Why Do Birds

CHAPTER 7

The messenger, Sherman Cohen, was sitting with Rong at a table near the bar; Cohen was finishing a corned beef sandwich and Rong had just swallowed the last of his beer when Stone walked in, looking glum.

"No good, huh?" said Rong.

Stone sat down and put the clipboard on the table. "No, the ID didn 't match. The guard noticed that he has dark hair and I don't. And the eye color is different, too." He looked at Cohen and put out his hand. "Hey, thanks anyway."

Cohen shook hands and pulled the clipboard closer. "Well, sorry it didn't work out."

Stone said, "I was figuring once I was in, you know, I could borrow some money to pay you back, but I couldn't get in the door."

"Don't worry about it, man. Hey, this guard, was he a real person or a holo?"

"A holo, I guess. One of those things in glass cages?"

Rong reached over and took the ID card from the clipboard. He looked at the picture, then at Stone. "Looks the same to me, ” he said.

The bartender was hurrying over. "Hey, Ed, good to see you. What'll it be?"

"I don't want anything right now."

"Yeah, he does. Bring him a shot and a half, Dick, and two more for me and him, and it's on my friend here." Sherman smiled and waved.

"Right back." The bartender brought the drinks, then pulled up a chair and listened. He said to Stone, " Suppose your hair was the same color as him, would that do it?"

"I don't know. There's the eyes, too."

"Well, what if we take a picture of you and paste it on this guy's ID?"

"Hey," said Cohen. "I don't think that would work. Those holopix on the ID cards, they're supposed to be made of signature plastic. You put another photo on there, the signatures don't match."

"Well, it's worth a try. Hey, Mary." He beckoned to a youngish woman at the bar.

"Me?" She picked up her drink and came over to the table.

"Mary, you got any hair dye in your purse?"

"No, I don't use it no more. This is a wig."

"It is? Let's have a look."

Mary took off the wig, revealing a head covered with mousy hair, unevenly cut and standing out in tufts. 'Jesus," said Dick, "give her a hat, somebody. "

Cohen passed over his Greek fisherman's cap and Mary put it on. "Hey, I ain't that bad," she said.

Dick set the wig on Stone's head and they all looked at it critically. Dick tugged it forward a little, then back. "What do you think?"

"Pass the cap back," Rong said.

"You got a cap yourself. I'm suppose to keep this on."

"Okay, I'll trade you." They exchanged caps, and Rong put the messenger's cap on Stone. "Who got a pair of smokes?" he asked.

"I do, behind the bar." Dick got up and came back in a moment with a pair of dark glasses. Rong slipped the earpieces over Stone's ears and sat back to study the effect.

"I don't know, I seen better faces on dead guys," said Dick.

"Let's look at the problem," said Rong. "One way it's bad that this guard is a holo, see, because if he was a guy you could pay him something, maybe, or you could just wait till he goes to lunch, and then you're talking to somebody else, but with a holo, they don't never go to lunch."

They thought about this. "That's sad," said Cohen.

"But, the other way it's good that he's a holo, see, because a holo is not as smart as a real person. Now a real person would never go for that wig, am I right? But a holo maybe would, and especially if you confuse it."

"Confuse it how?" Stone asked.

"Man, how do I know? Do something crazy. What have you got to lose?"