The Brave New World

Wiping away a nonexistent tear, he glanced at the cat. Its eyes were closed and it was a picture of contentment. It became Charlene"s pet the moment it joined the household. She"d called him Jimmy and fed him well and let him sleep on her bed. Li Yang thought that Jimmy had a h.e.l.l of a lucky break. From the brink of death from starvation into Charlene"s bed, in twenty-four easy steps: that"s how many separated the two floors in their building. If a cat could get this lucky, why shouldn"t he, Li Yang, also get lucky, even if it was in some minor way?

The broadcast was boring. It was a rerun of last Sunday"s news and speeches and interviews. Charlene started b.i.t.c.hing about that, but Harper said:

"They"re repeating everything because a lot of people didn"t catch it the first time around. And it"s all information that bears repeating. What did you think you"d get, Charlene? Sunday cartoons?"

"f.u.c.k off," said Charlene and grabbed the cat and got up and stormed out of the room. Harper and Li Yang kept on watching the program, and were rewarded with a couple of minutes of real news near its very end. The trains were running again! A couple of airlines had resumed limited service with processor-chip free planes they"d pulled out of a junkyard! Over a million private mints had already been registered worldwide, ensuring a rapid spread of the new currency! A couple of supermarket chains were to reopen, with a blowout sale of all electric appliances at as little as 20% of their original price!

"Maybe we could catch a train down to Washington," said Li Yang. Harper Lee"s plan to move house down to Chesapeake Bay had been postponed, but not abandoned. They still wanted to set up a settlement in the New World from an Old World base that would offer them a better existence than a run-down apartment in New York.

"You kidding? You think they"re running a pa.s.senger service?"

Li Yang shrugged and said nothing.

"I told you, I"ve got it all worked out," said Harper. He got up and switched off the TV set and unplugged it.

"Get ready, Bruce," he said. "We"ve got a lot of walking to do today. We"ll start by taking this baby to my man."

He started coiling the TV cable, avoiding Li Yang"s eyes.

A few moments later, they emerged into the street carrying Rose Fogerty"s TV set. It was heavy as h.e.l.l, and both of them were also carrying backpacks with twenty MREs in each. They had to stop many times to rest before they made it to a rickshaw rental near Central Park.

Harper"s man turned out to be a big black dude with a shaven head and a gold earring. He examined the food they"d brought critically, complaining about the cheese tortellini. But he took it all along with the TV set, and wheeled out a rickshaw that had been converted into a cargo vehicle. The double seat in the front had been replaced by an open box made out of wood and wire fencing.

"The bottom"s solid one inch of wood, bro," he told Harper. "An" I reinforced it with a couple two-by-fours. Sides of fencing for less weight, just make sure of the wire that"s holding the top to the poles now and then. Almost-new chain, almost-new tires. An" I"m throwing in a hand pump."

They shook hands and Harper told Li Yang to get into the carrier box in front. Then he sat down behind him, and pedaled them away.

They didn"t go home. Harper drove the rickshaw down a series of streets Li Yang had never been to before. The city was peaceful and calm that Sunday; just a fortnight earlier, there hadn"t been an hour without gunshots. They pa.s.sed and were pa.s.sed by several army vehicles: a truck, a jeep, a couple of personnel carriers with grim-looking soldiers manning the machine guns over the drivers" cabs.

Eventually they stopped in front of a rowhouse in Harlem. Harper told Li Yang to stay with the rickshaw and went in. He reemerged a little later with another black guy in tow.

"This is Bobby, the friend I told you about," he told Li Yang. "Bobby, meet Bruce. He"s my benefactor."

"How you keepin"," said Bobby, showing a gold front tooth. He was wearing a black tracksuit and black baseball cap and white sneakers. He looked like a wisea.s.s, and Li Yang mistrusted him on sight.

"Why don"t you guys come in for a while," he said to Harper. "I"ve got the gear ready for you."

Harper shook his head, to Li Yang"s relief.

"No," he said. "Can"t leave our limousine unattended, and we got loads of stuff to do back home. And so do you, Bobby. Remember, we"re gonna be leaving by President"s Day at the latest. That"s in five days. Is Olga coming with you?"

"Don"t know, man," Bobby said. "One day she"s coming, the next day she"s staying. The b.i.t.c.h can"t make up her mind. Either way I"ll be there. When will you collect your gear?"

"Can you bring it with you on Monday? It ain"t like it"s a big load."

"No way I"m walking around with two pieces. Wait here."

Bobby went back into the house, leaving the door open. When he showed up again a minute later, one of his hands was hidden inside his tracksuit top and the other was clutching a small box. He walked up to Harper and thrust the box into his hand.

"Twenty cartridges," he said. He pulled his other hand from under the tracksuit. It was holding a gun: a small snub-nosed revolver similar to Li Yang"s.

