How to recognize them? The facial scars. The blank expressions: some of their human mirror neurons had gone missing, along with big chunks of the empathy module: show a normal person a child in pain and they'd wince, whereas these guys would smirk. According to Jeb you had to get quick at reading the signs because if you were dealing with a psycho you needed to know it. Otherwise they could mangle the female talent before you could say snapped neck, and this could be costly: trapeze dancers who could do an artistic strip while hanging from one foot high above the crowd didn't come cheap. Or, for that matter, an orgasm-enhancing near-strangulation with a python. A Painball vet might well feel that biting off a python's head would be an unbeatable slice of alpha-chimp display, and even if the bite were to be intercepted, a damaged python would be hard to replace.
Scales kept a regularly updated register of Painballer identities, complete with face pics and ear profiles, which Katrina WooWoo obtained through some obscure back door using God-knows-what as trading cards. She must've been acquainted with someone on the running end of Painball - someone who wanted something she could supply, or else could withhold. Favours and anti-favours were the most respected currency of the deeper pleeblands.
"Hit first and hit dirty, was our rule for those Painball assholes," says Zeb. "As soon as they started to get twitchy. Sometimes we'd spike their drinks, but sometimes we took them out permanently, because if we didn't they'd be back for revenge. We had to be careful what we did with the bodies, though. They might have affiliates."
"What did you do with the bodies?" says Toby.
"Let's just say there was always a demand in the deeper pleebs for condensed protein packages, to be utilized for fun, profit, or pet food. But back then, in the early days, before the CorpSeCorps decided to make Painball legal and run it on TV, there weren't very many out-of-control Painballers, so body disposal wasn't a regular thing. More like an improvisation."
"You make it sound like a leisure-time amusement," says Toby. "These were human lives, whatever they'd done."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, slap my wrist, we were bad. Though you didn't get into Painball unless you were already a multiple killer.
"Point of this whole recital being that it wasn't unknown for us bar guards - me and Jeb - to take a personal interest in what went into the mixed drinks. Sometimes we even mixed them."
Kicktail
All this time the white chess bishop with the six mystery pills in it had been kept safely hidden pending further instructions. The only people who knew where it was were Zeb himself, Katrina WooWoo, and Adam.
The hiding place was cunning, and right in plain view, a ploy Zeb had learned from old Slaight of Hand: the obvious is invisible. On a glass shelf behind the bar there was an array of novelty corkscrews, nutcrackers, and salt-and-peppers in the shapes of naked women. The arrangement of their parts was ingenious: the legs would open, the corkscrew would be revealed; the legs would open, the nut would be inserted, the legs would close, the nut would be cracked; the legs would open, the head would be screwed around, the salt or pepper would descend. Laughter all round.
The white bishop had been inserted into the salt cavity of one of these iron maidens, a green lady with enamelled scales. Her head still turned, salt still came out from between her thighs, but the bartenders had been told that this one was fragile - no man was too keen to have his salty sex toy's head come off in mid-screw - so they should use the others instead, on the occasions when salt was required. Which were not frequent, though some liked to sprinkle salt in their beer and on their bar snacks.
Zeb kept an eye on the scaly green girl with the inner bishop. He felt he owed it to Pilar. Still, he was jumpy about the chosen location. What if someone got hold of the thing when he wasn't there, fooled around with it, and found the pills? What if they thought the colourful little oblongs were brain candy, and took one or two just to try them? Since Zeb had no idea what the pills might actually do to a person, that possibility made him nervous.
Adam, on the other hand, was remarkably cool about it, taking the view that no one would think to look inside a salt shaker unless it ran out of salt. "Though I don't know why I'm saying 'remarkably,' " says Zeb. "He was always a cool little bugger."
"He was living there too?" asks Toby. "At Scales and Tails?" She can't picture it. What would Adam One have done there all day, among the exotic dancers and their unusual fashion items? When she'd known him - once he'd been Adam One - he'd been quietly disapproving of female vanity, and of colour and ostentation and cleavage and leg in a woman's outfit. But there was no way he could have implemented the Gardener religion at Scales or convinced its workers to follow the simple life. Those women must have had expensive manicures. They wouldn't have put up with being required to dig and delve and relocate slugs and snails, even if there had been any vegetable-plot space available at Scales: ladies of the night do not weed by day.
