gestures and whispers as their machine thumped and hummed. The party watched wordlessly; no sign now of the Dream Fuel or the devices they’d been using to administer it. Then the technicians propelled their machine backwards, leaving only polished ground behind, one of them sweeping the area with something that looked like a cross between a broom and a mine-detector. After a few sweeps he gave a thumbs-up signal to his colleagues and followed them back into the plaza, behind the still-humming machine.
The party lingered, but the incident had obviously taken the shine off their immediate plans for the night. Before very long they’d all vanished into a pair of private cable-cars, and I’d had no chance to insinuate myself.
But I noticed something on the ground, near where the moon-faced man had been standing. At first I thought it was another vial of Dream Fuel, but as I moved closer — before anyone else saw it — I realised that it was an experiential. It had probably fallen out of his pocket when he retrieved his cachet of Fuel.
I knelt down and picked it up. It was slim and black, and the only marking on it was a tiny silver maggot near the top.
With Vadim, I’d found a similar set of experientials at the same time that I’d found his supply of Dream Fuel.
‘Tanner Mirabel?’
The voice held only the slightest hint of curiosity.
I looked around, because the voice had come from behind me. The man who’d spoken was dressed in a dark coat, making the minimum necessary concession to Canopy fashion. His face was unsmiling and grey, like an undertaker on a bad day. There was also a martial tautness to his posture, evidenced in the way the muscles in his neck were rigidly defined.
Not a man to be trifled with, whoever he was.
He spoke softly, hardly moving his lips now that he had my complete attention. ‘I am a professional security specialist,’ he said. ‘I am armed with a neurotoxic weapon which can kill you in under three seconds, silently, and without drawing the slightest attention to myself. You would not even have time to blink in my direction.’
‘Well, enough pleasantries,’ I said.
‘You recognise that I am a professional,’ the man said, nodding to emphasise his words. ‘Like you, I have been trained to kill in the most efficient manner possible. I hope that gives us some common ground and that we can now discuss matters reasonably.’
‘I don’t know who you are or what you want.’
‘You don’t have to know who I am. Even if I told you, I’d be forced to lie, and what would be the point of that?’
‘Fair point.’
‘Good. In which case, my name’s Pransky. As for the other matter, that’s easier. I’m here to escort you to someone who wants to meet you.’
‘What if I don’t want to be escorted?’
‘That’s entirely your choice.’ He still spoke calmly and quietly, like a young monk reciting his breviary. ‘But you will have to satisfy yourself that you can absorb a dose of tetrodotoxin of sufficient potency to kill twenty people. Of course, it’s entirely possible that your membrane biochemistry is unlike that of any other living human being — or advanced vertebrate, for that matter. ’ He smiled, flashing a row of brilliant white teeth. ‘But you’ll have to be the judge of that, I’m afraid.’
‘I probably wouldn’t want to run that risk.’
‘Sensible fellow.’
Pransky beckoned with an open palm that I should walk on, past the kidney-shaped koi-pond which was the focal point of this annexe of the building.
‘Before you get too cocky,’ I said, standing my ground, ‘you might like to know that I’m also armed.’
‘I do know,’ he said. ‘I could tell you the specification of your weapon now, if you wanted me to. I could also tell you the probability of one of your ice-slugs managing to kill me before I inject you with the toxin, and I don’t think you’d be very impressed by the odds. Failing that, I could tell you that your gun is currently in your right pocket and your hand isn’t, which does rather limit its usefulness. Shall we proceed?’
I started moving. ‘You’re working for Reivich, aren’t you?’
For the first time something in his face told me he wasn’t in total control of the situation. ‘Never heard of him,’ he said, irritated. And I allowed myself a smile. It wasn’t much of a victory, but it was better than nothing. Of course, Pransky could have been lying. But had he wanted to, I was sure he could have concealed it more effectively. But I’d caught him off guard.
Inside the plaza, there was a vacant silver palanquin waiting for me. Pransky waited until no one was paying us any attention, then had the palanquin clam open, revealing a plush red seat.
‘You’ll never guess what I’m about to ask,’ Pransky said.
I got into the machine, easing myself into the seat. After the door had closed I experimented with some of the controls set into the interior, but none of them did anything. Then, in deathly silence, the palanquin started moving. I looked through the little green window and watched the plaza glide by, Pransky walking slightly ahead of me.
Then I started feeling drowsy.
Zebra looked me over, a long and cool appraisal such as I might have expended on a new rifle. Her expression was difficult to judge. All the theories I’d concocted had depended on her either looking very pleased or very annoyed to be reacquainted with me.
Instead she just looked worried.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ I said. ‘If you don’t mind my asking.’
She stood legs akimbo, shaking her head slowly as she answered me, ‘You’ve got one hell of a nerve to ask me what I’m doing, after all you did to me.’
‘Right now I’d say we’re even.’
‘Where’d you find him, and what was he doing?’ she asked Pransky.
‘Hanging around,’ the man said. ‘Attracting too much attention. ’
‘I was trying to get to you,’ I said to Zebra.
Pransky gestured towards one of the markedly utilitarian chairs which served for furniture in the room to which I had been brought. ‘Have a seat, Mirabel. You’re not going anywhere in a hurry.’
‘I’m surprised you were in any rush to meet me again,’ Zebra said. ‘After all, you didn’t exactly overstay your welcome last time.’
My gaze tracked over Pransky, trying to place him in this and figure out how much he knew.
‘I left a note,’ I said, plaintively. ‘And I called you back to apologise. ’
‘And the fact that you thought I might know where a Game was going down was sheer coincidence.’
I shrugged, exploring the parameter space of discomforts offered by the stiffly unyielding seat. ‘Who else was I going to call?’
‘You piece of shit, Mirabel. I don’t know why I’m doing this, you know. You don’t deserve it at all.’
Zebra still looked like Zebra, unless you focused on the specifics. She had muted her skin-tone now, so that the stripes were little more than rushlike grey blades folded around the contours of her face, delineations that vanished altogether in a certain light. The frill of rigid black hair had become a blonde bob, trimmed in a blunt fringe across her forehead. Her clothes were unostentatious and she wore a coat of similar cut to my own, one which reached past her stiletto-booted ankles and trailed into a pool of dark fabric around her feet. The only thing it lacked was the matrix of rough patches which adorned Vadim’s original.
‘I never pretended to deserve anything,’ I said. ‘Although I do think the one thing I might deserve is an explanation. Can we take it as read that you and I almost met earlier this evening, except that there was a substantial bulk of fish between us, name of Methuselah?’
‘I was standing behind you,’ Zebra said. ‘If you saw me, you saw my reflection. It’s not my fault you didn’t turn around.’
‘You could have said something.’
‘You were hardly excessively loquacious yourself, Tanner.’
‘All right; can we start at the beginning?’ I looked at Pransky, soliciting his permission as much as Zebra’s. ‘How about I tell you what I think, and we take it from there?’
