Wu nodded.
'I think we've strained the car metaphor as far as we can. I need to
get back to my superiors with your offer. We will come up with
coordinates for a test.
We'll get these to you, you run it, and if it works, then we'll discuss
terms. Is this satisfactory?'
'Yes.'
'Good. Shall we head back?'
Ventura nodded, and tapped Walker on the shoulder.
Walked looked, and Ventura pointed his finger at the car's roof, waved
it in a tight circle, then pointed behind them.
Walker nodded, and pulled into a dusty field next to the gravel road to
turn around.
As they headed back toward the HQ compound, Wu said, 'Fascinating place
here, Luther. You a believer?'
'No. Parallel traveler. You make do with what you have.'
'I hear that. We have similar places in our country, you know. Now
and then the government uncovers a nest of malcontents and has to step
on it. If you don't, pretty soon you have fools who are willing to
walk barehanded in front of tanks. Better to crush them before they
get too brave. The difference is that you know these people are here,
and yet you allow them anyway.'
'The price of freedom,' Venture said.
'I've always thought that freedom was a highly overrated commodity,' Wu
said.
'More trouble than it is worth. Order is much better. Besides, it
doesn't really matter to people like us--you and me--does it?'
Ventura shrugged.
'Everybody has to be someplace.
One is as good as another.'
'I suppose.' Within the tiny shrug of indifference, there was a flash
of something on Wu's face, something cold and ugly, just a fast hint,
and Ventura had to fight the urge to pull the trigger and cook the
little man right here and right now.
No, he didn't look like much, but Ventura had a feeling deep in his gut
that Chilly Wu here would be a formidable opponent in any kind of a
fight. With any luck, he wouldn't have to find out. If he did, it was
going to end in blood, he was sure. He hoped it wouldn't be his own.
Vermillion River, Lafayette, Louisiana
Jay had to smile at the imagery the boss enjoyed. He had a thing for
the swamps--a couple of times Jay had gone with Michaels's default
scenarios and they had been boats on bayous, like that. They weren't
bad, better than a lot of off-the-shelf stuff, but not as textured as
Jay normally liked to create. He'd added in some pretty neat stuff for
this setting, at least he thought so, even if Michaels might not
notice. Of course, the boss was management, and VR programming wasn't
his real strength.
As he motored along the narrow river in the little outboard-rigged
flat-bottomed skiff, or whatever they called them down in Cajun
country. Jay decided to stay with this sequence. He had a lot of work
