Fish Swim in the Lake

Part 5.4 | Not waiting on a lady

alphaDana didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed. She said, "I don't have lovers anymore. Lola was never my lover. She's an old friend."

Colin shrugged. "Either way. We... Ah, you're recording this, aren't you."

"No," she said.

"You're lying!" He sounded freshly astonished, like her deceit was a ripe warm cinnamon roll straight out of her steamy oven of a mouth. "Why would I believe you're not recording? You vlog everything!"

alphaDana shrugged, and Tony's great shiny green car jerked. "I don't vlog everything What good would it do to record this? You know my plant's close to full already. How could I possibly have enough space to vlog this at high enough res to verify? And, if I can't verify, why bother? You think I'm going to sell stock shots of your pretty little nose, Killer?"

"I don't believe you." Out of the corner of her eye she saw him turn angrily away and hunch toward the window. He stared out at the humpy spiky treeline, black branched spires on indigo sky, the stars so uninhibited as to be visible even when torn by Tony's headlights.

"You sound upset," alphaDana said casually. "You want to talk about it?"

"I'm not telling you anything," he snapped.

She forced a reasonable, level tone. "Colin, when Vas wakes up he's going to tell me everything about your little scam. Then he's going to call Up There and tell them everything. Then the boys Up There are going to cut a deal and leave you sucking vacuum. You said already that Vlad won't pay for you: if he finds out how much you jacked up he might just pay to get rid of you."

"What concern you have for me," Colin said contemptuously.

"OK. How about this. How about we trade. You tell me, and I tell you what Vas told me. Then it's all even. OK?"

"No! How would I know you're not recording?"

"You're the mentech, you poly, you tell me! Don't you know anything?"

"I know enough," he said. "OK. Let's play a little. You start. You tell me something and I decide if I want to tell you anything."

alphaDana cruised past the gated lookout at Pink Lake and started down the hill. The city was close now, maybe fifteen minutes. She thought of trying to stall Colin for fifteen minutes, no, it would be more, twenty, maybe thirty, before Vas was full of Luna-simulating drugs. Or who knew, maybe longer, she didn't know what the onset was like. She had to say something to trigger a sense of security in the mentech again, to get him talking, get him rattling off long strings of useful truth.

She would have to bluff.

Confidently, she said, "the guys, Up There, have cut a deal with the Magaz."

Colin screamed again and threw open the car door.

Posted by gtaylor at May 09, 2002 10:15 AM