Nightside City

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

  He made a noise, but I wasn't finished.

  "Now, you may be recording this. You may think you've got me on charges of trespassing, and assault, and terroristic threatening. You may even be right. But, you stupid son of a bitch, I've got you for kidnapping and attempted murder even if I don't give Nakada the code on your program. Did you really think I was so dumb I didn't have any security you didn't bypass? I have full-spectrum authentic vid of you and Bobo carting me out to the cab and sending me east over the crater wall. I have witnesses. I won't even mention that I have all the evidence I need in my head and in the cab itself. And it's all on record in a dozen places where you can't get at it."

  He made a sort of a squeak. I rammed the gun against his teeth. "Now," I said, "if we've got it all very clear as to what the basis for negotiation is-which is, that I'm in charge, I know what's going on, and I've got you a hell of a lot tighter than you've got me-then I can let you up and we can talk business. What do you say?"

  He squeaked again and tried to nod.

  I had been kneeling on top of him, my face centimeters from his; now I backed off and got up.

  "One more thing," I said, while he was picking himself up and fastening his pants. "If we do wind up pressing charges against each other, I want you to know that I didn't like the dayside at all, and I do hold grudges. I'm big on revenge. If you go to trial and they convict-and by god they should, with what I've got on record-then I've got my victim's privilege coming, and I have it all picked out. I had time to think about it out there in the sun, plenty of time. I want your balls cut off, permanently and without anesthetic. Drastic, I know, but for kidnapping and attempted murder I think I could get it. You just keep that in mind while we talk, okay?"

  Actually, I didn't really think I'd ask for that, but it made one hell of a good threat for someone like Orchid.

  He nodded, rubbing his jaw.

  He thought I had more to say, but I waited. It was his turn.

  "All right, Hsing, what do you want?" he asked at last.

  "It's about time, damn it, that you bothered to ask me that before you started giving me trouble. It's simple enough. But I'm going to keep you in suspense until you answer a question for me. Just who did you think hired me?"

  He stared, then blinked. Those fancy eyes of his looked stupid when they blinked. "Ah…" he said. "I thought the New York…"

  He let it trail off.

  I'd been expecting something like that, but I still couldn't really believe it. The adrenaline I'd built up in tackling Rigmus got to me, with no symbiote to cut it back, and I lost control. I shoved the gun under his nose. "You stupid, worthless piece of shit!" I screamed at him. "You coprophagous cretin! The New York wouldn't touch me with a goddamn run of scrubware! Don't you know anything? Are you too dumb to ask anyone a simple question? I can't get work in the Trap. I haven't been able to for years!"

  He stammered something, but I wasn't listening. He was backed against the bed, his knees starting to buckle as my gun forced him back.

  "I wasn't investigating you, or Nakada, or the Ipsy-I was hired to find out why somebody was trying to collect rent in the West End! I was hired by a bunch of squatters, you poor fool! That's all! You could swindle Nakada out of her liver, and I wouldn't have cared, if you hadn't hassled the squatters out there! You… you…"

  I ran out of words and felt my finger tightening on the trigger; I forced it to loosen, forced myself to calm down. I stepped back and lowered the gun, and then I took a deep breath.

  He sat down on the bed. "So what do you want?" he asked, his voice unsteady.

  "It's simple," I told him. "I want you to stop hassling me. I want you to stop hassling the squatters, even if it means you have to pay Nakada's rents out of your share of the take from your scam. I want guarantees on both of those, recorded with the city and with the cops-we can word it so we don't have to incriminate anybody. I want it understood that if you ever come near me again I'm going to use this gun, without warning, and plead self-defense with those kidnapping records to back me up. I want all of that from both you and Rigmus, and if you can get it, from Doc Lee and the others at the Ipsy. If you can't get it from them, tell me, and I'll go talk it over with them. I know your scheme to stop the city is phony, and you can tell them that I know, and I can prove it. I don't want them trying any stupid demonstrations for Nakada-if you can't string her any farther just with words, then take your money and exit, don't try and push your luck, or I'll see that you regret it. And I want you to know that if you try to kill me again, even if you succeed, you're dead meat. I'm not stupid enough to make a play like this without backup, not when you've taken one shot at me already. These three aren't the only friends I've got. You got all that?"

