Текст книги "Accidental Creatures"

Автор книги: Anne Harris

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

Of course the worst of the changes were on the inside, twisting her intestinal and respiratory tracts so they could barely function, and her heart – she said her heart was thickening, and they believed her. All she consumed now was water and morphine.

Sitting by her side in the pink bedroom, Chango realized that for the first time in her life she didn’t envy her sister. She’d always been jealous of Ada, she was beautiful, strong, and a normal person. People liked her. She won them over effortlessly.

Everything with Ada seemed effortless, except for this; dying, losing herself to cells driven mad by growth, alone except for Chango and Mavi. Alone because all those people she’d won over, those vatdivers, people she risked her life for – they never came. Except for Benny. Benny came, standing in the doorway of the room as if coming any closer might put him at risk of catching it. Chango knew why they stayed away. It wasn’t because of the scandal. They didn’t want to see her. They were afraid of seeing themselves, five or ten or fifteen years from now. She was in the kitchen when the changes came. She heard Mavi’s call from the bedroom and nearly dropped the dish she was washing. She let it slide into the warm, murky water and turned, her hands still dripping as she walked down the hall with a feeling of dread and expectancy knotted in her heart like a fist.

Ada lay on the bed, muttering on and off in a strange, moaning, singsong voice. Her skin bubbled everywhere with new growths, blurring her features into a seething mass of changing tissue. Chango sat beside Mavi, and watched as moles and tumors formed and then disappeared beneath new growth, as if her sister were boiling away from inside. There was a pattern to it, she thought. If she could only bear to watch long enough she might see it.

But in the end there was no pattern, no rhyme or reason, just a lifeless, shapeless mass of flesh, no longer identifiable as a human being or anything else. Pure matter, anonymous and silent as a lump of dirt. oOo

Benny opened the door of the apartment he shared with Hugo and stood listening. No sound came from the bedroom. He took off his diving harness and set it beside the door. He walked about the untidy living room picking up empty beer bottles and spent blast cartridges. The olive green carpeting badly needed vacuuming, and the furniture was covered with a film of dust. Hugo was the clean one. Benny took the empties to the kitchen, set them on the counter amid dirty plates and pans, and got himself a fresh beer from the refrigerator.

He walked softly to the bedroom and peered inside. Hugo was in the bed, but not asleep. His eyes glittered faintly in the dim light as he looked at Benny. His brown skin was tinged with grey, and the bulge of a new tumor ruined the fine symmetry of his forehead.

“How you doing?” asked Benny, sitting on the bed beside him.

“Alright,” croaked Hugo, his lips parting in the ghost of a smile. “How was your day?”

“Long,” said Benny, taking a pull from his beer. “We decanted a thousand and fifty cubic meters of fiber today, and there’s another two thousand to do tomorrow.”

“I guess they miss me down there.”

“Yeah, you bet they do. You always were the best decanter. We lost about forty cubic meters to breakage. That never would have happened when you were on the team.”

“They get you a replacement yet?”

“Nope.”

Hugo closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’ve been gone for months now. How can they expect you to keep up with production? And you said the quotas are going up.”

“Don’t worry about work, Hugo.” Benny touched his shoulder – and felt beneath the sheet not skin but... scales? There was always something new. He never knew what he’d find when he came home or when he woke up in the morning. It fascinated him, sometimes, when he wasn’t just plain scared.

“You have something better for me to worry about?” said Hugo.

“No, I guess not. Hey,” he stood up and pulled the memory cube from his jeans pocket. “Chango gave me this for you. Toys.”

“Cool,” Hugo took it from him with hands pitted with tiny, vestigial fingernails. Vatsickness caused random cell division, mostly tumors of mixed tissue but every once while a cell would get itself together to divide into something specific. Hugo had a tooth on the back of his left heel. Benny dreamed of waking up to find himself sliced and half eaten by his lover’s voracious body.

“How’s Chango doing, anyway?”

“She’s got a new girlfriend,” said Benny.

