02. The Shadow Dancers (32 page)

" 'Bout thutty-five."

"Well, that's not bad, although I wish it were more. Truth is, after all this time I don't think we have too much longer. The fact that they were bold enough to make all the recent moves they did shows that, and the idea that they were out to eliminate the two of us. I think they're going to make their big move anytime now, and I think as it stands they're going to succeed. The two of you are rather uniquely positioned to act on it. Of course, it would be easier if we could get us a hypnoscan and get rid of that Stepin Fetchit accent of yours-it would be real convenient if the two of you were interchangeable-but that's why they made sure you had it. So they could always tell the two of you apart."

I was startled by that idea, but then I didn't see why I didn't figure it right off. Sure-if she was gonna play me, she had to talk like me, but since we was so damned much
alike they had to make dead certain that even if I was discovered or sprung I couldn't pull a switch back on them. I was wrong; they hadn't underestimated me at all. If anything, they'd overdone it.

"But-if yo' git 'em, what happen to us?"

"There are three sides to the question for both of you," he pointed out. "Their side, the Company's side, and your side. Unlike the other two, your side has a vote, but it's only on whose side to belong to. Now, I have the same problem, with minor differences. If I go along with them, even volunteer for their side, I'll probably wind up with Bill Markham's job and vastly increased powers and get the both of you as souvenirs. If I go against them, they'll either have to kill me or when they take power in spite of me they'll probably eliminate me anyway as a potential thorn in their side-unless I win."

"Sounds like you'd be better off changin' sides," Brandy Two noted.

"The way things stand right now, you're probably right," he agreed, "but I have two powerful reasons not to. First, we're late immigrants here. I'm first-generation native born because my father had some foresight and he saw what was coming in Europe and managed to get here. The family was fairly poor, and he was the youngest, so they pooled to send him and my mother here first. By the time he was settled enough to try and help others, it was too late. Where they were sending the Jews you didn't need money. It won't be Jews this time, particularly, but I can still smell it coming. I guess I inherited it from my father. This time it's me asked to be a 'good German' for my own prosperity and safety and the hell with the others. I grew up hating that kind of person for killing my family. I value that hatred too much to compromise it. And, of course, there's one other reason."

He paused, then went on. "They took the only human being I ever loved and they robbed her of her humanity and made her something ugly."

"Sam! No!" I cried out.
"It ain't true!"

"Yes it is," said Brandy Two sadly. "Honey, my old life weren't much, but it sure as hell was a life. We ain't people no more-we're
property.
We can jive talk all we want 'bout bein' victims and helpless and all that, and we are, but I
don't kid myself 'bout what I
am.
Take a look at yo'self, girl! We is
slaves!
Only difference 'tween us and our great grandfathers is dey didn't wanna be no slaves, but we do!"

I turned 'round as best I could and stuck my head facedown in the pillow, sobbing, 'cause I knew right off she was right. If Sam hadn't been there, right in the room, then I woulda rejected the whole thing, put it from my mind. I still loved him, but I'd cheat on him in a minute, betray him in a flash. I
had
betrayed him, already, and all my daddy stood for, too. I would help that bunch of Vogels win, or look the other way, so long as they guaranteed my juice supply. I woulda thought it was wrong and too bad, but I'd'a let it happen, even helped, anyways. Worst part was, if I was in real withdrawal, and they told me I had to kill Sam to get the juice, I really didn't know if I could keep from pullin' that trigger.

No, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that I
still
didn't want no cure. If it came down to betrayin' Sam or gettin' the cure, I would probably betray him, even now. I knew it in my bones, just like my damned double did. When Sam made that remark 'bout goin' over to the other side and gettin' us as prizes I got a real feelin' of excitement that it might be so. It was Aldrath's worst-case example when he tried to talk me out of goin' in. I couldn't have Sam and the juice.

And as I thought this, the juice I had reacted. You wasn't allowed to get too depressed. You wasn't allowed to get yourself too messed up. It pushed my blood pressure back down and pushed a few of them chemical buttons in my brain. I still thought,
Yeah, they're both right. I ain't the same person no more. Can't never be. It feels too
good
to be like this.
I turned over again and looked at him.

