Contents
10. The Shape
Overview
Slick Henry’s covert guests are exposed when Gentry detects unusual power use. A tense standoff ends with Slick bribing Gentry with drugs from Kid Afrika, after which Gentry insists on inspecting the comatose decker and his LF device.
Gentry’s obsession with cyberspace’s Shape intensifies, hinting at future conflict and discovery.
Summary
Slick Henry services his machines in the freezing Factory and moves the headless robot, the Judge, while worrying about power politics with Gentry, who controls their illicit electricity. Slick reflects on Gentry’s obsession with a grand Shape of cyberspace and on his own Korsakov’s-sentence past that drove him to build his sculptures.
Gentry returns from the Sprawl exhausted and confronts Slick about a spike in power use. Slick admits he is sheltering two of Kid Afrika’s friends, prompting Gentry to threaten cutting power. Slick offers a bag of drugs from Kid Afrika as compensation; Gentry applies a derm and, unexpectedly, insists on meeting the guests.
They enter Slick’s room, where Cherry Chesterfield is caring for an unconscious decker on a stretcher, sustained by tubes and a trode-net. Gentry coolly examines the implanted socket and a flat gray device Cherry calls the LF, noting Kid Afrika called the man the Count.
Amplified by the drug, Gentry’s fixation ignites; he treats the setup as a potential key to the Shape. Slick, uneasy and hating drugs, throws away the opium and worries about Gentry’s escalating interest colliding with his promise to Kid Afrika.
Who Appears
- Slick HenryBuilder in Dog Solitude; hides two guests, moves the Judge, placates Gentry with Kid Afrika’s drugs.
- GentryPower broker obsessed with cyberspace’s Shape; confronts Slick, takes a derm, inspects the decker and LF.
- Cherry ChesterfieldCaretaker from Cleveland; tends the unconscious decker, identifies the LF and Kid Afrika’s terms.
- The Count (unconscious decker)Comatose hacker on a stretcher, trode-netted and implanted; focal point of Gentry’s interest.
- Kid AfrikaOffstage fixer; secured Slick’s help, provided a drug bag that sways Gentry.
- The JudgeSlick’s towering, headless machine; tested and moved, symbol of past judgment.