Now they were into the first Japanese national Lo/Rez convention, snapshots flashing on the white paper walls, little girls in jeans and t-shirts drinking Coca-Cola in some function room in an Osaka airport hotel, a few obvious parents standing around in the background.
Forty-five minutes later, by the red read-out stuck to Hiromi
Ogawa’s blank metallic face, Tomo Oshima concluded: “Which 3 brings us to the present, and the historic visit of Chia McKenzie, the
9 99 representative of our sister chapter in Seattle, in the State of Washington. And now I hope that she will honor us by recounting the history of her own chapter, how it was founded, and the many activities it has undertaken to honor the music of Lo/Rez
There was a soft burst of applause. Chia didn’t join in, uncertain whether it was for her or for Tomo Oshima.
“Sorry,” Chia said. “Our historian put all that together for you, but it got corrupted when they ran my computer through that big scanner at the airport.”
“We are very sorry to hear that,” the silver robot said. “How unfortunate.”
“Yeah,” Chia said, “but I guess it gives us more time to discuss what brings me here, right?”
“We had hoped-”
“To help us understand this whole Rez thing, right? We know. We’re glad you do. Because we’re all really worried about this rumor. Because it seems like it started here, and this Rei Toei’s a local product, so if anybody can tell us what’s going on, it’s you.”
The silver robot said nothing. It was expressionless as ever, but Chia took the clock away just to be sure,
“That’s why I’m here,” Chia said. “To find out if it’s true he wants to marry her.”
She sensed a general uneasiness. The six girls were looking at the texture-mapped tatami, unwilling to meet her eye. She wanted to look at Mitsuko, but it would have been too obvious.
“We are an official chapter,” Hiromi said. “We have the honor of working closely with actual employees of the band. Their publicists are also concerned with the rumor you mention, and they have requested that we assist them in seeing that it not spread further.”
“Spread? It’s been on the net for a week!”
“It is rumor only.”
“Then they should issue a denial.”
“Denial would add weight to the rumor.”
“The posting said that Rez had announced that he was in love with 100 William Gibson Rd Toe~, that he was going to marry her. There was a long quote.” Chia was definitely starting to get the feeling that something was wrong here. This was not what she’d come all this physical distance for; she might as well have been sitting in her bedroom in Seattle.
“We think that the original posting was a hoax. It would not be the first.”
“You think? Doesn’t that mean you don’t know?”
“Our sources within the organization assure us there is no cause for concern,”
“Spin control,” Chia said.
“You imply that Lo/Rez employees are lying to us?”
“Look,” Chia said, “I’m as into the band as anybody. I came all this way, right? But the people who work for them are just people who work for them. If Rez gets up in a club one night, takes the mike, and announces that he’s in love with this idoru and swears he’s going to marry her, the PR people are going to say whatever they think they have to say.”
“But you have no evidence that any of this occurred. Only an anonymous posting, claiming to be a transcription of a recording made in a club in Shinjuku.”
“Monkey Boxing.’ We looked it up; it’s there.”
“Really? Perhaps you should go there.”
“Why?”
“There is no longer a club called Monkey Boxing.”
“There isn’t?”
“Clubs in Shinjuku are extremely short-lived. There is no Monkey Boxing.” All of Hiromi’s smug satisfaction came through in the Sandbenders’ translation.
Chia stared at the smooth silver Ece. Stonewalling bitch. What to do? What would Zona Rosa do if she were in Chia’s place? Something symbolically violent, Chia decided. But that wasn’t her style,
“Thank you,” Chia said. “We just wanted to make sure it wasn’t