probably fulfilled a childhood ambition. She's laid the DMA Cowboys. I hope it sits well with her.'
Reave put a fatherly arm around Billy's shoulder. 'Listen to me, Billy boy. Listen to your old buddy Reave. You don't want to worry about it. There'll be another one along in a minute, and in the meantime, there's always the whores.'
Billy impatiently shook himself free. 'You don't understand. She went out to look around, but I don't think she knew that she was all but out of credit after last night. If she tried to buy anything more than a couple of drinks, she'd hit the zero and make the indigent roster. Shit, any slaver could have picked her up by now.'
Reave pushed back his hat and scratched his head. 'That's like a really fucking stupid thing to do. Why didn't you warn her?'
'I was too hung over.'
The Minstrel Boy abruptly sat down. 'I feel awful.'
The hotel houseman was hovering closer. Billy tried to ease the others toward the elevators.
'I really think that we should do something about finding her. Why don't we go upstairs and see if she's shown up on any of the lists?'
It was the Minstrel Boy's turn to shake his head. 'Not me, Billy. I'm too sick to go rescuing damsels in distress, and besides, I've got half the world's death cults looking to kill me. Renatta's going to have to take care of herself.'
Billy turned on him angrily. 'You can't be that cold.'
The Minstrel Boy knew that he was being childish, but he didn't care. His speech was slurred and petulant. 'Sure I can. She was that cold with me.'
Reave agreed with him. 'Yeah, screw her. She'll have to look after herself. She dumped me, too.'
Billy's voice turned hard and quiet. 'She hadn't dumped me.'
The Minstrel Boy's laugh was mocking and unpleasant. 'So you just want to go save her because you think you can get some more of that good loving.'
'She became our partner, damn it.'
Reave scowled. 'Did she? Or was she just a bimbo along for the ride?'
The houseman chose that moment to say his piece. 'Are you gentlemen guests of the hotel?'
Billy tried to head off the houseman before Reave noticed him. 'Yes, of course we are.'
'Then perhaps you'd be more comfortable somewhere less-'
'Somewhere less what?' Reave growled. He had the expression of a man deciding whether he should throw an offending individual through a gold mirror.
The houseman stood his ground, and his hand dropped to his discreet, gold-plated sidearm. 'You're starting to distress some of the other guests. I'm sure you understand. Perhaps one of the small bars. .'
Reave's temperature seemed to be rising toward boiling. Billy looked around for some kind of help from the Minstrel Boy, but the Minstrel Boy was sunk in his chair, leaning forward with his head in his hands. Then Reave did an abrupt mood shift. He suddenly grinned at the houseman.
'You're the cutest little soldier I ever seen.'
'I really don't want any trouble, sir.'
Reave blinked. 'Trouble? Little man, you don't even know what trouble is.'
Billy quickly took him by the arm. 'Come on, Reave. Let's get out of here. We've got a lot to talk about.'
To his surprise and relief, Reave did not argue. 'Yeah, what the hell. Let's get out of here.'
Billy looked down at the Minstrel Boy. 'What about you? Are you going to come with us?'
The Minstrel Boy looked up. 'Yeah, I guess so.' He struggled to his feet and stood swaying. 'I ain't rescuing no damsels, though.'
Back in his room the Minstrel Boy stirred a whole package of alcopeak into a glass of water. Within seconds of drinking the foaming mixture, he was sledgehammered by a blinding headache. It felt as though his eyes were going to drop out, but he was coming off the drunk. He stripped off his clothes and sought refuge in the cleanse- and-massage. While he was in there, his newfound sobriety started him regretting the way he had behaved over the loss of Renatta.
He dressed in clean clothes and headed for Billy's room. When he arrived, Reave was already there, also having apparently undergone a gruff change of heart.
'So what are we going to do about this damn woman?'
'Let's find out if she's got herself listed.' Billy looked up at the mirror ceiling. It was a deep bottle-green. When he had first seen it, he had felt that getting a green room had been something of a dirty trick. It was certainly in line with his current luck. 'Room intelligence, please activate.'
'How can I serve you?'
Billy ran down Renatta's vital codes, which were scanty, to say the least. After about five seconds a head- and-shoulders hologram of a particularly sullen-looking Renatta appeared in midair.
'Renatta de Luxe. Credit count 0–0. Indigent. Claimed by Buzznoose Enterprises, who paid minimum flesh value to city for title.'
'Damn.'
'The slavers have got her already.'
The Minstrel Boy regarded the hologram thoughtfully. 'I don't see exactly what we can do.'
Billy waved the image away. 'We can go and get her back.'
'Not legally.'
'Did that ever bother us before?'
Reave shrugged. 'I guess we could buy her back.'
The Minstrel Boy was still pessimistic. 'I doubt that we've got the credit, unless we're going to run ourselves into trouble. These slavers can pretty much ask what they want for her.'
Reave nodded. 'You're probably right. She's good-looking, and they'll sure as shit want a fortune for her.'
Billy was starting to look a little desperate. Saving Renatta had started to take on the proportions of a test of his continuing ability to cut it.
'We can lean on them, can't we?' he asked. 'I mean, are the DNA Cowboys going to back down to a bunch of stinking slavers?'
'I thought we didn't call ourselves that.'
'You know what I mean.'
The Minstrel Boy's face was chilly. 'I know you're getting crazy over this woman.'
Billy and the Minstrel Boy glared at each other. Reave made a time-out sign.
'Okay, okay, there's no reason why we shouldn't give it a shot. Get the address of the slavers, and we'll go and see what they're all about. There's always the chance that they'll be sailing close to the law and we'll be able to make a deal with them.'
The warehouse that provided premises for Buzznoose Enterprises was on Tepper Lane, a back street in a faceless, twilight part of the city near the spot where the big exhaust tubes vented the city's waste products out into the nothings. The air smelled of sulfur, and the light was dim and greenish yellow. It was a grimy, nondescript windowless building. The only thing that showed that Buzznoose occupied the place was a tiny hand-lettered sign. The DNA Cowboys stared around cautiously.
'It looks sleazy enough.'
'Isn't that what we want?'
Billy hit the door chimes. At first nothing happened. Then a peephole in the door slid open, and a pair of furtive eyes looked out.
'You want something?'
Billy answered for the three of them. Despite an ongoing squirreling behind his eyes, he was making every effort to keep a semblance of control over the situation. Rescuing Renatta had been his idea, after all.
'We're looking for Buzznoose Enterprises.'
'Well, you found it.'
'We want to talk to someone about making a deal.'
'You want to make a purchase?'
