Part 17 (1/2)
”Not quite,” said the Kid. ”There's still the news. I want to know the state of play between the corps. Where's the war at, now that Mitsu-Makema have cooled things down again?”
”You think anyone takes the trouble to tell me?” asked Homer sarcastically. ”s.h.i.+t, Kid, their left hands don't even tell their right hands what they're doing.”
”A guy called Tanagawa told me that GenTech are getting close to owning the whole worlda”and that they're going over the top in trying to push the other corps around. Is that true? An informed opinion will do.”
Homer pursed his lips. ”Would that be Junichi Tanagawa?” he asked.
”That's the one,” the Kid confirmed.
”You really talked to him?”
”Don't stall me, Homer. You want me out of here, remember?”
Homer remembered. ”There's a rumour,” he said, slowly, ”that Tanagawa is into some pretty heavy talks with Chromicon,” he said. ”The word is hat GenTech are pretty p.i.s.sed off about it. If I'd have to guess, I'd say that GenTech's rivals are beginning to gang up against them. If they were looking to starting kicking the s.h.i.+t out of the other corps, I'd hazard a guess that they'll have to back off a bit now. Partly because they lost whatever was on the disc, partly because they couldn't administer a tough enough lesson to M-M. They have a lot to hold against you, Kida”I hope you can take the heat?”
The Kid nodded, slowly. ”It's a good question,” he admitted. ”But I came out of his with new friends as well as angrier enemies. I figure that the stakes have got a lot higher, but the game's still the same. You want to know what was on the disc that GenTech were desperate to keep to themselves?”
Homer finished off the beer and crushed the can in his fist. When it came to beer cans, he was a real strong man. ”Not really” he said. ”You've given me more than enougha”knowing too much can get a guy iced. Like I said before, I'd be happy if you'd just stay away from me. You're so hot I could easily get burned. I'm not a hero, Kid. I manufacture them, but I'm not stupid enough to be one. Heroes die young.”
”You already avoided that,” the Kid pointed out.
”And I want to keep on avoiding it,” Homer said. ”I know I have to die one day, but I don't want to do it for a long time yet.”
”Is GenTech trying to take over the whole world?” asked the Kid suddenly.
Homer shrugged, though he didn't feel very care-free. ”Aren't they all?” he answered.
”Why?”
”Because it's the name of the game,” Homer told him. ”Power breeds power, success breeds ambition. It's an old, old story. All empires expand, and the faster they expand the greedier they get. The corps are no differenta”it's just that their version of Alexander the Great is a committee in dark suits. Whatever they have can never be enougha”they want it all. But they can never have it, Kid, because there's just too much of it. The iron law of oligarchy cuts both ways. Only a small number of people can actually run things, but what they can feasibly run is bounded too. You can own your back garden because you can see it, walk across it and work it in any way you want to. An org can own a whole city, maybe even a little nationa”but the more anybody owns, the less control they have over it. Maybe GenTech could own the world, on papera”but it would still be the world, full of uncontrollable factors, and full of outlaws. For the likes of you and me, it doesn't matter a d.a.m.n who owns the world, Kid. Our lives will still be the same.”
”Tanagawa told me that GenTech might be heavily influenced, if not actually controlled, by a bunch of crazies called the Temple,” said the Kid, matter-of-factly. ”He says that they're fanatics who intend to wipe out the whole human racea”to bring about the apocalypse.”
”Do you believe him?” asked Homer.
”Do you?” countered the Kid.
”I'm a TV man,” said Homer. ”I don't believe my own mother when she tells me it's time for tea. But you might care to bear in mind that Mr Tanagawa is the one who's building underground Arks, not GenTech. You want my advice, Kid, you'll forget it. The world might end tomorrow, but the only way we can live our lives is to a.s.sume that it won't. There's nothing the likes of you and me can do about anything at all, Kid, except try to make sure that we have a stock of cold beer in the fridge. Go cultivate your garden, Kid, and try to get a few laughs along the way. That's all there is and all there ever can be.”
The Kid looked across at the book which Homer had laid down on his pillow. ”It doesn't look like science fiction,” he said irrelevantly.
”I don't like science fiction,” Homer told him. ”It's too d.a.m.n realistic for my taste. Beneath this careworn exterior I have the heart of an old man. This is Schopenhauer. They used to call him the great pessimist, because he pointed out that anyone who looks at the world without rose-tinted gla.s.ses on has to recognize that opportunities for having a really lousy time far outnumber opportunities for enjoying yourself.”
”Did anybody ever doubt it?” asked the Kid.
