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It was one thing to stand out in the street, catching whatever came your way and dodging the eyecard carriers, but if you went in someplace, and got caught, then you had to deal with the proprietor and the police.
Chango crossed the street and went into the Pegasus Hotel and Casino. She stood in the foyer, dripping wet and fumbling with the clasps of her raincoat. The door man scowled at her. The Pegasus pretty much let anybody in, that's why she was there, but they let you know they weren't happy about it. Chango shrugged off his glare and went down the steps to the casino, losing herself in the crowd. The sca
She didn't like to do more than one scan per place, so she moved on, to Rhoda's, the Laikon, Trapper's, Parthenomicon. That was where she saw her: A reasonably tall woman in a battered grey raincoat, her dark brown hair short and spikey with rainwater. She glanced about the crowded room with blank alarm. She was scared, but not in a focused way, only in the what-am-I-doing-here, what's-going-on kind of way that made for an easy mark. Chango began to circle in towards her. As she did she noticed that the woman's eyes were a startling shade of blue, her olive skin smooth and even. If she kept up this noticing, she wouldn't be able to make the score. She stopped looking at her, and focused instead on the pockets of the raincoat.
Chango moved up beside her and slipped her hand into a pocket, very softly, very slowly, as if she wasn't moving at all. She wrapped her fingers around a slim, smooth square and then bumped into the mark, actually pushing her away from her card. As Chango jostled her, she felt something beneath the raincoat, something long and rounded. She was carrying a shotgun under there. The last thing Chango wanted to do was mess around with somebody packing heat, for any reason.
"Sorry," Chango said, bending over and pretending to pick up the card. "Did you drop this?" she asked, but she got no answer, the woman was through the door before she had a chance to straighten up. "Shit," Chango glanced at the square in her hand. It wasn't a money card. It was a data card. Chango stared at it for a moment, and then she was out the door herself, glancing up and down the street. She caught sight of the woman almost a block away already, practically ru
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Helix fled down the street in a blind panic. There were so many people in there, and someone had bumped into her and felt — they had to have felt it. Helix swerved, barely avoiding collision with a heavily made up transvestite. People, so many people. Suddenly she felt as if she’d crawl out of her skin in order to get away from them all.
It was almost night now, the rain soaked streets glistening into darkness, reflecting the colors of the neon signs like the rainbow oil slicks of old.
Soon, she'd have to find someplace to spend the night. She couldn't just keep walking forever, despite what her i
Suddenly Helix was struck with a longing so powerful it stopped her in her tracks. She wanted... what?
To find her mother? Maybe. It was the only thing she could think of. She wanted something, badly, but her life with Hector Martin had been comfortable, safe. So what else could she be lacking? Only her mother, surely, and yet, just then, all she could really think of was a large tub of warm water. The thought distracted her and she nearly bumped into a man with orange hair sticking out from under a polyweave cap. He gri
"No," she said, and turned halfway to face him. She stepped back, trying to keep all three of them in view.
"No?" the one with the knife queried, "you better be lying." She shook her head and took another step back, but Red Hair grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her. She gasped at the sudden flash of pain. "I don't-" she paused, "I don't know, let me see."