Sadly, Nikolai shook his head. The old man shrieked: “You got me into this! You were the ideologue! I’m only a poor assassin!”
Nikolai said nothing. The machines seized and repossessed the old man’s arms and legs.
19. ANTIQUE SPLITS. “You’ve really got it through you, right? All that old gigo stuff!” The young people spoke a slang-crammed jargon that Nikolai could barely comprehend. When they watched him their faces showed a mixture of aggression, pity, and awe. To Nikolai, they always seemed to be shouting. “I feel outnumbered,” he murmured.
“You are outnumbered, old Nikolai! This bar is your museum, right? Your mausoleum! Give our ears your old frontiers, we’re listening! Those idiot video ideologies, those antique spirit splits. Mechs and Shapers, right? The wars of the coin’s two halves!”
“I feel tired,” Nikolai said. “I’ve drunk too much. Take me home, one of you.”
They exchanged worried glances. “This is your home! Isn’t it?”
20. EYES CLOSED. “You’ve been very kind,” Nikolai told the two youngsters. They were Kosmosity archaeologists, dressed in their academic finery, their gowns studded with awards and medals from the Terraform-Klusters. Nikolai realized suddenly that he could not remember their names.
“That’s all right, sir,” they told him soothingly. “It’s now our duty to remember you, not vice versa.” Nikolai felt embarrassed. He hadn’t realized that he had spoken aloud.
“I’ve taken poison,” he explained apologetically.
“We know,” they nodded. “You’re not in any pain, we hope?”
“No, not at all. I’ve done the right thing, I know. I’m very old. Older than I can bear.” Suddenly he felt an alarming collapse within himself. Pieces of his consciousness began to break off as he slid toward the void. Suddenly he realized that he had forgotten his last words. With an enormous effort, he remembered them and shouted them aloud.
“Futility is freedom!” Filled with triumph, he died, and they closed his eyes.
A SHAPER/MECHANIST CHRONOLOGY
2045 – Spider Rose born
2053 – Interdict with Earth
2050 – 2150 – Concatenate Period
2186 – Abelard Lindsay born
2195 – Kitsune cloned
2203 – Lindsay scholarshipped to Shaper Ring Council
2205 – Constantine scholarshipped
2209 – Nikolai Leng “born”
2210 – Simon Afriel “born”
2213 – Lindsay returns to Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic
2215 – Lindsay exiled to Mare Tranquillitatis People’s Circumlunar Zaibatsu
2216 – Coup in Republic: Lindsay joins the Red Consensus
2217 – Investors arrive
2217 – Lindsay and Nora Mavrides join Goldreich-Tremaine
2253 – Lindsay leaves Goldreich-Tremaine for Dembowska Cartel
2267 – Vera Constantine cloned
2283 – Nora Mavrides dies: events of “Spider Rose”
2284 – Czarina-Kluster founded
2286 – Lindsay duels with Constantine
2291 – Lindsay recovers from duel, moves to Czarina-Kluster
2328 – Hans Landau “born”
2354 – Events of the “Cicada Queen”; fall of Czarina-Kluster; Lindsay visits Earth
2386 – SCHISMATRIX ends
2554 – Events of “Sunken Gardens”
Schismatrix Plus Page 48