'You've got to move out of your apartment,' Gumshoe said, 'and right away.'

  'What?'

  'You heard me.'

  'Fuck that,' Snake Eyes said. 'I've been in that apartment for years and no one's moving me out of it.'

  'You were caught by the cyborgs and made your escape. They're not going to want you on the loose, knowing what you know. So they're bound to check out your apartment and if they find you there, they'll take you back for sure. The next time you won't escape.'

  'Fuck it, I'm not moving. I'm not scared of no fucking cyborgs. I'm the head of the Speed Freaks now, I'm revered as a fucking hero, and I'm not going to give that up just to go underground. Fuck it, no, I won't do it.'

  'You've got to. I've talked to Ben Wilkerson: he knows the score and he'll fix you up with a new identity and find you somewhere else to live. He can do it, believe me.'

  'I've no argument about Ben Wilkerson. He's a good guy, sure

  enough. But I ain't gonna live my life underground and that's all there is to it.'

  'The next time the cyborgs get you,' Gumshoe said, 'they'll do a lot more to you than they did the last time. You'll be finished, Snake Eyes.'

  'I can beat 'em,' Snake Eyes said, clearly swept away on the tidal wave of his victory and no longer thinking straight. 'I've got all kinds of shit in my apartment — home-made bombs, submachine guns, fucking hand grenades — so if they come up there, I'll be ready for 'em. I ain't runnin', that's for fucking sure.'

  'You're crazy,' Gumshoe said. 'Or you're going that way. You're putting your life on the line here.'

  'In the words of Bobbie Zimmerman,' Snake Eyes said, 'that's life and life only.'

  'Be it on your own head,' Gumshoe said.

  Snake Eyes grinned, then glanced across the immense crowded room. Its strobe lights were flashing, casting kaleidoscopic, surrealistic patterns over the people at the tables, those dancing on the many dance floors and those smoking dope in the drug parlours around the sides, only avoiding the holographic Elvis in his 'Captain Marvel' jumpsuit period who was belting out 'See See Rider' as the opening to a concert that would enthral his hysterical fans for the next hour and a half. Snake Eyes stared at Elvis with undisguised admiration, then shifted his gaze sideways to take in a couple of

  newcomers as they entered the club.

  'Well, I'll be damned!' he exclaimed.

  'Who is it?' Gumshoe asked.

  'That old Long Hair of mine, Bonnie Packard,' Snake Eyes informed him. 'With the new kid in town.'

  Oh, shit!' Gumshoe said.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Gumshoe and Snake Eyes didn't move from the bar. They just stood there nursing their drinks as Bonnie and the new kid in town emerged from the crowd that had been rendered surreal in the web of dazzling strobe lights and found themselves a table well away from the noisily performing holographic Elvis. They still didn't move when the new guy, who was blond-haired and blue-eyed, handsome and slim in a roll-neck pullover, windcheater jacket, tight denims and high-heeled boots, called over a waitress vestigially dressed in a bikini and roller blades to order drinks from her. When the waitress had taken their order and shot away on her roller blades, Gumshoe and Snake Eyes glanced at each other, nodded, then sauntered over to Bonnie's table to look down at her and the new kid in town. Bonnie's eyes went real big then.

  'Hi, Bonnie!' Snake Eyes said brightly.

  'Hi,' Gumshoe said sourly.

  Bonnie's eyes went even bigger. 'Oh, Jesus!' she exclaimed. 'Oh, my God, I just can't believe it. You're back and . . .' At this point her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she glanced from one to the other. Then she said tentatively to Gumshoe, 'They didn't . . . ?'

  'Do a brain implant? No, we're perfecdy normal.'

  'You're sure?'

  'Yeah, we're sure,' Snake Eyes said.

  Bonnie jumped impulsively out of her chair to emotionally hug and kiss each of them in turn. 'Oh, God, I can't believe it! I'm so thrilled! But I just can't believe it!' Her eyes were brimming as she sat down again and she wiped the tears away with her fingertips. 'Oh, fuck, I'm so happy!'

  'Really?' Gumshoe said, not having responded with any great deal of affection to her hug and kiss.

  'Yeah, really.'

  Snake Eyes slipped into one of the two vacant seats and give the new kid in town a dangerous grin. 'Hi, there,' he said.

  'Hi,' the kid responded, his blue gaze steady and unafraid.

  'Who the fuck are you?' Snake Eyes asked.

  'Now, now, Snake Eyes,' Bonnie said nervously as Gumshoe took the other vacant seat.

