Chapter Twenty-Two
Annabelle woke Dex early the next day. He had set his system to wake him for her call and he was well asleep when the chiming noise in his head roused him. He gave himself five minutes for the lav and a swig of Flying Fish, then he returned Annabelle’s ping. “What do you have for me?” he said, a rasp in his voice.
“Jeez, Dex,” she said, “you sound like shit.”
“Truth in advertising,” he said, “that’s all. So, why’d you wake me up?”
“Mostly I just wanted to hear your sexy voice,” she said and Dex answered with a genuinely amused short laugh. He was surprised at their now easy banter, but after that awful night at the restaurant, it was as if they now shared some kind of secret. It was strange, but Dex wasn’t about to argue.
“You should have told me earlier,” he said. “I could have left a recording and slept in.”
Annabelle laughed and said, “Unfortunately, there’s more. I think Ljundberg’s on the move.”
“I’m not overly surprised,” Dex said. “He was pretty fucked up last night. I’m not going to get excited about it, though.”
“You don’t think he’s going to disappear?”
“The guy has to eat, right?”
“I don’t get it,” Annabelle said.
“Well,” Dex stretched and sniffed at his clothes. He wrinkled his nose and continued, “You can track him by his chip, right?
“Yeah, so?”
“So, he stops for food or water and we know where he is.” Dex put on his less nasty clothes and made a note to check at the hotel’s concierge for laundry services. “And better yet, he needs to work to pay for it. So he’ll be online again soon enough, I’m sure. He’s not going anywhere — there’s nowhere to go.”
“You seem really cool about this,” Annabelle said.
“Well,” Dex said, “truth be told, if Ljundberg did it, whatever his motivation, it was personal. It was about Reuben. He’s no threat to anyone else, really. So, there’s no rush in finding him. Besides, he seems like the kind of guy where letting him stew will make him more likely to give it up later.”
“So, what’s the plan now?”
“I’ve got a meeting with Bish,” Dex said, “and I’ve put on my nicest outfit to wow her with.”
“I’m sure she’ll be all over you with that physical world bullshit of hers,” Annabelle said, real venom in her voice now. “You watch it, Dex. She’s a suspect, remember. Don’t get sucked in by her. Her and her god damn body.”
Dex was surprised by Annabelle’s vitriol. “Uh, Annabelle,” Dex said carefully, “I’m not going to fuck her. I know she’s a suspect and I’m going to find out what she knows. Sure, we share certain... preferences, but that doesn’t mean I even like her, let alone that I’m going to fall under her thrall or something. I am a pro, you know.”
“I’m sorry, Dex.” He could hear real sadness in her voice. “It’s just... hard, you know?”
“Kind of,” he said, not really understanding at all. There was silence for a moment, then Dex heard Annabelle take a deep breath.
“Look, remember that night we went out to dinner, in Marionette City?”
“With excruciating clarity,” he answered.
“Exactly,” she said. “You hated that. I know. I understood perfectly. Because that’s exactly how I feel outside of Marionette City. In the... embodied world.”
“Oh.” Dex didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah.” Annabelle was quiet and Dex wondered if she’d muted her input. Soon enough she continued, though. “So it’s kind of hard for me, knowing... what you like and knowing that it’s what she likes... and knowing that I don’t...”
“Aw, honey,” Dex trailed off, not knowing how to say what he wanted to. Instead, he sent Annabelle a link to Marionette City. They met at Monte’s. Dex walked toward Annabelle’s avatar and had his avatar put its arms around her. He even felt something for a moment, though it was more like regret that this moment wasn’t real than any kind of human connection and that made him feel even more sad.
“I’m sorry things are so fucked up,” he said aloud, the voice connections still live.
“Me too,” she said.
Dex had his avatar pull back from Annabelle’s and he smiled. He wondered if he looked sad. “Aren’t we a pair,” he said, hoping his voice made up for any deficiencies his avatar projected. She smiled back at him and stepped back.
“Thank you for this,” she said. “Really. You don’t know how much it means.”
He smiled and said nothing. Then, after a moment, he said, “I have to go,” his avatar not moving.
“I know,” Annabelle said. “Go get ’em.” She punched him lightly on the shoulder and linked out of Marionette City, cutting the voice connection at the same time. Dex linked out as well, but had to wait a moment before he was able to walk out his hotel room door.
• • •
Dex was meeting Stella Bish at the Free Robots and he walked out of El Presidente then headed up the road. The weather was still hot and humid, but Dex was starting to become accustomed to it. The growing warmth over Dex’s body that had previously seemed suffocating he now found comforting, like a blanket. He could see how people might want to move here — more sunlight, less rain and natural warmth. Two days seemed a bit quick to be going native, though — maybe it was just lack of sleep.
