Nymphomation(98)

Wires connected Jimmy to the playing area and to the twin computers, where Joe was checking for last-minute hitches. One screen showed the new maze, the other tuned to the AnnoDomino TV channel. Celia was standing to one side, clutching her only bone, and wishing and wishing for the world to come true this time.

Upstairs in the room, Jazir was ready. His body was drunk on Vaz and crawling with life and cooking some new recipe never before tried, perhaps his last. He stepped up onto the window sill. Masala Blurb was loaded with the Theseus program, with Celia’s feather tight in its teeth. The night air was slightly hot, damp with rain, and his covering of blurbs fluttered eagerly as the night beckoned them. Jazir checked his watch. OK, let the games begin.

Allow them play.

Jazir stepped off…





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Daisy played first, having the highest double, the four-and- four. Her father followed with the five-four, his personal bone. Joe watched the computer, as the two domicons came on screen, then a third and a fourth as Daisy and Jimmy played their next moves. Jimmy’s icon, the five-four, was illuminated with silver dots to make it known. As Daisy pondered her bones, Jimmy nodded to Joe, who hit a certain combination of keystrokes. After a second or two, the four dominoes on-screen split open to let loose their swarms of info-blurbs. These fluttered aimlessly over the AnnoDomino maze, seeking food, not yet allowed pathway.

‘Where’s Jaz?’ asked Celia. ‘Which one is him?’

Joe answered, ‘He’s not in yet.’

‘He’s got my feather.’

‘We’ll know…’

‘Let’s have some quiet, please,’ said Jimmy. ‘We need to concentrate.’

Daisy knocked and drew. And drew again, playing this new bone. Her father tutted and played.

On the computer’s maze, the bones appeared, slotted in the imagined corridors of the House of Chances. Miss Sayer, bringer of the map, watched from her inset box, comparing the model to the reality as she knew it, and making adjustments accordingly. An on-screen clock ticked the seconds away…

As Max Hackle asked Crawl for the time.

‘Certainly. Five past.’

‘Past what?’

They were walking along a corridor, brightly lit and crooked as one of AnnoDomino’s rules. Horny George was hovering close behind, as AnnoDomino employees rushed along, to and fro, lost pieces in a game without rules.

‘Eight, of course. Friday evening. Nearly time for the draw. Mister Million wants you to watch the choice being made. A rare privilege.’

Crawl had stopped outside an unmarked door. He smiled at a camera above the door. ‘Dental patterns, don’t you know. X-rays. Can’t be good for the old gums. Hope you don’t mind, Prof. We took some photos, whilst you were napping. Go on, give us a smile.’

The door opened to reveal a long curve of corridor, which they walked along. ‘We’re now walking round the circumference of the building. Top floor. Like the view?’

A continuous window gave a superb view of Manchester and its environs. Max could see the clouds of blurbs coming in for sustenance, or else flying forth loaded with new messages.

‘Wouldn’t you rather be back in the police, Crawl?’

‘Me? Why?’

‘This can’t be satisfying.’

‘It’s the same job actually.’

‘Covering up murder?’

‘I’ve put a few murderers behind bars, you know. It wasn’t always like this.’

‘No. It wasn’t.’

‘Here we are.’

There was no door, no markings of any kind on the wall. ‘This is where Mister Million lives?’ Max asked.

‘I wouldn’t know. I’m not allowed any further.’

‘Maybe I’ll tell you what he looks like.’

‘You do that.’

Crawl wandered off back around the long curve, leaving Max looking out at the night sky and its patterns of adverts. He turned to face the wall. Nothing. What was he supposed to do now? Just wait. He turned back to the window and as he did so a slight movement caught his eye. He went back quickly to the wall. Again, nothing. But surely… he was certain he had seen an opening, just then as he turned away. He turned away again, and there it was in the corner of his vision, an open doorway, to vanish as soon as his eye settled on the plain wall.

Max pushed gently against the wall, which was hard and cold to his touch. Nothing moved. He turned his head this way and that, seeking the illusive opening. On one turning he saw Horny George vanish, here and then gone, and Max knew he had to trust his feelings. He walked quickly towards the dark shimmer in the farthest edge of…