Free New York Nights [Virex 01] by Eric Brown Page B

reality interface.
     
    Sergio Mantoni, the millionaire chairman of Mantoni Entertainments, had begun as a producer of popular holo-dramas and over the course of a decade had built a world-wide empire spanning every facet of the entertainment industry. Now, not to be left behind, his company was at the scientific forefront of VR research and development. Barney, in his own way - and for a certain consideration - was doing his little bit to help the company. It was this consideration, the means of his payment, that niggled at his conscience.
     
    He climbed from the cab and crossed the sidewalk. He was taking the first of the dozen steps to the sliding glass doors when someone, emerging from the building, called his name.
     
    ‘Barney? Barney Kluger?’
     
    He looked up. A vision of all that was perfect in the female sex posed on the top step, one hand stylishly holding a large white hat to her head. She wore a fitted sable dress like midnight made in Paris and her legs, as ever, were sensational.
     
    ‘Barney, it is you!’ She walked down the steps towards him.
     
    Barney was aware of the gawpers on the sidewalk, staring as if they’d seen an angel descend.
     
    Vanessa Artois was among the greatest holo-drama actresses of all time and certainly, in Barney’s humble opinion, the best-looking. He had worked as her bodyguard for a few months seven or eight years ago, in which time he’d come to know the star pretty well - realised that, behind the glamour, life at the top was not all St Tropez and champagne.
     
    ‘Vanessa . . . Well, if this isn’t a turn up. Must be what, seven years? You’re still as beautiful as ever.’
     
    She stepped onto the sidewalk before him, and he had to crane his neck to look up into the sophisticated angles of her face, wrapped about in a raven fall of hair.
     
    ‘You’re looking well yourself, Barney.’
     
    ‘Give me a break. I’m feeling my age.’ He climbed three steps and faced her, eye to eye. ‘So how’s it going, kid? Still in the holo-dramas?’
     
    ‘You don’t keep up?’ Artois gave an affected pout of disappointment.
     
    ‘You know me, no time to enjoy myself with the dramas.’
     
    ‘Actually,’ Artois said, ‘the next big thing is virtual reality. I’m angling for a career shift, trying to make it big in VR.’
     
    ‘You still with Mantoni?’
     
    ‘If you mean am I still under contract, why yes I am. If you mean . . .’ she spread fingers across her perfect throat, ‘. . . are we romantically attached, well, between you and me, I’m trying to get out of that deal, too.’
     
    ‘Piece of advice from an old man, kid - hire a good lawyer and get rid of him.’
     
    He’d never liked Sergio Mantoni. The man was an arrogant bastard who considered the stars in his employ as little more than pawns to be manipulated in a global game of business politics. The way he’d treated Artois in the past would have had a dog-owner imprisoned, Barney felt. He’d seen enough while working for Mantoni to make him consider the possibility of setting up an accidental exit for the millionaire tycoon. The irony was that he was now in the pay of the bastard . . .
     
    ‘Still in the same business, Barney?’ she asked.
     
    ‘Missing persons a speciality. Got myself a partner, a younger guy to do the leg work; one of the best. You ever need anyone finding, Vanessa, look me up.’
     
    He gave her one of his cards and she scrunched up her nose in an actressy smile. ‘You know, I might just do that, Barney,’ she said, slipping the card into a tiny purse.
     
    A stretch limo as long as a bus eased into the kerb. ‘’Fraid that’s for me, Barney. Say hi to Estelle for me, you hear?’
     
    And with a quick wave of fingers she was gone before Barney could tell her that Estelle had been dead for more than five years.
     
    He watched her cut a swathe through the gawping pedestrians and ease herself with estimable poise into the limo. He felt like running after