The Demi-Monde: Winter (12 page)

‘And this is the Comrade Commissar Algernon Dashwood,’ said Crowley, nodding towards Trixie’s father.

Distracted by her failure to detect a blood odour on the Daemon, Trixie wasn’t prepared for the Daemon’s next insult, this one directed at her father.

‘Dashwood, eh?’ observed the Daemon in a contemptuous voice. ‘Then I guess your great-great-grandfather must have been Sir Francis Dashwood.’ The Daemon didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Now he was a real reprobate. As I recall he was founder of the Hellfire Club, which had the motto Fais ce que tu voudras enshrined over its doorway. This was, of course, plagiarised from the writings of François Rabelais.’ The Daemon turned to Crowley. ‘So you see, Crowley, your own slogan “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” is twice stolen: once by you and once by the Dashwoods.’

Crowley laughed. ‘You are too clever by half, Miss Williams; the maxim of the UnFunDaMentalist Church is “Let the Leader’s will be the whole of the Law.” If you are to censure me then you could at least do me the honour of being accurate.’

This observation seemed to surprise the Daemon. ‘The little tweaks ABBA has made to the Demi-Monde never cease to amaze.’

ABBA? Why would a Daemon in thrall to Loki speak of the Lord God, ABBA?

‘So, what’s to be my fate, Crowley? You say that this girl …’

‘This girl’! You impudent cow!

‘… is to be my hostess? What for? Are we just going to sit around discussing bustles and bonnets? That’s all the women
in this patriarchal ForthRight of yours seem to be good for. From what I’ve seen and heard they’ve had any independence of thought brainwashed out of them.’

Brainwashed? What was a brain?

Crowley gave an indulgent smile. ‘I thought it would be more pleasant for you, Miss Williams, to spend your time as my guest in the company of someone of your own age. Of course, if you prefer, I can return you to the Lubyanka, but you were very outspoken in your criticisms of its amenities.’

Now it was the Daemon’s turn to laugh. ‘I get it: Princess Trixiebell here is going to be my stable pony, brought in to keep the troublesome Norma Williams docile and cooperative.’ It shrugged. ‘Okay, I’m relaxed; any place has got to be better than a ten-by-five in that shithouse you call the Lubyanka.’

A gasp from Trixie at the use of a profanity by the Daemon… and that she’d used it in front of men!

The Daemon obviously noted her consternation. ‘Yeah, little Miss Milksop over there looks as though she could use a little loosening up.’

‘I should warn you, Miss Williams,’ said Crowley carefully, ‘that you will be under constant supervision whilst you are living in Dashwood Manor and that the grounds are constantly patrolled. Your confinement is the responsibility of Colonel Archie Clement. If you try to escape he has been empowered to punish you most severely.’

The Daemon’s eyes hardened and its mouth tightened. ‘Then as we’re in “giving warnings” mode, Mr Aleister Crowley, you better understand that if that piece of human excrement you call Archie Clement comes within ten foot of me I’m gonna rip his arm off and beat him to death with it.’

Stunned though Trixie was that a woman could issue such a threat, the most remarkable thing was that she was utterly
convinced that the Daemon meant every word it said. This wasn’t just empty sabre-rattling.

Archie Clement’s face darkened and he made to rise out of his chair, but he was waved back by Crowley. ‘There will be no need for you to speak to or to socialise with Colonel Clement, Miss Williams, provided you do not try to escape.’

All he received by way of reply from the Daemon was the merest of smiles.

The Demi-Monde
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is the first simulation product to employ ParaDigm CyberResearch’s Totally Realistic User Envelopment (TRUE
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) technology to ensure full and all-pervasive Player–Simulation meshing. TRUE is the only product foundationed on ParaDigm’s BioNeural-Kinetic Security Sensor (PBN-KiSS
^®
), optimised for the probing, gathering, predicting and processing of neural, cerebral and autonomic bodily responses. TRUE also employs ParaDigm’s own FAST/TRAK
^®
Neurobahn-Network and its 2ndSkin
^®
Total Immersion Shroud.

– The Demi-Monde
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Product Description Manual: 14 June 2013

Somehow Ella had assumed when she agreed to undertake the mission to rescue Norma Williams from the Demi-Monde that she would be subjected to weeks, months even, of training, familiarisation, role-playing exercises and total immersion in her new persona before she was sent on her way.

She was wrong.

