From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (1)
Date: 16 Feb 92 13:37:52 GMT
===========================
==== SILVER EYED AND SMILING ====
===========================
(c) Jonathan Burns, 1991
[Part 1]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A pleasant glassy note rings on and on until it cannot be ignored.
Liralen wakes and begins to sweat.
"Liralen Li."
Decides to sit up, has somehow rolled over pulling her knees to her chest.
>From this foetal vantage she stares at a beefy woman sitting in a patio
chair in the middle of a bare floor, hands out on the armrests.
"How are you feeling?" She sees no need to answer, so she doesn't.
"What do you remember?"
Silence.
"OK, my serve. Fifteen days ago you were picked up by private agents
from ARES Corporation. They did quite a number on you, which we'll
go into in a moment. Four days ago ..."
"What number?" Get the answers at _your_ moment. Give away nothing.
"Adrenal and sensory enhancement. Piecewise optimization of the motor
system around implanted neural nets. In my book that should never be done
except under the conscious volition of the subject. They imprinted a
military-type set of puppet motor routines to handle the new reflexes,
with a lockout switch to keep you from taking control.
"They've been using you in a series of live combat exercises, first
against human opponents, then against an experimental hunter-killer
droid type. We've seen tapes. They seem to have been interested in
how you foxed their other HK, back when. Once they found that out,
they hyped you up some, and used you to train the droid better. They
ran a series of puppet assassin programs through you, very very illegal.
But this is ARES, right?
"Also you were raped." She might be reading the news. The voice is
media American, a bit southern topped with street. The woman is white,
fortyish and freckled. Plain white dress and a who-gives-a-shit haircut.
"Four days ago some friends of yours went in and got you out. There
were casualties. You were seriously confused, and dangerous. Things
happened in there we don't know much about. They hired me to help pull
the puppet strings, get you operating on your own whyso."
Which may just mean they've got her friends as well. "What are they paying
you?" she snaps, watching for a slip.
"I run irregulars. Hawk's come over to shape them up for me. We're
in Washington, by the way. I'm Judy Dunstan, M.D. and a bunch of crap.
Friends call me Heavy."
"Heavy Judy. Quaint. I want to see Hawk."
"As your doctor, I don't advise that. You certain?"
"Yes. Now! And you're not my doctor."
Heavy raises an eyebrow. "ARIEL" she says to the air. "Dial Medicine
Hawk." A window expands on the wall behind her, lanky figures milling
about in a vast dusty basement. Li knows the wide body and its rolling
strut at once. "Can't take long Heavy, what's the story?"
"Hawk, it's Li! I'm supposed to be in Washington with this Heavy Judy,
says she's a doctor."
"Yeah well that's what I'd suppose myself, saw you go under the scanners
an hour back. Any reason to think she's not level?"
"Uh. No, not exactly. I just thought ..." What did she think? "It feels
like a number."
"She's on Argent's trust-me list."
"Trust." The word is poison.
"Start with me. Ask me anything."
"The Name of the Hill!"
Damn, she shouldn't have said that! Does he seem taken aback? "Tiffany
Mountain, where we brought Boehme and Foxface over the border." While
his fingers make elfsign, K-R-K-D-K. "Took us eight hours to get down
off there. Come on, ask me a hard one." Caer Kodiak. Well, well.
"Who won the big game?"
"Hah! Moscow Firebirds, 18-8. You gotta see their new chick, Lelya Dneilpin.
There and then I decided I gotta get me some zero-g training in. You too."
Finals were on the 16th, so it's after that, and Hawk was free to watch.
"Better now, blood. Gracias."
"Have to go, sweetheart. Don't step in any beartraps." He blinks out.
Well, well, well.
Of course, he could be _warning_ her. But with a friend at her back, she's
ready for anything. It's time to play. "All right, you can be my doctor."
"Rockin'. Now first off, Liralen, I want us to be very clear on the relation
between us."
_That_ usually introduces such a cheesy line of master-slave stuff that
she tunes right out, and has to say pardon?
"I said, I'm sitting in this chair, unarmed and out of reach, right?"
Well it looks right. Advantage has to be implanted or voice-activated,
is what it comes down to.
"And there you are loaded up with motor enhancements that cost ARES maybe
half a million. So one false move and I'm T-bone, huh?"
"I guess."
"Say it."
"One false move and you're dead."
"Yeah. That means anything your reflexes _think_ is a false move. Now
Donna and I done pulled out the puppet wires. Those reflexes are _yours_
now. Trouble is, you don't know what they do. All you know is they're
written for ARES cannon fodder, and they're very fast, and very mean.
And not very ... shall we say, discerning."
How very true. She nods.
"Strictly speaking, the motor actions are pretty much your own; just
hotwired and computer optimized, is all. But the _motivation_, that's
meat puppet. Got me?" Yes.
"Meat puppet is waiting for one of two things to happen. Somebody gives
it an order. Or something poses a threat. Meat puppet is _afraid_, ain't
that so?"
"I'm afraid."
"Oh bless you honey, I thought we'd be hours and hours before you could
say that!" Heavy raises her hands to gesticulate. Instantly Li is on
her feet.
The air is shimmering. Four steps to the chair, dislocate both shoulders.
"Think." The moves are etched in crystal. The target stares her in the eyes.
"Give it a moment. Be sure. Look before you leap, my granny always said."
No immediate threat, she realizes. Stay cool. Why does everything look
so sharp, so structured? Like at ARES...
After a time, Heavy carefully opens her palms, and moves them slowly to
the armrests, holding eye contact the while. When she speaks, it's as
if nothing had happened at all.
"So you have to protect me. You have to keep me safe from sudden moves.
The relation between us is, my life depends on you."
Her head is in turmoil. Yes, yes.
"And I have to trust you, because if I act defensive, meat puppet gonna
take that as part of a combat pattern.
"And you have to trust me, that your second thoughts are gonna be right,
about me being so harmless an' all. Cause if you don't trust me, you'll
go with your first thought some time, and then I'm dead. _Your first
thought is from ARES._ Always, until you make it your own."
What a clever way to turn me back on myself, eh? It's watertight.
Now how do I defend myself? And against what?
"Why am I afraid?"
"I don't know, honey. What are you afraid _of_? Tell you what, over behind
you that's the kitchen, and there's coffee in the machine. And sandwiches
in the fridge. Throw me one, you know, like from a safe distance."
[ 2bc ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns | And what more fitting, than to fashion "slippers"
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| from "bananas"? You're so clever, I'm going to
Computer Science Dept | throw this brick at you
La Trobe University | - Geo. Herriman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (Part 2)
Date: 17 Feb 92 11:59:54 GMT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rescued from ARES, but still programmed as a hand-to-hand killer, Li
confronts Heavy Judy, neurophysiologist for hire...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Part 2]
"It's hard to get alarmed over somebody occupied with a salad roll" says
Heavy. "You'll notice I can move my hands about now. That's natural
desensitization, like when you got a phobia with spiders. Maybe we could
desensitize your whole reflex set over a few months. But maybe not, and
we don't have months. Gotta dig deeper, tweak a few tails. I'm going to
stand up now, get ready..."
