The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [128]
‘So what’s the first step?’ Harry said.
‘It’s already happening.’ Nicodemus reversed a chair and sat down, arms leaning on the backrest. ‘Every one of those über-politicians has a homenet with an AI to manage his mail, filter out the trash, send out mods of the standard template replies, and prioritise staff assignments. So the initial eight messages have been designed with them in mind, the AIs, which meant research into their softhouse origins, what model, what upgrades, what custom tweaks if any. We got lucky – one of our Glow consultants let us have the cue-phrases for two of them, for a price. With those we can get the AI to prioritise any message we like for the eyes of two of our targets.’
‘I see,’ said Harry. ‘So assuming you get messages through to the representatives, how will you persuade them to come to the Glow? And where will we be putting on the show?’
‘This is where the techniques of ego-engineering come in,’ said Nicodemus. ‘Two will be inveigled into thinking that they are each the subject of a flattering biodocudrama being made under conditions of great secrecy and they need to meet with the director in the Glow without delay. Two will be intrigued by offers to sell certain rare artefacts relating to their personal hobbies, dependent on their meeting an intermediary in the Glow. One will be led to believe that he’s on his way to a secret meeting with a recently escaped Sendrukan political prisoner. One thinks she’s been warned that secrets from her past will be depicted in a stage drama about to open in the Glow. And the last two will be labouring under the mistaken belief that they’ve been invited to Optimi-level VIP parties by their favourite Glowmo celebs.’ He grinned, all bare teeth. ‘Yes, that’s the level of detail that we’re working with.’
‘And where?’
‘At the utterly magnificent Electric Theatre City,’ said Nicodemus, who swung his brittle smile round at Julia. ‘Which you’ll have heard of, of course.’
‘Who hasn’t,’ she said, expression unchanging, ‘heard of the Electric Theatre City?’
Nicodemus arched an eyebrow and chuckled.
‘Good, because that’ll be your station, the pair of you. I’ve already booked a display area for the show – and I assume that you have a copy with you … ’
They nodded in unison, then Harry said:
‘What about the zazins? They’ll still be out there, hunting for us.’
‘Uh huh, which is why I’m giving you these.’ One bony hand came out, holding a pair of red dice. With red dots. ‘Temporary rewrite orgs – they go in your pockets. They don’t alter any root or dynamic functions, they just add junk data to certain marker files so that the zazins don’t get a match if they scan you. Capiche?’
Julia pocketed the red die but felt nothing, which made her wonder if that was good or bad.
‘All righty,’ said their host, getting to his feet. ‘Now that we’re slip to the slide and code to the mode, as it were, it’s time to move on out. We’ll get to Electric Theatre City by stages so that our start point stays hidden, and on the way … show you babies some of the sights!’
This last was accompanied by a lascivious waggle of the tongue as he led them back to the grey recess by which they had arrived.
*
‘Some of the sights’ didn’t really do it justice. The virtual continuum of the Glow was a riotous flow of spectacle, or at least this zone was. It was an enormous fusion of clubland and theme park, of carnival and racetrack, of partyland and destruction derby. There was the Horn of Plenty, an immense pink and sparkly golden cornucopia full of Big Prize game shows, some of which were on continuous veecast. There was the Atmosfear Race, a twenty-lane speedway that soared, looped and spiralled across the virtual heavens, on which drivers raced vehicles the size of sky-scrapers – some even looked