George Martin - Aces High

"You were screaming," Kim Toy said. "I thought someone was killing you."

TIAMAT "I had a nightmare."

Kim Toy stroked her wet hair gently. "A nightmare?"

"I dreamt someone threw a bucket of worms in my face."

The Astronomer roared with laughter. "Oh, she's excellent, she really is excellent!"

The albino sitting on the floor next to the wheelchair looked up at him imploringly.

"Was it a good dream, then?"

"Oh, yes, the dream was excellent, too." The Astronomer petted the white hair. "You did it just right, Revenant." The man smiled, the prematurely aged skin around his pink eyes crinkling with pathetic joy.

"Roman."

Across the shadowy room, Roman looked up from the computer display terminal.

"We'll give her just a little more time for the horror to sink in before you introduce her to the rest of our little confederation. And keep Kim Toy mothering her."

Roman nodded, glancing surreptitiously at the computer terminal.

"Tomorrow night again, Revenant," the Astronomer said to the albino. "You'll do it once more. I want her to wake up screaming for the next two nights."

The pink eyes lowered with shame.

"Now, now. You know you're better off than before, when you were selling perverts wet dreams at ten bucks a crack. If you'll pardon the expression." The Astronomer chuckled.

"You're one of my most useful aces. Now, go get some rest yourself. "

As soon as the albino disappeared down a darkened gallery, the Astronomer sagged in his wheelchair. "Demise." Demise was at his side instantly.

"Yes, Demise. We both need it now, don't we? Call for the car. "

Roman remained at the computer terminal as Demise wheeled the Astronomer out. Going out to find some poor streetwalking scumbag who didn't know this would be her last date. He refused to think about it. He would not feel sorry for any of them, he would not. All of them-Revenant, Kim Toy, Red, Judas, John F X. Black, Coleman Hubbard (oh, hadn't that been a piece of work, the Astronomer's big ace in the hole, one-zero-zero-one), even that little piece of innocence Jane Water Lily-they were all the same, every one of them. Pawns in the Astronomer's game. Himself, too, but only for Ellie's sake, to try to protect her.

ELLIE, he typed, the letters glowing on the monitor. I LOVE YOU.

The words I LOVE YOU, Too flashed briefly on the screen before they were replaced by INVALID ENTRY, NULL PROGRAM.

Somewhere else in town, Fortunato woke, shuddering, his face covered with cold sweat.

"Easy. Easy, baby." Michelle's voice was gentle, her hands soft and warm. "Michelle's got you. I'm here, honey, I'm here." Fortunato allowed her to gather him into her arms and press his face to her perfect breasts.

"It's those dreams again, isn't it? Don't worry. I'm here." He nuzzled her, stroking the warm flesh and willing her to sleep. Then he slipped out of her embrace and locked himself in the elegant bathroom.

Once you were in, you were in. What was learned could not be unlearned. Knowledge was power, and power could trap.

He would have to call Tachyon; better, go down to the Village and wake him up.

Eileen.

Fortunato clenched his eyes shut until the thought of her had passed. He should have let Tachyon give him something for that, some kind of forgetfulness drug so he wouldn't keep stumbling over her in his mind, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to do it. Because then she really would be gone. He splashed water on his face and paused in the act of blotting it with a towel, staring at himself in the mirror. For half a second, he had seen another face covered with water; young, female, wide green eyes, dark reddish hair, very pretty, a stranger to him, calling for help. Not calling to him, specifically, but calling without a hope in hell of answer. Praying. Then the face was gone and he was alone with his reflection.

He pressed his face into the towel. One of a soft, luxurious set that Michelle had bought. When she'd brought them home, they had rubbed them all over each other and made love.

Kundalini. Feel the power.

(Lenore. Erika. Eileen. All lost to him.) He went out to Michelle.

Jane accepted the steaming cup of green tea from Kim Toy and sipped at it delicately. "Here's to the second night in a row of no nightmares," she said with a weak smile. "I hope."

Kim Toy's answering smile was less than hearty. The girl should have been a quivering mound of jelly after the dreams the Astronomer had sent her, and that was barely a taste of TIAMAT Real contact would have driven her permanently mad. But here she was, the fragile little innocent, drinking tea and getting her color back. She was made of sterner stuff than any of them had given her credit for. It was always the innocent ones you had to watch, Kim Toy thought wryly. Their strength was as the strength of ten because their hearts were pure and their sincerity made them lethal. She wondered if twisted-up old pervos like the Astronomer had any inkling or whether he was so far removed from anything even remotely resembling innocence that he couldn't even conceive of such a thing. When she thought about the way the Astronomer recharged his power, yeah, she could allow that was entirely possible. What would a sick old fuck like that know about innocence?

And he was going to own the world. Sure.

But she did believe that. She was unshakable on that. Had been unshakable on that. No, still was. Wasn't she? And who was she calling a sick old fuck, anyway? What was it when you scrambled a man's brains to make him fall in love with you, and then, when he'd served his purpose, you turned it up from scramble to liquify, and the same people who dumped the bodies for the Astronomer dumped that one, too. She looked at Jane. It was no wonder she preferred the company of women if she couldn't be with Red.

Jane reached over and pressed the On button of the remote control. The TV screen flickered to life. "I watched Peregrine's Perch last night and I didn't have the dreams," she said, a bit sheepishly. "Now it's made me superstitious. I feel like I have to watch it to keep the nightmares away. Even if its a re-run."

Kim Toy nodded. "You and about a billion other people."

"Sal adored talk shows. Especially Peregrine's Perch. He said he watched because he was dying to see how they'd work around those wings each night." She paused as a commercial gave way to the stunning features of Peregrine herself. "Sal said they never disappointed him." ,

"Who?"

"Her wardrobe department."

"Oh." Kim Toy fell silent and dutifully watched the program with the girl. Half an hour into the show, a picture of a handsome red-haired man with russet eyes and a lean, sculpted face appeared on the screen, causing Jane to leap out of her chair.

"There he is!" She knelt down close to the TV "Jumpin' Jack Flash. I followed all the news stories about him. He's one of my heroes."

Kim Toy turned up the sound. The man's face vanished and was replaced by the talk-show set where Peregrine was interviewing an expensively dressed woman holding an even more-expensive-looking camera.

"I think you've captured the spirit of Jumpin' Jack Flash exactly," Peregrine was saying. "That couldn't have been easy."

"Well, it was all the more difficult because it was a candid shot," the other woman said. "Believe it or not, I was just lucky, being in the right place at the right time. J. J. didn't know I was taking that picture, although he later gave permission for its use."

"J. J.?" said Peregrine.

The photographer looked down demurely. "That's what his intimates call him."

"I'll bet," Kim Toy muttered. "What?" said Jane.

"His `intimates.' Gimme a break. He probably tells all the women he sleeps with to call him J.J., just so he can keep track. It's easier than remembering their names, and far less trouble than notching their ears, or having them all rounded up and branded."