“You mean there’s actually someone left in Vattown for Chango to be new with?”

“She’s new in town. A sport but she grew up in the GeneSys building.”

Hugo tried to whistle and failed. “What’s she doing down here then?” he asked.

“Good question, my dear. Good question.”

“You think she’s spying for them?”

Benny shrugged, “Probably not. Why would they need to spy on us now? Nothing’s going on; the movement’s been dead for years.”

“Maybe they know something we don’t.”

Benny nodded his head. “Maybe. Probably.”

“I hope not, for Chango’s sake. She should settle down already. Speaking of which, don’t you think it’s about time you found a new lover?”

“What?”

“C’mon man, you’ve been really cool to stick around this long.”

“Someone has to take care of you, Hugo. I want it to be me.”

Hugo’s gaze wandered across the ceiling. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. I think it’s time I moved into Mavi’s pink room.”

“You can’t. It’s occupied right now.”

His eyes snapped back to Benny. “By who?”

“Helix, Chango’s girlfriend. She got mugged down in Greektown.”

“You met her today?”

“Yeah.” Benny nodded. “At the Eclectic.”

“Then she must be recovering, if she’s going out.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think she has any place to stay.”

“So what?” Hugo shrugged. “If she’s better, she can crash anywhere, and if she’s with Chango, there’ll be plenty of places for her. I’m sick. I need the room. And you – you need to get this monstrosity out of your bed.”

“Stop it!” Benny stood up, turning his back to Hugo.

“Aw come on, you’ve got to be relieved. Let Mavi help me now. She knows what to do.”

“I told you in the beginning. I want to see this thing through with you.”

“No you don’t Benny. Really, you don’t. And more importantly, I don’t want you to.”

“You don’t?” He turned around again. “Why? What did I do?”

Hugo shrugged and coughed. “Nothing, it’s just that... You’re too interested in it – my illness I mean. You don’t say anything, but you watch each new development with this fascinated horror. I just don’t want any spectators while I do this.”

“So you want to go to Mavi’s.”

“Yeah. I mean you can visit me and stuff, but that way you won’t be involved with the changes on a day-to-day basis. Maybe that’ll help.” Hugo started coughing again.

Benny went into the kitchen and got him a glass of water. He hated to admit it even to himself, but he was relieved. Because he hadn’t been there for Ada, he’d been determined to stick by Hugo until the end. But if Hugo really wanted to go to Mavi’s, then there was nothing he could do about it. Back in the bedroom he watched Hugo drink in long, painful swallows. His coughing subsided, and he managed a smile. ”Do you remember that summer after we graduated, Benny?”

“Yeah, sure I do.” They’d just shut down I-75, and it kept flooding. Hugo, Ada, April and he had gone swimming there all summer.

“We’d just gotten sterilized, and we were all fucking each other. Except for Ada. She always was a strict dyke. We used to call her the Vagitarian, remember?”

“Those were good times, Hugo.” Benny remembered diving into the cool water, surfacing and rolling over onto his back to see Hugo, Val and Coral standing on the overpass; his friends and lovers, all young and healthy, innocent of all that was to come. And Ada, poised to dive off the guardrail; a figure of pure potential, so bold and brave. Too brave for the world, but he hadn’t known that then, then she’d still been the golden girl, bright and untouchable as the sun.

Chapter 8 – Inexplicable Joy

The next morning Helix and Chango went out again after breakfast, but they didn’t go to Hyper’s or Pele’s or Hannah’s. They just walked around the neighborhood, pausing from time to time as Chango pointed out one of the many landmarks of her childhood.

“That’s where we used to play dodge ball,” she said, pointing to a long-disused parking lot overgrown with weeds. “Ada had a wicked throw. I used to just run like hell, but she’d always nail me, right between the shoulders.”

As they neared the vat yards, the pungent smell of growth medium intensified. Helix stopped at the fence, peering at the domed vat houses. Her fingers curled around the chain link, and she had a sudden urge to climb it.

