Synaptic Manhunt (12 page)

Darlene snorted contemptuously.

‘Since when could we ever afford duramene? You live in a dream world, Billy boy.’

Billy looked round helplessly.

‘I need something.’

‘We don’t have anything.’

‘Some funaids might help.’

Darlene shook her head.

‘They’ll just make you stupid.’

‘I’ve got to get myself straight.’

‘A shower and a lot of coffee would take care of you as well as anything else.’

Billy started to fumble with the fastenings on his shirt.

‘Why do you always want me to do things the hard way?’

‘I like to see you suffer.’

For the next hour Darlene filled Billy with black coffee, pushed him into alternately hot and cold showers and massaged the back of his neck. He was sick a couple of times, but by the end of the period he was zipped into his best suit and walking steadily, if a little stiffly, towards the lift.

He rode down to Nancy’s floor and walked down the corridor. He paused for a moment in front of her door, then stretched out his hand and knocked.

‘Who is it?’

‘Billy.’

‘Hold on.’

There was the rattle of security bolts being shot back, and the door opened just wide enough for Nancy to peer out. It was still secured by a chain lock. She confirmed it was really Billy, and then shut it again. He heard the sound of the chain being removed. Before letting Billy in Nancy looked carefully up and down the corridor. Billy wondered what could be going on that merited so much caution.

The room was crowded with at least half the hoods who hung round the hotel. Billy nodded to a few of them. Most of them seemed to be armed, and everyone had the air of waiting for something. On the far side of the room, setting crosslegged on the bed, was a young girl in a metallic blue one-piece jump suit. Beside her was a man. Between them they produced a flash of violent recognition in Billy.

‘Reave!’

‘Billy!’

‘How are you, my man?’

His one-time partner looked thinner and more haggard than when they had parted company in the city of Con-Lee, when Reave had stayed with A.A. Catto, and Billy had continued with his wanderings. Reave clutched at Billy’s arm.

‘It’s good to see you.’

‘You too, what’s been happening?’

Reave frowned.

‘We’re in a bit of trouble.’

‘You and A.A. Catto?’

‘Yeah, there’s …’

Before Reave could tell his story, Nancy interrupted him.

‘Why don’t you leave the reunion till later? It seems like everyone’s here, so we might as well all hear the tale at once.’

There were murmurs of assent from the men grouped around the room. It seemed as if nobody really knew why Nancy had got them up there. She stood in the middle of the room and slowly turned round.

‘You’ll be pleased to know that each of you has been left a day’s credit at the front desk.’

There was general approval for this statement. Only one of the men didn’t join in the loud reception. His name was Monk. He was a thickset individual. He wore a collarless striped shirt, a black waistcoat, and his face was half hidden by a light grey fedora. Under one armpit a heavy, vicious-looking needle gun hung in a patent Speed-Draw shoulder holster. He leaned forward in his seat and looked suspiciously at Nancy.

‘What are we supposed to do for it?’

Nancy grinned.

‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’

Monk shook his head.

‘I don’t get it.’

‘It’s a token of goodwill. Look at it as a payment for coming here.’

‘Seems to me that there’s a lot of credit behind whatever this thing is you’re cooking up.’

Nancy nodded.

‘You can believe that.’

There was a chorus of questions. Nancy raised her hands and waited until they subsided.

‘I’ll get straight down to the reason I’ve got you all up here. I need to put a team together. This lady here …’

She pointed to the girl on the bed.

‘Her name’s A.A. Catto, and this team’s being hired to protect her. There’s a couple of guys in the city who are going to try a hit on her. We’re going to stop them.’

Monk interrupted.

‘Why can’t she just hire a team of guardians? It sounds as though she can afford it.’

‘They won’t deal with her.’

Monk raised a slow eyebrow.

‘There’s only one reason I can think of why the guardians won’t protect her.’

Nancy nodded.

‘I ain’t going to hide anything. There’s a claim out on her.’

There was an immediate ripple of conversation. Monk seemed to be slipping into the role of spokesman for all the men present. He minutely examined his fingernails. There was a pause while everyone waited to see what he would say. He sucked in his breath and looked up.

