Eddie took a black-and-gold pen from his coat pocket and went
to the bag. He bent over it and used his pen as a probe, moving the
plastic aside so he could see. “It’s here,” he said.
“Is there?” The other hand was still holding Chia’s shoulder
down, where she sat on the carpet.
“This is it,” Eddie said.
‘Stay putting.” The hand left her shoulder and the man, who must’ve been kneeling behind her, got up and joined Eddie, peering into Chia’s bag. He was taller, and wore a tan suit and fancy Western boots. Big bones in his face, his hair a lighter blond than Eddie’s, a reddish, crescent-shaped birthmark high on his right cheekbone. ~’How you are being sure?”
“Jesus, Yevgeni . .
The man in the tan suit straightened up, looked at Maryalice,
bent to pull the pillow away from her face. “How is your woman sleeping on bed in this room, Eddie?” 241 Eddie saw that it was Maryalice. “Fuck,” he said.
‘You are telling us girl and your woman, is ‘incidental.’ You are telling us they meet on plane, is only accident. Is accident your woman is here? We do not like accident.’
Eddie looked from Maryalice to the man-he must be Russian- to Chia. “What the flick is this bitch doing here?” Like it had to be Chia’s fault.
‘She found us,” Chia said. She said she knew somebody at the cab company.”
“No,’ said the Russian, “we know somebody at cab company. Is too much incident.”
“We’ve got it, okay?” Eddie said. ‘Why do you want to complicate things?”
The Russian rubbed his cheek, as though the birthmark might come off on his hand. “Please consider,” he said. “We are giving you isotope. You want to know is isotope, you can test. You are giving us this.” He poked the sharp toe of his cowboy boot into the side of Chia’s bag. “How are we sure?”
“Yevgeni,” Eddie said, very calmly, “you must know that deals like this require a certain basis of trust.’
The Russian considered that. “No,” he said, “basis not good. Our people trace this girl to big rocker band. What is she working for, Eddie? Tonight we send people to talk to them, they fall on us like fucking wolfs. One man I am still losing.”
“I don’t work for Lo/Rez!” Chia said. “I’m just in the club! Maryalice put that thing in my bag when I was asleep on the plane!”
Masahiko groaned, sighed, and seemed to go back under. Eddie still had the stungun in his hand. “You ready for another jolt?” he asked Masahiko, super-tense and angry.
“Eddie,’ Maryalice said from the bed, “you ungrateful piece of shit Sitting up on the edge of the bed with her cigarette lighter held in both hands, pointing it straight at Eddie.
Eddie stiffened. You could see something run through him, freezing him there.
242 William Gibson J “Some basis,” said the Russian.
“Jesus, Maryalice,” Eddie said. “Whered you get that? You got any idea how illegal that is, here?’
“Off a Russian boy,” she said. “Exit-holes the size of grapefruit Maryalice didn’t sound drunk, exactly, but something about the look in her reddened eyes told Chia she was. Some very scary kind of drunk. “You think you can just use people up, Eddie? Use ’em up and throw ’em away?” She used the toe of one shoe to get the other off, then used her toe to get the first shoe off. She stood up in her stocking feet, swaying just a little bit, but the gun-shaped lighter stayed straight out from her shoulders, the way cops did it on television.
Eddie still had the stungun in his hand. “Make him throw that black thing away, Maryalice!” Chia urged.
“Drop it,” Maryalice said, and it seemed to give her pleasure to say it, something she’d been hearing people say on shows all her life, and now she was getting to say it herself, and mean it. Eddie dropped it. “Now kick it away.’
That’s the other half of the line, Chia thought.
The stungun wound up a few feet from Chia’s knee, beside her goggles, which were upside down on the carpet, still cabled to her Sandbenders. She could see the twin flat rectangles on the opaque lens-faces, simple video units; if Zona went to Chia’s systems software and activated those, now, she’d get a bug’s-eye view of Mary-alice’s stocking feet, Eddie’s shoes, the Russian’s cowboy boots, and maybe the side of Masahiko’s head.