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271 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
"Myself, I couldn't see myself answering all those personal questions. I'm willing to break the taboo against asking questions - in fact it's my job - but I'm pretty much like the next guy when it comes to answering them. I don't like it. That's just how it is."
"When the Inquisitor's Office set your card at zero, it meant you couldn't get caught slamming the door to a public rest room without sinking into a negative karmic level. The sound of that door slamming would be the last anyone heard of you for a long time, or maybe ever. I hadn't seen a card at zero for a long time, and when I had, it was always in the trembling hands of a man about to take the fall for a major aberration."
"You killed her", I suggested.
"I don't remember," he said. "I killed a lot of people."
"You loved her." ...
"I don't remember," he concluded. His face fell slack.
"Try harder," I said. "This one was special. You loved her and you killed her."
...
"His eyes cleared and his jaw set. "I suppose I did," he said. "The two sometimes go together." He smiled through his beard. "Women are already split in two from the floor halfway up, you know. I just finished the job."
"It's a set up." ... "We're meant to believe she forgot to insert her death control device," he went on. "But I for one don't buy it."
"I'm not tough," I said. "You don't understand."
"Take the money."
"I'm not for hire," I said. “I'm still working out the remainder of [his] fee. Until then I'm booked up."
She didn't say anything.
I opened up my drawer and got out the cigarettes, put one in my mouth and offered her the pack. She refused. I lit mine and took a big drag.
The building around us was quiet, deathly quiet, and outside my window the night was like a dark nullification of the existence of the city. But underneath night's skirts the city lived on.
Disconnected creatures passed through the blackness, towards solitary destinations, lonely hotel rooms, appointments with death. Nobody ever stopped the creatures to ask them where they were going - no one wanted to know. No one but me, the creature who asked questions, the lowest creature of them all. I was stupid enough to think there was something wrong with the silence that had fallen like a gloved hand onto the bare throat of the city.