‘That means that the guys who are after her are professionals.’

Nancy grinned.

‘They looked that way.’

‘You’ve seen them?’

‘They came here yesterday asking a lot of questions.’

Billy looked up sharply, but said nothing. Monk went on voicing the men’s queries.

‘What did they look like?’

‘One was tall and thin, dressed in black and carrying a bundle of hardware. The other was shorter. Seemed to be only carrying a set of knives.’

She picked up a bundle of papers and began to pass them round.

‘I put the descriptions down on these fax-sheets’

There were a few moments of silence while everyone in the room studied the papers. Then Monk tapped his with his forefinger.

‘It says here that the tall one’s name is Jeb Stuart Ho.’

Nancy nodded.

‘That’s right.’

‘Sounds to me like a brotherhood name.’

‘Could be.’

‘So you seriously expect us to try stopping a brotherhood killer?’

‘I don’t suggest we wait for them to come. I figure we should try and get them first.’

Monk shook his head.

‘You got to be crazy.’

Nancy planted her hands on her hips and looked down at him.

‘There’s a credit card in it for the one who gets Ho, a card of his own.’

Everyone began to talk at once. A credit card meant reinstatement in full. It was the only kind of prize that might tempt anyone to tackle a professional assassin. Monk grinned.

‘What do the others get?’

‘A month’s credit. That’s for each man who joins us. There’s nothing else to tell. Who’s going to join us?’

The men all looked at each other. A couple shook their heads and sheepishly left. The remainder stayed put. Monk stood up.

‘Looks like you got your team. All we need is weapons.’

Nancy nodded towards a pile of gift-wrapped packages in the corner.

‘We stopped at the gun store on the way up here. There’s a half dozen riot guns, ammunition, some hand guns and grenades. We’ve got enough weapons.’

Monk grinned.

‘You think of everything.’

Then Nancy got down to the final details. The team was split into two groups. One would stay at the Leader and guard A.A. Catto, the other would move out into the city and start circulating the description of Ho to the beggars, winos and hustlers. Once he’d been located they’d move in for the kill. Billy found himself drafted into the hotel group. He wasn’t really concentrating on the planning. While it was going on he moved close to Reave, and spoke to him in a low voice.

‘I know who the other guy is. Ho’s partner.’

Reave looked at him in surprise.

‘Who?’

‘The Minstrel Boy.’

‘You’re kidding.’

‘I’m not, I saw him when they came here looking for A.A. Catto.’

‘Did he see you?’

Billy shook his head.

‘I ducked into the lift. I didn’t want him to see me. I guess I was ashamed or something.’

Reave said nothing. Billy looked at him urgently.

‘What are we going to do?’

‘We can’t let him kill A.A. Catto.’

‘But we can’t let him be gunned down. He got us out of real trouble a couple of limes.’

Reave ran his fingers through his hair.

‘I don’t know what we can do except wait and see. If we tell anyone now, it could put us in a real awkward position.’

Billy glanced at A.A. Catto.

‘But you’re with her. She won’t let anything happen to you.’

Reave avoided his eyes.

‘I wouldn’t altogether count on that.’

Billy nodded unhappily.

‘I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.’

The Minstrel Boy was drunk. He wasn’t quite at the point of falling over, but he was certainly having trouble getting up the steps of the Club 93. He leaned heavily on the girl beside him. Although he couldn’t quite remember her name, he was happier than he’d been since Jeb Stuart Ho had rudely dragged him from his comfortable tank at Wainscote. It was his first day of living it up on Ho’s credit, and he was making the most of it. He grinned at the girl.

‘Think we should make it back to my hotel, honey?’ The first thing the Minstrel Boy had done after he’d left Ho was to check into the Albert Speer. The Albert Speer was generally considered to be the best hotel in Litz. The girl looked up at him with a quick professional smile.

‘I don’t think you’re capable of much else.’

The Minstrel Boy’s grin widened.

‘You’d be surprised what I’m capable of.’

‘I’m surprised you’re still capable of standing up.’