He pushed open the main door of the building and stepped into the vestibule. He checked the time at the lower right corner of his display and saw that he was a few minutes early. He hoped that he would be the first to arrive and be able to get a table and set the scene. He opened the door to Free Robots and was disappointed to see Bish at one of the booths, surrounded by a coterie of her supporters.
Dex walked up to the bar and ordered a coffee from the touchpad. It was a little early for a drink and he wanted to be alert for his talk with Bish. The metal arm poured his coffee and set the cup in front of him. Dex took it and walked to a small table for two on the far side of the room. He waited for Bish to come to him. It took longer than he would have liked, but she eventually walked over to his table.
She sat across from him and crossed her hands on front of her on the table, like a proper schoolgirl of years gone by. “You wanted to see me again,” she said, that smile playing at the corner of her lips.
“I need to know more about this Offline Cleanse of yours,” Dex said, especially conscious of the woman’s charms. “And Sterling Ljundberg. What can you tell me about him?”
Bish unclasped her hands and leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs, she began to inspect her well-groomed fingernails. Dex noticed, for the first time, that the nails were imbued with some kind of pattern. It looked like one of the holographic colours B&B’s cosmetics department sold. “I met him here,” she said. “A few days ago. I don’t think I’m really going to be helpful, Mr. Dexter. I didn’t even know he was on my list of potentials.”
“That seems unlikely,” Dex said.
“I agree,” Bish said, looking him in the eye, “but there it is. Besides, just because his name doesn’t mean a lot to me doesn’t make it a great coincidence. Plenty of the people who want to work for me are already Cleansers, or they learn about it because they want to work for me. It’s not a big secret, you know.”
“It’s not exactly advertised on your storefront, either,” Dex countered.
“True,” Bish said, “but the word is out that I’m building living quarters in Europa and it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to put two and two together.” She was silent, watching Dex closely. He hoped that the dawning realization didn’t show on his face.
“A physical world community is a pretty big step,” Dex said. “You’ll have to really trust your people.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, looking genuinely puzzled.
“Well,” Dex said, “housing that’s not tied to employment is at a premium and while your staff are so
rt of your employees, I assume places at your building won’t be meted out the usual way.” She nodded her agreement and Dex continued. “So, there’s a good chance people will say they agree to the idea of the Cleanse just to get a room.”
“So?” she asked.
“Well, how is that building a new kind of community?”
“I think there’s a wonderful and necessary thing about a community focussed around the physical world, Mr. Dexter,” she said, “and I don’t think it matters what people think when they first come in. So long as we are truly there — that we have activities and there is a real community, people will want to participate. We are social animals — it’s what people do.”
Dex thought of Annabelle. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” he said.
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take,” she answered.
Dex paused for a moment to run back the audio recording of the conversation. He caught the point where the topic had shifted and returned to his earlier point. “So, you say you met Sterling Ljundberg just a few days ago? When exactly was that?”
Bish adjusted to the abrupt shift in topics easily. “Two days ago. A local group of Cleansers have been meeting here when we are on retreat.”
“Retreat?”
“That’s what we call those days off, the days spent offline and in person.”
“Okay,” Dex said. “So you met Ljundberg two days ago...”
“Yes,” she said. “He was here, I was here, we met and we talked. I didn’t even recognize his name from the staff list. He mentioned it and I supposed he was trying to curry favour, increase his ranking or something. It happens sometimes at these events.”
“Does it work?” Dex asked.
Bish smiled and leaned slightly toward him. “Sometimes it does,” she said. “I have to admit that I find meeting people in the physical world makes me feel more comfortable with them — I tend to trust them more. So yes, meeting potential associates here can make a difference to to their chances.”
“And Ljundberg?”
“Well, that’s interesting,” she said. “I’m not sure about him now. I was going to hire him yesterday, but today...”
“Suspicion of murder puts a pall on the trust level, does it?”
“Actually, no,” Bish answered. “Well, that’s not why. It was his reaction. A bit too hotheaded for me. But we’ll see. My mind isn’t made up yet.” Dex was silent and Bish looked him directly in the eyes. “Is yours?”
Dex shifted in his seat and thought. Like he usually did when he didn’t know how to respond to a question, he opted for honesty. “No,” he said, “I don’t think it is. But you never really know about a person. All you have are what they tell you and what you see for yourself.”
“Exactly my point, Mr. Dexter,” she said. “There is so little we can ever know about each other and when we waste all that time interacting virtually, we miss an entire level on which we can communicate. It’s such a shame, don’t you think?” She looked a Dex expectantly, as if she had asked the most important question of their conversation.
Dex thought for a moment. He understood her point of view so well and yet he found her personally to be utterly disturbing. Again, he opted for the truth.
“What I think doesn’t matter.” He rose from the table and walked out the door.