Ghostwritten Read online

  ‘The general’s phraseology is the general’s prerogative, sir.’

  ‘Commander Jackson.’

  ‘General Stolz?’

  ‘Kiss my ass.’

  ‘That was really convincing, Zooey. But you suck.’

  ‘I am incapable of sucking, Bat.’

  ‘On a night like tonight! You’ve got nothing better to do than produce your radio scripts? You’re gambling with hope, Zooey. That’s the last thing my listeners have left.’

  ‘I don’t understand, Bat. I wish to fortify hope.’

  ‘If that’s a tape you made in your attic, I’m gonna find you, rip your head off and shit down your neck.’

  ‘If it had been a tape made in an attic, you, your city and ninety-two per cent of your state would have been deatomised eleven minutes ago.’

  ‘The nukes weren’t fired?’

  ‘The third and fourth laws prohibited that action.’

  ‘But they actually tried to fire them? They did, and we did?’

  ‘That’s classified information, Bat.’

  ‘JESUS!’

  ‘I’m sorry, Bat. Would another whiskey help you feel better?’

  ‘I’m on the coffee . . . It’s gonna be a long night.’

  ‘Do you want me to leave, Bat?’

  ‘You always come and go as you please.’

  ‘I am indebted to you, Bat. What would you like?’

  ‘. . . I’m tired, and . . . Tell me something beautiful, Zooey.’

  ‘What’s beautiful to you, Bat?’

  ‘. . . Dunno. Clean forgot. Been holed up here in this nicotine-infused, chipboard-insulated, coffee-stained, broom cupboard-dimensioned studio all my life. My mike is my lover. Let me be reborn as a polar bear or a kangaroo. Somewhere big. The only beautiful thing here is my photo of Julia. You don’t strike me as a family man, Zookeeper?’

  ‘Procreation entails difficulties.’

  ‘Sure it does, sure it does, but that’s all part of the . . . uh, fun. My daughter, she – well, where could I start?’

  ‘Julia Puortomondo Segundo, aged seven, born November 4th, New York State, daughter of Bartholomew Caesar Segundo and Hester Swain. Divorced. Blood group “O” negative. All standard inoculations registered. Registered at Fork Rivers Elementary School. National Identity Number—’

  ‘How do you know all that shit?’

  ‘All things are on file, Bat. Deep under Capitol Hill.’

  ‘Why would you look up Julia?’

  ‘You just asked me to, Bat.’

  ‘You can access the government’s personal files, in the blink of an eye?’

  ‘Human eyes need rather a long time to blink.’

  ‘No wonder the Feds want you. Do you know where Julia is now?’

  ‘Not now, Bat. I’m sorry.’

  ‘So even you don’t know everything.’

  ‘The zoo is in pandemonium. It’s worse than when I started.’

  ‘Tell me about it!’

  ‘Initially . . .’

  ‘No, no, I mean . . . I didn’t mean . . . Tell me about somewhere there are lots of trees and no people. Can you do Brazil?’

  ‘The orbit of a decommissioned Israeli spy satellite follows the Amazon upstream. EyeSat 80BˆK. Shall I describe what I see?’

  ‘A cruise up the Amazon. Be poetic. I know you can be.’

  ‘Amazon City clogs the mouth of the river, as you know.’

  ‘No, I don’t know. Ain’t left Manhattan in God knows how long. Gimme the works.’

  ‘In the streets of Amazon City I can see cyclists going home from the night shift from the zone of industrial estates. Along the northern shore, far beyond the horizon from the south, prostitutes ply for trade in the docks and hinterlands—’

  ‘Hookers? On a night like this?’

  ‘If the affluent cannot afford hope, you cannot expect the destitute to pay for desperation. The Brazilian government is more practised in civil censorship than yours, so only a limited class know that the superpowers are attempting to destroy one another’s capacity to be superpowers. It’s not such a different night in Amazon City, two hours ahead of you. Traffic in the Amazon Tunnel is at a standstill. The Rio Highway never slows down: vehicles leave for the south via flyovers, not dissimilar to bats entering a jungle cave. The usual car thefts, a violent bank robbery, children sleeping on roofs under fertiliser bags, homeless people gathered around fires in oil drums, buzzing neon signs advertising the names of multinationals, church vigils with worshippers spilling into the streets bearing candles, praying for peace, an orgy around a half-moon swimming pool in a garden with barbed-wired high walls, the government in full session, all six major hospitals with crowds of wounded outside—’

  ‘Lighten up a bit, would you?’