One moment Li is lounging on the couch; the next her coffee goes flying
and she's up in a boxer's block.
== Lovely bright streetlights make pitblack shadows on the lawn ==
Weave in and a right slam to the solar plexus.
Huh? Heavy just locks her fingers behind her neck and stares, reseats
herself with nonchalance.
"Don't mind the floor. Siddown, you're doing swell. What I want you to
notice is, you weren't personally involved with that. You didn't expect
it before, you don't want to do it now. And in between, you recognized
a traditional surrender pose. Day before yesterday it wasn't like that,
at all. You'd notice say Hawk was in the room with you, you'd trigger,
then you wouldn't be there any more, just ARES' doll.
"That was before Doc Bella bypassed the OFF switch. I been inside
your skull and made a clean sweep of the remaining control fibers. What
you have left is just the enhancements and a bunch of neurons with new
imprints. Which _you_ can rewire yourself, from the inside."
Cold sweat fury sweeps Li from scalp to soles...
"_YOU_. You, you. Know what, it's getting old already, you telling me
all about me. Cute surprise and a lecture, same for the second course.
How about we see what you're made of, Heavy Judy."
She advances, smiling. She doesn't know it when she smiles like that.
She's never looking in a mirror when she smiles like that, and no one
ever tells her. It is a Varashti smile.
One step == for her to slip in along the fence == two steps. No demon
seizes her. Three steps.
"I feel excited. I feel afraid, but it's a thrill. Hmmmm. You say you
have to trust me, Judy? Well, trust me." Four steps.
The structured air quivers. The lethal move is so immediate, clench
knuckles to a chisel of bone and smash through the throat. "I am in
control, Judy. Conscious volition of the subject rules, OK? I'm not
about to hurt you or harm you in any way." Side step. At last she's
free of those goddamned staring eyes. Heavy looks straight ahead,
motionless. Side chop to the neck...
"Phase Two." In Li's ears her voice is different. It croons, it tests,
it provokes. Watch it Li. Don't blow this. "I'm going to touch you.
No sudden moves now." She reaches out with the measured deliberation
with which she once disarmed mines. Heavy's cheek is like electricity
at her fingertips. "In control..."
There is something fine in this, she feels noble and accomplished. She
is breathing more deeply, something rushes back into her that had been
lost. What was it? She moves her fingers higher, to the cheekbone. The
eye socket. == She grasps the window ledge and levers herself up == Heavy
is sweating, she notes. But not flinching. Fine, fine control. Nerves
of steel.
Power. Of course.
Fingers move back beneath the ear. Down the jawline. Now Heavy begins
to shake. Lost control, ah well, there goes the Shared Moment. Cruel
to toy further, Li, just finish it OFF NOW
stand on a balcony forty
floors without a guard rail it is not the wind or the slip of a foot
that propels you forward forward it is the
opportunity
She steps back. One step, two steps, adrenaline lights her like a tungsten
filament == into the frame of the bedroom window, softly glowing with
the warmth of the man who lies asleep ==
Back on the couch, thank Ariadana that's over. I have this under control,
gods I feel like a new woman.
Cough and a sob from the deckchair. Heavy's face in her hands, shrouded
bandaged betrayed and tears leaking between her fingers, then the storm
comes on full.
but i had to
but i didn't mean
but look what we've done
what have i done
"Heavy, take it easy. We've cracked it, I'm out from under! It was the
fear, I know it, it was the trigger and now it's cleared off! And you
trusted me, I mean that self-control of yours is just amazing, who did
you train with to get that good, it's going to be all right...
"... speak to me?"
The hands come down unsteadily to the armrests, Heavy's eyes stay closed
while she takes three monumental breaths. The woman is older, oh god. Li
starts toward her but she lifts a hand ...
"It's all right now. I won't bite."
"No. Don't come. Please don't come close."
Li sets back down. They regard one another. A minute crawls on. == She
slings the knapsack to one side, pulls out ARES' clever gadget ==
Something the shamans talk about in a not-in-front-of-the-children way,
she's never paid attention. Seems its about the lowest thing you can do,
but somehow the noblest people wind up doing it. To steal someone's
personal power. She's done that. Wired killer to psychic vampire in
one move, is there always one more layer of innocence to lose?
= which pushes its tiny claws and blades under the pane
and slices the latch in two ==
[ 2bc ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns |
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Everything is very deeply intertwingled
Computer Science Dept | - TN
La Trobe University |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (Part 3,4)
Date: 19 Feb 92 11:27:08 GMT
"Liralen."
"Yes."
"I realize I'm just the last in a long line of people who've fucked
you over."
"A long, long line."
"I meant good. I really thought we could work this way. I'm not cosmically
cool. I want to be, I'm _supposed_ to be, but I'm not. So maybe it's best
you get another doc for this, I can pass on the nerve maps..."
"No! Hold it. You don't know what you've achieved. All I can remember
the last few days is hurting people. Right in front of me there's
some idiot in camouflage spandex and an armoured jockstrap, and all I
have to do is take him down. Maybe two, three idiots. I mean they
come at you, what do you do? And it's real easy to take them, they
just love to take your best shot."
Remember, remember. Li hunches forward and concentrates.
"Then the idiots go away. Gods, it comes back to me. They leave me
alone and this Fear comes on. Dinner comes down the tube in a foil
packet and I've got to eat it alone. And this ... I can't explain
it, just it would make a saint go to the needle.
"After, I dunno, few days I'm saying Fuck You I won't play. But that
doesn't matter, the body goes right on belting idiots. I say I can
take the fear, but it's a lie, it just keeps on. After a while I'm
really getting _into_ this fear, it's a given. And when they come
back and I get to kick ass again, it's such a relief, that's a given
too.
== She turns to the window and begins to ease it open ==
"Then it gets worse. Oh they shouldn't have pushed it, they shouldn't!
They don't want just sharp moves any more, they want me to kill. They've
got doctors and nurses in there. I've ... oh shit ... the body just
punched some poor slob across the room, he's lying there upchucking
blood and then the medics come swooping down, sling him in the capsule
and whip him off to surgery.
"About then I notice ..."
They share some silence for a while.
"I notice ..."
== and sees her face in the glass ==
"Liralen. You're out of it. I swear you're among friends."
"I know that. You're amazing, you know that? I notice my eyes are gone.
Gods I'd forgotten it, that's why it all looks like this. These aren't
eyes any more, you know that, they're Nikons."
"We know honey. First thing we noticed. Mirror surfaced."
"That's why I don't cry any more. Self-lubricating."
"Don't talk. Get comfortable, take deep breaths."
"I want to be sick." == lovely streetlights sparkling purple white on
chrome eyes chrome ==
"That's right, but it's just blood gone to the abdomen. Don't talk."
"I keep seeing my eyes going in some medwaste bag."
But she sits still, draws oxygen. Waits it out.
"I'll live."
"You need another quack though."
