Hiro remembers Eliot's warning: Don't go onto the Raft itself without a local guide. This kid must be a Refu that Bruce Lee recruited from some Filipino neighborhood on the Raft.
The kid's name is Transubstanciacion. Tranny for short. He climbs into the zodiac before Hiro tells him to.
"Wait a sec," Hiro says. "We have to do some packing first."
Hiro risks turning on a small flashlight, uses it to rummage1 around the yacht, picking up valuable stuff: a few bottles of (presumably) drinkable water, some food, extra ammunition2 for his nine. He takes one of the grappling hooks, too, coiling its rope neatly3. Seems like the kind of thing that might be useful on the Raft.
He has one other chore to take care of, not something he's looking forward to.
Hiro has lived in a lot of places where mice and even rats were a problem. He used to get rid of them using traps. But then he had a run of bad luck with the things. He would hear a trap snap shut in the middle of the night, and then instead of silence he would hear pliable4 squeaking5 and thrashing, whacking6 noises as the stricken rodent7 tried to drag itself back to safety with a trap snapped over some part of its anatomy8, usually its head. When you have gotten up at three in the morning to find a live mouse on your kitchen counter leaving a contrail of brain tissue across the formica, it is hard to get back to sleep, and so he prefers to set out poison now.
Somewhat in the same vein9, a severely10 wounded man -- the last man Hiro shot -- is thrashing around on the deck of the yacht, up near the bow, babbling11.
More than anything he has ever wanted to do, Hiro wants to get into the zodiac and get away from this person. He knows that in order to go up and help him, or put him out of his misery12, he's going to have to shine the flashlight on him, and when he does that he's going to see something he'll never be able to forget. But he has to do it. He swallows a couple of times because he's already gagging and follows his flashlight beam up to the bow.
It's much worse than he had expected.
This man apparently13 took a bullet somewhere around the bridge of his nose, aimed upward. Everything above that point has been pretty much blown off. Hiro's looking into a cross-section of his lower brain.
Something is sticking up out of his head. Hiro figures it must be fragments of skull14 or something. But it's too smooth and regular for that.
Now that he's gotten over his initial nausea15, he's finding this easier to look at. It helps to know that the guy is out of his misery. More than half of his brain is gone. He's still talking -- his voice sounds whistly and gaseous16, like a pipe organ gone bad, because of the changes in his skull -- but it's just a brainstem function, just a twitch17 in the vocal18 cords.
The thing sticking up out of his head is a whip antenna19 about a foot long. It is encased in black rubber, like the antennas20 on cop walkie-talkies, and it is strapped21 onto his head, above the left ear. This is one of the antenna-heads that Eliot warned them about.
Hiro grabs the antenna and pulls. He might as well take the headset with him -- it must have something to do with the way L. Bob Rife22 controls the Raft.
It doesn't come off. When Hiro pulls, what's left of the guy's head twists around, but the antenna doesn't come loose. And that's how Hiro figures out that this isn't a headset at all. The antenna has been permanently23 grafted24 onto the base of the man's skull.
Hiro switches his goggles25 into millimeter-wave radar26 and stares into the man's ruined head.
The antenna is attached to the skull by means of short screws that go into the bone, but do not pierce all the way through. The base of the antenna contains a few microchips, whose purpose Hiro cannot divine by looking at them. But nowadays you can put a supercomputer on a single chip, so anytime you see more than one chip together in one place, you're looking at significant warez.
A single hair-thin wire emerges from the base of the antenna and penetrates27 the skull. It passes straight through to the brainstem and then branches and rebranches into a network of invisibly tiny wires embedded28 in the brain tissue. Coiled around the base of the tree.
Which explains why this guy continues to pump out a steady stream of Raft babble29 even when his brain is missing: It looks like L. Bob Rife has figured out a way to make electrical contact with the part of the brain where Asherah lives. These words aren't originating here. It's a pentecostal radio broadcast coming through on his antenna.
