Fish Swim in the Lake

Part 8.3 | Hold me, baby

Colin punched alphaDana in the stomach and jammed his elbow into the inside of her thigh. She screamed and bent over but didn't let the skinjector drop. He grabbed for her wrist. She threw herself forward and tried to roll off. He caught her around her waist and fell on her. He rolled between her thighs, hot and flustered and still halfway aroused, grabbing at her hands, while she kicked him in the backs of his knees.

Part 8.2 | It's time to train yourself

The Magaz Corporation wasn't as old as she'd thought. In high tech, companies are begotten, born and die far faster than in Byzantium. It incorporated just after Vas's group had gone Up There. Made up of a bunch of defectors from a bunch of other companies making net access ware. About a year ago. A little after the last batch of them, including Vas, went Up There under data quarantine. And Vlad Mikhailovitch, Colin's brother, in the core.

Part 8.1 | Is absolute zero cold enough

"I'm acting like an idiot. I'm really worried about Vas," alphaDana said. "We go back such a long way..."
"Yes, I know," Colin said. "I'm familiar with both your records. I probably know things about you that neither of you know about each other."
"Like what?"

Part 7.5 | On the water

"Fine," alphaDana said. She made her voice creaky and begrudging. "I'll vog for it and see if I can make a deal to have some delivered. That's probably what he meant. We'll leave your contact for later, if it's an emergency."

Part 7.4 | As his conscience seems to be

"You're a cop," alphaDana called as Colin turned on the bath water. "You must know resourceful people who don't work with Vlad."

Part 7.3 | Peel me a grape

alphaDana felt as though a razorwing glider had neatly clipped away the left side of her body but left the right side unimpressed. She was surprised and surprised that she was surprised. She forced Colin convulsively away from her. [more]

Part 7.2 | A torrent of vegetable words

"I guess the next question," alphaDana said, turning her head but not her body, slowly, as though she too were suppressed by gravity, "the next question is whether you're as stupid as you look." [more]

Part 7.1 | Lighten up my eyes

She heard herself say: we're at war? She felt her face assume the neutral, reassuring mask it used to take when she was a -- before she shot Nemoros. That idiot. [more]

Part 6.5 | On the ravish'd virgin vengeance takes

"It's just dead silicon," Colin said sullenly. "Vlad's wuffs are closer to aliens than she is."

"How do you know it's DEAD?" Vas's face blotched red and white as the drugs swarmed against adrenaline. "They operate in SWARMS, Colin! They're like BEES that form into BIGGER BEES! Don't you guys READ the mothering reports we send down with the bodies? Or were you in too big a hurry to turn them into merchandise?" [more]

Part 6.4 | You like it? It's yours

Colin picked up a goosenecked blue bottle from the bristling glass spires on Vas's wet bar. He turned it in his hands. His mouth opened and closed. He poured himself a drink of something pale amber and drank it. His voice was small and compressed when he eventually asked, tentatively, "how could you sell us out?" [more]

Part 6.3 | But as I was saying

While the disposable jumpsuit printed, alphaDana pulled off handfuls of designer gauze. The bodysculpt was -- being Lola's, and expensive -- relatively easy to remove. The cheap stuff clung like duct tape; Lola's delicate synthetic flesh peeled off in long smooth strips suitable for recycling. alphaDana rubbed the last of it off her nipples and wadded it all into the DisposAll mouth. She ordered some flat black shoes with rubbery soles. [more]

Part 6.2 | Keep little company

"Do you even know what he needs?" alphaDana said, brushing Colin's stringy white hands off the drugs. [more]

Part 6.1 | His dreams, they aren't as empty

alphaDana's head throbbed. Normally she took two-hour breaks in the morning, midday and evening. She'd swap power cells, meditate, listen to music, read books, have sex, anything to put new skin on her awareness. Operating the vlogger was about as effortless as riding a bicycle -- instinctive, but still a physical act requiring finesse. Still tiring. She'd be wrecked tomorrow if she didn't stop now. But she didn't know what was going on, and she felt as though she was in strobe flashes where the visible was unnaturally bright, and the essential was forced invisible.

She poured herself something she guessed was alcohol from a fat round decanter with an amber stopper. It smelled like an emergency room and she shot it like distinfectant. It blistered down her throat like salted lemon juice. Wiping her eyes she said vaguely, "why that one? There's got to be a dozen Magazes in town." [more]

Part 5.5 | Girls would turn the colour of an avocado

alphaDana slowed the car and leaned across Colin to grab the door handle while he frantically hauled on the seat belt buckle. He thrashed against her like an articulated fish. "You're on their side!" he howled. "You knew all along!" [more]

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." [more]