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right. I mean, you were there. And, well " Adram glanced up. His gaze was full
of a different kind of longing& I wanted to see you again."
No guy had ever looked at me like that before. Hell, no guy had ever bothered
to track down my LINK address before, much less call me up and ask me out.
"What time?" I couldn't believe I was asking that. I knew this was such a bad
idea.
He looked relieved and elated. "In a couple of hours, actually. But, maybe we
could get together before then? Hang out?"
"You can pick me up here. In Harlem." I gave Adram Luis's address and
immediately began plotting a way to get out of the house. "Okay. Um, see you
then."
The smile Adram gave me made me shiver, but in a weird way, like I was both
excited and nervous to know what he was thinking about. "Yeah."
With that, he hung up. I sat on the chair with my knees pulled up to my chin,
savoring the feeling.
I had a date. A real date.
GORGONS APPROACH ORDER
Request for Representation Leads to Inquisitorial Feud
The Apocalypse Watch, Fundamentalist Press (December 2095)
Jerusalem, Israel Speaking via external hardware to the Council of the Order
of the Inquisition from Monsignor Emmaline McNaughton's headquarters in
Jerusalem, Perseus, the self-appointed spokesperson for "the People" (as those
mutated by the Medusa prefer to be called), appealed for representation.
Perseus made the case that, although short-lived, the Gorgons needed spiritual
guidance as much as any other people on the planet. He likened the People to
the soul of a newborn in need of baptism. "The Medusa didn't make us," he
said. "God did."
Christiandom Inquisitor Abebe Uwawah from Nigeria was visibly moved by the
speech and vowed to do what she could in order to help the Gorgon cause. The
council, for the first time in years, was not unanimously in agreement. Grand
Inquisitor Joji Matsushita surprised the LINKed audience by suggesting that
this matter was outside the jurisdiction of the United Order. "I think the
Order has lost sight of its mission," Matsushita said. "We represent all
people, mutated or not, if they are a member of our respective religions. If
one of the People was Jewish and needed lawful representation, I'm certain my
Jewish colleagues would do so. Now that the agnostics and atheists have an
Inquisitor, they can appeal to her."
McNaughton countered Matsushita's pronouncement by noting that the Gorgons
have their own culture and religion that is not agnostic nor atheistic, but
merely falls outside of the norm. She reminded the Order that they similarly
don't represent many American Indian tribes or other aboriginal peoples.
"Perhaps the Grand Inquisitor makes an excellent point," McNaughton said at
the end of a lengthy argument. "The People really don't need Inquisitor
approval to seek legal recourse. They can do that through their local secular
governments."
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McNaughton's comment sparked a frenzy of debate regarding the function of the
Inquisition. The Order of the Inquisition began as an offshoot of the former
secular peacekeeping force known as the International Police or Interpol.
Interpol's main function was to capture criminals who crossed national
borders. The Inquisition shares Interpol's breadth, but now has a lot more
power. They have been likened to the religious police, or, in some circles,
"thought police."
"The Order should be eliminated," McNaughton said as she and Perseus
disconnected forcibly from the debate. "The Inquisition is becoming what it
once was during the witch-hunt era too powerful and too unchecked. It needs to
be stopped."
Chapter 27 Deidre
Mouse and I emerged from the spare bedroom to find an empty house. We hunted
all over the small apartment for signs of life and eventually surmised that
Luis and Ariel had gone off together somewhere. The master bedroom door was
shut, and neither Mouse nor I was brave enough to actually open the door to
find out if anyone was inside. I put my ear to the wood for a long moment,
though, and it was quiet.
Amariah, at least, had left a note scribbled on a napkin on the table: "Gone
home. Don't worry about me." The don't had been underlined several times. Of
course, that made me worried that she was off doing something incredibly
stupid. I told myself I would call the kibbutz and check on her in a couple of
hours.
Michael was nowhere to be found.
"Typical," I muttered. "Just when I wanted to ask Ariel something, he
vanishes. When I don't want to see him, he's always underfoot."
Mouse didn't answer. He had his head stuck in Luis's solar-powered
refrigerator, apparently hunting up something more to eat. Once he procured a
crisp-looking apple, he munched on it and said, "If you want to ask someone
about souls, you should talk to the expert."
"The Vatican?"
"No, Page. He's been fairly obsessed with them ever since McNaughton was sent
to find out if he had one."
"What did she discover?" I'd had a newborn attached to my hip, if not my
breast, twenty-four hours a day during that time. I missed a few newsfeeds.
"He does." When I opened my mouth, Mouse raised a hand in a preemptive
gesture. "Don't ask me how. I'm a wizard, not a theologian."
It was a good idea, but Page's new persona made me uncomfortable. "Why don't
you talk to him? You're his father."
"He looks less like me every day," Mouse said. He chewed on the apple for a
moment, then said, "Okay, so neither of us is really into the idea of talking
to Strife. How about the dragon?"
"The yakuza dragon?"
Mouse's eyes lit up. "You've never met the dragon, have you? Oh, you'd like
her, Dee. Come on, I'll introduce you."
Mouse and I appeared on a sandy beach. A wide, sluggish river wound through
steep cliffs. Apparently it was after dark in Japan, because the moonlight
danced on the waves of the datastream. On the breeze was the scent of rotting
fish and the buzz of mosquitoes. Mouse held what looked like a mah-jongg tile
in his hand, which he tossed into the waves that washed against our feet.
"There's a lot more formality here," I noted. "Should I have brought a gift?"
"It'll be cool," Mouse said.
After a few moments, two dots of light hovered over the water. They looked
like a whirling copper wire. Then, a small, wedge-shaped snout sniffed at the
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air. "This one is very busy," a prim voice said. "Is that Mouse?"
Mouse waved. "Hey, Dragon!"
"If she's busy," I said into Mouse's ear, signifying a private exchange. "We
should come back."
"Hey, Dragon," Mouse said, completely ignoring me, "there's someone I want you
to meet. We want to ask you about a game."
Everything went quiet. I couldn't even hear the insects whizzing by my ear
anymore. I thought for a second that maybe the dragon had decided she had
better things to do than meet a friend of Mouse's. Then the cutest little
dragon I'd ever seen popped up out of the shallows. On all fours, she stood no
bigger than an Irish setter. Her scales glittered an almost neon green,
reminding me of the color of the old-fashioned motherboards. Talons and teeth
shone with an oily silvery sheen. If it wasn't for the sharpness of her claws,
she'd have looked sweet enough to hug.
"Merciful Allah!" Mouse exclaimed. "What happened to you?"
"Downsized," the little dragon said. "Literally."
"That's not right," Mouse said, with a tsk of his tongue. "You've got rights."
"Page said the same thing," she said with a close-mouthed grin.
I cleared my electronic throat by pinging Mouse a reminder that I was standing
beside him.
"Oh, right. I've been rude," he said. "This is Deidre. Deidre McMannus."
"Pleasure," dragon said, holding out a paw. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]