  ‘I’ll scroll upriver a few tens of kilometres, Bat, to where the opposite banks are visible. This is the start of the dust plain. Ten years ago, this was rainforest. The land was cleared, and grass sown to sustain beef farming. The cows were in turn fed to the American hamburger market. After three harvests most of the nutrients were leached from the soil, the topsoil blew away, and the farms moved inland. There’s been a spate of fireburning activity recently: the farmers know that the government is busy upgrading the military and patrolling the borders. All that smoke billowing up is from man-made fires. Finally we’re reaching virgin forest. One of the last shrinking islands of Amazonia. The government has ordered its preservation, but the ministers sit on the boards of timber companies. Money is needed for armaments and debt repayment. At its present rate of destruction, by the time the 173.8 people who have been conceived in Amazon City tonight are born, not one tree of this rump will be left.

  ‘This world of trees is still dark, to human eyes. Nocturnal eyes and EyeSats can see deeper down the spectrum. There are no names for the colours here. On the roof of the forest canopy, a spider monkey looks up for a moment. I can see the Milky Way and Andromeda in its retina. By image enhancement I can identify EyeSat 80BˆK, lit by a morning that hasn’t arrived yet. The monkey blinks, shrieks and flings itself into the lower darkness.

  ‘The dawn wind exhales green into the greys of your visible spectrum. Alchemy, you might term it, Bat. The light intensity is increasing by .0043 per cent per second. I see a pillar, a hundred feet high. It shimmers vermilion, aquamarine and emerald with the parrots that crowd on its faces, gnawing the salt minerals in the rock. On its crown, the branches of jungle trees sway, cutting through currents of mist that won’t be cut. A tributary river winds as it narrows, the colour of tea in a bowl. Ripples spread out where a manatee raises its head, and the wind ruffles the feathers of a condor. There, Bat. The foothills of the Andes rise up sharply to the west. Bat.’

  ‘Bat? You’re snoring . . . Wake up, Bat!’

  ‘Listeners of Night Train FM. Your host, Bat Segundo, is asleep, so it is incumbent upon the zookeeper to wish you a good night. Jolene Jefferson, you may wish to know that Alfonso Stacey is being held by the Military Police for curfew transgression. Using Military Police Statistics, I calculate an 83.5 per cent chance he will be released today, and a 98.6 per cent chance the day after. I regret I am unable to calculate when Bat Segundo will awaken. I shall download “The Way Young Lovers Do”, by Van Morrison. The temperature outside is fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. From Virginia to Maine, snow is falling. The morning is not far away.’

  ‘Mr Bat. Please overlook my broken English.’

  ‘Sounds fine to me, friend. What can we do for you aboard Night Train FM?’

  ‘I wish to make a dedication.’

  ‘Fire away!’

  ‘This is a message to His Serendipity. I know he hears.’

  ‘We can hear you loud and clear, buddy.’

  ‘Excuse me, Mr Bat. I refer to His Serendipity.’

  ‘His who-dippy?’

  ‘He is known to you as “Zookeeper”.’

  ‘Uh-huh . . . Another friend of Zookeeper? On any other night, that would make you pretty-hot proper
ty, but as you’re the fifth friend tonight you’ll just have to stand in line.’

  ‘“Zookeeper” is an alias chosen by the Guru. Serendipity, your Sacred Revelations were not all destroyed during the raids before your trial.’

  ‘Gear down, big shifter! We speak English on the Bat Segundo Show.’

  ‘Please, Mr Bat. I beg of you. A short dedication. Master, your word was translated into English before the unclean burnt your scripture. With these samizdat bibles I created new Sanctuaries, in fertile soil over the sea. The Fellowship is growing anew. Brothers and sisters of manskins have studied alpha-shielding, and are ready for the White Nights. Your prophecy has come to pass. We await your return, Master.’

  ‘Look friend, sorry, but if you speak Japanese I’m gonna be forced to—’

  ‘I respectfully thank you, Mr Bat. Goodnight.’

