Free Schismatrix plus by Bruce Sterling Page A

up.
    "Did it really happen, or didn't it?"
    "It's an old story," Ryumin said. "Something like that actually happened once; I feel sure of it. But I filed off the serial numbers and made it my own."
    Lindsay smoothed his kimono. "I could swear that... hell. They say if you forget something while you're on vasopressin, you'll never remember it. It causes mnemonic burnout." He shook the script in resignation.
    "Can you direct it?" Ryumin said.
    Lindsay shook his head. "I wanted to, but it might be best if I left it to you. You do know what you're doing, don't you?"
    "No," Ryumin said cheerfully. "Do you?"
    "No.... The situation's getting out of hand. Outside investors keep trying to buy Kabuki stock. Word got out through the Geisha Bank's contacts. I'm afraid that the Nephrine Black Medicals will sell their Kabuki holdings to some Mech cartel. And then ... I don't know ... it'll mean—"
    "It'll mean that Kabuki Intrasolar has become a legitimate business."
    "Yes." Lindsay grimaced. "It looks like the Black Medicals will escape unscathed. They'll even profit. The Geisha Bank won't like it."
    "What of it?" said Ryumin. "We have to keep moving forward or the whole thing falls apart. The Bank's already made a killing selling Kabuki stock to the Black Medicals. The old crone who runs the Bank is crazy about you. The whores talk about you constantly."
    He gestured at the center stage. It was a spherical area crisscrossed with padded wires, where a dozen actors were going through their paces. They flung themselves through free-fall aerobatics, catching the wires, spinning, looping, and rebounding.
    Two of them collided bruisingly and clawed the air for a handhold. Ryumin said, "Those acrobats are pirates, you understand? Four months ago they would have slit each other's throats for a kilowatt. But not now, Mr. Dze. Now they have too much at stake. They're stage-struck."
    Ryumin laughed conspiratorially.
    "For once they're more than pocket terrorists. Even the whores are more than sex toys. They're real actors, with a real script and a real audience. It doesn't matter that you and I know it's a fraud, Mr. Dze. A symbol has meaning if someone gives it meaning. And they're giving it everything they have." Lindsay watched the actors begin their routine again. They flew from wire to wire with feverish determination. "It's pathetic," he said.
    "A tragedy to those who feel. A comedy to those who think," Ryumin said. Lindsay stared at him suspiciously. "What's gotten into you, anyway?
    What are you up to?"
    Ryumin pursed his lips and looked elaborately nonchalant. "My needs are simple. Every decade or so I like to return to the cartels and see if they've made any progress with these bones of mine. Progressive calcium loss is not a laughing matter. Frankly, I'm getting brittle." He looked at Lindsay. "And what about you, Mr. Dze?"
    He patted Lindsay's shoulder.
    "Why not tag along with me? It would do you good to see more of the System. There are two hundred million people in space. Hundreds of habitats, an explosion of cultures. They're not all scraping out a living on the edge of survival, like these poor bezprizorniki. Most of them are the bourgeoisie. Their lives are snug and rich! Maybe technology eventually turns them into something you wouldn't call human. But that's a choice they make—a rational choice." Ryumin waved his hands expansively. "This Zaibatsu is only a criminal enclave. Come with me and let me show you the fat of the System. You need to see the cartels."
    "The cartels . . ." Lindsay said. To join the Mechanists would mean surrendering to the ideals of the Radical Old. He looked around him, and his pride flared. "Let them come to me!"
    THE MARE TRANQULLITATIS PEOPLE'S CIRCUMLUNAR ZAIBATSU: 1-6-'16
    For the first performance, Lindsay gave up his finery for a general-issue jumpsuit. He covered his diplomatic bag with burlap to hide the Kabuki decals.
    It seemed that every sundog in the world had filtered into the Bubble. They