city brotherhood - Chief Blince himself hove up in the passenger seat of a cop car covered in roll bars and graffiti. He and his driver were wearing denial-deny goggles, the Mantarosa completely visible to them. Blince had the face and spirit of someone both overfed and undernourished, and a bullhorn modified so he could smoke a cigar through it. ‘ God wants you for a scarf, Atom. ’
I fished a retort bugle from the glove box and raised it at the open window. ‘ This from a cop with a tropical-weight brain. You ’ ll be gone, uncoffined and pretty ineffective. ’
‘ A roof over your head to stop the worms getting in. ’
‘ Death? I ’ ve been hearing about that daunting transition for so long, I hope my boredom has been worth it. ’
Courtesies taken care of, Blince urged us to relinquish our instinct for self-preservation. ‘ You have the right to remain silent. Does that surprise you? ’
‘ You want my misgivings to remain undeclared, so that would be the right you allow. ’
‘ Its unfortunate the idea is “ sweet ” - it makes people think it probably isn ’ t true. I ’ ve yet to hear a lament of any consequence, I must say. I look forward to it though, I do. I really do. Stop the car. ’
‘ I thought a lot about what you said, and it ’ s not a solution because it ’ s posited in a ridiculously low dimensional ambient space which does not allow for reality or human behaviour - as a theory it at best describes and models what might happen but doesn ’ t explain why. ’ This was a slogan bandied about a great deal at the time.
Blince blew smoke through the bullhorn. ‘ Hello again, Miss Murphy. ’ The Fed did not look at him. ‘ These folk take their responsibilities seriously, and they ’ re all bein ’ paid. Look at their faces, if the term is applicable to such as these. ’
I saw beyond him a spraddle-wheeled frame buggy, its wheel array so projected it looked like a spider in the nest of its own legs. The driver was caked in dust and looking glum against the speeding wastes. Behind us was a candy-apple red Porsche 996 turbo with hell plates, etheric airfoils and rocket dagmars. The priority would be keeping it on the ground - it was probably four-cornered with gyrostabilizers. Composed in the clawed frame of its wraparound windshield was a cropped soldier girl in blue leather who should have known better than to skim bone china over hard ground. Crossing lanes was an ambulance painted in black primer, driven by what appeared to be a tormented clown. But is there any other kind , I wondered. Then glancing over what I could see of the rest, it occurred to me that they were all wearing DD goggles. In fact the goggles were the same brand, as if they ’ d been distributed to this disparate horde. I turned the squelch knob on the antiBlake unit but there was no real way to phase sideways across bandwidths of mental evasion.
Meanwhile I was running off something like this: ‘ That only goes to your mitigating chaos of mind. A truly moral man tolerates the law, at most. Its arbitrary edicts are an insult to any man who wears his own clothes. With public confidence in killers ’ self-regulation at an all-time low, you ’ re in a hell that no amount of topsoil can conceal. ’
He contrived not to understand. ‘ People need heroes, ’ he said, seeming to suggest he might fit the bill in any case.
‘ I ’ m not above praying to a moth, are you? ’
‘ Eh? ’
I reached the flaregun from under the seat and let him have it, first shot out of the box. It ’ s not every day you shoot the Chief of Police in the shoulder. He dropped the bullhorn and yelled a bit, still unconvinced that I was not under his authority. He was gouting flame and smoke like a toy volcano and collapsed back into the cage car as it peeled off, threading through several scavenge-title vehicles apparently cobbled together on the hoof. A couple-dozen mercenary factions were switching wildly across the defunct
I fished a retort bugle from the glove box and raised it at the open window. ‘ This from a cop with a tropical-weight brain. You ’ ll be gone, uncoffined and pretty ineffective. ’
‘ A roof over your head to stop the worms getting in. ’
‘ Death? I ’ ve been hearing about that daunting transition for so long, I hope my boredom has been worth it. ’
Courtesies taken care of, Blince urged us to relinquish our instinct for self-preservation. ‘ You have the right to remain silent. Does that surprise you? ’
‘ You want my misgivings to remain undeclared, so that would be the right you allow. ’
‘ Its unfortunate the idea is “ sweet ” - it makes people think it probably isn ’ t true. I ’ ve yet to hear a lament of any consequence, I must say. I look forward to it though, I do. I really do. Stop the car. ’
‘ I thought a lot about what you said, and it ’ s not a solution because it ’ s posited in a ridiculously low dimensional ambient space which does not allow for reality or human behaviour - as a theory it at best describes and models what might happen but doesn ’ t explain why. ’ This was a slogan bandied about a great deal at the time.
Blince blew smoke through the bullhorn. ‘ Hello again, Miss Murphy. ’ The Fed did not look at him. ‘ These folk take their responsibilities seriously, and they ’ re all bein ’ paid. Look at their faces, if the term is applicable to such as these. ’
I saw beyond him a spraddle-wheeled frame buggy, its wheel array so projected it looked like a spider in the nest of its own legs. The driver was caked in dust and looking glum against the speeding wastes. Behind us was a candy-apple red Porsche 996 turbo with hell plates, etheric airfoils and rocket dagmars. The priority would be keeping it on the ground - it was probably four-cornered with gyrostabilizers. Composed in the clawed frame of its wraparound windshield was a cropped soldier girl in blue leather who should have known better than to skim bone china over hard ground. Crossing lanes was an ambulance painted in black primer, driven by what appeared to be a tormented clown. But is there any other kind , I wondered. Then glancing over what I could see of the rest, it occurred to me that they were all wearing DD goggles. In fact the goggles were the same brand, as if they ’ d been distributed to this disparate horde. I turned the squelch knob on the antiBlake unit but there was no real way to phase sideways across bandwidths of mental evasion.
Meanwhile I was running off something like this: ‘ That only goes to your mitigating chaos of mind. A truly moral man tolerates the law, at most. Its arbitrary edicts are an insult to any man who wears his own clothes. With public confidence in killers ’ self-regulation at an all-time low, you ’ re in a hell that no amount of topsoil can conceal. ’
He contrived not to understand. ‘ People need heroes, ’ he said, seeming to suggest he might fit the bill in any case.
‘ I ’ m not above praying to a moth, are you? ’
‘ Eh? ’
I reached the flaregun from under the seat and let him have it, first shot out of the box. It ’ s not every day you shoot the Chief of Police in the shoulder. He dropped the bullhorn and yelled a bit, still unconvinced that I was not under his authority. He was gouting flame and smoke like a toy volcano and collapsed back into the cage car as it peeled off, threading through several scavenge-title vehicles apparently cobbled together on the hoof. A couple-dozen mercenary factions were switching wildly across the defunct
Similar Books