A mere hour after her final meeting with the General, forty minutes after the session with the Army lawyer signing numerous waivers and disclaimers – a little unnerved that for ‘benefits accruing upon death’ she had been allocated the
notional rank of captain in the US Marines – and twenty minutes after a very upsetting meeting with an attorney to draw up her will, Ella was led to the Professor’s laboratory, where she would be prepared to enter the Demi-Monde.

The laboratory was situated at an even lower level than the room where she’d met Heydrich, which meant, so far as Ella could judge, that she was now standing just a few yards up from the earth’s core. It was a modest enough room: white-painted walls, plastic-tiled floor, and furnished with just an examination couch, a control panel with a few monitors set in it and a chair for the use of the Professor.

The Professor smiled, displaying a set of brilliantly white teeth standing like tombstones behind his thin lips, ushered Ella onto a couch, clipped an electrode to the lobe of her ear and began. ‘If you will just lean back and relax, Miss Thomas. I am going to place a drop of liquid in your right eye. Don’t worry, it’s a totally painless procedure.’ It was such an innocuous request and Ella was still so distracted by matters legal …

Putting the money in trust for Billy was definitely the right thing to have done. That way he couldn’t try to spend it all in a single week.

… that before she quite realised what she was doing, she had complied.

‘What was that for?’ she asked a little belatedly as she dabbed a tear from her cheek.

‘Contained in that drop was a miracle of cyber-science developed by my team of cyber-engineers at ParaDigm: a miracle known as PINC …’

One more acronym and murder will be done.

‘… or Personal Implanted nanoComputer. Four years ago we were tasked by the US Military to find a means of radically
reducing training times and of more efficiently inculcating troops with the specific knowledge sets needed to make them more effective when operating in AWEs – a quick and easy way of teaching them things like foreign languages and giving them an understanding of idiosyncratic patterns of religious and social behaviour. What we developed were Memory Supplements: nano-sized memory chips that are biologically compatible with the human brain. Once in contact with the brain these PINC chips fuse with the organic tissue of the brain and are able to graft information – painlessly and seamlessly – onto a person’s memory bank.’

Using one of his bony fingers he tapped one of the monitors on the control panel. ‘Excellent! You, Miss Thomas, are now the proud possessor of a PINC, a microbe-size computer which contains all the information you could ever require regarding the Demi-Monde, including fluency in all the major languages. But as you are the first player we have sent into the Demi-Monde who is fully au fait with the Real World, PINC will also give you an ability to know everything about everybody in the DemiMonde. This will optimise your Dupe-to-Dupe effectiveness.’ The Professor nodded towards a female nurse who was hovering at the side of the room. ‘If you would follow Nurse Green, she will equip you with your Total Immersion Shroud.’

‘Do I really wanna know what a Total Immersion Shroud is?’

He ignored her. ‘The TIS ensures full and all-pervasive player–simulation meshing. The TIS has three main purposes. First, it blocks out all external, Real World, stimuli. Second, it allows ABBA to receive feedback along a neurobahn from the player’s body as it reacts to events in the Demi-Monde, which in turn enables ABBA to mimic these reactions in the player’s Dupe. This raises the player’s perception of the reality of the Demi-Monde. Third, the TIS protects the player. The safety of
our players is of prime importance …’

Ella had the distinct feeling she was now in Bullshit Central, but then five million bucks bought a whole heap of Bullshit Tolerance.

‘… so not only does a player’s TIS help sustain the player’s bodily functions – body temperature, blood pressure and so on – and give our medical staff real-time feedback of the player’s vital signs, but it also maintains the player’s body. Whilst in the Demi-Monde the player will be, here in the Real World, comatose. The TIS manipulates the player’s body to obviate the development of pressure sores, the contraction of ligaments, the attenuation of muscles and all the other ailments a bedridden body is prey to.’

To Ella this sounded less than appetising: bedsores and attenuated muscles had not been mentioned in the promotional brochure.

‘At the end of his or her sojourn in the Demi-Monde, the player is as healthy and fit as he or she has ever been.’

‘Unless they can’t get out of the place,’ observed Ella wryly.

‘Well … let us hope for the best in that regard.’

Yeah, right.

‘Now, Miss Thomas, Nurse Green will prepare you for entry to the Demi-Monde.’

The nurse led Ella through to a large room swathed in stainless steel and equipped with a couch, yet another control panel, a shower unit tucked in one corner and, oddly, a large black circle inscribed on the floor.

‘If you would strip yourself naked, Miss Thomas, and remove all body ornamentation,’ the nurse asked in what Ella thought was an excessively casual manner.

‘Naked?’

