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DOC :ch17.txt

get what you went for the construct asked
 kuang grade mark eleven was filling the grid between itself
and the ta ice with hypnotically intricate traceries of rainbow
lattices fine as snow crystal on a winter window
 wintermute killed armitage blew him out in a lifeboat
with a hatch open
 tough shit the flatline said werent exactly asshole
buddies were you
 he knew how to unbond the toxin sacs
 so wintermute knows too count on it
 i dont exactly trust wintermute to give it to me
 the constructs hideous approximation of laughter scraped
cases nerves like a dull blade maybe that means youre
gettin smart
 he hit the simstim switch

062752 by the chip in her optic nerve case had been
following her progress through villa straylight for over an
hour letting the endorphin analog shed taken blot out his
hangover the pain in her leg was gone she seemed to move
through a warm bath the braun drone was perched on her
shoulder its tiny manipulators like padded surgical clips se
cure in the polycarbon of the modern suit
 the walls here were raw steel striped with rough brown
ribbons of epoxy where some kind of covering had been ripped
away shed hidden from a work crew crouching the fletcher
cradled in her hands her suit steelgray while the two slender
africans and their balloontired workcart passed the men had
shaven heads and wore orange coveralls one was singing softly
to himself in a language case had never heard the tones and
melody alien and haunting
 the heads speech 3janes essay on straylight came back
to him as she worked her way deeper into the maze of the
place straylight was crazy was craziness grown in the resin
concrete theyd mixed from pulverized lunar stone grown in
welded steel and tons of knickknacks all the bizarre impe
dimentia theyd shipped up the well to line their winding nest 
but it wasnt a craziness he understood not like armitages
madness which he now imagined he could understand twist
a man far enough then twist him as far back in the opposite
direction reverse and twist again the man broke like break
ing a length of wire and history had done that for colonel
corto history had already done the really messy work when
wintermute found him sifting him out of all of the wars ripe
detritus gliding into the mans flat gray field of consciousness
like a water spider crossing the face of some stagnant pool
the first messages blinking across the face of a childs micro
in a darkened room in a french asylum wintermute had built
armitage up from scratch with cortos memories of screaming
fist as the foundation but armitages memories wouldnt
have been cortos after a certain point case doubted if ar
mitage had recalled the betrayal the nightwings whirling down
in flame armitage had been a sort of edited version of
corto and when the stress of the run had reached a certain
point the armitage mechanism had crumbled corto had sur
faced with his guilt and his sick fury and now cortoarmitage
was dead a small frozen moon for freeside
 he thought of the toxin sacs old ashpool was dead too
drilled through the eye with mollys microscopic dart deprived
of whatever expert overdose hed mixed for himself that was
a more puzzling death ashpools the death of a mad king 
and hed killed the puppet hed called his daughter the one
with 3janes face it seemed to case as he rode mollys broad
cast sensory input through the corridors of straylight that hed
never really thought of anyone like ashpool anyone as pow
erful as he imagined ashpool had been as human
 power in cases world meant corporate power the zai
batsus the multinationals that shaped the course of human
history had transcended old barriers viewed as organisms
they had attained a kind of immortality you couldnt kill a
zaibatsu by assassinating a dozen key executives there were
others waiting to step up the ladder assume the vacated po
sition access the vast banks of corporate memory but tessier 
ashpool wasnt like that and he sensed the difference in the
death of its founder ta was an atavism a clan he remem
bered the litter of the old mans chamber the soiled humanity
of it the ragged spines of the old audio disks in their paper
sleeves one foot bare the other in a velvet slipper
 the braun plucked at the hood of the modern suit and molly
turned left through another archway
 wintermute and the nest phobic vision of the hatching
wasps timelapse machine gun of biology but werent the
zaibatsus more like that or the yakuza hives with cybernetic
memories vast single organisms their dna coded in silicon 
if straylight was an expression of the corporate identity of
tessierashpool then ta was crazy as the old man had been 
the same ragged tangle of fears the same strange sense of
aimlessness if theyd turned into what they wanted to
he remembered molly saying but wintermute had told her
they hadnt
 case had always taken it for granted that the real bosses
the kingpins in a given industry would be both more and less
than people hed seen it in the men whod crippled him in
