F. Wilson - Dydeetown World

"Right."

Ordered him a soysteak with his habitual trimmings. Every time I took him out to eat he ordered the same dregging meal.

Urchins must have a high threshhold of boredom.

"Who is this Wendy, anyway?" I said as we waited for his meal.

"Mom-to-all."

"B.B…." I said tiredly.

"Know, yes, know, Sig. Not biomom, but real mom. Readee us, teachee us, fixee clothes an food. Do tuck-in a'night f'babes."

His eyes shone as he spoke. There was adoration there. Why did that irk me? What did I care about some crazy femme playing Mamma to some urches?

"What's she look like?""

"Byooful."

"Of course. Aren't all mothers? But give me some details. Her hair, for instance? Blond?"

He shook his head. "Brown straight."

"Fat? Thin?"

"Thin like us, course."

"Why 'course'? When she leaves you at night, she probably goes home to a big meal.

"Wendy live w'urches."

That gave me pause. Who in their right mind would want to live in the tunnels with a horde of kids, eating begged food and cooking rats?

"What's she get out of it?"

He beamed. "Family. Allus family."

"All?"

"Huh. Sh'go most gangs. Mom-to-all, but sh'come back Lost Boys most. We her firs famly."

"She never leaves the tunnels?"

"Sometime, but n'f'long. Always come back with special giftees."

Now I was really suspicious. This Wendy was either a true disequillibrated non-comp, verging on black holedom, or there was a roguey angle to this that I wasn't seeing. Either way, I wasn't comfortable having B.B. involved with her. Not until I knew more.

"Sounds like a wonderful person," I said. "When can I meet this Wendy?"

He started as if he'd just received a shock.

"Meetee? Oh, no. None upside ev meetee Wendy. Sh'say n'ever jaw 'bout her to any not urch."

"You told me ."

"You friend f'life, Sig. Trust."

"Yeah. Well, see if you can arrange it. It's very important to me to meet such a unique person."

"I ask, b'tell now, sh'nev say 'kay."

The food arrived then and no further conversation was possible. You can't talk to B.B. when he's got a meal in front of him. You can barely watch him.

Two days later, sitting in my office, got treated to the pleasure of another visit from my favorite procurer and clone slaver, Ned Spinner.

"What do you want, Spinner?" I said as he stood in front of my desk, staring at me.

His hair was in his usual curly blond Caesar cut and he was dressed in the same dark green pseudovelvet jump he always wore.

As he spoke in his nasal whine, he began strutting back and forth, doing his oversized rooster routine.

"I heard about your accident. I just wanted to check up on you and make sure you were okay."

"Your concern is touching."

"Truth, Dreyer. I was really worried when I heard. After all, you're probably the only one who knows the whereabouts of my stolen clone. I didn't want the secret to die with you."

"You can go now."

He hesitated. "Look, Dreyer. I'll make a deal. I know you've put her in business somewhere, but the take you're getting off her can't be anything near what she could earn back in Dydeetown. She was dregging good, one of the top earners in the whole — "

"The door is behind you, Spinner."

"I'm offering you a cut, you jog!" he screamed. "Tell me where she is and I'll go get her. I'll set her up in her old spot in Dydeetown and give you a percentage! What could be fairer? After all, she's my dregging clone!"

Stared at him.

"Well," he said. "What do you say? Attractive offer, no?"

"No. Because then I'd be like you, Spinner. And I don't find that the least bit attractive."

The sneer that he tried to pass off as a smile crawled across his face. "All right, Dreyer. Play your roguey game. But keep in mind that I'm always around. I'm always watching you."

"Each night I rest easy knowing that."

"Don't rest easy, Dreyer. I'm the guy that's going to cut you down. Remember: every day, I'm watching. And one of these days, you're going to lead me back to my property."

"Your clone is on one of the outworlds, Spinner. And since I don't plan on heading off-planet soon or ever, you've got a long wait ahead of you."

"Keep lying, Dreyer. You'll lose more than your head when I catch you with her.""

"Look," I said, trying to talk some sense into him so he'd leave me alone. Doubted that was possible — after all, he'd made a good living off his Jean Harlow clone and now he was on the dole without her — but figured I'd try. "Even if you got her back, she'd be no good to you. She'll refuse to whore a Dydeetown slot for you. So why don't you face facts? You lost. She won. She got away and she's staying away. Give it up."

His eyes blazed as he slammed a fist on my desk.

" Never ! She's Earthside! Probably right here in the Megalops! And I'm gonna find her! And if she won't cooperate, I'll memwipe her and we'll start all over again from scratch! But I'm never giving up, Dreyer!"

Good thing he left on his own then. The thought of him wiping Jean's memory and sticking her back in Dydeetown had me itching to go for his throat.

Was just about calmed down when B.B. popped in. He looked dazed as he plopped down on a chair.

"Something wrong, kid?"

He shook his head slowly as he spoke, as if not fully understanding what he was saying.

"Har b'lieve, Sig, b'Wendy say sh'jaw you, see you."

B.B. was definitely spending too much time with his old urchingang. Had to work on getting him to do some time in front of the datastream before his speech got stuck in pure urch pidgin again.

"Well, I assume you gave me a bloaty recommendation."

"Bloaty, yeh, b'she nev see toppers."

"She's gotta see somebody when she disappears topside."

He thought about that one. "Mayb. B'when sh'go way, nev f'long. Allus back morn."

Understandable. No matter how overdone she was on urchins, even this Wendy had to crave some adult chatter once in a while. Maybe that was why she'd agreed to meet me. She'd know from B.B. that I wasn't some dregger out to stake some sort of claim on them, especially after taking that pair of vultures from NeuroNex off their backs.

"When do we meet this lady?"

"Now, today, ri'way."

"Whoa, little man. I've got business to tend to."

Not true, but I wanted to have some say in how and when this meeting took place.

"Sh'say now or nev. Or leas nah f'verlon time."

Wasn't happy with the ultimatum, but the meet had been my idea, in the first place. She was agreeing to it, but on her own terms.

"Where?"

"In downbelow."

"In the tunnels?"

"Wendy n'like upside."

"Bloaty." Last place I wanted to spend a day was in the old trans tunnels. "I'll get a handlight and then you can lead the way, B.B."

We tubed across to the Battery area, back to the foundation of the Okumo-Slater building where I'd met my first urchins, then shot north two stops. From there it was all on foot. We walked further north until we came to a middle-sized office complex.

B.B. led me through the sub-basement to an old sealed up subway entrance. The kids had unsealed it long ago. He ducked within, I squeezed through behind. Out came our lights and we began our crawl into the Megalops' nether regions.

Down concrete steps with our handlights refecting off old tiled walls, along rubble-strewn corridors, hopping down concrete embankments to follow steel rails through passages crudely hacked through the living granite. Moisture had collected in puddles, some small, some wide enough to block our path so that we had to creep along a raised ledge to get by. Something splashed in one of the bigger puddles as we passed and I felt my hackles rise.