by F X Holden
He did. “You taking me in now?” Warnecke asked. “I’m ready. I’ve been ready a long time.”
Don’t engage? Well it was too late for that - Warnecke thought he had just turned himself over to a cop in front of a cafe full of people.
“No, I’m not taking you anywhere except back to Sol Vista,” AJ said. He looked up and down the street. “Unless you want to go to the Medmart for anything?” Like a mega tranq, AJ thought to himself. That’d be good. He started walking.
Warnecke looked at him through narrow eyes, “That just confirms it. He owns you too.”
AJ checked traffic and then headed across the road, Warnecke in tow. ‘He’ again? Don’t engage AJ thought, Don’t ask.
“I thought hell, maybe you’re the last damn honest cop on the Icecap, maybe you’re waiting for me to turn State’s witness on this, but no, he owns you like he owns everyone else,” Warnecke said.
“I wasn’t joking about the swimming classes,” AJ said, trying distraction. “Exercise is good therapy, that’s what the neuros say.”
“Forget therapy,” Warnecke said. “So how’s it work? He pays you to keep an eye on me right? My mind is going, so he’s scared now, scared what I might tell.”
“If you don’t like swimming,” AJ continued, unfazed. “We have a mag bowling lane, four kinds of tennis, and you get half-price membership at the Glades blade course, there’s a free car to the pro shop every day at ten.”
Warnecke just laughed.
“You play blades?” AJ asked. Some days, the walk from the shopping strip to Sol Vista seemed to be over before you got started, other days it took forever. Like today, Citizen Warnecke glaring back at him. “OK then, pro ball? We got a pro ball competition, four tables. There’s some guys you need to watch out for, I’ll tell you who. They like to let you win a couple and then ask if you want to play for credits. Sharks. Unless you’re good. Would be great to see someone take them down for a change…”
They were near the gates now. Then it would be just a couple minutes through the guest car park to reception and AJ could say goodbye. Then damn if he wouldn’t take Cyan at her word; go home, go to the Sea Gate. No spouts forecast this afternoon, just a rolling swell. So he’d take his longboard out, see who was out there, mess around a bit just for the exercise and then hit Kodiak for a burger and a beer.
Warnecke was quiet now, so AJ wasn’t sure if he’d moved on, his mind in another place, or whether he was just pissed.
“Hey Brownie,” AJ said as he walked into reception. Brownie Napolitano usually did afternoons-early evenings because she didn’t like getting up early, or staying up late. She liked her sleep. She told AJ once at a staff party she firmly believed sleep was more important and more enjoyable than sex. “When was the last time you had ten hours solid of good sex?” she’d asked him. AJ had to admit he never had. “What I’m talking about,” Brownie had said.
“Hi AJ,” Brownie replied, looking up from her magazine. She was also a doll collector, and didn’t think there was anything good on those VR shopping channels. She was a serious collector, and there were dark corners of the Core where people like her traded the real stuff, stuff you couldn’t get on the open market.
AJ got ready to swipe the door, but Brownie called out, “Oh, is that Citizen Warnecke? You have a visitor Citizen Warnecke.” She nodded to the guest lounge, where AJ could see a large, sweaty guy in a royal blue suit getting to his feet, big grin on his face.
“So this is where you hid yourself,” the guy said, wiping his hand and reaching out for Warnecke. “Ben told me where you were at, but I thought I’d give you a couple days to settle in.”
Warnecke looked at AJ, his face knotted up with rage, “You contacted him, back at the coffee shop, right? I didn’t catch you drifting, but somehow, you contacted him!”
AJ just looked at them both, as they shook hands, Warnecke kind of limp now. The man turned and looked at AJ like he was deciding something, then held out his hand to him too. So this was the ‘he’ Warnecke had been talking about?
“Kevin Winters,” he said. AJ could tell he was waiting to see if AJ recognized him. AJ Core drifted, flicking quickly through a database of all the people he’d ever met, then all people called Kevin Winters, and came up with a couple of facial matches that could be the guy. But he stayed quiet. Citizens got creeped out if you shared what you knew about them at first meeting.