memphis hed seen wage affect the semblance of it in night
city and it had allowed him to accept armitages flatness and
lack of feeling hed always imagined it as a gradual and willing
accommodation of the machine the system the parent or
ganism it was the root of street cool too the knowing posture
that implied connection invisible lines up to hidden levels of
influence
 but what was happening now in the corridors of villa
straylight
 whole stretches were being stripped back to steel and con
crete
 wonder where our peter is now huh maybe see that boy
soon she muttered and armitage wheres he case
 dead he said knowing she couldnt hear him hes
dead
 he flipped

the chinese program was face to face with the target ice
rainbow tints gradually dominated by the green of the rectangle
representing the ta cores arches of emerald across the col
orless void
 hows it go dixie
 fine too slick things amazing shoulda had one that
time in singapore did the old new bank of asia for a good
fiftieth of what they were worth but thats ancient history 
this baby takes all the drudgery out of it makes you wonder
what a real war would be like now
 if this kinda shit was on the street wed be out a job
case said
 you wish waitll youre steering that thing upstairs through
black ice
 sure
 something small and decidedly nongeometric had just ap
peared on the far end of one of the emerald arches
 dixie
 yeah i see it dont know if i believe it
 a brownish dot a dull gnat against the green wall of the
ta cores it began to advance across the bridge built by
kuang grade mark eleven and case saw that it was walking 
as it came the green section of the arch extended the poly
chrome of the virus program rolling back a few steps ahead
of the cracked black shoes
 gotta hand it to you boss the flatline said when the
short rumpled figure of the finn seemed to stand a few meters
away i never seen anything this funny when i was alive 
but the eerie nonlaugh didnt come
 i never tried it before the finn said showing his teeth
his hands bunched in the pockets of his frayed jacket
 you killed armitage case said
 corto yeah armitage was already gone hadda do it i
know i know you wanna get the enzyme okay no sweat 
i was the one gave it to armitage in the first place i mean i
told him what to use but i think maybe its better to let the
deal stand you got enough time ill give it to you only a
coupla hours now right
 case watched blue smoke billow in cyberspace as the finn
lit up one of his partagas
 you guys the finn said youre a pain the flatline
here if you were all like him it would be real simple hes a
construct just a buncha rom so he always does what i expect
him to my projections said there wasnt much chance of molly
wandering in on ashpools big exit scene give you one ex
ample he sighed
 whyd he kill himself case asked
 whys anybody kill himself the figure shrugged i guess
i know if anybody does but it would take me twelve hours
to explain the various factors in his history and how they in
terrelate he was ready to do it for a long time but he kept
going back into the freezer christ he was a tedious old fuck 
the finns face wrinkled with disgust its all tied in with
why he killed his wife mainly you want the short reason but
what sent him over the edge for good and all little 3jane figured
a way to fiddle the program that controlled his cryogenic sys
tem subtle too so basically she killed him except he figured
hed killed himself and your friend the avenging angel figures
she got him with an eyeball full of shellfish juice the finn
flicked his butt away into the matrix below well actually
i guess i did give 3jane the odd hint a little of the old how 
to you know
 wintermute case said choosing the words carefully
you told me you were just a part of something else later on
you said you wouldnt exist if the run goes off and molly gets
the word into the right slot
 the finns streamlined skull nodded
 okay then who we gonna be dealing with then if ar
mitage is dead and youre gonna be gone just who exactly is
going to tell me how to get these fucking toxin sacs out of my
system whos going to get molly back out of there i mean
where where exactly are all our asses gonna be we cut you
loose from the hardwiring
 the finn took a wooden toothpick from his pocket and
regarded it critically like a surgeon examining a scalpel good
question he said finally you know salmon kinda fish 
these fish see theyre compelled to swim upstream got it
 no case said
 well im under compulsion myself and i dont know
why if i were gonna subject you to my very own thoughts
lets call em speculations on the topic it would take a couple
of your lifetimes because ive given it a lot of thought and
i just dont know but when this is over we do it right im
gonna be part of something bigger much bigger the finn
glanced up and around the matrix but the parts of me that
are me now thatll still be here and youll get your
payoff
 case fought back an insane urge to punch himself forward
and get his fingers around the figures throat just above the
ragged knot in the rusty scarf his thumbs deep in the finns