”Not me,” Homer told him. ”Schopenhauer reckoned that we wouldn't be able to keep going at all if it wasn't for some blind and stupid will to live which drives us on in spite of the odds being stacked against us. Trouble is, he said, once we become enlightened we begin to see what a dumb a.s.shole that blind will to live really isa”then, we have to use our brains to come up with some Idea that will keep us going regardless. You got an Idea, Kid, to keep you going?”
”Yes,” said the Kid. ”I have.”
Homer sighed. ”Well, Kid,” he said, ”you're one up on me. Good luck to you.”
”You're not a ghost dancer at all,” observed the Kid. ”You don't have that much conviction.”
”No,” admitted Homer, without feeling any urge to congratulate himself about it. ”I'm no ghost dancer. n.o.body in his right mind is.”
”I am,” said the Kid.
”I know,” said Homer, not even certain in his own mind whether he should try to sound contemptuous or envious. ”I know.”
6.
Carl was astonished when Dr Zarathustra turned up at his quarters. It was not simply an unprecedented event but one hardly imaginablea”as though the mountain had, for once, decided to come to the man. Carl couldn't actually manage to stand up, but moved as though to put his feet on the floor instead of the couch. The scientist instructed him, by means of a cursory hand gesture, to remain as he was, so he contented himself with switching off the TV.
”I've read your report,” said Zarathustra, even before he had realigned the chair to his satisfaction and sat down upon it.
”Oh,” said Carl dolefully. ”I let you downa”I'm sorry.”
”It appears from all the evidence that the major fault was not yours,” said the bioscientist, calmly. ”Mr Pasco's tendency to rely on his impulses seems to have led him consistently astray. The Security Division were wise to dispense with his services.”
”He'll go after Kid Zero,” Carl predicted, realizing as he said it that SecDiv probably knew that perfectly well. Firing Ray Pasco was like firing a missilea”an effective way of getting things done, provided that the launcher was pointed in the right direction. But he felt forced to add: ”He won't get him. The Kid's too slippery, even without the snake.”
”One more childish vendetta,” said the Doc, ”will hardly make any difference to the way the world is going. The failure to recover my data might well make a difference, but when personal pride and vulgar commercial interests are set asidea”as they must be, nowa”the consequences might be more benign than disastrous. There are times when I am not entirely certain that my loyalties to the cause of science are reconcilable with the loyalties which I owe to GenTech.”
Carl blinked, and couldn't help looking round. If the room was bugged at all, the bug was probably feeding its signal to an automatic recorder which would never be inspected, but that didn't mean that it was safe to indulge in careless talk.
Nevertheless, he said: ”Are you in trouble with the boardroom suits, Doc?”
The Doc permitted himself an uncharacteristic wan smile. ”We're all out of favour just now,” he said. ”But yes, I suppose you could say that I'm in trouble. You might be glad about thata”the fact that Mr Pasco and I are taking the lion's share of our masters' displeasure may help to deflect attention from you.”
”Does that mean I get to keep my job?” asked Carl uncertainly. He had been on the brink of asking a much more delicate question, about Bro and the possibility of making whole armies of poisonous soldiers just like him, and whether Doc Zarathustra had really tried to hide that possibility from his own bosses by simply failing to call it to their attention until the secret was out and therefore useless. But there were some things which simply could not be said within the ear-filled walls of a GenTech establishmenta”and maybe oughtn't to be said anywhere, by sane and sensible men.
”We both get to keep our jobs,” the Doc told him. ”No matter how displeased my masters are, they know that I am indispensablea”and I know that you are as trustworthy a man as I could hope to see in your position. We both have to pick up the pieces, and get on with our work.”
”Thanks,” said Carl, surprised by the depth of his own relief. ”And thanks for coming to tell me.”
”There are a couple of points in your report which I wanted to check with you,” said Zarathustra, suddenly back in his usual businesslike groove.
”Fire away,” said Carl, confident now that he wouldn't be taken too literally.
”According to Kid Zero,” said the scientist, ”the scientists at Mitsu-Makema think that the rise in the mutation rate may be due to the arrival on earth of alien DNA.”
”That's what he said,” Carl confirmed. ”He didn't elaborate.” He remembered clearly enough, though, that the Kid had added a few more comments, which he had thought it more diplomatic to exclude from his report.
”It's possible, of course, that this is disinformation,” said Zarathustra. ”Perhaps he was told this in order to pa.s.s it on to us, so that our attention would be deflected away from more profitable lines of conjecture.”
Carl initially a.s.sumed that the scientist was talking to himself, but the pregnant pause which followed soon made him aware that he was expected to respond to these speculations in some way.