“Come on,” said Chango up ahead. “Let’s go, it stinks around here.”

Helix looked at her, standing in the middle of the road. “Can we go in?”

“What? No! Why would we even want to?”

Helix shrugged. “To see what it looks like.”

Chango shook her head in exasperation and walked back to her. “You’re not still thinking of working there, are you?”

She opened her mouth to say yes. But she realized that Chango would only tell her once again all the reasons why she shouldn’t, so she settled for a noncommittal shrug.

It was another overcast day, the clouds overhead knotting together to scowl at the city. As they stood there, a first few drops of rain began to fall.

“Shit,” said Chango, wiping a drop from her face. “Let’s get out of here.” she pulled the hood of her jacked over her head and scurried for the cover of an awning over a party store. Helix lifted a hand to the quickening rain. It felt good on her skin, velvet-soft and warm, with a green growingness to it like nothing she’d ever felt before. She tilted her face up to greet it, drops spattering on her cheeks and nose.

“Are you crazy?” Chango shouted from under the awning. “This rain has growth medium in it. It’s bad for you!”

How could that be? How could something that felt so good be bad for her? Besides, the growth medium was in the vats where they made the biopolymer, not in the rain falling ever harder, grown now to a full downpour.

“Helix, get under here!” Chango called, but she didn’t pay her any mind. The water felt wonderful. Everywhere it touched her skin it soothed the itching that was as much a part of her daily life as breathing. She threw off Hector’s raincoat, lifting her four arms to the weeping sky, letting the fabric of her body suit soak up the rain and hold it close to her skin. And she whirled, whirled and twirled, her feet splashing in puddles like an echo to her own laughter.

oOo

Chango stood under the awning of the G&P Party Store, watching Helix dance in the rain. Her total disregard for her own safety, her inexplicable and obvious joy, filled Chango with awe and horror. She realized that she really didn’t know Helix much at all. She had no reference point for this odd behavior. Maybe she just liked the rain. Maybe she didn’t understand that this rain contained chemicals that would irritate her skin. Maybe, when she woke up with rashes all over her body tomorrow morning, she’d learn her lesson. There wasn’t enough grow med in the rain to actually give her vatsickness, unless she stayed out here for hours, which, Chango realized, was possible.

Taking a deep breath and tugging the hood of her jacket further over her head, she plunged out into the rain to haul her friend, bodily if need be, out of the downpour.

Helix didn’t see her coming. She grunted with surprise as Chango wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled. “What are you doing?” she said mildly, looking down at her.

“What am I doing? What am Idoing? What are youdoing?” Chango sputtered. “This stuff is going to give you such a rash. You have no idea.” As she spoke, she hauled persistently at Helix’s waist, drawing her at last, with much staggering and splashing, to the shelter of the awning.

“Oh,” Chango said with dismay, looking at her. Helix was drenched head to toe in rainwater. “Let’s get inside. Maybe they have a towel or something we can use to dry you off.”

“I don’t want to dry off,” Helix said, but Chango ignored her, and taking her damp lower right hand in hers, dragged her inside the party store.

The woman behind the counter – a Mandy somebody she knew only vaguely – looked up in startlement at the two of them. “So its raining,” she said, “It’s been threatening to all day.”

Chango nodded. “Do you have a towel or a rag or something we can use to dry her off?” she asked, tilting her head towards Helix, who had detached herself from her grasp and was wandering up one of the aisles.

Mandy somebody nodded, ducked under the counter for a moment and then tossed her a ragged towel. When Chango caught up with her, Helix was staring at a rack of replacement valves for air tanks. “What are these?” she asked as Chango unceremoniously began toweling her off.

“They’re pressure valves, for the divers’ tanks,” she said, rubbing the towel vigorously over Helix’s arms and legs. “We’re going to have to get you out of this body suit as soon as we get home, and you should take a shower.” Chango pulled at her shoulder. “Bend down, so I can get your head.”

