Caine Black Knife

Are you remembering that the whole time you’ve been back in the Studio-the whole time you’ve been back on Earth-from the tiny Winston Transfer chamber to the emergency infirmary to the recovery room to here, you have been given not so much as a glance outside? Because this is all you say here: all you have ever said: all you will ever say:

*Not one window.*

No glimpse of the world you were born into. The universe you had left, and to which you have been returned.

It is at this moment that something within you unlocks. I feel it in your chest: as though an iron band fastened around your heart snaps open at the touch of a key in your mind. “I get it,” you say slowly. “When you rescued me, you weren’t saving my life. You were saving your career.”

Kollberg actually grins. “Michaelson, you died the day you passed your Boards. If you’d given yourself up for dead back then, you’d already be a star.”

You do not answer, for truth requires no reply.

“All right,” you say after a moment. “All right.”

Your left hand can make a fist. Your right can, too, and though the nerve-block handles the pain well enough, the slide of your wrist tendons around the nail twists you full of nausea.

That is the nausea’s source.

Isn’t it?

“All right. It is what it is.”

Kollberg offers a moist chuckle. “Most things are.”

You nod toward the screen. “Give me back the vertical city, will you?”

Kollberg clicks, and the schematic grows itself around the constellation of fourteen stars.

“Those are the surviving humans?”

“Mmm.”

“How do you track them?”

“By their thoughtmitters, of course.”

You only stare.

Kollberg’s lower lip bulges. “I’m sorry-was this a mystery?”

Again you can’t quite manage a deep breath. “They’re all Actors? All of them? The porters-everybody?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Pretornio?”

“Livia Murphy, out of New York.” Kollberg manipulates his control, and the screen flares with a view of the Black Knife camp seen through a veil of blue-white flame, while hidden speakers burst to life with the crackle and spit of burning fat and the bone-conducted distortion of Pretornio’s voice, chanting her Old High Lipkan.

Another twist of the control cancels the audio, and Kollberg sighs. “Quite the pity, actually. Had any of her own Studio’s Administrators a hint she was capable of such power, she may have had a more. . extensive career.”

“Holy crap. .” You lie motionless on the bed, cold and once again numb. “It is a snuffer. .”

“Oh, please.” Kollberg looks disgusted. “Grow up, Michaelson. The Studio doesn’t produce snuffers. That’s an urban legend.”

“All Actors,” you murmur. “Every one of them. .”

“Of course. How do you think your bloody expedition was organized? You think it’s easy to place Actors on real treasure hunts?”

“Why didn’t-but we didn’t know-”

“Because you’re Actors.” Kollberg flicks a piece of imaginary lint off the sleeve of his Administrator’s chlamys. “Even with unbreakable conditioning-blocks and the most expensive training in the history of Earth, you just can’t stay in bloody character. Look at you and Bergmann-the instant you’re alone together, you’re reminiscing about your damned school days. I mean, really.

Do you have any idea how much editing we’ll have to do in that sequence?”

“Bergmann? You mean Marade?”

He nods. “Olga Bergmann, out of Vienna. By the way, the sex was superb; we’re keeping that. Very nicely played, on your part; you have an eye for neurotic weakness. If she lives through the rescue-and you do, of course-we’ll slot you for some team-up Adventures. Banging the big Nordic blondes always goes down well. Oh, and speaking of going down-next time, make sure she gives you head. I’ll speak to Vienna about it. You can sixty-nine if you want, but really it’s better if she just does you. You’ve heard of the sexual position sixty-eight? ‘Give me a blowjob, and I’ll owe you one.’ Ha-hrm. Especially if she’s on her knees. That’s nuclear when it’s a powerful woman; the more submissive, the-”

“Administrator, for Christ’s sake-”

“Entertainer.” Kollberg leans on the word. His little piggy eyes have receded into his face. “The proper response to a direct order is ‘Yes, Administrator,’ or, informally, ‘Yes, sir.’ ”

He waits.

Vomit burns the back of your throat.

Kollberg says, “Let’s give a try, shall we? Entertainer?”

Your jaw locks down so hard your teeth ache. Your throat clamps shut. You manage to say, “Yes, Administrator,” anyway.

You’ve done harder things. Can you remember any right now?

Your gaze goes from the spike through your wrist to the fleshy curve of Kollberg’s cheek and back again. *The real difference between him and Crow-mane ,* you monologue, *is he’s too fucking smart to give me a free shot.*

And, of course, that Kollberg has offered you something to lose. “Yes, Administrator.” It’s easier the second time. It gets easier every time. “All right, Administrator.”

“Now. Let’s start again.”

You grind words out between your teeth. “I still need to talk to Marc Vilo.

Please, sir.”

Kollberg shakes his head. “I thought I explained-”

“You did. But you don’t understand, Administrator. I’m not trying to get out of this. I’m not trying to get out of anything.”

Kollberg settles back into his chair and folds his hands over the soft curve of his belly. “I’m listening.”

“We’re on the same side here, Administrator. You want Caine to be a star. I want Caine to be a star. More than anything. More than being alive. Being an Actor-that’s all I’ve lived for since I was ten years old. And you-well, I don’t know you. But you’re what, forty? And you’re still putting together crapass straight-to-cube Adventures with packs of no-names? Your career’s not going exactly the way you hoped either, I bet.”

Kollberg’s only response is a squint that seems to suck his eyeballs all the way to the back of his skull.

“I’m guessing this Adventure’s the biggest you’ve ever done. It is, isn’t it? And sometime before we all got bagged-maybe back when I went walking out that gate-you saw a whole new future open up in front of you.”

You can’t get your teeth to come apart, but you can unleash a facsimile of Caine’s grin. “I’m reading your fucking mind, aren’t I?”

Kollberg’s lips squeeze themselves into a liver-colored asshole.

“Pulling me was the biggest chance you’ve ever taken. That’s why you’re down here. That’s why you’re bullying me into this horseshit escape thing. You bet that brand-new future on me.”

Words squirt through those lips like a fart. “If I did?”

“You’re gonna lose.”

Kollberg lurches forward, red flush climbing his face. “The difference between us, Michaelson, is that I can lose and live. Remember I can put you back right where I found you.”