‘Think you’re pretty smart, don’t you.’
Benny smirked uncertainly.
‘ Eh?’ Blince stared at him. ‘Think you’re charmin’ the cats outta their ruby-red pyjamas.’
‘ I gotta go put out the all-points, Chief.’
‘ Listen Benny, I don’t like this any more than you do hey!’ But Benny had scuttled away. Blince turned to Specter. ‘This from a guy who wanted to play incidental trumpet for the movies. Make any sense to you?’
‘ Listen, Henry, about this here bank job - Cubit turns up, I wanna misrepresent him. I need a high-profile case for the networks. Last one I had was the O’Leary murder, remember? Even the murder was televised and there was no doubt who did it.’
‘ Sure I remember - two-year sentence, right?’
‘ And that was just the opening remark.’
‘ Sure, but Harpo,’ said Blince, opening a soda on the vendor’s teeth, ‘I don’t want anyone huggin’ and relieved in the perjury room. Somebody’s gotta top Olympus or there’s no resolution.’
‘ It’s my job to correct the truth, Henry, and if that requires blinding these here Seceded States, who’s to say what? This whole town’s the smoking gun of ignorance, after all. We’ll receive massive duplicity.’
‘ You mean publicity.’
‘ I guess I do, at that.’
The bank had been dampened down and they wandered over to take a swatch.
Inside, Blince swept a floodtorch around the bank floor - every surface was covered in a black tar and his boots made the tack-and-rip sound of velcro as he proceeded to the vault. The air smelled of steak and he began to wish he could get out for a decent meal. As he emptied four beans into the relevant safe box with a trooper snub, Specter appeared at the vault room door.
‘ It’s a neat job.’
‘ Neat as a Swiss roll pushed into a determinedly closed mouth,’ muttered Blince, taking out the severed hand. ‘You know they used to cut off the dukes of thieves in the old days?’
‘ What goes around comes around.’
Blince threw the hand back and took out the vinyl-bound thesaurus, scrolling. ‘Well looky here. Shoot at someone for two hours, you think you know ‘em. “Dishonest, unsqueamish, slippery, artful.” This hits the screen, we got eight seasons right here.’
And right there Specter started to doubt his strategy. Blince’s pursuit of retribution was blind - like a marching toy, he had to hit something before he could change directions.
Re-joining the clean-up brigade outside, Specter got a beer and watched a gang of speed urchins swarm over a tank which was stoved into the base of an elevator. Though too poor to interest him, even these brats could recognize a valuable corpse.
Yet when word came through from the data boys that Dante Cubit’s ID matched one of the bodies swept away earlier, only Specter and Tredwell Garnishee received the news with a semblance of solemnity - then quit the scene in a screech of spike-tyres. Everyone else was swell, and amid fistfights and racist dancing, agreed that the entire affair had been a waste of time.
On the comer of Crane, a bodyvan spun out and plunged into a store front, the rear doors bursting open to spill the dead like worms from a can. Dante Two crawled away from the corpse heap and lay bleeding in the road. It was what he called his ‘Italian look’. At his belly the gore blot spread like a Rorschach butterfly.
Flat out and counting the stars, he wondered at his body’s perversity in leaking neither more nor less blood than it had at its disposal. Would Rosa be angry?
PART TWO
The Loose End
1
IN THE DELAYED REACTION
In the Delayed Reaction Bar on Valentine the fashion cycle had narrowed to a point and revivals of the present moment blended with those of every other moment to make a dead, slate-dark sludge. This sludge was baked dry and sold to fugitives who could not articulate a time when things were different. The clockhands were still and the room spun around, confusing
Benny smirked uncertainly.
‘ Eh?’ Blince stared at him. ‘Think you’re charmin’ the cats outta their ruby-red pyjamas.’
‘ I gotta go put out the all-points, Chief.’
‘ Listen Benny, I don’t like this any more than you do hey!’ But Benny had scuttled away. Blince turned to Specter. ‘This from a guy who wanted to play incidental trumpet for the movies. Make any sense to you?’
‘ Listen, Henry, about this here bank job - Cubit turns up, I wanna misrepresent him. I need a high-profile case for the networks. Last one I had was the O’Leary murder, remember? Even the murder was televised and there was no doubt who did it.’
‘ Sure I remember - two-year sentence, right?’
‘ And that was just the opening remark.’
‘ Sure, but Harpo,’ said Blince, opening a soda on the vendor’s teeth, ‘I don’t want anyone huggin’ and relieved in the perjury room. Somebody’s gotta top Olympus or there’s no resolution.’
‘ It’s my job to correct the truth, Henry, and if that requires blinding these here Seceded States, who’s to say what? This whole town’s the smoking gun of ignorance, after all. We’ll receive massive duplicity.’
‘ You mean publicity.’
‘ I guess I do, at that.’
The bank had been dampened down and they wandered over to take a swatch.
Inside, Blince swept a floodtorch around the bank floor - every surface was covered in a black tar and his boots made the tack-and-rip sound of velcro as he proceeded to the vault. The air smelled of steak and he began to wish he could get out for a decent meal. As he emptied four beans into the relevant safe box with a trooper snub, Specter appeared at the vault room door.
‘ It’s a neat job.’
‘ Neat as a Swiss roll pushed into a determinedly closed mouth,’ muttered Blince, taking out the severed hand. ‘You know they used to cut off the dukes of thieves in the old days?’
‘ What goes around comes around.’
Blince threw the hand back and took out the vinyl-bound thesaurus, scrolling. ‘Well looky here. Shoot at someone for two hours, you think you know ‘em. “Dishonest, unsqueamish, slippery, artful.” This hits the screen, we got eight seasons right here.’
And right there Specter started to doubt his strategy. Blince’s pursuit of retribution was blind - like a marching toy, he had to hit something before he could change directions.
Re-joining the clean-up brigade outside, Specter got a beer and watched a gang of speed urchins swarm over a tank which was stoved into the base of an elevator. Though too poor to interest him, even these brats could recognize a valuable corpse.
Yet when word came through from the data boys that Dante Cubit’s ID matched one of the bodies swept away earlier, only Specter and Tredwell Garnishee received the news with a semblance of solemnity - then quit the scene in a screech of spike-tyres. Everyone else was swell, and amid fistfights and racist dancing, agreed that the entire affair had been a waste of time.
On the comer of Crane, a bodyvan spun out and plunged into a store front, the rear doors bursting open to spill the dead like worms from a can. Dante Two crawled away from the corpse heap and lay bleeding in the road. It was what he called his ‘Italian look’. At his belly the gore blot spread like a Rorschach butterfly.
Flat out and counting the stars, he wondered at his body’s perversity in leaking neither more nor less blood than it had at its disposal. Would Rosa be angry?
PART TWO
The Loose End
1
IN THE DELAYED REACTION
In the Delayed Reaction Bar on Valentine the fashion cycle had narrowed to a point and revivals of the present moment blended with those of every other moment to make a dead, slate-dark sludge. This sludge was baked dry and sold to fugitives who could not articulate a time when things were different. The clockhands were still and the room spun around, confusing
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