Nymphomation(83)

Her room, where she rested for five minutes at the most, was too full of Jazir’s smell. Spice in the air.

Restless, she went out again, wandering. The pavements were tightly packed with discarded creamed bones. A second pavement that crunched underfoot, a second road that cracked under tyres, but never broke. Why don’t they clean them up? Can’t the council do something about it? There ought to be a new ruling: AnnoDomino will undertake to keep the streets free of all discarded chances. Whoomphy had to do it, didn’t they? Special bins, students in burgersuits? What was the difference?

Still it looked nice, in a way. Last night’s rain had washed all the bones clean and how they glistened now, in the gentle sun. What did Jazir mean when he said there was only one domino, only one blurb. He hadn’t explained, mainly because she hadn’t given him room.

She walked down towards Piatt Fields. There was a place on the corner there, a block of flats called Rusholme Gardens. A lot of students lived there, and Daisy was suddenly jealous. Bet they were still in bed, with lovers and comics and spliffs and music playing and not a care in the world on this particular Saturday in the year of 1999. Why wasn’t she just a student anymore? Why had she taken on this stupid assignment?

In the park she sat down and watched the kids and the ducks at play. Easy life, a bit of fun, a bit of bread. OK, Monday morning, first thing, she would tell Hackle she wanted out of the bone team. Back to normal she would go and maybe get some beauty back in the numbers, the equations. And no way was she going round to Dopejack’s tonight. Jazir could go it alone from now on.

Sorted out, wasn’t she?





Play to lose


Hackle had gathered his sorry troops around him in the cellar. Hackle, Jimmy Love, Joe, Celia, Benny. Joe and Benny weren’t talking to each other, and Hackle and Jimmy weren’t exactly on loving terms, and Celia talked to none of them, preferring her own mind to their stupid games.

‘There have been setbacks, I know,’ Hackle was saying, ‘but that doesn’t mean we should give up so easily. Jimmy and I have been working on reopening the maze, and very soon we should be able to—’

‘What’s the point?’ asked Joe.

‘The point is…’

‘No. Max, we’ve got nowhere. Don’t you see? We’ve got our very own natural, what good is that? Benny hasn’t found any anomalies in her, isn’t that right, Benny?’

Benny shrugged.

‘We have the DNA of the blurb,’ said Jimmy.

‘We peel a few layers off security, we find out how much each employee is making. Like, wow. Big deal.’

‘I think we’re all agreed that the genetic approach is limited.’ Hackle looked round for support. ‘But there are other means… if we can feed the domino’s DNA into the maze, we could—’

‘Without Dopejack, who’s going to travel further?’ asked Joe.

‘Jazir.’

Joe shook his head. ‘He’s off on his own track. We all know that.’

‘If you’d just let us finish, Joe…’

‘What for? I mean, what’s it all for? Sure, some people have been killed. People get killed every day. It’s just another bunch of crime stats. What’s my stake in this? I was expecting to make myself a pile of lovelies before I die, for fuck’s sake. Even the Joker’s turned out to be just that, a fucking joke…’

Jimmy grinned at this. ‘That toilet-cleaning crap, you don’t really believe it?’

‘I’m saying the whole thing is a joke.’

Hackle shook his head, said nothing, and turned away from his star pupil.

‘I say we call it quits. Max?’

‘That’s what you really think?’ asked Hackle, sadness in his voice.

‘That’s what I’m saying.’

‘OK,’ Hackle turned to the group. ‘Whoever wants out, now’s the time. It’s only going to get worse.’

‘Who wants out?’ cried Joe, triumphantly. ‘That’s what he’s saying.’

Celia put up her hand first.

‘Not including you,’ said Hackle.

‘Why not?’

‘This is adults only.’

‘You can’t keep me here, against my will.’

‘She’s got a point, Max,’ said Joe.

‘No she hasn’t. So, are you going, Joe?’

Joe looked at Benny. Benny looked at Max, and smiled and said, ‘I’m staying.’

‘Benny?’ said Joe. ‘You can’t…’

Benny shrugged, and Joe looked around the group. They were all looking back at him.

‘What’s it to be, Joe?’ asked Hackle. ‘Last chances?’