“Congressman Winters,” Warnecke said dismissively to AJ, and then turned back to Winters. “Like he doesn’t already know.”
AJ watched as Warnecke buzzed himself inside and Winters held the door for them as they went through. “Well, way down here in the South,” Winters said. “I don’t expect he’s ever heard of me.”
“Uh huh. And you never seen that cyber before in your life,” AJ heard Warnecke say disbelievingly as the door closed.
AJ stood looking at the closed door.
“Friends in high places, that Citizen Warnecke,” Brownie said, whistling. “The guy arrived here in a single person car and it’s parked outside, just waiting for him.”
AJ remembered seeing a big black limousine out in the car park but hadn’t thought much about it. He’d figured it was picking up or dropping off, not just waiting around - he didn’t know that many people had their own personal ride. In fact, he didn’t know anyone. “Who is Congressman Winters?” AJ asked, even though he’d already quickly drifted to look the guy up. He enjoyed gossiping with Brownie.
“You never heard of Congressman Winters?” Brownie said.
“Don’t follow the news,” AJ said. Brownie was a politics junkie. “When I do, it’s usually surf reports.”
“Well he’s head of some Congressional intelligence committee,” Brownie said. Then she lowered her voice, “He’s on a Commonwealth panel investigating the President of New Syberia. I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it. It’s unheard of, a criminal investigation of an off-world leader!”
It had been in the Core data he’d pulled down. “Tell me more,” AJ said.
“Well, rumor is that New Syberia has moved an army of cybers onto Orkutsk, getting ready to make a move on Coruscant itself.”
AJ had been expecting it, from his analyses of recent political machinations. His analytical self was quietly pleased he’d picked the New Syberian leaders’ next move correctly. There was a flow in diplomacy and politics too - though it was hard to see, it was there and despite the random element that politicians brought to the game, he felt he was close to being able to write an algorithm for it. Personally he was worried, because any one colony trying to assert rights to the biggest planet in the system would inevitably lead to conflict.
She crooked a finger to get him to lean in closer, “And I might have heard a certain Senator just now discussing with someone in the Capitol that ‘things were at a very delicate stage’ so what else could he have been talking about?”
“Uh, maybe he has a nasty rash?”
“You can laugh, but you should try keeping up with global affairs AJ,” she said. “Spend more time here on the ice, less time out on the Shifting Sea,” Brownie said.
“Leave that to you,” AJ said, patting the reception desk. “And on that subject, I got the afternoon off.”
“Lucky you,” Brownie called as he disappeared out to the car terminus. “Go home and get some sleep. Look like you need it.”
4. SKATER GRRL
But his weird day wasn’t finished with him. He went for a paddle until the sun started setting, got to Kodiak about seven, which was about an hour up the coast from Sol Vista and walked in and who was there? Cyan Tanike, with some woman; it looked to him like they were on a girl’s night out. He didn’t want to interrupt, so he turned around thinking OK, maybe just get a chicken steak at a market somewhere, grill it at home, but he wasn’t quick enough and Cyan called out to him across the bar, “Hey! AJ, hi!”
So he went over, “Hi Cyan.” She pronounced it Sigh-Anne, said her mother gave her the name, aft
er her favorite color.
“AJ, sit, sit,” Cyan said, pulling out the chair next to her. “I want you to meet someone. This is Cassie. She’s from Bloor, can you believe that?”
The woman was in her mid to late twenties, so a couple years older than AJ and quite a bit younger than Cyan. She had honey brown skin like Cyan but her hair was cropped short and dyed white, and she had a bleached-white tattoo of a grapevine or something coming up out of her t-shirt behind her left shoulder and climbing up her neck. Dark black eye shadow, black lipstick like a lot of Territory women, but not going the total Territory look, with the white hair thing going on. She smiled, “So you’re AJ? Would you believe we were just talking about you?” AJ could feel his hormones kicking in; not just at the sight of her, but also because he was loving her lazy Territory accent.
