The communications lockdown of Arbitrary Base did not, of course, extend to official GenTech traffic. In his spartan quarters in the San Angeles Factory, Masterton was now in the process of conversing with Trix Desoto via secured and scrambled satellite phone.
“So you put our Mister Kalish together with the Talking Head?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Trix Desoto. “He was getting somewhat vehement. Seemed like the best thing to do at the time.”
“Well, I’m just thanking Christ that I remembered to seriously downgrade its access and capacity,” said Masterton. “He should get enough of the truth to satisfy his curiosity, give him some idea of the actual state of play on top if he’s lucky and asks the right questions-but it wouldn’t do for him to learn… absolutely everything, now, would it?”
“If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about, then no,” said Trix Desoto on the other end of the line. “You’d have no hold on him whatsoever if he happened to learn that particular little titbit. I think it’s safe to say that Eddie learning that particular little titbit would end up very bad for you indeed.”
“Why, do my ears deceive me, Trix,” said Masterton, “or do I hear a note of cunning speculation in your voice?”
“I’m just saying that I know for a fact that there’s some stuff you’re not telling even me,” said Trix Desoto. “You’ve got my loyalty in this-but don’t forget that I’ve got what Eddie’s got. We’re not like… basic humans, and you’re basically human, and I know the sort of deviousness that basic humans get up to. The games within games you like to play.
“I’m telling you, Masterton, that if you try to pull any of that shit with us, then Eddie Kalish learning an interesting little particular titbit is going to be the least of your worries.”
After Trix Desoto had cut the connection, Masterton just sat there for a while, doing and thinking nothing in particular. Then he raised his hands to his black wraparound shades and pulled them from his head.
The shades were inset with remote-feed microcams, hooked to an implant in his visual centre.
Masterton turned the shades around and used them to examine the strange new growths taken root and growing in the involuted ruins of what had once been his eyes.
“Basic human…” he mused to himself. “Ah, Trix, Trix, if you only knew.”
For what seemed to be a long time, Eddie just stood there looking at the Talking Head.
“And that’s it, is it?” he said at last. “That’s all there is?”
“ You got your special secret origin, ” said the Talking Head, “ plus an explanation for why you don’t quite seem to fit into the world. Why you have problems relating to other human beings on even the most basic level. What more do you fucking want? ”
“Well for one thing,” said Eddie. “You’ve just gone out of your way to tell me what happened to me as a kid and then pull the rug out from under me and tell me it’s totally meaningless.
“You and-well, you -never seem to lose an opportunity to tell me how insignificant I am in the greater scheme of things, how I’m basically nothing but an ambulatory tool… but that’s not strictly true is it? There’s something more that you’re still not telling me.”
“ Do you realise, ” said the Talking Head, “ that you managed to get through that entire little speech without saying the word ‘fuck’ once? I have to admit that I’m rather impressed. ”
“Fuck being rather impressed!” Eddie shouted. “Stop trying to deflect the question and answer! Tool I might be, but I’ve got a function that for some reason is incredibly valuable to you and GenTech-and you’re gonna fucking well tell me what the fuck it is!”
“ Well, if you’re going to be like that, ” said the Head, “ then I’m telling you, yet again, that you simply don’t Need to Know. All you need to know is how to do what we tell you, when we tell you. We have… ways of teaching you, if you can’t get that little fact through your head. ”
“Oh yes?” said Eddie, softly. “I’d like to see you try.”
(It would be later, looking back, that he would realise that this was the point that several technicians in the Command Module started backing away from him in startled alarm. Pressing themselves against the walls in the cold fear of prey finding some predator suddenly dropped into the middle of their enclosure. Replaying the scene, mnemonically, he would recall image-flashes of the muscles of his arms visibly swelling and bulking, his hands elongating into claws. At the time, he simply didn’t notice.)
“Let me guess how that might work,” Eddie continued, all unaware that his voice was roughening into a snarl. “You threaten to overdose me with the Leash to the point where I simply can’t flip out whatsoever happens, then shoot me in the head if I don’t follow orders. I suspect that either way-and whether you shoot me in the head or not-that would mess up whatever it is you want me for.”
“ Shooting you in the head would definitely end your usefulness, ” said the Talking Head, “ For a while, at any rate, I admit. There are other means that might be brought to bear to ensure your compliance and keep you useful, however. ”
“To the point where, if I was absolutely and persistently determined to screw up whatever it was you want me to do, you’d be able to stop me every single time?”
“ Can this be the itinerate and inveterate fuck around who we’ve come to know and love speaking? ” said the Head. “ You don’t have persistence and determination in you, boy. ”
There was a slightly odd set to the Talking Head’s synthetic features, Eddie thought, but he couldn’t quite work out what it was.
It would only be later that he pegged it: somebody who was well aware of the effect a foot-long talon might have on a lump of relatively fragile biogel-and who was doing their very best not to bring the matter up.
“Do you want to try me?” Eddie said. “Just tell me, okay? And I’d be grateful if you stopped ripping the piss out of me and the way I talk while you do it.”
For a few moments the talking head was silent. Then:
“ I’d do a little exasperated sigh, at this point, ” it said, “ if I had the lungs.
“ All right, already. Okay. I’ll let you in on one of the somewhat larger secrets, if it’ll stop the pissing and moaning and get you at least halfway back in line… ”