The shop door jingled as it opened. Chango, struggling to dry the squirming Helix, couldn’t turn around to see who came in, but judging from the footsteps, there were more than one of them.

“Oh look, the sports are giving themselves a bath in the party store,” said a high pitched voice, Coral’s. Chango gave up trying to dry Helix off and turned to see her standing at the head of the aisle with Monkey, Oli and Katrice. All four of them wore voluminous grey rain ponchos which drained puddles at their booted feet.

“It’s a nice day for a shower,” Chango said, grinning back at their smirking faces. “But then, you guys prefer to soak in it, don’t you?”

Coral’s smirk wavered. “We know how to protect ourselves. What about your friend there?” she nodded at Helix who was running her fingers through her damp hair, and smearing them over her face.

“She trying to get more of it? Doesn’t she think she looks weird enough yet?”

Helix stopped rubbing her face and stared at Coral, her arms at her sides. “What did you come here for?

Was it one of these?” She plucked a pressure valve from the rack and started walking towards the vatdivers. “Or one of these?” She took a box of cereal from the opposite shelf and waved it at them. “Or did you just come in here to bother us?”

Coral stared at her in amazement, and Monkey and Oli whispered to one another. “What’s the matter with her?” Katrina muttered.

“Nothing that you can’t fix,” yelled Helix.. “Get out of here!” She threw the valve and the box of cereal at them. The valve landed behind Monkey with a clatter. The box hit Coral on the shoulder, bounced and broke open on the floor, spraying pellets of hearty grain goodness everywhere.

“Hey! If you’re going to fight, take it outside,” shouted Mandy from behind the counter. “Don’t destroy my store!”

Coral looked like she was trying to decide how to hit Helix without getting tangled in her arms. Chango rushed forward and interposed herself between them. “We’re leaving,” she said, grasping Helix’s lower left elbow, pushing her along as she sidled past the vatdivers. Helix broke from her grasp, and turned once more to face them. “Go outside,” said Chango, pushing her back. “Go play in the rain some more. It’ll hardly be worse than the beating they’ll give you if you keep this up.”

Helix hesitated, staring blankly at her as the rage faded from her eyes. She nodded and went outside.

“Sorry,” Chango told Mandy as she picked the shattered cereal box up off the floor and took it to the counter to pay for it. As she stood there she was aware of the vatdivers muttering amongst themselves and staring, but they troubled her no further.

oOo

“That was really some stunt you pulled yesterday,” Chango said as they sat in the garden behind Mavi’s house. “I don’t know what got into you. First the thing with the rain, and then that fight with Coral. You know after what you told me about hiding out at your father’s place all those years, I was really worried about what would happen when you had to deal with the vatdivers. Now I’m beginning to think they better watch out for you.”

Helix shrugged and scratched her arm in remembrance of the rain’s touch. She looked around the garden. The weather had cleared, and it was a bright, warm day, still a little humid as the sun burned off the lingering damp. If there was any growth medium in the rain, it hadn’t done these plants any harm. Green, luxuriant growth surrounded them, making the air heavy with the scent of life and death. “What are those?” she pointed at the tall, bushy, silver-leaved plants growing in a clump in one corner.

“That’s mugwort, and it’s pretty out of control, but Mavi likes it. She says it brings visions.”

Helix leaned back on her upper hands. The ground beneath her palms was warm and springy. It was a nice feeling, being enclosed like this in a sea of green, cushioned in the quiet by the gentle humming of insects. About a foot from her knee lay a dead sparrow; feet curled delicately against the grey belly. A thin bodied bee hovered nearby, and flies took turns crawling into her body to lay their eggs. Chango was saying something about marking, or marks, but Helix wasn’t listening. She was thinking about what would be found in this garden in November, the bones...

“-And so I was thinking, you’d be an ace scanning once you got the hang of it, and in the meantime, you could be the stall.” Chango paused to see Helix looking at her blankly. “You know, distract them.”

“Distract who?”