‘Why, yes: in order for the TIS to do its job correctly it must
be directly in contact with your skin – all of your skin. And anyway, we need access to your orifices. We have to place evacuation ducts into certain … places to eliminate waste products. We won’t be able to interrupt you in the Demi-Monde to allow you to take a comfort break, now will we?’

Silly me.

‘We will, of course, feed and nourish you through a drip. But don’t worry: all these connections – both for nutrients and for waste products – will be made once you are in the Demi-Monde. This will minimise discomfort and embarrassment.’

Terrific.

‘So if you would undress, then I will shave you.’

‘Shave me?’

‘Of course. Hair prevents TIS making a true connection in two very important parts of your body: your head and your …’

‘I get the picture.’

The nurse shaved her. When a shorn Ella looked at herself in the mirror she decided that it was a look that suited her. Even the sight of all her beautiful long black hair lying discarded on the floor didn’t upset her as much as she thought it might.

‘If you will shower thoroughly, Miss Thomas’ – the nurse nodded towards a shower cubicle in the corner – ‘then we can start. You can remove your glasses. You won’t need them in the Demi-Monde: ABBA will ensure that your Dupe has 20/20 vision.’

Ella did as she was asked and then, showered and dried, came to stand in the middle of the room. ‘Now, Miss Thomas, please step onto the black disc.’ She pointed to the shiny black circle on the floor. It seemed to be just a disc of thin black plastic, perhaps eighteen inches in diameter, that had been absent-mindedly tossed onto the floor.

‘This disc is the compressed TIS. When you are standing on the disc and I put an electrical current through it, the TIS will rise up over your body to form a wafer-thin body-encasing film. I am told that the sensation is strange but not unpleasant. The word most commonly used to describe it is “ticklish”.’ Ella stepped onto the black disc. ‘Now if you will stand perfectly still, I will begin on the count of three. One, two, three …’

The nurse threw a switch. Ella felt a trembling under the soles of her feet as the shiny blackness of the disc began to crawl slowly up over her. It was akin to being gradually dipped in a vat of lukewarm black treacle. The TIS crept over her feet, up along her calves, around her thighs, past her mid-section …

Now that did tickle!

… over her torso and her chest, to halt its progress just below her chin. Now when Ella gazed down at herself it seemed that she had been recreated in shiny black perspex.

The nurse circled Ella, searching, she presumed, for flaws in the TIS covering. ‘Excellent. Now, Miss Thomas, please pop yourself up on the couch and place your bottom over the hole in the middle and the back of your head over the one at the top.’

As Ella climbed onto the couch she was surprised to find that her TIS had dried: to all intents and purposes now she had a second skin. When she was comfortable the nurse tethered a steel band across her forehead. ‘The band is simply to hold your head steady when we make the hook-up to ABBA. Now I’ll activate your TIS.’

Ella felt the TIS begin to vibrate over her body.

Oh, my. If the porno industry ever gets their hands on this they’ll make a fortune.

It was at this moment that the Professor entered the room. After running an appreciative eye over Ella’s TIS-covered body …

Pervert.

… he made a thorough check of the readings shown on the control panel monitors. ‘Excellent. You may proceed, Nurse Green.’

The nurse came to stand next to where Ella’s head was resting. ‘Now to plug you into ABBA.’ Out of the corner of her eye Ella saw the Professor press a button on a control panel. She felt a nudge at the back of her head. ‘You see, Miss Thomas, completely painless,’ said the nurse with a little swagger in her voice. ‘All that remains before we send you on your way is for the Professor to say a few words.’

The Professor remained motionless at the control panel. Ella had met furniture with more empathy. ‘You’re now ready to become a player in the Demi-Monde, Miss Thomas. When I press this’ – he wagged a finger towards a large red button – ‘you will be in the Demi-Monde. Although it is superfluous – PINC contains all your instructions and parameters relating to Operation Offbeat – I will summarise what you will see immediately you arrive there. You will materialise in the London District of the Rookeries Sector at seventeen-hundred hours on the fortieth day of Winter, in the Demi-Mondian year one-thousand and four, in an alleyway next to the building where your client-Dupe has rooms. I would suggest you go immediately to your lodgings and take forty minutes or so to acclimatise yourself. Players have complained of a feeling of disorientation – of ill-ucination – when first entering the Demi-Monde. The auditions being held for the “chirp” will take place at eighteen-hundred hours at the Prancing Pig pub five blocks from your home. It is an easy fifteen-minute walk. After that you’re on your own. All you have to do is locate and rescue Norma Williams and transport her to the one remaining Portal that we have functioning, which is situated in NoirVille. Again
PINC has all the parameters necessary to find the Portal.’