larynx
 well good luck the finn said he turned hands in pock
ets and began trudging back up the green arch
 hey asshole the flatline said when the finn had gone
a dozen paces the figure paused half turned what about
me what about my payoff
 youll get yours it said
 whats that mean case asked as he watched the narrow
tweed back recede
 i wanna be erased the construct said i told you that
remember

straylight reminded case of deserted early morning shop
ping centers hed known as a teenager lowdensity places
where the small hours brought a fitful stillness a kind of numb
expectancy a tension that left you watching insects swarm
around caged bulbs above the entrance of darkened shops 
fringe places just past the borders of the sprawl too far from
the allnight click and shudder of the hot core there was that
same sense of being surrounded by the sleeping inhabitants of
a waking world he had no interest in visiting or knowing of
dull business temporarily suspended of futility and repetition
soon to wake again
 molly had slowed now either knowing that she was nearing
her goal or out of concern for her leg the pain was starting
to work its jagged way back through the endorphins and he
wasnt sure what that meant she didnt speak kept her teeth
clenched and carefully regulated her breathing shed passed
many things that case hadnt understood but his curiosity was
gone there had been a room filled with shelves of books a
million flat leaves of yellowing paper pressed between bindings
of cloth or leather the shelves marked at intervals by labels
that followed a code of letters and numbers a crowded gallery
where case had stared through mollys incurious eyes at a
shattered duststenciled sheet of glass a thing labeled her
gaze had tracked the brass plaque automatically la marie
mise nu par ses clibataires mme shed reached out and
touched this her artificial nails clicking against the lexan sand
wich protecting the broken glass there had been what was
obviously the entrance to tessierashpools cryogenic com
pound circular doors of black glass trimmed with chrome
 shed seen no one since the two africans and their cart
and for case theyd taken on a sort of imaginary life he pictured
them gliding gently through the halls of straylight their smooth
dark skulls gleaming nodding while the one still sang his tired
little song and none of this was anything like the villa stray
light he would have expected some cross between caths fairy
tale castle and a halfremembered childhood fantasy of the
yakuzas inner sanctum
 070218
 one and a half hours
 case she said i wanna favor stiffly she lowered
herself to sit on a stack of polished steel plates the finish of
each plate protected by an uneven coating of clear plastic she
picked at a rip in the plastic on the topmost plate blades sliding
from beneath thumb and forefinger legs not good you know 
didnt figure any climb like that and the endorphin wont cut
it much longer so maybe just maybe right i got a prob
lem here what it is if i buy it here before riviera does 
and she stretched her leg kneaded the flesh of her thigh through
modern polycarbon and paris leather i want you to tell him 
tell him it was me got it just say it was molly hell know 
okay she glanced around the empty hallway the bare walls 
the floor here was raw lunar concrete and the air smelled of
resins shit man i dont even know if youre listening
 case
 she winced got to her feet nodded whats he told you
man wintermute he tell you about mariefrance she was
the tessier half 3janes genetic mother and of that dead
puppet of ashpools i guess cant figure why hed tell me
down in that cubicle lotta stuff why he has to come on
like the finn or somebody he told me that its not just a mask
its like he uses real profiles as valves gears himself down to
communicate with us called it a template model of per
sonality she drew her fletcher and limped away down the
corridor
 the bare steel and scabrous epoxy ended abruptly replaced
by what case at first took to be a rough tunnel blasted from
solid rock molly examined its edge and he saw that in fact
the steel was sheathed with panels of something that looked
and felt like cold stone she knelt and touched the dark sand
spread across the floor of the imitation tunnel it felt like sand
cool and dry but when she drew her finger through it it closed
like a fluid leaving the surface undisturbed a dozen meters
ahead the tunnel curved harsh yellow light threw hard shad
ows on the seamed pseudorock of the walls with a start case
realized that the gravity here was near earth normal which
meant that shed had to descend again after the climb he was
thoroughly lost now spatial disorientation held a peculiar hor
ror for cowboys
 but she wasnt lost he told himself
 something scurried between her legs and went ticking across
the unsand of the floor a red led blinked the braun
 the first of the holos waited just beyond the curve a sort
of triptych she lowered the fletcher before case had had time
to realize that the thing was a recording the figures were