"You see?" Brandy Two commented plainly. "It's easier when you know what you've become and don't fool yourself no more. Not better, just easier. You just lose your right to judge."

I swallowed hard. "Okay, Sam, so we deal wit' me as I is. So what if I tells ya where de stash is? What happens in a coupl've weeks?"

"I don't know. That's as honest an answer as I can give you," he responded, lookin' and soundin' real sad. "I'm the only one taking a real gamble. Deep down, I have to gamble

on both of you to save my hide, and you have to gamble on me not holding out or turning you in. I'm betting on your basic addict selfishness, though. You're both smart girls; it doesn't affect that, which is lucky."

"We're listenin'," Brandy Two assured him.

"If you betray me, you'll be on their side and they'll give you juice-for a while, anyway. They may keep you on it. Then, again, they may just decide that they don't need you anymore and have no place for you. Then it's the end. There's always that risk, and it's strongest when they've won. If there's one thing Brandy-
my
Brandy-knows, it's that the Company top isn't just powerful, it's racist. They needed others for guinea pigs, but neither of you will fit into their final plan. You know what happened to Vogel's victims when they had no further use for them."

I had a real uneasy feelin' when he said this, since that was always the one fear I had since gettin' hooked, and the one fear the juice did not make go away. "Go 'head, we listenin'."

"Play it my way, and we'll have the origin world. The present Company. They're no angels themselves and they really don't give a damn, but when there's no reason to be cruel they take care of their own. They'd never let this shit get out generally-hell, you put a million doses out on the streets of Philadelphia and loads of people, some of them very middle and upper class, would be fighting to get hooked and wouldn't even ask or think about the price they'd pay. You know that. But it's
organic,
sort of. It exists somewhere in nature. A sufficient supply for the few addicts remaining could be insured indefinitely, particularly for the pair that exposed the thing and saved the damned Company's neck."

"Is that really-possible?" Brandy Two asked in wonder. "A lifetime supply, forever?"

"He ain't jivin', sista'," I told her. "Dat's jes' de way dey do stuff." He was right, and it made me feel a lot better to know that I could do the right thing and still be in my own best interests. "We got nothin' to lose if Sam play square wit' us." If the opposition believed I might not shoot Sam for the juice, then I was damn sure Sam couldn't betray me. "Unda' de flo' vent in de upstairs hall, Sam. It all dere."

He relaxed and put the gun away. "No it isn't."

I shot up.
"What!"

"You may be only a shadow of your former self, but you still think the same. I found them before you even woke up. Now they really
are
no longer in the house."

"Den why-?"

"If you couldn't bring yourself to trust me and tell me, then I had no chance. No chance at all. Now, maybe, if we can give the details to your-sister-here and make
her
believe it, then we have a fighting chance." He gave a weary grin. "Now you two have only one worry, and it's a minor one, all things considered, but I just want you to be a little paranoid, too."

"What dat?" I asked him.

"If, somewhere, there are two Brandys as identical as the two of you, so much so they might have pulled off the switch, then somewhere, almost definitely, there's a Sam Two as well, one with the ethics of a cockroach who decided that being on the vice pad in Bristol was pale stuff compared to millions in the bank in
this
life. The original Sam is recovering from a serious brain injury, remember? That could hide any lapses. You see, that's the reason I was delayed so long. The move was anticipated, but tricky. We now have something on them-maybe. You see, in the Labyrinth, about thirty-six hours ago, one of us blew the other's brains out. That's why you, my would-be replacement bride, were called off. That's the beauty of it. Nobody -not you, not the Company, not the opposition-knows which one I really am. Not for sure."

Damn
his hide!

"Chessworks."

"I would like to speak to Miss Addison, please."

"One moment. I'll transfer your call."

Click! Buzz! Whirr! Ring!
"Yes?" It was
her
voice all right.

"This is Brandy. We have her."

"Where?"

