I picked up the object and stared at it. It was the RAM chip I’d sold him the day before, though in my current condition it looked rather different. I thought I could see old datastreams moving through the clear Perspex, ones and zeros flipping back and forth. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Possibly nothing. But it isn’t RAM.”
“Shit,” I said. “Then I owe you money.” I had about a hundred dollars of it left, mangled into three different pockets. “I’ll pay you back,” I added lamely, slipping the chip into my pocket.
Howie waved his hand, dismissing the idea and making me feel’ about so high. There I was, when I should have been thinking about the spares, worrying about looking like an idiot in front of one of Howie’s girls. I guess I hadn’t been out much recently. She didn’t seem to be thinking worse of me, but then she was probably stoned enough to think that Ebola had been kind of cool.
“Some guy came looking for you, Jack,” Howie said, screwing the top back on the jar of peperoncinos.
I frowned. “Who?”
“Don’t know. He didn’t say. Big guy, blue lights in his head.” Howie looked serious. “He didn’t look like especially good news.”
I remembered the dealer out in the Portal, the one who’d hidden the killer’s body. For no reason I suddenly felt cold. “What did he want?”
“To see you. He left a package instead.” With an upward nod of his head Howie signaled to the barman, who reached below the counter and brought up a cardboard box about one foot square. He put it down on the counter and I stared at it.
“Cool. A present,” said Nearly, voice languorous but loud. “Aren’t you going to open it?”
“Where’s Suej?” I asked.
“In the back,” Howie said. “Eating red beans and rice.”
“Have you checked on her lately?”
“No, why? What’s wrong?”
I picked up the parcel and walked quickly into a quieter area of the bar. The box was heavy, something solid inside. As I opened it I heard Howie in the background sending Dath to check on Suej. Time seemed to be speeding up, rushing toward something that I couldn’t yet see.
I opened the box.
“Holy fuck,” said Howie, who was by then standing behind me. Howie has seen unwelcome things, but I’d never heard him sound like that. At the tone in his voice Nearly teetered off her stool at the bar and headed toward us.
I closed the box, hands shaking. There are many things you don’t want to see on Rapt. This was something you don’t want to see at all. Something so unnecessary, so indefensible, that my eyes seemed to dry as if in a strong wind.
It was Nanune’s head.
Howie kept staring at the box, mouth open. Slowly he turned his head toward me. “Who the fuck’s that?”
“One of the spares. Someone who did no harm to anyone in her entire miserable life.” Without knowing I was going to I lashed out a foot and kicked one of the tables across the room. This left me very calm and still, humming with murderousness. Half the bar stared at me, trying to work out if I was dangerous or just experimentalist cabaret. “Did the fucker who left this say he was coming back?”
Howie shook his head, still dazed. “No, thank God.”
“Then I’m going to go and find him,” I said, lightheaded with fury and remorse. There are times when the higher mind goes on holiday, sensing it’s the reptile brain which is required. The man with the blue head had the spares, and he was going to kill them. Why, I didn’t know. But it was clear that that’s what he was going to do, and likely that he’d killed Mal, too. That was enough for me.
“Jack?” I turned to see Suej hurrying toward us, Dath behind her.
“Howie,” I hissed. “Get rid of that fucking box.” But Suej had already seen it, and seen me. She knew what I looked like when something was very wrong.
“What’s in there?” she asked.
Suddenly, there was a shout from the front door and Paulie entered at the run, hand reaching into his jacket.
“Howie,” he said urgently. “We got trouble.”
“Who?”
“Four of Vinaldi’s soldiers.”
“So? I’ve paid the man.”
“I don’t think they’re coming to collect.” Paulie’s eyes flicked across to me. “Not money, anyway.”
Howie had just enough time to start asking me what the hell I’d done now, before the front window of the bar exploded, showering colored glass over the nearest patrons. In slow motion I reached for Suej, grabbing her and yanking her round so my body was between her and the door. I saw Howie’s and Dath’s hands emerging with heavy guns, and I saw Nearly’s face, mouth hanging open, alone in a moment of truth. Things could get worse than everyday life, and that’s just what they were about to do. Without thinking I reached out and grabbed her, too.
“Go!” shouted Howie. “Out the back!”
The last half of the sentence was drowned by the noise of the other large window imploding. Ten yards away, out in the street, stood a line of Vinaldi’s men. Loving every moment, serious as children playing their favorite game. The bar was chaos, swirling with shouting people trying to get the hell out of the way.
“Fuck off,” I said. “This is my problem.”
Howie pivoted toward me. “Just run, for once in your damn life. And take Nearly with you.” He lashed out an arm and shoved me heavily in the chest before turning to push his way with Dath to join Paulie at the door. At the sight of the three of them, I realized there wasn’t much I could add. I grabbed Suej’s arm.
“You coming?” I asked Nearly.
“Oh, yes,” she said, eyes still on the men outside. “They look like no fun at all.”
I shoved my way through panicking people, dragging Suej behind me. Nearly clattered along in the rear. In the storeroom, I stooped without slowing to pick up what little possessions we had.
“How do you get out the back?”
Nearly shrugged. “Search me. You think I spent a lot of time in here, making friends with the tomatoes?”
Not helpful, and I considered telling her so, but then Suej pointed to a far corner. “There’s a door back there, behind the crates.”
I opened it carefully, gun ready. No one outside. I stuck my head out to check that the service alley was empty, and then stepped out, motioning vigorously to the girls.
Alley for about fifty yards, then a turn behind a burger franchise. I hadn’t gotten the cheeseburgers I’d been planning, but I’d forgotten most of the combinations anyway. Some other time. The suballey fed into a twisting street which had been built as a shopping nest. The stores were mainly closed and we hurtled past windows packed with goodies, me wondering where exactly we were going to go. Off the floor was first priority, but what then? Mal’s was no help—the guy with the blue lights knew exactly where that was.
What if Nanune hadn’t been the first to die? It wasn’t that I didn’t care about her, even love her in some strange way, but I’d spent so much more time with Suej and David and jenny. If anything happened to them I knew I was never going to be able to forgive myself.
At the end of the shopping street came a bigger road, and I strode across it, weaving through straggling pedestrians. There’d been no sound of feet behind us, and I judged that if Vinaldi’s men hadn’t had the sense to watch back doors they weren’t going to have guys posted this far out.
Wrong. As we reached the other side I heard the sound of a shot, and a bullet whined within inches of us. Nearly shrieked and I dragged the two of them into an alley on the other side. I was used to doing this kind of thing by myself, not with a couple of passengers. I debated letting go of one of them and going for my gun; decided that speed was a better option. Footsteps slapped along the alley behind us, the guy occasionally shouting my name. Strange, unless they wanted to take me in alive. Should have been reassuring, but it wasn’t. I didn’t want to be taken in at all.