caricatures in light lifesize cartoons molly armitage and
case mollys breasts were too large visible through tight black
mesh beneath a heavy leather jacket her waist was impossibly
narrow silvered lenses covered half her face she held an
absurdly elaborate weapon of some kind a pistol shape nearly
lost beneath a flanged overlay of scope sights silencers flash
hiders her legs were spread pelvis canted forward her mouth
fixed in a leer of idiotic cruelty beside her armitage stood
rigidly at attention in a threadbare khaki uniform his eyes
case saw as molly stepped carefully forward were tiny mon
itor screens each one displaying the bluegray image of a
howling waste of snow the stripped black trunks of evergreens
bending in silent winds
 she passed the tips of her fingers through armitages tele
vision eyes then turned to the figure of case here it was as
if riviera and case had known instantly that riviera was
responsible had been unable to find anything worthy of par
ody the figure that slouched there was a fair approximation
of the one he glimpsed daily in mirrors thin highshouldered
a forgettable face beneath short dark hair he needed a shave
but then he usually did
 molly stepped back she looked from one figure to another 
it was a static display the only movement the silent gusting
of the black trees in armitages frozen siberian eyes
 tryin to tell us something peter she asked softly then
she stepped forward and kicked at something between the feet
of the holomolly metal clinked against the wall and the figures
were gone she bent and picked up a small display unit guess
he can jack into these and program them direct she said
tossing it away
 she passed the source of yellow light an archaic incandes
cent globe set into the wall protected by a rusty curve of
expansion grating the style of the improvised fixture sug
gested childhood somehow he remembered fortresses hed
built with other children on rooftops and in flooded subbase
ments a rich kids hideout he thought this kind of roughness
was expensive what they called atmosphere
 she passed a dozen more holograms before she reached the
entrance to 3janes apartments one depicted the eyeless thing
in the alley behind the spice bazaar as it tore itself free of
rivieras shattered body several others were scenes of torture
the inquisitors always military officers and the victims invari
ably young women these had the awful intensity of rivieras
show at the vingtime sicle as though they had been frozen
in the blue flash of orgasm molly looked away as she passed
them
 the last was small and dim as if it were an image riviera
had had to drag across some private distance of memory and
time she had to kneel to examine it it had been projected
from the vantage point of a small child none of the others
had had backgrounds the figures uniforms instruments of
torture all had been freestanding displays but this was a view
 a dark wave of rubble rose against a colorless sky beyond
its crest the bleached halfmelted skeletons of city towers the
rubble wave was textured like a net rusting steel rods twisted
gracefully as fine string vast slabs of concrete still clinging
there the foreground might once have been a city square
there was a sort of stump something that suggested a fountain 
at its base the children and the soldier were frozen the tableau
was confusing at first molly must have read it correctly before
case had quite assimilated it because he felt her tense she
spat then stood
 children feral in rags teeth glittering like knives sores
on their contorted faces the soldier on his back mouth and
throat open to the sky they were feeding
 bonn she said something like gentleness in her voice 
quite the product arent you peter but you had to be our
3jane shes too jaded now to open the back door for just any
petty thief so wintermute dug you up the ultimate taste if
your taste runs that way demon lover peter she shivered 
but you talked her into letting me in thanks now were
gonna party
 and then she was walking strolling really in spite of the
pain away from rivieras childhood she drew the fletcher
from its holster snapped the plastic magazine out pocketed
that and replaced it with another she hooked her thumb in
the neck of the modern suit and ripped it open to the crotch
with a single gesture her thumb blade parting the tough po
lycarbon like rotten silk she freed herself from the arms and
legs the shredded remnants disguising themselves as they fell
to the dark false sand
 case noticed the music then a music he didnt know all
horns and piano
 the entrance to 3janes world had no door it was a ragged
fivemeter gash in the tunnel wall uneven stairs leading down
in a broad shallow curve faint blue light moving shadows
music
 case she said and paused the fletcher in her right hand 
then she raised her left smiled touched her open palm with
a wet tongue tip kissing him through the simstim link gotta
go
 then there was something small and heavy in her left hand
her thumb against a tiny stud and she was descending

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