Reason is still up top, its monitor screen radiating blue static toward heaven. Hiro finds the hard power switch and turns it off. Computers this powerful are supposed to shut themselves down, after you've asked them to. Turning one off with the hard switch is like lulling30 someone to sleep by severing31 their spinal32 column. But when the system has snow-crashed, it loses even the ability to turn itself off, and primitive33 methods are required. Hiro packs the Gatling gun assembly back into the case and latches34 it shut.
Maybe it's not as heavy as he thought, or maybe he's on adrenaline overdrive. Then he realizes why it seems so much lighter35: most of its weight was ammunition, and Fisheye used up quite a bit. He half-carries, half-drags it back to the stern, making sure the heat exchanger stays in the water, and somersaults it into the zodiac.
Hiro climbs in after it, joining Tranny, and starts attending to the motor.
"No motor," Tranny says. "It snag bad."
Right. The spiderweb would get wrapped around the propeller36. Tranny shows Hiro how to snap the zodiac's oars37 into the oarlocks.
Hiro rows for a while and finds himself in a long clear zone that zigzags38 its way through the Raft, like a lead of clear water between ice floes in the Arctic.
"Motor okay," Tranny says.
He drops the motor into the water. Tranny pumps up the fuel line and starts it up. It starts on the first pull; Bruce Lee ran a tight ship.
As Hiro begins to motor down the open space, he is afraid that it is just a little cove39 in the ghetto40. But this is just a trick of the lights. He rounds a corner and finds it stretching out for some distance. It is a sort of beltway that runs all the way around the Raft. Small streets and even smaller alleys41 lead from this beltway into the various ghettos. Through the scope, Hiro can see that their entrances are guarded. Anyone's free to cruise around the beltway, but people are more protective of their neighborhoods.
The worst thing that can happen on the Raft is for your neighborhood to get cut loose. That's why the Raft is such a tangled43 mess. Each neighborhood is afraid that the neighboring 'hoods42 are going to gang up on them, cut them loose, leave them to starve in the middle of the Pacific. So they are constantly finding new ways to tie themselves into each other, running cables over, under, and around their neighbors, tying into more far-flung 'hoods, or preferably into one of the Core ships.
The neighborhood guards are armed, needless to say. Looks like the weapon of choice is a small Chinese knockoff of the AK-47. Its metal frame jumps out pretty clearly on radar. The Chinese government must have stamped out an unimaginable number of these things, back in the days when they spent a lot of time thinking about the possibility of fighting a land war with the Soviets44.
Most of them just look like indolent Third World militia45 the world over. But at the entrance to one neighborhood, Hiro sees that the guard in charge has a whip antenna sticking straight up in the air, sprouting46 from his head.
A few minutes later, they get to a point where the beltway is intersected by a broad street that runs straight into the middle of the Raft, where the big ships are -- the Core. The closest one is a Nipponese containership -- a low, flat-decked number with a high bridge, stacked with steel shipping47 containers. It's webbed over with rope ladders and makeshift stairways that enable people to climb up into this container or that. Many of the containers have lights burning in them.
"Apartment building," Tranny jokes, noting Hiro's interest. Then he shakes his head and rolls his eyes and rubs his thumb against his fingertips. Apparently, this is quite the swell48 neighborhood.
The nice part of the cruise comes to an end when they notice several fast skiffs emerging from a dark and smoky neighborhood.
"Vietnam gang," Tranny says. He puts his hand on Hiro's and gently but firmly removes it from the outboard motor's throttle49. Hiro checks them out on radar. A couple of these guys have the little AK-47s, but most of them are armed with knives and pistols, obviously looking forward to some close-up, face-to-face contact. These guys in the boats are, of course, the peons. More important-looking gents stand along the edge of the neighborhood, smoking and watching. A couple of them are wireheads.
Tranny revs50 it up, turns into a sparse51 neighborhood of loosely connected Arabian dhows, and maneuvers52 through the darkness for a while, occasionally putting his hand on Hiro's head and gently pressing it down so he doesn't catch a rope with his neck.
