Contents
39. Too Much
Overview
Molly drives Mona and a drug-ravaged Angie to New Jersey, where loa voices bargain to clear Molly’s record and direct their route. Inside a derelict factory, they meet Cherry, Gentry, and Slick beside a stretchered man as attackers close in. Mona takes wiz, Molly kills an assailant, and external wreckage shows the ongoing siege.
Summary
Mona rides all night with Molly and a strung-out Angie, listening as multiple voices speak through Angie and bargain with Molly. The voices press for a “marriage” and give route numbers; Molly trades for a wiped record and follows their directions into New Jersey, avoiding lights and turning off instruments as they approach a dark industrial site.
Under fire, Molly crash-lands the hover into a warehouse. Cherry, armed with a hammer, finds them and recognizes Angie. Angie speaks in a heavy, otherworldly voice that startles Cherry, then bleeds and goes quiet. Cherry urges them upstairs to find Slick and Gentry as gunmen prowl outside.
They cross a shaky bridge into Gentry’s cluttered high room, where a man lies on a stretcher beneath a gray box. Gentry laughs wildly; Cherry panics. Molly arrives with a big, confused Slick and instantly suppresses Gentry with a warning shot. Mona discovers a blood-smeared bag of wiz, crushes three crystals, and snorts them, snapping herself into an icy, hyperaware calm.
A harsh laugh booms from the catwalk outside. Molly pivots and fires; the catwalk collapses in a shriek of torn metal, spraying Slick with blood. On a small vid, a young man—“the Count”—orders Gentry to jack into Slick’s control unit because attackers are in the building. Engines and clanking rise from below as Mona looks out: a hover is buried under a spill of new refrigerators, a camo-suited figure lies face down in the snow, and another hover burns—signs of the larger fight enclosing them.
Who Appears
- MonaNarrator-observer; tends to Angie, finds a bag of wiz, crushes and snorts it, heightening her focus amid the siege.
- Molly (Cathode Cathay)Driver and protector; bargains with Angie’s voices for a clean record, leads them to the factory, and shoots an attacker.
- Angie MitchellSemiconscious, channeling multiple voices that direct the route and speak of a marriage; bleeds from the nose.
- CherryLocal ally with a hammer; guides Mona and Angie upstairs to Slick and Gentry while gunmen surround the building.
- GentryIntense console wizard; in the lab with a stretchered man, takes orders via vid to jack Slick’s control unit.
- SlickBig, confused ally; accompanies Molly, is spattered with blood when the catwalk collapses after Molly’s shot.
- The CountAppears via vid; urgently instructs Gentry to jack Slick’s control unit as intruders enter the building.
- Sam-Eddy (voice)One of the entities speaking through Angie; pushes for a ‘marriage’ while bargaining with Molly.