"Nope, he wasn't living at Scales," says Zeb. "Or not living as such. He came and went. It was like a safe house for him."
"You have any idea what he was doing when he wasn't there?" asks Toby.
"Learning things," said Zeb. "Tracking ongoing stories. Watching for storm clouds. Gathering the disaffected under his wing. Making converts. He'd already had his big insight, or whatever you want to call it - the part where God lightning-bolted a message into the top of his skull. Save my beloved Species in whom I am well pleased, and all of that: you know the palaver. I never got one of those messages, personally, but it seems Adam did.
"By that time he was well on the way to assembling the God's Gardeners. He'd even bought the flat-roofed pleeb-slum building for the Edencliff Garden using some of the ill-gotten gains we'd hacked out of the Rev's account. Pilar was sending him secret recruits from inside HelthWyzer; she was already planning to join him at Edencliff. However, I didn't know any of that yet."
"Pilar?" asks Toby. "But she can't have been Eve One! She was way too old!" Toby has always wondered about Eve One: Adam had been Adam One, but there had never been any mention of an Eve.
"Nope, it wasn't her," Zeb says.
One of the ongoing stories Adam was tracking was that of their mutual father, the Rev. After a pleasing flurry of activity surrounding his embezzlements from the Church of PetrOleum and the tragic discovery that the Rev's first wife, Fenella, was buried in the rock garden, and then the scandalous publication of the tell-all memoir by his second wife, Trudy, the whole affair had fizzled out.
There was a trial, yes, but the evidence had been inconclusive, or so the jury had decided. Trudy had taken the proceeds from her memoir and gone on vacation to a Caribbean island with - some said - a Tex-Mex lawn-maintenance expert, and had been found washing about in the surf after an impetuous naked moonlight swim. Such dangerous things, undertows, said the local police. She must have been dragged down, and hit her head on a rock. Her companion, whoever he was, had vanished. Understandable, since he might have been blamed; though a whisper was going around that he might also have been paid.
So Trudy was not able to give evidence at the trial, and, without that, what could be proven about anything? The skeleton of Fenella had lain so long in the ground: anyone at all might have put it there. Anonymous men, immigrants as a rule, were always walking around with shovels in the more affluent areas of cities, ready to bang trusting, innocent, horticulturally minded ladies on the head, stuff gardening gloves into their mouths, ravish them in the potting shed despite their muffled screams, and plant hens and chicks on top of them, not to mention lamb's ears and snow-in-summer and other drought-resistant succulents. It was a well-known hazard for female homeowners who took an interest in landscaping.
As for his sizable embezzlements, which were beyond a doubt, the Rev had gone the tried and true route: a public confession of temptation, followed by an account of his sinfulness in failing to resist it, then by a further account of the discovery of that sinfulness, which had been a bitter herb, but through his humiliation had saved him from himself. T
his was topped up with a grovelling, tearful request for forgiveness from both God and man, in particular from the members of the Church of PetrOleum. Bingo, he was absolved, washed clean of stains, and ready for a new start. For who could find it in his heart to withhold forgiveness from a fellow human being who was so obviously contrite?
"He's on the loose," said Adam. "Exonerated, reinstated. His OilCorps associates got him off."
"Fucker," said Zeb. "Make that plural."
"He'll be wanting to hunt us down, and now he'll be able to access the cash to do it," said Adam. "His OilCorps friends will supply it. So be alert."
"Right," said Zeb. "The world needs more lerts." It was an old joke of his. It used to make Adam laugh, or rather smile, but he didn't smile that time.
One evening, when Zeb was loitering around the Scales bar in his Smokey the Bear shades and black suit and snake lapel pin, wearing his non-smile, non-frown, and listening to the chatter from the fauxgold tooth in his mouth, he heard something from one of the guys at the front door that made him stand up a little straighter.
It wasn't a Painballer warning this time. On the contrary.
