Pornopsychedelica

by Chris Johnson

  He was laughing, then moving toward her so fast that she had to brace herself against the car when his chest collided with hers. He was still grinning, making it obvious that he was staring at the shape of her tits.

  She probably caught him off-guard, thinking maybe that she'd wait a moment to clear some space between them. A kick caught him in the stomach, and the moment he hit the ground she jumped on his groin with her heel.

  38

  Phantom Pain

  Kiyoshi was an otaku, a geek who collected crap obsessively. Shelves packed with graphic novels and toys, memorabilia from TV shows and old movies. Tomoko paused to look at all the photographs of Japanese girls, teens with teeth still getting fixed, used panties in vacuum-sealed bags, filed and catalogued.

  She could hear him talking to Teja as she entered what Kiyoshi called The Hub, a large room with a spiralling ramp. The brain of his operation, where he sat at six screens and monitored the world. He turned his wheelchair to face her.

  'How long you gonna be staying?'

  Potato chip crumbs were on his lap. Tomoko had never asked Kiyoshi his age, but she guessed he'd be around forty-five.

  'It won't be long,' she said. 'Just overnight. Did you get the info'?'

  He spun the wheelchair to the console, played his fingers over a keyboard. He indicated to two of the screens.

  'Yeah, got it. Peter Yang arrived at Kansai Airport this morning with six other people.' Giselle's passport photo appeared, then Kameko's, then pictures of Peter's bodyguards. 'I don't know where he's staying yet.' He looked up at her. 'I think he knows you'd be tracking him.'

  'Means he's concerned enough now to take precautions.'

  'What about all that other stuff?'

  'Upload it to me.'

  'You want me to scratch your ass as well?'

  'Come on, Kiyoshi, you owe me.'

  He swivelled to a virtual display, hands in motion as he shuffled and manipulated data. 'You save a guy's life once and he owes you forever. Where did you pick up the sim?'

  Teja sat up from the padded chair she was laid back in. 'I'm called Teja.'

  'Yeah, I know,' said Kiyoshi. 'I wasn't talking to you.'

  'If I'm in the room and you ask about me, then you're talking to me.'

  'Okay,' he said. 'Where did you pick up Tomoko.'

  'She found me about five miles into the Waste Lands in Malaysia.' Tomoko moved to Teja's side, sitting on the arm of the chair. Kiyoshi had hooked her up to one of his computers, a dozen wires trailing from probes stuck to her chest and head. She had a pulse monitor on her finger. 'She came across where I'd been hiding for three weeks.'

  'You took her in, Tomoko,' said Kiyoshi.

  'Kinda,' said Tomoko. 'It wasn't like I had a choice.'

  'Why's that?'

  'She followed me. I couldn't get rid of her.'

  Kiyoshi moved to the keyboard operating the machine connected to Teja. 'Must have been those beautiful green eyes.'

  'Yeah,' said Tomoko. She moved her fingers through Teja's red hair. 'Something like that. How long is this going to take?'

  He shrugged in the wheelchair. 'Never done this before.'

  'It'll take several hours,' said Teja. 'Are you sure you want to do this?'

  'I need you strong, Teja,' said Tomoko. She looked at her watch. 'I need to know you can take care of yourself. If you don't - '

  'I want to do it,' said Teja. 'If I have the inhibitors I'm still a slave.'

  'She could be dangerous,' said Kiyoshi.

  Tomoko cradled Teja's face in her palm. 'She's already dangerous.'

  Kiyoshi altered a few controls on a screen, moved over to Teja to check the probes stuck to her skin, on her neck, behind her ears.

  'What will happen when you remove them?' asked Tomoko.

  Kiyoshi plugged a lead into a VR helmet. 'You won't notice any difference. The inhibitors are just mental blocks to help keep sims under control. They're a product, don't want them killing people or forming serious relationships. Crime, murder, antisocial behaviour.' Kiyoshi went back to his computer, spoke with his back to her. 'Humans don't do those things because most of us could never get used to the idea. Sims can change their attitude just by taking in new information.'

  'How does this machine remove the inhibitors?' asked Tomoko.