“The mark. Are you all right? You feeling okay?”

“Yeah. It’s nice back here. No one can see us.”

“You’re right,” said Chango, leaning closer to her, and taking her lower right hand. She cradled it in her own small hand, splaying her fingertips across Helix’s broad digits. Chango’s hand looked very small indeed there, next to her own, and it was warm and light, like a little brown bird. “Do you know that you’re very beautiful?” she asked Helix.

Helix stared at her. Her face felt warm, and her hands tingled. A small smile crept across her lips of its own volition. “Beautiful...” she whispered, looking away.

"That's right," Chango said, gently turning Helix's chin so she was facing her again. Chango searched her face, her two color eyes bright with intent. "Your eyes, your face, your hair," she glanced down and then up again, and she smiled, "your body; it all goes together, and let me tell you," she said, locking her gaze to Helix's, her face dead serious except for her shining eyes, "it is one majestic fucking harmony." Helix blinked, and then Chango was leaning over, her face coming closer and closer to hers. Alarmed, Helix tried to back away, but there wasn’t much of anyplace for her to go. There was something crashingly immanent in the air around them but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what it was, or what Chango was trying to do, and then she felt her lips on hers, another mouth, speaking to her mouth in a moist, sweet language mouths know. She lifted her arms around Chango to hold her, to steady her, to feel with curious fingers the fabric of Chango’s t-shirt sliding against her skin underneath. They lay down on the ground together, there in the garden, and somehow they just lost track of whose body was whose. Chango’s tongue got into Helix’s mouth, a large, slippery serpent, flickering about, and Helix’s lower hands found some way under that t-shirt and she stroked her; smooth warm skin covered with fine, fine hairs, all but invisible to her fingertips. When Chango reached her hand up to cup one of Helix’s breasts, she jumped at the unexpected jolt which overrode all fear at being touched, being seen, being known – an electric bolt which ran lengthwise through her body, and threw her mind into some other place, where for once she was not at odds with herself, but was just what she wanted to be, and did just what she wanted to do.

Chapter 9 – Shivers of Glass

One afternoon when Chango had gone down to Greektown to scan codes, Helix went on her own to Hyper’s house. “Helix,” he said in surprise, pushing the screen door open to let her in. “Where’s Chango?”

“She went to Greektown,” Helix said, stepping through the doorway.

“Oh.” Hyper raised his eyebrows meaningfully. “Codes.” He turned to his workshop. “Come on in,” he said over his shoulder. “I was just rewiring a telephone.”

Helix sat on a stool across from him as he dismantled an ancient push button phone. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this yet,” said, frowning down on it. When in doubt, take it apart.” His fingers jabbed the buttons idly, producing a ragged tune. “Hey.” He looked at her. “If I got three more of these, I could make you a musical instrument. A keyboard only you could play.”

Helix made a face. “I don’t think so.”

“No? Oh well,” he shrugged. “So what’s up?”

Helix lifted her shoulders to mimic his gesture and bit her upper lip. “If someone were to apply for a job, as a vatdiver, how would they go about it?”

“Someone wants a job as a vatdiver?” Hyper leaned forward, staring at her, grinning in amazement. “Are you sure?”

She nodded her head. Hyper’s eyebrows arched and he gazed at the ceiling with a long drawn out sigh. When he looked back at her it was with a quizzical expression. “Why do you want to dive?”

Helix opened her mouth, but she didn’t know what to say.

“You don’t know, do you? You just want to do it.”

She nodded and then shook her head. “It’s a job, that’s all. I need a job.”

“Uh-huh.” Hyper nodded faintly, and returned his attention to the telephone. “Well, if someone wanted to apply for a job in the vats, they’d have to place an application with personnel. Someone could do that either by going to the personnel office at GeneSys or by filing the application over the holonet.” His eyes slid across the table to his transceiver headset, and back to her. “You can use it, if you want.”

Helix sat in the bare, tiled examination room, clutching a flimsy paper gown about her. The air was chilly, and she shivered.

