<b>Roo'd</b>

# Roo'd

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# Chapter #43

The flight attendant read them a security warning and emergency checklist in one long singsong breath. Fede didn’t understand any of it. Soon after they were taking off, had taken off. The lights dimmed. He’d never flown internationally before, he realized. He decided he didn’t like it.

The next eight hours were interminable. Poulpe had politely requested a blanket and pillow as soon as they were in the air, tilting his chair back and relaxing into a gentle sleep. Fede was sure he had managed to take some kind of drug because he stayed that way the entire flight, seemingly refreshed when he woke. Fede and Cessus played the ancient video games on the consoles mounted on the seat in front of him, all seventeen of them. They couldn’t plug into them “for security reasons” so they had to use the cheap square plastic controllers that extended on retractable wires from the seat handles, thumbs cramping from the constant, repetitive button mashing. The hours passed, slowly. Cessus tried to sleep and so did Fede, a restless, sweaty, chilled imitation of sleep where his head kept snapping forward off the seatback, jerking him awake again and again. They were served, and ate, some kind of soy-based meat analog in a tomato sauce. Eventually he slipped into a semi-awake zombie state, the stale air crusting the exhaled breath of a hundred other people in sharp spikes on the inside of his nostrils.

They arrived. As they stood to exit Fede realized he was as tall or taller than most of the people on the plane. Why hadn’t he noticed it in Mexico City? And so many people were Asian...

Fede crammed a palm of one hand into his eyes and rubbed them until lights shown. He was sleepy, wasn’t thinking right. He was in China. Poulpe ushered him off the plane and they followed Cessus a short distance behind. The terminal was a massive crush of people. Fede found himself getting claustrophobic. There were so many bodies, so many people pushing against him, jostling his ribs, brushing his thighs. And everyone looked the same, a huge sea of people spilling everywhere.

They emerged outside, joined a long line waiting in the rain for taxis. The shadows of the city sprawled overhead, lights upon lights upon lights. A sea of lights glimmered out of a seamless bank of buildings, a solid wall ahead of them. Cessus got a cab, made a show of inviting them to join him. Poulpe generously accepted. Nobody watching looked twice. Fede felt lost in Beijing, like the city was swallowing him whole, like a drop of rain hitting the ocean.

The cab drove. Fede fell asleep. Cessus woke him up when they got to the hotel, a huge posh building with a separate entrance for the cab. When the door opened the smell hit him like a hot wet blanket, the air soiled with the scent of petrochemicals, food, people, old wet dust... And so many people, still more people than at the airport, running at a trot everywhere. And neon glimmering everywhere. Real old fashioned neon. Fede smiled, impulsively. The stuff was rare in the U.S. now that electroluminescents were available, but here you saw it everywhere. “I’m in China” Fede suddenly realized, and he smiled, took a hesitant breath. Disgusting. But new.

He followed Poulpe into the hotel. Sitting in the lobby like a pair of rich tourists were Tonx and Cass, dressed in eveningwear and swirling fancy looking drinks in thick glasses. Cass almost spilled hers as they entered the main doors, started laughing so hard Fede thought she must be pissing herself.

“Looking good there, Fede” said Tonx.

“Yeah fuck all y’all” said Fede, putting his hand on his head before remembering the wax. He was just about to wipe his palm on his pants when Poulpe caught his wrist, raised on eyebrow in stern disappointment. He produced a handkerchief from his breast pocket with a flourish and dropped it into Fede’s palm.

“Jesus Christ” muttered Fede.

“I think we done good here, folks” said Cessus. “I’m sticking out like a sore thumb, so I’m going to grab a drink in the bar and see what I can do with the hotel’s network. Ya’ll enjoy your drinks and let me know when Marcus gets here, yeah?”

“Good thinking” said Tonx. “Poulpe, Fede — care for a seat?”

They sat, Poulpe ordering a warm sake from the young woman who appeared at his elbow as soon as his ass hit the plush chair. She seemed delighted at the request, bowing obsessively as she backed away towards the bar.