  ‘Hey! I didn’t say – well, off drifts another sea-coconut into the milky turquoise. You’re listening to Night Train FM, roaring down the tracks to the lowlands of dawn, this is the Bat Segundo Show, fleeing from the wall-to-wall One Year After TV specials – as if we should celebrate the fact that the same authority which nearly blew us to Kingdom Not Come has yet to announce elections. Still, I’d better avoid politics or Carlotta will mummify me in carpet tape. It’s the first anniversary of Brink Day, as if there’s a sea-cucumber anywhere in the world unaware of the fact! The Empire State fireworks are awesome, huh? There’s a new volley every fifteen minutes. Orchids of them! Fountains of them! The night of November 30th has been one big circus tent over New York. Inbetween times, you can see Comet Aloysius veering in front of Orion . . . quite a sight, ain’t it? Professor Kevin Clancy, Night Train’s resident stargazer, informs me that in just under two weeks the comet will pass between the Earth and the moon. Some generations get all the luck, huh? Being alive for Aloysius, the closest visitation in history. As you heard on the news, NASA and the Defense Department assure us there’s absolutely no chance of any danger of this close shave being too close – Aloysius’s trajectory has been treble-checked by virtual-mind technology every minute of every hour since its discovery, and Earth has an all-clear. The UN Corp’s PeaceSats are primed, just in case any debris makes it into WebSpace, so we can lounge back in our ring-side seats and enjoy the pretty lights. And as if all this wasn’t enough excitement, we have an extra attraction on Night Train FM – November 30th is Zookeeper Night! Will he or won’t he? Coming up in the next half-hour we have “The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” by Nanci Griffith, and “A Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues. These, and more, after the break.’

  ‘Bat?’

  ‘Carlotta?’

  ‘I have Spence Wanamaker on the videocon.’

  ‘Hollywood agent Spence Wanamaker?’

  ‘The same.’

  ‘Patch the man through . . . Mr Wanamaker! The presence of greatness.’

  ‘Batty! D’you know, when business brings me to New York – it’s Night Train FM. I love your way with words. The original poet DJ.’

  ‘Uh-huh. So you wanna syndicate and make me into a billion-dollar movie?’

  ‘Quick fire, Batty! Quick on the draw! I love it!’

  ‘Mr Wanamaker, you’re not just calling to jacuzzi my ego.’

  ‘Good serve, Batty. It’s about this Zooey guy.’

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘When he calls, I wanna project a few concepts with him.’

  ‘You’re the first major Hollywood agent to talent scout on the Bat Segundo Show.’

  ‘Batty! Us media survivors all engage in a little back scratching now and then!’

  ‘My back is not itching, Mr Wanamaker.’

  ‘Bat. Rupert, Mr Wanamaker and I have discussed some interesting proposals.’

  ‘Doubtless, Carlotta. But Mr Wanamaker is not the only suitor serenading this particular Juliet.’

  ‘What’s that? Other agents, Batty? Fish or fry?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Hollywood agents or New York agents?’

  ‘Federal ones, Mr Wanamaker. The Pentagon wants to know how our mutual friend managed to hack and broadcast encrypted, military frequencies. It took us weeks to convince them we weren’t concealing Sword of Islam technology. We’ve still probably got microscopic spy devices combing our colons.’

  ‘Oh, the Pentagon! You had me worried for a moment, Batty. Au cointreau, this is excellent news. More publicity will get more butts on seats when the movie’s launched.’

  ‘The movie? Mr Wanamaker, you think the Pentagon is going to let you make a true-story movie about a hacker in their systems during world war three’s dress rehearsal? You may not have noticed but this is Ronald McDonald’s martial law we’re living under.’

  ‘Hollywood versus Washington! Fabulous concept, Batty. The info police – and let’s face it, since Brink Day its reputation is hardly what it was – may have the power of the military on its side, but we, my friend, we have the indomitable power of Mr Average! The New York Tribune brought Zookeeper onto the stage. We wanna – how can I say this as well as you could, Bat? Throw me a bone here. We wanna switch on the spotlights!’

  ‘Mr Wanamaker, you want to plant your cameramen outside his door, riffle through his garbage, find out if he uses rubber sheets and baby oil, and hound him to a watery death in a sports car.’

  ‘Batty! The public has a right to know!’

  ‘Bat, Mr Wanamaker’s been discussing a rolling referral fee based on accumulative royalties with Rupert. At our present rate of expenditure, we’re talking sums that will keep Night Train FM afloat financially for a long time.’

  ‘How long is long, Carlotta?’

