Idoru (Bridge, #2)

by William Gibson

“Comes on years later, sometimes. Go after media faces, politicians. . . . That’s why it’s now one of the most illegal substances, any damn country you care to look. Drug that makes folks want to stalk and kill politicians, well, boy, it’ll get to be.” He grinned dryly. “I’m not one,” Laney said. “I’m not like that.” Daniels opened his eyes. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is that Slitscan can counter all our material by raising the possibility, the merest shadow, however remote, that you are.” “You see, son,” Pursley said, “they’d just make out you got into your line of work because you were predisposed to that, spying on famous people. You didn’t tell them about any of it, did you?” “No,” Laney said, “I didn’t.” “There you go,” said Pursley. “They’ll say they hired you because you were good at it, but you just got too damn good at it.” “But she wasn’t famous,” Laney said. “But he is,” Rice Daniels said, “and they’ll say you were after him. They’ll say the whole thing was your idea. They’ll wring their hands about responsibility. They’ll talk about their new screening procedures for quantitative analysts. And nobody, Laney, nobody at all will be watching us.”