"Right here at the house. She's good. She actually got the drop on me, but she didn't figure on a double for Sam, too. Neither did I! Why didn't you
tell
me?"

"It was not necessary for you to know. We didn't know if she might contact Markham or someone first to get allies."

"You give her too much credit. She's a shadow dancer, jus' like me. She was hopin' to replace me and use Sam in a scheme to make a deal with you, but she'd
never
give that Company no crack at her. You oughta know that by now."

There was silence for a moment, then Addison said, obviously amused, "Very well, then. This situation has changed from a strong and threatening negative into a positive. Put Sam on, please."

"I'm here," he said. "I'm on the upstairs extension."

"All right. You know your mission. Do it right and do it within the next twenty-five days and you'll live there like a king on those millions. Fail, and you will be remembered when the time comes, I promise you."

"I got the picture," he replied. "It's not like I haven't done it before. Once you bump off yourself you can bump off anybody. What do you want us to do with the broad?"

"I'll have a car at your place in sixty minutes or less, traffic willing. Since you're about to have delicacy problems, I don't think having a Brandy there who is an obvious addict would escape Markham's notice. We'll take both of them for now." She hung up. Abrupt, that girl, but she had a lot on her mind.

"What you s'posed t'do?" I asked him.

"Murder Markham in such a way that it can't be traced to me, preferably make it look like an accident. Dakani's no fool. He kept most of the resident agents, even the ones close to Aldrath, on the job. Markham's chomping at the bit to be let loose on this thing, and Dakani's inclined to promote him and give him some powers. If he failed, the kid could always blame Bill and Aldrath's people; if he succeeded, the kid gets the credit and maybe keeps the job. There are very few people with Bill's experience or track record in playing the game the right way. Hell, if they considered
me
a threat, think what they consider Bill! It's still a pretty small and close organization they've got, out of necessity, and they've still got a hard job ahead no matter what. What's it cost them to get me to waste Bill? If I do, he's out of the way. If I fail, I'm the only one who suffers."

"Makes sense," I agreed. "Real surprised t'hear all dat on de phone, though. If I was Bill I'd have a tap on it."

"Oh, he does," Sam replied. "State of the art for this world, but no high-tech stuff by Company standards. On
the other hand, Addison's people have a tap, too, and they can tap into
this
tap. It blocks all calls to the Chessworks prefix from registering or recording on Bill's tap. Same goes for her calls here. They're pretty confident of it."

"They been pretty fuckin' confident of everything," Brandy Two commented sourly. "What you think they're gonna do with
me?"

"Make you a guinea pig, just like her, before they risk any of their own with this."

"Sam? S'pose dey don't?" I said worriedly. "S'pose dey jus' send us back t' Fast Eddie or worse?"

"Then I'm done," he answered flatly. "But you won't be any worse off than you would have been otherwise, would you?"

I got a little chill. "Sam-hold me once," I asked him. "Hold me like y'used to an' jes' play like it be old times. Please."

And he held me real close and real tight, and he kissed me long and hard, and I knowed there was still the love there. God! How I'd mucked it all up! God! How I wanted him!

The car, a big blue Mercedes, pulled up in about forty minutes. I didn't expect Addison to be in it, and she wasn't; just a big, rough-lookin' black dude in a suit and a young straight-haired, round-faced black woman in a white uniform, like a nurse. We opened the door, and for just a moment I couldn't go out it. I didn't want to go. Somethin' held me back. All I wanted to do was turn around and grab Sam and run for it. Scream for him to make love to me and then put a bullet through my head.

Instead, I walked out, and my twin followed close behind. She and I was at least dressed decent for a change; she'd shopped for more than one outfit.

We got in, both of us lookin' sullen but me most of all, and even as the doors closed and we pulled away I felt like a tremendous hand was reachin' out and tryin' to snatch me back there. It took a while for the feelin' to fade, and it was real curious that the juice hadn't done nothin' to calm it down.

"Now, you two listen up and listen up good," the "nurse" said, turnin' to us. "You just sit there real nice and
quiet-like and enjoy the ride. We got .some miles to make today. When you two need t' get juiced?"