talk to you later."
"We'll do some beer and bugs. Wingman out."
Shad sped back through the tape he'd made of Shelley's room. Two people had scoped the place. They were in their late teens, by the look of them, the boy in stylish leathers, the girl in denim and an eye patch. She seemed to have only one hand. The boy had got them through the lock with a raking gun. The one-eyed girl put something on top of the tall cabinet that held the TV Then they both left the way they had come.
At least neither of them had been Chalktalk.
Shelley showed up a few minutes later, looking as if she'd been through a lot.
Shad reached for the phone. "Hello?"
"This is the front desk."
"Oh. Hi. Front desk, right."
"Say that yes, you want to stay another day."
"Yes. I want to stay another day."
"You still want to pay cash."
" I still want to pay cash."
"You'll have to come down and do it in person."
"I'll be down in a few minutes."
He met her at the elevator and pushed the emergency stop button to halt it between floors.
"I thought you were going to have a new body," he said. "Yes. They've promised me one." She licked her pendulous lips. "The thing is, I get to pick."
"Oh."
"They've got a catalog. Just like L. L. Bean."
"Tell me what happened."
" I got jumped again. They put a bag over my head. They drove around for a while, then took me into a little room. It was fitted out like a prison cell-metal walls, a heavy door with big locks and a barred window. There was mesh overhead and a guy with a gun walking around."
"Okay."
"There were other cells. I could hear people talking. Some were crying and screaming." She gave a strange little smile. "I didn't care. It was wonderful. I was human again. Young! And beautiful. They showed me my face in a mirror. I was gorgeous."
"Who showed you?"
"Two kids. Boys, maybe fifteen. Zits, but real good clothes. Rolexes, jewelry. The gold chains must have cost fifty grand. And there was a joker." She gave an expression of distaste. "Brown, with a carapace. Looked like a cockroach."
"Did they call him Kafka?"
"Yeah." She pulled her wrinkles back and looked at him. "How'd you know?"
"He was around a few years ago. I knew him slightly when I joined the Egyptian Masons."
Her eyes widened. "The Egyptian Masons? You mean the-the ones who="
"Yeah. Those guys. I'd only just joined, then somebody blew up their temple with me in it. I barely got out, and I didn't know there were any other survivors until they started trying to toss people off Aces High."
She looked at him, her lips twitching in what might, under the wrinkles, be a smile. "You are Black Shadow, aren't you?"
"My name's Simon." "Uh-huh. Sure."
"So what happened in this cell?"
"Somebody else came in. Dr. Tachyon."
Shad's mind whirled. He forced himself to speak. "You sure?"
"Who wouldn't recognize Tachyon?" She gave a shiver. "Jesus, I never expected that. I was scared he'd read my mind or something and figure I knew you."
Maybe he did, Shad thought. "Did you see a one-eyed woman?"
"No. Why?"
"Never mind. Just tell me what happened."
"Tachyon made a speech. About joker rights. Now I had a chance to experience life as a member of the oppressed, and so naturally I'd want to join him in his great work." "And the great work?"
She shrugged. "They're jumping the rich. If I agree to do what they want, I get jumped into a new body. I clean out the bank accounts and the family silver. Half goes to Tachyon and the jumpers, and the other half I get to keep to set up a new life somewhere. Unless-" she hesitated, "I decide to do it again. And again. He made that offer. I build up a nice nest egg, then they jump me into whatever body I choose when I want to retire."
"What did you say?"
"I said I'd have to consider it."
"What are you going to do?"
She looked at him. "What do you want me to do?"
"It's your call. I'm not going to make you do anything." She took a breath. " I hate this body. I don't want to hurt anyone else by jumping somebody into it. But"-she shook her head-"I have to think about it."
"This thing gets settled, maybe we can put the victims into new bodies."
Why had he said that? he wondered. He didn't really believe it. He wanted Shelley back. That's why.
He made himself think about