(And strange the way that watching the blurb icons always made him feel excited. He had a hard-on just from watching them fly around the screen.)
Down to PERSONNEL they ventured together…
MR MILLION
COOKIE LUCK
TOMMY TUMBLER
JOKER BONE
RIFFRAFF
The last was easy, at least to one level down; just a list of employees, salary details, progress reports, aptitude tests, etc. No addresses. COOKIE and TOMMY were more difficult, but still accessible with the latest strains. Nothing revealing, of course; the usual whitewash. Dopejack had tried a hundred times to open MR MILLION’S door, always with ACCESS DENIED. The same with JOKER BONE, but now that the monster had been publicly revealed, maybe…
Excellent! Blurbs, do that thing!
Dopejack got a partial opening, just enough to pluck free a menu:
GOVERNMENT RULINGS
DANCING PATTERNS
MUTATION PROCEDURES
HISTORY
Dopejack pressed on the DANCING PATTERNS. And there the Joker Bone was, dancing along his programmed pathways. Mr Bonejangle, in tune to the chaos rhythms.
Just like… just like…
Bonejuice! He split the screen, brought up a video from his own collection, fed the infoblurbs fat on it. He pressed on HISTORY in the domino channel, fed the new blurbs into it, feedback knowledge, praying for an opening…
Got one, a mere sliver that a blurb could creep through.
Dopejack worked for ten more minutes, making sure. Making sure by stripping away all the protection from the Joker, finding deep treasures. Feeding it all back in, over and over…
Finding the treasure at the centre of the maze, and straight away typing a message to Hackle’s Burgernet address.
Play to lose
As somebody somewhere…
Luckily, not in the House of Hackle. ‘All I can say,’ said Jazir, ‘is thank the dots Little Celia here didn’t agree to holding our bones till this morning! We’d be stuffed otherwise.’
‘Maybe,’ said Daisy.
‘That’s one maybe too many.’
‘If it’s true, I mean… your theory about holding the bones…’
‘What else can it be? It’s osmosis.’
‘We don’t know that yet,’ said Joe, trying to keep control. ‘We have to keep working. Benny…’
Benny was far away, across the room, the other side of his head, thinking only of…
‘Benny! Wake up. What’s the latest on the gene analysis?’
‘What?’
‘Good god, man! Where are you?’
‘Right here. I’ve tried to find some anomaly in Celia’s DNA that could account for her being so lucky. There’s nothing there, not that stands out. I reckon Mister Million’s having the same problem.’
‘Maybe he’s better than you?’
This remark, seemingly so Jazir, actually came from Joe. The whole room was silent. The first time any of them had heard Joe put Benny down so openly. Sure, they all knew that the two hadn’t been getting on lately. None of them knew why.
Celia knew, but she was keeping quiet.
But for Joe – Joe Crocus for crying out loud! – for Joe to place Benny below the dominoes? Unheard of.
‘That’s not fair, Joe.’ Now this was Jazir, trying to make some peace. ‘The Annos have got two specimens to compare. What’s Benny supposed to do?’
‘He’s got two as well.’ Now this was from Daisy’s father, usually so quiet at these meetings.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ asked Jaz.
But Joe had already grabbed Daisy’s father by the hand, dragging him from the settee.
‘Hey! What’s going on?’ cried Daisy. ‘Joe! Leave him!’
‘Shut up! Meeting dismissed! You!’ Pointing at Benny. ‘My room. Now!’
A door banged shut…echoing…
‘Phew!’ Jazir breathed out. ‘What was that about?’
Daisy turned to Benny.
Benny just shrugged. ‘I couldn’t say.’ He was smiling. Why was he smiling?
Jazir turned to Daisy. ‘There’s something going on, pet. You’d best find out.’
Daisy turned to Celia.
Celia turned to the computer. ‘What does this mean?’ she asked.
‘It’s a net message for Hackle.’ Jazir pressed a key. ‘Let’s see…’
The message came up on screen, superimposed on the Joker’s frozen grin.
‘Who’s it from?’ asked Daisy.
‘Dopejack. I think you should read it.’
Benny and Daisy and Celia and Jaz, all standing round the computer.
‘He’s bluffing,’ said Jazir. ‘Got to be.’
Somebody somewhere…
A tingling in the fist, as nine o’clock played out its final gift. Somebody somewhere, opening their trembling hand to find a monster living there, a blank-eyed monsterbone. Screams around him, from quick-departing friends.