  'It doesn't. It'll just guide her. She'll find and remove the inhibitors herself. She'll be in a sort of deep sleep.'

  Teja used the controls to recline the chair so she was almost horizontal. Tomoko jumped off the armrest as it slid out from underneath her.

  Teja said, 'I'm ready.'

  Tomoko watched her close her eyes. Teja twitched for a few seconds. Tomoko followed Kiyoshi up the ramp. 'Shouldn't you stay with her?'

  'What the hell for?' He reached down the side of the chair, pulled out a juice box and sucked on a straw. 'All up to her now. I thought you were going to Hiroshima?'

  'I am. How safe is this place?'

  'Well hidden, don't worry. All the cameras for ten blocks are under my control. If they spy a face I don't want them to see, it's replaced with a different one. I control everything. Cameras, fingerprint scanners, biometric autodogs. I leave a trail of false information. This place might as well not exist.'

  'Suppose I get seen on the street?'

  'I can't hack someone's eyeballs. Not yet.'

  'Okay. I have to check on our friend first.'

  She left Kiyoshi rolling down the corridor, slipping into the room where they were keeping Fernandez. He put out his arms like a child wanting to be picked up.

  'How are you doing?' She sat next to him on the bed. 'We're going to catch that big flight soon. Sound good?'

  He was still sleepy, didn't seem to have much of an idea about where he was. She'd dressed him in pants and a brown shirt since he was naked when they pulled him out of the octopus suit.

  'I feel tired,' he said. 'Lay next to me. We'll sleep right here.'

  'No, no. What you need is something so I can control you. Make you do exactly as I say.'

  He had his fingers under the top of her skirt, feeling the softness of her thigh. 'I like that. I'll do anything for you.'

  She took the syringe from her pocket, pulled off the cap with her teeth. She had her hand on his chest as she positioned his head. The needle pricked the watery membrane of his eyeball, slid inside. She injected only a small amount, all she would need to keep him docile and open to her suggestions. It left a red mark on the white of his eye.

  When Tomoko walked into Jessica's room, Martin was standing at the window, looking out across the city like he was sizing up an opponent. She watched him pull his gun out, check all six cylinders, inspecting each one like he had in mind that six bullets wouldn't be enough to kill one man.

  'How is she doing?' Tomoko asked him.

  Jessica stirred on the bed. 'I'm fine.'

  Tomoko went to her side, took hold of her fingers. Jessica's left arm was missing below the elbow, the end wrapped in thick bandages. 'You look a lot better. I think you're tougher than your dad gives you credit for.'

  Martin turned from the window. His lip was split and his eye bruised. She could see a darkness clouding his face, meaner and harder than before. 'I know how tough she is. How long are you gonna be gone?'

  Jessica's fingers tightened on Tomoko's hand. 'You're leaving?'

  'Only for a few hours. Teja is having some treatment and you need to rest.'

  •

  Tomoko caught the high-speed monorail to Hiroshima. An automech lifter had picked up the car Jiro had supplied and had placed her on the top level, giving her a good view from left to right through the windows.

  Green hills appeared and disappeared, then all the black and grey of industry, a puzzle of pipes and cooling towers. Kiyoshi had an update to her phone. Other data streamed in, making the device vibrate in her hand. She knew she had to read it, but right now she needed to look out of the window, get a feeling of home, even if most of it was high-rise apartments and free
way that you could transplant to Malaysia and barely notice the difference. Apart from the futons hanging over the balconies and the signs and adverts in Japanese, not much gave her a strong feeling that she was back in Japan.

  They soon stopped at the Meieki Station in Nagoya, and a lifter dropped another car next to Tomoko's, two kids in there looking at her until the train started moving again. She watched the scenery for maybe thirty minutes before she'd seen enough. Nothing much had changed since she used to make this journey with Clark.

  The train pulled into Osaka and took on more passengers and cars. It was a straight twenty-five-minute run after Osaka and the train didn't start to slow down until it was a few miles out from Hiroshima.

