Mortal Lock (28 page)
Authors: Andrew Vachss
Tags: #Collections & Anthologies, #Mystery & Detective, #Fiction, #Suspense, #Thrillers, #General
Seeing him coming, the gang spreads out in a purposeful fan, with its leader at the apex. This forces the “bum” to the very edge of the platform, where he turns sideways to avoid the oncoming gang. The bum’s hands are shaking. Suddenly, a spurt of red wine spills out of the bag and splatters the leader’s jacket
.
CLOSE UP: The leader’s left jacket sleeve, white with four orange slashes on it, now blotched with the red wine
.
PULL OUT TO: The leader’s jaw drops at this impossible affront. The gang stands in stunned silence—the unthinkable has just happened before their very eyes
.
A dynamo sound fills the station. In Underground, there are no “tracks”—a conveyor belt moves the trains
.
One of the Game Boys pulls a small pistol from his jacket pocket. He looks at it dubiously for a second (this is an old .25 caliber Saturday Night Special; he isn’t ambivalent about using it; just not sure it will work), then shoots the bum, who immediately falls. The pistol makes a soft popping sound as the boy continues to fire. The leader kicks the fallen bum until he disappears over the edge of the platform
.
The Game Boys all turn and walk away. Slowly. The essence of cool
.
FADE OUT
FADE IN TO:
The Game Boys walking past the same spot. On the Info-Board, it says:
SANITATION SQUAD TO STATION 29
DISPOSAL: LDC1788-GR4
They board the train, ride several stops to a station marked APEX
.
When they leave the train, they face a series of neon signs, each designating a separate route:
MEDICAL
PERSONNEL
HOUSING
SAGES
SEX
ARCADE
and many more
.
They walk to the ARCADE, a tunnel that opens into what seems to be hundreds of different gaming parlors. They enter one. The other players immediately look up as they enter. Some are more overtly deferential than others, but all show respect. The gang walks through the gaming parlor to a back door with a coded keypad. The leader taps several keys, and they all walk through
.
Now they are in an unlighted, narrow tunnel. Each pulls a light-producing tube from his jacket, but it is clear they know where they are going
.
INT: A cave dug into the side of a tunnel. The Game Boys are all present, wearing their jackets. There are roughly fifteen of them, all facing in one direction where an older man, perhaps late twenties, sits facing them. This is Merlin, the gang’s leader
.
MERLIN
The bum was on the Info-Board. That’s a certified kill. Dante was the one who shot him, so Dante should get a mark for it.
He points at his own white sleeve, which is covered cuff-to-shoulder with orange slashes
.
RAJAH
That’s bogus! We’re Game Boys, aren’t we? The only way to get a mark is to score a perfect game. That’s why I’m a fan leader (his hand indicating the crew we saw in the opening)—I’ve got the most marks.
MERLIN
(not so much reasoning as
ruling)
Game Boys play. And the only game we play is Anarchy. That’s the hardest of the kill games, and we are the best at it. Dante was playing a kill game with the bum, so he deserves to get a mark.
RAJAH
That’s changing the rules! And we can’t change the rules if there’s a True Dispute, right?
General chorus of assent
.
RAJAH
(angry, edging toward challenge)
And this
is
a True Dispute. So what does
that
rule say?
MERLIN
(not rising to the bait … and not blinking)
Game Boys don’t fight each other. No real crew can let that happen; a crew has to be united, like we’re all one person.
We can’t even fight
as
a crew. The Rulers don’t let crews fight each other, not anymore. People say that used to happen all the time—one crew fighting another for territory—but no one actually
saw
it, so maybe it is only a Myth.
But none of that matters. Only The Rules matter. If The Rulers catch two crews fighting, everyone they grab gets put on the HydroFarm for ten to twenty. All that time, and you don’t even get a single credit for it.
And if you
kill
someone in another crew, they put you Outside.
Chorus of agreement
MERLIN
But any crew can make its own rules, so long as they don’t go against The Rulers. Every crew plays something, because you are what you do. The Scooter Boys all ride. The Magic Girls do potions. I don’t know what the Cricket Boys do, but those bats they carry are serious weapons.
You said it yourself, Rajah: Game Boys play video games. So that’s how we settle this dispute.
UNIDENTIFIED GAME BOY
A duel!
FADE TO:
Rajah and Dante are standing side by side, each positioned before a complex set of hand controls on a small podium, facing identical screens
.
The screens display numbers, counting down from 10-9-8-7-6…
ANARCHY
lights up both screens, which immediately fill with what looks like a post-apocalyptic city, overrun with all kinds of creatures, human and otherwise. As Rajah and Dante fire various-colored laser beams at the screen, the upper corner of each shows their kill-count like an odometer
.
Rajah is up 1122 to 1009 when Dante launches a triangulated tricolor beam at a suddenly revealed BREEDING CENTER. His screen goes dark. Then it flashes …
TOTAL ANNIHILATION!!!
The Game Boys all congratulate Dante
.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
In the Arcade, the Game Boys are gathered, but not playing. A close-up of Dante’s sleeve shows his mark, an orange slash. Another Game Boy walks in, very excited
.
TURBO
I got one, too!
UNIDENTIFIED GAME BOY
One what?
TURBO
A bum! Just like Dante did. I shot him right in the back of the head, just outside the Feeding Station. You could tell he was a bum; he was, like, talking to himself, and talking back, you know?
FADE OUT
FADE IN
UNDERGROUND
INT: Game Boys’ crew-cave
MERLIN
(to Turbo)
Yeah, I
know
it was on the Info-Board. But the Dead Score never says
how
they die—they just put the number up. So we don’t know, not for sure. Everyone
saw
Dante get his bum. But you were all alone when you got yours.