"Why? You didn't fold. It all went off exactly the way you set it up.
I tell you, it's off my back! For the first time in weeks, mothers,
I was carrying it all this time."
"Liralen, I don't think I can take the pressure. Body don't trust."
"What about me then? How could I trust you when every time you said boo,
I'd fall off the floor? And have to come up fast or else. You took
everything I could throw, who can I say that about? It's got to be
downhill from here. And that's Li, by the way, I'm LI."
"Box of tissues in the right hand draw. Toss 'em over."
Wipe, snuffle. "OK, I'm thinking. You _did_ protect me when all's said
and done. Did it once, you can do it again. But we gotta move slower,
both keep our guards up."
"That's more like it. I wouldn't take another doc for millions. Think
you should stand up, Heavy.... Hah! Not a prawn cracker. We're cooking."
"Rockin'. Jesus. I'm going to edit up, Li, do some other business. What
do you want? You've eaten, you've slept, you mustn't go out."
"All I ask is a real window, with actual people walking around on the
street. I could watch that for hours."
"You got it." But as Heavy, six feet distant, moves beyond her peripheral
vision...
"Ahhhhhhh, NO!"
"What is it, Li? Oh shit, don't tell me."
She shrugs, resigned. "Fear's back. Big wow. Back in your box, jack, ain't
no threat here." She stands carefully. Some body language all-clear passes
between them.
"You getting its number from the inside. And maybe I might be from the
outside. Be fucked if I'll let ARES have the last word."
They negotiate the stairway, Li following at ten paces like a deferential
wife. "ARES" she breathes. "Do you know what God was doing, before He
created the Heavens and the Earth? All those trillions of years?"
"Uh, I think I know this one."
"Fitting up Hell, Judy. For people who might ask embarrassing questions."
== and smiling ==
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns |
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Downtime is for lovers
Computer Science Dept |
La Trobe University |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (Parts 5,6)
Date: 20 Feb 92 11:33:02 GMT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
What has gone before: Kidnapped and assassin-programmed by ARES,
then rescued, Li has to learn how to master her murderous reflexes.
She confronts her doctor, Heavy Judy, and breaks her nerve, but
then confides the details of her ordeal. The two set to work...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy fishes an antique hair-dryer setup from the basement.
"State of the art in its day. Just let me dock some squids, unzip
drivers in the archive. Meantime, I want you to think of three things
meat doll does, but you don't."
"Kills anything that moves. Salutes anything in uniform. Um. Goes gonzo
when you move out of my field of view?"
"That'll do. Don't need to jump up swinging either, I'll see the alarm
pattern on screen."
So they set that up. The first thing they find is that the Fear comes
on when Li, her eyes fixed on a spot on the wall, watches Heavy disappear
to the left or right. And mounts progressively. The second is that Li
herself is less and less prone to respond. Even the alarm-flash in the
image of her brain shrinks like a puddle in the sun.
"OK, we have densensitization, we knew that. But the fear thing, what makes
that go away?"
"When I kill someone. Easy."
"Mission accomplished Captain, Sah. But it went away before when you let
me, uh, live. Explain that."
"I'd got you under my thumb. I was making you suffer."
== Silence ==
"Yeah, you just need someone to crush."
"When I get agitated, yes. That was ARES way of making sure I _performed_,
get it? I went on strike, they turned up the discomfort. Now it's wired
in. I'm a mad dog."
"Lemme get a biofeedback loop in there, and I'll straighten out all the
mad dogs you like. Second drawer of the console, you'll find a deck of
cards, bring it over."
Heavy lays out a hand of solitaire. "Pre-emption, that's the game. The
first thing you start to do suppresses the second thing. Has to, otherwise
you'd be trying to do both.
"Now with a background feeling of fear, when anyone comes near you,
you have to choose whether to fight or fly, or just cope normally.
Every time you'd fight, ARES boys record it, then play it back to you
_with a really strong preemptive inhibition attached_."
She lays down the eight of diamonds, buries it three deep in clubs and
spades. "Red cards are yours, blacks are theirs."
"Every time after, when you're put in the same situation..." Heavy taps
the top club. "Or you'd look for an alternative..." She lifts the club
to show the spade beneath. "Maybe, you look twice as hard, three times.
But that's work, an incredible amount of work - being aware enough to
reprogram yourself on the spot. And meantime..." She looks into Li's
eyes.
== In the dark bedroom only the violet glare of streetlight though
the window ==
"Meantime you're in a crisis situation, life-threatening! And nothing to
face it with. That's the equivalent of a double-bind. Double-binds drive
people hysterical. But they don't let that happen. They supply the answer."
Another club goes on the stack. "Maybe you think up something completely
new." Jack of Diamonds. "They just play the killer move back over it."
Ten of Spades. "Beginning to see how this works?"
"It fits so well. Only, I hate to say this..."
"But?"
"How did I walk away from you before? I mean I felt like a million."
"Only you can tell, Liralen Li. All this is a metaphor, right? Just
remember, in the ultimate analysis, you're the player."
== she dances the dance of silence. Open the satchel ==
"May I have the deck?"
Heavy puts the cards down and leans back in her chair. Well back, with
hands on the rests.
Systematically Li covers each solitaire pile with a red card. "When I've
painted over the damage, I can go round people again. But the first
confrontation I can't cope with..." She lifts a heart, a spade, a spade.
== and bring out the cords. The gag. ==
"About like that. But science to the rescue! Preemptive inhibition takes
place a fraction of a second after commit point for the action. It's
quite recognisable. Just go back to a bad move, and I can peel the inhibit
firing off. We can play it back to the reds."
"Scientology, Heavy. Bullshit."
"Ooh, aren't we educated. But all the Freudians had, all Hubbard's people
had, was free-association and desensitization. These days, we do it for
real."
+ + + + + + + + + +
It's after one, and they're shot. Li lifts off the hairdryer, puts it
carefully aside. Yawns.
"We're getting nowhere. Sure we can come close now, and I can watch
you go out of sight. Sure you can throw the ball and I can catch it. But
it's still there, Heavy." And she can sound this pissed off, and neither
of them backs away. It's progress.
"I want you to be very sure you're not just carrying a bad feeling."
"I do not have to wake up screaming or kill anyone to know when the fucker
is around! Good, you can come out now." == Put away the latchpick. Perfect
delicate motions, not a rustle ==
"All in good time. So, back to the drawing board?"
"They're just nerve patterns, for crying out loud. Get in there and zap
them!"
"Get in where, exactly? You're talking as if a high-level motor action
lives in some special spot. It doesn't, it's spread right through the
motor region. Thousands of them coexist. They're programs, goddammit,
not typewriter keys."
"And despite Freud, despite Hubbard, talking about a move doesn't make
it come rushing up to be disarmed, right? So what does?"
"When you make the move."
Pause.
== and in perfect silence ==
"You realize what you're saying, don't you."
"I suspected it. But there was always hope."
Air-shimmer. Adrenaline. Hose down, don't lose it.
"I may kill. Do you mind that?"
