From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Back in DC with Heavy
Date: 23 Jul 92 12:21:14 GMT


"So I fucked it, guys."

No response. Four teen kickers, sittin' on the wall, or to be precise
on packing crates and Heavy's office sofa. Studs in their noses, jacks
in their heads, muscles like fine carved woods.

"Said I'd never buy in, right? _Five years_ you've been hearing me say
that.  So what do I do, I pick up ARES' prize guinea-pig, try and put
her right side up. Must be getting old."

"Might be getting bored, gran'ma."  Crockett's mouth just barely parts,
but that's how his meanest grin starts. "Getting stirred, true word ah?
Say I was counting my money in this box all day, keeping the low profile
five year, say I might be getting bored myself."

Heavy jerks a thumb. "Brew." The nearest is de Recci, he levers himself
up, favouring his fractured rib. Crouches by the freezer, flips the can
abruptly over his shoulder. She flings out an arm, a perfect one-hand
catch! The crowd... The crowd just sits there.

"ARES is coming." She flips the top. Give'em some stage business, do
some patter, get time to think. "Coming to visit, m'men. Maybe they'll
do Seattle first, come down on Hawk an' Donna. Maybe they got cowboys,
already been in Donna's space, follow the air tickets right back here.
How much does this Heavy know, is what they want to hear. Who has she
told? What are her alliances?"

Pretty boy faces, carved in stone. They're not going to make this easy
for her.

"Well I know it ALL! I know about Caedemus and the secret clinic. I know
what they did to Li. I know about the eyes. I know about the training.
I know about the download, an' I got it all on _tape_."

Swig, pause for effect, Crockett moves right in.

"You can download then. Can't you. Reflex job. The moves. You can make
us like Li."

_And they all lean forward_ just a little.

Shit!

Kick back, suck your beer, like a good old boy. "Whaaaah sho', honey.
I can make you _just_ like Li. You know she killed her man while she
was on that wire? How's Mercedes goin', these days?"

"Don't crock me, woman. Chip don't work like that. I had this Taki three
years, never had a flashback. Just pure moves."

"Well now here we're gettin' into technicalities." Dazzle 'em with science.
"You're right of course, a kinaesthetic trainer/reflex prostho taps into
the locomotor regions, in the general way of things you'd never expect
it to work back up.

"But this tape is different. It contains the whole set of overlay programs
ARES used to turn Li into a trained attack dog. It contains thalamic
conditioning, it hooks into the fight/flight cycle, and makes that fight,
fight, fight. It has several clearly identifiable hormone evocants,
cross-wired. Stuff that gets you horny now, it can make you want to kill.
And there's other shit too, I never did get to the bottom of. Might have
found out, but like a fool I went for the acid test before I'd thoroughly
researched where she was at. She almost got me. And I was _that_ sure
we'd broken the puppet."

"Where _is_ she now?"

"Still in Seattle, as of Wednesday. Still fucked up."

"She was a mean bitch." So then they have to stop, while beers are
distributed to all, and there's a raising of cans.

"Liralen Li."

"Li!"

Hair prickles on Heavy's arms. The reverence in those voices.

"Now look. Given time, I can sift the wheat from the chaff here.
Everything's cross-indexed by neuron hierarchy code, that's how
the brain works. We did get the moves broken out from the motivations,
some. It's just there were _so many_ damn connections. I can do your
chip. Given time.

"So here's the thing that's got me hung. I can do the chip. I can
sell it. Then ARES promotes me from minor loose end to _serious
inconvenience_.

"Because they're going to be doing the same thing. You know they had
a sideline in the rentacop biz? Okay, imagine them doing it again,
their own brand-name human guard dogs."

"Like in Japan."

"Like in Japan. Now that's a matter of honour there, you gotta
understand. We all know the Japs, we make allowances. In the States
you have to get some poor fucker on contract. There's enough well-
paid merc work, you'd think ARES would be paying just a bit too
much, if they want you to hire on as meat puppet for say five years."

"Where you been? There's whorehouses right here in DC..."