The door opened and a tall, white-coated figure entered. "Helix Martin?" he said, glancing at a mylar form on a clipboard.

"Yes," she shifted nervously on the examination table.

"Stand up please, and turn around."

Helix turned her back to him, and felt his hands exploring her shoulders, her back, her arms... "Candidate possesses obvious mutations; quadruple arms and overdevelopment of the canine molars," he murmured into his transceiver. "You can sit down again," he said to her. She climbed back onto the examination table, and he fastened a monitor to her naked back. "Heart-rate slightly elevated," he said, gazing at the readout. "Are you nervous?" he asked her, smiling. She nodded.

"There's no need to be, it's just a routine examination. I'm going to take some blood now, okay?" She shrugged. "Okay."

He pricked her finger with a sharp tube that drew her blood up into it, set the tube in a labelled capsule, and handed her an empty beaker. "All I need now is a urine sample. There's a rest room down the hall. You can get dressed first. Just leave the sample on the shelf in the bathroom. The personnel clerk will be getting in touch with you in a few days."

"That's it?"

"That's it. Fill this, and you can go. Not as bad as you expected, huh?" She shook her head, and after he left, scrambled gratefully into her clothes. oOo

Chango pushed mashed potatoes around on her plate and wondered what could be taking Helix so long. She said she had to run an errand for Hyper, but she didn’t say what it was, and when Chango offered to go with her, she refused. For that matter, she hadn’t been able to get much out of Hyper about this errand either. He only mumbled something about machine parts and went back to his welding. They were living with Hyper now. Mavi needed the pink room for Hugo. She and Helix made a bed for themselves among the cushions in the front room, and Chango made sure the door was locked.

“Hey,” said a voice beside her. Chango looked up from her demolished plate special to see Helix standing there, still wearing the raincoat, but unbuttoned now. It was a start.

“Hey, what took you so long? Have a seat.”

Helix sat down across from her, smiling widely, her fangs poking out from her lips.

“What’s got you so happy, huh?”

Helix shrugged, her eyes flickering uneasily over Chango’s face. “It’s a nice day out. And it’s good to see you.”

“Huh. I don’t know. You’ve got what I’d call a shit eating grin on you. You up to something?”

Helix shook her head slowly, then took one of Chango’s hands in hers, brought it to her mouth and started chewing lightly on her fingers.

“Hey, stop it. Not in here,” regretfully she pulled her hand back.

“No? Okay.” Helix folded her four hands primly on the table. “So what are we doing tonight?”

“Think you’re ready to go to the bar? There’s a band playing at Josa’s tonight.”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll be with you. And Hyper said he’s going.”

Helix nodded. “Okay.” And then, to Chango’s amazement, she took off her raincoat. “You were right you know,” she said. “People aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be.”

oOo

Chango clung to one of Helix’s hands and squirmed through the crowd at Josa’s. It was fine for her, she was good at slipping through crowds, but Helix kept getting caught on people. By the time they got to the bar, she’d had the best possible introduction to a fair percentage of the Vattown population, and was looking pretty panicky. “Sorry about that,” said Chango, “It’s kind of crowded.”

Helix shook her head, and laughed. “That was so weird!” she said, looking more like the victim of a roller coaster ride than a person actually terrified. She’d left her raincoat at Hyper’s, wearing just the green polysuit and a blue sylk swing tunic they found yesterday behind Clothzillion’s. Her color was high, her eyes sparkling. With a twinge of pride, Chango noticed that other people were staring at her too.

“People were all pushed up against me,” said Helix. “No one could really see me. But I felt them,” she leaned forward and ran a hand up Chango’s arm. “like I felt you.”

Chango’s eyes widened. This was a far cry from the person who’d fled in terror because Chango bumped into her in a casino. “I can’t believe how well you’re handling this!” she shouted as the band started up. “I didn’t think I’d get you in the door!”