"That's why you'll have to protect. Like last time. That's when you _aware_,
remember. That's when you lay down the red cards."
"We can't repeat it all. Not the times I killed, not the times I danced
with their damned HK."
"Don't need to. We can slice it up, cut off the lines of reinforcement that
lead from normal hustle to meat doll on. And if you get in a situation,
what the hell? You want to be lethal then."
== she peels the fastenings from the scabbard of the long, clean katana ==
"I don't want to be meat doll ever. Look, you realize we'd have to post
dangerbond for ten, fifteen idiots. That's not cheap."
"Honey, have I got idiots for you."
[ 2 b continued ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns | They say you can go to the pits a thousand times
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| and see nothing like the jaguar and the Black Knight.
Computer Science Dept | I don't know 'bout that either. But I'm going back
La Trobe University | just in case I get lucky.
| Lucius Shepard, _Life During Wartime_
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (Part 7)
Date: 23 Feb 92 13:45:14 GMT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy and Li have tried in vain to disarm Li's assassin imprint. Now
they resolve on a dangerous measure: to recapitulate Li's combat moves
during her captivity, in order to access the inhibitory programming
and erase it...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Part 7]
"Get those mats down! Yazz, Crockett, outta the way, let'em through with
that scaffold! You, Lizard Boy! That's fragile equipment, any damage
and you're out, got that?"
Luzon and two others wrestle the mats from the elevator. The vacant office
floor transforms under Medicine Hawk's harangue to a makeshift dojo.
Video, sonar and VR gear go up on light aluminum frames, Mac China the
roadie tapes lightbus to the floor at Heavy's direction.
All of Heavy's kids who can make it and some ringers, the circus is in
town. In leather and velvet, furs and chains, scars and biolume Irish
knots. Friends taunt and spar, foes negotiate truces...
This is before the days when Heavy Medicine briefly becomes a Name
among rudes, down the eastern States. They aren't even calling themselves
that yet, at this point Heavy is still disingenuously hinting that kids
craving combat prosthetics would at least get a better deal from a real
MD than the dangerous and unreliable implants from one-night garage
clinics using war-surplus field surgery packs. In fact, this here now
is one of the incidents destined to catalyse HM's meteor career.
Hawk's delivery rises steadily in pace, volume and menace, until by
deadline 1100 hours he has the studio laid out, swept and tested, with
the eighteen youths actually _ranked at attention_. A minute's silence.
The elevator schoomps to a stop and whines open. Slim asiatic girl
walks out, in nylon basket armour over top and trunks, plus field
collar and trodes. Eyes like pools of mercury. Variety of low noises
from the assembled troop. She proceeds to the edge of the matting,
and makes a formal bow. Hawk speaks.
"The woman you are seeing is a combat veteran, trained, seasoned, and
reflex enhanced. Her battle experience is four times as long as yours,
any of you. I cannot exaggerate the danger to you, if you step beyond the
guidelines I will be laying out.
"The padded suits you will be wearing are for your protection, not hers.
You will engage her one on one, performing _one_ of the manoeuvres in
which I have been coaching you, as I direct. NO CHIPS. This afternoon
you will engage her freeform, with no holds barred. You will not hold
back, earlier or later, out of any concern for her safety - proper as
that respect may be to a senior warrior. She does not require, and will
not appreciate, such concern. Your own safety, however, is very much at
issue. To ensure it, you will each follow a single rule:
"When she drops you, STAY DOWN. There will be no question as to when
she has done so, believe me, you will know. Do not get up. Do not speak.
Do not move. Relax utterly. Because: if you happen to suggest, by movement
or by sound, that you are even capable of further resistance..." and he
pauses to scan the row of eyes, "... you will die.
"Silvertip! Suit up! ... To the front! Standing strike and block!"
When he does, Li goes around the block and gives him a shove. Just that;
only at twice the average unenhanced speed, and with four times the
average unenhanced kinetic energy. Silvertip goes over on his back,
starts to rise, but thinks better of it.
So does Ghoul.
And Lipstick.
And Luzon, and Lizard Boy, and Gromo, and Willy.
"Retire! Go to the benches and sit, you may talk quietly among yourselves."
Luzon watches the girl walk across to speak with Heavy. Brainwave mojo
goin' down, rainbow lasertape unwinds, a transparent head appears on the
six-foot screen and expands to show the motor region. The girl puts on
a helmet wired to a deck, polychrome patterns flash and tumble on
the screen.
"Assemble! Assemble! Take your positions! ... Crockett, suit up!"
[ 2 b continued ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns | He'd buy turtles, and afix jewels to their backs.
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Then he'd sit up smoking hashish, and watch the
Computer Science Dept | turtles crawl around on his Persian rugs. We should
La Trobe University | all go home and do this. - Terence McKenna
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (Parts 8,9)
Date: 29 Feb 92 11:17:01 GMT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By recapitulating her combat moves, Li sets out to disarm her assassin
programming...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
She is winning.
Your first thought is from ARES, says Heavy, until you make it your own.
To think her own thoughts, she must be as alert as when she learnt the
Sword Dance once, tripping between the crossed blades. But in combat she
_is_ alert, while the fear is lulled when she sees the target unmoving
at her feet. In the pauses, Heavy cuts away the puppet strings one by one.
She spars a little with Hawk, who does not fall, and the killer moves are
lacking in their diabolical insistence. The gang stamps and yells when
they break off with bows.
The only trouble is, these kids aren't trained. When she expects a pro
who'll duck a slam and position for a riposte, the kid walks straight
into the feint and gets knocked sideways. The quilted suits are to
protect against bruises, which are 50% of enhanced hand-to-hand injuries,
70% counting concussions. But still bruises mount, then sprained fingers,
and then Heavy is checking Red Contrerras for hernia. Still what a way to
go, chummer!
Luzon watches. Luzon fights chipped, he lives and breathes hand-to-hand.
He watches her birdlike approach, her whipcrack delivery, the counterplay
of poise, windup and recoil, he misses nothing. In his own way, Luzon is
in love.
And in her style he discerns a fault. An overconcentration, a self-
restriction...
They reach the end of one-on-ones, as Li recalls them. She signals Hawk to
break for lunch as soon as the replays are in. Which the women will take
upstairs, while the boys riot below; the Amazon Mystique is valuable to
Hawk, who must dress down the fools and reiterate the danger. Heavy comes
out of the elevator into an abandoned Li-hug before she even considers
caution.
The sun is low when they rejoin. There is a new seriousness, nobody
underestimates the danger here. Two-on-ones, and the youths are invited
to challenge freeform. Almost at once there are mistakes, bruised ribs
and a dislocated shoulder.
"Slow down?" She confers with Hawk.
"Absolutely not! We got them thinking. Optimally we ramp up the pace for
two hours, send'em away wanting more."
Li is getting a beating too; how else when she's on the other side of
every blow? She looks after herself, and has those nylon spring
wristguards, and subcutaneous silicone tubes that stiffen under impact,
the tech equivalent of the karateka's calluses. But she's not invulnerable.
