A new line appeared at the bottom of the screen suddenly. The numbers were going too fast for even Keely's practiced eye to follow, racing left to right, but he recognized them the way he recognized his own face in the mirror.
"Stone the fucking crows at home!" he shouted. "This stuff s infectedl"
From the corner of his eye, he saw Ludovic go pale and look at Gina.
"Whoa, not that way," he added quickly. "You got a dose of the Fish here. Didn't you know that? Guess not. God, no wonder your program was so goddamn beautiful. How come I couldn't see that when I hacked you, why didn't it show then?" He laughed. "Because it didn't want me to, that's why. Shit, I got to stop taking stupid pills. Oughta be real easy to break that habit now."
It felt as if the music was boiling in him. The little one with the sticks, Flavia, had come up behind him to look at the laptop screen. "You read that?" she said incredulously.
"The only thing you really have to know is the difference between on and off," he said. "Night and day. Right and left. In and out. Down and up. Beat and rest." The numbers began to slow, and he ejected the chip, holding out his hand for another. "However you want to think of it, that's the way it is, but you got to know the difference." He took the next chip Ludovic had dropped into his palm and slipped it into the drive. "I figure it's eighty percent sure the Fish is aware at least part of the time."
"Aware?" Ludovic said.
"Alive. Intelligent. Conscious. Knows where-to."
"A conscious virus," Gina said flatly. She got up and went over to sit near Ludovic, who was watching the screen again. Stealthy was shifting along with the virus now; some of the points were coming up in the shadowed areas, and instead of winking out, they seemed to melt away.
"The virus is taking over what it thinks is input from that terminal." Keely ejected the chip and held out his hand for another. He put it in, and the numbers gave a jerk, backtracked, and then waited. He ejected the chip and reached for another.
"Don't anybody ask me," Ludovic said a little weakly. "I'm just the supplier. I don't know what he does with it."
Keely laughed. "I smoke it. I mainline it. Do it again."
"Yah, I've seen 'em get this way," Gina said. "If we actually get to the Mimosa, you'll see real fucking maniacs."
Maniacs? She wanted to see a maniac? He stripped his shirt off, whipped it around over his head, and let it go. It sailed across the room and landed on the Beater, who was keeping his distance.
"Is it really that good?" Ludovic said, putting another chip in his hand.
Sweat was dripping into his eyes. He scoured it away with his fist. "You got a short memory. If we could run your head-mount and your hotsuit here, you'd fight me to do this."
Ludovic was silent for a moment. "Maybe."
"A what?" Sam said. She looked from the bottom left corner monitor where Art had parked his image to the cam next to it.
"It's a commercial," Art said again. "For body armor."
"That's got to be an encryption," Gator said, coming over from her work island. "Is it out of Phoenix or Alameda?"
"L.A."
Gator shook her head. "Dump it before it bites you."
"But it's clean," Art said.
"Nothing out of L.A. is clean now," Gator told him.
"It got here the same way I did," Art said, sounding insistent.
Gator frowned and turned to Fez, still sitting in her work island. Fez looked past her. "Sam? What do you think?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "God, ask me an easy one. I don't want that responsibility."
"Tough," Fez said mildly, getting up slowly and coming over to her.
Sam rubbed her forehead. "Art, can you tell anything else about it? Anything at all?"
Art's image froze for a moment. "It's something I used to know," he said finally.
"That's a major help," Sam muttered. She looked at the cam apologetically. "Sorry, Art. Gator's right, dump it. It might be harmless, but nobody ever got infected from not receiving something."
"Don't be so sure about that," Art said. "And you didn't let me finish. It's from Keely."
Sam felt her mouth drop open. "Are you sure?"
"I told you, I know you, I know you all." Abruptly Art's image was replaced by a street scene, the pov panning from a row of vandalized storefronts to a grotesque thug with a spiked ring piercing his cheek and a serrated knife in one hand. He lunged, and it cut to the knife bouncing off another man's chest. Sam stared, feeling goose bumps sweep over her in multiple-assault waves.
"Sam?" Fez put a hand on her shoulder, bending to look at her.
"That's Gabe," she said, pointing at the second man. "That's my father."
The pov tracked him as he entered an office building. There was a sudden jump and flicker, and then he was sitting behind a desk, looking at a monitor. The pov cut to a shot of the screen over his shoulder.
YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHAAH!
"There are some things Gilding BodyShields won't protect you from," said a male voice faintly.
The image froze. "This is what it really says," Art said. The words on the man's screen melted, writhed, and suddenly reformed.
live n frfx 2 do SSW
dare
Leaky
GGF
"Leaky's the clincher," said Rosa. She was standing on Sam's right with Percy. "That's what his family used to call him. He was a bed wetter."
"Whack that family," Percy said darkly.
"What about the rest of it?" said Gator.
"Christ," Sam said, laughing. "Say it out loud. 'Live in Fairfax to do south-southwest.' We're due south-southwest of Fairfax. 'Zee-you over dare plus minus xRs.' Give or take however many hours. I have no idea what GGF is. Maybe 'gotta go, folks.' " She laughed some more, feeling her eyes starting to fill. "I guess he figured the one thing the virus wouldn't be able to read was his accent."
"I wonder if that son of a bitch has been hiding out there all along," Rosa said. "If he's just been camped under some rubble all this time, I'm going to bash his brains in."
"The boys's always had far more talent than brains," Fez said. "Isn't that right, Sam?"
She nodded, wiping her eyes before they could overflow. She couldn't say why Gabe's image had appeared in the commercial Keely had sent, but knowing Keely, it had to mean he at least knew something about him. The ambiguity of the body armor bothered her, though; she couldn't decide whether it meant Gabe had been hurt in some way, and if he had, whether he would be all right. There are some things Gilding BodyShields won't protect you from. Her eyes began to fill again.
– -
Gabe was watching when the fluctuating points of light suddenly began winking in and out much more slowly. He tightened his grip on the wire.
"Yank it!" Keely yelled. Gabe held up the plug, letting out a relieved sigh. The kid looked impressed. "That's what I call reflexes."
"I yanked it as soon as I saw the lights changing," Gabe confessed. "Just a hunch." He shrugged; actually, it had been more of an accident. The feed had come out as soon as his hand had tightened on it.
"Good for you. Sometimes all you got is one good guess." Keely stretched one arm and then the other over his head. "God, that felt great. It was…" He paused, looking puzzled. "Great." Then his eyelids fluttered, and he fell backwards, Flavia catching him just before his head could hit the floor.