'Not at all. He was nice, actually. From what my mom said, he made me come out sounding like some kind of hero.' He gave Charlie an odd look. 'They're probably gonna hand you the same kind of stuff.'
'I wouldn't worry too much about that,' Charlie said. 'It hasn't been a problem so far.'
They headed for Nick's apartment, if only because Charlie wasn't willing to go straight home to his own and find some new and interesting aspect of last night's argument waiting for him. When they got there, though, Charlie wondered whether this had been wise, for Nick's mother was putting down the receiver of the vidphone with an odd look on her face.
Nick froze when he saw it. Charlie, not knowing what that kind of expression might mean on someone else's mother, didn't bother panicking. On his own, though, he would have been cautiously optimistic about what was to follow. 'Hi, Mrs. Melchior…'
'Hi, Charlie honey, how are you?' She sounded very abstracted.
'Uh, hi, Mom,' Nick said.
'Nick,' his mother said, 'what have you been doing?'
Charlie saw the oh-no-what-now look cross his friend's face. 'We came straight from school, Mrs. Melchior,' he said, hoping it wouldn't make things worse. 'Did we-'
'No, Charlie, it's all right,' said Nick's mother, looking dubious. 'I guess. Honey, that was someone from the service provider.'
Nick instantly burst out in a sweat that Charlie could see from two feet away, and indeed could practically feel. 'Mom, in three weeks I'll have enough to give them about two hundred-'
'I wouldn't worry about that,' his mother said, 'because they say that the last month's bill has been paid in full.'
Nick's eyes widened. 'Oh, no. If Dad went and-'
'Your dad didn't do anything, honey,' said Nick's mother, sitting down at the small kitchen table and looking at him oddly. 'It seems someone from Joey Bane Enterprises got hold of them and said that the company was paying your expenses for 'your efforts on their behalf.' Which they took to mean the last month's comm charges, with a cash reserve to cover another year's worth of use. And apparently they're reimbursing you for your public access in the last couple of weeks.'
'Oh, wow,' Nick said, looking almost weak with relief, and collapsing into the chair opposite his mom at the table.
Charlie stood and watched all this with poorly concealed approval.
'Charlie,' said Nick's mother to him, turning on him what would have been a fairly fierce expression except for the confusion still underlying it, 'did you have something to do with this?'
'I don't think so,' Charlie said. Not directly, anyway. Or at least not the way you think…
He was spared having to go through any longer a list of mental reservations by Nick's mother sighing, raising her hands in the air, letting them fall again. 'Honey,' she said, 'it's very nice of them to come in and get you off the hook like this-'
'Mom,' said Nick, 'I'm going to keep the summer job… if it's all the same to you.'
She looked at him thoughtfully. 'That's the best thing I've heard all day,' she said, and got up, heading down the hall toward the rear of the apartment. 'Meanwhile, I suppose we'd better see about getting your server reconnected… '
Nick and Charlie looked at each other as she went down to the den. 'It's a miracle,' Nick said softly.
'Somehow I doubt it.'
'I wonder how much of… you know, what we did… is going to come out.'
'I don't think it'd be smart for us to discuss that here,' Charlie said softly. 'Not under the circumstances. You gonna be online again tonight?'
'One way or another,' Nick said. 'I meant it about the job… I noticed that when I'm out of the apartment more, the tension level around here goes down somewhat. I would have thought it'd be the other way around. Could it be that they wanted me to get out more or something? Even if it's just to use a public booth?'
Charlie shrugged. 'Who knows,' he said, 'what parents think?'
'I know what you mean.' Nick grinned a little. 'I like to think of dealing with them as practice for when we finally meet up with alien life-forms.'
'You and me both, brother. Well, if you ever find out why it's working better, tell me. Meanwhile, let's do whatever needs doing here, and then get out before the situation deteriorates somehow… '
Later that evening Nick and Charlie met in Deathworld again, near the Keep of the Dark Artificer. This time there was no agenda, nothing to worry about. This time they could walk and talk and simply relax, debriefing each other. 'You know,' Nick said, once or twice catching a betraying expression on Charlie's face, 'if I didn't know better… I'd think you were beginning to like some of this music.'
'Oh, I don't know… ' Charlie said as they went in the gates of the Keep, and the demons there snapped to attention and saluted them. 'Some of the rhythms are more interesting than I thought originally… ' He grinned. 'But the lyrics…'
'Oh, give me a break. So they're depressive.' 'Morbid,' Charlie said, 'that's the word I would have used.'
They strolled through the great 'front hall,' while Charlie looked around him, apparently fascinated by the architecture. Nick raised his eyebrows, mildly exasperated. 'Just because some idiot critics call it morbo-jazz,' Nick said, 'isn't any reason to take them seriously. It's hardly even jazz. If you think about it, you'll see that the basic riff structure has been completely… uh…'
He trailed off, coming to a stop, slowly becoming aware that Charlie was staring at him. ' 'Completely uh?''
There was a dark form standing in their path, all in black leather, a shadow dressed in shadows. 'Hey, Nick,' said Joey Bane, dry-voiced and ironic. 'How goes it?'
Nick couldn't find it in his heart to say 'Badly, as always,' for this was the man himself, no simulacrum, no clone generated by the machine. The look in his eyes was too feral, too amused, and too real, for any program to fake.
Camiun was over his shoulder, and for once its strings were still. 'I asked the system to let me know when you two gents came through next,' Joey Bane said. 'I believe your last visit was, well, to put it politely, interrupted… '
'Uh,' Nick said. 'Yeah. I mean, no, it-'
'Look, relax,' Bane said. 'Nobody's going to ream you out. You did me and mine a favor. I thought I'd try to return it, a little. Come on.'
He gestured them toward the back of the entry hall. They walked with him. 'Besides,' Joey said, 'I would have come to take a look at you eventually, anyway. You just hurried me a little.'
Nick goggled. On the other side of Joey, Charlie was looking at Nick and plainly trying not to burst out laughing. Nick ignored him. 'You wanted to look at me? Why me?'
Bane laughed. 'Because you're the one who's always subverting my staff.'
Nick blushed. 'I never-'
'You always! The DP people who do their dialogue-are always saying, 'There's this kid who talks to us all the time, and treats us like people-' '.
'Scorchtrap!'
'And the others. Bluebelch and Wringscalpel and Twistlestomp and the others. Where do they get these names, anyway? Whatever… they say the Demons want you to sit in on their next collective bargaining session. As if I don't give them stock options, and as if we didn't just have a split? What do they want now? Do they think I'm made of money?' Joey gave the two of them an ironic look. 'But, kid, even the tables here say nice things about you. Somebody who's as kind to inanimate objects and support staff as you are will go far in the world.'
Nick grinned. He couldn't think of anything to say to that.
'So,' Joey said, 'make yourselves at home. No connect charges for you two anymore. Though I think we'll see more of you than of your friend here.' He nodded courteously enough to Charlie.
'I don't know,' Charlie said suddenly, acquiring a wicked look. 'I heard some material borrowed from Hovannes in that last lift Nick played for me. Maybe we have common ground after all.'
Bane grinned. 'Maybe we do. Stop in sometimes and find out. Meanwhile, what's your pleasure, gentlemen?' 'We were going to do the Ninth Circle,' Nick said, looking over toward the doors on the left-hand side. 'I wouldn't go