"Top of the pyramid, four of them, coming in," said the voice. "Three OilCorps, one Church of PetrOleum. That preacher who was on the news."
Zeb felt the adrenalin shooting through his veins. It had to be the Rev. Would the twisted, kiddie-bashing, wife-murdering sadist recognize him or not? He checked the location of every potential missile within reach, in case there might be a need for one. If there was a cry of "Seize that man" or any similar melodrama, he'd hurl a few cut-glass decanters and run like shit. His muscles were so taut they were twanging.
Here they came now, in a festive mood, judging from the japes and laughter and the modified backslaps - more like tentative pats - that were the main phrases of the quasi-brotherly body language permitted at the top levels of the Corps. They were on their way to champagne and tidbits, and everything that went with them. Tips would be lavish, supposing they could all get it up. Why be rich if you can't flaunt it by bestowing patronizing sums of dosh on those who aid you in your quest for self-aggrandizement?
The cool thing for high-status Corps dudes was to pass by the paid security drudges at Scales as if they didn't exist - why make eye contact with a hedge? - which, says Zeb, has probably been the style ever since you could say Roman emperor. And that was lucky for Zeb, because the Rev didn't even toss him a glance. Not that he would have spotted Zeb beneath his hairy face waffle and dark shades, with the shaved head, the pointy ears, and all, had he bothered to look. But he didn't bother. Zeb looked at him, though, and the more he looked, the less he liked the view.
The mirror balls were going round and round, sprinkling the clientele and the talent with a dandruff of light. The music was playing, a canned retro tango. Five Scalies in sequins were contorting themselves on the trapezes, tits pointing floorward, bodies curved into a C-shape, one leg on either side of their heads. Their smiles glowed in the blacklight. Zeb backed up to the glass bar shelving, palmed the green lady with the bishop up her snatch, and slid her into his sleeve. "Taking a leak," he said to his partner, Jeb. "Cover for me."
Once in the can, he unscrewed the bishop and abstracted three of the magic beans: a white, a red, and a black. He licked the salt from his fingers and tucked the pills into a front jacket pocket, then returned to his post and eased the scaly lady back into position on the shelf with not even a clink. No one would notice she'd been gone.
The Rev's foursome was having a high old time. It was a celebration, Zeb figured: most likely in aid of the Rev's return to what they all considered to be his normal life. Slithery lovelies were plying them with drinks, while above them the trapeze dancers did boneless twists and spineless twines. They showed bits of this and that, but never the royal flush: Scales was tonier than that, you had to pay extra if you wanted the full peepshow. Manners demanded a display of appreciative lust: the acrobatic sin charade wasn't really the Rev's thing because nobody was suffering, but he was doing a convincing job of pretending. His smile had that Botox look, as if it was a product of nerve damage.
Katrina WooWoo came over to the bar. Tonight she was dressed as an orchid, in a luscious peach colour with lavender accents. March, her python, was draped around her neck, and also over one bare shoulder.
"They've ordered the House Special for their pal," she said to the bartender. "With the Taste of Eden."
"Heavy on the tequila?" said the barkeep.
"Everything in," said Katrina. "I'll tell the girls."
The House Special involved a private feather room with a green satin bedspread and three reptilian Scalies billed as catering to your every whim, and the Taste of Eden was a headbender kicktail guaranteed to deliver maximum bliss. Once that thing had been swallowed the client would be off in a world of wonders all his own. Zeb had tried some of the stuff on offer at Scales, but he'd never drunk the Taste of Eden kicktail. He was afraid of the visions he might have.
There it was now, standing on the counter. It was dark orange and fizzing slightly, and had a swizzle stick with a plastic snake curled around it, skewering a maraschino cherry. The snake was green and sparkly, with big eyes and a smiling lipstick mouth.
Zeb should have resisted his evil impulses. What he did was reckless, he admits that freely. But you only live once, he told himself, and maybe the Rev had used up his once. Zeb wondered which of the three pills to slip into the drink - the white, the red, or the black. But why be stingy? he admonished himself. Why not all?