  'Mike Johnson,' the kid replied. 'Who are you?'

  'Old boyfriend of Bonnie's. Known around here as Snake Eyes. Head of the local Speed Freak gang.'

  'I'm impressed,' Michael said.

  'You oughta be.' Snake Eyes turned away to offer his big, dangerous grin to Bonnie. 'So how are you, sweetheart?'

  'Fine,' Bonnie said. 'Same as always. But I'm just so thrilled to see you guys back. I mean, I can't believe—'

  Believe it,' Gumshoe interjected. 'We're back.'

  'Yeah, right.' Unusually, Bonnie seemed lost for words. 'It's just so fuckin' incredible, I—'

  You Bonnie's new number?' Snake Eyes asked the newcomer.

  'Pardon?'

  'You met up in our absence, did you?'

  I assume so,' Michael said, staying cool.

  Don't take offence,' Snake Eyes said, though the blond stranger clearly hadn't taken offence. 'I only ask

  'cause before I was abducted Bonnie and me had a kind of relationship.'

  'Kind of?'

  'We were just pals/ Bonnie said, too quickly. 'It was no more than that, Mike.'

  'She was my woman,' Snake Eyes insisted. 'Where I went, she went.'

  'We didn't fuck,' Bonnie said in her charmingly uncouth way. 'No real-time interaction at all. Just good pals, is all. Come on, Snake Eyes, don't—'

  'Where I went, she went,' Snake Eyes insisted, 'and everyone knew it. Now she's with you.'

  'Yes, she is,' Michael said firmly.

  'Don't take offence,' Snake Eyes repeated, though clearly Michael still hadn't taken offence. 'Bonnie's her own woman and can do what she wants. But college boys like you aren't normally her style, so I just wondered, is all.'

  'Wondered what?' Michael asked.

  'Are you . . . ?'

  'You've no right to ask that,' Bonnie said. 'It's not your business, Snake Eyes/

  'Ask what?' Snake Eyes said innocently. 'I didn't get the chance to ask him anything.'

  'We all know what you were askin',' Bonnie said, looking petulant, 'and you don't have the right.' She turned to offer Gumshoe a placating smile. 'So when did you guys get back and how did you do it?'

  'I got back yesterday and he got back today,' Snake Eyes said, 'and we managed to do it because we're both so smart.'

  'Terrific,' Bonnie said, clearly growing more nervous. 'I mean, that's just too . . .'

  'I went straight to my apartment,' Gumshoe said, 'and found a surprise waiting for me.'

  'Gumshoe, listen, I can explain—'

  'Explain what?' Snake Eyes said, looking puzzled. 'What's this about your apartment, Gumshoe?'

  'Just for starters,' Gumshoe asked of Bonnie, ignoring Snake

  Eyes's embarrassing question, 'where's my silver-tanked Yamaha

  400?'

  'Don't worry, Gumshoe, it's safe. I've got it and I've been using it and it still runs beautifully/

  You've got it and you've been using it?'

  Yeah, of course!'

  'And my computers and . . . ?'

  'Safe as houses, Gumshoe. Stop worrying, for Chrissakes. I moved 'em into my new apartment and . . /

  'How the fuck did she get your motorcycle and computers?' Snake Eyes wanted to know.

  You took them from my place and moved them into your new place?' Gumshoe asked. You just upped and left and took every goddamned thing I own with you?'

  'Gumshoe, listen, for Chrissakes! Let me explain! It isn't what you're thinking. I—'

  'My silver-tanked Yamaha 400 motorcycle. My six PowerMac 9500s with eight-gigabyte hard drives and 298 megs of RAM. My PowerPC microprocessors. My Radius Pressview colour monitor and my

  —'

  'I saw those in your room, Bonnie,' Michael said impulsively, being an honest soul. 'I assumed they were yours/

  'So you got into her room, did you?' Gumshoe said. 'That was pretty quick, handsome/

  'Let me explain, Gumshoe,' Bonnie cut in. 'Listen, for Chrissakes, I was just doin' it for you. When the cyborgs captured you, I knew they were bound to come and check your room out — the Men in Black, at least — and that they'd take me away with 'em if they found me there. So I knew that I had to get out pretty quick, right? An' I knew that once the slimeballs out there — the carpetbaggers or juiceheads —

  learnt that you'd been captured and that I'd flown from the nest—'

  The nest?' Snake Eyes enquired, glaring at Gumshoe.

