Peter Liu - Bald New World

“I can’t just call the president and—”

“Get Larry on the phone then,” I told him.

“Mr. Larry Chao?”

“Are you new to this job?”

“I–I started a week ago,” he told me.

“Call his office and tell him Nick Guan wants to speak with him.”

“Concerning what?”

“I need to get my camera equipment.”

The guard went back into his post, made a few calls, and came back out. “Mr. Russ Lambert is out. But his assistant told me you could get your belongings.”

“Thank you.”

The cab drove in.

Demolition crews had finished the job on the destroyed warehouses, though no new construction had begun. I used to have an office close to Larry’s, but someone else was in it now. A box with all my belongings had been put into storage and one of the assistants helped retrieve it for me. All I really wanted was the camera. I noticed a few pictures of Larry and me on set as well as several useless certificates from various festivals. I put the camera in my pocket along with the mini-boom that recorded audio better than any instrument I’d worked with. Told the assistant he could throw away the rest. The boom was an expensive prosumer version of a military product, designed to capture the voices of officers speaking in the middle of combat.

I swung by Russ’s office but he wasn’t there. His assistant, an elderly Chinese woman, asked, “Did you get your belongings?”

“I did. Larry asked me to check in with Russ. Is he at home right now?”

“He is,” she answered, then hesitated, wondering if she should not have given that information.

“Great. Larry wanted me to see him ASAP. What was his address again?”

“I’m afraid I can’t give that information out.”

“I’ll call Larry and ask him.”

“Oh, no no, you shouldn’t do that,” she said quickly, and she was quivering.

“It’s no problem. If I just make a call—”

“No need to bother him, I’ll give you the address. Just please, don’t tell either of them I told you.”

“I won’t.”

“You have to promise me.”

“I promise.”

“Again.”

“I promise.” Her eyes were filled with terror and it reminded me of George’s reaction earlier.

“Thank you,” I told her after she gave me the address.

IX.

Russ owned a massive house that was four stories tall. There was good reason to envy the rich. I used to lie to people that I was really wealthy when I was a kid because I didn’t want them to know I lived in a tiny apartment with my alcoholic cousin who was rarely home. Russ’s home was the kind I dreamt about as a kid, so big, I wouldn’t even know all the rooms in my house.

I programmed the taxi to wait outside and walked to the gate. I told security that Larry had sent me and they let me in without hassle. A butler met me at the front door. He had on thick black glasses that covered half his face and a green tuxedo. The house had an indoor swimming pool, antiquities from the Ming Dynasty, and a lot of deer heads on the wall. Russ was downstairs in a room shaped like a centrifuge. There were a hundred arcade booths with games from long ago forming four circular lines as though it were a hedge maze of electronics. I saw titles like Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Moonwalker, Simpsons, Bubble Bobble , and more. The floor was slowly spinning and with the bright lights and sounds, it reminded me of a roulette wheel. Russ was wearing what looked like a red dress and played a game called Bad Dudes . Chained next to him were a naked man and woman. The woman had white hair, a skinny frame, very pale skin, and looked similar to Beauvoir, the sister of Tolstoy, though nowhere near as beautiful. Her presence threw me off guard.

Russ screamed at the game. It looked like his character had died by a shuriken to the forehead from a ninja. Russ slapped the woman and kicked the man, releasing his rage. He had always seemed like such a nice person.

I had the feeling I should take a risk with Russ and expose all my cards. The boom was on and so was the Pinlighter up my sleeve to record our exchange. I should have been thinking about what to ask, but the cinematographer’s instincts in me thought of dramatic angles, light reflecting off his face, the woman and the man chained to either side of him as contrast.

“You told security Larry sent you. But I know Larry didn’t send you,” Russ said.

“You’re right. He couldn’t have sent me because he’s dead.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you think that impostor could fool me? I was Larry’s best friend.”

Russ stopped playing his arcade game and turned to me, grim. “What was it that gave it away?”

Inside, a part of me collapsed. Larry really was dead. It took all my mental discipline not to break down.

“Everything,” I answered.

“Who have you told?” he demanded.

“Tell me why and I’ll tell you who I’ve told.”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The whole company would fall apart without Larry. He used to disappear all the time so we hired someone to impersonate him whenever he was away.”

“That’s who’s taken Larry’s spot?”

“You’re the only person who could tell the difference.”

I fiddled with the camera in my sleeve, wanting to switch angles. “What about Larry’s killer? Or was it you that killed him?”

Laughter bellowed out of him. “I’d have nothing to gain by killing him. Besides, this new Larry is turning out to be a monster.”

“A monster?”

Russ turned back to his arcade machine. “What do you want?”

“I want to find out what happened to Larry.”

“He had a lot of enemies.”

“You have no interest in catching them?” I asked.

“If I tried to catch them, I’d have to acknowledge he was dead. Do you know what would happen to the company if word of that got out?”

“What?”

“We’re in the middle of some very important negotiations,” Russ said. “I’m securing the future of Chao Toufa. Maybe after we reach an agreement, we can look into what happened.”

“Garbage rights?” I threw out there, remembering something Larry had said.

Russ stopped playing again. “How did you know?”

“Larry mentioned it.”

“We have a lot of land out in Greenland and Antarctica that the US government is interested in.”

“I don’t see why they would care if Larry were alive or not.”

“That’s why you’re not a businessman.”

“You’re right. I’m not. I don’t get why garbage is more important than Larry’s life. At least you could have given him a proper burial. Where’s his body?”

I heard a loud boom, felt something punch me in my leg. I felt another blast to my shoulder that caused me to gyrate and stumble into one of the arcade booths. My leg became too weak to support me and I fell to the ground. It took a second to gather they were gunshots. I’d never been shot before. Shot at, yes, but even that was far off the mark. Fortunately, my armor had protected me, but it hurt like hell. There were probably deep contusions and I wondered what would have happened without the plating. I put it out of mind and stayed down, pretending it was worse than it seemed. I had no idea who had fired. Was it Russ? Or guards on the periphery? Or was there a security gun on the ceiling? If the latter, I had no way of getting out as I didn’t have anything to take out a computer-controlled gun. Russ hovered above me with a gloating smile. Coming up next to him was his butler with his huge glasses holding a pistol.

“Should I kill him, sir?”

“No. I need him alive,” Russ said.

The woman who resembled Beauvoir made a rustling sound and when the butler turned his head, I got out my gun and fired at him. The paralysis dart made contact, but bounced off his suit. He too had some armor underneath. I scrambled to hide behind another arcade stall and the bullet that was intended for my back blew the screen.