The Bridge Trilogy Part 86

But Rez had turned to the Russian. "We have to have this." He raised the nanotech unit. "We'll negotiate now. Name your price."

"Rozzer," the man at the door said, "you can't do that. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d's Kombinat."

Chia saw the green eye close, as if Rez were making a conscious effort to calm himself. When it opened, he said: "But they're the government, aren't they, Blackwell? We've negotiated with governments before."

"It's for the legals," the scarred man said, but now there was an edge of worry in his voice.

The Russian seemed to hear it too. He slowly lowered his hands. "What were you planning to do with this?" Rez asked him. The Russian looked down at the thing in Rez's hands, as if considering, then raised his eyes. A muscle was jumping, in his cheek. He seemed to come to a decision. "We are developing ambitious public works project," he said.

"0 jesus," Maryalice said from the carpet, so hoa.r.s.ely that at first Chia couldn't identify the source. "They must've put something in that. They did. I swear to G.o.d they did. And then she threw up.

258 Wiiliani Gibson Yamazaki lost his balance as the van shot up the narrow ramp, out of the hotel. Laney, holding Arleigh's phone to the dashboard map, toning the number of the Hotel Di, heard him crash down on the shredded bubble-pack. The display bleeped as Laney completed the number; grid-segments clicked across the screen. "You okay, Yamazaki?"

"Thank you," Yamazaki said. "Yes." Getting to his knees again, he craned around the headrest of Laney's seat. "You have located the hotel?"

"Expressway," Arleigh said, glancing at the display, as they swung right, up an entrance ramp.

"Hit speed-dial three. Thanks. Gimme." She took the phone. "McCrae. Yeah. Priority? f.u.c.k you, Alex. Ring me through to him." She listened. "Di? Like D, I? s.h.i.+t. Thanks." She clicked off.

"What is it?" Laney asked, as they swung onto the expressway, the giant bland brow of an enormous articulated freight-hauler pulling up behind and then past them, quilted stainless steel flas.h.i.+ng in Laney's peripheral vision. The van rocked with the big truck's pa.s.sage.

"I tried to get Rez. Alex says he left the hotel, with Blackwell. Headed the same place we are."

"When?"

"Just about the time you were having your S( reaming fit, when

0.

9.

259.

39. Trans you had the 'phones on," Arleigh said. She looked grim. "Sorry," she said.

Laney had had to argue with her for fifteen minutes, back there, before she'd agreed to this.

She'd kept saying she wanted him to see a doctor. She'd said that she was a technician, not a researcher, not security, and that her first responsibility was to stay with the data, the modules, because anyone who got those got almost the entire Lo/Rez Partners.h.i.+p business plan, plus the books, plus whatever Kuwayama had entrusted them with in the gray module. She'd only given in after Yamazaki had sworn to take Full responsibility for everything, and after Shannon and the man with the ponytail had promised not to leave the modules. Not even, Arleigh said, to p.i.s.s. "Go against the wall, G.o.d d.a.m.n it," she'd said, 'and get half a dozen of Blackwell's boys down here to keep you :ompany."

"He knows," Laney said. "She told him it's there."

"What is there, Laney-san?" asked Yamazaki, around the headrest.

"I don't know. Whatever it is, they think it'll facilitate their marriage."

"Do you think so?" Arleigh asked, pa.s.sing a string of bright little cars.

"I guess it must be capable of it," Laney said, as something under her seat began to clang, loudly and insistently. "But I don't think that means it'll necessarily happen. What the h.e.l.l is that?"

"I'm exceeding the speed limit," she said. "Every vehicle in j.a.pan is legally required to be equipped with one of these devices. You speed, it dings."

Laney turned to Yamazaki. "Is that true?"

"Of course," Yamazaki said, over the steady clanging.

"And people don't just disconnect them?"

"No," Yamazaki said, looking puzzled. "Why would they?"

Arleigh's phone rang. "McCrae. w.i.l.l.y?" Silence as she listened.

260 William Gibson Then Laney felt the van sway slightly. It slowed until the clanging suddenly stopped. She lowered the phone.

"'What is it?" Laney asked.

"w.i.l.l.y Jude," she said. "He. . . He was just watching one of the clubbing channels. They said Rez is dead. They said he was dead. In a love hotel."

40. The Business When n.o.body did anything to help Maryalice, Chia got up from the bed, squeezed past the Russian and into the bathroom, triggering the ambient bird track. The black cabinet was open, its light on, and there were Day-Gb p.e.n.i.s-things scattered across the black and white tile floor. She took a black towel and a black washcloth from a heated chrome rack, wet the washcloth at the black and chrome basin, and went back to Maryalice. She folded the towel, put it down over the vomit on the white carpet, and handed Maryalice the washcloth.

n.o.body said anything, or tried to stop her. Masahiko had sat back down on the carpet, with his computer between his feet. The scarred man, who seemed to take up as much s.p.a.ce as anything in the room, had lowered his axe. He held it down, along a thigh wider than Chia's hips, with the spike jutting from beside his knee.

Maryalice, who'd managed to sit up now, wiped her mouth with

the cloth, taking most of her lipstick with it. When Chia straightened up, a whiff of the Russian's cologne made her stomach heave.

"You're a developer, you say?" Rez still held the nanotech unit.

"You are asking many questions," the Russian said. Eddie groaned, then, and the Russian kicked him. "Basis," the Russian said.

"A public works project?" Rez raised his eyebrow. "A water filtration plant, something like that?"

The Russian kept his eye on the big man's axe. "In Tallin," he said, "we soon are building exclusive mega-mall, affluent gated sub-

urbs, plus world-cla.s.s pharmaceutical manufakura. We are unfairly denied most advanced means of

production, but we are desiring one hundred percent modern operation."

"Rez," the man with the axe said, "give it up. This boon and his mates need that thing to build themselves an Estonian drug factory. Time I took you back to the hotel."

"But wouldn't they be more interested in . . . Tokyo real estate?"

The big man's eyes bulged, the scars on his forehead reddening. One of the upper arms of the

micropore X had come loose, revealing a deep scratch. "What bulis.h.i.+t is that? You don't have any real estate here!"

"Famous Aspect," Rez said. "Rei's management company. They invest for her."

"You are discussing nanotech exchanged for Tokyo real estate?" The Russian was looking at Rez.

"Exactly," Rez said.

"What kind real estate?"

"Undeveloped landfill in the Bay. An island. One of two. Off one of the old 'Toxic Necklace'

sites, but that's been cleaned up since the quake."

"Wait a minute," Maryalice said, from the floor. "I know you. You were in that band, the one with the skinny Chinese, the guitar player, wore the hats. I know you. You were huge."

Rez stared at her.

"I think is not good, here to discuss the business," the Russian said, rubbing his birthmark. "But

I am Starkov, Yevgeni." He extended his hand, and Chia noticed the laser-scars again. Rez shook it.

Chia thought she heard the big man groan.