eXistenZ Read Free Page B

the passion of her sudden arousal.
    A female assistant was quickly with her. She made her sit down, then retrieved the torn blouse and skillfully forced her to put it on again. The young woman continued to moan, so the assistant found a dampened cloth from somewhere and administered some cooling pressure to her forehead. Gradually, the woman volunteer calmed down.
    Pikul realized that Levi and his staff must have been through this or similar situations many times before, and were prepared to deal with people’s reactions to the game-pods.
    He leaned forward to look at the bioport on the back of the middle-aged woman closest to him. He had only seen it in magazine photos or on TV.
    The port was flesh-colored and made of soft plastic, and it was embedded somehow in the woman’s back, right up against the base of her spine, just above the belt line. From more than a few inches away it was barely noticeable, resembling a faint operation scar. Close up, it could be seen as finely engineered flesh-ware, made to blend with the human body on which it was installed. The port itself was a small hole, about the diameter of an adult’s smallest finger. As the woman shifted about in her seat, Pikul noticed that an arrangement of electronic connectors inside the bioport glittered as the bright spotlights caught them.
    Gradually, Wittold Levi and his assistants imposed order. One by one the volunteers sat in the semicircle of chairs, the UmbyCord running around their waists or draped over their shoulders, and plugged into the game-pod on their laps.
    Each game-pod was quivering and rippling.
    When the volunteers were settled, Allegra Geller moved in to take her place in the central chair. Levi helped her with exaggerated consideration, fussing around her, seeing to her every need. Once seated with the others, Allegra clicked open her case with deliberate delicacy and removed the pod from within it.
    One by one the other players connected the spare socket of their game-pods to a central prosthetic pod, thence to Allegra’s own.
    The Master Game-Pod. From Antenna Research.
    Then Pikul was distracted.
    There was a commotion of some kind close to the door and he had to wrench his attention away from Allegra and the others to see what was happening.
    Someone was trying to force their way into the hall past a restraining group of men from the crowd.
    Pikul squinted at the handle of his electronic wand as he hurried through the crowd, and found the On/Off switch. He turned it on. The wand hummed briefly, then continued to vibrate gently in his hand. He wasn’t sure exactly what it would do, but he guessed he was about to find out.

[ 3 ]
    The intruder was a man in his mid-twenties, wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and a shiny leather jacket. He was carrying a large vinyl case. He was in a state of excitement, but not only was that nothing new in this unusual meeting, it might have been caused by his efforts to get past the group of men blocking his way.
    “Hold it!” Pikul said loudly as he approached. He held his wand at the ready. “Not so fast. Let me see your invitation, sir.”
    In response, the young man thrust a card at him.
    Pikul took it and tried to focus on it. It wasn’t easy: it was one of those cards using a holographic ID picture, as well as validating numbers printed in machine-readable type.
    “What the hell is this?” Pikul said.
    “One of your invitations to this meeting, you idiot!”
    “What?” Pikul looked more closely and realized that it was exactly as the young man had said. The wobbling hologram suddenly steadied, to reveal a 3-D picture of the man in front of him, as well as his name: Noel Dichter.
    With his credential established, which he must have known all along it would be, Dichter was already looking anxiously past Pikul into the body of the hall. He heaved on the strap of his vinyl case, easing its weight on his shoulder.
    “Oh God,” he said. “I hope I’m not too late. Did I miss the