Fractions_ The First Half of the Fall Revolution - Ken MacLeod [96]
‘Can you do that without him knowing where I am?’
‘Certainly,’ Valery said with a smile. ‘Through the Body Bank, remember? All we need is your digital signature, and Catherin’s. Our bank teller will witness it and everything will be legally in the clear.’
‘You’ve just said you don’t trust the nets any more.’
‘We’re talking about different levels,’ Valery said vaguely, or with intentional obscurity.
‘OK. And then what?’
Valery fixed him with a severe look. ‘The ANR,’ she said firmly, ‘is very anxious that you should go immediately to a controlled zone. That’s all I know.’
‘Somebody else suggested I do that,’ Kohn said. ‘I’ve been considering it. It’d be difficult, seeing as the ANR have put the fear of God into the Hanoverians.’
‘We can arrange safe passage,’ Valery said. ‘I’ll tell you about it later. Meanwhile, let’s get this mess sorted out, all right?’
Kohn agreed almost absentmindedly, preoccupied by the implications of what he’d just learned. Valery tilted up a desk terminal – it was shaped like a mounted mirror – and Moh jacked in his computer and passed his digital signature into the handover document. Valery messaged Cat, and after a moment the document showed that her dig-sig was in as well. Kohn watched as the Body Bank registered the transaction. He now had a credit – which he doubted he’d ever collect – of five hundred marks with the Carbon Life Alliance.
The consequences of the deal rippled outwards through databases, and in less than a minute Catherin’s name was cleared and Donovan’s case against Kohn was dropped. Querulous, disappointed queries instantly began to flash around the low-life newsgroups. Kohn shook his head and caught Valery in the same gesture. They shared a disillusioned smile.
Valery was about to fold away the terminal. Then something on the screen caught her attention. She raised an eyebrow at Kohn.
‘It seems Catherin would like to see you.’
Kohn felt his ears going red. ‘Yeah, I guess she has a few words to say to me.’
‘Right,’ said Valery. ‘Go out, then through the door on the left to the garden, and in the first french window. I’ll be along in a few minutes.’ She smiled quizzically. ‘I imagine the worst should be over by then. After that we can discuss what you do next.’
‘I have a companion,’ Kohn said. ‘She’s out in the truck at the moment, and she’d have to be involved in any decisions.’
‘Of course.’
‘OK. See you,’ Kohn said.
He went out into the garden, through a glass door and into a kind of parlour full of overstuffed chairs and large vases. In one of the chairs a woman sat, head half-hidden by a bonnet, bowed over the lap of the huge spreading skirt of her dress. She was meticulously stitching small pieces of coloured fabric on to the back of a denim jacket. A circular pattern with lettering around it was already beginning to take shape. She looked up, slowly, eyelashes lifting modestly.
Cat had a very cat-like smile.
Moh grinned back. ‘Calamity Jane,’ he said.
Teeth white in the sunlight.
‘It’s all fixed?’ she asked.
‘Yup,’ Moh said. ‘You’re in good standing again. An honest-to-goddess accredited left-wing combatant.’
‘Back to the struggle. Good.’
The jacket slipped to the floor as she raised the pistol she had concealed underneath. She held it in her right hand and brought the left – the plastic cast becoming visible as the loose, lacy cone of her sleeve fell back – to give a steadying grip on the right wrist. Very cool, very professional.
‘Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch,’ said Catherin Duvalier.
Cat felt she had been waiting for this moment, this perfect revenge, for years rather than days. A glimpsed thought told her this was the case, that recriminations from their original break-up still echoed. The thought passed, leaving a steely memory of Moh stalking out of the hospital bay.
Her anger tensed the muscles of her damaged forearm, and hurt.
She’d had more visitors than anybody else in the secure ward. First Moh, then – in a virtual sense – Donovan. And later that evening the nurse who’d brought her dinner had put her head