The Devil Went Down to Austin Read Free Page B

algorithms."
    "Oh, fuck you, man. And what do the betatesters do? They blame us. We're supposed to protect them and we can't, so it's our fault. Three of the six companies have stopped testing and filed lawsuits, and we don't have the money to fight them. The other companies are threatening to do the same. If they do, we lose everything—two years of work, our IPO, any chance at investors. And now the bastard that sabotaged us—fucking Matthew Pena—comes back to us with a last ditch buyout offer, a fifth of what he offered us three months ago. And his goddamn wife—" Shaking his finger at Jimmy. "His goddamn £xwife is telling us we should feel grateful about it."
    Jimmy got to his feet. "Maybe she's just smarter than you, Garrett. You ever think of that?"
    I didn't like the looks Garrett and Jimmy were giving each other. I'd been in enough bar fights to recognize the prelude music.
    "How much money?" I broke in.

    "About four million total in the stock," Garrett growled. "Peanuts. Enough to break even, get out of debt. Nothing more."
    I tried to visualize an equals sign between the words four million and peanuts. I couldn't do it.
    "You're hesitating?" I asked. "Sell."
    Garrett pitched his margarita cup into the grass, pushed his wheelchair back from the fire. "Two years of my life, little bro. You walk in here, not knowing shit, and you tell me,
    'Sell.' "
    "It's the same Ruby's telling us," Jimmy said. "You're just too stubborn—"
    Garrett broke down in a miniature seizure—cursing and spitting and patting his arms around his chair looking for something else to throw. He grabbed his bag, and before I knew what was happening he had the gun in his hand.
    "Ruby!" he yelled. "All I hear about is damn Ruby. What the hell was your fucking divorce for? Here, Ruby. I got something for you."
    The round he fired at the kiln goddess blasted her left arm clean off, sending shards of brick and ceramics out into the night.
    After that, things got very quiet.
    When the ringing in my ears subsided, I said, "Please put the gun away, Garrett.
    Okay?"
    To my relief, he shoved the Lorcin into his pot bag, then turned his chair toward the road. "Jimmy Doebler wants to ride on my hard work, marry the girl, then bail out in the end, what the hell did I invite him along for?"
    I said, "Garrett—"
    "Forget it, little bro. You and he finally agree on something, you can both go to hell."
    Garrett wheeled across the gravel—popping and tilting over the rocks, trying not to keel over.
    We watched him hoist himself into his safari van, fold and stash the chair, roll the side door shut with a SLAM. Brake lights came on. A mushroom of yellow dust blossomed under the back wheels as he peeled out.
    Jimmy drained his margarita, stared into the empty goblet.
    "Happy Divorce Day," I told him.
    "Your brother's upset."
    I kept my mouth shut. I looked down at my own mug— wondered how Jimmy had managed such an intricate fishscale pattern in the glaze, deep blues and greens, perfect symmetry. I wondered if he managed the complexities of programming the same way. I'd always thought of Jimmy as, if not an idiot savant, at least an idiot honourable mention.
    "Garrett really didn't talk to you about the ranch?" Jimmy asked.
    "No."
    "He kept telling me he would. I know that isn't right, Tres. Somebody tried to sell this place without telling me ..."
    "Difference," I said. "This place legally belongs to you."
    Jimmy's face squinched up, like I'd hit him with an invisible pie. "All right. But the last two years have been hell, Tres. You got to understand that. Garrett didn't want you to know how dicey things were."
    "I know you're drowning in debt, you have a bailout offer, and my brother doesn't want to take it."
    "Pride—"
    "He can swallow it."

    Jimmy set his goblet on his knee. "Just back off for a few days, okay? Let me work on Garrett."
    "Back off," I repeated. "Like you used to tell me down in Rockport: 'Stay out of my way, kid.' "
    Jimmy stared at me