Bruce Sterling - Islands in the Net

His jaw muscles clenched and he stared at his hands as if willing them not to punch her. "Well, I guess that depends, doesn't it? On what you think you're doing."

"I know my long-term goals, Laura said. "Which is more than you can say." She touched the baby's cheek. "What kind of world will she live in? That's what's at stake."

"That sounds really noble," he said. "And just a hair away from megalomania. The world's bigger than the two of us.

We don't live in the `globe,' Laura. We live with each other.

And our child."

He took a deep breath, let it out. "I've had it, that's all.

Maybe my number came up once--okay, I'll stand in the front lines for Rizome. I'll do one tour of duty. I'll watch dead bodies, I'll have my house burned over my head. But they don't pay me enough to die."

"Nobody's ever paid that much," Laura said. "But we can't watch people be murdered, and say it's fine and dandy and none of our business."

"We're not indispensable. Let somebody else have a shot at playing Joan of Arc."

"But I know what's happening," she said. `.'That makes me valuable. I've seen things other people didn't. Even you,

David. "

"Oh, great," David said. "So now you're going to start in on how I walk through life in a fog. Listen, Mrs. Webster, I saw more of the real Grenada than you ever did. The real things-not this trivial power-play bullshit that you run with your old girls' network. Goddamn it, Laura! You've got to learn to take some setbacks and accept your limits!"

"You mean your limits," Laura said.

He stared. "Sure. If you want to see it that way. My limits. I've reached them. That's it. End of discussion."

She sank back into her seat, raging. Fine. He'd given up listening. Let's see how some silence suited him.

After a few hours of silence she realized she'd made a mistake. But it was too late to go back then.

Police boarded the plane at Havana Airport. The passen- gers were marched off-not exactly at gunpoint, but close enough not to matter much. It was dark and raining. Behind a distant line of striped sawhorses, the Spanish-language press lifted cameras and shouted questions. One exile tried to wan- der in their direction, waving his arms-he was quickly herded back.

They entered a wing of the terminal, surrounded by jeeps. It was crawling with customs men. And the Vienna heat- exquisitely dressed plainclothesmen with their portable termi- nals and speckled glasses.

Police began hustling the refugees into ragged lines. Cuban cops, locals, demanding ID. They escorted a group of trium- phantly grinning techs past the glowering Viennese. Law - enforcement turf battles. Cuba had never been all that hot about the Convention.

Someone called out in Japanese. "Laura-san ni o-banashi shitai no desu ga!"

"Koko desu," she answered. She spotted them--a young

Japanese couple, standing near an exit door beside a uni- formed Cuban cop. "C'mon," she told David-her fast word to him in hours and walked toward them. "Donata ni goyo desu ka?"

The woman smiled shyly, bowing, "Rara Rebsta?"

"Hai," Laura said. "That's me." She gestured at David.

"Kore wa David Webster to iu mono desu."

The woman reached for Loretta's tote. Surprised, David let her take it. The woman wrinkled her nose. "0-mutsu o torikaetea hoga iito omoimasu."

"Yeah, we ran out of them," Laura said. Blank looks.

"Diapers. Eigo wa shabere masuka?" They shook their heads glumly. "They don't speak English," she told David.

"Que tal?" David said. "Yo no hablo japones-un poquito solo. Uhh ... iquien es Ustedes? j su amigo interesante?"

"Somos de Kymera Havana," the man said happily. He bowed and shook David's hand. "Bienvenidos a Cuba, Senor

Rebsta! Soy Yoshio, y mi esposa, Mika. Y el Capitan Reyes, del Habana Securidad ... "

"It's Kymera Corporation," David said.

"Yeah, I know."

"Looks like they've made some kind of arrangement with the local police." He paused. "Kymera-they're with us, right? Economic democrats."

"Solidaridad," Yoshio told him, holding up two fingers.

He winked and opened the door.

Kymera had a car waiting.

Kymera was very well prepared. They had everything.

New passports for them-legal ones. New decks. Diapers and baby formula. A change of clothes that almost fit, or would have if they hadn't been eating Rita's banquets. And they'd cooled things with the Cuban police. Laura thought it was best not to ask how.

They spent a quiet evening in miraculous, cozy safety at one of Kymera's Havana compounds. And off the Net, in privacy-a kind of ecstasy, like getting over an illness. Their rooms were smaller and everything was closer to the floor, but otherwise it was like old home week in a Rizome Lodge.

They chatted in Japanese and Spanish over seafood and sake, and met the Takedas' adorable four-year-old.

"Rizome has shown us some of your tapes," Yoshio said, pausing for translations. "We are coordinating. Putting all cards on the table between us."

"You saw the-terrorist attack, then," Laura said.

Yoshio nodded. "Mali has gone too far."

"You're sure it's Mali?"

"We know," Yoshio said. "We used to hire them."

Laura was stunned. "Kymera hired the F.A.C.T.?"

Yoshio looked sheepish, but determined to have it out.

"We suffered much from piracy. The `Army of Counter-

Terrorism' offered us their services. To frighten the pirates, discourage them. Yes, even kill them. They were efficient.

We paid them secretly for years. So did many other companies.

It seemed better than making armies of our own people. "

David and Laura conferred. David was scandalized. "The

Japanese hired terrorist mercenaries?"

Yoshio looked impatient. "We're not Japanese! Kymera is incorporated in Mexico."

"Oh.'

"You know how things are in Japan," Yoshio scoffed.

"Fat! Lazy! Full of elderly people, far behind the times ..."

He tapped his cup and Mika poured him sake. "Too much success in Japan! It's Japanese politics that created this world crisis. Too much behind the scenes. Too many polite lies- hipokurasi... " He used the English word. The Japanese terms for the word hypocrisy sounded too much like compliments.

"We thought the Free Army was a necessary evil," he continued. "We never knew they were so ambitious. So smart, so fast. The Free Army is the dark side of our own conglomerates-our keiretsu."

"But what does Mali have to .gain?"

"Nothing! The Free Army owns that country. They con- quered it while it was weak with famine. They've grown stronger and stronger, while we quietly paid them and pre- tended not to know that they existed. They used to hide, like a rat-now they are grown large, like a tiger."

More translations. "What are you saying?" David said.

"I say the Net has too many holes. All these criminals-

Singapore, Cyprus, Grenada, even Mali itself, which we creaed-must be crushed. It had to happen. It is happening today. The Third World War is here."

Mika giggled.

"It is a little war," Yoshio admitted. "Does not live up to its press, eh? Small, quiet, run by remote control. Fighting in places where no one looks, like Africa. Places we neglected, because we could not make profit there. Now we must stop being so blind."

"Is this Kymera's official policy line these days?" Laura said.

"Not just ours," Yoshio said. "Talk is spreading fast, since the attack. We were prepared for something like this.

Kymera is launching a diplomatic offensive. We are taking our case to many other multinationals. East, West, South,

North. If we can act in concert, our power is very great.'

"You're proposing some kind of global security cartel?"

Laura said.

"Global Co-Prosperity Sphere!" Mika said. "How does that sound?"