program. With God gone, Sharcroft had started empire-building again. Rannu had sneaked into the Limbo facility and introduced the black program into one of Sharcroft’s power fantasies. One of his virtual victims killed him. It was well past his time anyway.
It was called the Eagle’s Nest and had been decorated in imperial splendour for an empire that had never made it because it had been polluted with fucked-up ideas. Here was another power fantasy: unreal attractive women fawning over some wannabe. It seemed unlikely that women who looked like that had ever existed, and if they had they wouldn’t have acted that way or been interested in a vile little prick like Messer.
He was surprised when the women disappeared and flowers started to grow out of everything. He had been left naked and alone. Sanctums are supposed to be difficult to find and nearly impossible to violate. He looked frightened because he didn’t understand what was happening. How could this little wanker have killed Jakob? I forced myself to control the anger.
‘Hello, Messer,’ I said as I walked out of the wall and into his sanctum as the Maiden of Flowers.
‘You…’ he said. My face was the same, but he’d done well to recognise me as the last time he’d seen me I’d been dressed in fascist chic and sporting a suedehead. I walked towards him over a carpet of blossoming flowers.
‘Well done,’ I said and smiled brightly.
I went to sit on the old-fashioned couch-thing next to him. He shrank away from me, practically curling into a foetal position. He seemed ashamed of his nakedness now he wasn’t in control. And violating his sanctum was a pretty raw demonstration of power. That and I had shut down the command for his icon to appear clothed.
‘You killed my boyfriend,’ I said sweetly.
‘I’m sorry,’ he stammered.
‘No, you’re frightened, and that’s different. You killed him on a whim because you’re a fucked-up little boy full of fear with a head full of bad ideas. I’ve seen how that ends. I should kill you, shouldn’t I? Not out of revenge but because of what you may become, the damage you could do, the pain you could cause.’
‘I’ll change-’ he started.
‘No, that’s another lie. That’s fear talking again.’
I waved my hands over his face, it was a bit theatrical but it made his crystalline insect eyes disappear. He had pretty green eyes underneath. Or at least his icon did. He looked more naked and afraid in the way that only men can.
‘You have to find a way to live free of fear. Maybe you’ll keep up with this nonsense when you do, but I doubt it. There are a lot of bad things out there, a lot of things that maybe you should be afraid of, but that’s okay because there are people out there who’ll help you, protect you, watch your back, help you help yourself. More to the point, they’ll accept you.
‘We’ll find a way to root out the bad things, cast a light on them and show them to everyone, and we’ll see that, like you, they’re not all that scary.’ He looked at me uncomprehending and still frightened. I think he thought he was talking to a mad person. Maybe he was.
‘More than anything now we need new and better ideas for all sorts of things, and the ideas you have are old, bad and not even very original. You need to think for yourself.’ He nodded, still not getting it. He flinched away from me when I stroked his face. ‘It’ll be okay,’ I promised him and I meant it.
I stood up and started towards the wall. I reached up to touch the flowers growing out of the wall but stopped and looked back at him.
‘Do you know why you’re still alive?’ He shook his head. ‘Because even though you must have been terrified, you fought with the vagabond army. At some level, deep down you must have wanted things to get better.’
He just stared at me.
‘Try not to just react. Try to think about what I said. I’ll leave you with the flowers. They’re very pretty.’ Even if I say so myself. I walked through the wall.
Fiona didn’t get off nearly so lightly. I tracked her down to an expensive nightclub in Edinburgh. The bouncers didn’t want to let four scruffy bastards like us in. Well three – Merle scrubbed up nicely. Rannu and Mudge persuaded them. They didn’t hurt them too badly. One of the perks of hanging around with hard bastards (and overprotective males).
I’d analysed the imagery the evil cow had posted on the net and worked out who she was and where to find her. She was sitting with a group of her mates and some hired muscle. Rannu and Mudge took care of the muscle. Merle just sat down and ordered a drink. He said it was nothing to do with him.
Some little wanker called Alasdair tried to get involved. I scared him so badly I think he shat himself. I beat the shit out of her. Well you can take the girl out of Dundee…
So here we are on the side of a hill in the Highlands. It’s raining, it’s windy, it’s beautiful. We’re looking down on Loch Carron. Drinking whisky. Glenmorangie, Jakob’s drink. Each sip and it’s like I can taste him still.
Rannu’s here, the four furrows in his face still healing. Mudge is here, of course, smoking a spliff but reasonably straight and just about able to control his emotions. Merle is here, his arms wrapped in medgel casts. I don’t care how hard he likes to pretend to be, he’s here for Mudge. They’ll be going their separate ways after this though.
After here we’re going to Nepal. I want to meet Ashmi, Yangani and Sangar – find out why Rannu fought so hard. Also a place full of Ghurkha veterans is a reasonably safe place to live for a while. Mudge is going to come with us initially. He’s going to help. What we can do in the net he can do in the real world. Merle’s not coming. With what we’ve planned, Merle said he’s pretty sure that he’ll be paid to come and kill us. He was only half joking. He’ll probably refuse. To kill us, I mean.
It’ll be something like God but we’ll take more time, work it out better. Work the parameters better. Try and leave people with a bit more privacy. We’ve started building a network of hackers to gather information and networks of investigative types – journalists and other interested parties, to be managed by Mudge.
With a less total solution than God we might miss something. The hackers and investigators will pick up some of that, but hopefully we’ll be able to leave people with their dignity. They won’t be watched all the time. They can go and look at porn without everyone knowing.
We won’t be taking armed action against people; we’re just going to show people the truth to the best of our abilities. We will however defend ourselves in all sorts of interesting ways if they try to harm us.
See, we don’t care if you’ve got money and power. You want it. You work for it. We just want to live our lives. We care about abuse. People are more important. We are not a fucking resource. So if you take the piss you will be exposed. All we want is a level playing field, an equal chance. The bad people may have all the power, all the violence, all the guns, but we have the numbers. Or we will have. We’re kind of an oversight committee, free of government and corporate influence.
Will it be perfect? No. Will there be abuses, corruption? Probably. It’s a human institution after all, but we’ll do our best.
I hand the empty cup back to Mudge.
‘Another?’ he asks. I shake my head. He looks at me questioningly. I try not to think about the results of the test and not to touch my stomach. I’m convinced that I keep on doing it and must have given myself away. No fear? Yeah, right.
I stand up and take the ashes and unscrew the top. You have to be careful scattering ashes in a wind. We all get a taste of Jakob and end up coughing and spitting.
‘Sorry,’ I tell them. Mudge starts laughing first, then we all join in. Jakob’s copy is a cloud of dust for a while and then he’s gone.
Rannu hands me the trumpet. If I can learn to handle a Wraith on a submarine operation at depth with skillsofts, how difficult can a trumpet be? I put it to my lips and blow. It makes a horrible noise.