TURBO
That’s not fair! I couldn’t help being alone. I just saw the chance, and I went for it.
MERLIN
Nobody says you’re lying, Turbo. But the only Dispute was whether Dante should get a mark for his kill, not whether he actually
made
one. Remember what it means to be a Game Boy: It has to be about what we
do
, not what we
say
. So we can’t settle this the same way we did before. From now on
(RULING)
anyone who claims a mark has to have witnesses.
Chorus of: “That’s right.” “Yeah!”
FADE OUT
FADE IN
The Game Boys are walking in a pack, exactly as they were when first shown. But there is a predatory air about them, subtle but obvious
.
UNIDENTIFIED GAME BOY
There’s one!
Turbo shoves his way clear, charges over to the sleeping bum, and shoots him in the face
.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
Quick cuts of:
Rajah shooting a bum who is trying to hide behind a pillar
.
Four different Game Boys all shooting the same bum as he tries to flee down a dark tunnel
.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
The Game Boys step off a Conveyor Car just as a crew of Music Boys are getting on, each carrying a boom box on his shoulder. Their leader, Mohawk, has three yellow X’s on his sleeve
.
RAJAH
(pointing at the yellow X’s)
What’re those supposed to mean?
MOHAWK
(pointing at Rajah’s sleeve)
Same as yours.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
The Game Boys are approaching the Sex Tunnel. Lounging around the entrance, they encounter the Dancing Girls. Their leader, Charm, is wearing skin-tight black pants made from a very shiny material … with five red slashes on the thigh. The Game Boys pass by without a word, but the looks they exchange clearly indicate that they realize every crew is playing the same game now
.
They each hand a plastic card to the woman at the entrance. She scans each card, then listens to each Game Boy whisper to her, individually
.
Different Game Boys follow different arrows
.
Rajah enters a door with a blinking chartreuse light
.
A girl stands up and starts to struggle with the same skin-tight black pants Charm was wearing. As she does, we see hers have a single red slash on the thigh
.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
Rajah is on a pallet with the girl. Both are nude. Above them, two digital clocks: one is the “time” in Underground; the other is counting down (the time left in his session)
.
DANCING GIRL
How did I get mine? You know all Dancing Girls carry razors. So we don’t have to do it in front of a whole lot of people like you guys do; we just bring back a piece of the bum, and that’s proof enough for a mark. It’s a good thing, too—the bums are on the watch, now. Most of them stay way back in the deep tunnels.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
CLOSE-UP OF WHAT APPEARS TO BE GRAFFITI, SPRAYED ON ONE OF THE TUNNEL WALLS IN BLUE PAINT
.
BEING IN STYLE WENT ON TRIAL
THE SENTENCE WAS DEATH
MAKE YOUR MARK, AND WE’LL FIND YOU
EVEN IN THE DARK
Shots of
individual
crew members, still wearing their uniforms, but working alone, interspersed with shots of individual bums, running as soon as they spot a crew uniform
.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
A man is moving stealthily through a pitch-black tunnel. He is wearing a long coat and a slouch hat
.
RAJAH
(V/O)
I’m the king now. Because I play the game better than anyone else. Not just Game Boys, either; I’m ahead of everyone who hunts bums: The Deaf Boys, the Muscle Boys, even the Love Boys … the ones who sell in the Sex Tunnels … they’re all doing it.
But I still always have the most marks.
Every time we hunted as a crew, it turned into a mess. “There’s one of them,” the scout would whisper, and we’d all close in and do it. But then we’d argue over who’d take the ears. That’s when I decided to work alone. Like the bums I hunt.
The bums started to run the minute they’d see a crew jacket. That made some of the Game Boys feel good, but it doesn’t get you any marks.
The bums can’t go into the Safety Tunnels where most of the old ones stay. You have to have credits for that. Bums don’t have credits, and they don’t have any way to get them. They can’t even sell their blood—it’s all dirty from the stuff they take.
The bums used to beg for credits. If they tried that now, they’d be begging to be killed.
At first, I just went into the side tunnels. The Medical Tunnel was the best—all the bums have to go there, sooner or later. I remembered what
that Dancing Girl said, so I brought back some fingers. But Merlin x’d that—he said you could take more than one finger from a bum, so you needed all of them for
one
mark. Even ears were only good if you brought back both.
Whoever had the most marks had whatever else he wanted. You didn’t even need credits, it was just … yours. I
had
to have those marks.
Rajah continues to move, very skillfully, just a shadow inside darkness
.
RAJAH
(V/O)
But the thing about bums is that they don’t have crews—that’s what makes them bums. So I never wear my jacket when I hunt.
I can tell when a bum is close by—they all smell, even down here.
Sometimes I go in so deep that I don’t come out for a week. But I always come out with ears. The Book Boys keep score. It’s on the walls; every twenty-four, something new. Everybody knows: If it’s written in blue; it must be true. So everybody knows I’m still the leader.
When I go deep, I look just like a bum myself. I always carry a paper bag with a bottle of wine in it. I have my blaster—a much better one, now. I have this big knife, too. It’s perfect for taking proof, sure … but the best thing about it is how you can make a kill without making a sound. That way, you can keep on hunting, instead of going right back.
Suddenly Rajah turns. He hears the sound of boots. Several men, running. He sneaks a look, sees it’s the Cricket Boys, running toward him, bats held high
.
Rajah turns and runs. The Cricket Boys are closing ground, screaming, “Bum! Bum!”
WHISPERED VOICE
In here!
Rajah ducks into a side tunnel. A bum is hiding there. He pulls Rajah down next to him, under a pile of garbage
.
The Cricket Boys run on by
.