“No,” AJ said, not sitting down, trying to find a quick way out of this. Since he broke up with Henni and had a couple flings with Cyan, it seemed Cyan had been determined to introduce him to every one of her single friends. “I wouldn’t. Look, I just came looking for someone, but they’re not here, so …”
“Good, so sit your ass down with us,” Cyan said. “Let me get you a beer.” And she stood up, and pointed at the chair then walked up to the bar, so he was cornered. He gave Cyan’s friend a weak smile and sat.
“We were talking about you, I’m not kidding you,” Cassie said, giving him a very pointed look, eyes flicking unmistakably up to AJ’s ‘third eye’. AJ found himself thinking, OK, so she’s one of those. A citizen with a curiosity about cybers. “I was asking Cyan about the people on her team and you were the first one she talked about. She said you are awesome with the TGA cases.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“She said you are like totally Zen. She’s never seen you upset, no matter how much shit, literally, is flying. She said you surf.”
“Yeah.”
Cassie looked at him, waiting for something, but he wasn’t sure what. “She also said you aren’t much of a talker,” she smiled, to show she was teasing.
AJ looked over to the bar but Cyan hadn’t even been served yet. “I guess you’d call me more of a listener,” he said and smiled back at her. He looked at her again - she had the well-muscled shoulders and small waist of a someone who you might see out on a board. “You surf?” he asked. Even though she was from the Inland ice, it was a reasonable guess, meeting her here so close to the Sea Gate.
“No, I’m more of a skater,” she said. “You skate?”
“When I was a kid,” he said. Then thought maybe that sounded rude. “You know, I just mean, I liked surfing more, kind of thing. So I stopped skating, when I grew up.”
Cassie laughed, “Oh, so skating is for kids, is what you’re saying?” She looked down at her empty glass. “You’re right, I’m way too old now for anything except taking my deck down to get my hair cut or get takeaway and then back to my apartment, and that’s just because I’m too lazy to walk.”
AJ thought maybe she sounded a bit offended, so he tried a save, “No, that’s not... Hey, have you seen that new sculpture outside Dolphin Plaza?”
The woman’s eyes brightened a little, “You mean the long metal one looks like a wave, with fish jumping out of it?”
“Yeah, what do you think?”
“Totally skateable,” she said. “You thought that too?”
“Yeah,” AJ agreed. He found himself warming to Cassie. “You know. If you were good with a deck.”
“Is that a challenge?” Cassie asked, getting mock offended. “That sounds like a challenge.”
Cyan came back with three beers and put them down, then picked up the vibe, “You two already fighting?” She raised her eyebrows.
“Uh huh,” Cassie said. “AJ just called me out when I told him I’m a skater. I’m only 25 but he thinks I’m too old.”
“No, I…”
“Come on kiddies, you just met. Play nice,” Cyan said. “Cheers.”
AJ was still looking for a way out. He could see they hadn’t eaten yet, and he didn’t want to be invited to join for dinner. He drank half his beer while Cyan talked about how the bartender kept trying to sell her some new brew and she tried it and had to ask, when did it become a thing to put ladies perfume in a beer?
But Cassie wasn’t letting it go. When Cyan finished her story Cassie smiled at AJ again and said, “OK surfer boy, tell you what. I’ll meet you at Dolphin Plaza Sunday afternoon after it shuts. We’ll see who can skate that sculpture.”
AJ laughed, then realized she was serious, “OK, but I don’t have a deck anymore.”
“You can borrow one of mine,” she said.
“Ooh,” said Cyan. “I bet she doesn’t say that to just anyone AJ.”
Now AJ had been cornered again, but what the hell. The woman seemed nice. He finished his beer. “OK, make you a deal,” he said. “You show me what you got Sunday, if you make me look like a grom, I’ll give you a surfing lesson.”
Cassie held out her hand, “Deal.”
“Teach you a proper grown-up pastime,” AJ said, standing now.
“Oh, you are going to get burned,” Cassie said. “So bad.”
“Thanks for the beer boss,” AJ said. “I owe you. But I have to run, really.”
Cyan looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, “OK then. Bye.”
“Bye,” he said and hit the door, looking for a pickup point so he could grab a car the hell out of there.
