Crash Deluxe by Marianne de Pierres Page B

a smattering of clergy dressed in their brocade robes and snazzy sandals.
    We marched a step ahead of them until we reached the middle of the bridge where the sides curved outward into a bowl shape. Lam waved me into the entrance of a jungle-decor café, complete with animal noises and a bio-robotic python slithering among the fake tusk stools.
    Merv sat in the corner under the jungle vines, drinking coffee through a straw and stroking Snout. Caked orange dribble on his collar told me he was dry, but only just.
    I ordered tea and something that resembled sugar dough.
    Lam nodded at the waiter, to confirm that my request was on the house. Then he sat himself at the counter.
    I picked up my order casually and made for a table under the vines. I sat with my back to Lam, blocking his direct vision of Merv.
    ‘C-can’t talk for long,’ Merv muttered. He fingered the chocolate roll in front of him.
    ‘Have you found anything?’
    ‘Not yet. Snout’s been digging b-but there’s a quiver. I had to bring her in.’ His hand shook as it lifted the roll to his mouth. ‘Y-you go out in a quiver, y-you don’t come back. No matter how good you are.’
    I sighed. A quiver was a hack’s equivalent of an earthquake - major shake. It spooked them all. The paranoid ones believed that it was a rogue surveillance program. But nobody knew who wrote it and nobody knew who sent it. Maybe that was what Honey meant about Merv being scared of shadows.
    ‘How long does a quiver last?’
    Merv shrugged. ‘Not long. M-maybe.’
    I swallowed a surge of impatience and tried another tack. ‘What is Brilliance?’
    The fear put there by the thought of the quiver didn’t fade from his voice. ‘An AI.’
    ‘How does it work?’
    ‘ Sh-she edits everything we see on the screen. I mean everything that is supplied to her.’
    ‘How do you mean?’
    He tapped the bitten end of his roll into his plate as though he was stubbing out a cig. ‘She relies on r-raw feed from the Priers. All the Priers are owned by the big three.’
    ‘Monk, Bau and Laud?’
    He nodded. ‘M-monk feeds her sport. S.K. Laud feeds her lifestyle. And Sera Bau c-cams everything she needs for DramaNet. Brilliance edits and p-programmes, depending on her gauging of the v-viewers’ response.’
    I stared down through the transparent floor. Breeza’s. Good name. You could almost feel the wind licking between your toes.
    ‘Sounds like Brilliance has a lot of say.’
    ‘Her original program was designed just for multimedia editing. Programming selection is something that seems to have evolved.’
    Merv hunched his shoulders in a way that told me there was more.
    Behind me I heard Lam clank his plate on the cafébar. I stretched and looked around. He was staring at me with an empty expression that made me nervous.
    I turned back to Merv and spoke quickly. ‘Who else figures in the big time stakes around here?’
    ‘The b-banking royalty, I guess. They m-manage the money still but they don’t have much p-personal wealth. Information is p-power and they don’t own it.’
    He looked away from me suddenly - just before Lam slapped me across the ear.
    I jerked upright, fists clenched.
    ‘What’s so interesting?’ Lam said in perfect Australian.
    The surprise of hearing him finally speak stalled my gut reaction to hammer him. I used the moment to tell myself that a full-scale brawl probably wouldn’t further my cause.
    ‘Well, you’re not exactly scintillating conversation,’ I snapped, rubbing my ear.
    He laughed. A breathy snort.
    Before I had a chance to reconsider my passive line Amoratos from the Luxoria spilled in, chattering and laughing, as beautiful in the daylight as they were in the dimness of the club. Glorious was among them.
    Merv got up and left as they approached. They ignored him as though he was invisible.
    Glorious came over to me, glowing with beauty - a combination of effects created by her incredible hair, her amber-tinged skin and some early-morning