She walks a narrow path: on one side, she leaves herself open; on the other
she takes the reflex response, always on offer from ARES. In the middle,
her own judgement.
But when it's two-on-one, and both opponents fast young men, there is
less and less _time_ for conscious reaction. Reflex rules, she accepts
more and more from ARES. The danger is not of getting her awareness cut
out of circuit: that control switch is surgically removed. The danger
is that the next reflex will be lethal. The path narrows.
Upside, every puppet reflex leaves its brainprint on lasertape, for Heavy
to shear away its preemptive power. The meat doll is being dismembered.
+ + + + + + + + + +
Li completes a round of chin-ups and drops on the bed groaning. Sleep is
instant.
Every strenuous action takes a toll of muscle fibres. Enhanced actions
with their multiple power-rates, take sales tax, state levy and phone
charge. Li's muscle-tone is tremendous, after all she is just six days
from doing the exact same things at ARES, but the day's work has her
in shreds. It would be literally crippling, but for implanted silicone
support nets and reinforced ligature, and hormones that accelerate muscle
regrowth, and proteins that hardly need digesting before breaking down to
just the right amino-acid mix for the job.
At two in the morning she sits straight up. Ice cold.
She killed Argent.
It all comes back.
In the middle of the night she went to his house. She let herself in
through the window as he slept. She laid her katana on the end of his
bed. She
holy shit
she stripped and before he could wake she bound his
hands by his head and gagged his mouth. And raped him.
And drove her sweet steel straight through his heart.
Now she crosses her legs and breathes deeply. Eventually she feels rational
again.
So they had information from her. They knew Argent's name, knew he was
her lover.
That's not the issue. Breathe deep.
= dancing the dance of silence she removes boots. Jacket. T-shirt ==
This goes further than she or Judy has imagined. ARES can program her.
They must have wanted to test the extremity of their control, downloaded
the whole scenario. Debriefed her afterward, and made her forget.
She has got to get this out of her head. She wants to run to Heavy's
room. Beat the door down, drag her out of bed, demand she wipe this
insidious ghost of ARES from her brain.
But no, first things first. Disable the fighting responses, get those
back under control. Then tackle the deep stuff.
== trousers and panties. Placing each carefully and silently in order
for a quick dressing and exit ==
But hold on. She has killed Argent. She will never walk beside him any
more, matching her quick step to his masculine stride, wrenching out for
him the envy of the other men. Never any more meet his perpetual stare
of longing, grin and twist herself hard into his embrace.
Doesn't this call for an aria?
(1) She must tear her hair loose and scar her breasts.
(2) She must weep and wither, collapse herself in mourning.
(3) She must, for the dignity of the tribe, maintain impenetrable calm
as she arranges and hosts his death-feast.
(4) She must report this, to the press, the police, place the situation
before the instrumentalities of justice.
Absurd.
== She takes the cords in her hand ==
When all is said and done, codes are only codes. You adopt them when
you join, you fit in gracefully. And then you move on, and there are
new codes. She is not a Varashtiki, nor a _duineribhain a sidhe_; let
alone a Salish wife. Just Li.
Already she is accepting this, and Argent is moving away. Like all the
codes, soon he will be, oh yes, of her flesh, of her bones, but of her
past.
It seems to be the Tao of Li to contemplate these things, dispassionately
in the middle of the night.
== and turns back the bedclothes ==
So. They had her strings in hand. ARES can make a woman rape and kill her
own adoring man.
(5) Giri. She must exact a proportionate obligation.
Yep.
She rolls over, and contentedly goes back to sleep.
Such is the Tao of Li.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns | Clashing for the warrior, whose strength is not to fight
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Clashing for the refugee, on the unarmed road of flight
Computer Science Dept | And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
La Trobe University | We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing -Dylan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (Parts 10,11)
Date: 3 Mar 92 10:11:47 GMT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Li continues to spar with Heavy's rude boys...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Part 10]
"Chip in!" Hawk barks. "Before suiting up, you will each announce the
type of your combat augmentation module. Dr Dunstan will check this against
her file on you, so don't lie."
Mac China - Taki 70E Taekwondo. That's an easy one, she can duck the
punches with yesterday's moves, and the moment she sees Mac put all
his weight on one foot, she skips in close and lifts him off balance
as his leg goes up to kick.
Lizard - unknown, some flashy homebrew thing that makes him jump around
like an opera devil. She meets him on the rise, grapples to his suit and
takes control of the landing. Thump.
Jim de Recci - no-nonsense macho with a no-nonsense US National Guard H2H-3.
Pity Li and Hawk spent those months counting coup on the National Guard.
If you just provoke one punch, you can roll with the second (if you're
light and have stomach muscles like steel springs), and lead him into a
killing knee-drive to the solar plexus. Flash of light in her head as
she simultaneously (watch this) goes into the reflex AND remembers how
not to kill with it. And Jim's out with a broken rib.
Chips are great against mortals, a guerilla's dream. But they're so
automatic. The new generation of globally-optimized enhancees can learn
the moves, then it's goodbye chippie every time.
== Argent's eyes snap open as she binds one hand beside his head
and then the other ==
They learn a lot, disarm a lot. But with two-on-ones it all goes wrong.
By this time, six more kids are sitting round with beefsteaks on them,
a beefsteak being a big derm plaster full of anti-odoemics, anti-
coagulant and capillary-repair factors. Li takes a fall rather than
follow through on a kick that would have just about disembowelled the
Duke. She collects a deep bruise to the cheekbone and a black eye, and
needs a beefsteak of her own.
Hurting, her control frays. Next round, she runs into a simultaneous
elbow-jab from Willy (California State Police DD-1) and reap-kick from
Ghoul (H2H again), and drops while driving both feet into Ghoul's kneecap.
The ligature support tangles in his leg, pinching nerves and artery,
and Heavy has to knock him out while she snaps the silicone back in.
Li goes to Heavy. "I'm breaking your toys. Let's call it here."
Hawk calls assembly, for the still-standing. Li takes centre stage.
"You will not know how you have helped me. I would not know how to
repay the obligation. Fortunately, you have your reward already in
receiving instruction from my own teacher and comrade-in-arms. Thank
you all."
Luzon steps from the forward rank, and onto the matting before his
intention can be guessed. He faces Li, and gravely executes the
(wholly fictional, occurring in no martial tradition whatsoever,
but unmistakeable if you've sat through any of DEATH PILGRIM 1 to 6
and who hasn't) Challenge Bow.
And she returns it.
WHY??? No, it's not the smokey eyes, the splendid sepia-toned chest and
the long black hair braided and tied behind the head. It has something
to with the way this rudie has been falling and getting up for two
days without a scratch, a precision player and model partner. It also
involves his considerable native speed, which when chip-augmented is
somewhere in her class. He looks survivable.
But these are only the articulable justifications. Down deep, it's a
Sidhe thing, the instantaneous reach for the depth of the moment; what
Fionn mac Cumhail once called the Sound of What Happens. And of course
the Tribes would understand, they know better than to get in the way
of the fey and the fated.
