Уильям Берроуз - Nova Express

The Nature of Begging

Need? — Lack.

Want? — Need.

Life? — Death.

"It is a warning," said The Prince with a slow bronze smile-"We can do no more-Here where flesh circulates like clothes on stale trade flesh of Spain and Forty-Second Street-scanning pattern of legs-pant smell of The Vagrant Ball Players-"

Lee woke with the green breathing rhythm-Gills slow stirring other cigarette smoke in other gills adjusted to the host by color storms-It is in pairs known as The Other Half sweet and rotten they move in and out and talk in spinal fluid exchanging genital sewage on slow purple gills of half sleep-Addicts of The Orgasm Drug-Flesh juice in festering spines of terminal sewage-Run down of Spain and 42nd St. to the fish city of marble flesh grafts-Diseased beggars with cruel idiot smiles eating erogenous holes inject The Green Drug-Sting insect spasms-It is a warning-We can do not-Doesn't change-Even the sky stale and rotten dissolving-

Lee woke in other flesh the lookout different-His body was covered by transparent sheets dissolving in a green mist-

"Lie still-Wait-Flesh frozen still- Deep freeze- Don't move until you can feel arms and legs-Remember in that hospital after spinal anesthesia and tried to get out of bed to my heroin stash and fell-slid all over the floor with legs like blocks of wood."

He moved his head slightly to one side-Rows and tiers of bunks-A dank packing-house smell-Stinging sex nettles lashed his crotch and hot shit exploded down his thigh to the knee-

"Lie still-Wait-"

The sweet rotten smell of diarrhea swept through the air in waves-The Others were moving now-Larval flesh hanging in rags-Faces purple tumescent bursting insect lust rolled in shit and piss and sperm-

"Watch what everyone else is doing and don't do it (-General Orders for Emergency Conditions-)"

He could move his arm now — He reached for his stash of apomorphine and slipped a handful of tablets under his tongue-His body twisted forward and emptied and he jetted free and drifted to the ceiling- Looked down on quivering bodies-crab and centipede forms flashed here and there-Then red swirls of violence — The caustic green mist settled-In a few minutes there was no movement-

Lee was not surprised to see other people he knew- "I brought them with me"-He decided-"We will send out patrols-There must be other survivors"-

He moved cautiously forward the others fanned out on both sides-He found that he could move on his projected image from point to point-He was already accustomed to life without a body-

"Not much different-We are still quite definite and vulnerable organisms"-Certainly being without a body conveyed no release from fear-He looked down-The green mist had formed a carpet of lichen over the bunks and floor of what looked like a vast warehouse-He could see surviving life forms with body-Green creatures with purple fungoid gills-"The atmosphere must be largely carbon dioxide," he decided-He passed a screen through and wiped out all thought and word from the past-He was conversing with his survivors in color flashes and projected concepts-He could feel danger-All around him the familiar fear urgent and quivering-

The two agents sat in basement room 1920 Spanish villa-Rotten spermy insect smell of The Green People swirling in bare corners quivering through boneless substance in color blats-He felt out through the open door on thin music down dark streets swept by enemy patrols and the paralyzing white flak-He moved like an electric dog sniffing pointing enemy personnel and installations through bodies and mind screens of the silent fish city his burning metal eyes Uranian born in the face of Nova Conditions- his brain seared by flash blasts of image war-

In this area of Total Conditions on The Nova Express the agents of shadow empires move on hideous electric needs-Faces of scarred metal back from The Ovens of Minraud-Orgasm Drug addicts back from The Venusian Front-And the cool blue heavy metal addicts of Uranus-

In this area the only reason any agent contacts any other agent is for purpose of assassination-So one assumes that any one close to him or her is there precisely to kill-What else? We never knew anything else here — None the less we are reasonably gregarious since nothing is more dangerous than withdrawing from contact into a dead whistle stop-So every encounter quivers with electric suspicion-ozone smell of invisible flash bulbs-

Agents are always exchanging identities as articles of clothing circulate in strata of hustlers-These exchanges marked by last-minute attempts to switch the package and leave you standing with some old goofball bum in 1910 Panama-Lee had such a deal on with the other agent and of course both were falsifying and concealing defects in the merchandise-Of course no agent will allow a trial run since the borrower would be subject to take off with the package and fuck everybody they'll do it every time-So all the deals are sight unseen both parties gathering what information he can delving into the other identity for hidden miles and engineering flaws that could leave him with faulty equipment in a desperate position-His patrols were checking the other agent-Sending in reports-Conveying instructions-intercepting messages-

"Present Controller is The American Woman-Tracer on all connections-Taping all lines in and out-Santa Monica California-She is coming in loud and clear now-"

The young man dropped Time on the bed-His face was forming a smooth brown substance like the side of an electric eel-His left hand dissolved in a crystal bulb where a stinger of yellow light quivered sharp as a hypo needle-Orgasm Sting Ray-Venusian weapon-A full dose can tear the body to insect pieces in electric orgasms — Smaller doses bring paralysis and withered limbs of blighted fiber flesh-Lee hummed a little tune and cut the image lines with his grey screen-The Orgasm Sting dissolved in smoke-Lee picked the boy up by one elbow rigid as a clothing dummy and weightless now Lee guided him down the street steering the body with slight movements of the arm-The screen was empty-The boy sat on Lee's bed his face blank as a plate-The Nova police moved in calm and grey with inflexible authority-

"'Paddy The Sting' arrested-Host empty-Heavy scar tissue-Surgery indicated-Transfer impractical-"

Too Far Down The Road

— The Boy, driven too far down the road by some hideous electric hand-I don't know-Perhaps the boy never existed-All thought and word from the past-It was in the war-I am not sure-You can not know the appalling Venusian Front- Obscure hand taping all messages in and out-Last human contacts-suddenly withdrawn-The Boy had never existed at all-A mouth against the pane-muttering-Dim jerky far away voice: "Know who I am? You come to `indicated accident' long ago. old junky selling Christmas seals on North Clark St. `The Priest' they called him. used to be me, Mister" Mister" shabby quarters of a forgotten city. tin can flash flare. smell of ashes. wind stirs a lock of hair. "Know who I am? hock shop kid like mother used to make. Wind and Dust is my name. Good Bye Mister is my name. quiet now. I go. " (flickering silver smile).

NoGood At This Rate

Smell of other cigarette smoke on child track-Proceed to the outer-All marble streets and copper domes inside air-Signature in scar tissue stale and rotten as the green water-Moldy pawn ticket by purple fungoid gills-The invisible Siamese twin moving in through flesh grafts and virus patterns-Exchanging weight on slow purple gills-Addicts of the purpose-Flesh juice vampires is no good-All sewage-Idiot smiles eating erogenous deal-Sweet rotten smell of ice-Insect smell of the green car wreck-The young agent to borrow your body for a special half made no face to conceal the ice-He dies many years ago-He said: "Yes you want to-Right back to a size like that-Said on child track-Screaming on the deal?"