by Ernest Hogan
*
Caldonia finally found room 328, but she was running too fast to come to a graceful, lady-like halt. Instead she ended up in an awkward, one-footed, hopping skid, that ended with her bruising a hip on a wall across the hall and several doors down. She used the name of a favorite goddess in vain, stumbled over to the door and started pounding.
"Phoebe! Phoebe!" she cried. "Open up! Hurry!"
*
Phoebe had closed her eyes, and her mind had gone blank. She had attained a perfect alpha state without any artificial help, instantly and effortlessly for the first time in her life. It must have been some kind of spiritual breakthrough.
Then she heard someone screaming her name and pounding on the door.
Oh well, back to reality.
*
While Caldonia pounded, Zobop caught up with her, followed by Ralph and Xochitl. The Olvidadoids were soon all back on their feet, and running after them.
"Excuse me, madam," Zobop said, pushing Caldonia away from the door and getting punched for his trouble. He reacted as if she hadn't even touched him, even though the impacts were loud. He got into position to kick the door down.
*
Phoebe pulled herself out of the tub, bidding the water a fond farewell – in a way, it had been a magnificent lover.
She slipped into a simulated terry-cloth robe with the Bonaventure logo on a gigantic pocket. Wiping the fog off a section of mirror she saw that, yes, her hair was part dry and part wet – she hadn't really decided if she wanted to shampoo it or not. It looked awful.
Luckily, the robe had a hood, which she pulled over her hair.
She thought about maybe putting on a bit of makeup, but the pounding was so insistent that she went and opened the door first.
A big afro man came hurtling in, foot-first, as if he were going to kick the door down.
The foot missed Phoebe, but the afro's shoulder snagged her as he fell past, knocking her on her ass.
"Phoebe-babe!" said Caldonia, who came in right behind the afro. "Are you okay?"
Before Phoebe could respond, the xau-xau latio woman and an equally xau-xau euro man rushed into the door. The woman was carrying a Xao like she wasn't sure how to use it. The man slammed the door shut as soon as he made it through, hooked the chain, then asked, "Gimmie something to barricade this thing with!"
"I don't know you guys!" said Caldonia, protectively extending the Xao between Zobop and Phoebe.
"We mean you no harm," said Zobop. "We are on your side."
The Olvidadoids began pounding on the door. Oscardo and Macha screamed, "Open up!" at the same time, but without a hint of harmony.
"Oh yeah?" Caldonia pointed her Xao at the door. "Then prove it. Deal with them!"
Ralph turned albino white.
Zobop shrugged and said, "Very well," walked over to the door, nudged Ralph aside, and unhooked the chain.
Glittering beads of sweat broke out all over Ralph's face as Zobop took a deep breath, stepped back, and kicked the door dead center, knocking it off its computerized lock and traditional hinges, into the surprised and already battered faces of the Olvidadoids. Zobop instantly followed the door, pushing it so it pinned the Olvidadoids against the wall, he then waved his open palm like a maitre d' toward the elevator.
Caldonia grabbed Phoebe and bolted. Xochitl immediately followed.
Ralph, dazed, just stood there.
The Olvidadoids stirred. Zobop had to struggle and use his Katkov stun-ring to keep them pinned down.
"Ralph," Zobop said, somehow still calm. "You better hurry."
Ralph walked like a hung-over zombie to the elevator, where Xochitl, Phoebe, and Caldonia waited for the car to arrive.
"Motherfucking elevator!" Caldonia said, among other things.
Zobop, who was sitting on the door by this time, fighting hard to keep the Olvidadoids from charging down the hall, cleared his throat with an inhumanly loud volume, then said, "Excuse me, but now I have need of your assistance!"
Caldonia sneered, then noticed the look of horror on the faces of Phoebe, Xochitl, and Ralph. The elevator was still a few floors away. The Olvidadoids had managed to push Zobop a little closer. She touched her Xao to a nearby smoke detector and zapped.
Instantly a high-pitched electric gargle of an alarm was hurting everyone's ears, and the hidden sprinkler system was letting loose with an indoor tropical rainstorm.
