REVERSE BIRTH: Notes From the Gnarling Nowhere

17

The old gun-charge was thrown out under the Baker Act because there was no victim to press charges. The LAPD wasn't citizen-driven, they still roamed the streets looking for people to arrest, but the courts couldn't put Lorne in jail unless there was someone willing to testify against him. Usually the cops would hire a straw victim, but since the arrest was such a long time ago, there was no one they could put on the stand who would have any credibility.

Lorne had spent two nights in a light pink cinder-block cell. On the morning after his second night, he was asked to sign various papers pertaining to his crime, his arrest, and the dismissal of his case. He declined the offer of a free bus ticket to Encino and was instead released onto the street in front of the jail, which was down near the docks in Long Beach.

He summoned a public car on his s-screen, and then saw the message from his sister:

You doing hits now?

Lorne called her.

"I saw the news about your guy." She said. "What happened?"

"About Bastiaan? I don't know, I've been in jail." Lorne said. "What about him?"

"He's dead. What were you in jail for?"

"A gun-charge from the thirties." He said. "But it was dropped. Thank god for Senator Baker. What happened to Bastiaan?"

"All I know is that he's dead. He'd been living in a big apartment in Los Angeles. The feds immediately seized all his assets for back taxes."

"There goes the rest of my fee." Lorne said.

"But you found him didn't you?"

"No," he said, "I think I was pretty close, but then I got arrested."

"I've been monitoring the Industrial activity around Bastiaan's estate since I heard." Lula said. "There's been some interest in what he was up to..."

The public car pulled up and Lorne climbed in the back. "Take me to the nearest restaurant that serves breakfast." He said.

"What?" Lula asked.

"Sorry I was talking to the car." Lorne said. "Do you think it was my employers who did the job?"

The car spoke at the same time as Lorne's sister, drowning out her answer. "I'm sorry I didn't catch that." It said in a friendly female voice. "Can you please repeat the question?"

"Hold on Lu." He leaned forward toward the mic on the dashboard. "Take me to the nearest restaurant that serves breakfast." He said. The car started to move. "I'm going to talk to my sister now, so you can stop listening." The car responded in the affirmative. "What were you saying?" Lorne asked Lula.

"I was saying that it was probably your competitor Bryson Hendricks that killed him."

"Fuck." Lorne said. "Well at least I don't have to feel guilty. If it was the Mannishians, I led them to his doorstep, but if it was the Industry, hey... What could I have done?"

"You're assuming Bryson Hendricks is Industry?"

"You said he was a softbot."

"I said I wasn't sure. I thought it was a possibility." Lula said.

"So gimme some other possibilities." Lorne said.

"I'm not going to speculate, but I can tell you that the feds handed over van Dijk's server farm down in San Diego to an Industrial tech cadre that works on simulated realities..."

"So the Industry benefitted."

"Yeah, but this tech cadre had a security problem right away." Lula said. "The Mannishians had infiltrated van Dijk's system. You said they were after a memory cache?"