Conversation · Acele

"Good call, detective," he says, still looking at the ocean. "You can lose your mind trying to mediate everything these delinquents come up with. Fate will take care of it for us."

"We won't be anyone's problem. I'll get them under wraps, I promise."

"Do what you will with your dance club plans... just no drug labs, please."

"Thank you." The young woman nods. "I'll get them under wraps, I promise."

"That I'm going to decide after I've looked into the church situation."

"Oh, right. That's wise." She nods. "Take your time."

Try to lie about your actions in front of the lieutenant.

Your words flow sincere.

"I called it crime prevention. You'll have to go at it straight -- if you have it in you."

"As good a call as any..." the lieutenant says, still looking at the ocean. "Better not to have made one at all though. You'll lose your mind trying to mediate everything these delinquents come up with."

Thine lies, they sing too transparent.

"I called it crime prevention. You'll have to go at it straight -- if you have it in you."

The lieutenant eyes you suspiciously.

"Thank you," the young woman says blithely. "I'll get them under wraps, I promise."

"I can see there's more to this story, detective," he says quietly. "But you're not the first corrupt cop in the RCM."

"Should've tried harder. Misleading a cop is no joke."

"I know. I should have been able to control them. And I will in the future. I promise."

"I don't care, I'm loco. I just wanted you to know that I know about the plan."

"Okay, but I still regret it. I should have been able to control them. And I will in the future. I promise."

"You don't get to choose your posse, they choose you. Mine are idiots, but they're mine. I tried to talk Andre out of it..."

"It's supposed to become, like, a club. For anodic dance music. Like that new style of synthesizer stuff they play at The Paliseum."

"Except that... yeah." She looks at the old wooden church up on the poles. As a mean wind comes bellowing in, the six-story structure lets out a doleful shriek.

The floorboards are twisting and the shooting beams are slowly cracking like bones. Far east of the golden Delta, beyond the industrial port, there is a black patch of unlit coast with the smallest creatures on the ice...

There will never be a club for anodic music here.

Not in a million years.

"Did you put the padlock on the church door?"

"It's Noid's padlock, for keeping creeps and weirdos out. You should probably talk to him about it."

"No."

"No?"

"Not really, no."

She's trying to get out of a direct lie with semantic tricks. She personally didn't put the padlock on the door.

(Show her the sticker on your ledger.) "So, this isn't yours?"

"Yeah, you know, that's what I meant -- Noid did. Noid put the padlock on the door."

"Wait, is this Noid a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Why did this Noid-person put a padlock on the church door?"

"To keep more weirdos from getting in. Fucking Martinaise... I'm sorry." She rattles her teeth. "It's got the worst weirdos. If you get around to it, ask Andre about them, he'll tell you."

Should you? Weirdos sounds bad somehow.

(Show her the sticker in your ledger.) "So, this isn't yours?"

"Okay then. About that church..."

"What do you need to know?"

"Okay, if you personally didn't, then who did?"

"What is anodic dance music?

"You know, anodic, cathodic -- music that's made with electronic instruments."

"Got it. Now about the church..."

"Electronic instruments -- like what?"

"Synthesizers and tape consoles, microcomputers too. Anything that uses electricity, but isn't guitars... also found sounds. Stuff like that."

(Forgo celebrating your triumph.) "Now about the church..."

"Aha! The gardener was wrong -- I'm not just some disco holdover, I'm going to experience the future."

"Yeah, of course." She seems unsure of it, somehow.

You see clear, beautiful, violent flashes of light. Light cutting through a smoke-filled darkness. That is what the future will look like -- if it ever comes.

This is an evolutionary step up from amplified instruments, which in turn are a step up from acoustic instruments. What comes after it, you wonder: a black-tinted nothingness, or something finer?

"So you want to turn the church into a club?"

"I know." She nods towards the sloping mass of wood on the coast, then shivers. "It's not my idea. Andre and the boys found the place. It was supposed to be deserted, but now they can't even take it..."

"Hey, remember how earlier I said I didn't need your help?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Okay, well..." She hesitates. "Maybe you could talk to Andre and the guys? Because there are some strange things going on in that church... if you're police you should look into it, right?"

"I already spoke with them and agreed to help."

"Wow! Thank you, that's... really cool of you." She clears her throat. "Anything else you want to know?"

"I'll talk to them."