Roo'd Read Free Page A

ones that sounded more… authentic.
    He stepped onto the stairs and past the black man. He was arranging the naugahyde straps of the big silver tattooing machine over the fat man's stomach. The fat man looked nervous and sad and excited, and he stank. Fede crept by, trying not to touch either of them. The girl was gone. The walls were lined with old soda- and snack-dispensers, those 6-foot high machines you used to put real coins into and which would pop out plastic packets of food and chilled drinks from their glass covered shelves. They were full of tattooing and bodmod equipment now, and a huge assortment of ink jars filled one marked "Fanta." The place reeked of fluorochlorocarbons and bleach.
    At the end of a room a hugely solid metal desk filled almost its entire width, and on the desk was a massive, ancient waldo. A big black helmet was attached to the waldo by a fat data cable, and someone had stuck a Hello Kitty logo in bright pink right on the forehead. As Fede got closer, watching the man wearing the helmet wave thick rubber sensor gloves in the empty air, he got the eerie realization that he knew him, that this guy behind the shiny black plastic must be his brother, and that his brother was miles and miles away in a little tiny space between atoms or cells or Swedish avatars or something, thinking about anything, anything but here.
    "Hey, Fed" came a muffled voice from under the helmet. "Be with you in a minute."

Chapter 4
     
    Tony pulled off the helmet and smiled at Fed, his crooked grin bringing back 16 years of brotherhood all in a rush.
    "What's up, bro?" he asked. Before Fede could answer he called out to the black man running the tattoo machine, "Hey Mil, this here's my brother! Came all the way down from the house-parks to see me."
    "'Come down here to stare at Cass's ass is what he did" said Mil without turning around. He punched a button on the control box sitting next to the fat man. The machine began to hum, and the fat man groaned.
    Tony steepled his fingers, his hands still encased in the thick waldo gloves. He watched Fede for a moment. Fede watched back. What do you say to your estranged brother after two years of nothing?
    "Why'd you leave, Tony?" he asked, the words out of his mouth before his mind had a chance to think about them.
    Tony's smiled widened. "Tonx" he said.
    "What?"
    "Tonx. Call me Tonx. Tony died a long time ago. I'm Tonx now. Changed the name when I left MIT."
    "'Tonx'?" asked Fed, "Why Tonx?"
    Tony's smile deepened. "Don't remember? When I was a kid I could never get the hang of writing a 'y'. I always wrote it as an 'x'. Teachers used to give me hell, for a while. Called me 'Tonx' to make fun of me, to try to shame me into playing by the rules. So I did, for while. Now I don't. So… Tonx."
    Fede forced a laugh, his chuckle sounding fake even to his own ears. "That's cool, Tony - Tonx. That's cool."
    Tonx's smile widened and he pushed a strand of greasy black hair behind one ear, a thick malachite talon arching from the lobe. He jumped out of the chair and grabbed a big black thermoelectric hoody off its back. Pulling it over his sleeveless white tee he shuffled by the edge of the scratched metal desk.
    "Let's get some lunch," he said to Fed, "we've got some catching up to do."
    Two hours later Fede was full of beer and stir-fry, picking little crunchy bits of fried tofu out of his teeth with the splintered remains of his disposable chopstick. He was regaling Tony - Tonx, he reminded himself - with tales of his 'sploits, explaining some of the new code he was seeing in the newsgroups these days, how cool it all was. The beer made his head swim. He'd only been drunk a few times and hadn't liked it, but his brother had ordered for them and he had been afraid of looking stupid. Tonx was listening to everything he said with the same rapt attention Fede remembered, nodding his head as he shoveled down his stir-fry.
    "So then I got the idea of forcing the compile on the captured