‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s because of Harry. He’s been reborn too. But he came back as something new.’
‘He’s not a fetch?’
‘No. He’s something very different. After he died they tried to cage him. They did that to a lot of fetches, the ones made from people who’d helped the Totality. But he broke out.’
‘They thought he was a terrorist?’
‘Harry?’ She laughed. ‘Dear lords no. But he was going to damage the Pantheon. He reopened the Bjorn Penderville murder case just before they shot him.’
‘Proof of Pantheon criminality.’
‘I always thought he’d left it behind him, one of the ones that got away. But one day he came in furious, said he’d been stitched up, that he needed to know who Penderville had been working for to hit back. Next day he put the paperwork through to make it official.’
‘You’re sure there was a connection?’
‘We were both killed that night.’
‘Shit.’
‘He talks about it often. He’s found out a lot more about the case since he died. You remember Aud Yamata? The dock worker who was the last person at the crime scene before the shooting?’
‘The one with the cast-iron alibi?’
‘That you thought killed Penderville. You nearly had her and the man that managed the Panther Czar and their Pantheon backer. So when Harry went back to the files, they acted. And’ – Andrea made a gun shape with her hand, cocked to fire – ‘Boom.’ Her thumb came down like a hammer on a bullet.
‘But how does that mean you could write to me?’
‘Harry needed someone to talk to. He trusts me. So once he’d been back for a bit, he started summoning me. He helped me disable my kill switch, so I don’t have to go back to the Coffin Drives any more. I pulled myself together then I got in touch with you.’
‘Fuck, Andrea, I’m sorry. I thought it was just my life the Pantheon had screwed up. Have you told anyone about all this?’
‘I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. That’s why I didn’t want you to find me. People mustn’t even think you might be digging into this. You have so little time left. I don’t want whoever killed us taking any of it away from you.’
‘What about Harry? Can’t he go to InSec?’
‘He’s taken it as far as he can on our own, but he doesn’t trust them. He doesn’t like to admit it but he’s very vulnerable. I am too.’
‘Then why even tell me all this?’
‘You’ve meant so much to me. You still do. Part of me’s so happy that you found me tonight. So I decided that I wouldn’t hide anything from you. Not any more.’
The moment froze Jack. Andrea shimmered in front of him, a pattern of memories made almost real. He wanted to touch and hold her, to kiss her, but there was nothing physical left to embrace. And overlaid on that need was grief and loss for, despite her presence before him, the woman he’d loved was dead.
It was impossible to know what to say.
Andrea broke the silence. ‘I’m getting a warning. Our time’s nearly up.’
‘How much more?’
‘A minute or so.’ She leant forward, her hand on his knee, the darkness that hid her face so close to his. ‘I really don’t want you to get involved, Jack. Harry and I were killed, and you’ve lost seven years of your life. That’s enough.’
‘I’m going to die soon anyway. And nobody needs to know you’re part of it.’
‘No, Jack. Nothing good can come of taking on the Pantheon. I want you to patch things up with your parents and then let go in peace.’
‘I thought I’d had enough of taking sides.’
‘You did the right thing stepping away from the Soft War. Step away from all this, too.’
She put a finger to his lips. He was sure he could feel it. ‘I love you, Jack,’ she said. ‘But we’ve had our time together. I’m sorry I can’t see you again, but it’s best for us all.
‘Andrea, I—’
‘Goodbye, Jack.’
And then she was gone.
[She’s right,] snapped Fist. [ It’s too dangerous. Stay out of it.]
[Didn’t you want to take on a god?]
[ Not with both hands tied behind my back.]
It took a while for Jack to recover himself. He heard Andrea’s second set begin, but he couldn’t bring himself to go out and watch. Seeing her perform would have broken him. At last the music ended.
As he passed back through the club, Jack noticed that East was sat on the lap of the man who’d passed through her, kissing him ferociously. She’d let her disguise slip and was now recognisably herself. The man’s girlfriend looked on in awe. Jack wondered what great transfiguration she was witnessing. Fireworks would be happening onweave. East’s blessings were always generous. The man would be forever changed, his weave presence suddenly more elegant, more chic, more watched and thus more real than any of those around him. New choices would open up for him. The girlfriend would soon find herself alone.
Others were starting to understand the true nature of the visitation. A crowd was gathering. East reached down, fumbling to unzip the man’s flies.
[ That’s the gods for you,] said Fist, [all appetite.]
In that moment, Jack decided. [ I’m going to find out which one of them did this to us,] he said, [and I’m going to bring the fucker down.]
Chapter 10
Fist swore all the way home. Once they were back in their room, Jack tried to talk to him. At first the puppet refused to even listen, sticking his fingers in his ears and chanting gobbledegook. At last he began to calm down. Jack tried again.
[ It’s simple,] he explained. [ We go to the Panther Czar, you break into their local network, we copy all their records, that’s it. We should be able to do it from the club’s public areas. We might not even need to go in.]
[ But what if someone recognises you?]
[ I was InSec’s secret weapon. They kept me hidden away. I’ve never been anywhere near the Panther Czar.]
Fist only really started to come round when he realised just how hard finding out who was behind Akhmatov’s more questionable activities would be.
[ It’ll take a few weeks to go through the data, Fist. Perhaps even longer.]
[ We really won’t need to leave the hotel?]
[ Hardly at all. There’s just food. And my dad. That’ll be it.]
[Oo, it’ll keep you right out of trouble!]
And there was a little reverse psychology, too.
[Of course, getting into their core commercial servers won’t be easy. They’ll be very heavily shielded.]
[Cracking some shitty little nightclub’s security? A challenge? You are joking, Jack.]
[ If you thought you couldn’t do it I’d completely understand.]
[Dear gods, remember what I am.]
[As if I could forget.]
[ Just get me close to them, I’ll fuck ’em in the arse, we’re done. They won’t even know I’ve been in there.]
The discussion left Jack exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. At last he entered a liminal state, somewhere between waking and dreaming. Lying on his side he watched Fist manifest, then tiptoe out into the middle of the room. The puppet clearly thought Jack was out cold. The window opened beneath him, a black pool glistening with stars. He looked down, then over at his puppeteer.
‘Little sleepy boy,’ he whispered, ‘soon be sleeping all the time. Soon be sleeping all the time!’ He cackled quietly and wrapped his short arms around himself in a strange little hug, shaking with silent laughter. Then he leapt up and started to throw himself around the room. His limbs spun as he wheeled and pranced across the floor, the walls, even the ceiling, hissing a song to himself that would rattle in Jack’s head for days.
‘Soon be king, soon be king, soon he’ll sleep and I’ll be king. Even Stookie Bill will bow, even Stookie Bill will bow!’
That was a name Jack hadn’t heard since he’d been deep in the Soft War. Stookie Bill was a twentieth-century ventriloquist’s dummy. Humanity’s first ever television signal had encoded his image. When Fist’s fellow puppets found this out, they’d been unbearably excited. Their virtual ancestor became an obsession, almost an object of worship. ‘Simple-minded idiots,’ Fist had commented. But the cult of Stookie Bill had clearly had an impact on him, too.