Fractions_ The First Half of the Fall Revolution - Ken MacLeod [7]
Catherin had rejected her blood money and walked out.
She and Kohn had been lovers, before. A classic case: their eyes had met across a crowded fight. It was like hitting it off at a disco. They were both having fun. Some shock of recognition at the preconscious, almost the prehuman, level. He’d once joked that the australopithecine ancestors had come in two types, robust and gracile: ‘I’ve got robustus genes,’ he’d said. ‘But you’re definitely gracilis.’ Just a romantic conceit: those slender limbs, tough muscles under skin that still ravished him just to look at; that face prettily triangular, wide eyes and small bright teeth – they’d been built by genes recombined out of a more recent history, crossing and recrossing the Atlantic in everything from slave ships to international brigades…a thoroughly modern girl.
Dear gracilis. He’d missed her at his back, and he’d missed her everywhere else. The word was that she was working for other coops, more purist outfits that took only politically sound contracts. Kohn had wished her luck and hoped to see her again. He’d never expected to find her in his sights.
Her hand, moved by the muscles that tirelessly re-knit the shattered radius and ulna, beckoned and dismissed.
‘You don’t understand,’ she said. ‘I’m still on the same side.’ She looked around. ‘Can we talk?’
‘Sure.’ Kohn waved airily. ‘The guards are screened for all that.’
He didn’t believe it for a moment.
Catherin looked relieved. She started talking, low and fast.
‘You know it’s gonna be a hot autumn. The ANR’s planning another of its final offensives. Believe that when I see it, but the Kingdom’s for sure under pressure, from the greens and the nationalists and the Muslims and the Black Zionists as well as the workers’ movements. Right now it’s fighting them all, and the stupider of the Free States’re fighting each other. So – you know, the Party?’
‘The real Party?’ Stupid question.
‘No, the Labour Party. There’s been a conference, over in – well, over the water. Bringing all the Party factions together, and some of the movements. Decided on joint actions with all the forces actually fighting the state, all those who want to undo the Restoration Settlement.’
‘I know about the Left Alliance. I didn’t know the cranks were part of it.’
She returned him a level look.
‘You just don’t know what they’re up to in these AI labs, do you? Their idea of a glorious future is a universe crawling with computers that’ll remember us. Which is what those nerds think life is all about. Meanwhile the state’s using them, just like the Nazis used the rocket freaks. They’re itching to get their hands on some kind of intelligent system that’ll keep tabs on everything. And it’s all linked up with the other lot, the NC guys.’
‘NC?’
‘Natural Computing. Some of the big companies and armies are trying to get a handle on ways to enhance human intelligence, connect it directly with large-scale integration on the machine side. Sinister stuff like that.’
‘“Sinister stuff”? I can’t believe I’m hearing this shit. Christ, woman! I’ve just been in one these mad-evil-scientist laboratories, and they’re still trying things out on mice! The cranks are out to wreck the datasphere, and one day they might just do it. There’s just no way the Left should do deals with those shitwits. It’s madness.’
‘They’ve no chance of shutting down the whole thing, and you know it,’ Cat said. ‘But they’re damn’ good at sabbing, they’re brave and resourceful, and we need those skills to hit the state.’
Kohn jumped to his feet.
‘Yeah, right, and they need you to give them hardware support. Who’s using who in this campaign? Greens onside too,