Video Star (Voice of the Whirlwind) by Walter Jon Williams

Author:Walter Jon Williams [Williams, Walter Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, science fiction, Adventure, cyberpunk, One Hour (33-43 Pages)
Amazon: B00L9TB5OQ
Publisher: World Domination, Ltd.
Published: 2014-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

13

Readiness crackled from Ric’s nerves as he approached the hotel door. They could try to kill him, he knew. Now would be the best time. Black Thunder tended to generate that kind of behavior. He’d been telling them he had ideas for other jobs, that he’d be valuable to them alive, but he couldn’t be sure if they believed him.

The door opened and Super Virgin grinned at him with her metal teeth. “Piece of cake, Marat,” she said. “Your cut’s on the table.”

The hotel room was dark, the walls draped in blueblack plastic. More plastic sheets covered the floors, the ceiling, some of the furniture. Coldness touched Ric’s spine. There could be a lot of blood spilled in here, and the plastic would keep it from getting on anything. Computer consoles and vid sets gave off quiet hums. Cables snaked over the floor, held down with duct tape. On a table was a half-kilo white paper packet. Captain Islam and Two-Fisted Jesus sat beside it, tapping into a console. Jesus looked up.

“Just in time,” he said, “for the movies.”

He was a skinny boy, about eighteen, his identity obscured by the obsessive mutilations of Urban Surgery. He wore a T-shirt featuring a picture of a muscular, bearded man in tights, with cape and halo. Here in this place, the hotel room he had hung with plastic and filled with electronics, he moved and spoke with an assurance the others hadn’t absorbed, the kind of malevolent grace displayed by those who gave law and style to others, unfettered by conscience.

Ric could appreciate Jesus’ moves. He’d had them once himself.

Rick walked to the paper packet and hefted it. He tore open a corner, saw a row of little white envelopes, each labeled Genesios Three with the pharmaceutical company sigil in the corner. He didn’t know a test for B-44 so he just stuffed the envelope in his pocket.

“This is gonna be great,” Super Virgin said. She came up behind him and handed him a highball glass half-filled with whiskey. “You got time to watch the flick? We went in packing cameras. We’re gonna cut a documentary of the whole thing and sell it to a station in Nogales. They’ll write some scenes around it and use it on an episode of VidWar.” She giggled. “The Mexicans don’t care how many gringo hospitals get taken off. They’ll put some kind of plot around it. A dumb love story or something. But it’s the highest-rated program, ’cause people know it’s real. Except for Australian Rules Firefight Football, and that’s real, too.”

Ric looked around and found a chair. It seemed as if these people planned to let him live. He reached into his pocket and fired a round of nasal mist up each nostril. “Sure. I’ll watch,” he sniffed. “I got time.”

“This is a rough cut only, okay?” Captain Islam’s voice. “So bear with us.”

There was a giant-sized liquid-crystal vid display set up on the black plastic on the wall. A picture sizzled into existence. The hospital, a vast concrete fortress set in an aureole of halogen light.

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