling the lengths of printout that snared him
in his passage there were more of the articulated chairs here
something that resembled a bar and the hosaka the printer
still spewing its flimsy tongue of paper was an inbuilt bulk
head unit a neat slot in a panel of handrubbed veneer he
pulled himself over the circle of chairs and reached it punching
a white stud to the left of the slot the chattering stopped he
turned and stared at the hosaka its face had been drilled through
at least a dozen times the holes were small circular edges
blackened tiny spheres of bright alloy were orbiting the dead
computer good guess he said to maelcum
 bridge locked mon maelcum said from the opposite
side of the lounge
 the lights dimmed surged dimmed again
 case ripped the printout from its slot more zeros win
termute he looked around the beige and brown lounge the
space scrawled with drifting curves of paper that you on the
lights wintermute
 a panel beside maelcums head slid up revealing a small
monitor maelcum jerked apprehensively wiped sweat from
his forehead with a foam patch on the back of a gloved hand
and swung to study the display you read japanese mon 
case could see figures blinking past on the screen
 no case said
 bridge is escape pod lifeboat countin down looks like
it suit up now he ringed his helmet and slapped at the seals
 what hes takin off shit he kicked off from the
bulkhead and shot through the tangle of printout we gotta
open this door man but maelcum could only tap the side of
his helmet case could see his lips moving through the lexan 
he saw a bead of sweat arc out from the rainbow braided band
of the purple cotton net the zionite wore over his locks mael
cum snatched the helmet from case and ringed it for him
smoothly the palms of his gloves smacking the seals micro 
led monitors to the left of the faceplate lit as the neck ring
connections closed no seh japanese maelcum said over
his suits transceiver but countdowns wrong he tapped a
particular line on the screen seals not intact bridge module 
launchin wi lock open
 armitage case tried to pound on the door the physics
of zerog sent him tumbling back through the printout corto 
dont do it we gotta talk we gotta 
 case read you case the voice barely resembled
armitages now it held a weird calm case stopped kicking 
his helmet struck the far wall im sorry case but it has to
be this way one of us has to get out one of us has to testify 
if we all go down here it ends here ill tell them case ill
tell them all of it about girling and the others and ill make
it case i know ill make it to helsinki there was a sudden
silence case felt it fill his helmet like some rare gas but its
so hard case so goddam hard im blind
 corto stop wait youre blind man you cant fly youll
hit the fucking trees and theyre trying to get you corto i
swear to god theyve left your hatch open youll die and
youll never get to tell em and i gotta get the enzyme name
of the enzyme the enzyme man he was shouting voice
high with hysteria feedback shrilled out of the helmets ...

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

	(12%)	maelcum mon garvey straylight zionite mute helmet theyre yeah monitor ...
	(10%)	case molly thing back left im head asked didnt began ...
	(9%)	eyes man hed black face dark past good open back ...
	(7%)	hatch tube hear hosaka lock suit ladder japanese rungs gangway ...
	(6%)	ill tears drone rolled screen slid rising polished smoothly wiped ...
	(5%)	hand youre looked hands back time wall place small whats ...

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