"Down the hatch, good buddy." "Have a wild trip!" "Up and at 'em!" "Knock 'em dead!" Were such archaic chunks of joshery still uttered on occasions like this? It appeared so. The Rev was patted and treated to a bouquet of softly knowing haw-haws, then led away for his treat by three lithe snakelets. All four of them were giggling: eerie to remember that, in retrospect.
Zeb longed to excuse himself from bar duty and slide into the video viewing cubicle where a couple of Scales security personnel monitored the private feather rooms for trouble. He didn't know how those pills would act. Did they make you very sick, and if so, how? Maybe the effect was long-term: maybe those babies didn't kick in for a day, a week, a month. But if it was anything more rapid, he sure as hell wanted to watch.
Doing so, however, would finger him as the perpetrator. So he waited stoically though tensely, ears pricked, humming silently to himself to the tune of "Yankee Doodle":
My dad loved walloping little kids,
He loved it more than nooky,
I hope he bleeds from every pore,
And chucks up all his cookies.
After a few too many repetitions of that, there was some tooth static: someone else was talking to the gatekeeper guys at the front. After what seemed like a long time but wasn't, Katrina WooWoo came through the doorway that led to the private rooms. She was trying to appear casual, but the clicking of her high heels was urgent.
"I need you to come backstage," she whispered to him.
"I'm on bar duty," he said, feigning reluctance.
"I'll call in Mordis from the front. He'll take over. Come right now!"
"Girls okay?" He was stalling: if something bad was happening to the Rev, he wanted it to keep on happening.
"Yes. But they're frightened. It's an emergency!"
"Guy go berserk?" he said. They sometimes did: the effects of the Taste of Eden weren't always predictable.
"Worse than that," she said. "Bring Jeb too."
Raspberry Mousse
The feather room was a cyclone site: a sock here, a shoe there, smears of unidentified substances, bedraggled feathers everywhere. That lump in the corner must've been the Rev, covered by the green satin bedspread. Oozing out from under it was a hand-span of red foam that looked like a badly diseased tongue.
"What happened?" Zeb asked innocently. It was hard to look really innocent with shades on - he'd tried in the mirror - so he took them off.
"I've sent the girls to tak
e showers," said Katrina WooWoo. "They were so upset! One minute they were ..."
"Peeling the shrimp," said Zeb. It was the staff slang for getting a dink out of his clothes, the underpants in particular. There was an art to it, as to everything, said the Scalies. Or a craft. A slow unbuttoning, a long, sensuous unzipping. Hold the moment. Pretend he's a box of candies, lick-a-licious. "Lick-a-licious," Zeb said out loud. He's shaken: the effect on the Rev had been far worse than he'd imagined. He hadn't intended actual death.
"Yes, well, good thing they didn't get that far, because he, well, he simply dissolved, according to the monitors in the video room. They've never seen anything like it. Raspberry mousse, is what they said."
"Crap," said Jeb, who'd lifted a corner of the bedspread. "We need a water-vac, it's like a very sick swimming pool under there. What hit him?"
"The girls say he just started to froth," said Katrina. "And scream, of course. At first. And tear out feathers - those are ruined, they'll have to be destroyed, what a waste. Then it was no longer screaming, it was gurgling. I'm so worried!" She was understating: scared was more like it.
"He had a meltdown. Must be something he ate," said Zeb. He meant it for a joke; or he meant it to be mistaken for a joke.
Katrina didn't laugh. "Oh, I don't think so," she said. "Though you're right, it might have been in food. Nothing he ate here though, no way! It has to be a new microbe. Looks like a flesh-eater, only so speeded up! What if it's really contagious?"
"Where could he have caught it?" said Jeb. "Our girls are clean."
"Off a doorknob?" said Zeb. Another lame joke. Shut up, pinhead, he told himself.
"Lucky our girls had their Biofilm Bodygloves on," said Katrina. "Those will have to be burned. But none of the - none of what came out of - none of whatever it is touched them."
Zeb was getting an incoming call on his tooth: it was Adam. Since when does he have tooth broadcasting privileges? thought Zeb.
"I understand there's been an incident," said Adam. He was tinny and far away.
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