But the real reason is, she's feeling so good that nothing can possibly
go wrong.
Luzon doesn't know he's taking on the entirely successful result of
ARES' crash project to capture and perfect the fighting repertoire
of one of the only two known people to have disabled, hand-to-hand,
their supposedly unbeatable, ultimate model, hunter-killer droid. And
he wouldn't care.
==< The young warrior extends his arms, to be bound to the wooden frame
with broad strips of hide >==
Luzon has seen fantasy. A skill, beautiful, exacting and deadly swift,
a hawk on the wing. And he has seen this brilliance turned against itself,
stalling time and again at the edge of the strike, to come tamely down
to the glove and the hood.
==< the leather pad placed between his teeth so that when the ordeal
commences he need not disgrace himself through panic >==
He has to see this thing unleashed.
+ + + + + + + + + +
[Part 11]
Li snaps off her armour.
Luzon arms his chip: a Naga, a nasty Sri Lankan thing that's notched up
a lot of Australians. Walks in. His arms hiss in a fort kata, blocking
left and right. That says he can interdict a direct blow between his
head and belly, but it's a bluff. Direct impact of two arms = two
fractured arms.
Li jabs speculatively: baiting the cobra. Mmm, his block is _very_
reactive.
flicks right and has her fingers smacked,
to the left the same,
feigns right but goes for a left delivery
not however bracing feet to support this, but turning to
drive left foot backward
==< The women do not watch. >==
misses: he turns side on
strikes forearm down
but she's dropping her body
folding into a ball
pivoting back and up
==< The women are forbidden to watch. >==
and they're both back in defense positions. 2.5 seconds.
She matches the fort defence with a kata of her own, which says basically
hey look, I'm ambidextrous. For a few seconds there are only arms moving
faster than the eye can follow, without contact. Eggbeaters they call it.
They don't break the sound barrier, sorry. The whiplike report of hands
going supersonic is a Hollywood invention, peak velocity is about Mach
0.08. But the air thrums in their wake.
==< Watching from concealment, the maiden braces her body against
cyclone winds of forbiddenness. >==
This all looks like high-speed boxing, that's right. The flashy flying
kicks and cartwheels you see on video are all real enough, but where's
the advantage in putting so much energy into leaving the ground and then
being without traction for a thousand mill or more? That's an endgame
move, you only do it when you see a quick kill, or a real hole in your
opponent's game. Or for fighting mortals.
But they do rush and dive, and kick and twist aside, with centimetre
tolerances. Showoff madness is upon them. That narrow path of Li's is
now a broad plateau. Everything is possible. Each ARES sequence, once
revealed to Heavy's holographic pattern engine and freed up, becomes
her own to be used without fear.
== I touch you ==
Heavy exchanges glances with Medicine Hawk. His face is reassuringly
relaxed, but Hawk does his sweating on the inside. Most enhanced
encounters are decided in the first five seconds; this has gone on
for a minute.
At enhanced speed, every move is a gamble, that the opponent's move
will not be mutually destructive; a deadly game of scissors-paper-stone.
The odds of injury double about once in twelve seconds. Around five
minutes, muscle tissue overheats and starts to melt.
Li recoils from a direct right thrown into the middle of her zone, but
not so fast she can't catch his forearm between the two of hers, and
start to wind. Luzon crouches to break the leverage, she springs back,
reflexively evading a potential head-butt. She springs his kata highside
while he sways back from her kick envelope. Their arms graze, drawing
blood from both.
== I take you ==
Her inhibition is gone, Luzon sees, and she is rebounding from that into
recklessness. Between there and the cage of her guardmoves, he intuits
an ambiguity, a repeatable bias. Never mind how he does it, he does one
thing while she's expecting a second and recovering from her evasion of
a third. Her left hand misses his ear, her right is flung wide and he
takes it hard, leading her out as he lands. He turns the arm back in the
socket, unsupported tendons would have torn, and takes over her balance,
kicks the feet from under her. The return strike has the width of her
body to cover first; he catches it at its extreme and steps in. She is
laughing as he lowers her to the mat and pins her.
== I know you ==
And bends to kiss his captive softly on the lips...
ARES STRIKES!
AND IS BLOCKED! Skin shreds from her wrists as she breaks
the hold and hurls Luzon flailing across the mat. How close he's come
to decapitation he'll never know, I've got this whole alternative section....
Light flares in her brain, and out. She's beyond air-shimmer, she can
SEE the rasters of her eyes raking the optic nerves. Her feet take hours
to fall, after a day or so she slams into the chair, sees Heavy staring
down at her...
"GET IT! GET IT! GET IT!"
The tape spins, the neurograms flash and flow. Heavy claws the touchplate,
backtracks to the moment of the strike, registers the ARES sequence,
and its precursor, and _its_ precursor, and goes for their latent
consequents. Christ they're everywhere, how many killer options can the
thing have canvassed in the course of one kiss? She indexes off them all
into present time synapse firing, stripping preempts from some, ruthlessly
erasing others. Beyond the reflex level, she carves into the puppet motivator,
but these patterns are high in the motor region, merged into volitional
movement. When she erases these, she erases bits of Li.
And at the last, there is something that is not an imprint, but active.
"Stop doing that!" Heavy grunts. "Take control!"
ultimate player
ultimate
power of sun have I over thee
power of rain have I over thee
power of mountains have I over thee
power of the People and power of the Sidhe
no cell can hold me
no fear cow me
no puppet control me
ARES stumble
ARES fall
ARES die
"Got it." Heavy mutters finally. "There's quite a backlog on the tape,
we can clean that up in our own time. How you doing?"
She sets her jaw, but the sides of her mouth twitch up.
== Her heart is still pounding, as if from all-out combat, as she reaches
to the foot of the bed ==
"You know, in hindsight, we should both have seen this coming. But Jesus."
Heavy begins to giggle. "All out dudes, knock her down, kick her in the
teeth, just whatever you do don't KISS her!"
== where her katana lies ==
[ to be concluded ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns | Clashing for the warrior, whose strength is not to fight
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Clashing for the refugee, on the unarmed road of flight
Computer Science Dept | And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
La Trobe University | We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing -Dylan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Subject: Silver Eyed and Smiling (finale)
Date: 5 Mar 92 14:10:01 GMT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that Li and Heavy have finally purged ARES' assassin
programming from Li's reflexes...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Part 12]
The party rages on downstairs. Hawk is drumming in the street with Yazz
and Crockett on lead and sax, cars have been crashed at the lights to
start a bonfire, Gromo gets laid for the first time, Scrotum and the Duke
make themselves really sick. Neighbours, bought off or scared off, cower
behind their security shutters, though quite a few are joining in.
Around midnight though, about a dozen of both sexes collect in the lounge
listening to Li's stories. Not Border stuff, that's Hawk's to say when.
But when she talks about ARES, cool and explicit, they shut up and listen.
Heavy Medicine slouches toward Bethlehem...
Upstairs in her office, Heavy Judy sits and plays a stretch of lasertape,
over and over...
