Laney looked at Kathy Torrance. She was wearing something black and not quite short enough to show her tattoo. Her hair was shorter now. "I'll be down when I can. Keep it open for me." He hung up before Yamazaki could reply.

"What was that about?"

"Shiatsu."

"You're lying."

"What do you want, Kathy? What's the deal?"

"Him, I want him. I want a way in. I want to know what he's doing. I want to know what he thinks he's doing, trying to screw a piece of j.a.panese software,"

"Marry," Laney said.

Her smile vanished. "You don't correct me, Laney."

"You want me to spy on him." 0 -.

215.

L.

"Research."

"b.a.l.l.s.'

"You wish."

"If I got anything you could use, you'd want me to ser him up." The smile returned. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"And lget?"

"A life. A life in which you haven't been branded an obsessive stalker who preyed on the attractive daughter of the object of your obsession. A life in which it isn't public knowledge that a series of disastrous pharmaceutical trials permanently and hideously rewired you. Fair enough?"

"What about her? The daughter. She do all that with the Hill-man guy for nothing?"

"Your call, Laney. Work for us, get me what I need, she's s.h.i.t out of luck."

"That easy? She'd go along with that? After what she had to do?" "If she wants even the remotest hope of having a career eventually-yes."

Laney looked at her. "That isn't me. It's a morph. If I could prove it was a morph, I could sue you."

"Really? You could afford that, could you? It takes years. And even then, you might not win. We've got a lot of money and talent to throw at problems like that, Laney. We do it all the time." The door chimed. "That'll be mine," she said. She got up, went to the door, touched the security screen. Laney glimpsed part of a man's face. She opened the door. It was Rice Daniels, minus his trademark sungla.s.ses. "Rice is with us now, Laney," she said. "He's been a terrific help with your backgrounder."

"Out of Control didn't work out?" Laney asked Daniels.

Daniels showed Laney a lot of very white teeth. "I'm sure we could work together, Laney. I hope you don't have any issues around what happened."

"Issues," Laney said.

Kathy walked back, handed Laney a blank white card with a 210 pencilled number. "Call me. Before nine tomorrow. Leave a message. Yes or no."

"You're giving me a choice?"

"It's more fun that way. I want you to think about it." She reached down and flicked the collar of Laney's shirt. "St.i.tch-count," she said. Turned and walked out, Daniels pulling the door shut behind them.

Laney sat there, staring at the closed door, until the phone began to ring.

It was Yamazaki.

217.

32.The Uninvited

'We must attack," said Zona Rosa, punctuating it with a quick shift to Aztec death's-head mode. They were with Masahiko and Gomi Boy now, back in Masahiko's room in the Walled City, away from the hypnotic chaos of the crawling roofscape.

'Attack?" Gomi Boy's huge eyes bulged as brightly as ever, but

his voice betrayed his tension. "Who will you attack?"

"We will find a way to carry the fight to the enemy," Zona Rosa

said, gravely. "Pa.s.sivity is death."

Something that looked to Chia like a bright orange drink coaster

came gliding in under Masahiko's door and across the floor, but the

shadow-thing gobbled it before she could get a closer look.

"You.' said Gomi Boy to Zona Rosa, "are in Mexico City. You are

not physically or legally endangered by any of this!"

"Physically?" said Zona Rosa, snapping back into a furious version of her previous presentation. "You want physically, son of a b.i.t.c.h? I'll f.u.c.king kill you, physically! You think I can't do that? You think you live on Mars or something? I fly here Aeronaves direct with my girls, we find you, we cut your j.a.panese b.a.l.l.s offl You think I can't do that?" The saw-toothed, dragon-handled switchblade was out now, quivering, in front of Gomi Boy's face.

"Zona, please," Chia begged. "He hasn't done anything so far hut

help me! Don't!"

Zona snorted. The blade reversed, vanishing. "You don't push

219.

I.

me," she said to Gomi Boy. "My friend, she is in some bad s.h.i.t, and I have some ghost-b.a.s.t.a.r.d thing on my site

"It's in the software on my Sandbenders, too,' Chia said. "I saw it in Venice."

"You saw it?" The fractured images cycling faster.