All Tomorrow's Parties

43. LIBIA & PACO

LANEY finds himself on an island in that mind-wide flow he ceaselessly cruises.

It is not a construct, this place, an environment proper, so much as a knotting, a folding-in of information rooted in the substrates of the oldest codes. It is something like a makeshift raft, random pieces thrown together, but it is anchored, unmoving. He knows that it is no accident, that it has been put in his path for a reason.

The reason, he soon finds, is that Libia and Paco wish to speak with him.

They are associates of the Rooster, junior denizens of the Walled City, and present here as a sphere of mercury in zero gravity and a black, three-legged cat, respectively. The sphere of mercury (Libia) has a lovely voice, a girl's, and the three-legged cat, who is also missing one eye and one ear (Paco) has a cunningly modulated growl Laney thinks he remembers from a Mexican cartoon. They are almost certainly from Mexico City, these two, if geography needs to be taken into consideration, and very likely belong to that faction of flaming youth currently opting for the re-flooding of the Federal District's drained lakes, a radical urban reconfiguration that for some reason had obsessed Rei Toei in her final month in Tokyo. She had developed a fascination with large human settlements in general, and Laney had been her guide through certain of the stranger info-prospects presented by what passes, this century, for town planning.

So he hangs here, at the juncture of these old code-roots, in a place devoid of very specific shape or texture, aside from Libia and Paco, and hears them.

'The Rooster tells us you feel someone is watching you watch Cody Harwood, says the sphere of mercury, pulsing as it speaks, its surface reflecting vehicles passing in some busy street.

'It might be an artifact, Laney counters, not sure he should have brought it up with the Rooster, whose paranoia is legendary. 'Something the 5-SB generates.

'We think not, says the cat, its one-eyed filthy head propped atop an arrested drift of data. It yawns, revealing grayish-white gums, the color of boiled pork, and a single orange canine. Its one eye is yellow and hate-filled, unblinking. 'We have determined that you are, in fact, being observed in your observation.

'But not at the moment, says Libia.

'Because we have constructed this blind, says the cat.

'Do you know who it is? Laney asks.

'It is Harwood, says Libia, the sphere quivering delicately.

'Harwood? Harwood is watching me watch him?

'Harwood, says the cat, 'dosed himself with 5-SB. Three years after you were released from the orphanage in Gainesville.

Laney is suddenly and terribly aware of his physical being, the condition of his body. His lungs failing in a cardboard carton in the concrete bowels of Shinjuku Station.

Harwood. It is Harwood whom he has sometimes imagined as the presence of God.

Harwood, who is…

Like him.

Harwood who sees, Laney now sees, the nodal points. Who sees the shapes from which history emerges. And that is why he is at the very heart of the emergent cusp, this newness Laney cannot quite glimpse. Of course Harwood is there.

Because Harwood, in a sense, is causing it.

'How do you know? he hears himself ask, and wills himself beyond the failing strictures of his body. 'Can you be sure?

'We've found a way in, Libia chimes, the sphere distorting like a topographic learning aid, turning reflections of moving traffic into animated Escher-fragments that fly together, mirroring one another. 'The Rooster set us to it, and we did.

'And does he know? Laney asks. 'Does Harwood know?

'We don't think he's noticed, growls the cat, purple-brown scabs caked on the absence of its ear.

'Watch this, says Libia, making no effort to conceal her pride. The intricately lobed surface of the mirrored shape flows and ripples, and Laney is looking into the gray eyes of a young and very serious-looking man.

'You want us to kill him, the young man says. 'Or do I misunderstand you?

'You understand me, says Harwood, his voice familiar, unmistakable, though he sounds tired.

'You know I think it's a very good idea, says the young man, 'but it could be done with greater surety if you gave us time for preparation. I prefer to choose the time and the terrain, if possible.

'Not possible, Harwood says. 'Do it when you can.

'You don't have to give me a reason, of course, the young man says, 'but you must realize I'm curious. We've suggested his removal since you contracted with us.

'It's time, Harwood replies. 'The moment.

Wind catches the young man's dark scarf. It flutters, strobing the image. 'What about the other one, the rent-a-cop?

'Kill him if it seems he's likely to escape. Otherwise, it might be useful if he could be questioned. He's in this too, but I don't see exactly how.

Libia becomes a sphere again, rotating.

Laney closes his eyes and gropes in the close electric dark for the blue cough syrup. He feels the hate-filled yellow eye watching him, but he imagines it as Harwood's.

Harwood knows

Harwood took the 5-SB.

Harwood is like him.

But Harwood has an agenda of his own, and it is from this agenda, in part, that the situation is emerging.

Laney cracks the seal. Drinks the blue syrup. He must think now.