Neuromancer Read Online Free PDF Page B

problem.”
    “That’s fine, man.” The fletcher vanished into the black jacket.“Because you try to fuck around with me, you’ll be taking one of the stupidest chances
     of your whole life.”
    She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers slightly spread, and with a barely
     audible click, ten double-edged, four centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings
     beneath the burgundy nails.
    She smiled. The blades slowly withdrew.

TWO
    A FTER A YEAR of coffins, the room on the twenty-fifth floor of the Chiba Hilton seemed enormous.
     It was ten meters by eight, half of a suite. A white Braun coffeemaker steamed on
     a low table by the sliding glass panels that opened onto a narrow balcony.
    “Get some coffee in you. Look like you need it.” She took off her black jacket; the
     fletcher hung beneath her arm in a black nylon shoulder rig. She wore a sleeveless
     gray pullover with plain steel zips across each shoulder. Bulletproof, Case decided,
     slopping coffee into a bright red mug. His arms and legs felt like they were made
     out of wood.
    “Case.” He looked up, seeing the man for the first time. “My name is Armitage.” The
     dark robe was open to the waist, the broad chest hairless and muscular, the stomach
     flat and hard. Blue eyes so pale they made Case think of bleach. “Sun’s up, Case.
     This is your lucky day, boy.”
    Case whipped his arm sideways and the man easily ducked the scalding coffee. Brown
     stain running down the imitation ricepaper wall. He saw the angular gold ring through
     the left lobe. Special Forces. The man smiled.
    “Get your coffee, Case,” Molly said. “You’re okay, but you’re notgoing anywhere ’til Armitage has his say.” She sat crosslegged on a silk futon and
     began to fieldstrip the fletcher without bothering to look at it. Twin mirrors tracking
     as he crossed to the table and refilled his cup.
    “Too young to remember the war, aren’t you, Case?” Armitage ran a large hand back
     through his cropped brown hair. A heavy gold bracelet flashed on his wrist. “Leningrad,
     Kiev, Siberia. We invented you in Siberia, Case.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Screaming Fist, Case. You’ve heard the name.”
    “Some kind of run, wasn’t it? Tried to burn this Russian nexus with virus programs.
     Yeah, I heard about it. And nobody got out.”
    He sensed abrupt tension. Armitage walked to the window and looked out over Tokyo
     Bay. “That isn’t true. One unit made it back to Helsinki, Case.”
    Case shrugged, sipped coffee.
    “You’re a console cowboy. The prototypes of the programs you use to crack industrial
     banks were developed for Screaming Fist. For the assault on the Kirensk computer nexus.
     Basic module was a Nightwing microlight, a pilot, a matrix deck, a jockey. We were
     running a virus called Mole. The Mole series was the first generation of real intrusion
     programs.”
    “Icebreakers,” Case said, over the rim of the red mug.
    “Ice from ICE , intrusion countermeasures electronics.”
    “Problem is, mister, I’m no jockey now, so I think I’ll just be going. . . .”
    “I was there, Case; I was there when they invented your kind.”
    “You got zip to do with me and my kind, buddy. You’re rich enough to hire expensive
     razorgirls to haul my ass up here, is all. I’m never gonna punch any deck again, not
     for you or anybody else.” He crossed to the window and looked down. “That’s where
     I live now.”
    “Our profile says you’re trying to con the street into killing you when you’re not
     looking.”
    “Profile?”
    “We’ve built up a detailed model. Bought a go-to for each of your aliases and ran
     the skim through some military software. You’resuicidal, Case. The model gives you a month on the outside. And our medical projection
     says you’ll need a new pancreas inside a year.”
    “ ‘We.’ ” He met the faded blue eyes. “ ‘We’ who?”
    “What would you say if I told you we