The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Author:Paolo Bacigalupi [Bacigalupi, Paolo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3, pdf
Tags: SteamPunk, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781597801584
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: 2010-04-30T14:00:00+00:00

* * *

Trade: the ministry that functions with impunity, that scoffs at him so easily, that steals his wife and leaves a hole in him the size of a durian.

Chaya.

Jaidee studies the building. In the face of all those blazing lights, he feels like a savage in the wilderness, like a hilltribe spirit doctor staring at the advance of a megodont army. For a moment, his sense of mission falters.

I should see the boys, he tells himself. I could go home.

And yet here he is in the darkness, watching the lights of the Ministry of Trade, where they burn their coal allocation as though the Contraction never happened, as though there are no seawalls needed to keep back the ocean.

Somewhere in there a man squats and plans. The man who watched him at the anchor pads so long ago. Who spat betel and sauntered away as if Jaidee were nothing more than a cockroach to be crushed. Who sat beside Akkarat and observed silently as Jaidee was thrown down. That man will lead to Chaya's resting place. That man is the key. Somewhere inside those glowing windows.

Jaidee ducks back into the darkness. He and Somchai wear dark street clothes, stripped of all identifiers, the better to blend with the night. Somchai is a fast one. One of the best. Dangerous close in, and quiet. He knows his way around a lock, and, like Jaidee, he is motivated.

Somchai's face is serious as he studies the building. Almost as serious as Kanya, when Jaidee considers it. The demeanor seems to creep up on all of them, eventually. Seems to come with the work. Jaidee wonders if the Thai ever really smiled as he has heard in legends. Every time he hears his boys laugh, it is as if some beautiful orchid has blossomed in the forest.

"They sell themselves cheaply," Somchai murmurs.

Jaidee nods shortly. "I remember when Trade was just a bit portfolio under Agriculture, and now look at it."

"You're showing your age. Trade was always a big ministry."

"No. Just a tiny department. A joke." Jaidee waves at the new complex with its high-tech convection vents, with its awnings and porticos. "It's a new world, once again."

As if to taunt him, a pair of cheshires jump up on a balustrade to preen and wash. They molt in and out of view, careless of discovery. Jaidee pulls out his spring gun and takes aim. "That's what Trade has given us. Cheshires should be on their badge."

"Please don't."

He looks at Somchai. "It carries no karmic cost. They have no soul."

"They bleed like any other animal."

"You could say the same of ivory beetles."

Somchai ducks his head, but doesn't say anything more. Jaidee scowls and puts his spring gun back in its holster. It would be waste of ammunition anyway. There are always more.

"I used to be on the poison details for cheshires," Somchai says finally.

"Now it's you who shows your age."

Somchai shrugs. "I had a family then."

"I didn't know."

"Cibiscosis.118.Aa. It was quick."

"I remember. My father died with that one as well.

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