  He nodded. "I've got it."

  "Any problem with any of it?"

  "No," he said, and he shook his head. "No problem."

  I smiled. "There!" I said. "That wasn't so bad, was it? There is one more little detail, but we'll get to that in a minute. First I want to see you make those guarantees I mentioned." I pointed toward a nearby screen and jack. "Go to it."

  He did. I think I'd made an impression; he didn't try anything at all, did it all up properly. The contracts didn't mention reasons-they just stated that Paul Orchid undertook to remove himself and any agents in his employ from all self-initiated contact with Carlisle Hsing and with all persons resident within a half-kilometer radius of the intersection of Western and Wall. Breach of contract would be punishable to the fullest extent of the law-and in Nightside City, with its casino-based economy, that was plenty.

  The muscle with the claws dragged Rigmus in, more or less conscious, jacked him in, and had him thumb his copies of the same agreements.

  Then Orchid called the Ipsy and relayed my messages to Doc Lee. "She means it," he told them.

  And I did mean it, every word of it, except the bit about the victim's privilege.

  Lee seemed shaken, but he swallowed and smiled and agreed, then put it on record over the com. Each of the five others then took a turn doing the same. Nobody gave me any back talk this time.

  When that was taken care of I said, "All right, Orchid, just one more detail, and you and your woman can get back to what you were doing, if I haven't spoiled the mood."

  The woman made a noise, but I ignored it. This wasn't her business. The muscle with fangs still had his gun at her throat, and that was fine with me. I didn't know anything about her; for all I knew, if he hadn't had the gun there, she might have jumped me. Of course, attacking me would have been stupid, but I had serious doubts about the good sense of anyone I found in bed with Paulie Orchid-particularly someone dressed like that. Her outfit was mostly greens, which went nicely with her skin but clashed with the room she was in, and it floated off in various directions, giving fleeting glimpses of bare flesh-not exactly your practical garment.

  "All right, Hsing," Orchid said, resigned. "What is it? What's the detail?"

  "Set me up a date with Sayuri Nakada," I said. "I want to talk to her."

  He gaped at me, but he didn't have much choice. He made the call.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I DON'T KNOW WHY I WANTED TO SEE NAKADA IN PERSON, but I did. It was important to me, somehow.

  We met on neutral ground. We met at a little breakfast bar on Second, in the middle of Trap Over. I was sitting there waiting, with Mishima's muscle quiet in the background, when Nakada walked in with a piece of muscle of her own and an entourage of floaters.

  She didn't recognize me until I called her name.

  "Mis' Nakada! Over here!"

  She came and looked down at me. "What the hell happened to your hair?"

  "Long story," I said. "You wouldn't be interested."

  She shrugged and sat down.

  I pointed at her muscle, a big guy with sleek, hairless black skin that might or might not have been armored. If it was armored, it was a better job than Mishima's bunch could afford. "Do we need him?" I asked.

  She g
lanced back at him, then waved him away. He went to wait outside-there wasn't room in the bar.

  Most of the floaters went with him; one stayed, a little golden multipurpose job, and I decided not to argue about it. After all, even if it left, Nakada still had implants down to the marrow, and I couldn't make her leave those outside.

  The bar delivered my tea and puffcake, and I asked if she wanted anything. She shook her head.

  "All I want," she said, "is to know why you got me down here."

  I didn't answer directly. "How's the project going?" I asked.

  She scowled at me. "The project?" she asked.

  "Yeah," I said. "You know, the one that's going to make you rich."

  She didn't like my manners, that was obvious, but she answered. "Bad," she said. "They hit some kind of snag in the mapping data. Everything's been delayed."

