eXistenZ by Christopher Priest Read Free Book Online

who’ve put up a bounty. Five million dollars—”
    “Yeah, the Anti-eXistenZialists. I heard about them on the car radio when we were driving over this evening. The games world is full of crazy people.”
    “These sound like dangerous crazy people. If that guy Dichter is anything to go on—”
    “I guess he was one of them.”
    “But what do they have against you?”
    She shuddered. “Maybe you’d have to ask them. They’ve never exactly sat down with me and argued it out. But I don’t think it’s personal. You know, against me in person. I created eXistenZ and they’re pretty unhappy about that. They say it’s a game system that will finally destroy reality.”
    “Will it?”
    “It’s just a game, Pikul.”
    “But will it?”
    “No, of course not.”
    He stared straight ahead, seeing the dark road leading them on through the anonymous countryside. He wished they would come to a town or a signpost so he could find out where they were. Ahead there was only darkness, without even a hint of habitation.
    “This all makes sense to you?” he asked her. “You don’t seem surprised about any of it.”
    “I hear things. It’s hard to surprise me with anything. People in the game world are mostly okay, but there are a few crazies. You always get crazies, no matter what you do. What else did Kindred say?”
    “Not a lot more. If you remember, you took away the pink-fone before we could finish. I think he sees me as your bodyguard, and that the Antenna Corporation is holding me responsible for your safety.”
    “A bodyguard, you say?”
    “I do what I can,” Pikul said modestly.
    “Where do you keep your gun, bodyguard?”
    “What?”
    “Your gun. Bodyguards carry guns.”
    “I’m one of the new generation of bodyguards. We have secret techniques.”
    “You’re bullshitting. I know you aren’t armed. You didn’t even know what to do with the dead rat. How can you protect me without weapons?”
    “I’ve got an electronic wand.”
    “You mean your Boy Scout cattle prod? More like a calf prod for geeks! Get serious, Pikul.”
    Bristling, he said, “Look, Geller, I’ll do what I can to save your life, but you ought to know I’m only a marketing trainee. My clinic master said I had to know how the whole company worked, so tonight he got me to moonlight as a security guard on your test preview.”
    “That’s great, isn’t it?” Geller said. “Fucking great. I’m marked for death and they send me out on the road with a PR nerd.”
    She stared angrily out of her side window. He reached out a hand to try to reassure her, but the moment his fingers brushed against her arm, she snatched it away from him. Then she let out a yell as the motion jerked her injured shoulder. Still she stared away from him, out into the night.
    Pikul felt himself rising defensively to respond, but then thought better of it. He subsided mentally and for a few minutes concentrated on driving, but the larger implications of all this were starting to crowd in on him.
    “You really are marked for death, aren’t you?” he said after a while. “Do you know what you did?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Don’t you think I have a right to know too?”
    “Don’t sweat about it, Pikul. I can handle it. All we have to do is disappear for a while, and I reckon even you can do that without bungling it.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Meanwhile, we have to stop.”
    “What, here?”
    “Right now. Stop the car, please. Over there on the side.”
    “Why?”
    Geller said, through gritted teeth, “It’s time you and I had an intimate moment alone together.”

[ 5 ]
    The intimate moment alone together occurred in the middle of the narrow road, between the trees. Insects stridulated in the warm summer night around them. Overhead, the leaves and branches were still and silent, casting the road into moonless shadows. They left the Land Rover with its engine idling, and went around to the front, into the frill glare of the headlights. Geller kneeled down