“Warm?” asked Fede.

“That is the proper way to drink this brand” said Poulpe. “And from a wooden box. From this you may determine the caliber of the establishment and their perception of you.”

“Thanks for the advice” Fede sighed. “Look, are we going to get a room? I’m exhausted.”

“In this place?” asked Tonx. “Not a chance. I got some backing money, but it’s not enough for us to sleep here. I’ve already booked a place a little ways away. Once Marcus arrives we can sync up and take off. Until then, get some coffee.”

“I don’t drink coffee” mumbled Fede. When the woman returned with Poulpe’s sake he ordered a coke. As she left he looked over, noticed the sake had come in an open plastic box.

“Guess they don’t like you” said Fede. Poulpe smiled serenely and sipped his drink.

“So here’s what I got so far” said Tonx. “This guy that Cessus fingered is either playing his boss or us or both. If he’s dicking his boss around there’s a good chance he’s stupid enough to leave the data in the box Cessus found. If he’s trying to lure us into going for it so he can find out more there’s a chance we can negotiate, maybe split the profits or find some way around him. I think the least likely option is that he’s doing it by the books for his bosses to get a hold of us. If that were the case he wouldn’t have posted the dummy data like he did. He also wouldn’t have bothered to encrypt the message for us to find.”

“Unless he was being clever” said Poulpe.

“What do you mean?” asked Tonx.

“Perhaps he is trying to get you to think he was playing against his employer” said Poulpe. He put his sake box down. “You said you had contacts here?”

Tonx shook his head. “No. That was just to get Esco to play along.”

“And Esco is...” asked Poulpe.

“Not here, to state the obvious. What are you getting at, Poulpe?” asked Tonx.

“My point is not to question your reasoning. I only mean to emphasize that we cannot be certain what our opponent will do. From your introduction I would guess you were about to suggest approaching the box directly.”

Tonx frowned. “What if I was?” he asked.

“I urge caution. Contingencies” said Poulpe.

“Great thinking” said Tonx, leaning forward. He dropped his glass on the counter next to him. “And what the fuck would you suggest?”

Poulpe picked up his sake again, took a slow sip.

“I have the original data set, yes?” he asked.

They waited.

“And for us it is trivial to manufacture minor workable changes in the code, yes?”

Tonx nodded, once.

“So I would suggest you begin a bargaining process. Encourage them to believe you have a similar solution already. They would not want just one if they could have two, you know. Not if they thought you had perhaps done this before, created something else.”

“What would they care?” asked Tonx. “They don’t even know what the first data set is for.”

“So tell them” said Poulpe.

“What?” asked Tonx “What for? What could I tell them the second, make-believe set was for that would make them hand our results over?”

Poulpe tipped back the last of his sake, gently set the box on the small thin plate it had come on.

“Biological weapons” he said.

“You’re crazy” said Tonx. “What do I have to gain by that? The government’s already on our ass, we’ve got Disney hunting for us — why would introducing a major threat to their country help?”

“I’m merely suggesting it may give them pause” said Poulpe. “They would certainly not want to destroy the data set they have if they could parley it for something of established value.”

“You’re crazy” said Tonx, again. “I’m not going to argue with you about this. All that does is up the stakes and make this more dangerous for everybody.”

“It is only a contingency” said Poulpe.

“Fine. I’ll remember that if I have a gun to my head. In the meanwhile, how about we figure out how to get into that box, and better yet what to do with it when we get there.”

“We don’t even know what else is on the box” said Fede. “If the guy has half a brain he’s not going to keep the rest of the data set there.”

“True. I’m not saying we make the grab first thing. We’ve got to watch the guy for a while first, figure out who he is, what we can do with him. The only catch is we don’t know how much time we have.”

“Lovely” said Fede, draining the last from his miniature bottle of coke. It was in a glass bottle, he noticed. He marveled at how heavy it was, even empty. Who made bottles out of glass?

“Where the fuck is Marcus?” he asked.

Tonx said nothing.

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