Neural download imposes static patterns. Only consciousness metaprograms,
that's a basic. But when Heavy in her final blitzkreig went for the root
of ARES' programming, it _retreated_. She sees it now, an amoeba shrinking
from her masers, mutating, adapting, and disappearing at last like a
squid in a cloud of ink into the damn-near-infinite phase space of the
brain.
Only consciousness metaprograms. In the ultimate analysis, she told Li,
you are the player.
It's not Li's volition. _That_ is unmistakable, it comes blasting down
from the thalamus to cut the ARES incursion off from all motor control.
The meat doll fragments are now incorporated in Li's voluntary system.
But the doll has a head. In the moment of a kiss, it pulls its severed
limbs together for one last act of spite. And runs away.
_Another player?_
Heavy has the tape. The tape belongs to Li.
Heavy sees bad shit coming down. Implosion of the polity meeting the
software-driven explosion of the biotech arcanum. Shakeout of the
independents. At some point a man will come collecting small fish,
offering Judy Dunstan a deal, cooption or the streets. Two ways to lose.
Heavy cannot win, but she can stay in the game. To keep playing, she must
have resources. Tech resources, street resources. Heavy has contacts, she
has her rudes, she has Painted Jaguar eating from her hand. But the rudes
are just kids, and the Jaguar is already showing schizoid instability.
And Norcross/PharmBase is breathing down her neck.
Suddenly advantage falls in her lap. ARES' own shakeout weapon, and
its counter. She can fillet this tape, lay down a chip, get the chip run
off in Silicon Alley. Be in there selling ARES-proofing, selling Li's
reflexes on the street while ARES is still bargaining with the middle-rank
players. Cash it in on defenses, be a stable name while the shakeout rages.
Li will give her the tape for the asking, in this euphoric reaction phase.
And walk away, back to her Chiba games. With an amoeba in her brain, waiting.
All Heavy has to do is let her walk away.
+ + + + + + + + + +
[Part 13]
Knock, knock.
"It's open!"
"What are you doing pooping your own party? You made this all... Uh, Heavy,
what do you think you can possibly get out of me at gunpoint?"
"Been on the phone with our mutual friends, honey. ARES needs doctors
to move their new chip on the street. But they're not happy, there's a
concern their monopoly might leak. Offered me three hundred K for proof
of your demise, live record of course. That's so cheap you just have to
admire it. But when I explained I have a tape of my own, they went _way_
up."
"Gosh, Heavy, how are you going to explain this one to Hawk?"
"I've been re-running the last stretch. Not happy with it, Li, there's
some residuals there we really ought to look at before you're clean.
And how right I am. Unfortunately, in the course of restimulating them,
we manage to trigger a full attack. Maybe you call for Hawk, that's OK.
I trank you in the nick of time, but the attack overstresses your heart,
trank puts you over the edge."
"Bull."
"Lights, camera, ACTION!"
"That's truly lame. Why expose yourself to ARES when you can _have_ the
monopoly, here and Nihonside? As long as you hold that tape you're a threat
to them; if you give them one, they'll just think you've got two. I don't
believe this for a moment. It's the graduation test, isn't it? Either that
or it's payback for scaring the living daylights out of you before.
"Well, I pass. I'm not even going to turn my back on you, so you'd have
to work out what to tell Hawk why you shot me in it."
The trank gun sails into a corner. "What the hell, the safety was on.
But there's something I gotta tell you, honey..."
like the first crack in a dam wall
== his eyes go wide ==
a dribble that washes grains of cement from its edge
== the silkbound hilt in her fist ==
then a chip, and another, becoming a jet that widens the crack until
a block falls away
== she sweeps the naked blade up and forward ==
and the crack spreads like lightning the adjacent sides opening wide
like doors
== the pure white scream in her head ==
She has just enough time to cry out before the guardian is overwhelmed.
She sees full clear the face of the Other Player, black aces in its
hand. Then
== the full strength of her back and shoulder drives the
point clear through his heart ==
she sees her body leap for the kill
" GONERIL !! "
The puppet slams into the wall and rebounds, leaving luminous handprints
on the LCD. It gets up and gropes about, blind and deaf, as Heavy dives for
the dartgun.
For Heavy, when she disabled the gates that had downloaded ARES programs
through Li's optic and aural nerves, or else had relayed in the outside
world through chrome eyes and silicon-whisker eardrums, has prudently
kept those gates under her own control...
Another moment and it's Li again. Heavy thumbs the safety.
"Regan."
As if still blind, Li moves unsteadily to the table and sits, head in
hands. Self-lubricating, remember, can't cry. But one long throat-tearing
scream fills the house and echoes into the street. On and on, while Hawk
thunders up the stairs and throws open the door; until Heavy pulls the
trigger.
They get her under the helmet, Heavy throws brainshadows on the wall. But
long before the tranquilizer could remove the traces of recent activity,
the Other Player has disappeared.
+ + + + + + + + + +
[Part 14]
Washington to Seattle, window-to-window.
"I had to play my joker" says Heavy. "Now she won't talk. No question
she's all there, but she just sits and stares off in the distance.
Can't tell if she's better or fucked up worse." She chews on a knuckle.
"We were so close!"
"Can you give us an idea", says Belladonna, "just what kind of thing
we're dealing with?"
"It's a thing."
"Give us a name!" growls Running Wolf.
"Mojos, you always think the name's the thing. Well alright, it's a
programmed hysterical neurosis, that good enough jargon fo'y'all?
A smart one, that can lay low, wait its time."
"Virus
Virus" says Gestalt.
"Cuckoo in the nest" says Running Wolf speculatively.
"Close enough" Heavy sighs. "And thinks it's ARES' own bootlickin'
blue-eyed killer babe. So that's it, Hawk's bringing her back by
jet. I got no technique for it, less you count a lobotomy. Which
brings up the uncomfortable issue of payment.
"I expect to be paid for results, right? Only way to do business
these days, who's going to sue me for malpractice? This don't cut
it, but I've put in a lot of time and some money, I'll take half
of what we agreed, now, and the other half if Li comes round. But
I tell you what, you can keep that half if I keep the tape."
Belladonna leans forward. "You have plans?"
"Dunno. But believe me, what's on that tape you do not want put
in ROM, unless it's by someone who really knows what he's doing.
Better than me. That's poison there."
"How so?"
"Well imagine that you're selling these chips, okay? The Liralen
Special, killer moves, kick sand in the faces of H-K's, astonish
your friends. But with every set, you get this ARES master program.
Maybe it never kicks in. But maybe it does, and you start getting
headaches. Or nightmares, or the ol' nameless blues. And it
doesn't stop until you kill somebody. So how many chips do you
plan to sell?"
Belladonna thinks. She thinks for a solid minute. The air-filter
fans are loud before she speaks.
"Pretty scary, Heavy. But I can go you one better. What do you think
ARES is doing right now? You don't imagine they weren't taping Li
as they went along. Right now I'd say they're trying it out on a
new crop of grunts. Maybe they'll keep it for their own soldiers.