  I nodded sympathetically. 'Too bad," I said. "Remember your promise that you'd let me know when the date's set."

  "I remember," she said.

  I was playing this by guess, plugging in values as I went, I wasn't sure at all what I was doing, why I was there, or why Nakada was there. I just knew that I had to talk to her, and here I was, talking to her.

  The obvious question was whether I should tell her that she was being rooked. The obvious answer was yes; I mean, why the hell not? I didn't owe Orchid and Lee anything.

  And I wasn't sure it would make any difference. Hell, there was a good chance the whole scam was about to fall apart anyway. My own opinion was that if Orchid was running smooth he'd clear out, take what he'd gotten so far, and get off-planet without trying to bleed any more juice out of anyone.

  I decided to try the direct and honest approach. "Mis' Nakada, have you ever really looked at the scheme the Ipsy's selling you?"

  She looked at me. "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, doesn't it sound too good to be true? Have you checked it over to see whether it would really work? Have you discussed it with anyone, run their claims through any analytical software?"

  She stared at me. "I don't understand what you're getting at."

  "I'm getting at the question of whether Doc Lee and his bunch can actually do what they say they can," I said.

  She almost snarled. "Of course they can," she said. "Lee's a top planetologist. His team's all top experts."

  "Experts can lie, Mis' Nakada," I said.

  "What do you mean?" she said.

  "I mean that it's all a trick, a sham," I told her. "They can't stop the city, any more than anyone else can. They're conning you. They're just taking your money and tucking it away on Prometheus. You don't have to believe me; get any planetologist you like to come and take a look, and you'll see. They're swindling you."

  She glared at me with a look that was about the closest I've ever seen to pure hatred. "You're lying. You're the one trying to con me."

  "No, I'm not," I said. "I'm telling the truth."

  "You're lying," she insisted. "Why would they cheat me?"

  "For the money, of course," I told her.

  "No," she said. "You're lying, that's all." Then she looked as if a brilliant idea occurred to her. "Did somebody hire you to get them away from me?" she demanded. "To get them to work for someone else?"

  "No," I said. "Nobody hired me."

  "Somebody did," she said. "Somebody's trying to stop me."

  "Think what you like," I said, amazed at her ability to deny reality when it clashed with her desires.

  I'd tried. I'd tried honesty, tried telling her what was happening. If she didn't accept it, it wasn't my fault. I'd done my full duty to truth and justice. Sayuri Nakada deserved to be swindled if anyone ever did; I could almost sympathize with Orchid, seeing all that money in the hands of someone like her.

  Of course, if she checked up later and cut Orchid and Lee and the rest off, or got them sent up for reconstruction, I wouldn't weep.

  Right now, though, I had one more thing I realized I had to discuss with her, and maybe it was something I should have dealt with before I antagonized her. I had a client to take care of. Just because Paulie and Bobo weren't going to be making the rounds in the West End didn't mean nobody would.

  "There's one other thing," I said, casually. "I probably should have mentioned it the first time, but you know how it is, things can slip your mind."

  She just glared. Maybe she didn't know how it is, with all the implants she must have had keeping her up to date. Or maybe she just didn't want to admit she knew.

  "There's a little matter of some people I know," I said. "Living out in the West End in some of the buildings you bought."

  "Squatters," she said.

  I nodded. "You could call them that," I agreed.

  "Burakumin!" she spat. "Abid! A bunch of social gritware. They pay rent or they get out; I don't want them around when I start cleaning up out there."

  I held up a hand. "Mis' Nakada," I said, "I think you're overreacting. They aren't such bad people."

  I was lying; they were scum. But they were also paying clients.

  "What are they to you?" she asked.

  "Friends," I lied. "And I don't want them evicted."

  "I do," she said, and she was pretty damn definite about it. I guessed right then that collecting rents hadn't been Orchid's idea at all, but hers. I doubted Orchid had known just how much trouble collecting that stupid rent would buy him, but at least he hadn't come up with it on his own.

