Chasm City

by Alastair Reynolds

He jabbed his cigarette in Dieterling’s direction. ‘The snake guy, right?’ Dieterling shrugged. ‘If you say so.’ ‘That’s some cool shit; hunting snakes.’ With his cigarette hand he mimed aiming and firing a gun, doubtless drawing a bead on an imaginary hamadryad. ‘Think you can squeeze me in on your next hunting trip?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Dieterling said. ‘We tend not to use live bait. But I’ll talk to the boss and see what we can arrange.’

‘He’s still a suspect. That goes for anyone we met tonight - including you, Red.’ ‘I wouldn’t have killed him. I wanted him to take me snake hunting.’ There was something so pathetically selfish about that answer that there was a good chance it was true.

‘I don’t think I was expecting this,’ I said. ‘Funnily enough, almost no one ever does. The hard cases are the ones who don’t even remember ever dealing with Ultras. You’re not that badly off, are you?’ ‘No,’ I admitted. ‘And that makes me feel a lot happier, you know.’ ‘What does?’ ‘Knowing that there’s always some poor bastard worse off than me.’ ‘Hmm,’ she said, with a note of disapproval. ‘I’m not sure that’s quite the attitude one should be having, Tanner.

‘I think, on balance, this is probably the right room,’ Quirrenbach said. I nodded. ‘Not going to win any awards, is it?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know - some of the stains are quite interestingly arranged. It’s just a pity he went in for the smeared-excrement look - it’s just so last century.’

‘Can you find somewhere public nearby where we can land?’ ‘I’m doing it,’ Chanterelle said. ‘Although I don’t know what good it will do. You can hardly walk into a plaza with a gun at my head.’ ‘Maybe people will assume we’re a living exhibit and leave us alone.’ ‘Is that as far as your plan goes?’ She sounded disappointed in me. ‘No, actually. It goes a bit further than that. This coat, for instance, has very capacious pockets. I know I can conceal the gun in one without any difficulty, and I can keep it pointed at you without it looking as if I’m just exceptionally pleased to see you.’ ‘You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re going to walk through the plaza with a gun at my back.’ ‘It would look a little silly if I pointed it at your front. One of us would have to walk backwards, and that wouldn’t do. We might bump into one of your friends.’

‘I’m still waiting,’ Chanterelle said. ‘There’s only so much of that meaningful frown I can take, you know.’ ‘I’m sorry. It’s just—’ I found myself grinning. ‘I almost think you might like me for who I am.’ ‘Don’t push your luck, Tanner. Only a couple of hours ago you were pointing a gun at me. Most relationships that start like that tend to go downhill.’ ‘Ordinarily, I’d agree. But you also happened to be pointing a gun at me, and your gun was considerably larger than mine.’ ‘Hmm, maybe.’ She sounded far from convinced.

‘The woman you met - what was her name again?’ ‘Chanterelle Sammartini,’ I said. ‘Pransky never explained what happened to her. Were you together when he found you?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘We’d argued.’ Zebra did a creditable double-take. ‘Wasn’t arguing part of the bargain? I mean, if you kidnap someone, don’t you generally assume that there’s going to be some arguing?’ ‘I didn’t kidnap her, no matter what you think. I invited her to take me to the Canopy.’ ‘With a gun.’ ‘She wasn’t going to accept the invitation otherwise.’

It was unpleasant, but he had no choice but to dismantle Lago. Lago, of course, hadn’t taken to that very enthusiastically either, but by then it was too late.