– Wow, 'Warlock Nine-thousandth'! – screams the Wiz cheerfully seeing the lash in my hand, flows into the room, shuts the door and my sudden fatigue disappears. – Vika, where's Madam?
– I'm for her!
– Brothello is under attack! – Wiz is still having fun – The first floor was freakin' swept out to hell! The braker is on but they move anyway!
He flies to me, grabs my sleeve and asks excitedly:
– Saw this illumination? So much junk info is flowing to their modems, any computer would choke! Well, except the good one… Vika, so where's Madam?
– Can we hold out against this?
– No, sure not! Cool profies are working! But never mind, everything is being logged, we'll file such a protest – don't worry… Where's Madam, I won't start active systems without her order!
Vika's body flickers, she broadens in her chest and hips, the face melts like wax. So that's how looks the diver from the side when exiting virtuality and changing body.
– Fire up everything you have, – orders Madam.
– Oh! Ah! – Wiz thrusts his eyes open in theatrical surprise. Can he ever stop playing I wonder? – I knew, I knew that!
His hands are busy not with a show though, he gets a small console from his pocket and starts typing in some commands.
– We won't hold out anyway, Madam Vika!
– We must get out, Wiz.
– Madam! – Wiz presses his hands against his heart, – I can't help with that so quickly, the diver is necessary here!
– It doesn't anything to do with divers, – I wave my hand towards the window, – The rope is necessary!
– To hang yourselves up? – laughs Wiz. He crosses his legs, falls on the floor and starts pulling off his slippers not stopping to chatter – Geez how funny, that weirdo on the third floor, you know, the one who likes sex for three, he never tells anything about himself, was so scared that jumped out of the window! He fell into the pool and now splashes there screaming that he can't swim and he's the State Duma deputy and we must save him…
He throws me the slippers.
– Take these, the power is unlimited, you'll descend all three! Madam, why didn't you ever tell that Vika is your mask, I'm not tattler, I wouldn't tell anybody!
I pull the slippers on, the wings quiver excitedly and thresh against my fingers. Funny: Madam is Vika's mask for Wiz, for me it's vice versa.
– Oh, what a load of scandals will we have now… And who are you man, huh?
Unfortunate doesn't reply, maybe he feels dizzy too, just as me? Computer Wiz looks like a multitasking operating system which is simultaneously busy both with buffoonery and a serious work. I can't do that.
– Thanks, – I say trying to stand up. Wiz nudges me under my elbow and holds while I'm balancing in the air getting used to it. The feeling is absolutely weird, this is not a jet knapsack which is used on some "Labyrinth"'s levels, but a real walking on air.
– Just like on stairs, – whispers Wiz, – Like ascending-descending stairways.
– Wiz, how much more time do we have? – Madam looks around the hut business-like, hangs Vika's purse on her shoulder, then starts pulling jars and packages from the sideboard and throwing them out of the window with a basketball player's moves. I doubt we'll have time to pick all this stuff up but I don't argue.
– Just for a little parting kiss!
– Then let's postpone it until our next meeting. Please Wiz, try to hold them as long as you can… Chatter with them or something…
– I'll try… – confuses Wiz suddenly, – Well… I don't know how…
– Vika, return into your body, – I ask examining Madam's mighty dimensions, then approach Unfortunate who still clings to the wall.
– Man, I don't care who you are, a human or a program. I tend to agree with both!
He looks into my eyes silently.
– I don't want to give you to those freaks. I'll try to rescue you. Do you believe me?
Unfortunate stays silent.
– I still want to be your friend, – I say, – Whoever you might be.
He makes a step towards me, I add:
– Please… Let's not give those bastards a pleasure to get us!
I think I've said something wrong.
– Good – regardless of the evil? – inquires Unfortunate.
– How else? – Wiz enters the talk suddenly. He have plopped into the armchair, crossed his legs and became suddenly serious, – If there's no any starting point – everything becomes senseless.
Unfortunate silences and obediently pads to the window with us. Vika – not Madam, but Vika – have already climbed the window-sill and looks down with a strange expression.
– You what, fear heights? – I ask a bit too late.
– Come on, don't lose the time, huh! – shouts Wiz behind us. I turn back to look at him – his fingers are threshing against the console while the roaring starts behind the door as if of the Boeing on the runway. Somebody's scream is almost muffled by the roaring. Flames scurry along the wooden door.
– Wiz, what about you?
Computer Wiz smiles and takes something from his pocket that looks most like a chicken egg.
– I have this.
– What's that?
– You'll see. – promises the Wiz.
Vika and Unfortunate hang on my shoulders so simultaneously that no other command is required. I step over the window-sill and place my foot on the air. The air holds.
The wind hits me on the side, the river noises some 100 meters below, I start feeling dizzy. I must exit, exit the Deep.
But I just… don't want to see Vika's face as a colorful pixel mesh.
Initially I was going to descend onto the slope but now I see it won't make sense: the path is blocked with boulders… damned earthquake! I go forward and down, above the slope, the canyon, the roaring mountain river – to the opposite slope, covered with green thickets.
– I even fear to fly planes… – whispers Vika. I avert my look from the chasm below and look at her.
– Hold on, baby…
– Have you… surfaced?
– No!
She shuts her eyes for a second, then raises her head:
– Lenia, exit! Don't torture yourself!
Yeah, right… keep waiting.
I'm of a different clay.
– Take care guys! – shouts Wiz behind. He must have leaned out of the window.
– 'Guys'! – whispers Vika with indignation, – All you males are same!
– Vickie, and a thousand and a half kisses for you! – goes on Wiz.
I'm glad now that he's so talkative. I still have a hundred meters ahead to cover.
I look to the left – Unfortunate's face is absolutely calm, he looks down in the chasm below with a joyful childlike curiosity. That's whom I had to let to put the slippers on.
I have no idea why did Vika be so modest praising Siegsgord, her space is not any worse, maybe even more real.
The pine tree branches sweep me across the face, the violet colored cone flows past my eyes. As strange as it might seem, I now believe that those exist.
I'm spiraling around the pine tree descending lower and lower. The cliff with a small hut perched on it was left on the opposite side of the canyon, Wiz is not in the window anymore.
– Lenia.. – whispers Vika when it's still a meter and a half left to the ground and unclenches her hands. Shouldn't have done that: she lands fine while me and Unfortunate are in a worse position, I tumble down to my left side, the slippers beat the air convulsively, unable to hold us.
A small pile.
Isn't it too many falls for one day, especially in the Chinese suit with its weak limitations for hit strength?
I shake off the slippers that hang in the air before me and stand up gulping for air greedily and rubbing the bruised side. Unfortunate moans and squats.