  "Mis' Nakada," I said, "I hope you'll reconsider."

  "Why should I?" she demanded.

  "Because if you don't, I'll put everything I know about the little plan you have the Ipsy working on on the public nets. That could cut into your profits pretty badly, having the word get out too soon."

  "That's blackmail," she said.

  I shrugged. "You could call it that, I suppose," I admitted. "I have a chunk of information; I can hand it out free, or I can sell you the dissemination rights. If you want to call that blackmail, suit yourself. Which do you want? Do I put it on the nets or not?"

  "No!" she said, sharp and hard.

  "Then we make a deal," I said. "We can put it in writing. I'm not looking for anything permanent, just a little time for my friends to get relocated. I'll agree not to release to the public or anyone except partners or immediate family any information I may have concerning your investment plans or dealings with nonprofit scientific organizations, and I'll bind all partners and immediate family to the same commitment. In exchange, you'll agree that you will not attempt to collect any rents on property in the West End for, shall we say, three years?"

  "That's too long," she snapped.

  "All right," I said. "Until you're ready to refurbish the buildings, or three years, whichever comes first. The day your repair crews arrive, the squatters will be out; how's that sound?"

  "How do I know you won't make more demands?" she asked.

  "That's in my end of the agreement," I said. "If I spread the word, or if I demand anything more, then I'm in breach of contract-and you and I both know what the penalties are for that in Nightside City. I'm not interested in a term of indenture, or in selling body parts."

  She thought for a minute, then nodded. "All right," she said.

  That little golden floater had all the necessary equipment for the contract, and in fifteen minutes we had shaken hands and left.

  I don't know where she went. I went home to my office. I thanked Mishima's muscle and let them fend for themselves; I didn't see that I needed them anymore.

  The case was over, as far as I could see. I sat at my desk and ran through the records, making notes, seeing if I'd missed anything. I didn't see that I had. My contract was to stop the new owner from evicting the squatters; I had Nakada's agreement recorded and sealed. Side issues had been to find out who was doing what, and why, and I had all that figured out. Orchid and Rigmus had tried to kill me, but I had it set so they wouldn't try again.

  It looked smooth. I started clearing everything out of the com's act
ive memory.

  Then the com beeped and I touched keys, and Mishima's face appeared.

  "Hello, Hsing," he said.

  "Hello, Mishima," I replied.

  "So how'd it go?" he asked.

  "How did what go?" I said.

  "Your little talk with Sayuri Nakada-how'd it go?"

  I wasn't terribly happy to hear him ask that. I was beginning to have second or third thoughts about any sort of partnership with Mishima. I'd always worked alone, my own way and at my own speed; having a partner checking up on me did not carry a lot of appeal. It had seemed wonderful when I was lying in a hospital bed with new eyes and my new skin still baby-slick, feeling vulnerable, with no idea how I could face down Orchid and the others all by myself, but now I began to see drawbacks.

  I still appreciated the loan of the muscle, not to mention the medical bills and the detail that Mishima had ventured out onto the dayside to rescue me, and I could see virtues in the arrangement, but I didn't like being called to account like that.

  "It went all right," I said, trying to think how I could put my concerns.

  "What did you get?" he asked.

  "What do you mean, what did I get?" I said.

  "I mean, what did you get from Nakada?" he said. "How much did she pay you to keep quiet?"

  "She didn't pay me anything," I said. "She just agreed to leave the squatters alone."

  He stared at me for a minute. "Listen, partner," he said. "I don't want to get this relationship off to a rough start. Let's just keep the bugs and glitches to a minimum. Let's not hold out on each other, okay?"

  "Sure," I said. "I'm not holding out."

  "Oh, get off it, Hsing," he said. "You went there with all the details of this scam, with everything you needed to prove to Sayuri Nakada's old man back on Prometheus that she's a complete idiot, and you came away without a buck? You expect me to believe that?"