  —they'd break in and clean out the room and no way, man, absolutely no way would they forget to take your fucking

  Yamaha 400 too. So I took it all, Gumshoe, to prevent it from being stolen and I was just lookin' after it on the ofF-chance that you'd actually reappear. I knew that was a long shot, but faith can move mountains and my faith paid off, Gumshoe, 'cause here you are back safe and sound, with all your stuff safe and sound as well. It's all yours for the taking.'

  Til be taking it,' Gumshoe said.

  'The nesil' Snake Eyes enquired again, staring from Gumshoe to Bonnie, then back to Gumshoe. 'What the fuck does that mean? Are you telling me you moved her into your pad after I was abducted?'

  'Now wait a minute, Snake Eyes,' Gumshoe said, feeling flustered. 'Just let me explain. I—'

  'Yeah, fucking explain, man. I get fucking abducted and instead of mourning my loss, my best friend moves my fucking woman into his room.'

  'It wasn't quite like that, Snake Eyes. I mean—'

  'Are you hearing this?' Snake Eyes said to Michael. 'I get abducted by fucking cyborgs and my best friend shacks up with my woman as soon as I'm gone. How's that for goddamned fucking loyalty? A bit thin on the ground, right?'

  'It wasn't like that at all,' Gumshoe said, feeling all hot under the collar. 'When she was abducted, she couldn't go back to your place and she'd nowhere else to stay and I just happened to rescue her and didn't know what to do with her and—'

  'Thanks a million,' Bonnie interjected tartly. 'I didn't know it was a personal sacrifice. I mean, I thought

  you liked me at least a little bit.'

  'I did,' Gumshoe said. 'I just meant—'

  'You lived with him?' Michael asked, his blue gaze confused at last. 'You didn't tell me—'

  'We didn't fuck,' Bonnie said, as she had said of her relationship with Snake Eyes. 'It wasn't like that at all. We were just pals, is all. Sharing separate beds. I was just there on a temporary basis, until I could find somewhere else to stay. It was no more than that, Mike, believe me. You, too, Snake Eyes.'

  'Well, pardon me,' Gumshoe said sarcastically, feeling cut to the quick, 'but I thought you felt a bit more than that for me. I mean, I thought—'

  'She didn't fuck him and she didn't fuck me,' Snake Eyes said to Michael. 'So what's your fucking interest?'

  'Well, I . . .' Michael actually blushed, which made him look even more like an innocent schoolboy.

  'That's none of your business, Snake Eyes,' Bonnie said, clearly affronted. 'Don't answer him, Mike.'

  Snake Eyes stared at Gumshoe in mock surprise. 'First names already! They must be really intimate, these two. Probably hold hands in the sack and whisper sweet nothings.'

  'Sarcastic shit!' Bonnie snapped.

  'Calm down, Bonnie,' Michael said.

  'One more remark from you,' Bonnie said to Snake Eyes, 'and I'll kick your balls off and ram them down that big, dumb mouth of yours. Holding hands, for Chrissakes!'

  'You mean you do more than that?' Gumshoe asked, his heart breaking in two. 'You mean this guy is . . .

  serious}'

  'What I mean is . . . Oh, fuck! I don't know. You guys just have me confused.'

  'She's confused,' Gumshoe said.

  'She always was,' Snake Eyes said.

  'You don't have to insult her,' Michael said. 'She's done nothing to warrant that.'

  Snake Eyes stared steadily at him, in a silence that could kill, then he offered that big, dangerous grin and said, 'Oh, man, he's got principles?

  'That's right,' Michael said.

  'Which you don't have!' Bonnie snapped at Snake Eyes. And his principles got our woman into the sack,' Gumshoe said, now speaking directly to Snake Eyes. 'Give me some of them principles.'

  'You sure as fuck need 'em,' Snake Eyes said. 'Stealin' my woman as soon as I'm abducted and—'

  'Guys! Guys!' Bonnie hollered, slapping her hands repeatedly on the table to quieten them down. 'Let's all calm down, for Chrissakes. This is all a fucking storm in a tea cup and it's getting us nowhere. I mean, what did you lose, Snake Eyes? Nothin' at all! We just hung out together but we never shared a sack an' you never even pretended to care for me that way — so no big loss there, just your goddamned male ego.'

  'Fuck that,' Snake Eyes said.

  'Same for you, Gumshoe. You only took me in — you just admitted as much — 'cause I dumped myself

  on you, not having anywhere else to go. You resented me bein' there — that was clear — and now you're pretending otherwise only because I'm with another guy now. Male ego again.'