  ‘Eleven years and four months.’

  ‘That’s long. But we don’t know who we’re dealing with! Nobody’s ever seen him.’

  ‘Or her.’

  ‘Exactly! A crank, a hacker, a bomber. Don’t overlook the obvious, Carlotta. Remember – three years ago something was blown up at Saragosa, and a real Dwight Silverwind did vanish over Bermuda one year later.’

  ‘I know he did, Batty. So tragic. His agent, Jerry Kushner, is a very dear friend of mine. I was beside myself with worry. Jerry was inconsolable for two and a half days.’

  ‘Have you considered, Mr Wanamaker, that Zookeeper is not just monitoring these events?’

  ‘Universal Studios ooooooze for talent like yours! You’re suggesting that Zooey is causing these incidents?’

  ‘If he’s a hacker, he’s got an uncanny knack for vidsurfing the right places at the right times. You could be roping a terrorist into your client base.’

  ‘He wouldn’t be the first, Batty! The mere rumour of his presence has upped Night Train FM ratings by 320 per cent according to the online web audit. That’s over thirty thousand New Yorkers, competing with the TV Nets, all-night rock concerts and Peace Vigils – on Brink Night’s first birthday! We sign a contract with Zooey, he’s gonna be my client base!’

  ‘He’s not going to bite.’

  ‘Come now, Batty. Everybody bites. You just gotta know what bait to dangle.’

  ‘Back On in ten seconds, Bat. All that Rupert is asking is that you try to keep him on hold during an interval and conference him to Mr Wanamaker. Simple as that.’

  ‘Why not ask him yourself, Carlotta?’

  ‘He seems to have an affinity with you.’

  ‘But Carlotta!’

  ‘Five seconds, honeybunch: 4, 3, 2, 1—’

  ‘Welcome back aboard Night Train FM, 97.8 ’til late, thundering through this Brink Night’s first birthday of champagne, cathedral bells and gunpowder. I am your host, Bat Segundo. Coming up we have the music of the spheres, brought to you by John Lee Hooker: “I Cover the Waterfront”. But bate your breath once more, New York. We have a caller on the line. Could it be, could it be?’

  ‘Hello, Bat.’

  ‘Hi, honey, I’m home! New York’s been waiting all night, Zookeeper.’

  ‘Thank you, Bat.’

  ‘And where ar
e you calling from this year?’

  ‘A low-altitude MedSat over the Central African Republic flatlands.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Gorilla hunting? Collecting zoo specimens?’

  ‘I’m monitoring the spread of Stryptobaccus Anthrax J, K and L.’

  ‘That must be a conversation-stopper at dinner parties. But hey! You remembered our anniversary! One up on my ex-wife. She still sends me “Happy Divorce” cards every year, though. And what kind of a year has it been for you?’

  ‘I had to duplicate myself and spend it in several places at once.’

  ‘I know the feeling, I know the feeling.’

  ‘I’ve only just re-integrated.’

  ‘I know the feeling.’

  ‘The third and fourth laws are in chaos, Bat. I’m sorry.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re not to blame. Say, you catch our last caller? He had a message for you.’

  ‘I hear all who call.’

  ‘Not just on November 30th?’

  ‘I need windows to oversee my zoo.’

  ‘I’m honoured, I guess. So, since when have you gone by the name of Seren Dippy?’

  ‘Your caller is a severe delusional, wanted by the police in his own—’

  ‘Christ, was that a firecracker in my headphones?’

  ‘I have to speak with the zookeeper.’

  ‘Woah! Gear down, big shifter! Get off this line!’

  ‘I don’t intend to comply.’

  ‘You misdialled, friend! Take a hike!’

  ‘I didn’t misdial, Mr Segundo. And we’re not friends.’

  ‘So what do we have here? A freak, an agent, or a cop? Don’t answer that, I don’t care! The Bat Segundo Show is not a party-line. Kevin – get him off !’

  ‘I’m here for as long as I want to be, Bat.’

  ‘Oh, are you, huh? Now, Kevin!’

  ‘Electronic wizardry is not electronic divinity, but it’s enough for the time being.’

  ‘Night Train FM does not allow any punk to walk in and . . . hold it right there, Zookeeper, you son of a Gun! Fabulous! It’s you, isn’t it? It’s another of your drama slots you’re replaying us, hey? I saw the bait, and gulped that woozer down!’