  On the street, Tomoko nosed through traffic and waited for an old streetcar to rattle past before she could make the turn toward the Kyobashigawa River. The Inari Seiyoken restaurant was still there on the corner, half the characters on the sign not working, and to the south they were building a new bridge. Tomoko realised she was slowing down and speeding up all along Aioi-dori Avenue, remembering all the insignificant things like cycling on the sidewalk, buying things from the shops, where she'd eaten or had a soda. She nudged the accelerator and pushed through town.

  She reached the road to the old house and started the winding climb up the hill. She passed the Nakamuras' place, wondering if they still lived there, the houses behind always looking as though they were fighting for space. She continued up, over the bridge that cut across a stream. The framework underneath had made a cool swing for daring kids.

  The old house looked different. She remembered cars squeezed into the space out front, a dozen bikes belonging to the kids who'd come for lessons. Saigo's Mitsubishi was still there, all the tyres flat and the rain shelter half-collapsed. She went up the three steps, across the porch and spent a few seconds digging the keys out of her jacket pocket.

  When she got inside the smell of the place surprised her. Damp and old, like maybe the roof had leaked and over the years the place had started to rot. It put a picture in her mind of things growing out of mouldy corners, climbing up the walls. She wished she'd brought a flashlight with her, the rooms getting darker by the minute. She'd never been in the house before with her shoes on, her footsteps sounding weird on the hardwood floor. She passed her palm over one of the cedar supports.

  Tomoko moved through the house, pausing to look out of the windows through dirt and cobwebs. If Saigo was at home, that third step with its squeak would have told him she was on her way upstairs. She looked into the living room, where they'd kept the TV, books and stuff. Saigo would sit in a chair with his legs hanging over the side, watching some old samurai soap opera, or laughing at cartoons. Sometimes he'd wave to her when she walked past, then maybe she'd join him, sit on the floor and eat the cakes and chocolate he often had.

  She could hear him, shouting her name from below, getting louder and more impatient, like he had that time when they were on their way to Yamamoto's dōjō.

  39

  Ero Guro Nansensu

  Alone in the old house, the corners of the room almost in total darkness now, Tomoko thought what it would be like to remember everything in detail, just like Teja could. She couldn't remember why Ichiro hated her. She remembered the bruises, the red spit in her mouth. The thousands of yen Saigo had counted onto her palm.

  Petrol fumes filled the house. Tomoko poured the liquid from a jerry can down the wooden steps, splashing it across the dōjō floor, up one of the cedar beams. She dropped the can, fuel spilling out, took a tight grip on the thick rope of hair falling down her back and used a knife to cut through it.

  Outside, she tossed a flare through the open doorway and watched fire taking hold of the old timbers. The fire spread quickly, orange and red around the windows and crackling through the doorway. She clapped her hands and made a prayer, bowing twice. Embers floated around her.

  In the car, Tomoko could see the house burning like a beacon in the rear mirror. She made the bottom of the hill, streetlights on now, noticed a black car creeping into the traffic behind her. She was sure she'd seen that same car when she'd left Kiyoshi's. She took the next turn.

  A car slammed into her from the side, crushing the passenger door. She felt a tingling energy field, like she'd been hit by a microwave pulse. Tomoko felt sick. She passed out.

  Someone leaned into the car and unbuckled her seat belt. It was a man, she could tell from his voice, Japanese, but she couldn't make out the words. She felt him feeling inside her pants for weapons. He was taking his time, which was good since she needed to wake up, get her eyes open.

  He wouldn't know about the gun she'd placed under the seat. He moved her forward so he could check behind her, Tomoko's arm sliding toward the floor, her finger almost touching the gun. All she had to do now was wake up. Get her damned eyes open.

  She came to like a swimmer breaking the surface after a deep dive. She'd startled the man, leaning over her to check the glove box. He jumped and knocked his head on the roof, Tomoko pushing him out and kicking the car door into his face. He scuttled across the ground, stopping when he saw she had a gun on him. He was one of the young thugs who'd been talking to Jessica in the bar.

  He said, 'Hey, you're awake.'

  He made to get up, but she motioned with the gun to tell him to stay down.

  'Keep your grubby hands where I can see them,' she said.

  'I was making sure you were okay.'

  'Sure you were.'

