Read Ambient 06 - Going, Going, Gone for Free Online Page A

time, though; she and Eulie just sat there staring at me like they were at a county fair and I was in a jar. Maybe I was off on the diplomatic guess; they didn’t seem especially American but they didn’t act like foreigners either, at least not from any of the countries I was familiar with.
    »Well, fill me in, ladies,« I went on. »Much as I like to let my imagination run wild I doubt you’re here to brush up on your orgy skills. What is on the menu anyway? Is this the appetizer or are we already having dessert?«
    »I’m sorry?« asked Eulie. »We’re dining?«
    »Nya, Eulie,« Chlo said, her big marble eyes shining like black suns. »Explicate presence. Detail.«
    I winked at Chlo, who may have been somewhat antisocial but at least seemed hep to the jive. Sad to say she didn’t wink back.
    »Have you experienced hallucinations lately?« Eulie asked, pulling her drumsticks up on the sofa and spreading them like she was keen to be stuffed. »What you believed to be hallucinations?«
    That was a difficult situation, my brothers. Try as I might to be gentlemanly, I couldn’t help sneaking peeks down between her legs to see what they were wearing in Tierra del Fuego. »Could be,« I said. »Depends on the produce.«
    She shook her head. »What’s meant?«
    »Business-class tickets out of Bittersville,« I said. »Mind masters only, got a cold war going with the bodybreakers. Can’t stand cokey joes, speedsters, redheads. Only junky I ever saw handle the stuff was Old Bill –«
    »Which drugs?« Eulie asked.
    »Psychedillies. LSD-25, 34, 65,« I said, and ran through the repertoire. »Mescaline and or peyote, fly agaric, ergine, ibogaine, yage, psyilocibin derivative and in the natural state, virola, so forth, so on. Then there’re the government beasts I test-market prior to distribution, DMT, STP, BZ, THL, VMC –«
    »Have you seen a specific vision?« she asked. »Two people?«
    »Stallion and mare?«
    Eulie blinked, and then her bulb lit. »Gendered accordingly, AO.«
    »Who’s asking?« An undesirable notion crept into my mind like a cat burglar and now it was my turn to shake with the whim-whams. What if Bennett was having a go at working the pimp side of the street? Could be he’d gone flakeola, and started up his own ops unbeknownst to Martin? That runaround always landed on the offbeat for somebody. Bennett couldn’t get me to do anything I hadn’t already done, but the way they lulled me into sociability made me tell these sisters in blood more than I ever wanted Bennett to hear. Entrapment, no doubt. B-boy looked in the files, found a pair who’d blown their cover, brought ’em into the office and gave them the opportunity to keep passing unhindered.
    »Who we represent?« Eulie asked.
    »You got it.«
    Chlojo gave me a sly eye and chirped, »Society for Psychical Research.«
    I played back everything I’d squawked to them about. After running through it I realized I wasn’t as in deep as I’d feared I was. That comment I made about having a hand in the tar might sound fishy to a fisherman, but something that vague could be talked away, especially if I called Martin on his hand. Back in the catbird seat: I decided to just act natural and lay off the code.
    »That so?« I asked. »So are they ghosts or Fortean phenomena?«
    »Fortean?« Chlo asked. »Define.«
    »Paraworldly,« I said. »The unlikely and unexpected, but with basis in fact. Lake monsters, abominable snowmen, poltergeists, fish falling from the sky –«
    »Unusual coincidences, living pterodactyls, cows giving birth to sheep,« Eulie added, sharing a fast stare with Chlojo. »Forteana.«
    »Well? Which are they?«
    »Uncertain,« she said. »They aspect both. Investigation warrants.«
    »Whatever they are, how’d you know I needed an exterminator?«
    »We centred upon disturbances in the field,« Eulie said. »Prompting interest.«
    »What field?«
    Ignorance being bliss, she kept me happy.
    »So why do they want to give me their