‘Cold night out there,’ said Harry. ‘Tea? Coffee?’ He waved at a dusty glass. It became a clean white mug, full of steaming liquid. ‘It’s only virtual, but you’ll get the taste.’
‘I’m offweave, Harry.’
‘Even for a cuppa? Shocking. And where’s Andrea?’
Harry shouted again, but there was no reply. ‘I’ll go and find her,’ he said, bustling out of the door. A minute or so, and he was back. ‘Just putting her face on.’ He sat down heavily. Jack was facing a dead man. ‘So, let’s see what all the fuss is about,’ said Harry. ‘Show us your woodentop.’
‘Woodentop?’ said Fist, shimmering into view. His wooden mouth clacked with outrage as he spat the words out. ‘This from a zombie.’
‘A pseudo-mind. Just like you.’
‘Not like me, you ghoul. I’m rooted in a living brain. You – you’re just a database with pretensions.’
‘Fist, please,’ said Jack. ‘I’m sorry. It’s late and he’s tired.’
‘No problem, Jack. Woodboy’s got a point, after all. I’m a little bit database, a little bit memory stack. Not a parasite like him.’
Fist leapt to his feet. ‘I’ve gutted sharper minds than yours, Devlin.’ Jack reached out tired thoughts and let them wrap around Fist. ‘Enough,’ he said. ‘Back in your box.’
Fist battled Jack’s attempts to shut him away, shimmering in and out of existence, his muffled voice squeaking out swearwords. Harry looked on with interest, his sharp eyes entirely focused on the little puppet. At last he vanished. Jack slumped back with a sigh, exhausted.
‘A tough little nut,’ commented Harry. ‘Those Pantheon bastards shafted you far worse than me. Dying you get over, but that little shit – it’s beyond a joke, Jack.’
‘He’s getting worse.’ Jack wondered how much longer he’d be able to stay patient with Fist.
‘You should let me into him sometime. I’ll see if I can soften him up for you.’
There was a muffled [ Up yours!] from deep in Jack’s mind.
‘I don’t think he’d let you, Harry. And there’s the cage.’
‘Ah well, you never know. Anyway, to business. With you back, we’ll find out which of those sods is behind all this and fucking have ’em. With or without the little bastard’s help.’
‘Don’t be too rude about Fist,’ said Andrea, appearing in an armchair. ‘He’s in demand. Our Pantheon friend’s after him. Wants a new weapon to play with.’
It was the first time Jack had seen her face in seven years. He was profoundly glad that she continued to talk, bringing Harry up to speed on his visit to the Panther Czar and conversation with Akhmatov. He felt a confusion of pain and joy as this new Andrea fused with his memories, his past. He so wanted to touch her, to hold her, but that was impossible. And then he remembered where he was and who he was with, and forced his concentration back into the conversation just as Andrea finished her explanation.
‘You did right coming to me,’ Harry told him. ‘We don’t need InSec. There are more direct ways of sorting this out. Besides, you can’t trust them. Not like we can trust each other.’ Jack winced, hot memories of Andrea burning at him. Harry reached forward and slapped him on the shoulder. ‘And it sounds like you’ve already been getting results on your own. Grown some real balls while you were away, haven’t you? Stick with me, numbers boy. We’ll keep Yamata and her Pantheon boss away from Fist.’
‘Do you think so, Harry?’
‘I know so. Because we’ll prove that they were involved in the Penderville murder and they killed Andrea and me. We’ll bring ’em both down before they can get their hands on the little shit and do any more damage.’
‘Now I’ve told you what Jack’s been up to,’ said Andrea, ‘I’m going to leave you both to it.’
‘You don’t want to help?’ said Jack.
‘Music calls,’ she said from the door. ‘Can’t let that slip. People might start wondering what else I get up to.’ Then she was gone.
‘Don’t know why she bothers rehearsing new stuff,’ said Harry. ‘She could just play back old gigs, the punters’d still love it.’
‘I’m sure,’ said Jack. He was profoundly relieved that he and Andrea were no longer together in front of Harry. Music whispered into the room from upstairs.
‘Anyway, Andrea’s a mystery we won’t crack just now,’ said Harry. ‘Let’s do something easier. I want to hear what you’ve been up to. In your own words.’
It felt like an interrogation. Jack was reminded of case conferences at InSec HQ, intense conversations about Akhmatov’s affairs. He could have been at one, but for the occasional glitch that made Harry shimmer for a second, static blurring his face and body, or repeat a word or sentence, unaware that he was doing so. Jack went through everything he’d experienced, sharing all the details of his encounter with Akhmatov and his conversations with Corazon and Ifor. Harry was, up to a point, impressed. ‘You’ve done excellent work. But you’ve made life more difficult than it needs to be.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’ve approached it head-on. Just walking into Akhmatov’s club – he’s on home ground there. Imagine if you’d found Yamata. She’s a killer. Just one shot to end you. Bang.’ Jack winced. Harry didn’t notice. ‘And you’ve talked to Corazon. You can’t trust InSec, Jack.’
‘Corazon’s honest. And Yamata may be a killer, but I’m untouchable.’
‘You didn’t know that when you walked in there. And you don’t know what might happen if you keep on pushing.’
‘So what do we do?’
‘You need to be more subtle with people than with minds or spreadsheets. We’re going indirect.’
‘How?’
‘Remember how much trouble we had tracking Yamata? She’d shift in and out of being, on and offweave all the time.’
‘That’s what made us suspicious of her.’
‘She was working with a Skinner called David Nihal. He’d drop her into different weaveselves or pull her offweave entirely whenever she needed. He’s one of the best, he’s still around.’
‘You think she’s still with him?’
‘I’m sure of it. And you know why? He dropped out of sight just before you got back.’
‘You think that’s because of me?’
‘Their backer’s afraid, Jack. Nihal disappearing like that – he must be the weak link. We put pressure on him the right way, at the very least he’ll lead us to Yamata’s home base. And we’ll find a way of breaking into her systems and seeing who she’s working for.’
‘Sounds sensible.’
‘Good man. We’ve got a plan.’
‘And who do you think the backer is?’
‘Could be any of them. Sandal runs docks and transport, he’s a natural smuggler. It’d be a very profitable sideline for the Twins, easy enough for them to cook up a bit of sweat in their pharma labs. Kingdom says he’s anti-drugs, but his boys and girls work much harder when they’re sweated up. And after a day working so hard, they just go home and collapse. Less crime, great for the Rose, she just ends up with a few sweatheads to sweep up and that’s easy enough. Even East might be in on it. Gives her news anchors something to get all moral about.’
‘What about Grey?’
‘Whatever else he got up to, he definitely wasn’t in the sweat business. His fall made no difference at all to the amount hitting the streets.’
Then the conversation became more general. They talked about the past. There was a period of confusion after the rock had fallen on the moon. The Bjorn Penderville murder investigation just drifted.
‘You’re still sure Yamata killed him?’ asked Jack.
‘Oh yes, she always was pretty vicious. I think they were using him to make certain shipments invisible. Something went wrong, maybe he got scared or greedy, she killed him. I can’t imagine her delegating something like that. Didn’t take her seriously at first, you know. Of course, I changed my mind when she shot me.’