“Hey kids!” it was Hyper, popping out of the crowd like a cork. He still had his transceiver on, with a projector lens screwed onto it so he could flash pictures up on the walls when he danced. The Ply-Tones started playing Zinc Oxide, and Chango jumped off her stool. “I have to dance to this!”

she said.

“Yeah!” Hyper nodded his head at the dark walls of the bar, “I’m with you, sister. What this place needs is a good light show.”

Chango shook her head, “We can’t leave Helix here alone!”

They glanced at Helix, who stood. “I’ll dance,” she said, her voice barely audible over the urgent beat of the music.

Hyper danced in a manic jitter, frantically switching channels, providing the bar’s denizens with visuals ranging from detergent commercials to open heart surgery. The images flashed and flickered on the walls as his head swayed to the music, but his efforts were in vain. Everybody within eyeshot was watching Helix.

She danced like a temple goddess, her arms waving, her skin glistening with the reflected colors of Hyper’s wall projections. Space formed around them as the other dancers slowed and backed away to watch her. When the song ended, they were surrounded by a ring of onlookers who burst into spontaneous applause. Helix stood in the middle of the circle, her eyes suddenly wide with surprise and fear. But then another song started, and her body seemed to take over from her mind, turning and swaying with the undulating rhythms of the music.

oOo

The set ended and Helix, out of breath and dizzy from dancing, followed Chango and Hyper back to the bar. Hyper ordered a round of drafts. With just the jukebox playing, the noise in the bar settled down to a dull roar. The door opened, and a discernable ripple ran through the place. The crowd parted to let a stately creature through. She walked with either indolent grace or extreme carefulness, Helix wasn’t sure which. She was upwards of seven feet tall, her hair – pure white and fine as spun glass – was swept up over her brows in an elaborate filigree of braids. Her skin was not so much white as it was transparent. She looked blue. Not the black blue of the night sky, but the softest, palest powder blue imaginable, and even from here, Helix could make out the tracery of veins across her face and hands. Accompanied by her bodyguard, she glided to the back of the bar and softly folded herself into a corner booth.

"The Doctor is in," muttered Chango.

"Who is that?" whispered Helix.

"Orielle," Chango told her. "They say if it weren't for her, there'd be no blast in Vattown. Of course that's not all she deals in."

People began to drift over to Orielle's table singly and in pairs. They'd sit with her for a time – you never actually saw the money or anything else, but in a little while they’d get up and another set of buyers took their place.

"I think they're getting up," said Hyper, sliding off his stool and nodding at the pair of divers at the booth.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked Chango.

Hyper looked over his shoulder and grinned.

“You’re not buying anything from her, are you?” said Chango.

Hyper shrugged.

“Hyper, with your jumped up metabolism, you can’t afford to go messing around with her concoctions.”

“I’m just going to say ‘hi’. Don’t you want to meet her, Helix?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” said Helix.

“Then come on.”

Helix followed him to Orielle’s table, trailed reluctantly by Chango.

"Orielle, I want you to meet Helix, Helix, Orielle,” said Hyper. The creature lifted her head, and turned towards them a face of finely drawn bones – all sharp edges and angular planes, her skin thin and translucent, like rice paper. And her eyes – red, hot, albino eyes. "I have heard so much about you," she said to Helix, dropping her eyes and waving her into the seat across from her. Her long, silver painted fingernails glittered and drew figures in the air. Like dancers, Orielle’s hands moved across the table top, scooped up a small silver box, and then by some subtle motion, she held four ampules in her hand like slivers of ice, palest blue. "A little something of my own design,” she said, “I call it Shivers of Glass. It has a diazepam base note with highlights of ergoloid mesylate. A tad on the narcotic side but still I find it quite... exquisite.” She twirled an ampule between her fingers and broke it, throwing her head back and inhaling the evaporating liquid. A moment passed with nothing more than bar noises to mark it. Orielle drew her head back down, her eyes glittering. There were still three ampules in her hand. “Would you like to try it?” she asked Helix. Chango shook her head.