Maybe they'll take it on the street. If I were you, I'd be working
on your tape from tomorrow. Streamline it. Get the bugs out. Do
an exorcism, whatever. Set up in competition."
"Thought of that. In the light of what's happened, it suddenly
didn't seem such a neat idea."
"Remember Rule One."
The two recite in unison. "You-can't-put-the-genie-back-in-the-bottle."
"You got it. Just keep us in the picture is all I ask. The Mechanics
Guild will pay you in full as agreed. You've earned it, and Hawk's
time. You knew when to stop."
"Did I?"
+ + + + + + + + + +
can't they see she mustn't be distracted with conversation
not when she has to watch this window
at any moment it might come through silver eyed and smiling
== at any moment she may get through ==
she == she
has == has
found == found
her == her
rightful == rightful
prey == prey
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wrote this in the course of Desert Storm. It may not be too late to
dedicate it to the innocent casualties, armed and unarmed...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns | Clashing for the warrior, whose strength is not to fight
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Clashing for the refugee, on the unarmed road of flight
Computer Science Dept | And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
La Trobe University | We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing -Dylan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: The Woods for the Trees (was Re: Silver Eyed and Smiling)
Date: 16 Jul 92 20:39:20 GMT
She looked at the window. The trees blurred by in a mass the blue green of
mountain evergreen, but she didn't see them. All she saw was the silver
reflection of those silver eyes looking back at her from the glass. Li
watched the reflection for something, anything, a clue into what one word
could call out.
A touch fell on her shoulder. She didn't move, even as he caught his
balance against her when the train lurched over a particularly bad bend.
Running Wolf's deep voice said, "Next stop, Li. Throwing Bear should be
there with her Monster." His hand spread over her shoulder and then
gripped it hard, "Stop it. That isn't gonna fix a damned thing."
She turned to look at him, a slow deliberate movement, "What will?"
His crooned a soft croon and saw his eyes reflected bright green within
the cool silver. "A Hunt, friend. A Hunt the likes of which you've
never seen." The train's whistle called a haunting note over the steady
beat of its steam driven passage.
She blinked, covering the featureless silver of her eyes, "But you'll be
hunting a creature the likes of which you've never seen." The eyes stared
out into the wooded landscape, and the voice whispered, "Or will you be
hunting me?" Suddenly, Li's face broke into a wry grin, the most human
expresion Wolf had seen on her face since they left Heavy Judy's. The
smile crinkled the edges of her eyes, almost hiding the featurelessness of
the orbs. "Feh... listen to me. Talkin' like a bone shaker for doom. We
can do it."
But, ten minutes later, just as the train pulled into the Cascades station,
Wolf looked over at Li and saw her staring into the glass of the window at
her side...
-------------
The Monster lived up to it's name. It was a burly, boxy, long wheel
based Land Rover with more shades of blue and green on her than even the
Cascade forest and sky could show. The winch on the shelf-like front
bumper was bigger around than Li's waist, the headlamps covered with
cages of rusted wire, and the bolts holding it together showed the rust
that the aluminum body never would. The metal grill in front of the
radiator showed marks of flame and char. The driver's door opened with a
groan, and swung further and further open until the door hit the front
fender with an unexpectedly soft bounce. The door hit the rubber stop on
the fender, again.
The girl that popped out of the Monster looked absurdly like a bird
winging free of a roadwreck. She was small, brown and quick. She flew
into Wolf's arms, and hugged him tight enough to make him grunt even as
he laughed and hugged her back. Ylsa and Li watched and grinned and
shared an unexpectedly sympathetic look.
"Hi!" the small brown woman said to them, her head cocked a little to
the side. Her hair was the brown of loam by a river, her eyes were
the color of a doe's coat, her skin the tan of a fallen oak leaf, and
her dress the color of cedar bark.
"Hello." said Ylsa with a blink.
Li said nothing at all, but the woman walked up to her. Throwing Bear
looked deeply into her eyes for a very long moment. "Cool eyes!" she said
with a grin and then promptly took off, screaming at the conductor to stop
the train from leaving with their bags.
The bags were tossed down from the train and into the back of the truck.
Li joined the bags and settled down for a nap on their lumpy softness while
Ylsa and Wolf rode in the front seat. Li heard a very muffled version of
Wolf's explanations and conversation with Throwing Bear as he shouted
himself hoarse over the rattle and shake of the Monster. Occassionally,
she found herself literally airborn as they rambled over some obsticle or
another.
Li dreamed when she could sleep. Dreams of spiders and pain, of a dance
that never ended, of crying as an unknown man walked away from her, of a
ship in a storm, of a man being carried away on another's back, of a troll
patiently unravelling a sock, and of a Nothing hunting her through the
dark/green paths of a forest deep. She slept fitfully until the Monster
stopped.
Through the distorted plastic 'windows' in the canvas top of the Landy,
she saw nothing but forest. For a moment, she waited to see if they would
start up and go anywere else; but the back flap raised itself, and
Throwing Bear grabbed a bag and said, "Camp!".
Li sighed, stretched, and helped with the unloading.
--------
The camp appeared out of practically nothing. Three bags held tents,
food, bedding, toilet facilities, cooking equipement, showers, picnic
furniture, and even booby traps for the unwary. Wolf and Bear spent a
good hour setting up the parimeter while Li watched respectfully from over
their shoulders.
At one point, Li squatted next to a landmine the size of a hockey puck and
studied the ground colored sheen of webbing that spread from it as its
trigger. A light hand, slender and cool stroked the line of Li's jaw.
Surprised, though not startled, Li looked up to see Throwing Bear. Bear
looked at Li a little abstractedly, still touching the skin at the base of
Li's ear.
"What thinkin'?" Asked Bear.
For a second, Li studied the earth brown eyes. "Blood." she said matter of
factly. "How much blood there would be on this web if someone stepped in
it. Have you ever seen seven pints of anything thrown around a limited
area?"
Bear's face squinched. There was no other word for it. It squinched up
and she said in a mouse's squeek, "Ick." She turned and walked away.
Li watched her as she walked away. Li turned back to the webbing, and ran
her hand just over its translusence. Inside there was something that
almost swooned at the beauty of it, whereas another only wished that she
still thought the way Bear did.
--------
Copyright 1992 by Phyllis L. Rostykus
Synopsis of the moment:
Li got rescued from the ARES installation where she'd been rewired,
retrained, and had her nerves jacked up. It was all part and parcel of
the same installation. The gang believes that it lost two people in that
rescue, plus Argent, beforehand, and a ton of helicopter. Heavy Judy and
her gang were able to pull out some of her new stuff, sweat out a lot of
it, and give her a handle onto almost all of the detailed physical control
of her body. There is, however, something else in there, still,
integrated within Li's higher mental functions and technically impossible
to just seperate and remove. Judy handed Li over to Running Wolf.
Heavy Judy - the creation of Jonathan Burns
Running Wolf and Ylsa - the creations of Ross TenEyek
Li - is mine
--
Phyllis L. Rostykus
li@Data-IO.com
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