K Jeter - Farewell Horizontal

Another beat of silence. “Prove it. I mean, prove it’s you.”

“For Christ’s sake, what do you want me to do?” He studied his finger in the plug-in jack, as though it might be possible to squeeze himself through the hole and confront the agent. “I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”

“Could be anybody.” The skeptical tone hardened. “Sounds like it’s Axxter – but that’s easy enough to fake.”

“Okay. Okay, just hold on a second.” His thoughts sped up. “All right, how’s this: the first thing I ever did, the first piece after I signed on with you. It was a commission from a little band, about a dozen guys, they’re all dead now, they were called – um -” He snapped his fingers. “Abrasion Surtax. Right? And the piece I did, I went blank and I couldn’t think of anything, so I ripped off a dragon spreadeagle from a collection of old tattoo flash that Howe Drafe lent me. Only the Abrasion guys found out about it, and they were all pissed off ’cause they’d paid for an original, so you had to give ’em their money back plus ten percent, which you deducted from my next job, only it wasn’t true, they hadn’t dinged you for any ten percent penalty at all -”

“Jeez – you still remember that? Christ, talk about carrying a grudge.”

Axxter allowed himself a smile. “So is it me, or not?”

“Well, yeah; I suppose so.” No skepticism now in Brevis’s voice, just baffled wondering. “But how come you’re not dead?”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

“No, no; I mean it. What the hell’s going on?”

He shrugged. “I’m still alive. That’s all there is to it. Whatever you heard -”

“‘Heard’ ain’t it. I saw it, man. There’s a tape of you heading for the clouds. After getting all whammed to shit against the wall. The Havoc Mass – that bunch had a telephoto trained on the whole thing; they had one of their archives men right behind the thugs who were on your tail. He was sending the signal back on a tightbeam to the camp; that was the only way it got recorded, because he bit it along with the rest of them when the cable went boing. Whose bright idea was that, anyway?”

“I had help. All right? I didn’t think of it all by myself.” The agent’s old-womanish hectoring got under his skin. He would’ve thought Brevis would be happy just to know he was alive.

“Yeah, well, that little number cost you, Jack. The Public Works Department was in here so fast, sucking out your account… They took the wad, buddy. That tape was prima facie evidence. When it got broadcast, and everybody from the toplevel on down saw it -”

“What? Who saw it -”

“Everybody; that’s what I’m telling you.” Brevis’s voice went shrill. “The Havoc Mass sold the tape to Ask & Receive’s entertainment division – it was on the air while you were supposedly still falling through the cloud barrier. A bunch like the Mass doesn’t need the money they got for it; they just enjoy making people they don’t like look like assholes.”

“Jeez..” Everybody on or in Cylinder had seen him sawing away at the transit cable, like an idiot. The kind of thing you saw in an ancient kiddy cartoon, the cat cutting off the tree limb he’s sitting on. His girlfriend had no doubt seen it, too. Her last memory of him, on the ‘Here’s a cutie for you’ segment of the evening news. Great.

“So how do you think I feel about it? You think it does an agent any good to have the whole world know you got clients with shit for brains? You ever try to do business with people, they gotta ring off and get back to you later, ’cause they’re laughing too hard?”

That was the problem in dealing with Brevis: no one had ever suffered the way he had.

“Okay, okay; look, you don’t have to tell me it wasn’t a great idea.” Axxter tried to get the call back on track. “I was under a lot of pressure at the time. Those guys were trying to kill me. All right?”

“Yeah, well, just don’t do it again. Jesus Christ!” Brevis’s voice broke into a yelp. “Do you know what this call is costing me? Where the hell are you calling me from?”

He must’ve seen the Wire Syndicate’s charges piling up. “Look, Brevis, you’re going to find this hard to believe, but I’m a long way away from you -”

“I’ll bet – mother of God -”

“ – I’m on the other side. Of the building. I’m on Cylinder’s eveningside. You understand? I’m on the other side .”

Brevis was silent for a moment. “Jeez, Ny, you’re full of surprises today. Am I supposed to believe that? Just because I believed you’re alive?”

“It’s true, I swear it. Look, have the Wire Syndicate run a locate on this jack. You’ll need to get the number anyway, so you can call me back.”

“What the hell should I call you back for? You’re broke, you’re officially dead, and as a client you’re a liability, not an asset. I should get the Havoc Mass looking to cut my nuts off, too?”

Axxter felt his palm sweating, his finger trembling in the plug-in. If Brevis should hang up… “You’re gonna want to call me back. Because I can make money – big money – for you.”

“Yeah?” Skeptical again. “How?”

“I’m talking big money now.” He had to give himself time to think. “The biggest deal you’ve ever done; I mean, this is the one that’ll put you right up in the front rank of agents -” Come on, come on, think . “Top dollar; top dollar, Brevis -” Blank, blank, blank.

Then it popped out, all in a piece. The words came spinning out, effortless.

“I may not be worth much as a graffex – not right now, at any rate – but we got something else to sell. I’m on the other side . Don’t you see? I’m someplace no one else has ever been, at least no one who’s ever talked about it. We got info-gathering here, tons of fresh data, stuff we can unload to Ask & Receive for whatever price we ask. Plus – there’s the entertainment value. This is real-time adventure we got going here, Brevis. This isn’t some little stroll around some diddly-shit morningside sector that everybody’s seen a million times before. I’m going to hike all the way across some unknown wallscape – without even a rig to carry me – and encounter God knows what – there could be fuckin’ anything out here, man – then cross over through whichever Linear Fair I come to – all that just to make it home. What more could you want? That’s a goddamn odyssey, for Christ’s sake.”

“Hm.” Brevis, mulling it over, couldn’t hide his interest. “Yeah, but… you’d have to make it all the way back. Like you said, you don’t know what you’re going to come across out there. Or what’s going to come across you .”

“So? Even better. That’s exactly why you’ll have people getting hooked on the story, following my progress – the suspense factor. Half the audience will be hoping I don’t make it. If I starve to death, or something worse happens, then it’s a big tragedy for everybody else. Real sob stuff. Either way, you get your ten percent.”

“Twenty percent. This is outside the usual range of what I handle. It’d fall under a special provision in your contract with the agency.”

“Ten, twenty, who gives a fuck.” Axxter knew he had him hooked. “It’ll be tons of money for both of us.”

“Mm – could be. I’d have to run it by some people, see what they think. But… it’s not bad, Ny; not bad at all. It has some possibilities.” Brevis’s voice moved up a gear. “Yeah, I think we could get an offer on it.”

Bingo. “We gotta have an advance on it, though; a good-sized one. There’s stuff I gotta pay for, info to dig out. I’ll need to get my location pinpointed, get whatever files or maps exist about this side, I don’t care what shape; we’ll have to get a search done for every fragment, no matter how small. I’m going to need all the help I can get, if I’m going to pull this off.”