Elvissey Read Online Free PDF Page B

that-"
    "Leverett's told me of that. They all have," I said. "I've
inklings it's doing more than what's desired. Aches and
pains rack me. They deafen to my complaints at the clinic."
    "Tell Leverett. He raves so of the drug's worth, and I'd
never heard tell of it. I suspect he'd like to dose me with it,
to lessen his discomfort when I direct him and his peers,"
she said, laughing. "Time's here, Iz. Fond farewells await."
    "Mister O'Malley?" She nodded. "What're my lines?"
    "Mute yourself. He's nonresponsive, lately, to most," she
said, stepping hallways; I flowed after her in her wake. "You
smile, I'll transmit."
    AbandoningJudy's office, we drifted through Dryco's new
halls. A month before, as we underwayed our training, the
Bronx headquarters finally opened, and all operations up-
towned from Manhattan. The building's saffron spear
stabbed heaven, scattering clouds; appeared altitudinous
enough to be struck by rockets as yet unglared. Dryco Tower
epidermed perfect; its innards yet transitioned. Topladen
containments crowded passages, farragoed workstations cluttered all around; rugs awaited laying, charts wanted
posting. Not all elevators elevated, yet all yawned at command to admit the unwary. Three days earlier, an executive
marketeer in charge of Dryco's Indonesian sphere-suffering work-induced insomnia, entering her third foodless
day-had misstepped, and expressed one hundred floors;
incompany looselips gossiped that she dropped not by
chance, but choice. Regooded Dryco gifted her husband
with the cost of her urn.

    "What's meant, he's nonresponsive?" I asked; wondered
what prevented her gown's hem from sweeping the floor as
she walked.
    "He's introverting," she said. "He'll word me, or his sister,
or the damned computer-"
    "Alice?"
    "None other. Even when he words us, he words us sole in
Ambient talk."
    "Serious?" When we were young we'd heard such talk,
down in old Loisaida, where they hid; in secreting their
gloriously misshapen husks from the world, Ambients secreted their speech as well, burying thought in the brambles
of a clotted argot. Some believed their cant melodied pure;
its garble headached me each time it hit my ear. None spoke
it any longer, I'd thought; weren't all Ambients, like
Loisaida, gone and lostaway for years? Certainly Ambients
would never have stood to be regooded.
    "And so I reply likewise. And Alice now words to no one
but him. If I say something he chooses not to hear, he
deafens; Leverett's plugged him twiceover. So no one listens,
and sense goes unheard. Such complications madden, Iz.
Fuckall. A better job I'd choose, if I druthered. But then
Leverett would only see greater chance to grab. I'll see him
six under first."
    "Then he's not speaking to Leverett-?" I asked.
    "Never did," she said. "Leverett speaks, he listens. That's
what's downfalled."

    Judy superiored Leverett, as she superiored all, though
he'd been the sole Dryconian who'd been at his position
since before her arrival. For years he'd worked his duties,
unseen and unheard; then at once some short time before,
he enlivened as if possessed, as if another had crept into his
bed one night to supplant his being as he slept.
    "Where'll my office be?" I asked, realizing I'd not been
shown it during my initial visit. Judy didn't immediately
respond; waited until we turned a corner, and faced a humming white wall.
    "We'll decide after this project's put down."
    She twisted her bracelet, twice to the left and once to the
right. As the hum ceased the wall opened and Mister O'Malley's outer office revealed itself, free of furniture, executar-
ies, or any corporate accoutrements. Judy proclaimed our
arrival as we entered the space, shouting her name so that
those listening might hear.
    "Avalon," a man's voice responded, crying out from unseen speakers. "Behold me."
    Mister O'Malley's doors parted, sans sound; peering sanc-
tumways, we beheld. I'd not seen him in eighteen years; in
the old