  'Oh, yeah?' Gumshoe said.

  Yeah.'

  Gumshoe wasn't so sure that this was true, given how deeply hurt he felt. But he had to admit that at first he had wanted to get rid of her and might only have been sexually attracted to her, not yet having experienced real-time interaction and dwelling too much upon its possibilities when Bonnie was stretched out on his sofa, flashing her long legs. Now, when he looked at the new kid in town, this blond-haired, blue-eyed handsome Mike Johnson, he was forced to conclude that the kid had class: the kind of class that he, Gumshoe, might have had if his formerly well-off and widely respected parents had not been stolen away from him and their fine home taken over by carpetbaggers. Now, of course, he had no class, was just another cast-off, only semi-educated, with no knowledge of good manners, making his living by illegally breaking into mainframes to steal confidential information or inserting destructive viruses when not out creating mayhem with the Speed Freaks, most of whom were subliterate and had the habits of wild animals. Bonnie was one of his breed, more suited to him than to Mike Johnson, but she couldn't help being

  attracted to someone with the class that she, Snake Eyes and Gumshoe so obviously lacked.

  Forced to accept this, Gumshoe felt the biting pain of loss: the loss of his parents, the loss of a decent childhood, the loss of the class that once he could have had and, of course, the loss of Bonnie. He choked the pain back, swallowed his bile, and determined to at least act unconcerned. In any case, what did one unconsummated relationship really matter when set beside the daily nightmare of a world under the brutal yoke of Wilson and his cyborgs? Gumshoe felt ashamed for his lapse into self-pity. He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders.

  'Ah, well,' he said, grinning, to Snake Eyes. 'Easy come, easy go.'

  'That's the title of an Elvis song,' Snake Eyes noted.

  'Elvis knew it all,' Gumshoe said, then he turned back to Bonnie. 'Okay, sweetheart, you go your own way, but if you're shacked up with Mike here—'

  'She's not,' Michael interrupted. 'We just visit each other.'

  '—why not move in with him,' Gumshoe continued, ignoring what Michael had said, 'and let me take over your room? That would also save me moving all my stuff out.'

  'Very funny,' Bonnie said, 'but I don't think I can do that since I happen to like my independence. Like Mike said, we're not shacked up — we just visit each other — and I'd like to keep it that way.'

  'I, too, like my independence,' Michael said, glancing at Bonnie. 'We're in agreement about that.'

  'Well, that gives me a problem,' Gumshoe said, "cause I've got nowhere to live and I can't move my stuff out of your place until I find somewhere.'

  No problem,' Bonnie said. 'I'll take care of it until you want it back. No problem at all.' She turned to Snake Eyes. 'So what about you? I take it you're gonna have to move as well?'

  I'm not moving,' Snake Eyes said emphatically.

  The cyborgs will want you back,' Bonnie said. You've just^of to move, Snake Eyes.'

  'I'm not moving,' Snake Eyes repeated stubbornly. 'I won't let no cyborgs or Men in Black force me out of my room.'

  'You're fucking crazy,' Bonnie said.

  Snake Eyes grinned and turned to Michael. 'What about you, handsome? Do you think I'm crazy?'

  'I don't think that being stubborn is an option. You should move out of there instantly.'

  'Hear that?' Snake Eyes said to Gumshoe. 'The new kid in town is already trying to give me advice.

  What should I do about that?'

  'Stop it, Snake Eyes,' Bonnie said, growing nervous again.

  You asked me a question and I answered it,' Michael said calmly.

  'That's right,' Gumshoe said, determined to prove that he held no malice by being magnanimous. 'You asked him a question and he answered it. That's fair enough, Snake Eyes.'

  'Jesus, I'm being attacked on all sides,' Snake Eyes retorted. 'Okay! Okay! For once in my life I'm gonna be a gentleman. Put 'er there, pal.' He stuck out his hand and Mike, grinning, shook it. 'Welcome to Chinatown, pal. Don't let it get to you.'

  'I won't,' Michael said. 'So what are you doing about somewhere else to live?' he asked Gumshoe.

  'A friend of mine'll find me somewhere,' Gumshoe said. 'Name of Ben Wilkerson. He runs a converted rooming house and has his nose to the ground. He'll have found me somewhere else to go by the time I see him this evening.'

  Michael looked surprised. You and Ben are friends?'

  'We sure are. By the way, he vouched for you.'