The mist was unnaturally still. It lay in even horizontal layers. All twisting and undulation had ceased. She/They moved forward, breasting the layers of mist with little effort. Then abruptly it ceased. The mist, the blue light, there was nothing at all. A total empty blackness.
‘Absence.’
For a fraction of a second, She/They did not exist either. Then, moved by Her/Their emergency programming, She/They exerted Her/Their will. She/They began to glow with a soft violet light, and became the only thing in that totally empty universe.
‘The state of our existence is related to nothing. There is no external by which we may judge our being.’
The words glowed bright red, growing bigger and bigger to fill the empty space. Abruptly they blinked out.
‘If motion can be equated with the expenditure of energy, then we move.’
‘We expend the energy in order to move, therefore we move.
‘Subsequently we move’
More words flashed away into the void.
‘The absence of external produces a hole of total subjectivity.’
‘Observation. An external has been produced.’
A point of light appeared.
‘Cease all energy use.’
She/They became totally inert. The point of light remained.
‘External proved to be objective.’
The point of light grew larger and slowly took shape. It moved towards Her/Them like some winged object. It grew larger and larger. It was a huge penguin that glowed with a hard yellow light. She/They remained totally inert as it flapped majestically past without a sideways glance. It flew on, becoming smaller and smaller. Finally it was just a point of light again.
‘We possess no data on such a phenomenon.’
‘It fails to compute.’
***
‘Thou wert lusty, young sir.’
‘I could say the same for you, babe.’
The girl had been willing and eager. She had lacked a lot in technique, but more than made up for it in enthusiasm. She had reacted with shock and amazement when Billy had put his mouth between her legs. It was obvious that no one in Port Judas behaved that way. She had also been somewhat disturbed when he had suggested that she treated him to a blow job. After some persuasion and instruction she had acquired a taste for both.
‘Thou hast taught me much.’
‘Glad to oblige.’
When he had entered her she had seemed much more at home, bucking and writhing, moaning and lifting her hips to meet him in what seemed to Billy to be genuine earthy pleasure. She had raked his back with her nails, and finally, after a long time, they had both come together and collapsed exhausted. They had lain together in silence for a while, and then she had spoken. Billy propped himself up on one elbow and looked at her.
‘Don’t girls like you have a hard time in Port Judas?’
‘It’s not too bad if we don’t stray outside the quarter.’
‘What about the good people of the town? Don’t they give you a hard time?’
‘They call us whores and sinners, but they can’t do without us. They need us so the good women can keep their sacred virtue. Much good it may do them too. I wouldn’t swap with the wife of an elder right now.’
‘Don’t they have laws against doing this kind of thing?’
The girl scowled.
‘ ‘Course they have laws. Every so often the blue coats round up a few of us and we get dragged in front of the procurator for fornication and lewdness.’
‘And what happens then?’
‘Either ten strokes of the rod or five days in the workhouse.’
‘Have you ever been pulled in?’
‘Once or twice. I always take the rod. It’s quicker.’
‘You mean you’ve been beaten?’
‘ ‘Course. I said I had, didn’t I? It don’t happen often because like I said, they got to have us. We only get rounded up for appearances.’
Billy shook his head.
‘I don’t understand you. Why the hell don’t you split? Why don’t you run away from this place?’
The girl looked at him in surprise.
‘That’s silly talk, young sir. Where would I go?’
Billy lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. The girl seemed so certain that Port Judas was the whole world that he could think of nothing else to say. After a time he rolled over and began to stroke her breast. Just as the excitement was starting to mount again in both of them, there was a knock on the door. Billy’s mind flashed back to Dogbreath.
‘Not again.’
He rolled over, and grabbed the gun from his belt that was hanging on the bedpost. The knocking came again.
‘Who is it?’
‘It’s me, Billy. It’s Reave.’
Taking no chances, Billy padded across to the door, slipped the bolt, and stepped back.
‘Come in, but come in nice and slow.’
The door opened and Reave stepped inside. Billy lowered his gun.
‘What’s happening?’
‘I just been down to the parlour for a nightcap, and I heard something that I thought I ought to tell you about.’
Billy wrapped a blanket round himself and sat down on the bed.
‘Wouldn’t it have kept till morning?’
‘I don’t think so. There’s these two guys downstairs. They’re sitting in the corner. They’re wearing trench coats and they’ve got their hats pulled down over their faces. La Yuen told me that they’ve been asking about us. He reckons they’re secret agents from the war zone.’
‘Sounds like they’re from the Ghâshnákh.’
‘And they’re looking for us. I got a feeling it’s trouble, Billy.’
Billy reached for a cigar, lit it, and held the smoke in his lungs for a long time while he thought.
‘I don’t think they’ll try anything while we’re in here. There’s too many people about.’
‘So what do we do?’
I guess we’ve got to stick close to the inn until it’s time for the boat. Then we’ll make a run for it.’
‘What do we do about boat tickets?’
‘Get Lo Yuen to fix them for us.’
‘Think we can trust him?’
‘We’re going to have to.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Listen. Go to bed. Lock the door, and we’ll see how things are in the morning. We’re going to have to play this thing by ear.’
Reave grinned.
‘When did we ever do anything else?’
He headed for the door, and Billy bolted it behind him. He went back to the young woman in his bed. She looked at him nervously.
‘Thou art in trouble.’
He ran his fingers between her legs.
‘Nothing we can’t take care of.’
To his surprise she pushed him away and sat up.
‘I think perhaps it’s time I was leaving thee.’
Billy put his arm round her.
‘Listen. There ain’t going to be no trouble. I thought you were going to stay the whole night?’
The girl shot him a sidelong glance.
‘Thou couldst try giving me another little present.’
Billy fumbled in his jacket, and dropped ten crowns on the girl’s stomach. She gathered them up and placed them with her clothes, then she lay down smiling.
‘Perhaps we should play them new games that thou hast taught me?’
Billy pulled her close to him, and they played for a long time before they fell asleep.
When Billy came down to the parlour the next morning, the two men in trench coats were sitting in a corner. They watched openly while Lo Yuen brought him a plate of eggs and a mug of beer.
They were just as Reave had described them. Dirty trench coats and grey fedoras pulled over their eyes. They just had to be Ghâshnákh agents. Billy ate his eggs and. stared back at them. Bit by bit the parlour began to fill up with the morning trade, and when the place was fairly full, Billy managed to get a quiet word with Lo Yuen.