"Galloway doesn't make heavy-breathers."
"Not yet. Neither did Lyshia Trumbull until about a year ago. Or that guy who works for ABS...
Chin. Randall Chin."
"Neither did Salome Hassan," someone chimed in from across the room. Cooper looked around and saw the whole shift was listening.
"I thought you were all above that," he said. "Turns out we're a bunch of feelie-groupies."
"You can't help hearing the names," Stu said, defensively.
Anna-Louise pulled her shirt over her head and stood up. "There's no sense denying I've tried tapes," she said. "The trans-sisters have to make a living. She'll do them. Wet-dreams are the coming thing."
"They're coming, all right," Stu said, with an obscene gesture.
"Why don't you idiots knock it off and get out of here?" Cooper said.
They did, gradually, and the tiny locker room at the gee/10 level was soon empty but for Cooper and Anna-Louise. She stood at the mirror, rubbing a lotion over her scalp to make it shine.
"I'd like to move to the number two shift," she said.
"You're a crazy Loonie, you know that?" he shot back, annoyed.
She turned at the waist and glared at him.
"That's redundant and racist," she said. "If I wasn't such a sweet person I'd resent it."
"But it's true."
"That's the other reason I'm not going to resent it."
He got up and embraced her from behind, nuzzling her ear. "Hey, you're all wet," she laughed, but did not try to stop him, even when his hands lifted her shirt and went down under the waistband of her pants. She turned and he kissed her.
Cooper had never really understood Anna-Louise, even though he had bunked with her for six months. She was almost as big as he was, and he was not small. Her home was New Dresden, Luna.
Though German was her native tongue, she spoke fluent, unaccented English. Her face would inspire adjectives like strong, healthy, glowing, and fresh, but never a word like glamorous. In short, she was physically just like all the other female lifeguards. She even shaved her head, but where the others did it in an attempt to recapture past glory, to keep that Olympic look, she had never done any competitive swimming. That alone made her unique in the group, and was probably what made her so refreshing. All the other women in the lifeguard force were uncomplicated jocks who liked two things: swimming, and sex, in that order.
Cooper did not object to that. It was a pretty fair description of himself. But he was creeping up on thirty, getting closer every day. That is never a good time for an athlete. He was surprised to find that it hurt when she told him she wanted to change shifts.
"Does this have anything to do with Yuri Feldman?" he asked, between kisses.
"Is that his shift?"
"Are we still going to be bunkmates?"
She drew back. "Are we going to talk? Is that why you're undressing me?"
"I just wanted to know."
She turned away, buckling her pants.
"Unless you want to move out, we're still bunkmates. I didn't think it really meant a hell of a lot.
Was I wrong?"
"I'm sorry."
"It's just that it might be simpler to sleep alone, that's all." She turned back and patted his cheek.
"Hell, Q.M. It's just sex. You're very good at it, and so long as you stay interested we'll do just fine.
Okay?" Her hand was still on his cheek. Her expression changed as she peered intently into his eyes.
"It is just sex, isn't it? I mean—"
"Sure, it's—"
"—if it isn't... but you've never said anything that would—"
"God, no," he said. "I don't want to get tied down."
"Me, either." She looked as if she might wish to say more, but instead touched his cheek again, and left him alone.
Cooper was so preoccupied that he walked past the table where Megan Galloway sat with her camera crew.
"Cooper! Your name is Cooper, right?"
When he turned he had his camera smile in place. Though being recognized had by that time become a rare thing, the reflexes were still working. But the smile was quickly replaced by a more genuine expression of delight. He was surprised and flattered that she had known who he was.
Galloway had her hand to her forehead, looking up at him with comical intensity. She snapped her fingers, hit her forehead again.
"I've been trying to think of the name since I saw you in the water," she said. "Don't tell me... I'll get it... it was a nickname..." She trailed off helplessly, then plunked both elbows on the table and put her chin in her hands, glowering at him.
"I can't think of it."
"It's—"
"Don't tell me."
He had been about to say it was not something he revealed, but instead he shrugged and said nothing.
"I'll get it, if you'll just give me time."
"She will, too," said the other woman, who then gestured to an empty seat and extended a hand to him. "I'm Consuela Lopez. Let me buy you a drink."
"I'm... Cooper."
Consuela leaned closer and murmured, "If she doesn't have the goddam name in ten minutes, tell her, huh? Otherwise she won't be worth a damn until she gets it. You're a lifeguard."
He nodded, and his drink arrived. He tried to conceal his amazement. It was impossible to impress the waiters at the promenade cafes. Yet Galloway's party did not even have to order.
"Fascinating profession. You must tell me all about it. I'm a producer, studying to be a pimp." She swayed slightly, and Cooper realized she was drunk. It didn't show in her speech. "That devilish fellow with the beard is Markham Montgomery, director and talent prostitute." Montgomery glanced at Cooper, made a gesture that could have been the step-outline for a nod. "And the person of debatable sex is Coco-89 (Praisegod), recordist, enigma, and devotee of a religiosexual cult so obscure even Coco isn't sure what it's about." Cooper had seen Coco in the water. He or she had the genitals of a man and the breasts of a woman, but androgynes were not uncommon in the Bubble.
"Cheers," Coco said, solemnly raising a glass. "Accly your am tance to deep make honored."
Everyone laughed but Cooper. He could not see the joke. Lopez had not bothered him—he had heard cute speeches from more rich/sophisticated people than he could count—but Coco sounded crazy.
Lopez lifted a small, silver tube over the edge of the table, squeezed a trigger, and a stream of glittering silver powder sprayed toward Coco. It burst in a thousand pinpoint scintillations. The androgyne inhaled with a foolish grin.
"Wacky Dust," Lopez said, and pointed the tube at Cooper. "Want some?" Without waiting for an answer she fired again. The stuff twinkled around his head. It smelled like one of the popular aphrodisiacs.
"What is it?" he asked.
"A mind-altering drug," she said, theatrically. When she saw his alarm she relented a little. "The trip is very short. In fact, I gave you such a little squirt you'll hardly notice it. Five minutes, tops."
"What does it do?"
She was eyeing him suspiciously. "Well, it should have done it already. Are you left-handed?"
"Yes."
"That explains it. Most of it's going to the wrong side of your head. What it does is scramble your speech center."
Montgomery roused himself enough to turn his head. He looked at Cooper with something less than total boredom. "It's like inhaling helium," he said. "You talk funny for a while."
"I didn't think that was possible," Cooper said, and everyone laughed. He found himself grinning reflexively, not knowing what was funny until he played his words back in his head and realized he had said something like "Pos that ib think unt I bull..."
He gritted his teeth and concentrated.
"I," he said, and thought some more. "Don't. Like. This." They seemed delighted. Coco babbled gibberish, and Lopez patted him on the back.