"Thirty-eight Police Detective," he said. "Never used. No papers, so keep it somewhere safe, bro."

"No problem," said Harper. He put the gun and the box of ammunition in the inside pocket of his padded jacket. Then he and Bobby touched fists and Bobby gave Li Yang a curt nod and went back inside the house.

"He"s coming with us?" asked Li Yang, the moment the door closed behind Bobby"s back.

"Yeah," said Harper.

"You didn"t tell me. You didn"t ask me, either."

"Didn"t I?" Harper looked genuinely shocked, but Li Yang was sure he was acting anyway. Harper was an insurance salesman, and slick as soap at times.

"No you didn"t" said Li Yang. "You don"t think I have a say?"

"Now hang on," said Harper. "Don"t talk to me like that. I was sure I"d talked to you about it. I"m sorry if I didn"t. Maybe you"re the one who can"t remember. Anyway, if you don"t want Bobby along, he won"t be coming along. I"ll think of something. Deal?"

"You"ll tell Bobby he isn"t coming with us? Just because I said so?"

"Yes. We agreed all the decisions we make must be unanimous. If anyone objects, it"s no go."

Li Yang hesitated. He didn"t want to be cast as the villain in that situation. To buy himself some time, he asked:

"Who is that Olga you mentioned? She his girlfriend?"

"Sort of. On and off. She could be useful. She knows her way around the countryside. What"s good to eat and what isn"t and how to make a meal out of a handful of weeds. She lived in f.u.c.king Siberia before she came over here. Or someplace like that, anyway. She"s Russian."

"A Russian? She isn"t an American citizen?"

"No. Illegal immigrant. No papers, and now no job either. She won"t get no guaranteed income. If she stays behind, she"s gonna starve."

"But he wasn"t sure she"s gonna come."

"I"M sure she"s gonna come. She"s got no other option. Bobby just said she wasn"t sure because it"s him that"s not sure. He doesn"t know if he wants her along."

"But you want her along?"

"Yeah. She"s a bright girl and she"s nice to people that are nice to her, if you know what I mean. A little touchy, but nice. And like I said, she knows what to do to survive in the wild. She"s about Charlene"s age, and not bad-looking either. You"ll like her."

Li Yang pondered this for a while.

"They"re bringing their own food?" he asked eventually.

"They"ll bring enough for the trip. It won"t take us more than a week. Eight days, max."

"And your friend down there, what"s that place, Fairhaven? He"s gonna take five people in, just like that?"

"Sure he will. Well, not exactly. See, this place is right by the sh.o.r.e and the past few years, the sh.o.r.eline"s moved inland quite a bit. Half the farms and houses are abandoned. We can pick and choose where we move in."

"How do you know?"

"I was down there last year. My bet is, things haven"t changed there in the last eight months. And if they did, it was for the worse. Meaning more empty houses."

"We can"t just walk in and take over someone"s house. Even if they"d moved somewhere else."

Harper Lee sighed and said:

"Listen, Bruce. You"re one h.e.l.l of a bright kid, but you don"t know nothing about the world outside this city. Let me handle our accommodation down there, okay? I guarantee it will be nicer than that s.h.i.thole we"re living in right now. I guarantee that everything will be nice and legal, so don"t you worry your head about it."

"But I don"t see how you you"re gonna make it all nice and legal."

"Okay," Harper said patiently. "I"ll give you the gist for now. Those empty houses and abandoned farms all belong to the banks that foreclosed on them. Most of the farmland"s polluted by seawater enrichened with sixty or seventy or eighty years" worth of artificial fertilizer runoff. It"s not soil any more, it"s s.h.i.t. No buyers lining up for all that property, Bruce. But the property taxes and bills still have to get paid every year. A few thousand bucks could get you anything you wanted when I was down there. And now, after what has happened, they"re gonna be handing out those houses and farms for free. You"ll see."

"What if they still want us to pay something? We got no money. And they"ll want us to pay in that new currency, too."

Harper grinned.

"Bobby"s got two spools of thick copper cable in that house," he said. "And maybe half a kilo in gold and silver jewelry. Charlene and I got about the same, but it"s almost all gold. Bruce, did you think I was getting all excited about setting up a mint of our own based on collecting f.u.c.king empties, like those a.s.sholes you see on the street every day? You must think I"m really stupid."

Li Yang"s mouth dropped open.

"You"ve got half a kilo of gold?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely.

"Pretty close to that, yes. I"ve been busy."

Li Yang stared at Harper. It just wasn"t possible! He had to be lying. But what if he wasn"t lying? Harper smiled at him and said:

"Let"s go home, we"ve been hanging around here long enough. Once we get home, I"ll show you."

He walked past Li Yang and climbed onto the bicycle seat and pointed at the box in front.

"Hop in," he said.

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