Ambient 06 - Going, Going, Gone

walked as fast as we could, south down Broadway until we were sure nobody was coming after us.
    »Okay, we’re safe now,« I said. »Where’ve you been? I –«
    »What problematicked back there, Walter?« she asked.
    »Irish aren’t big on women in bars. You didn’t see the sign?«
    »Sign?«
    I sighed. »Where’s She-Beast?«
    »Chlo, meant?« she said. »Around, but not present. For security’s sake.«
    »Considering the last time –«
    »Walter, updates essential. Tell.«
    »With my ghosts, you mean?« Seizing her elbow, I made a quick turn east onto Seventy-eighth. »Let’s take the scenic route.«
    »Contact continues?« she asked.
    »We’re not having heart to hearts. It’s like I said, he knows my name. He says it, sometimes. I don’t pay that much attention anymore. Where have you been, anyway?«
    » Are they gaining mass?«
    Once she got her teeth in she clamped down like a bulldog. »What are you talking about?«
    »Do they look any more solid?«
    »Clear as a clean windshield,« I said. »When’d you get back into town? If you’d called, I could have –«
    »Today,« she said, looking at a Greek grocery at the corner of Amsterdam. Lambs and squirrels dangled pink and bloody in the window, a fan stirring them into life. »Only today.«
    »You sure about that?« Much as Muscles would have come in handy with the sons of Erin back at the bar, I still felt leery that she’d pop out of a manhole at any second and kill everybody in sight. »I was at a party downtown the other night. Almost got mugged, but seemed like I had a guardian angel.«
    »I’ve only been back today,« she said. »Chlo stayed at my direction. To see that you were all right.«
    »I can take care of myself,« I said, but didn’t make much of an argument.
    »When you see them, are they moving?« We continued along the street. Two long ammo belts of trash cans lined each curb. »Have they appeared outside your apartment?«
    »They were at that party,« I said. As soon as I spoke, Eulie went all pale – that’s to say she turned light olive as opposed to her usual café au lait – and looked like she’d swallowed a bad oyster. »What’s the matter?« She shook her head.
    »We anticipated other, even though our AV confirmations predicted.«
    »AV?«
    »Audio video,« she said. »Radio. Television.«
    »What’s television?«
    She didn’t fill me in. In the streetlight shine Eulie looked fourteen, very young and very scared. Can’t deny I’ve broken the Mann Act now and then in my life, but this was another kettle of fish indeed. Never been a candyman and didn’t want to be mistaken for one. At least she didn’t act like any teenager I’d ever come across. »You were going to tell me something the last time you saw me,« I said. »What?«
    »It’s difficult to detail,« she said. »A tree, multibranched.«
    »All right. Why don’t you start by telling me who these ghosts used to be.«
    »She was a Russian scientist. He was Dryco’s security chief. Identifier, Jake.«
    »What’s Dryco?«
    »My owner.«
    »Nobody owns anybody,« I said, speaking – it seemed to me, when I listened – with my father’s voice. Frightening; I’d never expected to hear him again. »You don’t mean literally.«
    A pause, way past pregnant into nine-hour labour. She eyed me as if she couldn’t fathom what I meant. »It’s a subunit of Dryco. I officiate.«
    »Not the Society for Psychical Research?«
    She shook her head. »The Lucidity Institute.«
    »Whatever,« I said. »Look, is this ghost business some kind of a psyop? Am I the guinea pig?«
    »Psycop?«
    » Op, op. Psyop. I’m no chicken in the basket. I have ears. Stories fly in.«
    »Walter, you’re baffling,« she said. »Clarify.«
    »Baby, I may not look the part but I’m pretty tight with my ninth circle connections. They don’t know you from Lilith. Who are you with?«
    »As stated,« she said. »Dryco. I can’t detail further, not presently.«
    »Why not?« No response. »Why is this Jake character hanging out? Why can’t he go on to where he’s supposed to go?«
    »He wouldn’t know how. He’s been in his state for thirty years.«
    »Why’s he showing up now, then? In my apartment?«
    »We have theories,« she said. »But actualities, unknown.«
    Seemed to me I may as well have been speaking in Choctaw for all the info I was getting out of her, and finally I gave up. Figured when she really had something to tell me, she’d tell me; and all I could think of