Zobop used the few seconds that the Olvidadoids were disoriented and shoved the door back at them hard enough to knock them all off their feet. Then he ran for the elevator.
The elevator arrived and the door opened.
Caldonia, Phoebe, Xochitl, and Ralph got in. So did Zobop, just moments before the door closed.
The glass elevator allowed them to see the Olvidadoids get up, throw the door aside (fracturing it in the process), and rush to the elevator, arriving far too late to do anything but pound on the closed door. Too late, it occurred them to get out their personal weapons. As the elevator car disappeared below the floor, their bullets shattered the glass shaft.
When the door opened to the lobby, Caldonia led the spontaneous flying wedge as they ran for the main exit, past some confused hotel goons and the confused limo driver in the Smokey Espejo T-shirt.
As they ran down the street, the crowd parted before them.
This really makes me feel loved, Phoebe thought as she squeezed Caldonia's hand.
*
Back in the hallway, in spite of the sprinklers, all the Olvidadoids guards' and enforcers' phones rang. Smokey's face was seen on each dripping wet, weather-sealed screen.
"You have failed me," Smokey said. This time he was not smiling. He face was grim, frightening. "I don't like it."
"But . . ." Oscardo pleaded.
"I can ex . . ." Macha tried to say.
"Shut up! Don't interrupt me! You failed me! I should have you all killed! Your hearts should be cut out for my taco meat!"
Smokey was delighted by the expressions of terror on their faces, but he kept his face grim. He only wished the sprinklers weren't hiding any tears.
"Please," Oscardo and Macha finally managed to harmonize.
Smokey frowned hard. "Very well. Get Phoebe back and maybe, maybe, I'll let you all live!"
They all thanked him as his face vanished.
*
In Beto's conapt, Lila suddenly jumped up and said, "I'm bored!"
"Me too," said Zen.
Chucho gave a dull smile and said, "Anybody hungry?"
"Yeah," said Zen.
"Sure," said Lila, "somekinda food would be nice."
Smokey appeared on the screen. "What kind of food would you like?"
*
Xochitl, the black woman, the pale, balding man, and the black man all left the Bonaventure together. They have incited more violence. They spread chaos and anarchy everywhere they go. And they have the god-simulating program. They must be stopped! May God have mercy on their souls.
*
Meanwhile, Tezcatlipoca finished the scenario for the video and writing "Smoking Mirror Blues" with Lobo through Smokey, secured a recording deal, and negotiated for a global satellite concert.
PART THREE: RECOMBOIZATION
Gods always behave like the people who make them.
– Zora Neale Hurston
16. INSPIRED SCANNING
In front of the Bonaventure, Zobop whispered something into Caldonia's ear as she and Phoebe got back on her scooter. She nodded and took off, meandering through the crowd of people dressed like Hindu deities, forcing a Kali to break the six-armed grip she had on her Ganseha-clad companion's elephant ears and trunk. Zobop then hailed another rickshaw – this one pulled by a petite, mohawked and war-painted natio woman whose purring Benoît functional muscle-implants seemed about to pop out of her skin.
Zobop, Xochitl, and a bemused Ralph crammed themselves into the rickshaw. "Hollywood and Vine," Zobop told the puller, "and zig-zag it!"
The puller wink
ed and tore off, scattering a procession of hobbit-wannabes from San Francisco with fur transplants on their feet.
"What's going on?" Ralph screamed to Zobop, across a frightened Xochitl.
"We'll meet them back at the office," Zobop screamed back as he struggled to fasten his seatbelt. "But we don't want to be followed."
Ralph groaned, but managed to fasten his seatbelt, close his eyes, and hang on with white knuckles.
"Ay, Dios mío!" he heard Xochitl screaming.
*
Xochitl and her fellow conspirators ran out onto Figueroa and hired a rickshaw. The black woman and a white woman got on the scooter. Both groups then went on separate zigzagging courses; a coordinated multi-unit scan shows they are both heading down toward Hollywood and Vine. A special action unit should be sent to intercept them. All other agents should continue tracking them. Keep watching the conapts. May God have mercy on their souls.
