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Chapter 31

A COMMANDING VOICE CAME FROM BEHIND THE BLINDING WALL of light

"If it isn&039;t Hunter Braque, skinny white boy looking like his mother didn&039;t have time to dress him"

Even blinded and terrified, I flinched at this unfair fashion analysis I u for social invisibility

"I am undercover, you know," I protested

"Yeah, you look it," a deeper voice called frouy

"And who have we here?" the first voice said

I heard the ruly pried racefully out of the retina-searing glare I gli every escape route The trucker cap and cowboy boots of Futura Garaht He stared at Jen&039;s feet

"Yo, look, she&039;s got the laces," he said A h our captors

"So she does," Mwadi Wickershaht "Did you come up with those yourself, honey?"

Jen squinted back at her "Yeah What do you mean, the laces?"

"Mandy had a picture on her We&039;ve all been talking about them" Mwadi nodded, an imperious queen pleased with her subject "Nice work"

"Uh, thanks"

"Let us go!" I de

Mwadi Wickershaned"

I turned toward Mandy, as giving lare she reserves for people who perpetually insist that cla back

"W-Wait," I staest deal of hed "Do you think maybe you could not screw it up?"

We sat at one of the tables in the fake restaurant: Jen and me, Mwadi Wickersham, Mandy, and Futura Garamond A few ht banks of ht the flash of Future Sarcastic Wouy, their alert poses suggesting that departure was not an option Froe see an echoey grandeur to our words

"So you didn&039;t get kidnapped?" I asked Mandy for the third tiuess" She looked at Mwadi Wickersham for help

with the question

Wickershalasses, and I blinked Her eyes were asgreen as Jen&039;s but hts She wore a white wife beater and faded, brandless jeans with a wide black belt, a fake gold chain around her neck: banji-butch street kid, circa mid-break-dance era In winter you&039;d add a leather jacket I knew frorown up in the Bronx in the 1980s, the uniforlasses on the table, in no hurry to answer, possessed of that unquestionable authority achieved by being froeneration but still totally cool

"We decided to ain with the client?" Jen asked, appalled

"Sure The element of surprise was blown anyway And they wanted them"

"That we did," Mandy said

"Wait," I asked "You wanted what?"

"You sold out," Jen said to Wickersha subtitles that didn&039;t"Huh?"

"It wasn&039;t supposed to work out this way," Wickersham said darkly, the rumble of her skates ominous under the table as her feet slid restlessly back and forth "We worked on those shoes for two years, getting theht We wanted to put them on the street with the sinister swooshes But certain people in our organization thought they were too cool A theory was proposed that we&039;d be ain by association"

"Kind of like a Tony Bennett self-parody thing," Jen said

I foundclear "When we first saw the shoes, eren&039;t even sure whether they were bootlegs or the client being self-reflexive So you got nervous, thinking the shoes et nervous," said Wickershaot nervous "But certain people did, and they acted on their own" She shrugged "This is what I get for working with anarchists"

"They called the police?" Jen asked

"Someone called the client," Mandy said "Reported a ships Before the boardroom suits called in the cops, they sent a rep down to check out the shoes, a guy called Greg Harper"

"Your boss," I supplied "And when he saw thes that were better than the original"

Mandy chuckled "And a suit like him didn&039;t kno to cope with that So he called in street-level expertise, telling me to deal with it"

"And you called in me and Jen," I said

Futura Garao on it was the classic naked-girl silhouette found on the ly last year of hiht) "By this time, we&039;d realized what had happened So we decided to move the shoes out of town until the heat was off But Mandy shohile ere setting up the move Certain people panicked" He and Wickershaed "Had to iht in Mandy Worked out all right"

"So you did kidnap her," Jen said

"Like I said, I iotiating with the a deal with her own kidnappers sounded like the Mandy I knew and loved I could i off contractual issues one by one

"A sharp operator, Ms Wilkins," Wickersha Mandy the Nod "She realized that anted to ditch the shoes and the client wanted to buy theood price"

"Just a couple more points and we can wind this deal up" Mandy looked at her watch "We&039;d be done by now if you two kids hadn&039;t shown up in rescue mode"

"Yeah, sorry," I said A scorecard flashed in my head - Amateur Detectives: Still Zero

"But how could you sell theht into the outlet malls!"

The older woman spread her arirl The Hoi Aristoi operation wound up with some major cost overruns"

Jen nodded slowly, and her expression changed "So how did that work?" She leaned forward, eyes widening like a Japanese ten-year-old&039;s "The paka-paka thing, I ured out how to rewire people?"

Mwadi Wickershairl I like you, but we justabout"

Jen smiled sheepishly, her smile luminous from the praise

Until Mwadi continued: "The question is, what to do with you?"

I shared a sidelong glance with Jen That question had been on my mind as well

"Uh, I&039; over at Mandy

She stared back aton the table I sed dryly, re the client&039;s record on child labor

Mwadi cleared her throat "Our deal&039;s pretty much sewn up, and there was no mention of Hunter Braque in the contract Or you, sweetie What&039;s your name, anyway?"

"Jen James"

In a weird and off-the-subject flash, it occurred to me that I hadn&039;t known Jen&039;s last na quickly

"Well, Jen Jaht have work for you two"

"Work?" I said

Mwadi nodded "We&039;ve got other irons in the fire, lots of plans, and noe&039;ve got the cash to get the You both know the territory If you didn&039;t, you never would have made it all the way here"

"What territory?" I asked I wasn&039;t even sure what planet ere on

Mwadi rose froht She spun around once, rerace and power rather than Hiro&039;s nervous energy She began to skate in slow circuits around the table, frictionless as a sith a tail-wind, weaving the client&039;s fantasy world (her oeird version) into existence frohts

"You know the cool pyramid, don&039;t you, Hunter?"

"Sure" I drew it in the air with two fingers "Innovators at the top, under them the Trendsetters, then Early Adopters Consuards scattered around the base, sort of like leftover construction ards?" She narrowed her eyes atthe concrete floor like fingernails "I prefer the ter after twenty-five years? On the cardboard every day, whether breaking&039;s in style or out? They&039;re not Laggards"

"Okay," I agreed "Rock Steady are Classicists But guys wearing tucked-in Kiss T-shirts are Laggards"

A grin flashed across her features "I can live with that" She resu "But the pyramid&039;s in trouble You know that"

"I do?"

"Because of cool hunters," Jen cut in "And roups, and all that crap They squeeze the life out of everything"

Mandy spread her hands "Hey, sitting right here!"

"That&039;s the score, though," Wickersha about The ancient pyra lists and databases The sides are too slippery now, so nothing sticks anyest"

And of course, all my brain had processed from this last metaphorical hash was that soirlfriend Pathetic

As a result all I ht you had it figured out," Wickersha for you to find us, we read ot the scoop froineers in the history of hacking working for us" She nodded at Future Woman, then turned back to me "We know you cold, Hunter, and we think that you realize so with the pyramid You&039;ve known it since you were thirteen"