"God. I know, I _know_. But ARES has to defend this in court. Other
thing they might try though... Look, some time ago I was bullshitting
with the Jag, I reckoned it wouldn't be long before ARES got ready
to take on the Shadows. What I heard in Seattle says this might be
the time. And what they could do is, they set up a front. Layers of
fronts. And they start pushing this chip on the streets. No shortage
of customers. But this chip is loaded. Use it too readily, the odds
rise you'll go berserko. That breaks up the Shadows. On the street,
you trust no-one but your own. ARES cashes in on the general chaos;
big market for their guard droids, these Model Sixty-Sixes.

"That's what Belladonna says. And what she says is, Heavy, you get
your own chip out there, like theirs, but ours. Get the poison out
of it, but play their game. Now _there's_ a cold head. You see what
that means."

"So what's stopping you?"  De Recci.

"Means this little black doc is suddenly going head-on against a
forty-billion international arms concern, is what. And you guys
better be hiding real low, or you're on the firing line."

"Senora."

The Filipino kid, Luzon, uncoils like a rock python from his lotus
seat on the carpet. He has a beautiful carriage, when he rises to
his feet, you find yourself looking up, and up... and he's only
five-foot-four.

"When will you stop treating us as children?"

He _never_ talks like that.

"WHEN I STOP HAVING TO PICK YOU UP AND KISS YOU BETTER! Shithead!
All I ever DO is patch your wounds, and then you go right on out
and rack yourselves up again! What about Jose? What about Matteo?
You ever go and see McReidy in the Children of Krishna? Rehabilitation
Facility? Huh? And who do you think paid his premium?"

"Senora, this is the Way. These have been five good years. You bought
us time. Time to learn, time to train. You know there will be losses.
We know. There comes a moment when we see what this is _for_. You
see it. Why bullshit, when we all know the program?"

Aluminum can slick in her hand. Her sweat. She wants to crush it,
but it would slip. She pitches it lightly into the trashcan.

"There is still time to split. Let what will happen, happen. And
live."

Interesting, their faces. De Recci's sneer; good. Mac China, confused,
a little dismayed; better. Crockett cold, Luzon unreadable; best.
Let them learn ol' Heavy has feet of clay, and the guts of a rabbit.

Yes, they were good years.

Into the silence, Crockett:

"Liralen Li."

Liralen Li is a thorazine case, boy. She will break cover, any day
now, she will lose that fingerhold. They will gun her down like a
mad dog.

Say that. The fuck with Li, there are a million like her. Go on.

"DAMN YOU!"

She hauls to her feet; and suddenly she doesn't feel overweight at
all. She is at the wall, she touches here [close], she touches
there [cancel], and there [open], and sweeps her arm down to knee
height [pan out].

To Li's neurogram snapshot. Taken at that instant when, ARES' puppet
conditioning groping at every plexus of her somatic image, Li struck
back, to save Luzon's life and reclaim sovereignty of her body.

There and there and there, Caedemus' spastic murder trapdoor routines.
There, like forked lightning, the barricade of Li's single NO.

The strategy. Build the chip. Reactivate JHMM. Recast. Reoptimize.
Rebuild the whole motivational plexus of the martial repertoire.

Around the NO.

Now Heavy Judy turns to her rudes. Vertigo. Their faces are distorted.
But no, not distorted. Rather, a distortion in her sight has been
removed.

She focuses on Crockett like a deck cowboy on a flying userid packet.

"Wha' honey. How you've grown".


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Finding Li back on the tracks hit me with nostalgia. I've had this
around, but it wasn't going anywhere. Still don't know where it
would go, but what the hell I thought.

Background:

Liralen Li is her own character.

Medicine Hawk is Ken Aubey's;
alias medhawk aubey@gimli.asd.contel.com

Belladonna of the Mechanics Guild is Joan Shield's.
alias belladonna joan@uncmed.med.unc.edu

unless these are out of date

Heavy and the lads are mine.

If you feel like picking this up, drop a line


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns        |
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| They are dangerous, Max, because they have what
Computer Science Dept | you don't, a philosophy.
La Trobe University   |                           -Videodrome
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~