*
Phoebe was utterly delighted by being on the back of Caldonia's Honda Electroscooter again. She was also delighted to be holding onto Caldonia as they soared through the streets of glorious El Lay, causing people to run for cover. It felt so good: her breasts on Caldonia's strong, beautiful back, her arms around Caldonia, her hands holding those firm brown breasts with the coco-colored nipples that she couldn't see – but oh, she could feel them get bigger, harder . . . Phoebe squeezed Caldonia's hips in her thighs, pressed her warm, moist, pretty pink vagina into that exquisite African ass. It was so hot. The electric purr of the scooter's motor spiced it up. Phoebe felt loved and had a string of little orgasms.
*
Tan Tien called Director Ho again:
"There's another burst of activity. Not only around the Tezcatlipoca phenomenon, but my system, and Ralph and Zobop, and the links with your system. Somebody else is tracking it and us. I still don't have enough power to keep up with the phenomenon, let alone track the other trackers. Is there any way you could give me access to more of your system?"
Ho looked at her dark almond-shaped eyes, and fought back the urge to just say yes. "No. Look, you know and I know that most police agencies in SoCal these days are more public relations organizations than what they should be, and even though the National Guard handles most of the crowd-control duties during Dead Daze, we still have to keep track of things. There have been outbreaks of violence."
Tan Tien's delicate lips formed an exquisite frown. "You realize that the other party or parties tracking the phenomenon could find us before we find them."
Ho sighed. "I'll see what I can do."
*
Say, how about that Smokey Espejo, shooting a video right on Hollywood Boulevard as the sun was setting on Day Two of Dead Daze, blowing the minds of the masses, and damnear starting the sequel to last year's riots in the process! Just look at the gorgeous footage:
*
Smokey, dressed as Tezcatlipoca, ran down Hollywood Boulevard, a crowd instantly forming, growing and following, hundreds of hands reaching for him. He stopped and turned around in front of a megascreen and let out an Aztec battle-cry that froze every ounce of blood for miles around. The crowd stopped in its tracks. Tezcatlipoca was in control, like a bullfighter before thrusting the sword.
He pointed to the megascreen.
The swarm of eyes looked up at it.
Tezcatlipoca appeared on the megascreen, naked except for a loincloth and some blue and black paint.
The crowd grunted, as if on the edge of a collective orgasm.
As the Tezcatlipoca on the megascreen danced, a voice boomed:
"Tonight at sundown, GloboNet proudly presents, Smokey Espejo and Los Tricksters in the first global satellite pay-per-view concert! Available on most channels on all areas! Don't miss it! It'll make these Dead Daze, and the trimili!"
The crowd let out a mass scream, danced, and began smashing things. Even the National Guard joined in the mayhem.
Tezcatlipoca could hardly wait until the concert. It would allow him to control this entire world, the way he did this crowd.
*
"And if you think that video is something," Smokey's voice suddenly came on, cutting off the confused netjock's audio – she just shook her long, red dredlocks and gave a freckle-faced smile – "wait until the concert. If you aren't jacked into it, you'll miss out on the main event, not only Dead Daze, but the whole new millennium. The world will not be the same afterward. You will not be the same afterward."
There was a blast of static that sounded like laughter, then silence.
The netjock looked over to her techs, listened to something over her earpiece, then said, "Well, that just goes to show you that Smokey really is the guy that makes it happen. We have no idea how he got into our system! Guess we'd all better just keep watching for his signals. And find out how to buy input for that concert!"
*
"Hey," said Lila, "think we're gonna get to see the concert?"
"I dunno," said Chucho, his mouth full of the pork-fried rice they had just had delivered.
"We should," said Zen, sprawling on Beto's bed, "after all, we've been working so hard."
Suddenly Smokey appeared on Beto's monitor. "Of course you'll get to see the concert. Just make sure nothing happens to this hardware."
"Yes Smokey," they said like a chorus of school kids.
When Smokey vanished from the screen they cheered.
"This is the life," said Chucho.
"And how," said Zen.
"For sure," said Lila.
*
Special action unit reporting. Closing in on the subjects. May God have mercy on their souls.