  He was leering. 'I saw the whole thing. You were lucky you weren't killed.'

  'Not much luck for you though.' She had to lean forward a little, ease the pain in her stomach.

  'Why's that?'

  'You're the one getting his ass wet on the floor and I've got the gun.'

  He was keeping it casual, like maybe he had a gun pointed at him every day. He could be the type who'd constantly push his luck, take any opportunity to get the better of her.

  'You look dizzy,' he said. 'I don't think you're gonna be able to stay awake for much longer.'

  'You seen what happens to a kneecap when it gets hit by a bullet?'

  'No.'

  'Tell your buddy hanging behind the garbage to get himself over here.'

  He looked across to the garbage boxes, looked as though he was about to shout something, but glanced back at her instead. The thought of a splintered kneecap maybe kept him from getting smart with her. 'Hey, Tsurukawa, she means business.'

  A guy ambled out, walked right up with a gun in his hand.

  Tomoko said, 'Put the gun down or I'll shoot your friend.'

  He just huffed. 'Shoot him. I don't care.'

  The gun made two loud cracks when Tomoko shot him, the other getting off a couple of wild shots as he turned and ran, falling over the garbage and disappearing down the alley. She felt the contents of her stomach churning. Wide-beam microwave pulses did that. She needed to get back to Teja fast.

  •

  Saigo would talk about his dreams like he talked about everything else, as if they had meaning in the real world. One time he'd dreamed about a giant fist he was struggling to open, another time he'd told her about travelling down a river, in the Amazon maybe.

  She'd asked if he ever dreamed about her mother. Saigo had said he tried not to. There were photographs of Kameko in a drawer, sometimes Tomoko would look at them, seeing herself in those dark, almost black eyes. There was a picture of her father and mother taken in Nara, a giant Buddha behind them.

  Tomoko wasn't aware of any dreams right now, only a pain between her temples. She could feel something soft underneath her, like she was lying on a mattress. She knew cable ties were holding her arms and legs in place before she opened her eyes, feeling the hard plastic rubbing against her. She lifted her head from a pillow and looking down her body she saw that she was still dressed. She was on a single bed, her feet restrained at each lower corner so her legs were open. She guessed she must have passed out again, had a vague memory of her chee
k pressed to the wet ground.

  Heavy breathing, the noise of flesh against flesh. She was in a large hotel suite, glancing quickly at everything she could take in from her restrained position. There was a king-sized bed, floor to ceiling windows across one wall, a living area with cream leather sofas and a large television, a man with his back to her standing at a desk. He was wearing a shirt and no trousers, the cheeks of his ass clenching each time he thrust into the woman bent over the desk.

  Two small drones hovered at either side of them, 3D imaging lasers projecting a grid over the contours of arms and legs, the shape of his erection standing out from his shirt when he pulled out of the woman. Tomoko felt a wave of nausea rising to her throat. She recognised Jessica's legs, the shape of them. There was a metal frame holding her in position, clear plastic rings keeping her legs at what might have been a natural position for sex over a desk. Tomoko felt her whole body trembling with anger, unable to look away from those naked legs, from the small feet in heels, the curve of her body to her hips, where her body ended. She'd been cut in half at the waist.

  Tomoko jerked violently against the ties, the edges cutting into her wrists and ankles. She shouted a torrent of abuse at Fernandez until the sound of her own screams hurt her ears. He was wearing a mask, a featureless plastic oval with round eyeholes. He lifted the mask and wore it like a hat, shaking sweat from his eyes.

  'I heard your name is Tomoko Iwamoto.' He moved to a table where a buffet was laid out, picked up a pickle and waved it as he spoke. 'I hope you have finished with all the shouting and screaming, it will give me a dreadful headache, and only be bad for you.'

  'I will kill you, you fucking –'

  'No, no. Please stop.' He made a motion with his hand and the drones hovered to docking stations. 'You have been given to me by Mr. Yang, to do with as I please. A final piece, my last on this wretched planet.'

  'Do you know who I am, Fernandez?'

  'Yes, yes,' he was nodding while he chewed on a tiny sandwich. 'You are a pretty girl, and I am a boy. What else is there to know?'