Schismatrix plus - Bruce Sterling [55]
"I just don't see why we should bother."
"Just let me use you. Come on!"
He tried to think of something arousing. The usual damp whirl of his mind's erotic imagery seemed abstract and distant to him, like something done by another species. He thought of his ex-wife. Sex with Alexandrina had been something like this, an act of politeness, an obligation.
He held still, letting her slam herself against him. At last a cry of desperate pleasure escaped her.
She pulled away, patting sweat from her face and neck with the sleeve of her blouse. She smiled shyly.
Lindsay shrugged. "I see your point. It's a waste of time. I may have some trouble talking the others into it, but if I can reason with them...." She looked at him hungrily. "I made a mistake. It shouldn't have been this awful for us. I feel selfish now, since you had nothing."
"I feel fine," Lindsay insisted.
"You said you loved me."
"That was just hormones talking. Of course I have deep respect for you, a sense of comradeship. ... I'm sorry I told you that. Forgive me, I didn't mean it, of course."
"Of course," she said, putting on her blouse.
"Don't be bitter," Lindsay said. "You should take some of this. I'm grateful for it. I see it now in a way I never did before. Love ... it has no substance. It might be right for other people, other places, another time."
"Not us."
"No. I feel bad about it, now. Reducing our negotiations to a sexual stereotype. You must have found it insulting. And inconvenient."
"I feel sick," she said.
ESAIRS XII: 24-2-'17
"You're okay now, huh?" the President said, wrinkling his pug nose. "No more of that crap about dryin' up our juice?"
"No, sir, no." Lindsay shook his head, shivering. "I'm better now."
"Good enough. Untie him, Rep Two."
The woman undid Lindsay's ropes, uncoupling him from the cavern wall.
"I lost it," Lindsay said. "I can see that now, but when those suppressants hit me, everything just went crystal clear. Seamless."
"That's okay for you, but we have marriages," Senator 1 said sternly. He clutched the hand of Rep 1.
"I'm sorry," Lindsay said, rubbing his arms. "They're all under that stuff, here. Except Nora, now. I never realized how deep it went. These people are relentless, they don't have the decent muddiness and confusion that comes with sex. They all fit together as clean as cogwheels. We'll have to seduce them." He looked them over: Senator 3 with her close-cropped, pumpkinlike head, Justice 3 calmly picking his teeth with a shred of thumbnail. "It won't be easy."
"Relax, State." The President smoothed one of the red plastic ribbons of his openwork sleeve. "You've held this mess together long enough. The fuckers blew away Rep Three."
"There's no proof of that."
"You know they killed him, and we know it. You covered up for them, State, and maybe that was right, but it means you're in too deep. It's not our job to kill all these people. If we wanted to kill 'em, we wouldn't have moved our gun out of the Consensus and into this rock."
"But that was our triumph. Everyone's. We got the Armageddon guns shut down, didn't we? After that, anything's possible!"
"We have to kill the threat. That's our assignment. That's what the Mechs will pay us for. We've been exploring all the time you talked your head off. The tunnels are mapped. We know the machinery well enough to wreck it. We'll vandalize the place. Then off to the cartels and the high life."
"You'll leave them here in the wreckage?"
The Speaker of the House grinned tightly. "They can have our gun. We won't need it where we're going."
Justice 2 touched Lindsay's sandaled foot. "It's easy, State. We'll be in Themis Cartel before you know it, juicing in some dogtown. We'll stun the Mechs in this getup." She tugged at the shoulder of her plastic gown with one veiny hand. Two of the Senators snickered.
"When?" Lindsay said.
"You'll know. In the meantime, you just keep a lid on things."
"What if one of them wants to defect with us?" Lindsay said.
"Bring her along," the President said.
ESAIRS XII: 1-3-'17