*
"You okay Smokey?" asked Ella, knowing she had screwed up the keyboard riff and was waiting for Smokey to give her the lecture about how in the old days Aztec musicians who did such things were killed for offending the gods, again. His eyes would get super-intense, and she would feel electrified by his attention. She was falling in love with him; she couldn't help it. This might be one of those circumstance where she would have to break her hard-and-fast rule about never getting erotically involved with anyone she worked with – again.
But Smokey didn't say anything, just stared off into space as the light-emitting diode on his implant blinked.
The rest of the Tricksters, as well as the Olvidadoids and techs noticed. The anxiety level in the studio went way, way up.
Lobo looked at Ella and cocked his head in Smokey's direction. Her eyes got big and she shook her head, looking scared, then pointed to Lobo. Lobo looked around, everybody nodded in agreement – when the going gets tough, it's a job for El Lobo-Man, as usual.
Taking a deep breath, Lobo took a few steps closer to Smokey. Lobo then cleared his throat, and said, "Hey, Smokey, what are you thinking?"
The light-emitting diode on Smokey's implant stopped blinking, like it had burned out.
*
There was a buzz in Smokey's head. It wouldn't go away. Then it became a burst of static that said, Hey! Smokey! It's me, Beto! I'm still here!
*
A burst of static erupted through Beto's system, saying, "Hey! Smokey! It's me, Beto! I'm still here!"
"Who the hell's this Beto person?" asked Lila.
"I dunno," said Chucho.
"I wonderful if we're going to be here tonight during the concert?" said Zen.
"Yeah, should we order it, will the gang pay for it?"
Smokey then appeared on Beto's monitor screen. "Don't worry. You'll get to see the concert. You've earned it."
*
A voice like a static storm ripped through Tan Tien's system, saying, "Hey! Smokey! It's me, Beto! I'm still here."
She called Director Ho, who said, "Yeah, yeah, it came over my system, too. I'll see about assigning more power and hardware to this case."
*
All agents report that a static-voice interrupted their comlinks, saying "Hey! Smokey! It's me, Beto! I'm still here." A Hispanic agent tells us that "Beto" is short for Alberto. Crossche
cking shows that the Hollywood conapt where Xochitl met the black woman is rented by a certain Alberto Orozco. We need to scan the mediasphere for information on Alberto Orozco. We need to investigate his conapt. More special action units are needed. May God have mercy on their souls.
*
Smokey thought to Tezcatlipoca: We need to get Phoebe back. Beto is still inside us. He is getting stronger every moment she is gone.
Tezcatlipoca assured Smokey that he was scanning for Phoebe and delivering clues to the combined guard/enforcer team.
*
"She and the kidnappers are headed for Hollywood and Vine," the image of Smokey on their phones told the guards and enforcers. "Go there. Get her."
"Oh boy," Oscardo said, "we get to go the center of El Lay's action!"
"Lucky us," Macha said, stroking her mustache, contemplating mayhem.
17. SMOKEY SINGS THE BLUES
The light-emitting diode on Smokey's implant lit up again, but did not blink any more.
"I am a god," he said, with inhuman confidence. "I have more to think about than you could imagine.
"Now, let's try to get through the new, improved version of ‘Smoking Mirror Blues’ without crashing and burning . . ."
*
Special action unit, have surrounded the subjects. Have identified Xochitl. Have located a nanochip on her person with our sniffers. We're going in. May God have mercy on their souls.
*
Zobop didn't like the way a bunch of revelers had seemed to surround them, the ones who had been following them for the last few blocks. He had the puller stop, paid her, and he, Xochitl, and Ralph made the rest of their way on foot. The crowd stuck by them.
There was something odd about them. Their costumes were on the shabby side: angels with bedsheet robes, foil wings and haloes; cowboys with paper hats and moustaches; workers in overalls with glittery masks; business suits with ski masks; street clothes with cheap monster masks. They lacked imagination and style; maybe they were tourists.
The crowd was so thick that Caldonia had to practically walk her scooter.
Phoebe got off and waved Zobop and Ralph over.
