Surfing Samurai Robots by Mel Gilden

Author:Mel Gilden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: detective, mystery, humor, SF
ISBN: 9780743479264
Publisher: I Books
Published: 2004-04-01T02:12:45+00:00

‘I get it. The colder you are, the more money you have.’ A bull of a man in a ridiculous red uniform was watching us from his station in front of a bank of private elevators. As we walked on, I said, ‘People live here?’

‘Live and work both.’

‘Is there an undertaker?’

‘No.’

‘I wouldn’t think so. It wouldn’t fit the mood. Not unless he could have tiny white lights blinking in his window and he could sell popcorn on the side. Too bad, though. An undertaker in the arcade would be a great selling point. You’d never have to go outside.’

We went up a flight in a glass elevator inside a clock that showed its gears working and walked down to a bookstore called Nurture/Nature. The front of the store was panelled in rustic wood. We entered through a wide doorway over which two very complicated and artistic Ns were burned, intertwining, into the wood.

Inside, the bookstore continued the outdoorsy theme. It busted a gut trying to look as if the entire inside were outside. Bookshelves seemed hewn from fallen trees. The ceiling was painted a cloud-flecked blue. Autumn leaves and pine needles were painted on the brown floor. Guitar music played softly but persistently against the aggressively jaunty music that managed to get in through the open door. Whoever owned the shop had missed out making the place smell like pine needles, but nobody’s perfect.

Only the customers didn’t fit. From the looks of the earnest crowd, they had only a nodding acquaintance with roughing it, and the lack of experience had taken on a sort of romantic glow. They were casually well-dressed but not very rugged.

‘I should have worn my cowboy hat,’ I said.

‘It’s true,’ said Sylvia, ‘they’re a little heavy on decor, but otherwise, it’s a good bookstore. They have an enormous selection of books on genetics and tanning.’

‘Together or individually?’

‘Both. You’d be amazed at how many people are interested in both subjects.’

‘Probably. This is one of Heavenly’s hangs?’

Sylvia nodded. ‘Her favourite bookstore.’

We wandered for a while, watching faces and catching patches of conversation. None of it meant much to me. After we’d cased the whole store, Sylvia and I walked down an aisle lined with big books with colourful covers showing balls with spikes and short twisty trains. Just about every book had the word ‘virus’ in the title. At the moment, nobody was in the aisle. Sylvia picked up a book just to have something in her hands and said, ‘I didn’t see anybody I know,’ She sounded disappointed.

‘You said there are a lot of people interested in this stuff. Not all of them would know Heavenly. And you wouldn’t know all of them that she knew.’

‘Yeah. I’m a hell of a social secretary.’ ‘We’re not dead yet. Let’s talk to the guy behind the counter.’

Sylvia followed me back to the front of the store. I had to stand back from the counter to see over it.

On top of the counter was a cardboard display rack filled with copies of a book called Tanning is in Your Blood by Genetics MacDonald.

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