When they emerge from the fleet of dhows, the Vietnamese gang is no longer in evidence. If this happened in daylight, the gangsters53 could track them by following Reason's steam. Tranny steers54 them across a medium-sized street and into a cluster of fishing boats. In the middle of this area an old trawler sits, being cut up for scrap55, cutting torches illuminating56 the black surface of the water all around. But most of the work is being done with hammers and cold chisels57, which radiate appalling58 noise across the flat echoing water.
"Home," Tranny says, smiling, and points to a couple of houseboats lashed59 together. Lights are still burning here, a couple of guys are out on the deck smoking fat, makeshift cigars, through the windows they can see a couple of women working in the kitchen.
As they approach, the guys on the deck sit up, take notice, draw revolvers out of their waistbands. But then Tranny speaks up in a happy stream of Tagalog. And everything changes.
Tranny gets the full Prodigal60 Son welcome: crying, hysterical61 fat ladies, a swarm62 of little kids piling out of their hammocks, sucking their thumbs and jumping up and down. Older men beaming, showing great gaps and black splotches in their smiles, watching and nodding and diving in to give him the occasional hug.
And on the edge of the mob, way back in the darkness, is another wirehead.
"You come in, too," says one of the women, a lady in her forties named Eunice.
"That's okay," Hiro says. "I won't intrude63."
This statement is translated and moves like a wave through the some eight hundred and ninety-six Filipinos who have now converged64 on the area. It is greeted with the utmost shock. Intrude? Unthinkable! Nonsense! How dare you so insult us?
One of the gap-toothed guys, a miniature old man and probable World War II veteran, jumps onto the rocking zodiac, sticks to the floor like a gecko, wraps his arm around Hiro's shoulders, and pokes65 a spliff into his mouth.
He looks like a solid guy. Hiro leans into him. "Compadre, who is the guy with the antenna? A friend of yours?"
"Nah," the guy whispers, "he's an asshole." Then he puts his index finger dramatically to his lips and shushes.
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1
rummage
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| v./n.翻寻，仔细检查 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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pliable
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| adj.易受影响的；易弯的；柔顺的，易驾驭的 | |
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squeaking
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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whacking
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| adj.（用于强调）巨大的v.重击，使劲打( whack的现在分词 ) | |
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rodent
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| n.啮齿动物；adj.啮齿目的 | |
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anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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gaseous
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| adj.气体的，气态的 | |
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twitch
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| v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛 | |
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vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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antenna
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| n.触角，触须；天线 | |
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antennas
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| [生] 触角，触须（antenna的复数形式） | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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grafted
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| 移植( graft的过去式和过去分词 )； 嫁接； 使（思想、制度等）成为（…的一部份）； 植根 | |
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goggles
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| n.护目镜 | |
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radar
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| n.雷达，无线电探测器 | |
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penetrates
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| v.穿过( penetrate的第三人称单数 )；刺入；了解；渗透 | |
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embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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lulling
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的现在分词形式） | |
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severing
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的现在分词 )；断，裂 | |
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spinal
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| adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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latches
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| n.（门窗的）门闩( latch的名词复数 )；碰锁v.理解( latch的第三人称单数 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上） | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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zigzags
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| n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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ghetto
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| n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区 | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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hoods
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| n.兜帽( hood的名词复数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩v.兜帽( hood的第三人称单数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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44
soviets
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| 苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式） | |
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militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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46
sprouting
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| v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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48
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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49
throttle
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| n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压 | |
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50
revs
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| abbr.revolutions （复数）旋转，回转，转数n.发动机的旋转( rev的名词复数 )v.（使）加速( rev的第三人称单数 )；（数量、活动等）激增；（使发动机）快速旋转；（使）活跃起来 | |
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51
sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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maneuvers
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| n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 ) | |
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gangsters
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| 匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 ) | |
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steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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55
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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chisels
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| n.凿子，錾子( chisel的名词复数 )；口凿 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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intrude
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| vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰 | |
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converged
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| v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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pokes
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| v.伸出( poke的第三人称单数 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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