Read Jackie's Week for Free Online Page B

have to do this by myself. I want you to find
something to do and pick me up in thirty minutes."
    "And leave you alone? Get real. I totally
promised Dr. Black I would watch you. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll
go watch their big screen in the coffee bar while you look at the
car. That’ll give you a few minutes to test your courage. But don’t
buy anything."
    "We call it Matador Red Mica," the salesman,
who’s name was Mutab, explained about the color of the vehicle in
question.
    "I’ve never seen a color like it," Jackie
said. "It’s cool, yet hot."
    "I sometimes feel a little warm when I get
too close," Mutab said.
    They stood aft of the car, a year 2010 ISF
which occupied the center of the showroom universe.
    "This here vehicle," Mutab said, "represents
the sum total of a highly complex and seamlessly integrated system
of auto engineering which represents the last word in interglobal
networking by anybody’s standard. The vehicle is designed to
project dominance on the highway."
    "Does it have a good radio?"
    "What’d I just get through talking about? It
has 14 speakers."
    Jackie got in and took the wheel. "I want
something fast. How fast is it?"
    "Fastest thing around. It has 416
horses."
    "Oooh."
    "You married?" he said.
     
    Chapter 10

    After Jackie was through, she and Donna drove
in silence, gliding up the hill past Studio City and rocketing down
the slope into Hollywood, taking the Highland exit past the
deserted Hollywood Bowl and hanging a left on Franklin to avoid
being caught in the nightly Hollywood Boulevard freak show.
    "I can’t believe you signed a contract,"
Donna said. "And I can’t believe I let you. You were so wasted he
wouldn’t even let you give it a road test."
    "Wrong. It was because I don’t have my
license. Because Bout took it and now the cops have it in their
evidence locker."
    "I am too weak," Donna said. "I should have
dragged you screaming from the man’s desk. But something stopped
me. And those Lexus sales bastards are smooth. I got to talking
with one of their people in the TV room and nearly bought one
myself. I would have, but I am just not into new things. I don't
like computers, period, and I certainly don't like cars with
computers. The old ways were best."
    "I did a mind control thing on you. That's
why you couldn't stop me last night."
    "Yeh, right, Jackie."
    "No, I really did. I got in touch with this
thing inside my head and I just knocked you right over."
    "It did kind of feel that way. I think you
took me by surprise. I haven’t seen you do anything but vacuum and
drink booze for the past six months and all of a sudden this! But
we can fight the purchase. That didn’t even look like your
signature on the check you wrote. Jackie, why did you buy it?"
    "Mutab invited me home."
    "You bought the car because he flattered
you?"
    "It is a very effective sales technique."
    "When can you pick it up?"
    "Tomorrow," Jackie said.
    "I still can’t believe you bought it."
    "Why not? You know I needed a car. After Bout
jacked my Malibu, I couldn’t face driving again. But now I am
moving forward. I bought a new car. End of story. Besides, I’m
going to need decent wheels."
    "And that’s because?"
    "Because I have figured it out. I am not
going to do the lineup tomorrow, no matter what Johnson says. I am
going to let Bout get out, so I can put the bastard in the ground,
and I need a fast car to do it. How’s that grab you? Maybe I’m
finally coming to know my true self. Jackie, the executioner."
    "Jackie. You’re not going to kill anybody.
You’re the type who cries when her goldfish dies." Donna took a
left at Canyon Drive, the ancient street narrow but impressive with
its hundred-foot-high bluffs and magical old homes. She drove north
into the softly misting Hollywood hills, respectfully reducing her
speed in deference to a double set of speed bumps. "That’s the
house where they filmed Nicholson slapping Dunaway silly in
Chinatown," Donna said. "Where he finally came