Neuromancer :: Short Stories China Japan Neurosurgery Essays

NeuromancerThe sky above the port was the color of television, tunedto a dead channel.Its not like Im using, Case testd someone say, as heshouldered his way through the crowd around the door of theChat. Its like my bodys developed this bulky drug defi-ciency. It was a Sprawl voice and a Sprawl joke. The Chatsubowas a bar for professional expatriates you could drink therefor a week and never hear two words in Japanese.Ratz was tending bar, his prosthetic arm jerking monoto-nously as he filled a tray of glasses with draft Kirin. He preceptCase and grind, his teeth a web bat of East European steeland brown decay. Case found a place at the bar, betwixt theunlikely tan on one of Lonny Zones whores and the crisp navaluniform of a tall African whose cheekbones were ridged withprecise rows of tribal scars. Wage was in here early, with twoJoe boys, Ratz said, shoving a draft across the bar with hisgood hand. Maybe some business with you, Case?Case shrugged. The girl to his right giggled and nudgedhim.The bartenders smile widened. His ugliness was the stuffof legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was somethingheraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as hereached for another mug. It was a Russian military prosthesis,a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubbypink plastic. You are too much the artiste, Herr Case. Ratzgrunted the sound served him as laughter. He scratched hisoverhang of white-shirted breadbasket with the pink claw. You arethe artiste of the slightly funny deal.Sure, Case said, and sipped his beer. Somebodys gottabe funny around here. Sure the fuck isnt you.The whores giggle went up an octave.Isnt you either, sister. So you vanish, okay? Zone, hesa close personal friend of mine.She looked Case in the eye and made the softest possiblespitting sound, her lips barely moving. But she left.Jesus, Case said, what kind a sneak joint you running here?Man cant have a drink.Ha, Ratz said, swabbing the scarred wood with a r ag,Zone shows a percentage. You I let work here for entertain-ment value.As Case was picking up his beer, one of those strangeinstants of silence descended, as though a hundred unrelatedconversations had simultaneously arrived at the same pause.Then the whores giggle rang out, tinged with a certain hysteria.Ratz grunted. An angel passed.The Chinese, bellowed a drunken Australian, Chinesebloody invented nerve-splicing. Give me the mainland for anerve job every day. Fix you right, mate.