“Mostly, y’see,” Jones was saying as Marly pulled her way behind him along a knotted line stretched taut down a corridor that seemed to have no end, “he’s pretty quiet. Listens to his voices, y’know. Talks to himself, or maybe to the voices, I dunno, and then a spell comes on him and he’s like this When he stopped speaking, she could still hear faint echoes of Ludgate’s howls. “You may think it’s cruel, me leavin’ him this way, but it’s best, really. He’ll tire of it soon. Gets hungry. Then he comes to find me. Wants his~ tuck, y’see.” “Are you Australian?” she asked. ~`New Melbourne,” he said. “Or was, before I got up the well . “Do you mind my asking why yoU’re here? I mean, here in this, this . . . What is it?” The boy laughed. “Mostly, I call it the Place. Lud, he calls it a lot of things, but mostly the Kingdom. Figures he’s found God, he does. Suppose he has, if you want to look at it that way. Near as I make it, he was some kind of console crook before he got up the well. Don’t know how he came to be here, exactly, other than that it suits the poor bastard . Me, I came here runnin’, understand? Trouble somewhere, not to be too specific, and my arse for out of there. Turn up herethat’s a long tale of its ownand here’s bloody Ludgate near to starvin’. He’d had him a sort of business, sellin’ things he’d scavenge, and those boxes you’re after, but he’d gotten a bit far gone for that. His buyers would come, oh, say, three times a year, but he’d send `em away. Well. I thought, the hidin’ here’s as good as any, so I took to helpin him. That’s it, I guess
“Can you take me to the artist? Is he here? It’s extremely urgent . “I’ll take you, no fear. But this place, it was never really built for people, not to get around in, I mean, so it’s a bit of a journey . . . It isn’t likely to be going anywhere, though. Can’t guarantee it’ll make a box for you. Do you really work for Virek? Fabulous rich old shit on the telly? Kraut, isn’t he?” “I did,” she said, “for a number of days. As for national- ity, I would guess Herr Virek is the sole citizen of a nation consisting of Herr Virek . . “See what you mean,” Jones said, cheerily. “It’s all the same, with these rich old fucks, I suppose, though it’s more fun than watching a bloody zaibatsu . . You won’t see a zaibatsu come to a messy end, will you? Take old Ashpool countryman of mine, he waswho built all this; they say his own daughter slit his throat, and now she’s bad as old Lud, holed up in the family castle somewhere. The Place being a former part of all that, y’see.” “Rez. . . I mean, my pilot, said something like that. And a friend of mine, in Paris, mentioned the Tessier-Ashpools recently . . . The clan is in eclipse?” “Eclipse? Lord! Down the bloody tube’s more like it. Think about it: We’re crawhn’, you an’ me, through what used to be their corporate data cores. Some contractor in Pakistan bought the thing; hull’s fine, and there’s a fair bit of gold in the circuitry, but not as cheap to recover as some might like …It’ s been hangin’ up here ever since, with only old Lud to keep it company, and it him. Till I come along, that is. Guess one day the crews’ll come up from Pakistan and get cuttin’ . . Funny, though, how much of it still seems to work, at least part of the time Story I heard, one got me here in the first place, said T-A’s wiped the cores dead, before they cut it loose “But you think they are still operative?” “Lord, yes. About the way Lud is, if you call that opera- tive. What do you think your boxmaker is?” “What do you know about Maas Biolabs?” “Moss what?” “Maas. They make biochips `Oh. Them. Well, that’s all I do know about `em . . “Ludgate speaks of them?” “He might. Can’t say as I listen all that close. Lud, he does speak a fair bit