Still holding him steady, she signalled to the 93’s doorman to get them a cab. While they were waiting for it, he took the opportunity to have a better look at her. The pick-up had been so fast he hadn’t really had a chance to study her. She’d made a beeline for him almost immediately he staggered into the club and started tossing his credit about. She’d seemed okay in the dim light of the club, but up on the street, the blemishes were inclined to show.

In fact, she stood up to the examination very well. Her growth had been halted around fourteen or fifteen. She had the turned-up nose, large eyes and cute features of the most popular clone hostess model, although from the way she moved and talked, he knew she was a normal human. Her skin was done in a pleasant rainbow blend of light pastel shades. Her hair was a mass of waist-length, dark blue ringlets that matched her short tight tube dress and lace-up boots. The Minstrel Boy congratulated himself. He’d really done rather well for one so drunk.

The cab pulled up, and it took both the girl and the doorman to get him safely inside. If the Minstrel Boy hadn’t suffered so much difficulty in negotiating himself into the back of the cab, he might have noticed the beggar who took one look at him, started, jumped up from his pitch on the kerb and hurried off down the street.

The cab ride took longer than originally intended. Halfway to the Albert Speer, the Minstrel Boy decided that he needed a bunch of duramene to burn off some of the alcohol in his brain, and he made the driver make a detour to a drugstore. Once they got there, he suffered an attack of paranoia and refused to get out of the cab. He’d convinced himself that if anyone saw him buying anything as expensive as duramene he was quite likely to be mugged as he walked back to the cab. After some haggling, the driver was persuaded to go.

They started back to the hotel once again, but after they’d only gone a couple of blocks he stopped the cab again. He’d decided he needed a shot to help himself get across the hotel foyer. As he fumbled the ampoule into the injection unit, the girl began to exhibit noticeable signs of impatience, but when he offered her a shot for herself, they quickly receded. By the time they reached the hotel they were laughing and talkative. The Minstrel Boy was hardly any more coherent, but the duramene had made him a good deal more mobile.

They stopped for a moment and stared up to the soaring baroque facade of black and red glass. The girl squeezed the Minstrel Boy’s arm.

‘You really like to live well, don’t you?’

The Minstrel Boy grinned and nodded. He was still hoping he would find out her name without having to ask.

‘You’d better believe it.’

They crossed the foyer, stepped into the lift, and rode up to the Minstrel Boy’s thirty-seventh-floor suite without any difficulty. Immediately they were inside the girl grabbed the Minstrel Boy and kissed him very hard. She thrust the whole length of her body against him, squirming slightly and darting her tongue in and out of his mouth. When she suddenly released him, he took a step back and dropped into a chair.

‘Unh.’

The girl looked down at him.

‘What’s the matter with you? Don’t you like me?’

The Minstrel Boy shrugged.

‘How should I know? I only met you a while ago, and ain’t been able to see straight most of the time.’

The girl began to look angry.

‘You don’t take a lot of trouble to be charming.’

‘That’s true.’

‘I expect you can’t even remember my name.’

‘That’s true too.’

‘You’re goddamn impossible.’

The Minstrel Boy nodded.

‘Impossible.’

The girl went red.

‘Well fuck you, Jack.’

She turned on her heel and began heading for the door. The Minstrel Boy turned in his chair, and called after her.

‘Hey!’

She turned in front of the door.

‘What?’

‘I’d really like to fuck you.’

The girl leaned back against the door and gave a half smile.

‘You would, would you?’

‘Sure.’

‘Am I supposed to be flattered?’

‘You could be, whatever turns you on. I could pay you if that’s what you want.’

‘I’m not a hooker.’

‘So you’re up here for kicks.’

‘That’s what I thought when I came here.’

‘So come on over here and get some.’

‘I’m not so sure. You really don’t try very hard.’

The Minstrel Boy shrugged.

‘What would you like me to do?’

‘You could ask me my name.’

‘Okay. What’s your name?’

‘Liza.’

‘Liza, hey? Liza from Litz.’

‘Don’t be cute. Do something else.’

‘What?’

‘You choose. Think for yourself.’

The Minstrel Boy suddenly sat up in his chair. He grabbed the phone. The girl came and stood beside his chair looking puzzled.

‘What are you doing?’