But actually, it wasn’t so bad, he thought, climbing into a car with three other people headed to Sea Gate district. He and Cassie didn’t swap ID or anything so probably it was just bar talk. He sat back as the car pulled out of the parking lot and onto the coast road, heading north. Wow, what a day. Started alright, getting the afternoon off, then that scene in Fatty’s with Warnecke, the Congressman thing, and now he’d probably seriously offended his boss’s friend, telling her she was too old to still be skating.
Some days, it was hard to find your flow.
And that wasn’t it the end of it. Because next morning on her run Cyan sent him a note with a comms ID on it.
“What’s this?” he asked, running it across his cortex.
“Cassie’s private ID, so you can talk,” she said.
“Hey look,” he protested. “I didn’t mean to offend her. But I was joking and then she acted like I insulted her and I was just trying to find a way out.”
“Yeah, I never saw you drink a beer so quick,” Cyan said with a grin.
“I know. So we can just…”
“Talk, as in arrange to meet up like you agreed. It’s just a comms ID, AJ,” Cyan said. “She’s a friend of a friend of a friend. Just moved over here from the pole. Doesn’t know too many people on the coast. It would do her good to get out.”
“OK.”
“Might do you good too,” Cyan said. “Have a bit of fun with someone different, instead of just hanging out with all your superchill surfing buddies, none of who you can have a serious conversation with. She’s smart. Not your kind of smart, but smart for a citizen; you won’t have to dumb yourself down too much.”
“OK. I guess.”
“Up to you. You got her number. She’s hoping you’ll call, but it’s your life.”
“Yeah.”
“Your short life, AJ,” she said. “Tick tick. Time’s running.”
“I know, I know.”
“So what’s happening today?”
“Uh, got to go to the garden center, get some tubing and drip feeders, fix the feed outside number 170 for Andreas. Got that loose railing northeast corner of the lake, then a few routine calls, I guess.”
Cyan started jogging on the spot, ready to head off, “OK, cool.” As she ran off she called back over her shoulder, “Just don’t break a wrist skating Sunday OK? I can’t afford to have both you and Leon down sick.” She stopped. “Oh yeah, I forgot. Citizen Warnecke has a busted diode in his dining area. You fit him in? Leon just seems to set him off on one of his rants. He’s pro
ving pretty high maintenance, that guy.”
AJ left Warnecke to the end of the day, as late as he could without it being so dark Warnecke would be able to complain about not having light in his kitchen. AJ was pretty damn sure Warnecke could change his own light diode if he needed to. And of course Leon was too busy in the morning and then went home at lunchtime, so AJ couldn’t ask him to do it.
The only upside to spending the day worried about what Warnecke had planned, was that he didn’t have much time left over to worry should he call Cassie or not. If he was going to call her, it would have to be today, or he’d look like he didn’t really want to, or maybe he was trying to look like he didn’t really want to, which was just as bad. If he called tomorrow he’d have to be like, “Oh hey, I was wondering if you were still up for skating Sunday?” and Cassie would be like, “What, it’s been three days, you think I don’t have other plans now?” But if he called today, he could say something like, “Hey, it’s AJ. I was wondering if you were serious about Sunday or that was just joking around?” Give them both a way out if she’d changed her mind, but much less rude than waiting too long.
OK, yeah. So he hadn’t just been thinking about Warnecke all day. It was the kind of dilemma that no amount of Core bandwidth could help with. And situations like this, he had to admit, maybe those first 15 years were a good investment.
“This is normal is it, you got to wait a whole day for someone to fix a simple light globe?” Warnecke said after he opened the door of 96.
“Hello Citizen Warnecke,” AJ said. “Yeah, we do the critical repairs first usually,” he fibbed. “Citizen Heidecker in 54 had problems with her air filter. That took a while.”
“Took a whole day?” Warnecke said, not waiting for an answer. “It’s the one over the oven.”
AJ looked at it. The laser diode was broken but the base was still screwed into the fitting. It looked like it had been hit with something. He looked around, and saw a broom propped up against the wall. Yeah, a broom handle would do it.