The Zenith Angle - Bruce Sterling [126]
“You are a traitor, Tony. You wrecked a spy satellite for money. And you just outed me, to Chinese and Indian intelligence agents, as a part of your rotten conspiracy.”
Tony looked up wearily. “Van, would you stop pointing that ray gun at me? That’s just really geeky. The thing melts glue, all right? It’s not even plugged in.”
Van reached down and plugged the gun into a power strip.
Van looked up in time to see Tony nerving himself to leap on him. “Forget trying to kill me,” Van said. “I led my cyberwar team here. We have surveilled and recorded everything. You’re toast, Tony.”
Tony laughed hollowly. “That’s a good try, pal. You are a glorified computer clerk for an advisory board. Real military people are never gonna move one inch without clearance from SOCOM and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I could be in Tahiti by the time those morons shuffle their paperwork.”
Van looked at him in wonderment.
“Tony, you sold out.”
“Why would you even wonder at that?” Tony said passionately. “That was the whole point of living in the 1990s! Did I ever ask to be born under some particular flag? I could live in Bombay. I wanted to live in Bombay, the action there is amazing. I could live in Shanghai! Shanghai has got skyscrapers that make New York look like a bombed-out rathole! So what if I sold out the USA—what about the USA selling me out? I don’t even recognize this country since 9/11. It’s mean! It’s vindictive! It’s aggressive! It’s broke, that’s the worst part. And it invades places! Your country is like a giant Serbia. The people who run it are moron oil company people. I’m a dot-com guy. I am thirty-two years old. I was right on top of the world. Then I went from genius, to bum, to bankrupt in eighteen months! I was right in the middle of the fastest, most potent, the best technological revolution in human history. I was making that happen, I was a true-blue revolutionary. It’s been no time, Van, and I’m already history. I’m obsolete, I’m invisible. The sons of bitches vanished me. It’s just like I was never there at all.”
“Tony, you used me in an act of treason. I swore an oath. I’m in the government.”
“What, you’re wrapping yourself in the flag now? Is this Hollywood, are we cuing the violins? Me telling the Indians about you, that was just my bargaining ploy. Those Chinese didn’t sign anything. It was all just an ad pitch.” Tony looked at Van’s face searchingly. “Come on, pal. You were never a top venture-capital guy, but you were definitely one of us. Don’t you know how much you’ve lost already? What’s left of your life?” Tony wiped at his bleeding lip. “Do you even know why I had that stupid ray gun in my stupid bag? I was going to mail it to you. From wherever. I was never gonna come back here to this creepy little version of America. I don’t have to, and I don’t need to. I can make another life in a better place. Let me go, Van.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Anywhere will do. I’m an inventive guy, I’ve got a big imagination. I’ll just reinvent myself overnight, okay? It doesn’t matter wherever you send me, because I’m global. I’ll go live in some stupid leper camp in Thailand if you want. Then I’ll bring the joy of broadband connectivity to the planet’s illiterate masses. Wouldn’t that make you happy?”
“How, Tony? You angle all that, and then I do what for you? What is it you want from me this time?”
“Nothing! Nothing, really! You just let me be free.”
Van moved his chin in a nod. “You see that large, black creature standing in the doorway over there? Standing in the only exit? Between you and all that freedom?”
Tony glanced over his shoulder and yelped.
“That is one of my cyberwarriors, Tony. I ordered them here so that I could demolish you.”
Tony stared at Van in astonishment. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Tony, al Qaeda is only fifteen years old. American Special Ops commandos have been dying in secret wars ever since John Kennedy turned them loose in 1963. These are my guerrillas,